History of the Protestants of France E-Book

Guillaume Félice

• Herausgeber: Librorium Editions
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

The Reformation of the sixteenth century is the greatest event of modern times. It has remodelled everything in Protestant countries; and has modified almost everything in Roman Catholic countries—religious and moral doctrines, ecclesiastical and civil institutions, the arts and sciences, in such sort that it is impossible to advance a step in the investigation of an idea, or a fact whatsoever, without meeting this immense work face to face. The Reformation marks the starting-point of a new world: God alone knows its development and its end.
It is important to examine how, in the first years of the sixteenth century, it arose out of the intellectual wants and the general conscience, of mankind. It was at the same time the expression of a profound state of uneasiness, the means of a mighty improvement, and the pledge of a progress towards a better future.
The Papacy, without doubt, had rendered more than one service to Christianity in the barbarous ages. It would be unjust to refuse it the honour of having served as a centre of European unity, and of having often made right prevail over brute force. But gradually as the peoples advanced, Rome became less capable of leading them, and when she dared to erect herself as an impassable barrier before the double action of the spirit of God and the spirit of man, she received a wound which, notwithstanding vain appearances, widens from generation to generation.

Leseprobe

HISTORYOF THE PROTESTANTS OF FRANCE,FROMTHE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REFORMATION TO THE PRESENT TIME.

G. DE FELICE.

© 2024 Librorium Editions

ISBN : 9782385748173

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

The reason of the translation of this book, is the same that actuated the Author of the original work,—not the glorification of a particular creed, but the inculcation of a lesson from the pages of history, whereby the reader may learn the expediency, as well as wisdom and justness, of the great maxim, that the fullest religious liberty is the right of all men. The illustration of this principle, so little truly recognised, yet happens in the present case, to bear against the members of the Roman Catholic Church: but all creeds and every sect may usefully perpend the moral of the narrative. To preach the duty of toleration to the members of the Reformed communions, whose chief dogma is the right of private judgment, might seem a supererogatory labour, did we not know how, in time, the best of causes may become corrupted by the mingling of the passions, until the fair tree is stifled under the baneful embrace of the insidious parasite. The necessity, then, of a frequent recurrence to first principles is obvious; and in no case can this necessity be so strong as in religious matters. To dissent from a dominant creed, has been hitherto to draw down persecution; and persecution will assuredly kindle a retaliative spirit of dogmatical oppression in the persecuted, unless these last continually bear in mind that the very ground of their difference was, in the outset, the privilege of thinking for themselves. Let us, then, guard ourselves against this error, still more deserving of reprobation in Protestants than in Romanists; and let these finally convince themselves how futile it is to struggle against the onward progress of the human mind, daily absorbing more essentially the Christian spirit, and thereby strengthening to the task of social improvement under the advancing banner of mental independence.

If history is philosophy teaching by examples, a work that shall contribute in any degree to elucidate our views respecting the men and manners of past ages, will certainly be received as a desirable contribution to the general stock of knowledge. But at a period when Europe is yet throbbing with the repressed, not extinguished, throes of an almost universal convulsion, a narrative of the events of an often deeply-disturbed period, frequently offering somewhat similar features, must prove more than ordinarily acceptable. It is true, that a hasty glance at the passing history of European politics fills us with only a confused sentiment of conflicting forces, that seem to attract and repel the special atoms hither and thither with restless disorder; yet an attentive examination will not fail to show us that, influencing each vortex, and dominating over every other power, are the two antagonists that since the time of Luther have found a more equal battle-field,—the spirit of Reform, and the spirit of the Papacy. The nature of the struggle, in which the human race is engaged, is in the main the same now as when the Augustine monk of Wittenberg first reared the standard of the Reformation. In the organic revolts of every community of men, the actual principle contended for is that of freedom of thought, and the real foes are the partisans of priestly domination. Through all ages the sacerdotal order have ever been the avowed or hidden opponents of all authority that does not originate with themselves, and the inveterate obstinacy the Roman hierarchy has displayed in promoting and establishing the supremacy of the Papal Church springs, as the unbroken tale of the Holy See demonstrates, from the determination to grasp at the most absolute temporal power. Claiming to be “lords over God’s heritage,” they deny all right of self-action, and only tolerate kings themselves as the tools of the universal despotism, to which they aspire. Even the enlightened and excellent men in their own ranks have been the foremost persecuted, and perhaps the most striking condemnation of the governmental system of the Papal Church is, that nearly all the great ecclesiastical reformers have been originally Romish priests themselves. If the bishop of Rome were only a spiritual head of a simple church organization, who can doubt that the great mass of the (Roman) Catholic clergy would gain immensely by the change, both in outward moral authority and internal discipline?

Nowhere is this arrogant assumption of a right to sole rule better seen than in this History of Protestantism in France; and nowhere has the resolution to attain the end been more unrelentingly pursued. To what extent a bigoted system will lead its followers, the early persecutions of the old Albigenses will show; but the renewal of the slaughter upon the inoffensive and industrious Vaudois for their adhesion to the cause of the Reformation, marks what little progress the Vatican, at whose instance it was perpetrated, had made in those Christian principles, of which it assumes to be the only veritable exponent: while the persecutions inflicted upon the Protestants of France, in order to force them back into the Romish Church, continued in one form or another down to this very day, amply prove how vain it is to expect that the Church of Rome will ever abandon the notion of universal empire, that has always been its dream and aspiration.

But although the incarnation of ambitious priestcraft is to be found in the prince-prelates of the Holy See, the ministry of nearly every religious community is obnoxious to the charge in a greater or less degree as its constitution liberates it from the control of the laity. That this was the conviction of the early leaders of the Reformation is evident from the organization of their respective churches; and that the leaven has tainted the majority of the Protestant clergy of France is shown by their preference to be salaried by the State rather than to be free to recur to the independence of the admirable scheme of connexional union propounded by Calvin. The ultimate right and equality of the People, who form the brotherhood of Christians, is an essential principle of a Reformed Church, and the contrary practice has more retarded the spread of Protestantism than any other cause. To use the expression of M. Félice respecting the Reformed Churches of France, it would be unjust to lay the whole blame of the disasters of religion upon the enemies of the Reformation; the Protestants themselves must bear their due proportion. Like the Established Church of England and like the Wesleyan Connexion, the Reformed communion of France is most threatened with loss from this quarter, and if one or the other fail in that energy and earnestness, which respectively characterized them in the beginning, it is to be attributable to their departure from the administrative institutions of the primitive Christians. The modern French Protestants may well deplore the sincere faith and fervid zeal of the early Calvinists, which re-acting upon their whole nature, rendered them as remarkable for their superiority in secular matters as in religious piety. If one were disposed to speculate upon the probable destinies of nations, and had certain events not happened, our imagination might picture a very different France in the present era; thus, had Henri-Quatre not apostatized, it is possible that the Huguenot party might have triumphed in the end; had the last siege of La Rochelle been delayed for two or three years, until a less doubtful friend of the new faith than our Charles I. wielded the power of England, the whole history of France for the last two centuries might have been changed; the principle of local self-government and strong political action, engendered by the efforts of the Huguenots to protect their liberties, would most probably have made France one of the freeëst nations of the world, have saved it from all its ruinous Revolutions, and possibly have given a wholly different aspect to the face of southern Europe.

