Is received at court with studied discourtesy. Antoine is deaf to remonstrance

But if the King of Navarre expected to make any deep impression upon the

subjects of Philip through the friendly reception which he thus

solicited by the most craven abasement, his arrival at St. Germain-en-Laye

hands of the courtiers, by whom he was compelled to make every advance,

were sufficient to arouse the prince to any noble resolution.⁴ To

regain the kingdom of which, by his marriage with

firm intention "not to fail to do the best he could to advance God's

true religion and cause." He made secret appointments with the English

ambassador, at one time about eleven o'clock at night, near the abbey of

St. Denis, at another time in disguise in the cloisters of the Augustinian friars, and had much
to say about his satisfaction "that he had so good a colleague" as Elizabeth "in so good a
cause." But the diplomatic correspondence does not show a single step which Navarre ever

ventured to take in behalf of that "good cause." See Throkmorton's

despatch of Aug. 25th, Forbes, State Papers, i. 213, 214.

Jeanne d'Albret, he had become the titular sovereign, was the great ambition of

not, therefore, afford to break with the all-powerful Guises. What were

the prerogatives of the first prince of the blood in the administration

of the French government, in comparison with the absolute sovereignty of

the little kingdom on either slope of the Pyrenees? In vain did his

faithful attendants remonstrate with him, and portray the path of honor

as that of ultimate success and safety. Disgusted at his unmanly

weakness, they returned crestfallen to their homes, or threw up his

service for that of noblemen who, if ancient enemies, could at least

prove themselves valuable and trustworthy patrons. The partisans of the

Reformation, after waiting fruitlessly to hear a single word uttered in

behalf of the churches, now everywhere rapidly multiplying, but still

subjected to bitter persecution, disappointed, but full of faith in God,

renounced their trust in princes, and awaited a deliverance, in Heaven's

own time, from a higher source. Theodore Beza cited Navarre's shameful

fall as a new and signal illustration of our Lord's own words: "A rich

man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven!"¹
Meets fresh indignities. Philip offers Catharine assistance.
Antoine's appeals to Philip II.

But the abasement of this irresolute prince was not yet complete.

Submitting to the open contempt in which he was held, he not only took

part in the solemn ceremony of the new king's anointing at Rheims,²

where his inferiors were preferred to


¹ "Navarrus ad quem jure ipso et more majorum hactenus

inviolata pertinebat regni administratio, quamvis a plerisque Ecclesiis

salutatus et rogatus ne tam præclaram et divinitus oblatam occasionem

negligeret, quamvis summo et aperto ludibrio a Guisianis exceptus, tamen

omnibus annuit et suo exemplo confirmavit Christi dictum; Difficile est

divitem ingredi in regnum cœlorum." Beza to Bullinger, Sept. 12,

1559, apud Baum, ii., App., 1, 2; La Place, 27; La Planche, 213-216;

De Thou, ii. 686, 687.

Papers, i. 232. Navarre, as one of the six temporal peers, represented

the Duke of Burgundy; Guise represented the Duke of Normandy; Nevers,

the Duke of Guyenne, etc.

him, but attended the meetings of the royal council, where
he was little wanted. At one of these sessions a fresh indignity
was put upon him. Alarmed by the rising murmurs against the
illegal rule of the Guises, Catharine had taken the first of a
series of disgraceful steps, by invoking the intervention of a foreign

