Volume II Part 51 (1/2)
Perhaps the most striking instance of a magnanimous refusal to comply with the b.l.o.o.d.y mandate of the Parisian court, was that of Viscount D'Orthez,[1146] Governor of Bayonne. This n.o.bleman was not only of a violent and imperious temper, but on other occasions so severe in his treatment of the Protestants of the border city, that the king was obliged to write to him to moderate his rigor. When, however, the messenger from Paris (who on his way had caused an indiscriminate slaughter to be made of all the men, women and children who had taken refuge in the prisons of Dax) delivered his orders to the viscount, the latter returned the following laconic answer:
”Sire, I have communicated your Majesty's commands to your faithful inhabitants and warriors in the garrison. I have found among them only good citizens and brave soldiers, but not one hangman. For this reason they and I very humbly beg your Majesty to employ our arms and our lives in all things possible, however hazardous they may be, as we are, so long as our lives shall last, your very humble, etc.”[1147]
[Sidenote: The munic.i.p.ality of Nantes.]
Nor were the munic.i.p.al authorities in some places behind the royal governors in their determination to have no part in the nefarious designs of the court. At Nantes, the mayor, echevins, and judges received from Paris, on the eighth of September, a letter of the Duke of Montpensier-Bourbon, Governor of Brittany, in which, after narrating the discovery of the pretended conspiracy of Coligny and his adherents, and their consequent a.s.sa.s.sination, he added: ”By this his Majesty's intention respecting the treatment which the Huguenots are to receive in the other cities is sufficiently evident, as well as the means by which some a.s.sured rest may be expected in our poor Catholic Church.”[1148] But the munic.i.p.al and judicial officers of Nantes, instead of following the b.l.o.o.d.y path thus marked out for them by the governor of their province, ”held a meeting in the town hall, and swore to maintain their previous oath not to violate the Edict of Pacification published in favor of the Calvinists, and forbade the inhabitants from indulging in any excess against them.”[1149]
[Sidenote: Uncertain number of the victims.]
Such are the general outlines and a few details of a ma.s.sacre the full horrors of which it is outside of the province and beyond the ability of history to relate. Nor is it even possible to set down figures that may be relied upon as expressing the true number of those who were unjustly put to death. The difficulty experienced by a well informed contemporary, has not been removed; notwithstanding the careful investigations of those who earnestly desired ”that posterity might not-be deprived of what it needed to know, in order that it might become wiser at the expense of others.”[1150] We shall be safe in supposing that the number of Huguenot victims throughout France was somewhere between twenty thousand, as conjectured by De Thou and La Popeliniere, and thirty thousand, as stated by Jean de Serres and the Memoires de l'estat de France, rather than in adopting the extreme views of Sully and Perefixe, the latter of whom swells the count of the slain to one hundred thousand men, women, and children.[1151] It can scarcely have been much less than the lower number I have suggested.
[Sidenote: News of the ma.s.sacre received at Rome.]
[Sidenote: Public thanksgivings.]
While the ma.s.sacre begun on St. Bartholomew's Day was spreading with the speed of some foul contagion to the most distant parts of France, the tidings had been carried beyond its boundaries, and excited a thrill of delight, or a cry of execration, according to the character and sympathies of those to whom they came. Nowhere was the surprise greater, nor the joy more intense, than at Rome. Pope Gregory, like his predecessor, had been very sceptical respecting the pious intentions of the French court.
Nuncios and legates brought them, it is true, a great profusion of brilliant a.s.surances, on the part of Catharine and Charles, of devotion to the Roman Church, and to the interests of the Pontifical See, but accompanied by lugubrious vaticinations of their own, based upon the tolerant course on which the king, under Coligny's guidance, had entered.
