The following work gives a Presbyterian view of the history of Protestantism in France. It is written in a style typical of the second half of the nineteenth century, which can make it heavy going for modern readers.

It is of interest on two counts. First it demonstrates how Protestants have claimed a kinship with the Cathars. Secondly it traces the history of Protestantism, broadly correctly, from the Waldensians (or Vaudois).

It is clearly partisan in favour of Protestant theology. In this it is a mirror image of works such as those of Pierre Des Vaux-de-Cernay (Historia Albigensis) and Hilaire Belloc (The Albigensian Attack, Chapter Five of The Great Heresies ). It does however share the error of comtemporary Catholic commentators in believing that the Cathars and the Vaudois were almost identical in their beliefs - largely perhaps because they shared identical criticisms of the Roman Church.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Preface

Chapter 1    The Vaudois. Lesson of French Protestantism—The sixteenth century-Forerunners of the Reformation—Christianity ascends the throne of the Roman empire—Constantine and the "flaming cross"—St. Paul’s church under the shadow of the throne of the Caesars—It’s gradual and mighty usurpations under successive bishops—Finally crystallizes into the stupendous structure of the Papal despotism—Fearful corruptions of Christianity—The saturnalia of the church—A few true hearts revolt, and strive to reinaugurate primitive Christianity—Rome labels the preachers of the reform "heretics," and persecutes—The dissent spreads—Infects Southern France—The Paulicians—Their Manichean and Gnostic errors—Various names by which they were known—Their mission—Ecclesiastical din—The Vaudois—They clasp hands with St. Paul and bring in the epoch of Luther

Chapter 2    The Provençals. Ancient political divisions—The Count of Toulouse-Languedoc and Provence—The garden of medieval Europe—Egyptian darkness covers Western Europe through the feudal ages—The southern provinces of France an exception—Intellectual character of the Provencals—Their elegant language—Fostered letters—The exiled arts quit for their schools the old Hesperides—Their republicanism—The Moriscoes—Culture of these descendants of the Magi and the Chaldeans—The Mahometan principle of conquest surrendered—Civilization and tolerance enthroned in the Spanish peninsula—Commercial intercourse with the Moriscoes brings civilization into Southern France—The early Spaniards—Their tolerant character—The Troubadours—The minstrels level their satirical verses at the widespread abuses of the Papal see—The epigram of Pierre Cardinal—The Provencals hold the church of Rome in contempt—This preexisting prejudice prepares them to receive the primitive faith—The apostolic altar in the valleys of Piedmont—Peter of Bruys, Henry, and Arnold of Brescia light their torches at the pure Piedmontese altar, and carry the primitive light of Christianity into the Provencal territories—The reformed congregation at Orleans, in France—Its fate-Peter Waldo is converted, commences to teach, and translates the Latin Bible into the vernacular of Gaul—Romanism and Christianity contrasted—The Vaudois creed—Its pure Protestantism—Rapid spread of the Vaudois tenets

Chapter 3    The Preaching of the Crusade. Rome begins to move—Innocent III—His haughty character—Determines to exterminate the Provencal Vaudois—His wily program—Places Languedoc and Provence under an interdict—Confiscates the property of the reformers—Gives it to the faithful, and anathematizes all who refuse to seize on the usurped estates—Ecclesiastical commissions—St. Dominic—Inception of the Inquisition—Sketch of its rise and progress—Arbitrary proceedings of the Inquisitors in Languedoc—Raymond VI. count of Toulouse—Raymond Roger, viscount of Albi—Pierre de Castelnovo, the papal legate—Dictates a dishonorable policy to Count Raymond—The count withholds his assent—The legate excommunicates him—Innocent supports Castelnovo’s audacity—The Papal letter—Raymond compelled to submit to Rome—Assassination of the Legate—Fury of the pontiff—His savage bull—Origin of the Papal dogma, that "no faith is to be kept with heretics"—The word "crusade" extended to cover the atrocity of sectarian persecution.

Chapter 4    Preparations for the Sacred War. Innocent III. dispatches indulgence letters into France, and summons the faithful to take the cross against the Vaudois-The monks of Citeaux preach the crusade—Enthusiastic response to their fanatical appeals—The great nobles assume the cross—Languedoc filled with terror—The Count of Toulouse and the Viscount of Albi endeavor to avert the storm—Supercilious conduct of the Papal legate—Count Raymond’s timidity—He yields every thing, and offers to head the crusade—Heroism of the Viscount of Albi—He counsels resistance, and refuges to give his subjects over to the merciless harry of the crusaders—Retires into his states and prepares for their defense—Count Raymond applies to Philip Augustus and to Otho of Germany for assistance—His deputation to the pope—Equivocating morality of the pontiff—Raymond Roger refuses to be hoodwinked—The crusaders put themselves in motion in the spring of 1209—Their strength—The rendezvous—Count Raymond’s protest—Innocent appoints Milon, his secretary, legate—A notable admission—Servility of the Count of Toulouse—Submits to be disciplined before the altar—Assumes the cross against his subjects and against his nephew.

Chapter 5    The Commencement of the Tragedy. The crusaders wind into the valleys of the Rhone—Count Raymond meets them at Valence, and conducts them to Montpellier—The Viscount of Albi makes a last effort for peace—Avows himself a true servant of the church, but refuses to yield the principle of toleration—Imperturbability of the. legate—He does not desire an accommodation, his object is extermination—The viscount quits Montpellier sad but resolute—Throws himself into his strong-hold of Beziers, and awaits the onset—His noble conduct—The crusaders advance and burn Villemur-The siege of Chasseneuil—Its vigorous defense and final capitulation—A ghastly carnival—The crusaders press forward to the siege of Beziers—Like Attila, they leave no living thing behind them—Beziers—It is summoned to surrender—Wily harangue of the bishop of the city—The citizens are advised to save themselves by yielding their Vaudois fellow-townsmen to the avengers of the faith—Their noble reply—Unexpected capture of Beziers—Scenes of horror—The unglutted crusaders leave Beziers a smoking tomb, and lay siege to the viscount’s strong-hold and capital of Carcassonne—Situation of the city—Courage of its defenders—The king of Aragon acts as mediator—His visit to Raymond Roger—The admission of that prince—The crusaders are apprized of the desperate condition of the besieged—Terms offered by the abbot of Citeaux—The viscount’s heroic response—Departure of Don Pedro—A general assault—The crusaders are unsuccessful—The chiefs of the war resort to diplomacy—The viscount’s visit under a safe-conduct-practical application of the Jesuit doctrine, that "no faith is to be kept with heretics"—Raymond Roger a prisoner in the clutches of Simon de Montfort

Chapter 6    The Reign of Terror. Effect of the perfidy of the crusaders upon the inhabitants of Carcassonne—The yawning cavern—A midnight march through the oozy bowels of the earth—Safety at last—Amazement of the crusaders—A great city deserted—Where are the citizens?—The abbot of Citeaux’s lying proclamation—He will not be cheated of a holocaust—The states of the Viscount of Albi subdued—The crusaders begin to separate—The inquisitors, the legate, and the abbot of Citeaux not satisfied—The Vaudois are conquered, but not exterminated—The work of the Inquisitors not accomplished—They desire to obliterate the tracks of civilization—Until they do this, reform will flourish despite the sacrifice of hecatombs of victims—The legate’s council—Who will accept the conquered territories?—The duke of Burgundy’s reply—The great lords refuse the gift—Simon de Montfort is summoned to accept them—The comedy of refusal—The butcher of the Vaudois finally succumbs to the abbot’s eloquence—Greedy and fanatical ambition rewarded—The bar sinister no impediment to a foremost rank among the great feudatories—De Montfort enters upon his usurped dominions—Fears the legitimate sovereign, whom he holds in his dungeon—The poison rids him of a rival, and quiets his conscience—The close of Raymond Roger’s earthly career—Count Raymond again—A recreant troubadour—Fouquet de Marseille made bishop of Toulouse—Count Raymond’s foes—Their intrigues to prevent his reconciliation with the church—The council of St. Gilles—The count is again excommunicated, and his states are given up to pillage and devastation—The preaching of a new crusade—Alice de Montmorency—De Montfort’s new army of crusaders—Renewed atrocities—Heroism of the Vaudois—The castle of Minerva—The assembly of martyrs—How God’s children could die—The ecstasy of religious devotion—The martyr heroism of devoted womanhood—In the flames—The siege of Termes—An attempted escape—De Montfort’s orgy—The Provencal territories completely surrendered to the domination of demoniacs.

Chapter 7    The Revolt. The hunted stag at bay—The alliance—De Montfort is ready—Siege of Lavaur—A frightful massacre—The Vaudois "burned alive with the utmost joy"—De Montfort before Toulouse—The White and Black Companies—The monster baffled—The hunter hunted—De Montfort’s cry for aid—New swarms of fanatics swoop upon Languedoc—De Montfort’s ferocious activity—Death of Count Raymond’s ally, Don Pedro of Aragon—Death of Innocent III—His character—Count Raymond in the field—Re-enters Toulouse—De Montfort once more besieges it—The struggle before the city—The "Cat"—The sally—De Montfort at mass—His last charge—Death smites him in the hour of victory—Consternation of the crusaders, and end of the siege of Toulouse.