Such was not, however, destined to be the fate of the Reformation in France, and far from being the arbiters of the fortunes of their native land, and the regenerators of Italy and Spain, the Reformed people have been reduced to become humble suitors to the State for an eleemosynary pittance to support their pastors. We cannot doubt that their condition will ultimately improve; for to hesitate to believe this, would be to fear for the progress of the human mind; but the present aspect of affairs is not promising. The establishment of the Empire, and the alliance of its chief with the Vatican, have, indeed, no semblance of fixity; yet the connection between absolutism and the parti prêtre is so intimate, that it is to be dreaded serious discouragement will be offered to the Protestants. The law respecting political assemblies affords a convenient pretext for preventing the institution of new churches, and even for closing old ones, which might be made available against the Reformed congregations throughout the whole breadth of the land.

The principles of the Reformation have, in reality, raised a terror in the minds of the advocates of irresponsible government that will not be allayed, and we ought to awaken to the fact, that the causes of political and religious liberty are identical on the continent as in this country. Nevertheless, the present anomalous position of the Vatican cannot endure; but whether the support of popedom by the soldiery of Louis Napoleon be of short or long continuance, the effects must still be disastrous to the cause of the Papacy. The prestige of the Church of Rome daily wanes under such a sinister influence, and even the most zealous of her followers must question the propriety of an empire that cannot subsist without the aid of foreign bayonets, and has so little succeeded, even with all the authority of a paternal rule, often exercised by those whom she honours as saints, in gaining the affections of the people, that were it not for the sovereigns of the worst-governed nations in Europe,—Austria, the Sicilies, Spain, and France,—they would rise en masse against it. It is in Italy, therefore, that the great blow will be struck against the mental enslavement of the human race; and not until the bishop of Rome shall be reduced to his mere spiritual office, and himself and his court of cardinals be shorn of that mundane supremacy, which Jesus expressly denied to the disciples, saying, “Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you,”—not until then will the consummation so devoutly to be wished for arrive.

That the late heroic rebellion of the Romans against the ecclesiastical tyranny under which they groan failed, although narrowly, of success, is to be regretted as a just revolt against an usurpation opposed alike to the injunctions of the Christian religion and to the dearest liberties of mankind. It is a consolation to believe that even as the fall of the Papacy was stayed by the hand of the most unscrupulous of mock believers, whom yet Pius IX. styles the very dear son of the Church (carissimus in Christo filius noster), it is only the brute power of material force that retains the pontiff on his tottering throne. The saying of the ancient king, that “Rome is to be fought in Rome,” has already had its purport illustrated. It is our blame that, sanctioning for worldly motives the interference of one people with another, when an open declaration that we will not suffer to be exercised on other nations that oppression we would repel, if attempted upon ourselves, would have averted and might still in other cases prevent the occasion altogether,—yes, it is a reproach to us that we have shared in the crime of having prolonged the despotism that darkens the lot of the fairest portion of the continent and millions of our fellow-beings, for whom may yet be in store,—and perchance also for ourselves,—the renewal of the worst crimes of spiritual despotism which this book records, and another instance of the great fact that Rome, in its intents and purposes, is, and ever will be, to the hour of its accomplished doom—Semper eadem!

AUTHOR’S PREFACE.

This work was first sketched out several years ago. Different circumstances, and latterly, the general pre-occupation of the country, have prevented the author from completing it sooner. The same causes will explain why he has comprised in a single volume a history which, if it were fully developed, would require several.

The book was, at the commencement, framed on a much more extensive plan. But the present epoch, with its uncertainties and its apprehensions, is unfavourable to lengthy undertakings. Hence all that will be found herein, is a simple abridgment of the rich and varied annals of the French Reformation.

To gain space, the indication of the sources applied to, has been reduced to the narrowest limit. It would have been easy to fill entire pages with what the Germans call the littérature of the subject. But these bibliographical details, while they must have occupied much room, would have been useful to the learned by profession alone, who do not require them; therefore, it is only when we have borrowed his own words from an author, or when we have related events, subject to controversy, that it has appeared necessary to cite our authorities.

The general histories of France, which we may suppose to be familiar to most of our readers, have also afforded an opportunity of abridging our own. A few words have sufficed for whatever may be found everywhere, such as the wars of Protestantism in the sixteenth century, the intrigues of party, and court influences mixed up with religious struggles. To explain the succession of events, something of all this had to be told, but the simplest narration was all that could be required. The essential for us, was precisely that which other historians neglect to relate—the development, the life, the internal successes and reverses of the Reformed people. Instead of taking our point of observation without, we have chosen it from within. Here, indeed, is the special History of Protestantism, in which our literature was deficient.

Each one of the periods of the French Reformation has been treated, it is true, by ancient or recent writers; but there exists in our language no work that exhibits a condensed and altogether regular view of this history. There was, then, a void to fill up. We have undertaken the task, and we hope that this book, defective as it may be, will at least give some just idea of the affairs and the men of the Reformed communion of France.

It is sad to think how little the history of the Protestants is known in their own country, and even, it must be confessed, among the members of their own churches. Yet it offers chosen intellects and noble spirits for contemplation, great examples for imitation, and precious lessons to be gathered.

Protestantism has suffered from national opinion the fate of minorities, and of vanquished minorities. When it ceased to be feared, it ceased to be known, and under the favour of this disregard and indifference, every kind of prejudice against it has been received and believed. This is a denial of justice, which it ought not to accept, and a misfortune, from which it ought to relieve itself. History is the common property of all.

Nevertheless, we treat here of only one of the two branches of French Protestantism. The Lutherans of Alsatia, or Christians of the Confession of Augsburg, annexed to our country from the reign of Louis XIV., and who form about a third of the total number of the Protestants, will be completely excluded from this book. They have a separate origin, language, and form of worship, and although all the disciples of the Reformation of the sixteenth century may be united by the most intimate ties, the followers of Luther and those of Calvin have distinct annals. The first have already in Alsatia more than one historian of note, and it was not for us to take a work in hand, which they are better able to accomplish. It is, therefore, of the Reformers, properly speaking, or of those Huguenots, whose name has so oft resounded in the France of old, that we desire to write.

No spirit of sect or of system must be looked for in this work. The latter is, perhaps, useful in a theological or a philosophical history; it allows us to measure all events and all opinions by one invariable standard, and to subordinate them to a high and controlling unity; but such has not been our design. Our office is that of a narrator rather than of a judge, and our purpose is to tell the history, not to make it speak in favour of a theory. One conceives that in ecclesiastical history generally, which has been told and re-told again and again, an author should endeavour to bring it back to a systematic point of view; that is the only way to give to his work a character of originality, and, so to speak, the reason for its existence. But for the history of the French Protestants, which has never been written as a whole, it was first requisite to collect and arrange the facts in a simple, clear, and impartial manner, without adopting a type, which might have distorted their nature. Other writers will follow who, finding these facts, will re-construct them by means of philosophy or theology.

It was equally fitting that we should abstain from taking part in the questions, which divide Protestants among themselves. It was not for us to decide who was right or who wrong in these matters, and our pen would have betrayed our will, if, in the following pages, it could be supposed that any class of opinions would find an apology, or meet with an attack. Truth and justice are for all, as far as it has been possible for us to discern the true and the just: we could aspire to nothing less, and nothing more can be required of us.

