e ILllIBIg^mr » Gift of MRS. WILLIAM L. ELKIN 1933 r^WJ*i'ffWt=r?^tiJi^'jHJ-.>'vt^Tj;;j;^ Cabie0 nf t\)e Heformatton. LASGOVVcEDir J. G0D1> IS. LADIES OF THE REFORMATION. MEMOIRS OF DISTINGUISHED FEMALE CHAEAOTEES, BELONGING TO TKE PERIOD OF THE EEFOEMATION IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTIIRY. / BY THE REV. JAMES ANDEESON, AUTHOR OF "LADIES OF THE COVENANT," ETC., ETC. ILLUSTKATED BT JAMES GODWIN, GEOEGE THOMAS, &c. GEEMANY, SWITZEELAND, FEANCE, ITALY, AND SPAIN. BLACKIE AND SON: LONDON, EDINBUKGH, GLASGOW, AND NEW YORK. MDCCCLVll. M GLASGOW: ¦. BLACKIE AND CO., PttlMTKllS, VILLAPIELD. PREFACE. This volume completes the author's intended contributions to the Biography of the Women of the Eeformation. It embraces the principal countries ou the continent of Europe, and in so large a field, it has been necessary for the author to content himself simply with a selection of lives. In some of the sections, as in those of Switzerland and Spain, he has nearly exhausted his materials; but in the German, French, and Italian sections, sketches of other female worthies, furnishing biographical matter of varied interest, might have beeu given ; and as to some of the lives introduced, as those of Marguerite de Valois, Jeanne d'Albret, Een6e, Duchess of Ferrara, and Olympia Morata, the materials are so abundant, that to make full use of them would require for each biography a separate volume. Though this volume has swelled to a considerable size, yet, from the wide extent of ground which the author's inquiries have covered, much of the pains and labom- employed in its composition have consisted, not in enlarging, but in keeping it down to its present dimensions. In the introductory chapters, the results of a consi derable amount of reading, which was necessary to give an histori cally accurate representation, had to be stated within small compass. vi Preface. Then, as to the memoirs themselves, to select from lai'ge and widely-spread materials — to be able to judge in what parts of the story greater detail ought to be given, and in what parts it was proper to compress — in short, to seize upon the most salient passages, and yet to bring the whole within as narrow limits as possible, without, however, falling into the mistake of making the narrative too general, and therefore uninteresting and uninstructive — which, at least, has been the author's endeavour — are points which required much consideration, and, indeed, a full examination of the materials for each life, even when only a part could be brought into the nar rative. The Histoiy of the Eeformation on the Continent presents a dark and melancholy retrospect. The calamities caused by the sanguinary persecuting efforts made to crush it in all the countries to whose history, at that period, the attention of the reader is directed in this volume, form a detail resembling Ezekiel's roll, on which was written, within and without, " Lamentations, and mourn ing, and woe.'' The maxim of Tertullian, who flourished in the be ginning of the third century, that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, has been often quoted ; and in many instances per secution has been the means of raising up new converts to the cause of Christ, by calling forth sympathy on its side. But the maxim has not been always verified in ecclesiastical history. Persecution kept back the Eeformation for ages. It was this chiefly or ouly which prevented the Waldenses in Italy, the Albigenses in France, the Wickliffites in England, and the Hussites in Bohemia, from achiev ing at an earlier date the work which Luther and his coadjutors achieved in the sixteenth century. And at the period of the Eefor mation, persecution, if not equally extei-minating in its effects as in the times preceding, yet did immense mischief in every country of Preface. vii Europe. In some countries, as Spain and Italy, to which France might almost be added, it altogether suppressed the Eeformation, and in others, where less fatal, it obstructed its success and blighted its prosperity. Had it not been for persecution, the new faith, from the spirit of inquiry which was awakened, would in all proba bility have been embraced within the course of a few years by the great body of the people in every nation of Europe, and the Anti christian system have been completely destroyed, leaving only a few relics of its former greatness floating like the fragments of a ship wreck on the tide of time, some generations, it might be, after. A popular apology, now not uncommonly put forth for the per secutors, is that those times were barbarous ; that the cruelties at whioh we now shudder were but little abhorrent to the feelings of the men of that age, and that, therefore, taking this and the then pre valent ignorance in regard to the principles of toleration into ac count, it is to treat the persecutors unjustly to measure their crimi nality by the prevailing sentiments and feelings of this enlightened and free country in this nineteenth century. That this apology pro ceeds so far upon grounds which relieve the guilt of the persecutors from.' some aggravations which, in other circumstances, it might havAhad, is readily granted; but that it is entitled to less weight than is often claimed for and conceded to it, there are many grave considerations which go to prove, though within the limited space of a preface only a few words can be said, in confirmation of this assertion. In the first place, the force of the apologj' is greatly weakened from the fact that barbarous as those times were, the public mind often did not come up in point of cruelty to the tem perature of the persecutors, who frequently, by their atrocious deeds, excited wide-spread dissatisfaction and abhorrence. For e^ ample, at the first erection of the modern Inquisitioij in Ai-a- viii Preface. gon, towards the close of the fifteenth centui-y, by the Papal and royal authority, even when the avowed object was simply to persecute the Jews, whom all hated, it met with the most strenu ous opposition from all ranks in that kingdom. Again, about the middle of the sixteenth century, such was the hatred with which the populace of Eome regarded the Inquisition, that they rose up in tumult, liberated the prisoners detained in its dun geons, wounded the grand inquisitor, burned the house to the ground, and were with difiiculty prevented from involving the principal convent of the Dominicans in the same fate. Fai-ther, in the civil wars occasioned by the struggles for reformation, there was, besides attachment to the new faith, another element which greatly strengthened the standard of the Eeformed in all the countries in which these civil wars broke out — in France, in the Netherlands, and in Germany — and that element was the detestation entertained against the tyranny and barbarities of the persecutors by large bodies of the people. The persecutors, then, even when measured by their own .age, not by ours, stand forth hardened and sanguinary culprits. Secondly, another consideration which greatly lessens the weight of the plea adverted to, in extenuation of the criminality of the persecutors, is, that much of the barbarous state of feeling, on the existence of which the apology rests, is to be traced to the Popish priesthood, who were the main-springs of the perse cutions. At those times and in those places in which the passions of the people were most excited against heresy and heretics, the priests were the chief instruments in infusing into their minds this fanatical malignancy. As a proof of this, not to mention the num berless examples which might be quoted from the history of every country of Europe at that period, let it only be noted, that opposed as the population of Aragon were to the introduction of the modern Preface. ix Inquisition, yet, after it had, by the infiuence of the Dominican monks, been introduced, the people at length, familiarized with its cruelties and tutored by the priesthood, became not only reconciled to it, but regarded it as a Divine institution, and witnessed the ap palling horrors of its executions unmoved, and even with a savage satisfaction. Only a few of the characters described in this volume were among the number who suffered death in the cause of the Eefor mation; but nearly all of them suifered more or less, in one form or another, in that cause, and they were all of congenial spirit, cha racterized by high Christian principle, ardent piety, and deep benevolent sympathies. Some of them were endowed with great talents and strong energy of character; and those who sufi'ered to the death furnish some of the noblest examples on record of woman's Christian endurance and intrepid devotion to the Truth. To the attention of Woman especially, it may be hoped that these Biographies will coinmend themselves. In countries such as this, where the Eeformation has triumphed, its benign influences have descended richly in blessings upon her. It has abolished the confessional, and no priest may now extort from her the in most secrets of her breast. It has delivered her from the super stitious terrors by which, from the sensibility of her nature, she is so liable to be enthralled. It has rescued her fi-om the tram mels of monasticism and celibacy, so that, with a pure conscience, she may now enjoy all the comforts of life, and occupy her fitting position as a wife and mother. Now, in following her convictions, she is no longer exposed to the peril of imprisonment, of torture, or of the stake, or doomed to see the field, the scafibld, or her own hearth stained with the blood of her brothers or sisters, her husband or children, for these, in the times of which we write, were the X Preface. tender mercies of Eomanism to woman. Nor is Eome even now governed by anything like a tolerant spirit. For woman, in the present day, to read the Bible or to circulate Italian New Testa ments or Italian tracts in Italy, would be to land herself in a prison. If such, then, are the blessings which woman derives from the Ee formation, may it not be expected that she will cordially sympathize with those noble specimens of her sex who, by their afl'ectionate ministry, sustained the fortitude and the constancy of the great master spirits of the Eeformation, or who themselves put forth no ordinary exertions, and com'ageously encountered no ordinary dan gers and sufferings in the arduous conflict ? Edineurgh, November VJ, 1856. CONTENTS. Page Peefaob, List of Illustbations, LADIES OF THE EEFOEMATION IN GEEMANY. HISTOEICAL INTKODUCTION, ... 3 Uesula, wife of Conrad Cotta, . . 33 Kathabine von Boea, wife of Martin Luther, . . 45 Elizabeth, wife of Joachim I., Elector of Brandenburg, ... 93 Elizabeth, wife of Eric, Duke of Brunswiok-Calenberg, and afterwards of Prince Poppo, of Henneberg, . .... 117 Sibylla of Cleves, wife of John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, . 143 Katharine, wife of Henry, Prince of Schwartzburg, . . 171 Louisa Juliana of Nassau, Electress Palatine, 180 LADIES OF THE EEFOEMATION IN SWITZERLAND. HISTOEICAL INTEODUCTION, . . . . • . 221 Anna Eeinhard, wife of UMc Zwingle, . 231 Idelette de Bures, wife of John Calvin, . 265 LADIES OF THE EEFOEMATION IN FEANCE. Historical Introduction, . .... 283 Louise de Montmoeenot, Lady Chatillon, . ... 305 Maeguebite de Valois, Duchess of Alen9on, afterwards Queen of Navarre, ... . . .... 311 Jeanne d' Albeet, Queen of Navarre, . . . 382 Chaelotte Aebaleste, wife, first of Seigneur de Feuqueres, and secondly, of Philip de Mornay, 450 Contents. LADIES OF THE EEFOEMATION IN ITALT. Poff Historical Introduction, . . . 487 Eenee, Duchess op Ferrara, . 499 Olympia Morata, wife of Andrew Grunthler, . . 549 Lavinia della Eovere, Princess Orsini, . . . 605 LADIES OF THE KEFOKMATION IN SPAIN. Historical Introduction, . . 621 Leanor be Cisneros, wife of Antonio Herezuelo, 637 DoSa Leanoe de Vibeeo, wife of Pedro Cazalla, 645 The Donas Gonzalez, sisters of Doctor Juan Gonzalez, 649 Maria de Bohorques, . . . 656 Dona Juana de Bohorques, Baroness of Higuera, . 664 Appendix : — No. I. — Elizabeth, Queen of Christian II., King of Denmark, . . 669 No. II. — Letter of Madame de Mornay to her son Philip, Sieur des Boves, . ... . . .670 No. III. — Notice of Vittoria Colonna, .... 672 No. IV. — Instructions of Henry II. of France to Oriz, in relation to Rence, Duchess of Ferrara, . . . 679 No. V. — Letter of Olympia Morata to Anne of Este, Duchess of Guise, 681 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. LADIES OF THE KEFOBMATION IN GEEMANY, Dra'ughtsman. Engraver- Jeanne d' Albeet addressing the Pbotestant AEMY at Cognac, . . Frontispiece. Godwin. Thomas, An Allegory,* . . Engraved Title. Godwin. Jackson. Ornamental Heading to Preface, .... Humphreys. Bolton. v Ornamental Heading to Introduction, . . . Humphreys. Bolton. 3 Ornamental Tailpiece, .... . Humphreys. Bolton, 32 The Town of Eisenach, ... . . Halswelle. Evans. 33 Ornamental Border and Initial-letter, . . . Huxaphreys. Bolton. 33 Ursula receiving Luther and his Companion, . Godwin. Jackson. 37 Tailpiece — Ancient Porch, . . . Jewitt. Jewitt. 44 The Market-place and Townhall, Wittenberg, . Johnson. Williams. 45 Escape op the ;N"dns from the Convent oe Ni MPT SCH, . . ... Godwin. Jackson. 49 The Augustine Monastery, Wittenberg, . Halswelle. Evans. 50 Katharine von Bora's Marriage King, . . Jewitt. Jewitt. 57 Luther's Marriage Ring, . . . . . Jewitt. Jewitt. 58 Luther's Room in the Monastery at Wittenberg, Johnson. Jewitt. 59 Silver Beaker presented to Luther and his Wife by the University of Wittenberg, . . . Jewitt. Jewitt. 61 Luther and his Family, . . . . Godviin. Thomas. 64 Tombstone of Katharine von Bora, . . . Johnson. Jackson. 91 * Luther, the soldier of the Cross and champion of the Reformation, having possessed himself of The Word of God, and overthrown the Papacy by its power, instils its truths into the hearts of Women, who, by their fe,ith and heroism, hecome instruments of ad vancing the great Reformation. Fanaticism still clings to Papal corruptions, and Irre solution wavers between embracing the new faith and adhering to old superstitions. The figures at tlie top of the design represent ledpettively those who sleep m ignorance and those who are just awakened to consciousness ofthe Truth. — James Godinn. XIV List of Illustrations. ETigraver. Page Evans. 93 Jackson. 102 Borders. 106 Evans. 117 Borders. 134 Thomas. 139 Evans. 143 Thomas. 155 Draughtsman. The Town of Stendal, Halswelle. Elizabeth of Bkandenbue& and her Bbothek BEOEIVINS THE SaOKAMENT, . . . . Godwin. Elizabeth of Brandenburg before Dulce John, Godwin. The Castle of Munden, .... Johnson. Luther examining young Duke Eric, . . . Godwin. Elizabeth op Bbunswiok eemonstbatino with HER Son, . . . Godwin. The Castle of Torgau, Johnson. Sibylla op Cleves encouraqing the Garrison OP Wittenberg, Godwin. The Elector of Saxony receiving Tidings of his Sentence, ... The Parish Church, Weimar, The Town and Castle of Rudolstadt, Scene at Breakfast in the Castle of Rudolstadt, Tailpiece — Harness, Dort, from the Harbour, Court of the Castle of Heidelberg, Kaiserslauteru in 1645, . The G-reat Square, Prague, . The Market-place, Magdeburg, WiUiams. Louisa Juliana and her Daughter in the Camp op Gustavds Adolphus, . . . Godwin. Thomas. 212 Godwin. Thomas. 157 Johnson. Jackson. 168 Johnson. Evans. 171 Godwin. Jackson. 177 Jackson. Jackson. 179 Hlne. Mason. 180 Johnson. Jackson. 196 HalsweUe. Evans. 198 WiUiams. WUUams. 205 WiUiams. Williams. 211 LADIES OF THE EEFOEMATION Y& SWITZEELAND, Ornamental Heading to Introduction , The Town of Ziirich, Zwingle reading to his "Wife, . . . Godwin. Zwingle paeting with his Family on the eve OP THE Battle oe Cappel, Godwin. Monument to mark the Spot where Zwingle fell, Johnson, Death of Zwingle, ... . Godwin. Humphreys. Bolton. Wilhams. WiUiams. Thomas. Tailpiece — ¦Maces of the Period, Strasburg, ... Geneva, from near Secheron, Tailpiece — Ancient Locker, , Jackson. Johnson. Johnson. Jewitt. Jackson. Jackson. Jackson.Jackson.Evans. Evans. Jewitt. 221 231 245 250 253 255 264 265 269 280 List of Illustrations. LiDIES OF THE EEF0EM.4TI0N TN FEAKCE. Ornamental Heading to Introduction, Ornamental Heading and Initial-letter, The Castle and Market-place of Angouleme, . The Castle of Amboise, The Cathedral and Bridge of Tilsit, Lyons, . Marguerite de Valois before Charles V. and HIS Council, . The Castle of Alen9on, . Marguerite de Valois before Francis I., . The Town of Nerac, .... Marguerite de Valois entertaining Repoemed Refugees at heb Castle of Nebac, Tailpiece — Ancient Herse, . ... Tbe Town and Castle of Pau, Montluc's Juatice, .... The Hotel de ViUe, Rochelle, ... The Great Clock Tower, Rochelle, Court of the Castle of Blois, Ornamental Heading, .... Charlotte Arbaleste and the Soldiers, The Town of Montauban, The Town and Castle of Saumur, Death of young De Mornay, Tailpiece — Helmet of the Period, LADIES OF THE EEFOEMATION DraiLghtsman. Engraver. Page Humphreys. Bolton. 283 Humphreys. Bolton. 305 Johnson. Evans. 311 wnnams. WiUiams. 313 Johnson. Thomas. 330 Godwin. Thomas, 335 Johnson. Thomas. 340 Godwin. Thomas. 350 Johnson. Jackson. 362 Thomas. Thomas. 367 Jewitt. Jewitt. 381 Johnson. Evans. 382 Godwin. Thomas. 405 Johnson. Jackson. 420 Johnson. Jackson. 428 Hine. Jewitt. 435 Humphreys Bolton. 450 Godwin. Jackson. 458 Halswelle. Evans. 463 Johnson. Thomas. 469 Godwin. Jackson. 473 Jackson. Jackson. 484 IN ITALY. Ornamental Heading to Introduction, Humphreys. Bolton. Ornamental Heading and Initial-letter, Humphreys. Bolton. Medal struck by Louis XII., . Johnson. Jackson. The Ducal Palace, Ferrara, . . . Hine. The Castle of Montargis as existing in 1 818, . . Johnson. Renee, Duchess op Ferrara, defying the Threats of Maliooene, Godwin. Tailpiece— Gargoyle, .Tewitt. Jackson. Evans. Thomas. Jewitt. 487 499 .WI508 531 .539548 xvi List of Illustrations. DraugliXsman. Ornamental Heading, ^""'Humphreys. The Townhall, and Perlach Tower, Augsburg, . Johnson. The Street of the Cathedral, "Wiirzburg, . . WiUiams. Olympia and her Husband despoiled by Soldiers, Godwin. House of Olympia Morata at Schweinfurt, . . Johnson. Ornamental Heading, Humphreys. Lavinia della Rovere and Olympia Morata visiting Fannio in Prison, Godwin. Tailpiece — Rose Window, ¦ . Jewitt. Engraver. Page Bolton. 549 Green. 569 WiUiams. 574 Jackson. 586 Jackson. 603 Bolton. 605 Thomas. 612 Jewitt. 618 LADIES OF THE EEFORMATION IN SPAIN. Ornamental Heading to Introduction, Tailpiece — Ancient Feretory, .... Ornamental Heading and Initial-letter, . The Parting of Leanor de Cisneros and Husband, Tailpiece — Spanish Morion, . Plaza d' Antigua, Valladolid, Ornamental Heading, Tailpiece — Piscina, ... The Great Square, Seville, . ... Maria de Bohorques before the Inquisitors, . Ornamental Heading, Tailpiece — Conclusion, . Humphreys Bolton. 621 Jackson. Jackson. 636 Humphreys Bolton. 637 Thomas. Thomas. 642 Jackson. Jackson. 644 Wilhams. Williams. 645 Humphreys. Bolton. 649 Jewitt. Jewitt. 655 WilUams. Wnhama. 656 Thomas. Thomas. 659 Humphreys. Bolton. 664 Humphreys. Bolton. 684 ¦"^ mi'i Satiws of the ^Reformation IN GERMANY. I^^M^^^M^-^^M^MM^MMMmMM " Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room hefore it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the houghs thereof were like the goodly cedars" (Psalm Isxz. 8-10). "When the Lord tumed again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. TTien was our mouth fiUed with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen. The Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath dono great things for us, whereof we are glad " (Psalm csxvi. 1-3). INTRODUCTION. JjUCH miscellaneous particulars in the history of the German Eeformation as have a bearing upon the lives of the German ladies here brought upon the stage, will engage our attention ia this introduction. These topics, while illustrating the ecclesiastical and poUti cal events by which these ladies were surrounded, and in which they felt deeply interested, will show us how God in. his providence raised up instruments for promoting and accomplishing tha Eeforma tion in Germany; how he long watched over and protected it in that country; and yet how, in the inscrutable mystery of his ways, Germany was at last involved in the most terrible calamities, from the desperate attempts made to suppress the Eeformation within its borders. First of all, passing over the various causes which contributed to prepare the way for the Eeformation in Germany, we shall attend to what immediately occasioned it. This was the scandalous sale of indulgences. Leo X., a Morentine of the illustrious house of the Medici, then occupied the pontifical throne, which he had ascended in 1513, upon the death of Jvilius II. This pontiff was prodigal in his expenditure, and soon felt the pressure of pecuniary necessities. His fondness 4 Ladies of trie Reforination. [Germany. for luxury and splendour, iu whioh his court livalled all the other coui'ts of Europe — his extravagance in lavishing wealth upon his relations and courtezans — his munificent patronage of the arts and literature — the large expenses incurred by the war he can-ied on m Italy — aH these caused him an enormous outlay, for which the revenues of the church, previously much exhausted by the licen tiousness and ambitious projects of his predecessors, Alexander VI. and Julius II., were inadequate. He was, besides, desirous of com- pletmg the erection of St. Peter's Cathedi-al, which his predecessor, Julius II., had left in an unfinished state. How was he, then, to re plenish his exhausted coffers, and provide for all the demands made upon his purse? Such was the practical question which pressed it self upon his uttention. The sale of indulgences offered a ready means of supplying what he needed. This expedient was in perfect accord ance with the principles of the Eoman Catholic Church, and with the practice of preceding pontiffs. The church taught that the sufferings and satisfactions of Christ, together with such voluntary penances and pious deeds as were performed bythe Virgm Mary and all the saints, are collected into one vast treasury of merits, which being appKed after the eternal pmiishment has been remitted in the sacrament of penance, remits the temporal punishment which behoved otherwise to be suffered either in this world or in the world to come ; and that this precious inexhaustible treasury, at first intrusted to St. Peter as its guardian and dispenser, is committed to his successors the popes, to be distributed by them-sold for money-for the benefit both of the living and of the dead. Such is the Popish doctrme of indulgen ces, and they had been sold by many precedmg popes, who had fomd them an inexhaustible source of wealth. Leo, therefore, in adopting this means of raising money, would be only acting conformably to eccle^ siastical law and Papal precedent; and he had no reason to doubt that this would prove a less abundant source of supply to him than it had proved to his predecessors. His resolution was soon taken ¦ and as he was then going on with the building of the superb and costly fabric, St. Peter's Cathedral, his indulgences were issued under the - Geemant.] - Introdiiction. 5 pretext of raising money for finishing it in a style of splendour worthy of a structure dedicated to the prince of the apostles. This sale of indulgences was carried on throughout the greater part of Christendom, and money, by this means, promised to come in from every quarter in overflowing abundance. The' commission for selling them in Germany, together with a share of the profits, was granted by the pope to Albert, Elector of Mentz and Arch bishop of Magdeburg, a prelate who, being addicted to expensive pleasures, stood much in need of money. Albert employed as his chief agent in vending these commodities in Saxony John Tetzel, prior of the monks of the Dominican order, Papal commissary and inquisitor of heresy — a man whose name would long since have sunk into oblivion but for that great revolution of which his scandalous conduct in retailing indulgences was the occasion. Eor this employ ment, in which he had been engaged since the year 1502, he was em inently qualified. His stentorian voice — his volubility of tongue — his rough energy of manner — his gift of telling with effect the fabulous stories he invented in recommendation of his wares — made him highly popular among the ignorant and credulous multitude, notwithstand ing the profligacy of his morals; and by none of his fellow-venders was he surpassed in zeal and success. Accompanied by a chosen band of monks of his order, he travelled through Saxony in an open carriage, carrying with him two chests, the one containing indul gences, the other the money derived from their sale; and in such reverence was he held, that on his approaching a town the tidings were announced by the ringing of the church bells, and there went forth to meet him all the priests, monks, magistrates, scholars, and large numbers of the citizens, carrying banners and playing on musi cal instruments. "God himself," says a contemporary chronicler, "could not have been more honourably received.'" In the middle of the church, where the Dominican monk was to address the people, was erected a red cross, beside which hung the banners of the pope. On mounting the pulpit, he told the crowd assembled that he had ^ Myconius, quoted by Seckendorf in his Historia Lidlwrunismi, hb. 1. sec. vii. p. 17. 6 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. letters of indulgence, signed with the great seal, for all sorts of sins — murder, perjm'y, adultery — for the sins they should desire to commit hereafter, as well as for sins past and present. "Nor," added he, "do these indulgences only insure the salvation of the living — they equally insure that of the dead. At the very moment when the piece of money tinkles on the bottom of the money-box, the departed soul for which it is paid takes its depai'ture out of purgatoiy, and du-ects its free fiight towards heaven Eor twelve pence you may redeem the soul of your father out of purgatory; and are you so ungrateful that you will not rescue your parent from torment ! If you had but one coat, you ought to strip yourself instantly, and sell it, in order to purchase such benefits.'" But popular as was Tetzel with the ignorant multitude, consider able numbers began to discover the imposture. The indignation of divers princes and nobles was roused at seeing their subjects drained of such vast sums of money to sujiply a prodigal pontiff with the means of living in boundless luxmy and excess; and though their complaints were made only in private, and no movement for resist ance had been concerted by them, they were prepared to take ad vantage of any opposition whioh might be excited. Tetzel's shame less audacity in conducting the traffic — his extravagant and even blasphemous encomiums on the worth of his goods — and especially his gross immorality of conduct — ^rendered him infamous in the eyes of many who made no pretensions to piety. Devotion to the duties of virtue and religion was naturally expected from one of his pro fession; but when it was discovered that he and his associates were in the habit of spending in drunkenness, in gambling, and in gross libertinism, the money given them by the deluded people as the price of pardon and eternal salvation, this created feelings of strong dissatisfaction and disgust, and a vei-y general desire was felt that some restraint should be imposed on a merchandise which, by en- • D'Aubign6's History of the Reformation, book iii. chap. 1. Eobertaon's History of the Reign of Charles Y., vol il. pp. 93, 94. Specimens of Tetzel's letters of indulgences ai-o given iu Luther's Works, German edition, edited by Walch, vol. xv. pp. 414-440. Geemant .J * Introduction. couraging wickedness of every kind, was breaking asunder the bonds of society, and undermining the foundations of religious obligation. But who was to come forward and be the fir.9t publicly to lift up his voice against this great evil ? No one seemed to have the bold ness to do this, when suddenly and unexpectedly Martin Luther, an Augustine friar, who was then professor of theology in the univer sity of Wittenberg, lately founded by Frederick, Elector of Saxony, had the boldness openly to attack this traffic. Luther had before this read the Bible, a copy of which he had found lying neglected in his monastery. This book had opened his eyes to a discovery of the true way of a sinner's pardon and justification before God; and, from Ms natural ingenuousness, hating hypocrisy and all imposition, especially in matters of religion, he was moved at the impiety and fraud, as well as the impudence and indecency of these venders of Papal pardons. When officiating at the confessional, he exhorted such as confessed to him not to listen to the orations of these orators, and to lay out their money to better purpose — for example, to bestow it rather as alms upon the poor, than in purchasing such worthless commodities. He told them that without repentance and the for saking of sin, they could not obtain forgiveness from God, nor con sequently absolution from man; that they could not personally give satisfaction for their sins to Divine justice; and that whenever God pardons sin, he does it to the truly penitent, freely by his grace, through the one offering and blood of Christ.' He taught the same doctrine from the pulpit in the castle church of Wittenberg, in a sermon which was afterwards published. And on the 31st of October, 1517, the feast of AU-Saints — when crowds of pilgrims were hasten ing to that church, attracted by the assurance given by the bulls of Leo X. of their receiving indulgences in recompense for their visit ing and confessing in it on that day^ — Luther proceeded thither, J Luther's Works, German edition, vol. xv. pp. 471, 472. 2 Leo, in the year 1516, issued two bulls, granting such indulgences, extending in one of the bulls to a hundred years. The reaaon assigned for granting them was the Uberality of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, and his brother John, in rebuilding this church, called the church of All-Saints, in the beginning of this century, and in furnishing it with 8 Ladies of tlie Reformation. • [Geemant. not, however, like the rest, tq get & share of these indulgences, but to excite the public to inquire into their nature and real value; and he afiixed on the doors of the church his ninety-five theses or pro positions contesting their efficacy. These propositions he laid down as doubtful points, upon which he solicited the sentiments of the learned; but he announced his readiness to defend them on the mor row, within the university, against whoever should impugn them; and he annexed a solemn protestation that it was not his design to maintain any position at variance with the authority of the Holy Scriptures, the sentiments of the fathers, or the rights and decrees of the Eoman See. On the following day none appeared at the university of Witten berg to contest the propositions. This, however, was not owing to their being regarded with indifierence. They created extraordinary sensation — the first murmurs of the coming ear-thqualie. Without any effort on Luther's part, they were speedily circulated throughout Germany and the whole of Christendom, and caused everywhere — in universities, in convents, in palaces, in hamlets — warm discussion. Within a month after their publication, they had reached the court of Eome, where they caused less irritation than might have been anticipated. Leo X., who had not the penetration to see that they were pregnant with the elements of destruction to the Papacy, in stead of censuring their author, eulogized his ability and ingenuity, and laughed at the whole affair as amounting to nothing more than a drunken quarrel among monks, who, when sober, would again make up matters among themselves. The agitation excited by these propositions and the sudden popu larity they acquired, attest a wide-spread secret dissatisfaction with Papal impositions, and a not less widely-diffused deep thirst in men's souls" for spiritual liberty. Alarmed at the spirit he had evoked, Luther began to take blame to himself for rashness m question ing so freely the truth of opinions almost universaUy received, and many costly relics. Leo's bull is given at length in Luther's Works, German edition vol. sv. pp. 474-478. Geemant. j Introduction. 9 was disposed to soften the meaning put by most people upon his words. Unconscious of the great talents he possessed, he had no presentiment that he was a chosen instrument of Providence for re forming the church; nor had he any intention as yet of overthrowing the Papacy, the true character of which he only discovered by slow degrees. Caution on the part of the partizans of Eome might pro bably as yet have appeased without difiiculty this dispute, but by reckless indiscretion they added fuel to the flame, and accomplished the purposes of Providence by so exasperating matters, as to render an accommodation between them and Luther hopeless. Matters went on until at last the pope, beginning to tremble for his authority in Germany, issued, with the advice and consent of the assembled college of cardinals, his formidable bull against Luther. It is dated June 15, 1520. All persons are commanded, under the severest penalties, to renounce the tenets of the daring heresiarch; magistrates are required to burn his books, solemnly and publicly, in presence of the clergy and laity; and with respect to the here siarch himself, if he do not come personally to Eome to retract, or forward his retractation to the Vatican in a sealed writing, by means of two prelates, and burn his o'wn books, he is condemned as a pub lic and obstinate heretic, ordered to be punished according to law, excommunicated, and all persons are forbidden his company under the like penalty.' Papal bulls were never intended to be mere idle ineffective threats. To give effect to this outburst of Papal fury, the pope sent a fawning letter to Erederiok, Elector of Saxony, dated July 6, 1520, along with a copy of the bull, "to let him see what monstrous errors were maintained by this agent of hell," and requesting him, if Luther did not solemnly and publicly recant all his former writings within a prescribed period, to cause hini to be arrested and conimitted to prison.^ With the request made in this letter, Frederick did not choose to comply. He would neither himself 1 Sleidan's History of ihe Reformation of tlie Clmrcli, p. 35. The bull, which is long, is inserted entire, with notes by Ulrich Hutten, in Luther's Works, Gennan edition, vol. XV. pp. 1692-1728. ' Sleidan, p. 36. 10 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Geemant. arrest Luther, nor allow him to be arrested in his dominions. In this the gi-acious interposition of Providence is evidently to be ac knowledged. Had it not been for the protection of this generous j)rince at this time as well as afterwards, Luther in all probability would have fallen into the hands of his enemies, and Eome, we may be sure, would have soon avenged the indigmties he had offered to her, by burning Mm at the stake. Luther himself was now in a mood rather to offer defiance than to submit. Almost immediately before the Papal buU was issued, he had proclaimed to the world that the Chmxh of Eome and the pope were Antichrist' — a conclusion to which he had arrived only by a slow and gradual process; and as the provocations of his adversaries, by stimulating Mm to more persevering inquiry and increasing his boldness, had helped him in coming to that conclusion, so the ful mination of this Papal anathema rivetted his convictions, and roused him to a more intrepid and energetic opposition to Eome. On the 4th of November his tractate in answer to the bull made its appear ance.^ On the 18th of that month he renewed his appeal from the pope to a general council. And having on the 10th of December, at nine o'clock in the morning, assembled aU the professors and stu dents of the university of Wittenberg, in the great square of that city, he, in the presence of a vast multitude of spectators, committed to the flames the decretal, the Papal bull, and some of Eck's and Em- ser's books, pronouncing, as he tMew them into the fire, these words, " Because thou hast troubled the saints of the Lord, so let the fire trouble and consume thee " (Joshua vii. 25).^ Thus did he proclaim and consummate his revolt and separation from Eome. He now assumed an entirely new position, and from this date the work of constructing a new chm-ch after the model laid down by inspiration commenced. 1 He did this hi his work entitled, Call to his Imperial Majesty, and to the Cliristia'n No bility of the German Nation, v,pon tlie Refoiination of Christianity. Of this work, the then unprecedented number of 4000 copies were sold witliin a short time. '^ Luther's Works, vol. xv. pp. 1752-1867. ^ Ibid. p. 1926. Geemant.] Introduction. 11 The supreme authority of the Scriptm'cs in all matters of religion, and the doctrine of justification by the free grace of God, tMough faith in CMist, without the works of law, were the two great doc trines by the strenuous assertion of which Luther succeeded in achieving the Eeformation in Germany. At an early stage of his controversy with Eome, he appealed to the Scriptures, as the only supreme and infallible standard, by which all questions in religion, whether relating to faith or practice, are to be settled; in opposition to the fundamental principle of the Popish church, that the traditions of the church, the decrees of popes and councils, are to be implicitly submitted to as the decrees of Heaven. At the imperial diet held at Worms, in April, 1521, as he stood in the midst of that assembly — perhaps the most august and imposing before which- any man had ever before appeared — he fearlessly asserted this great principle, concluding his noble defence with these ever-memorable words : — " From the moment that I am convinced of my errors, I will immediately retract every one of them, and wiU be the first peraon to lay hold upon my -writings, and commit them to the flames; but I cannot submit my faith either to popes or to councils. If I am not convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures, or by manifest reason, I cannot and will not retract; for it is neither safe nor wise to do aught against conscience. Behold, here I stand : it is impossible for me to do otherwise. God help me! Amen." And during the whole of his great struggle with the Papacy, he emphatically and unflinchingly asserted the same principle, and spoke in the strongest and most contemptuous terms of the folly of elevating mere human or created authority, however respectable and venerated, to the high place of supreme judge in matters of religion. "As to myself," says he, "to the words of the fathers, of men, of angels, of devils, I oppose not old customs, nor the multitude of men, but the Word of Eternal Ma jesty — that gospel which my adversaries themselves are compelled to recognize. There I take my stand— there I take my seat — there I take my resting-place; there is my triumph — there my glory; from 12 Ladies of tlie Reformatimi. [Geemant. thence I defy popes, Thomists, Henricists, sophists, and the gates of hell. I heed very little the words of men, whatever their sanctity may have been; and as little do I heed tradition or custom — falla cious custom! The Word of God is superior to all else. If I have the Divine Majesty on my side, what care I even though a thousand Augustines, a thousand Cyprians, a thousand churchfuls of Henrys, rise up against me ! God cannot err or deceive; Augustine and Cy prian, in common with the rest of the elect, may err, and have erred."' "The saints," says he again, "often sinned — often went wrong. What insanity to be always holding up to us their acts and their words as infallible rules of conduct! Let these mad sophists — these ignorant pontiffs — these impious priests — these sacrilegious monks — let the whole vile gang know that we are not baptized in the name of Augustine — in the name of Bernard, of Gregory, of Peter, or Paul — in the name of the Benevolent Faculty of Theology of Sodom (the Sorbonne) of Paris, or of the Gomorrah of Louvain; but in the name of Jesus Christ our Master alone."^ This bold assertion of the supremacy of the Scriptures in all matters of re ligion, was the mainspring of Luther's power and success as a reformer. By subjecting every article of faith, and every practice in the Eomish church, to the test of this new authority, he took the surest means for undermining the whole system of the Papacy. Masses, purgatory, monastic vows, am-icular confession, the efficacy of priestly absolution, the worship of saints and relics, the Papal supremacy, with numerous other Popish doctrines and practices, were thus seen not only to have no foundation in the Word of God, but to be directly contrary both to its letter and spirit; and in arguing from it against the Eomish church — in addition to the advantage over his opponents he derived from having it on Ms ' Luther's Answer to Heni-y VIII.'s book entitled, Asse^'tio Septem Sacraijientorum adversus Martinum Luterum, tlie first edition of which appeai-ed in London in 1521, and which was reprinted at Antwerp in 1522. Quoted in Michelet's Luther, translated by Hazhtt, p. 126. 2 Op. Luth. tom. ii. p. 245 — De Abroganda Missa Privata — quoted in Michelet's Luther, p. 417. Geemant.] Introduction. 1 3 side — ^he had the advantage over them arising from his intimate acquaintance with its contents. Though not destitute of ability, and well versed in the canon law, in the decrees of councils and popes, and in all the subtleties of dialectics, yet, from their ignor ance of the Scriptures, they were unprepared to meet him in this kind of warfare, and in so far as the Scripture argument was con cemed, were triumphantly defeated at every encounter. The other doctrine, that a sinner is justified solely by the grace of God, tMough faith in the righteousness of Christ, Luther pro claimed from the very commencement of his opposition to Eome. This, the central doctrine of the Christian system, he clearly under stood; and by pro-sdng it unanswerably from the inspired writings, he undermined the doctrine of human merits, which constitutes the very foundation of the Popish system. Whenever men discovered that the only meritorious cause of their justification before God is the righteousness of Christ, they immediately perceived the utter worthlessness of penances, mortifications, pilgrimages, the sacrifice of the mass, and other dogmas, by which Popery substitutes human merits and satisfactions for Christ's finished work, or mixes them up with it in the matter of justification. Luther's Eeformation was, indeed, mainly doctriiial. In the polity and worship of the Eeformed church he organized, he retained many of the corruptions and superstitions of Popery. The Gei-man Eeformation unhappily suffered, at a very early pe riod, from intemal animosity and division. A difference of sentiment arose among the Eeformers on the subject of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Luther, who was followed by the most of Germany, while denying that the bread and -wine are transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ, or undergo any change of substance, maintained that there is present in, with, or under them, in some mysterious way, the body and blood of Christ, which is literally received by the communicants. This doctrine he called consubstan tiation— a doctrine not less unintelligible, absurd, and unscriptural, than that of transubstantiation. Zwingle, who was followed by the 14 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Geemant. Swiss Eeformers, and by numbers in Germany, asserted, on the contrary, that the bread and wine in the sacrament are nothing more than signs or symbols of the absent body and blood of Christ, and that the ordinance is simply a memorial and commemoration of the sacrifice offered by Christ on the cross for the sins of his people. This controversy arose in 1524. On the part of Luther, it was con ducted with great acrimony; and it ultimately issued, chiefly tMough his intolerant spirit, in a fatal disruption. In the conference held between the dissentients at Marburg, in 1529 — whither Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, from his sincere desire to effect a reconcilia tion, in order to umte them in arms, had assembled them' — ^whUe Zwingle and Ms friends displayed a very CMistian conciliatory spirit, Luther evmced much uncharitableness and violence of tem per. This is evident even from Ms own letters. Writing to Ms wife, on the 12th of October, 1529, he says: — "The landgrave has afforded us a most magnificent and liberal hospitality. All joined in suing me for peace with the most extraordinary humility. The conference lasted two days. I responded to the arguments of fficolampadius and Zwingle, by citing this passage, ' This is my body;' and I refuted all their objections. In effect, they are igno rant and insufficient men, utterly incapable of sustaining an argu ment." In another letter, dated the 1st of June, 1530, he thus writes : — " They supplicated us to bestow upon them the title of brethren. Zwingle even implored the landgrave with tears to grant this. ' There is no place on earth,' said he, ' where I so much covet to pass my days, as at Wittenberg.' We did not, however, accord to them the appellation of bretMen: all we granted, was that which charity enjoins us to bestow even upon om- enemies. They, however, behaved in all respects with an incredible degree of humility and amiability. Then- object, however, as is now appa- 1 At the conference there appeared, on the one side, Zwingle, attended by CEcohampadlus, Bucer, and Hedio : on the other side, Luther, attended by Melancthon, Caspar Cruciger, Justus Jonas, Osiander, minister of Niirnberg, Brentz, mmister of HaUe hi Swabia, and Stephen Agi-icola, minister of Augsburg.— Rommel, Philipp der Grossmilthige, Landgraf tfon Hessen, Band i. ss. 247-253, Geemant.] Introduiction. 15 rent, was to bring about a feigned concord with us, in order to render us their partizans, and the patrons of their errors. O thou wily Satan ! but Jesus, who delivered us out of this snare, is more able than thou ! I am now no longer surprised at their impudent falsities. I perceive that they can act in no other manner, and I exult in their do-wnfall."' He afterwards carried his resentment against the Z-winghans so far, as to exclude them from the Schmal kald confederacy, formed for the defence of the Eeformed religion; thus choosing rather to risk the total destraction of the common cause, than to accept of their assistance, simply because they differed from him on the question of the presence of Christ in the sacrament of the supper. Luther's conduct on this occasion admits neither of vindication nor apology. The doctrine he maintained, as to the presence of CMist in the eucharist, doubtless appeared to him to be founded upon the words of CMist. But what we blame him for, is not his adhering to what he believed to be the meaning of Christ's words, but his denymg to his opponents a right which belonged to them, not less than to him, of exercising their own independent judgment in determining theu- meamng. This was setting up against the Church of Eome rival claims of infallibility. He claimed and exercised freedom of judgment for himself; but he would not allow others to be free to differ on this point from him. To his interpre tation of Scripture he required them implicitly to bow. He had, mdeed, never seriously attempted to solve the problem — How differences of sentiment, when they arise or exist among Christian bretMen, are to be adjusted. It seems never to have occurred to Mm — though this is both the common sense and the scriptural view of the matter — that when bretMen cannot be brought to see with the same eyes questions less closely connected than others with the saving traths of religion, it is their duty — as being fallible creatures, imperfect in their judgment, as in everything else — to exercise towards each other indulgence and forbearance. ' Michelet's Luiher, pp. 217, 218. 1 6 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germant. Among the various means by which the Eeformation was pro moted in Germany, the writings of the Eeformers, particularly those of Luther and Melancthon, whether written in Latin or Ger man, are entitled to special notice. Their Latin works acted on the minds of the learned; their German on the. minds of all classes. With all their rugged homeliness, Luther's voluminous works, whether didactic, controvei-sial, or expository, were highly popular, on account of their energetic language — their sterling good sense — their depth of thought and feeling — their powerful invective. Me lancthon's, which are also numerous, are more elegant, and written in a gentler spirit, according to the constitutional temperament of the man, and this made them even more popular with a certain class of readers than Luthers. The works of both were read tMoughout every part of Germany, and they extended the evangeUcal truth where the living voice of the writers could not reach. Perhaps the theological book, of all others the most widely circulated in the sixteenth century, and the most emmently useful in advancing the Eeformation, was Melancthon's Common Places, which was origm ally published in Latin, in 1521. The fame of the author, as a scholar and a man of genius, gained it access to the Mghest and best educated circles of society; while the character of the book itself — the elegance and perspicuity of its style — the mildness of its spirit — the force of its reasonings — disarmed prejudices, and recom mended the Eeformed doctrines to the acceptance of many. " Be tween the years 1521 and 1595," says D'Aubigng, "the Common Places passed through sixty-seven editions, without including trans lations. Next to the Bible, this is the book that has possibly contributed most to the establishment of the evangelical doctrme."' These editions were not, indeed, all sold- in Germany; for suoh of the works of these Reformers as were written m Latin, were bought up and eagerly read by the learned in all the countries of Em-ope.^ 1 History of the Reformation, vol iii. book ix. chap. ix. 2 It may be added that many of their works, being translated into the vernacular tongues, were widely disseminated in England, Spam, Italy, and France, and gave a mighty impulse to the cause of heresy in these countries. Geemant.] - Introduction. 17 The powerful effect of these writings in shaking the Papacy, and in disseminating Jhe. pure Christian faith, roused the wrath of the EomaMsts. Luther's, in particular, as he was the primum mobile of all the mischief, and as they exposed the Papacy with unceremoni ous mordacity of language, made them frantic with rage. In divers universities and cities his books were publicly burned. In conformity -with an edict of Charles V. at the diet of Worms, dated the 18th of May, 1521, they were committed to the fire in that city with the sounding of trumpets; and at Eome, on the 12th of June, 1521, the same ceremony was performed before a vast multitude of spectators of both sexes.' But what contributed more powerfully to promote the Eefor mation in Germany, than all the writings of the Eeformers put together, was Luther's translation of the Bible into the German language. His first attempt at translating the Scriptures into the Gei-man tongue, was the seven penitential Psalms. The favour able reception which this, and some other efforts of the same kind, met ¦with, and the ardent thirst for more, encouraged him to under take the translation of the entire Scriptures; and during his friendly captivity in the castle of Wartburg, which lasted ten months, he translated into German the greater paxt of the New Testament. After quitting Wartburg, he completed, with the assistance of Me lancthon, the portion of t^e New Testament left unfinished, and, on the 21st of Seijtember, 1522, the work, consisting of an edition of 3000 copies, which was printed at Wittenberg, ajapeared in two folio volumes. The demand for the translation exceeded expec tation. Within a short time all the copies were sold, and, in the month of December, a second edition was published. So early as 1533, seventeen editions had been printed at Wittenberg; thir teen at Augsbm-g; twelve at Basle; one at Erfurt; one at Grimma; one at Leipsic; and thu-teen at Strasburg.^ While the first edition ' Schelhorn, BrgotslicKkeiten aus dei Kirchmliistorie und Literatur, Band ii. ss. 624, 625. Luther's Works, vol. xv. pp. 2264, 2280. 2 D'Aubign^'s History of tlie Reformation, vol. iii. book ix. chap. ix. 18 Ladies of tha Reformation. [Geemant. of his translation of the New Testament was yet passing through the press, Luther began, in 1522, to translate the Old Testament, a work which he continued without interruption until it was finished; and it was published in parts as printed, to meet the public impatience, and to facilitate its acquisition by the poorer portion of the people. The more effectually to recommend his translation of the Scriptures to public favour, he availed himself of the assistance of the fine arts. Various of the editions of his German translation of the New Testament, and of his German translation of the whole Bible, pubhshed during his lifetime, were illustrated with numerous woodcuts, executed by his frieud, the painter Lucas Cranach. The book of Eevelation, where ample scope was afforded to exhibit the Papacy in its true character, was in particular thus ornamented. At the seventeenth chapter, for example, the Great Whore was portrayed with a triple crown — the Papal tiara,' By his translation of the Bible, Luther erected a lasting monu ment to his own genius and ability. He thus accomjplished what none but a creative mind of the highest order could accomplish; he rendered his native tongue, in its then barbarous, intractable state, a vehicle through which to convey with great power, beauty, and h.armony of diction, the thoughts of inspiration. What Dante did for the Italian, he did for the high German language. Like that great man, gathering from all its idioms the most significant and most sonorous, he blended them according to strict analogy, and laid the foundation of German classical literary language. But what was of greater importance, was the service which, by this great work, he rendered to the cause of the Eeformation in Germany. Being widely circulated, and eagerly read, it increased the agitation of opinions. It discovered to men and women the imposition which had been so long practised upon Christendom. 1 Schelhorn, writing in 1762, describes a number of the earlier editions, in his time very rare, of which he wag in possession. Brgo'tslichkeiieji aus der Kirchmliistorie und Litera tur, Band ii. ss. 502, 503, 607, 608, 611-613. Geemant.] Introduction. 19 It showed them that the system of Popery, to which they had hitherto blindly submitted, was not only unsupported by the Bible, but in dii-ect opposition to it. It everywhere extended and estab lished the new doctrines. Speaking of Luther's New Testament, Cochlceus says : — " Even shoemakers and women, and illiterate persons of all sorts, very eagerly read that New Testament, as the fountain of all truth. They were not ashamed to dispute concern mg faith and the gospel, not only with the laity, on the Catholic side, but with priests and monks, with magistrates and doctors of divinity. They even derided and reproached them for their igno- i-ance."' As might have been expected, the publication of the Word of God in the vernacular tongue excited the rancorous hostility of the Eomanists. In the month of November, some six weeks or two months after its publication, Duke George of Saxony issued a proclamation, requiring his subjects to deliver up to the magis trates all copies of Luther's New Testament in their possession, and forbidding them, under the severest penalties, to read it or any of Luther's writings. Similar orders were issued by the heads of the states of Bavaria, Brandenburg, Austria, and of all the states devoted to the Church of Eome. In some places copies were col lected, and bonfires made of them in the market-places. But this did not prevent their being circulated within the dominions of hostile princes. "Even after my prohibition," said Duke George, " several thousands of copies have been sold and read in my states." The Eomanists, besides, tried what they could achieve against Luther's translation of the New Testament, by the agency of the press. Animadversions upon it were written in German by Jerome Emser.^ He computes the number of its errors and falsehoods at 1040. The notes on the margin, and the prefaces to the different books, of course, afforded abundant game to this heresy hunter. But the faults he finds with the translation consist mainly of dis- ^ Seckendorfii Historia Lutheranismi, lib. i. sec. cxxv. p. 203. 2 They were printed at Leipsic, and pubhshed September 21, 1523. 20 Ladies of the Reformation. [geemant. crepancies between it and the Vulgate, or of the selections Luther makes in certain passages from among the various readings of dif ferent copies.' Germany having been divided into numerous states, governed by independent princes, who were presided over by an imperial head, a different policy was adopted in different states in reference to the Eeformation. By some of the princes it was strenuously opposed; by others of them it was warmly embraced and supported. The Emperor Charles V.; Ms brother Ferdinand, Archduke of Austrip,, and King of Hungary and Bohemia; Joachim I., Elector of Brandenburg, and his brother Albert, Cardinal, Archbishop, and Elector of Mentz; George, Duke of Saxony; William of Bavaria; and Hem-y, Duke of Brunswick, were all strenuous supporters of the Papacy, and entertained an inextinguishable hatred of the Eefor mation. Charles V. was certainly a formidable enemy of the Eeformed cause. No monarch in Europe, since the days of Charle magne, had possessed so extensive dominions. Spain, the Nether lands, Burgundy in France, the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, Ms Austrian dominions in Germany, and that newly discovered source of wealth and power, the West Indies — these formed the splendid inheritance transmitted to him by his predecessors, and made him, in his day, the most powerful monarch in Eui-ope. Independently of his convictions, he opposed the Eeformation from political motives; for this opposition promised to subserve his vast schemes of aggrandizement. At the very beginning of that revolution, he foresaw that the breaking out of hostilities between Mm and Francis I. of France was inevitable. Francis laid claim to the kingdom of Naples, of which Charles was now in pos session. Charles, on the other hand, was ambitious of ¦\vi-esting from Francis the duchy of Milan. To secure the friendship of the Eoman pontiff, which promised to be of the utmost importance to him in this anticipated struggle with the French monarch in ' Seekendorfll Historia Lutheranismi, Ub. i. seo. cxxv. p. 203. Geemant.] Introduction. 21 Italy, Charles took up, from the very first, a position of determined hostility to the Eeformation; nor, though he treated particular pontiflfe with whom he was involved in dissensions with little reverence, and held one of them, Clement VIL, for some time a prisoner in his own castle, St. Angelo, did he ever cease to express the warmest attachment to the Eoman Catholic faith, and to the Papal tMone. Had it not been for his wars with Francis I., and Ms other wars, which prevented him from having leisure — some times from having inclination — to prosecute measures for the ruin of the Eeformation in Germany, he would have inflicted greater mjury on the Eeformed cause in that country; and had he realized one of his great projects, which, happily, he did not — that of ac quiring absolute authority in Germany, and reducing the German princes from their position of independent sovereigns to being merely his vassals — he would, doubtless, have enacted there, in his efforts to crush the Eeformation, the same scenes of blood and 'cruelty whioh he enacted in the Netherlands. The German princes hostile to the Eeformation were actuated either by blinded super stitious attachment to the old system, or by a desire to ingratiate themselves with the emperor, with the view of promoting their individual political interests, and they regarded, or professed to regard the Eeformation as the implacable enemy of the authority of sovereigns. Among the German prmces who extended their protection and support to the Eeformation, were Frederick, surnamed the Wise, Elector of Saxony; John, surnamed the Constant, his brother and successor; John Frederick, son and successor of the preceding; Philip, Landgrave of Hesse; George, Marquis of Brandenburg; Emest and Francis, Dukes of Liineburg; Wolf ang. Prince of An halt; and Count Philip of Hanover. Motives of a political kmd were not wanting to sway these princes to the side of the Eefor mation. This course of policy promised them increased indepen dence, by releasing them from the control of the Papacy, which had been for ages pushing its encroachments upon civil authority, and 22 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [geemant. which had done this so successfully, as to threaten to bring all the sovereigns of Europe under its absolute power. It promised them the rich spoils of the Popish church, which formed a large pro portion of the wealth of their territories; and it promised to be the most effectual instrument of preserving their sovereign rights against the usurpation of Charles V.; inasmuch as, by espousing the cause of the Eeformation, the people would enthusiastically rally round their standard, and enable them successfully to ¦with stand pretensions to which, otherwise, they could have made only a feeble and unsuccessful resistance. But though these political considerations may have in part influenced them m supporting the Eeformation, there is every reason to believe that the more power ful motive was a conviction of its being the cause of truth and of God. " All these motives," as has been judiciously observed, "would probably have failed in giving them corn-age to face the mighty danger, and to brave the gigantic power of their master, if their own minds had not been inflamed, and if their imagina tions, as well as those of their people, had not been touched with that enthusiasm which, whether in matters religious or political, disregards all difliculties, and springs directly from the wish to the accomplishment." ' The support given to the Eeformation by these and other German princes, greatly contributed to promote its success in Germany. Had Luther and his coadjutors been allowed free and unimpeded action, even though they had received no favour from temporal sovereigns, the probability is that, by their activity and zeal, the Popish system would have perished, and the Eeformation have been established through the whole Of Germany. But this Charles V. and the princes hostile to the Eeformation would not have allowed them. They were prepared to meet them with the most determined opposition. Agaiust the elements of strength, -wielded by such powerful opponents, Luther, great as were his qualifications as a 1 Note of James Mill, Esij., in his trandation of VUlers' Essay on tlie Riformalion of Luther, p. 196. Geemant.] Introdu.ction. 23 reformer, probably would not, by the mere power of truth, have accomplished the great work with which his name is now insepar ably associated. What he needed, in order to his success, was, at least, protection from the fierce animosity of hostile princes and priests; and this he enjoyed from the German Eeformed princes, from the commencement of his anti-Papal career to the close of his Ufe. It was owing to their friendship and co-operation, that he and his fellow-labourei-s had not, like the Waldenses, Albigenses, and Hussites, to encounter, perhaps, a crushing opposition; that they had not to face a sanguinary, unmitigated, exterminating persecution; that scope was afforded them for carrying on the work of aggression and conquest ; and that their laboui-s issued so successfully in the permanent establishment of the Eeformation in various of the German states. Even a cursory glance at all the proceedings had recourse to by the Eeformed German princes, for defeating the persecuting measures of Charles V. and the Eoman Catholic German princes, would exceed our limits. Let us advert only to some of them. At the imperial diet, held at Spires, in 1529, Charles succeeded in getting a decree passed, by a majority of votes, revoking the power which had been granted by the diet of 1526, held in the same place, to every prince in Germany to order ecclesiastical matters within his own dominions as he judged best, until the meeting of a general council; commandmg the Eoman Catholic states to remain Eoman Catholic, and prohibiting the Eeformed states from making any farther innovation in religion. Against this decree the Eeformed princes, and the deputies of fourteen imperial or free cities, on the 19 th of April, entered a solemn protest, declaring it to be equally unjust and impious, and appealed to the emperor,' and a future general counoU.^ Hence the designation of Protestants was from 1 The diet was presided over, not bythe emperor himself, but by his brother Ferdinand. 2 The princes wbo signed the protest were — John, Elector of Saxony ; George, Elector of Brandenburg ; Emest and Francis, Dukes of Luneburg ; Pliilip, Landgrave of Hesse; and Wolfang, Prince of Anhalt. The imperial cities whose deputies signed it were — Strasburg, Nurnberg, Ulm, Constance, Reutlingen, Windsheim, Memmingen, Lindau, Kempten, 24 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germant. this period applied to them, and to all, in every counti-y of Europe, who renounced the communion of the Church of Eome. The Eeformed princes and imperial cities did not content them selves with simply entering a protest against this persecuting decree. To put the emperor in possession of the points in dispute between them and the Papal party, and to effect, if possible, a settlement of ecclesiastical matters, they laid before him, at the imperial diet at Augsburg, opened on the 20th of June, 1530, and personally presided over by Charles himself, a statement of their religious sentiments, which forms the celebrated Confession of Augsburg, drawn up by Melancthon. In presenting it to him,' which they did both in Latin and German, they offered to explain whatever passages might ap pear obscure, and expressed their readiness, if an adjustment could not now be effected, to refer the disputed points to a general coun cil. Their laudable efforts at this diet to compose religious differ ences indeed failed. The diet, so far from sanctioning the confession, or even agreeing to tolerate the Protestant states in adopting it, not withstanding the favourable impression it produced, when publicly read in presence of the emperor,^ on the minds of many who were hostile to the Eeformation, enacted, dm-ing the absence of the Land grave of Hesse and the Elector of Saxony, the chief supporters of the Eeformed cause, a persecuting sanguinary decree. The decree enjoined the belief of the Catholic doctrines and the observance of the Catholic worship. It condemned the tenets of Protestantism, and strictly interdicted all alterations or innovations in rehgious faith or worship, under the penalty of forfeiture of life and goods. It required all to employ their fortune, blood, and lives to put it into execution. It declared whoever should refuse to obey it incap able of having a seat in the imperial chamber, the supreme court in Germany; and those who were already members, were to incur, as Hahbron, Isny, Weissemburg, Nordhngen, and St. Gal. — Sleidan, p. 117. Robertson's History ofthe Reign of Charles V., vol. iii. p. 40. ^ It waa subscribed by tbe princes who had signed the protest, with the addition of John Frederick, Duke of Saxony; and by the representatives of the Protestant free cities. 2 It was pubhcly read on the 19th of November. Geemant.] Introduction. 25 the penalty of disobedience, the forfeiture of their seats.' In enforc ing the execution of this decree, and in maintaining the established religion, the German Catholic princes had promised the emperor their assistance. This failure of the Protestant princes to obtain concord or tolera tion did not, however, proceed from any want of fidelity on then- part in defendmg the cause they had espoused. Nor were they dis couraged by the hostile proceedings of the diet at Augsburg. Their iatrepidity and resolution rose with the emergency, and incited them to adopt more energetic measures. Not only was the decree of Augsburg persecuting, but in enacting it, both the emperor and the imperial diet had acted itZira vires, inasmuch as they had interfered with the internal regulations of the Protestant states, contrary to a fundamental article of the Germanic constitution. This involved a principle which, if carried out, would deprive the Protestant princes of all power within their own territories, and make them, what the emperor was driving at, simply his vassals. Impelled, therefore, by the umted influence of zeal for the Eeformation and a regard for then- own rights as sovereign princes, they assembled at Schmalkald, in Upper Saxony, in December, 1530; and the result of their deli berations was the formation of the famous confederacy known by the name of the Schmalkald league — to defend themselves by arms, should the emperor forcibly attempt to put into execution the edict of Augsburg. Seven princes and twenty-four cities joined it; and it would have been stUl more powerful had the Swiss, together with the German states and cities, which had adopted Zwingle's senti ments ¦with respect to the eucharist, been admitted members, as was desired by the cities in general, but which the Elector of Saxony, the Marquis of Brandenburg, and others, encom-aged, if not incited, by Luther, unhappily opposed with success. This their bold attitude, combiMng with the state of the emperor's political affairs, as his need of succours to resist the Turks, made Mm desirous of conciliating the Protestant princes; and m July, 1 Selden, p. 140. 2S Ladies of ths Reformation. [Gesmant. 1532, he concluded a peace greatly to their advantage, called from the place where it was agreed upon, the pacification of Niirnberg; and it was solemnly ratified in the month of August following, in the imperial diet at Eatisbon. By this treaty it was stipulated on the part of the emperor that complete religious toleration should be enjoyed by the Lutherans uutil the meeting of a general council, or until the imperial diet discovered some expedient for composing the existing religious differences ; that all judicial proceedings begun against Protestants, on account of then- faith, should be suspended; that hereafter no such processes should be instituted; and that the sentences already pronounced upon any for heresy should be declared void. The Protestant princes, on their part, tendered the emperor their obedience and loyalty, and engaged to assist him in prosecut ing the war against the Turks. "Thus," says Eobertson, "by their firmness in adhering to their principles, by the unanimity with which they urged their claims, and by their dexterity m availing themselves of the emperor's situation, the Protestants obtained terms which amounted almost to a toleration of their religion: all the con cessions were made by Charles, none by them ; and the Protestants of Germany, who had hitherto been viewed only as a religious sect, came henceforth to be considered as a political body of no small consequence."' After this the Schmalkald league continued to be greatly instru mental in protecting the Protestantism and liberties of Germany against the colossal power of the house of Austria. Wisely taking advantage of a concurrence of favom-able circumstances — as the hos tilities in which Charles was engaged with France, Turkey, and even the popes — the Protestant princes obstructed his projects of ambition, with respect to Germany, for many years, and extorted from him at different times, important concessions in favour of the Eeformers, whose opposition he dreaded, and whose assistance he needed. They afforded protection to the Eeformation, even down to the close of Luther's life, in 1546. After that event, Charles being disengaged 1 Reign of Cliarles V., book v. Geemant.] Introduction. 27 from all his other enemies, indeed succeeded in breaking the Schmal kald league. The complete victory which, in the second year of the Schmalkald war, he gained overthe confederated Protestant princes at the battle of Muhlberg, in which John Frederick, Elector of Sax ony, one of the chief of the Protestant princes, was taken prisoner, inflicted a fatal blow on that confederacy. But before he had time to turn this victory to all the account he intended, Maurice of Sax ony stripped him of his laurels, compelled him by the treaty of Passau, in 1552,' to make even greater concessions than ever to the Eeform ers, and dissipated all his splendid dreams of becoming master of Germany. Thus the Protestant cause in Germany, after encoun tering many hazards, disasters, and even threatened destruction, ulti mately triumphed over the power and policy of Charles V. The celebrated Confession of Augsburg, from the important place it held and still holds in the German Eeformed church, cannot be passed over -without some brief notice, the more especially as it will be afterwards frequently referred to. This document expressed the sentiments held by the Eeformers in Germany, with the exception of the Anabaptists and a comparatively small proportion who pro fessed the doctrine of Zwingle as to the sacrament of the supper.^ It consists of twenty-one articles, with the addition of a specification and condemnation of various abuses which, "in an unauthorized manner, had crept into the churches." In several respects it is liable to serious objections. It is entu-ely silent as to the number of the sacraments, and as to the use of images and statues in places of public worship, to which, indeed, the Lutherans were not opposed. The ninth article afiirms that baptism is necessary to salvation, and condemns the Anabaptists, not only because they disallow the baptism of infants, but because they affirm that infants may be I This treaty was afterwards confirmed by an ordinance of the imperial diet at Augs burg in 1555, known by the name of " the religious peace.'* — Mosheim's Church History, vol. u. p. 33. 2 This Confession, together with Melancthon's Apology for it, the Great and Little Cate chism of Luther, to which some churches add the Form of Concord pubhshed in 1579, compose the Subordinate Standard or Symbolical Books of the Lutheran churches. 28 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Geemant. saved without it. The tenth article asserts the doctrine of consub stantiation — ^that in the Lord's Supper the body and blood of Christ are truly present, and are distributed to the recipients. And the eleventh article, concerning confession, teaches that private absolution may be retained in the churches, although in makmg confession it is not necessary that every particular delinquency should be enume rated, this, as is stated, being impossible, according to the words of the psalmist, "Who can understand his errors?" But though ob jectionable in these and in some other respects, this confession con tains much important truth; harmonizing with similar documents of other Eeformed churches on the cardinal articles of the Christian system, as the doctrine of original sin, man's lost condition by nature, the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, free justification through Christ by faith, -without human works or merits, the natui-e of faith, the necessity of good works, and the proper place which they occupy in the system of Divine truth; while under the head of abuses, the "withholding of the cup from the laity, the merit attri buted to the mass, the observance of the distinctions of meats and drinks, and monastic vows, are emphatically condemned and cogently reasoned against.' The last of the ladies whose life is recorded in this part of our un dertaking, lived during the greater part ofthe thirty years' war which raged in Germany from 1618 to 1648, when peace was restored by the treaty of Westphalia. This period, though belonging to the first half of the seventeenth centui-y, is yet closely and inseparably connected with the history of the Eeformation in the sixteenth. Soon after the commencement of the Eeformation in Germany, the German princes and states, as we have seen, were divided into two parties, the Eo man Catholic and the Protestant. These two parties, from the first and all along, were governed by an opposite policy, both in ci-nl and ecclesiastical affairs, and regarded each other with suspicion and distrust. The former aimed at the exclusive prevalence of the Eo man Catholic religion through the whole of Germany, in other words, ' Cox's Life of Melancthon, pp. 289-326. Geemant.] Introduction. 29 at the extermination of heresy; the object of the latter was to secure the Protestant religion established within their own dominions. Eeciprocal jealousy and animosity continued to exist between the two parties, even after the pacification of Passau, iu 1552, confirmed by the imperial diet at Augsburg, in 1555, the empire "exhibiting a picture of the ocean, the waves of which were still troubled after a tempest." If this agitation seemed by degrees to subside, it was not because the causes of new convulsions were removed, but owing to the feebleness or moderation of the four emperors who succeeded Charles V., which retarded the long slumbering storm till 1618, when, Ferdinand II. being then emperor, a man of greater ability and activity than his predecessors, but a heartless Popish fanatic, the Thirty Years' war commenced. The causes of this war were especially two. First, tbe intolerant conduct of the Lutheran and Calvinistic princes in Germany to wards each other. The dissensions which, in consequence of differ ence of opinion as to some points of doctrine, existed between them, gave to their Eoman Catholic opponents great advantage against them M arms and in politics. But for the folly of their disunion and intolerance towards each other — and the Lutheran princes were more intolerant than the Calvinistic, as well as more ready to tem porize, to betray, and to desert the common cause — the Protestant princes would probably have kept in awe and check their opponents, and the Thirty Years' war might never have disgraced humanity and darkened the histoi-y of Europe — a pregnant lesson to Protes tants, had they but the wisdom to learn it. The second cause was a determination on the side of Ferdinand to suppress the Eeformation, to annihilate the German constitution and liberties, and to acquire absolute dominion over the empire ; and a determination on the other side to maintain these interests. In the one case it was a war of aggression, in the other a war of defence. "From the confines of Poland to the mouth of the Scheldt, and from the banks of the Po to the Baltic Sea," it committed its ravages; and its career was pre eminently desolating and sanguinary. Germany became the theatre 30 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Geemant. of horrors hardly ever surpassed in the history of the world. Twelve milhons of lives were sacrificed.' Cities, towns, and villages were plundered and converted into smoking ruins; whole provinces were depopulated and laid waste; agriculture, commerce, and industry were suspended and destroyed ; science and art were prostrated, and a great part of their precious treasures lost; the mental culture and social improvement of the people were arrested and tMown back ; through the barbarous troops, who were partly foreign, which occu pied the country, even the vernacular tongue became greatly deteri orated; vices at which the homely Germans at fu-st blushed were openly perpetrated, and even became domesticated. Wherever the eye was turned, nothing but scenes of desolation and wretchedness were to be seen; and it seemed as if unhappy Germany was about to be again plunged into the dark night of barbarity and ignorance from which it had been emancipated by the Eeformation. Pro-vi dence saved it from this calamity. During the long and terrible struggle, the Protestant party received assistance from Sweden and France, and by the peace of Westphalia they obtained important advantages. But at the close of this war, Germany sunk into a state of collapse, exhaustion, and mental inaction. It seemed to lose the uncommon ardour and aptitude it had e-vdnced for learning upon the revival of letters, and lagged behind Italy, France, and England in science and literature for a considerable period, before attainmg the high position it now occupies in every branch of human acquii-e- ment. Its Protestantism, too, even where the people still retained the name of Protestants, had suffered immensely. Such disaster had befallen the religion of its Protestant population, that towards the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Scriptures, which in the ' The population of the state of Wurtemberg, consisting of 500,000, w.as reduced to 48,000. Equally great was the diminution of the population of the states of Baden, of the palatinate of the Rhine, and of Brandenburg. Saxony even at the middle of the war had sustained a loss of 900,000 men.— Ramshorn, Oeschichte der merkwiirdigsten Deutschen Fravj!n, Band ii. s. 142. This vast sacrifice of huinan life was not tho work of the sword alone. Pestilence, famine, and other causes of sutferu^ and mortality which war always brings in its train, were more fatal than the sword. The death of those who faU on the fleld of battle is but a small pai't of the horrors and miseries of war. Germant.] Introduction. 31 time of Luther, and even long after his death, had been purchased and read ¦with the greatest avidity, fell into such utter neglect, that at the great fair at Leipsic, in not one of the booksellers' shops was there a Bible or New Testament to be found.' The people, in this condition, could obviously have no stable religious prmciples, and Germany soon became overspread with rationalism or infidelity. From the operation of a variety of causes, a rational school would probably have arisen in Germany, independently of the Thirty Years' war; but independently of that war, and of its blasting effects on Protestantism, even among those professedlj' Protestant, rational, neological, or infidel principles would not in all probability have ob tained such extensive prevalence in the land of Luther. It is grati fying to know that recent years have -witnessed a spreading dissatis faction with these principles, and an encom-aging revival of the evan gelical spirit, and of a more accurate interpretation of the Scriptures. Eationalism cannot now claim there the numerical and intellectual superiority of which it formerly boasted. But how slow in many cases is Divine truth in successfully working its way, when its pro gress has once been arrested and its light well nigh extinguished ! It is now more than two centuries since the Thirty Years' war, and Germany is only yet recovering from that state of spiritual prostra tion produced by that long period of anarchy, devastation, and car nage. 1 Edinburgh Review for 1831, p. 245. WIPE OP CONRAD COTTA.' ESULA, wife of Conrad Cotta, is the first lady, in the order of cM-onology, who commends her self to our attention, among the female worthies of the Eeformation in Germany. She was the daughter of the burgo-master of Ilefeld, and her husband, Conrad Cotta, was an opulent patri cian in the city of Eisenach. She is kno-wn to us chiefly from her connection with Martin Luther, around whom, when a boy, she hovered as a guardian angel, and to whom she became a second mother, recei-ving him into her house, which was a temple of love and ' Our chief authority for this notice is Eamshom's Geschichte der merkunlrdigsten Deutschen Frav,en, Band i. ss. 338-345. 