ed to reform Several councils had been called for the purpose of reforming; but nothing had been done, nor could any thing be expected from assemblies of mercenary men, who were too deeply interested in darkness to vote for day. They were inflexible against every remonstrance, and, as a Jesuit has since expressed it, They would not extinguish one taper, though it were to convert all the Hugonots in France. paid; but all having obtained them by simony, spent their lives in fleecing the flock to repay themselves The power of the pontiff was so great that he assumed, and, what was more astonishing, was suffered to exercise a supremacy over many kingdoms. When monarchs gratified his will, he put on a triple crown, ascended a throne, suffered them to call him Holiness, and to kiss his feet. When they disobliged him, he suspended all religious worship in their dominions; published false and abusive libels, called bulls, which operated as laws, to injure their persons; discharged their subjects from obedience; and gave their crowns to any who would usurp them. He claimed an infallibility of knowledge, and an omnipotence of strength; and he forbade the world to examine his claim. He was addressed by titles of blas-mas; they would not dispute the matter by phemy, and, though he owned no jurisdiction over himself, yet he affected to extend his authority over heaven and hell, as well as over a middle place called purgatory, of all which places, he said, he kept the keys. This irregular church polity was attended with quarrels, intrigues, schisms, and wars The festorers of literature reiterated and reasoned on these complaints; but they reasoned to the wind. The church champions were hard driven, they tried every art to support their cause: but they could not get rid of the attack by a polite duplicity: they could not intimidate their sensible opponents by anathe scripture, and they could not defend themselves by, any other method; they were too obstinate to reform themselves, and too proud to be reformed by their inferiors. At length, the plaintiffs laid aside the thoughts of applying to them, and, having found out the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free, went about reforming themselves. The reformers were neither popes, cardinals nor bishops, but they were good men, who aimed to promote the glory of God, and the good of mankind. This was the state of the church, when Francis I. ascended the throne, 1515 Religion itself was made to consist in the performance of numerous ceremonies, of Pagan, Jewish, and Monkish extraction, all of which might be performed without either faith in God, or love to mankind. The church ritual was an address, not to the reason, but to the senses of men: music stole the ear, and soothed Were we to enter into a minute examination the passions; statues, paintings, vestments, and of the reformation in France, we would own a various ornaments, beguiled the eye; while the particular interposition of Providence: but we pause which was produced by that sudden at- would also take the liberty to observe, that a tack, which a multitude of objects made on the happy conjunction of jarring interests rendered senses, on entering a spacious decorated edifice, the sixteenth century a fit era for reformation, was enthusiastically taken for devotion. Blind Events that produced, protected, and persecut obedience was first allowed by courtesy, and ed reformation, proceeded from open and hidthen established by law. Public worship was den, great and little, good and bad causes. The performed in an unknown tongue, and the sa- capacities and the tempers, the virtues and the crament was adored as the body and blood of vices, the views and the interests, the wives Christ. The credit of the ceremonial produced and the mistresses, of the princes of those times,in the people a notion, that the performance of the abilities and dispositions of the officers of it was the practice of piety, and religion dege- each crown; the powers of government, and nerated into gross superstition. Vice, uncon- the persons who wrought them: the tempers trolled by reason or scripture, retained a Pagan and geniuses of the people; all these, and many vigour, and committed the most horrid crimes: more, were springs of action, which, in their and superstition atoned for them, by building turns, directed the great events that were exhi and endowing religious houses, and by bestow-bited to public view. But our limits allow no ing donations on the church. Human merit inquiries of this kind was introduced, saints were invoked, and the perfections of God were distributed by canonization, among the creatures of the Pope. The pillars that supported this edifice were immense riches, arising by imposts from the sins of mankind; idle distinctions between supreme and subordinate adoration; senseless axioms, called the divinity of the schools; preachments of buffoonery or blasphemy, or both; cruel casuistry, consisting of a body of dangerous and scandalous morality; false miracles and midnight visions; spurious books and paltry relics: oaths, dungeons, inquisitions, and crusades. The whole was denominated THE HOLY, CATHOLIC, AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH, and laid to the charge of Jesus Christ Loud complaints had been made of these excesses, for the last hundred and fifty years, to those whose business it was to reform, and, as bad as they were, they had owned the necessity of reformation, and had repeatedly promis The reformation which began in Germany, spread itself to Geneva, and thence into France. The French had a translation of the Bible, which had been made by Guiars des Moulins, in 1224. It had been revised, corrected, and printed at Paris, by order of Charles VIII., and the study of it now began to prevail. 