Chapter 8    The Final Massacre. A momentary respite—The gathering of another tempest—Death of Count Raymond VI—His character—An instance of Rome’s spiteful vengeance—Accession of Count Raymond VII.—Death of Philip Augustus—Fouquet, bishop of Toulouse, at Rheims at the coronation of St. Louis—He instigates the young king to proclaim a new crusade—Louis assents—The vulture on the wing once more—He swoops upon the defenseless prey—The cruelties of De Montfort’s regime are reenacted—The crusaders spare neither man in their wrath nor woman in their lust—The Inquisition established in France as a permanent institution by the Council of Toulouse in 1229—The tests of heresy—Two canons of the Council of Toulouse—The bribe—The philosophy of Rome—The Vaudois refuse to deny their Savior—The storm still rages—The conflict has a political phase—The final catastrophe—The Vaudois exterminated, or driven into exile—They continue steadfast in the faith to the last and earn a right to clasp hands with St. Paul, their elder brother in Christ Jesus.

Chapter 9    The Interregnum. The crime against the Vaudois not the separate wickedness of a single nationality, but a mosaic of infamy—Postponement of the Reformation for three centuries—Even then some of the Romanic races do not accept it—The Vaudois born out of time—Christendom not prepared to receive their truth—"From the sixth hour there was darkness over the land until the ninth hour"—The Vatican congratulates itself—Rome imagines that she has strangled the Reformation—The interregnum means postponement, not conquest—The Vaudois are scattered, not exterminated—"Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature," can separate them from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ—They become the missionaries of mediaeval Europe—They leaven Bohemia through Huss—They leaven England through Wickliffe—A historical episode—The Vaudois and Louis XII—The Piedmontese Vaudois—The rival factions in Italy—The Guelphs and the Ghibelines—Europe’s last effort to clutch the Holy Sepulchre from the Saracen—The Vaudois keep aglow the dying embers of the gospel through these dismal ages—The darkness which precedes the day—The profligacy of the Romish Babylon—A baptism of suffering prepares the way to a glorious reformation—The agents of reform—The revival of learning—The invention of printing—Vaudoisism and humanism the twin laboratories of the Reformation of the sixteenth century.

Chapter 10    The Resurrection of Reform. The resurrection of reform—Rome sets herself to subdue the new rebellion against her politics and theology, using old weapons—Leo X. intones his creed from the balcony of the Vatican—The responsive voice from the heights of Wittemberg—Salvation by faith in Christ the soul of the Reformation—The struggle of that epoch was not a movement towards materialism, as some claim, or towards the abolition of Christianity, as the papists charge—Its primary object was the reformation of the abuses which corrupted and deformed the Christian faith—It simply called on man to ground his faith, not on the word of a usurping priest, but on the infallible word of God—The Sorbonne denounces the reform—Leo anathematizes it from the pontifical throne—Rapid spread of Protestantism—Melancthon and Bucer in France—Favorable omens—The reign of Francis I—The Reformation grounds itself in France—The court and the prelates alarmed—Motives of the French bishops for opposing the Reformation—They persuade the king to issue an edict against heresy—A reformed congregation dispersed at Meaux—William Briconnet—Lefevre of Estaples—Francis I. vacillates—The shuttlecock king goes wholly over to Rome—An auto da fe—Louis de Berquin—The jeer of a Jesuit—Unconquerable vitality of faith.

Chapter 11    The Court of Francis I  Opening phases of the Reformation—Renee of Ferrara—Margaret de Valois—The sister of the king becomes a disciple of the reformed theology—Her life at the court—Devotes her life to literature and divinity—Her political talents—Her beauty—Her benefactions to the dissenters—The constable Anne of Montmorenci’s advice to the king—Francis’ reply—Margaret the mother of French reform—Her influence—Kings are dangerous missionaries—Conscience the palladium of Protestantism—Margaret marries Henry d’Albret, king of Navarre—Writes toleration on the first line of the first page of her code of laws—The "Evangelicals " have now an asylum—The persecution rages with increased vehemence—Francis personally attends at an auto da fe—The cardinal of Tournon becomes the king’s adviser after Margaret’s departure for Navarre—His pride and bigotry—Holds the king firm in his determination to exterminate heresy—Two anecdotes—The gloomy prospects of reform—The ascendancy of women at the court—Virtue and honor bartered for station and influence—The ingredients of a. gallant court—The rival factions—The Duchess D’Etampes—Diana le Poitiers—The court soil not productive of the growth of Christian principle—The saying of Diana of Poitiers—The court must spin through its giddy dance—The orgies at the capital do not stay the merciless steps of the inquisitors—"France scents burning bodies in every breeze"

Chapter 12    The Apostles of the Faith. Apostles of the faith-Count Sigismond of Haute Flamme—His conversion—Connection with Margaret of Navarre—Devotion to evangelical truth—His frank courage—A grand idea—Sigismond’s labors with the surrounding priests and nobles—Lambert’s witticism—Pierre Toussaint—Toussaint in the abbot of St. Antoine’s dungeon—Liberty at last—Repairs to Paris—Margaret offers him an asylum—The queen of Navarre is surrounded by a troop of hypocrites—Who will expose their wiles?—Toussaint’s conversation with Lefevre and Roussel—The timid scholars—Their optimism—Toussaint’s grief—Quits the court—His prayer—William Farel—His character—His life as eloquent as his sermons—Farel’s visit to Gap—An incident in his apostolic career—Over the walls—The reformation constantly gains strength—It lacks unity and symmetry—Who shall organize the Reformation?—Sigismond, Farel, and Ecolampadius are in doubt—John Calvin appears with Calvinism

Chapter 13    John Calvin. John Calvin's influence in molding the religious character of America. Calvin’s birth—Family—He is a man of the people—Calvin at the college of La Marche—Mathurine Cordier—Master and pupil.—Calvin belongs to the strictest sect of the Roman communion.—The saying at the college—The Noyon boy’s devotion to study.—The red hat and scarlet gown of a cardinal glitter before the eyes of his father—The visit home—A breeze of the gospel in the air—Does Calvin heed it?—Opposes the Reformation at the outset, in the college wrangles—Is won to examine the reformed theology—A terrible struggle—Examination means emancipation—Calvin’s conversion—His prayer—Breaks with Rome—Calvin at Orleans—At Bourses—He "wonderfully advances the kingdom of God"—A life of vicissitudes—Calvin a fugitive—Repairs to Geneva, en route for Germany—His journey summarily arrested—Geneva-Beauty of its situation—Its early history—The three strata—Liberties of the citizens—The counts of Geneva—The bishops—Their worldliness and political ambition—The conflicting jurisdictions of the counts and the bishops—Fierce and prolonged internecine conflicts—Pierre de Savoy—The paladin sails by moonlight on lake Leman.—The dukes of Savoy—They hunger for Geneva—Apply to the pope for the secular authority—Alarm of the citizens—They determine to resist—"Rome ought not to lay its paw upon kingdoms"—"No alienation of the city, or of its territories; this we swear"—The duke withdraws his petition—Pope Martin V—His tarry at Geneva—His dislike of the franchises of the citizens—"The license of popular government" incompatible with the papal rule—The pontiff’s usurpation—Installment of a bishop prince—The Genevese acquiesce for a time in sullen discontent—The revolt—Apply to the Helvetic confederacy for aid—The struggle, though at first a political one, soon assumes a religious phase—The Genevese converted to the Reformation—Farel at Geneva—His influence there—Farel constrains Calvin to stay—Calvin’s unwilling acquiescence. The two preachers are exiled on account of the strictness of their discipline—Calvin a wanderer once more—Correspondence with Melaucthon—With Bucer—With Capito—Calvin recalled to Geneva—Condition of his return—Comes back as a conqueror—Sets to work—New-models the. civil code—Education—Calvin organizes the Reformation—The "Christian Institutes"—Calvin completes the temple of God—Geneva the school of the—Reformation—Influence of its disciples—Guy de Bres, and the Netherlands—John Knox and Scotland—England and France inoculated

Chapter 14    The Valley of the Shaddow of Death. A parliamentary edict—Two martyrs—Margaret of Navarre—The "mirror of a sinful soul"—The Sorbonne in council—The syndic’s harangue—"This is deadly heresy"—A raid on the booksellers’ shops—The faculty deliberate—What shall be Margaret’s punishment?—A monk’s advice—A comedy—The king’s anger—He quells the Sorbonne—A tragedy—The end of the Vaudois—The testimony of the Abbe Anquetil and of De Thon—"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church."