3 34 Ladies of the Reformation. [geemant. beneficence, and treating him as if he had been her o'wn son. The only circumstance to be regretted is the little we know of the story of her life ; but the few facts concerning her transmitted to pos terity establish her claims to be held up as a pattern for all times. Her humanity, gentleness, and benignity towards young Martin, upon her first acquaintanceship with him, and so long as she stood immediately connected with Mm, throw a moral mterest around her character, as a woman of exalted and generous prmciples of action — as one of the finest specimens of feminine benevolence and kind-heartedness. To exclude from a collection of this kind the interesting and instructive fragment. of her life which has been preserved, would be an act of historical injustice. The name of Luther — Heaven's appointed instrument for overthro-wing a system of iniquity which had been deepening and strengthening its foun dations for more than 1000 years — will doubtless go down -with history to the latest ages; and the name of her who was his foster- mother ought to go do-wn, and will, in all probability, go do-wn with his. In the year 1497, Luther, who was then in the fourteenth year of his age,' was sent by his father to Magdeburg, to be educated at the school of that town, which at that time enjoyed the reputa tion of having a good teacher. His father's industry could not do more than meet the wants of the family at home; bht this was a chorister school, where poor boys received then- education without fee. On this account, the boys had to perform varioua parts in the religious services of the church, and many of them were also neces sitated to beg for their bread by passing from street to street through the town, and even through the neighbouring villages, singing before - the houses of the rich, as is the custom in various parts of Germany even at the present day. Luther was under this necessity, and often no heart was touched with compassion towards him, and no tender hand opened to give him wherewith to appease his hunger. Often, indeed, was he driven away from the doors -«vith frowning looks ' He was bom at Eisleben, November 10, 1483. Geemant.] Ursida Cotta. 35 and harsh words. This pressed with suoh terrible weight upon Ms mind, that his heart was like to break for sorrow, and he wept foun tains of tears, when he returned home ¦with scanty ahns, or with none at all, as the fruit of his efforts, and sat in his cell pinched with hunger, and thmking on the cruel repulses he had met with — miserable for the present, and full of gloom as he looked with trembling upon the dismal prospects of the future. His teacher's name was NoUbriider, a monk of the Franciscan order — a man of a melancholy and severe character, whose chief vocation was atten dance upon the sick and the burial of the dead. Under this teacher, who treated his scholars -with great severity, young Martin's dejec tion of mind, caused by tormenting anxiety about his temporal support, was greatly aggravated. But he did not remain long at Magdeburg. After the expu-ation of a yeai-, he was necessitated to leave it, from want of maintenance. His father next sent him to the Franciscan school at Eisenach, which at that time was highly cele brated; and the poor miner ha-fing acquaintances, and his -wife relations in that to-wn, they cherished flattering hopes that their son would there be more successful in obtaming assistance than he had been at Magdeburg. But their hopes were doomed to disappointment. " The relatives of the family who lived in Eisenach," says Dr. D'Aubigng, " paid no attention to his wants, or, it may be, they were so poor themselves that it was impossible for them to offer him any sufficient rehef." Here, again, he was forced to resort to the disagreeable occupation of singing in the streets, in company -with other poor students, m order by this means to procure for Mmself subsistence; and often •with as little success as at Magdeburg. If this hard lot, dm-ing his stay at Magdeburg, had, notwithstanding his naturally joyous dis position, given a strong impress of melancholy to his character, the same humiliations, privations, and hardships, suffered by him in Eisenach, must have deepened his melancholy, the more es pecially as both he and his parents had entertained expectations of his obtaining here at least what might be necessary to keep him from 36 Ladies of the Ref ormation. [Germany. want. Some haughty ecclesiastics might, perchance, have fro-svned upon the poor miner's son for his presumption in aspiring to sacred office in the church, and have bidden him go and work with his father in the mines of Mansfeld. But natm-e's nobihty, and God's chosen instruments, are not confined to any particular caste or order of society. The history of Luther's future life affords a solution of the poverty and depression of his early days. This formed part of the training by which an all-wise and foreseemg Providence fitted him for the work he was appointed to accomplish. " Hardship," says Carlyle, " rigorous necessity, was the poor boy's companion. No man, nor no thing, would put on a false face to flatter Martin Luther; among things, not among the shows of things, had he to grow. . . It was his task to get acquainted with realities, and keep acquainted with them, at whatever cost; his task was to bring the world back to reaUty, for it had dwelt too long with semblance." This severity of discipline was, however, tempered with mercy, that his youtMul spirit might not be altogether crushed. When Ms need was the greatest, then, from a quarter entirely unkno-wn to him, was help at hand. One cold day, when he and another chorister boy, after having passed through the streets of Eisenach, as usual, singmg for alms, without obtaining anything, and after having been driven away from the doors of different houses, were thinking of returnmg to their home cold and fasting, they made another effort, on reaching St. George's Square, just before the house of Conrad Cotta,' who, indeed, was a distant relative of Lu ther's parents. Here it was that Pro-vidence had pro-vided for Luther a benefactress. The singing had arrested the attention of Ursula, Cotta's young wife, who was passionately fond of music, 1 According to other accounts, these repeated repulses had so discouraged Luther that, on reaching St. George's Square, he stood in a postm-e of silent, immoveable, despairing distraction before Cotta's house, as if the thought passing through his mind was, that it would be better for him to renounce his studies and go and labour "with his father in the mines of Mansfeld, than thus to perish for hunger. So neai-ly was that heart broken, wliich afterwarda became so heroic that no power on earth or in heU could make it quail. Geemant.] Ursula Cotta. 37 and she stood at her ¦window catching the notes and words of the singers. She was especially attracted by the deep intonation and sweetness of young Martin's voice, chiming in concert with the voice of the other boy. TMs at once struck a latent chord in her heart, which tMUled at every note, and looMng out, she observed that the singer who especially excited her notice, was the youth for whom, as Melancthon informs us, she had long before con- >¦ J^ ^/J'i- Ursula receiving Lather anil bis Companion. ceived. a particular affection, from the melodiousness of his voice, and the fervency of his devotions in the parts which he per formed in the pubhc services of the church. He was yet per sonally unknown to her, though a relative. She had seen him and 38 Ladies of the Reformation. [Geemant. his companion driven from the doors of tMee neighbouring houses, and her first feeling, on beholding the poor scholars, was that of compassion. When, at last, the youthful singers had ended their songs, Ur sula's front door opened, and, appearing upon the threshold, she made signs to them to come into her house. She spoke to both of them in Mnd and encouraging words, and especially to Martin. She asked him what was his name, who were his parents, and whence he came. The poor scholar, who was famishing for hunger, and shivering with cold, overpowered -with this unusual and unex pected kindness, burst into tears, and Ms voice, from the strength of his emotions, almost refusing utterance, he told her that his name was Martin Luther, that his parents lived at Mansfeld, and that his father was a poor miner. The sweetness of his voice — his en gaging open countenance, ¦with its mingled sadness — his large blue eyes, so full of expression and good nature — the intelligence he showed in answering the questions put to him, and his whole man ner, forcibly struck her imagination, and prepossessed her more than ever in his favour. She was glad to find from what he had told her, that he was a relative of her husband's; but was pained at Ms depressing poverty, in being forced to wander the streets from door to door begging his bread, iu doing which he was often cruelly and contemptuously bidden begone. She set both the poor scholars down before a warm and cheerful fire, and placed food before them ; so that soon they became the picture of comfort, compared with what they were when she first brought them in. But for Martin Luther she resolved to do more than this. She resolved to take him under her protection; and havmg consulted -with her husband, who gave a cordial assent to her proposal, she received him into her house from that hour, and treated him -with all the tender kindness of a mother. This was a considerate generosity— «a noble use of opulence— a signal instance of genuine goodness of heart. An Eisenach chronicle designates her "the pious Shunammite," compar ing her to that devout and wealthy woman of Shunem, who pre- Geemant.] Ursula Cotta. 39 pared for Elisha a, retired chamber in her house for his study and devotion (2 Kings iv. 8-10). A brighter day had now dawned upon Luther. Here he was amply provided with everything necessary to his support and com fort, and was relieved from the necessity of going through the streets singing as a mendicant; and when he compared his situation here with what it had been at Magdeburg, and before this, at Eisenach, his heart was filled -with feelings of the deepest gratitude to Ur sula for Mndness as great as it was unexpected, and to Di-vine Pro-vidence, too, for opening her heart to mimster to his relief; for, even at this period, he was the subject of strong religious feeling. On the part of Ursula, nothing which friendship or maternal tenderness could do to promote his comfort was spared. His severe training in his father's house, and his privations after ha-ving left it, had brought upon him great depression of spirits, aggravated, it is probable, by indifferent health, with which his youthful vivacity maintained a constant and unsuccessful straggle. His melancholy hung upon him even after he entered this friendly home; it was but rarely that he could assume even a constrained gayety, and his fine eyes were frequently filled with tears. This did not escape the notice of the observant and tender-hearted Ursula, and she considered with herself how she might soothe his dejected spirits. Knowing his taste and fondness for music, she purchased for Mm a fiute, and he soon became expert in plajdng on that instrument. This was pre cisely the remedy for curing his disease. While it greatly increased his natural love of music, it restored him to cheerfulness, and now, as afterwards under his manifold agitations, it dropped, like the honeycomb, comfort into his soul. Hence he once expressed him seK thus: — "Whoever despises music, as all the dreamers and mystics do, I despise them. Music is a gift of God, not a gift of man. It puts the devil to flight, and makes the soul joyful. It drives away -wrath, impurity of thought, pride, and other evil pas sions. Next to theology, I assign to music the Mghest place and the Mghest honour." Again he said, "Music and singing is a 40 Ladies of tite Reformation. [Gebmant. glorious art; the notes make the words living, and chase away the spirit of melancholy. . . . Music is the art of prophets. . Satan is the inveterate enemy of music, for he knows that by its aid we drive away temptations and evil thoughts. He cannot make head against music.'" He often accompanied his performances on the flute with the strains of his o-mi rich melodious voice, and Ursula learned to unite her voice -with his in the beautiful hymns he was accustomed to sing. Ursula was a devout woman, and her piety was like the dew and the rain of heaven to the tender and susceptible heart of young Luther. As we have said before, he was, even at this period, dis posed to deep religious feeling, and spent no small part of Ms time in religious exercises. He had been taught by his father to pray. His privations had made him more sensible of the value of prayer, and imparted greater fervency to his prayers; though, as yet, they may not have been offered up exclusively to the Hearer of prayer, nor presented exclusively in the name of Christ. Ursula encouraged, promoted, and was delighted in witnessing his exercises and senti ments of devotion. It was at the time when he was her ward that he made choice of these appropriate words for his motto — " To pray weE is more than half the duty of study" — a motto forming a rule upon which he himself acted to the close of Ms life, and which he recom mended to the adoption of all the ministers of the Word. Nor were his studies neglected. He felt happy in ha-ving it now in his power to devote himseK without distraction to the cultivation of learning; and by his diligence he gained va. an increasmg degree upon the affections of his benefactress. For nearly four years, Luther resided under Ursula's roof. During that period she continued to exercise towards him the same gentle, affectionate, and endearing deportment, and in this retreat the time passed to him swiftly and pleasantly away. In 1501 he ' Luther's Letters, in his Works, Walch's German edition, vol. xsi. p. 1218. Ramshorn, Gescliichte der merlcwHrdigsten Deutsclien Frauen, Band i. s. 344. Michelet's Life of Luther, pp. 7, 28T, 288. Geemant. J Ursula Cotta. 41 left her house to go to the university of Erfurt, where his father, whose outward circumstances were now much improved, supported him without assistance. At the thought of leaving her hospitable abode, he was not a little affected. He took farewell of her -with expressions of heartfelt gratitude for all her goodness, and her part ing words were fervent -wishes that the blessing of God might rest upon him. She had discovered his opening talents, and might hope that one day he would rise to dignity and influence in the church; but she could not foresee the great revolution in which he was to play so conspicuous a part. Durmg the first years of her married life, prosperity had smiled upon Ursula and her husband, and they enjoyed unclouded connubial happiness. We naturally -wish that such had been the lot of a pair so eminent for their benevolence, hberality, and kindness, to the close of their days. But a glance at the great picture of IKe must convince us that though Pro-vidence sometimes conspicuously rewards characters like them by temporal prosperity, yet this is not the unKorm rule of the procedure of the Great Euler of the world, and that iu the course of events disasters not unfrequently overtake their worldly affairs. The present being only a part of one great economy stretching into etemity, these disasters may be the very events that are deemed necessary, by infinite wisdom, to insure theu- everlasting welfare; and they may besides teach them to look for their recompense m the participation, m the meantime, of that peace which the world cannot give nor take away, and afterwards in the joys of heaven, rather than m the possession of worldly riches. Ursula and her husband were subsequently reduced to poverty. About twenty years after Luther had left their hospitable house, when his name was makmg a noise in all Germany, they were in formed that he was to preach in the town of Eisenach, which they had left after calamity had overtaken them. They were told that he was the most extraordinary preacher in all Germany— that the high and the low, the learned and the unlearned, flocked to hear him, and hung upon his lips. His doctrine, too, was as new as his powers of 42 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Geemant. oratory were great. "They tell me," said Conrad to his wife, "he talks wonderfully of free grace which is to be had without money and without price." "That would answer us, husband," replied Ursula. They resolved to go aud hear him. On their an-ival at Eisenach, they found a crowd assembled at the place of meeting, all waiting with eager expectation. But no one felt an intenser interest in the preacher than Ursula. At last he made his appearance and commenced the service. His manly form — his noble countenance, whose pervading character was intellectual power and masculine energy mingled with a degree of thoughtful sadness — his penetrating impressive voice — his piercing eyes — the simplicity and yet fluency of his diction, and the novelty of his doctrine, rivetted Ursula's attention; and from the beginning to the end of the discourse she did not lose a syllable. He spoke with fervour and power upon the subject of free grace, condemned the doctrine of human merit as equaUy at variance with the teachings of experience and of the sacred Scrip tures, and proved from the words of CMist and his apostles that man is justified exclusively by faith in Clirist without the works of law. These were lessons she had not been accustomed to hear from other priests, who, when they preached at all, were in the habit of entertaining their hearers -with the legends of saints depicted as con verting infidels, or combating and vanquishing demons, -with enco miums on the virtues of indulgences, penances, and pilgrimages, and such like edifying matter. God himself set Ms seal to Luther's words; and the flood of light which the preacher poured upon the interesting and all-important themes he discussed brought con-viction to her mind. These were precisely the truths adapted to satisfy the mysterious cravings of her immortal nature, and she was soothed and delighted as the perishing on finding the means of safety. On this occasion Luther sung his favourite psalm, the forty-sixth — " God is our refuge and our strength, In straits a present aid ; Therefore, although the earth remove. We will not be .afraid," ho. — the psalm which, it is said, he sung betore her door at Eisenach on that Geemant.] Ursula Cotta. 43 cold winter day when she took him into her house ; and this brought fresh to her memory the scenes of other days. She marked how in man's salvation he made God reconciled through the cross of Christ, the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the endmg." Thus, be fore she fell into her last sleep, did Luther, as a ministering angel sent from God, unfold to her and to her husband the true way of salvation; and his doctrine brought peace and comfort to their hearts under the trials of their dechning years, and in the dark hour of death. Luther afterwards, when he had become the most disting-uished man of his day, had an opportunity of giving proof of his gratitude to the excellent Ursula by his friendly treatment of a son of hers who came to prosecute his studies at Wittenberg. He received the youth into his family, and maintamed him -without charge, glad that it was now in his power to make some return for her ceaseless exercise of kindness towards him, dm-ing his long residence in her house. Often, to the close of his IKe, did he recall her memory. When seated with his wKe and cMldren, engaged in quiet and delightful conversation upon the past, often did he speak of the happy days and years which he had lived in her house, and when he did so, his manly countenance beamed with joy and gratitude to her, and to Providence in ha-ving raised up for him so kind a friend. It was in the grateful and affec tionate remembrance of her that he was wont to call Eisenach his beloved town, and that he gave utterance, with deep emotion, to these words: "There is nothing on earth more charming than the heart of a woman in which piety resides." Such are the few but interesting facts preserved by history, of the foster-mother of the great German Eeformer. Hers was the high office of sheltering him from the blasts of adversity when the rudi ments of his masculine understanding were unfolding, and his char acter forming forthe accomplishment of the Mgh pm-poses of Heaven in bringing about the great revolution of the sixteenth century. "Thus," says a German biographer, "did the love, the piety, the com passion of a woman save a spirit, which, when ultimately ripened 44 Ladies of the Reformation. [Geemant. into the man, soared victorious in dauntless flight above the clouds, to the infinite and the true, and gave the pure unadulterated Word to numberless millions for an everlasting blessing, and an everlasting inheritance. Glorious woman ! What great thing hast thou done for us ! Truly thou needest no monumental stone — no monument made by the hand of man; thy monument is Luther's work, and this, because it is of God, will not pass away, even when thousands of years have roUed over our globe."' ' Ramshorn. 1 .M^- a III • sf "'" _<-^w. JUJ,i. The Markeb-place and To-ivnhall, Witteubeig. KATHARINE VON BORA, WLFE OF MAETIN LUTHEK. •^WA^'^-'^ATHAEINE VON BOEA was born on the 29th of • Wr^^^-^ January, 1499. The place of her birth has not been ascertained with certainty. Some affirm that she was born at Loeben, near Schweinitz, m Saxony; others conjecture that her birthplace was Stein- laussig, now Miildenstein, or Mildenstein, the supposed seat of her parents. The accounts respecting her parents are also imperfect and uncertain. It is, however, established that her father, whose Christian name is unkno-wn, was of the ancient and honourable family of Bora. In the middle ages this family were Margraves of Misnia; it had its seat M Steinlaussig, a small manor and village not far from Bitterf eld, between Wittenberg and Halle; and its coat of arms was a lion rampant with its right paw raised on a golden shield, and the helmet adomed -with a peacock's tail. Katharine's mother, whose name was Anne, was a descendant of the old and noble fainily of Haugwitz. A brother of Katharine's, John von Bora, 46 LoAies of the Reformation. [gbrmant. is often spoken of by Luther. He was in the service of Albert of Prussia, and afterwards in that of Henry, Duke of Saxony.' The history of Katharine's youthful years is enveloped in dark ness. We simply know that at an early period she was devoted to the monastic IKe. She first became a nun in a convent in her native place, and on the 4th of April, 1521, when twenty-two years of age, she entered the convent of Nimptsch, a to-wn of Saxony, a little to the south of Grimma, on the Mulde, not far from Leipsic, and about two days' journey from Wittenberg. This con vent, which was of the Cistercian order, was an establishment exclusively intended for young ladies of good family. Whether she had entered the convent from her predilection for the monastic life, or had been devoted to it by her parents, contrary to her o-wn inclination — as many young women were even at that period, when this mode of life was reputed pecuharly dignified and sacred by persons of all ranks — we are not informed. Her parents, it appears, were of limited fortune, and K she was devoted by them to the monastic life, one reason, at least, if not the chief, may have been their contracted means; or K they died when she was young, which is not improbable, as there is no reference to them in any part of her life, she may, after their death, have been necessitated, from the pressure of adverse circumstances, to become a sister in a con vent — convents in these times frequently serving as hospitals for bringing up the unprovided-for children of poor noble families. But whatever circumstances may have led to her becoming a nun, she was a sincere devotee of the Church of Eome. Brought up from infancy in the principles and observances of that church, she was devoutly attentive, at the commencement of her cloister life, to its formalities, which took such a powerful hold upon her youno' mind that, according to her own acknowledgment afterwards, she was more earnest and punctual in practising them, than in observing the ' Reformations Almanach auf das jahr, 1817, 8. Ixvi. Eamshom, Geschichte der mc-kwurdigsten Deutschen Frauen, Band 1. ss. 346, 347. lloritz Meurer, Katharina Luther, Dresden, 1854, p. 8. Sears' Lullm; p. 329. Geemant.] Katharine von Bora. 47 exercises of genuine piety, when she came to the knowledge of the truth. In addition to religious observances, the nuns of the six teenth century, like those of earlier times, were occupied in embroi dery and other handiwork, in performing the choir service, and some of them, though this number was small, devoted their leisure hours to the acquisition of knowledge. Katharine, if not originally consigned to a convent against her will, at last became dissatisfied -with this kind of life, and sighed for deliverance. A similai- feeling came over the spirits of a consider able number of her sisters in the same convent. They, too, repented of the unnatural vows which— by parental authority, or by priestly craft, or from false notions of piety, or inconsideration on their own part — they had taken in their early years, irrevocably binding themselves to a single state — to rehnquish domestic relations and affections, the position of wKe and mother, at a period of life when they could not fully comprehend the greatness of the sacrifice they were maMng, or whether they had the capacity to keep engage ments which outraged every law of nature, as well as the plainest teacMngs of revelation. It is natural and interesting to inquire. What brought them to this state of mind? The chief cause appears to have been the iUummatmg and persuasive power of the doctrines of the Eeformation upon their understandings and hearts. In the year 1520, the Eeformation was introduced into Grimma, and the hght, having thus burst forth around their convent, cast some of its rays -within its inclosure, probably by means of some of Luther's -wi-itings which they had got among their hands, and had eagerly read. Luther himseK had visited Grimma with his spKitual father John Staupitz, and Wenceslaus Link, in 1516; he had again spent some time there in 1519, and among the sisters of this institution his name was well known, and of long established reputation. Their faith in the verity of the Eoman Catholic religion was shaken, and they embraced the principles of the gi-eat Eeformer. The light which had thus dawned within them, combining, as may easily be conceived, with the tedium of their secluded monotonous life, K not 48 Ladies of the Reformation. [Geemant. with ill-usage which nuns often suffered in convents at that period, made them impatient of the monastic restraints imposed equally upon their freedom of thought and of action. Their feelings of re pugnance to conventualism became every day more intense, and the desire now uppermost in their minds was to be released from their helpless unnatural condition, and restored to that position, and those relations in society, for whioh nature designed them, and which revelation has sanctioned and sanctified.' The nuns who were thus impatient of restraint, and desu-ous to regain their liberty, were nine in number. Their names are as fol lows: — Magdalene von Staupitz,^ Elizabeth von Kanitz, Eva von Gross, Eva vou Schonfeld, and her sister, Margaret von Schonfeld, Laneta von Golis, Margaret von Zesohau, and her sister, Katharine von Zeschau,^ and Katharine von Bora.' The first step taken by them, in order to be released from the con vent, was to ¦wi-ite to their parents, telling them that they could no longer endure the monastic life; that now, so far from having faith in its peculiar sanctity, they were convmced of its beiug equally contrary to the laws of nature and of revelation; that by continuing in it they would endanger the salvation of their souls; and beseech ing them to liberate them from their cloister prison, and restore them to their homes. Entangled by superstitious ideas of the pre eminent sanctity of the conventual life, and of the in-violability of its vows when once taken, their parents absolutely refused to yield to their wishes.' But by the negative answer of their parents they were not dis couraged. Determined not to be defeated in their object, they looked for help to another quarter, and naturally tumed with con fidence to the man whose doctrines had impelled them to the ' Sears' Lutiier, p. 322. - This lady was a niece of Luther's spiritual father, Staupitz. 3 This and the preceding lady were near relations of Luther's friend of the same name, prior at Grimma, and subsequently a reformed minister there. ¦* Luther's Letters in his Works, Walch's German edition, vol. xsi. p. 836. 5 Ramshorn, Band i. s. 347. Geemant.] Katharine von Bora. 49 resolution of forsaking the cloister — who had already written a trea tise against monastic vows, and on whose sympathy and assistance they calculated. Without delay they put themselves in correspon dence with Luther, and disclosing to him their sentiments and feel ings, sohcited his friendly interposition, the more especially as they were cut off from all hope, in so far as their parents were concerned. Their appeal was not made in vain. In co-operation with Leonard Koppe, a distinguished citizen and councillor of the city of Torgau, he immediately projected their rescue. Koppe engaged to go to Nimptsch to release them, and Luther pledged himself to provide for their maintenance when they were once released.' The attempt to liberate them was not without its difficulties and perils. One danger of its failing arose from the circumstance, that the journey from Torgau to Nimptsch, which was about six miles in a southem direction, led through the territory of George, Duke of Saxony, a zealous Eoman Catholic, though both these towns belonged to Fre derick, Elector of Saxony, the friend of Luther and the Eefor mation; and should the adventure succeed, it would shock the superstitious feelings of the multitude, and infiame to the utmost the wrath of the monks and priests. But Koppe, who was a bold and resolute man, undertook to encounter all hazards; and, assisted by his brother's son, and another faithful ally named WoKgang Tomitzsch, he proceeded to carry his purpose into effect.^ To divert suspicion and conceal his prot6g&, in passing through the territory of Duke George, he adopted the contrivance of carrymg off the nuns in a covered waggon, as if he carried empty herring barrels; or, as some say, his plan was actually to put them into empty herring barrels, each nun having a barrel to herself, in which she could conveniently sit. His enterprise was, happily, successful. On the evening of Good Friday, the 4th of April, 1623, he and his coadjutors arrived at the nunnery of Nimptsch. The nuns, who had been previously advertised, were waiting his arrival 1 Ramshorn, Band 1. s. 348. 2 Luther's Letters in his Works, vol. xxi. p. 837. 50 Ladies of the Reformation. Germany. with anxious expectation. According to tradition, they descended from the window of Katharine von Bora's apartment, which was on the north side of the convent, into the court, where Katharine her self, in the hurry, left one of her slippers, and being IKted over the walls, were put into the waggon, or into the standing ban-els iu the waggon. So well did all parties manage, that they were beyond the reach of danger before it was discovered that anything unusual had been going on in the nunnery. It is recorded in a cMonicle of Tor gau, that Koppe, being asked by a person on the road what he had there, replied, " Barrels of herring."' He brought them first to Torgau, and then to Wittenberg, to the Augustine monastery in which Luther resided, whither they arrived on the 7th of April. As they stood before the gate of the monastery, they were deeply moved. The Angustine Monaster}', W itteittiej g. but their predominating emotions were gi-atitude and delight, like prisoners emancipated from the walls of a prison-house. " Would to God," said Luther, as he received them, " that I could rescue all captive consciences, and empty all the cloisters." On the following day, namely, the Sth of April, writing to his friend Wenceslaus ' Reformaiions Almanach auf das jahr, 1817, s. Ixvii. Geemant.] Katharine von Bora. 51 Link, he says: "Yesterday I received here nine nuns, who have escaped from their captivity in the monastery of Nimptsch, among whom ai-e [Magdalene] Staupitz, and two other women of the family of Zeschau." ' The nuns being now at liberty, the next question was. How were they to be provided for? Here, again, Luther afforded the most valuable assistance. First of all, he brought them into the house of an honoiu-able citizen of Wittenberg, where they were ti-eated with the utmost kindness. As to their future disposal, he purposed to -write to their parents, Mforming them of what had taken place, and entreating them to take their children home; but anticipating the possibility of his entreaties being disregarded, he got some wealthy persons to engage, iu that event, to receive some of the rescued captives into their houses, and the rest he resolved to get suitably married aa soon as he could. Meanwhile, he endeavoured to obtain money for their support till these arrangements should take effect. These, his mtentions, he makes known in a letter to the electoral court preacher, George Spalatin, dated the 10th of April, 1523. After informing him of the means by which the nuns effected their escape, he proceeds — "I greatly commiserate these poor girls, and still more those others who everywhere are perish ing in so large numbers from that cursed and incestuous chastity. That sex in itself so very weak, and united to ours by nature — yea, by God himself — perishes by this cruel seclusion from ours. O tyrannical ! O cruel parents and relations in Germany ! Who cau sufficiently execrate you, the pope, and the bishops? Who can enough abominate your blindness and folly in teaching and promot ing conventualism ? But this is not the place to treat of this sub ject. You will ask me what I. am going to do with these girls. In the first place, I will write to their parents, and request them to take home their daughters. If they -will not do so, then I -will take care that they be otherwise comfortably maintained. I have already ' Luther's Lettei-s in his Works, vol. xv. Appendix, p. 243. Michelet's Lutiier, trans lated by Hazlitt, p. 143. 52 Ladies of the, Reformation. [Geemant. received promises in respect to some of them, and the rest I will get married, if I can." After giving their names, he adds, " These need our compassion, in showing which we do service to Christ. The man ner of their escape was perfectly astonishing. I pray you to exercise your charity, and beg for me some money of your rich courtiers, to sustain them for a week or a fortnight, until I can either deliver them to their parents, or to others who have given me promises."' Koppe's bold and chivalrous adventure, and the temporary set tlement of the fugitive nuns in Wittenberg, when known, created extraordinary irritation and alarm among the Eomanists. The elec tor, not to give offence to the Eoman Catholic clergy and to Duke George, did not venture openly to approve of what had been done, though he privately contributed a sum of money for the support of the nuns. What added to the wrath and terror of the Eomanists, was the symptoms hereby afforded of a rising spirit of disaffection in the convents, which, becoming infectious by examples of this sort, might issue in the total dissolution of these estabhshments. Luther, who was believed to be at the bottom of the miscMef, and who, m his ¦writings, had assailed monastic celibacy, was fm-iously de nounced. He replied with Ms characteristic spirit and effect, ex hibiting the darker and more repulsive features of conventual -life; dwelling upon instances of the inhumanity practised in convents upon women who had been forcibly immm-ed and confined within the walls of these prisons. Koppe, as having been the active in strument in the transaction, was exposed in a still higher degree to the indignation of the Papists, who demanded the execution of justice upon "the impious' ra-visher," as he was designated. Becoming somewhat nervous on the subject, he was extremely anxious that his agency in the matter should be kept a secret, at least for the present. Luther, on the contrary, thinking that his friend deserved to be publicly honoured for so meritorious a deed, proclaimed the history of the whole affaK. Foreseeing the storm Ukely to be raised > Luther's I,etters in his Worlcs, vol. xxi. p. 836. Seckendorfii Historia Lutlieranismi, lib. i. sec. chu. p. 273. Gebmant.] Katharine von Bora. 53 by the Papists, he wrote a letter to Koppe, pai-tly for his encour agement, and partly for his vindication, expressing his unqualified approbation of the enterprise, and exhorting him not to heed the opinion of the enraged superstitious multitude and priests, nor to be intimidated by their frantic clamour. "You have done a good work," says he, " and would to God we could release, in the same way, the many thousand other souls whom the pope still holds captive. . The Word of God, however — thanks be to his name — is now come forth mto the world, and not imprisoned in convents. They, indeed, will say that the fool, Leonard Koppe, has suffered himself to be caught by a condemned heretical monk, and then drove to the place and carried off the nuns, and aided them in breaking their vows. But I have made all this known, for the following reasons." He then proceeds to vindicate the transaction.' Luther, as he had purposed, wrote to the parents of the nuns, beseeching them to receive, with open arms, their daughters to their homes. Whether his intercessions in their behalf were cordially responded to is unkno-wn. The parents of some of them, not im probably, were unmoved by Ms appeal, contemplating the conduct of their daughters as the shame and misery of their declining years. At any rate, it is certain, that some of the nuns, instead of returning to their parents, remained in Wittenberg, where they -found a hos pitable home in the families of friendly citizens. Others were happily married through the influence of Luther, who exerted him self to the utmost to obtain at least good, K not brilliant matches, for young ladies who were still in the bloom of youth. Lea-ving the other eight nuns, let us confine our attention to Katharine von Bora. On her arrival at Wittenberg, she was received into the family of Philip Eeichenbach, bm-gomaster and to-wn-clerk of the city. Here she met with the kindest treatment, and, by her whole deportment, she proved herself deserving of the friendly interest taken in her both by him and by Luther. Neither at the time of the escape of the nuns, nor for a considerable time ' Seal's' Luther, pp. 324, 325. Michelet's Lvther, pp. 144, 146. 64 Ladies of the Reformation. [geemant. after, had Luther any intention of marrymg Katharine, or any other woman, though he considered marriage as one of God's estab lished ordinances, had -written in its defence, and had exhorted his friends to marry. Had he at this period become a lover, he would, as he afterwards acknowledged in a letter to a friend, have chosen Eva von Schonfeld, one of the nine ni.ins, who, in respect of mental endo-wment and loveliness of character, was superior to the rest, and who, by his means, became the wife of a medical student named Basil, afterwards royal physician in Prussia.' Meanwhile, Katharine found a lover in Jeremy Baumgartner, the son of a pa trician family of Niirnberg, who stayed for some time at Wittenberg, afterwards became distinguished, and enjoyed in a high degree the confidence of Luther and Melancthon. His affection for Katharine appears to have been reciprocated, and Luther rejoiced at the pro spect of seeing another of his nuns happily settled in life. But when the young Ntirnberger soon after returned to his native city, his passion for Katharine cooled, and he thought notMng farther of making her his wife.^ Other suitors were not, however, wanting to Katharine. Dr. Caspar Glatz, pastor in Orlamunde, would gladly have taken her in marriage. Luther contemplated matching her to Glatz, and did all in his power to bring about their union. But when Katharine, who had a mind of her own, understood Luther's intention, she person ally complained to ITicholas Amsdorf, preacher m Wittenberg, and fraukly declared that she could not give her affections to Glatz. Knowing the intimacy between Amsdorf and Luther, she at the same time avowed, with genuine simplicity, that were either of them to make proposals of marriage to her, she would take their proposals into more favourable consideration.' In this avowed pre ference, gi-atitude to Amsdorf and Luther, to whose kindness she was so much indebted, doiibtless mingled -with affection; and she ' Michelet's Luther, p. 259. Burk, Spiegel Edler P.farrfrauen, a. 23. 2 Reformations Almanach auf das jahr, IS17, o. Ixvii. Ramshorn, Band i. ». 349. ^ Sculteti Annales, p. 81. Geemant.] Katharine von Bora. 55 was, perhaps, also moved the more freely to declare her mind, from rumours prevalent of a contemplated union between her and Luther, to which, though in several of Ms letters he complains of them, he seems to have given some occasion, by the deference with which he had always treated her, and by his often calling her his Katharine.' Katharine was not a regular beauty, though both Erasmus and Maimbourg, which is somewhat surprising, eulogize her as possessed of this coveted distinction;^ yet there was a dignity, without affecta tion, about her air and manner, which at the very first sight com manded respect. Hitherto she had not gained upon the heart of Luther. Notwithstanding the peculiar consideration with which, from her strength of character, he had uniformly treated her, he was not altogether pleased with her manner, suspecting her of pride; but finding, upon a fuller acquaintance, that beneath her reserved, formal, self-respecting, digmfied manner, there existed a kind heart, warm affections, and strong good sense, his esteem for her increased and ripened into affection. He appears to have begun to entertain some thoughts of maiTying her in the year 1524, about the time of Ms thro-wing off' his monastic dress. On the 12th of October, that year, tM-ee days after he had laid aside the frock of the Augustine monk, and made his appearance in the church, it being the Sabbath, in the dress of a secular priest, he thus writes to Baumgartner, her old lover : — " If you are anxious to have your Katy, come here at once, or she -will become the property of another, who has already got her with him in his house. However, she has not as yet con quered her love for you, and, after all, I should be perhaps better pleased that you, having a prior title, should be united to her."^ But even at this time, Luther had come to no settled determination to enter into the married state. In a letter to Spalatin, dated the 30tli • Seckendorfii Historia Lutheranismi, lib. ii. sec. v. p. 17. 2 " Luther," says Erasmus, "married a most beautiful wife of a good family, but, it is said, without fortune." Maimbourg says that she was " very beautiful," Histoire du Lutheraiiisme, tom. 1. pp. 118-122. Her portraits do not fully bear out these affirmations. " Seckendorf," says Bayle, "finds a good deal of exaggeration here, with regard to her beauty. Nobody is more to be beheved than he on tliis point," Dictiona-ry, ai-t. " Bore, Katharine de. ^ Michelet's Luther, ji. 198. 56 Ladies of the Refor'mation. [Geemant. of November, same year, he says : — " As to what Argula writes re specting my getting married, I give her my thanks. I do not wonder that such things are tattled about me, as many others are in like manner. Thank her in my name, and tell her I am in tlie Lord's hands, as his creature, whose heart he can change, and whose life he can save or destroy at any hour or moment. But with such a mind as I have hitherto had, and still continue to have, I shall not take a wife — not because I am by nature averse to matrimony, for I am neither wood nor stone, but I am disinclined to it, because I am every day expecting to have death inflicted upon me as a heretic. I do not wish to obstruct God's work in me, nor do I trust to my own heart. But I hope he will not let me live long.'" If Luther, at the date of this letter, had not come to the resolution of entering into wedded IKe, he had evidently, within less than five months hence, come to this resolution, and Katharine von Bora was the lady on whom he had fixed his affections. This appears from his letter to Spalatin on the 16th of April, 1525, in which, writing with the pleasantry characteristic of his correspondence with his friends, he says: — "As to what you -write me touching my marriage, I would not have you wonder that I, who am so famous a lover, do not marry. Be surprised rather, that since I write so much about marriage, and mingle so much in female society, I am not turned into a woman not to say married; for I have had three wives at once,= whom I loved so desperately, that I have lost two of them, who -wish to take other husbands. The third I scarcely now hold by the left arm, and she too wants to steal away from me. But you, a cold lover, dare not be the husband even of one wKe. Look out that I, with all my reluctance to marry, do not get the start of you, who are already affianced, as God is wont to do what is least expected. Without joking, I say this to urge you on in the way you have taken."' As he jocularly hinted to Spalatin, Luther got the stai-t of his ' Luther's Letters m his Works, vol. xxi. p. 931. Sears' Luther, p. 325. 2 "He refers to his three vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity, when he was a monk."— Note by Walch. ' Luther's Letters iu his Works, vol. xxi. p. 972. Geemant.] Katharine von Bora. 67 friend; he was first married. "Should this monk marry," said Dr. Jerome Schurff, " the whole world, and even the devil, will burst into shouts of laughter, and he himself -will destroy what he has been building up." This sneer, when reported to Luther, so far from frightening, rather emboldened him to take the course he was contemplatmg, believing, as he did, that his marriage would alarm the devil and the Papists as much as it would astonish them, inas much as it would advance the cause of reform, by encouraging others to break the trammels of celibacy.' To this course he was moved by the pressing entreaties of his friends, particulai'ly of his father, and by a desire to avoid the reproach of not actmg upon the good advice he gave to others. The resolution being once formed, he, after his manner, which was to act with decision, carried it into effect with all expedition, to the astonishment of both friends and foes, neither of whom were expecting him to take this bold step. Even Katharine, his intended bride, was taken by surprise. On Tuesday the 13th of June, 1525, he took with him his three friends, — Dr. Bugenhagen, or Pomeranus, as he is also called, at that time town preacher of Wittenberg, the la'wyer Apeil, the painter Lucas Cranach — mto Eeichenbach's house, where she resided, and imme diately, -without pre-vious courtship, sought her hand in presence of the friends whom he had brought along with him. A blush tinged her cheek, though at first she thought he was in jest; but at length, perceiving that he was in sober eamest, without asking time to consi der, she -svith maidenly modesty at once gave her consent. A formal betrothment followed, and on the same day the marriage^ was solem- 1 Sculteti Annales, p. 81. 2 Luther's rings of betrothment and of marriage are stUl both in existence. The former, which was in the possession of a family at Leipsic iu the year 1817, is ingeniously wrought in gold, broad and branched, set with a ruby, and omaraented with a repre sentation of Christ's paasion in bold relief. On the inside of the ring are engraved the names of the betrothed pair, and opposite to them the date, "der 13 Junij 1525" {the wedding day}, iu small characters. — Cwriositdten, Band ii. s. 388. Luther's marriage ring, which, with his doctoral ring of the year 1512, was formerly in the hbraiy of Helmstadt, was, in 1817, in Wolfenbiittel. 58 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germant. nized, the nuptial knot being tied, and the nuptial benediction pronounced by Dr. Bugenhagen. On the evening, the man-iage- feast, at which, besides the small party of friends ah-eady named, Justus Jonas is supposed to have been present, closed the trans actions of this important day. At her marriage Katharine was in her twenty-sixth year, and Luther forty-two years of age. To none of his other friends, not to John, Elector of Saxony, who had recently succeeded his brother Frederick, nor even to his faithful fellow-labourer in the work of the Lord, Philip Melancthon, had Luther communicated his intentions. His reason was an apprehen sion lest, as that was the time of the Peasants' war — which, being falsely charged upon the Eeformation, exasperated the Catholic princes against it, against himself, and even against the elector — his friends should pronounce the marriage imprudent in such unhappy circumstances, and should endeavour to prevent it, as what would give occasion to his adversaries to raise new calumnies, as well as shock the feelings of the mass of the community, who thought the It is an ingeniously contrived double ring. The two hoops, which joined together form the ring, bear, the one a mby, the other a diamond. These gems lie together, side by side, when the ring is closed, forming the upper surface of a pyramidal box, in the base of which are the gi-ooves which hold together the conjoint hoops. On the flat meeting sur faces of the boxes set with the gems, are the names of the bridal pair, that of tbe lady, C V B, being on the side of the ruby — the emblem of exalted love, while Luther's name. M L D, is on the side of the diamond— the sign of power, duration, and fidehty. Lower doivn on the flat inside sm-faces of the hoops, ai-e these words hi the old spelhng:— "Was Gott zusammen f uget soU kehi Mensch scheiden "— What Qod doth join no man shall vnvt.—Cm-iosUdten, i. ». 660. It may be conjectm-ed that the betrothment ring, as It is called, being highly ornamented, set with a ruby, and of less size, -n-as the lady's wedding ring. Geemant.] Katharine von Bora. 59 marriage of a monk with a nun, involving, as it did, a violation of the monastic vows on the part of both of them, a gross and deliber ate outrage on all that was sacred.' The next day, the marriage of Katharine and Luther having become kno-wn, the magistrates of Wittenberg sent them their con gratulations, and a marriage present of fourteen measures of wine of different sorts — namely, four of Malmsey, four of Ehenish ¦wine, and six of Franconian wine. They, besides, granted them the right of free access, for the space of a year, to the wine-cellar of the city. On the 27th of June, the fom-teenth day after the marriage, Luther, after the custom of his time, prepared another feast on the occasion of conducting Ms bride to her new home. To this feast he m-vited Ms parents, and many of his friends. The apartment he had occupied when a monk in the Augustinian monastery— hence Lutlier'fl Room in the Augubtine Monastery, Wittenbera. called " Luther's room" — is beheved to have been the scene of this solemnity.^ Seven of the invitations sent to various friends have ¦ Rtfcrrmations Almanach, 1817, s. Ixiv. Ramshom, Band i. ss. 350, 351. 2 After this monastery was deserted by the monks, its revenues were appropriated by 60 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Geemant. been preserved. In one of them, addressed to Dolzig, the elector's marshal, he writes in the following good-humoured strain : — " No doubt the strange rumour has reached you, that I have become a husband. Though this is a very singular affair, which I myself can scarcely believe, nevertheless the -witnesses are so numerous, that I am bound in honour to believe it ; and I have concluded to have a collation next Tuesday for my father and mother, and other good friends, to seal the same and make it sure. I therefore beg you, if it is not too much trouble, to provide venison for me, and be present yourself to help to affix the seal -with becoming joy." For this feast, the married couple received from the city a gift of several casks of beer. The university of Wittenberg, which owed its fame and prosperity almost wholly to Luther, also presented them with a large silver beaker,' plated with gold on the outside and inside. Eound the base, which is five and a half inches in diameter, is an inscription in German to the following effect: — "The worshipful university of the electoral town of Wittenberg, presents this bridal gift to Dr. Martin Luther and his spouse the Elector of Saxony, and it became the exclusive residence of Luther. In 1526, the Elector John made a present to him of the whole of the cloister buUdings, with the ad joining garden, free of taxes, together with twelve brewings of beer annually. — Seais' Luther, p. 335. Here Luther and his family continued to reside. In 1664, the Elector Augustus presented the academy with a large sum of money to enable them to purchase the cloister buildings and garden from Luther's heirs. The purchase price was 3700 florins, 3000 of which were given by the elector, the remaining 700 having been paid by the academy out of their own resources. The buildings were then fltted up and enlarged for academical purposes. The back part of them is speciaUy designated the monastery, and here is to be seen "Luther's room," which has long attracted the attention of tra veUers.— Schadow, Wittenbergs Denhn&ler, ss. 91-93. "The most, and indeed only remarkable object in this room," says Gran-viUe, "is an autograph signature in chali of Peter the Great, on a door, which has resisted the effect of time, owing to a glass cover placed over it. The room contains also the large oak table on which Luther -wrote his theological disquisitions ; and a very cui-ious stove, lofty and elegant, witb several figures Ul bass-relief upon it of rather a gay description. The drinking cup, deep and ample, out of which the Augustine monk drank invigorating draughts, is here preserved ; and an album is kept in which visitois are required to inscribe their names. I observed that the greater nimiber in this were English traveUers. But this is the case in every album I have seen in Europe." — St. Petersburg, vol. i. p. 261. 1 The cup or beaker is now in the library of the university of Greifswalde. It waa purchased in the year 1800 from the heirs by that university for 100 rixdoUars, {about £15 sterling). It weighs 84 Loth (about 3 lbs. 8 oz. troy), is lOi inches high, and holds Geemant.] Katharine von Bora. 61 Katharine von Bora, Anno 1627, on the day of March after the feast of John the Baptist."' The marriage of Katharine and Luther was an affair of too much importance to be overlooked by the Eomanists, and numer ous were the calumnies circulated at the time, and subsequently, against them both. These calumniators afiirmed that Luther's reason for marrying her so precipitately, was that she was pregnant, and so early as about a fortnight after the marriage, they spread the report that she was already con fined of a son. Erasmus, who was then greatly irritated against Luther, who had written in refutation of some of his -wi-itings, eagerly laid hold on this calumny and an nounced it con amore as a fact to his corres pondents. " That you may know," says he in a letter to one of them, dated the 6th of October, 1525, "that the nuptials were auspicious, the new married lady was brought to bed a few days after the wedding." He afterwards ascertained that this was a, base falsehood, and found it necessary, for his own credit, to con tradict it in subsequent communications to his correspondents.^ To hold up Katharme and Luthei-'s marriage to ridicule various .¦Hatires were published, one of which began with these words — "Io! Io! Io! Io! gaudeamus cum jubilo," &c.' Luther, who was 9,\ Nosch (about 2^- pints). The sides are ornamented with filagree as weU as engraved with birds and foliage, and from the lid rises a vine bearing apparently a divided pome granate. Both these are weU-known emblems of matrimonial life and of the blessing of chUdren. 1 Seckendorfii Hist. Luth., lib. U. sec. v. p. 16. Sears' Luther, pp. 327-329. Moritz Meurer, Katharina Lutiier, s. 27. 2 Seckendorfii Hist. Luth., Ub. ii. sec. v. p. 18. 3 Dr. Eck published a collection of these under the title, Epithalamia festiva in Lutherum Hessum {Urbanum Regium) et id genus Nuptiatorum. Michelet's Luther, p. 384. MarriAge Present from the Uni versity of Wittenberg. 62 Ladies of the Reformation. [Geemant. never disposed silently to submit to abuse, answered these attacks in his characteristic strain in different pieces.' "It is with this object, to testify to the gospel not only by my words, but by my actions, that I have just married a nun ; at which my enemies have been triumphing, and crying Io! Io! I was determined to show them, that though old and feeble, I was not going to beat a retreat before them." The marriage having been solemnized in the time of the Peasants' war, this also afforded, and has con tinued to afford occasion to the Papists to pour forth their abuse upon Luther and his wife, as if marriages ought to cease in times of insui'rection and war. " In the four or five months during which this war lasted," says the Jesuit historian Maimbourg, " it caused the destruction of more than 130,000 of these miserable Lutheran peasants, besides producing seditions in several large towns, as at Cologne, Mayence, and Frankfort-upon-the-Main ; so that there never had been more disorder and confusion, nor more expense incurred, nor more blood shed in Germany, than in that unhappy year 1625; and yet it was at the very time when the numberless calamities caused by this unfortunate war were bewailed through out all Germany, and at the very time when the death of the elector [Frederick] was mourned in Saxony, that Liither, blinded by an infamous passion, at which even his friends blushed, had the efirontery to celebrate with all sorts of rejoicing his nuptials with a nun, who," he adds with unblushing impudence in defamation of a lady whose virtue was even beyond suspicion, "during her two years' residence at Wittenberg, after her elopement from her nunnery, previously to her marriage, had lived with all sorts of freedoms among the young students of the university. So strongly was the mind of this new Eeformer hardened against the humane considera tions which might have prevailed upon him tb restrain himself."^ 1 These were subsequently collected under the title of The Fable of tlie Lion and the Ais. Michelet's Luther, p. 384. 2 Maimbourg, Histoire du Lutheranisme, tom. i. pp. 118-122. Subsequent Popish writers have been Uberal in loading Katharine as well as Luther with all sorts of defamatory charges. A German life of her, full of the most malicious lies, the giossest misrepresen- Geema-sty.] Katharine von Bora. C.3 If we are to believe Popish writers, Katharine, poor woman, committed a sad mistake in taking Luther for her husband. If, as Cochlaeus gravely asserts,' Luther was engendered of an incubus; if, as an Italian -writer' maintains, he was born of Megaera, one of the Furies, and sent express from hell into Germany ; if, as many of his opponents designate him, he was son and disciple of the devil ; K, as Cochlaeus farther affirms, Luther himself told the people, in one of his sermons, that he and the devil had known one another for a very long time, that they were in constant communication with each other, and that he had eaten more than one grain of salt with Satan — ^then Katharine had certainly made a very indifferent match, and we need not wonder that some Spaniards, who were at the diet of Augsburg in 1530, seriously believed that Luther and his wife were destined to produce Antichrist.^ " Antichrist must be born of this union,'' said they, "for a prophet proclaims that he shall be bom of a monk and a nun." "If the prophecy were true," said Erasmus sneeringly, "how many thousand Antichrists have not already appeared in the world?" Previously to their marriage, the affection between Katharine and Luther, though sincere, cannot be said to have partaken of the romantic. There was nothing of their adoring each other to distraction ; yet the marriage tumed out a happy one. Their mutual love became greater after their union than it was before it. In addition to the tender and unalterable attachment Katha rine felt to the person of Luther, she greatly admired his talents tations, and the coarsest invectives, was published in the eighteenth century by the dean of the Augustine monastery at Ulm, Michael Kiihn, under the fictitious name of Eusebius Engelhard, bearing the title, Lucifer Wittenbergensis, or the Moming Star of Wittenberg, i.e., A Complete Riography of Katharine von Sora, the Peetended Wife of D. U. Luther, &o. A second edition, in two parts Svo. was published at Augsburg in 1749. This hbeUous iiroduction was triumphantly answered by Professor Christian WUh. Francis Walch, in a German work, in two volumes, pubUshed at HaUe in 1751, under the title, True History of the Blessed Woman Katharine von Bora, mfe of Dr. Martin Luther, against Eusebius Engelhard's Moming Star at Wittenberg. A second edition, also in two volumes, was published at HaUe in 1754. — Reforriwtions Almanach, 1817, ». Lev. ' In his Life of Luther. - Cajetano Vicich, in his poem called Tliieudos. 3 Michelet's Luther, pp. 1, 2. G4 Ladies oj tlie Reformation. I Geemant. and character as a Eeformer; and during the whole period of their union, she made it her business to contribute to alleviate his cares, and to promote his happiness. In his leisure hours, she was to be seen seated beside him in his study, or in the garden, in the summer months, occupying herself at some piece of em broidery, in which she was working a portrait of him, or some other device. She reminded him of the answers he had to -wi-ite Lutiier ..ind Ilis Fami);^. to the letters received from Ms friends. If dangers tM-eatened him, she was filled with an-xiety and apprehension. Spalatin having invited him to his wedding, which took place at a time when Luther had excited the resentment of some nobles, by rescuing several nuns from their convent prisons, Katharine, alarmed for his personal safety, entreated him with tears not to go. "The tears of my Katy," says he, "prevent me from com ing; she thinks it will be perilous." Under his frequent illnesses —partly the effect of his early austerities, from which he never entirely recovered, and partly the effect of his excessive labours Geemant.] Katliarine von Bora. 65 — she watched over him -with affectionate and assiduous care. When in her power, she accompanied him in his journeys, and when she had to remain behind, she lamented his absence, and welcomed him home -vrith affectionate joy. Under the depression of spirits to which he was subject, she endeavoured to drive away his melancholy, by repeating to Mm passages from the Scriptures; and such was her consideration, that she often privately sent for Justus Jonas, whose agreeable and enlivening conversation usually restored him to cheerfulness. Intelligence of his father's death ha-ving reached him at Coburg, in 1530, to comfort him, she sent him a likeness of his favourite daughter, Magdalene, then one year old. The portrait, as Luther's amanuensis -wrote to her, greatly re-vived his spirits, and he placed it on the wall over against the dming-table in the prince's hall.' She besides released him from domestic cares, by her judicious superintendence of house hold affairs. In superintendmg family affairs, she is entitled to the praise of a considerate economy, a quality which some, not distinguishing between frugality and parsimoniousness, have turned to her re proach. Luther's resources were so limited, as to demand on her part the exercise of a prudent carefulness over the domestic outlay. His annual income did not exceed 200 guldens,' and from the necessary expenses of Ms family — from the extent of his charity, which he perhaps carried to excess — from the company Ms posi tion required Mm to entertain — his expenditure exceeded his in come some years after his marriage, involving him considerably in debt, and reducing him even to the necessity of pa-svning some golden cups which had been gifted him. Nor could he have exer cised hospitality and charity so largely as he did, or have built and purchased so much property as he latterly did, but for the economy of Katharine, and the presents he received from the elector.' ' Sears' Luther, p. 332. 2 A giUden is nominaUy 2i. l\d. Luther's income was therefore only £26, Os. lOd. sterling. It is, however, to be remembered, that money at that period was of much greater value than in the present day. ' Sears' Luther, pp. 333-335. 5 66 Ladies of the Reformation. [Geemant. Katharine's worth was fully appreciated by Luther, and he often spoke of her in the most complimentary terms. Writing to a friend about a year after Ms marriage, he says: "Katy, my dear rib, salutes you, and gives you thanks that you have thought her worthy of your very courteous letter. She is, by the blessing of God, quite well; gentle, kind, and obedient in all things, far beyond my hopes — thanks be to God ! — I would not exchange my poverty with her for the riches of Croesus." ' The Epistle to the Galatians was his favourite epistle. " It is my epistle," he -writes, " to which I am betrothed; it is my Katharine von Bora." With special refer ence to her worth, he again says : " The greatest blessing that God can confer on man, is the possession of a good and pious wKe, with whom he may live in peace and tranquillity; to whom he can confide his whole j)ossessions, even his life and welfare; and who bears him children. Katy, thou hast a pious man, who loves thee, for a husband; thou art a very empress! — thanks be to God!"^ At another time, he says: "I expect more from my Katy and from Melancthon, than I do from Christ, my Lord; and yet I well know that neither they, nor any one on earth, has suffered, or can suffer, what he has suffered for me." Molsdorf, once a resident in Luther's family, observes : " I remember that Dr. Luther used to say, that he congi-atulated himself with all his soul, that God had given him a modest and prudent wKe, who took such excel lent care of his health.'" "I love my Katy," said he, on another occasion; "I love her more than I do myself, for I would die rather than that any harm should happen to her, or to her children."'' He was also heard to say that he would not exchange his Katy for the kingdom of France, or for the riches of the Venetians— 1st, Because she had been given him by God, at a, time when he besought God by importunate prayers that he might be imited to a good wife; Sdly, Because, though she was not without her 1 His letter to Michael Stiefel, dated Ilth August, 1526, quoted in Seek. Hist Lvih Ub. n. sec. V. p. 18. i Luther's Table Talk, p. 260 ' 3 Sears' LuXher, p. 331. « Luther's TahU Talk, quoted m Michelet's Lutiier, p 318 Gebmant.] Katharine von Bora. 67 faults, yet she had fewer than other women; and, 3dly, Because she had proved faithful to the conjugal bond.' In his house and everywhere, he was constantly eulogizing matrimony, and denouncing the -wickedness of systematically separating any class from the affections, joys, sorrows, and moral infiuences bound up with this institution, referring, in its defence, to his o'vni domestic happiness. SeK-will and imperiousness have been charged upon Katha rine, and these, it has been affirmed, were such as to produce fre quent dissensions between her and Luther, to the destruction of his domestic happmess. This statement, though made not only by Popish, but by some Protestant -writers, happily rests on no good authority. That a temporary brawl or jangle between a pair possessing such force of character as Katharine and Luther never occurred, it is not necessary to maintain; nor is it meant to deny that, in domestic matters, she liked to get things her o^wn way, though it must be recorded to her honour, that she never attempted to control or dictate to her husband, in reference to his public conduct as a Eeformer; and if in her o'wn depaitment, in which Luther was inclined to allow her very much to be mis tress, she might sometimes betray a temper too much allied to exaction and seK-will, and a hasty impatience when her wishes were occasionally thwarted, this only gave a little more variety to their married life, hardly interrupting their mutual happiness, and was speedily followed by renewed expressions of tenderness. Luther, who saw her infirmity, made it a ground of jest and good- humoured remark. To this trait of her character, he often jocu larly alludes m his correspondence with his intimate friends. In his letters, especially between 1526 and 1529, and in those, also, of a later date, he often concludes with one or other of these phrases : — " My rib Katy, my lord Katy, my empress Katy, salutes you." Writ ing to one of Ms correspondents, he sends her salutation in these words : — " My lord and Moses [the lawgiver] Katy, most humbly ^ Seek. Hist. Luth., Ub. iii. sec. cxxxv. 651. 68 Ladies of the Reformation. [Geemant. greeteth you." In a letter to herself, he thus addresses her :— " My kind and dear lord and master Katy, Lutheress, doctress, and priestess at Wittenberg." In another letter to her, he says:— "You may persuade to anything you wish; you have perfect con trol;" adding, by way of explanation, "In household affairs, I give you the entire control, my authority being unabated."' On another occasion, he said: — "If I were to marry again, I would carve an obedient wife for myself out of a block of marble, for unless I did so, I should despair of finding one.'"' That any should regard these humorous sallies, which, in fact, bespeak strong affection of heart, as the effusions of dissatisfaction or irritation against Katharine, and as affording e-vidence of Luther's domestic unhap piness, is a very strange misconception. In this sense he never uttered them — in this sense his friends, to whom they gave much amusement, never understood them; and thus to understand them, is to betray utter ignorance of the character of Luther, whose drollery was venting itself on all occasions. A few specimens of Katharine and Luther's familiar conver sation have been preserved, and they are characteristic of the genuine simplicity of the one, and of the facetious raillery of the other. She often amused him by her artless off-hand questions and remarks about persons and things, and she herself would join in the laugh she had raised. In the first year of their wedded life, while she was sitting with him in his study, bemg at a loss for a theme to speak upon, she asked him, " Sir doctor, in Prussia is not the maitre d'hotel the brother of the margrave 1" which drew from him a hearty laugh and a sally of pleasantry.' She would sometimes deliver to him, -with great fluency and volu bility, her infallible domestic recipes and precepts. This made Mm at one time say to a learned English gentleman, who was intimate in the family, but who could not speak very freely the German language, " I will give you my wKe for a schoolmis tress; she will teach you German readily, for she therein far sur- 1 Sears' Luther, p. 333. " Michelet's Lutiier, p. 261. ' Ibid. p. 261. Geemant.] Katharine von Bora. . 69 passes me." This also made him ask her whether, before she began her admu-able sermon, she had said the Lord's Prayer; "for K so," he added, " God assuredly would have prevented you from preaching." One evening she said to him: "Sir, I heard your cousin, John Palmer, preach this afternoon in the parish chm-ch, whom I understood better than Dr. Pomer [Bugenhagen], though the doctor is held to be a very excellent preacher.'' "John Pal mer," answered Luther, " preaches as ye women use to talk, for what comes into your minds ye speak. A preacher ought to stick by the text, and deliver what he has before him, to the end people may well understand it. But a preacher that -will speak every thing that comes m his mind, is like a maid that goes to market, and meeting another maid, makes a stand, and they hold together a goose-market." " Doctor," said she to him one day, " how is it that under Popery we prayed so frequently and so fervently, while our prayers are now cold and infrequent?" " Popery," he replied, "is the devil's worship, and the devil incessantly urges on his servants to practise that worship." Being exhorted by Luther to read and to hear the Word of God -with earnest attention, she said, "I attentively listen to the reading and preachmg of the Word, and I read portions of it every day; so that I am able to repeat from memory many passages from it." He once asked her whe ther she, too, thought herseK holy ? " How can I think myself holy," she replied -with becoming humility — " I, who am a great sinner?" "What," said Luther on one occasion at table, "must have been the feelings of Abraham when he assented to sacrifice his only son ! Truly, had God imposed such a command upon me, I should have contested the point with him." Katharine, taking part in the conversation, said, "I cannot believe that God would require any one to kiU. his child." " Dear Katharine,'' replied Lu ther, "canst thou, then, believe this, that God has been pleased to deliver up to the death for us his only-begotten Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, than whom he had nothing more dear to him in heaven, nor upon earth? .... It behoved Abraham 70 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [Geemant. to believe, that when he should offer up his beloved son Isaac, of whom he yet had the promise that through him the Sa-viour of the world should be born, God would raise his son from the dead, as is sho-wn in the Epistle to the Hebrews.'" Katharine, it appears, had a spice of womanly pride and self- importance. " She was of a lofty spirit," says a contemporary, "wilful, and proud; so that she did not cultivate much acquaint ance and friendship with other wives, because she accounted her self above them, on account of the fame of her husband." But it has been gallantly contended, that the pride imputed to her was a laudable dignity of character, a pride of her husband, whom she tenderly loved, as well as passionately admired, and of whom, as the greatest man of his age, as the father of a new era, she had some cause to be proud. One reason assigned for her remaining at home by the side of Luther, rather than seeking relaxation and enjoy ment by frequenting the houses of other wives, was her superiority m mental cultivation to most of the women of her immediate neigh bourhood, with whom, as the staple of the talk might be scandal or idle gossip, for which she had no taste, she did not care about cidti- vating intercourse. Another reason, no doubt, was the charm which Luther, by his cheerful humour, his masculine sense, his teeming imagination, spread around the family circle, making her forget, in her domestic temple of happiness, love, and piety, every other place of resort. Under her o-wn roof, too, she enjoyed the advan tages of the first society. The distinction Luther had acquired as a Eeformer, and as a man of genius and learning, made his house the resort of the most cultivated and gKted men of Witten berg, and of leamed men from all parts of Germany, and from all countries. Besides, her domestic affairs were enough to occupy her time. In addition to his relations, Luther constantly enter tained at his table students and many others, and his house was never empty of guests. To manage such a household establish ment as his, required incessant diligence and activity, and she found ' Luther's Table Talk, pp. 182, 370. Michelet's Lutlver, pp. 261, 264, 317. Geemant.] Katharine von Bora. 71 her greatest happiness iu devoting herself to her husband, and to her children.' In 1627, Katharine was tMeatened with the loss of Luther by a severe and dangerous sickness. On this occasion her affectionate care of him could not have been surpassed. She attended his sick bed by day and by night, nursing him with all the self-sacrificing anxiety and tenderness of a faithful and loving wife. The affection and faith displayed by both of them at this time of trial is interest ing and instructive. One day after having desired his friends, Drs. Bugenhagen and Jonas, who assiduously attended him, to receive the confession of his faith — for he had strong presentiments of ap- proacMng dissolution — as his enemies might publish to the world that he had recanted before his death, Katharine having some time before -withdrawn to take a little rest, he asked, "Where is my dear est Katy? Where is my little heart, my dear little John?" She came ¦with the child to his bedside. He embraced them both, and in the prospect of lea^ving them behind him in an evil world, he endea- voiu-ed to comfort her by such considerations as were fitted to sup port the heart of a wKe and a mother in such trying circumstances. " 0 my dear child," he said, while the tears started in his eyes, "I commend you to God, you and your good mother, my dear Katy. You have nothing; but God will take care of you. He is the father of orphans and widows. Preserve them, O my God, as thou hast preserved and instructed me to this day." He then spoke a few words to Katharine, who was far advanced in pregnancy, in refer ence to his worldly affau-s. "Katy," he said, "you know that I have nothing to leave you but the silver cups." Her answer to Ms affect ing words was an expression of her steadfast confidence in God, and of her self-denied surrender of her own will to his. To encourage Luther, she repeated passages from the sacred Scriptures; and as to herself she said, "My dearest doctor, if it is God's will, then I would rather that you should be with our beloved Lord God than with me. It is not so much I and my chUd that need you, as many pious 1 Reformations Almanach, 1817, s. Ixtx. Eamshom, Band i. ». 355. 72 Ladies of the Reformation. [Gebmant. Christians. Afflict not yourself about me. I commend you to His Divine -will ; but I trust in God that He will mercKuUy preserve you." Her hope of his recovery was not disappointed. Providence had more for him to do and to suffer on earth. On that very even ing he began to recover, and slowly regained his health. But for several months he was very weak, and greatly dispirited. It was especially on such occasions as these that Katharine, by her tender ministrations, proved to him "an help meet" indeed.' In 1640, Luther purchased for Katharine the small estate of Zolsdorf, two miles from Borna, at the price of 610 guldens; and the Elector John Frederick having agreed to supply her gratuitously with whatever timber she should require for build ing, she availed herself of his liberality, and by buildmg, plant ing, gardening, and agricultural cultivation, she, -with laudable enterprise, brought this small estate into excellent condition. To this Luther refers in a letter to Spalatin, dated November 10, that year. "Katy," says he, "now asks for that of which she spoke with you when you were lately here. She -wishes that when you give the letter to the elector's questor, you will join her in request ing him to give her the oak timbers which she needs." To another friend, Anthony Lauterbach, "Bishop of Pima and the neighbour ing churches," he writes on "the Sabbath after St. Catharme, 1640," "My lord Katy had just set out for her new kingdom when your letter reached me." Two years later, he thus -wrote to Spalatin: "To-morrow, my lord Katy purposeth to go to Zolsdorf, and -will take with her a load of timber, and attend to some other mattei-s."- This beautiful sequestered country seat was a favourite residence of Katharine's. She often repaired to it to enjoy herseK in rural quietude, free from constraint and interruption; and there she gene rally passed her time during her husband's absence from home. From this her predilection, Luther was wont to say, " Katy is living at Wittenberg bodily, but in spirit at Zolsdorf." He sometimes ' Eamshom, Band 1. s. 356. Lawson's Luther, pp. 264, 265. Sears' Lutiier, p. 331. 2 Luther's Letters in his Works, vol. xxi. pp. 1475, 1319. Geemant.] Katliarine von Bora. 73 humorously styled her "Katharine Luther von [of] Bora and Zols dorf," and "the Zolsdorf doctor."' When in full agricultural acti-vity at Zolsdorf, this corresponded so much with her spirit and inclina tion, that she was then pre-eminently in her element, and wheu absent she was often planning and speaking with reference to im provements or operations at the farm and country-house. She was indeed charged, though frugal in household expenses, with being extravagant in the buildings she erected at this farm, as well as elsewhere. From her partiality for Zolsdorf, Luther in his will, executed in 1542, bequeathed it to her as part of her jointure.^ Luther interfered very little with her farming establishment, leaving her to manage it as she chose ; and while he often jestingly teased her about her multKarious agricultural and household affairs, he was yet so far from blaming her matronly care, activity, and in dustry as a sign of an earthly mind or of the love of the world, that he commended them as virtues, and shared her childlike joy in the products of her farm and kitchen. It was her pride and delight when she could provide the family table with good fruit, or -with somethmg which she herself had cultivated or reared. On one occasion, to gratify this her propensity, she caused her small pond in the garden to be fished, and fishes of all sorts — pikes, merlins, trout, perches, carps, and such like, being caught, she stewed some of them, and brought them to the table. "Katy," said Luther, when he saw the repast she had prepared, and her evident satisfaction, "thou hast greater joy in these few small fishes than many a noble man has when he fishes some large vivary. O the greediness and immoderate desire which prevents us from rightly enjoying God's creatures ! Many a covetous belly, from its very voluptuousness, cannot enjoy its overfiowing abundance with pleasure and benefit."' Katharme and Luther were not without their share of domestic affliction. In his letters, frequent allusions are made to their own personal illnesses, to the sickness of their domestics, by which their house was sometimes almost converted into an hospital. Of the six 1 Sears' Luther, p. 336. ^ Seek. Hist. Luth., 1. iii. p. 651. ' Moritz Meurer, ss. 72-75. 