READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE : A.D. 1453-1900

CHAPTER XVI

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE COUNTER-REFORMATION

THE efforts of Pope Paul III had been directed to the establishment of peace in the Church as well as between the Emperor and France. He had dispatched Nuncios to the Lutheran as well as the Catholic Princes of Germany, in order to bring about an understanding respecting a General Council, and on this subject the Nuncio Vergerio had had an interview in Saxony with Luther, but without much success. In June, 1536, Paul issued briefs for the assembling of a Council at Mantua in May of the following year. The assembly was, however, opposed on various grounds by the Kings of France and England, as well as by the German Lutherans, who objected to an Italian town. They were not, of course, any better pleased with the substitution of Vicenza, where the Papal Legates, Campeggio and Aleandro, nominated to preside over the Council, actually remained several months; but the war having then broken out between the Emperor and France, not a single prelate appeared. The Reformers had now begun to question altogether the expediency of a Council, and required that it should at least be composed, as in old times, not only of priests, but also of Princes and the representatives of States; and that the Pope should appear in it not as a judge, but as a party.

The Emperor’s endeavors to support the Pope’s authority had only tended still further to alienate the Lutherans. The Imperial Chancellor, Held, who was dispatched to back the representations of the Papal Nuncio, Vorstius, to the confederates of Smalkald, behaved intemperately, and the debates which ensued were violent and unsatisfactory. Held subsequently travelled about the country canvassing against the Lutherans, and at length succeeded in organizing a Catholic League, called the Holy League of Nuremberg (June, 1538). The principal members of this confederacy, which was established for a term of ten years, were King Ferdinand, Duke George of Saxony, the Dukes of Bavaria, the Archbishops of Mainz and Salzburg, with a few other Catholic Princes. This league, which was subsequently confirmed by the Emperor at Toledo (May 20th, 1539), was the more alarming to the Lutherans on account of the truce concluded between Charles and Francis at Nice.

In the spring of 1539 a conference took place at Frankfurt between the Elector Palatine on the part of the Emperor, and Joachim II, Elector of Brandenburg, as representative of the League of Smalkald. The latter Prince, who succeeded to the Electorate in 1535, was as warm in the Lutheran cause as his father had been in support of the old religion. At this meeting a sort of truce was arranged for a period of fifteen months, by which the decree of the Diet of Nuremberg, and the edict of pacification issued at Ratisbon in 1532, were to be observed till the next Diet, and meanwhile the jurisdiction of the Imperial Chamber in religious matters was to remain suspended. In the interim the disputed points of doctrine were to be amicably discussed by some eminent doctors selected from each side, and a report rendered to the next assembly of the States; and although the Pope annulled this convention as derogatory to the authority of the Holy See, it nevertheless continued to be observed. About the same time the Lutherans gained an accession of strength by the death of George, Duke of Saxony (April 17th, 1539). That Prince, as we have seen, was a violent opponent of the Reformation; and as his two sons had died, he appointed by his will, that in case his brother and successor Henry, surnamed the Pious, a zealous Lutheran, should attempt to introduce any innovations in religion, the Emperor and King Ferdinand should assume the administration of his dominions. These, which must be carefully distinguished from the Saxon Electorate or Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg, were vested in the younger, or Albertine branch of the Saxon family, who possessed considerable territory in Misnia and Thuringia, including the towns of Leipzig, Dresden, and others. Henry, however, succeeded without opposition, and immediately began to introduce the Lutheran religion into Albertine Saxony. Luther and other eminent divines were invited to Leipzig, who soon abolished the Popish worship; much to the satisfaction of the people, who had long been Lutheran at heart. Lutheranism now prevailed almost everywhere from the Baltic to the Rhine.

Disputation at Worms.

As arranged at Frankfurt, a disputation between Papist and Lutheran doctors was held at Worms in November, 1540, in presence of Morone, the Papal Nuncio, and of Granvelle, who had recently been appointed Imperial Chancellor, in place of the intemperate Held. The disputation was chiefly conducted by Dr. Eck on the part of the Romanists, and by Melanchthon on that of the Lutherans, but soon became involved in such subtleties on the question of original sin, that by the advice of Granvelle the Emperor adjourned the discussion till the meeting of a Diet at Ratisbon in the ensuing spring. The same year is memorable for the institution of the Jesuits, the scheme of which had been submitted by Ignatius Loyola to the Apostolic See in 1539. The Pope referred the matter to a committee of three Cardinals, who gave it their approval, and Paul in consequence, chiefly on account of the vow of implicit obedience, authorized the new institution by a bull (September 27th, 1540). At the commencement of 1541 the Society counted only ten members.

The Emperor opened in person the Diet which assembled Diet of at Ratisbon in April, 1541. Cardinal Contarini, a member of the Oratory of Divine Love, a man of great learning as well as warm religious feeling, attended the assembly as Papal Legate. Luther was also present. Contarini made large concessions; but it was soon evident that the discussion would be, as usual, fruitless, and the Emperor dissolved the Diet (July 28th). Francis I protested to the Papal ambassadors against the concessions made by Contarini, which were also viewed with suspicion at Rome; and Paul annulled all the acts of the colloquy on the ground that a secular assembly are not competent to discuss religious matters. The Catholics and Reformers, however, came on this occasion more nearly to an accommodation than at any previous or subsequent period. The Pope and his Legate, as well as the Dukes of Bavaria, now pressed upon the Emperor the necessity of putting down the Lutherans by force of arms; but Charles, who had still need of their services against the Turks, was disposed to act with more moderation. He replied that he had neither money nor power for such an enterprise, and he issued a declaration which left matters nearly on the same footing on which they had been placed by the Religious Peace of Nuremberg.

Besides the Turks, an enemy nearer home, the powerful Duke of Cleves and Gelderland, also induced the Emperor at this period to court the friendship of the Lutheran Princes.

In 1540, after Charles had punished Ghent, and a new war threatened to break out between him and Francis, both Sovereigns had sought the alliance of Duke William, and Francis enticed him with the promise of the hand of his niece Jeanne, only daughter of Henry d'Albret, though the French Court had already formed the plan of uniting what remained of Navarre to the French Crown. With a view to his relations with the Duke of Cleves, Charles, while still at Ratisbon, had concluded a treaty with the Landgrave Philip of Hesse (June 13th). The Landgrave had been for some time on a friendly footing with Queen Mary, Governess of the Netherlands, who was suspected of a leaning towards the Lutherans. She advocated an anti-French and anti-Roman policy, but her only wish was to see Germany united under the Emperor. Charles, by his treaty with Philip, granted him an amnesty for all his former enterprises against the House of Austria, whilst on the other hand the Landgrave promised to embrace the political party of the Emperor, and to oppose any alliance of the League of Smalkald with France or England; and more particularly not to admit the Duke of Cleves into the League, nor to support him in any manner; nay, if the Emperor should be attacked, to assist him, if necessary, in person. In the following July, Charles also concluded a treaty with Joachim II of Brandenburg, in which the latter promised to stand by the Emperor in the affair of Cleves, and to assist him in recovering the contested territories. He further engaged to embrace the Imperial party in the question of Ferdinand’s election, which was now again mooted; he agreed to oppose all recruiting for France, and he assured Charles of his entire devotion. The Emperor, on his side, permitted the Elector of Brandenburg to maintain the Lutheran religion in his dominions till the assembling of a Council, or till the States should have come to a better decision. The Lutheran worship established in Brandenburg was thus in a measure legalized, and the Elector cheerfully undertook neither to overstep what had been already done nor to join the League of Smalkald.