This impartiality is not the neutrality of indifference or sloth, or of what is sometimes called impersonality. In the great struggles of Protestantism, we are on the side of the oppressed against the oppressor, of the victims against their executioners, of right against brute force, of equality against privilege, and of liberty against despotism. The principle of the inviolability of the human conscience, which the peoples of modern times have gathered from the Gospel, is ours; and we shall esteem ourselves amply rewarded for our efforts, if the perusal of this work shall inspire, together with the sentiment of the happy effects of the Christian life, a deeper abhorrence of all religious persecution, under whatever name or pretext it may seek to cloak itself.

Liberty of thought, liberty of faith, liberty of worship, under the safeguard and within the limits of common right: complete equality of religious creeds, and even above that equality itself, charity, fraternal love, which feels for the erring while reprobating their error—these are our maxims. They have constantly guided us in our labours, and God grant that our conviction may pass in its entirety into the spirit and conscience of the reader! The generation of our day is still in too much need of teaching of this kind.

It was impossible to write this book without relating from period to period, the last excepted, deeds of frightful injustice and of terrible cruelty; for that is the history itself of Protestantism from its origin down to the eve of the Revolution of 1789. No Christian population has been so long persecuted as the Reformed people of France. The duty of the historian must be fulfilled; but wherever the task was painful, we have striven to extenuate, by insisting upon the piety and perseverance of the proscribed, much more than upon the crimes of the proscribes. In the midst of massacres, in the face of the scaffold and the stake, in the bloody expeditions against the gatherings in the wilderness, we have only glanced at the oppressors, and our eyes have dwelt upon the victims. This restraint has been of twofold benefit to us, both as a precept of charity, and as a rule of literary composition. Every work, which excites the mind without elevating it, is bad.

The old passions, besides, must be extinguished, not only among those whose forefathers underwent so many sufferings, but also in the heart of the men, who at the present time occupy the places of the most inveterate enemies of Protestantism. However the (Roman) Catholic clergy may declare itself immutable in its creeds and maxims, it is to be hoped that this immutability does not apply to the principle of persecution. The advance of public morals has penetrated more or less everywhere, and the sword of intolerance, which has, alas! in disastrous days recoiled upon the priest himself, would, doubtless, fail to find a hand to wield it again.

The Reformers of France never would become in their country a Protestant Ireland. If they have too often stood apart from the great national family, this was their misfortune—not their fault. They did not separate themselves; they were driven forth; and each time the door has been opened, though it were but half way, they could, without betraying their sacred and inviolable obligations to God, return to the bosom of the nation, and they have done so with joy and sincerity. Now that the civil law is the same for all, they form in no sense, either near or afar off, a distinct political party, and they hold it as a point of honour to be confounded in that vast unity, which is the strength and the glory of France.

Theodore de Bèze said in his day to King Henry IV.: “My desire is, that Frenchmen should love one another.” This wish of the venerable Reformer is that of all Protestants, and truly, the circumstances which surround us, render it now more than ever an imperative duty. Not that we partake of the discouragement of many estimable men; we confide in the love of God, in the power of His Spirit, in the progress of the human race. Where others discover the seeds of decay, we behold the beginnings of a new and higher life. But the transition will be wearisome, the success difficult; and to secure a happier lot, there must be the full concurrence of all sincere Christians and all good citizens.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

Importance of the Reformation.—Corruption of the Catholic doctrine.—Vices of the discipline.—Traffic in indulgences.—Disorders of the clergy.—Protestations.—Renewal of letters.—The papacy. —Councils.—Martin Luther.—Glance at his teaching, his life, and his labours.—Ulrich Zwinglius.—His character and influence.—Progress of Reformation in Europe.—Page 1-15.

BOOK THE FIRST.

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION IN FRANCE TO THE OPENING OF THE CONFERENCE OF POISSY.

(1521-1561.)

I.

Preaching of the Reformation at Meaux.—Lefevre d’Etaples.—Guillaume Farel.—Bishop Briçonnet.—Zeal and success of the new preachers.—Page 17-20.

II.

First persecutions.—The Sorbonne.—The Parliaments.—The court. —Condemnation of Jean Leclerc.—Execution of Jacques Pavannes.—Louis Berquin.—His courage, struggles, and death.—Page 20-27.

III.

Farel in Dauphiny.—Progress of the Reformation in France.—Martyrdom of Jean Caturce at Toulouse.—The history of the monk François Lambert.—Marguérite de Valois and Francis I.—Page 27-33.

IV.

The Reformation at Paris.—Affair of the placards.—Growing persecutions.—Generalissimo procession.—Frightful executions. —Marguérite de Valois in Béarn.—Page 33-38.

V.

Jean Calvin.—His early studies.—Preachings in Poitou and Saintonge. —The book of the Institution.—Calvin at Geneva.—His character.—The intolerance with which he is reproached.—Michel Servet.—Great labours of Calvin.—Page 38-46.

VI.

Persecutions against the Vaudois in Provence.—Origin and history of this people.—How they justify themselves.—Massacres at Mérindol, Cabrières, &c.—Trial in respect of this affair before the Parliament of Paris.—Page 46-51.

VII.

Great success of the Reformation.—What were the principal causes of it.—Gentlemen.—Third estate.—Traders.—Converted monks and priests.—Bible hawkers.—Martyrdom of one of them.—Assemblies of the Reformed in small bands.—Precautions.—Piety and exemplary conduct of the Reformed.—Page 51-57.

VIII.

King Henry II.—Executions at Paris.—Edict of Châteaubriant. —Spoliations.—Project of establishing the Inquisition in France. —Attack upon an assembly of the Reformed in the Rue Saint Jacques at Paris.—Odious calumnies.—Fresh executions.—Intervention of the Protestant States.—Page 57-63.

IX.

Successive developments of the Ecclesiastical organization.—Formation of regular churches.—First national synod in 1559.—Confession of faith.—Discipline.—Analysis of its first articles.—Page 63-67.

X.

Divisions in the Parliament of Paris.—Anne Dubourg in the Bastille. —His trial and his martyrdom.—Francis II.—Catherine de Medicis. —The Cardinal de Lorraine.—The Duke François de Guise.—Antoine de Bourbon.—Louis de Condé.—François d’Andelot.—Coligny.—His education, his piety, and domestic habits.—The Cardinal Odet de Châtillon.—Page 67-79.

XI.

Tyranny of the Guises.—Persecutions.—Fanaticism of the Parisian populace.—The malcontents and the Huguenots.—The conspiracy of Amboise.—Terrible executions.—The Baron de Castelnau.—Edict of Romorantin in 1560.—Page 79-84.

XII.

Establishment of the public worship of the Reformation.—First armed contests.—Assembly of the notables at Fontainebleau.—Address presented by Coligny.—Speech of the Bishop Montluc.—Resistance of the Guises.—Disquietude of Pope Pius IV.—Page 84-89.

XIII.

Condé arrested at Orleans.—Conspiracy against Antoine de Bourbon. —The Huguenot’s snare.—Death of Francis II.—Regency of Catherine. —States-General of Orleans.—Speech of the Chancellor l’Hospital, and of the orators of the three orders.—Page 89-95.

XIV.

The Reformation preached at Fontainebleau.—Great increase in the number of churches and pastors.—Disturbances in different places. —Intrigues of the Guises.—The triumvirate.—Edict of July. —Page 95-100.

BOOK THE SECOND.