74 Ladies of the Reformation. [Geemant. children which God had given them, they lost two by death. Their eldest daughter Elizabeth died about the beginning of August, 1628, within less than a year after her birth.' Their second daughter Magdalene died at the age of fourteen years, in 1642 ; and this was perhaps the severest domestic affliction which they sustained. The night before the death of this beloved child, Katharine dreamed that there appeared to her two beautiful youths in elegant attire, who asked her daughter in marriage. On the morrow she told her dream to Luther, and to Philip Melancthon, who had come to -visit them. The latter upon hearing it was deeply affected, and to com fort her, said, "The two youths are sacred angels, who have come to lead the virgin to the true wedlock of the celestial kingdom." At these words she melted into tears; but still they were soothing to her m the prospect of parting with her child. Both she and Luther, now anticipating that the hour of separation was at hand, engaged iu religious exercises ; and the scene presented in Magdalene's dying chamber was solemnly impressive. In deep agony of spirit he fell on Ms knees at her bedside and earnestly prayed in her behalf, re- sig-ning her to God, if it was his -will to take her to himself. Then rising up and bending over her, he said -with touching sweetness, "Magdalene, my dear daughter, you would be glad to remain here with yom- father ; are you wiUing to depart and go to that other Father?" "Yes, dear father," she replied with a faint but calm voice, "just as God pleases." Unable to repress his emotions at these words, which came to his heart with a thriUing tenderness, he turned aside to conceal the tears in his eyes, and looking upwards, exclaimed, "If the flesh is so strong, how wUl it be with the spirit? Well, whether we Uve or die we are the Lord's." She expired in his arms. Katharine at the time was in the same room, but at a little distance from the bed, on account of her deep affliction. She knew that it was her duty to be resigned, but natui-e wUl have its way, and she wept bitterly over her bereavement. To aUay her sorrow, Luther said, "Dear Katharine, think where she has gone. ' Luther's Letters in lus Works, vol. xri. pp. 1116, 1127. Geemant] Katharine von Bora. 75 She has certainly made a happy journey. With children everything is simple. They die without anguish, without disputes, without the temptations of death, and without bodily grief, as if they were fall ing asleep." When the deceased daughter was put into her coffin, this was a renewal of Katharine's grief, as well as of Luther's, and she again gave vent to her feelings. To comfort her and himself, Luther said, "You, dear Lene, you will rise again, and shine like a star, yea, as the sun. I am joyful in spirit, but I am sorrowful in the flesh. We, dear Katharine, should not lament as those who have no hope ; we have dismissed a saint, yea, a living saint for heaven. O, that we could so die ! Such a death I would willingly accept this very hour."' We feel as if we had never seen into the heart of Luther until we met -with him in domestic scenes like this. If we admire him as a Eeformer, when we behold the lion-like com-age with wMch he defied and stood unquailed before the might and the rage of earth and of hell, we love him as a man when we see the deep and gushing fountains of tenderness in his heart opened. Towards the close of Luther's life, Katharine experienced much anxiety from the faiUng state of his health, which, with other cir cumstances, so affected his mind, that nothing on earth seemed to afford him pleasure, and he repeatedly expressed it as, his heartfelt desire "that the Lord would come and unharness him." Her soUcitude was increased when, in 1544, he formed the resolution to remove with her and the family to Zolsdorf, Wittenberg having become distasteful to him as a place of residence on account of the wickedness prevalent in it. In the summer of the following year, when preparing to carry this resolution into effect, he was pre vaUed upon, though with some difficulty, by the urgent entreaties of his friends of the umversity, and of the Elector of Saxony, to abandon Ms purpose; and he returned to Wittenberg on the 18th of August.^ But he did not, it would appear, retum with his former cheerfuMess ; and Katharine was now soon to be left a widow. 1 Lawson's Luther, pp. 351, 352. Sears' Luther, p. 339. 2 Luther's Letters to his Works, vol. xxi. p. 513. Lawson's Luther, pp. 339, 358. 7G Ladies of the Reformation. [Geemant. A dispute having arisen in reference to the mines of Eisleben between the Counts of Mansfeld, Luther had been chosen arbiter by both parties, and had gone to Eisleben, to effect, if possible, a reconciliation; but he retumed without accomplishing the object of his mission. On the 23d of January, 1546, he again left Wittenberg for Eisleben on the same difficult and delicate errand, accompanied by his three sons, John, Martin, Paul, and Dr. Jonas. After being detained tM-ee days at the house of Jonas at Halle, by the inunda tion of the Salle, he reached Eisleben on the 28th. Here he had been born, here he had been baptized, and here he was now to die. His health having been in an indifferent state when he departed from Wittenberg, Katharine had sent him from her small domestic labo ratory some remedies which on several former occasions had proved beneficial ; but now it seemed as if they had lost their restorative power. Her affectionate anxiety about him at this time appears from several of his letters written to her after his leaving home. In one of them, dated February 7, 1546, he thus -writes with his characteristic good humour : — "To the gracious dame Katharine Luther, my dear spouse, who is tormenting herseK quite unneces sarily, grace and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ. Dear Katharine, you should read St. John, and what the catechism says respecting the confidence we ought to have in God. You afflict yourself just as if God were not all-powerful, and able to raise up new Doctor Martins by dozens, should the old Doctor Martin be dro-wned in the Salle, or perish in any other way. There is One who takes care of me in his own manner, better than you and all the angels could ever do. He sits by the side of the Almighty Father. Tran- quiUize yourself, then. Amen." On the 14th of February, when he wrote another letter to her, he was so well that he anticipated re turning to Wittenberg within the course of the same week. But he suddenly fell sick, and sunk so rapidly that, between two and three o'clock on the morning of the 18th of that month, he expired. Katharine had not the melancholy satisfaction of attending him on Ms death-bed, and of receivmg his last words and parting recogni- Geemant.] Katharine von Bora. 77 tion ; but it was comforting to her to know that in the prospect of death Ms hope of heaven through the blood of Christ was un clouded, and that Ms prevailing language was that of prayer, adoration, and trust in God. Among his last words were these :^ "0 my heavenly Father, eternal and merciful God, thou hast re vealed to me thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, him I have preached, him I have confessed, him I love and worship as my dearest Sa-viour and Deliverer, whom the ungodly persecute and blaspheme, receive my poor soul. O heavenly Father, although I must quit this body, and am hurried away from this life, yet I certainly know that I shall abide eternally -with thee, and that none can pluck me out of thy hand." Then he thrice repeated these words : — "Into thy hands I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth" (Psalm xxxi. 6), and also these words — "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that who soever believeth in him. should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John Ui. 16).' His corpse was honourably conveyed from Eisleben to Witten berg, whither it arrived on the 22d of February. As soon as it arrived at one of the gates of Wittenberg, the attendants who had conducted it from Eisleben were joined by a large assemblage of persons of aU ranks, who, by the invitation of John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, were there waiting, and the whole procession immediately proceeded to the castle church, the place of interment. In the procession, Katharine with her daughter and some other matrons riding together in a carriage, immediately followed the corpse, which was deposited in a leaden coffin, covered with black velvet, and carried on a oar drawn by fom- horses. The body being brought into the castle church, and placed on the right hand of the pulpit, some funeral hymns were sung; then the venerable Dr. Bugenhagen ascended the pulpit, and, in the audience of several thousands who were assembled in the place, delivered an appro priate address, after which, Philip Melancthon pronounced an elo- * Seek. Hist. Luth., lib. iii. sec. cxxxiii. p. 637. 78 Ladies of the Reformation. [Geemant. quent funeral oration; and this being ended, some learned men, selected for that office, let do^wn the coffin into the grave, whioh was at the ¦y^all on the right side of the pulpit and before it.' Thus was Katharine bereaved of him who, by delivering her from a convent, had, as it were, rescued her from a U'ving grave ; who had been first her kindest friend, and then her loving faithful husband ; with whom she had lived the happiest of wives, the happiest of mothers; and thus was she left a widow with the care of four children," all of whom were unable to provide for them selves. Luther's property at his death amounted in value to about 9000 guldens/ but this, from circumstances to be afterwards men tioned, brought her little benefit. Luther had commended Katharine -with his dying breath; and the manner in which he speaks of her in his last ¦will, executed a few years before his death — the high terms in which he commemo rates her worth as a wife — the anxious concern he evinces for her protection and comfort after Ms decease — the entire confidence he expresses that, should she agaiu marry, which he gives her full liberty to do, she would admit his children to share with her in what he had left — prove the high opinion he had formed of her Christian character. In this document, which is dated January 6, 1642, he says, " I, the undersigned, Martin Luther, doctor of divi nity, do hereby give and grant my dear and faithful ¦wife Katharine, as dower to be enjoyed by her during her life, at her own -will and pleasure, the farm of Zolsdorf, with all the improvements and addi tions I have made thereto ; the house called Brun, which I pur chased under the name of Wolff'; and all my silver goblets, and other valuables, such as rings, chains, gold and silver medals, to the amount of about 1000 fiorins. I make this disposition of my means, in the first place, because my Katharine has always been a gentle, pious, and faithful wife to me, has loved me tenderly, and ' The different classes which formed the procession, and the order in which they were disposed, are piu-ticularly described by Seckendorf, m his Historia Lutheranismi, hb. iu. sec. CXXXV. p. 644. 2 Walch's KatliaHna von Bora, Bd. il. s. 373. Geemant.] Katharine von Bora. 79 has, by the blessing of God, bom and brought up for me five chil dren, still living ; and may God long spare them.' Secondly, that out of the said means she may discharge my debts, amounting to about 450 fiorins, in the event of my not paying them myself before my death. In the third place, and more especially, be cause I would not have her dependent on her children, but rather that her children should be dependent on her— honouring her, and submissive to her, according to God's command. And though, after my death, she should be induced to change her state (for I cannot set limits to the designs of God), I have full con fidence that she will ever conduct herself as a good mother towards her children, and will conscientiously share with them whatever she possesses. . And here I beg all my friends to testKy the truth, and to defend my dear Katharine, should it happen, as is very possible, that ill tongues should charge her with retaining for her own private use, separate from the children, any money they may say I left concealed. I hereby certify that we have no ready money, no treasure of coin of any description."^ In his will Luther prayed Duke John Frederick, Elector of Sax ony, graciously to confirm it; and the elector, at the request of Katharine, upon her becoming a widow, confirmed it as valid by letters-patent, dated Wittenberg, April 11, 1546, though it wanted the forms required by law.^ Under her grief for the loss of Luther, while the remembrance of Ms long and splendid career was yet fresh, she met with the sym pathy of the Eeformed princes, as well aa that of other adherents of the Eeformation. She received condolences in particular from John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, the Counts of Mansfeld, and CMistian IIL, King of Denmark, who all expressed the highest 1 Katharine had bom him sis chUdren ; bnt long before this wiU was written, the eldest daughter, EUzabeth, had died when less than a year old. Shortly after it was ¦written, he was bereaved of his favourite daughter Magdalene. At the time of his death four of his chUdren were alive. 2 Luther's Works, vol. xxi. p. 270.* Michelet's Luther, p. 352. Lawson's Luther, p. 377. 3 Seek. Hist. Luth., Ub. iU. sec. cxxxv. p. 651. The deed of confirmation is given in full in Luther's Works, vol. xxi. p. 273.* 80 Ladies of the Reformation. [geemant. veneration for his memory, and pledged themselves to make provi sion for the maintenance of herself and her children. The Elector of Saxony not only wrote to her a friendly letter, dated February 24, comforting her by arguments dra'wn from the will of God and the happy death of her husband, and promising to be kind to her and her children on account of his eminent worth ; but he made arrangements for then- being provided -with a regular and constant income; which was more than she had ventured to ask, for in a supplication to him she had simply prayed him to think of her and her children, without making any further request. His plan was that 1000 guldens, which he had put to Luther's credit, and the interest of which he had paid to him durmg his lifetime, should, together with another 1000 guldens, whioh he resolved to add to that sum, form a capital fund, which, laid out at interest, or applied to the purchase of an estate, as that of Wachsdorf near Wittenberg, should secure a regular income to the family.' Luther's testament having been confirmed, Katharine chose for guardians the priucipal man at Wittenberg, Asmus Spiegel, and her brother, John von Bora. Those selected as tutors of the chUdren, were the burgomaster, Ambrosius Eeuter, the electoral physician -in -ordinary. Dr. Matthias Eatsenberger, and Luther's brother James, of Mansfeld ; to whom were afterwards added Melancthon and Cruciger, as co-guardians, "that the cMldren might be maintained and trained up in the fear of God, in learn ing, chastity, and virtue." The arrangements made by the tutors in relation to the property and the education of the children, were as follows : — Wachsdorf was purchased for 2200 guldens, and payment immediately made with the elector's present of 2000 guldens, the remaining 200 being borrowed. This estate was to remain the property of the children, and as it could be held in possession only by males, it was in reality the property only of the three sons. Margaret, who was then about ten years of age, was to retain her share in the elector's present as debt upon • Seek. Hist. Luth., Ub. ih. sec. cxx.xv. p. 647. Meurer, Katharina Lvther, a. 95. Germany.] Katharine von Bora. 81 the estate, and it was to be paid to' her "apon her marriage, until which period thirty guldens as interest were to be paid on her account from the rental. In regard to the sons, John,^ who was now about twenty years of age, was to be allowed, at his own desire, to continue prosecuting his studies, instead of being sent, as had been proposed, to the electoral government ofiice. Martin,^ who was between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and Paul,^ who was between twelve and thirteen, were to be permitted to remain with the mother, not merely in compliauce with her earnest request, but also because an excellent tutor had been provided for them in the person of Ambrosius Eudtfeld, in whose attention to their studies the guardians had entire confidence. Margaref was also to reside with the mother.^ 1 John was bom on the 6th of Jime, 1526. After completing his studies at Wittenberg and Konigsberg, he became councillor of state, first to John Frederick II., Duke of Saxony, then to Albert, Duke of Prussia. He married Elizabeth, only daughter of Dr. Caspar Cruciger, professor of theology in the university of Wittenberg, his father's friend, by whom he had cliildren, of whom. notMng is known with certainty, except that one of them was a daughter, named Katharine, who died without issue. He died at Konigsberg, October 22, 1575. — Meurer, Katharina Lutiier, s. 115. 2 Martin was bom in November, 1531. He studied theology, and in 1560 married Anna, daughter of Thomas HUlinger, one of the magistrates of Wittenberg. He was of dehcato health, and died at Wittenberg without issue, March 3, 1565, aged thirty-four years. 3 Paul was bom 28th of January, 1533-4. He was the most gifted of all Katharine's children, and so robust was he when a boy, that his father used to say of him, ' ' He must fight Bigainst the Turks," He studied medicine, and took his degree in 1557- After being a short time professor of medicine in the uniTcrsity of Jena, he became court physician, first to John Frederick II., Duke of Saxe-Gotha, then in 1566, to the Elector Joachim II. of Brandenburg, and from^ 1571, to the Electors of Saxony, Augustus and Cliristian I. The Calvinism of tho court of Saxony caused him subsequently to lay down his situation ; upon which he repaired to Leipsic. He married very young, when yet a student, February 5, 1553, Anna von Warbeck, daughter of a councillor of noble family in the court of the Elector John Frederick, by whom he had six children. He died at Leipsic in 1593, aged sixty years. His life is included in Melchior Adam's work, entitled Be Vitis Medicorum. 4 Margaret was bom in 1536. She married, August 5, 1555, George von Kiinheim, of Knauten, by MiiUhausen in Prussia, a man of noble descent, pious, and a great ad mirer of her father. Many counts and lords were present at the marriage, and it was blessed with nine children. Margaret died in 1570. Besides these children, Katharine had to Luther other two : — 1. Elizabeth, who was hom on the 10th of December, 1527, and who died about the beginning of August in 1528. — ^Luther's Letters in his Works, vol. xxi. p. 1076. 2. Slagdalene, who was bom in 1529, and who died in 1542. The male liaeage of Katharine and Luther became extinct in 175D; but many of their lineal and collateral descendants, it is believed, still exist in Germany. -^eck. Hist, luth., lib. iii, sec. cxxxv. p. 651. * Moritz Meui-er, es. 99, 100. 6 82 Ladies of the Reformation. FGrEBMANY. The Counts of Mansfeld, who were under gi-eat obligations to Luther, and in whose sei-vice he had spent his last strength, emu lated the Elector of Saxony in their Uberality towards his -widow and children. They engaged, by a -written document, to present them -with the sum of 2000 guldens, which, however, was not to be given till the year 1548, and, in the meantime, they were to bestow upon Katharine, as the interest of that sum, 100 guldens per annum.' Christian IIL, King of Denmark, also sent her a present of fifty dollars, and engaged to grant her an annual pension. The sympathy and assistance she thus received in the beginning of her -vvidowhood, served, meanwhile, in some measure, at least, to mitigate her sorrow, and all might have gone well with her, had it not been for the breaking out, in July, 1546, of the long- anticipated war between the Protestants of the Schmalkald league and the Emperor Charles V., in consequence of the meditated de sign of the emperor to extirpate the Protestant doctrines. To Katharine this war was peculiarly disastrous. With the exception of what she received from the bounty of others, she depended entu-ely upon the rents derived from her landed property, and it brought to her little, if any return. Lying directly in the seat of the war, it was exposed to all the calamities incident to such a position. It was also burdened by the hea-yy war-taxes, which at that time had to be borne almost wholly by the proprietors of the soil. The war, too, by engrossing the public attention, diverted it from her and her children, leaving them neglected and destitute. The present of 2000 guldens promised by the Counts of Mansfeld, was, at the most, only partially given,^ and the interest of that sum does not seem to have been at least regularly and fully paid. The annual pension she had been led to expect from the King of Den- ' Seek. Hist. Luth., lib. ui. p. 647. 2 Two yeara after Kathartue's de.ath, the half of the 2000 guidons had still to be p.iid to the ehildren by the Counts of Mansfeld. Whether the other 1000 had been paid in whole or iu part duruig her life-time, or after her death, is tmcertain. Probably she had received portions, if not the whole of that sum, during the course of the yeai-s of her Tvidowhood.— Meurer, Katharina Luiher, s. 107. Germany,] Katharine von Bora. 83 mark, was not received after the year 1547. The Elector of Sax ony, her best and truest friend, as he had been that of Luther, could not, from the misfortunes which had fallen upon himself, render her the assistance he otherwise might have rendered. Thus was the relict of a man, who had proved himself the greatest bene factor of the church, and of the world, since the age of Christ and his apostles — the beneficial efiects of whose labours were not limited to his own age, but have extended to subsequent ages, and wiU extend to all ages— reduced to very straitened dtitward circum stances, partly from the calamities of the times, and partly from the neglect and ingratitude of those upon whom she had the high est claims. Her four children were all dependent upon her, and she had not the means by whioh to supply their wants. Her widowhood, which extended to almost seven years, was, indeed, an uninterrupted succession of calamities and sorrows. This Lu ther seems almost to have foreseen, when, so early as 1538, he said, "The times are perilous; I pray that my wife and children may not long survive me.'' Now it was that she needed to recall, and to reduce to practice those lessons of submission to God, and trust in him, which he had long before taught her from the Scriptures. " I often yet think on that man of Ood, Dr. Martin Luther," says Jerome Weller, professor of theology at Freiberg, who was for many years the friend of Luther, and who boarded with him, " how he made his -wife commit to memory Psalm xxxi., when she was young, vigorous, and cheerful, and could not then know how this psalm would afterwards be so sweet and consolatory to her. But her beloved spouse did this with good reason, for he well knew that after his death she would be an afflicted aud miserable woman, and would greatly need the comfort contained in that psalm." ' Maurice, Duke of Saxony, having, in December, 1546, invaded the electorate, of the most of which he made himself master, and having threatened Wittenberg with a siege, Katharine fled, with ' Meurer, Katharina Luther, ss. 34, 93, 106, 107. 84 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Gebmaiv-/. many others, and went to Magdeburg. From this town she wrote, on the 9th of February, 1647, a letter of thanks to Christian IIL, King of Denmark — the first letter we have under her own hand — who, in the year of Luther's death, had, at the intercession of Melancthon and Bugenhagen, sent her the fifty dollars which he had annuaUy given as a pension to Luther for some years past.' After referring to her own and her children's distress, by reason of Luther's death, and to the miseries of the desolating war that had broken out, to which there was no present prospect of a termina tion, she adds : " Under such afiiiction, it has been to me a great and high consolation that your rojaX majesty, both by your gracious letter, and by transmitting the fifty doUars for the more comfort able support of myself and my children, as also by your royal majesty's most gracious oflfer, gives me assurance of your most gracious disposition towards me, a poor forsaken widow, and my poor orphans; for which, and for many other benefits formerly con ferred, I most humbly thank your royal majesty, hoping that God, who calls himself the Father of -widows and orphans, -will, as is my daily prayer to him, richly reward your royal majesty, to whose gracious defence and protection I herewith and ever earnestly com mend your royal majesty, your consort, my most gracious queen, and the whole of your royal children, together with your country and people." She subscribes herself, "Your royal majesty's obe dient Katharine Luther, the forsaken widow of Dr. Martin Luther, of blessed memory." " She subjoins a postscript, in which she beseeches his majesty to extend his sympathy and liberality to Dr. George Major, a learned friend, whom her deceased consort had supported above twenty years as his own son, and who, at that time, with ten children, was with her at Magdeburg in great privation; " for,'' says she, " divines with wives and children, especially in these deplorable times, must beg, as I myself almost experience, unless they receive relief and ' He had given a similar siim as a pension to some other divines of Wittenberj. 2 Mem-er, KatliaHna Luther, ss. 102-104. German-t.I Katha'rine von Bora. 85 support from princes and lords.'' It was honourable to Katharine thus to interest herself in the calamities of othei-s, and to interpose in their behalf, at a time when she herself stood iu need of succour, and it must have yielded her high gratification, when, in answer to her prayer, the Danish monarch afibi-ded pecuniary assistance to that distressed friend and scholar.' The defeat of the elector's forces at Miihlberg by the imperial army, under the command of Charles V., on the 4th of April, 1547 — the elector's surrender of himself a prisoner to the ImperiaUsts — the siege of Wittenberg, and its capitulation to the emperor, v.-ho entered it with his Spanish troops on the 25th — these were events which involved Katharine in much temporal difiiculty and distress. Upon the occupation of Wittenberg by Charles V. and his army, the faithful friends of the imprisoned elector, and many professors of the Eeformed faith, fied from the city. Katharine also, with her children, again betook themselves to flight. She probably might have remained in safety. Charles V., hostile as he was to the Eeformation from political motives, would suffer no violence to be done to the grave of her husband. When he had got posses sion of Wittenberg, he desired to see the tomb of Luther. On reaching the spot,^ as he thought of the history of the Eeformer, he could not help being solemnized and moved with feelings of profound veneration for so great a character. While, -with folded arms, he was reading the inscription, one of his officers asked permission to open the grave, and give the ashes of the heretic to the winds, or commit them to the flames. Charles nobly replied, "I war not with the dead; let this place be respected."^ He was not, therefore, likely, at this time, to have injm-ed Luther's widow aud children, or to have sufi'ered them to be injured. But Charles 1 Meurer, Katharina Lutiier, ss. 104, 105. 2 Ey this time the resting place of the mortal remains of the great Reformer was marked by a brass plate fixed in tho pavement of the church, directly over liis grave, aud bearmg an inscription eimply stating the time of his death, the place where he died, and his age. TMs plate is still to be seen.^Schadow's Wittenbei^g Denlcmdler, s. 87. GranviUe's St. Petersburg, vol. i. p. 259. 3 Mich. Luther, p. 439, 86 Ladies of the Reformation. [Gebmant. had shown himself no friend of Luther when in life; he was at the head of the opposition to the Eeformation in Germany, and she knew nothing of the deep and solemn thoughts which, at the grave of her deceased lord, had awed, subdued, and softened the feelings of the emperor. In leaving Wittenberg, she was therefore follow ing the dictates of prudence. She fled, as before, with her children to Magdeburg, and upon her arrival, found that Melancthon was there already. Early in May, she journeyed with him. Dr. Major and his family, to Bruns wick, where the fugitives were supported by the senate of the to-wn. They next set out for Liineburg, and after a short stay there, while Melancthon returned to Brunswick, and then started -with his family for Nordhausen, Dr. Major accompanied Katharine, with her family, on their way to her patron the King of Denmark. Upon their advancing, however, only so far as Gifhorn, they were dissuaded from proceeding farther on that journey, on account of the insecurity of the roads, which were everywhere infested with troops. Dr. Major then went to Goslar. At what place Katha rine, who still purposed traveUing to Denmark, in the meantime, sojourned, is uncertain; but a proclamation having been issued, inviting all who had departed from Wittenberg to return, and giving them assurances of safety, and of the undisturbed posses sion of their property, she, with many others, upon receiving the intelligence, returned to Wittenberg.' Her situation still continuing very distressing, as a means of procuring at least some relief, she let some apartments in her house, and also boarded at a moderate rate a small number of students. This, however, was a very inadequate source of subsistence, and she continued depressed by poverty.^ Melancthon, in testimony of his sympathy and friendship, inter ceded in her behalf -with the King of Denmark, in a letter dated the 3d of September, 1548. " Most gracious king and lord," he writes, "the poor widow of the late Dr. Martin Luther prays your royal ma- ' Meurer, Katharina Luther, ss. 105, 106. Ramshom, Band i. s. 362. 2 ibid. Germany.] Katharine von Bora. 87 jesty graciously to continue to her the yearly assistance which your royal majesty, in the lifetime -of Dr. Martin, graciously remitted to him." In the same year, she travelled -with Melancthon to Leipsic, on the errand of humbly supplicating the imperial general for relief from the oppressive taxes by which her landed property was bur dened. The first of these petitions, from causes which we are unable to explain, was frmtless; the latter, it is probable, was equally so. Bugenhagen, who, like Melancthon, warmly interested himself in Katharine's condition, -wrote to Christian IIL, earnestly pleading that some pecuniary assistance should be granted her.' His inter position was also -without eflfect. He again interceded in her behalf in another letter to the same monarch, dated the 18th of June, 1550. " May it please your majesty," says he, " to think of the poor -widow of Luther, who is indeed well known to your majesty. She would not be poor were she in the condition^ to take care of her small property, which she is not. She and her chUdren must, however, be maintained, for the sake of the eminent man, father Luther, whom Christ bestowed upon us in these last times." This petition being equally ineffectual with the preceding, Katharine herself, under the pressure of crushing poverty, made the following appeal to the Danish monarch : — " Grace from God, through his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, our Sa-iriour and true Helper hitherto. Most serene, most mighty, most gracious king and lord, I humbly pray your royal majesty graciously to receive this my letter, in consideration that I am a ' Bugenhagen was personally acquainted with that monarch, by whom he had been invited to Copenhagen in 1537, to compose a church ritual for Denmark, Norway, Schles wig, and Holstein. He accepted the iavitation ; and the ritual drawn up by hira, with the assistance of several native theologians, was passed into a law at the senate which the kingdom assembled at Odensee in 1539. Christian would have retained him per manently in Denmark ; but at the desire of John Frederick, Elector of Sasony, he re tumed to Wittenberg in 1542. — Schadow'a Wittenbergs Denkmdler, s. 69. 2 Tlie original here is, **wenn sie wiisste," literally, "did she know." Some under stand this expression as a censure upon Katharine's improvidence ; but Meurer observes that the words do not necessarily imply any reflection upon her, that phrase being, ac cording to the usus loquendi of the time, ecLuivalent to "were she inthe condition." — Katharina Lutiier, a. lOS. 88 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. poor widow, and that my late dear lord. Dr. Martin Luther, of blessed memory, has faithfull.y served the church, and especially because your royal majesty had conferred on my dear lord for some years, the gracious assistance of a yearly gift of fifty doUars, for which I humbly thank your royal majesty, and continually pray to God in behalf of your royal majesty. But since I and my children have now less help than before, and since the commotion of this time brings many troubles, I humbly beseech your royal majesty to be pleased graciously to appoint me this assistance for the future, for your royal majesty, I doubt not, has not forgotten my dear lord's great bm-den and labour. Your royal majesty is the only Idng upon eartli to whom we poor Christians may betake ourselves, and God will doubtless testify his approbation of such acts of benefi cence shown to Christ's poor preachers, and to their poor widows and orphans, by bestowing his gifts and blessings. I therefore will faithfully and earnestly pray Almighty God to be pleased graciously to preserve your royal majesty, and your royal children. " Katharine, Widow of Dr. Martin Luther.' ""Wittenberg, October 6, 1530." These applications were unhappily without success, nor did she obtain the needed relief from any other quarter. Thus um-elieved, and the expense of the maintenance of her chikh-en increasing as they grew up, her circumstances continued to become more distress ing. As her only remaining resource, she borrowed the sum of 400 guldens upon her property of Zolsdorf, from Dr. Francis Kram, professor of theology at Leipsic, and pawned a part of her silver plate. By this means she was enabled to keep want and starvation at bay for two years longer, when pinching poverty again pressing upon her, she sent another representation and petition for assis tance to the King of Denmark, dated the Sth of January, 1552. After referring to the 3'early pension he had bestowed upon her late beloved husband, upon Melancthon, and Bugenhagen, she apologizes 1 Luther's Works, vol. xxi. p. 394. Germany.] Katharine von Bora. 89 for addressing him, from the urgent necessity of her case, and from her hope that he would take it into his favourable consideration; at the same time, she complains that she had been more injured by friends than by enemies, that every one had become strange towards her, and that nobody would interest himself in her behalf. To this last complaint Bugenhagen was, however, an exception; for while so many, to their discredit, left her to languish neglected in the ¦wretchedness of destitution, he continued to testify the fidelity aud constancy of his friendship, by at least enforcing the pr.iyer of her petition in a letter to the King of Denmark.' Difi'erent in their effects from the preceding, these appeals, and especially Katharine's own pathetic representation of her forlorn condition, touched the heart of the monarch, who immediately sent an answer, with a gift of money, as appears from a letter which Bugenhagen wrote to his majesty, dated the 22d of Mai-ch, thank fully acknowledging that the money had been received. This was the last time that Katharine, who was now near the close of her earthly course, needed to bring her distresses rmder the notice of the great of this world.^ The plague having broken out in Wittenberg in 1552, and the university having removed to Torgau, it was Katharine's intention to remove thither, that she might not be deprived of the pecuniary resources, scanty as they were, which she had hitherto derived from taking students into her house as boarders. But on her way to Torgau she met with a serious accident. The horse in the waggon in which she was travelling with her children, having taken fright when passing a part of the road skirted by a lake, and having run ofi', she, to save herself and her children, leaped out of the waggon, in doing which she fell into the water severely bruised. She was conveyed to Torgau ; but the accident brought on a violent oold and sickness, from which she never recovered. During her whole sick ness, she comforted and supported herself by the Word of God, and earnestly desired her departure from this mortal Ufe. Her 1 Meurer, Katharina Luther, ss. 110-113. ' Ibid. s. 113. 90 Ladies of. the Reformation. [Germany. whole dependence for salvation -was upon the blood and sacrifice of Christ, and she expressed her childlike faith in these homely figur ative terms : " I will cleave to my Lord Christ, as the bur to the cloth.'' She commended the church and her children to God, and prayed that the evangelical doctrine which God had restored in its purity in this last time, through the instrumentality of her husband, might be transmitted unadulterated to posterity. Having lingered three months after the fatal accident, she died on the 20th of December, 1552, aged fifty-three years, having survived Luther seven years.' She was buried in the parish church of Torgau, and her funeral was attended by the students of the university, whom the vice-rec tor, Paul Eber, had invited by a public placard, to show her this last mark of respect, in consideration of her o-wn worth, as weU as from veneration for the memory of Luther.- A tombstone, which is still to be seen, was erected over the spot where she lies. It is of sand stone, is painted, and in some parts gilded. Her effigy is sculptured upon it at full length, wearing the grave-clothes, and holding in both hands an open Bible. Above the head, on the right hand, is Luther's coat of arms, namely, a black cross set in a heart of a red colour, which, again, is set in the centre of a white rose, and the whole surrounded by a golden ring.= Above the head, on the left, ' Ramshorn, Bd. i. sa. 360-363. Meurer, Katharina Luther, ss. 115-119. •- Walch, Geschichte Kath. von Bora, Bd. i. s. 2S6. Meurer, Kath. Luther, ss. US, 119. 3 The meaning of this device Luther explains in a letter to his friend Lazarus Spengler (dated Coburg, July 8, 1530), who had inciuired with respect to the impression on his seal. "I -ndU inform you." says he, " of my first ideas as to the emblems which I -mshed to engi-ave in combination upon my seal, as iu character with my theology. The fli-st should be a black cross set in the heart, which should have its natural colour, by which I may be reminded that faith in the cracified One makes us blessed; for, when we believe from the heart, we become righteous. The cross should be of a black colour, because it mortifies and leads to repentance; but though it affiicts the heart, it destroys not the nature— that is, it kills not, but keeps alive. 'The just Uves by his faith,' namely, in the oiuciaed One. This heart should be set in the centre ot a white rose, to denote that faith gives joy, comfort, and peace ; and, as it does this, not as the world gives peace and joy, therefore should the rose be white and not red ; for white is the colour of spirits and of the angels. This rose is in a heaven blue-coloured escutcheon, to signify that this joy in the spirit and in faith is the beginning of the heavenly joy to come; at present, Indeed, inwardly experienced and apprehended by hope, but not yet manifest. And round thia Germany.] Katharine von Bora. n is Katharine's own coat of arms, namely, a lion rampant with the right paw raised on a golden shield, and a peacock's tail upon the helmet. Along the side is a simple German inscription, of which the fol lowing is a translation : "In the year 1552, the 20th of December, here in Torgau, fell asleep, blessed in God, Katharine von Bora, the blessed widow of Doctor Martin Luther." The tombstone, as is evident from the roughness of its sculpture, is the workmanship of a rude hand.' Dm-ing her lifetime several like nesses of Katharine were taken, some of which were paintings in oil, others engravings in wood and copper-plate. Copies of them are to be found in various German works, and are of ten to be seen even on stoneware in Germany. In some of them she is represented with a hood and broad headband, in others with a small, scarcely observable hair-net on the back part of the head. In this latter attire she appears to more ad vantage, with a more open, kind, and engaging countenance than in the former. Likenesses of her were taken both by the elder and younger Cranach.^ When a portrait of her, executed by the former, escutcheon is a golden ring, to denote that this blessedness in heaven lasts for ever, and is precious above all other joya aud possessions, even as gold is by far the most precious metal." — Luther's Works, vol. xxi. p. 307. I Eamshom, Bd. i. s. 364. Schadow's Wittenbei'g Denkmaler, s. 117. 2 An engraving of her, taken from an oil-painting dated 152G, the year .after her mar riage, probably executed by the younger Cranach, is given in Reformations Almanach auf das jahr, 1S17, at p. Ixiv. The original was then in the possession of Vulpius, councillor and librarian at Weimar. In the same work it is stated that a similar paint ing of her, without date, but cei-tainly the work of some old German artist, is in the possession of the Justice Eberhard in Erfurt, and that these two portraits represent her Tombfltone of Katharine von Bora. 92 Ladies of the Reformation. [Gekbiany. was hung on the wa]l, Luther on seeing it esclaimedj "I will have a man's portrait also taken, and the two shall be sent to the council of Mantua, for the holy fathers to determine whether they would not after all, prefer the marriage state to the celibacy of the eccle siastics."^ with a brighter, more intelligent eye, and with the cheek boue less projecting, than any of tlae others which the wiiter had seen. — Reformaiions Almanach auf das jahr, s. Ixxiii. It may here be added that a silver gilt medal she used to wear as an ornament at her neck — a gift she had received from Luther, perhaps on her birthday, is still preserved at Dresden. It specially records the date of her birth, of which we should otherwise have remained ignorant. The devices he caused to be engraven on it, like the device of his coat of arms, are significant of great Christian truths. The device on one side is a brazen serpent raised over the wounded Israelites, with the motto, " Serpens exaltatus typus Cliristi crucifixi," and around the margin is the inscription, *' D. Mart. Lutor, Catarinse SU03 dono dedit hf."^ The reverse side represents the Saviour on the cross, and a multi tude of people standing around it, with this legend, " Christus raortuus est pro peccatis nostris; " aud around the margin is the inscription, ' ' Quse nata est anno 1499, d. 29 Janu arii." — Walch, Geschichte Katharina von Rora, Bd. i. s. 7. Meurer, Katharina Luther, s. 7. 1 riichelet's Luther^ p. 201. * -i.e.f hanc Eguvam. The Town of Stendal. ELIZABETH, WIFE OF JOACniM I., ELEOTOE, OF BRANDENBURG. bLERMANY, in the times of which we -write, consisted of between two and three hundred states, forming kingdoms, electorates, duchies, marquisates or mar- graviates, counties, bishoprics, and abbacies, possess ing each within itself supreme and independent juris diction. Many of these were of small extent, no larger than mode rate estates of private gentlemen ; and from then- weakness, were exposed to the encroachments of their more powerful neighbours, against which the federal constitution of the empire did not always afford them protection. Others embraced more ample and populous domains, and were able to defend their own authority and independence. The princes who had the right of electing the im perial head' possessed the most extensive, the most populous, and ' The electoral princes were oi-iginally seven : — the Margrave of Brandenburg, the Dulce of Saxony, the Count Palatine, the King of Bohemia, aud three ecclesiastical priuces, the 04 Ladies of the Reformation. [Gekmant. the richest territories, and they engrossed all the great oflices of state. Of these numerous states, that of Brandenbm-g was among the most considerable. Originally a portion of Saxony, it was erected, about the year 1157, into a mai-quisate or margrayiate, by Albert the Bear. Its princes gradually enlarged their territories, and it has since been formed into the kingdom of Prussia, which comprehends many states, scattered in detached portions over the vast space reach ing from the Baltic to the Alps, arid from the Vistula to the Ehine. The princess of whom we are now to give some account was among the first who embraced the Eeformed sentiments in Branden burg, and she was one of the most sincere and earnest disciples of the Eeformation in her time. To her belongs the high honour of having been the nursing mother of the Eeformation in what now constitutes the kingdom of Prussia — a fact which contributes to attach an interest to her history — and as such she is stiU remem bered and revered by the Protestants of that kingdom. She was never invested with sovereign power ; but yet to her, next to God, we are to trace the establishment of Protestantism in Brandenburg, and it is probably owing to her that Prussia is a Protestant king dom at the present day. This princess was the daughter of John IL, King of Denmark, by his queen Christina, daughter of Ernest I., Elector of Saxony, by his -wife Elizabeth, daughter of Albert IIL, Duke of Bavaria. She was therefore, on the father's side, the grand-daughter of Christian I., King of Denmark, and of his queen Dorothea, daughter of John I. of Brandenburg, surnamed the Alchymist. Christian IL, King of Denmark, was her brother; Frederick, surnamed the Wise, and John, surnamed the Steadfast, successively Electors of Saxony, and the great patrons of Luther, Albert, Archbishop of Mentz, and Ernest, Archbishop of Magdeburg, were her maternal uncles.' Archbishops of Mentz, Cologne, and Treves. Some additions were mado to this number iu the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. ' Alesauder'a Sovereign Princes in Europe, book ii. pp. 69, 70, 97. Germany.] Elizabeth of Brandenburg. 95 Elizabeth was born in the year 1485, in the midst of the gi-eat poUtical storms whioh had long convulsed the Scandinavian king doms — Denmark, Norway, and Sweden— and by which they were yet for many years to be agitated. As she grew up, she possessed great advantages of person, and the graces of her mind were early developed. In 1502, while in her seventeenth year, she was mar ried at Stendal to Joachim I., Elector of Brandenburg, who on his mother's side was also a descendant of the house of Saxony— his mother Margaret being the daughter of WilUam, Duke of Saxony, a brother of Elizabeth's maternal great-grandfather.' The nuptial rite was performed by her uncle Ernest, Archbishop of Magdeburg, a pious and grave prince, whose monument is yet to be seen in the cathedral of Magdeburg. The marriage was celebrated at Stendal, because the plague was at that time raging in Berlin, the capital of Joachim's dominions. The marriage contract, which is still extant, is dated 1502, Tuesday ^o«i Misericordias Domini. Joachim's attachment to Elizabeth at first, and even for a con siderable number of years after their union, was deep and ardent, and he would have been ready to do anything, or to make any sacrifices for her sake. In the year 1508, when he confirmed and enlarged, by a second deed of settlement, the provisions of the ori ginal marriage contract, it is particularly stated that he did so "out of the special love, friendship, and affection we bear to our dear spouse." Four years after this, namely in 1512, it is noted in the court history of the period, that at the tournament celebrated at New Euppin, where all the elite of the nobility, their wives and daughters, were in attendance, it was universally admitted, that among all the ladies present, none equaUed her in loveliness of per son, and in elegance of manner. " The highest lady in the land," it was said, "is also the most beautiful. Her carriage, too, is so modest, unaffected, and graceful." At that time she was still happy, a beloved wife, and the blooming mother of four children. 1 Alexander's Sovereign Pri'nces in Europe, book ii. pp. 68, 69, 97. 96 Ladies of the Reformation. [gebmax-/. She seemed to be the lady whom, of all others, Joachim loved best, and nothing had yet occurred to interrupt their mutual felicity.' But these early days of sunshine were unhappily succeeded by days of darkness. Thorns instead of flowers began to encircle her head. Some years later, a blight was brought upon her matrimonial happiness, which rested, as it must ever rest, upon mutual love and fidelity. The elector, who formerly was so kind and tender, forget ting his matrimonial vows, cooled in his affections, and became un faithful to the wife of his youth. Of his grievous aberrations she could not long remain ignorant, and bitter was her sorrow when it reached her ears, and she had too good grounds for believing that his heart was no longer exclusively hers, and that he was captivated by the charms of others, to whom his affections could not lawfully be given. In her own chamber, the silent witness of her sorrows, she gave vent to the feeUngs which she strove to conceal from others." When the question of church reform began to agitate Germany, Elizabeth became the seeret disciple of the new cause. The pure doctrines of the gospel, especially the doctrine of justification by faith in the righteousness of Christ without works of law, approved itself to her judgment, and took possession of her heart. She was, indeed, in the state of mind which peculiarly prepared her for their reception. Her domestic affliction arising from the infidelity of her husband, promoted in her mind serious thought, and the more trying her lot, the more precious did the Word of God become to her — even as the stars appear the brighter the darker the sur rounding sky. These truths brought peace to her mind and strength to her heart, which she had never found in the superstitions of Popery.' Her husband the elector, however, remained a zealous devotee of the Eomish reUgion. He was no inconsiderable character in the history of Germany in his day. Highly gifted by nature, and well educated for that period, he could speak several languages, and was 1 Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu Brandenburg, &o., Berliu, 1839, s. 10. 2 Ibid. ss. 10, 11. 3 ma. „. n. Germant. J Elizaheth of Brandenburg. 97 skiUed especially iu history and geometry. He was a promoter of the sciences, exceUed in feats of chivaU-y, and was distinguished as a statesman. But he was one of the most determined enemies of Luther and of the Eeformation. He did not, indeed, stand up against all ecclesiastical reform — he acknowledged that the church was sadly in want of repairing ; but of the Wittenberg reform he was the uncompromising opponent. He waited for the necessary correction of evils from the great city of Eome, and not from the little town of Wittenberg, "forgetting," as a chronicler of Eliza beth's life observes, "that the Lord himself was born in Bethlehem, was brought up in Nazareth, but was crucified in Jerusalem.'" The Wittenberg reform was of by far too leveUing a character for him. He had no notion of altering doctrines and overthrowing the Papacy. He had, indeed, never closely examined the new opinions, or compared them with the old, testing the cogency of the argu ments by which they were respectively supported, in order to dis cover on which side the truth was to be found. Taking for granted as settled truths the doctrines and worship of the Popish church in which he had been educated, he resolved to move on in the accustomed track, true to the pope, and true to all the doctrines and superstitions of Popery. All he wanted was the correction of the grosser abuses of the Popish chm-ch. He was suspicious of all innovations, and hostile to aU radical changes. From the restless spirit evoked by Luther, he was afraid of civil disturbances and dis orders, and of the overthrow of his own authority in the overthrow of the existing ecclesiastical system — ^the common apprehension entertained by the princes opposed to the Eeformation, which they contemplated not simply as heresy, but as a source of civU insubor dination and tumult. Taking these views of the great ecclesiasti cal movement, and being a man naturally impetuous, firm of pur pose, and -vigorous in action, he met it with energetic and resolute opposition. At the imperial diet at Worms in 1521, to which the German Eeformer had traveUed, after having received a safe-con- ^ Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu Brandenburg, &c., a. 15. 98 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. duct from the Emperor Charles V., he recommended to the empe ror that the heretic should be apprehended and committed to tho flames, notwithstanding his safe-conduct — acting on the Popish doctrine, that no faith is to be kept with heretics ; and no sooner was the edict of Worms against Luther issued, than he ordered it to be strictly enforced throughout his dominions.' He proscribed Luther's German translation of the Bible. In an edict to this effect, published on the 28th of .February, 1524, he commands all his sub jects to have nothing to do with Luther's Bible, and such as had copies in their possession are reqmred to deliver them up to the magistrates, under the penalty of being punished, the kind or de gree of the punishment not being specified. Yet he announces that this prohibition extends exclusively to Luther's version — not to the Vulgate, nor to the German translations executed before the time of Luther.^ Joachim's stern, inflexible firmness and energetic conduct, which made him, when he thought it necessary, resist the encroachments even of the pope, were qualities that commanded the respect of Luther ; and making a distinction between him and his other ad versaries, he said, "We may still pray for the Elector of Branden burg."^ But these qualities, combined with the strong views he took of Luther's reform as destructive of the soul, and of the autho rity of sovereigns, became the cause of much suffering to his con sort Elizabeth after she had embraced the Eeformed principles. In the adoption of these principles, the electress was preceded by her brother. Christian IL, King of Denmark, who, soon after the standard of defiance against the pope was raised by Luther, sent to Germany for learned doctors to instruct his subjects in the Ee formed religion.' But Denmark was not then ripe for these inno vations ; and from the unpopularity he had incurred among his no bility as weU as among the people, by reason of his tyranny, his 1 Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu Brandenburg, &c., a. 14. Kamshom, Bd. ii. a. 8. D'Aubignd'a Hist. Reform., bool: is. chap, iv., and book xiv. chap. x. 2 Seek. Hist. Luth.,iib. i. sec. cxxvii. p. 211. ^ D'Aub. Hist. iJe^.,bookix. ch. iv. * Seek. Hist. Luth., lib. i. sec. cxxvii. p. 211. Germany.] Elizaheth of Brandenburg. 99 example in favouring the new ecclesiastical system rather created aversion to it than furthered its adoption in his kingdom. Though brave, possessed of a vigorous understanding, and skilled in the art of government, he was a violent, cruel, ambitious tyrant. The cruelties he committed were such as will entaU on his memory the deepest infamy to the latest ages, and they cannot even now be read without horror. In 1523, being deposed by his own subjects, he fled to Berlin with his consort Elizabeth, sister of the Emperor Charles V. As he approached the city, his sister, the Electress of Brandenburg, accompanied by her children, the young princes and princesses,' rode out to meet him. Their meeting in the circum stances was distressing to both parties. They were, besides, much alarmed by an accident, which might have proved fatal to the electress. Prince John, her second son, having been thrown from his horse, to protect him she sprung from her palfrey, in doing which, becoming entangled in the stirrup, she remained hanging and was dragged along. But she was happily delivered from her perilous situation -without sustaining any serious injury.^ From Berlin, her brother Christian went to Saxony, where his maternal uncles, Frederick and John, afforded him an asylum. Dur ing the course of the year 1623, she and her husband, and Christian, passed two days together with the Elector Frederick, at his castle of Schweinitz. In the autumn of that year, the Danish monarch sent for Luther from Wittenberg to that castle, where he heard him preach with such satisfaction, that he declared it had never been his privilege during all his life to hear the gospel unfolded with such fulness and power, nor while he Uved would he forget that sermon, and that now, God helping, he would patiently bear what ever might befall him.' 1 The sons and daughters of the heads of the German states are styled princes and princesses. 2 Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu Brandenburg, &c., k. 12. 3 After this. Christian continued in Saxony, residing for the most part at Torgau, until 1531, when, being unsuccessful in an attempt to recover the Idngdom of Denmark, he waa under the necessity of surrendering to liis successor and uncle, Frederick I. (formerly Duke of Eolsteiu), a wise and moderate prince, by whom he was imprisoned. His imprison ment only ended with his life, sixteen years after. He had thua a long period of misfor- 100 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. EUzabeth was a compassionate princess, and she employed her influence with the elector on the side of clemency. In the year 1523, an insurrection having broken out, and the rebels having been defeated, arrested, and imprisoned, commiserating their unhappy fate, she endeavoured to mitigate his resentment, and to bend him to the exercise of mercy. At her request, and the request of her brother Christian IL, King of Denmark, whose misfortunes, it would appear, had in some degree softened his heart, the elector issued letters of grace. In these letters, dated Saturday after Matthias, 1523, which are still preserved, it is expressly stated that the elector was moved to grant a pardon to the rebels "in conside ration of the eamest intercession of his royal highness the King of Denmark, our gi-acious beloved lord and brother-in-law, and our gracious beloved spouse."' In the year 1525, two events occurred which greatly contributed to emancipate the mind of EUzabeth from the power of supersti tious terrors, and to confirm her faith in the truth of the Eeformed sentiments. An astrologer having foretold the destruction of the capital by a storm on the 15th of July that year, the elector, who was an enthusiastic student of astrology, which at that period was universally practised in Germany, and a firm believer in its mys terious revelations, gave full credit to the prediction ; and he him self, with the whole court, at his command, fled for safety to a place at some distance, where they sj^ent the day in the terror of every moment witnessing the destruction of the capital. But everything tune dui-ing wliich to ponder his guilt, to repent, and iraplore forgiveness from God. Wlule resident at Torgau he frefjuently went to Wittenberg to visit Luther, who formed a very favoui-able opinion of the good eifect of adversity upon his mind, and remarked, in one of his letters, that God, by bestowing his grace upou a sovereign, whose conversion, iu the judgment of man, would have been least expected, might inteud to show himself won derful by bafQing human calculations. It was even reported at tlie time that he performed the office of deacon in the Lutlierau church in that place. He maintained constant con-es pondence with his sister in Berlin. — Seckendorfii Hist. Luth., lib. i. sec. cxlix. p. 268. Hia queen liad early embraced the Reformed pi-inciples, ai id continued steadfastly to maintain tliem to her death, notwithstandiug the displeasure of some of her nearest relatives. See notice ofthis queen in Appendix, No. I. ' Elizabeth Kurfiirstin su, Brandenburg, &c., s. 14. Germany.] Elizabeth of Braiidenburg. 101 remained quiet all around, and no symptoms appeared' of the dreaded catastrophe. Towards evening EUzabeth, more than dubious of the truth of the astrologer's vaticination, and taking courage from the absence of any indication of its fulfilment, endeavoured to per suade the elector to banish from his mind all such apprehensions, and to be afraid only of God, in whose hand he was in all places. "The court," she added, "is guilty as well as the people; and there fore it would have been becoming for them to have stayed in the city with the people, and to have shared the same fate whatever it might have been. Since God is everywhere preaent, it is foolish to think to escape from him ; for if he intends to punish us, it is easy for him to do so, wherever we may flee." Whether these observations pro duced any impression on the mind of the elector, it is not said; but at last, impatient of waiting, and seeing no signs of the predicted over throw, he ordered the return of the court into the city. No sooner had they advanced to the gateway of the castle, than a terrible storm of lightning arose, and a coachman, with four horses, were struck dead; but the court remained otherwise unhurt. It thus appeared that the prophecy was false, and that, had the court remained in the city, even this calamitous accident might not have taken place. This shook the faith of the electress in astrology, and, at the same time, in many of those superstitions which were generally received as from God in that ignorant and credulous age.' The other event which deeply impressed her mind, was the fate of an ignorant monk, who preached at Christmas in the cathedral against " the new learning," and even against the Scriptures them se! ves, which, said he, entangled men in error when not explained and corrected by the church. While declaiming against the Scrip tures, as contradictory in representing "the mother of God" at one time as a virgin, at another as a -wife (Gal. iv. 4), his excitement and violence became so great, that he was smitten by apoplexy in the midst of his oration, and was carried out of the cathedral dead. This death, so sudden and appalling, when related in all its circum- ' Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu, Brandenburg, &o., ss. 15, 16. 102 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. stances to Elizabeth, affected her with sentiments of solemn awe. She could not help regarding it as a judgment of God upon the monk, for having blasphemed the Divine Word. Whether she was correct or not in her interpretation of this providence, it certainly had the effect of confirming her in the beUef of the truth of the Eeformed doctrines.' By her prudent conduct, EUzabeth, for some time after she had embraced the doctrines of Luther, kept the intolerance of the elector under restraint, and prevented the breaking out of family dissen sions. In consequence of his inveterate hostility against the Ee formation, she did not obtrude upon him her religious sentiments, concealing them from him as much as possible. Several years, therefore, elapsed before the difference between them, on the ground of religion, resulted in an open quarrel. What caused this unhappy issue, was her participation of the sacra ment of the Lord's Supper, in both kinds, as administered by the Ee formers. Earnestly desirous to observe this ordinance in its integrity and pm-ity, in testimony of her love to her Saviour and Lord, she, without his knowledge, and during his absence in the spring of the year 1528, invited a Eeformed minister from Wittenberg, whose name is not recorded, to her castle at Cologne,^ on the Spree, to preach the Word, and to celebrate this solemn institution after the manner en joined in the New Testament. He immediately came at her request, and she received from his hands the sacrament of the supper in both kinds. Her brother Christian IL, who was then staying with her, also joined in the observance of the ordinance. This was in the month of March. At the time, she little thought of the serious nature of the business which was to arise out of the heretical conventicles she was holding in the castle. On his returning home, Joachim did not long remain ignorant of what had been going on in the castle during his absence. It is painful to think that the person who informed 1 Elizabeth Kurfiirstin £« Brandenburg, &c., s. 16. 2 Cologne is the old town of Berlin. It may be called the centre of the capital ; and it is separated by the Spree from the more modern part of Berlin, which is situated to the north-east of tliis central district. Germany.] Elizabeth of Brandenburg. 103 against the electress, was her own daughter Elizabeth, a princesa about eighteen years of age, who had been married the preceding year to Eric, Duke of Brunswiok-Calenberg, and who was now on a, visit at the court at Berlin. Though bearing the name of her mo ther, she had not yet become a partaker of her faith, but, like her father, was an ardent Eomanist, and strongly prepossessed against the Eeformers, whom she regarded as the enemies of religion, and the emissaries of rebellion. Hence it was that she so flagrantly and so unnaturally violated the sacred duties of filial piety, by betraying her mother at this time; and thus the words of Christ, in which he predicts that the gospel would prove the occasion of dividing families into parties, and that, for its sake, the nearest relations would treat each other as enemies, were fulfiUed : " I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household" (Matt. x. 35,36). It is, however, pleasing to record, that within ten years after, this daughter became a convert to the Eeformed faith, and continued its zealous supporter to the close of her life. Joachim, when informed of the heretical conduct of his wife, took a strong view of the case, such as his deep and inflexible hatred of the Eeformation produced. Greatly in censed, he broke forth into the most violent reproaches against her : " And so you are become one of these vile Lutherans ! You blas pheme the church and her sacraments ! My castle is to be made a seminary of heresy ! " He used language of even greater virulence than this. His loud, agitated, frenzied voice, and his eyes reeling with fiery passion, made her tremble, and, struggling with emotions which almost choked utterance, she besought him to restrain himself, and not be so rash in his execrations. This only stirred his blood into deeper anger, and gave harsher tones to his irritation. He now added threatenings of violence, and told her that he was not the man to shrink from executing what he threatened. The wonder is, from his excited state, that he did not actually strike her with his clenched fist. Such was the vehemence of his wrath, and the fierce- 104 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. ness of his intonation, that it shook his whole frame, and he fell down from exhaustion. Some of the servants being instantly called for, he was carried to his bed as dead; and so was this stormy scene ended, but not yet Elizabeth's sufferings for the truth. Not con tented with this burst of rage, he confined her to her bed-chamber for some days, and purposed to lay her under severer restraint, if not to subject her to perpetual imprisonment.' Had Elizabeth been inclined to renounce the Eeformed faith, which, from conviction, she had embraced, the resentment of the elector might have been soon allayed, and the variance between him and her have been easily composed. In that case, he might have felt little difiiculty in forgiving her, and the Eomish clergy might have aided in mollifying his wrath by their powerful advocacy. " If she repent and make confession," they would say, "the church, which is an indulgent mother, wUl be ready again to receive her with open arms." But she had no intention of recanting; she had made up her mind not to do this, whatever her steadfastness might cost her. " I must obey God, rather than man," she reasoned with her self ; " I must cleave to him, though for doing so my nearest and dearest relations should abhor and persecute me. To obey my hus band in the article of religion, would be to offend God, and to incur the doom of those who deny Christ before men." Her situation thus became a very trying one. Joachim was not to be pacified, at least without a recantation, and the Popish clergy in her neighbour hood in his confidence, instead of endeavouring, by good counsel, to quench the fiery passion into which he had been betrayed, goaded him on to the harshest measures against her. She did not know exactly to what length his persecution of her would extend, or where it would terminate, while she was defenceless, and could not successfully oppose the power she had to contend with. Some ter rible disastrous evils, of which she had but an indefinite idea, might be hanging over her head. She therefore resolved, if possible, to make her escape, and to betake herseK for protection to her uncle 1 Seek. Hist. Luth., 1. ii. s. xiii. p. 122. Elizabeth Kurfiirstin za Brandenburg, &o., a. 17. Germany.] Elizabeth of Brandenburg. 105 John, Elector of Saxony, surnamed the Steadfast, who was a zealous Protestant and her sincere friend, though his castle at Torgau was a considerable way off. This purpose she made kno-wn to her brother Christian IL, King of Denmark, and he privately prepared to receive her at the boun daries of her husband's dominions, and to conduct her in safety to her uncle's castle. She had also disclosed her intention to three of her domestic servants — the doorkeeper Joachim of Gotse, Achim of Bredow, and a waiting-maid — in whose fideUty she had confidence, and whose assistance would be necessary or useful. Everything ha-ving been arranged, she, at midnight, between the 25th and 26th of March, having put on the dress of a female peasant, succeeded, •with the co-operation of the doorkeeper and Achim, in effecting her escape from the castle at Cologne, attended only by the waiting- maid.' Having reached the gate of the city, she there found a rude coimtry waggon ready to convey her to Saxony. She immediately took her place in the waggon, and m-ged the driver to push forward. They had not proceeded far, when, from the badness of the roads, and from the speed at which they were riding, one of the wheels in the waggon broke. Afraid of detention, as she might be pursued, she hastUy untied a handkerchief she wore about her head, and flung it to the driver, who made use of it in fastening the broken wheel. Soon again they were speeding on -with eager haste, and having reached the boundaries of the electorate of Brandenburg, the elec tress met her brother Christian, who was waiting for her, and she was conveyed by him to the electoral castle at Torgau, with the assistance of an attendant, John of Dolzig, who, with another friend, informed her uncle, the Elector of Saxony, of her condition, and interceded -with him in her behalf.^ On being admitted into the presence of her uncle, the princess fell at his feet with much agitation, and -with a torrent of tears, and ' Ramahom, Bd. ii. s. 10. Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu Brandenburg, &c., a. 18. The author of tliis last observes that some records extant, instead of the doorkeeper JoaoUm of Gotse, have the elector's chamberlain. Otto Schenk of Landsberg. 2 Seek. Hist. Luth., Ub. ii. sec. xiii. p. 122. Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu Brandenburg, s. 18. 106 Ladies of the Reformation. [Gbrmakty. in broken accents, told him the cause of her flight, and implored him, in her helpless situation, to protect her from the horrors of the persecution which her husband, under the impulse of religious zeal, and leagued with cruel ecclesiastics, had meditated against her; Elizabeth at the fett of her Uncle, Dulie John. protesting, at the same time, that if he was afraid of incurring any danger by harbouring her, she was unwilling to expose him to peril, and rather than do so, would go whither Providence should direct her steps. Her appeal to his sympathy was not made in vain. He readily entered into her feeUngs, and assured her that she was cor dially welcome, adding, that if he could prevent it, no power on earth should molest her. She then stayed for a considerable time with Germany.] Elizaheth of Brandenburg. 107 her brother at Schweinitz Castle. Her uncle granted her, for her O'wn residence, the castle of Lichtenburg,' on the Elbe, near Witten berg. Here she continued privately to reside for many years, seldom appearing at court; and though in Saxony she met with many kind friends, and received the respect to which her rank and worth entitled her, it cost her many tears of sadness thug to lie under the displeasure of her husband, and to be deprived of the society of her beloved children, who could only visit her occasionaUy. This distressing event, when made known to Luther, could not fail to excite his Uvely interest, and he deeply sympathized with the electx-ess in her present melancholy situation. On the 28th of March, shortly after her arrival at her uncle's court, he thus -writes, in a letter to Wenceslaus Link, of Nurnberg : " Let the congregation quickly assemble in the sacred place of meeting, for joint prayer, that the Lord' Christ would bruise Satan, for he roai-s as a savage and hungry lion, and thirsts for our blood. The margravine has fled from Berlin, with the assistance of her brother the King of Den mark, to our prince, because the margrave, it is said, had determined to cause her to be immured, on account of her participating of the sacrament of the supper in both kinds." ^ The place of her residence being in the neighbourhood of Wit tenberg, this soon brought her into intercourse -with Luther, from whose instructions she was desirous to profit, and to whom, as being of a kindred spirit, she could open her heart. He paid her fre quent visits, and she often resorted to his house, in which she some times stayfed more than three months studying the Divine Word. The Christian friendship thus formed between her and Luther continued uninterrupted till the death of the latter. A brief letter of his, written to her many years after her flight, namely, on the 1 Here, at that time, the buildings for residence were spacious, and various ecclesiasti cal meetings were held iu tliem in the sixteenth centuiy. The proper castle of Lichten burg was, however, built at a later period by Anne, spouse of the Elector Augustus, aud was intended for the jointure residence of that electress. — Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu Bran denburg, Sic,., a. 18. 2 Seek. Hist. Luth., lib. ii. sec. xiii. p. 122. Luther's Lettera iu his Works, vol. x-xi. p. 1098. Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu Bra'ndmburg, &c., s. 19. 108 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. 10th of February, 1544, has been preserved, and its tone evinces the high respect he felt for her as a person of genuine Christian worth. The letter is as follows : — " Grace and peace. Most serene, right honourable princess, gracious lady, and beloved godmother! I have learned with great satisfaction, from the letter of your grace, that you have so vei-y readily and graciously appointed John Faber to be minister to the town of Prettin. In this yom- grace has done a good work ; for as he was formerly known and acceptable in that place, I hope he shall obtain fruit, and that God will bestow his blessing. Your grace I am bound and willing to serve. The God and Father of om- Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be with your grace for ever. Amen. Sabbath after Dorothea, 1544. — Martin Luther."' In this letter Luther calls her his " beloved godmother,'' pro bably because, during her stay at Wittenberg, she had stood god mother to one of his children, jjerhaps his daughter Magdalene, who was born in 1529, and whose death in .1542 cost her tender hearted parents so many bitter tears. A reconciliation between Elizabeth and her husband never took place. Joachim's hatred of the Eeformed religion was so strong as to convert his resentment against her for having embraced it, into utter aUenation. It dried up the last drops in the fountain of his conjugal affections, and sealed it for ever. Never did he think of entering into correspondence with her, with the view of restor ing concord and effecting a re-union. He, however, left her undis turbed, and she lived in tranquillity in the castle of Lichtenburg. Joachim, after he and Elizabeth had been separated seven yeai-s, , died on the Ilth of July, 1535, in Stendal, where, thirty-three years before, he had first received her as his wife. At his death, the Eeformation having established itself in the whole of Northern Germany, in East Prussia, in the three Scandinavian kingdoms, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the Ught of Divine truth was breaking in upon his territories from all sides, and many of his ' Luther's Lettei-s in his Worka, vol. xxi. p. 491. Germany.] Elizaheth of Br aniienburg. 109 subjects had embraced, or become favourable to the Eeformed sen timents. This made him only the more resolute at the last to do all he yet could to oppose, or to express his hostUity to the Eefor mation. To obstruct its progress, or rather to extinguish it alto gether, he, on his deathbed, forced his two sons, Joachim and John, to subscribe a solemn deed, engaging for themselves and their suc cessors, neither to adopt the Lutheran heresy, nor to allow it to spread within their territories.' Joachim succeeded his father as Elector of Brandenburg. John, -with the title of margrave, had bequeathed to him for his patrimony by his father's testament, the duchy of Ci-ossen in Silesia, part of Lusatia, and other tracts of ter ritory.^ Elizabeth's sons, Joachim II. and the Margrave John, consi dered it to be their first duty, now when then- father was dead, to bring their beloved mother home to their own country. Having brought her from Saxony, they conducted her to Berlin, the capital of Brandenburg, and from thence into the city of Spandau, which had been assigned to her as her jointure by her marriage contract. But for some years after this, notwithstanding her occasional resi dence in that city, the place of her exile having become endeared to her by many sacred associations, she stayed for the most part either at Lichtenburg, or at Wittenberg ; and she only finally left Saxony in the year 1545, before the death of Luther, and the breaking out of the Schmalkald war.' Her sons rendered to her every kindness which affection could suggest, and she had the satisfaction to know that both of them ultimately professed and promoted the Eeformed religion. This was in a great measure owing to her instructions and example. Her eldest son Joachim IL, had been brought up in Popery. From the danger to which the Popish reUgion was exposed by rea son of the agitations in Saxony, and to secure the heir-apparent to • Ramshorn, Bd. ii. a. 10. '^ Seek. Hist. Lath., lib. iii. aec. Ixxv. p. 234. In Germany, the whole territories of tJie princes were not entailed upon the eldest aon. It was common for partitions to be made among the other sona. ' Elizabeth Kurfi),rstin zu Brandenburg, &c., a. 20. 110 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. the electorate against being lured into the net of heresy, Joachim's father and his uncle Albert, Archbishop of Mentz, had been par ticularly zealous in educating him in the old religion. But from the instructions of his mother after her conversion to the Eeformed sen timents, he began to despise the Popish system, especiaUy the mass, and to regard with favour the new doctrines.' The sufferings en- dm-ed by his mother, for her embracing and steadfastly adhering to these doctrines, had also, by powerfuUy exciting his sympathies, strengthened his conviction of their truth. Yet a dread of his father's displeasure had hitherto prevented him from openly follow ing in her steps. Only a few days after his father's death, he was earnestly exhorted by PhiUp, Landgrave of Hesse, in a letter dated July 18, 1535, openly to profess and support the Eeformed religion.^ Still he did not, till a few years later, openly profess it, and give it a legal establishment within his dominions, contenting himself with conniving at the meetings held for the preaching of evangeUcal truth, and for the celebration of the sacrament in both kinds. In steering this course he was ' perhaps influenced by a respect to George, Duke of Saxony, whose daughter Magdalene, he had mar ried — and by a respect to his paternal uncle, Albert, Archbishop of Mentz ; or by an apprehension of the danger he might incur by the open profession and support of Protestantism ; or by the hope that a future general council might correct the errors and corruptions of the church ; and he repeatedly undertook to mediate between the Eomanists and the Protestants. At last, however, by the advice of his mother, he abandoned this hesitating and temporizing poUcy in ^ Notwitlistauding aU the pains takeu by liis father aud uncle to prejudice him agaiust the Reformation, Joachim, who was a boy of an active aud inquiring mind, became early favourably inclined towards it. He was twelve years of age when Luther first sounded the trumpet of opposition to Popish indulgences. Two years after, having aecompanied his father to Frankfort, where, June 28, 1519, Charles V. was raised to the imperial tlirone, he lieard the Germau Reformer at Wittenberg discoursing on the articles of the Christian faith, and was struck with admiration of the Reformer and his doctrine. — Seek. Hist. Luth., lib. iii. sec. Ixxv. p. 234. 2 Seckendorf, in liis Hist. Luth., Ub. iii. sec. xliv. p. 125, has given some extracts from this letter. It is inserted entii'e in Urkundcn-Band zur Geschiehte Philipp's der Grossmu- tliigen, a. 70. Germany.] Elizabeth of Brandenburg. Ill religion. "I would have you," said she, "to be more decided in following out your con-victions. In doing this, you may meet with difficulties and dangers, but my counsel to you is to trust in that Providence which has hitherto preserved me, and which wUl not forsake you. Yet these difiiculties and dangers may be more ima ginary than real. The Eeformers are powerful, and perhaps more than a match for their adversaries. From your own subjects, who are generally inclined for the separation of the church from Eome, you can have nothing to fear by adopting the course which I recom mend. And as to the solemn engagements extorted from you by your father on his deathbed, it would be unlawful for you to fulfil them, it being evident that an oath stipulating to do -wrong cannot be binding." These considerations prevailing over the mind of Joa chim, he openly professed the Eeformed religion, and estabUshed it within his dominions in the year 1539. EUzabeth was residing at Spandau at the time when Joachim took these steps. To confirm the ecclesiastical changes adopted, he -with many of the court and of the nobUity of the provinces, as weU as others, received the eucharist in both kinds, according to the Protestant form, from the hands of Matthias of Jagow, Bishop of Brandenburg, in St. Nicholas' Church, Spandau, on Saturday, the 1st of November, 1539. His mother was among the number of the commuidcants, and no heart was more deeply impressed and engaged than was hers. With fervent gratitude she acknowledged the goodness of God in having spared her Ufe to -witness this in teresting solemn consecration, and in having made her son the in strument of accompUshing so great a work. This, to her, was a reward for aU that she had suffered, and in this she recognized an answer to her prayers. Spandau has ever since kept the 1st of November as a day of thanksgiving. On the following day, which was Sabbath, the same ordinance was celebrated in both kinds in the cathedral (St. Nicholas') of BerUn, by the senate and a great part of the citizens ; and soon after it was similarly observed by most of the inhabitants of the provinces, who had long been ear- J 112 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. nestly desirous to see such a reformation effected, and who, having now witnessed it, were loud in then- expressions of gratitude to God and to the prince. So ripe was the electorate of Brandenburg for ecclesiastical reform, that its separation from the Papal throne, so far from creating agitation or commotion, was everywhere haUed as a great deliverance worthy of being held in everlasting remembrance.' Such was the revolution of which the enlightened and pious zeal of Elizabeth was doubtless the mainspring. She had implanted and fostered in her son Joachim the principles of the pure Chris tian faith. She had counselled him to abolish the Papacy, and to establish the Eeformation within his dominions. Her instructions and counsels, and his sympathy, too, for a cause in which she had suffered so much, finally resulted in the reaUzation of the dearest wishes of her heart. It was thus that she became the means of the accession of Brandenburg to the ranks of the Eeformation, the last, indeed, of the German states that embraced it, but which in after years maintained it with ardent zeal, when others, which, at an earUer period, had hailed it with joy, as Belgium and Westphalia, abandoned it; and thus it was that she earned for herself the high distinction of being the nursing mother of the Eeformation in that kingdom — Prussia — into which, since her time, the electorate of Brandenburg has grown. Not less comfortable was Elizabeth in her second son, the Mar grave John. In him, too, the power of truth and her good advice and example prevailed over the counsels given him, and the solemn engagements extorted from him by his dying father. After his father's death he proceeded, with a few of his friends, to her resi dence in Saxony, and having consulted her and Luther about the reformation of the chm-ch within his states, he, with their advice, zealously applied himself to that good work. Having brought divines from Saxony expressly for the purpose of drawing up a confession of faith, he established the Eeformed doctrines and wor ship in his court at Kiistrin, and through his whole territories, in I Seek. Hist. Luth., book iii. sec. Ixxv. p. 234. Germany.] Elizabeth of Brandenburg. 