Henri II: His Court and Times (59 page)

(4)
Soranzo, in Armand Baschet.

(5)
F. Decrue,
Anne, duc de Montmorency.

(6)
Letter of February 12, 1559,
Papiers d'État de Granvelle
, vol. v.

(7)
Pasquier,
Lettres inédites.

(8)
Guiffrey,
Lettres
inédites de Dianne de Poytiers
.

(9)
Lavisse,
Histoire de France.

(10)
De Thou.

(11)
Le Traité
de Cateau-Cambrésis
(Paris, 1889).

(12)
Lavisse,
Histoire de France.

The Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis followed by a fresh outburst
of persecution against the Protestants in France and the Netherlands —
Retrospect of the measures adopted by Henri II for the repression of heresy: the
Edict of Chateaubriand, the introduction of the Inquisition, and the Edict of Compiègne — Rapid
spread of the Reformed doctrines in France — Disinclination of the
Parlement
of
Paris to co-operate with the Government in the persecution — The King attends
the
mercuriale
of June 10, 1559; — Bold speeches of Anne du Bourg and Louis
du Faur — Henri II orders the arrest of the two counsellors and of three others —
Fate of Du Bourg — Preparations for the Treaty marriages — Marriage of Philip II,
represented by Alva, and Madame Élisabeth — The tournament of the Rue
Saint-Antoine — Henri II mortally wounded in the eye by a splinter from the
lance of Montgomery, captain of the Scottish Guard — His illness and death — His
funeral — Disgrace of Diane de Poitiers — Her last years — Desecration of her
tomb at Anet in 1795 — A singular discovery — Fate of the château — Fall of
Montmorency — Subsequent career of Montgomery.

I
T
was very generally believed among the Protestants that
the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis contained other articles
besides those which were made public, by which
Henri II and Philip II bound themselves to use every means
in their power to extirpate heresy in their respective dominions.
Although no proof has been discovered of the existence of
such clauses, that some understanding of the kind was arrived
at cannot be doubted, as the treaty was immediately followed
by a fresh outburst of persecution both in France and the
Netherlands.

Since the establishment of the
"Chambre ardente"
at the
beginning of Henri II's reign, several attempts had been made
to check the spread of the Reformed doctrines. In 1551, the
Edict of Chateaubriand took away all right of appeal from
those convicted of heresy. Six years later, urged on by the
Cardinal de Lorraine and solicited by Paul IV, at the moment
when the alliance with the Papacy against Philip II was being
negotiated, Henri II resolved to establish in his kingdom an
Inquisition on the Spanish model. "I have already decided,"
he wrote to Selve, his Ambassador at Rome, "in accordance
with the persuasions and advice that the Cardinal Caraffa has
given me on the part of our Holy Father, to introduce here
[into France] the Inquisition, according to legal form, as the
true means of extirpating the root of such errors." The
opposition of the
Parlement
of Paris, however, which if it
desired to punish heretics, did not intend to abandon the
subjects of the King to the arbitrariness of episcopal officials,
compelled him to suspend the execution of this project; and
when, in February, 1557, he obtained from the Pope a Bull
investing the French cardinals with inquisitorial powers, with
the right of delegating them to other ecclesiastics, the
Parlement
refused to ratify the royal edict approving it.

Nevertheless, in April, three Grand Inquisitors were nominated: the Cardinals de Bourbon, de Lorraine, and de
Chatillon;
⁰¹
and in January, 1558 the King, whose zeal against
the Calvinists had been stimulated by the million écus granted
him by the clergy at the assembly of the Notables, imposed
the edict, on the unwilling
Parlement
, in a Bed of Justice.
But the surrender of the magistrates was more apparent than
real, since they continued to receive appeals against the judgments
of the ecclesiastical tribunals.

In the meanwhile, the King had strengthened the lay
jurisdiction and armed it pitilessly by the Edict of Compiègne,
which denounced the penalty of death against all who in
public or private professed any heterodox doctrine and took
away from the judges the power of imposing a lesser punishment.