FROM THE OPENING OF THE CONFERENCE OF POISSY TO THE EDICT OF NANTES.

(1561-1598.)

I.

Project of assembling a national council.—Opposition of the clergy. —Simple conference.—Misapprehensions of both parties.—Theodore de Bèze.—Biographical details.—Arrival of Bèze at Poissy.—Conversation with the Cardinal de Lorraine.—Petition of the pastors.—Page 101-106.

II.

Opening of the colloquy.—The deputies of the churches at the bar of the Assembly.—Speech of Theodore de Bèze.—Murmurs of the prelates. —Second sitting.—Answer of Cardinal de Lorraine.—Individual conferences.—Stratagem of the Cardinal.—The Jesuit Lainez.—Rupture of the colloquy.—Page 106-113.

III.

Immense spread of the Reformation.—Viret at Nismes.—Catholic churches invaded.—Great meetings at Paris.—Approximative number of the Reformed at this period.—Edict of January.—Resistance of the Guises and several Parliaments.—Page 113-119.

IV.

Intrigues with Antoine de Bourbon, lieutenant-general of the kingdom. —Defection of this prince.—Jeanne d’Albret.—Her piety and constancy. —Her return to Béarn.—Wise government and courage of the queen of Navarre.—Page 119-122.

V.

Plots of the Guises.—The Reformed of Vassy.—Massacre of Vassy.—The pastor Morel.—The Bible and the Duke de Guise.—Did he order the massacre?—Great disquietude of the Calvinists.—Complaints of the Consistory of Paris.—Page 122-127.

VI.

Absence of all regular authority.—Resort to arms.—Letters of Catherine de Medicis to Condé.—The foreigner appealed to by both sides.—Manifestoes of each party.—Association of the Calvinist lords. —Useless conferences.—Barbarous decrees of the Parliament.—The English at Hâvre.—Page 127-132.

VII.

Siege of Rouen.—Cruelties.—The pastor Marlorat.—Death of Antoine de Bourbon.—Battle of Dreux.—Siege of Orleans.—Assassination of the Duke de Guise.—Inconstancy of the Prince de Condé.—Peace of Amboise.—Discontent of Coligny.—Page 132-137.

VIII.

The religious war in all the provinces.—Severe discipline of the Huguenots.—Atrocities of this war.—Massacre of Cahors.—Events at Toulouse in 1562.—Resistance of the Calvinists at the citadel.—Their surrender.—Great effusion of blood.—Montluc.—Page 138-143.

IX.

Violation of the treaty of peace.—Journey of Catherine de Medicis and Charles IX.—Interview with the duke of Alba.—Enterprises of the Calvinist leaders.—Battle of Saint Denis.—Arrival of auxiliaries from Germany.—Peace of Longjumeau.—Page 143-149.

X.

New acts of violence and perfidy.—Retreat of the Calvinist noblemen to La Rochelle.—Battle of Jarnac.—Provocations of Pope Pius V. —Battle of Moncontour.—Heroism of Coligny.—Letter to his children. —Peace of Saint Germain.—Page 149-155.

XI.

Weakening of the Huguenot party.—Decline of piety and manners. —National synods.—The national synod of La Rochelle in 1571. —Page 155-158.

XII.

The massacre of St. Bartholomew.—Who were the real authors of it?—An Italian crime.—How it was prepared.—Sudden death of Jeanne d’Albret at Paris.—Arrival of Coligny at the court.—Marriage of Henry de Béarn.—Coligny wounded by Maurevel.—Visit of Charles IX.—Murder of the Admiral.—Henri de Guise.—Page 158-167.

XIII.

Execrable crimes.—General processions.—The Saint Bartholomew of the provinces.—Bishop Hennuyer.—Massacres at Meaux, Troyes, Orleans, Rouen, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyons, &c.—The number of the victims. —Rejoicing at Rome and Madrid.—Consternation of the Protestant countries.—The French ambassador at London, and the Duke d’Anjou in Germany.—Consequences of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. —Page 167-176.

XIV.

Resistance and rising of the Calvinists.—Confederation at Montauban. —Siege of Sancerre.—Siege of La Rochelle.—François Lanoue.—Edict of 1573.—Remonstrances of the Reformed—The party of the politicians or malcontents.—Death of Charles IX.—Page 176-182.

XV.

Journey and return of Henry III. to France.—Abject bigotry of this prince.—The consistorial Reformed and the nobility of the Calvinist party.—Fresh recourse to arms.—Peace.—States-General of Blois. —Edict of Poitiers.—Page 182-187.

XVI.

Intrigues of Catherine de Medicis.—The war of the lovers.—The League.—Vast Scheme of Philippe II.—Character of the Duke Henri de Guise.—Weakness of Henry III.—Anarchy of the kingdom.—Edict of Nemours.—Excommunication of the Bourbons by Sixtus Quintus. —Page 187-195.

XVII.

New war of religion.—Henry de Condé.—The king of Navarre.—Battle of Coutras.—Popularity of the Duke de Guise.—Second States-General of Blois.—Murder of the Duke de Guise.—Rising of the League. —Manifesto of the king of Navarre.—Alliance between the two princes. —Assassination of Henry III.—Manners of the court of the Valois. —Page 195-202.

XVIII.

Henry IV.—Difficulties of his position.—Desertion of the Catholic nobles.—Fidelity of the Calvinists.—Duplessis-Mornay.—His convictions, his talents, and activity.—The Baron de Rosny.—The battle of Ivry.—Edict of Nantes.—Page 202-207.

XIX.

The League.—How Henry IV. changed his religion.—The Abbé Duperron. —Gabrielle d’Estrées.—Character of the king.—Arguments of Sully. —Unshaken opposition of Mornay.—Ruses of Henry IV.—Mock instruction.—Abjuration.—Page 208-212.

XX.

Capitulation of the Catholic lords.—The Calvinists sacrificed and irritated.—Absolution of Henry IV. by Clement VIII.—Complaints of the Reformed.—Their political assemblies.—Organization and object of these assemblies.—The massacre of La Châtaigneraie.—Renewed complaints.—Edict of Nantes.—Conclusion.—Page 213-220.

BOOK THE THIRD.

FROM THE PROMULGATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES TO ITS REVOCATION.

(1598-1685.)

I.

Abjuration of Henri de Condé.—Catherine de Navarre, sister of Henry IV. —Moderation of the political assemblies of the Reformed.—National synods.—The question of the Antichrist conference between Mornay and Duperron, at Fontainebleau.—Fraudulent proceedings.—The Reformed Church of Charenton.—Assassination of Henry IV.—Page 221-230.

II.

Fears of the Calvinists.—Declaration of the court.—Intrigues of the Duke de Bouillon and De Lesdiguières.—The Duke Henri de Rohan.—Wise conduct of Duplessis-Mornay.—Political assembly of Saumur.—Speech of the Duke de Rohan.—Divisions among the Reformed.—National synod of Privas.—Affair of Jérémie Ferrier.—Page 230-236.

III.

Vexatious treatment of the Reformed.—Pretensions of the Catholic clergy.—Manifesto of the Prince de Condé.—Oppression of the Calvinists of Béarn.—Indignation of their co-religionaries.—Political assembly of La Rochelle.—Project of the Reformed.—Regulations for the discipline of the troops.—Page 236-241.

IV.

