Volume II Part 56 (1/2)
[1213] Ibid., ii. 322.
[1214] Ibid., ii. 307. See also in the Pieces justificatives, pp. 213-217: ”Liste des refugies de la St. Barthelemy dont les familles existent de nos jours a Geneve.”
[1215] Gaberel, ii. 325. The author of the really able and learned article on the ma.s.sacre, in the North British Review for October, 1869, conveys an altogether unfounded and cruel impression, not only with regard to Beza, but respecting his fellow Protestants, in these sentences: ”The very men whose own brethren had perished in France were not hearty or unanimous in execrating the deed. There were Huguenots who thought that their party had brought ruin on itself, by provoking its enemies and following the rash counsels of ambitious men. This was the opinion of their chief, Theodore Beza, himself,” etc. The belief of Beza that the French Protestants had merited even so severe a chastis.e.m.e.nt as this at the hands of G.o.d, by reason of the ambition of some and the unbelief or lack of spirituality of others, was a very different thing from failing to execrate the deed with heartiness. If the words of Bullinger to Hotman, quoted in support of the first sentence (”sunt tamen qui hoc factum et excusare et defendere tentant”) really referred to Protestants at all, it can only have been to an insignificant number who took the position from a love of singularity, and who were below contempt. The execration of the deed was pre-eminently unanimous and hearty.
[1216] Gaberel, ii. 326.
[1217] Beza to T. Tilius, Dec. 3, 1572, Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., vii. 17.
[1218] Gaberel, ii. 330-333.
[1219] Nearly four years later, on the 8th of June, 1576, Monsieur de Chandieu received the news of the publication of Henry III.'s edict of peace permitting the refugees to return home. All the Protestants who had not adopted Switzerland as their future country congregated at Geneva. A solemn religious service was held in the church of Saint Pierre, where French and Genevese united in that favorite Huguenot psalm (the 118th)--
La voici l'heureuse journee Que Dieu a faite a plein desir--
the same which the soldiers of Henry IV. set up on the field of Coutras (Agrippa d'Aubigne, iii. 53). M. de Chandieu then rendered thanks in tender and affectionate terms to all the departments of government, exclaiming: ”We shall always regard the Church of Geneva as our benefactress and our mother; and from all the French reformed churches will arise, every Sunday, words of blessing, in remembrance of your admirable benefits to us.” The next day the refugees started for their homes, accompanied, as far as the border, by a great crowd of citizens.
Gaberel, ii. 337, 338.
[1220] Les amba.s.sadeurs de Charles IX. aux cantons suisses protestants, Bulletin, iii. 274-276. A copy was sent by Beza to the consuls of Montauban, together with a letter, Oct. 3. 1572. Also Mem. de l'estat (Arch. cur., vii. 158-161.)
[1221] Harangue de M. de Bellievre aux Suisses a la diette tenue a Baden, Mackintosh, Hist. of England, iii., Appendix L.
[1222] Bellievre to Charles IX., Baden, Dec. 15, 1572, Mackintosh, App. L, p. 360. De Thou, iv. (liv. liii.) 642.
[1223] As early as September 3d the superintendent of the mint submitted specimens of two kinds of commemorative medals: the one bearing the devices, ”_Virtus in Rebelles_” and ”_Pietas excitavit Just.i.tiam_;” and the other, ”_Charles IX. dompteur des Rebelles, le 24 aoust 1572_.” The Mem. de l'estat (Archives cur., vii. 355-357) contain the elaborate description furnished by the designer, accompanied with comments by the Protestant author. The Tresor de Numismatique, etc. (Paul Delaroche, etc.), Med. francaises, pt. 3d, plate 19, Nos. 3, 4, and 5, gives facsimiles of _three_ medals, the first two mentioned above, and a third on which Charles figures as Hercules armed with sword and torch confronting the three-headed Hydra of heresy. The motto is, ”Ne ferrum temnat, simul ignibus obsto.”
[1224] Smith to Walsingham, Digges, 252.
[1225] Leicester to Walsingham, Sept. 11th, Digges, 251.
[1226] Walsingham to Smith, Nov. 1, Digges, 279. The politic Montluc, Bishop of Valence, seems to allude to the same alteration in his master: ”Au diable soyt la cause qui de tant de maux est cause, et qui d'ung bon roy et humain, s'il en fust jamais, l'ont contrainct de mectre la main au sang, qui est un morceau si friant, que jamais prince n'en tasta qu'il n'y voul.u.s.t revenir.” De Noailles, iii. 223, 224.
[1227] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 29, 30.
[1228] Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 29 (liv. i., c. 6).
[1229] Letter of May 22, 1571/2, Digges, 193.
[1230] Relation of Sigismondo Cavalli. I follow the resume of Baschet, La diplomatie venitienne, 556, 562.
[1231] ”Leurs butins et richesses ne leur proffitarent point, non plus qu'a plusieurs ma.s.sacreurs, sacquemens, pillardz et paillards de la feste de Sainct-Barthelemy que j'ay cogneu, au moins des princ.i.p.aux, qui ne vesquirent guieres longtemps qu'ils ne fussent tuez au siege de la Roch.e.l.le, et autres guerres qui vindrent empres, et qui furent aussi pauvres que devant. Aussi, comme disoient les Espagnolz pillards, '_Que el diablo les avia dado, el diablo les avia llevado_.'” OEuvres, i. 277 (Ed.
of Hist. Soc. of Fr., 1864). I need only refer to the fate of the famous a.s.sa.s.sin who boasted of having killed four hundred men that day with his own arm, and who afterward, having embraced a hermit's life, was finally hung for the crime of murdering travellers (Agrippa d'Aubigne, ii. 20); and to that of Coconnas, put to death for the part he took in the conspiracy of which I shall shortly have to speak.
[1232] Memoires de Sully, i. 28, 29.
[1233] See _ante_, p. 530-532.
[1234] Apostolicarum Pii Quinti Epistolarum libri quinque. Letter of March 26, 1568, p. 73.