Читать книгу History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Vol. 1-8) - J. H. Merle D'Aubigné - Страница 77

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THIS interview of the pope with the king might be more injurious to the Gospel than all the attacks of the Sorbonne. If Clement united sincerely with Francis against Charles; if Catherine de Medici became the pledge of union between Rome and France; would not the Reformation soon be buried by the mournful glare of the pale torches of this fatal marriage? Yet men still hoped that the projected interview would not take place. In fact, Henry VIII. and the emperor did all they could to prevent Francis from meeting the pope.458

=THE INTENDED MARRIAGE.=

But Clement VII., more charmed than ever with a matrimonial union between the family of the Florentine merchants and that of St. Louis, cared naught for the emperor or the king of England; and about the end of April 1533, he convoked a sacred college at Rome, to whom he communicated his plans. They already knew something about them: the Roman cardinals smiled and congratulated his Holiness, but the Spanish cardinals looked very much out of humour. The pope tried to persuade them that he only desired this marriage for the glory of God and of the Church. 'It is for holy opportunities,' he told them. No one dared oppose it openly; but, on leaving the meeting, the emperor's cardinals hurried to his ministers and informed them of the pontifical communication. The latter lost no time; they called upon all their friends, managed them with great ability, and, by dint of energy and stratagem, succeeded in holding a congregation at the beginning of June, at which none of the French cardinals were present. Not daring to oppose the marriage itself, Charles's prelates displayed extreme sensibility for the honour and welfare of the pope. They appeared to be suddenly seized with a violent affection for Clement. 'What! the pope in France!' they exclaimed. 'Truly it must be something more than the marriage of a niece to move a pope from his seat.' Then, as if Clement's health was very precious to them, and the Roman air excellent, the crafty Spaniards brought forward sanitary reasons. 'Such a journey would be dangerous, considering the extreme heat of Provence.'—'Never mind that,' cunningly answered the pope; 'I shall not start until after the first rains.'

=IMPERIAL OBSTACLES.=

Charles then sought other means to prevent the conference. He will contrive that the pope shall delay his departure from week to week, until the winter sets in, and then it is not to be thought of. A very natural occasion for these delays presented itself. The marriage of Henry VIII. with Anne Boleyn having been made public, the emperor haughtily demanded that justice should be done to the queen, his aunt. Here, certainly, was matter enough to occupy the court of Rome for months; but Clement, who had let the English business drag along for years, being eager to finish the other marriage, hastily assembled a consistory, and pronounced against Henry VIII. all the censures which Charles V. demanded. Then, in his zeal forgetting his usual cunning, he made Catherine's marriage the peroration of his speech, and having done with England and its king, he ended by saying: 'Gentlemen, if any of you desire to make the voyage with me, you must hold yourselves in readiness for departure.'459

Immediate preparations were made for fitting up the galleys of Rhodes in which the pope was to sail. All was bustle in the harbour. Those long low barks were supplied with everything necessary for subsistence, for sailing, and even for attack and defence. The oars were fixed in their places; the yards and sails were set; the flags were hoisted.... Then the imperialists, trying to outwit the pope, had recourse to a new stratagem; they were smitten with a sudden fondness for Coron.—'Coron, that city in the south of Greece,' they said to the pope, 'a city of such great importance to christendom, is attacked by the Turks; we require the galleys of Rhodes to defend it; we must deliver the Greeks our brothers from slavery, and restore the empire of the East.'... The pope understood; it was difficult to beat him in cunning. 'Well, well,' said he, 'make haste; fly to the help of christendom.... I will lend you the said galleys, and will add my own ... and ... I will make the passage on board the galleys of France.'460