Renewed contest.—Louis XIII. begins hostilities.—Taking of the Castle of Saumur.—Death of Duplessis-Mornay.—Siege of Montauban. —Re-commencement of the war in 1622.—Sanguinary executions at Nègrepelisse, &c.—Treaty of peace.—Page 241-247.

V.

False position of both sides.—Why the French Reformation had become a political party.—Hidden policy of the court.—War of partisans.—National synod of Charenton.—Expulsion of Cameron and Primrose.—National synod of Castres.—Municipal liberties of La Rochelle.—Plans of Cardinal Richelieu.—Page 247-253.

VI.

Siege of La Rochelle.—Intervention of the English.—Courage and distress of the besieged.—Indifference of the majority of the Calvinists.—Surrender of La Rochelle.—Declaration of the king. —Destruction of the town of Privas.—Edict of Grace.—Richelieu at Montauban.—Last years of the Duke de Rohan.—Page 253-260.

VII.

Fidelity and political services of the Calvinists.—Testimony of Mazarin and Louis XIV.—Causes of the new persecutions.—The Jesuits.—The clergy.—Prejudices of Louis XIII. and Louis XIV.—The statesmen and the parliament men.—Good understanding among the middle classes. —Fanaticism of the populace.—Page 260-265.

VIII.

Plan of union.—Richelieu.—La Milletière.—Opposition of the synods and the consistories—The Catholic converters.—Character, behaviour, and arguments of these propagators of the faith.—The converter Véron.—National synods of Charenton and Alençon.—New national synod of Charenton.—Page 265-271.

IX.

Peaceful state of affairs, from 1652-1656.—Complaints of the general assemblies of the clergy.—Renewal of the persecutions.—Discussions concerning the annexed districts.—Unfavourable reception of the deputies at the court.—Last national synod of Loudun.—Arrogance of the king’s commissioner.—Humble petitions of the Reformed. —Frivolous pretexts for preventing the meeting of the national synods. —Page 271-277.

X.

Cultivation of theological learning.—Academy of Montauban.—Chamier. —Bérault.—Garissoles.—This academy is broken up by the Jesuits. —Academy of Saumur.—Cameron.—Amyrault.—Cappel.—La Place.—Academy of Sédan.—Pierre Dumoulin.—Leblanc de Beaulieu.—Academy of Nismes. —Samuel Petit.—Page 277-284.

XI.

Pastors celebrated for their piety and learning.—André Rivet.—Edme Aubertin.—Benjamin Basnage.—David Blondel.—Bochart.—Le Faucheur. —Mestrezat.—Drelincourt.—Daillé.—Dubosc.—Larroque.—Ancillon. —Claude.—Page 284-292.

XII.

Catholic and Reformed commissioners sent into the provinces.—Vexatious measures.—Captious writings of the Jesuits.—Declaration of 1663 against relapsed converts.—Other ordinances.—Exclusion of the Reformed from public offices.—Probity of the Reformed in the departments of finance.—Puerile annoyances.—General declaration.—First emigration.—Prohibition against emigration.—Turenne’s abjuration. —Page 292-300.

XIII.

New projects of union.—Uselessness of these attempts.—The Jansenists and the Jesuits.—Difference in their plans.—Numerous and iniquitous ordinances.—Controversies.—Writings of Arnault and Nicole, and replies of the Reformed.—The book of the Exposition.—Controversy between Bossuet and Claude.—Page 300-305.

XIV.

The jubilee of 1676.—Growing devotion of Louis XIV.—Bad education of this monarch, and his ignorance on matters of religion.—Purchase of consciences with money by Pelisson.—Frauds.—New law against relapsed converts.—Madame de Maintenon.—Systematic project for the extirpation of heresy.—Excesses of the populace.—Page 305-310.

XV.

Increased severity of the ordinances against the Reformed.—Public offices.—Civil rights.—Marriage and parental authority.—Contracts and imposts.—Attacks upon property, and against liberty of conscience and worship.—Prohibition against the admission of the new Catholics to the temples.—Louvois.—Marillac.—First dragonnades in Poitou.—Emigration.—Page 311-318.

XVI.

Intolerable position of the Reformed.—Useless complaints.—Project of re-opening the interdicted temples.—Irritation of the court.—Cruelties practised against the religionaries of Vivarais and Dauphiny.—Affair of the church of Marennes.—Constancy of the Reformed.—Compliments of the clergy to the king.—Page 318-323.

XVII.

Dragonnades in Béarn.—Atrocious excesses.—The dragonnades in other provinces.—Barbarous treatment of all classes of the Reformed. —Forced abjurations and communions.—Illusions of the court.—Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.—Principal articles.—General considerations respecting the Revocation.—Page 323-332.

BOOK THE FOURTH.

FROM THE REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES TO THE EDICT OF TOLERANCE.

(1685-1787.)

I.

Two opposite influences in this period.—Severities against the pastors. —Their arrival in foreign countries.—Extensive emigration of the faithful.—Impotence of the laws and the government.—Different means of evasion.—Generosity of the Protestant countries.—Approximative number of the refugees.—Page 333-340.

II.

State of the Protestants in the kingdom.—How those of Paris were treated.—Additional ordinances.—Resistance in the south.—Secret assemblies.—Preachers.—Military expeditions.—Punishments inflicted upon the relapsed converts.—Louis XIV. makes a retrograde step.—The Protestant convicts.—Elie Neau.—Execution of Fulcran Rey.—Zeal and martyrdom of Claude Brousson.—Page 340-349.

III.

Protests of the Jansenists and certain bishops.—Prudent advice of the archbishop of Noailles and other enlightened individuals.—Persistance of the Jesuits and the majority of the clergy.—Edict of 1698.—The intendant Lamoignon de Bâville.—Murder of the arch-priest Chayla. —Page 349-354.

IV.

The war of the Camisards.—Religious frenzy.—The inspired obedience to the spirit.—The leaders Roland and Cavalier.—Character and manners of the Camisards.—Ill-success of the Count de Broglie. —Cruelties of Marshal de Montrevel, and of Bâville.—Arrival of Marshal du Villars.—Conference with Cavalier.—End of the war. —Page 354-363.

V.

Last years of the reign of Louis XIV.—Cautious treatment of the Reformed of Paris.—Influence of the Jesuit Letellier.—Declaration of 1715.—Monstrous legal fiction.—Death of Louis XIV.—Conduct of the Regent towards the Reformed.—Page 363-367.

VI.

Internal condition of Protestantism.—Antoine Court.—His early years, his piety and devotion.—Re-organization of the churches.—Resolutions of the synods of the desert.—Consecration of Antoine Court. —Religious assemblies.—Page 367-372.

VII.

Edict of 1714.—Its contents.—Opinions of historians and statesmen upon this Edict.—Exactions of the priests with regard to proofs of Catholicity.—Opposition between the magistracy and the clergy.—The ministry of Cardinal Fleury.—Martyrdom of Roussel and Durand. —Tournée de Court.—The French seminary of Lausanne.—Page 372-381.

VIII.

Biographical details respecting the refugee pastors.—Pierre Jurieu. —Pierre Allix.—Jean la Placette.—David Martin.—Jacques Basnage. —Abbadie.—Elie Benoît.—Saurin.—Lenfant and Beausobre. —Page 381-390.

IX.