The Cardinal of Alessandria had made little account of the ring offered him by Charles as a pledge of his sincerity, and preferred to wait for the proof which the sequel might exhibit. The last defiant act of the French monarch, in marrying his sister to a professed heretic, and within the degrees of consanguinity prohibited by the Church, without obtaining the Pope's dispensation, served to confirm all the sinister suspicions entertained at Rome. Under these circ.u.mstances the papal astonishment and rejoicing can well be imagined, when couriers sent by the Guises brought the intelligence of the ma.s.sacre to the Cardinal of Lorraine, and when letters from the King of France and from the Nuncio Salviati in Paris to the Pope himself confirmed its accuracy. Salviati's letters having been read in the full consistory, on the sixth of September, the pontiff and the cardinals resolved to go at once in solemn procession to the church of San Marco, there to render thanks to G.o.d for the signal blessing conferred upon the Roman See and all Christendom. A solemn ma.s.s was appointed for the succeeding Monday, and a jubilee published for the whole Christian world. In the evening the cannon from the Castle of San Angelo, and firearms discharged here and there throughout the city, proclaimed to all the joy felt for so signal a victory over the enemies of the Church. For three successive nights there was a general illumination. Cardinal Orsini, who seems to have been on the point of starting for France as a special legate to urge the court to withdraw from the course of toleration, now received different instructions, and was commissioned to congratulate Charles, and to encourage him to pursue the path upon which he had entered. Charles of Lorraine, as was natural, distinguished himself for his demonstrations of joy. He made a present of one thousand crowns to the bearer of such glad tidings.[1152] Under his auspices a brilliant celebration of the event took place in the church of San Luigi de'
Francesi, which was magnificently decorated for the occasion. Gregory himself, attended by his cardinals and bishops, by princes, foreign amba.s.sadors, and large numbers of n.o.bles and of the people, walked thither under the pontifical canopy, and high ma.s.s was said. The Cardinal of Lorraine had affixed above the entrance a pompous declaration, in the form of a congratulatory notice from Charles the Ninth to Gregory and the ”sacred college of cardinals,” wherein the Very Christian King renders thanks to Heaven that, ”inflamed by zeal for the Lord G.o.d of Hosts, like a smiting angel divinely sent, he had suddenly destroyed by a single slaughter almost all the heretics and enemies of his kingdom.” The latinity of the placard might not be above reproach; but it is certain that its sentiments received the cordial approval of the a.s.sembled prelates.[1153] Set forth in golden characters, and decorated with festive leaves and ribbons,[1154] it proclaimed that the hierarchy of the Roman Church had no qualms of conscience in indorsing the traitorous deed of Charles and Catharine. But still more unequivocal proofs were not wanting.
A well known medal was struck in honor of the event, bearing on the one side the head of the Pope and the words ”Gregorius XIII. Pont. Max. An.
I.,” and on the other an angel with cross and sword pursuing the heretics, and the superscription, ”Ugonottorum strages, 1572.”[1155]
[Sidenote: Paintings by Vasari in the Vatican.]
By the order of the Pope, the famous Vasari painted in the Sala Regia of the Vatican palace several pictures representing different scenes in the Parisian ma.s.sacre. Upon one an inscription was placed which tersely expressed the true state of the case: ”Pontifex Colinii necem probat.”[1156] The paintings may still be seen in the magnificent room which serves as antechamber to the Sistine Chapel.[1157]
To the French amba.s.sador, M. de Ferralz, Gregory expressed in the most extravagant terms his satisfaction, and that of the college of cardinals, not only with the events of Paris, but with the news daily coming to Rome of similar ma.s.sacres in progress in different cities of France. He convinced Ferralz that no more delightful tidings could have reached the pontifical court. The battle of Lepanto could not compare with it. ”Tell your master,” said he to the envoy at the conclusion of his audience, ”that this event has given me a hundred times more pleasure than fifty victories like that which the League obtained over the Turk last year.” In the excess of his joy he did not forget to enjoin on every one he spoke to, especially all Frenchmen, to light bonfires in honor of the ma.s.sacre, hinting that whoever should fail to do so must be unsound in the faith.[1158] A few weeks later, the pontiff shocked even some devout Roman Catholics by allowing Cardinal Lorraine and the French amba.s.sador to present to him Maurevel, the a.s.sa.s.sin who had fired the arquebuse shot at Admiral Coligny.[1159]
[Sidenote: French boasts go for nothing.]
