History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume II Part 53

[1084] These letters, and some others relating to the ma.s.sacre at Angers, contained in the archives of the munic.i.p.ality, are printed in the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, xi. (1862) 120-124.

[1085] I know, however, of no letters of this kind signed by Charles IX.

himself. They all seem to have been written by his inferior agents, such as Puigaillard in the case of Saumur, or Ma.s.so and Rubys in that of Lyons.

The advantage of this course was apparent. The king could not be _proved_ to have ordered any ma.s.sacre; he could throw off the responsibility upon others. On the other hand, such politic governors as Mandelot were naturally reluctant to act upon instructions which could at any moment be disavowed. The verbal messages of Charles himself would seem, from the Mandelot correspondence, to have been less definite--perhaps going to no greater lengths than to order the arrest of the persons and the sequestration of the effects of the Huguenots. May we not naturally suppose that the king and his council counted upon such subsequent ma.s.sacres of the imprisoned Protestants as occurred in many places?

[1086] Memoires de l'estat, 132, 133. Compare De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 601.

[1087] Relation of Olaegui, Simancas MSS., Bulletins de l'academie royale de Belgique, xvi. (1849) 254, 255.

[1088] The names of nine are given. Archives curieuses, vii. 264.

[1089] The procureur Cosset did not neglect his own interests, if, as we are informed, his house and courtyard were so full of stolen furniture that it was scarcely possible to enter the premises.

[1090] Memoires de l'estat, _apud_ Archives curieuses, vii. 261-270.

[1091] See _ante_, chapter xviii., p. 432.

[1092] Recordon, le Protestantisme en Champagne (from the MSS. of N.

Pithou, seigneur de Chamgobert), Paris, 1863, 174-192; Mem. de l'estat, Archives curieuses, vii. 271-292.

[1093] Dr. Henry White, besides mistaking the Huguenot for the Papist, has incorrectly stated the circ.u.mstances. Ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew, 450.

See Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 295, and De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 601.

[1094] Memoires de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 295. "Le mesme fut fait a Paris et en d'autres lieux aussi," writes the same historian.

[1095] Ibid., _ubi supra_.

[1096] Ibid., 296.

[1097] Memoires de l'estat de France, _ubi supra_, 297.

[1098] Mem. de l'estat, 298, 299.

[1099] Ibid., 299, 300.

[1100] A horrible story is told of the discovery of some human relics several weeks later. Ibid., 305.

[1101] See _ante_, p. 502.

[1102] Mem. de l'estat, 309-315.

[1103] Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 349-351. "Puigaillard ... homme au reste indigne de vivre pour l'acte detestable par luy commis en la personne de sa premiere femme tuee a sa sollicitation pour en espouser une autre qu'il entretenoit." (P. 351.)

[1104] Registres consulaires, _apud_ "La Saint-Barthelemy a Lyon et le gouverneur Mandelot," by M. Puyroche, p. 311. This monograph which I quote from the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, in which it first appeared (vol. xviii., 1869, pp. 305-323, 353-367, and 401-420), is by far the most accurate and complete treatise on this subject, and contains a fund of fresh information based upon unpublished ma.n.u.scripts, especially the local records.

[1105] Charles IX. to Mandelot, Aug. 22, 1572, Correspondance du roi Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot, published by P. Paris, 1830 (pp. 36, 37). A portion of this letter has already been given.

[1106] Charles IX. to Mandelot, Aug. 24, 1572, Correspondance, etc., 39-42.

[1107] "Monsieur de Mandelot, vous croirez le present porteur de ce que je luy ay donne charge de vous dire." Ibid., 42.

[1108] "Suivant icelles (the king's letters of Aug. 22d and 24th) et _ce que le sieur du Perat m'auroit dict de sa part_, je n'auroit failly pourveoir par toutz moyens a la seurete de ceste ville: _sy bien, Sire, que et les cors_ (corps) _et les biens de ceulx de la relligion auroient este saisiz et mis soubz votre main_ sans aucun tumulte ny scandale."

Mandelot to Charles IX., Sept. 2, 1572, Correspondance, etc., 45.

[1109] Puyroche, 319.

[1110] "Il n'etait pas d'avis," dit-il, "que tout le peuple s'en melat, craignant quelque desordre, memement un sac." Puyroche, 320.

[1111] "Quelques deux cens," says Mandelot to Charles IX., Sept. 2d; but he was anxious to make the number as small as possible. Jean de Ma.s.so, "receveur general" (Sept. 1st), says, "sept a huit vingt," and sieur Talaize (Sept. 2d), "deux cent soixante et trois." So also Coste (Sept.

3d). Puyroche, 365, 366.

[1112] Mandelot tells Charles IX. (Sept. 17th) that he had sent all the _poorer_ Huguenots to other prisons; that he had left here only the rich and those who had borne arms for the Protestant cause. To exhibit his own incorruptibility, he added that there were among them, of his own certain knowledge, at least twenty who would have paid a ransom of thirty thousand or even forty thousand crowns, "qui estoit a.s.sez," he significantly adds, "pour tenter ung homme corruptible." Correspondance du roi Charles IX. et du Sieur de Mandelot, 71, 72.

