JOY AT MADRID AND ROME.

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sand were killed in Paris, and as many as twenty thousand in the rest of France. Navarre and Condé were at length obliged to conform to the Catholic Church, to save their lives. The news of the great massacre excited a tumult of joy at Madrid and at Rome. It is said that Philip II., for the first time in his life, laughed aloud. The Pope ordered a Te Deum, and by processions and jubilant thanksgivings the Papal court signified the satisfaction with which the intelligence was received. A medal was struck, having on one side the image of Gregory XIII., and on the the other, the destroying angel, with the words: Hugonotorum strages (massacre of the Huguenots). The Pope ordered Vasari to paint and hang up in the Vatican, a picture which should represent the slaughter of the Huguenots, and bear the inscription: Pontifex Colignii necem probat" (the Pope approves the slaying of Coligny). Among the fictitious apologies. which the French Court put forth, that which charged upon the Huguenots a plot against the King and government, met with little, if any, credence. Everywhere, except at Madrid and Rome, in the Catholic as well as Protestant nations, the atrocious crime was regarded with horror and with detestation of its perpetrators.

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The Protestants were not subdued by the terrible loss which they had suffered. The burning wrath which it excited among them was a new source of strength. Rochelle still held out. Nor did the Queen Mother desert her previous path or show herself disposed to a close alliance with Philip. She even sought to keep up negotiations for the marriage of Alençon with Elizabeth.

A new turn was given to affairs by the separation of the "Politiques," or liberal Catholics, who were in favor of toleration, from their fanatical brethren. The wisdom and necessity of the policy which L'Hospital had vainly recommended, were now recognized by a strong party. In 1574 the wretched life of Charles IX. came to an end.

His brother and successor, Henry III., the favorite of his mother, and most fully imbued with her ideas, and who had been active in contriving the massacre of St. Bartholomew, was wholly incompetent to govern a country that was torn by religious factions, a country whose treasury was exhausted, and whose people were clamorous for deliverance from their heavy burdens of taxation, at the same time that a strong party was demanding radical political reforms. The King endeavored to make his way by craft and double-dealing, but lost the confidence of both of the religious parties. In May, 1576, he made his peace with the united Huguenots and Politiques, giving to the former unrestricted religious freedom, with the exception of Paris, and an equal eligibleness to all offices and dignities.

With the coöperation of Spain, Henry of Guise organized the Catholic League, for the maintenance of the Catholic religion and for the extirpation of Protestantism. The Estates at Blois in 1576 demanded that there should be but one religion in the kingdom. The unpopularity of Henry among the extreme Catholics was not only owing to his shuffling course on the religious question, but also to his advancement of personal favorites to the highest offices, and his subjection to their influence, in disregard of the claims of the great nobles. The League commenced another war, the sixth in the series, for the attainment of their ends, and drew the irresolute and helpless King along with them. The result was the securing to the Huguenots of what had been granted them in 1576; but the seventh war, that soon followed, ended in the adoption of the first Edict of Toleration. In 1584, the Duke of Alençon, who, after the accession of Henry to the throne, had worn the title of the Duke of Anjou, died. Thus Henry of Navarre was left the next heir to the throne. The League, with Spain and Rome at its back, resolved that he should never wear the crown.

THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE.

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Sixtus V., shortly after his accession to the Papal chair, issued a bull, in which the two Princes, Navarre and Condé, as heretics, and leaders and promoters of heresy, were declared to have forfeited their dignities and possessions, including all title to the French throne. In the war of the "three Henries," as it was called, Henry of Navarre was supported by England and by troops from Germany and Switzerland. The King, on his return to Paris, found that Henry of Guise was greeted by the multitude as the hero of the war. The attempt of the King to introduce bodies of troops devoted to himself, was met by the erection of barricades in the streets of the city, and he was obliged to make a humiliating appeal to Guise to quiet the disorder. The Assembly of the States General at Blois, in 1588, brought forward projects of constitutional reform which reduced the power of the King to a low point. His mortification, resentment, and impatience at the restrictions laid upon him, had now reached their height. He caused the Duke of Guise to be assassinated by the royal body-guards, and the Duke's brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine, to be dispatched the same day.

