FOOTNOTES:
[1] Bellarm. Op. vol. vi. p. 296.
[2] Hist. des Variations, book v. p. 1.
[3] Ephes. ii. 8.
[4] Bossuet, Hist. des Var. book ii. p. 13.
[5] Œcol. et Zw. Op. p. 9.
[6] Les Vrais Portraits, &c. translated from the Latin of Th. de Bèze, p. 85.
[7] Fontaine, Hist. Cathol. de notre Temps, p. 53.
[8] Hist. des Martyrs, p. 93.
[9] Erasm. Epp. vol. ii. p. 1206.
[10] It should be observed that the name of Protestant was not generally given in France to the followers of the Reformation, until the end of the seventeenth century, and that it would not be more exact to call them so in the former half of our history, than to designate by the name of Frenchmen the contemporaries of Clovis. They were called in the beginning, Lutherans, Sacramentarians, then Calvinists, Huguenots, Religionaries, or Those of the Religion. They called themselves Gospellers, the Faithful, the Reformers. The name of Protestant was at that time applied only to the disciples of the Lutheran Reformation in Germany.
[11] 1 Tim. iv. 1-3.
[12] See the narration of Lambert in Gerdes, Hist. Réform. vol. iv. Doc. pp. 21-28.
[13] Les Vrais Portraits, &c.
[14] We can only sketch here the chief features. Those, who are desirous of knowing what the mystic school of the first periods of the French Reformation was, should read the monograph of Gérard Roussel, by Professor C. Schmidt, &c.
[15] Hist. des Egl. réf. p. 6.
[16] Recherches sur la France, book vii. p. 911.
[17] There are some remarkable pages of M. Guizot’s on this subject in the Musée des Protestants célèbres, art. Calvin. The execution of Michel Servet has furnished the subject of a never-ending discussion. A skilful historian of our time, M. Mignet, has devoted to it a long and learned dissertation. It would be wholly departing from our plan, to enter into these details. We will confine ourselves to the indication of the following points:—1. Servet was not an ordinary heretic; he was a daring pantheist, and outraged the dogma of all the great Christian communities, by saying that the God in three persons was a Cerberus, a monster with three heads. 2. He had been already condemned to death by the Catholic doctors at Vienne, in Dauphiny. 3. The affair was tried, not by Calvin, but by the magistrates of Geneva; and if it be objected, that his advice must have influenced their decision, it must be remembered that the counsels of the other reformed Swiss cantons approved the sentence unanimously. 4. It was of infinite importance to the Reformation, that it should separate its cause clearly from that of an unbeliever like Servet. The (Roman) Catholic church, which this day accuses Calvin of having participated in his condemnation, would have accused him still more, in the sixteenth century, had he solicited for his acquittal.
[18] Vie de Calvin, pp. 44, 128, and passim.
[19] Florim. de Rémond, Hist. de la Naissance, &c., de l’Hérésie de ce Siècle, book vii. p. 931.
[20] Book vii. p. 874.
[21] Book vii. p. 910.
[22] Book vii. p. 864.
[23] John de Serres, Recueil de Choses mémorables, &c. p. 64.
[24] Page 189.
[25] Vol. i. pp. 108, 109.
[26] Abrégé Chron. vol. v. p. 14.
[27] It must be remembered here, and in other parts of this book, that we are speaking of the Italians of the sixteenth century, nobles and priests, who, eternally witnessing at Rome, Florence, Naples, scenes of assassination, poisoning, and the utmost turpitude, had sunk into the very lowest degree of depravity. It is they, history attests it, who planned, advised, prepared, and finally executed in France the most monstrous crimes of the epoch. But we are far from seeking to load the Italian nation of to-day with this terrible responsibility: a generous and intellectual nation, which has raised itself by its very misfortunes, and which adversity renders doubly entitled to our respect.
[28] Vol. iv. p. 204.
