Volume I Part 30 (1/2)
[Footnote 509: The story of the martyrdom of the ”Fourteen of Meaux” is told in detail by Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta, fols. 117-121, and the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 31-33.]
[Footnote 510: Ps. 79. I quote, with the quaint old spelling, from a Geneva edition of 1638, in my possession, which preserves unchanged the original words and the grand music with which the words were so intimately a.s.sociated.]
[Footnote 511: The hero of this action was of course arrested. Crespin, fol. 120.]
[Footnote 512: Hist. eccles., i. 33; Crespin, fol. 121.]
[Footnote 513: Hist. eccles., i. 33-35.]
[Footnote 514: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 515: Hist. eccles., i. 34. Occasionally, instead of cutting out the tongue of the ”Lutheran,” a large iron ball was forced into his mouth, an equally effective means of preventing distinct utterance. This was done to two converted monks, degraded and burned in Saintonge, in August, 1546. A. Crottet, Hist. des eglises ref. de Pons, Gemozac et Mortagne, 212.]
CHAPTER VIII.
HENRY THE SECOND, AND THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT CHURCHES.
[Sidenote: Death of Francis I.]
[Sidenote: Impartial estimates of his character.]
On the thirty-first of March, 1547, Francis the First died, leaving the throne to his only surviving son. With whatever a.s.siduity the poets and scholars of whom the late king had been a munificent patron, and the courtiers who had basked in the suns.h.i.+ne of his favor, might apply themselves to the celebration of his resplendent merits, posterity, less blind to his faults, has declined to confirm the t.i.tle of ”great”
affixed to his name by contemporaries. The candid historian, undazzled by the glitter of his chivalric enterprises, may condemn the animus, but can scarcely deny the substantial truth of the bitter reproaches in which the Emperor Charles the Fifth indulged, respecting the uniform faithlessness of his ancient rival.[516] Much less can he pardon the cruel persecution which Francis allowed to be exercised against an unoffending part of his subjects, less from zeal for the tenets of the church whose cause he espoused than from a selfish fear lest his prerogative might be impaired.
[Sidenote: His three sons.]
[Sidenote: Henry, Duke of Orleans.]
[Sidenote: Character of the new king.]
Of the three sons of Francis, the dauphin and his youngest brother, the Duke of Angouleme, had been s.n.a.t.c.hed away by death during the lifetime of their father.[517] The Duke of Orleans, who now ascended the throne as Henry the Second, was not a favorite son.[518] More than once he had incurred his father's grave displeasure by insubordination. A mad frolic, in which the young prince undertook in sport to distribute the high offices of state, as if his father were already dead, and disclosed his intention to recall to power the monarch's disgraced courtiers, occasioned a serious breach. More important consequences might have flowed from the unfortunate incident, had not the youth and the giddy companions of his revel sought safety in temporary exile from court.[519] From his father Henry inherited great bodily vigor, and remarkable skill in all games of strength and agility. His frame, naturally well proportioned, was finely developed by exercise.[520] He was accounted the fleetest runner, and the most graceful rider in France. He rarely suffered a day to pa.s.s without playing ball, not unfrequently after having hunted down a stag or two. In the more dangerous pastimes of mock combat and jousting he delighted to engage, to the no small alarm of all spectators.[521] Unfortunately, however, the intellectual and moral development of the young prince had by no means kept pace with the growth of his physical powers. The sluggishness of his dull and unready comprehension had, at an earlier date, been noticed by the Venetian Marino Cavalli, while, with a courtier's flattery, he likened him to those autumnal fruits that are more tardy in ripening, but are of better quality and last longer than the fruits of summer.[522] Although he had reached the age of twenty-eight years on the very day of his accession, he was still a child in all that respected the serious concerns of life and the duties of his elevated position. Averse to that careful deliberation which the public affairs demanded, and willing to be led by those who would _think_ for him, it immediately became evident that he was destined to be the mere image of a king, while the powers of royalty were to be enjoyed by his trusted advisers and by those who could minister to his immoderate love of pleasure. The issue abundantly proved the truth of the a.s.sertion that his reign ought rather to be called the reign of Diana of Poitiers, of Montmorency, and of the Cardinal of Lorraine; of whom the last, it was said, had the king's conscience in his sleeve, and the first his body, as by some species of sorcery.[523]
[Sidenote: Wotton's view of the French court.]
