The Wars of Religion in France 1559-1576: The Huguenots, Catherine de Medici and Philip II — John Shaqi
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)
The principal points in dispute turned upon the use of images; the
administration of the sacrament of baptism; the communion; the mass;
the laying-on of hands and the vocation of ministers, and finally the
consideration of a possible accord in doctrine, in which points the
usages of the primitive church and the reasons of separation were
involved.[412]
[Illustration: THE COLLOQUY OF POISSY
(Tortorel and Perissin)]
On the second day of the conference (September 16) the cardinal of
Lorraine spoke, dwelling upon these principal points: first, that the
King, being a member of the church and not its head, could not set
himself up as a judge in matters of religion and faith, but was subject
to the church like every other Christian; second, the definition of the
authority of the church was extended even over princes.[413]
Before long, however, it became evident, both that the attempt to
reconcile the Catholic and the Calvinist parties was an impossibility,
and that the government’s policy of accommodation was exciting
discontent.[414] The demands of the Huguenots, based on Beza’s
arguments, were as follows:
1. That bishops, abbots, and other ecclesiastics should not be
constituted in any way judges of the Huguenots, in view of the fact
that they were their opponents.
2. That all points of difference be judged and decided according to
the simple word of God, as contained in the New and Old Testaments,
since the Reformed faith was founded on this alone, and that where any
difficulties arose concerning the interpretation of words, reference
should be made to the original Hebrew and Greek text.[415]
This second article was a rock of contention from the very beginning.
The whole Catholic doctrine of tradition having equal weight with
Scripture was denied in this article. It was manifest, indeed, from the
first that three things would _not_ be suffered to be considered: (1)
a change of religion; (2) the authority of the Pope; (3) the possible
alienation of church property.[416] This state of things, together
with the fact that the prolongation of the session entailed great
expense,[417] brought about a change of plan. Five persons, the bishop
of Valence, the archbishop of Sens, and MM. Salignac, d’Espence, and
Boutellier, were appointed by the queen and agreed to by the clergy,
to confer with five representatives of the Calvinists, viz., Peter
Martyr,[418] Beza, De Gallars, Marborat, and D’Espine.[419] Within ten
days more the prelates and ministers had ceased to confer and were
taking their departure.[420] The assembly of Poissy dissolved of itself
on October 18, having accomplished nothing,[421] except doctrinally
still further to disunite the Protestant world, which otherwise might
possibly have had a council of its own, composed of French, Scotch,
English, Germans, Danes, Swiss and Swedes, to face the Council of
Trent.[422]
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