[1249] Saint Pius V. is, I believe, the only pope that has been canonized since Saint Celestine V., near the end of the thirteenth century.
[1250] "Qui autem a militibus captivi ducebantur, eos Pius pretio redemptos, in jusque sibi vindicatos, atque Avenionem perductos, publico supplicio afficiendos pro ardenti suo religionis studio decrevit." Gabutius, Vita Pii Quinti, Acta Sanctorum Maii, § 97, p. 642.
[1251] "Id Pius ubi cognovit, de Comite Sanctæ Floræ conquestus est, quod jussa non fecisset, dudum imperantis, necandos protinus esse hæreticos omnes quoscumque ille capere potuisset." Ibid., § 125. It must not be forgotten that, in holding these sentiments, Pius V. did not stand alone; his predecessors on the pontifical throne were of the same mind. We have seen the anger of Paul IV., in 1558, upon learning that Henry II. had spared D'Andelot (see ante, chapter viii., vol. i., p. 320). Paul was for instantaneous execution, and did not believe a heretic could ever be converted. He told the French ambassador "que c'estoit abus d'estimer que un hérétique revint jamais; que ce n'estoit que toute dissimulation, et que c'estoit un mal où il ne falloit que le feu, et soubdain!" The last expression is a clue to the attitude of the Roman See to heresy under every successive occupant of the papal throne. Letter of La Bourdaisière to the constable, Rome, Feb. 25, 1559, MS. Nat. Lib. Paris, Bulletin, xxvii. (1878) 105.
[1252] Gabutius, ubi supra.
CHAPTER XX.
THE SEQUEL OF THE MASSACRE, TO THE DEATH OF CHARLES THE NINTH.
Widespread terror.
The blow had been struck by which the Huguenots were to be exterminated. If a single adherent of the reformed faith still lived in Paris, he dared not show his face. France had, as usual, copied the example of the capital, and there were few districts to which the fratricidal plot had not extended. Enough blood had been shed, it would seem, to satisfy the most sanguinary appetite. After the massacre in which the admiral and all the most noted leaders had perished—after the defection of Henry of Navarre and his more courageous cousin, it was confidently expected that the feeble remnants of the Huguenots, deprived of their head, could easily be reduced to submission. The stipulation of Charles the Ninth, when yielding a reluctant consent to the infamous project, would be fulfilled: not one of the hated sect would remain to reproach him with his crime. And, in point of fact, throughout the greater number of the cities of France, even where there had been no actual massacre, so widespread was the terror, that every Protestant had either fled from the country or sought safety in concealment, if he had not actually apostatized from the faith.[1253]
La Rochelle and other cities in Protestant hands.