1487. The reigning king, who was a patron of learning, encouraged his valet de chambre, Clement Marot, to versify some of David's Psalms, and took great pleasure in singing them,* and either protected, or persecuted the reformation, as his interest seemed to him to require. Although he went in procession to burn the first martyrs * His majesty's favourite psalm, which he sang when he went a hunting, was the 42d. The queen used to sing the 6th, and the king's mistress the 130th. Marot translated fifty, Beza the other hundred, Calvin got them set to music by the best musicians, and every body sang them as ballads. When the reformed churches made them a part of their worship, the papists were forbidden to sing them any more, and to sing a psalm was a sign of a Lutheran. testant of the most liberal sentiments, an entire friend to religious liberty, and it was his wise management that saved France. It was his fixed opinion, that FREE TOLERATION Was sound policy. We must not wonder that rigid papists deemed him an atheist, while zealous, but mistaking Protestants, pictured him carrying a torch behind him, to guide others but not himself. The more a man resembles God, the more will his conduct be censured by ignorance, partiality and pride! The Duke of Guise, in order to please and strengthen his party, endeavoured to establish an inquisition in France. The chancellor, being willing to parry a thrust which he could not entirely avoid, was forced to agree, May, 1560, to a severer edict than he could have wished, to defeat the design. By this edict, the cognizance of the crime of heresy was taker from the secular judges, and given to the bish ops alone. The Calvinists complained of this because it put them into the hands of their enemies, and although their Lordships con demned and burnt so many heretics, that thei courts were justly called chambres ardentes,* ye the zealous Catholics thought them less eligible than an inquisition after the manner of Spain Soon after the making of this edict, August 1560, many families having been ruined by its Admiral Coligny presented a petition to the king, in the names of all the Protestants o France, humbly praying that they might be allowed the free exercise of their religion. The king referred the matter to the Parliament, whet were to consult about it with the lords of the council. A warm debate ensued, and the Ca tholics carried it against the Protestants by three voices. It was resolved, that people should be obliged, either to conform to the old estab lished church, or to quit the kingdom, withe permission to sell their estates. The Protestants argued, that in a point of such importance, it would be unreasonable, on account of three voices, to inflame all France with animosity and war: that the method of banishment was impossible to be executed; and that the obliging of those, who continued in France, to submit to the Romish religion, against their consciences, was an absurd attempt, and equal to an impossibility. The chancellor, and the Protestant Lords, used every effort to procure a toleration, while the Catholic party urged the necessity of uniformity in religion. At length, two of the bishops owned the necessity of reforming, pleaded strenuously for moderate measures, and proposed the deciding of these controversies in an assembly of the states, assisted by a national council, to be summoned at the latter end of the year. To this proposal, the assembly agreed. The court of Rome having laid it down as an indubitable maxim in church police, that an inquisition was the only support of the hierarchy, and dreading the consequences of allowing a nation to reform itself, was alarmed at this intelligence, and instantly sent a nuncio into France. His instructions were to prevent, if possible, the calling of a national council, and to promise the reassembling of the general council of Trent. The Protestants had been 1 too often dupes to such artifices as these, and, At the close of the last reign, the ruin of being fully convinced of the futility of general Protestantism seemed inevitable: but now the councils, they refused to submit to the coun- reformation turned like a tide, overspread every cil of Trent now for several good reasons. The place, and seemed to roll away all opposition, pope, they said, who assembled the council, and, in all probability, had it not been for one was to be judge in his own cause: the coun- sad event, it would now have subverted popery cil would be chiefly composed of Italian bish- in this kingdom. The king of Navarre, who ops, who were vassals of the pope, as a secular was now lieutenant general of France, had prince, and sworn to him as a bishop and head hitherto been a zealous Protestant; he had of the church: the legates would pack a ma- taken incredible pains to support the reformajority, and bribe the poor bishops to vote: each tion, and had assured the Danish ambassador article would be first settled at Rome, and then that, in a year's time, he would cause the true proposed by the legates to the council: the Em- gospel to be preached throughout France. peror, by advice of the late council of Con- The Guises caballed with the pope and the stance, had given a safe conduct to John Huss, king of Spain, and they offered to invest the and to Jerome of Prague; however, when king of Navarre with the kingdom of Sardithey appeared in the council, and proposed nia, and to