1562. AN. REG. 4, contentment which the people took in a form of government wherein they were to have a share by the rules of their discipline, and thereby draw the managery of affairs unto themselves. Being grown numerous in the city of Tours, and not permitted to enjoy the liberty of assembling within the walls, they held their meetings at a village not far off, for their public devotions; the way to which leading through the gate of St Hugo is thought to have occasioned the name of Hugonots', which others think to have been given them by reason of their frequent nightly meetings, resembled by the French to the walking of a night-spirit which they called St Hugh; but from what ground soever it came, it grew in short time to be generally given as a by-name to those which professed the reformed religion, (whether in France or elsewhere), after Calvin's platform. Their numbers, not diminished by so many so many butcheries, gave them the reputation of a party both stout and active, which rendered them the subject of some jealousy to the Roman Catholics, and specially to those of the house of Guise, who laboured nothing more than their extirpation. But this severity sorted to no other effect than to confirm them in their doctrines, and attract many others to them, who disdained to see poor people drawn every day to the stake to be burned, guilty of nothing but of zeal to worship God, and to save their own souls. To whom were joined many others, who, thinking the Guisiards to be the cause of all the disorders in the king "There have been several fanciful derivations of the word Huguenot. It is now supposed to have been originally Eidgenossen, or associated by oath, the name assumed by the Calvinistic party in Geneva, during their contest with the catholics From Geneva, missionaries penetrated into the south of France, and took with them the appellation of Egnots, or Huguenots." Lingard, vii. 308. It is singular that this German etymology is not given by the writer of the article on the Huguenots in the Conversations-Lexicon, who, like Davila, p. 20, derives the name from the gate of St Hugo at Tours. The other derivation mentioned in the text is given by De Thou:-"Cum singulæ urbes apud nos peculiaria nomina habeant, quibus mormones, lemures, manducos, et cætera hujusmodi monstra inania anilibus fabulis...vulgo indigitant, Cæsaroduni [Tours] Hugo rex celebratur, qui noctu pomaria civitatis obequitare et obvios homines pulsare ac rapere dicitur. Ab eo Hugonoti appellati, qui ad ea loca ad conciones audiendas ac preces faciendas itidem noctu, quia interdiu non licebat, agminatim in occulto conveniebant." Hist. xxiv. 21. (t. i. 827.) So too Beza, quoted by Henry, Leben Calvins, dom, judged it an heroic act to deliver it from oppression by AN. REG. 4, taking the public administration out of their hands1. 7. But nothing more increased their party than the accession of almost all the Princes of the blood of the House of Burbon, the chiefs whereof were the Duke of Vendosme, (who called himself King of Navarr in right of his wife), the Prince? of Conde, the Duke of Montpensier; who, finding themselves neglected by the Queen-Mother and oppressed by the Guisiards, retired in no small discontentments from the Court, and, being otherwise unable to make good their quarrels, offered themselves as leaders of the Hugonot faction, who very cheerfully submitted to their rule and conduct. The better to confirm their minds, they caused the principal lawyers of Germany and France, and the most famous Protestant divines, to publish in writing, that, without violating the majesty of the King and the dignity of the lawful magistrate, they might oppose with arms the violent domination of the house of Guise, who did not only labour to suppress the true religion, and obstruct the free passage of justice, but seemed to keep the King in prison3. Having thus formed their party in the minority of King Francis the Second, their first design was, that a great multitude should appear before the King without arms, to demand that the severity of the judgments might be mitigated, and liberty of conscience granted ;—intending that they should be followed by gentlemen who should make supplication against the government of the Guisiards. But the purpose being made known to the Court, the King was removed from Bloys, an open town, to the strong castle of Amboise, as if he could not otherwise be safe from some present treason: after which followed a strict inquiry after all those who had a hand in the design, the punishment of some, and the flight of others, with the conclusion taken up by the Guisian faction, to settle the Spanish 1 Sarpi, 421. 2 Edd. 1, 2, "princes." 3 "Licere respondebant vim contra illegitimam Guisianorum dominationem opponere, modo accederet regiæ stirpis principum, qui in his casibus legitimi sint ac nati magistratus, aut unius ex iis, auctoritas, et ex ordinum regni aut majoris ac sanioris eorum partis consensu id fieret: quippe superfluum esse regem ea de re monere, qui ob ætatem et nullum rerum usum rebus suis superesse non possit, et a Guisianis quasi captivus teneatur, ut ordinariæ juris rationi minime locus sit." Thuan. xxiv. 17. (t. i. p. 818.) Sarpi, 421. 4 Thuan. xxiv. 18. (t. i. p. 824.) 1562. 