least suitable, even should one wish to discuss these matters. The subject is approached from a point of view essentially memorial and historical. I It may be asked what accounts there are already in English of the appalling execution of these prisoners. There is a slight mention of it in " Fox's Book of Martyrs." (See the edition of 1846, Vol. II, p. 134.) But there seems to be some confusion in that book as to the exact identity of the Fourteen, nor does the story itself agree in every detail with these French authorities. Reece's "Compendious Martyrology" (1813, Vol. II, p. 75), gives an account almost identical with that in the "Book of Martyrs," but names only Mangin and "Peter Clerk." have never been able to see the alleged English translation of the "Histoire des Martyrs," (see Note 1, hereafter). Maddock's "Popish Tyranny "(1780) is an abridgement. Laval's "History of the Reformation in France," (1737, vol. I, pp. 61, 62), gives some short account of the event. Baird, in his excellent History of the Rise of the Huguenots" (1880), gives to this particular movement and martyrdom a very important place and a concise narration. It may well be mentioned in various other books unknown to me. My hearty thanks, for kind assistance given in various ways, are due to M. Andrieux, Librarian to the Town of Meaux, and to the authorities of several other Libraries; to M. Moussé, Econome Sécrétaire à l'Hospice Général de Meaux; to M. Weiss, Secretary to the French Society for Protestant History in Paris; and to various other persons, including Miss Mangin of West Knoyle near Bath, and yourself. In order that meinbers of your family, and others interested, who have not the time or opportunity to examine the various necessary books, may still have the events of those days brought readily to mind, I have ventured to write the following introductory paragraphs, on the Fourteen of Meaux; and attempted, after consulting the pages of good historians, to illustrate, however imperfectly, that dark but pregnant age.* It has been said that the Reformation had a double aspect, disciplinary and doctrinal. It should not however be thought *The authorities chiefly used have been : Actiones et Monimenta Martyrum (Crispinus, 1560.) Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris sous le règne de François Premier 15151536: publié par Ludovic Lalanne (Paris, 1854.) Liturgia Sacra. in the British Museum.) Argentina (Valerandus Polla, 1551. Preserved that a single party, in or out of the Church, was sole champion of both these tendencies, or of either. Perhaps a still more profound idea, or principle, underlay and dictated the two. The earlier part of the sixteenth century, as exhibited in the pages of Ranke and other historians, is lively with new or restored ideas. The middle age was passing away, and, with it, waned the dubious political influence of the Latin Church. Corruption, common perhaps among temporal principalities, was by no means excluded from that wide temporal and spiritual dynasty. The ill-conduct also, and ignorance, of many priests, impaired the Church's credit; and the western world, long indeed her submissive pupil, was now seeking further instruction, and making up, for good or ill, a mind of its own. It is plain that the Latin Church needed at least administrative Arrêt de Meaux (1546) [A MS. copy, furnished through the kind offices of M. Weiss, from the original "Registres Criminels du Parlement de Paris."] Pseaumes de Dauid mis en Rime. (appended to "La Bible,' printed by Iaquy, Daudeau, and Bourgeois, 1560.) Les Pseaumes mis en Rime (Lyons, De Tournes, 1563.) Histoire ecclésiastique des Églises réformées (a new annotated edition, 1883, of that book, which was published in 1580.) Histoire généalogique de la Maison des Briçoñets (Guy Bretonneau, Paris, 1621.) Historie of the Councell of Trent (Paolo Sarpi Venetiano [Pietro Soaue Polano], Brent's Translation, London, 1629). Summa Conciliorum Omnium Ordinata. etc. (Bail, Paris, 1675.) Monumentorum Ad Historiam Concilii Tridentini . . . . etc.: (Le Plat, 1782.) Histoire du Calvinisme (Maimbourg, Paris, 1682.) Antiqvitez de la ville de Meaux (Rochard, MS., preserved at Meaux, and dated 1721.) Histoire de l'Église de Meaux (Dom Toussaints du Plessis, 1731.) Petit guide. dans la ville de Meaux (Le Blondel, 1888.) A French MS. book of the Mangin family, containing pedigree from Estienne Mangin nearly to the present generation, and short accounts of him and others. La