Chapter 15    French Politics. Death of Francis I—Succession of Henry II—Condition of the kingdom—French politics—The four court factions—Anne de Montmorenci—Diana de Poitiers—Catharine de Medici—The Guises—Inception of the house of Lorraine—Claude de Guise—His six sons—The rage of faction—The coalition—The selfishness of cabals—Francis Duke of Guise—His character—Montmorenci versus the confederacy—The constable persuades the princes of the blood to join his party—Anthony de Bourbon—Prince de Conde—The house of Chatillon—Odet, Cardinal de Chatillon—Gaspard Chatillon de Coligny—Francis Chatillon D’Andelot—D’Andelot joins the Reformation—The colonel-general before the king—A noble avowal—In the dungeon of Melan—Popularity of the reformed doctrines—The meeting at the Preaux Cleves—D’Andelot at liberty—Paul IV. is chagrined—Character of the Admiral de Coligny—The two brothers.

Chapter 16    Mutation. Henry’s double mission—The dishonorable truce—Abdication of Charles V.—An anecdote—The persecution renewed—King Henry and the old domestic—The tumult at Paris—The edict of Chateaubriand—The Cardinal’s scheme—The king’s assent—The Parliament and veto—Sequier’s speech—The Jesuits—Ignatius Loyola—Character of the "Society of Jesus"—Endeavor to obtain legal recognition—The bishop’s reply—Opinion of the Sorbonne—Momentary failure—Military affairs—Political charges—Treaty of Chateau Cambrisis—The Cardinal’s counsel—An atrocious plot—Henry and the Parliament—The debate—Louis IV—Anne Du Bourg—Henry’s rage—The arrest—The tournament—Death and character of Henry II—Rise of the name Huguenots.

Chapter 17    The Conspiracy. The end of a historic rivalry—The court revolutionized—The Guises. in power—Francis II. and Mary Stuart—The king in duress—The cabal—An auto da fe—Trial and execution of Anne Du Bourg—Incorporation of the "Company of Jesus"—Alarm of the Huguenots—Discontent of the nobility—The conspiracy—The castle La Ferte—Conde the chief, La Renaudie the nominal head of the confederates—The ruined chateau in the outskirts of Nantes—The conspirators at the rendezvous—La Renaudie’s harangue—The oath—The court at Blois—The king and queen—An indiscreet admission—The attorney’s perfidy—The Guises in possession of the plot—A hunting gallop from Blois to Amboise—Francis and the duke of Guise—Suspicions—Coligny and D’Andelot summoned to Amboise—Coligny’s appeal for religious enfranchisement—He is supported by the moderates of the Council—The edict—Conde at Amboise—The hour at hand—Forewarned is forearmed—The attack—The death of La Renaudie—Rout of the conspirators—The Duke Nemours and Castelnau—A cavalier’s idea of honor—The Guises triumph—Revocation of Coligny’s edict—Conde arrested—Sanguinary course of the government—Conde and the duke of Guise—The conspiracy ends with a liberation—A page from contemporaneous history.

Chapter 18    Almost a Tragedy. Assembly of the notables—Death of Olivier—L’Hopital succeeds to the chancellorship—Coligny’s appeal—Guise and the admiral—Progress of the word—Conversations—The plot—Apprehension of the Bourbon princes—The citation—Navarre and Conde at Orleans—Conde’s arrest—The trial—The condemnation—The soldier and the confessor—Conde’s firmness—The wife’s petition—Navarre’s exertions—A projected assassination—A lawyer’s stratagem—Death of Francis II.

Chapter 19    The Lost Leader. Accession of Charles IX—Regency of Catharine de Medici—Liberation of Conde—The new-modeled cabinet—First measures of the new administration—Convention of the states-general—Effort to exile the princes of Lorraine—Navarre’s motion—The Triumvirate—The Spanish ambassador—Condition of parties—The edict of July—A mock reconciliation—Colloquy of Poissy—The leading disputants—L’Hopital’s address—Beza’s plea—The response of Tournon—The cardinal of Lorraine’s harangue—Results of the colloquy—Catherine’s letter to the pope—The pontiffs alarm—The attempt to suborn the king of Navarre—His final fall—Dismay of Jane D’Albret—The two queens—Characteristic speeches—Renewed assembly of the states-general at St. Germain—The new decree.

Chapter 20    The Appeal to Arms. The intercepted letter—Conde’s confession of faith—Navarre’s intrigues—The double banishment—The results of a compromise—The scene at Vassy—Atrocities—Guise’s coup d’ etat—Movements of the Triumvirate—Conde’s manifestos—Enthusiasm of the Huguenots—An anecdote—Character of the Huguenot leaders—Conde attempts to play Machiavelli—The faux pas—Foreign alliances—Marches and counter-marches—France rent by demoniacs—The twin demons.

Chapter 21    Death's Coup D'Etat. Military operations—Siege of Rouen—Death of Navarre—His character—The advance on Paris—The battle of Dreux—Capture of Conde and the constable—Guise’s elation—Siege of Orleans—Assassination of the duke of Guise—The charge against Coligny—The halt of civil war before the bier of Francis Guise.

Chapter 22    The Hollow Truce. The Queen Mother regains her supremacy—Conde signs a peace—Consternation in Coligny’s camp—Provisions of the treaty—The admiral grounds arms—His precautions—Catherine’s chagrin—Conde’s reply—Expulsion of the English—Anger of queen Elizabeth—Wasted hours—Encroachments upon the edict of pacification—The Reformation compromised by its political chiefs—The rationale of reform—Politics of the Vatican—The pontiff’s audacity—Anger of Charles IX—Sine die adjournment of the Council of Trent—History of its sessions—Arrest of Du Moulin—Coligny’s intercession—The king proclaimed of age—The royal journey—Catherine de’ Medici and the duke of Alva—The queen mother and the Papal nuncio—First murmurs of St. Bartholomew—Alva’s epigram—Assembly of notables at Moulins—Intrigues to entrap the Huguenots-The new edict—Charles IX. and the admiral.

Chapter 23    Recommencement of the War. Unpopularity of the edict of pacification—The cardinal of Lorraine at court—Projects of the king of Spain—The plotters at Paris—Augmentation of the army—Secret council of the Huguenot chiefs at Chatillon-sur-Loing—The counterplot—Conde before the capital—Negotiations-Battle of St. Denis—Death of Montmorenci—A leaf from Brantome—The German auxiliaries—An instance of the influence of religious enthusiasm—Renewed pacification—Dissatisfaction of the Huguenot leaders—Insidious assaults upon the reformers—Conduct of the Romish clergy—"No faith need be kept with heretics"—Emeutes of the canaille—Catharine’s perfidy—The plot to seize Conde and Coligny—Their narrow escape—Consequent postponement of the St. Bartholomew—The rendezvous at Rochelle—Charles IX and the duke of Anjou—Renewed hostilities—The battle of Jarnac—Defeat of the Huguenots, and heroic death of Conde—Conde’s character—Coligny saves the army—Jealousies and intrigues of the court—Death of, the duke of Deux-Ponts—Death of D’Andelot—The Admiral’s grief—Dissensions in the Huguenot ranks—Noble conduct of Coligny—Jane D’Albret in the camp—Her appeal for union—young Conde and the prince of Bearn—Henry of Navarre proclaimed generalissimo of the Huguenots—Coligny the real chief—Popularity of the admiral—Battle of Mincontour and rout of the Huguenots—Coligny’s genius and energy repairs the defeat—The admiral’s victory at Arnay-le-Duc—Alarm of the court—Catharine dissembles—The tragic comedy of reconciliation—Pacification-The guarantees.

Chapter 24    Hoodwinked France. The court changes front—The age of craft—The wily queen mother caresses the Huguenots—Jane D’Albret and the admiral fix their residence at Rochelle—Artifices to draw them to the capital—Catharine’s consummate hypocrisy—She instructs the king to use every art to gain the confidence of the Huguenots—Marriage of Charles IX—The reformers are deceived—Numbers repair to Paris and join in the court fetes—A new scheme—Projected marriage of Margaret de Valois and the prince of Bearn—Sketch of the early life of Henry of Navarre—Reluctance of Jane D’ Albret to accede to the match—A mother’s instinct—Duplicity of the king—The wary admiral is hoodwinked—Journey of Charles IX to Louvain—Meeting of the two courts—Charles IX and Coligny—Hypocrisy of the young king—Definitive arrangements are made for the nuptials of Navarre and Margaret—The time appointed—Catharine’s sardonic satisfaction—The treacherous calm—Jane D’Albret at the Louvre—Her sudden death—Infatuation of Coligny—The warning—The admiral’s project—The French court listens to the recital of his plans with courteous but perfidious attention—The ripening holocaust.