[29] Mémoires de Coligny, p. 18. It is thought that these memoirs were the work of Cornaton, one of the most faithful servants of the admiral. What follows is an abridged extract from the edition printed at Grenoble in 1669.
[30] Page 20.
[31] Page 22.
[32] Pages 94-97.
[33] Vol. i. p. 147.
[34] La Planche, Histoire de France sous François II. p. 214.
[35] See upon this point, Regnier de la Planche, Jean de Serres, D’Aubigné, De Thou, and among the more modern historians, Anquetil, Sismondi, M. Lacretelle, and others.
[36] Page 128.
[37] Hist. du Calvinisme, pp. 192, 193.
[38] Vol. iii. p. 278.
[39] Vie de Theodore de Bèze, pp. 207, 208.
[40] Etudes, Hist. vol. ii. p. 198. This remark is applicable to all great ideas, political as well as religious. In the days of the Revolution, the people overturned the monuments of the old régime. Symbols bear before the masses the penalty of their origin and of their destination. One example, which we may select from a thousand, will illustrate the ardent passion of the iconoclasts of the sixteenth century. The great church of Sainte Croix, at Orleans, had been entered in the night, and pillaged during the first religious war. Condé and Coligny hastened to put a stop to these disorders. The prince even pointed an arquebuse at a soldier, who stood upon a ladder ready to break an image. “My lord,” said the Huguenot to him, “have patience till I have broken this image, and then let me die, if you will.”
[41] Hist. des Guerres civiles de France, tome i. p. 115.
[42] Agrippa d’Aubigné, Hist. Universelle.
[43] Tome i. p. 141.
[44] Tome ii. p. 162.
[45] Histoire de M. G. Bosquet, sur les troubles advenus en la ville de Toulouse, p. 25.
[46] Page 50.
[47] Tome ii. p. 223.
[48] Page 696.
[49] Tome v. p. 104.
[50] Esprit de la Ligue, tome i. p. 249.
[51] Page 700.
[52] Tome v. p. 117.
[53] Tome v. c. 18.
[54] Tome i. p. 383.
[55] Sismondi, Hist. des Français, tome xix. p. 2.
[56] Recueil des Choses mémorables, p. 417.
[57] A writer of the present day, M. Capefigue, carrying the ideas and the passions of the nineteenth into the sixteenth century, insists that Charles IX. and his court were coerced by the people of the markets, and that the masses were moved by hatred against the gentry, or the Huguenot aristocracy. Then applying to these allegations the system of revolutionary fatality, he concludes that no one is to be blamed. (La Réforme et la Ligue, pp. 341, 346, 361, 373, et passim.) Such dreams are pointed out to the reader; they are unworthy of refutation!
[58] Read again the note upon the Italians of the sixteenth century, p. 89.
[59] Journal de Henri III. tome i. p. 45.
[60] This Besme received the reward of his crime from the Cardinal de Lorraine, who permitted him to marry one of his natural daughters: a double disgrace for a priest to recompense such a man, and to have such a reward to bestow.
[61] Maimbourg, Hist. du Calvinisme, p. 486.
[62] Aignan, Biblioth. étrangère, tome i. p. 229.
[63] Le Stratagème de Charles IX. p. 178.
[64] Hist. d’Angleterre, vol. vii. p. 201.
[65] M. Lacretelle has collected the proofs in his Hist. de Guerres de Religion.
[66] Etudes hist. tome iv. p. 296.
[67] Page 462.
[68] Journal of Henry III. vol. i. pp. 71, 72.
[69] Recueil de Choses mémor. p. 546.
[70] Book iv. c. 5.
[71] Book iv. c. 3.
[72] For the history of this period, consult the Règne de Henri III., by Mézeray, 3 vols. 8vo. The new editor, M. Scipion Combet, has added to it a summary of the history of the French Protestants from the commencement of the Reformation to the law of the 18th Germinal, year 10.—This is a solid work, and may be read with profit.