113 the year 1538, anticipating his brother Joachim, who was a year later in introducing into his court, and establishing in his domin ions, simUar ecclesiastical changes.' While resident in Lichtenburg and in Spandau, Elizabeth de voted her time to works of piety and benevolence. She daily assem bled her whole household for reUgious worship, from which none dared to absent himseK; and at such times, as well as on other occasions, when the Word was preached in her castle, the citizens had ready access. She read with much avidity Luther's German translation of the Bible with his marginal notes. Among the select portions of the Holy Scriptures which especially impressed her mind, were the 16th, 36th, 37th, 38th chapters of the prophet Isaiah, the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th. chapters of the evangelist John, the Sth chapter of the epistle to the Eomans, the penitential psalms (6th, 32d, 38th, 61st, 102d, 130th, 143d), the psalms of degrees (120th-134th), and the psahns styled Michtam or Golden, being the 16th, 66th, 58th, 69th, and 60th. "God be for ever praised in heaven above," she said, in speaking of her favourite passages of Scripture, "that they are thus recorded; for more than a thousand times I have felt in my heart that they are true. For, saith St. Paul, 'this is the witness of the Holy Spirit which he bears to our spirit, that we are the children of God, whereby we cry, Abba, Father'" (Eom. viii. 15, 16). The other books she read were chiefly those of a religious kind. She constantly carried upon her person the small catechism of Luther, the Enchiridion, or Manual of Christian Meditation, and Dr. Ehegius' Medicine of Souls, bound together in a small volume.^ Her minister was the court preacher. Dr. Buchholzer of Berlin, who had preached at Spandau and BerUn, on the 1st and 2d of November, 1539. During her residence at Spandau, she main tained much intercourse with the Eeformed ministers, Mr. John Cordus and Mr. John Garcaus. ' Seek. Hist. Luth., lib. iii. sec. Ixxv. p. 234. 2 Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu Bra'ndmburg, aa. 21, 22. 114 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. In her last days she had much comfort, not only in her two sons, but in the rest of her children. They all treated her with the af fection and veneration due to her Cliristian worth; and she had the felicity to witness all of them following her example, some earlier, others later, in an open profession and zealous support of the Ee formed faith. She was theu- spiritual mother, as she was their natural. She also lived to see a numerous posterity in grandchil dren, and she pleasantly observed that it was deUghtful to her to be addressed as mother and grandmother by so many lips. In the year 1555, she was seized -with her last illness. It did not find her unprepared for the great and final change. The trials she had endured in life had turned her attention mainly to the one thing needful, and advancing years, like the mellow hand of autumn, had ripened her graces and prejoared her for being gathered into the heavenly garner. In the prospect of death, her state of mind was very comfortable, and she spoke many edifying words to those about her. She often said that death consisted not in the separa tion of the soul and body, but in the struggle of the spirit when the heart and soul during life, have felt death, and by the Word, faith, and prayer, have overcome it and the gates of hell. " Who ever," she added, " has not frequently experienced these things in Ufe, will hardly attain to them on a deathbed." At one time she said, "I am hardly like one that lives, for I eat not, drink not, sleep not, as other people; but I believe that I live" — meaning that she lived in the best sense of the word, lived 'oy the faith of the Son of God. Not long before her death, an eclipse of the moon having taken place — a phenomenon accounted at that period of unlucky omen' — a learned man, on visiting her, said it might be 1 In th.it age, when physical science had made so little progresa, other natural pheno mena were generally regarded as ominous. For example, Luther, iu a letter to one of his friends, dated January 31, 1629, says, in reference to tlie am-ora borealis, " On Saturday after Epiphany, there was seen here at nine o'clock in the evening, a great noi-them light, by which the whole hemisphere was illuminated, and it has been seen in many countries. What does it forebode? God knows. But to us it is said, ' Ye shall not be afi-aid forthe signs of heaven.'"— Luther's Letters in his Works, xxi. 1145. From one of liis lettei-s to anotlier correspondent, wi-itten in the same year, we learn tliat he considered this nocturnal plieuomenon as one ofthe signs that the last day was even at the door.— Ibid. xxi. 1161, Germany,] Elizaheth of Brandenburg. 115 apprehended that the eclipse foretokened something of painful im port to her grace, by which he meant her death. But, ignorant though she was of the true theory of eclipses, she was superior to superstitious fears, and the phenomenon produced no impression of terror on her mind. " -AJi ! " replied she, " what do you say of the eclipse? I am not afraid for it; I believe and trust in Him who made sun, moon, and all stars, yea, all creatures, who will keep me safe : yea, indeed ! and may He soon come and fetch me to himself. Him I desire; of this Ufe I am wearied and satiated." On one oc casion she confessed that Satan sometimes tempted her by his sug gestions, and that death in its grim form presented itself before her imagination; "but," added she, "they cannot really frighten me; for the grace of him who hath vanquished these enemies, enables me to do battle with them on more than equal terms." Suitable passages of Scripture were read to her, and they con tributed to sustain and comfort her soul. The last text read in her hearing was the dying words of the Saviour, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit;" which, like the other passages, she repeated to herself. After having become unable to speak, but stUl understanding perfectly what was going on about her, being asked whether she sustained any assaults of temptation, she intimated by a motion of the hand that she did not, but was in the possession of perfect peace. Shortly after, she yielded up her spirit into the hand of God, in the presence of many princely and Christian friends, on the 9th of June, 1555, in the seventieth year of her age, having survived her husband twenty years. She ched, not in Spandau, but in Berlin, whither she was brought by her son as her end approached. She was interred in the burial- place of the electorate Brandenburg family, and her funeral sermon was preached by John Agricola, from Psalm cxvi. 15, " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints ;" in which he did justice to the memory of the deceased princess, and improved the dispensation for the benefit of the living.' ' Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu Brandenburg, &o., ss. 23-26. 116 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. EUzabeth had to her husband five children, two sons and three daughters, to some of whom we have already referred : — 1. Joachim, who was born January 9, 1505. He married, first, Magdalene, daughter of George, Duke of Saxony; and in the year after her death, which took place in 1534, he married, secondly, Hedewig, daughter of Sigismund, King of Poland. He died in 1571. 2. Anne, who was born in the year 1507. She was married to Albert VIIL, Duke of Mecklenbm-g, January 17, 1524. After a happy union of twenty-three years, she lost her husband, who died in his sixtieth year, on the 7th of January, 1647. She now Uved at her jointure residence at LUbz, and died on the 19th of June, 1567. She had to the duke seven chUdren, the eldest of whom, John Albert, maintained and promoted the Eeformation -with a zeal and activity worthy of his grandmother. 3. EUzabeth, who was born in the year 1510, and who forms the subject of our next memoir. 4. Margaret, who was born in the year 1611. She was married, January 8, 1530, to George, Duke of Pomerania, and after his pre mature deathj in 1533, to Prince John of Anhalt, who occupies an honourable place in the history of the Eeformation. From this last marriage sprung six chUdren, three sons and three daughters. She died in the year 1543. 5. John, sumamed the Prudent, who was born August 13, 1513. He married, in 1537, Katharine, daughter of Hem-y X., Duke of Brunswick, by whom he had two daughters, Elizabeth and Katha rine. He died in the year 1571.' ' Alexander's Sovereign Princes in Europe, book ii. pp. 97, 98. Elimbeth Kurfiirstin zu Brandenburg, s. 26, &c. SBm The Oastle of MUoden. ELIZABETH, ¦WIFE OP ERIC, DUKE OF BRUNSWICE-CALENBBRG, AND AFTERWARDS OF PRINCE POPPO OF HENNEBERG. ^EUNSWICK, at the opening of the sixteenth cen tury, consisted of two distinct sovereignties, presided over by distinct branches of the same family; the one designated the duchy of Bruns-wick-WoKen- biittel; the other designated Bruns-wick-Liineburg. In 1503, the former of these parts of Brunswick was divided by Duke WiUiam between his two sons, Henry and Eric. Wolfenbiit tel was settled upon Henry, the eldest;, Calenberg, and the bd,ronies of Gottingen and Hanover, upon Eric, the youngest.' It is to the principaUty bequeathed to the youngest son that we now conduct the reader. With it the princess whose history we are now to re late became connected by marriage, and into it the Eeformation was introduced and legally estabUshed by her instrumentaUty. 1 Anderson's Hoyal Genealogies, table cclxxx. 118 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. This princess was the second daughter of Joachim I., Elector of Brandenburg, by his -wife Elizabeth, the subject of the preceding narrative. She was born, as we have already seen, in the year 1510, and in the seventeenth year of her age, she was married, July 7, 1527, to Eric, Duke of Brunswick-Calenberg, a widower, then in his fifty-eighth year.' Eric was equally distinguished as a hero and as a ruler. He gained no less than twelve battles; and in consideration of the military renown he had earned, particularly in the Turkish war in 1493, he was permitted by the Emperor Maximilian, in whose favour he stood high, to place a golden star in the peacock's tail of the ducal coat of arms. As a ruler, the wisdom of his policy, both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs, was in advance of that of his age, and he was acknowledged to be the father of his people. Elizabeth had been nurtured in the old religion, and there is reason to believe that from her youth she was the subject of strong religious feeling. But this feeUng was misdirected by Popery; and, partaking of the prejudices inspired by that system, she was at first a determined adversary of the Eeformation and its adherents. So strong were her antipathies, that, as has been stated in the fore going Ufe, having, in 1528, the year after her marriage, paid a -^isit to her parents at the castle of Cologne, on the Spree, she perfidiously revealed to her father the Protestant conventicles held by her mo ther in the castle during his absence. On seeing the persecution and distress brought upon her pious parent by her treachery, she appears to have repented of her unnatural conduct, and her mother readUy forgave her, for no heart is more forgiving than that of a mother. While residing for some time -with her mother at Lichtenbm-g in 1534, she had opportunities of meeting with Luther, on occasion of the visits which he often paid to the electress. But her former prejudices against the Eeformation and its supporters remained stUl unabated ; and she condemned in the severest terms Luther's doc trine and proceedings, particularly the extreme asperity and vio- ^ He was born 16th Februai-y, 1470. Germany.] Elizabeth of Brunswick. 119 lence of his language agauist his adversaries. Luther indeed carried this practice so far as very frequently to incur the censure of his contemporaries, and occasionally even to offend his own partizans. The mother vindicated Luther to the daughter. She told her that the Eeformer was placed in extraordinary circumstances, stirred up in an extraordinary manner, and raised up for extraordinary work ; that to awaken the Germans and Europe from the lethargy of ig norance and superstition in which they had been sunk for ages, and to inspirit them to make the necessary efforts to achieve their emancipation from the thraldom of Antichrist, and for the over throw of that interest, required a rousing voice — the utmost vehe mence of address and appeal. But the daughter, who did not yet see things with the same eyes as her mother, was not disposed to admit of this apology for Luther's mordacity of language. His powerful -withering sarcasms — his startling invectives — his uncere monious abuse of his opponents, whoever they were, whether theo logians, popes, or kings, were topics upon which she was constantly declaiming, and which she was always holding forth as a telling argument against the whole herd of innovators. To aggravate the resentment of George, Duke of Saxony, and of his son John, against the Eeformer, she told John that on the day of the feast of AU-Saints, Luther, in addressing the people, bade them fall down upon their knees and pray God to cast headlong into hell the Cardinal of Mentz' and Duke George, whom he stigmatized as "bloodhounds." A report to this effect had reached her, and from what she had heard him utter, when dining with her mother at Lichtenburg, she had no doubt whatever of his having used the language ascribed to him. Luther himseU indeed vu-tually acknowledges the substantial truth of the report, in a letter to the Elector of Saxony, who had commu nicated to him John, Duke of Saxony's, letter,^ complaining of the Eeformer's violence. He admits that he had publicly prayed • This was Albert, Archbishop and Elector of Mentz, and A.rchbishop of Magdeburg. He was brother to Joaclum I., Elector of Brandenburg, and cousec^uently Elizabeth's uncle. 2 Dated December 16, 1534. 120 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. against the Cardinal of Mentz, and declares it to be his resolution to continue to pray against him ; but he did not know whether he had at the same time specially included George, Duke of Saxony, whom he had almost ceased to remember since the transaction of Grimma. He also admits that, when dining one day with EUza beth, Electress of Brandenburg, her daughter, the Duchess of Brunswick, being present, he had, in the freedom of conversation, said that he would pray against the Cardinal of Mentz, but it had in like manner escaped his memory whether he had made a simUai- statement as to George, Duke of Saxony. "If, however," he adds, "I did so, I do not repent of it, for now I repeat it, and I wiU henceforth pray against him at the peril of my head." ' It was in the year 1538, that EUzabeth first made an open pro fession of the Eeformed faith, by receiving, along with the maids of her court, the Lord's Supper under both kinds.^ Thus at last, through the instructions, prayers, and example of the mother, did the spirit of light and of truth descend upon the daughter as upon the sons, Joachim and John ; and the daughter surpassed the sons both in personal piety and in ardent efforts for the promotion of the Eeformation. Having embraced the Eeformed doctrines, Elizabeth imme diately wrote to PhiUp, Landgrave of Hesse, informing him of the change which had taken place in her religious sentiments, and of her resolution to support the standard of reform. PhiUp, in his reply to her letter, expressed his satisfaction in receiving from her self this interesting inteUigence, and exhorted her to steadfastness in maintaining the true faith. This exhortation was seasonable, and she felt its importance. Writing to him again, October 6, 1538, she declares, "that by the grace of God she would never deny the truth which she now confessed, but would persevere therein even to death— that she had counted the cost of the step she had taken, and expected to meet especially with persecution from Judas, by whom she meant Henry of Brunswick ; but that, favoured with the pro- ' Seek. Hist. Luth., Ub. iii. sec. xxxi. p. 91. 2 Ramshorn, Bd. ii. a. 13. Germany.] Elizabeth of Brunswick. 121 tection of God and the succour of the landgrave, which she confi dently anticipated, she would gladly endure it all." She begs him presently to send to her Antonius Corvinus, pastor of the neigh bouring Hesse town, Wosenhouse, for her further instruction in doctrine, for administering the sacrament of the supper, and to assist her by his counsel in gradually reforming the whole land. She informs him that her brother John, the margrave, had lately been with her, that he had heard Corvinus preach in the church at Miinden with much edification, and that she also expected her brother Joachim, the elector, whose accession to the evangelical reUgion she hoped would be followed by the happiest results.' Delighted at this new victory of the truth, PhUip communicated the joyfid news to John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, sending, along with a note from himself, Elizabeth's letter now quoted. The tidings of the conversion of a distinguished enemy of the Eefor mation into Bl friend, was at all times grateful to the elector. But calling to mind Elizabeth's unfilial conduct in betraying to her father the secret conventicle held by her mother in the castle of Cologne, and remembering also her activity in fomenting George of Saxony's animosity against Luther, he could not help receiving the news of her conversion with a degree of jealousy and distrust. He was not without doubts as to its reality; or, if a change had actually come over her mind, he was afraid that it might be traceable rather to fickleness of fancy than to solid conviction, and that, in the heat of her enthusiasm, she might act with indiscreet and unseasonable haste in attempting to effect changes as to ecclesiastical property, from which, as her husband was not a supporter of the Eeformed cause, new commotions might be excited. He expressed his appre hensions in his answer to the landgrave ; and he ad-vised him in the meantime to exhort and confirm her in general, without promising anjrthing certain as to her reception into the Schmalkald league, which she seemed to desire. The elector's suspicions and caution I Seek. Hist. Luth., lib. iii. sec. Ixvi. p. 182. Bommel, Philipp der Grossm-Hthige, Land graf von Hessm, Bd. ii. s. 400. 122 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. were natural enough, and are not to be condemned, for the Eefor mers had not unfrequently been overreached by too rash confidence in pretended conversions to Protestantism. But in the present in stance they were happily unfounded. Elizabeth's conversion to the Eeformed principles was sincere — she ever after steadfastly main tained them, unmoved by difficulties and dangers ; and in the mea sures she adopted for their introduction into her principality, she displayed not less prudence than integrity.' After the revolution her sentiments had undergone, she seized the first opportunity to make it known to her mother; and, smitten to the heart with compunction and shame for having basely betrayed her for taking the very course which she herself now saw it to be her duty to take, she besought forgiveness, and expressed her grati tude to a beloved parent who had continued to love her in spite of all her faults. No tidings could have brought more joy to the mother's heart. She gave vent to her feelings in thanksgi-ving to God for ha'ving enlightened her daughter in the knowledge of the tmth; and as to Elizabeth's former treachery, which she attributed to strong educational prejudice, she did not now need to forgive it — that she had done long ago, much as she had suffered fi-om it. Hencefor ward their hearts were united by a new invisible bond of sympathy. In professing the Eefoi-med faith, Elizabeth was not reduced to the same hard alternative with her mother, either of renouncing Protestantism or of fleeing from her husband and becoming an exile. Eric was a man of a placid disposition, and though a sincere adherent to the old religion to the last, was not self-opinionated or bigoted in his religious creed. He therefore testified no displeasure against his wife for joining the ranks of the Eeformers, leaving her to act according to her own convictions. Nor did he even throw any obstruction in the way of the spread of the new doctrines througli his territories. When secretly told by some officious individuals that the duchess had -written to the Landgrave of Hesse, desiring him to send to her Antonius Corvinus, to draw up for her an expo- ^ Seek. Hist. Luth., lib. iii. sec. ixvi. p. 1S2. Germany.] Elizabeth of Brunsuuick. 12,3 sition of the articles of faith, and other-wise to assist her in the spread of the Eeformed sentiments within her territories, and when urged by them not to allow the heretic to obtain access to her, he answered, "My wife does not interfere with and molest us in our faith, and therefore we will leave her undisturbed and unmolested in hers." It is recorded, that when Luther, after ha-vdng spoken two hours at the diet at Worms, in 1521, returned to his lodgings, exhausted from this powerful effort, he found on the table a small can full of Eimbeck beer, that had been sent him. He emptied it at one draught. On putting down the can, he asked, " Who made me this present?" "Duke Eric of Brunswick," replied Amsdorf. "Ah!" said Luther, " as Duke Eric has this day thought of me, so may God one day think of him."' The present was indeed small, but by it Eric, though no convert to the new opinions, meant to testify the admiration with which the talents and boldness of the Eeformer had inspired him. It was characteristic of his natural generosity and placidity of temper, even as the advice to arrest and publicly burn the audacious heretic, was characteristic of the impetuous, deter mined, and less accommodating temper of his father-in-law Joa chim. In the jealousies which other rulers either had or professed to have of the Eeformers, as being the enemies of civil government and social order, Eric did not partake, believing them to be peace able, well-disposed members of the state. From the signs of the times, he seems also to have judged, that no barrier interposed by civil rulers was sufficiently strong to withstand the rapid current of opinion which had set in. Hence, amidst the commotions excited in Hanover and Gottingen, in consequence of the Eeformation, he re mained very much inactive, offering little opposition to the Eefor mers.^ This tolerant policy, by which, though he lived and died a Eoman Catholic, he maintained tranquillity within his territories, while Popish intolerance was causing much misery in many states and nations around him, afforded no mean proof of the soundness of his judgment, and of his capacity for government. 1 Audin, quoted in Michelet's Luther, p. 90. " Eamshom, Bd. ii. s. 14. 124 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. Under these circumstances, the question of introducing the Ee formation into her principality, which had engaged Elizabeth's thoughts, became of easier solution, though the exercise of a degree of caution and circumspection was required, lest, by proceeding too far, she might excite the prejudices and opposition of Eric. The assimilation of her sentiments in religion with those of Luther, had entirely altered her judgment and feelings in regard to the Eeformer. He no longer seemed to her the disturber and curse of both civil and sacred institutions; but an extraordinary messenger raised up and sent by Providence for the purification of the church. We find Luther now corresponding with her, soliciting her encom-agement and protection in behalf of his Protestant friends, and exhorting her to employ her influence with her husband Eric, in disposing him to treat with generosity persons of Christian worth, though differing from him in their religious opinions.' Eric died on the 26th of July, 1640, at the age of seventy." He had accompanied King Ferdinand to the convention for conference between the leading Protestants and Eoman CathoUcs, to be held at Hagenow, a small to-wn of Northern Germany, on the 6th of June, that year;'' and when Ferdinand, who had come to that to'wn -with the chief of his party several days before the convention, walked in public procession at the feast of Corpus Christi, on the 27th of May, carrying a large wax candle, Eric marched with him on his right hand, while Albert, junior Margrave of Brandenburg-Cuhn- bach, who professed the evangeUcal doctrine, marched with him on the left hand, a compliance which lost Albert his reputation with the evangelical party. Shortly after this scenic sacramental procession, Eric was seized with dysentery, of which he died.'' In his last will and testament, he had appointed Elizabeth guar- 1 Luther's Works, vol. xxi. p. 432. ^ Anderson's Riyyal Genealogies, table cclxxx. 3 The emperor liad appointed this convention to meet at Spires, on the 6th of June, 1540, or, if that city sliould then be visited with the plague, at auch other place as should be selected by King Ferdinand, who afterwards iixed upon Hagenow, instead of Spirea. — Seek. Hist Luth., lib, iii. sec. Ixxviii. p. 258. ¦• Seek. Hist Luth., lib. iii. sec, Ixxvi. p. 282; and aec. Ixxx. p. 300, Germany.] Elizabeth of Brunswick. 125 dian of their children, and regent in the government of his terri tories, during the minority of their only son, also named Eric, who, at his father's death, was in the twelfth year of his age.' Such was his liberal spirit, that, in the same document, he included Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, a zealous Protestant, among others whom he associated with Elizabeth in the guardianship of his son." Elizabeth's appointment as regent by Eric's will, was confirmed by the unanimous voice of the assembly of the province. From the position she now occupied, her opportunities of pro moting the Eeformation were greatly increased, and she did not allow them to pass unimproved. Not only had she the force of character fearlessly to confess the evangelical doctrines, but she dis played an ability and activity in advancing them within the domin ions imder her authority, worthy of admiration. The more fully to be associated and identified with the Protestant leaders in Germany, as weU as for her greater security, she made application to the Schmalkald confederates at their diet, which met in November, 1540, and continued till January 16, 1541, to be admitted a member in right of her son. The matter was delayed at that time, but in the diet held in August, 1541, a decree was passed receiving her son Eric into the league.^ This was a strong safeguard to her ter ritories. By linking them -with that formidable confederacy, it preserved them from the aggressions to which, had she been left soUtary and unprotected, they might have been exposed by the more powerful of her hostile neighbours, and especially of Henry, Duke of Brunswick- Wolfenbuttel, her husband's nephew. Henry was a man of a restless and tm-bulent spU-it, " a torch 1 He was bom August 10, 1528. 2 Seek. Hist. Luth., lib. iii. seo. Ixxx. p. 300. The friendly feeling between him and Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, was such, that in 1529 they entered into a contract, engaging that the duke's only son Eric, and the landgrave's eldest daughter Agnes, should be united in marriage upon their attaining a suitable age. And at Uslar, August 8, same year, Agnes being a little older than Eric, the landgrave's second daughter, Anne, was substituted in an altered contract. This marriage, however, never took place.— Rommel, Philipp dex GrossmiUhige, Landgraf von Hessen, Bd. ii. a. 400. 3 Seek. Hist. Luth., lib. iii. seo. Ixxx. p. 300; and seo. Ixxxix. p. 3C7. 126 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. and trumpet of faction," as Seckendorf describes him. His whole life was nothing else than a continued series of warlike expeditions; and he was one of the most implacable enemies of the Eeformers, though he seemed at first to favour them. After the death of Eric, he resisted to the utmost of his power the reformation of religion which Elizabeth was endeavouring to promote within her territories. Among other acts of opposition to her, he impugned the testament of her deceased husband, which, it would appear, had especially excited his displeasure, because it constituted so zealous a Protes tant as Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, whom he styles " that apostate and obstinate heretic," one of the guardians of her son.' He and others of the same spu-it, rightly judging that she would instruct her son in the Protestant faith, contemplated taking him from under her care, to educate him in the Eoman Catholic religion. This we learn from a letter of hers, written in February, 1541, from Munden, to Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, informing him of all the intrigues formed, particularly those of Duke Henry, against her late husband and her only son, "whom," she adds, "it is intended to take from me.'' Philip, in his answer, thus writes ; " I wiU not allow your son, as he is an only son, to be placed otherwise than under your care, for through that unfaithful man Duke Henry, and others, he might be corrupted, and perhaps trained up a humble servant of the King of Spain." " The plan formed of takuig her son from her and bringing him up in Eomanism did not succeed ; and Henry was soon deprived of the power of obstructing her in the work of reformation. In July, 1542, the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse, impelled by indignation at his unceasing opposition to the Eefor mation, and at his unprincipled conduct in other respects, and more especially to protect from his fury the city of Goslar, a member of the Schmalkald league within his dominions, having I Seek. Hist. Luth., Ub. u. sec. Ixxx. p. 300. 2 Court Archives, quoted in Rojumel's Philipp der Grossmitliige, Landgraf von Hessen, Bd. u. as. 400, 401. Germany.] Elizaheth of Brunswick. 127 invaded his territories with a strong army, drove him a wretched exile to the court of Bavaria for refuge ; and in the following year, the whole of Brunswick- Wolfenbiittel being in the hands of these Protestant leaders, the Protestant doctrine and worship were estab lished in it by public authority." In 1542, EUzabeth legaUy established the Eeformed reUgion ¦within her territories. The details of this new ecclesiastical con stitution, which appears to have been dra'wn up chiefly by Antonius Corvinus, she published in the same year in two volumes. The flrst contains an exposition of most of the articles of faith and propositions relating to discipline, together with a catechism, the greater part being taken from the Brandenburg Eeformed ecclesi astical constitution. With regard to parishes in the principality, the most of which, it is said, have pastors, no pastor who is willing to submit to the new ecclesiastical constitution is to be removed, and due pro-vision is reserved for the refractory or insufficient ; but upon the future occurrence of vacancies, none is to be admitted to the pastoral charge of a parish without ha-ving been previously examined and approved by the superintendent, who should be appointed in a convenient part of the province. All churches are required to have a copy of Melancthon's Common Places, and the Augsburg Confession, together with the Apology, or Defence, in Latin and Gierman, and it is enjoined that in schools the catechism shaU be carefully taught. In the other volume a form of rites for the instruction of the ignorant is prescribed, with a new preface by Elizabeth. In this preface she pleads, as an apology for retaining many ceremonies, the consideration of the offence which the weak miglit take, should 1 Sleidan, p. 296. Seek. Hist. Lulh., Ub. ni. sec. xcv. p. 386; and sec. cix. p. 448. In 1545, Henry was obliged to surrender himself a prisoner to the Landgrave of Hesse, who kept him iu close coniiuement until 1548, when he was set at Uberty and restored to the sovereignty of his dominions. Upon his restoration, he aboUshed the Refoi-med ecclesi astical constitution established in them five years before ; but the Reformed faith had taken such deep root among his people, that it could not be eradicated, and it was re established by his son and successor, JuUus. — Seek. Hist. Luth., Ub. iii. sec. cxxiv. p. 567. Ramshom, Bd. ii. s. 25. 128 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. reUgious worship seem to be performed without becoming solem nity and order — a complaint, she observes, brought against the Ee formed worship as performed in some places. Yet this was only a temporary arrangement; she knew in what the truth of Chris tianity consisted; and it was her intention to adopt such correc tions and improvements as might be suggested, should the late evangelical meeting continue to sit, and should it, in co-operation with other evangelical rulers, agree upon some common code of church polity. In the meantime, the Latin singing is ordered to be retained in a great measure, but purified from errors, and inter mingled with certain German hymns.' In the celebration of the Lord's Supper, the usual clerical habUiments are to be worn, and the burning of wax candles continued. The communion is to be administered to the sick, and the elements to be consecrated in the sick person's chamber. Holy days are to be observed, yet without making them a snare or yoke to the conscience. With respect to fastings, advice rather than precept is given, it being recommended that flesh should be abstained from t'wice in the week, and in the time of Lent, if not during the whole period, yet three days in seven. But those who act upon this recommendation are forbidden to find fault with, or to molest others who choose to exercise their o'wn liberty. The consecration of salt, water, herbs, chaplets, and cakes, is entirely prohibited. In the adminis tration of baptism, the prolix formula of exorcism, as in Luther's first code of church polity, is to be retained, as also the use of the white garment ; the other ceremonies are to be omitted. Confirma tion is ordered to be performed after the catechetical examination of youths of both sexes, by the imposition of the hands of the visitor or superintendent, or, as he could not be everywhere present, of the ordinary pastor assisted by two of his neighbouring brethren." 1 In tills the example of Luther was followed. In a letter to his friend, Nicolas Hausman, dated Febi-uaiy 13, 1529, he says, " We sing iu the church both the Latin and the Gennan litanies." — Luther's Works, vol. xxi. p. 1369. 2 Seek. Hist. Luth., Ub. iu. sec. cxviU. p. 250. Germany.] Elizabeth of Brunswick, 129 The system of ecclesiastical polity and worship thus established by Elizabeth, was, to our view, objectionable in many particulars; and this she herself admits. It did not come up to the simplicity and purity of the polity and worship of the Christian church, as exhibited in the New Testament. It was disfigured by the admix ture of many of the inventions and superstitions of Popery. But it was probably the best she could get established. The constitu tion of her dominions being a monarchy limited and controlled by the assembly of the province, consisting of prelates and layraen of ci-vil distinction, she could not have carried into effect the ecclesi astical changes she contemplated, without the sanction of this assembly; and as it might be impossible for her to obtain their sanction to a measure of ecclesiastical reform so satisfactory as she wished, she yielded in admitting the retention of various Popish de'vices and observances, hoping that, under more favourable auspi ces, the good work now begun would be brought to a state of greater completeness. In estimating the credit due to her as a Eeformer, we must take into account her circumstances. In prosecuting her plans for reformation, she had warm and devoted supporters, but she had also to encounter an opposition so strong, so violent, so threatening, as would have shaken the courage of a less resolute woman, and made her altogether abandon so arduous an undertaking. In the edict preceding the new ecclesiastical constitution, after adverting to the differences which, in recent years, had sprung up on account of religion, and to the aversion of certain pertinacious and captious persons to correct execrable abuses, Elizabeth con fesses that, by the traditions and doctrines of men, the people were basely seduced from the gospel and the truth. " For," says she, "what of true and sound doctrine have we learned concern ing the use of the sacraments, remission of sins, justification, good works, and the cross of the Eedeemer? Have not preachers' dis courses consisted of mere idle stories and fables? Has not the purchase of the pardon of sins with money been to the reproach of the merit of Christ ? Who that has seen the public sale of in- 9 130 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. duigences, so frequent in Germany, can deny this? Such abuses the rulers of the chm-ch ought to prevent; but they apply no remedy — they suffer the sheep to wander -without a shepherd. At the imperial diet at Eatisbon, the endeavours of the emperor were indeed directed to the harmonious settlement of reUgion; but on account of our sins, as I think, these endeavours have accompUshed nothing." She then observes, that having been re quested by the unanimous voice of the assembly of the jsrovince to undertake the government during the minority of her son Eric of whom she had been appointed the guardian by the last -will and testament of her late husband, she thought it would be -wrong and undutiful for her to suffer her subjects any longer to fluctu ate in uncertainty, and had determined to foUow the example of her brother, the Elector of Brandenburg, and of other praiseworthy electors and prmces ; in which she was encouraged by the assembly of the province, who, at their late diet, promised that they would constantly adhere to the evangelical doctrine. She protests that, in taking this course, she was actuated neither by a fondness for novelty, nor by an intention of doing wrong to any indi-vidual, but by sincere love to the Divine Word and affection towards her sub jects; nor would she hereby prejudge and dictate as to the uni versal code of doctrine and policy, for the settlement of which, according to the Word of God, the Christian rulers of Christendom were about to assemble.' This edict is dated, Miinden, 1542, the month and day being omitted." The ecclesiastical constitution sanctioned and published by Eliza beth having been composed in high German, many pastors com plained to Antonius Corvinus, whom she had appointed general superintendent of the churches of the principality, that owmg to the ' A free aud lawful general council for settUng ecclesiastical differences had been long desired, aud for some time before this expected by the friends of refoi-m. Such a council, however, was never convened. The pope, May 22, 1542, summoned a councU to meet at Trent, on N^ovember 1, that year. But to the authority of this council the German Pro testants refused to defer before it sat— because it was called by the popes authority alone, because it was to be presided over by his legates, and because it was appointed to be held beyond the precincts of the empire. s Seek. Hut. Luth., Ub, iti. sec. cxviii. p. 620 Germany.] Elizabeth of Brunsviick. 131 dialect in whioh the document was composed, they did not under stand it. This seemed, in a great measure, an excuse for slothful ness, or a pretext for opposition ; but iu order to remove the objec tion, and to benefit as far as possible the more illiterate, Corvinus translated that portion of the constitution which treats of rites into low German, the vernacular dialect, and published it in 1544, with a preface, dated 22d January. In the preface he sharply inculcates upon pastors the diligent and faithful performance of their duty, and wai-ns them that the refractory and unqualified would be removed from their places. "This," he adds, "has been earnestly enjoined upon me by the Duchess Elizabeth, and it is my purpose to act upon her injunction, that I may not burden my conscience by conni-ving at the indolence and ignorance of pastors." He also published in the same dialect a more prolix formula of the rite of confirmation, accompanied with an admonition addressed to the people. The power of confirming is granted anew to all pastors; but it is made imperative that they be assisted by two or three of their neighbouring brethren, so that the persons to be confirmed may be diligently instructed for eight days. In the admonition, the abuse of the rite of confirmation in former times is animadverted upon, and the doctrine taught in the Popish church, according to the AureUan council, "that none can be a Christian unless the rite of anointing by the bishop be observed in confirmation," is declared to be absurd, even -with the gloss fidl prefixed to Christian, added by Pope Urban. Then the people are admonished not to convert this rite into a mere theatrical scene, as was done in ancient times. On the subject of catechizing, many things are adduced from ecclesiasti cal history, and from the testimony of the fathers ; and its utility is commended in the highest terms. The antiquity of the imposition of hands is also jiroved from the Old and New Testament ; but the Holy Spirit, it is added, is to be obtained by prayer, not by that outward ceremony. In fine, devout forms of prayer for the ad vancement and preservation of the confirmed in doctrine and godli ness are subjoined. The pastor is required, when imposing his hand 132 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. upon each individual, to repeat these words, "Eeceive the Holy Spirit to preserve and defend thee from all evU, and for thy confir mation and assistance in all good, from the most merciful hand of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen." The act is to be con cluded by singing the hymn, "Te Deum laudamus."' Of the whole of this Eeformed movement, EUzabeth was the ori gin and the mainspring. She planned and purposed it in the secret recesses of her own mind. By her energy and perseverance it ob tained the sanction of the assembly of the provinces. When it was established she watched over its workings with unrelaxing vigilance. She caused Corviniis to -visit the monasteries and churches ; and she herself visited the newly-appointed preachers, whom she instructed, admonished, and encouraged. In short, she displayed indefatigable activity in promoting the reformation of reUgion within her princi pality. The circular letter issued by her, in 1544, to her subjects the lords and citizens, breathes an eminently pious and patriotic spirit. "The times are trying,'' says she; "the Lord threatens to search the land ; " the people, therefore, should repent, and not despise the admonitions of a weak instrument of God, and a woman." Then, addressing herself to the smaller towns and the peasantry, whom she summons to persevere in prayer, and in active service in behalf of the true faith, she continues : " We can clearly perceive that the burden which you bear is sufficiently hea'vy. God will judge on the great day, and bear witness to the maternal sympathy we have always borne towards you, and to our desu-e that there might be afforded to our beloved son an opportunity of showing towards you the same sentiment, that none might dare to molest you; for if you are undone, our beloved son, your sovereign prince, is also undone." ^ The happy fruits of the measm-es she adopted soon began to make their appearance. Within a few years from the time she un dertook the government, evangelical truth was proclaimed thi-ough- out the greater part of the principality of Calenberg and the barony ' Seek. Hist. Luth., Ub. iii. sec. cxviu, p. 529. " She perhaps refers to Zeph. i. 12. 3 Ramshom, Bd. ii. ss. 15, 16. Germany.] Elizabeth of Brunswick. 133 of Gottingen, and embraced by the great body of the population. In almost all the churches the German hymns of Luther were sung by the congregation, instead of, as formerly, the Latin psalms sung only by choristers. This exercise had a sort of fascination on the minds of the people, and was one of the most powerful means in re commending the Eeformed religion to their favour and acceptance.' True to her duty as a Christian parent, Elizabeth took care to have instUled into the mind of her son Eric the principles of the Protestant faith. She placed him under the tuition of an accom plished Protestant scholar, by whom, in companionship with Prince George of Mecklenburg, and Count Ernest of Eegenstein, he was taught, in addition to other branches of learning, the Eeformed doc trines. To this she added her o'wn personal instructions, and his dili gence and progress in the knowledge of Divine truth were all that could be desu-ed. Among other religious books in which he was early initiated, was Cohan's Translation of the Psalms into Latin Verse,'' which he committed to memory.^ In the year 1544, his mother having taken him with her in a journey she undertook to Meissen, and having, in her way, passed through Wittenberg, she stopped there for some time, in order to converse with Luther, and to intro duce him and her son to each other. She in-vited the Eeformer to dine -with her. At table, the young prince, who was then sixteen years of age, recited prayers in German and Latin; and being examined by Luther, at her request, upon the articles of the Christian faith, he answered to the entire satisfaction of the Eeformer, who congi-atu- lated the mother upon her excellent conduct in the religious up- ^ Ramshom, Bd. U. a. 16. Luther early composed original hymns in German for public worship, and tranalated and adapted, for the eame purpose, the better Latin hymns. A vernacular poetical version of the psalms was never executed for pubUc worship in Ger many, though a few psalms were versified by Luther, and appended to his collection of German hymns. These hymns were used in famihes, in social circles, and schools, as weU as in churches. — Sears' Luther, pp. 353, 354. '^ The poet JHUus Coban, who executed this translation, was a friend of Luther's. In one of ids letters to him, dated August 1, 1537, Luther, who styles him "his beloved brother iu the Lord," highly eulogizes this performance.— Luther's Worka, vol. xxi. p.l280. 3 Rommel, Anmerkun,gen zur Geschichte Philipp's des Grossmiithigen, ». 400. 134 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. bringing of her son, urgently entreated her to continue as she had begun, and expressed it as his earnest desire that these eai-ly blos soms of spring might ripen into abundant fruit in future years. Lutber examining young Duke Eric. Luther's satisfaction was not, however, unmingled -with fears. He was afraid that the young prince, on reaching manhood, when the restraints now imposed upon him would be removed, and when powerful temptations to defection would soUcit his heart, might swerve from the principles of truth and rectitude inculcated upon him with such pains by his teachers and by his mother. This we learn from a letter of Luther's to Corvinus, in which, while speak ing in laudatory terms of the proficiency of the young duke in Germany.] Elizabeth of Brunswick. 1 35 Di-vine knowledge, he yet, painful as he felt it to prognosticate evil where he met with such promising appearances, could not conceal his apprehensions. "Beloved Corvinus," says he, "we have here, to our entire satisfaction, and with heartfelt joy, heard your well- educated young prince recite his Christian faith. God, the Father of all grace, would have the young, in all the princely families in our much-beloved native country, to be enlightened, and brought up in the same Christian manner. But the devU is cunning and exceedingly active, so are also our clergy, bishops, prelates, and all godless princes, who are enemies of the Christian religion, and our enemies, through whose authority many Christian hearts are turned away and seduced. Continue in importunate prayer in behalf of the young prince, and unceasingly admonish him ; for it is to be feared that, should he have much companionship with our adver saries, he may be easily moved to defection, through their great authority." "The church," he adds, "is in great danger; may Christ, its Head, interpose, and rule the winds and waves."' Elizabeth married, secondly, Poppo of Henneberg, son of Wil liam VIL, Prince of Henneberg. The marriage was celebrated in 1546, at Miinden on the Werra, where she continued to reside till the battle of Sievertshouse, fought in 1553. Poppo had been de voted by his parents to the church, and was a canon of Wiirzburg. The canons in Germany, as well as in other countries at that period, were by no means an exemplary class of men. They were addicted to hunting, and to aU the rude athletic exercises of the age. They indulged in bacchanalian orgies, and were given to other excesses, whence quarrels, duels, and murders frequently ensued. In these respects, Poppo was not superior to others, and in 1641, having quarreUed with a brother-canon of Wiirzburg about something connected with a hunting-match, he inflicted a deep wound upon the canon. The wound having unhappily issued in death, this cu-- cumstance so deeply affected him, as to lead him seriously to reflect on the manners of the clergy; and this, combining with the favour- 1 Ramahom, Bd. ii. as. 16, 17. Seek, Hist. Luth., Ub. ui. sec, cxviii. p, 620, 136 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Gebmany. able impression produced on his mind by the piety of his eldest brother George Ernest, excited him to religious inquiry, and, in particular, to the reading and study of the Scriptures. The result was an entire change in his sentiments and character. He renounced Popery, as being the doctrines of the Antichrist of Scripture, and attached himself to the Eeformed church. He -wrote a smaU book, in confirmation of the evangelical doctrine, and in refutation of the opposite errors, which was pubUshed in 1557 by Christopher Vis cher, superintendent of Liineburg. He also -wrote Loci Communes, dra-wn from the sacred Scriptures, which was printed at a later period.' Elizabeth continued to govem, as regent, Calenberg and fhe barony of Gottingen till the year 1546, when her son Eric assumed the reins of government; and though a party in the country were glad to see the government transferred from her hands to those of her son, yet the great majority lamented her withdra-wment from the administration of public affairs. In surrendering her delegated authority to her son, she could not forbear expressing her thank fulness to God, for having safely and honourably carried her through the great difficulties and labours she had had to encounter in presiding over the affairs of state, and especially in advancing the Eeformed religion during the period of her regency. "If God," says she, in 'writing to Eric, " as a gracious God, had not, out of tender regard to my weakness of understanding and femi nine infirmity, mercifully preseiwed and stood by me, I, as a woman, could hardly have been able to persevere until you had assumed the government. It would, indeed, have been otherwise impossible for me to have done so ; for those who, during the life of our late beloved lord and husband, your beloved father, dared not show or express themselves, became inflated with pride, and thought they could do with me as they pleased."^ On retU-ing from the government, she felt that another duty 1 Seek. Hist. Luth., Ub. iii. sec, ex, pp, 457, 458. Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu Brandenburg, &o,, sa, 32, 33. 2 Eamshom, Bd. il. s. IS. Germany.] Elizabeth of B'nimswick. 137 remained for her to fulfil — ^that due to her son who was to succeed her. Apprehensive lest, impelled by youthful passions, and seduced by the enemies of the Eeformed faith, he might, when he ceased to be under tutors, and became his own master, abandon religion, -virtue, and integrity, she committed to -writing an epistle of advice, which might serve to guide him through the temptations and dan- gei-s that might surround his path to peace and happiness. This document, which is still preserved, is full of maternal solicitude and tenderness. Its great object is to induce him to occupy himself with nobler pursmts than pleasure and ambition, and to impress his youthful mind with a conviction that God is the source whence all blessings proceed, and that in his service alone can true happiness be found. " This," says she, " I commit to -svriting, that I may instruct and remind you not to trust in man, but to i-ely solely upon God, and keep his commandments. If, my be loved son, you fear God, and observe his commandments, he will graciously stand by you, and do you good." Farther on, she says, " I have -written this book with my own hand for you, from be ginning to end. It will not, therefore, lie by you neglected ; you •wUl often read it, and thereby frame your mind and heart, and continue therein." ' Upon Eric's accession to the sovereign power, the two ecclesiasti cal parties in the country, the Protestants and the Eoman Catholics, were each high in the expectation of receiving his exclusive protec tion and patronage. The Prote.stant education he had received, induced the Protestants to hope that he would support their faith against aU opposers, and his solenm oath, pledging him at his taking possession of the govemment, that he would maintain the Protestant religion, and that nothing should make him unfaithfully abandon the truth he had professed, seemed to afford them the strongest security. The hopes of the Eoman Catholics, on the other hand, rested on the power of the motives which would present themselves to a young aspiring mind to retum to the faith of his fathers. The 1 Eamshom, Bd. ii. ss. IS, 19. 138 Ladles of tlie ReformMtion. [Gekmany. calculations of the Eoman Catholics tumed out to be the most correct. What Luther was afraid of — what Eric's mother, by her lessons of instruction, had carefully endeavoured to prevent — unhappily came to pass. Eric's dispositions were not naturally amiable and gene rous. " Under a reserved and dull manner," as De Thou describes him, "he concealed much vanity and pride;"' and it was soon seen that in his character there was little sincerity and little moral prin ciple — that an oath from him was the frailest possible security. Not readUy submitting, from his obstinate self-'wiU and religious indifference, to moral and religious restraints, thirsting after mUi tary fame, for the acquisition of which he deemed his own terri tories too narrow a field, and dazzled by the laurels nodding in the distance, he renounced the Protestant faith, entered the service of the emperor, and drew the sword in the Schmalkald war against the Protestants, whom he had a short time before not only called brethren in the faith, but to whom he had sworn everlasting fidelity,' This opposition he continued to maintain, with a dogged determination, so long as he wore the ducal coronet. He pro scribed the Eeformed faith under the severest penalties. In his sullen wrath, he imprisoned his mother's favourite minister, Cor vinus, in the damp tower of Calenberg, where that excellent man, who had neither maligned the civil constitution of his country, nor questioned the authority of his legitimate ruler, lay languishing for fom- years; and though the Protestant party had, during the regency of his mother, gained so great accessions of strength and popularity as rendered it impossible for him, by his oppression and cruelty, to crush it, yet, by his attempts to realize this consumma tion, his country was involved in much misery, and brought to the brink of ruin,^ The apostasy of her son from the Eeformed faith — his persecu tion of the Eeformers, as well as his errors in other respects — were ^ Histoire, tom. iii. p. 480. 2 After this he never stopped at home, but passed his Ufe mostly in Flanders, France, and Spain. Yet he never distinguished himself b.y any remarkable achievement. — De Thou, Histoire, tom. vi. p. 414, s Eamshom, Bd, ii, ss, 19, 20, Germany.] Elizabeth of Brunswick. 139 sources of bitter distress to Elizabeth. The cause which lay nearest her heart — which, in the prime of her youth and health, she had laboured to promote, and the establishment of which, within the territories under her government, she regarded as the glory of her life — he was now doing all in his power to destroy. This caused her an agony which she could not express. She wept over his flagitiousness and impiety. With deep solemnity and tenderness she reasoned and remonstrated with him, nor could she forbear at times speaking to him in the chiding tone of an injured mother. But he disregarded and despised her kind and tender admonitions. Nor was this all that she suffered from this unnatural son. He acted disrespectfully and cruelly towards her in other respects. Attributing to her persuasion his having entered into the league with Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg-Culmbach, which exasper ated Henry, Duke of Brunswick, against him, and involved him in much calamity, this increased his resentment against her, and he broke his plighted word to her a second time, by forcing her to leave Miinden Castle, which he had assigned to her for her resi dence. Upon this she removed from Miinden to Hanover, where she Uved tiU the year 1555, when she went to Henneberg. Upon leaving Hanover, she presented, as a farewell gift, to St. George's church, a sacramental cup and plate, bearing an appropriate in scription, in which she feelingly adverts to the trials she had endured.' In a poem composed by her on the occasion of her leaving Hanover, she still more pathetically touches upon her afflictions, and gives utterance to the afflicted state of her mind ' Her days, in deed, it is believed, were shortened by her laying so much to heart the apostasy and unkindness of her son. But amidst the wreck of her hopes in regard to him, she carried with her to the grave the consolation that the Eeformed faith, the advancement of which was ^ Eamshom, Bd. ii. s. 21. Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu. Brandenburg, &g., ss. 33, 34. 2 The poem ia printed in Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu Brandenburg, &c., aa. 39, 40. Seven teen poetical pieces of her composition, breathing foi-th her sorrows and her consolations are still extant in MS. in the ducal library at Gotha. 140 Ladies of the Reformation. [Geemany. the goal to which her most ardent aspirations had been pointed from the time of her conversion to Protestantism, had taken such deep root in the territories formerly under her regency, that the vio lence of persecution seemed in vain to attempt its extermination.' She died at Ilmenau, an estate belonging to her husband Poppo of Henneberg, on the 25th of May, 1558, at the age of 48, and was bm-ied at Vessra.- To Poppo she had no children. He survived her many years, and married for his second wife, Sophia, daughter of Ernest, Duke of Liineburg, but neither had she any offspring to him. He died on the 4th of March, 1574, in the sixty-first year of his age.^ To her first husband Eric, EUzabeth had, besides her son of the same name,** three daughters— Elizabeth, Anna Maria, and Katha rine. EUzabeth, the eldest, was married in the year 1543 to Prince George Ernest, eldest son and successor of Prince William VIL, of Henneberg, and brother of Poppo, whom her mother married three years later. Thus the mother and the daughter became sisters-in- law, and Poppo father-in-law to his brother George. Prince George was a convert to the Eeformed doctrines. So early as 1530, ha-ving accompanied Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, to the imperial diet at Augsburg, he, like many others, on hearing the famous confession of the Eeformed faith read at that diet, received favourable impres sions of the new doctrines, which by degrees ripened into a settled conviction of their truth. In 1643, the year of his marriage, he and his brother Poppo prevailed upon their father Prince WilUam, who had formerly been a zealous Papist, but whose mind had recently been opening to a discovery of the truth, to reform religion within his territories, and in the foUo'wing year, a confession of the evan gelical faith, sanctioned by WiUiam, was published, as the estab- ^ In these territories the great body of the people are Protestants at the present day. 2 Eamshorn, Bd. ii. s. 21. Elizabeth Kurfiirstin zu, Brandenburg, stoltzen. 2 De Thou, tom. ii. Uv. xiii. p. 224. " Robertaou'a CZiarto F., vol iv p. ?3. ^ ShobeiVa House of Saxony. Germany.] Sibylla -of Cleves. 167 their reaching the castle of Weimar, one of the first exercises in which the elector, with Sibylla and their children, engaged, was to cast themselves on their knees, and devoutly to offer up thanksgiving to God for his merciful interposition in having released him, and re stored him to the bosom of his family, in answer to their prayers and the prayers of many Christian friends. He was now reduced in dig nity and wealth. The emperor had stripped him of the electorate, which he had conferred upon the elector's cousin, Duke Maurice, of the Albertine line. He had also deprived him of a large part of his territories, reserving to him only Gotha and Weimar, through the mediation of some of his friends. But shorn as the elector was of his honours and possessions, neither he nor Sibylla permitted the consideration of this to cool their feeUngs of gratitude to Pro vidence. It had never been her ambition to shine in the world j nor was it thirst for mUitary glory, but zeal for the Eeformed re Ugion, which had impelled him to take up arms against the emperor. Neither of them, therefore, in their fallen condition, experienced the bitterness commonly felt by more aspiring spirits at humbled pride and darkened prospects; and it was their desire to spend their remaining days upon earth in contentment, undisturbed by ¦ complaints or even by repining thoughts. So much had the mental anxiety, suffered by Sibylla during the period of the elector's imprisonment, enfeebled her constitution, that after his return, her strength and bodUy frame continued to waste away. This strongly impressed upon her mind the convic tion that the time of her departure from the world was not far distant. For this event she was daily preparing herself ; and when seized with her fatal sickness she contemplated her approaching death not only with a resigned, but with a peaceful spirit. "Under her last illness," says Stoltzen, " though her sufferings were some what severe, she betrayed no impatience, but e-vinced a cordial longing and yearning for God's help. . . . While she was waiting for His succour, calling upon Him, saying. Ah ! Lord -wilt thou not come near; while she clasped her hands together, looked 168 Ladies of the Reformation. Tgekmany. up to heaven, and received comfort from us out of God's Word with eagerness, as she had done at all times. He at length heard her and our prayers. Just when we were holding forth to her the consolatory words of John — ' God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life' — and commending her soul into the hands of a gracious God, to which she added her amen. He took her away so gently and tranquilly, that she seemed like a candle going out in the socket." ' She died at Weimar, on the 21st of February, 1554, in the forty-fourth year of her age.^ On the 22d of that month, the day after her decease, Stoltzen preached, in the castle church at Weimai-, a consolatory sermon on "the death of the Christian," from 1 Kings xxii. 43, 50, "And Je hoshaphat walked in all the ways of Asa his father : he tm-ned not aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried -with his fathers in the city of David his father." In this sermon he paid a The PuriBh rhureh. Weimnr. merited tribute to the memory of the deceased princess, whoso vu-tues he held forth as a pattern to the living. She was interred ' Stoltzen, ». 32. 2 Seldan, p. 596. Germany.] Sibylla of Cleves. 169 before the high altar, in the parish church of Weimar,' on the 23d of February ; and on that occasion Stoltzen delivered a funeral sermon in that church to a numerous auditory, on the doctrine of the resur rection of the dead, from 1 Cor. xv. 42, 43, — "It is sown in corrup tion, it is raised in incorruption: it is so-wn in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it is so-wn in weakness, it is raised in power;" and from 1 Thes. iv. 14, "For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." The elector did not long survive his beloved and affectionate consort ; and, like her, he was taken away when only a little ad vanced beyond the middle of life. He was a man of tall stature, corpulent, and of great personal strength." But his constitution, probably as the effect of his protracted captivity, had become im paired, and as he took farewell of Sibylla on her dying bed, he felt upon himself the hand of death. In gi'ving directions -with respect to the preparation of her tomb, he said to his secretary, "Tell the masons to reserve a place for me beside my wife, for I shall soon foUow her, and I -wish to be laid in the same grave with her." His presentiments were speedily fulfilled, for he died on the 3d of March foUo'wing, only eleven days after her death, in the 51st year of his age.^ In anticipating the solemn change, his mind was calm and peaceful, sustained and raised above the dread of dis solution by Christian faith and hope. The day before his death he made confession of his faith, and received the sacrament from the hands of Stoltzen, to whom he said, "I know, blessed be God, that whether I live, I live unto the Lord, and whether I die, I die unto the Lord — Uving or dying I am the Lord's." With ardent affection he commanded his sons, as he had often done before, faithfully and constantly to cleave to the Word of God, and his last action was to ^ Shoberl's House of Saxony, p. 96. 2 "The lank Spanish soldiers of Charles V.," says Shoberl, "looked upon him aa a giant, and asserted that each of his boots would hold a man. This was certainly an ex aggeration, yet those who liave had an opportunity of examining these reUcs, which are stiU preserved in the coUections of curiosities at Gotha and Miinich, assure us that they are capacious enough to contain a ciiild five years old." — House of Saxony, p. 97. = Seldan, p. 696. He was bom at Torgau, June 30, 1603. 170 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. commend his soul into the hands of a faithful and gracious God. On the Sabbath following, a consolatory sermon was preached over his corpse, in the castle church of Weimar, by Stoltzen, from John -vi., in which the character of the elector was described at some length by the preacher;' and according to his request he was buried in the same grave with his wife. Sibylla had to the elector fom* sons, three of whom survived her, first, John Frederick of Gotha, the founder of the ancient house of that name. He was bom January 8, 1529. Having, in counsel with William von Grumbach, a Franconian nobleman of a turbulent and reckless character, projected the recovery of the honours and possessions of which his father had been deprived, he was put under the ban of the empire on the 12th of December, 1566. The execution of the sentence was committed to Augustus, Elector of Saxony, who, in the close of that year, besieged Gotha, which was obliged to capitulate, April 13, 1567, and, among others, took John Frederick prisoner, carried him to Vienna, thence to Posonium, and from that to Neustadt, in Austria, where he died. May 9, 1595^ after an imprisonment of twenty-eight years. SibyUa's second son, John Ernest, was born January 6, 1534, and died Febraary 19. 1553. Her third son, WiUiam of Saxe-Weimar, was born March 11, 1530, and succeeded his brother John Ernest, in 1554. Soon after the accession of Elizabeth to the English throne, he became a competitor for her hand, but, being repulsed like many othei-s by the maiden queen, he married Dorothea Susanna, daughter of Frederick IIL, elector palatine. He died March 2, 1572, aged forty-three. Sibylla's fourth and youngest son, John Frederick III., was bom January 16, 1538, and died unmarried, October 31, 1565, aged twenty-five.' 1 The sermon was printed at the time, at Jena, along with the two sermons already referred to. preached on the occasion of Sibylla's death. 2 Shoberl's House of Saxony, pp. 139-144, 163. Anderson's Royal Genealogies. The Town and Castle of Rudoktarlt KATHAEINE, WIFE OF HENEY, PRINCE OF SCHWARTZBURG. ..)0E a detaUed biography of this princess materials do not exist. Only a few fragments of her history re main; but these illustrate her Christian resolution, 9 intrepidity, patriotism, and sympathy for the perse cuted, and serve to estabUsh her title to the surname of the "Heroic,'' with which she was honoured by her contem poraries. Katharine was the third daughter of William VIL, Count of Henneberg, a German principality situated in Franconia, by his ¦wife Anastalia, daughter of Albert, Elector of Brandenburg.' Both her father and her mother's family, but especially the former, were remarkable for their devotion to Popery. Her father gave nume rous proofs of his Popish credulity and zeaL In 1515 he purchased ' Anderson's Royal Genealogies, table cccxviii. 172 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. at great expense a share of the merits of the Benedictines. He obtained from Leo X., who, of course, did not make a free gift of the blessings, indulgences for 100,000 years, besides twenty-four plen ary pardons. And he devoted three of his sons to the church. At the commencement of the Eeformation, and for a long time after, such was his hostility to the new system, and his determination to uphold the old within his principaUty, that he issued decrees against whoever of his subjects should dare to dispute the Papal authority or contest the Popish doctrines. But at length he parti cipated in the surrounding iUumination, and joined in the general revolt from Popish domination — a change in his sentiments and conduct to be attributed in no inconsiderable degree to the per suasion and example of two of his sons — the eldest, George Ernest, and Poppo — who, as we have seen before,' had become converts to the Eeformed faith. In 1544, when at the venerable age of sixty- five, he introduced the new doctrines into his dominions; and he continued to maintain them to his death with the utmost con stancy. When, after the overthrow of the evangelical confederacy, Charles V. had published the edict of the Interim, WUliam, un moved by the threatened wrath of the emperor, for which the Eeformers were trembUng, magnanimously refused to submit to the edict, and -wrote to the emperor a respectful but decided letter, explaining the reasons of his nonconformity, and breathing the noble sentiments of a Christian martyr. He died January 14, 1559, having nearly completed the eighty-first year of his age." Katharine was born, January 5, 1509, probably at the castle of Schleusingen, the family residence of her parents. As might be pre sumed, from what has been just now said of her father, she was strictly educated in the old reUgion; and the agitation created by Luther, who first raised his voice against the traffic of indulgences, when she was only eight years of age, increased the pains taken to do all that education could do to render her attachment to the Chm-ch of Eome permanent and invincible. ' See p. 140. 2 geek. Hist. Luth., lib. iii. sec. ex. pp. 456-468. Germany.] Katharine of Schwartzburg. 173 She was early married to Henry, Prince of Schwartzburg, a principaUty of Germany, near its centre. This principality consists of two considerable portions, detached from each other — the one caUed the Upper county, and the other called the Lower county, which is situated to the north of the former. The Upper county lies on the north side of the Thuringian forest, and is bounded by the Prussian territory and the Saxon duchies. It is traversed by the rivers Gera, Saale, Hm, and Schwarze. The Lower county is almost surrounded by the Prussian territories, but on the south west it borders ojd. Gotha, and on the south-east on Weimar. Henry being the son of a younger son of the sovereign prince of Schwartzburg, and his father's eldest brother having lineal descend ants, he could inherit only a portion of these tracts of coimtry.' But whatever territories he possessed he introduced into them the Lu theran doctrines, to which he had become an adherent. Katharine, not^withstanding her father's zealous endeavours to preserve her from heretical contamination, followed the example of her husband, and co-operated with him in promoting among his people the Ee formed faith. Katharine and Henry's union was not of long duration. She was only in the twenty-seventh year of her age when he left her a widow, having died July 12, 1538. He was ten years her senior, having been born March 23, 1499. -Aiter his death, she continued actively and steadfastly to ad vance among her people the good work he had so auspiciously begun. She aboUshed monachism, and adopted measures for ameliorating the system of education in schools and coUeges. At the very time when her father was yet loud in condemning, and active in opposing by force the Eeformation, as being hostile to religion and civil government, she was securing its imiversal pre valence in the territories over which she presided. Nor was she indifferent to the temporal welfare of her people. To advance their prosperity and happiness, to secure their rights ' Anderson's Royal Genealogies, table cccxxxv. 174 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. and privileges, to administer justice impartially, were the objects at which she aimed ; and to a large extent these objects were realized The following anecdote concerning her, derived from au thentic sources,' bears honourable testimony to her magnanimous and patriotic zeal for the safety and rights of her subjects : — When Charles V., in the year 1547, after the battle of Miihl berg, was passing through Thuringia, on his way to Franconia and Schwabia, Katharine, who was then residing at the castle of Eu- dolstadt, which stands in the to'wn of Eudolstadt, the capital of Schwartzburg, situated in a fertUe valley on the river Saale, on hearing of the advance of his troops, was alarmed, as if she had been threatened with invasion by an army of locusts. His troops, in their marches, had often perpetrated the most dreadful barbari ties, razing viUages and cities, laying waste fields, plundering pro perty, wantonly destroying human life, and sparing neither sex nor age. Her alarm, therefore, was too well founded ; and in her anxiety she applied to the emperor, beseeching him to protect her self and her subjects. As neither she nor they had taken any part in the war between him and the Protestant confederates, though her sympathies were doubtless on the side of the latter, she needed not to ask indemnity for any offence committed by herself or by them against his imperial majesty. The emperor, in his letters, pledged his royal word that a scrupulous and sacred respect should be paid to life and property by his army, in their progress through her territories ; while she, on the other hand, engaged to allow bread, beer, and other provisions, to be procured for equitable pay ment, from the town of Eudolstadt, at the Saale bridge, for supply ing the troops who might pass that way. She thus, by prudent foresight, secured, so far as royal letters pledging royal probity and honour could secure, her own property and that of her sub jects from dreaded military piUage. But having, notwithstanding, some fears of the lawless -violence of the soldiers, which the officers might not be able to control, or at which they might connive, she 1 SchiUer, quoted by Ramshom, Bd. ii. ss. 35-37. Germany.] Katharine of Schwartzburg. 175 adopted the precaution of breaking do'wn, -with all haste, the bridge which was close by the town, and caused it to be erected at a more distant part of the river, that the too great nearness of the soldiers to the town might not present a temptation to their plundering pro pensities. At the same time she granted to the inhabitants of the districts through which the Spanish troops were to pass, permission to secure their most valuable property in the castle of Eudolstadt. The Duke of .Alva, the Spanish general, accompanied by Hem-y, Duke of Bruns'wick, and Henry's sons, upon approaching the town of Eudolstadt, despatched a messenger to the castle to Katharine, respectfully to request that, if it was agreeable to her, he and the Dvike of Brunswick and their feUow-officers might have the honour to breakfast with her at the castle. The names of the Duke of Alva and of the Duke of Brunswick, both of whom had by this time eamed for themselves a reputation of the deepest infamy, were names that inspired universal terror. Engaged from his earliest years in the barbarous wars waged by the Emperor against the Moors, Alva had become a hardened sanguinaiy character, accustomed to inflict and to ¦witness human suffering in every form with remorseless indifference. Not less habituated had Henry, Duke of Brunswick, become to the -violation of justice and huma nity. The smoking ruins of cities, devastated fields, barbarous mur ders, were the fearful memorials left, wherever he passed, of his desolating presence. Both these dukes were mortal enemies of the Protestants, and their cruelties inflicted upon them vastly exceeded in ruthless ferocity those perpetrated upon ordinary victims. It may therefore be easUy conceived that these were not the sort of guests which Katharine liked to entertain ; but a request made in such courteous terms by a general at the head of an army could not safely be refused. "Tell the Duke of Alva," said she to the mes senger, "that he and the other officers wiU be welcome to my castle; that there wUl be no lack of decent entertainment ; and that what ever my house can supply shaU be cordially given them But at the same time remind them of the letters of protection I have re- 176 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. ceived from the emperor, and let them know that I expect them strictly to observe, both towards myself and my people, the plighted faith of his imperial majesty.'' By and by the glittering accoutrements of the officers, the spark ling of spears, the floating of banners were seen, and the tramp and neighing of war-horses heard from the castle of Eudolstadt. Having arrived at the castle and alighted, the officers saluted Katharine, who gave them a very friendly reception, and had awaiting them a well-furnished table. Alva and his companions were obliged to confess that the Thuringian ladies kept an exceed ingly good kitchen, and honourably .observed the laws of hospi tality. In this respect they expressed themselves unable to do adequate justice to the merits of the princess. But they had scarcely sat down to breakfast, when she was called out of the hall, and informed by a cotu-ier who had just arrived at the castle to solicit her protection, that the Spanish army, in passing through some villages, had used violence, and had driven away the cattle of the peasantry. This intelligence at once excited her resentment, and she instantly commanded all her household servants to arm them selves, and to bolt the castle gates. She then went again into the hall, where the officers were yet sitting at the table, and complained of the wrong done to herself and her subjects. "I am sorry," said she, "to have to complain that the letters of protection with which the emperor has favoured me, have been scandalously violated. Your soldiers have been invading and carrying off the property of my peasantry. Such conduct as this cannot surely meet with your ap probation. My duty is to take care that they suffer no loss. And I hope you will support me in seeing reparation done them." The officers answered her, laughing, that small disasters of this sort were among the common occurrences in war, and unavoidable in the journeys of an army. "That remains to be seen," she answered in a tone of undissembled indignation, at this arbitrary, unsatisfactory mode of attempting to settle so clear a question of right and wrong • — "that remains to be seen. My peasantry must again have their Germany.] Katliarine of Schwartzburg. 177 own, or," — straining her voice to a high pitch of threatening, resentful utterance — "princes' blood shall go for oxen blood." With this brief declaration she left the hall. She did not stay to remonstrate ¦with them, or to endeavour by argument to sway them Scene at Breakfast In the Castle of nudolsuuJt. to the side of justice. Her blood was too hot in her veins at the conduct of the soldiers, and at the light manner in which it was re garded by the officers for her doing this. By her orders, her house holders, who were now armed, -within a few minutes entered the breakfast hall, and took their position, yet ¦with much deference. behind the chairs of the guests. At the entrance of this warUke company, which filled the room, the Duke of .Alva changed colom-, and aU the officers looked to one another in sUent bewUderment. There was now no doubting the sincerity and determination of the hostess in her threatening declaration uttered before leaving the haU; and they now saw that if they persevered in -vindicatmg the acts of pUlage committed by their soldiers, there was the prospect 1-78 Ladies qf the Reformation. [Germany. of a rough contest. How then were they to act 1 Cut off from the army, and surrounded by a superior number well armed, what remained for them but to yield to cu-cumstances, and endeavom-, as they best could, to propitiate the offended lady. Henry, Duke of Brunswick, was the first to break sUence, by bursting into loud laughter. Instead of becoming irritated at the menacing attitude assumed by Katharme, he had the good sense to speak of the affair with the most perfect good humour; and, to conciliate her, he pro nounced a high eulogium upon her maternal solicitude for the wel fare of her subjects, and upon her determuaed courage. He prayed her to keep herself tranquil, and undertook to prevaU upon the Duke of Alva to give her fiUl satisfaction. Matters were speedily adjusted. Alva, by the persuasion or recommendation of the Duke of Bruns-svick, commanded those of the soldiers who had committed the^ depredations complained of, to deUver, without delay, the de spoiled cattle to their owners, and prohibited any of them from further molestmg, in any respect, the subjects of this honourable princess. As soon as she was assured of the restoration of the piUaged property to the rightful parties, she courteously thanked her guests, who, in then- turn, thanked her for the hospitable re ception they had received, and took leave of her with warm expres sions of respect. It was doubtless this adventure which gained Katharine the surname of the Heroic. After this, she entertained at her castlo guests of a very differ ent character. Towards the proscribed Protestants who, on ac count of their religion, were hunted from place to place, her sym pathies were strongly excited, and by her protection many Pro testant preachers were saved from the hands of the executioner. They became her guests, deposited their anxieties and sufferings into her bosom, and found in her castle a safe and hospitable . asylum. Among these was Gaspar AquUa, minister at Saalfeld, who, m early life, had attended the army of the Emperor Charles V. to the Netherlands, as chaplain to one of the regiments, and Germany.] Katharine of Schwartzburg. 