Then the emperor turned to the Swiss; the Dukes of Savoy and Milan, also, fearing that at the projected interview something would be brewed to their detriment, united with him. These three princes attempted to induce the catholic cantons to enter the Italian league. If these terrible Helvetic bands pass the Alps, all idea of travelling will be abandoned by the pope. How could he expose himself to pikes and arquebuses? Clement VII. had not the warlike disposition of Julius II. 'The King of France favours the protestants,' said Charles's deputies to the catholic cantons; 'he desires to put the evangelical cantons in a condition to avenge the defeat at Cappel; but if you join us, you have nothing to fear.' At these words the catholics became eager461 to enter the league against the king and the pope; but Francis sent them money to keep quiet, and they did not move.462

Were all his manœuvres to fail? Never had a marriage been heard of against which so many obstacles had been raised; but it was written in the book of fate, said many; the arms forged against it could not succeed; and the haughty Charles vainly agitated all Europe—Swiss, Germans, Greeks, and Turks. His ministers now had recourse to another stratagem. Everybody knew that the pope was not brave. They revived their tender affection for his person; and as Switzerland was not to be tempted, they turned to Africa. 'Let your Holiness beware,' they said; 'if you undertake this voyage, you will certainly fall into the hands of the Moors.463 ... A fleet of pirates, lurking behind the islands of Hyères, will suddenly appear, fall on the ship in which you are sailing, and carry you off.'464 This time the pope was staggered. The terror inspired by the barbarian ships was at that time very great. To be carried away by the Moors! A pope captive in Algiers or Tunis! What a dreadful thought!

Will he go or will he not? was the question Europe set itself. But the matter was violently canvassed at Rome, where Guelphs and Ghibelines almost came to blows. Arguments for the marriage, and consequently for the voyage, were not wanting. 'The time has come,' said the papists, 'for a bold stroke to prevent France from being lost like Germany and England.' There were loud discussions in the convents and churches, and even in the public places. A Franciscan of the Low Countries, Herbom by name, a monk of fiery fanaticism, stirred up the pontifical city. 'Luther, Zwingle, and Œcolampadius,' he said, 'are soldiers of Pilate; they have crucified Jesus Christ.... But, alas! alas! this crime is repeated in our days ... at Paris. Yes, even at Paris, by certain disciples of Erasmus.' It was clearly necessary for the pope and his little niece to hasten to France, in order to prevent what these blaspheming monks dared to call the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

=THE POPE DETERMINES TO GO.=

At last Clement made up his mind. He would brave the fury of the waves, and risk the attacks of the corsairs, in order to conquer the soldiers of Pilate and give a royal husband to his niece. The galleys of France, commanded by the Duke of Albany, left Marseilles in September to fetch the pope, who had gone to Pisa, making a boast, wherever he went, of the most noble disinterestedness. 'I am going to this interview,' he said, 'in order to procure the peace of Europe, to prepare an expedition against the infidels, to lead back the King of England to the right path, and, in a word, solely for the interests of christendom.' Then, after thus disguising himself, like the wolf in the fable, under a borrowed dress, he showed the tip of his ear, and begged the Duke of Albany to escort their common relative to Nice, where she would wait for further orders. The honour done to his family was so great that doubts were continually arising in his mind about the trustworthiness of the French king's promises. He would not take his niece with him to Marseilles, for fear he should have to bring her back. He will see Francis alone first; he will speak to him and sound him. Clement believed that his piercing eye would read the king's heart to the very bottom. When all his fears are removed, Catherine shall come to France; but until then, she shall only go part of the way.465

The young lady departed for Nice, and people said, pointing to her as they saw her going on board ship: 'There is the real cause of the strange journey of a pope to France! If it were a matter touching the safety of the Church, Clement would not do so much; but it is to place a Medici beside a throne, and perhaps set her upon it.'... The French fleet put to sea: the ship, on whose mainmast the standard of France had been hoisted, exhibited a sight at once gay and sad. Beneath the flags and banners, at the side of the Duke of Albany, and in the midst of a brilliant retinue, might be seen a kind of little fairy, who was then making her first appearance in the world. She was a young creature, of middle stature, with sparkling eyes and bell-like voice, who appeared to possess some supernatural power, and singularly fascinated every one that came near her. Her enchantments and her philtres were the subtle poison on which the papacy relied for destroying heresy. This child, between thirteen and fourteen years of age, skipped with joy about the stately ship. 'I am going to be the daughter-in-law of the glorious King of France,' she said to herself. Death, with whom this strange creature seemed to have made a secret and terrible treaty, was in truth erelong to raise her to the summit of power. The galleys of Albany, after having conveyed the girl to Nice (it is Guicciardini's word), returned to Leghorn, the port of Pisa, and on the 4th of October the pope, with the cardinals and all his household, put to sea.

