Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/17

 

, King of France, who died in 1515, being no lover of the Pope of Rome or his authority, was favourably impressed by a representation addressed to him by the Vaudois of Dauphiny and Provence, which declared that they held the essentials of real religion, but did not believe in the Pope or his doctrines. Royal Commissioners visited their Alpine homes, and reported to the King to the following effect: — “Among these people baptism is administered, the articles of faith and the ten commandments are taught, the Sabbath is solemnly observed and the word of God is expounded; as to the unchastity and the poisonings of which they are accused, not a single case is to be found.” Louis exclaimed, “These people are much better than myself and than all my catholic subjects.” This king was the responsible author of a medal with the inscription, “Perdam Babylonis nomen” [I will destroy the name of Babylon], occasioned by the domineering and warlike spirit of the sovereign Pontiff.

These Vaudois of France, the next king, Francis I., almost exterminated by military executions and wholesale massacres, which the inhabitants of Cabrieres, in Provence, resisted by force of arms, driving a regiment of papal mercenaries to the very gates of Avignon. This was a small foretaste of the future civil wars, necessitated by the unprovoked substitution of dragoon-law for regular and genuine government.

Louis XII. was the father of Renée (or in Italian speech, Renata), consort of Hercules, Duke of Ferrara. She was born in 1510, and was a year younger than her countryman, Jean Cauvin, whom we call John Calvin. Protestants, as literati, found refuge from persecution in the ducal palace during the early years of her marriage, namely, from 1528 to 1536. Calvin was there for a few months, under the assumed name of Charles D’Espeville. But it is on account of her influence during her widowhood, from 1559 to 1578, as an inhabitant of France, that the Duchess of Ferrara is here mentioned. She then ceased to make any concealment of her attachment to the reformed faith. Her castle of Montargis became a stronghold of Protestantism. It was the asylum of many reformed pastors, who called it Hotel Dieu.

Francis I., the other son-in-law, and the successor of Louis XII., had a sister, Marguerite de Valois, born in 1492, who married Henri I., King of Navarre, in 1527.

She gave effect to her religious convictions by receiving Calvin and similar refugees at her Court. Her royal brother did not discourage her personal belief; but she often considered it necessary to conceal her faith, and to conform to Popish worship, either through fear of persecution, or through attachment to her brother and to his political interests. She is more celebrated as the mother of Jeanne d’Albret (who became Queen of Navarre in her own right, in 1555), and as the grandmother of Henri II. of Navarre (afterwards Henri IV. of France), who was born in 1553, to Queen Jeanne and Antoine de Bourbon, her husband.

Antoine boldly professed the reformed faith, while Jeanne dissembled. He was sentenced to death in France in 1560. This affliction awakened his queen’s remorse, and she proclaimed her faith. King Francis II.’s death put a stop to the execution of the fatal sentence, and then Antoine recanted. Thus the royal couple exchanged their professed creeds, and the better half stood firm to Protestantism. At this 