1562. AN. REG.4, inquisition in the realm of France. To pacify the present troubles, an edict is published by the King on the 18th of 13 March 1560, (in the French account), for the pardoning of all 32 who, simply moved with the zeal of religion, had engaged in the supposed conspiracy, upon condition that they disarmed within twenty-four hours; and after that another edict, by which a general pardon was indulged to all Reformatists, but so that all assemblies under the colour of religion were prohibited by it, and a charge laid upon the Bishops to take unto themselves the cognisance of all causes of heresy in their several dioceses. But this so little edified with those of that party, that greater tumults were occasioned by it in Provence, Languedock, and Poictou. To which places the Ministers of Geneva were called, who most willingly came3; by whose sermons the number of Protestants so increased in those provinces, and by their agents in most others, that in this year, 1562, they were distributed into two thousand one hundred and fifty Churches, as appeared upon a just computation of them1. 8. But in the midst of these improvements, the power and reputation of the side was shrewdly weakened by the falling off of Anthony, Duke of Vendosme and King of Navarr, who did not only openly forsake the party, but afterwards joined himself in counsel and design against it with the Duke of Guise. The foundering of so great a pillar threatened a quick ruin to the fabric, if some other buttress were not found to support the same. The war was carried on from one place to another, but seemed to aim most at the reduction of Normandy, where the Hugonots had possessed themselves of some towns and castles, by which they might be able to distress the city of Paris, and thereby make a great impression on the rest of the kingdom. It was thereupon advised by Louis Prince of Conde, the Cardinal Chastilion, and other of the principal leaders, that they should put themselves under the protection of the Queen of England, who had not long before 1 Thuan. xxiv. 19. (t. i. p. 825.) 2 Ibid. xxv. 3. (t. ii. p. 5.) Sarpi, 421-2. Dav. 28. 3 Sarpi, 442. Thuan. xxix. 17. (t. ii. p. 165.) Odo de Coligny, brother of the Admiral. Sarpi, 480; Dav. 51. On joining the Reformed, he styled himself Count of Beauvais,-the city of which he was bishop. Davila, 64. He afterwards took refuge in England, and is buried in Canterbury Cathedral. AN. REG. 4, 1562. No so scasonably relieved the Scots in the like distress1. aids party in France. 9. On these and other considerations of the like impor- The Queen tance, it was agreed upon between them, that the Queen should Protestant supply the Prince of Conde and his associates with a sufficient quantity of money, corn, and ammunition, for the service of the French King against the plots and practices of the house of Guise; that she should aid them with her forces both by land and sea, for the taking in of such castles, towns and ports, as were possessed by the faction of the said Duke; that the said Prince of Conde and his associates should not come to any terms of peace with the opposite party, without the privity and approbation of the Queen; and that, as well for securing the payment of all such monies as for the safe going in and out of all such forces as her Majesty should supply them with, 151 the town and port of Newhaven should be put into her Majesty's 2 Stow, 650-1. 323 1 Dav. 69. 1562. AN. REG.4, hands, to be garrisoned by English soldiers, and commanded by any person of quality whom her Majesty should authorise to keep and defend the same. Immediately on which accord, a manifest1 was published in the name of the Queen; in which it was declared, how much she had preferred the peace of Christendom before her own particular interess; that, in pursuance of that general affection to the public peace, she had relinquished her claim to the town of Calais for the term of eight years, when as all other Princes were restored by that treaty to their lost estates; that for the same reasons she had undertaken to preserve the Scots from being made vassals to the French, without retaining any part of that kingdom in her own possession after the service was performed; that with the like bowels of commiseration she had observed how much the Queen-mother of France was awed, and the young King himself inthralled, by the Guisian faction, who in their names and under pretence of their authority endeavoured to root out the professors of the reformed religion; that in pursuance of that purpose they had caused such terrible massacres to be made at Vassey, Paris, Sene, Tholouse, Bloys, Towers, Angiers, and other places, that there were thought to be butchered no fewer than one hundred thousand of the natural French, between the 1st of March and the 20th of August then last past; that with like violence and injustice they had treated such of her Majesty's subjects as traded in the ports of Bretaigne, whom they caused to be apprehended, spoiled, and miserably imprisoned, such as endeavoured to preserve themselves to be cruelly killed, their goods and merchandise to be seized, without charging any other crime upon them, but that they were Hugonots2; and finally, that, in consideration of the premises, her Majesty could do no less than use her best endeavours for rescuing the French King and his mother out of the power of that dangerous faction, for aiding such of the French subjects as preferred the service of their King and the good of their country before all other respects whatsoever, for preserving the reformed religion from an universal destruction, and the maintaining of her own subjects and dominions in peace and safety. 10. Nor did she only publish the aforesaid manifest, the 1 Published in Stow, 648-50. Comp. Camden, 76. |