=PAPAL PLANS, FRENCH HOPES.=

The papal fleet, all fluttering with banners, had a smooth passage.466 Clement could without interruption meditate on a thousand different projects. Marry Catherine to the son of the King of France; free himself, thanks to the support of this prince, from the patronage of the emperor whom he detested; put off indefinitely the council which Charles had been so bold as to promise to the protestants; and finally crush the Reformation, both in France and elsewhere.... Such were Clement's projects during the voyage. Before leaving Rome, he had drawn up (1st of September) a bull against the heretics; he had it on board the ship, and he purposed demanding its immediate execution from Francis, as a wedding present. The winds blew softly in the direction of Marseilles; all congratulated themselves on the beauty of the passage; but this fleet, in appearance so inoffensive, which glided so smoothly over the waters of the Mediterranean, carried, like the bark of Ulysses, stores of future tempests.

Opinions were much divided in France about the pope's voyage. If Clement satisfied Francis, the Reform was ruined; if he thwarted the king, France would follow the example of England. Everybody admitted the hypothesis that pleased him best. 'Francis and Clement,' said the reformed, 'follow such opposite courses, that it is impossible for them to coincide.'—'The king and the pope,' said the ultramontanists, 'are about to be united by indissoluble bonds, and popery will be restored in France in all its exclusive supremacy.'467 There were however some of the school of Erasmus who remained in doubt. 'As for me,' wrote Professor Sturm to Bucer, 'I desire much that popery should be overthrown, but ... I fear greatly that it will be restored.'468 Sturm did not compromise himself. To which side will Marseilles make Francis I. incline? Historians have decided that he was won over to Rome; but after hearing the historians, we must listen to history.

=THE POPE AT MARSEILLES.=

At the beginning of October 1533, the ancient city of the Phocæans was in a state of great excitement; the King of France and the pope were coming; what an honour! It is well known that the inhabitants of that city are quick, enthusiastic, and fond of show and parade. Watchmen had been placed on the highest points to telegraph the approaching fleet. At length, on the 4th of October, the castles of If and Notre Dame de la Garde suddenly gave the looked-for signals. One cry only was heard in the streets of Marseilles: 'The flotilla with the pope on board has come in sight.'469 A feverish agitation pervaded the city; the sound of trumpets, clarions, and hautboys filled the air; the people hurried to the harbour. Nobles and prelates went on board the ships that had been kept ready; their sails were unfurled, and in a short time this extemporised fleet saluted that of the pope with deafening acclamations. Many devout catholics trembled with joy and admiration; they could hardly believe their eyes. 'Behold the real representative of Christ,' they said, 'the father of all christians, the only man who can at will give new laws to the Church;470 the man who has never been mistaken and never will be; whose name is alone in the world, vice-God upon earth.'471 Clement smiled: in Italy he had never heard such exclamations or witnessed such enthusiasm. O France! truly art thou the eldest daughter of the Church! He did not know that vanity, curiosity, love of pomp, and a fondness for noise had much to do with this rapture, and that France, like her king Clovis, worships what it has cast down, and casts down what it has worshipped. The pope had no leisure to indulge in such reflections. At the moment his galley entered the harbour, three hundred pieces of artillery fired a salute. Notre Dame de la Garde, the tower of St. John, the abbey of St. Victor, the harbour and its vicinity were all on fire.472

