The Wars of Religion in France 1559-1576 / The Huguenots, Catherine de Medici and Philip II

by James Westfall Thompson

[696] Quoted by Forneron, I, 277, note 1.

[697] C. S. P. Ven., April 21, 1563.

[698] Correspund de Cath. de Méd. Introd., cxlv-vi; cf. R. Q. H., October 1869, 349-51. Charles IX was firmly resolved to enforce the national traditions of the French monarchy with reference to the papacy. The fearless speech of Du Ferrier occasioned a sensation in the council. France was accused of wishing, like England, to secede from Rome and found a national church and it was even proposed to hand the ambassador over to the Inquisition (Frémy, Un ambassadeur libéral sous Charles IX et Henri III, 1880, p. 49). So energetic were the remonstrances of Lansac that he was derisively called the “ambassador of the Huguenots” (Frémy, 21).

On April 15, 1563, the King wrote to the cardinal of Lorraine to inform him that, having grown impatient at the slowness of the Council of Trent, he was sending the president Biragues to Trent and then to the Emperor with a mission to have the council transferred to a freer place if possible. The King declared that if the reforms demanded by Christianity were not accorded and confirmed by the council, France would not hesitate to convoke a national council. (See the instruction to D’Oysel in Corresp. de Catherine de Médicis, II, 1-3, note.)

[699] “Articles de l’alégation de messieurs les ambassadeurs, estant de present à la cour; envoyez, l’un par nostre saint père le Pape, l’autre par l’Empereur, Roy des Romains, l’autre par le Roy d’Espaigne, et le Prince de Piedmont. Au Roy de France et princes de son sang, au mois de Fevrier, 1563,” Mém. de Condé, V, 406-8; cf. L’Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 135 and 167.

[700] Lansac and Du Ferrier were the ambassadors of France at Trent. Lansac’s instructions, which outline the policy of France, are in Baschet, Journal du Concile de Trente, etc., 251-65; add D’Aubigné, Book III, chap. xxi; St. Sulpice, 28, 64, 102, 114, 130, 141, 160-63. On Lansac, see Correspondance de Catherine de Médicis, Index; upon Du Ferrier, consult Frémy, Un ambassadeur libéral sous Charles IX et Henri III, 1880.

The cardinal of Lorraine, while agreeing with Philip II, as to religion and heresy, looked with resentment upon the King’s attempt to appropriate the political destiny of Mary Stuart to his own ends (St. Sulpice to Lansac, December 15, 1562, p. 103). The whole council was filled with disaffection; 150 out of the 230 members present were Italians, most of these pensioners of Rome, so that the others resented their preponderance (Lansac to St. Sulpice, February 10, 1563, L’Ambassade de St. Sulpice, 115).

There were conflicts as to precedence; some of the ambassadors like Lansac and Du Ferrier believed in qualified toleration of Protestants (St. Sulpice, 115); many of the members, while believing in the enlargement of the Pope’s prerogatives in religious affairs, were opposed to a reduction of governmental rights of control over ecclesiastical temporalities. Philip II’s attitude in this respect was identical with that of Charles IX—each wanted to exercise political control over the church within his kingdom (St. Sulpice, 198). Even the cardinal of Lorraine was an advocate of temporal independence (St. Sulpice, 161). See Baschet, Journal du Concile de Trente; the Appendix has a valuable bibliography of the history of the Council of Trent. M. Baguenault de la Puchesse’ article in R. Q. H., 1869, may be added. The cardinal of Lorraine left Trent on March 23. M. Baschet questions (p. 214): “Que sont devenues toutes les dépêches qu’il a du écrire à la Reine mère, tant sur sa négociation avec l’Empereur, que sur sa visite à la Republique de Venise et son voyage en Cour de Rome, pour l’accomplissement desquels il s’était deplacé de sa résidence au Concile?” He was not aware of the fact, when he wrote in 1870, that Count Hector de la Ferrière had shortly before discovered them in the archives at St. Petersburg (La Ferrière, Deux années de mission à Saint Petersbourg, 51). For the cardinal’s mission to Venice see R. Q. H., October 1869, 349, 350, and 385, note.

[701] Forbes, II, 271; C. S. P. For., No. 1,193, §5, December 5, 1562. Granvella to the King, March 10, 1563; Gachard, Correspondance de Philippe II sur les Pays-Bas, I, 239; cf. Philip to Margaret of Parma, May 16, ibid., I, 249.

[702] The fear was amply justified. Granvella wrote to his sovereign on December 22, 1563: “Le situation actuelle de la France est plus fâcheuse qui j’aie vue depuis la mort du roi François.”—Papiers d’état du cardinal de Granvelle, VII, 284. Gachard, Rapport sur les archives de Lille, 218, cites a remark made in 1562: “Messieurs, acoustez bien ce qui adviendra en France entre les catholicques et les Huguenots; cas, au son flageolet de Franche il vous faudra danser par dechà.”