prince in the affairs of France. She implored her royal son-in-law of

Spain to lend her his support against the King of Navarre and other

princes, who were desirous of "reducing her to the condition of a

chambermaid," and of disturbing an otherwise peaceful country. Philip

replied by an offer of his own assistance and of forty thousand men whom

he professed to hold in readiness for a campaign against the rebels that

meditated the overthrow of the French monarchy. The letter of his

Catholic Majesty was purposely read in full council, in the hearing of

Navarre. But, instead of arousing his indignation, it only excited new

fears for the safety of his wife's dominions, and made him more

submissively kiss the rod of iron with which the Guises ruled him.¹

Soon afterward he returned to Béarn, whence he made, before the close of

the year, two ineffectual attempts to move the inflexible determination

of Philip. In October he sent to the court of Spain Pierre, the Bastard

of Navarre, who obtained the promise of an equivalent for Navarre, but

was unable to secure any decided answer to his request for the island of

Sardinia. But when, in December, Antoine despatched a second messenger,

at the suggestion of the Duke of Albuquerque, to solicit permission for

himself and Queen Jeanne to visit the King of Spain and "kiss his

[Philip's] hand," with the view of obtaining such "an indemnity for his

kingdom as some secret injunction of the emperor [Charles the Fifth],

toward the end of his days, or his own conscience" might have suggested,

the unfortunate prince discovered in how base and humiliating a manner

he had been duped. It was not worth his while--such was the rude

reply--for Antoine to expose his wife and himself to the fatigue of so

assistance was only given in order to frighten Navarre was patent to all

who were cognizant of Philip's projected African campaign.

long a journey, since no other answer could be given him than that which

had been given to his predecessors, and to himself on the occasion of

the late treaty of peace.[768] Was it with the expectation of such

rewards that the first prince of the blood had pusillanimously declined

to assert the rights of his rank and family, and to espouse the cause of

the persecuted?
The persecution continues.

For persecuted the Protestants continued to be. The death of Henry did

not for an instant interrupt the work of searching for and punishing

reputed heretics. The brief term must be improved, during which the

Spaniards and other strangers who had come to witness the marriage

festivities were still present, to fulfil the promises given to the

Dukes of Alva and Savoy, and demonstrate the catholicity of the Very

Christian King.[769] Three days after the fatal termination of Henry's

wound in the tournament, the English ambassador wrote to his government:

"In the midst of all these great matters and business, they here do not

stay to make persecution and sacrifice of poor souls: for the twelfth of

this present, two men and one woman were executed for religion; and the

thirteenth of the same there was proclamation made by the sound of

trumpet, that all such as should speak either against the church or the

religion now used in France should be brought before the bishops of the

dioceses, and they to do execution upon them."[770] On the fourteenth of

July, only four days after Henry's death, new steps were taken to bring

to trial the five counsellors of parliament arrested on the day of the

famous "Mercuriale." An account of these proceedings, and in particular

of those instituted against Anne du Bourg, will presently be given.

The increase of the Protestants in France during the past few months had

been great. Even in the capital the progress of


¹ De Thou (ii. 722, 723) gives an account apparently correct, save in one or two particulars,
of these two missions. The slavish letter of Antoine to D'Audoz or D'Odoux, as De Thou
writes the name of the second messenger, may be read in the Négociations relatives au
règne de François II. (drawn from the papers of the Bishop of Limoges, French ambassador
to Philip, and published by the French government, under the editorial care of M. Paris, 1841),
pp. 164-166. Compare Agrippa d'Aubigné, i. 91.

² La Planche, 209.

³ Throkmorton to Cecil, July 13, 1559, Forbes, State Papers, i. 161.

the new doctrines could not be hidden; but so carefully had the veil of secrecy

unknown to the argus-eyed clergy. But the treachery of one De

Russanges--a goldsmith, who, for appropriating the charitable

contributions of the church, had been deposed from the

eldership--furnished to the enemy a complete list of the ministers,

elders, and other principal men among the Protestants.¹ The

information thus obtained was for a time left unimproved, in consequence

of the sudden removal of the king; but the zeal of the chief persecutors

had not cooled down. New and more stringent edicts were published,

consigning to the flames, without form of process, all that made or

attended conventicles. Liberal rewards were offered to stimulate

denunciation. Domiciliary visits were enjoined upon the proper officers.

Extraordinary powers were given to the "lieutenant-criminel" and a few

of the counsellors of the Châtelet, known to be inimical to the "new

doctrines," to act during the recess of parliament. It was even ordained

by letters-patent of the king, that the very houses in which unlawful

assemblages had taken place by night and the Lord's Supper had been

profanely administered contrary to the rites of the Roman Catholic

Church, should be razed to the ground, and never rebuilt, as a memorial

for all time.² The church followed the example of the civil power.

The parishes resounded with excommunications of all that failed to

reveal the heretical sentiments of their acquaintance, and with

exhortations to watchfulness.³ Parliament itself had lent its

authority to the inquisitorial work, by enjoining upon owners or

occupants of houses in the city or suburbs "to make diligent inquiry as

to the good and Christian

23), bk. i. c. 5; Declarations of Sept. 4th and Nov. 14, 1559, in the

Mémoires de Guise, 450, 451. These declarations were registered by

parliament, with the proviso that no house should be razed unless the

owners were privy to the crime or guilty of inexcusable negligence.

