We fhall fee in the next Volume how that Charles IX Edict was received by the feveral Parliaments, 1562. Pope as well as by the two contending Parties. I come Pius IV. now to take a general View of the Reformed Churches of the Kingdom, fince the Acceffion of Charles IX to the Crown.

This Volume would be fwelled up to an ex- LXXXVIII ceffive bignefs, fhould I give an exact Account Some geneof the State of the Reformed Churches through- derations ral Confiout the feveral Provinces of the Kingdom; there- upon the fore I fhall end by fome general Confiderations State of the Reformed upon that fubject.

I. The Reformed were fo prodigiously increafed in the Kingdom fince Francis IId's death, that they reckoned at this time, as above-said, two thoufand, one hundred, and fifty Congregations and upwards; amongst which, feveral there were compofed of four, nay, eight thousand Communicants, especially in the greatest Cities; there were no less than twenty thousand at Paris: nay, Monf. Languet in a Letter of the 23d day of January 1562, N. S. fays pofitively, that there were Affemblies in that City of forty thousand People, wherein three Minifters were obliged to preach at the fame time and upon the fame place *.

That was done with the Knowledge and Confent of the Queen-Mother and the King of Navarr; nay, it was by that Princefs's Orders, that the Marshal of Montmorency, Governor of Paris, fent two Companies of Horfe, and Foot in proportion upon the place where thofe Affemblies were held, to ward them from any infult; and during the Sermon-time, the Soldiers lined the Avenues, with orders to beat, imprison, or otherwife reprefs thofe who fhould caufe any diftur

See Bayle's Dict. Art. Hopital, not. 45.

bance

in France.

Charles IX bance to them. One may eafily judge, by the 1562. Capital, of the Number of the Reformed throughPius IV. out the Provinces of the Kingdom.

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II. These Churches had been fettled in the Provinces with more or lefs difficulties and troubles, according to the Genius of the Inhabitants,more or less fuperftitious, and their Temper more or lefs ftubborn and violent; and as the Governors or their Deputies were more or lefs meek and peaceable, and more or lefs Dependants of the Guifes.

Accordingly the Reformation was fettled with lefs difficulty in the Northern, Western, and the middle Provinces of France, than in the Eastern and Southern Parts (except Guienne and Bearn,) either because their Inhabitants were less tractable, more addicted to Superftition, and thereby lefs apt for receiving Inftruction than others; or because the Governors of these Provinces, or their Deputies were Dependants of the Guifes. Indeed, it is obfervable, that in all Provinces, Cities and Places, wherein the Intereft of the King and Queen of Navarr, the Princes of Condé and La Roche-fur-Yon, the Colignies, and several other Lords prevailed, the Reformed enjoyed a greater Liberty, and by confequence, increased a great deal more, than in those who were either under the Jurifdiction of the Parliaments of Thoulouse and Aix (the two bloodiest and most unjuft of all the Parliaments of France at that time,) or under the Government or Influence of the House of Guife.

It is true, that almost every where the spirit of the Clergy, and Monks fhewed it felf in like manner. And no wonder, fince the Reformation, difclofing their grofs Ignorance and Vices, filled People's minds with the utmost scorn and contempt for them; and as it freed the Con