Chapter 25    The Massacre of St. Bartholomew. A catastrophe predicted—The bloody nuptials—The wedding on the scaffold—Attempt to assassinate the admiral—The old soldier’s sang froid—Exclamation of the king—Efforts of the court to allay suspicion—Energy of the conspirators—Proposition to quit the capital—Coligny and the Vidame of Chartres—A diabolical ruse—The cordon of masked executioners—The midnight signal—The frenzied populace—"Blood! blood!"—Tavannes’ witticism—Pezon the butcher—The queen-mother’s perfumer—Cruces boast-Guise flies to the admiral—The entrance of the bravos—Coligny’s awakening—Question and answer—Coligny’s composure—He prays—"Art thou Coligny?"—The admiral’s reply—The martyrdom—Petrucci’s announcement—Incredulity of Guise—Coligny’s corpse is flung from the window—Brutality of Guise—Awful treatment of the admiral’s remains—Charles IX at the gibbet of Montfaucon—The king quotes the atrocious Latin of Vitellius—The final sepulchre—Scenes of horror—The king’s ferocity—The window of the Louvre—Charles amuses himself—Fanaticism of the abandoned beauties of the court—The courtesans transmuted into harpies—Barbarous conduct of the brazen wantons—Appalling spectacle of Paris by daylight—The massacre spreads through France—Isolated instances of humanity—Noble conduct of the Count de Tende—Of the Count de Charny—Of the governor of Auvergne—Of the commander of Bayonne—A ghastly resume-Shall Conde and Navarre be spared?—A page from the memoirs of the royal bride—The princes and the king—Conde’s candor—The decision—"The mass, death, or the Bastille"—The king’s demoniacal glee—The well-learned lesson—The trophies of the massacre—Pibrae’s query—The proclamation—Mingled atrocity and dissimulation of the king—Renewal of the "Paris matins"—Wild fantasies—Navarre’s prodigy—The clotted drops of blood upon the table—An hour at midnight by the bed-side of Charles IX—Wail of the phantom voices—The king’s agony—"Conscience does make cowards of us all."

Chapter 26    The Triumph of Rochelle. European effect of the massacre of St. Bartholomew—The news in England—Opinion of Germany—The pleas in justification—Rome greets the news with acclamations, bonfires, an illumination, and a high mass celebrated by the sovereign pontiff in person—The honorary medal—Equivocal morality—The Amen of Madrid—Ferocious joy of Philip II—Witticism of the admiral of Castile—Results of the massacre in France—Firmness and energy of the Huguenots—The confederation—The appeal to arms—The siege of Rochelle decided on—Sketch of the history of Rochelle—Preparations for the defense—The solitary sentinel—La Noue’s mission—The interview—Noble conduct of the Rochellois—Disaffection in the camp of the besiegers—Anjou’s ennui—Rochelle triumphant—The pacification of 1573—Terms of the treaty—Election of Anjou to the throne of Poland—He quits France for Warsaw—Last hours of Charles IX—The confession to Ambrose Paré—The dying monarch and Henry of Navarre—The whispered caution—An awful death-bed.

Chapter 27    Vicissitudes. The Polish courier—Regency of Catharine de Medici—Effects of despotism—The new coalition—Policy of the queen-mother—Henry III. receives intelligence of his brother’s death—The clandestine departure—The arrival—Catharine’s flattery Death of the Cardinal of Gonaive—Meeting of the insurgents at Milland—The pledge—The king before Livron—Henry is hooted—Disaffection of Alencon—Battle of Dormans—Navarre’s protestation—Peace-Brantome’s epigram—Davila’s statement—Catliarine’s subtlety.

Chapter 28    The League. General dissatisfaction—Character of Henry III—Precautions of the Huguenots—Action of the Ultramontane party—Rise of the League—The cabinet at Joinville—The covenant—Influence of Spain—Activity of the League—Meeting of the States-general at Blois—Henry’s alarm—Resolution of the king—Guise’s demand—The deputation—Navarre’s reply—Answer of Conde and D’ Amville—Recommencement of the war—Edict of Poitiers—The "Lovers war"-Renewed pacification.

Chapter 29    The War of the Three Henries. Death of Alencon—Energy of the League—Rendezvous of the conspirators—The decision—The traitorous treaty—Fears of the king—The League startled—Epernon and Navarre—The manifesto of the "Holy Union"—Henry’s counter declaration—Success of Guise—The ignominious treaty—Navarre’s astonishment—His whiskers turn white in a night—Activity of the Huguenots—The proposition—Commencement of hostilities—Death of Gregory XIII—The new pope—The brutum fulmen—Effect on the League—Moral effect—Action of the Swiss cantons—The bull in Germany—Navarre takes the field—Battle of Contras—Rout of the royalists, and death of the Duke of Joyeuse—Navarre’s criminal conduct—He plays the carpet-knight.

Chapter 30    The Double Assassination. Guise's laurels—Envy of the king-Guise's popularity-The family meeting at Nancy—Real object of the house of LorraineThe masked policy-An insolent petition—Half measuresC,uise at Paris-Mob enthusiasm-The duke and the queenmother-Guise and the king-"Vive la Hypocrisie"-Paris in the olden times-Catherine's ruse-Escape of the kingRTemville's announcement-Negotiations-Convention of the States-general-Guise's manoeuvres-Muddled condition of French politics-The advice of a soldier-A lawyer's connselAssassination of Henry de Guise-`° The king of Paris is dead "Unwonted vigor of the king-News of the tragedy at ParisFrenzy of the capital-Death of Catharine de' Medici-Henry's embarrassment-A pontiff's influence—The enraged League will not negotiate-The king appeals to the Huguenots-Meeting of Navarre and Henry III.-The advance on Parisblayenne's retreat-Siege of Paris-Famine chokes the capital-The power of fanaticism Tacques Clement-How he was heated-Assassination of Henry III.

Chapter 31    The White Plume of Navarre.  The enthronement of a Huguenot—Joy of Ultramontane France—The Pontiffs blasphemy over the murder of Henry III—Activ ity of the new king—Difficulties of the succession—Condition of the League—Military successes of Henri Quatre—Battle of Ivry—"The white plume of Navarre"—The advance upon the capital—The starving metropolis—Maneuvers of the duke of Parma—Death of a phantom king—The decision of the League—Henry’s alarm—The struggle of a human soul—The king determines to abjure Protestantism—The sad scene at St. Denis—Effect in the Huguenot ranks—Mornay’s letter—The deputies—General acquiescence in the new regime—Course of the Jesuits—Their regicidal doctrines—The attempted assassina tion of the king—Indictment of the "Society of Jesus"—Ar nauld’s plea—The address of Louis Dollé—Intense popular feeling against the Jesuits—The thwarted knife of Chatel—Banishment of the Jesuits—D’ Aubigne’s epigram—A warning and a prophecy.

Chapter 32    The Edict of Nantes. Disordered condition of the kingdom—The king devotes himself to the amelioration of internal affairs—Signature of the edict of Nantes—Its provisions—Feeling of the papists—The king and the murmurers—Sully's resume—Henry's marriage—Reentrance of the Jesuits into France—Catherine of Bourbon—She becomes the chief court pillar of the Huguenots—Mornay’s letter to the princess—The reply—Catherine's influence with her brother—The Huguenot reunion at the Louvre—The snubbed delegates—Attempt at reconciliation—Catherine's marriage—Her persistent faith—Her death—Henry's grief—The holy father's insinuation—The king's spirited answer—The royal tour—Anecdotes—Repose of the Huguenots—The reputed plot—A Jesuit babble—Henry's last years—The mysterious project—Mary de Medici—The coronation—The king's buoyancy—An after chill—The ride—The narrow street—The assassination—Seizure of Ravaillac—Precautions—The queen's terror—Consternation—An awful comedy—The rack brings forth no confession—Singular conduct of the judiciary—L'Etoil's solution of the enigma—Péréfixe's witticism.

Chapter 33    Richelieu. Henry’s family—Succession of Louis XIII—D’Epernon’s boldness secures the regency for Mary de Medici—The queen’s apartments resound with songs and laughter—Mirth on one side, the murdered dead upon the other—The Concinis—The change—Alarm of the Huguenots—Their chiefs—Bigotry and court cabal—The regency ends in a tragedy—The new favorite—Conduct of the Huguenots—The descent on Bearn—Clamors of the Romish clergy—The arrét-The king at Pau—Celebration of the mass in the ancient citadel of the Reformation—Recommencement of hostilities—Diversified nature of the contest—Pacification on the basis of the edict of Nantes—Richelieu enters the cabinet—His threefold object—The duke of Buckingham—His plans—Richelieu’s opportunity-His sagacious program—Wily diplomacy—Siege of Rochelle—The gallant defense-Capture of Rochelle—Peace again—Paens to Richelieu—The Huguenots stripped of all political importance—Momentary cessation of persecution—The cause—The synod at Charenton—The deputation—The demand.