[73] See De Thou, l. xcvi. vol. vii. p. 495, and the memoirs of the sixteenth century. Among the moderns, see the Etudes Histor. of M. de Châteaubriand, vol. iv. p. 371. “It was the policy of this pope,” says he, in speaking of his sacrilegious comparisons, “to encourage fanatics, who were ready to kill kings, in the name of the papal power.”
[74] Elie Benoit, Hist. de l’Edit de Nantes, vol. i. p. 121.
[75] Vol. ii. p. 295.
[76] Elie Benoît, vol. ii. p. 377.
[77] Le Mercure Français, vol. viii. p. 637.
[78] Arcère, Hist. de la Rochelle, vol. i. p. 288.
[79] Vol. i. p. 88.
[80] Eclaircissements histor. vol. i. pp. 46, 47.
[81] Those who are desirous of acquainting themselves minutely with the situation of the Reformed at this period, must read the Histoire de l’Edit de Nantes, by Elie Benoit. The author has filled five 4to. volumes with the recital of the vexations, injustice, violence, and persecutions, which his co-religionists suffered from the reign of Henry IV. to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
[82] Staeudlin, Geschichte der Theol. Wissenschaften, vol. ii. pp. 58, 59. See also Schroeck, Christl. K. Geschichte, vol. v. pp. 297-309.
[83] I.e. an arbitrary warrant of imprisonment, without accusation or trial.—Trans.
[84] “The Right Use of the Fathers,” a work which cannot be too widely circulated or studied in the present times.—Trans.
[85] Vol. iv. p. 99.
[86] Vol. iii. p. 139.
[87] Vol. i. p. 175.
[88] Vol. xxv. p. 481.
[89] Vol. i. p. 97.
[90] Vol. iv. pp. 479, 480. The author, who was a contemporary of these events, relates the facts with precision, indicates the localities, and cites names; so that his narrative bears the impress of perfect veracity, which is, besides, confirmed by the memoirs of the times. We suppress the details, as almost too painful for perusal.
[91] Vol. iv. p. 502.
[92] Pages 124-126.
[93] Vol. v. p. 681.
[94] Vol. v. pp. 832, 833.
[95] Page 52.
[96] A more disgraceful peace to England than that of Utrecht was probably never made; and if its terms are considered to have been “hard” to France, most assuredly it must ever be acknowledged,—to use the words of Lord Mahon, in his admirable History of England (vol. i. p. 6, ed. 1853),—to have been “a sin against light; not the ignorance which is deluded, but the falsehood which deludes.”—Trans.
[98] Vol. v. pp. 953, 554.
[99] Essai sur l’Etablissement Monarchique de Louis XIV. p. 413.
[100] Insurgents in the reign of Louis XIV., who were so called.—Trans.
[101] Capefigue, Louis XIV. vol. ii. chap. 24, p. 258. The author is in error as to the number of pastors, or he has included in his list professors, students of theology, and other persons indirectly connected with ecclesiastical functions. Rulhières also speaks of two thousand ministers. Elie Bénoit, who was much better informed on the subject, since he was himself one of the refugee pastors, makes the number only seven hundred.
[102] See l’Histoire abrégé des souffrances du Sieur Elie Neau sur les galères et dans les cachots de Marseille: Rotterdam, 1701.
[103] Edition Lefevre, p. 33. Some of the verses have a very striking allusion:
On peut des plus grands rois surprendre la justice.
[Great kings can suppress justice.]
Et le roi trop crédule a signé cet édit.
[And a king too credulous has signed that edict.]
[104] Hist. des Camisards, book i. p. 25.
[105] Vol. ii. p. 278.
[106] Lettres Pastor. vol. iii. p. 60.
[107] Théâtre Sacré des Cevennes.
[108] Page 80 and seq.
[109] M. N. Peyrat. Hist. des Pasteurs du Désert, vol. ii. pp. 513, 514. The author has carefully collected and related, in a lively and interesting manner, the principal circumstances of the war of the Cévenoles.