Scarcely had Francis breathed his last when shrewd observers of the current of political influence were able to make up their minds pretty fully upon the favorites that were to rule under Henry's name. ”The French king, straight after his father's death,” wrote Dr. Wotton, ”hath revoked the _Constable_ to the court again; who is now in as great triumph (as men say) as ever he was, if it be not more.... Of the younger sort of those that are at the court already, these seem to be the chief favorites: _Andelot_, younger brother to Chatillon, and his brother, the _Cardinal of Chatillon_; the Duke of Guise's sons, in a manner all, but especially these: _Monsieur d'Aumale_ [Francis, later Duke of Guise], the _Bishop of Rheims_ [Cardinal Charles of Lorraine], and the _Bishop of Troyes_, who, as I hear say, are all three of the council. Monsieur d'Aumale is in very great favour ... but in greatest estimation and favour of all, as it appeareth hitherto, either of them of the older sort or of the younger sort, seemeth to be the said Bishop of Rheims, who had the chief ordering of the king's house, he being Dolphin; whom I could wish to be of as good judgment in matters of religion as I take the Cardinal du Bellay to be, but I hear he is not so, but _very earnest in upholding the Romish blindness_.... Of the dames, Madame la Grande Senechale seemeth to be highly esteemed.”[524]
To gain a clear view of the various influences--at one time neutralizing each other, and thus tending to the protection of the reformed doctrines and their professors, but much more frequently acting in concert, and tending to the suppression of those doctrines--it is necessary that we examine in some detail the position of Diana, of the Constable, and of the Guises.
[Sidenote: Diana of Poitiers.]
[Sidenote: The king's infatuation.]
Diana of Poitiers, daughter of Monsieur de St. Vallier, and widow of De Breze, Grand Seneschal of Normandy, had in her youth been celebrated for her beauty, by which she had first captivated Francis the First, and afterward made Henry forget the claims of his Florentine bride upon his affections. But she was now a matron of forty-seven years of age, and the public wondered as they saw the undiminished devotion of the new monarch to a woman nearly a score of years older than himself. It is true that the courtier's pen of Brantome ascribes to her all the freshness of youth even at the close of the reign of Henry the Second.
His eulogium, however, is scarcely more worthy of credit than Homer's praise of the undiminished personal beauty of Helen, when, twenty years subsequently to the departure of the expedition to Troy, the Ithacan prince found her reigning again at Sparta. But of the influence which Diana possessed over Henry there could be no doubt. By the vulgar it was attributed to the use of charms and love-potions. The infatuation of the monarch knew no bounds. He loaded her with gifts; he entrusted her with the crown jewels;[525] he conferred upon her the dignity of a d.u.c.h.ess of Valentinois. In her apartments he spent hours daily, in company with his most intimate courtiers. Through love for her he adopted her favorite colors, and took for his device the crescent, with the words, ”Totum donec compleat orbem.” The public edifices of his time, it is said, still bear testimony to this dishonorable attachment, in the initials or emblems of Henry and Diana sculptured together upon their facades; and the Venetian Soranzo, at a later period in Henry's reign, magnifying her influence upon every department of the administration, affirms, in particular, that the dispensation of ecclesiastical offices was in her hands.[526] It is not surprising that, being of an avaricious character, she soon acc.u.mulated great wealth.
[Sidenote: Constable Anne de Montmorency.]
[Sidenote: His cruelty.]
Anne de Montmorency, one of the four marshals of France, grand-master of the palace, and constable, was among the most notable personages of the sixteenth century. Sprung from a family claiming descent from the first Frank that followed the example of Clovis in renouncing paganism, and bearing on its escutcheon the motto, ”G.o.d defend the first Christian,”