The prisons, and especially the prisons of Paris — the sombre,
damp Conciergerie, below the level of the Seine, the frowning
Bastille, the unhealthy Grand Châtelet, where in a single year
sixty hapless captives were carried off by pestilence — were
crowded with suspects. Numbers were condemned to death
and perished horribly, hung in chains, as a rule, to roast over
a slow fire; some having their tongues cut out before being led
to execution, lest the psalms they sang and the prayers they
offered up for their persecutors from the midst of the flames
might excite the compassion of the spectators.

But the blood of the martyrs fertilised the soil of France,
and the harvest was an abundant one. In 1555, the Church
of Paris was founded by a gentleman residing in the Pré-aux-Clercs, and during the next four years the Reformed churches,
although most numerous on the banks of the Loire and in the
south-western districts, spread over almost the whole country.
In May 1557, the first national synod, composed of delegates
from all the churches in France, was held in Paris, when a
confession of faith was drawn up and the ecclesiastical discipline regulated on the model of Geneva. In 1558, Calvin
computed the number of his followers in France at 300,000;
other authorities place them at a much higher figure. Many
thousands more had emigrated to Geneva and to more
tolerant lands, so that "the King lost not only the souls of
his subjects, but the money which they carried away into
the bargain."
⁰²

If the lowly, as Coligny said, had been the first to show the
way of salvation to the rich and powerful, the upper classes
had not failed to follow. In 1558, as we have seen, Andelot
had confessed to the King that he had embraced the new
doctrines, and his views were either known, or believed, to be
shared by his two brothers, the Admiral and the cardinal, by
Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre, by his wife, Jean
d'Albret, by the Prince de Condé, and by many other prominent
persons. The strength, however, of the Reformers lay
among the trading and the professional classes and the
country gentry.

Fierce as had been the persecution since Henri II ascended
the throne, it had not been by any means continuous, for the
complaints of his allies, the Lutheran princes, and of the
Protestant cantons of Switzerland, whence he drew his most
valuable mercenaries, were constantly arresting the King in his
crusade against heresy; and there were moments, like those
which followed the disaster at Saint-Quentin, when every man,
whatever his creed, was needed for the defence of the kingdom.
But after the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis his hands were
free, and he and his advisers were resolved that there should
be no respite until the accursed thing was rooted out of the
land. For the Constable, the Guises, and Madame de Valentinois
were at one in their hatred of the Reformed faith,
though Montmorency took care to protect his own relatives,
and almost his first act on returning to France was to procure
the release and pardon of Andelot.

All through Lent the Paris pulpits resounded with denunciations of the heretics and of those who protected them, and
soon the persecution was in full swing once more. But in the
capital it did not proceed at all in accordance with the wishes
of the Government. The
Grande Chambre
of the
Parlement
,
from which the members of the
"Chambre ardente
" had been
drawn, was composed of extreme Catholics, but the members
of the other courts were more moderate in their views, while
not a few of them were Huguenots, secret or professed. The
Parlement
had, as we have seen, courageously resisted the
creation of the Inquisition, and the King had been compelled
to have recourse to a Bed of Justice in order to procure its
acceptance; and it now showed what his Majesty considered
the most reprehensible leniency towards the heretics who were
brought before it.

The
Parlement
was accustomed, all the chambers united, to
deliberate occasionally on general measures and to censure, if
necessary, the conduct of its members. In one of these sittings,
called
mercuriales
, in the spring of 1559, the subject of the
prosecutions for heresy was discussed. The opinion of the
majority was in favour of toleration, and the violence of
the members of the
Grande Chambre
was condemned by the
other courts.

The King, informed of this, demanded to inspect the register
of the
mercuriales
, in order that he might ascertain who were
the leaders of the party of tolerance. This was refused, but
the First President, Le Maistré, and two presidents of the
Grande Chambre
betrayed the liberal councillors and gave
their names to the Cardinal de Lorraine.

The cardinal exhorted Henri II "to prove to the King of
Spain his firmness in the faith," and it was decided to read the
Parlement
a severe lesson.