[110] Vol. vii. p. 18 et seq.
[111] Page 413.
[112] The reader, if desirous of more ample information concerning this period, may peruse with advantage the work of M. Charles Coquerel, entitled: Histoire des Eglises du Désert, in two vols. 8vo. M. Coquerel had access to important documents, and has used them most judiciously. We shall have frequent occasion to refer to his work in the course of this history. The Histoire de l’Eglise Chrétienne Réformée de Nismes, by M. le pasteur Borrel, may also be consulted: the work is exact, and under a particular or local title, contains many things of general interest.
[113] Mélanges de relig. et de morale, vol. v. p. 181.
[114] Vol. xxvii. p. 514.
[115] Hist. de France pendant le dix-huitième siècle, vol. ii. p. 7.
[116] After reading the correspondence of the intendants, M. Lemontey, in his Essays upon the Monarchical Establishment of Louis XIV., asserts that certain curates required of the heretics, before they would bless their marriages, “that they should curse their deceased parents, and swear that they believed in their everlasting damnation!”—Vol. ii. p. 157.
[117] Pages 35, 103.
[118] Bibliothèque Française, vol. xxii. pp. 288, 289.
[119] Armand de la Chapelle, La Nécessité du Culte public, &c.
[120] Pages 9, 45, 46.
[121] Pages 48, 49.
[122] Mémoire Hist. pp. 65, 66.
[123] M. C. Coquerel, Histoire des Eglises du Désert, vol. ii. pp. 168-170.
[124] The edition from which this translation is made, was revised by the author in 1851. Since that time, the voice of France is silenced by tyranny and oppression; the Roman Catholic priesthood is gaining strength, and commencing its work of persecution; and two prisoners, for the political offence of liberty of thought and speech, have been sentenced to transportation at Cayenne, by the mere order of a minister of police, without the form of a trial!—Trans.
[125] A word of explanation is necessary in respect of the restriction with regard to other ecclesiastics than the proper curates; there were, even then, priests, either complaisant or venal enough, to bless the marriages of the Reformed for a certain price, and without any examination. As public opinion gradually grew satisfied with the laws against the Calvinists, the number of these priests also increased to such an extent, that the bargains became an open kind of traffic, of which, however, the rich alone could avail themselves. Many of the Protestants, besides, declined, from conscientious motives, to incur even the appearance of hypocrisy by inscribing their marriages upon the registers of the priests.
[126] J. Pons, Notice Biographique, &c.
[127] Archives du Christianisme, vol. xx. p. 293.
[128] In many respects, the celebrated George Whitfield seems to have resembled Rabaut; his voice could also be heard at an immense distance, and from his published discourses, no one would suppose that their effect upon his hearers could have been so startling.—Trans.
[129] Vol. ii. p. 347.
[130] Les Toulousaines, Lettre xxii.
[131] They were gentilshommes verriers. The trade of a glass manufacturer did not disparage their nobility.—Trans.
[132] Book xxv. c. 10.
[133] Répertoire Ecclésiast. pp. 7, 8.
[134] A work has been published in the German language, entitled: “The Protestant Church of France from 1787 to 1846” (Die Protestantische Kirche Frankreichs, &c.), 2 vols. 8vo: Leipsig, 1848. The author is not named; but his work is edited by M. Gieseler, a professor of theology, well known for his excellent ecclesiastical history and other writings. The book we also refer to above is full of valuable materials and documents.
[135] Lauze de Peret, Eclaircissements histor., &c. 2nd book, p. 163.
[136] Lauze de Peret, 3rd book, p. 35.
[137] J. Pons, Notice biographique.
[138] M. Artaud gives the details of this curious and generally unknown negotiation, in his History of Pope Pius VII. vol. i. p. 265, et seq.
[139] Vues sur le Protestantisme en France, vol. ii. p. 265.
[140] Vol. ii. p. 266.