Bigamy of the Landgrave

There was another cause besides his friendship for the Netherland Regent, which induced the Landgrave of Hesse to conclude this treaty with the Emperor. Philip was weary of his wife, Christine, daughter of Duke George of Saxony, and he determined to marry Margaretha von der Saal. Philip now applied himself to consult the Scriptures, and in the books of the Old Testament it was not difficult to find passages that seemed to justify a plurality of wives. Christine, who appears to have been of easy temper, gave her formal consent in writing to her husband’s marriage with Margaretha, with the reservation, in other respects, of her own rights and those of her children. Philip’s conscience, however, was not satisfied without the sanction of the theologians, and he appealed to Luther and Melanchthon. The case was difficult. It was hard to sanction bigamy, harder still to lose so staunch and powerful an upholder of the Protestant cause as the Landgrave of Hesse. The paper in which they answered his application contains all the reasons which could be urged against it; yet they withheld not their consent, and were parties to the bigamy, but under the seal of confession, and with the injunction of the strictest secrecy. Bigamy, however, is not only a moral and religious crime: it is also a legal offence; and the Landgrave began to fear that the Emperor and the Imperial Chamber might find in it a fresh handle for pursuing him. Under this apprehension, he first endeavored to draw closer his alliance with the Elector of Saxony, and engaged to aid him in matters not provided for by the League of Smalkald, as the affairs of John Frederick’s brother-in-law, the Duke of Cleves, provided the Elector would, in turn, support him in his new marriage, which he effected in March, 1540. The strict principles of the Elector forbade him, however, to enter into such an arrangement, and Philip, in consequence, threw himself, as we have seen, into the arms of the Emperor. His marriage, of course, soon became publicly known, and occasioned great scandal. Melanchthon, who was then on the point of proceeding to the Diet at Hagenau, was so mortified and alarmed by the part which he had played in the business, that he was seized with a dangerous illness; and it required all the consolations of Luther, who was of a more robust frame of mind, to restore his self-possession.

The moderation displayed by Charles at Ratisbon tended to conciliate the Lutherans, who engaged to assist him against the Turks. They wished him to undertake the war in person; but Charles was then meditating another expedition to Africa, to repress the dreadful devastations committed on the coasts of Italy and Spain by Hassan Aga, commandant of Algiers, a renegade eunuch in the service of Hayraddin Barbarossa, and he therefore entrusted the conduct of the war against Solyman to his brother Ferdinand. The peace with the Porte before mentioned, in 1533, to which Charles was not a party, had left many things unsettled, and early in 1534, Cornelius Duplicius Schepper was dispatched to Constantinople to make, if possible, a more satisfactory arrangement. He found a very altered state of things. Aloysio Gritti had lost great part of his influence; the power of Ibrahim himself was fast sinking, against whom a formidable party, headed by Barbarossa and Junisbey, the interpreter to the Porte, had arisen in the Divan. Schepper’s efforts were unavailing. In the last audience granted to him the Sultan repeated that Hungary belonged to himself, that Janus Krai (King John) was merely his slave, and acted only in his name, and he warned Ferdinand not to undertake anything against that potentate. Soon afterwards Gritti was dispatched to Hungary as the Sultan’s plenipotentiary, and entered Transylvania at the head of 7,000 men. He was, however, hated and suspected, as well by the party of Zapolya as of Ferdinand; 40,000 men rose in arms, overpowered his little army, and delivered Gritti himself to the executioner. This act naturally roused the anger of Solyman, and left no room for peaceful solution of the points in dispute. Ferdinand sent ambassadors both to Ibrahim and the Sultan, then in Bagdad, to clear himself from blame, by charging John Zapolya with the execution of Gritti; but Solyman would not accept his excuses, and demanded reparation. From this time, however, Zapolya began to sink in reputation with the Porte. Junisbey, whom the Sultan had dispatched to inquire into the circumstances of Gritti’s murder, was gained over by King Ferdinand with promise of a pension; and Zapolya was condemned to pay 1,200,000 ducats, partly for arrears of “pension” due to the Porte, and partly for valuables belonging to Gritti on which he had seized. It was soon after the return of Junisbey to Constantinople that the Vizier Ibrahim was murdered, through some secret Court intrigue. Meanwhile, as the Turkish hordes were pressing on from Bosnia towards Eszék, Ferdinand’s general, Katzianer, advanced with an army of about 24,000 men, mostly Germans, to keep them in check; but being surrounded by the Osmanli cavalry, he was compelled to a disastrous retreat, in which he lost all his artillery (November, 1536), while his army was dispersed and almost entirely cut up.

After this no warlike movements of any importance occurred for some time. In 1538 the Emperor and Ferdinand concluded a peace with John Zapolya, which cost the latter the loss of the Sultan’s confidence. By this treaty, Charles and his brother consented to recognize Zapolya as a brother, that is, as a King, and to concede to him all the territory of which he then stood possessed; but on condition that after his death, whether he left children or not, his dominions should revert to Ferdinand. In September, 1539, Hieronymus Lasczi, who had now deserted the service of Zapolya for that of Ferdinand, proceeded to Constantinople as the latter’s ambassador; but before any negotiations could be concluded the state of things was completely changed by the death of Zapolya (July 21st, 1540). He had married in the previous year, Isabella, daughter of Sigismund I, King of Poland, who had borne him a son only nine days before his decease; and a party immediately sprung up in the infant’s favor, at the head of which was Martinuzzi, or brother George, Bishop of Grosswardein. Some of Zapolya’s former supporters, however, as Gregory Frangepani, Peter Pereny, and others, recognized Ferdinand. French intrigues were now revived; the friendly policy of Francis towards the House of Austria had now terminated; and the French envoy at Constantinople induced the Hungarian ambassadors themselves to beg of the Sultan, that in case the throne of Hungary became vacant the Duke of Orleans should be elected to it. Lasczi was now imprisoned, and war was declared against Ferdinand. Solyman in person began his march towards Hungary, and entered Buda without resistance (August 25th, 1541), before the forces voted by the Diet of Ratisbon, under command of Count Furstenberg, could come up. A Turkish government under a Pasha of three tails was established in the Hungarian capital, the principal church was converted into a mosque, and Buda remained in the hands of the Infidels near a century and a half. Zapolya’s wife and infant son were ejected from the palace, and sent to Lippa on the other side of the Theiss. Solyman, after a three weeks sojourn in Buda, where he received and contemptuously dismissed another embassy from Ferdinand, returned homewards and reached Constantinople November 20th. Ferdinand had offered to hold Hungary as tributary to the Porte; but the proposition was spurned by Solyman, who even demanded a yearly tribute for Austria.

The rapid progress of the Turks had created a panic in Germany, and the Diet which assembled at Spires early in 1542 voted with unaccustomed alacrity a force of 40,000 foot and 8,000 horse, the command of which was entrusted to Joachim II of Brandenburg. With part of these troops Joachim marched to Pesth, which had a garrison of 8,000 Osmanlis; but after cannonading the town, and in vain attempting to bring his men to the assault, who were in a state of mutiny for want of pay, he found himself compelled to retreat. In 1543 Solyman again appeared in Hungary, and, after a short stay at Buda, laid siege to Gran. The garrison made a brave defence, till the gilt cross on the cathedral having been shot away, they were struck with a superstitious terror, and surrendered (August 10th). Tata and Stuhlweissenburg next fell, the latter after a brave defence, expiated by the massacre of nearly all the population. In 1544, Vissegrad was taken, the ancient and magnificent seat of royalty; after which, and the capture of some castles near Tolna, the Turks carried the war into Croatia and Slavonia. Ferdinand’s troops gained some partial advantages, but on the whole his prospects were hopeless. In 1545 he concluded a truce with the Pasha of Buda, and sent an ambassador to Constantinople to arrange terms of peace. After lingering negotiations, Solyman, whose views were then directed towards Persia, at length consented to a truce of five years (June 13th, 1547), guaranteeing the maintenance of the status quo, on condition of Ferdinand paying to the Porte a yearly tribute of 30,000 ducats. The Turkish conquests in Hungary, like other territories subject to the Porte, were divided into Sandjaks, which were at first twelve in number, as Buda, Gran, Stuhlweissenburg, Mohács, Fünfkirchen, etc.

