with a firm grasp to the possession of church-lands.’ Hallam's Const. Hist. vol. i. p. 77. See also Short's Hist. of the Church of England, p. 213; Lingard's Hist. of England, vol. iv. pp. 339, 340; Butler's Mem. of the Catholics, vol. i. p. 253; and Carwithen's Hist. of the Church of England, vol. i. p. 346.
12
‘Quand éclata la guerre des opinions religieuses, les antiques rivalités des barons se transformèrent en haîne du prêche ou de la messe.’ Capefigue, Hist. de la Réforme et de la Ligue, vol. iv. p. 32. Compare Duplessis Mornay, Mém. et Correspond., vol. ii. pp. 422, 563; and Boullier, Maison Militaire des Rois de France, p. 25, ‘des querelles d'autant plus vives, qu'elles avoient la religion pour base.’
13
The intellectual advantages of France, arising from its position between Italy, Germany, and England, are very fairly stated by M. Lerminier (Philosophie du Droit, vol. i. p. 9).
14
Just in the same way, the religious disputes in Alexandria injured the interests of knowledge. See the instructive remarks of M. Matter (Hist. de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie, vol. ii. p. 131).
15
Monteil, Hist. des divers Etats, vol. vi. p. 136. Indeed, the theological spirit seized the theatre, and the different sectarians ridiculed each other's principles on the stage. See a curious passage at p. 182 of the same learned work.
16
The crimes of the French Protestants, though hardly noticed in Felice's History of the Protestants of France, pp. 138–143, were as revolting as those of the Catholics, and quite as numerous relatively to the numbers and power of the two parties. Compare Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. xviii. pp. 516, 517, with Capefigue, Hist. de la Réforme, vol. ii. p. 173, vol. vi. p. 54; and Smedley, Hist. of the Reformed Religion in France, vol. i. pp. 199, 200, 237.
17
In 1569 Corero writes: ‘Ritrovai quel regno, certo, posto in grandissima confusione; perchè, stante quella divisione di religione (convertita quasi in due fazioni e inimicizie particolari), era causa ch' ognuno, senza che amicizia o parentela potesse aver luoco, stava con l'orecchie attente; e pieno disospetto ascoltava da che parte nasceva qualche romore,’ Relat. des Ambassad. Vénitiens, vol. ii. p. 106. He emphatically adds, ‘Temevano gl' ugonotti, temevano li cattolici, tenieva il prencipe, temevano li sudditi.’ See also, on this horrible state of opinions, Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. xviii. pp. 21, 22, 118–120, 296, 430. On both sides, the grossest calumnies were propagated and believed; and one of the charges brought against Catherine de Medici was, that she caused the Cesarean operation to be performed on the wives of Protestants, in order that no new heretics might be born. Sprengel, Hist. de la Médecine, vol. vii. p. 294.
18
Mably, Observations sur l'Hist. de France, vol. iii. p. 149. In the reign of Charles IX. alone, there were no less than five of these religious wars, each of which was concluded by a treaty. See Flassan, Hist. de la Diplomatie Française, vol. ii. p. 69.
19
For which l'Hôpital was accused of atheism: ‘Homo doctus, sed verus atheus.’ Dict. Philos. article Athéisme, in Œuvres de Voltaire, vol. xxxvii. pp. 181, 182.
20
I have not been able to meet with any good life of this great man: that by Charles Butler is very superficial, and so is that by Bernardi, in Biog. Univ. vol. xxiv. pp. 412–424. My own information respecting l'Hôpital is from Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. xviii. pp. 431–436; Capefigue, Hist. de la Réforme, vol. ii. pp. 135–137, 168–170; De Thou, Hist. Univ. vol. iii. pp. 519–523, vol. iv. pp. 2–8, 152–159, vol. v. pp. 180–182, 520, 521, 535, vol. vi. pp. 703, 704; Sully, Œconomies Royales, vol. i. p. 234. Duvernet (Hist. de la Sorbonne, vol. i. pp. 215–218) is unsatisfactory, though fully recognizing his merit.
21
‘Ce fut alors que la nation ne prit conseil que de son fanatisme. Les esprits, de jour en jour plus échauffés, ne virent plus d'autre objet que celui de la religion, et par piété se firent les injures les plus atroces.’ Mably, Observations sur l'Hist. de France, vol. iii. p. 145.
22
The 19th and 20th volumes of Sismondi's Histoire des Français contain painful evidence of the internal condition of France before the accession of Henry IV. Indeed, as Sismondi says (vol. xx. pp. 11–16), it seemed at one time as if the only prospect was a relapse into feudalism. See also Monteil, Hist. des divers Etats, vol. v. pp. 242–249: ‘plus de trois cent mille maisons détruites.’ De Thou, in the memoirs of his own life, says, ‘Les loix furent méprisées, et l'honneur de la France fut presque anéanti … et sous le voile de la religion, on ne respiroit que la haîne, la vengeance, le massacre et l'incendie,’ Mém. de la Vie, in Histoire Univ. vol. i. p. 120; and the same writer, in his great history, gives almost innumerable instances of the crimes and persecutions constantly occurring. See, for some of the most striking cases, vol. ii. p. 383, vol. iv. pp. 378, 380, 387, 495, 496, 539, vol. v. pp. 189, 518, 561, 647, vol. vi. pp. 421, 422, 424, 426, 427, 430, 469. Compare Duplessis, Mém. et Correspond. vol. ii. pp. 41, 42, 322, 335, 611, 612, vol. iii. pp. 344, 445, vol. iv. pp. 112–114; Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. i. pp. 307, 308; Duvernet, Hist. de la Sorbonne, vol. i. p. 217.
23
This, indeed, is not saying much; and far higher praise might be justly bestowed. As to his domestic policy, there can be only one opinion; and M. Flassan speaks in the most favourable terms of his management of foreign affairs. Flassan, Hist. de la Diplomatie Franç. vol. ii. pp. 191, 192, 294–297, vol. iii. p. 243. And see, to the same effect, the testimony of M. Capefigue, an unfriendly judge. Hist. de la Réforme, vol. vii. p. xiv. vol. viii. p. 156. Fontenay Mareuil, who was a contemporary of Henry IV., though he wrote many years after the king was murdered, says, ‘Ce grand roy, qui estoit en plus de considération dans le monde que pas un de ses prédécesseurs n'avoit esté depuis Charlesmagne.’ Mém. de Fontenay, vol. i. p. 46. Duplessis Mornay calls him ‘le plus grand roy que la chrestienté ait porté depuis cinq cens ans;’ and Sully pronounces him to be ‘le plus grand de nos rois.’ Duplessis Mornay, Mém. et Correspond. vol. xi. pp. 30, 77, 131; Sully, Œconomies Royales, vol. vii. p. 15. Compare vol. vi. pp. 397, 398, vol. ix. pp. 35, 242, with some sensible remarks in Mém. de Genlis, Paris, 1825, vol. ix. p. 299.
24
So it is generally related: but there is a slightly different version of this orthodox declaration in Smedley's Hist. of the Reformation in France, vol. i. p. 30. Compare Maclaine's note in Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 24, with Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. xvi. pp. 453, 454, and Relat. des Ambassad. Vénitiens, vol. i. p. 50, vol. ii. p. 48. It was also Francis I. who advised Charles V. to expel all the Mohammedans from Spain, Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, vol. i. p. 429.
25
The historian of the French Protestants says, in 1548, ‘le nouveau roi Henry II. fut encore plus rigoureux que son père.’ Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. i. p. 12.
with a firm grasp to the possession of church-lands.’ 