fciences

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fciences from the intolerable Yoke under CharlesIX which they had groaned for fo many Ages, fo it leffened their means of gratifying their Lufts: Therefore it is not furprizing if they did their moft earnest Endeavours, and made ufe of the most shameful and wicked methods, Calumny, Fraud, Cheat and Imposture, if they carried their Violence to fuch great and cruel Exceffes, in order to oppofe the fettlement of Truth, or to ftop its progrefs. For that end they gave out ftill at that time, that the Reformed circumcifed their Children in their Meetings: They forged Apparitions of Souls coming out from Purgatory, complaining of their Relations and Friends who neglected to have Maffes faid for their deliverance, and that they were turned Hereticks; faying further, that they had feen Hell full of Hugonots, fuffering greater Torments than others, and they warned their Hearers to fhun their Company and Fellowship, or else they should fall into the fame mifery. They provoked the People to Sedition against the Reformed, by their paffionate Speeches and Sermons. They turned their Churches and Monafteries into Arfenals, and pro vided with Arms and Weapons the furious Mob whom they headed, and fell unawares upon the Reformed, plundered their Houses, forced Women and Maids, beat unmercifully, murdered, or abufed in a barbarous manner the Decrepits and Children: Such things happened especially the beginning of this year 1562, at Cahors, Sens, Auxerre, Tours, Aurillac, Nemours, Grenada, Carcaffonne, Ville-neuve of Avignon, Marfil larques, Senlis, Amiens, Abbeville, Meaux, Challons, Troyes, Bar-fur-Seine, Efpernai, Nevers, Chaftillon-fur-Loire, Gien, Moulins, Ifordun, Le Mans, Angers, Cran, Blois, Mer, and Poitiers; where the Priests and Monks gave VOL. I. Sf

the

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"Charles IX the most convincing Proofs of their inhuman and cruel Difpofitions towards the Reformed, in open defiance to the King's repeated Edicts and Declarations: And thofe firft Maffacres occafioned the firft Civil War.

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It is true, that in Xaintonge, the Country of Aulnix, La Rochelle, and few other Places, the Priests either out of fear, or that they thought their Condition worse than it was, or that they inclined to a Reformation, made no fcruple to fhare their Churches with the Reformed, in fo much that when they came out, the Reformed 'came in for their Religious Worship, and they lived together peaceably enough.

III. This Progrefs of Reformation would have been much greater, had the King of Navarr better understood his true Concerns, and shewn more fteadiness in maintaining them; Mafter of all the Forces of the Kingdom, as the King's LieutenantGeneral, he was able not only to fubdue the Lorrain Princes, and fruftrate their factious Defigns, but likewife to right himself of the King of Spain, and oblige him to reftore to him the Kingdom of Navarr. The Courts of Madrid and Rome were very fenfible of it, therefore they neglected nothing to dazzle that Prince's Eyes, and to break the Ties which united him to a 'Party which was his only strength, and on which, after God, he might depend entirely; and I do not know what is more to be wondered at, either his Counsellors and Favourites impudence, in fetting forth Sardinia as one of the fortunate Iflands; or that Prince's Ignorance and Credulity in believing whatever thefe Traytors faid unto him? However that was the fole reafon of that Prince's Change; and that was precisely the reason why the Reformed got not the upper hand. This

is not an invention, but plain matter of fact Charles IX grounded upon the Teftimony of many grave Pope and not fufpected Hiftorians *.

As to the Queen-Mother, there is no doubt but that fhe was a Catholick at that time, outwardly and out of Policy only. Varillas fays, that M. De Soubize her great Favourite, affirmed pofitively, that though fhe had not refolution enough to profefs herself a Calvinist, yet fhe' would not have been angry, had he been conftrained to do it. She opened fully the bottom of her heart, after the Battle of Dreux, when the was told that the Reformed had got the day; THEN, fays fhe, WE SHALL PRAY TO GOD IN FRENCH; and fhe careffed much their Friends and Adherents. Mr. Varillas fays further, that fhe adhered to the Catholick Party rather out of neceffity, than out, of inclination and choice t.

As to the People's inclination to a Reformation, methinks, Meffieurs de Lange's and Britain's Speeches for the Commons, or the third State at Orleans, and St. Germain, fhew evidently how earnestly they defired a redress of the many Errors and fuperftitious Practices which had crept into the Church by length of time,

Such being the Difpofitions of the QueenMother, and of the Nation in general at that time, is it not evident that the Reformed Church would have been the National Church, had the King of Navarr had the Prudence and the Dif cretion requifite?

IV. And what is more wonderful, the Reformation made thofe Progreffes in less than forty

*Lett. De Pasquier, Tom. 1. liv. 4. Le Laboureur Addit. aux Memoires de Caftelnau, liv. 3. ch. 6. Thuani Hist. lib. 28. p. 58, 59.

Varillas Hift. de Charles IX. Tom. 1.

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