Numerous churches reorganized in the south.—National synod of 1744. —Resolutions of this assembly.—Apprehensions of the court.—Popular rumours and calumnies.—Barbarous ordinances.—Abduction of children. —Judicial condemnations.—Assemblies surprised.—Protestant convicts. —Page 390-396.

X.

Increased persecutions of the pastors.—Martyrdoms of Louis Ranc and Roger.—Arrest of the pastor Matthieu Désubas.—Grief of the Protestants.—Affair of Vernoux.—Martyrdom of Désubas.—Petitions of the Reformed.—Intolerance of the clergy.—Writings of the bishops of Castres, Agen, and Alais.—Answer of Rippert de Monclar. —Page 396-404.

XI.

Fresh petitions.—Aggravation of the persecutions from 1750 to 1755. —The intendant Guignard de Saint Priest.—Project for a general re-baptizement.—Excesses of the troops.—Armed resistance in the Cevennes.—Fears of the Government.—Martyrdom of François Benezet. —Abjuration and repentance of the pastor Jean Molines.—Page 404-409.

XII.

Pursuits ordered by the Duke de Richelieu.—Assemblies taken by surprise.—The convict Jean Fabre.—Martyrdom of the pastor Etienne Lafage.—Severity exercised in Saintonge, Montauban, Béarn, and Guienne.—Reclamations of the Protestants of Bordeaux.—Page 409-416.

XIII.

Paul Rabaut.—His life belongs to two epochs.—Commencement of his ministry.—Studies at Lausanne.—He is appointed pastor at Nismes. —Devotion, moderation, and great influence of this pastor.—His petition to the Marquis de Paulmy.—Caution of the intendants with respect to him.—His works.—His correspondence with the Prince de Conti.—Portrait of Paul Rabaut.—His preaching.—Page 416-422.

XIV.

Reaction of public opinion against intolerance.—Complaints of the clergy.—Last pursuits of the assemblies.—Synods of Lower Languedoc. —Arrest of the pastor François Rochette.—Disturbances at Caussade. —The three brothers Grenier.—Decree of the Parliament of Toulouse. —Firmness of Rochette and the three glass-manufacturers.—Their martyrdom.—Affair of Calas.—His death.—Reversal of his sentence. —Page 422-430.

XV.

Progress of toleration.—Synod of 1763.—Some local vexations. —Liberation of the religious convicts and prisoners.—Re-organization of many churches.—Normandy.—Bolbec.—Court de Gébelin at Paris. —Doubtful position of the Protestants.—Indifference of the philosophical school.—Necessity of a new legislation.—Page 430-436.

XVI.

Opinions of the lawyers.—Joly de Fleury.—Rippert de Monclar. —Servan.—Gilbert de Voisins.—Remonstrances of the clergy.—Projects of Turgot.—Scruples of Louis XVI.—Memorials of the Baron de Breteuil and of Rulhières.—Malesherbes.—Lafayette.—Assembly of the Notables. —Edict of Toleration.—Social position of the Reformed.—Page 436-445.

BOOK THE FIFTH.

FROM THE EDICT OF TOLERATION TO THE PRESENT TIME.

(1787-1851.)

I.

General considerations.—Revolution of 1789.—Laws of the Constituent Assembly concerning religious liberty.—Rabaut.—Saint Etienne. —Analysis of one of his speeches.—His character and his death. —Proposition of Dom Gerle.—New decrees respecting the Protestants. —Page 446-453.

II.

Religious divisions in the south.—Origin and cause of these troubles. —François Froment.—Measures of the conspirators.—Popular rising at Montauban.—Nismes.—Report to the Constituent Assembly.—Rigour against the clergy.—The Decade.—Abjurations.—Persecutions. —Re-establishment of freedom of worship.—Death of Paul Rabaut. —Page 453-462.

III.

The Concordat.—First measures of the Consular Government with reference to the Protestants.—Law of the 18th Germinal, year X. —Comparison of the old and new organization of the churches.—Speech of Napoleon to the presidents of the consistories.—State of the Protestants under the empire.—Creation of the faculty of theology of Montauban.—Projects of union.—Page 462-473.

IV.

Return of the Bourbons.—Charter of 1814.—Provocations against the Protestants in the south.—The hundred days.—The reaction.—Massacres at Nismes and the department of Gard.—M. Voyer-d’Argenson. —Assassination of General Lagarde.—Re-establishment of worship at Nismes.—The pastors of Gard.—Page 473-481.

V.

Double influence under the restoration.—Augmentation of the budget of the creeds, and other measures favourable to the Protestants. —Intrigues of the clerical party.—Trial of M. Paul Roman.—Pretension of parcelling out the Protestants within certain limits.—Resistance of the consistories.—Catholic missionaries.—Controversies. —Non-execution of the Charter.—Page 482-489.

VI.

Internal condition of Protestantism.—Religious life.—M. Daniel Encontre.—His education, talents, and labours.—Foundation of the Bible Society and other religious associations.—The Baron de Staël. —Evangelization.—Félix Neff.—The Protestants of the Upper Alps. —Protestant literature under the restoration.—Page 489-497.

VII.

Revolution of 1830.—Agitation at Nismes.—The Charter revised.—M. Dupin’s opinion on religious liberty.—Hopes of the Protestants.—Plan of ecclesiastical organization.—Different ameliorations.—Attempts to proselytize among the Catholics.—Opposition of the government. —Fetters imposed upon legal Protestantism.—Debates in the Chambers. —Instances of intolerance.—Page 497-506.

VIII.

Internal situation.—The question of the confessions of faith.—M. Stapfer.—M. Samuel Vincent.—The question of the separation of Church and State.—M. Alexandre Vinet.—The Protestant press under the reign of Louis Philippe.—Charitable institutions.—Religious societies. —Admiral Ver-Huell.—Dissenters.—Page 506-514.

IX.

Revolution of 1848.—Debates upon the separation of the two powers. —Gathering of the Protestant delegates at Paris.—Synodal assembly of September, 1848.—Schism.—Project of ecclesiastical organization. —Articles of the Constitution respecting the freedom of creeds. —Conclusion.—Page 515-519.

INTRODUCTION.

The Reformation of the sixteenth century is the greatest event of modern times. It has remodelled everything in Protestant countries; and has modified almost everything in Roman Catholic countries—religious and moral doctrines, ecclesiastical and civil institutions, the arts and sciences, in such sort that it is impossible to advance a step in the investigation of an idea, or a fact whatsoever, without meeting this immense work face to face. The Reformation marks the starting-point of a new world: God alone knows its development and its end.

It is important to examine how, in the first years of the sixteenth century, it arose out of the intellectual wants and the general conscience, of mankind. It was at the same time the expression of a profound state of uneasiness, the means of a mighty improvement, and the pledge of a progress towards a better future.

The Papacy, without doubt, had rendered more than one service to Christianity in the barbarous ages. It would be unjust to refuse it the honour of having served as a centre of European unity, and of having often made right prevail over brute force. But gradually as the peoples advanced, Rome became less capable of leading them, and when she dared to erect herself as an impassable barrier before the double action of the spirit of God and the spirit of man, she received a wound which, notwithstanding vain appearances, widens from generation to generation.