Chapter 34    The Dragonades. The Huguenots enjoy twenty years of peace—Death of Richelieu—Regency of Anne of Austria—Mazarin—His policy—Rise of the English commonwealth—Cromwell’s intercession—Model behavior of the Huguenots—Mazarin’s testimony—D’Harconrt and the deputies of Montauban—Louis’ declaration—Death of Mazarin—Louis XIV assumes the direction of affairs—The reign of courtesans and Jesuits—The policy of corruption—Steadfastness of the middle classes—Satanic ingenuity exercised in enforcing proselytism—The infinite hard spiritual fights of God’s suffering children—The enemies of the faith—Steady progress of the government from one tyranny to another—The commencement of emigration—The prohibitory decree—Persistence of the Huguenots—"Not principalities nor powers can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus"—The rage of persecution—Malignity of the government, priest-ridden and corrupt—Père la Chaise, the king’s confessor—The incitement—A Jesuit’s weapons—The congenial trinity—The dragonades—The army of soldiers, and the army of priests—Recommencement of emigration—Macauley’s estimate of Louis XIV.

Chapter 35   The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The "booted missionaries" extend their efforts into all the Huguenot provinces—Pellisson’s fund—The lies of the Gazette—Exultation of the court—Meeting of the Huguenot deputies at Toulouse—The determination—Rage of the king—The flutter in the courtier dove-tote—A leaf from Soulier—The testimony of Rulhiére—The alternatives—The demoralization of France—The greed for proselytes—Louvois’ letter—Noailles’ announcement—Revocation of the edict of Nantes—The lying preamble—Feature of the revocation—Its effect—The enforcement of the decree—Letellier’s Nunc dimittis—Grammont’s witticism—The Huguenot pastors—Claude—Conduct of the Huguenots—Instances of devotion—The heroism of despair—The flood-tide of emigration—Frightful depopulation of the kingdom—The victims—What it cost to suppress the truth in France—Atrocious punishments—Moral results of the proscription—The economic aspect—The compensation.

Chapter 36    A Resume.  The number of Huguenots who remained in France after the revocation—Their faithfulness—The liberalization of public opinion—The law unchanged—The Camisard war—A wholesale massacre—The reign of Louis XV—Increasing humanity of the bar—Judges obey justice in disobeying the law—The rise of infidelity—Coldness of the philosophical school towards the oppressed Huguenots—No points of resemblance between bastard philosophy and Christianity—The synod at Nismes—The yoke grows lighter—The edict of toleration—The four things which it granted—Jubilee of the congregations of the wilderness—The yawning abyss of the Revolution—The "Goddess of Reason"—The necessity of religious faith—Napoleon’s usurpation—The empire decrees limited toleration—Toleration under the restoration—Under the second empire—Present condition of French Protestantism—Reflections. 

 

 

PREFACE

THERE is no page of history which is at once so fascinating in the dramatic interest of its scenes, and so momentous as that which records the story of the Huguenots - none more worthy of the careful study of thoughtful men. Whether judged by its motive, its influence, or its episodes, it is equally grand. Sublimer than any epic, it depicts a struggle to renovate the individual, the church, and society at large.

Isolated phases of the history of the Huguenots have been often and vividly portrayed in our English letters: poets have celebrated many thrilling episodes; romancists have given full play to the imagination; biographers have recited the lives of many illustrious men; historians have dwelt upon numerous stirring scenes: but these are the mosaics of history—broken voices, telling half the tale.

Nearly all of the English histories which bear upon this subject, deal with particular periods—with the epoch of the Vaudois, with the age of Calvin, with the era of Coligny, with the times of Henri Quatre, and with collateral reformatory movements. This volume covers five of the most eventful centuries since Christ: it traces the story up through the ages from the first murmur of dissent from Rome to the revocation of the edict of Nantes; and the sketch of the Vaudois, those early but much neglected teachers, is especially full. The story of the sixteenth century, distinctively the era of the Reformation, is not as minute in this volume as in some others, but an effort has been made to give an authoritative and succinct detail of all essential incidents.

The materials for the compilation of such a work are vast, but ill-digested; to collect and glean them has been no slight task. Most of the standard authorities have been consulted, and in addition to these, a thousand pages of subsidiary matter, personal narratives, diaries, memoirs, from the graphic pens of contemporaneous actors in the drama, have been liberally used. It is not necessary to recapitulate their titles, these will be found scattered through the body of the book; and numerous notes have been added, where they seemed likely to enhance the interest or to elucidate the text.

The series of which this volume is one has not been written for the instruction of mere scholars; no effort is made to pour light culled from pedantic lore upon mooted and nice points of history; they are plain tales of momentous eras. They are sketched for the edification of the masses; written with attempted care and accuracy, but compiled from every available and authoritative source, and with no especial claim to originality. Whatever seemed vivid and important and interesting, wherever it rested, has been seized and grouped into this picture of " times that tried men's souls."

Of course a volume which covers so broad a field must be, in some sense, a summary of events, and the problem which the historian has to solve is this: How shall an epitome be made graphic, be vivified, be made to speak-to tell its own story? How shall this summary be made to reflect an accurate likeness of the past, and appear not to be a summary? "The reproduction of contemporary documents," remarks a writer whose pages have become classic, "is not the only business of the historian. He . must do more than exhume from the sepulchre in which they are sleeping, the relics of men and things of times past, that he may exhibit them in the light of day. Men value highly such a work, and those who perform it, for it is a necessary one; yet it is not sufficient. Dry bones do not faithfully represent the men of other days. They did not live as skeletons, but as beings full of life end activity. The historian is not simply a resurrectionist; he needs—strange but necessary ambition—a power that can restore the dead to life.

"When a historian comes across a speech of one of the actors in the great drama of human affairs, he ought to lay hold of it as a pearl; he should weave it into his tapestry in order to relieve the duller colors, and give more solidity and brilliancy. Whether the speech be met with in the writings of the actor himself, or in those of the chroniclers, is a matter of no importance; he should take it wherever he finds it. The history which exhibits men thinking, feeling, and acting as they did in their lifetime, is of far higher value than those purely intellectual compositions in which the actors are deprived of speech and even of life."

It is a favorite sophism of the Romanist philosophers, that Protestantism is a mushroom growth, an upstart of yesterday, without antiquity or patristical authority. But epigrammatic sneers do not overthrow plain historic facts. The lineage of Christian dissent from the tenets of the papacy is as venerable and as well ascertained as that of the Roman hierarchy. This antique dissent is essentially that form of belief which is now denominated Protestantism.

"Nothing," says Brook," has so much obstructed the progress of Christianity in the world as the absurd and selfish doctrines, the superstitious and slavish practices, which have been blended with it by the wicked wit of man. As the religion of Jesus Christ was for many centuries almost buried under so great a mass of rubbish that it could scarcely be distinguished from the foulest paganism; so to free Christianity from these heterogeneous mixtures, and to fix it on its only foundation-faith in Christ—unclouded and unencumbered by human appendages, is the noblest work of man, and the greatest benefit to society."

This was the effort of the Huguenots. They found the Bible silent, covered with the dust of ancient libraries, in some places secured by an iron chain—a sad image of the interdict under which it was placed in the Christian world. The Reformation was an enfranchisement; these words of Christ were its motto: "THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE." One of the chief lessons of the history of the Huguenots, is the sinfulness and the uselessness of persecution for religious opinion. It inculcates with persuasive eloquence the sacredness of conscience; it is at once an inspiration and an admonition; descanting upon the virtuous actions of the heroes of the past who fought the " good fight" for God and liberty, it repeats the scriptural command, "Go thou and do likewise;" depicting the vicious diplomacy of the Vatican, whose motto was then, as it is now, "The end justifies the means," and that other twin maxim, that "no. faith is to be kept with heretics," it warns the present and the future to shun the vices of Babylonish Rome; as Seneca has hymned it:

"Consulere patria; parcere afflictis ; fera 
Caede abstinere ; tempus atque irae dare; 
Orbi quietem; saeculo pacem suo; 
Haec summa virtus; petitur hac coelum via."

Liberty of thought, liberty of faith, liberty of worship — this was the aspiration of the Huguenots. It is singular what an inevitable tendency there was in the movement towards republicanism — as if the democracy of Christianity necessitated the democracy of politics. But the Christ they taught was not simply the apostle of political liberty. "The greatest and most dangerous of despotisms," says D’Aubigné, "is that beneath which the depraved inclination of human nature, the deadly influence of the world, sin, miserably subjects the human conscience. In order to become free outwardly, men must first succeed in being free inwardly. In the human heart there is a vast country to be delivered from slavery — abysses which man cannot cross alone, heights which he cannot climb unaided, fortresses lie cannot take, armies he cannot put to flight. In order to conquer in this moral battle, man must unite with One stronger than himself — the Son of God."

 

CHAPTER I 

THE VAUDOIS.

