History of the Rise of the Huguenots, Vol. 2Baird, Henry Martyn
History
History of the Rise of the Huguenots, Vol. 2
Baird, Henry Martyn
Huguenots
In furtherance of the policy to which she had now committed herself, she
caused the fortifications of the cities that had been strongholds of the
Protestants during the late war to be levelled, and in their place erected
citadels whereby the Huguenots might be kept in subjection.[345] As Easter
approached, Catharine revealed the altered tone of her mind by notifying
her maids of honor that she would suffer none to remain about her but
those who were good Catholics and submitted to the ordinary test of
orthodoxy. There is said to have been but a single girl who declined to go
to mass, and preferred to return to her home.[346] Well would it have been
if the queen had been as attentive to the morals[347] as to the orthodoxy
of these pleasure-seeking attendants. But, to belong to the "religion
ancienne et catholique" was a mantle large enough to cover a multitude of
sins.
[Sidenote: Interpretative declarations infringing upon the Edict.]
[Sidenote: Declaration of Roussillon.]
More direct infringements upon the liberty guaranteed by the Edict of
Amboise had already been made or were yet in store. The legislation which
could not conveniently be repealed by formal enactment could be rendered
null by interpretative declarations. Charles was made to proclaim that by
the Edict he had not intended to permit preaching in places previously
belonging to the patrimony of the Church, or held as benefices. This was
aimed at such prelates of doubtful catholicity as Saint Romain, Archbishop
of Aix, or the Cardinal Bishop of Beauvais, Odet de Chatillon. He was made
to say, that by the places where Protestant worship could be held within
the walls, by virtue of its having been exercised on the seventh of March,
1563, were meant only those that had been garrisoned by Protestants, and
had undergone a successful siege. This stroke of the pen cut off several
cities in which Protestantism had been maintained without conflict of
arms. The Huguenot counsellors of the parliament were deprived of the
enjoyment of their right to attend the "assemblee," or "Protestant
congregation," by a gloss which forbade the inhabitants of Paris from
attending the reformed worship in the neighboring districts. When the
court reached Lyons, a city which, as we have seen, had been among the
foremost in devotion to the Protestant cause, a fresh edict, of the
twenty-fourth of June, prohibited the reformed rites from being celebrated
in any city in which the king might be sojourning. Five or six weeks
later, at the little town of Roussillon, a few miles south of Vienne, on
the Rhone, another and more flagrant violation of the letter and spirit of
the edict of pacification was incorporated in a declaration purporting to
remove fresh uncertainties as to the meaning of its provisions. It forbade
the noblemen who might possess the right to maintain Protestant services
in their castles, to permit any persons but their own families and their
vassals to be present.
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