Charles V’s expedition to Algiers

While Solyman was prosecuting his successful campaign in Hungary, Charles was conducting with a very different result his long-projected enterprise against Algiers. The success of his former expedition seems to have inspired him with a taste for these maritime crusades. The present one, however, was undertaken, against the advice of his admiral, Andrew Doria, at too late a period of the year. It was the 20th of October before the Imperial fleet appeared at Algiers, having on board a fine army of about 22,000 men, together with 100 Knights of St. John. Only part of the troops had been landed when a high wind, accompanied with a heavy fall of rain, carried away the tents, rendered the ammunition useless, and converted the encampment into a swamp; and a violent storm which followed wrecked the greater part of the fleet, and thus deprived the army of provisions. In these trying circumstances Charles behaved with great fortitude; whilst he shared the dangers and hardships of the meanest soldier, he displayed all the best qualities of a general. When the scattered ships which had escaped were reassembled, Charles commanded all the horses to be drowned in order to make room on board for the men; but scarcely had this been done when another storm again dispersed the ships. The anxious question now arose how the troops were to be conveyed home; but this point was soon decided by a pestilence which carried off the greater part of them. The Emperor was the last to embark, and after encountering many more perils at length arrived with the remnant of his armament at Cartagena (December 1st).

The news of Charles’s disaster was received at the French Court with joy. The opportunity appeared to Francis favorable for beginning a new war, and an occurrence which had taken place in the preceding summer afforded him a pretext for declaring it. Soon after the conclusion of peace between Venice and the Porte, Rincon, the French envoy at Constantinople, had returned home for fresh instructions, and was sent back in June, 1541, in company with a Genoese named Fregoso, who was to act as French ambassador at Venice. Both these men were the Emperor’s subjects. Rincon, as we have said, was a Spanish renegade; Fregoso was an opponent of Doria and the Imperial party at Genoa, from which city he had been expelled and declared a rebel; and as they had entered the service of Francis a price had been set upon their heads. For the convenience of Rincon, who was very corpulent, and disliked the fatigue of riding or posting, he and Fregoso agreed to descend the Po in boats, disguised, and without passports. A kind of small underhand warfare was already going on in Italy between the troops of Du Bellay Langey, the French governor of Turin, and the Imperialists; and he and the Marquis del Guasto, the Governor of Milan, were constantly on the watch to intercept each other’s couriers. Some of Guasto’s bravi having fallen in with Rincon and Fregoso, proceeded to arrest them; the envoys resisting, were killed in the skirmish which ensued, and their papers seized. Francis was loud in his complaints of this proceeding, which he denounced as a violation of the law of nations; for the present, however, he stifled his resentment, and except for the unfortunate ending of Charles’s expedition to Algiers would probably have suffered the affair to sink into oblivion. But no sooner did he hear of that event than he sought to connect himself with all who had any cause of discontent with the Emperor. He had already formed an alliance with the Duke of Cleves, who disputed Gelderland with Charles, and he now leagued himself with the Neapolitan malcontents; but he could not persuade Henry VIII to enter into his plans. The alliance with the Duke of Cleves, besides affording an opportunity to attack the Netherlands on both sides, also enabled Francis to draw what troops he wanted from Germany through the Duke’s dominions. On November 19th, 1541, the French King also concluded at Fontainebleau a treaty with Christian III King of Denmark, for a term of ten years, during which the latter engaged to close the Sound against the enemies of France; and in the following July he effected, at Ragny, an offensive and defensive league with Gustavus I of Sweden. The Scandinavian Powers were only just beginning to take part in the general affairs of Europe. Francis having thus endeavored to set all Europe in a flame in order to gratify his ambition and resentment, called into the field, in the summer of 1542, no fewer than five armies; of which three were directed against the Netherlands; the fourth, commanded by the Dauphin, marched towards the frontier of Spain; while the remaining one, under the Admiral d'Annebaut, consisted of the troops cantoned in Piedmont.

Hostilities began on the side of Cleves. The Duke caused one of his captains, Martin Rossem, a sort of condottiere, to assemble his irregular troops on the frontiers of the Netherlands, but without expressly recognizing him. To the remonstrances of the Queen Regent, the Duke replied that the troops were not his, and that he believed them to be destined against the Turks. Rossem, however, suddenly presented himself before Liege, and demanded a passage over the Meuse. The citizens shut their gates, and Rossem, crossing the river at a higher point and devastating everything on his route, directed his march towards Antwerp, with the design of taking and plundering that city. René, of Nassau, Prince of Orange, who attempted to arrest his progress, was defeated at Hoogstraeten, with a loss of 1,400 men; but nevertheless succeeded in putting Louvain and Antwerp in a posture of defence. These occurrences determined Francis to begin the war on the side of the Netherlands. He did not declare it till July 12th, 1542, and then in the most virulent terms. One French army, under command of Charles Duke of Orleans, though virtually under that of Claude, Duke of Guise, the young Prince’s instructor in the art of war, assembled on the Luxembourg frontier; another, led by the Duke of Vendome, threatened the frontier of France. The Imperialists, not expecting to be attacked in Luxembourg, had made little preparation for defence. Damvilliers, Yvoy, Arlon, Montmedy, even the capital, Luxembourg itself, fell rapidly before the French arms, and were for the most part cruelly handled, the capitulation of Luxembourg only being respected. Young and ardent, the Duke of Orleans was dissatisfied with such easy conquests; he longed to flesh his maiden sword in a pitched battle in the field; and hearing that one was likely to be fought by the army in the south, under command of his brother the Dauphin, he suddenly dismissed the greater part of his troops, retaining only enough to cover the French frontier; a step of which the Queen of Hungary immediately took advantage to recover Montmedy and Luxembourg.

Siege of Perpignan

Francis was very much chagrined at this news. He gave the Duke of Orleans, though his favorite son, a very cool reception at Montpellier; and the Duke was further mortified by finding that there was no more probability of a battle being fought in the south than in the quarter he had just left. The Dauphin was at the head of 40,000 infantry, and 4,000 cavalry. Queen Margaret, the King’s sister, wished this noble force to be employed in the recovery of Navarre; but, by the advice of Montpezat, Governor of Languedoc, that project was abandoned, and the army directed against Roussillon, which it was thought would prove an easy conquest. The plan of the campaign was to take Perpignan, to obtain command of the sea, to occupy Le Pertuis, and thus to prevent any succors for Roussillon arriving from Spain. But the scheme was ruined by the dilatoriness of Francis, who ordered that nothing should be done before his arrival; and as he travelled with all the pomp and slowness of a royal progress, it was the middle of August before the Dauphin’s army entered Roussillon. Meanwhile a body of Aragonese, under command of the Duke of Alva, had thrown themselves into Perpignan, and Doria had landed artillery and ammunition enough for the most vigorous defence. The place, indeed, presented so formidable an appearance that Du Bellay compared it to a porcupine darting its quills on every side. The Dauphin did not appear before it till August 26th. The Admiral d'Annebaut, who had come from Piedmont to superintend the siege, conducted it unskillfully. The sandy soil rendered the works of the besiegers useless; the autumnal rains began to swell the torrents into rivers, and to render the situation of the French army extremely dangerous. On the 4th of October the King arrived within twelve leagues of Perpignan; when, finding that no progress had been made, and after several assaults had been repulsed, he ordered the siege to be raised. Thus this splendid army, the finest ever collected during the reign of Francis, retreated without striking a blow. The immense preparations which had been made on all sides ended only in the capture of a few small places near Boulogne and Calais by the Duke of Vendome, and some others in Piedmont by Du Bellay Langey; a result which must be ascribed partly to the indiscretion of the Duke of Orleans, partly to the dilatoriness of Francis, but still more to the plan of dividing the French forces, instead of striking in one quarter a decisive blow with their united strength.