[1113] Correspondance, etc., p. 46, 47.

[1114] Puyroche, La Saint-Barthelemy a Lyon et le gouverneur Mandelot, _ubi supra_; Mem. de l'estat, _ubi supra_, 321-343; Crespin, Hist. des martyrs, 1582, p. 725, etc., _apud_ epoques de l'eglise de Lyon (Lyon, 1827), 173-185; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 602-604, etc.; Jean de Serres (1575), iv., fol. 45, etc. The number of Huguenots killed is variously estimated, by some as high as from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred (Crespin, _ubi supra_). It must have been not less than seven hundred or eight hundred; for private letters written immediately after the occurrence by prominent and well-informed Roman Catholics state it at about seven hundred, and they would certainly not be inclined to exaggerate. The rumor at Paris even then set it at twelve hundred. See the letters in Puyroche, 365-367. Among the one hundred and twenty-three names that have been preserved, the most interesting is that of Claude Goudimel, who set Marot's and Beza's psalms to music, and who was killed by envious rivals. At the time of his death he was engaged in adapting the psalms to a more elaborate arrangement, according to a contemporary writer: "Excellent musicien, et la memoire duquel sera perpetuelle pour avoir heureus.e.m.e.nt besogne les psaumes de David en francais, la plupart desquels il a mis en musique en forme de motets a quatre, cinq, six et huit parties, et sans la mort eut tot apres rendu cette oeuvre accomplie."

Sommaire et vrai discours de la Felonie. etc, Puyroche, 402.

[1115] "Faisant cependant contenir ce peuple par toutes les remontrances et raisons que je puis leur persuader de ne s'emouvoir a aucune sedition ni tumulte, comme je m'apercois qu'il y en peut avoir quelque danger auquel toutes fois j'espere prevenir." Mandelot to Charles IX., Aug. 31, 1572, Puyroche, 356. This letter is not contained in Paulin Paris, Correspondance de Charles IX. et du sieur de Mandelot.

[1116] Mem. de l'estat, 330; De Thou, iv. (liv. lii.) 603.

[1117] "Je ne veulx estre le premier a en demander a votre Majeste; m'a.s.seurant que si elle a commence par quelques autres, elle me faict tant d'honneur de ne m'oblier (oublier)." Mandelot to Charles IX., September 2, 1572, Correspondance, p. 49. I find the clearest evidence both of Mandelot's having had no hand in the ma.s.sacres of August 31st, and of his utter want of principle, in the craven apology he makes, in his letter of September 17th, for not having done more, on the ground that he only knew his Majesty's pleasure as it were in a shadow, and very late, and that he had rather feared the king would be angry at what the people had done, than that so little had been done! "La pouvant a.s.seurer sur ma vie que si elle n'a este satisfaitte en ce faict icy, je n'en ay aucune coulpe, n'ayant sceu quelle estoit sa volunte que par umbre, encores bien tard et a demy; et ay craint, Sire, que votre Majeste fust pl.u.s.tost courroucee de ce que le peuple auroit faict, que de trop peu, d'aultant que par toutes les autres provinces circonvoysines il ne s'est rien touche."

Correspondance, etc., 72, 73.

[1118] It is given word for word, from the MS. registers of the parliament, by Floquet, Hist. du parlement de Normandie, iii. 81-85.

[1119] _Ante_, chapter xvii., p. 374.

[1120] "Encor qu'il se soit tousjours monstre fort peu amy de telles inhumanitez." Memoires de l'estat, 371.

[1121] "Receut lettres du Roy qui luy mandoit et commandoit express.e.m.e.nt d'exterminer tous ceux qui faisoyent profession de la religion audit lieu, sans en excepter aucun." Mem. de l'estat, Arch. cur., vii. 370.

[1122] Ibid., 371.

[1123] "Il n'y a aultre que vous," said they, "qui puisse commander aux armes ceans, contenir le peuple en l'obeissance au roy, et la ville en paix." Reg. secr. du parlement, 9 Septembre, 1572, _apud_ Floquet, 120.

See also Reg. de l'hotel-de-ville de Rouen, 7 Septembre, _ibid._

[1124] Floquet, 122.

[1125] Mem. de l'estat, _apud_ Archives curieuses, vii. 373.

[1126] Memoires de l'estat, _apud_ Arch. curieuses, vii. 372; Floquet, iii. 127. Floquet is incorrect in stating that the names of only about a hundred are known. We have (Mem. de l'estat. Archives curieuses, vii.

372-378) a partial list of 186 men, whose names and trades are generally given, and of 33 women--that is 219, besides a reference to many others whose names the writer did not obtain.

[1127] "Les autres estoyent _accommodez_ a coups de dague. Les ma.s.sacreurs usoyent de ce mot _accommoder_, l'accommodans a leur b.e.s.t.i.a.le et diabolique cruaute." Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 372.

[1128] Mem. de l'estat, _ubi sup._, 378.