In matters of belief and of worship, Roman Catholicism had admitted, by ignorance or by design, many of the Pagan elements. Without denying the fundamental dogmas of Christianity, it had disfigured and mutilated them to the extent of rendering them difficult of recognition. It was the world, to say sooth, which, forcing en masse the doors of the Christian church, had borne in with it its demigods under the name of saints, its rites, its feasts, its consecrated spots, its lustral water, its sacerdotal system; everything, in fine, to the very insignia of its priests; so much so that polytheism survived itself, in great measure, under the garb of the religion of Christ.

This mass of errors and of superstitions had naturally extended itself during the long darkness of the Middle Age. Peoples and priests had each lent their hand. Out of the false traditions of Catholicism some new falsehood was seen to rise from time to time, and it is easy to mark in the history of the Church the date of all the great changes that Christianity has undergone. The most devoted defenders of the papal throne confess that the corruption was extreme at the outset of the sixteenth century. “Some years before the appearance of the Calvinist and Lutheran heresy,” says Bellarmine, “there existed scarcely any severity in the ecclesiastical laws, purity in manners, learning in sacred literature, respect for holy things, or religion.”[1]

Preaching, although very rare, contributed to thicken the darkness, it would seem, rather than to dispel it. Bossuet acknowledges this with precautions which but half conceal his thoughts: “Many preachers preached only indulgences, pilgrimages, alms to the religious orders, and made the essence of piety to consist in these practices, which were but its accessories. They did not speak so much as they should have done of the grace of Jesus Christ.”[2]

The Bible was silent beneath the dust of old libraries. It was kept in some places fastened with an iron chain; sad image of the interdiction with which it was stricken in the Catholic world.

After having forbidden it to the faithful, the clergy, by a very simple consequence, had closed the Bible in their own schools. A short while before the Reformation, the professors of Germany had been prohibited from explaining the Holy Word in their public and private lectures. The original tongues of the Old and New Testament were, so to say, suspected of heresy; and when Luther raised his voice, it would have been difficult to find in the church of Rome any doctors capable of discussing with him the text of the Scriptures.

In this deep silence of the sacred authors, ignorance, prejudice, ambition, avarice, had free speech. The priest frequently used this liberty not for the glory of God, but of himself; and religion, destined to transform man into the image of his Creator, ended by transforming the Creator himself into the image of cupidinous and intolerant man.

Theology, after having shone with a splendid light in the brilliant days of scholasticism, had by degrees lost its ardour as well as its authority, and had become an enormous collection of curious and frivolous questions. Incessantly occupied with sharpening in puerile disputes the point of its logic, it no longer answered the wants of the human mind any more than those of the human heart.

The masses of the people appeared to follow, in general, their accustomed way; but from habit and tradition, rather than from devotion. The enthusiasm of the Middle Age had evaporated, and it would have been vain to seek in the Church for those mighty inspirations, which caused all Europe to rise at the time of the crusades.

Some pious men dwelt in the presbyteries, in the cloisters, among the laity, striving to seize the truth through the veil with which it had been covered; but they were scattered, suspected, and cast down with grief.

Discipline had shared the alterations of doctrine. The pontiff of Rome having, under favour of the false Decretals, usurped the title and the functions of universal bishop, pretended to the exercise of most of the rights which belonged, in the first ages, to the heads of dioceses; and as he was not ubiquitous, as he was obedient to his passions or to his interests more than to his duties, he aggravated the abuses which he ought to have extirpated.

What the sovereign pontiff was to the bishops, the mendicant monks, the venders of indulgences, and the other vagabond agents of the Papacy, were to the simple curates and the parish priests. Regular and legitimate authority was compelled to give way to these intruders, who, while they promised to reinstate the flocks, did nothing but pervert them.

All was disorder and anarchy. A despotic power was at the summit of the Church; midway and below, were growing usurpations, scandalous and never-ceasing contests; Christianity had much less reason to complain of being too much governed, than of being badly governed. Illusory in the ranks of the clergy, discipline had actually become a source of demoralization for the laity. To the long and severe penances of ancient times had succeeded the redemption of sins at a money price. If, at least, it had been necessary to pay for each transgression separately, it would yet have been necessary to number one’s vices. The extreme evil was, that they might be redeemed all at once, they might be redeemed beforehand, for all one’s lifetime, for all one’s family, for all one’s posterity, for a whole parish altogether. Thenceforward, there was no more authority. The absolution of the priest was derided, because absolution had already been paid for out of the purse; and the clerical power that Rome maintained on one side, she overthrew on the other.

The traffic of indulgences was carried on by the same means as ordinary barter; it had its contractors on a large scale, its directors and sub-directors, its offices, its tariffs, its travelling factors. Indulgences were vended by auction, at the beat of the drum, in the public places. They were sold by wholesale and by retail, and those agents were employed, who best knew the art of deceiving and plundering mankind.

It was, above all, this sacrilegious industry which gave the fatal blow to the Romish church. Nothing irritates a people so much as to find in religion less morality than in themselves; and this instinct is just. Every religion should ameliorate those who believe in it. When it depraves them, when it makes them descend beneath that condition in which they would be without it, its fall is certain; for it possesses no longer its essential and supreme reason of existence.

How, moreover, could the members of the clergy enforce a respect for moral duties, which they were the first to transgress? We will not here recount the disgraceful and universal licentiousness so numerously attested by authentic declarations, among others by the hundred grievances which were presented to the diet of Nuremberg, in 1523, with the signature of a legate even of Pope Adrian. Many priests paid a public tax for the privilege of living in an unlawful commerce, and in many localities in Germany this disorder had been rendered obligatory, so that still greater offences might be avoided.

Besides indulgences, Rome had invented all kinds of methods for increasing its revenues: appellations, reservations, exemptions, provisions, dispensations, expectatives, annates. The gold of Europe would have been completely absorbed if the governments had not placed some barrier; and even the poorest nations were compelled to impoverish themselves yet more to gorge pontiffs, who, like the grave, never exclaimed—“It is enough.”

The bishops and the heads of monastic orders did the same in the different provinces of Catholicity. Everything helped them to swell the possessions of the Church; peace and war, public triumphs and misfortunes, private successes and reverses, the faith of these, and the heresy of those. What they could not obtain from the liberality of the faithful, they sought in the spoliation of those who disbelieved. And so, as the grievances of Nuremberg state, the regular and secular clergy possessed in Germany one-half the territory; in France it held the third; elsewhere, still more. And the ecclesiastical domains being exempt from all taxation, priests and monks, without bearing the burdens of the state, monopolized all its benefits.

Not only did they enjoy enormous privileges for their property; they had others for their persons. Every clerk was an anointed of the Lord, a sacred thing for the civil judge. No one had a right to place his hand upon him, until he had been tried, condemned, and degraded by the members of his own order. The clergy thus formed a society wholly distinct from the general society. It was a caste placed without and above the common law; its immunities prevailed over the sovereignty of justice, and authors entitled to our credence relate that wretches entered the sacerdotal order or the cloister, solely to commit crimes with impunity.

If the priests did not suffer the magistrates to attach them, they arrogated to themselves the right of interposing without end in the suits of the laity. Testaments and wills, marriages, the civil condition of children, and a host of other matters which were called mixed, were carried before their tribunal; so that a considerable part of justice depended upon the clergy, who themselves depended upon their peers and chief alone; an organization, useful perhaps in the times of ignorance, when none but ecclesiastics possessed any knowledge, but which, by perpetuating itself down to the sixteenth century, after the revival of letters, became the most iniquitous of prerogatives, the most intolerable of usurpations.