Mémoires de Condé, i, 310.

life" of such as lodged with them. In particular they were to

Meanwhile, to De Russanges other informers were added. One was a weak

and unstable man whom persecution had once before--in the famous year of

the Placards--driven to the basest of offices. Among others two

apprentices, brought forward to testify against the Protestant employers

who had dismissed them, were pliant instruments in the hands of the

heretic-hunters. By a well-concerted movement a simultaneous descent was

made, and entire families were put under arrest.² In some places,

however, an unexpected resistance was encountered. The guests of one

Visconte, with whom travellers from Switzerland and Germany frequently

lodged, supposed the house to be attacked by robbers, and defended

themselves with such bravery against their assailants, that they

effected their retreat in safety. Their host's wife and his aged father

alone were taken into custody. A dressed capon and some uncooked meat

found in the larder--it was on a Friday that the incursion was

made--graced the triumph of the captors. "Little Geneva," as that

portion of the Faubourg St. Germain-des-Prés most frequented by

Protestants was familiarly called, became a scene of indiscriminate

pillage. The valuables of those who, through fear, had absented

themselves, were greedily appropriated by the officials of the Châtelet

and other courts, or fell into the hands of an unorganized force of

robbers who gleaned what the others had left behind. In a day the rich

became poor and the poor became rich. The depredations extended to other

parts of the city where the existence of heresy or wealth was suspected.

Paris, we are told, resembled a city taken by assault. Everywhere armed

men on foot or on horseback were leading to prison

dungeons, sentenced to be executed for heresy, some in one place, some

in another. A man and a woman were rescued, on the twenty-first of this

month, while on their way to execution at Meaux. Forbes, State Papers, i. 211, 212.

men, women, and children of all ranks. The thoroughfares were clogged
by wagons laden with furniture and other spoils. The street-corners were
filled with plunder offered for sale. Never before, even when the inhabitants
had fled panic-stricken from Paris in time of war, had the price of such

commodities been so low. Numbers of little children, roaming the streets

and ready to die of hunger, formed a pitiful accompaniment to the scene.

But the tender mercies of the populace were cruel, and few dared to give

a "Lutheran" shelter through fear of incurring extreme danger. The most

incredible tales of midnight orgies were studiously circulated among the

simple-minded people, and served to inflame yet more the lust of cruelty

and gain.¹

In this emergency the Protestants had recourse to the queen mother.

Afraid to trust herself entirely to the Guises, the crafty Italian had,

from the very commencement of the reign, sought to leave open a retreat

in case a change should become necessary. And, in truth, jealousy of the

cardinal and his brother, who seemed disposed to keep all the power in

their own hands, while giving Catharine only a semblance of authority,

was combined in her mind with hatred of Mary of Scots, their niece,²

whose influence was as powerful with her son and as adverse to herself

as that of Diana of Poitiers had been with her husband. Scarcely had the

reformers perceived, by the zeal with which Du Bourg's trial was

pressed, that the death of Henry had not bettered their condition, when

they implored the Prince of Condé, his mother-in-law, Madame de Roye,

and Admiral Coligny, to intercede in their behalf with Catharine. At the

suggestion of the latter, they even addressed her a letter, in which

they informed her of the great hopes they had in the preceding reign

founded upon her kind and gentle


¹ La Planche, 221, 223; Hist. ecclés., i. 144--147, where

the account is taken word for word from La Planche; De Thou, ii. 691,

692; Félibien, Hist. de Paris, ii. 1069; Mém. de Castelnau, liv. i., c. 4.

² "La royne Catherine de Medicis, florentine, nation

desireuse de nouvelleté ... haissoit, comme belle mere, la Royne sa

fille, qui l'esloignoit des affaires et portoit l'amitié du Roy son fils

a MM. de Guise, lesquels ne luy deportoient du gouvernement qu'en ce

qu'ils cognoissoient qu'elle ne pouvoit nuire, luy donnant credit en

apparence sans effect," Mém. de Tavannes, ii. 260.

