Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/718

Rh 694 PRESBYTERIANISM [FRANCE. Rela- authority (compare the national synods of Lyons, Figeac, tions to La Rochelle, Montauban, 1563, 1579, 1581, 1594). But in on in a single church, we find that so early as 1561 Pres- byterianism was following its natural bent. &quot; A mesure que son pouvoir grandit, il impieta sur le domaine du gouvernement civil, et crut pouvoir prendre des mesures pour la defense. . . pour ordonner, qui plus est, les levers d argent. . . . En un mot, la police, la garde de la ville, 1 inspection de la conduite des habitants,. . . devinrent graduellement 1 objet de ses deliberations et de ses regle- ments.&quot; And a stern stand was made against the supre macy of the state. In 1571 the minister of Bordeaux re ported to the synod of La Rochelle &quot;qu un medecin soutient que le magistral est le chef de 1 eglise et que ce que les ministres entreprennent n est que tirannie.&quot; The synod rejected &quot;1 erreur du dit medecin et de tous autres qui veulent abolir la discipline de 1 eglise en la confondant avec le gouvernement civil.&quot; The language of the synods will be found to vary as their political prospects vary. Progress The cause of the astonishing progress of Protestantism of Pro- and the extent to which it was but one phase of a general the states-general at Orleans in December 1560, where, both in the noblesse and in the tiers-etat, loud complaints were uttered against the clergy (Felice, p. 117), and free dom of worship was demanded. Only a few months after wards a proposal was made by a magistrate of Autun to sell all the church lands, to retain a fourth of the sum for the support of the priests, and with the rest to pay off the crown debts and encourage agriculture and commerce. The disbelief in the possibility of two widely varying religions living side by side is shown in the proposals of all the speakers for a national council to settle vari ances. &quot; Otons ces noms diaboliques,&quot; said De 1 Hopital, &quot;ces noms de partis, factions, et seditions Lutheriens, Huguenots, Papistes ne changeons pas le nom de Chretien.&quot; Great forces were contending for Protestantism ; it had the goodwill of three-fourths of the nobles and of the bour geoisie in the principal towns. But against it were ranged the strength of tradition and of habit ; the craft of Cathe rine de Medici, to whom all religions were equally matters of policy ; the ambition of the Guises, backed by Spain ; the interests of the clergy, backed by the pope ; and the Paris mob. And there was another influence, perhaps still more powerful. One of the greatest obstacles to the success of a new religious movement in a country of strong national feeling will be the existence of a strong national church. The church of France was Gallican, anti-papal, practically and essentially national. In spite of manifold corruptions she had become the centre of much national attachment. As was the case in England, she represented the idea of nationality in a concrete form, and in this lies to a great measure the explanation of the fact that the Huguenots had so long to fight for the right to exist. Straggles By September 1561 the situation had become intoler- against a bl e. The colloquy of Poissy then met, as desired by De Catholi- 1 Hopital. It made but one thing clear : union was im- cism. possible ; extermination for one of the conflicting faiths, or their concurrent existence, were the alternatives. The edict of January 1562 marked the conditions on which the latter was adopted. One remarkable provision was that ministers should swear before the civil magistrate to preach according to the word of God and the Nicene creed. By March war had begun ; the peace of Amboise in March the next year gave the Protestants some privileges, which, however, were afterwards much restricted, especially in the matter of synods, in August 1564; and the armed truce lasted until 1567. During these years the churches con solidated themselves. At Nimes, for example, the Genevan discipline was established in full rigour. The tendency of the consistory to encroach on the civil domain was shown in many ways, while the closely aristocratic nature of the French system appeared from the fact that at each annual election the outgoing members formed a body called the &quot; old consistory,&quot; which was joined with the new consistory for election of ministers and all ordinary affairs. Its ministers were of two classes the one ordinary and per petual, the other temporary, such as the professors at the theological college. The wars of 1567 displayed the value of the facility for union, which was one of the most important features of the Presbyterian polity. During three years of horrors meetings both of consistories and of provincial synods were held. In April 1571, at the peace of St Germain en Laye, the seventh national synod at La Rochelle reaffirmed the confession of faith. In May 1572 a very important synod was held at Nimes, in which the whole church system was carefully revised and developed in many important respects, some of which have been mentioned. The rigidity of the Calvinistic faith was illustrated by the sentence of excom munication against ministers or elders who caused any dispute touching doctrine, ceremonies, or discipline, and the Puritan temper by the prohibition &quot;assister aux spectacles profanes, comme aux danses de theatre, aux comedies,&quot; &c. The church senate, the difference of which from the consistory it is difficult to trace, was now merged in it, and care was taken to get rid of wandering and uncertificated ministers by drawing up a &quot;role des vagabonds.&quot; By the end of 1573 the positions of the Catholics and of the &quot; religion pretendue reformee,&quot; as it was henceforward officially known, had greatly altered. Against the Italian and Spanish influences, as represented by Catherine and the Guises, there had after St Bartholomew s Day arisen a patriot Catholic party ; while the Presbyterians had become sharply divided into two bodies, one the Consis- toriaux (the Covenanters of France), careful only for the purity and free exercise of their religion, and the other the Aristocracy (as in Scotland), who, having become Presby- Pol terians for political purposes, were now fearful of seeing themselves excluded from political life, and were therefore anxious for union and compromise. This party formed a league with the Catholic patriots, and, as the &quot;tiers-parti,&quot; was so threatening that Henry III., to sever the alliance, offered to the Calvinist Aristocracy the free exercise of their religion, and, what they were far more anxious about, full participation in public employments and the re-establishment of their chiefs in their former positions. Fighting, however, again broke out in the beginning of 1577, and was adverse to the Presbyterians, who never theless held a national synod at Sainte Foy in 1578, attended by a commissioner from Henry of Navarre. Very remarkable is the strictness with which in a time of desola tion the laws of the church were maintained. The luke- warmness of the Presbyterian Aristocracy had made the ministers stern and unyielding, and they now gained great influence. In this respect too the course of things was very analogous to that in Scotland. In both countries the ministers threw themselves upon the lower middle classes as distinct from and opposed to the aristocracy. In 1585 Henry III. came to terms with the Guise faction at Nemours on condition of exterminating Calvinism. This, however, was under the stress of circumstances ; his policy was to play off one party against the other, and he soon became lukewarm in persecution. Along with Henry of Navarre he was excommunicated by the pope ; he replied by defiance, murdered Guise, Avas compelled by the abhor rence thus created to join the Protestants, marched with Navarre on Paris, and was there, in 1589, assassinated. To gain the Catholics and to retain the Presbyterians was par
 * M. Borrel s work, especially valuable as showing what went
 * staut- mO vement for reform may be seen in the proceedings of