THE venerable muse of history recites many lessons which are full of tears, but upon no occasion does her voice sink into deeper pathos than when she relates the story of French Protestantism. From its inception in the gray dawn of the Christian era, down through the dismal centuries to the crowning disaster of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, it is one prolonged tragedy. The night of persecution is only illuminated by the marvelous constancy, the patient meekness, the Christian heroism, and the deep devotion of these earliest Protestants, who were called the VAUDOIS at the outset, and afterwards the HUGUENOTS.

God seems to have designed their moving story to be the convincing proof not only of the vitality of Christianity, but also of the woeful cost at which it has been planted and preserved. Such a consideration adds new grandeur to a chapter of history which is indeed intrinsically momentous, and makes it still more worthy of the attentive study of thoughtful minds.

History attests that the Sixteenth century was the epoch of the Reformation. But revolutions are not made — they grow. "First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." The Reformation had its forerunner in the wilderness — its John the Baptist. It is not an isolated fact, a picture standing out upon the historic canvas without a background. There were preceding intellectual insurrections, which, however unhappy in their separate denouement, yet led inevitably to that triumphant movement which finally, by the aid of Faust’s type and Luther’s luminous eloquence, enfranchised Christendom.

Anterior to Luther, anterior to that Bradwardine who, in the cloister of the Oxford University, taught Wickliffe ethics, apostles were found who held tenaciously, and who zealously inculcated, both by their precepts and by their blameless lives, the essential tenets of the Reformation. And though the feudal system, which banished uniformity of laws and customs, and made each petty lord a despot in his own pocket-handkerchief territory, the obstacles to free intercourse between the nations, the prevailing ignorance, the absence of those mighty magicians, steam and the printing-press, which have conjured modern civilization into existence, and above all, the fanaticism of a priestly oligarchy, united their powerful hands to throttle the infant reform of these early teachers, we ought not for these reasons to withhold our grateful recognition of their faithful service and martyrdom; nor ought we to remain in ignorance of the momentous influence which these voices, raised in the dim twilight of Christianity, exerted upon medieval life and thought, long before Europe was animated by a murmur from the grave of Wickliffe, from the ashes of Huss, or from the vigils of Calvin.

In the fourth century, after enduring a persecution of remorseless severity with that patient, unfaltering heroism which is one of its most marked characteristics, Christianity, in the person of that Constantine who fought under the " flaming cross " which his heated imagination had descried in the heavens beneath the sun, with the inscription, " In hoc signo vinces"—By this sign thou shaft conquer—ascended the Roman throne, and thenceforward, covered by the imperial purple, secured protection and controlled the government; so that the successive bishops of that feeble church which St. Paul had planted under the shadow of the throne of the Caesars, gradually arrogated to themselves the supreme authority both in spiritual and in temporal affairs. Under Constantine, and indeed so late as Charlemagne, these bishops or popes were elected by the Priests, nobles, and people of Rome, and this election could be voided by the veto of the emperor.—But the death of Charlemagne was the signal for the most determined and unscrupulous effort on the part of the Roman bishops, not only to free themselves from the imperial trammels by securing the independence of papal election, but also to usurp dominion over the western empire, and to subdue to unquestioning vassalage the entire ecclesiastical and lay bodies. Unhappily this utter departure from the primitive simplicity and humility was acquiesced in very generally, until, under Hildebrand in the eleventh century, the stupendous structure of the papal despotism gloomed upon the misty horizon, awful and irresistible.

Then for five centuries the most atrocious vices, the most unchecked wickedness, the most unbridled sacerdotal ambition, and the most meaningless ceremonies corrupted and disgraced religion. It was the saturnalia of the church. Nominal Christianity ruled Europe and some portions of the African territory which fringed the Mediterranean sea, but vital piety lay torpid; stat nominis umbra. A priest-caste anchored itself in the prejudices and superstitions of the people; an oligarchy was built up, whose right hand was usurped authority linked with spiritual pride, and whose left hand was dogmatism and bigotry fiercer than the pagan.

Then a few true hearts revolted; they yearned to reinaugurate the primitive practice of apostolic days, and this was the first dissent. But from the germ of that feeble protest has grown the full flower modern civilization and Christianity.

It was not until the eleventh century that Rome fully awoke to the danger which menaced her unity from the new "heresy," though from the fourth century she had persecuted those isolated individuals who, through rashness or regardless zeal, had overstepped that prudence which necessitated secrecy, and ventured openly to proclaim the apostolic tenets. But now acting with her accustomed energy and greatly startled by the spread of the dissent, and by the increasing boldness of its advocates; she summoned those mailed crusaders whom she had just hurled upon the Saracen, and bade them tread out the reform under their iron heels.

The whole south of Europe was more or less infected with the dissenting tenets, but their chief seat was in southern France, that beautiful country which extends around the mouth of the Rhone, and sketches westward to the city of Toulouse, and stretches westward to the Pyrenees—a territory which comprised the old governments of Avignon, Provence, and Languedoc.

Christian liberty is indebted to a sect of eastern faction, called, from their professed imitation of St. Paul, the Paulicians, for the impulse given in these early centuries to religious inquiry. By the various chances of war, of trade, of persecution, and of missionary enterprise—for they were indefatigable proselyters—the Paulicians spread from their Asiatic cradle throughout Southern Europe with singular rapidity; and the suddenness with which they sprang into existence, their simultaneous appearance in widely separated sections, and the secrecy with which they taught, gave them an imposing air of mystery, while it magnified their power and resources in the popular estimation.

Though the Paulicians were certainly, notwithstanding their vehement disclaimers, somewhat tainted with the Manichean errors, and with the principles of Gnosticism, and though they held some doctrines which could not but render them odious to the apostolic church: as that all matter: as that all matter was intrinsically depraved and the source of moral evil; that the universe was shaped from chaos by a secondary being, by whom the Mosaic dispensation was given, and by whom the old Testament was inspired ; and that the body in which Christ appeared upon earth, and his crucifixion, were apparent, not real; yet they had not been debauched by the enormous corruptions of the Roman see, and they abhorred and incessantly inveighed against the worship of saints, the use of images, relics, pompous ceremonies, and ecclesiastical domination.

In different countries the Paulicians were known by different names. When they crossed the channel into England they were called Publicans, a probable corruption of the original designation. In Germany they were termed, from the blamelessness of their lives, Cathari, or the Pure. In France they were named Bos Homos, good men; while in Italy, and on the Alpine frontier, they were styled Paterins.*

The mission of the Paulicians appears to have been to awaken a spirit of inquiry, to accustom men to hear the haughty and fraudulent pretensions of the Roman diocese denied, and thus to prepare the way for a higher and holier ecclesiastical development. Meantime upon these bold dissenters was launched the awful malediction of the church of Rome. Nor did that merciless hierarchy content itself with simply placing them under the ban; it used every weapon which wits could suggest or which a Satanic ingenuity could devise to exterminate the heresy.

While the din of this ecclesiastical strife still resounded throughout Europe, in the middle of the twelfth century a sect which wrapped itself in the apostolic mantle, which carried in its hand the primitive taper, and which is venerated by the later Protestants, and respected even by the Romanists, reared its head and began to teach with authoritative mildness. The Vaudois commenced to propagate their tenets in the territories of the Aragonese in Southern France.

Standing midway between two mighty revolutions, the epoch of the Vaudois stretches forth a hand to both. It leans upon the period of the establishment of Christianity as its precursor, and brings forward the Reformation of the sixteenth century as its direct descendant. What then were its salient characteristics? Of what a warp and what a woof was the garment of its Christianity woven?

 

CHAPTER II 

The PROVENCALS 

FRANCE during the feudal period did not form a united monarchy. It was ruled by four independent kings; so that the north of France was Walloon, a name afterwards confined to the French Flemings, and which was then given to the language spoken by Philip Augustus; towards the west was an English France; to the east a German France; and in the south a Spanish or Aragonese France.`

Spain also was somewhat similarly divided. The Moors, an exotic race, held most of the peninsula; Castile and Aragon were still separate and often inimical kingdoms. Although Catalonia, Provence, and Languedoc had originally formed portions of the swollen and clumsy empire of Charlemagne, yet when, no longer shaped by his plastic hand, the heterogeneous mass crumbled to pieces, these territories more or less completely allied themselves to the Aragonese throne; so that it was with difficulty that even the powerful Count of Toulouse, the hereditary lord of Provence and of Forcalquier, surrounded as he was by a brilliant retinue of vassals and loyal states, could maintain his independence of the Spanish king.

These territories were then the garden of the world, bright and sunny as that Goshen of old. They were the home of the exiled arts, of poetry, of painting, of music, of sculpture. The Provencal slopes bore up an industrious and intellectual race, who, more familiar with the Greek text than with the Greek phalanx, abjured war, garnered wealth in commerce, and found culture in study. The whole Pyrenean country offered the strongest contrast to the rest of Europe, which was wrapped in a darkness to be felt and seen, like that of Egypt.