[141] Page 192
[142] M. Lauze de Peret, book iii. p. 10.
[143] It is said that certain advisers of Louis XVIII. had endeavoured to persuade him to put the sixth article before the fifth. The king answered with much wisdom, that it was not right to put the exception before the rule.
[144] Archives du Christianisme, vol. iii. p. 406, et seq.
[145] Arch. du Christ. vol. xi. p. 241, et seq. See another notice upon the life of M. de Staël, at the head of his Œuvres Diverses, published in 1829.
[146] Critiques et Portraits littéraires, vol. v. pp. 144, 147.
[147] Le Semeur, vol. xvii. p. 141.
[148] M. Grandpierre, Notices sur le Vice-Amiral Ver-Huell, p. 38, et passim.
[149] The hopes of the author, raised by the enlightened political views of the amiable and upright Lamartine, have not been realized. The coup-d’état of December, 1851, by which Louis Napoleon rejected the opportunity of displaying to the world that he could sacrifice personal ambition to the patriotic observance of the oath he had sworn, to maintain the Constitution inviolably, has induced a policy of intimate alliance with the Romish priesthood. Passing events daily show that whatever advantage the sacerdotal order of the (Roman) Catholics may be supposed to derive from a State connection, that union deeply injures the vitality of Protestantism. As stated in Louis Napoleon’s proclamation promulgating his constitution, “It is still the Concordat that regulates the relations of the State with the Church.” The 20th article of the Constitution makes the cardinals ex officio members of the senate.—Transl.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
[Pg iv]: ‘monk of Wittemberg’ replaced by ‘monk of Wittenberg’.
[Pg 10]: ‘the ninety-nine theses’ replaced by ‘the ninety-five theses’.
[Pg 58]: ‘was haunte by’ replaced by ‘was haunted by’.
[Pg 59]: ‘such a courtezan’ replaced by ‘such a courtesan’.
[Pg 103]: ‘of the doctines’ replaced by ‘of the doctrines’.
[Pg 134]: ‘Jean Poltot de Méré’ replaced by ‘Jean Poltrot de Méré’.
[Pg 143]: ‘whom Philp II. had’ replaced by ‘whom Philip II. had’.
[Pg 148]: ‘Montclar, Bruniquel’ replaced by ‘Monclar, Bruniquel’.
[Pg 151]: ‘instant Montesquiou’ replaced by ‘instant Montesquieu’.
[Pg 154]: ‘of Cevannes, of’ replaced by ‘of Cevennes, of’.
[Pg 158]: ‘Admiral de Colingy’ replaced by ‘Admiral de Coligny’.
[Pg 185]: ‘one at Strasburg’ replaced by ‘one at Strasbourg’.
[Pg 186]: ‘and Heny III. only’ replaced by ‘and Henry III. only’.
[Pg 226]: ‘justify inghimself’ replaced by ‘justifying himself’.
[Pg 239]: ‘dragonades’ replaced by ‘dragonnades’.
[Pg 248]: ‘dênoument’ replaced by ‘dénouement’.
[Pg 285]: ‘Auberton awakened’ replaced by ‘Aubertin awakened’.
[Pg 332]: ‘and polical unity’ replaced by ‘and political unity’.
[Pg 355]: ‘of the Cévenols’ replaced by ‘of the Cévenoles’.
[Pg 365]: ‘parents, hxxe made’ replaced by ‘parents, have made’.
[Pg 386]: ‘acadamies of Sédan’ replaced by ‘academies of Sédan’.
[Pg 392]: ‘Cévenols had looked’ replaced by ‘Cévenoles had looked’.
[Pg 401]: ‘they combated it’ replaced by ‘they combatted it’.
[Pg 451]: ‘at Nismes in 1742.’ replaced by ‘at Nismes in 1743.’.
[Pg 477 Footnote 141]: ‘Page ’ replaced by ‘Page 192’.
[Pg 488]: ‘de Lamenais’ replaced by ‘de Lamennais’.