On June 10, 1559, all the chambers of the
Parlement
were assembled at the Couvent des Grands-Augustins — the
Palais de Justice was being prepared for the festivities which
were to celebrate the Treaty marriages — when the doors were
thrown open, and the King appeared, followed by the Duc de
Guise, the Cardinal de Lorraine, the Cardinal de Sens, Keeper
of the Seals, the Constable, the Duc de Montpensier, the
Prince de le Roche-sur-Yon, and many other notables. The
English Ambassador, Nicholas Throckmorton, writing to
Queen Elizabeth three days later, reported that there were a
hundred and twenty counsellors and presidents present, and
that "the Cardinal of Lorraine earnestly inveighed against the
Protestants, requesting execution to be made of them and
confiscation of their goods."
⁰³
But La Place states that the
King himself spoke first, informing the magistrates that since
God had granted him a stable peace, he felt it his duty to seek
a remedy for the divisions of religion; and that the Keeper of
the Seals then invited them to continue their discussion on
the religious question in his Majesty's presence, and to speak
frankly.

The magistrates spoke very frankly indeed, two of them,
Anne du Bourg and Louis du Faur, being unpleasantly
candid. "Du Bourg," writes Throckmorton, "declared that
the cardinals of this realm had great revenues, and were
so negligent of their charge that the flocks committed to
their cures were not instructed. The cardinal (de Lorraine)
was so dashed that he stood still and replied not; the King
likewise was offended, and the Constable (with these words:
'
Vous faictez la bravade
') asked them how they durst say so to
the King. They answered that, being admitted Councillors of
the Court, they must discharge their conscience, the rather
as the King was present; that the Reformation must not begin
with the common sort, but must touch the greatest persons of
the realm."
⁰⁴

According to La Place, the two counsellors went much
further than this. Anne du Bourg began by thanking God
that his Majesty was present at the decision of a matter which
concerned the cause of our Saviour. "It is," he continued,
"no light thing to condemn those who from the midst of the
flames call upon the name of Jesus Christ. What! Crimes
worthy of death — blasphemy, adultery, horrible debaucheries,
perjuries — are committed day by day with impunity in the
face of Heaven, while day by day new tortures are devised for
men whose only crime is that by the light of the Scriptures
they have discovered the corruptions of the Church of Rome!"  "Let us clearly understand," cried Du Faur, after a trenchant
attack on the abuses of the Roman Church, "who they are
that trouble the Church, lest it should be said, as Elijah cried
to King Ahab, 'Who art thou that troublest Israel?'"
⁰⁵

Henri II was beside himself with indignation, and, so soon
as the discussion terminated, he ordered the Constable to arrest
Du Bourg and Du Faur, who were conducted to the Bastille
under the escort of Gabriel de Montgomery, Seigneur de
Lorges, Captain of the Scottish Guard.
⁰⁶
Three other counsellors, who had also spoken against the persecution, though
with more moderation than their colleagues, were subsequently
arrested in their houses and likewise imprisoned. They and
Du Faur were, however, soon released; but the King was
violently incensed against Du Bourg, who had hinted pretty
plainly at his relations with Madame de Valentinois, and
ordered him to be brought to trial, vowing that he would see
him burn with his own eyes, although, after the terrible scene
of which we have spoken in an earlier chapter, he had sworn
never again to be present at an execution. From Écouen,
whither he proceeded on a visit to the Constable, he launched
a new edict against the Protestants, and, at the instigation of
the Guises, even issued orders for the arrest of the Earl of
Arran, son of the Duke of Châtellerault-Hamilton, although
he passed as a candidate for the hand of the Queen of England.
Having received timely warning, however, Arran succeeded in
escaping from France.

Anne du Bourg was condemned to death, and, having been
first strangled, was burned in the Place de Greve on December
23, 1559, exclaiming with his last breath, "Forsake me not,
my God, lest I should forsake Thee!" But Henri II did not
have the satisfaction of witnessing his martyrdom, since he
had preceded him into Eternity by more than five months.