This them.* Catherine, in consequence, induced her son to conclude the war on any terms; and for the fifth time since hostilities had commenced, a treaty of peace was concluded April 1576, known by the name of the Paix de Monsieur. The edict of pacification was issued in May, differing from all those which had preceded it by not attempting to establish one rule of tolerance for the whole kingdom. The parties were now too distinct, too separate, to permit of a common law for both. The free exercise of the Huguenot worship was permitted in towns that belonged to them, and where they predominated, they promising, meanwhile, to pay tithes, and observe the festivals of the Catholic church. parking off Protestants and Catholics in different districts, and under separate laws, an arrangement which prevailed even down to the Edict of Nantes inclusively, was one of the great causes of enduring enmity, and of the Protestants being treated in the following century as strangers and as rebels. The arrangement was considered temporary, and until such time as a national council should regulate the accordance of the two religions. The states-general, it was ruled in one of the articles, were to be convoked. There was to be a mixed court of judges, in each great parliament, for trials in which Huguenots were concerned. The rebellious chiefs were largely bribed. Alençon was to have Touraine and Anjou in appanage; the King of Navarre the government of Guyenne; Duke Casimir to have a large sum of money and an appanage in France. But the most obnoxious concession of Catherine was the grant of the government of Picardy to Condé.† Although these latter stipulations were conveyed in a secret and additional treaty, they soon became known, * The Duke of Mayenne's numerous letters. MSS. Colbert, V.C. viii. † La Popelinière, L'Estoile, &c. CHAP. XXV. XXV. CHAP. and excited throughout all parts and persons of the land, not engaged in resistance, one burst of indignation and rage. Notwithstanding the violence of this sentiment, it is easy to be discerned that the great majority of the French, both on the one side and the other, were not so much inspired by religious differences or convictions as by antagonism of interest, of class, and by that struggle for influence, emolument, and power, which, especially where it has endured some time, is quite sufficient to light up all the fierceness of faction. The boasted policy of Catherine of Medicis, which consisted of mere cunning and jealousy of all eminence and greatness, had conducted the government on the principles of Louis the Eleventh rather than upon those of Francis the First. He had striven to wage war as well as conclude alliances and manage diplomacy without the aid of the nobles. She procured funds by loans, or levies on the good towns, or from the Church; and with these she raised, not only foot soldiers as in more ancient times, but reistres, or horse, who superseded the mounted gentlemen, and was largely paid.* This left the gentry of the country totally unemployed. The gendarmerie existed, but it remained in the provinces, small in number and ill paid; whilst the guard of the king was entrusted to Swiss and Scotch. One great cause of the Catholic gentry of the south rallying to Damville against the crown was, that he raised money from the Huguenot towns with which he kept on foot an army; paid its officers, and chose them from amongst the gentry. The example and the temptation were great to induce the Duke of Guise, equally *By virtue of the treaty, Henry of Navarre dismissed the garrisons and captives in the south, and nominated the judges of the parliaments therein, in order to form a mixed court. The Conseillers of the Parisian parliament refused to sit in them. Henry's letters, MSS. Bethune, 8691. XXV. powerful in the north, to do the same in that region. CHAP. Picardy was a province in which, as previously re- The discontent of the Picard gentlemen was great, that of the clergy still greater. Both looked to Guise, who promoted the spirit of resistance. And the Picards, at his suggestion, entered into one of those associations, which were common at the time*, and of which the Huguenots themselves offered the most remarkable example, by which the gentry of the country and the burgesses of towns united for a certain aim, agreed to make common cause, and raise, if necessary, funds and forces. The first object of this social league was to prevent Condé from getting possession of Peronne, and with it of the military government of Picardy. But as this was to stand up in opposition to the principal clause of the late treaty, and consequently * Picard Association, MSS. Bethune, 8832. The League was not signed at Peronne till February, 1577. M. Michelet has well defined the difference between the Pro testant and the Catholic associations; CHAP. to set the court and king at defiance, it was necessary to organise the league on a broad basis. Accordingly, it was extended to the neighbouring provinces, and even to adjoining nations, which could imply but an alliance with Spain and the Duke of Alva against Henry the Third and the Huguenots. Loyalty, however, was still too strong in the breast of gentility to permit of setting aside the king without strong reasons. In all the drafts of the League at first, and among its conditions, was inserted a clause that its statutes and provisions should be submitted to his majesty, and directed to the aim of establishing him upon his throne. It was agreed to concert with him, and first of all make the solemn demand, what were the king's intentions with respect to the Huguenots. The basis of religion was what gave most strength. The cause of Catholicism was that of Rome, of Spain, of the majo rity of the noblesse in France, and of its totality in the north. And whilst there existed strong political and interested reasons for upholding the Roman faith in its integrity, there was not wanting a large amount of semi-fanaticism which rejected the tenets of the reformers as destructive of the unity of the Church, and as exchanging the traditional faith of ages for the opinions and the glosses of a few amongst the modern learned. If the provinces of the north showed at first an apparent unanimity of class, those immediately south of the Loire displayed a different spirit. In Poitou a placard appeared, in which the people complained of the oppression of marchand and paysant by the nobles who profited by the civil war, and took care not to hurt each other, whilst their chief aim was to plunder the industrious. Religion was not the true cause of these wars, and there were 20,000 persons in Poitou, Catholics as well as Protestants, determined to put an end XXV. to such a state of things. The nobles replied to this CHAP. manifesto of the humbler class by an association exclusively of the well-born. And though they could at a later period muster but seventy at St. Hermine, they still constituted a league in alliance and communication with those of the north, determined on supporting the interests of their caste, and of religion in connection with it.† Amongst the most fanatic supporters of the League were the Parisians, from whose learned, judicial, and municipal bodies the Protestants had been weeded by proscription and executions. Implicated more or less in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, they were shocked to find in the treaty of peace that Coligny's memory was discharged of all the crimes imputed to him, and he and his friends completely exculpated of conspiracy or wrong. The lenience of the king towards the Huguenots was not his only crime in the eyes of the Parisians, upon whom, as well as on all the towns under his authority, he levied large sums. The Parisians furnished 34,000 livres monthly for the pay of the Swiss. And the dignitaries of parliament were subjected to a forced loan to satisfy the reistres, for which purpose Henry had at the same time been obliged to engage the jewels of his crown. In April (1576) the monarch held a bed of justice and proposed further exactions, which the citizens and the provost rudely rejected, complaining |