restore to him that part of the kingtheir doubts, the council condemned them to dom of Navarre, which lay in Spain, on condibe burnt. The Protestants had reason on their tion of his renouncing Protestantism. side, when they rejected this method of re- lure was tempting, and the king deserted, and forming, for the art of procuring a majority even persecuted the Protestants. Providence of votes is the soul of this system of church is never at a loss for means to effect its designs. government. This art consists in the ingenuThe queen of Navarre, daughter of the last ity of finding out, and in the dexterity of ad-queen, who had hitherto preferred a dance to dressing each man's weak side, his pride or his a sermon, was shocked at the king's conduct, ignorance, his envy, his gravity, or his avarice; and instantly became a zealous Protestant herand the possessing of this is the perfection of self. She met with some unkind treatment, a Legate of Rome. but nothing could shake her resolution: Had I, said she, the kingdoms in my hand, I would throw them into the sea, rather than defile my con science by going to mass. This courageous profession saved her a deal of trouble and dispute. During these disputes, the king died without issue, December 5, 1560, and his brother Charles IX. who was in the eleventh year of his age, succeeded him, December 13. The states met at the time proposed. The chancellar opened the session by an unanswerable speech on the ill policy of persecution; he represented the miseries of the Protestants, and proposed an abatement of their sufferings, till their complaints could be heard in a national council The Prince of Conde and the King of Navarre were the heads of the Protestant party, the Guises were the heads of their opponents, and the queen mother, Catharine de Medicis, who had obtained the regency till the king's majority, and who began to dread the power of the Guises, leaned to the Protestants, which was a grand event in their favour. After repeated meetings, and various warm debates, it was agreed, as one side would not submit to general council, nor the other to a national assembly, that a conference should be held at Poissy, between both parties, July, 1561, and an edict was made, that no persons should molest the Protestants, that the imprisoned should be released, and the exiles called home, August, 1561. The The Protestants began now to appear more publicly than before. The queen of Navarre caused Beza openly to solemnize a marriage in a noble family, after the Geneva manner.This, which was consummated near the court, emboldened the ministers, and they preached at the countess de Senignan's, guarded by the marshal's provosts The nobility thought that the common people had as good a right to hear the gospel as themselves, and caused the reformed clergy to preach without the walls of Paris. Their auditors were thirty or forty thousand people, divided into three companies, the women in the middle surrounded by men on foot, and the latter by men on horseback; and during the sermon, the governor of Paris placed soldiers to guard the avenues, and to prevent disturbances. The morality of this worship cannot be disputed, for if God be worshipped in spirit and in truth, the place is indifferent. The expediency of it may be doubted: but, in a persecution of forty years, the French Protestants had learnt that their political masters did not consider how rational, but how formidable they were. The conference at Poissy was held, in the presence of the king, the princes of the blood, the nobility, cardinals, prelates, and grandees The Guises and their associates, being quite of both parties. On the popish side, six cardi-dispirited, retired to their estates, and the aals, four bishops, and several dignified clergymen, and on the Protestant about twelve of the most famous reformed ministers, managed the dispute. Beza, who spoke well, knew the world, and had a ready wit, and a deal of learning, displayed all his powers in favour of the reformation. The papists reasoned where they could, and where they could not, they railed. The conference ended September 29, where most public disputes have ended, that is, where they began; for great men never enter these lists, without a previous determination not to submit to the disgrace of a public defeat. VOL. 1.-2 queen regent, by the chancellor's advice, granted an edict to enable the Protestants to preach in all parts of the kingdom, except in Paris, and in other walled cities. The Parliaments of France had then the power of refusing to register royal edicts, and the chancellor had occasion for all his address, to prevail over the scruples and ill humour of the parliament to procure the registering of this. He begged leave to say, that the question before them was one of those which had its difficulties, on whatever side it was viewed; that in the present case one of two things must be chosen, either exercise of their religion in their families, and to put all the adherents of the new religion to the sword; or to banish them entirely, allowing them to dispose of their effects; that the first point could not be executed, since that party was too strong both in leaders and par-wise chancellor retained his influence, formed tisans; and though it could be done, yet as it was staining the king's youth with the blood of so many of his subjects, perhaps when he came of age he would demand it at the hands of his governors; with regard to the second point, it was as little feasible, and could it be effected, it would be raising as many desperate enemies as exiles: that to enforce