Francis was not to be seen among the vast and brilliant crowd which filled Marseilles. There were princes of the blood, prelates, diplomatists, magistrates, courtiers, and warriors; but the king, although at the gates of the city, kept himself in the background and apart. However, when the night came, and everybody had retired to their quarters to rest after so fatiguing a day, a man, wrapped up in a cloak, entered the city, glided mysteriously along the dark streets, and stopped at the gate of the palace where the pope was lodging. This man was immediately introduced into the apartments where Clement was preparing to take his repose: it was the King of France.473 ... What was the object of this nocturnal visit? Was it because the king wished to sound the pontiff in secret, before receiving him officially? Was it the etiquette of the time? However that may be, Francis, after a secret and confidential conversation, returned with the same mystery, wearing a very satisfied look. The pope had promised everything, all the rights, all the possessions,—in a word, whatever he had made up his mind not to give.

The next day the pope, dressed in his pontifical robes, and seated in a magnificent chair borne on men's shoulders, made his solemn entry, attended by his cardinals, also in all the brilliancy of their costume, and by a great number of lords and ladies of France and Italy.474

=LATIN ADDRESS TO THE POPE.=

Early in the morning, and while the streets were echoing with cries of joy, the president of the parliament, living in one of the handsomest houses of Marseilles, was pacing his room with anxious brow, gesticulating and carefully repeating some Latin phrases. That magistrate had been commissioned, as a great orator, to deliver an address to the pope; but as unfortunately Latin was not familiar to him, he had had his speech written out beforehand, and by dint of labour he had so far committed it to memory, as to be able to repeat it off-hand—provided there was no change made in it.

At the same moment, a messenger from the pope appeared at the king's levée with a paper, and requested, on behalf of the pontiff, who had a great fear of the terrible Charles V., that the said oration should be delivered as it was written on the paper he brought with him, so as to give the emperor no offence. Francis despatched Clement's draft to the president. What a disappointment! The new address was precisely the contrary of what he had been learning by heart. The famous orator became confused: he did not know what to do.... Alas! he had but a few minutes to spare, and the sonorous words which would have offended the great emperor, and which he had counted on reciting in his loudest voice, kept recurring to his mind. He fancied himself in the presence of that magnificent assembly of proud Roman prelates who knew Latin so well.... There could be no doubt about it ... he would become embarrassed, he would stammer, he would not remember what he had to say, and would break down. He was quite in a fever. The president, no longer master of himself, hurried off to the king, and begged him to give the office to some one else. 'Very well, then,' said Francis to Bishop du Bellay, 'you must undertake it.' At that moment the procession started. It reached its destination; the Bishop of Paris, although taken unawares, put a bold face upon the matter; and being a good Latin scholar and able orator, he executed his commission wonderfully well.475

The official conferences began shortly after, and neither king nor pope spared protestations, stratagems, or falsehoods: the pope particularly excelled in the latter article. 'He used so much artifice in the business,' says Guicciardini,476 'that the king confided marvellously in him.' What Francis required to compensate him for the misalliance was not much: he asked for the duchies of Urbino and Milan, Pisa, Leghorn, Reggio, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, and Genoa. But if the king was inexhaustible in his demands, the pope was equally so in his promises, being the more liberal as he intended to give nothing. Clement, touched by the good-nature of Francis, who appeared to believe all that was told him, sent at last to Nice for the youthful Catherine.

=BULL AGAINST HERETICS.=

It was not decorous for the pope to appear to have come so far only to give away a young lady. He proposed, therefore, in order to conceal his intrigues, to issue the bull against the heretics which he had brought with him. It was his wedding present, and nothing could better inaugurate Catherine's entry into France. But the diplomatist, William du Bellay, did all in his power to prevent this truly Roman transaction. He had several very animated conversations on this subject with the cardinals and with the pope himself. He represented to him the necessity of satisfying the protestants of Germany: 'A free council and mutual concessions,' he said; but Clement was deaf. Du Bellay would not give way; he struggled manfully with the pontiff, and conjured him not to attempt to put down the Reformation with violence.477 He used similar language to Francis, and laid before him some letters which he had recently received from Germany; but the king replied that he was taking the matter too seriously. The bull of excommunication was simply a manner, a papal form ... and nothing more. The bull was published, and there was a great noise about it. Francis and Clement, each believing in the other's good faith, were deceiving one another. The only truth in all this Marseilles business was the gift the pope made to France of Catherine de Medici. That was quite enough certainly.

