Volume I Part 55 (2/2)
[Sidenote: An impartial national council.]
It was natural that, in accordance with these views, the third estate should call for the convocation of a national council to settle religious questions, to be presided over by the king himself, in which no one having an interest in r.e.t.a.r.ding a reformation should sit, and where the word of G.o.d should be the sole guide in the decision of doubtful points. Meanwhile, the third estate proposed, that in every city a church or other place should be a.s.signed for the wors.h.i.+p of those who were now forced to hold their meetings by night because of their inability to join with a good conscience in the ceremonies of the ”Romish Church”--for so the doc.u.ment somewhat curtly designated the establishment.[1062]
[Sidenote: The French prelates at Poissy.]
While the States General were occupied at Pontoise in considering the means of relieving the king's pecuniary embarra.s.sments, Catharine had a.s.sembled at Poissy all the bishops of France to take into consideration the religious reformation which the times imperatively demanded. The Pope as yet delayed the long-promised c.u.menical council, and there was little hope of obtaining its actual convocation on fair and practical terms unless, indeed, he should be frightened into it by the superior terrors of a French national council, which might throw France into the arms of the Reformation. Tired of the duplicity of the pontiff, alarmed by the rapid progress of religious dissensions at home, not unwilling, perhaps, to make an attempt at reconciliation, which, if successful, would confirm her own authority and remove the anxieties to which she was daily exposed--now from the side of the Guises, and again from that of the Huguenots--the queen mother had yielded to the suggestion frequently made to her, and had consented to a discussion between the French prelates and the most learned Protestant ministers.[1063]
[Sidenote: Invitation to all Frenchmen,]
[Sidenote: and particularly to Beza.]
[Sidenote: The couriers of Rome stripped.]
Accordingly, on the twenty-fifth of July an invitation had everywhere been extended by proclamation at the sound of the trumpet, to all Frenchmen who had any correction of religious affairs at heart, to appear with perfect safety and be heard before the approaching a.s.sembly at Poissy.[1064] Even before this public announcement, however, steps had been taken to secure the presence of the most distinguished orator among the reformed, and, next to Calvin, their most celebrated theologian. On the fourteenth of July, the Parisian pastors, and, on the succeeding days, the Prince of Conde, the Admiral, and the King of Navarre, had written to Theodore Beza, begging him to come and thus take advantage of the opportunity offered by the favorable disposition of the royal court.[1065] Similar invitations were sent to Pietro Vermigli--the celebrated reformer of Zurich, better known by the name of Peter Martyr--a native of Florence, now just sixty-one years of age, whose eloquence, it was hoped, might exercise a deep influence upon his countrywoman, the queen mother.[1066] So earnest, indeed, was the court in its desire to bring about the conference, that Catharine, well aware that, should tidings of the project reach the ears of the Pope, he would leave no stone unturned to frustrate her design, gave secret orders that all the couriers that left France for Rome about this time should be stripped of their despatches on the Italian borders! This daring step was actually executed by means of the governors of cities in Piedmont, who were devoted to her interests.[1067]
[Sidenote: French sincerity doubted.]
In spite of this flattering invitation, however, there was much in the condition of French affairs, especially in view of the edict of July just published, that made the two Swiss reformers and their colleagues hesitate before undertaking a mission which might possibly prove productive of less benefit than injury to the cause they had at heart.
Well might they suspect the sincerity of a court from which so unfair an ordinance as that of July had but just emanated. What good results could flow from an interview for which the blood-stained persecutor of their brethren, Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, professed his eagerness, promising himself and his friends an easy victory over the Huguenot orators?[1068]
[Sidenote: Urgency of Parisian Huguenots.]
The Protestants of Paris viewed the matter in a different light. So soon as they heard that Beza had concluded not to accede to their request, they wrote again, on the tenth of August. In this letter they begged him, although it was already so late that they had little hope of his being able to reach Poissy in time to take part in the opening of the colloquy, at least to change his mind, and to set out as soon, and travel as expeditiously as possible, in order to succor those who had, in his absence, entered upon the contest. Already, seeing little eagerness on the part of the Protestants, their adversaries had begun to boast of victory. The common cry at Paris, even, was that the Protestants would not dare to maintain their errors ”before so good a company.” If the prelates should be allowed to adjourn without advantage being taken of the opportunity accorded the reformers of defending their faith, the n.o.bles would be too much disgusted to interfere in their behalf a second time; and the queen had distinctly said that, in that case, she would never be able to believe that they had any right on their side. ”As to the edict,” they added, ”which has induced you to adopt this resolution, although it is very bad, yet it can place you in no danger; for by it there is nothing condemned excepting the 'a.s.semblies;' and as to simple heresy, as they call it, it can at most be punished only by banishment from the kingdom, without other loss.