During this campaign, the Emperor had remained quietly in Spain, without approaching the scene of action. After his return from Africa, he had visited in succession Tarragona, Tortosa, Valencia, Alcala de Henares, and Madrid, presenting his son Philip to the people, and encouraging the enthusiasm which the attack of the French had roused. The Cortes voted him considerable supplies; he obtained a large dowry for his son by betrothing him to the Infanta Mary of Portugal; and by ceding his pretensions to the Molucca Islands, to the Infanta’s father, John III, he procured a large sum by way of loan. The mines of America, too, had been more than usually productive, and he was thus better provided with means for carrying on the second campaign than he had been at the beginning of the first, while on the other hand the resources of France were almost exhausted.

The Emperor further strengthened himself by an alliance which he concluded with Henry VIII. The part taken by Francis in the affairs of Scotland had increased the coolness between him and the English King. Henry had been endeavoring to effect an alliance with James V of Scotland, but his plans were defeated by the intrigues of the French Court, which foresaw the loss of its influence in Scotland in the event of a union between that country and England.

Enraged at this disappointment, Henry resorted to force. An army of 20,000 men, under the Duke of Norfolk, crossed the Tweed in the autumn of 1542, inflicting great loss and devastation; and his ill-successes near Solway Firth hastened the death of James, who expired December 14th. This event caused a change in Henry’s policy. He laid aside his hostile preparations against Scotland, and sought to bring about a union between the two countries by the marriage of his son Edward with Mary, the infant daughter of James. It was evident, however, that this plan would also be opposed by the French Court, and Henry therefore determined to effect an alliance with the Emperor. A treaty was accordingly concluded February 11th, 1543, by which the two Sovereigns agreed that Francis should be summoned to renounce his alliance with the Turk, to compensate the Emperor for the losses and injuries which he had suffered from it, and to execute all his previous agreements, whether with Charles or Henry. If the French King rejected these conditions, then war was to be declared against him, and to be prosecuted by each Sovereign with an army of 20,000 foot and 5,000 horse, and with a fleet carrying 2,000 sailors, until the Emperor should have recovered the Duchy of Burgundy and Picardy, and Henry the rest of France. The treaty, which was not published till the following June, also contained some clauses more particularly relating to the contracting parties themselves; and especially they engaged reciprocally,—the Emperor that no English book, Henry that no German one, should be printed in their respective dominions. No operations, however, of any importance were undertaken in pursuance of this treaty till the year 1544.

The campaign of 1543 opened like the previous one with some successes on the part of Rossem, especially the defeat of the Imperialists at Sittard, March 24th. Francis was thus led again to direct his chief strength towards that quarter; but he had formed no settled plan, and his orders were vacillating and contradictory. After some operations of too little moment to be worth detailing, he retired towards the end of July to Rheims, where he dismissed part of his army, and forgot the affairs of war in the pleasures of the chase. In this campaign Francis received some assistance from the Danes, who made descents on the Netherland coasts and attempted to take Walcheren.

On the other hand Charles had determined on punishing his rebellious vassal, the Duke of Cleves, and with that view proceeded through Italy into Germany. The Italian Princes flocked to pay him court at Genoa; and Cosmo de' Medici redeemed with 20,000 gold crowns the fortresses of Leghorn and Florence, which were held by Imperial troops. On the 22nd of June Charles had an interview with the Pope at Busseto, in the Parmesan. Paul in vain endeavored to persuade the Emperor either to purchase peace by ceding Milan to the King of France, or to establish in it Ottavio Farnese, Paul’s grandson, and son-in-law of Charles; but though the Pope offered 300,000 scudi for the investiture of Ottavio, the Emperor refused to grant it.

Charles punishes Williams of Cleves

Towards the end of July, Charles arrived at Spires, and made immediate preparations for punishing the Duke of Cleves. It was fortunate for the Emperor that he had secured the alliance of the Landgrave of Hesse. The Saxon Elector, the Duke of Cleves’s brother-in-law, was covertly assisting him, and even wished to procure his admittance into the League of Smalkald, to qualify himself for which the Duke had received the sacrament in both kinds. Philip, however, who had bound himself to the Emperor not to lend any countenance or support to the Duke of Cleves, would not consent to his admittance into the League. The Bishop of Spires and the ambassador of the Elector of Saxony interceded with the Emperor in favor of the Duke; but Charles replied that if the Turks were at his very gates, his attention should be first directed to punish a rebel, who had chosen the moment of his country’s greatest danger to ally himself with its enemies. The part played by the Duke of Cleves was indeed very annoying. Besides the usurpation of Gelderland, he procured for Francis the help of German troops, rendered possible an attack from Denmark, and neutralized the power of the Netherlands. Charles had brought with him a choice body of 4,000 Spanish and as many Italian veterans, to which he added 26,000 lance-knights and 4,000 horse, commanded by the Prince of Orange. And now Francis and his sons, who had been so anxious to do battle with the Emperor, were presented with a fair opportunity; yet with on inexplicable infatuation, which marked all Francis’s operations in his later years, he was amusing himself at this critical juncture with hunting at Rheims, and abandoned the Duke of Cleves to his fate,—an ally who had done him such good service, and whom he had united with the royal family of France. Charles laid siege to Düren; a battery of forty cannon effected a breach, and on the 26th of August the place was carried by storm. A massacre ensued, and on the evening of the same day not a living soul was left in Düren, except the troops who had entered by the breach. The fall and fate of Düren, the strongest place in the Duchy of Jülich, struck terror into the rest: Jülich, the capital, Roermonde, Venlo, submitted; and the Duke of Cleves, who had dispatched courier after courier to Francis with the most urgent prayers for help, but without effect, hastened to Venlo to throw himself at the feet of the Emperor. Ultimately, however, his hereditary dominions were restored, with the exception of two towns, which were retained as pledges for his fidelity; but he was required to give up Gelderland and Zutphen; to return to the Catholic faith; to renounce the alliance of the Kings of France and Denmark; to swear fealty to the Emperor and to the King of the Romans; to release the people of Gelderland from the oath of fidelity which they had taken to him, and to transfer Rossem with his formidable band to the Imperial service.

Campaign of 1543.

Francis began to bestir himself when it was too late. He reassembled his army, marched into Luxembourg, and recovered the capital (September 27th). Hence the Admiral d'Annebaut was ordered to proceed to the relief of the Duke of Cleves : but before he could set out a herald arrived from that Prince, to announce to Francis, that he had been compelled to abandon the French alliance, and at the same time to demand that his wife, the heiress of Navarre, should be sent to him, in whose favor he forwarded a safe-conduct from the Emperor. But Francis replied, that as his alliance was renounced, he was no longer the Duke’s debtor, and that William, with regard to his consort, had better apply to the King and Queen of Navarre, and see whether they were disposed to grant him their daughter. Neither they, however, nor Jeanne d'Albret herself, as Francis well knew, were inclined to carry out the marriage contract, which was now declared null and void. The Duke of Cleves subsequently married a daughter of King Ferdinand, and five years afterwards the heiress of Navarre espoused Antony of Bourbon, Duke of Vendome. The remainder of the campaign of 1543 presents nothing worth relating. Francis advanced as far as Câteau-Cambrésis, where his army and that of Charles were so near that frequent skirmishes of outposts took place; yet neither Sovereign ventured to quit the heights to risk a general engagement. The chief incidents were the sieges of Landrecies and Luxembourg by the Imperialists. But, though the latter were joined by 6,000 English, under Sir John Wallop, nothing important was effected, and in November both armies went into winter-quarters. The only gain to the Emperor was Cambray, the capital of an episcopal principality, which had claimed the privilege of neutrality. Charles persuaded the citizens to erect a citadel, as a defence against Francis, and after his return from Landrecies, introduced into it a garrison, which held the city in subjugation.