As soon as the pope's niece arrived, preparations were made for the marriage. The ministers of the king and of the pope took the contract in hand, and the latter having spoken of an annuity of one hundred thousand crowns: 'It is very little for so noble an alliance,' said the treasurers of Francis I.—'True,' replied Strozzi, one of Clement's most able servants; 'but observe that her grace the Duchess of Urbino brings moreover three rings of inestimable value ... Genoa, Milan, and Naples.'478 These diamonds, whose brilliancy was to dazzle the king and France, never shone on Catherine's fingers or on the crown of Henry II.

=MARRIAGE OF CATHERINE AND HENRY.=

The ceremony was conducted with great magnificence. The bride advanced, young, brilliant, radiant with joy, with smiling lips and sparkling eyes, her head adorned with gold, pearls, and flowers; and in her train ... Death.... Death, who was always her faithful follower, who served her even when she would have averted his dart; who, by striking the dauphin, was to make her the wife of the heir to the crown; by striking her father-in-law, to make her queen; and by striking down successively her husband and all her sons, to render her supreme controller of the destinies of France. In gratitude, therefore, towards her mysterious and sinister ally, the Florentine woman was forty years later, and in a night of August, to give him a magnificent entertainment in the streets of Paris, to fill a lake with blood that he might bathe therein, and organise the most terrible festival that had ever been held in honour of Death. Catherine approached the altar, trembling a little, though not agitated. The pope officiated, desirous of personally completing the grandeur of his house, and tapers without number were lighted. The King and Queen of France, with a crowd of courtiers dressed in the richest costumes, surrounded the altar. Catherine de Medici placed her cold hand in the faithless hand of Henry of Valois, which was to deprive the Reform of all liberty, and France herself, in the Unhappy Peace, of her glory and her conquests. Clement gave his pontifical blessing to this tragic pair. The marriage was concluded; the girl, as Guicciardini calls her, was a wife; her eyes glanced as with fire. Was it a beam of happiness and pride? Probably. We might ask also if it was not the joy of the hyena scenting from afar the graves where it could feast on the bodies of the dead; or of the tiger espying from its lair in the African desert the groups of travellers upon whom it might spring and quench its raging thirst for blood. But although the appetites which manifested themselves in the St. Bartholomew massacre already existed in the germ in this young wife, there is no evidence (it must be acknowledged) that she allowed herself to be governed at Marseilles by these cruel promptings.

There are creatures accursed of God, who, under a dazzling veil and fair outward show, impart to a nation an active power of contagion, the venom of corruption, an invisible principle of death which, circulating through the veins, infects with its morbid properties all parts of the body, and strikes the physical powers with general prostration. It was thus at the commencement of the history of the human race that a fallen being deceived man; by him sin entered into the world, and death by sin. This first scene, which stands alone, has been repeated, however, from time to time in the world, though on a smaller scale. It happened to France when the daughter of the Medici crept into the family of its kings. No doubt the disease was already among the people, but Catherine's arrival was one of those events which bring the corruption to a head. This woman, so false and dissolute, so vile as to crawl at the feet of her husband's mistress and pick up secrets for her; this woman, who gave birth to none but enervated, idiotic, distempered, and vicious children, not only corrupted her own sons, but infected an entire brilliant society that might have been noble and just (as Coligny showed), and instilled her deadly venom into its veins. The niece of the pope poisoned France.