conformity against conscience, as matters stood now, was to lead the people to atheism. The edict at last was passed, January, 1562, but the house registered it with this clause, in consideration of the present juncture of the times: but not approving of the new religion in any manner, and till the king shall otherwise appoint. So hard sat toleration on the minds of papists. A minority was a period favourable to the views of the Guises, and this edict was a happy occasion of a pretence for commencing hostilities. The Duke, instigated by his mother, went to Vassi, a town adjacent to one of his lordships, and, some of his retinue picking a quarrel with some Protestants, who were hearing a sermon in a barn, he interested himself in it, wounded two hundred, and left sixty dead on the spot. This was the first Protestant blood that was shed in civil war, March 1, 1562. The news of this affair flew like lightning, and, while the Duke was marching to Paris with a thousand horse, the city and the provinces rose in arms. The chancellor was extremely afflicted to see both sides preparing for war, and endeavoured to dissuade them from it. The constable told him, it did not belong to men of the long robe, to give their judgment with relation to war. To which he answered, that though he did not bear arms, he knew when they ought to be used. After this, they excluded him from the councils of war. The queen-regent, alarmed at the Duke's approach to Paris, threw herself into the hands of the Protestants, and ordered Conde to take up arms, August, 1562. War began, and barbarities and cruelties were practised on both sides. The Duke of Guise was assassinated, the king of Navarre was killed at a siege, fifty thousand Protestants were slain, and, after a year had been spent in these confusions, a peace was concluded, A. D. 1563. All that the Protestants obtained was an edict which excluded the exercise of their religion from cities, and restrained it to their own families. a cabal against him, and got him removed, June, 1568. He resigned very readily, and retired to a country seat, where he spent the remainder of his days. A strange confusion followed in the direction of affairs; one edict allowed liberty, another forbade it, and it was plain to the Protestants that their situation was very delicate and dangerous. The articles of the last peace had never been performed, and the papists every where insulted their liberties, so that in three months time, two thousand Hugonots were murdered, and the murderers? went unpunished. War broke out again, A. D. 1568. Queen Elizabeth assisted the Protestants with money, the Count Palatine helped them with men, the queen of Navarre parted with her rings and jewels to support them, and, the prince of Conde being slain, she declared her son, prince Henry, the head and protector of the Protestant cause, and caused medals to be struck with these words: a safe peace, a complete victory, a glorious death. Her Majesty did every thing in her power for the advancement of the cause of religious liberty, and she used to say, that liberty of conscience ought to be preferred before honours, dignities, and life itself. She caused the New Testament, the catechism, and the liturgy of Geneva, to be translated, and printed at Rochelle. She abolished popery, and established Protestantism in her own dominions. In her leisure hours, she expressed her zeal by working tapestries with her own hands, in which she represented the monuments of that liberty, which she procured by shaking off the yoke of the Pope. One suit consisted of twelve pieces. On each piece was represented some scripture history of deliverance; Israel coming out of Egypt, Joseph's release from prison, or something of the like kind. On the top of each piece, were, these words, where the spirit is there is liberty, and in the cor ners of each were broken chains, fetters, and gibbets, One piece represented a congregation at Mass, and a fox, in a friar's habit, officiating as a priest, grinning horribly and saying, the Lord be with you. The pieces were fashionable patterns, and dexterously directed the needles of the ladies to help forward the reformation. After many negotiations, a peace was concluded, 1570, and the free exercise of religion was allowed in all but walled cities; two cities in every province were assigned to the ProPeace did not continue long, for the Protest-testants; they were to be admitted into all ants, having received intelligence, that the Pope, the house of Austria, and the house of Guise, had conspired their ruin, and fearing that the king, and the court, were inclined to crush them, as their rights were every day infringed by new edicts, took up arms again in their own defence, A. D. 1567. The city of Rochelle declared for them, and it served them for an asylum for sixty years. They were assisted by queen Elizabeth of England, and by the German princes, and they obtained, at the conclusion of this second war, A. D. 1568, the revocation of all penal edicts, the universities, schools, hospitals, public offices, royal, seigniorial, and corporate, and to render the peace of everlasting duration, a match was proposed between Henry of Navarre, and the sister of King Charles. These articles were accepted, the match was agreed to, every man's sword was put up in its sheath, and the queen of Navarre, her son, King Henry, the princes of the blood, and the principal Protestants, went to Paris to celebrate the marriage, August 15, 1572. A few days after the marriage, the Admiral, who was one of the principal Protestant leaders, was assassinated, Au |