During the feudal ages, the whole intellectual horizon of northern Europe was singularly clouded. Poetry was unknown. Philosophy was proscribed, as a rebellion against religion. A barbarous jargon of provincial dialects had supplanted that sounding Latin which had preserved so many trophies of thought and taste. Commerce was unknown. A library of a hundred manuscript volumes was esteemed a magnificent endowment for the wealthiest monastery. "Not a priest south of the Thames," in king Alfred's phrase, "could translate Latin or Greek into his mother-tongue." Not a philosopher could be met with in Italy, according to Tiriboschi. Europe was

But these dismal shadows grow fainter and fainter as we advance towards the south, until, in Languedoc, in Provence, in Catalonia, the twilight reddened and broadened into day, "Knowledge," Said Lord Bacon, "is spread over the surface of a country in proportion to the facilities of education, to the free circulation of books, to the endowments and distinctions which literary attainments are found to produce, and above all, to the reward which they meet in the general respect and approbation of society." The Provencals understood this law which the great Englishman so finely states. The corner-stone of their prosperity was laid in fostered letters. "From Ganges to the Icebergs" there could be found no more civilized society. 

This singular people had elaborated a language of remarkable beauty from the old French patois. It was distinguished from all tile medieval dialects by its rich vocabulary, its picturesque phrases, and its flexibility.

The Provencal tongue, studied by all the genius of the age, consecrated to the innumerable songs of love and war, and to the stirring psalms of praise, appeared certain to become the most elegant of modern languages.

The various courts of the smaller princes among whom these Arcadian provinces were divided, aspired to be models of taste, politeness, and purity. Like all commercial communities, the Provencals were more addicted to the arts of peace than to the stern science of war. Their cities were numerous and flourishing, their governments were framed on the ancient democratic models, and consuls, chosen by a popular vote, possessed the privilege of forming communes, as did those Italian republics, Venice, Genoa, Florence, with which they traded.

To the south of the Provencals lay the dominions of the Spanish Moors, a remarkably refined and civilized people. They were already masters of a great portion of the east, of the country of the Magi and the Chaldeans, whence the first light of knowledge had shone upon the world; of that fertile Egypt, the storehouse of human science; of Asia Minor, the smiling land where poetry and the fine arts had their birth; and of burning Africa, the country of impetuous eloquence and subtle intellect. Yet, pushed by a territorial greed which knows no parallel, the Moriscoes had recently, by series of victories as brilliant as the Arabian conquests of Syria and Egypt added the Spanish peninsula to their enormous eastern domain. They had even attempted to, carry the fiery creed of their prophet from the Levant by way of the Danube to the Arctic ocean upon one side, and from the rock of Gibraltar to the English channel upon the other. Confined, however, within the limits of the Pyrenees by the prowess of Charles Martel at Tours, the Moors gave up the Mahommedan principle of conquest, and sought, by planting numerous schools and by patronizing learning, to conquer Europe by the Oriental philosophy, if they could not by Mahomet's sword; at the same time, by an admirable code of liberal laws, they strove to establish a peaceful and permanent dominion in the Spanish peninsula.

An active and profitable commercial intercourse with these polished infidels, and also with the Jews, had enlarged the capacity of the Provencals, and convinced them of the folly of the prevalent bigotry. Thus their land became the asylum of all dissenters from Rome. They respected the sacred rights of conscience at a time when the peoples to the north of the Loire not only rattled their secular chains, but when they lay lassoed at the feet of their priests, under the complete dominion of fanaticism.

At this period, the Spaniards also, afterwards the most bigoted of modern races, the unhesitating butchers of the Inquisition, the volunteer executers of the wildest caprices of the papacy, emulated the toleration of their Provencal cousins, for they still remembered the time when they had themselves been compelled to sue for religious freedom under the Moorish yoke. Indeed, a century before the Sicilian Vespers, the kings of Aragon were the declared protectors of all who were persecuted by the papal despotism. In imitation of the Castilian sovereigns, they were upon one occasion the mediators for the Vaudois at the court of Rome, and upon another, their mailed defenders in the field.

Even before the first mutter of the Vaudois dissent, the arrogant pretensions of the papal see had not imposed upon the enlightened Provencals, who despised the licentiousness of the priesthood, the credulity of the Romish believers, and the pompous ceremonies of the church.

The Troubadours, as those minstrel-poets were called who were formed in the Moorish schools of Grenada, Cordova, and Seville, and who went from castle to castle keeping aglow the embers of literature by reciting their tales and chanting their madrigals, had very early launched their satirical verses at the abuses of the papacy.

One of the most celebrated of the troubadours, Pierre Cardinal, who sang in the twelfth century, leveled this sirvente at the Roman vices: 

It will be seen from this recital how well the Catalonians and the Provencals were prepared by their simplicity of manners, by their tolerant principles, by their studious habits, by their active intelligence, by their commercial customs, and by their preexisting prejudice against the Roman usurpations, for the reception of that mild and primitive Christianity which was about to flood their valleys with its light.

Towards the middle of the fourth century, while the newly converted emperor, Constantine, was inscribing the bastard legends of a paganized Christianity upon those banners which had before been surmounted by the hungry eagles of the early empire, and cementing the foundations of the papacy, a few sincere Italian ecclesiastics of Milan, dissatisfied with the increasing corruptions of the grandly simple faith which they so dearly loved, withdrew from Italy, and erected their Ebenezer in the beautiful, secluded, and labyrinthine valleys of Piedmont.

Here, kneeling at their primitive altars, and shut out as well from the temptations of the world as from its honors, the simple invocation, "Our Father, who art in heaven," diffused light, liberty, and happiness around them, as it did around those first Christians, who were ever found, in mountain desert and in the open air, in dungeons and in fetters, yes, even in the awful Golgotha of the catacombs, with the same sublime prayer upon their lips. Though these inoffensive pilgrims were taunted by their enemies with the epithet, Manicheans, yet it has been conclusively shown, by unimpeachable historians, that their confession of faith, like that of their disciples, the Vaudois, was pure Protestantism, and would have obtained the approbation of Calvin or of Beza.

In 1124, three men, whose names ecclesiastical history loves to take upon its lips, Peter of Bruys, Henry, and Arnold of Brescia, and who are doubly dear on account of the martyrdom which they suffered for their sacred cause, lighted their torches at the pure altar of the Piedmontese, and carried the light of reformation from those obscure vales into the Provencal territories.

The first discovery of a congregation of this bind was at Orleans, in France, where several of the regular clergy, and numbers of the most respectable citizens were open adherents of the Piedmontese tenets. A council was immediately convened, which, after laboring in vain to reclaim the "Protestants," had recourse to the final argument of the Roman church, and burned them all at the stake.

Some time after this event, the conversion of Peter Waldo, one of the finest names in history, and the chief promoter of the Vaudois, as the dissenters were now called, occurred.

This medieval teacher was, in 1150, a wealthy citizen-merchant of Lyons. Amid the toils and bustle of mercantile life, he had found leisure to study the belles-lettres of the epoch; he had also looked into the Scriptures.

While engaged in consultation with several other of the principal citizens, Waldo beheld one of the group stricken with sudden death. This occurrence is said to have so impressed him with a sense of human frailty and of the divine wrath, that he renounced all worldly pursuits, and ever after devoted his immense riches, as well as his rare eloquence, to the promulgation of the gospel.

He began with his own family; and then, as his fame spread, he admitted to his hearthstone and instruction a few others, until, by the year 1165, he had quitted his elegant home, and fully embarked upon an active apostolic career.

The Roman clergy, not only of Lyons, but of the whole neighborhood, set themselves to choke Waldo's expositions of primitive Christianity, and they even opposed and prohibited his domestic instructions, but without avail; for the resolute reformer was led, by the obstacles which priestly malice threw in his path, to examine the more diligently into the opinions of the clergy, into the rites and customs of the papal régime; and then, since in his case as in that of the latter reformers examination meant emancipation from the thraldom of Rome, to oppose their antichristian usurpations the more decidedly.

That Peter Waldo was not destitute of erudition, Flacius Illyricus proves from evidence derived from the ancient writings; and perceiving, as Wickliffe did in England not many years later, and as Luther did four centuries afterwards, that since the luminous tenets of his dissent from Rome were based upon the Scriptures, it was momentously important to unlock the treasure-house of biblical knowledge to the comprehension of the Provencal people, and to prove his doctrine from the inspired pages, he translated the Latin Bible into the vernacular language of Gaul.

The irreconcilable difference between primitive Christianity, with its later manifestations, called Protestantism, and the Roman heresy — for Rome is indeed the crowned and ermined heresiarch of the ages — is in no one instance more grandly shown than in the treatment of the Bible by the respective advocates of the two systems. The priests, like the juggling augurs of pagan Rome, and like their prototypes, the mutterers of the heathen legends of Egyptian Isis and Osiris, made a mystery of their religion, carefully concealed the sources of their divinity, padlocked that Bible which the apostle commanded mankind to search, and then, having hidden the evidences of their faith, preached a bastard Christianity of forms, of images, and of human merit and omnipotence.

