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 HUGUENOTS

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HUGUENOTS

be regarded as a few scattered handfuls of individuals, whose case could be satisfactorily dealt with by a few judicial prosecutions. Organized into churches linked together by synods, reinforced by the support of great lords of whom some had access to the councils of the Crown, the Calvinists thenceforward constituted a political power which exerted its activity in na- tional affairs and had a history of its own.

After the accession of Francis II, and through the influence of the Guises, who were all-powerful with the king and strongly devoted to Catholicism, the edicts against the Huguenots were rendered still more severe. Antoine du Bourg was burned, and a royal edict (4 September, 1559) commanded that houses in which unlawful assemblies were held should be razed and the organizers of such assemblies punished with death. Embittered by these measures, the Huguenots took advantage of every cause for discontent affortled by the government of the Guises. After taking counsel with their theologians at Strasburg and Geneva, they resolved to have reeour.se to arms. A plot was formed, the real leader of which was the Prince de Cond6, though its organization was entrusted to the Sieur de la Renaudi^, a nobleman of Pt'rigord, who had been convicted of forgery l)y the Parliament of Dijon, had fled to Geneva, and had there become an ardent Calvinist. He visited Geneva and England, and scoured the provinces of France to recruit sol- diers and bring them together about the Court — for the plan was to capture the Guises without, as the con- spirators said, laying hands on the king's person. While the Court in order to disarm Huguenot hos- tility was ordering its agents to desist from prose- cutions, and proclaiming a general amnesty from which only preachers and conspirators were excepted, the Guises were warned of the plot being hatched, and thus enabled to stifle the revolt in the blood of the conspirators who were assembling in bands about Amboise, where the king was lodged (19 March, 1560). The resentment aroused by the severity of this repression and the appointment as chancellor of Michel de L'Hopital, a magistrate of great modera- tion, soon led to the adoption of less violent counsels; the Edict of Romorantin (May, 1560) softened the lot of the Protestants, who had as their advocates before the " Assembly of Notables " (.\ugust, 1560) the Prince de Cond^», the chancellor L'Hopital, and the Bishops of Valence and Vienne.

The accession of Charles IX, a minor (December, 1560), brought into power, as queen regent, his mother Catharine de' Medici. This was fortunate for the Huguenots. Almost indifferent to questions of doctrine the ambitious regent made no scruple of granting any degree of toleration, provided she might enjoy her power in peace. She allowed the Cond^ and the Coligny to practise the reformed religion at court, and even summoned to preach there Jean de Mouluc, Bishop of Valence, a Calvinist scarcely con- cealed by his mitre. At the same time she ordered the Parliament of Paris to suspend the prosecutions, and authorized Huguenot worship outside of the cities until such time as a national council should have pronounced on the matter. An edict promulgated in the month of April, while prohibiting religious manifestations, set at liberty those who had been imprisoned on rehgious grounds. In vain did the Parliament of Paris try to suspend the publication of this edict; a judiciary commission composed of princes, high officers of the Crown, and members of the Royal Council, granted the Huguenots amnesty on the sole condition that they should in future live like Catholics. In the hope of bringing about a reconciliation between the two religions Catharine assembled Catholic prelates and Huguenot ministers at the Conference of Poissy. For the latter Th(<'odore de Beze spoke; for the former, the Cardinal of Lor- raine. Each party claimed the victory. In con-

clusion the king forbade the Huguenots to hold eccle. siastical property, and the Catholics to interfere with Huguenot worship. In January, 1562, the Hugue- nots were authorized to hold their assemblies outside of the towns, but had to restore all property taken from the clergy, and abstain from tumults and unlawful gatherings. This edict, however, only exasperated the rival factions; at Paris it occasioned disturbances which obliged Catharine and the Court to flee. The Duke of Guise, on his way from Lorraine to rejoin the queen, found at Vassy in Champagne some six or seven hundred Huguenots holding religious worship (1 March, 1562), which according to the Edict of January they had no right to do, Vassy being a fortified town. Their singing soon interfered with the Mass at which the Duke of Guise was assisting. Mutual provoca- tions ensued, a quarrel broke out, and blood was shed. Twenty-three Huguenots were slain and more than a hundred wounded.

Forthwith, at the call of the Prince de Cond^, there began the first of the civil wars called the "wars of religion ". The Huguenots rose, as they said, to enforce respect for the Edict of January, which the Duke of Guise was trampling under foot. Every- where the mutual animosities found vent in acts of violence. Huguenots were massacred in one place, monks and religious in another. Wherever the in- surgents gained the mastery, churches were sacked, statues and crosses mutilated, sacred utensils pro- faned in sacrilegious burlesques, the relics of saints cast into the flames. The most serious encoimters took place at Orl&ins, where the Duke of Guise was treacherously assassinated by a Huguenot. The assassin Poltrot de Mdr^ declared that he had been urged on by Beze and Coligny. Finally, although Conde and Coligny had not been ashamed to purchase support from Queen Elizabeth of England by deliver- ing Havre over to her, the victory remained with the Catholics. Peace was established by the Edict of Amboise (19 March, 1563), which left the Huguenots freedom of worship in one town out of each bailiwick (bailliage) and in the castles of lords who exercised the power of life and death {haute justice). Four years later there was another civil war which lasted six months and ended in the Peace of Longjumeau (23 March, 1568), re-establi.shing the Edict of Amboise. Five months later hostilities recommenced. Cond6 occupied La Rochelle, but he was killed at Jarnac, and Coligny, who succeeded to his command, was defeated at Moncontour. Peace was made in the following year, and the Edict of Saint-Germain (8 April, 1570) granted the Huguenots freedom of worship wherever their worship had been carried on before the war, besides leaving in their hands the four following refuges — La Rochelle, Montauban, La Charity, and Cognac.

On his return to Court, Coligny found great favour with the king and laboured to win his support for the revolted Netherlands. The marriage of Henry, King of Navarre, with the king's sister, Margaret of Valois, soon after this brought all the Huguenot lords to Paris. Catharine de' Medici, jealous of Coligny's influence with the king, and it may be in collusion with the Duke of Guise who had his father's death to avenge on the admiral, plotted the death of the latter. But the attempt failed ; Coligny was only wounded. Catharine, fearing reprisals from the Huguenots, sud- denly won over the king and his council to the idea of putting to death the Huguenot leaders assembled m Paris. Thus occurred the odious Massacre of St. Bartholomew, so called from the saint whose feast fell on the same day (24 August, 1572), Admiral Coligny being slain with many of his Huguenot fol- lowers. The massacre spread to many provincial towns. The number of victims is estimated at 2000 for the capital, and 6000 to 8000 for the rest of France. 'The king explained to foreign courts that