History of the United Netherlands, 1590b | Page 3

has long known how much misery it is in the
power of crowned bigots to inflict.
On the other hand, the Holy League, the sacred Confederacy, was

catholic or nothing. Already it was more papist than the pope, and
loudly denounced Sixtus V. as a Huguenot because he was thought to
entertain a weak admiration both for Henry the heretic and for the
Jezebel of England.
But the holy confederacy was bent on destroying the national
government of France, and dismembering the national domain. To do
this the pretext of trampling out heresy and indefinitely extending the
power of Rome, was most influential with the multitude, and entitled
the leaders to enjoy immense power for the time being, while maturing
their schemes for acquiring permanent possession of large fragments of
the national territory. Mayenne, Nemours, Aumale, Mercoeur longed to
convert temporary governments into independent principalities. The
Duke of Lorraine looked with longing eyes on Verdun, Sedan, and, the
other fair cities within the territories contiguous--to his own domains.
The reckless house of Savoy; with whom freebooting and landrobbery
seemed geographical, and hereditary necessities, was busy on the
southern borders, while it seemed easy enough for Philip, II., in right of
his daughter, to secure at least the duchy of Brittany before entering on
the sovereignty of the whole kingdom.
To the eyes of the world at large: France might well seem in a
condition of hopeless disintegration; the restoration of its unity and
former position among the nations, under the government of a single
chief, a weak and wicked dream. Furious and incessant were the
anathemas hurled on the head of the Bearnese for his persistence in
drowning the land in blood in the hope of recovering a national capital
which never could be his, and of wresting from the control of the
confederacy that power. which, whether usurped or rightful, was
considered, at least by the peaceably inclined, to have become a solid
fact.
The poor puppet locked in the tower of Fontenay, and entitled Charles
X.; deceived and scared no one. Such money as there was might be
coined, in its name, but Madam League reigned supreme in Paris. The
confederates, inspired by the eloquence of a cardinal legate, and
supplied with funds by the faithful, were ready to dare a thousand
deaths rather than submit to the rule of a tyrant and heretic.
What was an authority derived from the laws of the land and the history
of the race compared with the dogmas of Rome and the trained veterans

of Spain? It remained to be seen whether nationality or bigotry would
triumph. But in the early days of 1590 the prospects of nationality were
not encouraging.
Francois de Luxembourg, due de Pincey, was in Rome at that moment,
deputed by such catholic nobles of France as were friendly to Henry of
Navarre. Sixtus might perhaps be influenced as to the degree of respect
to be accorded to the envoy's representations by the events of the
campaign about to open. Meantime the legate Gaetano, young, rich,
eloquent, unscrupulous, distinguished alike for the splendour of his
house and the brilliancy of his intellect, had arrived in Paris.
Followed by a great train of adherents he had gone down to the House
of Parliament, and was about to seat himself under the dais reserved for
the king, when Brisson, first President of Parliament, plucked him back
by the arm, and caused him to take a seat immediately below his own.
Deeply was the bold president to expiate this defence of king and law
against the Holy League. For the moment however the legate contented
himself with a long harangue, setting forth the power of Rome, while
Brisson replied by an oration magnifying the grandeur of France.
Soon afterwards the cardinal addressed himself to the counteraction of
Henry's projects of conversion. For, well did the subtle priest
understand that in purging himself of heresy, the Bearnese was about to
cut the ground from beneath his enemies' feet. In a letter to the
archbishops and bishops of France, he argued the matter at length.
Especially he denied the necessity or the legality of an assembly of all
the prelates of France, such as Henry desired to afford him the requisite
"instruction" as to the respective merits of the Roman and the reformed
Church. Certainly, he urged, the Prince of Bearne could hardly require
instruction as to the tenets of either, seeing that at different times he
had faithfully professed both.
But while benches of bishops and doctors of the Sorbonne were
burnishing all the arms in ecclesiastical and legal arsenals for the
approaching fray, the sound of louder if not more potent artillery began
to be heard in the vicinity of Paris. The candid Henry, while seeking
ghostly instruction with eagerness from his