While these things were passing in the north the proceedings of the Turkish fleet under Hayraddin Barbarossa, the ally of Francis, drew down upon the latter the indignation of Europe. Agreeably to a convention between the Porte and Paulin, the French envoy, Barbarossa, with a numerous fleet, appeared in the month of May off the coast of Calabria, and landing large bodies of soldiers, destroyed olives and vines, and carried off into slavery all the inhabitants whom he could seize. Reggio was burnt without attempting a defence, the citizens having fled for safety to the mountains. Before the end of June, Barbarossa appeared at the mouth of the Tiber. Rome trembled. Many of the citizens fled. The Cardinal de' Carpi was dispatched to learn the intentions of those dreaded visitors, when a scene ensued such as Europe had not yet beheld. Paulin, the French envoy was not ashamed to appear, and to avow himself the director of Hayraddin’s movements. He assured the Cardinal that there was nothing to fear, that the Turks, as allies of France, would respect the neutrality of the Pope; and Barbarossa, without committing any further ravages, directed his course towards Marseilles. Here he put up to public sale the prisoners whom he had taken in Calabria, and, strange to say, purchasers were not wanting.

Hayraddin, who had expected to find at Marseilles everything in readiness for some grand enterprise, to be achieved by the united arms of Solyman and Francis, vexed and astonished to see in the harbour only twenty-two galleys and some transports, and these unprovided either with men, or provisions, or ammunition, broke out into curses and menaces, threatening the Sultan’s resentment if the summer were allowed to pass over unemployed. Paulin hastened to Francis to acquaint him with Barbarossa’s threats, and returned with a few soldiers and orders to attack Nice, which had been already attempted without success by the Count of Enghien. The Duke of Savoy was totally unprepared to resist such an attack. Towards the end of August the combined forces got possession of the town, though bravely defended by Montfort, a Savoyard gentleman; but the citadel, under command of Paolo Simiane, a Knight of Malta, still held out; and on the 8th of September, the approach of Andrew Doria’s fleet, as well as of Guasto with an army on the land side, compelled the Turco-Gallic forces to retire. Thus Francis had not even the conso­lation of success to place against the infamy of his conduct. To propitiate Barbarossa’s ill-humour, he ordered all Mussulman slaves in the French galleys to be liberated, and assigned Toulon as the winter quarters of the Turkish fleet. All the French were ordered to evacuate that place; and a letter written from it during the time of its occupation by the Turks describes it as resembling Constantinople. France was the only European power that acted offensively with the Mussulmans. The Venetians equipped a fleet to protect the coasts of the Adriatic, and Francis, unwilling to offend his ancient allies, sent Jean de Montluc, afterwards Bishop of Valence, to excuse his conduct. In a long harangue to the Venetian Senate, Montluc quoted Scripture in Francis’s defence, and showed how King David and King Asa had availed themselves of the services of the Infidels

Diet of Spires. 1544.

Early in 1544 Charles opened in person the Diet at Spires. It was one of the most august that had assembled during his reign, and was attended by King Ferdinand and most of the Princes of the Empire. In his opening speech (February 20th) Charles dwelt chiefly on the unnatural alliance between the French and Turks, and insisted on the necessity of crushing France in order to save Europe from the Turkish yoke. King Ferdinand supported the impression thus produced by relating Solyman’s progress in Hungary. The Lutheran members of the Diet having professed themselves unconcerned with the quarrels of the Emperor, and affirmed that the French King had always been friendly to the liberties of Germany, the Emperor produced some letters written to him by Francis in 1540, in which this King, in consideration of the alliance concluded between them, promised his active assistance in suppressing the Lutherans, whom he denounced as rebels alike to the authority of their Sovereign and of the Church. The indignation excited by this communication was increased when the ambassador of the Duke of Savoy related the capture of Nice, the only asylum that remained to his master, by the Mussulman pirates; and the King of Denmark’s ambassador solemnly renounced the alliance contracted with Francis, who had rendered himself odious to all Christians by his league with the Turks. The French King, hoping that his treachery towards the Lutherans would have remained concealed, had dispatched Cardinal John du Bellay and President Olivier to Spires, to conciliate the friendship of that party. But the herald who had been sent forward to procure a safe-conduct for the French ambassadors was dismissed, with the intimation that he might consider himself fortunate to escape with his life, since an envoy from the ally of the Mussulman pirates of Barbary was without the pale of Christian international law. Alarmed at this intelligence, the ambassadors, who had advanced to Nancy, fled thence by night, and on their return to Paris, Du Bellay published a manifesto, which, on the admission even of historians not unfavorable to Francis, was filled with the grossest inconsistencies and falsehoods. Sometimes the Turkish alliance was altogether disavowed, sometimes justified by examples drawn from the Old Testament; in a word, there was no subterfuge to which the ministers of the French King scrupled to descend. Francis also endeavored to clear himself in a remarkable letter to John Frederick the Elector of Saxony.

The Diet voted the Emperor supplies both against France and the Turk, and Charles pledged his word to attack the Osmanlis on the conclusion of the French war. The discussion of the affairs of religion was postponed to another Diet, to be summoned exclusively for that purpose; unless a General Council could be assembled, in which the Emperor engaged to preside. Meanwhile the decrees of former Diets in favor of the Lutherans were confirmed; the free and public exercise of their religion was allowed; they were again declared capable of filling the places of assessors in the Imperial Chamber; and the custom of swearing on relics the members of that tribunal was abrogated in their behalf. These concessions were wrung from the Emperor by his political necessities. The Pope, in a letter, bitterly reproached him with them (August 24th), and Charles is said to have been secretly negotiating at this very time with Paul respect­ing the methods of extirpating the Lutherans.

War in Piedmont

In Piedmont the war had not ceased during the winter. After the raising of the siege of Nice, Guasto had obtained some notable advantages over Boutières, successor of Du Bellay Langey, who had died in January, 1543. Mondovi and Carignano had been recovered by the Duke of Savoy. The arrival of the Count of Enghien, however, in the spring, arrested the progress of Guasto. The French and Imperial forces in Piedmont were nearly equal; but as both the money and credit of Francis were exhausted, he impressed upon Enghien the necessity of caution, and forbade him to risk a general engagement. Such an injunction was intolerable to the French nobles. Blaise de Montluc, a captain of the true Gascon stamp, was dispatched to the French Court for the purpose of getting the veto removed, which he accomplished by his playful and spirited eloquence. Enghien gained a signal victory over the Imperialists at Cerisole (April 14th), more by the brilliant valor of himself and his troops than by good generalship. Guasto had told the people of Asti, when marching out towards Cerisole, to shut their gates against him if he did not return victorious. They took him at his word. Want of money, however, obliged Enghien to discharge the Swiss in his service, and the inconsiderate demand of Francis, who required him to send 12,000 of his best troops into France, not only rendered his victory fruitless, but also nearly disorganized his army. The only result was the recovery of Carignano. The Imperial army, however, was in almost as bad a condition, and both generals found it convenient to conclude an armistice of three months.

The Emperor, meanwhile, with the help of some of the leading Protestants, as Albert of Brandenburg, Maurice, Duke of Saxony, a young prince who had just succeeded his father Henry, and some others, had assembled an army of 40,000 men in Lorraine, which he joined towards the end of May, after it had already reduced Luxembourg and some other towns, and was preparing to invade Champagne. The situation of Francis was perplexing. His league with the Turks had deprived him of all other allies : yet by them he had been treated more as a vanquished enemy than a confederate Prince. During their stay at Toulon they had acted as if they were in an enemy’s country, and furnished the benches of their galleys by carrying off all the men they could seize on the adjacent coasts, while the women served to supply their harems. The crews were even taken out of the royal galleys. To induce so dangerous an ally to quit Toulon, Francis paid Barbarossa 800,000 crowns. He sailed, in April, for Constantinople, again carrying terror and desolation along the coasts of Italy. This was his last notable exploit. He died two years after at a very advanced age.