”The pontiff,” says his countryman, the historian Adriani, ”and all Italy universally rejoiced greatly, and forgave the king and queen their previous dissimulation.”[1160] For the French at Rome now pretended that the ma.s.sacre had long been planned by their monarch, and that every favor to the Huguenots for the past two years had been shown to them merely for the purpose of lulling them into a false security. The Pope accepted the plea without troubling himself much whether it were true or not, satisfied as he was with the event. But not so the Spanish envoy at the Roman court, Don Juan de Cuniga. ”The French wish to give the impression,” he wrote to his master, ”that the king meditated this blow from the time he made peace with the Huguenots; and, in order that it may be believed that he was capable of preparing it and concealing it until the proper time for the execution, they attribute to him stratagems which do not seem allowable even against heretics and rebels. I deem it certain that, if the shooting of the arquebuse at the admiral was a thing projected a few days beforehand, and authorized by the king, all the rest was inspired by circ.u.mstances.”[1161] Equally positive, though not at all doubtful respecting the morality of the transaction, and more jubilant, was the Nuncio Salviati, in Paris. While desiring that the cardinal secretary ”should kiss the feet of his Holiness in his name,” and ”rejoicing with him in the bowels of his heart at the blessed and honorable commencement of his pontificate,”[1162] while declaring that, despite his previous belief that the court of France would not much longer tolerate the admiral's arrogance, he would never have imagined the tenth part of what he now saw with his own eyes, he also stated he could not bring himself to believe that, had the admiral been killed by Maurevel's shot, so much would have been done by a great deal.[1163] Now, however, ”the queen intended not only to revoke the Edict of Pacification, but by means of justice to restore the ancient observance of the Catholic faith.”
[Sidenote: Catharine writes to Philip, her son-in-law.]
There was another monarch whose joy was not less sincere than Gregory's.
This was Philip of Spain. Catharine had not delayed writing to her royal son-in-law. In her endeavor to make capital out of the ma.s.sacre she betrayed great satisfaction at her supposed masterly stroke of policy. Her letter--a misspelled scrawl--furnishes a fresh ill.u.s.tration of the fact that singular shrewdness in planning and executing criminal projects is not incompatible with a trust, amounting almost to fatuity, in the unsuspecting credulity of others. Catharine actually imagined that she could, by her counterfeit piety, impose upon one who knew her character so well as Philip of Spain. Therefore she was lavish of the use of the name of the Deity to cover her own villainy. ”Monsieur my son,” she wrote, ”I entertain no doubt that you will appreciate, as we do, the happiness G.o.d has conferred upon us in giving the king, my son, the means of ridding himself of his subjects, rebels against G.o.d and himself, and [rejoice]
that it has pleased Him graciously to preserve him and us all from the cruelty of their hands. For this we are a.s.sured that you will praise G.o.d with us, as well on our account as for the advantage that will accrue to all Christendom, and to the service, and honor, and glory of G.o.d. This, we hope, will soon be made known, and the fruit thereof be perceived.[1164]
By this event we afford the testimony of our good and upright intentions, which have never tended but to His honor. And I rejoice still more that this occasion will confirm and augment the friends.h.i.+p between your Majesty and the king your brother--which is the thing I desire most of all in this world.”[1165]
[Sidenote: The delight of Philip the Second.]
Philip had good reason to be glad. To all human appearance it had depended only upon the word of Charles to secure, at once and forever, the independence from the Spanish tyranny of the provinces on the lower Rhine, which, under William of Orange, were battling for religious and civil freedom. True, Genlis and his small forces had been captured or destroyed; but what were they in comparison with the men whom the French king could have marshalled under the command of Coligny, La Noue, and other experienced leaders? And now Charles, at a single stroke, had cut off all prospect of obtaining the sovereignty of the Netherlands or of any part, had a.s.sa.s.sinated his own generals in their beds, had butchered in cold blood those who would gladly have marched as soldiers to achieve his conquests, and had freed Philip from all fear of French interference in behalf of the Dutch patriots. No wonder then, that, when a courier, sent by the Spanish amba.s.sador at Paris, with tidings of the events of St.