179 who, ha-ving refused to baptize there a cannon ball, was, by the barbarous soldiers, put into a mortar, in order to be shot into the air — a fate which he happUy escaped, in consequence of the powder not exploding. A second time he was in danger of his life for con demning and warning the people from the pulpit against the edict of the Interim. This so irritated Charles against Aquila, that a price of 5000 florins was set upon his head. At the intercession of a friend, Katharine allowed him to be brought secretly to her castle, where she kept him concealed for many months, and treated him -with the utmost kindness, untU this storm ha-ving passed away, he could again venture abroad.' WhUe she lived, Katharine was regarded as the benefactress and mother of her people, and was followed by their grateful prayers and benedictions. She died, universaUy respected and beloved, on the 7th of November, 1567, in the fifty-eighth year of her age, and the twenty-ninth of her government. Her mortal remains, attended by an honourable company, were deposited in the church at Eudolstadt." ' E.aroshom, Bd. ii. ». 37. " Ibid. Bd. ii. =. 38. Tort, from the Harbour. LOUISA JULIANA OF NASSAU, ELECTRESS PALATINE.' lOUISA JULIANA OF NASSAU was daughter of WiUiam, Prince of Orange, the founder of the com monwealth of the United Provinces, by his third wife Charlotte de Bourbon, whose Ufe has beeu sketched in the former series. She was the eldest daughter of this marriage, and was born at Dort, iu the year 1576. She was named after both her maternal grandfather, Louis, Duke of Montpensier, and her paternal grandmother, Juliana, Countess of Stolbiu'g, il princess who had the rare fortune to Uve to see 123 children who had sprung from her.' ' Our authority in this life, unless when otherwise indicated by tlie references at the foot of the page, is Spanheini's M&inoires sur la Vic ct la Mort de Loyse Juliane Electrice Palatine, iwe Princesse d'Orange. Leyden, 1645, in 4to. - "Tho Countess JiUiana," says the Baroness Blaze de Bury, "¦i\'as, like the mothei-s of most great men, one of the most remarkable women of her age. She was a genuine, Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 181 The infant years of Louisa Juliana were -watched over with peculiar tenderness, by her amiable, gentle, and affectionate mother, whose delicate health seemed only to endear to her the more this her firstborn child. Not a letter does she -write for many months after she became a mother, in which she does not make aUusion, in one way or other, to this beloved object of her solicitude. In the year 1576, when obliged, on account of her infirm state of health, to deny the prince the pleasure of her going to meet him, she thus writes to him from Delft:— "As to your daughter, she is vastly well. I have inquired whether the passage of the sea might be bad for her — most people teU me not ; but pray, my lord, let me know what you -wish me to do with hei-." Shortly after, in a letter to her brother, the prince dauphin, as he was styled, she says, "I have been sho-wing my little girl to M. de la Beosse, in order that he may tell you aU about her." And in another letter to the same prince, in February, 1577, she thus -writes : — "My health just now is tolerable, but as to my daughter, she takes such right care to be weU fed, that if she goes on after this manner, she wiU soon grow to a development, which will enable her to know all she owes to you, and how she should pay you by gratitude. She is -with me here at the prince's head-quarters."' To this beloved child, when her mind began to expand, Charlotte de Bourbon delighted in com municating such elementary lessons in general knowledge and re ligion as were adapted to the infant capacity. This Louisa Ju liana remembered, after her mother was taken from her by death, and the remembrance drew forth gushing feeUngs of tenderness. When about six years of age, she lost this precious mother, who died on the 5th of May, 1582. Young as she was, being a reflec tive and inteUigent chUd, she was deeply sensible of the loss she though, historicaUy speaiing, an obsouje heroine. ' She liTcd and died almost m Jmown,,' says a Dutch historian, ' often in the midst of great griefs aud trials; but he who distm guishes the pious and humble, had made of this princess a heroine of her faith.' Her letters are models of what a Christian mother should write, and breathe ever the most elevated sentiments."— itfemoira ofth£ Princess Palatine, &c., p. 40. ' Baroness Blaze do Bury's Memoirs ofthe Princess Palatine, tc, p. 46. 182 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. had sustained, and her little heart was almost ready to burst for grief. After her mother's death, her grandfather, the Duke of Mont pensier, was desirous to have both her and some of her sisters, sent to Prance, to be brought up by him. About two months sub sequently to that event, namely, in July, 1582, her father, in a letter to the duke, -with whom he was on the best terms, expressed his -wUUngness to let him have Louisa Juliana. "As to the joumey of my daughter," says he, "upon whom you are pileased to bestow the honour of a reception in your house, for which I can never sufficiently thank you, I beg of you to let me know the moment when those of your household, whom you mention in your letter, can be at Calais, in order that at that same moment I may also cause my daughter to set out, she having been in readiness for her departure for some days past." But we flnd her stiU with her father in Holland, in September following ; for in another letter to the duke, bearing the date of that month, the prince thus -writes : — "Your letters are full of the most agreeable news to me; and as I see by them that you are pleased to wish for my little gu-1, I will have her put in readiness to depart with those who shaU have the honour of placing her in your hands, and in those of madame. She shall, God willing, leave this to'wn [Antweiij], the 14th of this month, in order to reach Calais fom- days after, if the -svind be favourable. I hope, as you have been pleased to inform me, that she shall find some coach or litter wherein she can be borne. As to my other daughters, I have as yet decided on nothing, and there fore I entreat you to take it in good part, if as yet I only send you this one. You need not, my lord, assm-e me of the good treatment she -wiU receive, for having the honour to be your grandchUd, I doubt not but you -will order every necessary and proper care to be taken of her." The prince, who was the acknowledged and reso lute champion of the Eeformed faith, has been blamed for his readiness to commit this infant daughter to the care of the Diie of Montpensier, who was fervent even to fanaticism in his zeal in Gebjtant.J Louisa Jtiliayia of 2\'assau. 188 support of the Eoman CathoUc reUgion. But it is not quite certain that the prince had no hesitation or scruples about consigning his daughter to the guardianship of the duke. As the duke desired to have sent to him several of his daughter's chUdren, the prince, not to offend him, sent the eldest ; and if she went to her grandfather at this time, she did not remain long -with him, for she was resid ing -with her father at Delft in HoUand, at the time of his assassi nation, July lOj 1584 ; nor had her faith in the Eeformed principles, in which her parents and teachers had instructed her, been in the least shaken during her stay in France. At the time of the assassination of her father, she was only eight years of age. The shock inflicted on her heart by this be reavement, and the anguish she felt as she thought of herself and her sisters, now reduced to orphanage, we learn from some letters stUl extant, -written by her about this time. In a letter to her uncle, Count John, dated July 26, 15S4, Uttle more than two weeks after her father's death, she thus 'writes : — "Monsieur, my uncle, — ^We have suffered so great a loss, my Uttle sisters and I, that we know not to whom to confide our grief, unless to you, whom we suppUcate most humbly to be to us aU a father and kind uncle, in order that we may continue to be brought up in the faith in which, untU *now, my lord our father had us educated ; and if God award us this advantage, we shaU be very happy. We beseech you, sir, to take us aU under your protection, hereby most humbly kissing your hand, and that of my lady aunt also. We pray God to keep you weU, and grant you, monsieur, my uncle, a very long and very happy life. Given in my hand. Your most humble and most obedient, " Louise Julienne of Nassau and Orange. "Sir, we beg of you to recommend us to the good graces of our sister ^mUia."' About the middle of September this same year, Louisa was visited -with a severe iUness, which continued for a considerable 1 .Smilia I., irho was at DiUenbuig with her uncle.— Baroness Blaze de Bury's Me moirs of the Princess Palatine, &c., p. 76. I 184 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. number of weeks. Her jDhysicians had almost given her up ; but, watched over with maternal tenderness and care by her step-mother, Louise de ColUgny, she gradually recovered. After her recovery, she -wrote to her uncle. Count John, the following letter, dated December 19, 1584, in which, as in the preceding, the reader wiU perceive her infant zeal for the Protestant cause : — "Monsiem-, my uncle, — Although my lady mother tells me she has taken the trouble of sending you news of us, yet I will not so forget my duty, as not to -write to you so as always to recall myself to your good graces. I beg of you, most humbly, monsieur, my uncle, to look upon us always not only as your nieces, but as your most humble daughters, who will all their lives owe you obedience and homage, imploring you, at the same time, not to allow us to be given over into the hands of such persons as would desu-e us to adopt another religion than that in which our late lord father, and our mother had instructed us. For this reason, sir, and because you have more authority therein than any one else, we leave the whole in yom- hands, and ha-ving kissed them humbly, I pray God to grant to you health, and a long and happy life. This 19th Decem ber, in the hand of your very humble and very obedient niece, "Louise Julienne de Nassau." "In both" the letters now quoted, says Baroness Blaze de Bury, "the serious, almost grave character of the future countess palatine is already e-vident, and to an observer's eye, the admirable mother of the unfortunate Frederick V. is more than dimly shadowed forth in the infant.'" Impressed with the hazards to which he was exposed from the numerous conspiracies formed against his life, Louisa JuUana's fa ther had, in his last -will and testament, eamestly recommended his children to EUzabeth, Queen of England, entreating her to take them under her protection should he leave them fatherless. Eliza beth, in observance of the dying recommendations of an admired Protestant ally, made arrangements that his chUdren by Charlotte 1 Memoirs of thc Princess Palatine, Princess of Bohemia, pp. 76, 77. Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 185 de Bourbon, who were still infants and all daughters, should be cared for and brought up. These arrangements we learn from a letter which she wrote to the Duke of Montpensier, Charlotte de Bourbon's brother, dated Hampton Court, October 17, 1584. Louisa JuUana, the eldest, was to be committed to the care of her relative Catharine, Princess of Navarre. The EngUsh queen was herself to bring up the second, Elizabeth, who was her godchild. Katharine was to be consigned to her aunt the Countess of Schwartzburg; Brabantine to Madame the Duchess of Bouillon, sister of the then Duke of Montpensier ; .(Emilia' to her grandmother the electress palatine ; and Flandrine to the abbess of the Paraclit convent, in Champagne, who had already taken her while her father lived." This considerate care about these orphan children did honour to Elizabeth ; but from causes not recorded, these arrangements were not carried into effect, and Louise de ColUgny, their stepmother, undertook the charge of them — a duty performed by this amiable princess with a conscientiousness aud kindness of heart which gained her the respect and affection of them all.^ Louisa Juliana, besides the pains bestowed upon her by her stepmother, who had all the poUsh of a finished French educa tion, enjoyed the superintendence of her paternal aunt the Countess of Schwartzburg, who, like Louise de CoUigny, was eminent for piety and prudence, though inferior to her in accomplishments. Under the joint training of these ladies, who possessed, in striking contrast, each the pecuUar qualities of their respective countries, she acquired and blended ui her character the graceful manners of the French -with the gravity of the Dutch, and became one of the most accompUshed princesses of her time. The fame of her accomplishments and personal attractions hav ing extended beyond the limits of her native country, her aUiance was eagerly courted by foreign princes. Among her other suitors 1 She was eaUed iBmiUa "the second," to diatinguiah her from .ffimUia "the first," the daughter of Anne of Saxony, who married Emmanuel, the exUed Prince of Portugal. 2 Baroness Blaze de Bury's Memoirs ofthe Princess Palatine, (tc, p. 73. 3 See Ladies ofthe Reformation, flrst series, p. 684. 186 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. was Frederick IV., Elector Palatine of the Ehine, who, when a minor, lost his father. Elector Louis VL, in the year 1583, and entered upon the administration of the Palatinate in 1592, upon attaining his majority.' His paternal uncle. Prince John Casimir, administrator of the Palatinate, during his minority, being a rigid Calvinist, probably first suggested to him the match, because Louisa Juliana had been educated in the Calvinistic doctrines, and because she was otherwise in all respects suitable to his dignity and grow ing virtue. Some princes of the empire endeavoured to dissuade him from it, apj)rehensive lest it should involve him in the war in the Low Countries ; but his affections were engaged, and their dis suasive reasonings failed to divert him from his purpose. Philip de Marnix, Seigneur de Sainte Aldegonde, a courtier who could equally -wield the sword and the pen, and who had rendered great services to the United Provinces iu general, and to the house of Nassau in jiarticular, was employed as ambassador in negotiating the marriage. From Frederick's rank as the representative of a distinguished house, and from his character as a prince whose noble and exceUent qualities promised to sustain the honourable reputation of his ancestors, the alliance was judged highly advan tageous by Louisa's friends and counseUors. His proposal was ac cepted, and all arrangements for the marriage were made without delay. This being done, ha'ving taken leave of Prince Maurice, her brother, at the camp of Gertrudenberg, she was attended from the Low Countries into Germany by the Countess of Schwartzbm-g, and accompanied by a Couut of Nassau, together with a number of other counts and lords, to the castle of Dillenburg, the residence of Count John of Nassau, her uncle. Thither the elector palatine repaired in aU haste, a Uttle after, -vrith the flower of his nobility, and there the marriage was celebrated, the usual pomp and page antry displayed at the courts of Germany, on the occasion of the nuptials of their princes, being reserved for the home -bringing of the bride to the castle of Heidelberg. Upon the aa-rival of the ' Frederick waa bom March 5, 1674. Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 187 happy pair at Heidelberg, the nuptial festi-vities were renewed with great magnificence, accompanied with the rejoicings of aU the Pala tinate. Louisa's marriage took place June 13, 1593, when she was about seventeen years of age. The tenderest affection existed between her and the elector, and for many years she enjoyed a high degree of domestic happiness. Pro-vidence blessed her with a numerous offspring, and her children were imcommonly engaging — the general pride of the country as weU as her own comfort ; and the Divine goodness profusely extended itself to her nearest and dearest relatives. In her new position as the wife of the elector palatine, Louisa Juliana's first and chief efforts were directed to the introduction of salutary reforms into the court of Heidelberg. Various feudal and social habits then prevailed in the court, by which it was kept in a state of semi-barbarism. Among the nobiUty the passion for tournaments had greatly cooled; but to hunting, hawking, and fishing they were stiU extremely addicted, and the evil was that these rural pastimes were generally associated -with drinking to excess — ^the -vice of all others the most predominant at that time in Germany. " The Germans," says Schmidt, " were no less addicted to drinking than hunting. It was by them identified with the duties of hospitaUty, and formed the bond of fellowship. Impenetrable to reproof, they insisted that the practice was sanctified by the example of their forefathers; nor had the doctrines of the Eeforma tion sufficient influence to correct its excesses."' Towards the close of the sixteenth century the Venetian government in a communica tion sent through their ambassador, Badoer, to the imperial diet held at Augsburg, state : " In Germany so much is eaten, and so much more is di-unk, that any German who may show moderation at table can only be reputed in Ul-health."" These intemperate habits the electress laboured to banish from among the courtiers, and in their stead to establish habits of sobriety, order, and decorum. ' Schmidt, Geschichte Alleman, quoted by Miaa Benger. 2 Baroneas Blaze de Bury's Memoirs of tlie Princess Palatine, iSsc, p. 116. 188 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. To accomplish this was no easy task ; but her efforts were not alto gether in vain, though she failed in completely eradicating the epi curean propensities of the nobles, whose festivals, both public and private, still not rmfrequently closed with inebriety. To profane swearing, a -vice not uncommon at that time amongst the higher classes in Germany, as well as amongst the higher classes in other countries of Europe, she was not less an enemy than to intemperance. In impro-ving the moral and religious condition of the court, one of the remedies she found most effectual was to award to virtue the honour and patronage which it merited. This induced in courtiers and aspirants to offices of dignity and emolument in the court, greater circumspection over their conduct. The retinue of the elector being great, and the expenditure of his establishment extravagant, she introduced a system of economy, un necessary offices being abolished and superfluous expenses retrenched. These reforms she prudently effected only by degrees, to soften the opposition likely to be excited by too great and rapid changes. Among her female attendants she established the practice of reading daily a portion of the Scriptm-es. In the doctrines of Calvinism she had been instructed from her youth ; and these were the creed of the Palatinate church. She and her ladies, therefore, deemed it their bounden duty to be able to vindicate their own system in opposition to the peculiar tenets of Lutheranism by the authority of inspiration. But both she and the elector cultivated a spirit of Christian charity towards the Lutherans, whom they were desu-ous of harmonizing and uniting with the Calvinists — a mea sure which they saw to be necessary for the safety of both against the common enemy. After she had become engrossed with the cares and joys of ma ternity, one of the main objects of her solicitude was the right up bringing of her children. They were amply provided with accom plished teachers of Protestant principles. But judging that she could not by the substitution of teachers be discharged from her Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 189 obligation as a mother, to train up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, she personally instiUed into their minds the doctrines and precepts of revelation, and accustomed them to be pre sent at the exercises of religion whether domestic or pubUo. The training of her eldest and favourite son Frederick, the heir to his father's authority, estates, and honours, particularly engaged her attention. Such was the abhorrence of Popery and the zeal for Protestantism -with which she had imbued him, that in a letter 'written by him, when only nine years of age, to Elizabeth, daughter of James I. of England, his future consort, congratulating her upon the deUverance of herself, her father, and the parliament, from the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, he says, that it was his firm conviction that the wicked conspiracy proceeded from the direct agency of Anti christ. His education, which commenced at the court of Heidel berg under her own eye, was completed at Sedan. By her recom mendation he was early sent to reside with her cousin-german and brother-in-law, Henry de la Tour, Viscomte of Turenne, and Duke of Bouillon, at Sedan, where he would enjoy the double benefit of attending the celebrated Protestant academy in that place, whither the flower of the Protestant youth of France and Switzer land resorted, and of being under the inspection of that nobleman, who was one of the most sagacious statesmen and skilful generals of his age, being equally distinguished for -wisdom of counsel and -vigour of execution. Here, too, the mind of the young prince would be conflrmed in the Protestant faith, for the duke had attached himself with great zeal to the Huguenots.' By sending him to Se dan, the electress also intended to remove him from the tempta tions to which he would have been exposed by witnessing the gross habits, the drinking and debauchery of the German nobiUty, ah-eady referred to. Being on the mother's side of French extraction, and ha-ving been brought up under the care of Louise de ColUgny, she prefei-red French refinement and inteUectual cultivation, to the • Tet he renounced the Proteatant interest iu 1621. He died IMarch 25, 1623, aged sixty-six years. 190 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. ruder manners prevalent in Germany, termed by the German -writers simple and patriarchal. Under the opportunities of mental culture he enjoyed at Sedan, Frederick became a prince of a cultivated mind, poUshed address, and respectable in classical and general acquirements. To the study of the French language and French Uterature he diligently applied himself, and the French ideas he acquired had afterwards the effect of giving to the Palatine court, when he became elector, an elegance of manners superior to that of the other German courts.' In sending her son to reside -with the Duke of Bouillon, the elec tress had no political object in -view. But the duke was a poUtician, and the attentions he paid to the young prince proceeded not merely from the ties of relationship, but from his forecasting calculations as a statesman. He was ah-eady meditating schemes for weakening or destroying the power of the imperious house of Austria; and contemplating, if he had not thus early destined Frederick as the centre, the most conspicuous character in the projected revolution, he not only inspU-ed him with a generous indignation at the usurpa tions and tyranny of that house, but kindled his imagination with ambitious prospects — never, alas ! to be reaUzed. In 1610, the electress suffered a severe trial in the death of her husband, who died on 9th September that year, at the early age of thirty-seven. His long previous sufferings had famiUarized his mind with death, and turned his thoughts to preparation for an other world. To provide for the orderly administration of affairs -within his territories after his decease, he appointed, by his last will and testament, John, Duke of Deux Pouts, a -wise and prudent prince, to be administrator of the electorate, during the minority of his eldest son and successor Prince Frederick, who had only at tained the age of fourteen years. The elector was buried -with the pomp and circumstance suitable to his dignity in the family burying- place at Heidelberg. From the wisdom of his government, his love of justice, his jea- ' Baroness Blaze de Bury's Memoirs ofthe PriTwess Palatine, &c., pp. 115, 119. Germany.] Louisa Jidiana of Nassau. 191 lousy for the liberties of the empire, and his desire for the tran quUlity of his subjects, the elector had acquired during his life a high measure of love and respect, and his death was very generally lamented, not only by his o'wn people, but by all who knew him in foreign countries. After his interment, ambassadors from various foreign courts arrived at Heidelberg to convey to the electress and to the court expressions of condolence. France, in particular, testi fied its affection towards the Palatinate house, not only by sending an ambassador on this mission, but also by the person sent, the Duke of Bouillon, who was peculiarly acceptable to the electress, both from his relationship to her, as being her brother-in-law, and from the high place he held in her esteem. On this occasion Philip Duplessis Mornay wrote to her a kind and sympathizing letter, dated October 20, 1610. He suggests, for her comfort, the consideration that her husband had been removed from this afflicted life to a better; that there remained with her the dear pledges of their mutual affection, to whom, by this bereave ment, she was so much the more necessary ; that she had many great and virtuous princes as relations and allies, and many good friends and servants of aU ranks who would emulously hasten at her caU to succour her -with their kind offices. "But," adds he, "I acknowledge, madame, that all these means of cure are inadequate for so severe a wound. The consolation and the remedy are to be found, where your rare piety 'will seek them, in God alone, who reUeves his people from the calamities of this life in his own time — who frequently, by the same stroke, both wounds and heals us — who appoints the days of his people for his own glory, and the afflictions which befaU us for our salvation, causing them aU to co operate both for our temporal and eternal good — and whose will alone, therefore, as it is to the Christian in the place of all reason, ought to be also for his special comfort." ' To this letter the electress made the foUo'wing reply : — " Mon sieur Duplessis, — You have not waited tUl you were informed of 1 Memoires et Correspondance de Duplessis Mornay, tom. xi. p. 123. 192 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. my grief from myself, in order to condole with me. This you have anticipated, and you have represented so natm-ally what is allowed to a sorrow so well founded as mine, from the great loss I have sustained in the death of my late husband, that it renews the tenderness and soitow which I owe him; and I live against my will, if I may presume to say so. But yet I lay my hand upon my mouth that I may not exceed due bounds, and- aggravate the bit terness of my distress. It seemed as if my trial would have been increased by a fresh load upon my eldest son, who has been, as it were, at the point of death -with the smaU-pox, the eruption of which was preceded by such violent sickness as almost to take away all hope from his attendants. In this, my God has sho-wn me what he could still infiict upon me. I, indeed, would have given all my chUdren for what I have lost; but he knows why it hath pleased him to dispose of them other-wise; and this -wUl make me endeavom- to foUow your holy admonitions, that I may be able to acquiesce in his will. I have not failed to receive consolation in all the respects you have thought of. My sisters, EUzabeth, Duchess of Bouillon, and Charlotte, Duchess of TremouUle, as soon as it was possible for them, were -with me. For a month after my bereavement I had the happiness of their presence, and they have been greatly instrumental in alle^viating my sorrow. The same advantage I have derived from the coming of the Duke of BouiUon, my brother-in-law, who has not complained of a troublesome so joum of some time here for the good of my children and the Pala tine estate. In both these respects, his wise counsels, added to the affection of the Duke of Deux Pouts, wiU, I hope, be very use ful, and will bring me all the satisfaction permitted by the sadness I experience from my great loss, which, by distracting, has pre vented me from gratifying the desu-e I have always had of honour ing you, and of testifying to you that no person can be more than I am. Monsieur Duplessis, yom- very affectionate and assured friend, " Novemher 13, 1610." " LouiSE DE NASSAU.' 1 Memoires et Correspondance de Duplessis Mornay, tom. xi. p. 132. Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 193 After the death of the elector, Louisa Juliana discharged, with great abiUty and zeal, the varied duties of her new position. In all affairs of importance, John, Duke of Deux Pouts, to whom the administration of the Palatinate had been committed by the de ceased elector, had recourse to her for advice, not merely from deference to her feelings, but because he knew her to possess much of the superior talents and judgment of her father. The duke had not resided long at her court, when an affection sprung up between him and her eldest daughter, Louisa Juliana, which issued in their marriage, greatly to the satisfaction of the electress and of the whole Palatinate, in which the duke, by his wise and upright conduct, had become greatly beloved; and the princess gave proof that, if she could not aspire to the talents of her mother, she inherited her ¦virtues as weU as her name. The electress now redoubled her solicitude and efforts in pro moting the inteUectual and religious culture of her children, and especially of her eldest son Frederick, who, in course of time, if spared, wordd personally assume his father's authority. To com plete his education, so auspiciously begun, she again sent him to Sedan, where she believed, now that his mind was considerably ex panded, he would profit more than before, both in the academy and iu the society of the Duke of Bouillon. He had, indeed, afterwards to look back with gratitude to the wisdom with which his mother had directed his early education. The only thing in it he afterwards regretted as a defect, was that he had not from his youth been habituated to serve in a camp, whereby he might have been trained to the art of war, inured to hardships, and rendered more competent to direct a campaign. But it may be doubted whether he would ever have acquired, by any process of training, what was not natural to him— those commanding miUtary and political attributes— that energy of will, that indomitable de termination, that daring intrepidity, that inexhaustible power of invention, that comprehensiveness of mental grasp — which his sub sequent difficult circumstances demanded, and which alone would 194 .Ladies of ihe Reformation. [Germany. have carried him safely through no common hazards, and ultimately made his cause triumphant. Yet Frederick was respectable in point of talent and acquirement, and possessed of many piincely qualities fitted to adorn a throne and to promote the happiness of his people in ordinary times ; he was amiable and generous in his dispositions, susceptible of right impressions, open and affable in his manners. All this was very gratifying to his mother; and to crown her wishes for his happiness, she had only to obtain for him an honourable and happy marriage. In this respect her desires were fulfilled and her expectations more than realized. Overtures of a matrimonial union between him and the Princess Elizabeth, only daughter of James I., King of Great Britain and Ireland, having been made, Count PhUip de Hanau and Monsieur de Plessen, an old ininister of the court palatine, were despatched to England to negotiate the marriage. Frederick being a Protestant, the son of a tried Protestant family, and the descendant on the mother's side of the Ulustrious WilUam, Prince of Orange, the proposed aUiance was highly popular among the EngUsh people. It was acceptable, too, to King James, who was satisfied with the dignity of the Palatine house, which, though not royal, had at difi'erent times been aUied to royal families ; but in favouring the match, he appears to have been governed rather by political motives than religious considerations. By this concession to the Protestant feelings of his subjects, he hoped the parliament would be the more disposed to vote him a supply of money ; and from an alliance -svith Maurice of Nassau, he flattered himself -svith the prospect of securing an ascendancy in the United Provinces. Queen Anne, Elizabeth's mother, on the contrary, contemplated the proposed marriage as degrading to her daughter, for whom she con sidered none a suitable match save the wearer or heir of a regal cro-svn. To dissuade her from it, appealing to her pride, she asked her how she would like to be called Goody Palsgrave. Elizabeth, though not -without ambition and the love of splendour, yet being warmly attached to the Protestant interest, promptly replied, "I would rather espouse a Protestant count than a Catholic emperor." Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 195 Frederick having been permitted to visit the court of the British sovereign, in prosecution of this matrimonial project, left Heidel berg and embarked for England on the 16th of October, 1612, with a retinue of more than 400 persons, including nobles, barons, knights, gentlemen, and menial attendants. Upon his arrival at the English com-t he at once made a favourable impression on Elizabeth, and as she was beautiful, sprightly, dignified, intelligent, accompUshed, she gained upon the heart of the prince palatine. They delighted in each other's company, and the more they knew each other the greater were their mutual esteem and affection. But their marriage was delayed in consequence of the death of Henry, Prince of Wales, a young prince of high promise, on November 6, which suddenly plunged the court of Great Britain into mourning. Their betroth ment took place December 27, and the marriage was celebrated at Whitehall on the 14th of Febmary, 1613. .Aiter the nuptial vows were administered, which were the same to both, each being pledged to love the other, obedience not being mentioned, the nuptial bene diction was pronounced by Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury. This was foUowed by a sermon preached from Psalm cxx-viii. 3, by Dr. John King, Bishop of London.' At the nuptial feast the chief no biUty of England, Scotland, and Ireland were assembled, and the only one' present who felt dissatisfied was Queen Anne, who neither then nor ever after was reconciled to this match for her daugh ter, whom, in her spleen, she addressed by the appellation of Goody Palsgrave." As was common at the nuptials of the great at that time, the mirth and gayety were expressed or promoted by fire works, naval fights, races, comedies, interludes ; and by the orders of the king there were bonfires, ringing of beUs, and other demon strations of pubUc rejoicing in the principal cities and towns of the kingdom. The rest of the winter ha-ving been devoted to the pleasures of ¦ Some curious extracts are made from this wedding sermon in Notes and Queries, vol. ii. p. 213. 2 So far did she carry her displeasure agauist her daughter, on account of this marriage, that, in her last wiU, she begueathed no part of her property to her. 196 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. the chase, and the visiting of the royal residences and the English universities, Frederick and Elizabeth took their departure in the spring for Heidelberg. They proceeded to Holland, where Maurice, Frederick's mother's brother, and the States paid them every hon- om- ; and their journey through Holland and the parts of Germany which they required to pass before reaching Heidelberg was like a triumphal procession. Upon their arrival at the castle of Heidel berg, their intended future residence, they found the entrance adorned by an artificial arch, the most magnificent of the many they had seen erected to their honour in course of theu- joumey. They passed through this arch in carriages to the court, from whence Court Of the Castle of Beidtlberg. having alighted, they walked to the portal, EUzabeth leaning on Fre derick's arm. Here they were met by the electress, Louisa Juliana, with a train of twelve princesses and many noble ladies, formmg in the vestibiUe a line on each side, according to their respective ages, the electress being the first. But "the impulse of her feelings was too strong for etiquette, and she rushed to receive EUzabeth Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 197 with every demonstration of maternal affection. The meeting of the mother and daughter-in-law was affecting — each clasped the other to her bosom, shedding tears of joy.'" The nuptial festivities being concluded, Frederick assumed in his own person the government of the Palatinate, which now formed one of the most prosperous of the German states. From his father he derived, among other dignities, that of being the acknowledged head of the Protestant union — a confederacy of Lutheran and Calvinistic princes, the foundation of which was laid by his father, Frederick IV., towards the, close of the sixteenth century." When his father held the distinction of head of this union, it involved little or no danger : in the altered state of Europe it was a distinc tion exposing to great peril and requiring great talents. Frederick was sincerely attached to the Protestant cause, but independently of his being young and inexperienced, he did not, as has already been observed, possess those great qualities which the exigencies of the times demanded in whoever undertook to vindicate the liberties of Protestant Germany. Upon the marriage of Frederick, the electress-dowager resolved to withdraw from the court of Heidelberg, and to spend the re mainder of her days on the lands settled upon her for do'wry. Her ' Miss Benger. ^ Observing the advantages which the unfortunate schism between the Calvinists and Lutherans gave to the house of Austria against the Protestants and liberties of Germany, Frederick IV., at an early period of his Ufe, became extremely anxious for a general union among Protestants. As he professed the Calvinistic doctrines, this excited the jealousy of the Lutheran chiefs, many of whom continued aloof, particularly the Electors of Bran denburg and of Saxony, and even Philip Louis, count palatine, head of the collateral branch of Neuburg. But he, notwithstanding, succeeded in uniting several of the minor princes and states, in a confederacy at HeUbronn, January 16, 1594. These priuces were, John, Couut Palatine of Deux Pouts; Bmest Frederick, of Baden-Durlach; George Frede rick, of Brandenburg- Anspach; Joachim Ernest, son ofthe Elector of Brandenburg, and administrator of Magdeburg; aud Frederick, Duke of Wiirtemberg. They were soon de serted by the Duke of Wiirtemberg; but his loss was more than made up by the accession of the Duke of Brunswick, the Landgrave of Hesse, the Prince of Anhalt, and John, Count of iSTassau. Upon the death of John George, Elector of Brandenburg, they were strength ened by the accession of his son, Jolm Frederick, and were encouraged by Henry IV. of France. On February 12, 1603, the united priuces formed the celebrated offensive and defensive aUiance of Heidelberg; and iu 1609 it was joined by several imperial towns.— Coxe'a History of tlie House of Austria, vol. i. pp. 669-671, 678. 198 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. son IVederick, and still more, her daughter-in-law Elizabeth, strongly pressed upon her the relinquishment of this idea, but in vain. It is perhaps attributing to her greater penetration into the future than she actuaUy possessed, to suppose with some that what mainly induced her to form this resolution was a foresight of the disasters impending over her beloved house, and of the rejection of her counsels by which they might have been averted. Her chief motive, probably, was a desire to enjoy during the remainder of her earthly existence, a peaceful privacy, unencumbered by etiquette and the restraints of court life, such as kings and emperors have often longed for, and the sweets of which they have preferred to crowns and sceptres. The retreat she had selected was the ancient castle of Kaiserslau teru, in Bavaria Palatinate in the town of that name situated ou Kaisersbuttm in Jd^S. the Lautern, a river so called on account of the singular clearness of the running water;' and the vaUey through which it flows was especiaUy noted for its fertility and beauty. This castle, the re- ^ Tlie German word lauter signiiies clear, pure. Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 199 mains of which stUl exist, and are now converted into a central prison, was buUt by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who had been struck with the romantic and delightful situation of the spot, enhanced by the surrounding streams and woods, by whioh it was equally adapted for the recreations of hunting and fishing, and to this royal residence he often retired to enjoy relief from the cares of state. While resident at Kaiserslauteru, the electress-dowager exem pUfied in -widowhood, the virtues which had been conspicuous in her married Ufe. Her domestic establishment was in aU respects weU regulated. Her authority iu the lands of her do-wry was sub ordinate only to that of the palsgrave, who again was amenable to the imperial jurisdiction ; and it was exercised upon the principles of equity, generosity, and humanity. She listened personally to the complaints of her subjects, composed their differences, promoted among them kind and charitable feelings, secured a -vigorous and impartial administration of justice, relieved sickness and poverty, and shielded the oppressed. Hence the people in the surrounding district, after she had resided for some time among them, were manifestly much improved in piety, refinement of manners, and general prosperity. In this retreat she was often visited by her son Frederick, as well as by other relatives and friends ; and her reUsh for the plea sures of retirement did not prevent her from -visiting, from time to time, the Palatinate com-t. In July, 1616, she proceeded to Heidelberg, to attend the nuptials of her daughter Charlotte, then aged twenty, with George William, heu- of the electorate of Bran denburg, which were celebrated with every demonstration of joy, and with a pomp suitable to the rank of the parties. About five years after her retreat to Kaiserslauteru, no event occurred in her O'wn history, or in the history of her family, to cloud their prosperity. Eemoved from the splendour and page antry of the court, she was enjoying undisturbed repose, and re ceiving from all her children, wherever they were situated only 200 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. happy tidings. But it was not the wiU of Providence that she should close her days in happy tranquiUity, in this sequestered residence. What first invaded her peaceful seclusion, and became the source of her subsequent sufferings, was the election of her son Frederick to be King of Bohemia. The states of Bohemia, having taken up arms against the Empe ror Matthias, in defence of the edicts granted them in the reign of his predecessor, Eodolphus, in favour of the Eeformed religion, and in defence of the rights and liberties secured them in former reigns, continued their revolt under his successor and cousin-ger man, Ferdinand II. The states, and especiaUy the du:ectoi-s of the Bohemian empire, were, from the flrst, un-wilUng to acknowledge Ferdinand as their king, and his conduct, both before and after he was iiTegularly elected and crowned, proving hun to be a ruthless tyrant and persecutor, entirely under the guidance of the Jesuits, increased their dissatisfaction. To enforce his claims to sovereignty, he employed the assistance of his Eoman CathoUc subjects, and secured the support of divers of the neighbouring princes. AU the Eoman Catholic sovereigns of the empire, together -with Po land, ranked themselves on his side. The King of Spain, in par ticular, besides advancing large sums of money, made preparations to support this, the younger branch of his family. Even the Pro testant Elector of Saxony, the most powerful of the German princes, became Ferdinand's ally. The Protestants of Bohemia were awed by this mighty combi nation. But so far from yielding to despair, they evinced the utmost determination to maintain their rights and privileges. The states, at their meeting assembled at Prague, at the close of July, 1619, after long consultations with the deputies from Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia, came to the resolution, with the concurrence of the incorporated countries, not to receive Ferdinand as then- sovereign, and, by a large majority, elected on the 26th of August, from among several candidates, Frederick V., Elector of the Pala tinate, to be their king. He was the head of the Protestant union Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 201 which the Elector of Saxony, the Duke of Brunswick, and the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, his rival candidates, had declined to join. His individual resources were not the least considerable amongst the German princes. He was the son-in-law of a power ful sovereign, the King of Great Britain, and the nephew of Prmce Maurice, one of the greatest generals of the age, and the first man in the United Pro-vinces, who had successfully resisted the vast power of Spain. These considerations, combined with the personal character of Frederick, who was distinguished for affability, bene volence, and condescension, strikingly contrasting with the gloomy severity of Ferdinand, tumed the balance in his favour.' Many of his friends urged Frederick to accept of the proffered kingdom, in doing which they assured him, viewing the case on all sides, he had nothing to lose, and much to gain. His mother, who, from her natural sagacity and her experience of political affairs, foresaw that, by his accepting the Bohemian crown, jealousies would inevitably arise, friendships be inconstant, hazards certain, and opposition powerful, gave him very different ad'vice, which she fortified by forcible and impressive arguments. Devoted though she was to the interests of liberty and of Protestantism, she doubted whether the vindication of the outraged rights of the Bohemians was his mission, and she was afraid lest, in a fruitless attempt to accomplish this, he might lose his patrimonial terri tories. " Weigh weU," said she, " the circumstances in which you wUl be placed by accepting this cro'wn. Consider the wealth and the might of the house of Austria, against which you 'will have to contend — its disciplined armies, its able generals, its physical strength. Trust not to what is told you that almost all Ferdi nand's subjects are eager to shake off his yoke, and that it wUl be difficult for him to find forces to attack you. You wUl find him a more formidable foe than you imagine. He will pretend that he is fighting for the Holy Catholic church, and this pretext -svill arm powerful foreigners in support of a house pre-eminently Ca- I The Reformation and Anti- Reformation in Bohemia, vol. i. pp. 352, 353. 202 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. tholic; while, on the part of Eome, no means will be left untried, in order to combine kings and states for the ruin of the Palatine house. The King of France, however much he may wish to see Austria shorn of such a valuable portion of her dominions, is not in a condition to resist that power. The King of Spain -wiU supply it both -with men and money. As to your father-in-law, the King of Great Britain, to whom you might naturaUy look for assistance, you little understand him if you flatter yourself that he 'wiU risk the loss of the friendship of Spain for your interests. My brother Maurice would be inclined to do more for you than your father- in-law, but it would be unreasonable to expect that the free states in the Low Countries would peril their own safety to uphold the pretensions of the house of the Palatinate to the sovereignty of Bohemia. Then, as to your aUies, the Kings of Denmark and Sweden, they are too far distant to render you important service. The Elector of Saxony was your rival candidate, and several of the German Lutheran princes, even those who are of the Protes tant union, influenced by prejudice on account of your Calvinistic sentiments, voted for that elector, though he is not a member of the union. Even those who voted for you may shrink from making the sacriflces necessary to support you; and your enemies will not fail to work, to your disadvantage, on their hopes and fears by promises and threatenings. If you rely upon the constancy of the friendship of a man so fickle as Bethlehem Gabor, the Prince of Transylvania, I am afraid you wiU be sadly disappointed. So long as prosperity cro-wns your arms he may prove a faitliful ally, but should the fortunes of war go against you, he wUl desert your standard for that of the emperor. Nor can you calculate upon the permanent fealty of the Bohemians. Your Protestant prin ciples in opposition to Ferdinand's bigotry, your affability and benevolence of character favourably contrasting with his gloomy severity of temper, may gain you numerous friends among the people; but such is the inconstancy natural to man, that, though you should never treat them otherwise than a sovereign ought his Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 203 subjects, yet, if you encounter defeat and are unable to defend them, they will soon regard you with indifference and hostility, and throw off their allegiance to you, charging you, perhaps, with a want of vigour and abUities. My mature judgment is, that you should at once decline accepting the Bohemian kingdom." Such was the scope of her reasonings with Frederick. His mother's judgment had great weight with Frederick, and though, impelled by ambition, he had anxiously laboured to secure this dignity, yet from her representation of the dangers and diffi culties with which it was surrounded, now when he had gained his object, he hesitated in ascending the perilous eminence. Some his torians affirm that he eagerly accepted of the crown.' Others in form us, upon the authority of those who were in his court and counsels at the time, that he received the tidings of his election ¦with less emotions of pleasure than any of his friends, and had much difficulty in coming to the resolution to accept of the prof fered kingdom.^ After his election he immediately repaired to Niirnberg, where the princes of the Protestant union were assembled, to consult them how he should act, and at the same time he communicated by letters the tidmgs of his election to his privy councU at Heidelberg, and to his consort EUzabeth. The princes of the union approved of his accepting the crown, and pledged themselves to give him their support and assistance. His court at Heidelberg unanimously recommended him to accept — a recommendation which was no sooner communicated to Louisa Juliana, than under the over whelming pressure of gloomy presages of calamity, she took to her bed and gave vent in retU-ement to her irrepressible feelings of distress. It was different with EUzabeth, Frederick's wife, who, stimulated partly by the ardour of her zeal for religious liberty, and partly by the ambition of becoming a queen, was clear and decided for his acceptance. "Since you are persuaded that the 1 Franklyn, p. 49, quoted by Hume in hia History of England, chap, xlviii. 2 Spanheim, Memoires de Louise Juliane, p. 142. 204 Ladies of the Reformation. [Gbemant. throne to which you are invited is a vocation from God, by whose providence all things are ordered and directed, then assuredly you ought not to shrink from the duty imposed ; nor, if such be your persuasion, shall I repine, whatever consequences may ensue ; not even though I should be forced to part with my last jewel, and to suffer actual hardships, shall I ever repent of the election."' Thus encouraged by the princes of the union, by his own court, and by his beloved consort, Frederick came to the resolution, not withstanding the remonstrances of his mother, to accept of the kingdom of Bohemia ; and he hastened to Heidelberg to make ar rangements for his departure for Prague, the Bohemian capital. On his arrival at Heidelberg -with this intention, his mother, who could not conceal her feelings of distress, remonstrated against his resolution by her sighs and tears, at which he was not a Uttle affected. To provide for the proper administration of affairs in the Palatinate dming his absence, he appointed the Duke of Deux Pouts to act as his representative, and implored her to aid him ¦with her counsels as she had done before. She yielded to his en treaties, but with a sorrowful heart, not so much because she had to abandon the tranquil retreat, where she felt so happy, as be cause of her gloomy presentiments as to the future fate of her sou and house. A few days after, Frederick, accompanied by his consort, set out for Prague, the Bohemian capital, where he met with a warm re ception ; and they took up their residence in the royal palace. He was cro-wned in that city on the 3d of November, 1619, with great magnificence, and on the 6th of the same month Elizabeth's corona tion was celebrated with equal splendour. But he soon had canse to regret that, contrary to the remonstrances of his mother, he had accepted of this royal dignity. Had he received assistance against Ferdinand from the quarters on which he had relied, his crown, in all probability, would have been secure, and he would have been * Moser's Patriotisclies Archiv., quoted in Miss Benger's Memtiirs of Elizabeth, Queen of Boltemia, vol. i. p. 279. Coxe's History of tlie House of Austria, voL i. pp. 773, 774. Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 205 saved from the calamities which afterwards befell him. But all faUed him in the hour of need. His father-in-law, James I., King of Great Britain and Ireland, afraid of offending the court of Spain (Ferdinand's avowed ally), with one of whose princesses he wished The Great Square, Prague. to marry his eldest surviving son Charles, not only refused to ac knowledge him as lawful sovereign of Bohemia, but stigmatized him as an usurper, and denounced the revolt of that oppressed peo ple from Ferdinand, theu- oppressor, as treason and rebeUion. Fer- 20G Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. dinand, by his firm temper and active policy, ha'ving powerfuUy strengthened and united his O'wn party, and weakened and di-vided the Protestants, the princes of the union dishonourably stood aloof from Frederick. The Elector of Saxony, "who was weak enough to be displeased -with the loss of a cro'wn which he had not courage to a.ccept, and who fostered against the elector palatine an here ditary jealousy for his superior influence among the Protestants, and an incurable animosity arising from their discordant senti ments in reUgion," at last declared for Ferdinand, by sending an army into Lusatia, which he restored to submission to the emperor. The Landgrave of Hesse and other Lutheran princes and states followed the example of the Elector of Saxony.' Against the for midable power mustered to oppose him, Frederick had to rely almost solely on his o'wn forces and treasures ; and on the 19th of Novem ber, 1620, his troops were completely defeated at the White Moun tain, near Prague, by the imperial army, under the command of Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, and the Austrian commander Buc- quoy.^ By this defeat he lost the kingdom of Bohemia ; and he and Elizabeth were under the necessity of fleeing from Prague, now become generally disaffected to him, and ready to submit to the conqueror. Upon receiving the painful intelligence of the loss of Bohemia, of the flight of her son and his family, and of the rapid subjugation and spoliation of the Palatinate by the troops of the enemy, the dis tress of the electress-dowager was great ; yet her sorrow did not overpower her fortitude. These disasters had not taken her by sur prise ; they were the fulfilment of her o-wn predictions ; and though they deeply agonized her feeUngs, she sought and found tranquiUity and comfort by connecting them all with the wiU, ordination, and providence of God. "Nothing," said she, "happens fortuitously or by chance. All takes place according to the fixed purpose aud fore knowledge of God. The falling of a sparrow is determined by him, much more the fall of states and kingdoms. The hairs of our head ' Coxe's History of tlie House of A ustria, vol. i. pp. 774-778. = Ibid. pp. 779-784. Germany.] Lotiisa Juliana of Nassau. 207 are aU numbered ; all our steps, our affairs, and all that befaUs us are equaUy so. Second causes cannot move -without the first. The hand which directs all is not only just but good. Calamities have their measure, their termination, and their uses. Unfortunate princes have not always been the worst. Josiases have had un toward conflicts as weU as Ahabs; Davids have been driven from their thrones as well as Nebuchadnezzars. The power and the tyranny of men have their limits ; and there are cro-wns which can be lost neither by the treachery of friends nor by the violence of enemies." Previously to the loss of her son's Bohemian sovereignty, by his defeat at the battle of the White Mountain, the electress-dowager resided for some time in the castle of Heidelberg, taking charge of his daughter Elizabeth, and of his second son Charles Louis, who had been left to her care when Frederick and EUzabeth went to Prague. But now she could no longer safely remain there, nor could she now return to the castle of Kaiserslauteru, which, with her jointure estates of Lohrbach, Neuburg, and their dependencies, as well as the patrimonial lands of her son Louis Philip, who was then in his minority, were taken possession of by the hostile armies whioh were ravaging the Palatinate. Against this unjust spoliation she protested ; and she petitioned the generals Count TUly and Don Cordua, praying that being innocent of the crimes imputed to her son Frederick, she might be allowed to remain iu the peaceable possession of the residence and lands settled upon her for dowry. But her prayers were disregarded by these generals. The orders from the Austrian court at Brussels, and from the Bavarian court at Munich, were that no favour should be sho-wn her, and they were executed to the letter. Neither the consideration of the pri vileges of -widows, nor her innocence, which was generally acknow ledged and openly declared in the imperial diets, nor the interces sions of humane and friendly princes, could move the chief actors, who were carrying all before them, to grant her the possession of her jointure estates. 208 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. Abandoning therefore Kaiserslauteru to the violence of the con querors, she repaired, on leaving Heidelberg, to the ten-itories of Wiirtemberg, where she stayed for some time at Schorndorf. The disorders of Bohemia and the ravages of the Palatinate ha-ving driven a number of people of all ranks from their homes, Schorn dorf was then filled with a colony of exiles, to whom she was ser- ¦viceable in various ways. Among other spoils drawn from the Palatinate by the invaders, was the old and valuable Palatine library, one of the greatest orna ments of all Germany, and containing a vast collection of the most exquisite monuments of antiquity. It had, for a long period, been coveted by the pope, who wished to emich the Ubrary of the Vatican with so rare a treasure. The Duke of Bavaria, to whom had been committed the conquest of the Upper Palatinate, was not in the habit of gifting, or even dividing with others, the spoUs of war. But the pope having been the first to move that the elector ate palatine should be conferred upon him,' and the duke having still to depend upon Eome for assistance in the accomplishment of his designs, he offered a large share of the Palatine library to the Cardinal Ludo visio as a present to the pope, Gregory XV., reserv ing the other part for himself, and it was divided in December, 1622. A Greek, named Leo, librarian to the Vatican, came ex pressly to Heidelberg on this business, and the part aUotted to Eome was conveyed thither on mules. It was placed in the Vati can by itself, and marked with a heretical sign, being called "the Palatine library."'' The other part was carried to Miinich. In order to obtain for the electress-dowager, the restoration of her dowry residence and estates, kings, electors, and princes inter posed their kiud offlces ; and then- efforts promised, at first, to be successful. The councU of the emperor, unable to find any plaus- ' Frederick V. had been proscribed in 1621, and in 1623 deposed from his electoral dignity, which, with the Upper Palatinate, was bestowed upon the Duke of Bavaria, on February 23d, that year, 2 ' ' This Ubrary, at the intercession of the Emperor of Austria, and the King of Prussia, was restored to Heidelberg in the year 1815." — Kohlrausch's History of Gemiany, p. 465. Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 209 ible pretext for the violence complained of, came to the resolution that this princess, the prince Louis PhiUp, her son, and the prin cess Katharine, her daughter, should have their possessions re stored to them. Letters were even despatched to the infanta, and to the Duke of Bavaria, for carrying this resolution into execution; but the Austrian court at Brussels, and the Bavarian court at Munich, rendered it nugatory. The electress-dowager had peti tioned both these com-ts to the same effect, but to no purpose. From the Bavarian court she received no answer. The reply from the Austrian court added mockery to injustice. "We are ex tremely sorry," said the infanta, "in not being able to give you satisfaction iu the present instance, but we offer you all friendship on other occasions." Several electors and princes complained at every imperial diet of the -wrong done her, but the only result was imperial agreements and orders, and endorsed refusals, at the courts of Brussels and Miinich, upon the petitions presented. After remaining for some time at Schorndorf, she removed to the court of BerUn, upon the invitation of her son-in-law, the Elector of Brandenburg. The elector, who reposed great confidence in her judgment, often availed himseU of her counsel; nor was she less respected and beloved at Berlin, both by Eoman CathoUcs and Protestants, than she had been at Heidelberg. While she was resident at this court, the emperor Ferdinand, elated with the success of his arms in Germany, determined to em brace the favourable opportunity now presented of crushing the Protestant princes, and of extinguishing for ever the Eeformed religion in the empire. With this view he issued, in 1629, his famous "edict of restitution," by which the Protestant princes were commanded to restore to the Eoman Catholic church whatever benefices or ecclesiastical property they had secularized and appro priated sinoe the religious peace of Passau, concluded in 1552, as being contrary to that treaty, according to his interpretation of the articles.' By this imperial edict, the greater number of the 1 Coxe's History of the House of Austria, i. 817. See Introduction (Germany), p. 29. 210 Ladies of tlie Reform,ation. [Germany. Protestant princes would have been deprived of considerable estates. It therefore increased their irritation against the emperor, and became a chief cause of prolonging the calamities which desolated Germany. In these circumstances, Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, the most illustrious monarch and general of his age, whose military genius and achievements have secured him im mortal renown, undertook to maintain the religious and ci-vil liber ties of Germany against the oppression and tyranny of the house of Austria. Having declared war against the emperor, he entered Germany; and, to engage the Protestants to support his standard, he published everywhere, that his sole object was to deUver the German princes from the intolerable yoke of Ferdinand, and espe cially to protect the Protestant religion, now threatened with ex termination, The Protestants were encouraged by his approach, and the city of Magdeburg speedily entered into an alUance with him. His arms were signally triumphant. He conquered the Imperialists in every battle; and the demands of the emperor became, in consequence, the more moderate.' The city of Magdeburg being besieged by the ImperiaUsts under the command of Tilly, Gusta-vus hastened to its aid. To secure his retreat, he applied to the Elector of Brandenburg for the temporary cession of the fortresses of Kustrin and Spandau. To this application, after some delay, the elector, who had hitherto adhered to the side of the emperor, yielded, fi-om dread of the advancing Swedish army. Gustavus was, however, prevented from carrying relief to Magdeburg, by reason of the refusal of the Elec tor of Saxony to allow him a passage over the bridge of the Elbe at Wittenberg, and Magdeburg was at last taken by storm, and given up to indiscriminate pillage and massacre, with every imaginable circumstance of cruelty, by the brutal Tilly, so that, of its 30,000 inhabitants, scarcely more than a thousand escaped. This was in May, 1631. After the deplorable fate of Magdeburg, the Elector of Brandenburg having insisted for the restitution of Spandau, ' Universal History, vol. xiii. pp. 241-245. Germany. Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 211 conformably to the terms upon which it was ceded, Gusta'vus, who would thus be brought into a position threatening him with equal danger whether he advanced or receded, replied that he would The Market place, Magdeburg. fulfil his engagement by delivering up the fortress, but would, from that moment, consider the elector as his enemy. And on the very day, June 11, 1631, on which he deUvered it up, he encamped before Berlin, fuU of indignation, threatening to lay that city and the electoral residence in ruins. It was on this occasion that the electress-dowager palatine was the instrument of sa-ving the city of Berlin from impending de struction. Various means were employed to appease the 'wi-ath of Gusta'vus. On this errand. General Arnheim, who was at that time 'with the elector, went to the Swedish monarch's camp several times during three successive days. But all was in vain; Gustavus inflexibly persisted in his vengeful resolution. At last it was sug gested that the electress-dowager palatine and her daughter, the 212 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Germany. Electress of Brandenburg, should repair to his camp, and try what their mediation could accomplish. The expedient was adopted, and it had the desired success. By the wisdom and address of the elec tress-dowager palatine, his resentment was disarmed. Yielding to her intercessions, he relinquished his hostUe purpose, which he had sternly refused to do to any other embassy. Gustavus, from the brilliant triumphs which crowned his arms, having become the arbiter of Germany, the Electors of Branden burg and of Saxony deserted the side of the emperor, and attached themselves to the fortunes of the Swedish monarch, as the course of policy promising to be most conducive to their own interests. This monarch had undertaken to restore the Palatinate to Louisa Juliana's son Frederick. But her hopes from this quarter were disappointed by the death of Gustavus, who fell at the battle of Lutzen, on the 6th of November, 1632, in the midst of ^ complete -victory over the ImiDerialists, who were under the command of the Duke of Wallenstein. The death of this great sovereign, who was the terror of the house of Austria, was a heavy blow, not only to her, but to the Protestant cause in Germany; and to Sweden the loss was irreparable. Her son Frederick did not survive the Swedish monarch many days, having died on the 19th of the same month, at the early age of thirty-six, at Mentz, of a fever brought on by anxiety, and rendered fatal, as was believed, by the melan choly intelligence of the death of his protector, from whose suc cesses he anticipated a speedy and complete restoration.' The death of this beloved son inflicted upon her heart a severe wound ; but she submitted with calm resignation to the will of Heaven, and applied herself to the tender office of comforting, by her letters, Frederick's widowed queen and his fatherless children. After the death of the King of Sweden, her son-in-law, the Elec tor of Brandenburg, having vacillated between the emperor and the Swedes, accordmg as the one or the other party was successful, this ' Previously to this, the Swedes had graduaUy conquered the greater part of Frede rick's terriieries, but his restoration had been hithei-to delayed. i< . L. THUMAS, LOUISA JULIANA AND HEU DAUGHTER IN TIIE CAJIP OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau,. 213 wavering policy exposed his territories to the alternate ravages of both parties, and his capital, Berlin, to the danger of capture and destruction by both.' The Imperialists having approached Berlin, which was not in a condition to resist so powerful a force, his court was under the necessity of removing from the city. General Volck- man, to whom its defence was intrusted, having received orders to capitulate, if necessary, to save it from dei3ti-uction. Louisa Juliana accompanied the elector and his family to his territories in Prussia, and they took up their residence at Konigsberg.'^ But Berlin was unexpectedly preserved ; for intelUgence of the taking of Eatisbon by the Duke of Weimar, who commanded the Swedish army with gi-eat ability, having reached the Imperialists before Berlin, they abandoned their intention of besieging that city, their presence being required elsewhere. Louisa Juliana had much satisfaction in hearing of the preservation of Berlin, where she had met with much courtesy. She was also gratified with the tidings of the re storation of the Lower Palatinate to its ancient owners. Thither she was now invited by her son, Duke Louis PhiUp, administrator of the Palatinate, who, as well as her old subjects generaUy, greatly desired her return; and the affiiirs of Germany had begun to assume a more encom-aging aspect. But doubting whether these auspicious appearances would be lasting, and her friends in the court of Bran denburg, by whom she had been treated with the most tender aff'ec tion, being unwiUing to allow her to depart, she continued to reside in that court to the close of her life. Her last Ulness commenced in the spring of the year 1644, and during the whole of it she was assiduously waited upon by her daughters Katharine and EUzabeth Charlotte, Electj-ess of Bran denbm-g; and by the two daughters of the latter, Louise-Charlotte, at this time aged twenty-seven years, and Plede-svig Sophia, aged twenty-one. She was seized for the first time -on Thm-sday, the ' Universal History, vol. xUi. pp. 246, 247. 2 Maurier vi.sited her there in 1636. -liws of the Princes of Orange. The Elector of Brandenburg died at Konigsberg, November 21, 1640, aged folty-iive, having govemed Brandenburg twenty-one years. 214 Ladies of the Reformation. [Germany. 10th of March, with great heaviness, shivering, and oppression of breathing. Some of her friends having observed about her symp toms of indisposition, anxiously inquired how she felt, to which she answered that she was not well, adding, "I am sufficiently advanced in years to die ; God is about to put an end to my life, I am well contented it be so." On Sabbath, the 13th of March, though no better, she would not allow the princesses to absent themselves from public worship on her account ; and when the Princess Katharine, her daughter, and the young Princess of Deux Pouts, her gTanddaughter, after re tuming from the church, came to her bed-side, she thus addressed them in French: "My dear children, since it pleases God now to remove me from this world, I beseech you to have his fear always before your eyes, as I have ever exhorted you, and he will pour his blessings the more abundantly upon you. And as you have been my joy in Ufe, live so that I may have honour in you, even in the tomb. I thank you for all the kind services you have done me. Be not afflicted ; God will not forsake you. I have been adding a codicil to my will. It is not yet fully written out, but I hope you wUl observe it. If God give me strengtii I will finish it, it being my desire to bequeathe something more to my granddaughters of Brandenburg." To the celebrated Agi-icola, minister of the elec toral court of Brandenburg, who, at her desire, ¦visited her on the same day soon after, she said that for three years past she had been more particularly familiar with death ; and, after making a free confession of her sins, she expressed her assurance that He who had delivered her from many calamities, and supported her in so many adversities, would not forsake her in the last confiict. To Mr. Wendelinus, the second minister of the place, who, also being re quested, came to see her after the evening sermon, she said that she felt in her heart the earnest of the Spirit of God, and the fore taste of future joys. Not being able to obtain sleep during the night, she caused one of the ladies who attended her to read to her from the coUection of passages of Holy Scripture suitable for the Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 215 dying, included in the book of prayers published by Mr. Neuber- ger, formerly minister of the court of Madame the Landgra-vine of Hesse. Ou Monday, the 14th of March, her sickness increasing, she told her friends attending her that she had some things to say to them, which she would not delay, believing that her death was not far distant. Having repeatedly embraced her daughter Elizabeth, the Electress of Brandenburg, she said that language could not express her affection and gratitude to a daughter, whose filial piety she had experienced on so many occasions, adding, what showed her con siderate attention to the humblest of her domestics, "The only favour I ask from you is, that you will retain my servants for some time in the court, tUl they arrange their affairs.'' Her daughter Katharine she intrusted with the duty of transmitting her tender valedictions to her beloved absent friends. "You shall write to the Queen of Bohemia, and give her my last farewell. Tell her that I shall never see her again in this world, but that it is my dying prayer that God may long preserve her life, and bless her with all kind of happiness. Assure her that I have always loved and honoured her from the heart, and that these affections I will carry -svith me to the grave. Let her know that I have received her letters, but that my weakness has prevented me from reading and answering them. Inform her children that it was among the last prayers on my Ups, that God would bless them; that it would have greatly delighted me had I seen them restored to theU estates, but God having ordered it otherwise, it behoved them to acquiesce in his wise arrangement; and that I could assure them he would never forsake them. Let my last remembrances be also conveyed by letter to Duke Louis Philip, my son, and also to my sisters, the Duchess of Landsberg and the Countess of Hanau, who, I doubt not, wiU be gi-eatly afflicted on hearing of my death; but they have the consolation of reflecting that I am gone to a happy place, and it is my prayer that God would preserve them and load them with his benedictions." Upon taking fareweU of her two grandchildren, 216 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [Germany. the Princesses of Brandenburg, she embraced and kissed them, adding suitable admonitions. " Continue," said she, " in your obedience to your mother, who is a pattern of aU virtue; imitate her example, and persevere in the fear of God. I assure you that bj' this means you will become partakers of all temporal and eter nal blessings, and obtain from the goodness of God the continu ance of a life so necessary for your consolation and protection. I cannot bestow upon you favours proportioned to my affection for you. I have always tenderly loved you, and will do so even to my death. I ask from you no other acknowledgment than that you should Uve so that your mother may have honour and comfort in you." She afterwards asked the eldest Princess of Brandenburg for ink aud paper, and rising up on the bed, with a remarkable degree of strength, she wrote, without stopping, a whole leaf to be added to the codicil of her will, and having finished it, she com manded the young Princess of Deux Pouts to bring her the codicil, which, being done, she desii-ed the newly -vvi-itten portion to be affixed to it, and the document to be deposited in her chest. In speaking to her daughter, the Electress of Brandenburg, con cerning her burial, she said, " I have always desired that my body should rest beside that of the elector, your father, and I still desire this, should God restore tranquillity to his territories. In this expectation, it might be conducted by water to HoUand, and de posited, in the meantime, at Delft, beside that of the late Prince of Orange, my father. But I leave all to the arrangement of my children, who shall do in this matter as they judge most proper." Duruig the whole of her iUness, the Word of God was her un failing source of comfort, and it was constantly read to her at her desire. On one occasion, Agricola having visited her, and havino- at her request, read and sung several of the psalms, the most of which were of her own selection, it was particularly observed that she listened with great delight to the 130th Psalm, which was re peated to her several times. When these words at the close were read, " He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities," she lifted up Germany.] Louisa Juliana of Nassau. 217 her hands and her eyes to heaven with profound emotion, and ex pressed her full assurance of obtaining complete and everlasting redemption. After this, having ordered her French New Testa ment, which she had been accustomed to use, to be brought to her, she desired 1 Pet. i. 18, to the end, to be turned up and read, this being the passage of Scripture which she had long since marked for the subject of her funeral sermon. And addressing Agricola she said, " My reason for this choice is, that therein is contained all my consolation, which rests only on the precious blood of Christ; and it has been my endeavour to give evidence of my faith by an irreproachable conversation, even as all Christians ought to prove the genuineness of their faith by a holy life, and by a constant cultivation of peace and concord with men. These sentiments I have also instilled into my children." On another occasion, it being thought that her end was ap proaching, there were present Mary Eleanor, Queen-dowager of Sweden, who often visited her during her iUness, the Electress of Brandenburg, several princesses, the most distinguished officers of the court of Brandenburg, and the pastors of the church, who read portions of Scripture accompanied with brief explanatory observa tions, and from time to time engaged in prayer. " These passages," said she, " afford me great consolation. I thank God for having, by his grace, delivered me from temptation, and for the steadfast patience I experience in my soul. I am not afraid of death. I well Icnow the arduousness of the conflict; but I have this conso lation, that my Saviour hath fought the battle for me, and hath taken away from death its power; and I am assured that I shall not see etemal death." When her death was drawing near, Agricola, being sent for, was immediately in attendance, and he repeatedly engaged in prayer, beseeching God, now when she was evidently grappling with the king of terrors, that it would please him to mitigate and shorten the conflict, to dissipate all her fears, and to open up a happy pass age to everlasting life to a soul panting after the heavenly taber- 218 Ladies of tlio Reformation. [Germany. nacles. Her daughters and granddaughters had the fortitude, at this extremity, to address her in appropriate words of comfort, exhorting her to i-emember her Saviour, to encourage herself in him, and to resign her spirit into his hands. Being asked if she understood what was said, she answered by signs in the affirmative, and almost immediately after, expired without a struggle, and with il serene aud smiling countenance, which continued even after death. She died March 5, 1644. Louisa Juliana had to her husband, Frederick IV., eight chil dren, three of whom died in their youth. The five who arrived at mature age, were two sons and three daughters, namely: — 1. Louisa Juliana, who was born June 16, 1594 ; was married to John IL, Duke of Deux Ponts, May 4, 1612 ; became a widow in 1635, and died 1637 or 1640. 2. Katharine Sophia, who was born 1595, and died June 28, 1624. 3. Frederick V., whose unfortunate career has been noticed in the preceding pages. He was born August 16, 1596, and, as already stated, died at Mentz, November 19, 1632. 4. Elizabeth Charlotte, who was born November 7, 1597 ; was married to George WiUiam, Elector of Brandenburg, July 14, 1616; became a widow 1640, and died 1660. 5. Louis Philip, who was born Noveniber 26, 1602. He was married to Mary Eleanor, daughter of Joachim, Elector of Branden burg, 1630. He shared the same fate with his brother Frederick ; but by the peace of Osnaburg, or WestphaUa, the palatinate of Simmern was restored to him. He died at BerUn, June 8, 1654.' ' Sp.anheim's Memoires de Louise Juliane. Anderson's Royal Genealogies, table cclxxi. Alexander's Lineal Descent ofthe Sovereigns of Europe, book ii. p. 38. r? JSeH fSS >53i fS3i Haiies of the Meyer's Anna Reinhard, ss. 35-37. D'Aubignc's Hi.st. ofRif., book xvi. ch. 7 aud S. SWITZERJ/AND.] Anna Reinhard. 253 falling on his knees he exclaimed, "Can this be considered a cala mity? WeU! they can indeed kill the body, but they cannot kUl the soul." ' Having uttered these words, which were his last, he fell backward, and on that spot, which was in a meadow, under a MoDURient to mark the spot where Zwingle fell, pear U-ee,^ he remained lying on his back, surrounded by the dead bodies of the Zurichers ; and with his hands clasped together, and his eyes lifted up to heaven, he prayed, not indeed "with an audible voice, but with a gentle motion of the lips.^ After the battle had been gained by the army of the five cantons, and whilst the great ' Tlie words he used, as recorded by Blyconius, in his Latin Life of Zwingle, wero these: — "Eccjiud hoc infortunii? Age! corpus quidem occidere possunt, animam non possunt." Some have translated the first part of this sentence, "What a misfortune is this !" or " What matters this misfortune?"— a translation which, besides being incor rect, destroys the beauty and sublimity of the sentiment conveyed in the dying exclama tion of the Swiss Reformer. - This was afterwards called Zwingle's Pear Tree. The pear tree having perished, a simple monument, with a suitable inscription, was erected on the spot in 1838. 