II. 36 BOOK Protestant party was the more important, as Spanish forces were assisting their more powerful opponents.35 Attempts for reconciliation failed; and the duke of Guise pursuing his success, besieged Orleans, with every probability of taking it, till he was basely assassinated by a young man from Lyons, as he was riding from the camp to the place he lodged at." This revolting catastrophe, and the presence of English forces in France in support of the reformers, brought on that peace, which had before been unattainable. The Protestant party obtained, on 19th March, an edict of pacification highly favorable to their cause : 38 and the forces of the kingdom were then directed to expel the English from Havre, without the restitution of Calais. The place was not found to be long defen 35 Sir N. Throckmorton, on 14 December, reported that 2500 Spaniards had assisted to force the prince of Condé to raise his siege of Paris. Forbes, p. 126. 36Against the advice of many at the court, who wished him to go into Normandy, and frustrate the admiral's plans.' Castel. p. 135. Throck. lett. of 1 March. He was wounded on 18 February, and died the 24th. Forbes, 343. The man, Poltrot, rode off, but was taken next day; he was about nineteen or twenty years old. The duke, after he felt the blow in his shoulder, called to a gentleman who was passing him in a furred cloak, to give it him because he was hurt, and then rode in all haste as fast as he could towards Paris. Lett. 26 February, p. 339. The murderer, when taken, declared, 'very assuredly, that it was he who shot the pistol with a resolute intent to kill him, moved and solicited thereunto only by his own zeal to revenge the tyranny which the duke had committed against the Christians, and was like to exercise if he might have any long life; and this was, said he, the end provided for all insolent and tyrannical princes.' Forb. p. 343. He had come dressed like a horse soldier on a Spanish jennet, pretending to have a communication of importance to the duke, but instead of a letter, drew from under his long cloak the pistol, and fired it on his shoulder. Warw. lett. p. 345. The Huguenots disavowed the crime, and the admiral declared it to be a wicked action. Castel. p. 145. 38 Hen. Abrid. 415. Castelnau describes and justifies the peace as a wise and needful measure, tho the furious papists opposed it. p. 153. 59 Castelnau describes the siege and its result, p. 154-9. The succors XXV. sible, and was at length surrendered to the French СНАР. government, and peace was again restored between the two countries.40 Elizabeth had fully gained her real object. She had saved the Huguenots, and averted the danger from her own country and its adopted faith. For these points only she had armed, and both Havre and Calais were but minor and subordinate considerations. that came to keep it for England longer, arrived two days after its capitulation. The French entered it 31 July 1562. ib. 160. 40 The negotiation was carried on at Troyes, and the final treaty of peace published there on 13 April 1563. Avec grande allegresse de leurs magistes et de toute la cour.' Castel. 169. CHAP. XXVI. II. CONTINUED EFFORTS OF THE POPES AGAINST PROTES- BOOK THE determination of the popedom, and of the leaders of the hierarchy, to exterminate those opposing opinions which it termed heresies, and those professors and promoters of the diffusing reformation, whom it branded as heretics, descended unabated from pontiff to pontiff during the sixteenth century. The successor of Leo, Adrian VI. in 1522, called upon the electors and princes of Germany, if Luther would not return to the right way, to visit him with the rod of severity.' He reminded them, that cancerous ulcers were to be cured by fiery cauteries, and alienated limbs to be entirely cut off from the body. To prevent the supposition that he spoke only in the metaphors of rhetoric, he assured them that two Greek emperors had taken off heretics by the sword; and as their own ancestors had put Huss and Jerome to a due death, he did not 3 4 'Severitatis virga animadvertis.' Ep. Had. 6, in Le Plat Monum. v. 2. p. 143. It is dated 25th November 1522. 26 Aspera erunt et ignita cauteria adhibenda; et abalienata membra ab integro corpore penitus resecanda.' ib. 36 'Sic veteres et pii imperatores, Jovinianum et Priscilianum, hæreticos gladio seculi sustulerunt.' ib. Sic majores vestri de J. Hussite et Hieronymo P. debitas sumpsere pœnas.' ib. doubt that, if requisite, they holy and illustrious deeds." would imitate these CHAP. He desired his autho rized agent to mention to the German potentates, that some of their ancestors had even with their own hands led Huss to the fire' which destroyed him.