Francis II. had died at the close of 1560, and Catherine de Medici,
the virtual ruler, was entirely won to the Jesuit view. But the
Huguenots, led by the Prince de Condé and Admiral de Coligny, were so
powerful that sober Catholic opinion favoured concession to them in
the interest of peace: a policy which the Jesuits ruthlessly opposed
wherever the Catholics were still in the majority. The Colloquy at
Poissy was, therefore, doubly interesting to the Jesuits, and Lainez
went in person, in the train of the Pope's legate, Cardinal d'Este, to
secure their aims; he was to obtain the recognition of the Society and
to prevent the reconciliation of Catholics and Huguenots. Unhappily he
succeeded in both designs. The Colloquy opened in July, when a small
group of the abler Huguenot divines confronted six cardinals and forty
bishops and archbishops, under the eyes of the King and Queen. When,
after a few sittings, it was seen that concessions must be made to the
heretics, Lainez delivered a fiery and eloquent discourse against this
proposed sacrilege. Catherine de Medici trembled, and would attend no
more sittings. The Colloquy ended in a futile wrangle of Lainez and the
Huguenots, and France, thanks very largely to Lainez, went on her way
toward St. Bartholomew.
The sincerity of Lainez in this fanatical gospel of intolerance
cannot be doubted, but it is in piquant contrast to the second part
of his mission, in which he equally succeeded. He brought with him
testimonials to the work done by his Society in a hundred places,
confirmed the promise that they would lay aside their privileges and
their very name (until it was safe to resume them), and thus secured
the right of entry into Paris for this nameless body of priests.
This was done, of course, by quiet activity among the prelates,
without any public discussion. Lainez remained several months in
France, strengthening the new foundation and--at the very time when
he was urging Condé, in a friendly correspondence, to induce the
Protestants to join in the Council of Trent--using the whole of his
great influence over the Queen and court to prevent any concession of
churches or other normal rights to the Huguenots. As a result of his
success, the Jesuits moved into Paris and took possession of the hotel
which the Bishop of Clermont had bequeathed them some years before. We
can hardly suppose that they were following the advice of the sagacious
Lainez when they inscribed over the door the words "College of the
Society of the Name of Jesus." This flippant evasion of their promise
to abandon their name did not tend to conciliate Parisians. When they
succeeded in a short time, with their free classes and ablest teachers,
in drawing some hundreds of youths from the university, they became
bolder and announced that the "Clermont College" was incorporated
with the university. The rector, Marchand, indignantly challenged
their claim, and they produced letters of incorporation which they had
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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