disposition, and the prayers they had offered to God that she might
prove a second Esther. They entreated her to prevent the new
reign from being defiled with innocent blood, and to avert the
anger of Heaven, which could only be appeased by putting an

end to persecution. The crafty queen, desirous of retaining an influence

that might one day be of great service, and solicitous, at any rate, of

obtaining their confidence, at first assumed an offended tone. "With

what am I menaced?" she said. "For what greater evil could God do me

than He has done, removing him whom I loved and prized the most?" But

presently becoming more gracious, she promised the noble suppliants to

cause the persecution to cease, if the Protestants would intermit their

conventicles and live quietly and without scandal.¹ A private letter

of remonstrance, written by a gentleman formerly in the service of Queen

Margaret of Navarre, is said to have had some weight in extorting this

pledge. He reminded her that her present evil advisers were the same

persons who had, in the first years of her married life, been advocates

of her repudiation; that then in her affliction she had recourse to God,

whose word she had read, choosing as her favorite psalm the 141st,

albeit not of Marot's translating.² Her prayers had been answered in

the birth of her children. But the cardinal had banished the psalm-book

from the palace, and introduced the immodest songs of Horace and other

lewd poets; and from that time there had come upon her a succession of

misfortunes. Finally, he begged her to drive away the usurpers of the

place that rightfully belonged to the princes of royal blood, and to

bring up her children after the example of good king Josiah.³

Bullinger, Sept. 12, 1559; Baum, ii., App., 3.

Je m'en iray, luy monstrant l'impropère

Que l'on me fait; et luy feray prière," etc.

³ "Coppie de lettres envoyées à la Royne Mère par un sien

serviteur après la mort du feu Roy Henri deuxième." Cimber et Danjou,

Archives curieuses, iii. 349, etc. The substance of Villemadon's letter,

which is dated August 26th, 1559, is given by La Planche, 211, 212, and,

after him, by Hist. ecclés., i. 141, 142.

A second and more urgent address.

But the promises of Catharine were given only to be broken. Finding the

atrocious persecution still in operation, and seeing themselves hunted

in their houses, the Protestants again approached her. They denounced

the anger of God who would not leave Du Bourg unavenged. They warned her

of the danger that over-much oppression would breed revolt--not on the

part of those who had embraced the reformed doctrines as taught in the

Gospel, from whom she might expect all obedience--but from others, a

hundred-fold more numerous, whose eyes were open to the abuses of the

papacy, but who, not having submitted themselves to the discipline of

the church, would not brook persecution. The embankment, it was to be

feared, might give way to the violence of the pressure, and the pent-up

waters pour themselves abroad, carrying devastation and ruin to all the

neighboring lands.¹ The implied menace aroused the affected

indignation of Catharine; but, loth to lose her hold upon the

Protestants, she again professed her pity for a sect whose adherents

went to the most cruel torments as cheerfully as to a wedding feast, and

she expressed a desire to have an interview with one of their ministers.

The Protestants did their part, but Catharine failed to keep the

appointment; and all that the minister could effect was to convey to her

a copy of the yet unpublished Confession of Faith of the French

Churches, which, it is more than likely, she never read.²

The insincerity of the queen mother's professions was by this time

sufficiently apparent; yet the Protestants may be excused for applying,

in their distress, to any one in power who made even a show of compassionate

all improbable that those who endeavored to influence Catharine showed

too little discretion in their zeal, and needlessly provoked her

displeasure by reference to the judgment of God upon her husband. So, at

least, thought the judicious Frenchman Languet, who added, with some

bitterness, that whoever urged upon them moderation was rewarded for his

pains by being called a traitor to the faith. Epist. secretæ, ii. 41.

occasion. But Charles of Lorraine had a ready mode of

quieting her curiosity. Some verses found among the effects of the

Protestants made mention of the death of Henry as an instance of the

divine retribution. Other lines condemned Catharine for her excessive

complaisance to the cardinal. These were first placed in her hands. Then

the two apprentices, after having been well drilled in their lesson,

were brought into her presence. It was a fearful tale they told, and

much did it shock the ears of the virtuous Catharine. They pretended to

describe orgies at which they had been present. In particular they

remembered a conventicle of Protestants in the house of one

Trouillas,¹ an advocate, held on Thursday of Holy Week. A great

number of men and women, married and unmarried, had been present. The

hour was about midnight. The sectaries had first listened to their

preaching. Then a pig had been eaten in lieu of the paschal lamb.

Finally the lamp had been extinguished, and indiscriminate lewdness

followed.