Henry VIII invades France

Before Francis succeeded in assembling his army in the north, the Emperor had taken Commercy and Ligny, and invested St, Dizier. The gallant defence of the last place, however, which held out till the 17th of August, allowed the French King some breathing time. Meanwhile the English forces had been engaged in the spring in a campaign in Scotland; but though Edinburgh was taken and pillaged, they were unable to maintain themselves there. In the summer the Duke of Norfolk landed at Calais with an English division, and proceeded to lay siege to Montreuil, while Henry crossed the Channel with the main body about the middle of July, and was soon after joined by some 25,000 Flemings and Germans. The original plan appears really to have been to cross the Somme and press on to Paris. But Henry and Charles did not act cordially together. Each believed the other insincere respecting the partition of France, and this distrust ended at length in open hatred. Henry, instead of proceeding to join the Emperor, laid siege to Boulogne. An ancient author has described his forces. The van and rear consisted each of about 12,000 foot, 500 lightly armed horse, and 1,000 more with breastplates and lances. Their uniform was blue, with red trimmings. Interspersed were 1,000 Irish, clothed in long tight shirts, and a cloak, their only clothing, while their heads had no other covering than their long hair. They were armed with three javelins and a long sword, and an iron guard protected the left arm to the elbow. The centre division, led by the King, consisted of 20,000 foot and 2,000 horse, all in red uniform, with yellow trimmings. The artillery comprised 100 large guns, and many smaller. A hundred one-horse mills to prepare their flour, and ovens to bake it, were conveyed in wagons. These and the baggage wagons required 25,000 horses; while 15,000 oxen and a vast quantity of other animals followed the army to supply it with meat.

Both Charles and Henry were inclined to negotiate with the French King; but the Emperor, in spite of his successes, was the first to treat. He had penetrated as far as Chateau-Thierry, within two days’ march of Paris. That capital was filled with consternation. The citizens were flying on every side, both by land and water; the Seine was covered with boats filled with fugitives. Francis hastened from Fontainebleau, and, accompanied by the Duke of Guise, rode through the streets of Paris haranguing the citizens, and exhorting them to take courage. “If I cannot prevent you from being afraid”, said he, “I will at least prevent you from being hurt”. This address restored confidence, and a great number of citizens, students, and others, flew to arms. The Emperor found great difficulty in procuring subsistence for his army, and to winter in France seemed wholly impossible. Under these circumstances, negotiations were opened at the little village of La Chaussée, between Vitry and Châlons, and instead of crossing the Marne, Charles retired to Villers-Cotterets, and thence to Soissons, which he plundered. Francis eagerly embraced his proposals for a peace, and preliminaries were signed at Crespy, in the Laonnois, September 18th. Charles’s conduct on this occasion seems precipitate, and must perhaps be ascribed to the policy which he had adopted of peace at almost any price with France, in order to pursue his plans against the Lutherans and Turks. It does not appear why he might not have dictated terms at Paris, instead of Crespy. At least two months remained for field operations; he was within two days’ march of Paris; and Henry VIII, after taking Boulogne, which capitulated September 14th, was in full march upon that capital; a circumstance, however, such was the want of communication between them, of which the Emperor was ignorant. And perhaps, indeed, Charles was as much disinclined to forward the schemes of that King as to increase the alienation of Francis by the humiliating capture of Paris.

By the treaty of Crespy each party was to restore the places taken by either since the treaty of Nice; the French were to evacuate the territories of the Duke of Savoy, with exception of Pinerolo and Montmelian, and the dispute between Francis and his uncle was to be referred to arbitration. Francis again renounced all claim to the Kingdom of Naples and the suzerainty of Flanders and Artois, as well as to Gelderland and Zutphen. The Emperor, on his side, gave up the Duchy of Burgundy and the towns and lordships on the Somme, formerly held by Duke Philip the Good. It order to render these terms more palatable, the Emperor offered some of the disputed provinces as a dowry either to his eldest daughter, Mary, or to his niece, the second daughter of King Ferdinand, whichsoever the Duke of Orleans might select for his wife; the former to bring him the Netherlands and Franche-Comté, the latter the Duchy of Milan. The Duke was to declare within four months which of the ladies he preferred, and the marriage was to take place within a year. The Emperor was to retain possession of these provinces till his death, but the Duke of Orleans and his wife were to be made Governors immediately. One of the stipulations was that the Emperor and Francis should cooperate in restoring the union of the Church; that is, should enter into alliance against the Protestants, and should defend Christendom against the Turks; and Francis not only abjured the Turkish alliance, but also promised 600 lances and 10,000 foot for the war in Hungary. At the same time another and a secret treaty appears to have been signed, the contents of which have never come to light, but which excited the suspicion and hostility of the Court of Rome.

The peace of Crespy gave great offence both to the Dauphin and to the King of England. The former was dissatisfied because his father, in order to gain an establishment for his second son, had sacrificed the dignity of his Kingdom, abandoned the ancient rights of the French Crown, and thus curtailed those of the Dauphin when he should come to be King. And though he would not offend his father by refusing to ratify the treaty, yet he secretly caused a notarial protest to be drawn up against it, which he signed at Fontainebleau (December 12th), in presence of the Duke of Vendome and the Counts of Enghien and Aumale thus imitating the unworthy example of his royal father. The Parliament of Toulouse, at the instigation probably of the Dauphin’s partisans, also entered a protest against the peace. Henry VIII, on his side, was indignant that the Emperor should have concluded a treaty with France without his participation or even knowledge. He himself appears, however, to have entered into negotiations with the French previously to the Emperor. The Earl of Oxford and the Bishop of Winchester, Henry’s plenipotentiaries, had an interview with the ambassador of Francis at Hardelot, near Boulogne, September 9th, when they demanded that Francis should abandon his alliance with Scotland, and pay up the arrears of money which he owed and the expenses of the present war. The French ambassador, so long as Charles was threatening Paris, pretended to entertain these propositions; but no sooner had Francis concluded peace with the Emperor than he rejected them with scorn. On hearing this, and also that the Dauphin was marching against him, Henry, who had advanced to Montreuil, retreated, and embarked his troops for England, leaving, however, a garrison of 7,000 men in Boulogne, the capture of which place was the only advantage he had derived from the campaign.

After the peace of Crespy the Emperor suddenly altered his policy towards the Lutherans. Besides the assistance Francis had promised in case of need against the Turks, he afterwards undertook to mediate a peace between the Emperor and the Porte, and we have seen that a truce was actually concluded between Ferdinand and the Turks in 1545. Being thus delivered from his two most troublesome enemies, Charles for the first time found himself free to act as he pleased in the religious affairs of Germany; and the change in his views was soon apparent in the Diet that met at Worms in the following spring.

Articles of Louvain

The Pope had been highly ended by the proceedings of Articles of the Diet of Spires as well as by the treaty of Crespy. The announcement of a National Council to decide on ecclesiastical affairs, and the promise of a General Council given without consulting the Court of Rome, were equally distasteful to him. Paul, that he might appear to act independently, resolved to anticipate any formal application; and on the 19th November, 1544, he issued a bull, summoning the adjourned Council to meet at Trent on the following 15th of March. The short notice was purposely contrived in order that the assembly might consist almost entirely of his own courtiers and of Italian bishops, who would thus have the regulation of all the forms to be observed; but the prelates who then met were so few, being only about twenty in number, that it was found necessary to adjourn the Council to the following 13th of December. The Emperor overlooked the Pope’s apparent slight. He was glad to see that a Council had, at all events, been summoned, and he meant that its labors should not be confined to the uprooting of heresy, but should also include a reform of the Church itself in its head and members, as formerly promised by his ancient tutor, Pope Adrian. He therefore accepted the Pope’s bull, and gave orders that the doctors of theology, both in Spain and the Netherlands, should prepare to go to Trent. Before he quitted the Low Countries, he gave a specimen of what might be expected from him, now that he was at peace with France, by causing the University of Louvain to draw up a Confession of Faith in thirty-two articles, which cut short all the questions raised by the Lutherans. To these articles his Netherland subjects were required to conform under pain of death; and to show that this was no unmeaning threat, he ordered a Calvinist preacher, named Peter du Breuil, to be seized at Tournai, and burnt alive by a slow fire in the public square of that town (February 19th, 1545)/ The German Lutherans had reason for alarm, for the period of the religious peace was terminated ipso facto by the assembly of a Council.