3 Melchior Adaraus, Vitce Bruditorum, tum G^r^naTiorum. tum Exterorum, 3d edition, Frankfort-upon-the-Maine, tom. i. p. 17. 254 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Switzeeland. body of their troops were pursuing- the scattered soldiers of ZiU-ich, a number of the stragglers of the conquerors, with torches in their hands, were prowling among the wounded and the dead on the field of battle, turning over the bodies of the vanquished, stripping them, and treatin.g such of them as were yet alive with the utmost inhumanity, piercing them with their lances, or dashing out their brains with the butt-ends of theu- arquebuses, if they refused to call upon the saints or to confess to the priests. Two of these sol diers having come near to Zwingle, without knowing who he was, asked him if he wished a piriest, to whom he might confess. The Reformer, who was unable to speak, answered by a negative mo tion of the head. "If you cannot speak," replied the soldiers, "at least think of the mother of God, and recommend thy soul to her." Zwingle again shook his head, and kept his eyes steadfastly fixed on heaven. At this the fury of the soldiers was inflamed, and they began to curse him, as if they would have instantly pierced him to the heart. "No doubt," said they, "he is an obstinate heretic.'" One of them having stooped down and turned Zwingle's head in the direction of a fire which had been lighted near the spot, and then immediately let it fall to the ground, was struck with the manly expression of the countenance, and said, " I think it is Zwingle." At this moment Captain Fockinger of Unterwalden, an old chieftain and a pensioner, who had served in the foreign wars, came up, and having heard the words of the soldier, cried out in a burst of rage, "Zwingle ! that vile heretic Zwingle ! that rascal, that traitor ! " Then raising his sword he inflicted a stroke on the neck of the Eeformer, who was already sufi'ering under the pangs of ap proaching dissolution, fiercely exclaiming, " Die, obstinate heretic !" The Eeformer did not long survive the fatal stroke.^ Not far from Zwingle fell his son-in-law, Gerold Meyer. In the excitement of youthful enthusiasm Gerold had rushed into the foremost ranks and fought with the utmost intrepidity. After • Hottinger, quoted iu Euchat's Histoire de la R^.formotionde la Suisse, tom. iii. p. 413. 2 Meyer's Anna Reinhard, ss. 37-39. D'Aubigufi's Hist, of tlie Ref., book xvi. ch. S. SWITZEELAND.] Anna Reinhard. 255 several fruitless attempts to turn the battle when its success began to incline to the side of the army of the five Eoman Catholic can tons, he was at length surrounded by a body of the enemy. So Death of Zwingle. greatly was he beloved, that from this body, in which were some who knew him, or wlio had been his acquaintances in peaceful days, several voices called out at the same time, "Surrender, and your Ufo shall be spared." But so high had his valour risen in his young heart that with generous self-devotion he refused the offer. Much as he had to attach him to Ufe — his three infant children, the be loved companion of his bosom, a dear mother already once more a widow, and the flattering prospects of earthly happiness, dig-nity, and advancement — yet the honour of Zurich, and the honour of the noble line of heroic ancestors from which he was sprung, were dearer to his brave and chivalrous heart than Ufe. His fate was quickly sealed. " Struck by a mortal blow, he fell and expired, not far from the castle of his ancestors."' * Meyer's Anna Reinhard, ss. 39, 40. Keyser's Rcfonnations Almanach, ss. xclii. rev. 256 Ladies of the Reformation. [Swetzebland. During the whole of this day Anna's feelings of suspense and agony were beyond description. She could hear from her house the thundering roar of the artillery, telUng her that the work of carnage was going on, and leading her to conclude that the issues of that day, in whioh her happiness was so deeply implicated, would be dreadful in their nature. With panting anxiety she was waiting for tidings cf how her husband, her son, her other relatives, and her friends, had fared. At last, the accounts brought to her set all doubt or uncertainty at rest, and verified her most painful appre hensions. Among others who had proceeded on the road to Cappel, anxiously inquiring -after the fate of their friends and relatives, was Oswald Myconius, who felt a particular solicitude about Zwingle, and on the way he heard one who had made his escape, relating to those around him that Zwingle was slain. The news speedily reached Zlu-ich, through which it spread with the rapidity of light ning, and at length it came to the ears of Anna. The shock was almost overwhelming. But scarcely was the first fearful shudder over when another messenger arrived, and informed her that her son Gerold, the pride and the joy of her heart, had also fallen. "0 God!" she exclaimed, " strengthen me for this trying hour. Thus is my house made desolate. Thus are the tenderest ties that bind me to the world dissevered." Her children, as they saw her weep ing, mingled their tears with hers, and threw themselves disconso late into her arms. Other messengers at short intervals arrived, an nouncing that her brother Bernhard Eeinhard, who was a member of the great council, her daughter's husband, Anthony Wirz, the husband of her deceased sister, John Liitschi, aud many of her intimate friends, had fallen on the blood-stained heights of Cappel. But crushing as was the weight of these terrible trials, aU inflicted in one day, her heavenly Father appeared for her support and com fort. " God is faithful," said she, " who will not suffer his people to be tried above what they are able ; but will with the trial also make a way to escape, that they may be able to bear it." The con sideration, too, that her husband and her son had been what they r SWITZEELAND.] Anna Reinhard. 257 were, and that they had died, as she believed, in the service of their country and of their God, afforded to her mind a consola tion, which, if it could not reverse, allayed the agony of the terrible bereavements she had suffered.' The night after the battle was dark ; but Anna's sorrow was darker than that night, and the morning was to bring to her addi tional sufi'ering in the indignities which were to be offered to the dead body of her husband. She and her friends were not to be granted the melancholy satisfaction of performing to his remains the rites of sepulture. At break of day, the conquerors having spread themselves over the field of battle for pUlaging the dead, at length came upon Zwingle, lying lifeless beneath the pear-tree. It was discovered who he was, for to many of them his face was familiar, from their having heard him preach ; and an immense crowd collected around the corpse. They were all struck with the appearance of the countenance, which looked more Uke that of a U-ving, than that of a dead man, being such, as one of them ob served, as when he kindled the people by the fire of his eloquence. John Schonbrunner, who was formerly canon of Ziirich, and who, after the commencement of the Eeformation there, had retired to Zug, though he had stood, by the old religion, and was now in the field with the Eoman Catholic forces, could not refrain from tears at the sight of the dead body of the great Eeformer, and exclaimed, " Whatever may have been thy creed, I know that thou hast been a faithful confederate. May God be merciful to thy soul ! " But the greater part of the Eoman Catholic of&cers having mortally hated Zwingle — not only because of his heresy, but more especially because he had constantly and publicly spoken against pensioners of foreign princes, which most of them were — ^frantic for vengeance, demanded that the corpse of the arch-heretic should be dismem bered, and a part sent to each of the five cantons. This was op posed by some of the more humane of the Eoman Catholic officers and others; but the ferocious cry of the brutal prevailed. The 1 Meyer's Anna Reinhard, ss. 40, 41. D'Aubign6's Hist, of tlie Rif., book xvi. ch. 9. 17 258 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [Switzerland. corpse was tried by a miUtary tribunal, and condemned to be quar tered for treason against the Confederation, and then to be burned for heresy. The barbarous and impotent sentence was executed to the letter. The disjointed members were committed to the flames, and the ashes of the Eeformer, to put upon them the utmost indig nity, were mingled with those of swine, and scattered to the winds, amidst the acclamations of the soldiers of the five cantons.' This was the very climax of their ferocity. They could do no more. What must have been the feelings of Anna when told of these barbarous proceedings ! This agonizing winding up of the drama of her sorrows was what she perhaps had not anticipated, and it was enough to try her to the utmost pitch of endurance. But intensely lacerated as her feeUngs were, she, in the solitude of her chamber, and in the communings of her heart, reposed with un shaken confidence on the gi-ace and faithfulness of God. Under these bereavements Anna derived some degree of allevi ation from the consolation and sympathy of her numerous Chris tian friends. She received letters of condolence from many eminent Eeformers, both ministers and laymen, whose sympathy was pro portioned to their deep veneration for the memory of Z-snngle, and their high esteem for herself. Simpert Schenck, formerly a Car thusian, but at this time a Eeformed minister in the imperial city Memmingen, having heard of Zwingle's death, -wrote to her a letter, dated Memmingen, 9th November, 1531, from which we subjoin the following extracts : " May the Father of all comfort cause the light of his countenance to shine upon you, honom-able, virtuous, aud beloved in the Lord ! I can find none in the whole world who is able to coinfort you in your afiiiction but God alone. 0 what calamitous and mournful days! Therein this faithful man, my beloved Zwingle, and many very excellent persons have fallen. But since I certainly know that as no one makes alive, so no one kills except the Lord himself, and only when, how, whom, and through whom it pleases him — to whose will no objections are .' Hess's Life of Zwingle, i)p. 322, 323. D'AuhiguS's Hist, of the Ref, book xvi. ch. 3. Switzerland.] Anna Reinhard. 259 to be made; and as he has fixed the terir^ of every man's life beyond the power of any one to alter it, I shall, and must not oppose his will, but as is meet, make the surrender, and praise the Lord in his works ; for they are truly judgment and righteousness without ini quity and deceit, full of mercy and goodness. ... If Christ the Head, has passed through death into life, none of his members ¦will remain long behind. O pious, beloved woman, be faithful ; neither you nor we have lost Zwingle and the others ; for he who believeth in Christ hath everlasting life. . When you find your beloved Zwingle no longer present in the house witli the chil dren and yourself, nor in the pulpit, nor in the meetings of the learned, I beseech you, be not discouraged, nor too much grieved. Eemember that he is in the house of God above, with all the chil dren of God, and that there he listens to the mouth of Wisdom itself, and to the discourse of angels. , . May the merciful God watch over and comfort you and your children, and grant you strength in the Holy Spirit to overcome all yom- troubles.'" On the same occasion, Wolfang Capito of Strasburg, -wrote to her a consolatory letter, dated November 28, 1531. "My dear madam," says he, " I am deeply concerned at the tidings of your heavy afflic tion, as you may readily believe. You are not ignorant of the friendly feeUng which I and your husband entertained towards each other. How great the loss sustained by all the churches! Everywhere the cause of the gospel has suffered an affecting loss by the death of your beloved consort. You have experienced all at once and unexpectedly an accumulation of sorrows. We also are greatly afflicted, sufi'ering with you, and are in daily apprehension of heavier calamities. You have been deprived of yom- husband, your beloved son, your son-in-law, your sister's husband, and your brother ; who would not sympathize with you under such bereave ments? But blessed be God who gave you such a husband, who after his death has been, and continues to be, highly honoured, and whose name shall turn to the advantage of your children; for he I Meyer's Anna RehJiard, ss. 42, 43. ,2(5.0 Ladies of the Reforination. ]|Switzeeland. will never be forgotten, and those who are his will be everywhere loved by all."' Before Zwingle's death, Anna had mingled less than formerly in general society, preferring to confine herself to the discharge of the duties of a faithful wife, a careful mother, and a professed disciple of Christ ; and now when she had again become a widow, retire ment had more attractions for her than ever, and she was rarely seen except in the church. Submissive as was her spUit under the strokes inflicted upon her, and strong as was the confidence she reposed in the love and grace of God, yet her bitter trials had giyen a shock to her feelings from which she never fully recovered. She now devoted herself whoUy to the cultivation of piety and to the care of her orphan children, of her daughters of the iU-st marriage, and of her vi^idowed daughter-in-law, who was left with the charge of three fatherless children. The apjsointment of Henry Bullinger, by the great council of Zurich, to occupy the office become vacant by Zwingle's death, was a merciful providence to Anna, and bright ened up the last days of her life. This eminent man, then only iu the twepty-seventh yeai- of his age, who, from his great talents, high character, and extensive influence, ranks next to Zwingle among the Eeformers of Switzerland, and who, in respect of Chris tian benevolence and hospitality, was equaUed by few in his day, received Anna with her orphan children into his family and treated them with the utmost kindness. During the remainder of her days she continued to reside in his house ; and after her death, which took place December 6, 1538, he exercised towards her children all the care and tenderness of a father,^ Anna had altogether seven children ; three to her first husband, and four to her second. None of them attained to a great age. Her children by her first marriage were, as we have already seen, il son named Gerold, and two daughters, Mai-garet and Agatha. Gerold had by his wife, the daughter of Councillor Kungold Diets- chi, two sons and n daughter — WilUam, who was born October 16, ' Reform. Almanach, 1810, s. xcvi. 2 Meyer's Anna ReinJiard, ss. 44, 45. Switzerland.] Anna, Reinhard. 261 1526 ; Gerold, who was born March, 15, 1528 ; and Dorothea, who was born June 11, 1531. William was married to Barbara von Bonstetten. "He was a very learned man," say the family records, " and skilled in the Greek, Hebrew, and Latin languages." Gerold was married to Dorothea of Escher ; and he had also the reputation of being an excellent scholar. Eudolph Gualter, Bullinger's suc cessor, in testimony of his respect for the two brothers, dedicated to them a small work. In the dedication he recommends to their imitation the example of their beloved father, whose leaming, piety, valour, and patriotism, he eulogizes ; and of their beloved mother, of whose diligence, chastity, wisdom, and piety, he makes honour able mention. In 1549, Conrad Gesner dedicated to them and some other esteemed men his Onomasticon Propriorum Nominum. Gerold died about the beginning of the year 1569. WilUam died of apo plexy, January 1, 1570, and left behind him an excellent library. Anna's eldest daughter by the first marriage, Margaret, was married to Anthony Wirz. She became a widow in the twenty- first year of her age, at the same time with her mother, her hus band, as we have seen, having fallen at Cappel. She died in 1549. The other daughter, Agatha, was married to CounciUor Belthasar Keller, who was also at the battle of Cappel, and who, as he lay on the field covered with fourteen wounds, was takeu for dead, but who, dm-ing the night, rose up and made his escape. The year of her death is unkno-wn. Anna's children by Zwingle were two sons and two daughters. 1. Eegula, the eldest, who was born in 1524. She was married in 1541, in the seventeenth year of her age, to Eudolph Gualter, a man of great worth and learning, who was then one of the minis ters of St. Peter's Church in Ziu-ich, and who afterwards, in 1575, became BulUnger's successor. She died of the plague iu 1565. 2. William, who was born, probably, in 1526, and died in 1541, when prosecuting his studies at Strasburg. 3. Ulric, who was born in 1528, during his fa.ther's absence at the convocation then held at Berne, which contributed greatly to promote the cause of 262 Ladies of the Reformation. [Switzerland. reform in the city and canton of that name. He studied at Basle, where, in the nineteenth year of his age,, he received the degree of master of philosophy. He became archdeacon and prebendary of the chapter of the cathedral in Zurich, and afterwards professor of theology in the college of that city. He was married to a daughter of Henry BulUnger's, and died in 1571. 4. Anna, who was born in 1530, and died eai-ly.' Of Eegula, the eldest of these children, a few memorials have been preserved, which may here be subjoined.^ She possessed the piety, activity, mildness, and, it is also said, the personal beauty of her mother. During the persecution uuder the reign of Marj', Queen of England, she and her husband exercised much hospital ity towards the EngUsh Protestant exiles vA'ho had betaken them selves for safety to Zurich. This appears from the correspondence maintained, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, between him and many of the most noted of the ministers and friends of the English church, among whom were Grindal, successively Bishop of Lon don and Archbishop of Canterbu-ry; Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich; Cox, Bishop of Ely ; Horn, Bishop of Winchester ; Sandys, succes sively Bishop of Worcester and of London, and Archbishop of York; Pilkington, Bishop of Durham ; and the Earl of Bedford.^ Eegula's Christian excellence, and her afi'ection and fidelity as a wife, are re corded and commemorated by Gualter. In his diary, u, fragment of whicii is still extant, he makes the following entry on the occa sion of her death : — " My wife Eegula, an ornament to her sex, and my most faithful companion, departed happily, between two and three o'clock in the morning of the 14th of December, 1565, in the constant confession of the true faith. We have lived together, in the gi-eatest harmony, twenty-four years, fourteen weeks, and four I Meyer's Anna Reinhard, ss. 48, 49. Keyser's Reformations Almanach, 1819, s. xcvii 2\uioh Letters in Reign ot Queen Elizabeth, flrst series, p. 264. ' lu Keyser's Reformations Almanach auf das jahr, 1819, are to he seen portraits of Regula aud her eldest daughter, afler an original painting hy the celebrated painter John -Asper, preserved iu the Zurich eity library. The Mkcuesses -were taken when the mother -was twenty-flve years of a;e, and the daughter seven. No portrait ot Regula's mother is knOTVu to esist. a Zurich Letters during the Reign of Queeu Elizabeth. ' SwiTZERL.iHD.] Anna Reinhard. 263 days. Now her spirit lives in heaven, while her body rests from aU troubles, aud awaits a blessed immortality on the day of the restitution of all things." And in a Latin poem he laments, with deep emotion, the great loss he had sustained. " What the pious Abraham lost in his beloved Sarah,'' says he, "and Jacob in the Lovely Eachel, that have I now also to mourn. An example of the purest love, of the most inviolable conjugal fidelity and domestic -yir tue — the delight and support of my household — possessing the same equanimity in prosperity and in adversity — she knew how to scare away all sadness and every tormenting care from my soul; and with her I have lived twenty-four years in perfect harmony, sine ulla querida, as the ancients were wont to inscribe upon their mo numents. Two of our children have already gone before her in death. Other four lament, with me, over the corpse of their mother fallen asleep. In them the picture of the departed again stands, as it were, every moment Uving before me ; upon which, as often as I look, my heart is moved to deep sighs." And in a letter to Cox, Bishop of Ely, dated June 9, 1572, about seven years after her death, he thus affectionately alludes to her — "Unless 1 had truly persuaded myself of our agreement [the agreement between him and the Chm-ch of England], I should certainly never have sent my son, the only son of my departed Zuinglia, the remem brance of whom is so precious to me, into England."' Of the six children which she bore to Gualter, the eldest daugh ter, who was born about the year 1542, was married to Henry Bullinger, son of the eminent divine of the same name, and Gual- ter's colleague in St. Peter's Church. Another, the son just now re- fen'ed to, Eodolph, born about the year 1553, after having finished with much applause, his theological studies at Geneva, in Germany, and at the university of Oxford, became a minister in his native city. Like his father he cultivated poetry, and lamented, in pa thetic verses, his mother's departure as that of a woman adorned with fideUty, piety, and other vU-tues and graces, and who, U rare 1 ziirich Letter's in Reigu of Queen Elizabeth, first series, p. 362. 264: Ladies of the Reformation. [Switzerland. Christian worth could bend the decrees and the course of fate, would have been saved the doom of mortality.' Soon after his ap pointment to a church in Ziirich, he married ; and his wife, it would appear, was Dorothea, daughter of the famous Henry Bul linger.' He died in the year 1678, at the early age of twenty-five.' WiUiam Cole, president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in a let ter to the father, dated Oxford, February 28, 1579, thus writes in reference to young Eodolph's death: — "I hear that your son, lately a scholar of Oxford, and a youth of excellent promise, has been removed by an untimely death : which event, indeed, we all of us, to whom he was familiarly known during his sojourn in this place, most deeply deplore, not only on your account, as having lost a son of so much expectation, but much more, as it is right we should do, beoause at this time the church of Christ cannot spare so much talent without great injury."* ' The poem is entitled, " In obitum castissimas matronae Regulae Zwiuglise, Magni Zwinglii FiLiffi, Rodolphi Gualtheri conjugis et matris me^e charissimee. Rod. Gualth. F.*- 2 Zurich Letters, ul supra, first series, pp. 304, 305; and second series, p. 280. ^ Keyser's Ref. Almanach, ss. xcvii. c. Zurich Letteis, first series, p. 324. * Zurich Letters, second series, p. 307. These coUections contain various notices of this youth, aud several of lus letters. ^^uBajgBBSg;'^ Strnsburg. IDELETTE DE BURES, WIPE OF JOHN CALVIN. »DELETTE DE BUEES was a lady of good family. Her native place was a small town of Guelderland, in the Netherlands. She was first married to John Storder, who was originally from Liege, but who had taken up his residence at Strasburg, a city at that time, in point of morality, piety, and intelUgence, among the foremost of those in which the Eeformed reUgion had established itseU. Both she and her husband were persons of enlightened and ardent piety, and they had connected themselves -with that section of the Eeformed church called Anabaptists, whose adherents were then numerous on the continent of Europe. A change was, however, afterwards produced upon their religious ¦266 Ladies of the Reformation. [Switzerland. sentiments. Calvin, after hia banishment from Geneva,' having become professor of theology in Strasburg by appointment of the council, and at the same time pastor of a congregation of French refugees in that city, they had been drawn by his great fame, to attend upon his ministry. Charmed by his eloquence, and con vinced by his arguments, they abandoned the peculiar tenets of the party to which they formerly adhered, and embraced his senti ments on the contested points. Storder died of the plague soon after he had become a disciple of the Geneva Eeformer, leaving Idelette a widow -with several children. In this family Calvin had become intimate, and from what he knew both of Idelette and her husband, of their knowledge and love of the truth, of the simpUcity and sanctity of then- Uves, he entertained for them a very high respect. After Idelette had become a widow, he continued frequently to visit her. But it was not with her that he first thought of forming a matrimonial con nection, when early in the year 1539, being then about thu-ty years of age, he purposed looking out for a wife, who might help in bear ing his burdens. However high a place she had gained iu his esteem, and though she was stUl in the prime of life, yet her bemg a widow, and the mother of several chUdren, probably prevented him, in the first instance, from thinking of her. His friends were very desirous of having him married, and he solicited theu- ad-race and assistance in the choice of a wife, telUng them the sort of per son he wanted. In a letter to Farel, dated May 19, 1539, he says "Eemember what I expect from one who is to be my companion for life. I do not belong to the class of loving fools, who, when once smitten with a fine figure, are ready to expend their affection even on the faults of her whom they have fallen in love -with. The only kind of beauty which can win my soul, is a woman who is chaste, not fastidious, economical, patient, and who is likely to > Calvin flrst arrived in Geneva in August, 1536. He had uot resided there two years, when he aud Farel, in Aijrii, 15SS, were banished from it by the magistrates, owing to dissensions, originatmg iu the attempts which they had made to reform the mauuera of the Genevese, among wliom all sorts of wickedness prevailed. Switzerland ] Idelette de Bures. 267 interest herseU about my health.'" A young German lady of noble lineage, and wealthy far above his condition, had been proposed to him by some of his friends. The brother of the lady and his wife, both persons of piety, were, from their high respect for him, very favourable to the alliance. Calvin entered into communication with her, but not without doubts as to whether she was precisely the person suitable for him. He was afraid that she might think too much of her birth and education. He hesitated, too, because sho was ignorant of the French language. If they were to be united, he insisted that she should learn French. The lady requested time for deliberation. Upon this, Calvin immediately gave up all inter course with her, and entered into correspondence with another lady, "who, if she answers her repute," says he, "wUl bring, in personal good quaUties, a dowry large enough without any money at all," while he congratulated himself on the happy escape he had made from the former. Matters had proceeded so far with this new object of his choice, that he invited his friend Farel to come to perform the nuptial rite, which was not to be delayed beyond the 10th of March, 1540.^ But this match was also broken off. A few days after his brother Anthony and another friend, upon ha-vdng made all arrangements for the marriage, had retm-ned to Strasburg, he heard some particulars regarding the lady, which induced him to seud his brother back to cancel the contract.' Calvin was not very susceptible of a romantic attachment. There is no reason to think that his affection for any particular lady was over so strong as to cause him feel, upon losing or renouncing her, any very serious mental uneasiness. Had his friends made up for him a Ust embracing the fair names of a dozen or so, possessed of the qualities he desiderated, he would probably have been in a great measure indifferent which of them he married. After these two failures, he expressed a doubt whether he should not now ' Calvini Epistolae in his Opera, tom. ix. p. 10. 2 Calvin's Letters, edited by Dr. Jules Bonnet, English edition, vol. i. pp- 149, 150. 3 Dyer's Life of Calvin, p. 100. 268 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [Switzerland. abandon his matrimonial projects, and devote himself to a life of single blessedness. But this was only a momentary hesitation. Ere long he was on terms of courtship with the widow Idelette, whom he now seriously resolved to marry — a step to which he seems to have been advised by his friend Martin Bucer ; and, in this instance, no obstacle interposed to prevent the union. The marriage was celebrated at Strasburg in the month of September, 1540, with becoming hilarity, and yet solemnity, accord ing to the fashion of the times. The consistories of Neufchatel and Valengin were invited to the nuptial feast, and they sent their representatives to be present on the joyful occasion. We have less circumstantial information of the domestic life of Idelette and Calvin, than of that of Katharine von Bora and Luther. Different reasons may be assigned for this. Idelette seems to have been a woman of higher cultivation, more refinement of mind, and greater personal attractions than Katharine ; but Katharine, like the child of nature, was more free and unrestrained in social inter course. Luther, again, whose impassioned soul contemplated the marriage relation "with enraptured enthusiasm, was constantly pour ing forth eulogiums on its divine and mysterious sanctity, in that glowing poetical diction in which, when under the influence of profound emotion, he was unrivalled ; and on such occasions some thing, either serious or jocular, was always sure to be uttered about his Katy — about her qualities, her sentiments, or her habits. In his correspondence, and more especially in his table-talk, she was his frequent theme, and by his observations he was often eliciting from her something characteristic. Calvin, less impassioned, was more restrained in the utterance of his feelings, whieh, though deep and tender, notwithstanding the sternness of his character, yet rarely burst forth in a gushing overflow; and he would perhaps have thought it unbecoming the dignity of his character to have indulged in Luther's free and jocular sallies in reference to his wife. He and Idelette lived together not less affectionately than Luther and Katharine; but in their domestic circle what occurred was less Switzerland.] Idelette de Bures. 269 characteristic, and therefore less noted. Then we have none of Calvin's letters to his wife, whUe we have a considerable number of Luther's to Katharine. These circumstances may account for the fact that less is known of Calvin's wife than of Luther's. Yet from the correspondence of the Geneva Eeformer, various interest ing particulars may be gleaned respecting his pious and amiable consort. About a year after their marriage, Calvin and Idelette removed from Strasburg to Geneva, where both of them were to spend the Geneva, from near SecheroQ. remainder of their days. On the 1st of May, 1541, the sentence of banishment, which had been passed against him by the council of Geneva, was revoked, and he was invited to return thither. This he did in the beginning of September that year, leaving Idelette, in the meantime, behind him. A mounted herald was sent to escort him from Strasburg. Shortly after she rejoined him at Geneva. Three horses and a carriage were sent by the council to bring her and the household furniture to the city. At the same time, to 270 Ladies of the Reformation. [Switzerland. do her all honour, a herald was despatched to attend her on her journey.' A house, with a garden attached to it, was alio ted to Calvin and his wife by the magistrates of the city. This house, which was in the Eue des Chanoines, was agreeably situated,- commanding an ex tensive and picturesque view of the delightful scenery on the gently sloping banks of the Lake Leman, and an exquisite prospect of Mount Blanc, with the range of the Alps of Savoy. This was the scene of Idelette's domestic cares, trials, and enjoyments. In the high opinion Calvin had formed of Idelette's Christian •sdrtues he was not disappointed. In her affectionate care of his health and comfort she was all that he could desire. His intense devotion to study, and his almost incredible labours as a minister of Geneva, and as the acknowledged facile princeps of Protestantism in its more radical form, whioh caused him an amount of corres pondence sufficient to have filled the hands of any ordinary man, greatly impaired his health, and made him frequently subject to deep mental depression. It was then that Idelette, by her tender ministry, nursed his disordered and debilitated frame, and by her cheerful soothing words, revived his dejected si^irits. In her he found a heart beating in sympathy with him under all the diffi culties he encountered iu the discharge of his duties as a minister of the Word. Her counsel to him always was to be true to God at whatever cost ; and that he might not be tempted, from a regard to her ease and comfort, to shrink from the conscientious performance of his duty, she assured him of her readiness to share with him whatever perils might befall him in faithfuUy serving God. Many of his expressions in his correspondence evince that the union be tween him and her was of a high and noble character. " It was no trifling thing for him who praised so few, who never spoke unpro fitably, and who weighed so well the words which he used, to say of his wife, that she was a remarkable woman — singularis exem.pli ' Geneva Council Registers. The resolution is dated September 13, 1541. 2 It still exists, aud is now converted into a Popish charitable institution. Switzerland.] Idelette de Bures. 271 foemina." After her earthly career had closed, in lamenting her loss, he said of her, " I am separated from the best of companions, who, if anything harder could have happened to me, would will ingly have been my companion, not only in exile and in want, but also in death. While she lived, she was a true help to me in the duties of my office. I have never experienced from her any hinder ance, even the smallest." ' Like Calvin, unambitious of worldly dignities, wealth, or gran deur, she was more solicitous unostentatiously to do good to others, than to acquire these much coveted objects of attraction. She re lieved the wants of the poor, visited the chamber of the sick and of the bereaved, and ministered consolation to the dying. Numerous strangers, especially from France, but also from the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain, came to Geneva, either in quest of a shelter from persecution, or to enjoy the pleasure of visiting Calvin, or of sitting under his ministry.^ This afforded him and Idelette an opportunity of exercising- towards these Christian brethren the virtues of com passion and hospitality, which they did with such active zeal that, by some, they were even blamed for being more careful of these strangers than of the native population of Geneva. The allusions to Idelette by those of Calvin's correspondents who knew her beat, attest the high place she had gained in their esteem by her Chris tian spirit, and by her unpretending attention to the humble duties of her calUng. The friends the most intimate in the family, were Peter Viret and WiUiam Farel. Theodore Beza, who afterwards became iu a manner Calvin's second self, did not come to Geneva until about a month after Idelette was laid in the grave. 1 Calvini Epistola in liis Opera, tom. is. p. 51. 2 So great was the influx of refugeei into Geneva, after Calvin's flnal establishment in that city, that, from the year 1513 to 1550, Geneva increased from 13,000 to 20,000 ; where as from the beginning ot the century to the year 1543, nearly half a century, it had only increased from 12,000 to 13,000. From the consternation created by the horrible butchery of 4000 Waldenses in 1545, professedly under the sanction of Francis I. of France, not less, it is said, than 4000 of that persecuted body fled to Geneva, which ofi'ered them tha best sanctuary of safety. Calvin did his utmost to obtain for them lodgings and employ ment, set up a subscription for their relief, aud got the council to employ them in repak- iug the fortifications. — Dyer's Calvin, p. 200. 272 Ladies of the Reformation. [Switzerland. One chief source of Idelette's domestic trials in her union with Calvin was the loss of children. Scarcely had their hearts been glad dened by the blessing of offspring, when that offspring was snatched from their embraces by the hand of death. They had three chil- ren, all of whom died in infancy. To the birth of the eldest, who was a son, and to the danger of the mother at the time, Calvin re fers in a letter [July, 1542] to Viret, who was then minister of Lausanne :' "This brother, the bearer, will tell you in what angiush I now write to you. My wife has been delivered prematurely, not without extreme danger. May the Lord look down upon us in mercy ! " .Ajid in a letter to the Seigneur of Falaise he thus writes; "I thank you humbly for the very gracious offer which you make me, respecting the baptism of our chilcL" In this child the fondest hopes of the parents were naturally centred ; they regarded him with grateful hearts as the gift of that bountiful Benefactor, whose "heritage" children are ; and as often as they kneeled at the throne of grace, he was the object of their fervent prayers. But to their great grief he was early removed by death. Calvin, in a letter written to Viret soon after the. infant's removal, says — "Greet all the brethren, your maternal aunt, also, and your wife, to whom mine retm-ns her thanks for so much friendly and pious consolation. She could reply only by means of an amanuensis, and it would be very difficult for her even to dictate a letter. The Lord has cer tainly infiicted a severe and bitter wound by the death of om- infant son. But he is himself a Father, and knows what is necessary for his children."- To his second child, who was a daughter, he refers in a letter to Farel, dated Geneva, May 30, 1544: "My little daughter labours under a continual fever." In her, too, Idelette and Calvin were doomed to experience the bitterness of the grief of a parent's heart, for she does not appear to have long survived.^ A third ^ Viret had left Geneva just before Calvin's arrival in it in 1536. After Calvin's mar riage, he returned to Geneva, in wluch he officiated as oue of the ministers tdl his return to Lausanne, shortly before the date of this letter. — Dyer's Calvin, pp. 63, 140. '^ Calviui Epistolas in his Opera, tom. ix. p. 235, ^ Calvin's Letters, Bonnet s Euglish edition, vol. i. p. 396. Switzerland.] Idelette de Bures. 273 chUd was given them, and, in like manner, taken away. Thus were their hearts smitten, and their hopes disappointed by the loss of children. Calvin's name was not to be perpetuated by his own offspring, and of this the enemies -of the Eeformation made their O'wn use. The imion of Idelette and Cal-vin had caused less commotion, outcry, and slander, among the Papists, than that of Luther and Katharine von Bora, whose marriage, as both of them had taken the monastic vows, was regarded with peculiar abhorrence. It could not be said of Idelette as of Katharine, that she was governed by no better motive in becoming a disciple of the Eeformation, than a desire to get married; for, ha-ving never been a nun, she would have incurred no dishonour in the Popish church by entering into the conjugal state. And as Calvin had never been a Popish priest, the same charge could not be brought against him which the Papists calumniously brought against Luther and other Eeformers who had been monks or priests, that they were actuated in their opposition to the Papacy by a desire of matrimony — that each of them had some lovely young beauty in eye, for which he was ready to sacri fice the church and the salvation of his soul. " Our adversaries," says Calvin, " accuse us of having undertaken a sort of Trojan war against the Papacy, for the sake of women. To pass over other considerations, they must at least exonerate me from such a charge. I am perfectly at liberty to cast back their foolish tittle-tattle. There was never anything to hinder me, even under the tyranny of the Papacy, from taking a wife, but I remained many years without doing so." Yet Popish writers, from their hatred of Cal-vin — an adversary not less formidable to Romanism than even Luther — have shown their spite against this marriage, by repre senting it as altogether barren, which, as we have seen, is false, and have pointed to its sterility as a judicial infliction of Provi dence. Brietius, a Jesuit, thus -writes : " He married Idelette, by whom he had no children, that the life of this infamous mau might not be propagated." And Florimond de Eemond, after having 18 274 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Switzerland. spoken of the marriage, adds, " it was condemned to a perpetual sterility, though Idelette was still in the prime of life.'" Such attacks, which were made even in Calvin's lifetime, pro duced Uttle impression on his mind. In his answer to the juris- consulist Baudouin, he says, " Wishing to clear himself from the charge of a want of natural affection brought against him, Baudouin twits me with my want of offspring. The Lord gave me a son, but soon took him away. Baudouin reckons this among my dis graces, that I have no children. I have myriads of sons throughout the Christian world." ^ " Idelette's miion with Calvin lasted only nine years. Her health had never been robust, and for a considerable time before her death she was afflicted with severe indisposition, of the fatal termination of which Calvin was greatly apprehensive. To her illness he fre quently refers in his correspondence with Viret. " I desire," says he, "to be remembered to your wife. Mine is her companion in a lingering sickness.'' In another letter he says, "Greet your wife. As soon as she is confined let her send for mine." Afterwards, when Idelette, it would appear, had gone to Lausanne, to wait upon Viret's wife during her confinement, he writes — "It grieves me that my -wife has been such a trouble to you ; for she has not, I suspect, been able to render much help to yours, her own health requiring the constant assistance of others. This only is my com fort, that I am convinced she is not disagreeable to you.'' In his correspondence with the same friend the foUo-wing expressions also ocom-: — "My wife commends herself to your prayers. She nourishes a lingering disorder, the issue of which I greatly fear." " My wife's sickness continues as usual." " My wife, who is strug gUng with a lingering disease, greets you." " My -wife commends herself to your prayers. She is so overpowered by her sickness that she can scarcely support herself. Frequently she seems some what better, but she soon relapses." ' These constant allusions to ' Henry's Life of Calvin, vol. i. pp. 263-26S. 2 Responsio ad Balduini Convitia, Geneva, 16S1, quoted by Bonnet in Calvin's Letters, vol. i. p. 320. 3 Heury's Calcin, vol. i. pp. 263-266. Switzerland.] Idelette de Bures. 275 Idelette's illness, and the manner in which they are made, so far from betraying, what Calvin has been charged with, a heart void of sensibUity and a stranger to the domestic affections, bear testimony — if we admit the sincerity of his words, and this there is surely no reason to doubt — to the warmth and tenderness of his conjugal at tachment and sympathy. During the whole of her illness Idelette was attended by the distinguished physician Benedict Textor. In grateful remembrance of the services rendered to her by this esteemed friend, Calvin, in 1550, dedicated to him his Commentary on the Second Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians.^ Some days before her death a female friend requested her to speak with Cal-vin respecting her children ; but having entire con fidence that he would do his duty to them, she answered her briefly in these words — " The chief thing is that they should live a godly and holy life. It is not necessary to make my husband promise to bring them up in holiness and the fear of God. If they be pious I am confident that he will be to them an unsought father ; if they be not, they do not deserve that I should ask anything for them." About herself she had never shown any anxiety, and whatever she felt for her children she betrayed it not to Calvin, to whom, during her sickness, she never said anything in regard to them till he him seK, of his o-wn accord, opened the subject to her. Supposing that she was restrained from doing this by modesty, and afraid lest a secretly nourished soUcitude about them might distress her more than her disease, he spoke to her about them, in the presence of some of his brethren, three days before her death, and promised to take care of them as if they were his own. She immediately an swered, "I have already commended them to the Lord;" and upon his replying, "That will not prevent me from caring for them," she answered, "I am sure you will not neglect the chUdren who, you know, are commended to the Lord." " This greatness of soul," says ' Calvin's Letters, Boimet's English edition, vol. i. p. 312. 276 Ladies of the Reformation. [Switzerland. Calvin, in relating this conversation, "will influence me more power fully than a hundred commendations would have done.'" Her death was peaceful and happy. A few days before the closing scene, when all the brethren in Geneva were assembled with Calvin, they engaged together in prayer with her. .Aiter this one of then- number, Abel, exhorted her, in the name of the rest, to faith and patience. During his address she indicated, by a few words — for she was unable, from her great weakness, to speak much — what were the thoughts fiUing her mind. Calvin added a brief exhortation, recalling to her remembrance such topics as were suitable to her condition. On the last day of her life another of the ministers, Borgonius, addressed her, about six o'clock in the morning, with Christian feeling. WhUe he was speaking, she ex claimed, from time to time, " O glorious resurrection ! O God of Abraham and of all our fathers ! Thy people have trusted in thee from the beginning and in all ages ; and none who have trusted in thee have been put to shame. I also will look for thy salvation." These short sentences, from which all could easily see that her heart was Ufted far above this world, were rather murmured than uttered. She did not repeat the words spoken to her by others, as some Christians have done on their deathbed, but she expressed, in some few words of her own, such thoughts as were occupying her soul. At six o'clock Calvin was called from home. After seven o'clock, when she was removed to another place, she immediately began to grow weaker. Feeling that her voice was fast failing, she said, " Let us pray ; let us pray. Pray all of you for me." At this time Calvin returned. She could no longer speak, but still she gave signs of the devout feelings of her heart. He att'ectionately spoke to her a few words concerning the grace of Christ, the hope of eternal life, the happiness which he and she had enjoyed in each other during the period of their union, and her exchanging an abode on earth for her Father's house above. He then engaged in prayer. She listened with perfect conscious- ^ Calvini Epistolee in liis Opera, tom. ix. p. 51. Switzerland.] ^ Idelette de Bures, 277 ness and attention to his words, and appeared to be edified by them. Shortly before eight o'clock she departed, so placidly, that those who stood around, her bed could scarcely tell the last moment of her life.' She died on the 5th of April, 1549. The severity of the grief felt by Calvin on account of her death, -vi-as an impressive tribute to her worth. Had she not been a woman of more than ordinary virtues, it may be doubted whether she would have drawn towards her as she did, his tenderest affec tions, or whether he would have lamented her loss with such sin cerity and pungency of sorrow. In a letter to Viret, dated April 7, 1549, he thus expresses the state of his feelings: — "My wife's death I have very bitterly felt, but I endeavour as .much. as. possible to restrain my sorrow, and my friends contend with each other to afford me consolation. Neither my own efforts nor theirs, I con fess, can accomplish what we -wish ; but still, what I gain thereby gives me greater relief than I can describe. You know the ten derness, or I ought rather to say, the softness of my heart. Un less, therefore, I had exercised great control over my spirits, I could not have borne this trial as I have done. And indeed the cause of my grief is not a trifiing one."^ He then proceeds to de scribe her qualities, and to narrate some circumstances connected with her death-bed, the substance of which we have already given. To the same effect he writes to Farel, in a letter dated Ilth April. " You have no doubt heard already of the death of my wife. I do what I can that I may not be altogether consumed by grief. My friends leave nothing undone to lighten, in some degree, the sorrow of my soul." And after having stated a few particulars as to her last moments, he adds, "Now I so keep under my grief, .that I have discharged, without intermission, the duties of my office ; and the Lord has, in the meantime, exercised me with other conflicts. Farewell my most sincere brother and friend. May the Lord Jesus confirm you by his Spirit ! and me also , undtr .this great affliction, which certainly would have crushed me, had not He 1 Calvini Epistolas in his Opera, tom. ix pp. 50, 51. ^ Ibid, tora, ix. p. 51. 278 Ladies of the Reformation, [Switzerland. whose office it is to raise up the prostrate, to strengthen the weak, and to revive the faint, extended help to me from heaven ! " Viret, in acknowledging Calvin's letter conveying the intelli gence of Idelette's death, says, "What I hear from many credible witnesses respecting your constancy and fortitude under your do mestic affliction, makes me think that I should address you with congratulations rather than condolence. . . It makes me the more ashamed of myself that, when in the same situation, I could not show the like fortitude, nor even a shadow of it : for my cala mity so overwhelmed and prostrated me, that the whole world seemed a solitude; nothing delighted me, nor tended to assuage my grief. ... 1 have been incredibly relieved by hearing, not merely from report but from eye-witnesses, that you discharge all the duties of your office with such an unbroken spirit, and so effi ciently, nay, with even more success than before; and that you have retained such a mastery over yourself in the consistory, in the pul pit — in a word, in all your affairs both public and private, as to ex cite the astonishment of everybody ; and this, too, at the very time when the recentness of your grief must have torn and prostrated you.'" This letter, which was written only four days after the death of Calvin's wife, has by some been regarded, from the manner in which it refers to his unremitting discharge of his ministerial duties under thisbereavement, as afibrding proof of the little effect it pro duced on his mind, and consequently of the callosity and coldness of his heart. But this conclusion is as unwarranted as it is harsh. Sorrow under the loss of a beloved relative, when equally deep and agonizing, is difi'erent in its external manifestations in different persons. Some, like Viret, may be so overwhelmed and prostrated by it, as to be wholly unfitted for anything, save to brood over their affliction. Others who suffer in spirit not less, perhaps more, may continue, without intermission, in the discharge of their ac tive duties. The cause of this difference it is not difficult to ex plain. In the former case, the persons yield themselves up to the ' Calvini EpistohE iu his Opera, tom. lx. p. 62, quoted in Dyer's Life of Calvin, p. 242. Switzerland.] Idelette de Bv,res. 279 dominion of their sorrow; in the latter, they put forth all the ener gies of their minds to sustain themselves under its pressure. This last was what Calvin did. He himself testifies to the great mental efforts he required to put forth in order so far to subdue the poig nancy of his grief under the loss of his wife, as to be able to per form the duties of his office. What he -writes respecting her death evinces, by its very tone, the sincerity and depth of his sofrow, and is not simply the decent expressions of regret. Time alleviated the bitterness of his sorrow ; but in thinking of Idelette he was often afterwards filled with heaviness, and in tho longings of his weary spirit for the rest of heaven, the thought of being associated for ever with her made even heaven more desirable. From what he suffered in his heart on this occasion, he was touched with a tenderer sympathy than he had previously felt for his brethren when -visited with the same kind of trial. In 1656, seven years after his bereavement, in a consolatory letter to Eichard de Valleville, minister of the French Protestant congregation at Frankfort, who had then lost his wife Joanna,' he refers to his own distress of mind under a similar loss, and directs his friend to those sources whence he himself had derived support and comfort. "How severe a wound the death of your most excellent wife has inflicted upon you I know from my own experience. I remember how difficult it was for me, when visited with a like affliction seven years ago, to master my grief. But as you know well the proper means for overcoming immoderate sorrow, it only remains for me to beseech you to use them. Among others, this is no small consolation, which yet the flesh lays hold upon for the aggra vation of grief, that you passed a portion of your life with a woman whose society you may expect to enjoy again, whenever you leave this world ; and next, that an example of dying piously has been sho-wn you by the companion of your life. . . . But since our * She was formerly maid to Bishop Hooper's wife. She and VaUevOle were married June 2, 1550, at which time he was pastor of the French Protestants in Londou. — See Ladies of the Reformation, first sei-ies, p. 374. 280 Ladies of the Reformation. [Switzerland. chief ground of consolation lies in this, that those things which we think against us are, by the wonderful providence of God, made to conduce to our salvation, and that we are separated from those whom we love, only in order that we may at length be re-united in his celestial kingdom, your piety will teach you to rest and take comfort in this. May the Lord of your widowhood allay your sadness by the grace of his Spuit, guide you by his Spirit, and bless your labours ! " ' ^ Calvini Epistohe iu his Opera, tom. ix. p. 11?. Eatiies of t\)t aaeformation IN FRANCE. "For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult; and they that hate thee have lifted up tlie head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that) the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance " (Psalm lixsiii. 2-4). " If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace ! but now they are hid from thine eyes " (Luke s±s. 42). INTEODUCTION. HE biographical sketches in this department of oiu- undertaking embrace the reigns of six sovereigns, Francis I,, Henry II,, Francis II,, Charles IX., Henry IIL, and Henry IV, In our introductory observations we shall rapidly glance at the most pro minent points in the reigns of these sovereigns, as bearing upon the condition of the French Protestants. This is the more necessary as some of the lives have a more than usual connection with the lUstorical events of the period. James Lefdvre of Staples has been called " the patriarch of the Eeformation in France." Like many others he was first led to re pudiate the Popish doctrines and scholastics by the study of the Greek and Eoman classics, for the mastering of which he had made several journeys into Italy, where, at that time, letters were enthu siastically cultivated. He afterwai'ds deduced from Paul's epistles the doctriue of justification by faith in opposition to the merit of good works,' the great doctrine maintained by Luther, but without deriving any light from the German Eeformer, with whom he had no communication, and whose sentiments had not yet been pubUshed 1 His translation of Paul's Epistles, with a Commentary, was published so early aa the year 1512.— Bayle's Diet., art. " FSvre of Etaples." 284 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. to the world. The superior abilities, the varied and solid learning, the sterling integrity, and the amiable dispositions by which he was distinguished, overcame the disadvantages of an insignificant,' unprepossessing personal appearance, and procured him numerous scholars and converts in his o-wn country, among whom were Wil liam Farel, the two brothers Arnold and Gerard Eoussel, and Michel d'Arande, who all became eminent preachers of the cross. To his discii:)les he recommended above aU things the study of the Scriptures, and inspired them with the -lofty expectation that the pure Christian faith was about to emerge from the corruption and error in which it had been so long enclouded. Yet Lefevre, less bold than Luther, shrunk from waging direct war with Eome ; he proceeded with less independent freedom of action, and continued always in some degree under mental restraint from the old system. He never, for example, got so completely rid of superstition as to renounce the practice of kneeling before the images of the saints, and he even argued in defence of purgatory. At the dawn of the Eeformation in France, William Brigonnet, Bishop of the large diocese of Meaux,' the friend of Lefe-sre, is en titled to special notice for his devoted endeavours to infuse new life into his diocese by preaching a purer faith. For his knowledge of the truth he was greatly indebted to Lefevre and his disciples already named, with whom he frequently conversed on theological questions. Ardently desirous to reform his diocese he visited every parish within its bounds, and inquiring into the doctrine and lives of the monks, found the result so unfavourable, that, convinced of the impossibility of procuring faithful pastors to the people wilhin his bishopric in any other way than by training them up himself, he determined to estabUsh a theological seminary at Meaux, taught by professors of piety and learning. With this view, in 1521, he 1 He was the son of Cardinal Briconnet, or the Cardinal of Saiut-Malo, as he was also called, wlio had been excommunicated hy Julius II., hut restored hy Leo X. At fiist, he hore tlie name of Count of Montbrun, and was possessed of large foi-tune". Being of a studious disposition, he took priest's orde re, and was successively Bishop of Lod^ve aud of Meaux. He cultivated letters, of whicii he was the liberal patron. .Feance.] • Introduction. 285 invited to that city the most celebrated men of the Eeformed faith, Lefevre, Farel, Vatable, Martial Mazurier, Arnold and Gerard Eoussel, and others who had before this preached evangeUcal truth in Paris. His in-vitation was accepted, and the great work com menced, though it was not allowed to go on long.' Among the adversaries with which this work in Meaux had to contend, none was more virulent or formidable than the Sorbonne of Paris, the most celebrated university in the kingdom, and the decisions of which upon all questions of faith were of authority through the whole Catholic world. Wickliffe, Huss, and Jerome of Prague, had all incurred the censure of this body. On the 15th of April, 1521, they passed their celebrated decree anathematizing the opinions of Luther, and declaring in the preamble that his arro gance ought to' be combated by chains and bonds, and even by the flames, rather tha,n by reasoning. If such was their zeal against foreign heretics, it might be expected that every real or apparent deviation from orthodoxy in theu- own country would awaken their ¦suspicion and provoke their wrath. The woi'k at Meaux did so; and they succeeded in laying upon it an effectual arrest by the ex pulsion of the evangelical labourers, and by reducing to subjection the bishop himself. They had not, indeed, like the inquisitors of Spain, the power of sending forth their ofiicers to arrest heretics and of trying and condemning them — this in France was the prero gative of the civU magistrate — but from the deference paid to their judgment in relation to heresy, the power they exercised, if not -unliuiited, was extremely formidable. At one time Francis I. was apparently disposed to look with a favourable eye upon the Eeformation. His partiality for men of letters, and for the new and improved mode of teaching adopted by the Eeformers, in opposition to the old scholastic method — his feel ings of dissatisfaction towards the Sorbonne, which had vehemently 1 A translation of the Isfew Testament iuto French, executed by Lefevre, was published at Meaux, Octoher 30, 1523. The printer was Simon de Collines. — Bayle's Diet., art, " Fevre of Etaples," 286 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. opposed the concordat he had concluded with the pope in 1516'— his desire to strengthen himself by uniting with the German Pro testant princes agaiust his political adversary Charles V., all tended to produce this efiect upon his mind. His tender friendship for his sister Marguerite, who openly protected the Eeformers, and the ascendency acquired over him by his favourite mistress the Duchess d'Etampes, who had secretly adopted their opinions, moved him in the same direction. Yielding to the advice of Marguerite, he even invited, in 1534, the illusti-ious Eeformer, Philip Melancthon, to Paris, to discuss, in his presence, the controverted questions in re ligion, with the doctors of the Sorbonne. Had Francis embraced the Eeformation, the great mass of the people, among whom the new ideas were making such rapid pro gress, would, doubtless, have followed his example ; the Eeformed faith would have become the religion of the state ; the civil wars of the sixteenth century would have been prevented, as well as the revolution of the eighteenth ; and France would have been greatly superior to what it now is in political freedom, in temporal pros perity, and in the intelligence, sobriety, industry, moraUty, and piety of its population. But evil and Jesuitical counsellors suc ceeded in persuading him that the new doctrines were inimical to the authority of sovereigns, and that the salvation of his soul was inseparably bound up with his support of the Papacy. Dreading peril to the established faith, if not its entire overthrow, from the influence which Melancthon might exert over him, they prevailed upon his majesty to abandon his purpose of bringing that Eeformer into France for the intended discussion.^ Nor apart from the con siderations already mentioned were there wanting others swaying him to the same side. By taking a position of direct antagonism ' The concordat of 1616 was the agreement entered into between Francis aud the pope, wliich put au eud to the claims of councils to au authority superior to that of Eome, by restoring to the pope the supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction, Ac, and which invested the crown of France ivith authority to nominate to all archbishoprics, bishoprics, aud abbacies within the Itingdom.— RauJje's Civil Wars in France, vol. i. p. 125. 2 Beza, Hist. Eccl., tom. i. pp. 21, 22. Petitot, tom. xvii. pp, 122, 1-23. Maimbom-g, Hist, du Calvinisme, tom. i. pp. 3S.4S. France.] Introduction. 287 to the Papal supremacy, he would compel the pope to ally himself with his political adversary, and he would also disunite his own kingdom at a time when it was of the utmost importance to his success against the emperor that it should be united. To have risen superior to these views of policy would have required an intensity of devotion to the Eeformed cause to which Francis had no pretensions. MeanwhUe, an imprudent step on the part of some individuals among the Eeformed became the occasion of converting Francis into the implacable persecutor of their party. Calculating too much upon the friendly disposition of the court, or suffering them selves to be carried away by the ardour of their zeal, some of them caused placards, reflecting, in severe and violent language on the Eomish clergy, transubstantiation, the mass, prayers for the dead, &c., to be posted on the night of the 18th of October, 1534,' upon various places in Paris, and in the chief pro-?incial towns. They even affixed one of them upon the gates of the palace of Blois, where the court at that time was residing. At this the resentment of the king was greatly excited ; and it was increased by the ca lumnious representations of evi\ counsellors, who persuaded him that a movement so simultaneous as this in diff'erent parts of the kingdom, demonstrated the existence of a secret, wide-spread re beUion, and that if he -wished to preserve his crown and the king dom in tranquiUity, it was necessary to inflict exemplary punish ment upon the guilty. Calunmy even circulated a report, greedily believed by the fanatical populace, that a conspiracy had been con certed by the Eeforming party, to surprise aud indiscriminately to massacre the Eoman Catholic population — man, woman, and child— during the celebration of mass. In the height of his in dignation, Francis purposed to exterminate the heretics. The pri sons, within a short time, were fiUed with men and women of evei-y quality. On the 29th of January, 1535, a solemn procession, expiatoi-y of the impieties of the placards, was made, with all the 1 Ilence this waa afterwarda called the Year of the Placards. 288 Ladies- of the Reformation. [FRAtfOE. pomp of the CathoUc ceremonies, through the streets of Paris; and at the return of the procession, six of the chief authors or ac compUces of the affair of the placards, namely, one at six different parts of the city, were consumed in the flames, with circumstances of atrocious cruelty, under the eye of Francis, who performed a conspicuous part in the procession, and amidst the exultant shouts of the infuriated mob. Eighteen of the accused ¦ suffered death in the same manner in other places. " But," says Mezeray, " for two who were put to death, a hundred others sprung from their ashes."' The illustrious John Calvin, who was in Paris at the time that the placards were posted up, warned in time of the impending horrible persecutions, fled for shelter to Basle, where he employed himself in composing his Christian Institutes. This work, in which he had for some time before been engaged, he had undertaken to supply .his countrymen, for their instruction, with a compendium of the elementary principles of the true religion. The condition of the French Protestants now supplied him with an additional mo tive for its publication. It would serve, by exhibiting their true sentiments, to vindicate his Protestant brethren from the infamous calumnies heaped upon them by Francis and his court. Though Francis' hands were at that time reeldng with the blood of the -Eeformers, Calvin had the boldness to dedicate the work to him. The dedication, which is dated August 1, 1535,^ has been univer sally admired as a noble and spirited, an eloquent and triumphant defence of his calumniated and persecuted brethren. The work, which advocates a system of worship and discipline much farther removed from the Eomish church than that of Luther, apparently made no impression on Francis, but it powerfully told upon many minds in France as well as in other countries of Europe. " Writ- ^ Gerdesius, Hist. Ref., tom. iv. p. 100. Petitot, tom. xvii. p. 123. Beza, tom. i. pp. 21, 22. Gaillard, Hist, de Francois I., tom. iv. pp. 671-573. 2 The first edition was published at Basle in 1536. It afterwards passed through many editions, and received numerous improvements and additions from the pen of the author. The last edition whicii he corrected and superintended, was the folio one of Geneva, 1550. France.] Introduction. 289 ten," says Petitot, " in French, -with an elegance uncommon at that time, it produced a prodigious effect. It was devoured in secret, especially by the ladies of the court, who, eager, like the king, to acquire the new leaming, had long complained that works of theo logy were -written in a language to them unknown. From that epoch may be dated the rapid progress whioh Calvinism, favoured, moreover, by the mistress of the monarch, made among the elevated classes of society, which tiU then had sho-wn themselves sufficiently indifferent about these controversies.'" Henry IL, carrying out the policy pursued by his father in the last twenty years of his life, resisted by ruthless persecution every deviation -within his kingdom from the doctrines of the church. But the war in which he was engaged with England and Charles v., by engrossing his attention, afforded a respite to the Protes tants, during which their number greatly increased in the principal parts of the kingdom. It was not, however, till the year 1555 that they began to form themselves into churches, with pastors, eidera, and deacons, for the administration of the Word, sacrament, and discipline. In that year a church thus organized, waa erected in Paris, including among its members or adherents, many persons of distinction, especially certain ladies in the palace, and maids of houom- to the queen; and, what is surprising, it continued to prosper unmolested in the presence of the court, the parUament, the Sorbonne, and an active body of Popish priests, all hostUe, tiU the year 1557. Other churches were speedily erected after the example of the one in Paris, in many other places;' and in 1558, it was believed that there were ah-eady in the kingdom 400,000 de clared adherents of the Eeformation, independently of the large proportion of the population who secretly favoured or beUeved in its doctrines. In that, and in the following year, many of the Pro testants were committed to the flames throughout France, and mauy were murdered and massacred in cold blood, the priests in Paris and ^ Petitot, tom. xvii, 2 As in Meaux, Angers, Poitiers, the isles of Saintogne, Agen, Boui-ges, Issouduu, Aubigny, Blois, Tours, Lyons, Orleans, Kouen, and other places, 19 290 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. in other places inciting the populace to tumult and violence. Yet in the sight of the stake, the scaffold, and massacre, the French Ee formers, to carry out a purpose they had formed of gi-ving them selves a common organization, courageously held their first national synod at Paris, in May, 1559, at which they adopted a joint confes sion of faith, and canons of discipline for the conduct and govern ment of their churches. It was in the reign of Henry IL, when the French Protestants, not being permitted to meet together in public nor by day, held their assemblies in secret and by night, that they were calumniously accuaed, as the primitive Christians had been under similar circumstances, of plotting sedition and of surrender ing themselves to feasting, reveUing, and all kinds of debauchery, in their secret conventicles.' On the last day of June, 1559, Henry IL, when in the pride and full -vdgour of manhood, accidentally received a mortal wound from the lance of the Count de Montgommery, at the tournament given in houom- of the nuptials of his majesty's sister Marguerite with the Duke of Savoy, and of his daughter Elizabeth -with Philip II. of Spain. The lance broke upon the king's visor, and the splinters, entering his eye, penetrated to the brain. He died eleven days after the accident, namely, July 10, and was succeeded by his eldest son Francis II. Charles, Cardinal of Lox-raine, and his brother Francis, Duke of Guise, so celebrated iu the history of the political and religious struggles in France in the sixteenth century, first began to play a conspicuous part in the reign of Henry II., whose favourites they became on his accession to the throne Under his reign they con tinued to increase in power and importance. The marriage of their niece, the celebrated Mary, Queen of Scotland — who, after her father's death, had been sent to the com-t of that monarch — with the dauphin, raised them still higher in the royal favour, and con tributed to their personal and poUtical aggrandizement. On the accession of the dauphin, Francis IL, upon the death of his father, 1 Histoire des Martyrs, pp, 469, 470. Raulie's Civil Wars in France, vol. i. p. 234. France.] Introduction, 291 they reached the zenith of their splendour and authority. The monarch, then only about sixteen and a half years of age,' was in capacitated by bodily and mental debility, more than by the imma turity of his age, for the management of state affairs ; and the whole govemment virtually fell into the hands of the uncles of his queen. The Cardinal of Lorraine was inveated with the administration of the financial department; the Duke of Guise was appointed com mander-in-chief of the army; and that the two brothers might exercise the govemment uncontrolled, they excluded from all share in it the princes of the blood, Antoine, King of Navarre, and Louis, the Prince of CondS, who, according to all past precedent, ought to have had the chief share, but who were removed from the court imder various pretexts. The dominancy of the Guises, whose ruling passion was their ¦virulent hatred of heresy and heretics, was peculiarly unfavourable to the French Protestants. Now the persecution was carried on against the Protestants with aggravated unrelaxing fury. Whoever should be present at private assemblies for religious purposes, was to be committed to the flames. Houses for the Eeformed worship were to be razed to the ground. Spies were everywhere on the look-out. Informers were to receive the half of the confiscated goods of the people delated, and other rewards. The magistrates were required, -with unremitting assiduity, to search the houses for suspected persons. Upon the sUghtest pretence or suspicion, the doors of any family might be thro-wn open, and whole households dragged to prison, and thence conducted to the stake. The prisons in Paris were filled with victims. To prevent the martyrs from making an impression upon the people by their dying speeches, their tongues were cut out before their execution. Even the pun ishment of the stake not being deemed terrible enough, the balan- foire, or see-saw, slow fires, mutilation, and tortures of various kinds, were often employed to add to ita horrors. ' Yet he was major, the law of France having fixed the term of the minority of its kings at thirteen years of age. 292 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. To the French Protestants, when iu this desperate condition, and with only the dark prospect of continued unmitigated persecution before them, some rays of hope burst through the darkness from the discontent widely prevalent among a powerful class againat the ad ministration of the Guises, upon other grounds besides the persecu tion of heretics. The Bourbons — the princes of the blood — especially the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde, were disaffected at their being excluded from all share in the government, and a nu merous party was prepared to support them in claiming their just rights, the more especiaUy as the tyranny of the Guises had become intolerable. It was complained that the three estates had not been convoked upon the death of Henry IL, as, considering the youth of the monarch, they ought to have been, iu order to make provision for the government of the kingdom ; that the Guises had not only been opposed to the convoking of the three estates, but had even threatened those who had dared to propose such a measure ; that they filled official and lucrative offices exclusively with their o-wn crsatures ; that they had oppressed the people by insupportable and unprecedented exactions ; and that they had entered into an ex hausting, unnecessary war with Scotland, under pretence of advanc ing the Catholic religion. These, and other grounds of complaint, involving great political interests, rendered the Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of Guise odious among a numerous and formidable party. This soon resulted in an outbreak. Six hundred gentlemen of family entered into a conspiracy for the special object of over throwing, by a sudden coup-de-main, the govemment of the two brothers. The plan was forcibly to enter the castle of Amboise (hence it was called the conspiracy of Amboise), where the court then was, and to take the king from among the hands of the Guises, committing him to the princes of the blood, who, according to the ancient customs of the kingdom and public opinion, were best en titled to assjst him in the government, and, arresting the Guises, to bring them to trial before the states-general, for having usurped the authority of the state, and for their tyrannical administration. France.] Introduction. 293 The enterprise did not, however, succeed. Apprized of the plot, the Guises had concerted their measures so vigorously as com pletely to defeat its execution, and nearly 200 of the conspirators being apprehended, were publicly executed — hanged, drowned, or beheaded. The Prince of Conde being suspected as the author of this con spiracy, was summoned by his majesty to the court, which had removed to Orleans, "to vindicate himself," as was pretended. Upon his arrival at court, accompanied by his brother the King of Navarre, on the SOth of October 1560, he was arrested and thrown into prison under the charge of high treason. Arrogant and in toxicated with success, the Guises contemplated the destruction of this powerful rival ; and brought in guilty by an illegally consti tuted tribunal, he was condemned to expiate his crime by losing his head. But an unexpected event, the death of Francia II., which took place suddenly, December 5, 1560, saved him from the impending doom. Whether Cond6 had any share in the con spiracy is an historical question which still remains undecided. Historians, nearly contemporary, affirm that he was really the secret ringleader, and one or two of the accompUces, on being ap prehended, made declarations to that effect ; but to these declara tions, as they were extorted by the torture, little weight can be attached. The prince himself always denied the truth of such imputations, and the supreme tribunal of his country, on the 13th of June 1561, acquitted him of all blame in the matter. The Protestant party in France began at this time, to i-eceive the name of Huguenots, the etymology of which is uncertain. Charles IX., brother of Francis II,, next succeeded to the throne of France. Being, on his accession, only in the eleventh year of his age, and consequently in his minority, the King of Navarre, as first prince of the blood, was entitled to the regency. That king was, however, prevailed upon by the queen-mother, Catharine de Medicis, whose ruling passion was the lust of power, to resign to her this high position, and to content himself with 294 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. being acknowledged as the French sovereign's Ueutenant-general •within the dominions subject to the French crown. At the as sembly of estates, opened December 13, 1560, her nomination as regent, of which the chanceUor L'H6pital was.the zealous sup porter, was sanctioned by the majority; and now, invested -with the supreme power in the state, she appeared upon the stage as one of the most conspicuous actors. But she became a curse, not a blessing to France. Careless of the public welfare, she was solely intent upon retaining and extending her own pov/er. To secm-e this, she employed all the arts of Machiavelian policy, of which she was so perfect a mistress. Wishing to make all parties sub serve her own purposes, but to be herself govemed by none, she set one party in opposition to another, favouring the one weaker at the time when the other seemed to be growing too powerful and independent. At the commencement of her administration, the party repre senting the new tendencies of the age was strengthened by the ad mission of the Prince of Conde and the Admiral de CoUigny into the council, from which they had been excluded during the pre ceding reign. These distinguished personages, supported by the chanceUor L' H6pital, Montluc, Bishop of Valence, and the Bishop of Orleans, advocated tolerant measm-es towards the Eeformed.' The queen-mother herseK seemed, for a short time, inclined to follow this laudable policy. Professedly to harmonize the Ee formed and the Eomanists, she summoned an ecclesiastical as sembly to meet at Poissy, in September, 1661. For the same pur pose she assembled, in January, 1562, a councU of deputies from the several parliaments of the kingdom, and with their consent, granted an edict, called the edict of January, permitting the Ee formed, till the final determination of a general council, not indeed to build meeting-houses, but to hold religious meetings by day, if without the precincts of the towns. Catharine did not, however, continue long in this apparently gracious mood towards the Hugue- ^ Rauke's Civil Wars in France, vol, 1 pp, 282, 283. France.] Introduction, 295 nots ; and the tolerant policy so fervently defended by the Prince of Cond6 and CoUigny, was powerfully resisted by the Guises, who were stiU formidable, and who, in their desperate determination to maintain their own authority, as well aa the ancient religion, plunged the kingdom into all the horrors of civil war. The immediate cause of the first ci-vil war was the massacre of a Huguenot congregation at Vassy, a town on the borders of Cham pagne, by the Duke of Guise and his troops, on Sabbath, March 1, 1562. On his way from Joinville to Paris, in passing through the to-wn of Vassy, scarcely three leagues from JoinviUe, the duke found that the congregation, under the protection of the edict of January, were just beginning their Sabbath's worship in a barn ¦without the walls of the town. Incited by their mortal rancour against the Huguenots, he and his followers rushed upon the con gregation, consisting of about 1200 persons, of both sexes and of all ages. A bloody massacre of the defenceless multitude ensued. About sixty were murdered in cold blood, a great number were wounded, and the rest, -with difficulty, found safety in fUght. This sanguinary incident met with the loud applause of the fanatical Eomanists ; and, acting upon them like a spark thro-wn in the midst of gunpowder, it roused their fury to the highest pitch, and mad dened them into a savage eagerness to emulate the duke, their idol and the strength of their party, in shedding Huguenot blood. On his return to Paris, he waa received by them with not leas enthu siastic demonstrations of honour and attachment, than if he had been the sovereign of the kingdom. In the capital, within a short time, 24,000 CathoUcs appeared in arms, and everything betokened a determination, on their part, to have recourse, with all haste, to mea sures of the utmost extremity against the Huguenots. Massacres of these unoffending people took place iu many other places. It was calculated at the time that 3000 of them perished, by aU kmds of deaths— being poniarded, stoned, thro-svn do-vm precipices, strangled, feUed do-wn, burned, starved, buried alive, drowned, or suffocated.' 1 D'Aubigufi, Histoire Universdle, tom. i. pp. 183-185. 