Protestantism, on the contrary, has nothing to hide; believes in the popularization of knowledge; is democratic in its creed; knows no caste; asks nothing but, with the ancient cynic, that inimical systems "get out of its sunlight;" makes no secret of its tenets; proclaims the worthlessness of human merit; preaches the sole reliance of the human race, "By one man's disobedience lost," upon the gracious mercy of "Christ crucified" for a "recovered paradise;" and teaches justification by faith alone: and since it culls these precious truths from the sacred oracles, it marches down through the centuries with faith aglow in its heart, and an open Bible in its hands. This was why Luther in Germany, Wickliffe, in England, and, earliest of all, Waldo of Languedoc, translated the gospels into their respective mother-tongues.

It is interesting to notice how singularly this venerable Vaudois creed agrees with the essential articles of that Protestantism which we of to-day bury in our heart of hearts.

These were the chief articles of their faith, as recited by competent historians, both friendly and inimical:

I. The Vaudois held the holy Scriptures to be the source of faith and religion, without regard to the authority of the fathers or to tradition; and though they principally used the New Testament, yet, as Usher [sic] proves from Reinier and others, they regarded the Old also as canonical scripture. From their greater use of the New Testament, their adversaries charged them however with despising the Old Testament.

II. They held the entire faith according to all the articles of the apostles' creed.

III. They rejected all the eternal rites of the dominant church, excepting baptism and the sacrament of the Lord's supper, as, for instance, temples, ventures, images, crosses, pilgrimages, the religions worship of the holy relics, and the rest of the Roman sacraments; these they considered as inventions of Satan and of the flesh, full of superstition.

IV. They rejected the papal doctrine of purgatory, with, masses, or prayers for the dead, acknowledging only two terminations of the earthly state—heaven and hell.

V. They admitted no indulgences nor confessions of sin, with any of their consequences, excepting mutual confessions of the faithful for instruction and consolation.

VI. They held the sacraments of baptism and of the eucharist to be only symbols, denying the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine, as we find in the authoritative book of the sect concerning antichrist, and as Ebrard de Bethunia accuses them in his book Antihoeresios.

VII. They held only three ecclesiastical orders: bishops, priests, and deacons; other systems they esteemed mere human figments; that monasticism, then in great vogue, was a putrid carcass, and vows the invention of men; and that the marriage of the clergy was lawful and necessary.

VIII. Finally, they denounced Rome as the whore of Babylon, denied obedience to the papal domination, and vehemently repudiated the notions that the pope had any authority over other churches, and that he had the power either of the civil or the ecclesiastical sword.

Such was the remarkably enlightened and pure Protestantism of these early teachers; such were the tenets proclaimed by Waldo and the Vaudois, in the middle of the twelfth century, upon the rich Provencal plains, and upon the listening and willing slopes of the French and Spanish Pyrenees.

Is it strange that when an abused and neglected populace, disgusted by the palpable avarice, despotism, and mummery of the Roman see, beheld a brotherhood of Christians enthusiastic in their religion, blameless in their lives, humble in. their demeanor, honest in their dealings, and disclaiming all tyranny over the consciences of men, propagating their tenets by the eloquence of their actions, many were won to embrace the salvation so sweetly taught, and that all generous souls were stirred at least to admire, if not to sympathize with a religion dear to God, but which Rome's unhallowed bulls denominated " heresy?" 

 

CHAPTER III 

The PREACHING of the CRUSADE

 

At length Rome began to move. Innocent III, who in 1198 ascended the pontifical throne in the vigor of his life, was the first who appeared to be fully impressed with the importance of crushing remorselessly that independent and inquiring spirit which was rapidly assuming the character of a universal revolt from the Roman communion.

His predecessors, engaged in a tedious and perilous struggle with the secular power, with the two Henrys, and with Frederick Barbarossa, thought their entire force not too great to defend them against the emperors; and in those times they had themselves accepted the name of the paterins, or sufferers.

But Innocent III, one of the haughtiest and most flagitious of the pontiffs, whose genius aspired to govern the universe, was as incapable of temporizing as he was of feeling pity. At the same time that he destroyed the political balance of Italy and Germany; that he menaced by turns the kings of Spain, France, and England; that he affected the tone of a master to the sovereigns of Bohemia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Norway, and Armenia; in a word, that he directed or repressed at his will the crusaders who were occupied in overturning the Greek empire, and in establishing the Latin rule and the Roman theology at Constantinople — Innocent III, as if he had no other occupation, searched for, attacked, and punished all opinions different from his own, all independence of mind, every exercise of the faculty of thinking in the august domain of religion.

Though it was in the countries where the Provencal language was spoken, and especially in Languedoc, that the Vaudois reformation counted the majority of its disciples, yet it had also spread into other portions of Christendom, into Italy, into Flanders, into Germany, and into Spain.

Innocent III, both from character and policy, judged that the church ought to keep no faith with heretics. He thought that if it did not annihilate them, if it did not, in his phrase, "exterminate the whole pestilential race," and strike Christendom with horror, their example would be speedily followed, and that the fermentation of mind would be productive of a consuming conflagration throughout the Roman world.

Instead therefore of making converts, he charged his satellites to burn the chiefs of the Vaudois, to disperse their flocks, to confiscate their property, and to consign to perdition every soul who ventured to think otherwise than as he directed.

At first the wily priest required those provinces where the Reformation had made but small progress to set the example of persecution, thus feeling his way gradually towards a wider cruelty. In this way many leaders of the reformed church perished in the flames at Nevers, in 1198, and in the succeeding years.

Innocent next requested Otho IV, his imperial puppet, who danced as his master pulled the strings, to grant him an edict for the destruction of the Italian Vaudois, who were also called Gazari.

The Roman vulture then paused a moment and plumed his wings for a higher flight. Innocent determined that the lovely Provencal territory should be delivered over in the midst of its growing prosperity to the fury of countless hordes of armed fanatics, its cities razed, its population butchered, its commerce destroyed, its arts thrown back into barbarism, and its dialect degraded from the rank of a poetic language to the condition of a vulgar jargon.

There were a number of lords and high barons in Southern France who had themselves adopted the reformed opinions, and who, instead of persecuting, protected the Vaudois. Others saw in them only enlightened and industrious vassals, whom they could not destroy without affecting prejudicially their own revenues and military strength. But when did Rome permit her cherished plans to be baffled by the intervention of human rights or weighty obstacles? Innocent instantly armed a present interest and a brutal avarice against the calculating economy of the barons. He abandoned to them the confiscated property of all heretics, exhorting them to take possession of it, after banishing or murdering those whom they had plundered. At the same time this flagitious pontiff anathematized all who refused to seize upon the estates thus confiscated by his usurped power, and placed their dominions under an interdict.

In 1198, Innocent had dispatched two legates, monks of Citeaux, brother Guy and brother Regnier, into Languedoc, and the other heretical districts; but rather, as it should seem, for the purpose of exploring and menacing than actually to commence the contest. These legates were armed with full power, and it was enjoined upon the faithful to execute scrupulously their orders. Regnier having fallen sick, Innocent joined with him Pierre de Castelnovo, whose zeal, more furious than that of any of his predecessors, is worthy of those sentiments which the very name of the Inquisition inspires.

Presently afterwards a more numerous commission, the advance of the martial array, invaded the aunts of heresy, and brought the subtleties of the schools to the support of intimidation. This body received great additional efficiency from the accession of a young Spanish monk named Dominic, the founder of the most bigoted and servile of ecclesiastical orders, and who was afterwards canonized as a reward for his diabolical cruelty in the ensuing Vaudois crusades. These itinerant spiritual missionaries were generally known by the title of Inquisitors, a name not indeed honorable or innocent even in its origin, but riot then associated with horror and infamy.

These inquisitors were at the outset empowered by the pope to discover, to convert, or to arraign before the ecclesiastical courts all guilty or suspected of heresy. But this was the limit of their mission. They did not at first constitute an independent, irresponsible tribunal, nor were they clothed with any judicial power. The process was still carried on according to the practice then prevailing, before the bishop of the diocese, and the secular arm was invited when necessary to enforce the sentence.

But this form of procedure was not found to be sufficiently rapid or arbitrary to satisfy the eagerness of the pope and his missionaries. The work of extirpation was sometimes retarded by the compunctions of a merciful prelate, sometimes by the reluctance of the barons or an unpopular sentence. In order to remove these impediments to the free course of destruction, there was no recourse but to institute in the infected provinces, with the direct cooperation of the ruling powers, a separate, independent tribunal for the trial of heresy. This was rendered more easy by the spread of the Franciscan and Dominican orders. As they were the faithful, unquestioning myrmidons of the Roman see, more devoted in their allegiance than either the secular or the regular clergy, they were invested with the separate jurisdiction. Such was the origin in the gloomy and heated brain of a fanatic pope of that ghastly court