Admiral Coligny and the Rise of the Huguenots

ADMIRAL COLIGNY, RISE OF THE HUGUENOTS. BY THE Rev. W3I. M. BLACKBURN, Profebbor of Biblical and Ecclesiastical History in the Theological Seminart of the nobth-west, and author of " William Farel," " Ui.rich Zwingli," " Vounq Calvin in Paris," Ac. Vol. I. PHILADELPHIA: PRESBYTERL\N BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 821 CHESTNUT STREET. Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation Iittp://www.arcliive.org/details/admiralcolignyri02blacuoft 'V^^^V "i>.^--iW^ ..âi'V ' ^©CALAIS .v"-" .^ / </ /> A' /"' '• ,.// V .V AblMniUe o*v n%^|Ipimeiuies .//</,',„. ' ^ ''Amiens S.(piren.titi. -, I lifrtunirt ' \ PeronxLe _ ^Ta^'ilts Havir; .tlllDlIf l',.\. MX H'-- . AlenCOn O KiimbowlUhn,,mn,niuLrr^ FHAA• »»av>^-. fv L.j ,^, — ^ - ^^. O^"^ . ^ l.aval 1 -LaFerte .lA'"" ^- ^T^"^^ Vassp ,., v-v fhaieai Orleans c S* .\;i7. Airo Chalillon N\irLoiTi6 iixerre ~Noyers r Womb aril c jVez.elay ilourgps Z At* CJwa-Uf. r^ li V /£»'.<«/£«)• Parthrain- 1» H ' Yuwudiui \/* ,. , «„,„„„, . oPoiliers ' '"^ /' \* ri -v- II, l..'nMli..nll.lt<li.lll So :trH.SI PInli. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by THE TRDSTEE8 OF THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Wesicott & THOMSOir, SteREOTYPKRS, PHILikDA. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. A RISING GENERATION. PAQB The Reform needs two New Elements—The Colignj's and Mont- morencies—Marot and the Psalms—The Guises—A Suppressed Calvinism 13 CHAPTER II. PROMOTIONS AND PROJECTS. A Change on the Throne—Coligny's new Military Code—Andelot in Prison; reads Calvin's Writings—When free avows the Reform 46 CHAPTER III. FROM CAMP TO PRISON. St. Quentin Lost, but France Saved—Coligny's Captivity one Means of his Conversion 68 CHAPTER IV. A BOLDER PROTESTANTISM. Its Organization—First Reformed Church in Paris—Pastor de Launay—Riots—Great Psalm-singing—Andelot Arrested for his Faith 85 3 — 4 CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. COURAGE IN HIGH PLACES. PAOI Coligny and Calvin —Charlotte Laval—Model of Household Wor- ship—Chandieu—First National Synod—A Fierce Parliament —Du Bourg in Prison 110 CHAPTER Vr. THE GUISES IN POWER. William of Orange Hears of a Plot—The Political and the Religious Protestants—Du Bourg Executed—Persecutions 133 CHAPTER VII. A CHIEFTAIN WANTED, Prince of Cond^—His Party hold Assemblies —Coligny Opposes War—Guisean Tyranny—The Consj)iracy of Amboise—Noble Victims —The Reform in Peril 154 CHAPTER VIII. THE TWO GREAT PARTIES. The Name Huguenot—Chancellor de I'Hopital—Coligny's Petition for the Normans—Conde Entrapped—A King Dies—The Guises Fall 184 CHAPTER IX. A CONGRESS AND A COLLOQUY. The one at Orleans ; the other at Poissy—The Triumvirate—Theo- dore Beza—Peter Ramus 222 CHAPTER X. THE WILES OF THE COURT. Character and Number of the Reformed—Great Meetings—Riots Jesuits —Defection of Antony of Navarre—Massacre of Vassy. 257 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. THE UPRISING OF THE HCGnENOTS. PAGE The Period of Resistance Opens—Coligny Aroused— First Civil War—Many Towns held by the Huguenots—Parleys—Violence 286 CHAPTER XII. THROUGH \VAR TO PEACE. Siege of Rouen—Battle of Dreux— Papal Tz Deums—The Admiral's March to Havre —Poltrot Assassinates Guise—Was Coligny in the Plot?—His Exoneration—Peace through Kingcraft 324 CHAPTER XIII, UNDER A CLOUD. Three Movements : one to Ruin Coligny, another to Tempt Coude, and a third to Recover Havre—Coligny at Home—Protestant Preaching Suppressed at Court—Madame Renê 356 1* PREFACE. This work is something more than a biography : the reader may find it nothing less than a history. It may be both, and still preserve the unity of design and of method. In general, the acts of a people are but the deeds of its representative men. This is especially true of the Huguenots during the periods herein treated. Amid the distractions of persecution and war they did not—they could not—act so much in a body, or as a Re- formed Church, as through their leaders. Their representatives made for them their histoiy. To form a correct idea of that peculiar people, to whom a distinctive character has always been attributed, it is not necessary to portray the life of every earnest actor nor the development of every particular Church. This would give us too much sameness. So of the various persecutions : there is a horrible monotony of details in them all. The trial and execution of one martyr are quite like those of another; therefore martyrologies grow tedious. The butchery in one vil- lage is frightfully similar to that in another. Hence the history must be eclectic. It may be seen in the record of a few lives, a few churches, a few persecutions. Even their enemies act mo- edicts in notonously ; their