Henry III. had now brought on himself the implacable hostility of the League. The fanatical preachers of Paris held him up to the execration of the people. The doctors of the Sorbonne hastened to declare that he had incurred the penalty of excommunication, and that his subjects were of right absolved from their allegiance. The actual excommunication from the Pope followed. It was fortunate for the King that there was an army of Protestants in the field, under Prince Henry of Navarre. The King joined himself to the Prince. The army, made strong by the union of the Huguenots and the Politiques -the liberal Catholics who were still loyal to the sovereign drew near to Paris. It was thought advisable in the city to set a watch upon the Catholics who were not

of the League. At that time, when the royal cause, faithfully supported by Navarre, was gaining ground, a fanatical priest, Clément by name, made his way into the camp and slew the King (1589).

Henry IV. was now the sovereign of France by right of inheritance; but he had been declared ineligible by the Pope, and he had his kingdom to win. The League were disposed to put France under the protection of Philip II. The Duke of Mayenne, the brother of the Guises who were assassinated by order of the King, was at the head of the government which the League provisionally established. The interests of Spain were cared for by the ambassador, Mendoza, an astute diplomatist, whom Elizabeth had found it inconsistent with her safety and that of her kingdom to suffer to remain in England. Philip II. aspired to unite the Catholic nations under his rule, and the League were so lost to the feeling of patriotism as to wish him success. The project of the union of France and Spain failed, as far as the League was concerned, only by the jealousy of the Duke of Mayenne, who refused to consent that his nephew, whom it was proposed to marry to Philip's daughter, should wear the crown. The gallantry of Henry of Navarre was conspicuously displayed. In the battle of Ivry, on the 14th of March, 1590, he gained a brilliant victory, which was chiefly due to his personal valor. The strategy of Alexander of Parma, one of the ablest generals of the age, neutralized his successes until that commander died.1 Besides the discord in the League, which has been noticed, other circumstances gradually turned to the advantage of Henry. The great obstacle in the way of his crushing opposition was the fact that he was a Protestant. When

1 See the remarks of Duc d'Aumale on Henry's military talents, ii. 170. The King was master of tactics, but not a strategist. D'Aumale's work is specially instructive in reference to the constitution of the armies and the military events of the civil wars,

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urged to become a Catholic, immediately after the death of Henry III., he had refused, but in such terms as to inspire the hope that he might ultimately accede to the proposal. The portion of the Catholic body that had given him their support, would not consent to the elevation of a Protestant to the throne. It was not personal ambition alone, nor was it the desire of repose for himself, which he felt after so long a conflict; it was the opportunity that was given him to restore peace to France, that at length moved him to conform to the Catholic Church. It had been urged upon him, that the constitution of the kingdom was such that he was morally bound to be a member of the old Church. As King, he believed that he could shield the Huguenots from persecution, as well as bring to an end the terrible calamities under which France was groaning. As long as he remained outside of the Catholic Church, he could not win the cities to his cause, and he could not hope to reign by the aid of the nobility alone. He had no doubt that salvation was possible in the old Church. Sully, who dwells with much self-complacency on the part which he took in leading the King to abjure Protestantism, assured him that it was not a change of religion; that the foundation of the two systems was the same.1 But Du Perron, who had before returned to the Catholic Church, and whom Henry afterwards made Bishop of Evreux, had at least an equal influence in persuading the King to follow his example. Specific articles of faith that were presented to him, he refused to sign. But he went into the Church of St. Denis and kneeling before the Archbishop of Bourges, solemnly declared that he would live and die in the Catholic Church, which he promised to protect and defend. As he had not really altered his opinions, the step that he took was one which admits of no moral justification. Beza, who was then near the end of his life, wrote to him a 1 Mémoires, b. v.