® He intreated the Bambergers to consider Luther's doctrines to be diabolical;" to have the same horror of them and of their authors as of hell; and to treat the books which stated them, as poisoned things, which were neither to be read nor listened to." The language of the next pontiff, Clement VII. two years afterwards to the emperor, is as decided.1o It stigmatized Luther as a lost and wicked wretch, and averred it to be of great moment that his heresy should be extirpated." The next pope, Paul III., exhibited the same feelings in his attempt to depose Henry VIII. for his heresy," in his congratulatory letter to Charles V. on his capturing the duke of Saxony;13 and in send 5 Quorum sancta et præclara gesta, si etiam hac in parte (ubi aliter fieri nequent) fueritis imitati, non dubitamus, quin Divina Clementia ad eundem-sensus et corda vestra inspiret.' ib. He instructs his nuncio F. Cheregat, to tell them, that if they did not exert themselves they would degenerate from their progenitors, quorum aliqui ipsum J. Huss, propriis manibus, ad ignem duxisse dicuntur.' Instructio Had. in Le Plat, v. 2. p. 145. 7 Doctrinam istorum pernitiosissimam, perfidam, blasphemam, diabolicam.' Breve. Had. ad Bamberg, ib. 151. 8 Cum suis auctoribus, tanquam infernum horreatis.' ib. 9 Ib. 151. 10 Nefarius et perditus Lutherus.' Ep. Clem. to Chas. V. Le Plat, p. 213, dated 27th Jan. 1534. "Initio magnum momentum agi extirpandæ illius hæresis.' ib. We have already mentioned, in our note in ch. xv. vol. 3. that it was made a systematic policy of the Romish hierarchy, to speak of Protestants and their opinions with these general and reviling invectives. 12 Paolo III. giudicando per queste sue nuove heresie indegno Henrico del nome Christiano, in consistorio publico lo'scommunico é priviò del titolo regio e di ogni sua potesta.' Oner. Panuin. p. 569. 13 He impresses on the emperor that his victory not only represses XXVI. II. 16 BOOK ing to the emperor a military force, under his legate and brother, to act with his army against the Protestants;11 which proved a very seasonable assistance in defeating them,15 to the great delight of the pope. The wars in Italy and Germany between France and the emperor, prevented Julius III. from uniting these two great princes in any league to destroy the Reformation, to which both, after all their vacillations, ultimately inclined;" and the accession of Mary in England opened an easier way to its suppression in that country, whose defection had most shaken the papal see. But Paul IV. whose severe and cruel the germina impietatis,' but may utterly extirpate all its evils.' That he has now got the head and origin of the crime and wickedness' in his power. That Heaven destroyed Pharaoh by slaying him 'extremo exitio,' when he became incorrigible. That the duke was worse than Pharaoh, Pharaone deterior,' and was now delivered into his hands expressly to be made to feel, not the laws which reward the good, but those which propound the punishment of their crimes to the impious and the nefarious.' Epist. Pauli, dated 30th May 1547. Le Plat, v. 3. p. 644. Charles, however, would not put the duke to death, as the pontiff wished. 14 Havea papa Paulo mandato, per esser guerra contra Lutherani, e per amicitia, tre valorosissime legioni, d'Italiani; e 600 cavalli lesgieri; e il cardinale suo fratello legato.' ib. 585. 15 Che giunsero molto in quel bisogno a tempo.' ib. 16 Molto si rallegro di questa vittoria il papa,' and especially because it was a war in favor of religion, and that he had sent succors to it. Onef. Pan. p. 583, 4. 17 One of the closing acts of the life of Charles V. in its declining imbecility, displays him also in the form of an exterminator; and may account in some degree for that character becoming so fully assumed by his son; thus evincing the universality of that system of extirpating the Protestants on which the Catholic hierarchy and its supporters had determined. On his codicil, written twelve days before his death, Charles V. after reciting that he had caused many persons to be arrested for Lutheranism, adds, 'particularly desirous to inspire my son with the wish of imitating my conduct, I beg and command him, in my quality of father, to labor with all diligence, that the heretics be prosecuted and chastised, with all the severity which their crimes deserve, without permitting any criminal to be excepted; and without any respect for the intreaties, or rank, or quality of the persons.' Sandoval's Hist. Charles V. Llorente Hist. Inq, p. 173. |