Moreover, we know with certainty that this edict was made for the sole purpose of contenting King Philip and the Pope, and drawing some money from the ecclesiastics. These ends are bad, but it seems to us that there is nothing in all this that ought to prevent our appearing for the maintenance of the truth of G.o.d, since it has pleased Him to give us the opportunity of coming forward and being heard, as we have so long desired.”[1069] Two days later Antoine of Navarre added his solicitations in an earnest letter to the ”Magnificent Seigniors, the Syndics and Council of the Seigniory of Geneva.”[1070]
[Sidenote: Beza comes to St. Germain.]
That it was no personal fear which had occasioned Beza's delay was soon proved. Antoine had written on the twelfth of August; on the sixteenth, without waiting for a safe-conduct, the reformer was already on his way to St. Germain, acting upon the principle laid down by Calvin: ”If it be not yet G.o.d's pleasure to open a _door_, it is our duty to creep in at the _windows_, or to penetrate through the smallest _crevices_, rather than allow the opportunity of effecting a happy arrangement to escape us.”[1071] So expeditious, in fact, was Beza, that on the twenty-second of August he was in Paris.[1072] The next day he reached the royal court at St. Germain.
[Sidenote: Beza's previous history.]
The theologian whose advent had been so anxiously awaited was a French exile for religion's sake. Born, on the twenty-fourth of June, 1519, of n.o.ble parents, in the small but famous Burgundian city of Vezelay, none of the reformers sacrificed more flattering prospects than did Theodore Beza when he cast in his lot with the persecuted Protestants. At Bourges he had been a pupil of Wolmar, until that eminent teacher was recalled to Germany. At Orleans he had been admitted a licentiate in law when scarcely twenty years old. At Paris he gave to the world a volume of Latin poetry of no mean merit, which secured the author great applause.
The ”Juvenilia” were neither more nor less pagan in tone than the rest of the amatory literature of the age framed on the model of the cla.s.sics. That they were immoral seems never to have been suspected until Beza became a Protestant, and it was desirable to find means to sully his reputation. The discovery of the hidden depths of iniquity in the reformer's youthful productions it was reserved for the same prurient imaginations to make that afterward fancied that they had detected obscene allusions in the most innocent lines of the Huguenot psalter. At the age of forty-two years, Beza, after having successively discharged with great ability the functions of professor of Greek in the Academie of Lausanne, and of professor of theology in that of Geneva, was, next to Calvin, the most distinguished Protestant teacher of French origin. He was a man of commanding presence, of extensive erudition, of quick and ready wit, of elegant manners and bearing. No better selection could have been made by the Huguenots of a champion to represent them at the court of Charles the Ninth.[1073]
[Sidenote: Wrangling of the prelates.]
Meantime the prelates had been in session more than three weeks. But little good had thus far come of their deliberations. In vain, had the king delivered before them a speech in which he incited them ”to provide such good means that the people might be induced to live in concord, and in obedience to the Catholic Church.” In vain had he a.s.sured them that he would not give them permission to separate until they had made a satisfactory settlement of the religious affairs of the kingdom.[1074]
The prelates much preferred to fritter away their time in the discussion of petty details of ecclesiastical order and discipline--in regulating the number of priests, settling the dignity of cathedral churches, prescribing the duties of bishops, and other matters of equal importance--”fancying that, in answering such questions, they were applying an efficacious remedy to the ills that desolated the church in these times of troubles and divisions.”[1075] In the words of a minister of state, writing to a French amba.s.sador on the very day of Beza's arrival at court, they intended to treat of the reformation of manners alone, ”without coming to the point of doctrine, which they had as lief touch as handle fire.”[1076]
[Sidenote: Cardinal Chatillon's communion.]
The doubtful allegiance of some of their own number to the Romish Church was a source of peculiar vexation. As the prelates were about to join in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, Cardinal Chatillon and two other bishops insisted upon communicating under both forms; and when their demand was refused, they went to another church and celebrated the divine ordinance with many of the n.o.bility, all partaking both of the bread and of the wine, thus earning for themselves the nickname of Protestants.[1077]
[Sidenote: Determination of Catharine and L'Hospital.]
What with the disinclination of the bishops to enter into the consideration of the real difficulties that beset the kingdom, and the open hostility of the Pope and of Philip the Second[1078] to any a.s.sembly that bore the least resemblance to a national council, Catharine and her princ.i.p.al adviser, the chancellor, had an arduous and well-nigh hopeless task. They strove to quiet the King of Spain and the Pope by the a.s.surance that the prelates had only been a.s.sembled in order to prepare them to go in a body to attend the universal council soon to be convened. ”Those who are dangerously ill,” wrote Catharine in her defence, ”may be excused for applying all herbs to their ache, in order to alleviate it when it becomes insupportable. Meanwhile they send for the good physician--whom I take to be a good council--to cure so furious and dangerous a disease.” Only those who feel the suffering, she intimated, can talk understandingly with respect to its treatment.[1079]
[Sidenote: A remarkable letter to the Pope.]
[Sidenote: Effect produced at Rome.]
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