'Clement's joy was incredible,' says Guicciardini.479 He had even a feeling of gratitude, and resolved to give the king four hats for four French bishops. Did he intend that these hats should supply the place of Urbino, Genoa, Milan, and Naples? Nobody knows. One of the new cardinals was Odet de Chatillon, then eleven years old, brother of the immortal Coligny, and subsequently one of the supporters of protestantism in France. The king, wishing to appear grateful for so many favours, wrote to the Bishop of Paris, that 'as the crime of heresy increased and multiplied, he should proceed to act against the heretics.'—'Do not fail,' he added.480 But the Bishop of Paris, brother of the diplomatist Du Bellay, was the least inclined of all the prelates in France to persecution. Francis knew this well, and for that very reason, perhaps, gave him the order.

=THE POPE'S HEALTH DECLINES.=

The pope, delighted at having made so good a bargain in the city of merchants, embarked on the 20th of November to return to Rome. Excess of joy was hurtful to him, as it had been to his cousin Leo X. The threats of the emperor, who demanded a council; the pressure of Francis I., who claimed Catherine's three rings;481 the quarrels of his two nephews, who were fighting at Florence,—all filled poor Clement with uneasiness and sorrow. He told his attendants that his end was near; and immediately after his return, he had the ring and the garments prepared which are used at the burial of the popes.482 His only consolation, the approaching destruction of the protestants, seemed to fail him in his last days. Even during his interview with the pope, Francis was secretly intriguing to unite with the most formidable of the enemies of Rome. After embracing the old papacy with apparent emotion, the chivalrous king gallantly held out his hand to the young Reformation. In the space of two months he had two interviews as opposite as possibly could be. These two contradictory conferences point out one of the traits that best characterise the versatile and ambitious Francis. This modern Janus had a head with two faces. We have just seen that which looked backwards into the past; we shall soon see that which looked forwards into the future. But before we follow the King of France in his oscillation towards Germany and the protestants, we must return to Calvin. In October 1533, Francis and Clement had met at Marseilles; and on the 1st of November, while those princes were still diplomatising, a great evangelical demonstration took place at Paris.

458 Henry VIII. to Norfolk, Aug. 8, 1533. State Papers, vii. p. 493.

459 Du Bellay, Mémoires, p. 195.

460 Ibid. p. 185.

461 'En grand branle.'

462 Du Bellay, Mém. p. 195.

463 'Non licere ejus Sanctitati sine Maurorum periculo illuc accedere.'—Vanner to Cromwell. State Papers, vii. p. 508.

464 'Ob insulas de Yeres, ubi piratarum classis posset ad intercipiendum pontificem in insidiis latitare.'—Vanner to Cromwell, State Papers, vii. p. 508.

465 Guicciardini, Wars of Italy, ii. bk. xx.

466 Guicciardini, Wars of Italy, ii. bk. xx. p. 901.

467 'Papam aut subversum, aut restitutum iri in suam et inveteratam tyrannidem.'—Sturm to Bucer. Strasburg MSS.

468 'Alterum ego expecto magno cum desiderio, alterum non mediocriter extimesco.'—Ibid.

469 Du Bellay, Mémoires, p. 204.

470 'Quod illi soli licet pro temporis necessitate novas leges condere.'—Dict. Gregorii.

471 'Veri Dei vicem gerit in terris.'—De Translatione Episc.

472 Du Bellay, Mém. p. 205. State Papers, vii. p. 515.

473 Guicciardini, Wars of Italy, ii. bk. xx. p. 901.

474 Du Bellay, Mém. p. 205.

475 Du Bellay, Mém. p. 206.

476 Wars of Italy, ii. bk. xx. p. 901.

477 'Legatum vehementer contendisse cum romano pontifice Massiliæ, ne violenter agat.'—Corp. Ref. ii. p. 721.

478 Guicciardini, Hist. des Guerres d'Italie, ii. liv. xx. p. 901.

479 Guerres d'Italie, ii. liv. xx. p. 901.

480 Lettre close à l'évêque de Paris, p. 21.

481 'S. M. Christᵐᵃ dimando che da sua Santᵃ li fussino osservate le promesse.'—Soriano, Ranke, Päpste, i. p. 127.

482 Guicciardini, Guerres d'Italie, i. liv. xx. p. 902.