[460] On December 27, the Protestants congregated in the Faubourg St. Marceau, whereupon the priests and Papists assembled at St. Medard and determined to attack them. One of the Protestant soldiers going to remonstrate was run through. The Protestants who were appointed to guard the assembly, seeing this, ran to his succor, but were driven back by the numbers. Other Protestants coming up put their attackers to rout and forced their way into the church, when the prince de la Roche-sur-Yon, the King’s lieutenant, arrived with a strong force of horse and foot and carried off several to the Châtelet (ibid., No. 783, January 4, 1561; Mém. de Condé, II, 541 ff.; Claude Haton, 179, and note; Arch. cur., IV, 63 ff.; and an article in Mém. de la soc. de l’hist. de Paris, 1886).
[461] C. S. P. For., No. 758, §13, December 31, 1561.
[462] Ibid., No. 789, §2, January 8, 1562. The prince de la Roche-sur-Yon passed for a Calvinist, while the marshal Montmorency was a liberal Catholic. The queen mother hoped the change would be acceptable to both parties. Another reason for this change was that the constable and the prince de la Roche-sur-Yon were the principals in a law-suit involving 10,000 ducats income. It was possible for the lieutenant of Paris to use influence with the Parlement of Paris before which the case was to be tried, and this more obviously favored the constable’s side of the suit. Cf. details in Chantonnay’s letter to Philip II, January 5, 1562, K. 1,497, B. 15.
[463] C. S. P. For., No. 925; cf. Castelnau’s description of the bandits in the Faubourg St. Marcel, Book III, chap. v.
[464] C. S. P. For., No. 789, §2, January 6, 1562.
[465] Archives de la Gironde, VIII, 207. The King sent a special officer to put the offenders to death and destroy the village, but it is significant that this commission was not intrusted to Villars, who was sublieutenant in Languedoc and notorious for his treatment of the Huguenots (C. S. P. For., No. 750, §10, December 28, 1561).
[466] Claude Haton, I, 195-98, 236, 237. His spleen is evidenced, though, in saying that: “à cause de la grande liberté à mal faire et dire qui leur estoit permise sans aulcune punition de justice ... si le plus grand larron et voleur du pays eust esté prins prisonnier il eust eschappé à tout danger voire à la mort, moyennant qu’il se feust déclaré Huguenot et de la nouvelle prétendue religion.”—Ibid., I, 124. This is one of the earliest characterizations of the Huguenot faith. It was afterward currently referred to as the “R. P. R.”
[467] Archives de la Gironde, XV, 57.
[468] Claude Haton, I, 194, 195, and note.
[469] Chantonnay to Philip II, January 5, 1562, K. 1,497, B. 15. The Spanish ambassador violently expostulated with Catherine de Medici, Antoine of Bourbon, and others after this address was over (K. 1,497, January 11, 1562), for which Philip II commended him (K. 1,496, No. 34, 3 verso).