There are in the present day writers who draw a magnificent ideal of the state of Catholicism before Luther. But have they ever studied that epoch? And those who declaim with the greatest violence against the Reformation, would they suffer for one day the abuses it has destroyed?

And it must be said, for the honour of mankind, that from period to period, fresh and courageous adversaries have arisen against each error, and each encroachment of the priestly power. In an early age, Vigilantius, and Claude of Turin; then, the Vaudois and the Albigenses; then, the Wickliffites, the Hussites, and the Brethren of Moravia and Bohemia—small and feeble communities—were crushed by the popes leagued with the princes, but who from their scaffolds and their stakes, transmitted to each other the sacred flame of primitive faith, until, reared aloft by the powerful hand of Luther, it spread afar its rays over the Christian world.

Another protestation, parallel to the preceding, and which has been styled Catholic Protestantism, had constantly manifested itself in the bosom of the Church itself, particularly after the appearance of the mystics of the Middle Age. Among the theologians, Bernard de Clairvaux, Gerson d’Ailly, Nicholas de Clémangis; among the poets, Dante and Petrarch; even councils held at Pisa, Constance, and Basle; men the most renowned for their piety and their character, for their genius and their learning, had raised the same cry: “A reform, a reform in the Church! A reform in the head and the members, in the faith and the manners!” But this Catholic movement always failed; because it never attacked the root of the evil. The secret of obtaining all—is it not that of desiring and daring all?

Whilst the Papacy persecuted the former of these protestations, and tried to seduce the other, a new enemy presented itself: the most redoubtable of all, because it could assume the most diverse forms; because it displayed itself everywhere at the same moment; because neither artifices nor tortures could subdue it. And what was this antagonist?—The human mind itself awakening from its long sleep. The fifteenth century had restored to it the books of antiquity. It suddenly felt itself animated with an intense want of investigation and renewal; and resuming, at the same time, philosophy, history, poetry, the sciences, the arts, all the wonders of the most flourishing ages of Greece and ancient Rome, it was aware that it could and would march onward in its independence.

The discovery of printing came to help the revival of learning. The old world reappeared in its entirety at the same time that Christopher Columbus discovered a new one. More than three thousand writings were published from the year 1450 to the year 1520. There was a prodigious activity, which knew neither fatigue nor fear; and what could the Church oppose to this first expansion of the human mind, so happy and so proud of entering again upon the possession of itself? The martyrdom of Savonarola did not intimidate it; at the most it took a by-turn in the treatises of Pomponatius, to arrive at the same end. The Vatican, which had sometimes been so skilful, was not so in the face of this vast movement. Several popes succeeded each other, feeble, or covetous of money, or stained with the foulest crimes: Paul II., Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII., Alexander VI., Julius II. The last, Leo X., having the voluptuous tastes of the race of the Medici, to which he belonged, without sharing their grandeur or their courage,—a priest without theological learning, a pontiff without gravity, setting his buffoons to dispute about the immortality of the soul, and amusing himself with the frivolous diversions of the theatre, when Germany was on fire,—seems to have been chosen from on high to level the path of the Reformation.

Thus everything was ready. Scarcely do we place our foot upon the threshold of the sixteenth century, before we hear those hollow sounds which, in the moral world, as in the physical, announce the approach of the storm. The heart is oppressed, the mind is disturbed: something extraordinary, we know not what, is about to happen. Kings upon their thrones, the learned in their closets, professors in their chairs, pious men in their oratories, even warriors upon the field of battle, tremble and reveal, by brief words or acts of violence, the presentiments which pursue them.

In 1511, the emperor Maximilian and the king Louis XII. convoke a council at Pisa, in order to recall Julius II. to his duty, and to remedy the evils of the Church. Several cardinals attend, in spite of the prohibitions of the Vatican; and on the 21st of April, 1512, the pope Julius is suspended, as notoriously incorrigible and contumacious. “Arise, Cæsar,” write with one accord the members of this assembly to the emperor Maximilian: “Arise, be firm and watchful; the Church falls; the good are oppressed; and the wicked triumph.”

Julius II. opposed council with council, and assembled in the basilic of the Lateran the prelates who remained faithful to him. But even there, before this pontiff, who possessed no other knowledge than that of arms, Œgidius de Viterbo, general of the order of the Augustines, accuses the priests of having abandoned prayer for the sword, and of haunting, after battle, houses of prostitution. “Can we contemplate,” he asks, “without shedding tears of blood, the ignorance, the ambition, the immodesty, the impiety reigning in the holy places, whence they ought to be for ever banished?”

As they hearkened to these cries of distress descending from such high places, the troubled nations appealed to a new general council, as if experience had not taught them that these great assemblies, so prodigal of words, were barren for a work of reformation! But the multitude knew not whence deliverance might come, and, in its anxiety, it clung to the illusions of its old recollections.

In the midst of this universal and restless expectation, the enemy grew bold. Reuchlin maintained the rights of knowledge against the barbarous teaching of the universities. The noble Ulrich of Hutten, the representative of chivalry in this grand struggle, announced by appeals from the sword to public reason, the advent of a new civilization. Erasmus, the Voltaire of the epoch, excited the laughter of kings, lords, cardinals, and even the pope, at the expense of the monks and doctors, and opened the door by which the modern world must pass. Then Martin Luther appeared.

It is not part of my task to write the history of the Reformer. Sent to Rome respecting the affairs of the order of the Augustines, he found there a vast and profound incredulity, a revolting immorality. Luther returned to Germany heartbroken, his conscience agitated with bitter doubts. An old Bible, which he discovered in the convent of Erfurt, revealed to him a religion wholly different from that which he had been taught. Still the thought was not yet born within him to undertake the reformation of the Church. Pastor and professor at Wittenberg, he confined himself to spreading around him healthy doctrines and good examples.

But John Tetzel, a vender of indulgences, audacious to effrontery, covetous to cynicism, whilom condemned to prison for notorious crimes, and menaced with drowning in the Inn by the inhabitants of the Tyrol, dared to interpose his vile traffic between the word of Luther and the souls confided to him. Luther became indignant: he re-perused his Bible; and in 1517 he affixed to the door of the cathedral of Wittenberg those ninety-five theses destined soon to raise throughout all Europe such a formidable echo.

It was the revolt of his conscience, which made him seek in the Bible fresh weapons against the church of Rome. It is the same moral revolt, which will gather around him thousands, and soon millions of disciples. Luther has placed himself at the head of all the irritated people of worth.

To the dogma of justification by works, which has produced so many extravagant practices and shameful excesses, he opposes justification through faith in the redemption of Jesus Christ. All his doctrine is summed up in these words of the apostle Paul: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”[3] This doctrine had the double advantage of resting for support upon Biblical texts, and of overthrowing by the same blow indulgences, supererogatory works of saints, pilgrimages, flagellations, penances, artificial merits. It thus accorded with the highest ideas, with the best religions, the intellectual and moral aspirations of the era.

Luther had taken a first step. He again appealed, nevertheless, from the pope ill-informed, to the pope better advised. But instead of an ordinance of reformation, Rome sent a bull of excommunication. The doctor of Wittenberg solemnly burnt it, with the Decretals of the Holy See, on the 10th of December, 1520, in the presence of innumerable spectators. The issuing flame lighted up all Europe, and cast a sinister glare upon the walls of the Vatican.