The Wars of Religion in France 1559-1576: The Huguenots, Catherine de Medici and Philip IIThompson, James Westfall
History
The Wars of Religion in France 1559-1576: The Huguenots, Catherine de Medici and Philip II
Thompson, James Westfall
France -- History -- Wars of the Huguenots, 1562-1598; Sainte Ligue (1576-1593)
It was an opportune time for France to undertake an anti-Spanish
policy, and it was soon predicted that she would follow such a
course.[1450] Aside from the discomfiture of the Guises owing to the
peace, a condition which peculiarly discountenanced the cardinal
of Lorraine, the duke of Guise was in disgrace also. For he was
discovered to have made overtures of marriage to Madame Marguerite,
the King’s sister, and the lady herself for whom a Portuguese match
was being considered as a blow to Spain, was reputed to have expressed
a preference rather to stay in France than “to eat figs in Portugal.”
Guise, when the discovery was made that he had raised his eyes to
the princess, hastily attempted to divert suspicion by marrying the
princess of Porcien. But the episode injured the influence of the
Guises, and brought Montmorency forward as the man of the hour.[1451]
Under the new régime, the government set about carrying out the terms
of pacification, enforcement of which chiefly depended upon the upright
and just conduct of the four marshals.[1452] By the end of September
the camps were wholly broken up and the reiters either over or on
their way across the frontier.[1453] To be sure, radical Protestants
continued to complain of infractions of the edict.[1454] But the one
serious infraction of the edict was in the fifteenth article, providing
that all scholars, the sick and the poor, should be received in the
universities, schools, and hospitals without difference or distinction
on account of religion. The Catholic party, in the hope of abridging
the development of the competing religion soon persuaded the King to
nullify this provision. In compliance with a petition praying that the
crown would forbid any of the Reformed religion from holding any post
of authority in the University of Paris, and also that the university
authorities might have power to search for and seize all heretical
books, Charles IX on October 8, 1570, issued a proclamation forbidding
any Calvinist from holding any office or teaching in the University
of Paris and giving the authorities thereof the right of search for
heretical books.[1455] On November 20, this was followed by a more
sweeping decree forbidding any persons from keeping schools or holding
office in any college, or lecturing on any art or science in public or
in private unless recognized and approved by the Roman church.[1456]
Nevertheless, these petitions, complaining of infractions of the edict,
were more smoke than fire. The only internal issue of great importance
was an economic one.
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