Volume I Part 58 (1/2)
[Footnote 1037: Letter to Bullinger, May 24, 1561, _apud_ Baum, ii., App., 32, and Bonnet, Eng. tr., iv. 190.]
[Footnote 1038: Letter of Gilbert de Vaux, April 5, 1561. MS. in Nat.
Lib. of Paris, _apud_ Bulletin, xiv. 321, 322.]
[Footnote 1039: After having examined the churches, convents, etc., the lieutenant, though a Roman Catholic, reported to the Toulouse parliament ”qu'il avoit trouve une telle obeissance en ceste ville que le roy demande a tous ses subjects, de sorte qu'il n'y avoit eu jamais un coup frappe, ne injure dicte aux papistes par ceux de l'Evangile.”]
[Footnote 1040: Letter of Du Vignault to M. d'Espeville (Calvin), May 26, 1561, in Geneva MSS., Bulletin, xiv. (1865) 322-324.]
[Footnote 1041: ”Ceux de Tholoze sont du tout enrages, car ils ne cessent de brusler les paoures fideles de jour a aultre. Le trouppeau est fort desole, et croy qu'est sans pasteur.” Letter of La Cha.s.se, Montpellier, June 14, 1561, to M. d'Espeville, Geneva MSS., _ubi supra_, p. 325.]
[Footnote 1042: La Place, 127, 128; De Thou, iii., liv. xxviii. 53.]
[Footnote 1043: Memoires de Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 3. The discussion was long, and would have been tedious, had it not turned upon so important a topic. There were 140 members of parliament, and according to its regulations no one was allowed to concur simply in the views of another, but each counsellor was compelled to express his own sentiments, which were then committed to writing. As some of the high dignitaries of state also gave their opinions, there were altogether more than 150 speakers, and parliament met twice a day to listen to them. The Bishop of Paris, after harshly advocating the rekindling of the extinct fires of the estrapade, was compelled to hear in return some plain words from Admiral Coligny, who boldly accused the bishops and priests of being the cause of all the evils from which the Christian world was suffering, while at the same time they instigated a cruel persecution of those who exposed their crimes. The letters of Hubert Languet, who was in Paris at the time, are exceedingly instructive. Epist. secr., ii. 122, 125, etc.]
[Footnote 1044: Or _seven_, according to Languet, Epist. sec., ii. 130.]
[Footnote 1045: Journal de Bruslart, Memoires de Conde, i. 40, etc.; Despatches of Chantonnay, Mem. de Conde, ii. 12-15; La Place, 130; Hist.
eccles., i. 293, 294; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 54. Cf. Martin, Hist.
de France, x. 82, Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. 172, etc., and Soldan, Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 428.]
[Footnote 1046: It is styled a ”_mercuriale_” in a contemporary letter of Du Pasquier (Augustin Marlorat), Rouen, July 11, 1561, Bulletin, xiv.
(1865) 364: ”On dit que la mercuriale est achevee, mais la conclusion n'est pas encores publiee.”]
[Footnote 1047: H. Martin, Hist. de France, x. 83.]
[Footnote 1048: The text of the Edict of July is given in Isambert, Recueil gen. des anc. lois fr., xiv. 109-111; Histoire eccles., i.
294-296; Mem. de Conde, i. 42-45. Cf. La Place, 130, 131; De Thou, iii.
54, 55; Mem. de Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 3.]
[Footnote 1049: ”Que son epee ne tiendrait jamais au fourreau quand il serait question da faire sortir effet a cet arrete.” Martin, x. 83.]
[Footnote 1050: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1051: The cathedral alone persisted in holding out a day or two longer, and then made an unwilling sacrifice of its pictures, protesting at the same time that it only wanted peace and friends.h.i.+p.]
[Footnote 1052: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 530-532.]
[Footnote 1053: Letter to the church of Sauve, July, 1561, Bonnet, Lettres franc., ii. 415-418. It is instructive to note that the Provincial Synod of Sommieres took the decisive step of deposing the pastor of Sauve; nor was he pardoned until he had been convinced of his error, and had declared that he had done nothing except through righteous zeal, and in order to preclude many scandals. Geneva MS., _apud_ Bonnet, _ubi supra_.]
[Footnote 1054: See the royal letters of prorogation of March 25th, Mem.
de Conde, ii. 281-284.]
[Footnote 1055: La Place, Commentaires, 140; De Thou, iii. 57; Mem. de Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 4.]
[Footnote 1056: The famous chateau of St. Germain-en-Laye, a favorite residence of the monarchs of the later Valois branch, is situated on the river Seine, a few miles below Paris. Poissy, where the a.s.sembly of the prelates convened, was selected on account of its proximity to the court. It is also on the Seine, which, between Poissy and St. Germain, makes a great bend toward the north; across the neck of the peninsula the distance from place to place is only about three miles. Pontoise, deriving its name from its bridge over the river Oise, a tributary of the Seine, lies about eight miles north of St. Germain.]
[Footnote 1057: The origin of the singular designation of this officer--a designation quite unique--is discussed _con amore_ by Cha.s.sanee, in that remarkable book, Catalogus Gloriae Mundi (edition of 1586), lib. xi., c. 5, fol. 239. Cha.s.sanee, who was himself of Autun, traces the t.i.tle and office of _vierg_ back to the Vergobretus of ancient Gallic times. Caesar, Bell. Gallic, i. 16.]
[Footnote 1058: The curious may find an instructive paragraph in his speech, devoted to a list of onerous taxes bearing in great part, or exclusively, on the people. La Place, 145.]
[Footnote 1059: ”Le temps est une creature de Dieu a luy subjecte, de maniere que dix mille ans ne sont une minute en la puissance de nostre Dieu.” The long speech of M. Bretagne, certainly one of the n.o.blest pleas for freedom of religious wors.h.i.+p to be found within the limits of the sixteenth century, is inserted in full in the Recueil des choses memorables (1565), 620-645, in La Place, liv. vi. 141-150, and in the Hist. eccles. des eglises reformees, i. 298-305. Summary in De Thou, iii. 57, 58.]