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ty 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 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 Guises, and their associates, being quite dispirited, retired to their estates, and the queenregent, 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 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 partizans; and tho' 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, Jan. 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-favorable 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 hist 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, March 1, 1562. This was the first protestant blood, that was shed in civil war.

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 endeavored 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 tho' 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, Aug. 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

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confusions, a peace was concluded, 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.

Peace did not continue long, for the protestants, 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, 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, 1568, the revocation of all penal edicts, the exercise of their religion in their families, and the grant of six cities for their security.

The pope, the king of Spain, and the Guises, finding that they could not prevail while the wise chancellor retained his influence, formed a cabal against him, and got him removed. He resigned very readily, June 1568, 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 forbad 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, 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 sup

port 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 honors, 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 corners 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 negociations, 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 protestants, they were to be admitted into all universities, schools, hospitals, public offices, royal, seignioral, and corporate, and, to render the peace of everlasting du

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ration, 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, Aug. 18, 1572. A few days after the marriage, the Admiral, who was one of the principal protestant leaders, was assassinated, Aug. 22. This alarmed the king of Navarre, and the prince of Conde, but, the king and his mother promising to punish the assassin, they were quiet. The next Sunday being St. Bartholomew's day, Aug. 24, when the bells rang for morning prayers, the duke of Guise, brother of the last appeared with a great number of soldiers, and citizens, and began to murder the Hugonots; the wretched Charles appeared at the windows of his palace, and endeavored to shoot those who fled, crying to their pursuers, kill them, kill them. The massacre continued seven days, seven hundred houses were pillaged; five thousand people perished in Paris; neither age, nor sex, nor even women with child were spared; one butcher boasted to the king that he had hewn down a hundred and fifty in one night. The rage ran from Paris to the provinces, where twenty five thousand more were cruelly slain; the queen of Navarre was poisoned; and, during the massacre, the king offered the king of Navarre, and the young prince of Conde, son of the late prince, if they would not renounce Hugonotism, either death, mass, or bastile for, he said, he would not have one left to reproach him. This bloody affair does not lie between Charles IX. his mother Catharine of Medicis, and the duke of Guise, for the church of Rome, and the court of Spain, by exhibiting public re

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