Bartholomew's Day, reached Madrid, on the evening of Sat.u.r.day, the seventh of September--so slowly did news travel in those days--Philip was almost beside himself with joy.[1166] ”He showed so much gayety, contrary to his native temperament and custom,” the French envoy, St. Goard, wrote to his master, ”that he was evidently more delighted than with all the pieces of good fortune that had ever befallen him; and he called to him his familiars to tell them that he knew that your Majesty was his good brother, and that he saw that there was no one else in the world that deserved the t.i.tle of 'Very Christian.'” Not content with gloating over the b.l.o.o.d.y bulletin with his cronies, he promptly sent his secretary, Cayas, to congratulate the French amba.s.sador, and to inform him that ”the king his master was going that very hour to St. Jerome, to render all manner of thanks to G.o.d, and to pray that in matters of so great importance his Majesty might be sustained by His hand.” When, the next morning, St. Goard had been very graciously admitted to an audience, he tells us that Philip--the man who rarely or never gave a hearty or manly expression to his feelings--”began to laugh, and, with demonstrations of extreme pleasure and satisfaction, praised your Majesty as having earned your t.i.tle of 'Very Christian,' telling me there was no king that could claim to be your companion, either in valor or in prudence.” It was natural that Philip should chiefly extol Charles's alleged dissimulation, and dwell on the happiness of Christendom saved from a frightful war. It was equally politic for St. Goard to chime in, and echo his master's praise. But there was sound truth in the concluding remark he made to Philip: ”However this may be, _Sire, you must confess that you owe your Netherlands to his Majesty, the King of France_.”[1167]
[Sidenote: Charles instigates the murder of French prisoners.]
[Sidenote: The Duke of Alva jubilant but wary.]
We have also more direct testimony to Philip's delight at the Parisian ma.s.sacre, in the form of a letter from the monarch to the Duke of Alva. In this extraordinary communication, worthy of the depraved source from which it emanated, the bloodthirsty king does not attempt to conceal the satisfaction with which he has received the tidings of Charles's ”honorable and Christian resolution to rid himself of the admiral and other important personages,” both for religion's sake and because the King of France will now be a firmer friend to the Spanish crown--since neither the German Protestants nor Elizabeth will trust him any longer--a circ.u.mstance which will have a decided influence upon the restoration of his authority in the Netherlands. Another matter upon which he touches, places in the clearest light the infamy to which Charles and his council had sunk, and the hypocrisy of Philip the Catholic himself. Until the very moment of the Ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, Charles had been earnestly desirous of saving the lives of the French Huguenots who had been taken prisoners with Genlis near Mons; while, by the most barefaced a.s.sumptions of innocence, he endeavored to induce the Spaniard to believe that he was in no way responsible for Genlis's undertaking.[1168] Now, however, it is Charles himself who, by his envoys at Madrid and Brussels, begs from Philip the murder of his own French subjects, lest they return to do mischief in France. Not only the soldiers taken with Genlis, but the garrison of Mons, if that city, as now seemed all but certain, should fall into Alva's hands, must be put to death.[1169] ”If Alva object,” he wrote to Mondoucet, ”that your request is the same thing as tacitly requiring him to kill the prisoners and cut to pieces the garrison of Mons, you will tell him that that is precisely what he ought to do, and that he will inflict a very great wrong upon himself and upon all Christendom if he shall do otherwise.”[1170] Drawing his inspiration from the same source, St. Goard said to Philip himself: ”One of the greatest services that can be done for Christendom, will be to capture Mons and put everybody to the edge of the sword.”[1171] And so Philip thought too; for he not only wrote to Alva that the sooner the earth were freed of such bad plants, the less solicitude would be necessary in future, but he scribbled with his own hand on the draft of the letter: ”I desire, if you have not already rid the world of them, you should do it at once and let me know, for I see no reason for delay.”[1172] The more clear-headed Alva, however, saw reasons not only for delay, but for extending to some of the prisoners a counterfeit mercy; for he soon replied to his master, that ”he was not at all of opinion that it was best to cut off the heads of Genlis and the other French prisoners, as the King of France asked him to do. He had resolved to do so before the admiral's death, but now things had changed.
Charles must know that Philip has in his power men capable of giving him great trouble.”[1173] None the less, however, did Alva communicate the glad tidings to all parts of the Netherlands, and cause solemn Te Deums to be sung in the churches.[1174] ”These occurrences,” he wrote to Count Bossu, Governor of Holland, ”come so marvellously apropos in this conjunction for the affairs of the king our master, that nothing could be more timely. For this we cannot sufficiently render thanks to the Divine goodness.”[1175] Philip promptly sent the Marquis d'Ayamonte to congratulate Charles and the queen mother.[1176] Alva had already a special envoy at the French court, who returned soon after the ma.s.sacre to Brussels. On asking Catharine what reply he should carry back, the Italian princess, intoxicated with her success, impiously said: ”I do not know that I can make any other answer than that which Jesus Christ gave to St.