France Protestante (Haag, 1846, etc.) Correspondance des Réformateurs (Herminjard 1866, etc.) Joannis Calvini opera etc. (Baum & Cunitz, 1867, being the XXXIVth volume of the "Corpus Reformatorum.") Histoire des Français (Sismondi, vols. XVI, XVII, 1833.) View of the state of Europe during the Middle Ages. History of the Popes (Ranke, translation by Foster 1866.) (Hallam, New History of the Reformation (D'Aubigné, Translation, by H. White.) History of the Rise of the Huguenots (Baird 1880.) Der Kirchengesang in Basel seit der Reformation (Riggenbach, 1870.) Clément Marot et le Psautier Huguenot (Douen, 1878.) History of the Waldenses of Italy (Comba, Translation 1889.) Encyclopédie (Diderot & D'Alembert, 1765.) Encyclopædia Britannica. Besides other works, and books of reference. and moral, if not intellectual, reform, when we find that even a Pope of that day* was considered quite remarkable for being "not proud, no trafficker in church property, not avaricious, "not given to pleasure, moderate in food, frugal in dress, "religious and devout." The existence of abuses was indeed so well-known as to be practically acknowledged, and the serious proposal for a Council, about 1523, is said to have lowered considerably the price of the saleable offices at the Court. The Concordat between the Pope and the French King, officially read at the Fifth Lateran Council in 1516, unpopular though it was, had been a plain example to Western Christendom, that money might be the price of spiritual prerogatives. For Leo X, thereby, in consideration of receiving first years' profits, leased to the King, though subject to Papal approval, appointments to most bishoprics and abbeys in France, which had formerly been supposed elective. The Lateran Councils contain distinct and frequent injunctions as to discipline. Lapses towards simony seem to have been prevalent, and are a suggestive indication of the views of their office, then common among the clergy. Even the celebration, or sacrifice, of the Mass, accepted at the same time as an extremely solemn sacerdotal or Divine ceremony, was bought by laymen, and sold by priests, with such boldness, that the Franciscans of Meaux, to protect the traffic, brought the matter to an issue in a distinct charge. This comprised a series of articles, wherein the Franciscans imputed certain teachings to Martial Mazurier, alleging that he had, inter alia, condemned as impious the sale of a Mass for five farthings. So thoroughly was this system established, that the theologian, thus charged, repudiated the propositions complained of.† About four centuries had already passed since the First Lateran Council, which by its XIth Canon awards remission of their sins to those who visit Jerusalem, and give efficacious assistance in defending the christian people, and destroying the tyranny of the infidels. This offer, made by the loftiest spiritual leaders to the fighting public, was in the thirteenth century, under the Fourth Lateran Council, even extended (with certain limiting words) to exterminators of heretics.‡ Such an adjustment of Divine claims on man is a vivid mark of the supernatural powers claimed, doubtless still earlier, by priests. As ages wore on, they were willing to sell to man some minor though kindred indulgences, even for money when this was intended for pious uses. Pope Leo X countenanced * Clement VII. Cf. Ranke, Vol. I, p. 75 and note. + See note 8, hereafter. See :-Summa Conciliorum Omnium Ordinata. [Bail, Paris, 1675.] such a trade to raise funds for St. Peter's. Opposition to it was notoriously the occasion of Luther's first appearance in 1517. That period was a crisis for the power of Rome. Learning had sprung again into life. The different books of the New Testament were read and translated into various languages. The art of printing had recently been developed, and men's minds, seldom vigorous without some speculation, had begun again to question, not only the conduct of careless and greedy priests, but the doctrines which they and their brethren were supposed to teach. Hardly anything can be more certainly affirmed of mankind, than that perpetual absenteeism of officers and inefficiency of subordinates, must sap the discipline of any organization, and also put in question the principles supposed to be associated with it. Nor could a reader of general history have expected to find even a zealous priesthood successful in maintaining, against human temptations, any large system of