fanatiques déclaroient qu'ils ne pouvaient sans crime souffrir dans ce pays régénéré l'idolâtrie de la messe.’
Sismondi,
Hist. des Français, vol. xxii. p. 415.
159
Notice sur les Mémoires de Rohan, vol. i. p. 26. Compare the account given by Pontchartrain, who was one of the ministers of Louis XIII. Mém. de Pontchartrain, vol. ii. pp. 248, 264; and see Mém. de Richelieu, vol. i. p. 443.
160
Bazin, Hist. de France sous Louis XIII, vol. ii. pp. 62–64. The pith of the question was, that ‘l'édit de Nantes ayant donné pouvoir, tant aux catholiques qu'aux huguenots, de rentrer partout dans leurs biens, les ecclésiastiques de Béarn démanderent aussytôt les leurs.’ Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil, vol. i. p. 392.
161
‘L'affaire de Béarn, source de tous nos maux.’ Mém. de Rohan, vol. i. p. 156; see also p. 183. And the Protestant Le Vassor says (Hist. de Louis XIII, vol. iii. p. 634): ‘L'affaire du Béarn et l'assemblée qui se convoqua ensuite à la Rochelle, sont la source véritable des malheurs des églises réformées de France sous le règne dont j'écris l'histoire.’
162
On the connexion between the proceedings of Béarn and those of Rochelle, compare Mém. de Montglat, vol. i. p. 33, with Mém. de Richelieu, vol. ii. p. 113, and Mém. de Rohan, vol. i. p. 446.
163
Their first church was established in 1556 (Ranke's Civil Wars in France, vol. i. p. 360); but, by the reign of Charles IX. the majority of the inhabitants were Protestants. See De Thou, Hist. Univ. vol. iv. p. 263, vol. v. p. 379, ad. ann. 1562 and 1567.
164
Or, as M. Capefigue courteously puts it, ‘les Rochelois ne respectaient pas toujours les pavillons amis.’ Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 332. A delicate circumlocution, unknown to Mezeray who says (Hist. de France, vol. iii. p. 426) in 1587: ‘et les Rochelois, qui par le moyen du commerce et de la piraterie,’ &c.
165
‘Ceste place, que les huguenots tenoient quasy pour imprenable.’ Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil, vol. i. p. 512. ‘Cette orgueilleuse cité, qui se croyoit imprenable.’ Mém. de Montglat, vol. i. p. 45. Howell, who visited Rochelle in 1620 and 1622, was greatly struck by its strength. Howell's Letters, pp. 46, 47, 108. At p. 204, he calls it, in his barbarous style, ‘the chiefest propugnacle of the Protestants there.’ For a description of the defences of Rochelle, see De Thou, Hist. Univ. vol. vi. pp. 615–617; and some details worth consulting in Mezeray, Hist. de France, vol. ii. pp. 977–980.
166
Bazin, Hist. de Louis XIII, vol. ii. p. 139; Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. xxii. pp. 480, 481. Rohan himself says (Mém. vol. i. p. 446): ‘je m'efforçai de la séparer.’ In a remarkable letter, which Mornay wrote ten years before this, he shows his apprehensions of the evil that would result from the increasing violence of his party; and he advises, ‘que nostre zèle soit tempéré de prudence.’ Mém. et Correspond. vol. xi. p. 122; and as to the divisions this caused among the Protestants, see pp. 154, 510, vol. xii. pp. 82, 255; and Sully, Œconomies Royales, vol. ix. pp. 350, 435.
167
‘Les seigneurs du parti, et surtout le sage Duplessis Mornay, firent ce qu'ils purent pour engager les réformés à ne pas provoquer l'autorité royale pour des causes qui ne pouvoient justifier une guerre civile; mais le pouvoir dans le parti avoit passé presque absolument aux bourgeois des villes et aux ministres qui se livroient aveuglement à leur fanatisme, et à leur orgueil, et qui étoient d'autant plus applaudis qu'ils montroient plus de violence.’ Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. xxii. p. 478.
168
‘On confisqua les biens des églises catholiques.’ Lavallée des Français, vol. iii. p. 85: and see Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 258.
169
‘Ils donnent des commissions d'armer et de faire des impositions sur le peuple, et ce sous leur grand sceau, qui étoit une Religion appuyée sur une croix, ayant en la main un livre de l'évangile, foulant aux pieds un vieux squelette, qu'ils disoient être l'église romaine.’ Mém. de Richelieu, vol. ii. p. 120. M. Capefigue (Richelieu, vol. i. p. 259) says that this seal still exists; but it is not even alluded to by a late writer (Felice, Hist. of the Protestants of France, p. 240), who systematically suppresses every fact unfavourable to his own party.
170
Le Vassor, Hist. de Louis XIII, vol. iv. p. 157; Bazin, Hist. de Louis XIII, vol. ii. p. 145; Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. ii. pp. 353–355; Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 258.
171
Even Mosheim, who, as a Protestant, was naturally prejudiced in favour of the Huguenots, says, that they had established ‘imperium in imperio;’ and he ascribes to the violence of their rulers the war of 1621. Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. pp. 237, 238.
172
Compare Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil, vol. ii. p. 88, with Flassan, Hist. de la Diplomatie Française, vol. ii. p. 351.
173
See the paper of instructions from Pope Gregory XV. in the appendix to Ranke, die Röm. Päpste, vol. iii. pp. 173, 174: ‘Die Hauptsache aber ist was er dem Könige von Frankreich vorstellen soll: 1, dass er ja nicht den Verdacht auf sich laden werde als verfolge er die Protestanten bloss aus Staatsinteresse.’ Bazin (Hist. de Louis XIII, vol. ii. p. 320) says, that Richelieu attacked the Huguenots ‘sans aucune idée de persécution religieuse.’ See, to the same effect, Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 274; and the candid admissions of the Protestant Le Vassor, in his Hist. de Louis XIII, vol. v. p. 11.
174
Quick's Synodicon in Gallia, vol. i. p. 62.
175
Ibid. vol. i. pp. lvii. 17, 131, vol. ii. p. 174.
176
‘And both sexes are required to keep modesty in their hair,’ &c. Ibid. vol. i. p. 119.
177
Quick's Synodicon, vol. i. p. 165.
178
The synod of Alez, in 1620, says, ‘A minister may at the same time be professor in divinity and of the Hebrew tongue. But it is not seemly for him to profess the Greek also, because the most of his employment will be taken up in the exposition of Pagan and profane authors, unless he be discharged from the ministry.’ Quick's Synodicon, vol. ii. p. 57. Three years later, the synod of Charenton suppressed altogether the Greek professorships, ‘as being superfluous and of small profit.’ Ibid. vol. ii. p. 115.
179
The synod of St. Maixant, in 1609, orders that ‘colloquies and synods shall have a watchful eye over those ministers who study chemistry, and grievously reprove and censure them.’ Ibid. vol. i. p. 314.
180
Ibid. vol. i. pp. 140, 194, vol. ii. p. 110.
181
Quick's Synodicon, vol. i. pp. lv. 235, 419, vol. ii. pp. 201, 509, 515. Compare Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. ii. p. 473.
182
Quick's Synodicon, vol. ii. p. 81.