The Diet opened at Worms, March 24th, 1545, was chiefly occupied with the affairs of religion. The Emperor, being laid up with gout, did not appear till May 16th. The Lutherans refused to grant any supplies for the Turkish war till their safety should be established by a perpetual law. They objected to the authority of the Council of Trent, declared that they would not vindicate their opinions before a body assembled purposely to condemn them, and demanded that a National Council should be summoned instead, in which the disputed points might be settled, not by authority, but by fair and friendly discussion. The Count of Grignon, the French ambassador, addressed them in menacing terms, and called upon them to submit to the Council summoned by Paul. The Emperor declared that he had no power to call a National Council; and Cardinal Farnese, the Papal Legate, threatened that if the Lutherans persisted in dictating to the Pope and Emperor it might be necessary to use coercion. These dissensions were for a while appeased by a resolution for a fresh conference between the theologians of both parties, the results of which were to be referred to another Diet to meet at Ratisbon. The Emperor, however, had begun to throw off the mask. As if it were no longer necessary to hide his real sentiments, the Lutheran preachers were forbidden to hold forth at Worms; whilst his own chaplain, an Italian monk, was allowed to inveigh against them in the most furious manner, and to call upon the Emperor to fulfill the duty of a Christian Prince by their annihilation.

In the phalanx of Protestant Princes appeared only a single waverer. The young Duke Maurice of Saxony, who, as head of the Albertine line of that house, ruled the southern Saxon lands from Leipzig to the borders of Bohemia and Franconia, had at the very commencement of his reign adopted a line of policy to which he owed his subsequent advancement. Although a zealous Lutheran with regard to doctrine, he carefully abstained from mixing himself up with the political views of the Lutheran party, and consequently withdrew from the League of Smalkald. He had helped King Ferdinand in person in the Hungarian campaign of 1542, as well as the Emperor in his expedition against the Duke of Cleves; on which occasions he distinguished himself by his intrepidity and his dexterity in all military enterprises. At Worms he sought to ingratiate himself with the Emperor by inclining to recognize the authority of the Council of Trent; and by his talents, his graceful person, and his insinuating manners he succeeded in gaining the friendship of Charles.

The views of the Emperor with regard to religious affairs were warmly seconded by the French King, who not only dispatched an ambassador to Worms to support them, but also caused a committee of the doctors of the Sorbonne to draw up resolutions for the consideration of the Council of Trent; to which assembly he invited the University of Paris to send a deputation. At the same time he displayed, in his own dominions, his zeal for the Catholic faith by a persecution unparalleled since the time of Diocletian. His clergy, taking advantage of an illness, urged him to make his peace with God by the slaughter of the Protestants, and induced him to enforce an edict passed by the Parliament of Provence so long ago as November, 1540, the execution of which, at the intercession of the German Lutherans, had been hitherto suspended.

Massacre of the Vaudois

Among the High Alps which separate Provence and Dauphiné from Piedmont existed a scattered Christian population which had preserved from time immemorial in their religious worship traditions and customs widely different from those of the Church of Rome. They were called Vaudois, probably from the valleys (vaux) which they inhabited, and had undergone some persecution in the reign of Charles VIII, but had been saved by Louis XII from the hands of the inquisitors. They may be traced to the days of Bishop Claude of Turin, who in the ninth century energetically protested against the worship of images and other Roman practices. They are mentioned in the Chronique de Saint Tron, written early in the twelfth century, as tainted with an inveterate heresy; and they could not, therefore, have derived either their doctrines or their name from Peter Valdo, who founded, towards the end of that century, a sect called Les pauvres de Lyon, or the Poor Brethren of Lyons. Their pastors, whom they called barbas (uncles), recognized with pleasure the similarity of their own tenets to those of the Protestants of Switzerland and Germany; nor could the Reformers themselves have seen without emotion the principles which they had deduced from reason and research so strikingly confirmed by the practice of a community whose remote and almost inaccessible position had preserved them during centuries from being infected with the errors and abuses which had gradually been engrafted on the Church of Rome. There were few topics or practices in which they differed from the Reformers, and Farel, in a great synod held in 1532, in the valley of Angrogna, in Piedmont, in which all the colonies of the Vaudois were represented, had brought them to still greater conformity.

It was on a settlement of these people, which had been established two or three centuries in Provence among the mountains which, rising near the celebrated fountain of Vaucluse, stretch away towards the Alps, that Francis, incited by the Cardinal de Tournon, determined to wreak the vengeance of persecution. Their industry had converted that rugged district into a smiling garden, abounding with corn, wine, fruit, and cattle; for one of their maxims was, “To work is to pray” : a maxim often reversed by their Roman Catholic persecutors. After their connection with the Reformers, the Vaudois had departed from their former prudent reserve, and had drawn down upon themselves persecution, which, in 1535, they had opposed with arms. On the 1st of January, 1545, Francis addressed a letter to the Parliament of Provence, directing them to put in execution the decree of 1540, whose dreadful purport was, that all fathers of families should be burnt, their wives and children reduced to serfdom, their property confiscated, and their dwellings razed. And this was required to be done in such a manner, “that Provence should be entirely cleared and depopulated of such beguilers”.

Three men of learning and liberality had attempted to avert this accursed sentence: Chasseneuz, a learned jurisconsult, first President of the Parliament of Provence; Jacopo Sadoleti, the amiable and enlightened Bishop of Carpentras and Guillaume du Bellay Langey, the Governor of Piedmont, which last had made a very favorable report of the Vaudois to the King. But Chasseneuz was now dead, and had been succeeded in his office by Meinier, Baron d'Oppède, a man fitted for the execution of such atrocities. D'Oppède kept the King’s mandate a profound secret till he had assembled a small army of about 3,000 men, chiefly composed of disbanded soldiers from Piedmont, accustomed to the wars of Italy, and reveling in blood and plunder. He was assisted by the Papal Legate, Antonio Trivulzio, who supplied 1,000 foot soldiers and some cannon. When all his preparations were made, D'Oppède read the King’s letter to the Parliament of Provence, April 12th, which immediately ordered the decree of 1540 to be executed. The next day D'Oppède accompanied by Paulin, whom we have known as envoy to the Porte and companion in arms of Hayraddin Barbarossa, passed the Durance with his force, and immediately began the work of havoc. The crops and fruit trees were destroyed, the villages burnt, the inhabitants massacred. On the 18th D'Oppède arrived at the little town of Merindol. It had been abandoned by all the inhabitants except a poor idiot lad, who was immediately tied to a tree and shot. At Cabrières about ninety of the towns­people had remained, and as they made a show of defending themselves they obtained a capitulation granting them their lives. But no sooner were they in the hands of D'Oppède than he caused them all to be massacred, on the ground that no faith is to be kept with heretics. Those who had succeeded in escaping were hunted down like wild beasts. With the exception of 600 or 700 of the more robust, selected for the galleys, the whole population was destroyed. This cold­blooded massacre, which filled the greater part of Europe with indignation and horror, was deliberately approved and adopted by Francis, the French clergy, and the Parliament of Paris. When the Swiss interceded for the few Vaudois still left alive, Francis bade them mind their own business and not interfere in the affairs of his Kingdom. At the beginning of the following reign, the Dame de Cental, one of the proprietors of the district ravaged, instituted a suit in the Parliament of Paris against the authors of the massacre, which had completely ruined her property; but that body acquitted them after twenty hearings, thus deliberately sanctioning this atrocious deed.