traditional doctrine uncorrupted, through fifteen centuries. He would perforce further suspect its purity, when the hierarchy in question was found to have amassed for itself fabulous wealth and enjoyed unheard of worldly power. We are accordingly told that not only were doubts abroad, but that even among Italian priests themselves might then be found some countenance for doctrine akin to that of the northern protestants, while the highest in the Roman system knew that discipline needed amendment. Pope Adrian VI, in his day, made an unsuccessful effort towards reform in the matter of indulgences and sale of preferments. His successors, Clement VII, and Paul III, were perhaps too anxious in political affairs to be thoroughly active in reform. The last named, however, exercising a liberal discretion in his appointments, elevated Gaspar Contarini to the College of Cardinals, who soon protested against abuses profitable to the Curia, and, slighting the notion that what former Popes had done was necessarily to shut up the mouths of those who would mend matters, pointed out that the true dominion of the Papacy was a dominion of reason not of individual will.* Whether or not Contarini brought about the Papal commission for reform, at any rate the Pope appointed this thoughtful man his legate to the Ratisbon Conference in 1541; who perhaps reached the limits of his commission, in the endeavour to promote at that conference a unity of doctrine. He, however, maintained the authority of the Pope and the *See Contarini's two Epistles to Paul III, 1538; printed by Le Plat, "Monumentorum etc :" 1782, Vol. II, pp. 605 etc. Also the Report of the Council of Select Cardinals and others in 1538; printed by Le Plat, ibid. pp. 596 etc. See also Ranke. Apostolic See, and no reconciliation was confirmed. Contarini's attitude was evil spoken of at Rome, as if he were tainted with Lutheranism, but he satisfied the Pope, at Lucca, upon rendering account of his legation. A complication of the difficulty was the distinction between two systems of Clergy: namely, the Regulars who professed Religion according to the rules of certain societies, and the Secular Clergy who generally had cure of souls. Though the monks in very early days had not been deemed eligible to the priesthood, yet they had soon been admitted to those orders. The Benedictines presently became the missionaries of Friesland and Germany; they furnished indeed the literati, and many of the highest officers in the Church. The later rise of the Franciscan and Dominican friars, (each rule dictated by a fresh though perhaps untempered enthusiasm), had further much. increased the number of Non-parochial Clergy. The existence of so many Religious rules, societies, and houses, notwithstanding the divers aids so rendered to the Church of Rome and the Papal ascendency, had often caused local anxiety, if not jealousy, from their insubordination to Bishops, their competition with the Parochial Clergy, lapses from strict rule, and perhaps from those risks of exaggeration to which the monastic idea is obviously exposed. From the fourteenth century, discipline within these societies seems to have fallen very low. Historians have charged them, variously and perhaps too sweepingly, with waste, idleness, frauds, mummeries, false miracles relics and superstitious trifles employed for gain, scandals, and immorality. Even the most cautious reader of poets and satirists is compelled to see some indication of misconduct, in the tales of Chaucer and the cynical allusions of Rabelais. In 1538, (some time after Bishop Briçonnet's dispute with the Franciscans of Meaux), a strong Committee of Cardinals and others was formed. Its Report is profoundly interesting, as an official criticism of Rome, and the Church, at that time. Not Protestants, but very high Dignitaries of the Church here boldly sketch a system of sordid, and extremely unspiritual, greed. Among other matters, too, they report to Pope Paul III that the orders of Religiosi have so deteriorated as to be a grave scandal to Seculars.* This Committee, among whom were Contarini, Sadolet, and Pole, went so far as to recommend measures for the abolition of all those existing bodies. The dispute between the Regulars and the Prelates ran high at the Council of Trent. Paolo Sarpi, in his history of that Council, tells us that about readings and preachings there were terrible controversies; the Regulars * See the Document in Le Plat, cited above. |