frequent run almost the same mould ; they constantly repeat their deeds of violence. My aim has been to select what is representative, or give fair specimens of life and endurance. One man occupies the central position. Upon Admiral Colig- ny almost the entire history hangs. He is a sort of personifi- 7 8 PREFACE. cation of Ilugucnot'kîn, wliieli, at one tiino, was in danger of being a Protestant chivalry—a religion in the hands of warrior?. Himself a nobleman, he greatly helped to turn it from the path of the whirlwind. Yet the Reform was in need of noble patron- age, and he and his brothers represented the young nobility which was led out of moderate Romanism into an earnest Protestant- ism. They were the first powerful chiefs to adopt the Reform. They set the example to hundreds of others. Coligny is the em- inent lay chieftain of the truly religious Huguenots. He is inti- mately allied to the Prince of Conde and the political Hugue- nots. ( This important distinction has often been too much over- in the state, in the Reformed looked. ) He holds a high place Church and in the Huguenot army. He links the Protestants to the king and the court. There are certain foreign influences which greatly affect his people, and to these I have given no more is the conspicuous leader against than due attention ; in these he whom the pope and Philip II. take their deadly aim when they dictate extermination. He and the Prince of Orange grasp hands and for a time keep the whole papal forces at bay. Upon him, in a great degree, the St. Bartholomew massacre turns, and he is the first and prominent victim of that awful day. He is, then, the chief historical character of that age in France. His family ties gave him a peculiar position. By birth and marriages he was allied to the ruling houses of France, closely to the Montmorencies and the Bourbons, and, through them, more distantly, to the Guises, the D'Albrets, and even the royal house of Valois. His wife, Charlotte Laval, a more than representative woman, allied him to several other noble families. All this had some importance in the time of a decaying feudalism. Be- yond this, he was more fully in correspondence with Calvin than any other of the French nobles. Upon no man in France ( ex- cept Beza when he was there) did Calvin so much depend, and the reliance was mutual. Not to recognize the great influence of the Genevan Reformer in the history of the Huguenots is to treat the subject with a partiality inexcusable. While seeking to throw additional light upon this point, I may still say that my — PREFACE. y limits did not allow me to do full justice to the subject. But the inquirer may satisfy himself by going to the source which 1 have found so replete in historical matter Calvin s Letters, Presby- terian Board of Publication. It is hoped that the present work may serve as an exponent of the many letters which relate to France. Before the reader are brought three periods of the French Reformation: 1st. That of Bepression (1512-1555), when the vain attempt was made to reform the Papal Church. There was little open preaching, but the psalm-siuging was tremendous, and there were hosts of secret believers in the gospel. 2d. That of Organization ( 1555-1562). The history of the first Presbyterian Church in Paris and the account of the first national synod have received a special treatment which may be interesting. The rapid growth of churches in seven years must appear astonish- ing. It refers us to the introduction of two new agencies—that of a ministry and that of a Beformed nobility to sustain the mis- sionary labours. To these is mainly due the rise of the Hugue- nots as a religious body. The increase of churches was severely checked in the year 1 562, and many organizations were destro^'ed. 3d. That of Resistance ( 1562 to the edict of Nantes, 1598). It is the period of the civil wars, but the present work closes with the St. Bartholomew massacre ( 1572), after which an almost en- tirely new class of men appear as the representatives of Protest- antism in France. Even that terrible event did not cause the "fall" of the Huguenots. It was a shock from which they re- covered. It tended to purify them from politics and lead them nearer to God. Even by means of it they rose to a nobler spir- itual height. That a historian may express his own opinions upon disputed points has been taken for granted by several writers who have assured us of their impartiality, and have impeached the Hugue- nots before the world as if it were the Calvinistic type of the Reform that caused the troubles in France, and not the Reform itself Perhaps one may venture to answer the impeachment and still not be partial nor guilty of prejudice.

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