In the following year (1546) the persecutions were continued in France. At Meaux, which continued to be a great centre of reform, fourteen persons were burnt together, and a great many others subjected to corporal or pecuniary penalties. It was fatal to any followers of Calvin if a French Bible, or the Christian Institution of that reformer, was found upon him. One of the foremost victims was Stephen Dolet, burned August 3rd, 1546, on the place Maubert, at Paris, on the charge of heresy, atheism, and eating flesh on a fast day! He was the friend of Rabelais and Clement Marot, and a distinguished scholar, the author of some celebrated Commentaries on the Latin language,

France was at this time in a deplorable condition, the effect of its long wars as well as of mal-administration. Some of the provinces were almost in a state of anarchy. Perigord revolted against the gabelle, and the judge sent to try the malcontents narrowly escaped being murdered. The war with England still remained on hand: Francis was determined to recover Boulogne; yet it was difficult to raise the necessary funds without imposing fresh taxes, which excited universal discontent. He was also meditating a descent on the southern coast of England, as well as an attack on the side of Scotland. The Scottish regent Hamilton had at first consented to a marriage between the infant Mary and Edward Prince of Wales. The treaty, however, was scarcely signed (August 25th, 1543), when, listening to the Catholics, and that party which nourished an old enmity against England, Hamilton changed his mind, reconciled himself with Cardinal Beatoun, and connived at a violent persecution of the Reformers, several of whom were burnt alive. A small French force, under James Montgomery, Seigneur de Lorges, landed in Scotland to support this movement, and to assist in an invasion of Northumberland (July, 1545). The combined Scotch and French forces marched towards the border, but Montgomery could not persuade the Scotch to cross the Tweed, and the campaign resulted in a few unimportant skirmishes with the Earl of Hertford. The French naval expedition against England, though prepared on a grander scale, had an equally fruitless result. The French navy was at that time much superior to the English. Their largest vessel, called a Carraquon, measured 800 tons and mounted 100 guns, most of which, however, must have been of small caliber. In rivalry of this extraordinary vessel, Henry VIII had built an exact counterpart, also called a Qarraquon, but so badly constructed as to be entirely useless. No better fate, however, attended the French vessel. Francis repaired with his Court to the Havre de Grace, to be present at the sailing of the expedition, when a grand fete was given on board the Carraquon (July 6th, 1545). Large fires having been lighted for cooking, in spite of the remonstrances of the sailors, the ship caught fire, and was completely destroyed, together with most of its crew; and it was with difficulty that the Court ladies and the military chests could be rescued. The armament nevertheless set sail. It consisted of 25 galleys brought round from Marseilles, 150 vaisseaux ronds, or ships of war, and 60 transports, the whole under the command of the Admiral d'Annebaut. On the 18th of July the French fleet appeared off the Isle of Wight. The English fleet was much inferior, consisting only of sixty vessels. Nevertheless the English came out, but being too inferior in force to venture a close engagement, retired after a distant cannonade into Portsmouth. The French sunk the “Mary Rose”, and the vessel called the “Great Harry” was near sharing the same fate. The French commander, however, did not venture to attack Portsmouth, and after making some descents on Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, set sail for Boulogne, which town was then besieged by Marshal du Biez. Annebaut landed some of his forces to construct a fort at Outreau, in order to command the entrance of the harbour: but on the appearance of the English fleet, which had been reinforced, retired into Havre. The fort at Outreau proved useless, and the English had still free access to Boulogne.

Death of the Duke of Orleans

While the siege of that town was proceeding a great calamity overtook Francis—the death of his favorite son, the Duke of Orleans. The Dauphin he regarded with jealousy and hatred, and only a few weeks before a scandalous scene of anger and violence had taken place between them. Francis had wished to make the Duke of Orleans in some degree his brother’s rival, and regarded with satisfaction the future greatness which he had provided for him by the treaty of Crespy. But these hopes were never realized. During the siege the King resided with his two sons at Foret-Moutier, near Abbeville. The neighborhood was infected with the plague, which the Duke of Orleans is said to have caught by venturing with his usual thoughtlessness into the house of a peasant. He died September 9th, 1545. This event deprived Francis of all the benefits he had promised himself from the peace of Crespy. At the same time, however, it revived his own pretensions in Flanders and the Milanese, which had been renounced only in favor of his son’s marriage; and on this ground he opened fresh negotiations with the Emperor. Charles, who was then at Antwerp engaged in borrowing money from the Netherland towns for the war which he was meditating against the Lutherans, received the French ambassadors very coldly. After expressing some decent regret for the death of his intended son-in-law, he declared that it afforded no reason either why he should recognize claims which he had always repudiated, and which Francis had twice solemnly renounced, or why he should not demand the restitution of the dominions of Savoy for a Prince who was at once his brother-in-law, his ally, and his vassal; and he declared that all he could promise was that if France did not attack him he would not attack France. With this answer the ambassadors were fain to return. Thus the unfortunate Duke of Savoy lost all hope of recovering the dominions, which, by the treaty of Crespy, Francis was not bound to restore till the Duke of Orleans had been put in possession either of Milan or the Netherlands.

Opening of the Council of Trent.

The failure of Francis’s negotiations with the Emperor determined him again to change his policy. He recalled his prelates from the Council of Trent, then on the point of assembling; he also instructed his envoy at the Porte to do all in his power to thwart Ferdinand’s negotiations with Solyman, which he had been previously forwarding, and to induce the Sultan to recommence hostilities in Hungary. But being still embarrassed by his war with England, the French King did not venture upon an open rupture with the Emperor. That war had cost him much money and many soldiers, and as the winter approached his men died by hundreds in the camp. The German Lutherans, alarmed by the preparations which Charles was making against them in the Netherlands, had in vain sought to reconcile the French and English kings, whose help they foresaw would be needful to them in the approaching struggle. But neither was yet prepared to accept the terms demanded by his adversary.

At the very moment when the Council was about to meet at Trent for the reformation of the Church, Paul III occasioned a new scandal by granting his son, Pier Luigi Farnese, Parma and Piacenza, with the title of Duke; a step also highly offensive to the Emperor, who regarded those cities as belonging to the Milanese, and he therefore refused to confirm the investiture. Such was the origin of the Duchy of Parma. The new Duke of Parma rendered himself so odious by his vices and crimes, that he was murdered two years afterwards (September 10th, 1547), when Ferrante Gonzaga, Governor of Milan, took possession of Piacenza in the Emperor’s name. King Philip II, however, restored, in 1557, Piacenza to Ottavio Farnese, the son and successor of Pier Luigi; and the house of Farnese continued to hold the Duchy of Parma as a fief of the Holy See till the extinction of its male heirs in 1731.

The affair of Parma did not disturb the understanding between Charles and the Pope, who were now both intent on putting down the German Lutherans. The Council of Trent was at length opened for dispatch of business, December 13th, 1545. The meeting of this assembly may be considered as forming a new epoch in the history of Europe, and we shall therefore postpone to another chapter an account of its proceedings. A General Council had always been regarded as affording the last chance of restoring the Church’s unity, and when its authority was rejected by the Lutherans, no alternative seemed left but an appeal to arms. That method, which might have crushed Protestantism in its infancy, had been hitherto avoided; but we shall soon have to trace the rise, progress, and termination of the wars which sprung from the Reformation.

Luther did not live to behold these scenes of violence. At the very time when his doctrines were under examination at Trent, the monk, whose strong head and fearless heart had thus engaged in angry and anxious discussion the most powerful, and the most learned men in Europe, was quietly expiring in the obscure little town which gave him birth. He had gone to Eisleben to reconcile a quarrel that had arisen between the Counts of Mansfeld; and while engaged in this mission of peace, was attacked with inflammation, which put an end to his life, February 18th, 1546, at the age of sixty-three. The Saxon Elector caused his funeral to be celebrated with great pomp.

CHAPTER XVII

RESULTS OF THE REFORMATION. DECLINE OF ITALY