296 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. The Prince of Conde prepared to meet the threatened tempest. At Orleans, where he took up his position, there assembled, in a short time, 3000 gentlemen, of whom Languet says, " If they were destroyed, the very seed of mascuUne virtue would have been anni hilated in the kingdom ;" and many of the cities gave their support to Conde. The leaders under him, besides others, included several of his nearest relations : the three Ch&tillons, the uncles of his -wife; Antoine de Croy, Prince of Porcian, who was married to his niece; and Francis, Count of La Eochefoucault, who was married to his sister-in-law — all personages of high militai-y reputation. The great reason set forth in hia declaration for taking up arms was to release the king and his mother from the capti-vity in which they were held by a tyrannical faction, who had the audacity to violate the royal edicts, and whose aim was to ruin the true religion and all of the nobles and thu-d estate who had embraced it. He was strengthened by above 7000 cavalry and infantry from Germany. The CathoUcs also received large foreign reinforcements, including Germans, several thousands of Spaniards, and especiaUy mercenary Swiss from Lucerne and the forest cantons, who came to fight, as the inscription on their banners bore, in support of the King of France and the old religion.' The first battle between the two parties, in open field, was fought on the 19th of December, 1562, at Dreux, on the banks of the Eure. The two commanders-in-chief — the Connetable Montmorency, who commanded the Catholic army, and the Prince of Cond6 — were taken prisoners. But by the coolness and military genius of the Duke of Guise, the connetable's lieutenant, the Catholics gained the battle, and ColUgny, Conde's lieutenant, saved his army by effect ing a retreat unmolested. But though the Huguenots sustained a defeat, the loss of the enemy exceeded theu-s, both in number and in persons of distinction. After the battle of Dreux, the Duke of Guise advanced to be siege Orleans, in which, at that time, were assembled the most emi- ^ Ranke's Civil Wars in France, vol. i. pp. 317-320. France.] Introduction. 297 nent of the Eeformed ministers, as also the wives, children, and treasures of the Huguenot nobility and gentry. He sat down -with his army before the city early in February, 1563, and resolved to take it by storm. The 19th of that month was the day he had fixed upon for the assault. Au unlooked-for event defeated the execution of his purpose — his assassination on the evening of the 18th, by Jean Poltrot, Sieur de Merci, an adherent of the Eeformed faith, but a man of a gloomy and excitable temperament, who fired at him with a pistol, and inflicted a wound which proved mortal, the duke dying on the 24th of February, aix daya after he received the wound. Criminal as was the deed of Poltrot, it gave great re lief to the suffering Huguenots ; and it was a terrible blow to the CathoUc party. Soon after, an edict of peace, caUed the treaty of Amboise, was proclaimed, namely, on the 19th of March, 1563. In September, 1567, the second civil war commenced. On the 10th of November that year, the battle of St. Denis was fought, in which the Huguenots were again defeated. The CathoUcs, how ever, suffered severely, and their veteran commander, Montmo rency, from the repeated wounds he had received in the action, died a few days after, being about eighty years of age. A second pacifica tion was concluded in March, 1568, called the treaty of Chartres, or of Longjumeaux, as it is sometimes termed. But scarcely any of the conditions stipulated by the treaty being observed by the magis trates throughout the counti-y, and the treacherous intentions of the court being soon apparent, peace was not of long continuance. In the same year the third civil war broke out. At the battle of Jarnac (12th or 13th of March, 1569), the Huguenots, who fought with the utmost bravery, overpowered by numbers, were again defeated, and the Prince of Conde was killed. After the death of this iUustrious commander, Henry, the Prince of Navarre, then only a little more than fifteen years of age, and his cousin Henry, the Prince of Cond6, about the same age, became the re cognized Huguenot chieftains. Admiral de CoUigny being nominally subordinate to them in office, but in reality the commander-in-chief. 298 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [France. than whom a man more admirably qualifled for the high position could hardly have been found. Joining intrepid valour to the ex perience of a veteran commander ; fertile in resources above all the meu of his age ; endued with a ste.ady persistent energy, which dis aster only increased; and possessing, in a remarkable degree, the faculty of collecting and raUying his mUitary strength, when it seemed to be broken and dissipated, rendering him even after de feat more formidable than ever, he was just the man whom the Huguenots in their circumstances needed. At the battle of Mon- contour (October 3, 1569) the Huguenots sustained another defeat from the Catholic troops, under the command of the Duke of An jou. But the admiral was soon again at the head of a powerful army, and by a circuit, first along the southern provinces, then northward along the eastem frontiers of France, he gained or re covered fifty principal to-wns. At this period the Eeformed church in France numbered up wards of 2160 churches, many of which consisted of more than 10,000 members. Most of the churches had two ministers, and some of them had even five.' If, after all the storms of persecu tion it had sustained, and the oceans of the blood of its martyrs which had been shed, the Prench Eeformed church was thus nu merically strong, it can hardly be doubted that had the preaching of evangelical truth been simply tolerated, the vast majority of the population of France would have deserted the Popish chm-ch, and have awelled the ranks of the Eeformed. At last the court becoming convinced that the Huguenots, though vanquished in a few pitched battles, were too numerous and. too well organized to be finally subdued, agreed to negotia tions for peace ; and a pacification waa concluded at St. Germain- en-Laye, on the Sth of August, 1570, on terms more favourable to the Huguenots than those of any former peace. It was pub lished in the parliament of Paris three days after. The court now assumed the semblance of the greatest favour for ' Quiok's Synodicon, p. lix. France.] Introduction. 299 the Eeformed ; but under these flattering appearances were con cealed the most-horrible schemes of vengeance, which were especi ally planned and matured by Catharine de Medicis. A general massacre of the Huguenots was resolved upon, and to lull asleep suspicion, the most consummate duplicity was practised. The mar riage of the king's sister. Marguerite, with Henry, Prince of Na varre, was to be the pledge of a lasting union between the two parties. Thia event, which drew the Huguenot leaders to the ca pital, drew them also into the fatal snare prepared for them. To keep up the deception, they had la-sdshed on them, by the court, the most flattering assurances of respect and amity ; and it was amidst the scenes of festi-vity connected with thia marriage, and when the devoted victims, resting on the faith of treaties and on the warmest professions of friendship, suspected no danger, that the plot of meditated vengeance was executed — the massacre of St. Bar tholomew, which, in perfldy and flagitiousness, stands unparalleled in the history of the world. Charles IX., who, being a partner -with hia mother in the tra gedy of the St. Bartholomew massacre, had acquired for himself a. reputation of infamy throughout Europe, died May 30, 1574, before he had completed the twenty-fourth year of his age. His brother Henry, Diike of Anjou, also a weak and corrupt prince, who was then in Poland, of which he had been elected king by the diet of the kingdom in August the preceding year, secretly returned to France to take possession of the vacant throne. He had been also an ac complice in the contrivance of the St. Bartholomew massacre, and was actuated by a thoroughly Popish spu-it. He was crowned as Henry III. in the year 1576. Ha-fing lost his youngest and only survi-ving brother, the Duke of Anjou and Alenjon, June 10, 1584, he was now the last repre sentative of the Valois Ime, and as he was childless the almost cer tain extinction of that race was foreseen. In that event the right of succession to the throne would devolve upon Hem-y, King of Navarre, a professed Huguenot. To prevent this prince from sue- 300 Ladies of the Reformation. [Fbakce. ceeding, an event which, it was dreaded, might bring disaster to the interests of CathoUcism, a league was formed between Philip IL of Spain, the great champion of CathoUc orthodoxy, and the Guises, the heads of the CathoUc party in France, in the middle of January, 1685, at the castle of Joinville. The league, while undertaking to effect the exclusion of the King of Navarre from the succession, proposed that the crown should pass to his uncle, the Cardinal of Bourbon, a, younger brother of King Antoine ; and, in addition, that energetic measm-es should be adopted for the complete extir pation of heresy, not only in France, but also in the Netherlands. Henry III. was unwilling to exclude the heir-presumptive from his just rights, provided he became a Catholic, and yet he was con strained against his will to support the league, the object of which was to exclude the heir -presumptive under all conditions. The French monarch rather inclined to another Catholic party, more moderate, who were desu-ous of drawing over the King of Navarre and his Huguenot adherents to their own creed.' Meanwhile, to support the league. Pope Sixtus V. issued a bull of excommunication against the two Huguenot princes of the house of Bourbon, the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde, as heretics and abettors of heresy, declaring that they had forfeited, for themselves and their descendants, all their possessions and dig nities, especially their claims upon the throne of France. The formation of the league again reduced the Huguenots to the necessity of taking up arms in self-defence. To maintain the struggle, they received assistance in money from Elizabeth, Queen of England, and in troops from Germany and from the evangelical cantons of Switzerland. Henry of Navarre, without hesitation, became their chieftain; and on the 20th of October, 1687, -with a small but brave and experienced body of troops, he gained a com plete victory over the army of the league, under the command of Joyeuse, on the plains of Coutras. Joyeuse was himself slain. This ' Ranke's CivU Wars in France, vol, ii. pp. 147, 148. France.] Introduction. 301 was the first battle won by the Huguenots since the commencement of the ci-vil wars. As the course of events advanced, Henry III. continued to re gard -with increasing apprehension the vast power of the Guises — their boundless popularity — their exorbitant pretensions. And at Blois, where the estates had just met, in which the" Duke of Guise had carried everything his own way, he deUberately purposed to effect the destruction of the duke and his brother the cardinal. It would be easy for him to accomplish the assassination of the duke, who waa then reaiding with him as a guest in his own palace at Blois, and he gave orders to some of his body guards to execute the murderous design. The deed was executed on the morning of December 23, 1588, as the duke was entering the royal cabinet. By the orders of the king the Cardinal of Guise was also assas sinated. These bloody deeds — the assassination of a hero and a priest — roused to desperation the resentment of all the Catholics throughout the kingdom against the king; and the priests continued ¦without intermission to blow the coals. The Sorbonne decided that he had forfeited his right to the throne, and that his subjects were absolved "from their oath of aUegiance and justified in taking up arms against him. The priests refused absolution to whoever should acknowledge him as king. The parliament appointed two counsellors to commence a criminal process against him, calUng him Henry of Valois, formerly King of France and Poland. And iu a short time the Duke of Mayenne, the brother of the Duke of Guise, at the head of the army of the league, took the field against the royal assassin. Thus commenced the war between the king and the league.' In preparing to defend himself, the French monarch entered into a treaty, in the form of a truce, with the King of Navarre, April 3, 1589, for one year, and assumed a tolerant policy towards the Huguenots. He was joined by many of the nobiUty, and ob tained assistance also from the Protestants of Switzerland. By these 1 Voltaire, CEwvrcs, tom. iii. p. 266. 302 ^ Ladies of the Reformation. [France. means he soon found himself at Pontoise, at the head of an army of 40,000 men. Advancing to Paris, he appeared before the city at the close of July, 1689, expecting in a, short time to become its master, when (August 1) a young Dominican priest, named Jacques Clement, weak in body and in mind, and, therefore, more susceptible to fana tical impressions, having obtained admission to his camp uuder false pretences, stabbed him in the abdomen with a knife. The king thus sacrificed to the manes of the Dnke of Guise and his brother expired eighteen hours after receiving the wound, and with him ceased to exist the last of the Valois. Clement, who was instantly put to death by the enraged courtiers, was celebrated as a saint and a martyr by the Eoman CathoUcs. In the Popish pulpits he was compared to Judith, and so far was fanaticism carried in Paris that his portrait was hung upon the altars with this inscription below " Saint Jacques Clement, pray for us!" The King of Navarre bemg a professed Huguenot, his accession to the throne of France as Henry IV., met, on that account, with almost insurmountable opposition. By his invincible courage and miUtary genius, he long resisted the utmost fury of the league. But at last, from the hope of peaceably securing to himself the throne, and of restoring tranquUUty to the kingdom, he abjured the Ee formed religion, and professed himself a Eoman Catholic. This he did on the 25th of July, 1593, in the church of St. Denis, before the Archbishop of Bom-ges and an illustrious assembly. On the part of Henry, this was not very grateful treatment of the Huguenots, from whom his most essential support had been hitherto constantly de rived. But it is only doing him justice to state that he could never be prevaUed upon to persecute the Huguenots. He was, indeed, the founder of religious toleration in France. The inflexible poUcy of aU his predecessors had been to compel the whole community to agree in holding, or in professing to hold, the same religious creed, and in worshipping under the same forms. To extend equal laws, and an equal administration of these laws to dissentients from the established faith and to its adherents, was the policy adopted by Henry, and France.] • Introduction. 303 embodied by him in the Edict of Nantes, which received the royal seal, April 13, 1598, and was read, published, and registered in par liament, February 25, 1699. By this edict the adherents of the Eeformed faith, if not placed, in all respects, on an equality with the Eomanists, were yet equally taken under the protection of the civil law, which no longer regarded heresy as a crime punishable by the state, and it secured them, in addition to liberty of conscience, a political existence. This rapid review, which we do not carry farther dovm, affords a sufficiently melancholy picture. Scarcely do the annals of any nation present ua with a period more thickly atre-wn with eventa of the most calamitous nature. Then, as in the Apocalypse, it might be said, "The devil is come do'wn to the earth, having great wrath." The maUgnity of heU seemed combined with the malignity of earth in the effort to exterminate heresy from the soU of France. The prince of darkness, as if foreseeing the certainty of the triumph of heresy in all the other continental nations of Europe, should France — a nation so powerful and so infiuential — be won to the standard of reform, seemed to have put forth all the terrible power he can wield over his instruments, that the Eeformation might, by what ever means, be crushed in that kingdom. In perusing the details of the atrocious crimes committed, and of the fearful sufferings in flicted in the prosecution of this deadly exterminating enterprise, the mind is thriUed with horror. And how great the number of the ¦victims ! An author of the sixteenth century, in a work printed in the year 1581, computes the number of the Huguenot martyrs cut off by the sword and massacres, to have been, -within a very few years, at least above 200,000.' How great, then, the number who must have perished from the commencement of the persecution, and during the whole course of the civil wars. The sum total is known only to Him who has registered the names of them all in his Book. Yet the French Eeformed church for a long time lived, and even prospered in the midst of the flaming- fumace, as if miraculously I Quoted iu Quick's Synodicon, vol. i. p. lix. 304 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. preserved by God. This led her to adopt, as her emblem, a bum ing bramble bush, with the inscription rr.tti' in the centre, and around the circle the words "Comburo, non consumor.'"' Still the tendency of persecution in the natm-al course of tilings is to "wear out the saints of the Most High," And such was the ultimate issue of persecution incessantly persevered in, generation after generation, in France, It all but exterminated the Eeforma tion in that interesting country. And what has France gained by that result achieved by means so terrible? Her history, in the crimes and woes which crowd and darken its pages, and which are clearly traceable to that work of extermination, tell that it was as impolitic as it was criminal. It involved the destruction or the ex pulsion of the most ealightened, the most virtuous, the most indus trious, and the most enterprising of her population — the very life- blood of her prosperity and greatness. It was the destruction of the regenerating and yet conservative element which might have prevented her revolutions, by breathing new life and freedom into her institutions ; or had a revolution, iu consequence of the ty ranny of her rulers, been necessary, which would, as in England, have checked its excesses, and have fitted her people for peaceably living under, and enjoying the blessings of a free constitution, for which even now, after all their tumultuous and sanguinary conten tions for liberty, they are manifestly unprepared. France — her rulers and the majority of her people — knew not then, and she knows not yet the things that belong to her peace. The great, the radical reform that she needs for the cure of her deep and wide spread distempers, is what the hundreds of thousands of her martyrs toiled and died to accomplish, but a remedy, alas! the last of all thought of — the restoration of pure Christianity, and with it, of moral and reUgious principle. ' i. e., " Jehovah." 'i.e., "I bum, but am not consumed." At the synod of Vitr6, held in May, 1583, it was resolved th Genin, Lettres de Marguerite, tom, i, p, 274. France.] Ma7-guerite de Valois. 323 my aunt of Nemours has her part ; and I will forward her the last, for she is in Savoy at her brother's wedding, which is no slight loss to me; wherefore, I beseech you, have pity on my loneliness.'' "Madame," says he, in reply, July 10, 1621, "you write to me to have pity on you because you are alone. I do not understand that word. Whoso lives in the world, and has his heart there, is alone ; for many and evil go together. But she whose heart sleeps to the world, and is awake to the meek and gentle Jesus, her true and loyal husband, is truly alone, for she lives on the one thing needful ; and yet she is not alone, not being forsaken by Him who fills and pireserves all things. Pity I cannot, and muat not, such loneliness, which is more to be esteemed than the whole world, from which, I am persuaded, that the love of God has saved you, and that you are no longer its child." So long as Lefevre, and the other Eeformed preachers, whom Briconnet had prevailed upon to come to Meaux, resided in Paris, Marguerite attended, and greatly appreciated, their ministry. But since their removal, there was no one in Paris on whose religious instructions she set any value. Her knowledge of the true doc trines of God's Word was now such, that it was impossible for her to be pleased with the harangues of ignorant monks, the staple of whose sermons consisted, among other things equaUy contemptible, of the legends of some Eomish saints, the virtues of holy water, chrism, crossing, exorcism ; and having no one near her in whose spiritual wisdom she had confidence, she felt forlorn and desolate. "As a sheep in a strange country," writes she to Briconnet, "wan dering about, not knowing where to find its pasture, through lack of knowing its new shepherds, naturally lifts its head to catch the breeze from that quarter where the chief shepherd was once accus tomed to give it sweet nourishment, in such sort am I constrained to pray for your charity. . . . Come do-wn from the high mountain, and in pity regard, among this benighted people, the blindest of all thy fold, Marguerite." ' ' D'Aubignc's Hist, of Ref., book xii. ch. 6, 32i Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Fr.vnce, WeU would it have been for the Eeformation in France, and for France itself, had Marguerite's mother and her brother been like- minded with herself on the question of religion. Not only would this have delivered her from temptations to temporize, too powerful for her altogether to resist, but it would, in all probabilitj', have altered the destinies of France, changing it from a Popish to a Pro testant country Brijonnet, who now overfiowed with zeal for the gospel, clearly perceived the critical position of the cause of Eeform so long as these exalted personages were hostile, and that their con version would be the signal of its triumph, "Madame," says he to Marguerite, "I humbly entreat Almighty God, that he may be pleased, in his goodness, to kindle a fire in the hearts of the king, of his mother, and in your own, . so that from you there may go forth a Ught, burning and shining, on the rest of the nation, and particularly that class by whose coldness aU others are frozen," Marguerite breathed the same prayer in her o-wn behalf, and in behalf of relatives whom she loved so dearly ; and, though saddened and perplexed at the indifference and hostility to the uncorrupted doctrines of the ci-oss exhibited by all around her, she had some hopes that the hearts of her brother and mother might be touched with the love of the truth, unpropitious as were the circumstances by which they were surrounded, • At this period her brother and her mother, influenced by her known sympathies, and by her conversation, were indeed disposed to look with a favourable eye upon the new opinions. This is evi dent from various passages in her correspondence -with the Bishop of Meaux, In a letter to him, written in November, 1621, she says, " It seems to me to be better to shut the mouth of the ignorant by assming you that the king and madame have resolved to show that the truth of God is not heresy," And iu another to him, written in the following month, she assures him that " the king and madame are more than ever affectionately incUned to the reformation of the church," This was very encouraging information to Briponuet, and in a letter to her, dated Meaux, December 22, 1521, he writes — "I I France.] Marguerite de Valois. 525 praiae our Lord that he haa inspired the king to execute the good thing which I have heard. I earnestly desire that you all three may be true salamanders' of God, that the effect may corres pond with the device, and that all your actions may be Christian; for it is written, ' to whom much is given, of them also shall much be required.'" Marguerite, in agaiu writing to him, about September or October, 1622, from Blois, where .she then was with her mother," informs him of her mother's diligence in hearing prelections from the New Testament, • and entreats him to visit her mother and brother, to confirm the good impressions which had already been made upon them, "The desire which Master Michel feels to return to you has been frustrated by the command of madame, to whom he has begun to read portions of the Holy Scriptures, which she desires that he may finish. But as soon as this task is ended, or should we remove hence, he will immediately leave this to join you. Praiae God that his time has not been lost ; for I hope this journey will be of service to the cause we have at heart. As the period of our sojourn in this place is short, I think it would be well for you to come here, for you know the confidence which the king and madame have in you ; and I earnestly beseech you, if consistent with the demands of duty where you are, to hasten your arrival." ' This favourable disposition towards reform on the part of Mar guerite's brother and mother was unhappily neither deep nor last ing. If they read, or heard read, the Bible, it was more from cm-i- osity, that they might know something of that book whioh was then creating so strong- a sensation throughout Europe, than from any other feeling; they understood not its inestimable worth — they knew not that it waa the leaves of the tree of life which are for the. healing of the nations; and they became its persecutors, and the persecutors of all who professed the truths it reveals in their in tegrity and purity. 1 The allusion is to the device of a salamander adopted by Francis I, for his arms. Tho motto for the device was, " Nutrisco et extinguo ;" i. e., "I nourish and extinguish.'' '^ Francis was absent on a progress through the kingdom connected with state afi'airs. 3 Genin, Lettres dc Marguerite, tom. ii, pp, 273-276, 326 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. Briconnet had promised to send Marguerite the epistles of Paul translated into the French tongue. No sooner was the work printed than he sent her a copy superbly illuminated; and, earnestly desirous that her brother Francis and her mother might have their understandings and their hearts opened to the reception of the truth, he humbly entreated her to present the copy to Francis, " a present," says he, " which cannot but be most acceptable from your hands. They are a royal dish," he adds, "fattening without cor rupting, and healing all manner of sickness. The more we taste them, the more insatiable becomes our appetite,'" In sending Marguerite a French copy of Paul's epistles, he ex pressed his readiness to solve, as far as he could, any difficulties she should meet with in studying these treasures of heavenly wisdom. She assured him that she would gladly avail herself of this privi lege; and in writing to him, in January, 1623, she solicits, in a mystified style similar to his o-wn, which she affects to imitate, ex positions of suoh texts of Scripture as should suggest themselves to his own mind. " I sincerely pray you," says she, in the close of the letter, " who are a minister of such good things, and who know the taste of these restoring and strengthening meats, to be pleased to send me sorne crumbs from the supplies which are given you by the great Giver ; so that your aged mother,^ grown old in her first en velopment,^ may by this sweet and refreshing word of life be renewed, and so repolished, shaped, and purified, as to be worthy to belong to the self-existent and independent One."^ Everything apparently was to have been regenerated in Meaux, and there waa some prospect that the bishop might yet play an im portant part in the reformation of the kingdom of France ; but, cor dially as he had embraced the truth, and desirous as he was to see it diffused, he unfortunately had not the courage and self-denial ' D'Aubign6's /fwi, of Ref., book xii. ch. 7. '^ " Marguerite," as her accomplished biographer already cLuoted remarks, " had a singular fancy for talking about herself as an old woman, of which many instances occur in her lettei-s." At this period she was only in the thir-ty-first year of her age. ¦1 " En sa premiere peau," ^ Geniu, Ldtres de Marguerite, tom, i, pp. 163, 164. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 327 required in the circumstances in which he was- placed, aud conae- quently was not formed to be the regenerator and reformer of France. From his zeal in promoting the spread of the new opinions within his diocese, and in protecting the propagators of them, and from the fervent language of his letters on the subject to Mar guerite, it might have been imagined that his devotion to the truth was so resolute as not to be shaken by persecution — that he would have preferred a life of obscurity, poverty, and suffering in its sei-vice, or even a death of horror in its defence, to all the wealth, honours, and enjoyments of the world, in the service of superstition and error. This perhaps was hia own judgment concerning himself ; but it is not till man's strength is tested by temptation that he dia- covers his own weakness. Briconnet was as sincere as man could be ; but his spiritual strength was not equal to the endurance of the buffetings of persecution. He was thrown down by the first blast of the tempest. Enraged at the support and protection he was affording to the men who were diligently labouring to spread abroad the Ught of God's Word throughout Meaux, the Sorbonne, of whioh Noel Beda was the most active member, and the monks of Meaux, publicly accused him of ha'ving embraced heresy, and of supporting notori ous heretics. So loud were their accusations, aud so indefatigable their efforts, that the parUament of Paris decreed the arrest of all the evangelical teachers within his diocese, and summoned him to appear before them to vindicate himself from the charges preferred against him. In obedience to this summons he pi-oceeded to Paris.' Marguerite, who was then at St. Germain, hearing of the trouble -with which he was threatened, was greatly concerned, and in a letter to him, assured him that nothing in her power — and it was great at court — would be wanting to shield him from the malignity of his persecutors. " If you think that in anything," says she, " I can pleasure you or yours, I pray you tell me, and believe that every trouble will turn to my comfort May everlasting peace be 1 Gaillai-d, Histoire de Frangois I. '328 Ladies of the Reformation. JfranoE. yours after these grievous wars which you wage for the faith, in which warfare you desire to die! , . Wholly yours, Mar^ GUERITE."' Had Briconnet remained unflinching. Marguerite, the never-failing protector of the persecuted, would, there can be no doubt, have proved faithful to her promise to a friend and coun seUor whom she so highly respected and esteemed. But intimi dated by the threatenings of the Sorbonne, and shrinking, when the hour of danger came, from the sacrifice of wealth and rank for the sake of the truth, he yielded. On the 12th of April, 1523, as had been peremptorily demanded, he issued his episcopal mandate forbidding Lefevre, Farel, and their companions, to preach hence forth within the dioceae of Meaux, or even to remain within its bounds.^ This melancholy unfaithfulness of Brigonnet to his con victions inflicted a great blow on the Eeformed religiou in France. He and Marguerite still continued to correspond, and their letters breathe the same pious spirit as formerly, but both parties are dis posed to avoid entering upon the subject of hia defection. Deeply regretting the arrest laid on the great work of evange lization that had been going on so successfully at Meaux, Mar guerite recalled to Paris Michel d'Arande, to act as her chaplain and almoner, Lefe-vre, who was especially the object of the resent ment of the Sorbonne, retired to Blois, where he enjoyed her pro tection. His Commentary upon the Four Gospels, which appeared from the press of Meaux in 1622, and especiaUy the dedicatory epistle, "To the Christian Eeader," increased their rage; and they condemned the book as heretical. Marguerite, notwithstanding the indignant protest of the Sorbonne, having interposed in his behaU, obtained from the king the appointment of a special commission to investigate the truth of the grave imputation. The commissioners having heard him in his own defence, acquitted him of the charge ; upon which he returned to Blois,' > Another friend of reform who, at this time, experienced the ' D'Aubignc's ffis( o/i!p/., hook xii. ch C. ^ lbid. ch. 7, '¦' Gaillard, Histoire de Frangois L France,] Marguerite de Valois. 329 generous and successful interposition of Marguerite, was Louis de Berquin, a gentleman of Artois, and a councillor of Francis I,, a man of great learning and the friend of Erasmus, who had been denounced to the parUament by the Sorbonne, and imprisoned as a favourer of Luthei-anism.' MeanwhUe, Marguerite devoted herself to the successful culti vation of literature ; not confining her attention to one department of learning, for she had a thirst for universal knowledge. Brigon- net, in his correspondence with her, eulogizes her enthusiastic devo tion to the study of grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, and the liberal arts. Ample evidence exists that, in pronouncing this encomium, he is not to be accused of flattery. At the age of thirty-two she read Erasmus in the original ; she understood Sophocles, and wish ing to investigate for herself the true sense of the sacred .writings, not satisfied with the knowledge of the Greek language, she re ceived lessons in Hebrew from Paul Paradis, who, at a later period, was, through her patronage, appointed one of the professors in the college of France. This zeal in the study of the sacred languages reflects upon her the higher honour, when it is considered that Greek and Hebrew were then condemned by the Sorbonne and the Popish prieata as heretical languagea, and that for a peraon to un derstand even the rudiments of these tongues, was quite enough to his being pronounced a heretic- Eising superior to the barbarous ignorance and prejudices of the age, she waa not to be convinced, by all that the Sorbonne and the priests could say, that it was a, crime to study the sacred Scriptures in the original languages. The pious devotion of her heart, evinced in the value she at tached to the Word of God, as well as the somewhat mystical turn of her mind, appeared even in the device which, conformably to the ^ Gaillard, Hist, de Frangois I. Bayle's Diet., art. "BercLuin." '^ Com-ad Heresbach, the friend of Erasmus, infoi-ms us that on one occasion he heard a monk make the following edifying observations, ex cathedra: — " A new language has been found, called Greek, which must be carefully avoided. That language gives birth to aU heresies. I see in the hands of a great many people a hook written in that lan guage, called the New Testament. It is a hook full of thorns and vipers. As to Hebrew, all who leai-n it immediately become Jews." — Gaillard, Hist, de Frangois I., tom. iv. p, 177. 330 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. custom of the age, she selected as her coat of arms. The device was a marigold, a flower which opens only in presence of the sun, turning from east to west, as the great luminary of day performs his journey through the heavens. For this device she adopted, from Virgil, as a motto, the hemistich, " Non inf eriora secutus,"' i. e., "not following' things below;" "intimating, thereby," says Brantome, "that she directed all her actions, thoughts, designs, and affections to that Sun on high, who is God ; and for that rea son she was suspected of Lutheranism,"^ In the autumn of the year 1524, Marguerite arrived, with her brother, mother, and the court, in the city of Lyons. Francis was The Cathedral and BrMga of Tilsit, Lyonl. then marching hastily, with an army of upwards of 20,000 soldiers, composed of Swiss and French, to repel a formidable invasion made upon Provence by the numerous army of Charles V., under the conduct of the Connetable de Bourbon. After the departure of her ^ " Secutus " is a solecism. It should have been "secuta," iu the feminine gender. '' (Euvres, tom. v. pp, 219. 220. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 331 brother and his troops. Marguerite, with her mother and others of the court, remained at Lyons ; and in this city, the second in the kingdom, with her sanction, and under her protection, a great work of evangelization commenced, promising to emulate in success the labours of Peter Waldo, who, in the twelfth century, had, in this city, a numerous body of disciples — the poor men of Lyons. While her brother was successfully effecting the expulsion of the Connet able de Bourbon from Provence, and after this occupied himself in making preparations for a campaign, in Italy, she, with the devoted men in her train, were engaged in a nobler warfare, and achieving nobler conquests. At her desire, Michel d'Arande, her almoner, who was eager to preach the truth wherever he went, pub licly preached the gospel at Lyons, -without, however, directly at tacking the existing superstition ; and the novelty of his doctrine, together --with the earnestness of his manner, attracted numerous auditories. In. the work he was assisted by other zealous labourers, some of whom had the reputation of being elegant scholars. With apostolic energy and zeal they also itinerated ta the surrounding provinces, scattering abroad the good seed of the Word. At last, however, the opposition became so great as to compel them, not withstanding Marguerite's patronage, to abandon these fields of use ful labour.' Whilst Marguerite and her mother were at Lyons, intelligence reached them of the disastrous battle of Pavia, fought on the 24th of February, 1525. At this battle the French were completely routed by the ImperiaUsts, and Francis, the French monarch, after being several times wounded and thrown from his horse, which was kUled under him, being overpowered by numbers, waa taken pri- aoner when defending himself with heroic corn-age. This was a fatal day to France. Ten thousand of her men perished on the field of battle, and among the dead were many of the most distinguished of her nobUity, who preferred death to turning their backs with dis honour. Francia was imprisoned first in Pizzighitone, then in the » D'Aubignd'6 Hist, of Ref. 332 Lad,ics of the Reformation. [France. castle of VenyssoUo, situated about twelve miles from the city of Valencia, and lastly in the old castle of Madrid. This defeat, aud the captivity of her brother, caused Marguerite agonizing distress. What added to her bitterness of spirit, was the disgrace which her husb.and, the Duke of Alen5on, who com manded a division of her brother's army, had brought upon him self by his pusillanimous conduct — which, it waa believed, caused the disastrous issues of the day — in fleeing from the field with the troops under his command. On his entrance into Lyons with his fugitive troops, he was sternly upbraided by the regent, Madame d'Angouleme ; and Marguerite herself was so contemptuously in dignant at his craven spirit, that she would not deign to speak to him, or to see him. Overwhelmed by the reproaches of those near est and dearest to him, and of all France, who scornfully branded him as a coward, he suffered a vexation of spUit more agonizing thau eveu death itself. This aggravated the pleurisy from which he was previously suffering, and he took to his bed, from which he never again rose. When informed of his serious iUness, Marg-ue- rite's conscience smote her on account of the harshness with which she had treated him, feeling that, whatever were his demerits, she, as his wife, ought to have exercised towards him a more forgiving spirit; and compassion now taking the place of displeasure, she in terceded with her mother in his behalf, and attended him with un remitting attention to the last, conversing with him about the Sa viour, and reading to him the Scriptures. He died on Tuesday the Ilth of April, having sui-sdved the defeat of Pavia only a few weeks, and was interred in the church of St. Just, at Lyons ' Mar guerite had been united to him sixteen years, but bore him no children, To the Pi-otestants of France the defeat of Pavia proved a great calamity. Urged on by the friars and monks, particularly by the doctors of the Sorbonne, and blinded by superstition and fanati cism, the parliament represented to Marguerite's mother, who was ^ Genin, ut supra, torn. ii..p, -29. Miss Freer, vol. i pp. 267-27(3. pRANOE.] ¦ Marguerite de' Valois. 33 J. now regent of the kingdom, that the melancholy condition to which France was reduced, was a judicial infliction of Heaven for the leniency of the government towards the Lutherans, and that the most effectual means of appeasing an offended Deity, and restoring their country to honour and prosperity, was to proceed without delay to exterminate that hated race from the soil of France. To gratify the wishes of the parliament, or to quiet their apprehen sions, Madame d' Angoulgme, whose chief counsellor was Chancellor Cardinal Duprat, pledged herself to adopt this policy. Almost im mediately on the capture of her son, she had, in her anxiety to se cure the interference of the pope in his behalf, written to his holi ness, desiring to know how he would have her to act in regard to heretics, and expressing her readiness reverentially to obey his orders. In obedience to a brief addressed to it by the pope, the parliament passed an act to the effect that the Bishop of Paris and other prelates should appoint two laymen and two ecclesiastics, as commissioners, to investigate and try all causes of heresy ; and all convicted were to be doomed to the flames. The commission was accordingly appointed, and immediately commencing operations, proceeded with vigour and activity. Brigonnet was impeached, but his timidity induced him to make a dishonourable recantation. Louis de Berquin was again arrested, and also Clement Marot. Lefevre escaped to Strasburg, where, under a fictitious name, he lived for some time; and meeting there with Capito, Fare], and Eoussel, he, at the desire of Marguerite, consulted -with these learned men about the principal points of Christian doctrine, and on the best and most successful way of promoting the Eeformation throughout France.' Others less fortunate perished at the stake. WhUe the persecution was raging with appalling rigour. Mar guerite's sympathies were stirred, and she sent a strong remon strance and appeal to her brother in his distant prison to interfere and put a stop to these cruel proceedings. Her persuasive elo quence touched his heart with compassion, and many were saved ' Bayle's Dictionary, art. " Fevre of Etaples, James le," note C. 334 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. from the flames. In a missive to the parUament, he commanded the Uberation of Berquin' and Marot; and, in a letter to his mother, the regent, he directed her officially to inform the parliament that it was his pleasure that all processes pending against heretics should be suspended until after his return, and strictly forbade that any more executions for heresy should take place within the kingdom, until the decrees had received his sanction. At this interference with their persecuting policy the parliament were indignant; but the regent, either now relenting, or acting from deference to the emphaticaUy expressed wishes of both her children, inflexibly en forced the commands of her son. In his correspondence with Marguerite, Francis expressed it as his conviction, that by coming in person to Spain, she might be able to negotiate his deliverance upon honourable terms, more suc cessfully than all his ambassadors. Into this proposal Marguerite entered with delight ; and she at length set out on the joiu-ney, strong inthe hope that, by her address, she would succeed in the object of her mission. But from the emperor's dissimulation, and his purpose to derive the utmost possible advantage from the cap tivity of Francis, the negotiations turned out a much more tedious and formidable undertaking than she had anticipated. This excited her resentment against the emperor, and she spoke to him with a freedom of reprehension which he felt, but which, as political ad vantage, not chivalrous generosity, was his spring of action, was barren of favourable results. " I have been told by some of my friends," says Brant6me, " that when she was in Spain, she spoke to ' It was not, however, until the return of Francis from his captivity, that the parha ment allowed Berquin to be released from the Conciergerie, the diocesan prison of Paris. His being even theu set at liberty, was owing to the interference of Marguerite, who, hy her persevering entreaties, secured in his behalf the friendly offices of tlie marshal Montmorency with the king. In a letter to the maislial, after having heard of Berquin's liberation, she thus wi-ites; — " Since the arrival of your letter hy this bearer, I have received that ofthe baillif of Orleans, and thank you for the pleasure you have conferred upon me in refer ence to poor Berquin, which I regard as a personal favour. By this you cau say that you have drawn me from prison, since I account it a favour done to myself." — Genin, Lettres de Marguerite, tom. i, p. 219. She also wrote a letter of thanks to her brother for Ber quin 's release, — lbid. tom. ii. p. 77. J ^J^)l^^ in IV. L. i'UUM.^S. MARGUERITE DE VALOIS BEFORE CHARLES V. AND HIS COUNCIL. Fbanoe.] Marguerite de Valois. 335 the emperor so boldly and yet so courteously, upou his bad treatment of the king her brother, that the emperor was quite overpowered, reminding him that, being a vassal of Francis, to whom he owed homage for his dominions in Flanders, he was acting treasonably towarda his sovereign lord ; repi-oaching him for the hardness of his heart in exercising so little compassion towards so great and good a king ; telling him that this mode of treatment was not the likely way to gain a heart so noble, so princely, and so excellent as that of the king her brother; and that, should he die in consequence of thia rigorous usage, his death would not remain unrevenged, see ing he had children who would, one day, become great, and would take signal vengeance for their father's wrongs. ... If this princess spake so freely to the emperor, she spake with still greater freedom to his council, by whom she was admitted to an audience, and before whom she triumphed by the power of her eloquence, and by the admu-able grace of her manner and person ; for she was beautiful, young, the widow of the Duke of Alencon, and in the flower of her age ; all which have great power in moving and bend ing the hard-hearted. In short, so good and pertinent was her reasoning, that it could not be gainsayed, and she was greatly es teemed by the emperor, his council, and his court."' She, however, failed in her endeavours to regain her brother his liberty upon reasonable and honourable terms; and her safe-conduct extending only to a limited period, she left Madrid for France, whither she arrived early in January, 1526. By the treaty of Madrid, concluded on the 14th of that month, Francis obtained. his Uberty upon conditions very humiliating. Marguerite was not allowed to remain long in solitary widow hood. Being still young and beautiful, she had numerous suitors ; and her brother and mother endeavoured to advance then- political views and interests by her disposal in marriage. While in Spain, unsuccessful though she was in procuring the liberation of her brothei-, she had made an impression on the heart of Charles V., ' Brant6me, (Euvres, tom, v. p. 223, 336 Ladies of the Reformation. [fkance. and he, at one time at least, during the course of the negotiations, entertained the design of raising her to the imperial throne. In an unpublished letter written in his name to Louise of Savoy, Eegent of France, relative to the terms of the deliverance of Francis, among other conditions, he demands for himself the hand of Marguerite, saying, that another lady would be found for the Connetable de Boiu-bon.' From this document it appears that neither the emperor nor the connetable had abandoned their old pretensions to Mar guerite, and that the complaisance and gratitude of Charles to wards Bourbon, his ally, did not go so far as to incline him to give up this alUance in favour of that nobleman. This demand would probably have been eagerly yielded to by Francis, had it been per severed in. His devoted sister had undertaken her mission into Spain, and her mother had suggested or encouraged it -with this as a special object, and the proposed union promised to be of advan tage to the peace and prosperity of his kingdom. The emperor, however, governed by poUtical motives, or his passion cooling, ap pears to have afterwards altered his resolution. Marguerite found another candidate for her hand in the person of Henry VIII, of England, So early as March, 1526, Cardinal Wolsey, who, at that period, had projected or was projecting the divorce of Katharine of Aragon, was directing the attention of the EngUsh monarch to the beautiful widow of the Duke of Alengon, as admirably suited to become the new queen. She was the person whom the cardinal first fixed upon for supplanting the old queen ; and while he excited and fortified the monarch's scruples as to the legality of his marriage with Katharine, as being his brother's wi dow, he fervently advocated the marriage with Marguerite in pre ference to a marriage with Anne Boleyn.^ Eliminating in sullen mood ou Henry's intention of leading Anne Boleyn to the hymeneal altar, he is introduced by Shakespeare as indulging in the foUowing monologue : — ' MS. Ciuoted by Genin iu Lettres de Marguerite, tour. i. p. 29: '^ Turner's Henry VIII., vol. ii. p. 10. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 337 "It shall be the Duchess of Aleu(;on, The Fi-euch king's sister : He shall marry her. — Arme BuUen : No; I'U no Anne Bullens for him. There is more in it than fair visage. Bullen ! No, we'll no Bullens," — King Hem-y VIII. Henry, it is probable, was less earnest about his marriage with the Duchess of Alengon than the cardinal. He would object to her on the score of her being a widow ; for till near the close of hia life he would wed only a virgin, or only a lady whom he supposed to be a virgin. Nor was a marriage with Hem-y to the taste of Mar guerite, She had too high a sense of justice and honour, and too powerful sympathies, to -wrest a crown from a queen of unblemished character ; and when the proposal waa made to her, she promptly and decidedly replied, that she would not listen to it, as such a marriage could not take place without causing wretchedness to the unoffending wife of the English monarch, and probably shorten ing her days,' Genin supposes, that had Henry espoused Marguerite this would have greatly altered the affairs of Europe; and so it might, but pro bably not in the way which he imagines. " Who knows," he asks, "what would have resulted to France and England from this league against Charles V.?" Had England and France heartily combined against Charlea, they might have humbled him; but the more likely result of this marriage would have been irreconcileable quarrels be tween Henry and Francis. No woman, however great her beauty or her merits, could long please a monarch so capricious as Henry. Had he taken Marguerite to wife, there is little doubt that when a passion for some new favom-ite was awakened in his heart, he would have sought and found out some pretext or other for dis gracing her. He might not have dared to bring the sister of a powerful monarch to the scaffold as he did the unfortunate Anne Boleyn, the defenceless daughter of one of his o-wn subjects, and thus he would have been saved from the guilt of one of the many judicial mm-ders which have so deeply stained his memory with 1 Turner's Henry VIII., vol. ii, pp, 183-136. 22 338 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. blood. But his headstrong passions would, in all probability, have driven him such lengths as to produce an irreconcileable breach be tween him and Francis. After remaining a widow for two years. Marguerite was married, secondly, in the thirty-fifth year of her age, to Henry d'Albret, who was then aged twenty-four, and was, consequently, eleven years her junior. Henry, who was the eldest son of Jean, King of Navarre, aud of Catharine de Foix, was, in all respects, an accomplished ca valier, handsome and noble in person, engaging in manners, excel ling in athletic exercises, brave in action, and withal a cultivator and patron of letters. He had distinguished himself at the battle of Pavia, where he was taken prisoner, and conducted with Francis to the fortress of Pizzighitone, in which he remained incarcerated till December 20, 1525, when he gaUantly made hia escape. Once safe without the walls of the fortress, and ha-vdug eluded the guards, he rode, almost without halting, for Lyons, whither he arrived on Christmas evening, and was received with much distinction by the mother-regent, Marguerite being then on a temporary sojourn at Blois. Henry soon became ardently attached to Marguerite, and his personal quaUties, his heroic devotion to the cause of her brother, and his romantic adventures, won her heart. The marriage contract is dated January 3, 1526-7,' Francis heaped upon the betrothed pair presents and promises. He renounced in their favour all pretensions to the county of Ar magnac,^ and secretly engaged to summon the emperor to restore to them the kingdom of Upper Navarre, which Ferdinand of Aragon had -wrested from Henry's father, and, in case of refusal, to compel restitution by force of arms — an engagement which he never made the least attempt to fulfil. He, on the contrary, pledged himself, in some of his subsequent diplomatic negotiations with the emperor, not to assist the King of Navarre in re-conquering the lost part of his kingdom. ' See the contract iu Lettres de Marguci-ite, tom. i. p, 439, 2 This renunciation had heen made by Louis XII. in favour of Marguerite, upou her marriage with the Duke of Alencon. Francis did uo more now than confii-m that deed. Fran'ce.] Marguerite de Valois. 339 The marriage was solemnized at the oastle of St. Gennain-en- Laye, on January 24, 1527. It was commemorated in enthusiastic strains by the most eminent poets of the time.' After the marriage. Marguerite remained at the French court upwards of a year, resid ing sometimes at the castle of St. Germain-en- Laye and sometimes at Fontainebleau. CHAPTEE II. FROM THE BIRTH OF HER DAUGHTER JEANNE, TO HER PROTECTION OF, AND FRIBNDLT INTEREST IN, CLEMENT BIAROT. On Tuesday, January 7, 1528, at the palace of .Fontainebleau, Mar guerite gave birth to a princess, Jeanne d'Albret, afterwards so illustrious for her talems as a sovereign, and for her patronage of the Eeformed faith. At this time she enjoyed the happiness of the attendance and society of her mother Louise de Savoy, Duchess of Angouleme ; but her husband, the King of Navarre, was then absent in the duchy of Berry, on important affairs connected with the govemment of his brother-in-law, Francis I,- About the month of October she left the court of France, and, accompauied by Henry, took journey for his hereditary dominions of Beam, where they met with a cordial and enthusiastic reception. About the middle of July, 1530, Marguerite gave birth to a prince named Jean. This child soon after his birth was committed to the care of Madame de Silly,^ who had also the charge of his sister the Princess Jeanne. He had never, it would appear, been healthy, and he died at the castle of Lonray, the residence of ' Genin, Notice sur Ma.rguerite. ^ Genin, Lettres cle Marguerite, tom. ii. p, 9-0. 3 The maiden name of this lady was Aym6e de la Fayette. She was the widow of Francis de SiUy, Seigneur de Lonray and de Fay, gentleman of the chamber to the king, bailiff aud captain of Caen. She was oue of the suite which attended Marguerite ou the occasion of her joumey into Spain ;n 1525. 340 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. Madame de Silly, on the 25th of December, 1530, at the age of five months and a half, to the inexpressible sorrow of his parents, who, for some time before his decease, had taken up their residence at the castle of Alencon, which was about three miles distant from the castle of Lom-ay. The infant prince was interred in the mausoleum Fart of the Castle ot Alen^n, aa existing in ttie eigtiteentti centur;, of the Dukes of Alencon, at the church of the Holy Virgin in Alen con, on the day foUowing his death, and an epitaph was inscribed on the monument recording his parentage, age, and death. In ex pression of her confident hoj^e that her infant son had exchanged a world of sin and sorrow for a world of perfect happiness, Mai-- guerite caused a Te Deum to be sung in the church of Alencon ; and on the placards announcing his death, posted up by her orders in the principal parts of the town of Alencon, these appropriate words of Scripture were to be read, "The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away." ' As might have been anticipated. Marguerite proved a wise, bene ficent, and patriotic queen. Her superior talents and rare quaUties were employed in ameliorating the condition of the people, and with her endeavours in this good work her consort cordially co- ^ Saiute-M.arthe, Oraison, &.c. Geuiu, Lettres de Mar., tom, i. p. 269; et tom. ii. p. ill. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 341 operated. To promote agriculture, which was then in a very im perfect state in Beam — the inhabitants, who were contented if the mere demands of nature were satisfied, being more addicted to hunting the bear, the ibex, and the chamois, iu the mountains of the Pyrenees, than to the cultivation of the soil — was a special ob ject of their attention. They invited skilful French agriculturists to settle in their territories to teach the peasantry the art of agTi- cultiu-e, employing some of them in cultivating the crown domains, and rewarding others by small grants of land. They embeUished the cities, erected new ones, enlarged the castle of Pau, which they surrounded with gardens the most beautiful of all Europe at that time ; for Marguerite had great delight in flowers, and she obtained from France skilful gardeners to assist in planning and laying out her garden grounds. They reformed the criminal code, establish ing a strict and impartial administration of justice, by which IUe and property, hitherto in such constant danger from unrepressed pillage and violence, were rendered more secm-e. And though Henry never attempted to re-conquer Upper Navarre, owing to the impossibility of obtaining from his brother-in-law the promised as sistance, he and his queen, as a means of protecting theu- kingdom from farther invaaion on the part of Spain, fortified by strong walla, ramparts, and bastions, the town of Navarrens, situated on the banks of the river Gave, as well as other towna, and adopted ad ditional precautions.' By these measures the signa of increasing ci-vilization, order, prosperity, and happiness, soon began to appear; and by the presence of the court the people improved in refinement of manners. The court was sometimes held at Pau, sometimes at Nerac, and it rivalled that of France in talent, in elegance of man ners and beauty, if not in splendour. It shone with a briUiant assemblage of accomplished and gifted nobles and ladies, of scholars, jioets, musicians, and painters, and hence it obtained the name of " Parnassus." Poetry, history, phUosophy, and divinity, were the favourite studies of the queen. ' Hilarion de Coste, Eloges des Dames lliustrcs, tom. ii, pp. 272, 273. 342 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. Marguerite had the mortification to find that the enemies of the Eeformers often succeeded, in defiance of her most ardent wishes and most earnest intercessions, in avenging themselves on tlie ob jects of their malice. She had repeatedly interceded with success in behalf of Louis Berquin ; but at last all hei efforts could not save him from the stake. In 1527, he was again arrested and thro-wn into prison. The wrath of the king, of the chancellor Duprat, of the parliament, and of the Sorbonne, was at that time highly excited by reason of the indignities done to several statues of saints placed in some of the most public parts of Paris, These statues had been tom from their niches and mutilated, and Berquin was accused of having been im plicated in the disorder. Twelve commissioners, consisting of mem bers of parliament, among whom was the celebrated WiUiam Budee, a man of tolerant sentiments, who had been placed upon this com mission against his will, were appointed to preside at his trial, which was protracted for more than eighteen months. Believing that his old friend and protectress would be as ready to shield him from his persecutors as ever, Berquin sent to Mar guerite, who was now in Beam, a letter making known his condi tion, and earnestly imploring her kiud interposition. Marguerite immediately interceded with her brother in behaU of her former protege. "Monseigneur," she writes, "poor Berquin, who acknow ledges that through your clemency, God has twice preserved his life, will shortly be brought to trial; and he has no person of influ ence to whom he can apply for making you acquainted with his innocence. Knowing the esteem in which you hold him, and the desire which he has, and ever has had, to serve you, I am em boldened to supplicate you by letter, instead of by word of mouth, to have compassion upon him. If you are pleased to interest your self in his cause, I hope that the truth which he will make to ap pear, will convict these forgers of heretics' of being rather slan derers and disobedient to you, than zealous for the faith. Aud as ^ The Sorbonne. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 343 I know that you do not require to bs informed of the arguments that can be advanced in his favour, and that you wish to maintain the cause of the innocent, without their being under the necessity of employing an advocate to defend them before yom- clemency, I will cease to plead, beseeohmg Him who has endowed you with so many graces and virtues, to grant you a long and prosperous life, that by you he may be praised long in this world, and eternally in that which is to come."' Marguerite's intercession was unhappily unavailing. Berquin was condemned to make amende honorable, by a public abjuration of heresy before N6tre Dame, with a rope about his neck, and a torch in his hand ; to -witness the burning of his books and writings by the pubhc executioner ; to have his tongue pierced with a red- hot iron ; to have his forehead branded with the fleur-de-lis as a per petual mark of ignominy ; and to be imprisoned for IUe. After his sentence had been pronounced. Marguerite again interposed in his behalf. Writing to her brother, she says, "In closing this letter, I humbly and earnestly beseech you to have pity upon poor Berquin, who, I know, suffers for no other cause than for loving the Word of God, and obeying you. On this account, those who, during your captivity, did the contrary, have contracted an intense hatred against him, and their maUce, aided by theu- hypocrisy, has found advocates in your com-t, who have endeavoured to render you for getful of his sincere faith in God, and his devotion to yourself. If you will not deign to hear him in his O'wn defence, he is hopeless of a favourable issue. I beseech you so to act in this matter that it may not be said that absence has made you forget your very humble and obedient subject and sister. Marguerite."^ The renewed mediation of Marguerite was overborne by chan cellor Duprat and the Sorbonnists. The mercUess tortures specified in the sentence were inflicted upon Berquin; and, refusing to abjure heresy, which the learned Budfe earnestly entreated him to do, in order to avert a more dreadful doom, he was, a few days after, con- t Genin, Lettres de Marguerite, tom. ii. p. 96. ^ ibid, p, 99. 344 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. demned to be burned alive as an obstinate heretic, at the Place de Grive,' on Saturday, April 22, 1529. On the day, and at the place appointed, the martyr, in the presence of an immense crowd of spec tators, submitted to the flames with the utmost heroism.' So long as Marguerite continued to reside in France, from the faciUty of her disposition, which too frequently made her temporize, she dissembled, to a certaiu extent, her real sentiments with regard to the Eeformed doctrines, afraid not only lest too open an avowal of them should excite the displeasm-e of her brother, to whom she was so tenderly attached, but lest it might injure his popularity with a powerful party. When removed, however, into her own kingdom, she could act with less restraint, and more in accordance with her real convictions and feelings. And now when the opiuion defended by the Sorbonne, and acted upon by the i^arliament, was, " that the light of the funereal pile was the most effectual meaus for opening the eyes of souls misled," her palace and dominions became an asylum for the persecuted. Thither many of the most eminent of the French Eeformers fled, and there they invariably found protec tion and hospitality. " She was," says Sainte-Marthe, " the harbour and refuge of all the afllicted. You would have seen at this hai-bour some raising the head out of beggary, others, as after a shipwreck, embracing its desu-ed repose, others covering themselves -with her favour as with the shield of Ajax, to defend themselves from then- persecutors. In short, on seeing them about this excellent lady, you would have compared her to the hen which carefully calls and gathers her chickens, and covers them with her wings." ^ Such was her tender compassion for the Eeformers who were banished from Paris and Meaux, and who had taken refuge at Strasburg, Ziirich, and Geneva, that on one occasion she sent, for theU- assistance, the sum of 4000 francs. ¦• In her comparative retirement in Beam, Marguerite assiduously 1 This was a public place on the hanks of the Seine for the execution of criminals. 2 Petitot, Introduction aux Memoires de du Bellay, tom, xvii. p, 98. * Oraison Funebre, p. 84. * Sleidan. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 345 devoted herself to the study of the sacred Scriptures. And so great were the advantages she was conscious of deriving from thia study, that she earnestly advised her friends often to applj' them selves to the same improving exercise. Bertrand EUas, author of a Latin history of the Counts of Foix, while testifying that he himself had observed her diligence in the study of the sacred volume, when in the city of Pamiers, records that she gravely exhorted him, not to allow a single day to pass without reading with attention some pages of that inspired book, "which," said she, "sprinkling our souls with a heavenly dew, serves as an effectual preservative against all kinds of evils, and against all the temptations of the devil."' She alao employed herself in composing mysteries or dramas founded on Scripture history. Four of these dramas are printed in her Marguerites. The fu-st is that of the " Nativity of Jesus Christ;" the second that of the "Adoration of Jesus Christ bythe Three Kings;" the third thatof the "Innocents;" and the fourth that of the " Desert," the subject of which is the flight of the Saviom- into Egypt. The characters in these dramas are Mary, Joseph, God, the devil, angels, tyrants, doctors or learned men, captains, &c. In the " Nativity of Jesus Christ," there is fii-st in troduced upon the stage, Joseph, Mary, three hosts, God the Father, and five angels, after which the drama becomes a pastoral, the prin cipal characters being shepherds and shepherdesses, a taste for the representation of these compositions having been widely diffused during the reign of Francis I.^ Florimond de Eemond, and Bayle, upon his authority, assert that Marguerite caused these dramas to be represented by professional actors in her drawing-room, and that the actors, to gx-atify her Lutheran propensities, intermingled her own pieces and the other 1 Bayle's Dictionary. 2 When Queeu Eleonore, in bringing hack the children of Francis, giveu as hostages to Charles V,, arrived, 2d July, 1530, at Bayonne, whither Francis and liis mother had come to meet them, among other fetes iu celebration of the occasion, was the representa tion of a pastoral. The dress of the actors amounted to fifty livres toumois. " Those aie apparently," says Geniu, *' the first pastorals acted, of which we can discover any trace in o-or literary history."— JToiice sur Marguerite, &c., p. 33. 346 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. plays acted by them with roundelays aud virelays, in which the monks and friars were held up to ridicule. Genin calls in question the truth of these statements : first, on the ground that neither her published Scriptural Dramas nor her pubUshed and MS. Farces, are in the least tinctured with "Aristophanic satires against the Eomish church,'' and secondly, on the ground that the supposition of her writing such bitter sarcasms, is directly opposed to her cha racter, that she had too delicate a sense of propriety to permit her to indulge in them herself, or to tolerate them in others, and that such as have attributed to her this pleasantry, at the expense of the Popish church, know neither her nor her works. To strengthen his objection, he calls his readers to observe that Bayle was a Cal vinist, and that Florimond de Eemond, from whom he copied, was an historian w-ithout authority, a fanatic, who, with a blind and ma lignant zeal, was always running down heresy, which he had pro fessed and then abjured. " We must be on our guard," he adds, "against the spirit of party, and above all, against a religious sec tarian spirit, whether it come from Geneva or from Eome."^ On these considerations, suggested by Genin, little stress is to be laid. What Florimond de Eemond asserts is, not that in her own dramas she lashed the vices of the Eomish clergy, but that the actors did so in the interludes of their own, which they introduced. Nor, though she had satirized the vices of the Eomish clergy in her own pieces, would this have been inconsistent with her character and her other writings ; for in her Heptameron she exposes, with much pungency ' In addition to the " Four Mysteries" already mentioned, there is published iu the Marguerites the " Comedy of Two Daughters, Two Husbands, The Old Woman, The Old Man, and The Four Men," in which the pro and con of marriage are debated; and the "Farce of Too Much, Sluch, Little, Less." Some of her poems iu MS., hitherto unpublished, are deposited iu the Royal Library of Paris. "They form," says Geniu, " part of a yeiy heautiful volume written in obedience to the order of Marguerite herself, by oue of her secretaries, Jehan Frotto (No. 2230, Suppl. fr.aiii;. ' They are entu-ely iu the strain aud style of those already known. Among the uumber are two farces, the one having six characters, the other four. The characters in this last are a sick man, his v^ife, his servant, and bis physician. Neither of these," adds Genin, " confirm the asser tions of Bayle and Florimond de Remond " (tom. i pp. 121, 122). ¦- Genin, tom. i. pp. 119-121. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 347 of satire, the pride, hypocrisy, profligacy, impiety, and false mi racles of the monks. On this theme she had leai-ned not a little from her friend Erasmus; and the freedom of speech about the monks, indulged in by her in her -writings, and in conversation wit'i confidential attendants and friends, she would not Ukely disaUow in dramatic representations, intended for the hours of relaxation and enjoyment. The probability therefore lies on the side of the assertion of Florimond de Eemond and Bayle. To impart some rays of Ught to the people, Marguerite cauaed the Latin prayers of the Eomish church to be translated into French, and printed, with various important alterations, among which waa the substitution of the name of God in place of the Virgin Mary and other saints, in the prayers addressed to these objects of Eomish idolatry. This work, at her request, was under taken by WiUiam Parvi, doctor of the Sorbonne, Bishop of Senlis, and confessor to her brother, a prelate who favoured the Eeformed opinions. B.y the authority of her husband, whose approbation of this change she had secm-ed, this revised edition of the missal waa authorized to be used in all the churches and cathedrals through out his dominions. She sent cojpies to her brother and his cour tiers, who, after her example, continued to adopt it in Diviue ser vice until, incensed and alarmed at this attempt to popularize any scriptural knowledge which the missal contained, and at the sup pression of the most superstitious passages, the Sorbonne condemned the French version as heretical, and the parliament passed au act prohibiting its use.' Well aware how important it was to the success of her schemes of reformation and evangelization, to secure her husband's favour and indulgence to the Eeformers, Marguerite, to conciliate him and overcome his prejudices, often spoke to him in high commendation of their character, talents, and learning, and, what was not less ne cessary, gave him a true representation of their sentiments in oppo- ' Beza, Hist, Eccl., liv, i p 13, Florimond de Remond, Hist, de I'Heresie, liv. vii. ch. iii. p. 84S. 348 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. sition to the misrepresentations of their enemies. But Henry heard her with a reluctant ear. He was dissatisfied with her heretical predilections, and with the asylum she had opened up in Beam for the persecuted Eeformers. Becoming irritated on this account, he broke out against her in angry words and even in downright blows; thus teaching her a lesson frequently afterwards repeated by others, both monks and statesmen, that if true to the Protestant views which had opened upon her mind, she would have to encounter danger and persecution. On one occasion, when Eoussel and Farel were engaged in preaching or prayer in her chamber, he rushed in with the design of personally inflicting castigation on the obnoxious ministers ; but finding that they had made their escape, he fell, in the height of his indignation, on Marguerite, to whom he gave a blow on the face, accompanied with reproaches for her pride and self-will, in making the high pretensions she did to superior wis dom and sanctity.' He would have used her still worse had it uot beeu for the king, her brother, who sharply reprimanded and even threatened him, if he did not take care how he treated a princess, whose high character and exalted rank entitled her to his respect.^ At last, becoming ashamed of his unmanly behaviour towards his wife, Henry not only allowed her to take her own way in matters of religion, but condescended so far as to join with her in the Ee formed worship, though it cannot be said that he had embraced her opiniona. To please her fancy or humour, as he would term it, he read the gospels, attended the Scripture dramas acted in her draw ing-room, and went from them to listen to the sermons, then called exhortations, deUvered in her chamber by Eoussel and by a Carme lite monk of Tarbes, named Solon— sermons, especially those of the latter, which abounded in slashing sarcasms against the pope and the Eomish clergy. He even participated in the Lord's Supper, cele brated in both kinds according to the Protestant form, in a vault ' p. JIatthieu. Hilarion de Coste, tom. ii. p. 274. Sorae have called in question tho tmth of the statement in the text, made ou the authority of these writers; hut it is estab lished beyond all doubt by a letter of Marguerite's daughter Jeaime, to Viscount Gourdon, quoted in the life ofthat queen. - Brantome, (Euvres, tom. v. p. 172, Feance.] Marguerite de Vcdois. 349 of the castle of Pan.' For this favourable disposition of Hem-y to reform. Marguerite was duly grateful. It aUowed her greater free dom both in protecting the Eeformers and in acting conformably to her reUgious aentimenta. This zeal, however, in favour of reform awakened the jealous and furious hostUity of the Popish dignitaries of Beam. The car dinals D' Armagnac and De Grammont made complaints to Francis, her brother, representing to him how hia slater had de-viated into the fatal path of heresy — how she was endangering the welfare and safety of the church, as well as periUing her own salvation ; and from Francis' hatred of heresy, they seem to have Unagined, that much as he loved his sister, they would, by pressing remonstrances, succeed, if not in infusing into his breast the rancour of their owu animosity, yet in awakening his resentment against her, and in IDrompting him to take immediate and effective measures to reclaim her from heresy. Their remonstrances were so perseveringly and m-gently made, that Francia summoned her to Paris to justify her conduct in his presence. She, without hesitation, obeyed, proceed ing to the French capital, attended by the Seigneur de Burie, go vernor of Guienne, whose sentiments corresponded with her own. On her arrival she met with a cold and even stern reception from her brother, who reproached her for renouncing the faith of the church. Nothing discouraged, she made a calm and dexterous de fence. She did not plead the impolicy and wickedness of persecu tion, or the wisdom of acting on the principles of toleration— princi ples which Francis had learned neither from education uor from reflection, and which he was not now in a humour to learn from her teaching, beUeving, as he did, that his power and authority as a sovereign could only be preserved by supporting the Popish church. She maintained that she adhered to the old faith, and had adopted no novel opinions in religion, by which she meant that, whatever of the sentiments held by the Eeformers she had embraced were as old as Christianity itself. She succeeded in dis- ^ Florimond de Eemond, ut supra, liv. vii, ch. iii. p. 849. 350 Ladies of the Reformation. [Feanob. arming his displeasure ; he pronounced the voice of rumour as to her Lutheranism to be false, and refused to listen farther to the accusations of her enemies. But while denying that she was a lieretic, she disclosed somewhat of her mind to him as to the neces sity of church reform, the necessity of which he himself did not deny, and proposed to him that he should establish a reformed mass, or the mass of Seven Articles, conformably to the Liturgy composed by her own ministers in Beam, entitled "LalMesse ^ Sept Points," a proposition to which he began to have some thoughts of giving effect. She also prevaUed upon him to attend the sermons of her friend Gerard Eoussel aud other two Lutheran preachers. Jlnrgnerite defending the Keformed Doctrines before Fvancis T. These symptoms of a tendency to favour reform, feeble as they were, created great alarm iu the miuds of the priests, who trembled at the thought of the change which Marguerite, by her artifices, might work upon the mind of the king.' ' Florimond de Remond. Fbance.] Marguerite de Valois. 351 In the year 1531, Marguerite's friend, Lefevre, again needed her protection. After the return of Francis from his captivity iu Spain, Lefe-^a-e had, by her influence, been appointed tutor to Charies d'Angouleme, the king-'s favourite son. Having completed the edu cation of this prince, he was offered by the king preferment in the church, but declining, iu consequence of his Eeformed principles, to accept of the ecclesiastical dignities offered him, he contented himself -with the humble post of librarian of the royal library at Blois, and perhapa thought that, from the obscurity of his situation, he would now be aUowed to live unmolested. But having trans lated and expounded the New Testament, he had committed an un pardonable crime in the eyes of the Sorbonnists. Unrelaxing in then- efforts against the new opinions and their upholders, and never losing sight of a -victim which they had once marked out for vengeance, they had resolved to commence a new process against him for heresy. Apprized of his danger, and feeUng the pressure of the infirmities of old age — for he was now between eighty and ninety years of age — he desired a place of greater security, and made known his wishes to Marguerite, who, at his request, made appUcation to Montmorency to obtain from her brother permission to her venerable friend to quit Blois. " The good mau Lefevre," says she, in a letter to Montmorency, dated Fountainebleau, in the autumn of 1531, " has written me from Blois, that he is in a state of infirm health, and that, besides, he ia threatened -with moleata- tion. He is therefore desirous, for a time, to leave Blois, and to pay a visit to one of his friends for a change of air, should it be the pleasure of the king to grant him leave. He haa put in order the library, numbered the books, and made a catalogue of them, which he -will deUver up to whoever the king may appoint to receive it. I beseech you to ask this favour for him from the king, by doing which you will confer a singular pleasure upon her who is your good aunt and friend,— Marguerite.'" Whither Lefevre meant to go she doea not stat«, only saying "to pay a visit to one of his * Genin, Lettres de Marguei-ite, tom. i. p 279. 352 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. friends for a time." Her intention of affording him an asylum in Beam she carefully conceals, Montmorency's hostility to Lefevre's principles having rendered this caution necessary, otherwise her ob ject might have been defeated. Having obtained allowance from the kiug to remove from Blois, Lefevre, at her desire, went to Ne rac, where, under her immediate protection, he lived in ti-anquillity and comfort to the close of his life. " Marguerite," says Brantome, " took great delight in composing spiritual songs, for she had a heart strongly devoted to God."' In the year 1531, she published a volume of religious poetry, without the sanction of the theological faculty of Paris, and without her name at first,- though in the later editions she prefixed her name, with an address to the reader. The volume was entitled, Le Miroir de VAme Pecheresse" i.e., " The Mirror of the Sinful Sovl." It is a commentary upon the words " Create in me a clean heart, O God." Throughout it breathes a spirit of fervent piety. Christian humi- , Uty, exclusive trust in Christ for salvation ; and it evinces an inti mate acquaintance with the sacred writings. While not written in a controversial form, nor f)rofessedly defending the Lutheran doc trines, it asserts and explains them, dwelling upon Christ's death as the great propitiatory sacrifice for sin, and making no mention of the intercession of saints, human merits, or purgatory, omissions considered at that time by the champions of Popery highly repre hensible, these being the points which, iu the estimation of the mass of the people, indicated most clearly the difference between the established faith and the Eeformed sentiments. Another suspicious circumstance in the book was that, in giving a translation from Latin into French of the prayer " Salve Eegina," addressed by the Papists to the Virgin Mary, it applied the prayer to Jesus Christ, A few quotations from the poem well serve to show its deeply de vout and evangeUcal spirit. She apologizes for becoming a teacher of theology, from her anxiety to communicate the knowledge of the 1 (Euvres, tom. v. p. 219. 2 It was printed at Alencon by Simon de Bois. In the year 1S33 it was reprinted at Faris. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 353 way by which man can be justified before God, a delicate question to discuss in the Church of Eome, and she answers the question by ascribing all the glory of man's salvation to Jesus Christ. The prologue, which is entitled, " Marguerite of France, only sister of the king, by the grace of God, Queeu of Navarre, to the reader," thus begins:' — " If you read through this book, do not carry your criticism farther than to the matter, excusing the metre and the language, as it is the work of a woman who makes no pretensions to knowledge and leaming, but who is simply desirous that all may know what the grace of God the Creator does when he justifies a human being.'' To come to the work itself : having lamented her sinfulness, and how through the fall of Adam, and her own sins, she had lost the kingdom of heaven with all its felicities, and was by the law adjudged to perdition, she says — " Who is he that will deliver me? and who is he that will recover for me these lost blessings? Alas ! no mortal man can do this, for his power and resources are inadequate. This can be done only by the gracious favour of the Almighty who never grows weary — only by Jesus Christ, of whom it is recorded that he anticipates us by his mercy. , 0 my God, I sought not thee, but with full speed ran away from thee. It is thou who hast come to me — to me who am a worm of the earth, naked and destitute. Do I say a worm? I have wronged thee too much for that sufficiently to describe me — to me who am so infamous and perjured, so filled with pride, hypocrisy, enmity, and treachery, , . When I have thought what ia the cause why thou hast loved me, I have been able to discover no other reason but sovereign grace, which moves thee to bestow upon me what I do not deserve. . . Jesus has died, and by his death he makes all his people live; I say hia people, those who by faith are made partakers of his sufferings. . , . O my Saviour, by faith I am planted in thee (Eom. ii.), and by love united to and grafted in thee. What 1 As our object in these quotations is to give the reader an idea of Marguerite's theo logical sentiments, rather than of her poetical powers, instead of attempting a poetical version, we content ourselves with giving the literal rendering. i6u 354 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. union ! what blessedness ! since by faith I have thee for my surety. . . . Who then, my Lord, shall condemn me? (Eom, viU.), and what judge shall ever doom me to eternal torments, when He whom I have for my judge is my husband, my father, my refuge . . . Jesus Christ, who is my Eedeemer ; who by his death has restored to us our inheritance, and haa been appointed our advocate to pre sent before God his merits (1 John ii,; 1 Tim. ii.), which are so effi cacious as to do more than pay my vast debt, which is accounted as nothing in the judgment. . . When, O my Saviour, thou presentest thy merits, juatice is fully satisfied. When it would upbraid me for my sins, thou showest it, that in thy own human nature thou courageously boreat them in conaequence of our marriage union, and by thy passion upou the cross, made satisfaction for them." ' This is admirable doctrine ; and the whole poem is in a similar strain, reminding us of the evangelical teachings of the Puritans of England, or of the Marrow-men of Scotland. Fi-om the singular character of the matter, and from the exalted rank and high reputation of the authoress, this book acquired great popularity. By the Eeformed, whose cause it served marvellously to support, it was received with ardent though suppressed enthu siasm. Not only was it well fitted to make converts to their opinions ; but they viewed it aa a precedent, giving them encour agement to publish from the press their opinions with greater free dom. " Will the Sorbonne," they said, " dare to attack the king's sister? If they have the boldness to do so, they are almost aiu-e to fail of their object. Should they on the contrary keep sUence, we shall be able henceforth to -write more freely. That will not surely be condemned in us which has been passed over in a person whose influence is vastly more powerful than ours, and to whose opinions great importance must consequently be attached ; and at no dis tant period the triumph of our cause will be no longer doubtful." Things, however, did not turn out altogether aa the Eeformed had anticipated. They were mistaken in supposing that the Sorbonne ' Marguerites, pp. 18, 19, 21, 34, 51, 54, 69, 60. France.] Marg-uerite de Valois. 355 would allow the book to pass without censure. And it was soon discovered, from the manner in which Francis expressed himself, that he would not pardon in others what he was inclined to over look in his sister.' The book at once attracted the attention of the Sorbonne. From its omitting all reference to purgatory, to the intercession of saints, and to human merits, they inferred that the writer did not believe in these doctrines — a negative presumption no doubt, and therefore an insufficient ground for supporting a charge of heresy ; but still a suspicious circumstance in a reUgious book, considering the wide spread, and ever-increasing hoatility to these doctrinea in France, as well aa inother countries. Their pre judices . were powerfully ex cited against Marguerite, whom they believed to be the enemy of their religion ; and the enemy of their reUgion could only be, in their estimation, a monster. They preached against the book, chafed, growled, and foamed with indignation. This was especiaUy true of Noel B6da, syndic of the Sorbonne, the most fanatical and violent of them all. The sight of a heretic, or the enunciation of a heretical doctrine, like the shaking of a red cloth before a bull, put him ragiugly mad. In private society, and in the meetings of the Sorbonne, when the question as to heresy or heretics was brought up, he would pour forth a torrent of rancorous abuse, and of dread ful threatening, with a violence of vociferation and gesture which sometimes frightened even his fellow-doctors. To his great satis faction, he had got Berquin consigned to the flames, and Erasmus condenmed ; but, ambitious of bringing down higher game, he now made the sister of his sovereign his mark. At one of the meetings of the Sorbonne, he uttered the fiercest denunciations against her as a heretic, and the patroness of heretics, and proclaimed that she had, on this account, completely forfeited the favour and friendship of the marshal De Montmorency,'' as weU as of I Petitot, Introduction aux Mimoires de du Bellay, tom. xvii. pp. 14, 16. 2 Montmorency for some time hesitated between supporting the conflicting systems of rehgion, but he uJtuuately became the determined enemy of the Eeformation. 356 Ladies of the Reforination. [fr.\.sce. all good men. Incensed at this rude attack, directed against her spe cifically and by name. Marguerite addressed a letter of complaint to Nicolas Cop, the rector of the university, remonstrating against the injustice done her, and vindicating Montmorency, whose aUeged alienation from her she afiirmed to be a base falsehood, intended to awaken prejudices and animosity against her. Cop immediately re pUed, assuring her that the conduct of Beda was condemned by the whole of the theological faculty. To these facts. Marguerite refers in a letter to Montmorency, written from Paris in 1532, in which she expresses her continued reliance upon his friendly disposition and protection. "I have begged the bearer of this letter to speak to you at length of some foolish things which a Dominican friar [BMa] has said in the faculty of theology, as if you were my mortal enemy. But I have given them such an answer, as to make them aware of the friendship which I bear towards you, and of the security which I have of yours, so that he has been disowned by the whole theological faculty, who account him a madman, I pray you to consider, that as I am now at a distance from the king, I have need of your assistance in this affair. I confide in you, and I cannot think that this, my confidence, will ever be disappointed,'" As Montmorency afterwards did all in his power to bring down upon the head of Marguerite the penalties awarded to heretics, it may be doubted whether he was altogether innocent of secretly fomenting and stimulating a spirit of persecution against her in the present instance. Whether this was the case or not, he emphati cally denies, in his reply to her, that the injurious words against her, attributed to him, had ever dropped from his lips. In the generosity, of her heart. Marguerite, who at this time entertained no suspicion that he would ever become her enemy and betrayer, en treats him to believe that all such calumnious imputations would only increase her friendship for him the more, " even as blasts in a forge kindle again, with redoubled fervour, the fire which is thought to be extinct,"^ ' Genin, Lettres de Marguerite, tom. i. p. 282. ' Ibid. p. 2S4. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 357 So enraged were Beda and some other Parisian doctors, at the publication of The Mirror of the Sinful Soul, that, to infuse their o-wn malignity against Marguerite into the minds of the youths committed to their care, they composed, or got composed, an aUego rical play, in which she was held up to ridicule and detestation, and caused it to be acted on the 1st of October, 1533, in the Navarre gymnasium,' by the students who, at that time of the year, in pass ing from the study of languages to that of dialectics, were wont, for the sake of practice, to act a dramatic piece. In this play, the lead ing character was a queen, evidently meant to represent Marguerite, who, as was customary with ladies of the most exalted rank iu ancient times, was wholly occupied in spinning, or with the affairs of the kitchen and the needle. Then appeared a fury from hell, called Megcera,- who, approaching with lighted torches, encouraged her to throw away her distaff and needle, for a French version of the gospels. For a little while she withstood the persuasions of the fury. Then she yielded and received the gospels into her hand; and from that moment her head was completely turned, and, as if con verted herself into a fury of hell, she persecuted the innocent and the unfortunate with all imaginable arts of cruelty. " Many other devices," says Calvin, who was at that time in Paris, in narrating this piece of history in a letter to a friend, " were introduced in the samo style, most unjustly indeed, against that excellent woman, whom they directly and openly reviled with their reproaches," For a few days, the affair was not generaUy known ; but at length the whole was reported to the queen, and becoming a common piece of news, it made great noise at court. She complained of the scandalous attacic ' The Parisian doctors claimed at that period to be the most eminent theologians of the day— the guiding spirits of Europe in all rehgious controversies. Their two principal colleges were the Sorbonne and tbat of Navarre, '- " Megsera was an aUusion to Gerald Roussel (Megsera — Mag. Gerardus). This infor mation we have from the celebrated John Sturm, lu a letter to Bucer, which shows th.at the introduction of Megaara was a play upon the name : ' Nuper in Gymnasio Navarrico, novus quidam . . . sotvjrrj.- Reginam introduxit, qu£B se in disciplinam diaboli tra- dei-et, una cum sacrifice quem Mejeram appellant, alludeus ad noraen Magistri Gerardi.' —Letter of Nov. ISS,?, printed in Strobel, Histoire du Gymnase de Strasburg, p. 109." — Kote by Bonnet in his Letters of Calvin, English edition, vol. i. pp. 12-16. 358 Ladies of the Reformation. [Fkance. to her brother, who was not disposed to allow a sister whom he ten derly loved to be thus held up to contempt. He indeed felt that he was insulted in her person — that this attempt of the professors of a, college to teach their students to detest, to outrage his sister, was an indignity offered to himself. By his orders, the prefect of police, with a body of officers amounting to a hundred, proceeded to the gymnasium to apprehend the culprits, and they surrounded the building, that none might escape. The prefect then entered with some few of his men, but they did not succeed in finding the author of the drama, who concealed himself, and finally made his escape. The students who had acted the drama were, however, ar rested; and, notwithstanding the resistance of the master of the gymnasium and of some of the students, who threw stones at the pohce, the prefect kept fast hold of his prisoners, securely led them to prison, and made them explain what parts they had severaUy acted,' Within a few days they were set at liberty and pardoned. For thia leniency they were indebted to the generous intercession of Marguerite, whose forgiving spirit, like that of the Saviour, tri umphed over persecution, indignity, contumely, and the bitterest hatred,- Still farther to disgrace the sister of hia sovereign, Beda laboured to get the Sorbonne to pass a censure upon her book. To gain this object, he blustered, declaimed, gesticulated with his usual violence. From his furious opposition to the divorce of Henry VIIL from Katharine of Aragon, which the Sorbonne had sanctioned, he had lost somewhat of his infiuence ; but that fanatical corporation had, notwithstanding, every incUnation to give effect to his wishes in the present instance. They had, however, some misgivings as to the prudence of attempting to put a new stigma upon so exalted a per sonage, "Willing, yet afraid to strike," they did not dare directly to censure her work in a full meeting called for the purpose, as they would have done in regard to any other publication obnoxious by reason of its heresy. But some of their number, deputed by the ' Calvin's Letiers, vol. i. pp. 12-16. "- GaiUard, Histoire de Frangois I., tom, iii, p. 662. France.] Marguerite de Valois. S59 faculty to make an inspection of the new books received into the coUege library, having found a copy, placed it in the list of pro hibited or suspected books, without naming or making any reference to the author, of whom, indeed, they pretended to be ignorant. In formed of this. Marguerite, in caUing upon the king her brother, told him that she was the authoress of the book, and demanded his protection. Indignant at the Sorbonne for the insult thus put upon his sister, Francis, by letters addressed to the masters of the coUege, required them to certify to him whether they had examined the book, and condemned it to be placed in their index of prohibited books, and if so, upon what grounds their unfavourable judgment rested. Nicolas Cop, rector of the university, and son of the king's principal physician, William Cop, brought the matter before the fom- faculties — those of philosophy, medicine, theology, and canon law. First addressing the faculty of philosophy, he inveighed in a long and mordacious oration against the rash and arrogant beha viour of the doctors towards the Queen of Navarre, whom he eulo gized as "mother of all the virtues, and of polite learning;" and he warned hia learned auditors of their danger, by incurring the dis pleasure of their sovereign. Parvi, Bishop of Senlis, and confessor to the king, defended the queen. He deckred, that having read the book, he had found nothing in it heretical or requiring expm-ga- tion, unless he had forgotten his theology ; and he pressed the uni versity to pass an act to that effect, Le Clerc, parish priest of St. Andre, whUe pronouncing a long panegyric on the king, declared that he was the person who had put the volume referred to in the Ust of suspected books, because it was pubUshed without the appro bation of the faculty— a condition of pubUcation at that time re quired by the decrees of parliament ; but that in doing this, he had acted under warrant, and by commission of the faculty, who were all participant in the offence, if offence there was, and that nothing was farther from his intention than to cast reproach upon a woman so adorned by the sanctity of her deportment, and by the purity of her faith, as was the Queen of Navarre. AU the fom- faculties 360 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. came to the conclusion, that the act complained of ought to be dis owned ; and the rector, in name of the university, disowned or re voked the censure accordingly,' Thus the affair appears to have dropped, and thus Marguerite's book waa neither approved nor for bidden. This sort of negative tolerance weakened its popularity and effect. A positive prohibition, by exciting the public curiosity, would have caused it to be more extensively bought and read. The hostility against Marguerite, on account of her Lutheranism, was not limited to the doctors of Paris, The monks in other parts of France were equally virulent. The fanatical superior of the Franciscans of Issoudun had the audacity to proclaim, in a sermon, that because she was a Lutheran, she deserved to be tied up in a sack and cast into the Seine. The magistrates of the town advised him to abstain from these frantic ebullitions ; but he treated their advice with contempt, and continued as fierce in his denunciations as ever. Being informed of this attack upon his sister, Francis resolved to inflict on the guilty friar the same punishment to which he had adjudged Marguerite ; but through her intercession he was saved from the threatened doom : he was sent to the galleys for two years.- Meanwhile, Marguerite continued to support the new opinions and their adherents. John Calvin, exposed to danger on account of his heresy, towards the close of the year 1533, experienced her pro tection. It was then the custom for the university of Paris to as semble on the 1st of November, the festival day of All-Saints, at the church of the Mathurins, to hear the rector of the Sorbonne deliver an oration. Nicolas Cop, the newly-elected rector, who had this duty to perform, having imbibed the Eeformed doctrines, delivered an oration composed for him by Calvin, with whom he was on terms of friendship,' The oration, proceeding in a strain ' Calvin's Lettei-s, vol. i. pp. 12-16. 2 Bayle's Dictionary, art. " Jimius Francis," note B. ' Dyer, in his Life of Calvin (pp. 25-28), places the portion of Calvui's history con tained in this paragi-aph before the representation of the comedy satirizing Marguerite; but we have followed Beza, who. In his Ecclesiastical History, places it after, and internal evidence couflrms the accuracy of this order of the events. Fbance.] 2Iarguerite de Valois. 361 altogether different from what had been usually heard on such oc casions, insisted, with freedom and emphasis, on the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ, without works of law, referring salvation solely to the free grace of God, a doctrine which strikes at the very foundations of Popery. The Sorbonne, highly indig nant at the rector for this unpalatable doctrine, denounced him to the parliament, which summoned him to appear at their bar. Be ing wamed, on his way to the parliament, that it was intended to arrest him, he turned back and fled to Basle, his native city. Cal vin was not leSs an object of indignation. It had got abroad that he was the real author of the oration, and officers were sont to the college of Forteret, where he resided, for his apprehension. He was accidentaUy from homo, but his papers were seized, which, containing numerous lettei-s from his friends, brought their lives into great jeopardy. His own life, exposed to still greater danger. was providentially preserved. Like the infant Moses in the cradle, the young Eeformer was on the point of perishing when he was wrested from the threatened destruction by the generous interposi tion of the Queen of Navarre, who invited him to her court, and mollified the resentment of her brother by the high encomiums she pronounced upon Calvin. Leaving Paria, he removed to Saintonge, whence, after staying for some time, he went to Nerac in Gascogne, where, being in her own dominions, he was more securely under her protection ; and here he met for the firat time with Lefevre of Etaples.' Lefevre had the penetration to discover Calvin's genius and force of character, and predicted his future eminence as a Ee former. Marguerite, upon retuming with the King of Navarre to Nerac, in the autumn of the year 1533, found Calvin among the number of the Huguenot refugees who had fled thither for safety. After remaining here for some time, the youthful Eeformer re turned to Paris. In the following year, when Marguerite again visited the French 1 Beza, Hist. Eccl., tom. i, p, 22, and his Life of Calvin in Calvin's Tracts, published for the Calvin Trans. Soc, voi. i. p. 25, 362 Ladies of the Reforination. [France. court, Paris, by her friendly offices, was furnished with three excel lent preachers, who proclaimed the truth more purely and with greater boldness than had been previously done. These were Ger ard Eoussel, originaUy a Dominican, and two monks of the order The Town of Werac. of St. Augustine — Bertault and Com-ault Bat though under Mar guerite's protection, theae preachera were not permitted long to continue their evangeUcal labours in Paris. The doctors of the Sorbonne, especially Beda, did not rest until they had succeeded in getting an interdict laid upon the ministrations of men whose orthodoxy was more than suspicious. In the persecution raised in consequence of the placards in 1534, Marguerite endeavoured to mollify the resentment of her brother, but her humane endeavours were in a great measure defeated by the counter infiuence of wicked counsellors. Her esteemed friend Gerard Eoussel, then abbot of Clerac, who had obtained permission to preach at Paria, was among the number of those arrested at that time. During the course of his trial. Mar guerite, beiug somewhat fearful of his fate, though he had no concern with the placards, vindicated his orthodoxy and interceded for his life. In a letter to Montmorency, written probably from Nerac, in France.] Marguerite de Valois. 863 the winter of 1534, she says— "I understand that the trial of M. Gerard is now going on. I hope that, when all the facts of the case have been fully investigated, the king will find that he is worthy of a better fate than the fire, and that he has never held an opinion to deserve it, nor smelled anything of heresy. I have known him these five years past, and believe me, that if I had seen one thing doubtful about him, I would not have suffered such a person so long, nor engaged my friends in his behalf. I beseech you, be not afraid to act as the bearer of this testimony in his favour from me, for I hope that his innocence will be so amply vindicated that you and I will be found to have spoken only the truth.'" In this in stance Marguerite's mediation was successful. Eoussel, having esta bUshed his innocence of all share in the business of the placards, was acquitted and set at liberty. On his liberation, he retired to her com-t at Nerac, where, besides making him her chaplain, she appointed him one of the officers of her household, and afterwards (in 1540) Bishop of Oleron,^ He never formaUy connected himself with the Eeformed church, though he never ceased to hold its lead ing doctrines. He preached at Marguerite's court in a lay habit, and is said to have denied the doctrine of transubstantiation, and to have maintained the exclusive spirituality of Christ's presence in the Euchaiist. The severe persecution of the Eeformers to which the placards gave occasion, appears to have repressed Marguerite's zeal in openly avowing the Eeformed opinions, as it repressed the zeal of other persons of rank favourably inclined to the Eeformation, who, from that time, began to comply with the humour of the king, and gra duaUy to give up the study of the Scriptures. This was the origin of that large body of temporizers or conformists, called Nicode- muses,' who, not possessing self-denial and fortitude sufficient to brave persecution for the truth, pled, in excuse of theu- going to mass, that no sin was thereby committed, provided their hearts did ' Genin, Lettres de Marguerite, tom. 1. p 299. '^ Ibid. p. 267. ^ Calvin -avrote two tracts against this class. 364 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. not consent to the impious service. Marguerite's judgment on the great doctrines of evangeUcal truth still remained unchanged ; but Eoussel, who was of this class, and others of a similar way of think ing, had an injurious influence in weakening, m her mind, an ab horrence of the idolatrous and superstitious worship of the Eomish church, by persuading her that outward rites were matters of indif ference,' From the spirit of unmitigated hostility to the Eeformers now evinced by Francis, she interceded with him in their behalf less frequently than hitherto ; yet her sympathy towards the perse cuted, and her active efforts for their protection within her own dominions, were not in the least diminished. Among the number who fled from France, in consequence of the persecution occasioned by the placards, was Clement Marot, whose suspected Lutheranism exposed him to danger. He fied from Blois to BSarn, to the Queen of Navarre ; not, as he expresses it in his writings, from a consciousness of guilt, but from a conviction of the impossibility of having his case fairly tried by the tribunals of his country. Being informed, while resident with Marguerite, of the cruel deaths to which many of the Huguenots in France were sub jected, and of the bloody speech of the king, after dinner, on the day of procession, he was thrown into new alarm. Her friendly court seemed to him now an inadequate protection. Afraid lest, from his nearness to France, he might be trepanned, he left Beam, and, for greater security, fled beyond the Alps to Eenee, Duchess of Ferrara, the never-failing friend of the Eeformed. At his depar ture from Beam, Marguerite suppUed him with money to defray tho expenses of his joumey into Italy, which he commemorates in some of his poems.^ He returned from Ferrara to France in the autumn of the year 1536.' At his return, he appears to have repaU-ed to Marguerite, who still continued to take a, friendly interest in his welfare. She gave him a recommendatory letter to Montmorency, beseeching that statesman to afford him pecuniary assistance.* ' Beza, Hist. Eccl., tom. i. p. 22. 2 ]^pit_ ecrite d'ltalie, tom. ii. p. 198, edit. Anguis. * Bayle's Diet., art. " JIarot," note G. ^ Genin, Lettres de Marguerite, tom. i. p. 304. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 365 CHAPTEE IIL FROM THE DEATH OF LEFEVRE, AT A SELECT DINNER PARTY IN HER PALACE, TO THB CLOSE OF HER LIPE. Marguerite often invited to her palace the learned Huguenots, who had fied to Nerac for shelter from persecution ; and their con versation, in which she was much interested, frequently turned upon learned subjects, as history, philosophy, or theology. At her table it was usual for the members of her household, Gerard Eoussel, Bishop of Oleron, and others, to discourse on some text of Scripture, as, for example, on these words of Christ (Matt, xviii. 2): " Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall uot enter into the kingdom of heaven." One supported the senti ments he expressed from St. Augustine, another from St. Jerome, and another from Theoj)hylact, St. Chrysostom, or St. Hilaire. Strangers who came to pay their respects to Marguerite, being sometimes admitted to hear these discussions, marvelled at her knowledge and graceful manners.' In these improving exercises the Eeformed refugees, when invited to her table, took an active part. On an occasion of this kind in 1537, a solemn and an im pressive event took place — the sudden death of one of the party, the pious and venerable Lefevre of Etaples, whom, when he was in danger from persecution, she had brought, in 1530, to Nerac, where he might spend the remainder of his days in tranquillity and honour. Witsius' account of this scene is beautiful and strikingly Ulustra tive of the humble piety both of Lefevre and of Marguerite, his protectress. "On a certain day," says that elegant writer, "the queen invited him to dine with her in company with a number of learned and pious men, with whose conversation she was greatly deUghted. While the rest of the company were cheerfully enjoying 1 Sainte-Marthe, Oraison Funebre. Genin. 366 Ladies of the Reformation. [France; their repast, Lefevre discovered many signs of deep sorrow. The queen asked the reason, to which he repUed, ' How can I, O queen, be cheerful myself, or contribute to the cheerfulness of others, who am the most wicked creature upon the face of the earth?' 'But what,' said she, ' my friend, can that wickedness be which you, who from your youth up have appeared to lead a most,holy Ufe, have committed?' 'I have lived,' he answered, 'to a, hundredandone years,' pure from every stain of lewdness, and do not remember any thing particularly on account of which I should leave this world with a troubled conscience except one, which, however, I hope may be forgiven.' For a while he could not proceed by reason of the tears that gushed from his eyes ; but at length recovering himself, he said, ' How shall I appear before the high tribunal of God — I who have sincerely instructed others in his holy gospel, and rendered them more courageous and constant in its profession than myself, so that not a few among them have endured a thousand tortures, and even death itself, with fortitude ; and yet I, their poor dastardly minister, contrary to the will of the Lord, have by a shameful flight sought to lengthen out that life which -will very soon of itself forsake a decrepit old man, to whom nothing more glorious could have hap pened than that I should have wiUingly sealed those Divine truths, whose power I have so often experienced, with that little residue of blood that is now creeping in my veins !' The queen, who was remarkable for her eloquence, and richly furnished with the know ledge of the Scriptures, suggested several considerations, which the guests confirmed, fitted to mitigate his grief ; upon which the vene rable man, resuming his spirits, rejoined: ' WeU, then, I see nothmg remains but that I should go home to God, having first, if it is agreeable to you, made my will ; and I do not choose to defer it, for I perceive the summons from my God is come.' Presently fixing his eyes upon the queen, ' I appoint you,' says he, ' my heir. 1 The exact age of Lefevre at his death is uncertain. Gaillard raakes it nearly 100 {Histoire de Francois I., tom. iii. p. 546). Gerdesius places his birth iu 1440, which would make his age ninety-seven {Histoire Ref, tom. i, p, 172), Others date his bii-th about 1445, reducing his age to ninety-two. — D'Aubignc's Hist, of Ref, book xii. ch. 2, V, L II IV G II. THOMAS. MARGUERITE DE VALOIS ENTERTAINING REFORMED EEFUGEES AT HER CASTLE OF NERAC. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 367 I bequeath all my books to M, Gerard the minister, and as to my clothes, and all else I haye in the world, I give them to the poor. The rest I commit to God.' 'But in this disposition,' said the queen smUing, ' what shall I get, my friend, by my appointment of being your heu-?' 'The task,' he repUed, 'of distributing my effects among the poor.' ' I accept the trust,' she instantly responded, ' and protest that this heirship is more acceptable to me than if my brother had left me the whole kingdom of France.' The good man, whose spirits by thia time were quite revived, aignified his desire to enjoy a little sleep ; and taking a solemn farewell of the guests, whom he bade be cheerful, he retU-ed to an adjoining apartment and lay do-wn upon the bed. The company apprehended him to be only asleep, but he had slept in the Lord without a struggle, sigh, or groan. The queen often mentioned the remarkable death of this: holy man." ' In token of her veneration for him she honoured his funeral procession with her presence.^ Meanwhile, there were not wanting individuals who were so- cretly active in attempting to excite against her the hostility of her brother on account of the protection she extended to the Eeformers. Among these evil instruments was a man from whom of all others ahe had least reason to expect such treatment, Anne de Montmor ency, at first marshal of France, secondly, grand-master, after the battle of Pavia, on the death of M, de Boisy, and at last connetable He was in high favour with the king, and the friendship of Mar guerite, who for many years maintained a regular correspondence with him about state affaUs,' contributed greatly to hia rapid ad vancement. But he requited her kindness with treacherous in gratitude. Having, on his elevation to the office of connetable. February 10, 1538, reached the highest, pinnacle to whioh the am- 1 Witsius, MisceU. Sacra, tom. ii. p. 185. The anecdote was related Tjy Marguerite her self to the Elector-Palatme Frederick II. , when he was passing through Pans m 1538, and it was committed to writing at tho time by Thomas Hubert, councillor of tho elector, who attended him.-Bayle's Diet., art. " F6vre, Le, of Etaples." 2 Lettres de Marguerite, note by Genin, p. 2S0, 3 Most of her e.xtant and printed letters are written to Montmorency 368 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. bition of a subject could aspire, he became indifferent about his benefactress, thinking himself now above the need of her good offices, and even endeavoured to bring down upon her head the violence of persecution.' When Francis, in conversing on one occa sion with Montmorency, was complaining of the progress of heresy in France, Montmorency, with his characteristic superciliousness of manner, emphatically said, that if liis majesty really wished to ex terminate heresy from his kingdom, he behoved to begin by adopt ing measures of a stringent nature against the heretics of his own court and among his nearest relations, and especially against the Queen of Navarre, the chief patron and promoter of heresy within the realm. In this there was a great want of forecast on the part of Montmorency. He forgot the slippery eminence on which the favourites of monarchs when most exalted stand, and he had soon reason to repent of his rashness. The king, who, jealous of the con netable's arrogance, had already become cold towards him, so far from falling in with his advice, answered in an offended tone, " Do not speak of that ; my sister loves me too much to believe in any thing in which I do not believe, and she will never embrace a re ligion prejudicial to the interests of my kingdom." Montmorency's base perfidy being reported to Marguerite, without descending to complaints or reproaches, she broke up all correspondence with him, and to her is to be attributed in no small degi-ee his subsequent disgrace and banishment from the court.''' While this audacious and malignant attempt was made by Mont morency to ruin Marguerite, the Eeformers had stUl their eyes turned towards her, as their only friend in the French court. Calvin coun selled and entreated her not to abandon them in times so pregnant with uncertainty and danger.' Nor did she desert him and his friends. Writing to him in the following year, on the occasion of the projected marriage of her daughter Jeanne with the Duke of 1 Genin, Notice sur Marguerite, tom. i. pp, 57, 136, 369, 2 Brantome, ^ Calvin's Lettei-s, vol, i. p. 183. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 369 Cleves, she says, "We think that God has given us a son to our o-wn heart and mind, by whom we hope that we shall contribute somewhat to his honour and glory. We entreat you that in what soever you shall perceive that I can do you any good service, you will not spare me ; and I assure you that I will do my endeavour very heartily, according to the power which God shall bestow upon me.'" In every period of her liffi, Marguerite extended a generous pa tronage to men of learning and genius, who found in her a more zealous, enlightened, and munificent patron than in her brother Francis, She maintained, as Sleidan informs us, many promising youths in the schools, not only in France, but also in Germany. Philip Melancthon, in a letter to her, dated June 13, 1634, eamestly prays her to afford pecuniary assistance to a poor student, Claude Baduel, a native of France, who was at that time prosecuting his studies in Germany.^ His appeal was not made in vain. She de frayed the expenses of the student's education ; and at a later period he was appointed, by her patronage, a professor in the university of Paris, and subsequently rector of the college of arts, which Francis estabhshed in 1539 at Nimes, Baduel's native town,' Many other learned men were indebted to her for their appointment to situations in the French seminaries of education. In choosing professors to fill the vacant chairs, Francis was maiiUy guided by her judgment. Poets, historians, and philosophers looked up to her as their Ma;- cenas. Dolet, in placing these words, A la seide Minerve de France, at the head of a letter which he addressed to her, only echoed the sentiments and feelings of all his learned contemporaries, and many of the works of the literati were dedicated to her.' ^ Calvin's Letters, vol. i. p. 318. 2 See the letter in Genin's Lettres de Marguerite, tom. i. pp. 202, 471. 3 In 1655, six years after Marguerite's death, Baduel openly professed Calvinism, aud withdrew to Geneva, where he became a minister of the Reformed church. He was the author of various works, all wiitten in Latin, aud highly recommended for their exceUeut Latinity.— Ibid, p. 293, note by Genin. * Antoine Dumoulin dedicated to her his edition of Desperriers (Lyons) ; Vatable, his Commemtaries unon the Bible; John Bouchet, his Labyrinth of Fortune; Jolm Brtehe, 24 370 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. But Marguerite's benevolent endeavours were not limited to men of genius and learning. Her letters abound with applications for situations of various kinds, for such as had recommended them selves, by their character and qualifications, to her notice. She visited the indigent sick, sent them medicines, and secretly distri buted to them alms. She built and endowed hospitals for the poor in the towns of Alengon and Mortagne ; one at Pau, and another at Paiis, which last, founded iu 1535, was for the maintenance and education of orphans, who were called, from their costume, "the red coat chUdren.'" From the goodness of her heart. Marguerite was sometimes im posed upon by men unworthy of her confidence. By their high pretensions to sanctity, and by their fan- and flattering speech, some who had embraced doctrines destructive even of morality, but of course concealing them from her, insinuated themselves into her favour. Thus was ahe imposed upon by Pocques and Quintin, two ringleaders of the sect of the Libertines — a sect which attached a sensual meaning to the liberty purchased by Christ for his people ; disbelieved in the existence of Satan, and of all angels ; denied the resurrection of the body; and held other baneful sentiments in re Ugion. These two chieftains of the Libertines "had," says Beza, "so fascinated her (which is almost incredible), that though she did not Lold their doctrine, she yet took them to be honest men," and admitted them into her palace. Suoh was the high respect in which she held them, that Calvin incurred her resentment for the tract he published in 1544, against their sect, entitled, " To the Ministers of the Church of NeufchAtel, against the Fanatical and Mad Seat of the Libertines, who call themselves Spiritual" Having in this brochure, in which he lashed the Libertines -with unsparing severity, directed against Pocques and Quintin hia contemptuoua and -withering irony —a weapon which he could wield with such powerful effect — Mar- friend of Bouchet, his Royal Manual of tlie Doctrine and Condition of tlie Prince, trans lated from Plutarch and Isocrates ; Nicolas Mauroy, of 'Troyes, his Translation into Verse of the Hymns of the Church; and Antoine Lemasson, his vei-sion of Boccaccio.— Genin, tom. i. p. 140. 1 Genin, tom. i. p. 55. . France.] Marguerite de Valois. 371 guerite was incensed, thinking that the attack made upon her two proteges was, in some measure, an attack upon herself; and they had probably succeeded in persuading her that the heretical charges brought against them by Calvin were foul slanders. She even went so far as to cause a letter to be written to the Geneva Eeformer, expressing her displeasure at his book, "because," said the letter, "it is -written against her and her household." Calvin, in self-de fence, -wrote her a very respectful and dignified answer, dated AprU 20, 1545.' Marguerite and Francis were, through Ufe, strongly attached to each other. What powerfuUy attracted his brotherly affection to wards her was not so much her great abilities as her many femi nine virtues; and he was wont to address her as sa mignonne^ and la Marguerite des Marguerites} She, on the other hand, almost idolized her brother ; and, to please him, often sacrificed her own convictions. Such was her love to and partiality for him, that, as we learn from her letters and her poems, she had this idea fixed in her mind, that his enemies or opponents were necessarily hated by God, and that the calamities which befell them were the inflictions of the vengeance of Heaven for the -wrongs they had done him, or the opposition they had made to him'' —principles which, in esti mating the characters of others and the dispensations of Providence towards them, religious minds of a certain cast are in great danger of adopting — and which, in the course of our historical inquiries, we have often found aU parties adopting iu reference to their op ponents, but which are at utter variance with the Christian spirit. It is neither a very benevolent nor a very reverent attitude, that of watching to see some calamity befaUing those who have inflicted upon us, or upon our friends, some real or imaginary injm-y; and when some calamity does actually befall them, to connect that cala mity with this real or supposed injury, as if the great Euler of the world had told us, by special revelation, that he had sent it as a ' Calvm's Letters, vol. i. pp, 429-434. '' i. «-,Hi3 darUng. 2 i. e.. The Pearl of peajls. '' Geuiu, Leltres de Marguerite, tom. ii. pp. 90, 240. 372 Ladies of the Reform,dtion. [France. judicial infliction to avenge our own or our friends' wrongs. In assuming this attitude, we expose om-selves to the rebuke which the Saviour tendered to his disciples -when they desired to call do-wn fire from heaven upon a Samaritan village which received not him and them — "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." Francis died on the 31st of March, 1547, aged fifty-two and a half years. His previous ill health had caused Marguerite, for a considerable time, much anxiety. She had visited him at Plessis- les-Toui-s, in the beginning of the preceding year, and he greatly desired to retain her near his person, but it was necessary for her to return to Beam, After his death the intelligence, by the orders of the French king, who hereby intended to testify his respect to her feelings, was concealed from her for some time, MeanwhUe, her anxiety about his situation caused her, about the beginning of April, to dream, one night when she was in the convent of Tusson, in Angoumois — whither she had retired, in the beginning of the year 1547, to spend Lent with the nuns — that he appeared to her -with a pale, dejected countenance, and addressed her with a plain tive voice, "My sister, my sister!" Believing, as was common in that age, that presentiments, or presages of the future, were con-t veyed to the mind by dreams, she immediately despatched several messengers to inquire respecting him; and such was the tenderness - of her sisterly affection, that she said to some of her attendants, " Whoever shall bring me tidings that the king my brother is re covered, such a messenger, however fatigued, harassed, bemired, and disfigured from travelling he may be, I wiU kiss and embrace him as if he were the most seemly prince and gentleman in France; and should he be in need of a bed on which to rest himself, and could he find none, I would give him my O'wn, and would Ue down upon the floor for the good news which he had brought me,'' Be ing at length informed of his death, she entered into her chamber in the convent, and, falling on her knees, humbly gave thanks to God for all the blessings he had been pleased to confer upon her. But notwithstanding this Christian resignation, the stroke pierced J i'RANCfi.] ' Marguerite de Valois. 373 her heart with the bitterest anguish, and brought over her soul a feeling of desolation. It changed the world to her into a wUder ness, where she was left alone; and it seemed to be the breaking of the last link which bound her to the earth. In a poem which she composed a month after her brother's death — the last tribute of her affection to him, a garland she planted on his tomb^nothing can be more pathetic than the simple strains in which she portrays the deep intensity of -her sorrow. Every sluice in her soul was opened, and the gushing feelings made her eyes dim with weeping, so that she coiUd see neither the earth nor the heavens ; and through the agony of grief rending her bosom, her bodily frame was re duced to such a state of weakness that it appeared as if she were ah-eady numbered among the dead,' But by this affliction, painful as it was, she was drawn closer in thought, affection, and desire to God, awakened to a more vivid reaUzation of, and to increased dili gence in making preparation for that other world— that mysterious state of being into which the living spirit enters at death, and whi ther aU human beings are tending ; and death now became to her the object, not of di-ead, but of earnest longing, the anticipated means of uniting her in everlasting relationship and communion with God, "I have no more," says she, in one of her spiritual songs, " father, nor mother, nor sister, nor brother, but God alone, who rules in heaven and in earth, in whom I hope."^ And m an other of her poems she thus expresses herseU—" The death of the brother has changed in the sister the fear of death into a great desire for death, and made her ready to endure it without com plaining. Its great pam she accounts sweetness, knowing that it is the gate, the sure, the necessary path by which the soul takes its flight to the Creator: till then she wishes to apeak of death.'" For a month after her brother's death. Marguerite continued to reside m the convent of Tussom She then quitted^ it to join her liusband, the King of Navarre, and her daughter, the Princess ' Chansons SpmtueUes in Marguerites, pp. 473, 474. " Itid- P- 602. 2 Ibid. p. 477. 374 Ladies of ihe Reformation. [France. Jeanne, at Mont de Marsan. The most of her lettei-s extant, writ ten in this and in the following yeai-, are dated from Pau; but from them we learn that, during these years, she sometimes resided at the castle of Mont de Marsan, a favourite place of residence. The last visit she paid to the French court was in the autumn of the year 1548. Her object in this joumey was that she might be present at the nuptials of her daughter Jeanne with Antoine, Duke of Vendfime, which were celebrated at Moulins, in October. About the middle of November, she set out on her way back to Beam, and having spent Christmas at the castle of Pau, she and her husband, for the benefit of her health, removed to Mont de Marsan. Her thoughts were now greatly drawn away from the visiblo world, and much absorbed in meditation on the great mystery of death. From the ardent, imaginative, and mystical character of her mind, this, from the very depths and concealments of the future world, became to her a fascinating theme of thought. Often would her attendants find her so rivetted in her musings, that it seemed aa if her mind were totally abatracted from all surrounding objects. Her feelings in the prospect of death, as ia often the case with the best, varied at different times. Sometimes the promises and pro spects unfolded by the gospel brought hope and joy to her soul. At other times, faith relaxing its hold on the promises, her mind suf fered an eclipse which disturbed its peace, and made her look for ward to dissolution with dismay. Brant6me states, that Marguerite used to say to such as dis coursed to her of death and of the happiness of heaven — "All that is indeed true; but we must continue a long time dead under the earth before we come to the enjoyment of that happiness," This statement is certainly at variance with various passages in her pub lished writings, in which, so far from speaking as if the soul re mained asleep tiU the resurrection, she expUcitly asserts the blesaed- ness of the souls of the good immediately after death. This is the doctrine taught in the song which she puts into the mouths of the France,] Marguerite de Valois. 375 infants slain by Herod after their death: — "O God, Father of aU, compassionate and gracious, we give thanks to thee, who hast re moved us from the world and exalted us to the rank of the blessed angels Thou hast drawn us by thy strong arms from death to the place of refreshment, where we enjoy every pleasure, for which we ought to praise thee," In one of her spiritual songs relating to the death of her brother, and composed a month after that event, the blessedness of the saved soul, immediately conse quent upon death, is also affirmed. " Sure I am," says she, "that his spirit reigns with his Head Jesus Christ, contemplating the Di vine essence. Although his body is doomed to death, yet, accord ing to the promise of the Holy Spirit, he doubtleas lives in heaven." In the same song she speaks of hia having gone "to the blessed haven, where he dwells in the enjoyment of God.'" And in a letter to Madame de Nevers, -written at the end of October, 1549, less than two months before her own death, with the view of comfort ing that lady, who had lost her mother, she says — " But besides the blessedness which I believe she now enjoys, she is doubly happy in leaving such a son as my nephew."^ If Marguerite then used the language ascribed to her by Brantome, she must have referred, not to the separate spirit, but to the whole person of the departed, the body as well as the aoul ; or this strain of speaking must have pro ceeded from her lips at those depressing seasons when, under the influence of a morbid melancholy, she took a gloomy view of death, and indulged in thoughts respecting it so different from the ordi nary inspirations and convictions of her mind. It is farther de serving of notice, that in these passages no mention is made of pur gatory, or of the necessity of masses being aaid for the souls of the dead. ' Marguerites, pp. 312, 313, 474. The life of Francis was not that of the righteous. Whether the evidence of his having beeu brought, by the grace of God, to repentance be fore his death, may have been so complete as to warrant Marguerite to pronoimce so decisively as she does concerning his future happiness, we do not presume to determine. Our object in q^uoting from this poem is simply to prove that she did not hold the opi nion that the soul after death reraains in a state of unconsciousness till the resurrectiou, 2 Genin, Lettres de Marguerite, p. 398. 376 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [Feanob. During a con,siderable part of the summer of the year 1549, Mar guerite resided at the convent of Tusson, She retired thither that, free from worldly cares, she might devote herself without interrup tion to Divine contemplation and prayer, as a means of preparing her for death, the dark shadows of which, she believed, were now hovering around her. Here she joined with the nuns in the obser vance of the religious services of the Church of Eome, and sometimes exercised the function of abbess, and led the devotions of the sisters of the convent. "In this nunnery," says BrantSme, "she apent a whole aummer, built a beautiful apartment for herself, and waa often seen performing the office of abbess, and chanting with the nuns at their matins and vespers.'' In thus observing the rites and ceremonies of the Eomish worship, there is no reason to think that she had changed her sentiments. From her correspondence at that period of her life, when she exasperated against her the Eomish priests, by her efforts in promoting evangelical preaching, it is evi dent that she attached importance to these rites and ceremonies, and observed them, not so much from an indifference to outward forma, aa from the idea that the Popish forms really contributed to fan the flame of devotion.' While repudiating many of the Pojjish doc trines, and holding the great principles of evangelical truth, she nevertheless does not appear to have discovered the idolatry, im piety, and superstition of much of the ritual of the Eomish church. Hence, while the protectress of the disciples of the Eeformation, and cordially attached to its leading doctrinal principles, she never be came its openly avowed adherent. About the autumn of the year 1549, after having returned from the convent of Tusson to B6arn, where she remained for a short time, she removed to the castle of Odos, situated in the county of Bigorre, and about a league distant from the city of Tarbes, Her object in this change of residence was to enjoy the benefit of the mineral waters in the neighbourhood, which had the reputation of being efficacious in pulmonary complaints. But her malady had ' Geuiu, Lettres de Marguerite, tom. i. pp. 172, 173. .France.] Marguerite de Valois. 377 fixed its fibres too deeply in her constitution to be eradicated, or even alleviated by any remedy. Her streng-th continued to fail, and her increasing weakness was accompanied with an oppressive drowsineaa, which resisted all the medicines recommended by her physicians. The thoughts about death and the unseen world which had now long and intensely occupied her mind in her waking hours, naturally engaged her imagination during her hours of slumber. One night whUe she was asleep, a beautiful female clothed in white, and bear ing in her hand a cro'wn composed of every kind of flowers, appeared to her in a dream. The apparition approached her and held up be fore her the crown, muttering, at the same time, the word "quickly." The queen, who was deeply impressed with the vision, at once understood it as being a supernatural intimation of her speedy re moval from this mortal seene, and the crown as a symbol of etemal life. She therefore now applied with greater diligence to prepara tion for approaching death ; delivered over to her husband the management of all her private revenues ; and -wrote letters to her friends bidding them farewell, and providing against certain incon- veniencea which, ahe foresaw, were otherwise likely to ensue upon her death.' Her last illness she caught in the evening of December 1, 1549, when gazing from an open balcony, at a comet then visible, sup posed to have made its appearance, according to the ignorant super stitious ideas at that time prevalent, to notify the death of Pope Paul IIL, which took place November 10, that year. The cold suddenly seized upon her frame, and her mouth became somewhat paralyzed. This being perceived by her chief physician, M. d'Es- curanis, who was present, he entreated her immediately to retire to her apartment, and go to bed. Thia she did, and some medicines were administered to her by the physician. Her disease settled into a severe attack of catarrh or pleurisy. Her sufferings were severe, but she bore them with resignation and fortitude. Much as her thoughts 1 Geuiu, tom. i. p. 88. 378 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. had been occupied for a considerable time before about death, sho did not, however, anticipate that the great change was so near, hoping that she had yet strength of constitution sufficient to master this attack. " I have heard my mother, who was one of her ladies," says Brantome, "and my grandmother, her lady of honour, say, that when she was told by her friends, in the extremity of her illness, that she was dying, and when they spoke to her of the everlasting blessedness of heaven, ahe was affected, and said, '-AJ1 that is indeed true ; but we must continue so long dead under the earth before we come to that blessedness;' adding, 'that she was not so aged, but that she might live a few years longer,'" Some Eoman Catholic writers assert that before her death she testified that she had never been disaffected to the faith of the Eoman Catholic church, and that her protection and support of the persecuted ministers and adherents of the Eeformation proceeded simply from sentiments of compassion. But these affirmations rest on no good authority. Her published -writings, in which she dwells with great emphasis on the doctrines that Chriat is the alone mediator between God and man ; that his righteousness is the only expiatory sacrifice for sin; that Christian piety consists solely in love to God, faith in Christ, and obedience to the Divine will — doctrines entirely destructive of the whole system of Popery, and the very doctrines which had so greatly exasperated the Popish ecclesiastics against her — were published with her o-wn consent so late as the year 1547,' only two years before her death ; and that after that period she retracted these sentiments, we have no satis- ^ In that year, Simon Silvius de la Haye published at Lyons, in two volumes 12rao, a collection of her poetical works, with tho title. Marguerites de la Marguerite des Prin,- cesses, tres Illustre Royne de Navarre. Marguerite means a daisy, and formerly it was usual to call florid discourses Marguerites. The act of parliament granting La Haye license to publish this collection, the license extending to six years, is dated Bordeaux, March 29, 1546. It includes " The MuTOr of the Sinful Soul;" " The Prayer of the Faith ful Soul to its Lord God;" " Prayer to our Lord Jesus Clirist;" "The Four Mysteries," forraerly referred to; " The Triumph of the Lamb;" " Complaint of a Prisoner," probably Francis iu Spain; "Spiritual Songs;" Four Epistles to her brother; the two farces previously adverted to; aud several other pieces. Her celebrated work, the Heptameron, was not published tiU after her death. We at flrst intended to have inserted iu the Ap pendix a criticism ou this work, but are prevented fi-om want of room. France.] Marguerite de Valois. 370 factory evidence. The last words she uttered were in harmony with the faith in which she had lived, giving the same solution she had hitherto done to the great problem. How shall man be just hefore God? Thi-ee days before her death she lost the power of speech, and recovered it only at the last moment, when she cried out, "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!" — words plainly indicating that she re garded Jesus as her only Saviour, that to none but to him and to his accomplished atonement did she look for having the burden of her transgressions removed, and an abundant entrance ministered to her into the heavenly kingdom.' In making this exclamation as she expU-ed, the sentiments present to her mind were doubtless those expressed in her poem entitled. The Triumph of the Lamb, where, after speaking of Christ's conquest over death, she says, first apostrophizing death and then her Lord : — " Say now, what is thy arm become '? Thy great power ? what has befallen thee ? Where is the sound of thy proud victory? Thy sting, thy power, and thy glory ? Lord ! Lord ! by thy strength and power thou hast accom plished and kept the promise of old expressed in the form of pro phecy in these authentic words, ' O death ! I will be thy death, when thy stroke shall fall upou me and number me among the dead.' " ^ She died at the castle of Odos, in Biggore,' December 21, 1549, in the fifty-eighth year of her age,* twenty days after her illness com menced.^ Her obsequies were celebrated with great pomp in the cathedral church of Lescar" early in the month of February, in presence of a 1 Florimond de Eemond asserts that before her death " she received the body of her Creator, and that she died holding tn her anus a cross she used to have in her bed, as I have heard it related by an honest Franciscan friar (Gilles CaiUeau), who administered extreme unction to her, and attended her to the last."— Bayle's iJicd'onai-y. How far these statements, made by an historian not one of the most trustworthy, and restmg as they do on the sole authority of the Franciscan friar, are entitled to credit, the reader is left to .judge for himself. ^ Marguerites, p. 401. 3 Brantdme says that she died in Beam, at the castle of Dandous. Dandous is pro bably a typographical error for D'Audos, and the cattle of Audos is not in B6ai-n, but in ^ Authors vary as to the day of her death, but the date in the te.\t is that given in her epitaph. ° G™'"- « 'The part of the chiuch which the different parties were to occupy, is partioulaily 380 Ladies of the Reformation. [France'. numerous assembly of the highest rank in the kingdom. It was customary at that time for royal personages to expose the effigy of a deceased relative in a lighted chapel, the effigy lying upon an estrade aud clothed in mourning ; and with this view a Ukeness of the deceased was taken in wax immediately after death. At the celebration of Marguerite's obsequies three lords were seated at the feet of her efiigy, one with a crown, another with a sceptre, the third with the sword of justice ; and in the funeral jDrooession they marched immediately before the bishops, all three in front, carrying these insignia of royalty. Her funeral oration — a document which contains many curious anecdotes respecting her private life nowhere else to be found — was pronounced by Charles de Sainte-Marthe, master of requests in the exchequer court of the duchy of -AJengon, and published in French and Latin, at Paris, in 1550. But w-hy was not this tribute to the memory of a princess so eminently dis tinguished paid by some of the Popish ecclesiastical dignitaries? Her deviations from Popish orthodoxy, and the services she had rendered to the Eeformation, by protecting during a, long series of years its ministers and adherents, we suspect is the only explana tion that can be given of this fact But if the Popish prelates were silent in her praise, genius and learning poured forth their grate ful effusions of respect and veneration for the memory of their renowned protectress, in numerous odes, poems, and epigrams. Among the many epitaphs written on the occasion, that com posed by three English ladies, iUustrious by the splendour of their bU-th and genius — Anne, Margaret, and Jane Seymour — consisting of a hundred distichs in Latin, ought particularly to be mentioned. These verses, which were translated into French, Greek, and Italian, were printed in a volume entitled, Le Tombeau de Marguerite de Valois, Royne de Navarre, a Paris, 1551. Of this volume, Nicolas Denisot, who had been preceptor to these three learned ladies, was stated in " The order which the king appoints to be observed by the master of the ceremonies at the intei-meut of the Queen Marguerite his wife," inserted in Appendix to her Lettres, tom. i. No. xi. This document is dated, "Sesiguac, eth Februaiy, 1549," or according to our present rackcniug, 1550. France.] Marguerite de Valuis. 381 editor. He inserted different other pieces in honour of the deceased queen, as those by Pierre Eonsard, Antoine Baif, Eobert de la Haye, Pierre des Mireurs, and John Dorat. This last had written Marguerite's nuptial song, and now he consecrated to her memory a funeral ode.' The King of Navarre, who was eleven years younger than his wife, survived her only six years. He died in May, 1555. * Geniu. See also first series of thoso Biographies, p. 713. The To-n'n and Castle of Pan. JEANNE D'ALBRET, QUEEN OP NAVAUEE. CHAPTEE I. FROM HER BIRTH TO HER MAKING AN OPEN PROFESSION OF THE REFORMEn FAITH. EANNE D' ALBEET, who has attained no incon- -N siderable celebrity in the history of the Eeforma tion, was the daughter of Henry d'Albret IL, King of Navarre, by his queen Marguerite de Valois, sister of Francis I., whose life haa just now en gaged our attention. Her grandmother by the father'a side, Ca tharine de Foix, who brought the kingdom of Navarre to Jean, Seigneur d'Albret, by her marriage with that nobleman in 1484, France,] Jeanne d' Albret. 383 was also a woman of distinguished talents and energy of char acter.' At that time the kingdom of Navarre consisted of two divisions, first. Lower Navarre, which lay on the north of the Pyrenees, south west of France, including the principality of Beam, the counties of Albret, Foix, Ai-magnac, Bigorre, and Comminges; and second. Upper Navarre, which lay on the south of the Pyrenees, north of Spain. The ancient capital of Upper Navarre was Pampeluna, which contained the tombs of its kings,^ Thia, the most valuable part of the kingdom, was, however, -wrested from Joan d'Albret, Jeanne's grandfather, by Ferdinand, King of Spain, early in the sixteenth century, Navarre, from ita aituation, as may be perceived by a glance at a map of France and Spain, was very important to both these kingdoms. It is, in regard to the Pyrenees, what the states of the Duke of Savoy are in regard to the Alps. It is the key of Spain, as Savoy and Piedmont are the keys of Italy. The portion on the south of the Pyrenees seems naturaUy a province of Spain, and hence the Spanish monarchs were extremely desirous to annex it to their dominions. In 1512, during the violent disputes between Louia XII. of France and Pope Juliua IL, Ferdinand, King of Aragon, invaded the kingdom of Navarre. Jean d' Albret, its monarch, in order to resist the aggression, implored assistance from Louis XIL, with whom he entered into a treaty, July 17, 1512, by which, as the Spanish monarch foresaw, the King of Navarre incurred the resentment of the pope, who launched agaiust him, as he did against Louis XII,, the thunderbolts of excommunication,' > Catharine de Foix was sister and heuress of Gaston Phrebus, Count de Foix and King of Navarre.— GaUlard, Histoire de Frangois I., tom. i. p. 524. - Perefixe, Hist, de Henri le Grand. 2 The bull is not to be found in the collection of the Papal bulls. The Spanish historians are the only original authorities for the excommunication of Jean d'Albret. They differ as to its date, some giving February IS, 1512, and others March 1, that year. If, as is alleged by these historians, the bull was issued on accouut of the treaty entered into be tween the Kin" of Navarre and Louis XIL, both these dates are evidently incorrect; for this treaty, as°we have stated, was signed July 17, 1512, and, consequently, the excom munication must have heen posterior to that date. From these discrepancies, it has been doubted whether such a buU was ever issued.— Gaillard, Hist, de Frangois I., i. 527, 623. 384 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [France. Ferdinand succeeded in conquering Upper Navarre, or the five dis tricts of the kingdom of Navarre called Aferindades, leaving to the King of Navarre only the sixth Merindade of Navarre, the capital of which was St, Jean Pied de Port. After this the com-ts of Spain and Eome refused to the sovereigns of Navarre the title of king, acknowledging them only as princes of Beam,' Jean d'Albret hav ing demanded the reason of this usurpation, it was answered that, in consequence of his alliance with Louis XIL, he had been excom municated by the pope, and his dominions gifted to the King of Spain. But this was a mere pretext, for Ferdinand invaded that kingdom before its king had allied himself with Louis XIL, and consequently before the excommunication of Jean d'Albret was pro nounced. This, however, was for a long time the ouly reason as signed by Spain in vindication of its usurpation. In 1515, when Ferdinand, by a solemn act, iiTCvocably annexed Navai-re to the crown of Castile, and when, subsequently, he made hia laat will and testament, bequeathing Navarre to his daughter Juana, Queen of Castile, aud to Charles his grandson, he made special reference to the excommunication of Jean d'Albret, and to the gift made to him of that king's dominions by Pope Julius II. After this, the whole policy of the Kings of Navarre was directed to the recovery of this the most important part of their dominions." Jeanne d'Albret, the subject of this sketch, waa born, as has been already stated, on Tuesday, January 7, 1528, in the palace of Fontainebleau, where her mother was then residing in retirement. When a month old Jeanne was intrusted to the sole care of Madame de Silly, her mother's tried and faithful friend, who departed with her charge from Fontainebleau to the castle of Lom-ay, where that lady, when not in attendance on her royal mistress, usually resided. Here the childhood of the young princess was spent in free and un restrained companionship with the children of Madame de Silly, ^ The title of King was uot conceded to them by these coui-ts till 1561. Antoine de Bourbon, Jeanne's husband, was the fii-st to whom the concession was made. — Llorente, Histoire Critique de V Inquisition d'Espagne. tora. iii. p. 7. 2 Gaillai'd, Histoire de Frangois I., tom. i. pp. 524-527. France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 385 until she had completed her fifth year. Her uncommon activity and sprightliness of disposition delighted her mother, who during this period often came to visit her ; and being the great favourite of her father and of her uncle Francia, to whose court, at St. Ger- main-en-Laye, she was occasionally taken, she was called la mig- nonne des rois, i.e., the darling of the kings.^ After the death of the Duchess of Angouleme, in 1531, Jeanne's parents intending to leave the court of France for BSam, where they contemplated a residence of eighteen months in their palace at Pau, it was their desire to take her with them. Francis, however, afraid lest her father should betroth her to PhiUp, eldest son of Charles V., pnt a decided negative on this intention, declaring that her education must be completed in France, under his own eye.* Marguerite acquiesced, but the King of Navarre objecting, Francia, to obtain his consent, promised to bestow upon her in marriage his second son Henry, Duke of Orleans, afterwards Henry II. The Queen of Navarre having serious scruples to her daughter's being brought up at the French court, her brother assigned for the young princess the royal castle of Plesaia-les-Tours, as a permanent residence, in which she might have a separate establishment, the greater part of the expenses of which he undertook to defray. Madame de Silly stUl continued her governess and her chief lady- of-honour. Nicolas de Bourbon, celebrated as a poet and as a Greek scholar, was appointed her tutor, and his province was to teach her the learned languages, phUosophy, and poetry. Two chaplains, placed under the superintendence of Pierre du Chatel, Bishop of Tulle and MScon, were appointed by Francis to instruct her in religion. She was provided with numerous attendants, and with a certain number of companions of her own age. She took up her abode at Plessis about the beginning of the year 1532, soon after the departure of her mother into B^arn. But she was never satisfied with this residence, and, passionately desirous to be restored ' Cayet, Chronologic Novenaire. " 01ha"aray, Hist, de Foix, Bea,rn, et Navarre, pp. 603, 504. 25 386 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. to her parents, she would weep for hours together from distress at her separation from them.' Meanwhile, Charles V,, who was extremely desirous to render the -marriage of the princess subservient to his political interestsj proposed a double alliance between his O'wn chUdren and the royal liouse of France. The first was the marriage of his son, Don Philip, with Jeanne d'Albret, a union which would legalize to Spain -the possession of Upper Navarre, the richest part of her rightful inheri tance, of which her anceatora had been unrighteoualy despoiled by Spain ; and to gain the consent of Francis, Charles engaged to per mit him to redeem Beam and Lower Navarre, which were situated at the southern extremity of the French territories, for 2,000,000 livres. The second was a marriage between his own daughter the Princess of Spain, and Charles, Duke of Orleans, the eldest son of Francis,.the Spanish monarch promising either the duchy of Milan or the Low Countries, and the counties of Burgundy and Charoloisy as the bride's dowry, on condition, however, that should the prince die before his wife, these territories were to revert to the emperor. To either of these proposals Francis declined to accede. He re garded the duchy of Milan as his own by undoubted right, and would not therefore consent to receive it for his son as a gift, Nor would he accept of the Low Countries and the provinces specified, on the conditions annexed. The proposed marriage of the Prince of Spain with Jeanne d'Albret greatly elated her parents; but Francis foreseeing that such an alliance would increase the terri tories of his political enemy, by securing to the Spanish cro-wn the possession of the kingdom of Navarre, determined to defeat it, and apprehensive lest her father and the emperor should enter into secret engagements relative thereto, he resolved to lose uo time in contracting her to a spouse of his own selection. This spouse elect ¦was William IIL, Duke of Cleves and JuUers, a handsome and an accomplished cavalier, nearly twenty-four years of age, of ample re venues, and well connected, his eldest sister, SibyUa, being the con- ^ Miss Freer's Life of Jeanne d^ Albret, vol. i. pp. 1-22, •France.] . Jeanne d'Albret. 387 sort of John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, and his youngest sister, Anne, ha^ving recently become the fourth queen of Henry VIII. of ¦England. The duke gratefully accepted the offer. To this projected marriage, Jeanne, who had not much passed her twelfth year, waa atrongly averse, and she made two secret pro testations, one before and another after the betrothment, written -with her own hand, and attested by three officers of her household, •that her uncle Francis, her father, her mother, and her governess, having extorted her consent by compulsion, the marriage should be regarded as null and void. The nuptials were celebrated with, even for royalty, an extra vagant profusion of pomp and splendour, on the 15th of July, 1540, at Ch§,telherault, all the French great officers of state being present. By reason of the youth of the princess the marriage was not con summated.' The festi-vities being concluded, the Duke of Cleves, in the meantime, left his bride, to prosecute his war against the em peror, encom-aged by large promises of assistance in troops and money from Francis. According to an agreement made previous to the marriage, the princess was permitted to remain in France, under her mother's guardianship, for three years, at the expiration of which it was reckoned she would be of sufficient age ; and she accompanied her parents to the castle of Nerac, from whence they proceeded to Pan, where they intended to pass the winter. Dm-ing the two subsequent years Jeanne resided with her pa rents in B6ai-n. Here, under the superintendence of her mother, she made good progress in learning, her impetuous temper was con trolled and subdued, and her mind stored with maxims of sound policy and wisdom. Under the direction of her mother, also, and of Eoussel, Bishop of Oleron, her mother's almoner, she daily studied the Scriptures; and though she did not for, many years after, become the disciple of reform, yet the instructions she received in Beam, Uke seed cast into the soil, doubtless contributed to form her ulti mately into the intelligent and heroic supporter of the Eeformation. ¦ Genin, Lettres de Marguerite de Valois, tom. ii. pp. 236, 237. 388 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. About eighteen months after the celebration of the nuptials, Charles V. having overrun the duchy of Cleves, the duke made un qualified submission to the victorious emperor, sig-ning, Septem ber 7, 1543, a treaty, in which, among other dishonourable en gagements, he stipulated that he should restore the Eoman Catholic religion within his territories, and should renounce his alliance "with France.' Thia abject submission excited the i-esentment both of Francis and of Jeanne's mother. Marguerite was now as eager to have her daughter released from the bonds of this marriage as she had for merly been desirous to have it contracted. In a letter to her bro ther Francis she thus writes: — "As at first I ignorantly besought you to effect this marriage, concealing from you the inclination of my daughter,^ so now I very humbly entreat you to assist us in setting her at liberty, before the church and men, as I know she is free before God ; for I would rather see my daughter in her grave than in the possession of a man who has deceived you, and brought disgrace upon himself."^ The French court immediately applied to the pope for a bull annulling the marriage, on the ground that com pulsion had been exercised towards the princess in the whole busi ness ; and the Duke of Cleves, informed of this proceeding on the part of the French court, being equally eager to be disentangled from his reluctant bride, despatched an ambassador to Eome to pre sent to his holinesa a aimilar prayer. Encouraged now by her uncle and mother, Jeanne renewed her protest against the marriage, in October, 1544, at Alencon, and a fom-th time,* on Easter Day, AprU 5, 1545, at Plessis-les-Tom-s, in the castle chapel, iu the presence of her household and of an iUus trious assembly of prelates and nobles, after the celebration of high mass. Stepping forward to the centre of the chapel, she hei-self ' Genin, Lettres de Marguerite de Valois, torn. ii. p. 234. 2 This shows the inaccaracy of the statement made by most historians, that this mar riage had been forced ou by Francis in opposition to the wishes of Mai-guerite, ^ Geniu, Lettres de Marguerite, torn, ii, p. 237, ¦• The four protestations referred to lue inserted iu Appeudix to Genin, Lettres de Mar guerite, tora, ii. pp. 2S9 294, France.] Jeanne dAlbret. 389 read the papers with the most perfect self-possession, and laying her hand on an open missal, took an oath that the statements they contained were true. These protestations, duly certified, were transmitted to Eome; and a few weeks after, his holiness, Paul IV., issued a decree annulling the marriage, on the ground that it had not been consummated, and setting the parties at liberty to enter into fresh matrimonial alliances. The Papal bull, after its promul gation, was registered by the parliament of Paris. Being now disengaged, Jeanne, as ahe grew up to womanhood, had numerous suitors. Among others, Philip, son of Charlea V., after the death of his first queen, Mary, daughter of John IIL, King of Portugal, made renewed overtures of marriago with the heiress of the throne of Navarre, who was now twenty years of age. Henry IL, King of France, being resolved to defeat this match, two other rivals for her hand appeared. The one was Antoine, Duke of Vendome, the nearest in blood to the throne of France, next to the issue of the reigning sovereign, The other was Francis de Joinville, the eldest son of the Duke of Guise, who afterwards succeeded to the dukedom, and became so celebrated as a military chieftain and as the champion of Eomanism. The former, who was ten years her senior, was the lover favoured by the princeaa. The marriage contract between her aud the Duke of VendQme waa signed at Moulins, October 20, 1548, in the presence of her pa rents, of the King and Queen of France, aud other persons of dis tinction. In the event of her surviving the duke, she waa appointed sole guardian bf her children ; and, by the wise precaution of her mother, a clause was inserted expressly providing that the educa tion of her children should remain entirely in her own hands, and that her son, until he reached the age of eighteen years, should be under her sole control. The nuptial festivities being ended, the happy pair withdrew to the castle of La F^re, in Picardy, whence, after a brief stay, they joumeyed to Pau, where they met with the most enthusiastic reception. Jeanne's first child, who was a son, was boi-n at the castle of 390 Ladies of the Reformation. [France, Coucy, in the north of France, September 21, 1550, nearly two years after her marriage. She committed him to the care of her old nurse, Madame de Silly, now the wife of Jerome Groslot, bailiff of Orleans, and resident iu that city. The child died within Uttle more than a year aud a half after his birth, the victim, it has been alleged, of the bad management of thia lady.' To our view this aUegation, though it would seem that it obtained currency at the time, haa a prima facie appearance of being greatly exaggerated, if not altogether unfounded. That lady waa now, indeed, old and in firm ; but she had been the tried friend of Queen Marguerite, a discriminating judge of character and qualifications ; she had been intrusted by that queen with the sole care of Jeanne, when only a month old, and had acquitted herself in that charge, which she held until Jeanne had reached womanhood, to the entire satisfaction of all parties. We cannot, therefore, beUeve, without stronger e-vi dence than has been adduced, that through her neglect or injudi cious treatment the life of the child waa lost. During the month of August, 1552, she gave birth to a second son, at the castle of Gaillon. He was a lively and thriving child, but he did not live long. By a faU, through the careless levity of his nurse, he sustained a fracture in one of his ribs, and other in juries, so severe that he died a few days after. An anecdote is related of Jeanne ou the occasion of her third confinetueut at the castle of Pau, her father's residence, character istic of her natural vivacity and strong resolution. Having privately received information that her father had recently made his will, and suspecting or being told that his mistress, a noble lady of no common beauty, who had born him a son since the death of Jeanne's mother, had succeeded in inducing him to bequeath to herself and to her son a considerable portion of the inheritance, which of right belonged to his legitimate daughter and her chUdren, Jeanne, as ' The authority is Perefixe, who, though a Popish author, -writes with candour and a regard to truth. It may, therefore, be presumed that tho report was cm-rent; but that it was well-founded is a different q.uestiou. France.] .' Jearme d'Albret. ^ 39'1 was natural for her both as a daughter and a mother, was extremely anxious to penetrate the secrets of this testamentary document. Her anxiety on this point she could not conceal from her father, and while they were one day sitting aloue together in his private apart ment, she expressed a desire, to know the import of hia testamentary provisions concerning her son. Perceiving her curiosity, Henry took Out of his coffer a small golden box contaiuing the will, and holding it up before her bya chain attached to it, promised to put the box with its precious contents into her hands, on condition that during the, pains of labour, she should sing him a B&rnoise song. The reason he assigned for this singular request, at which she was somewhat amused, was "in order that you may not give me a whim pering, whining boy." She accepted his offer, and though her labour was severe, she had the courage to fulfil the condition. On the 13th of December, 1553, between one and, two o'clock in the morning, feeling' .that her pains were coming upon her, she ordered informa tion to be given to her father. He immediately rose and proceeded fo the chamber of his daughter, who, the moment she heard his foot, -mastering every feeling of pain, commenced and finished in a dis tinct unbroken voice, in her native Bearnoise, "the Invocation to the -Virgin," supposed to be addressed by women in her situation, a song lUghly popular among the Bearnoise matrons in humble life. The .song begins thus : — " Nostre Donne deou cap deou pon,' , Adjouda mi en aq^ueste houre ! " " Our Lady at the bridge's end, ' Help iu this hour of trouble seud 1"^ Scarcely had she finished the song when the chUd was born— her celebrated son Henry IV., who became greater than aU the great ' " Our Lady at the bridge's end" was a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary, whose chapel was built at the extremity of the bridge crossing the river Gave, on the right hank of which the town of Pau is buUt. To this image the most astonishing miracles were attributed, and it was in high repute, among the wives of thg Bearnoise, from .the ease and safety'which, according to popular beUef, it graciously vouchsafed in chUdbhth. 2 PereflxB, p. IS. Cayet, Chron. Novenaire. Faviu, Histoire de Navarre. 592 Sadies of the Reformation. [France. names in the long line of her iUustrious ancestors — and it was re marked as a happy omen that, as if inheriting her own brave heart, when brought into the world he did not cry. Henry took the in fant boy, whom he carefully wrapped in the skU-ts of his dressing- gown, and then graciously handing the golden box containing his will to Jeanne, said with a voice of affection, "My daughter, that is yours," and pointing to the child he added, "This is mine." He carried the infant into his o-wn chamber, and to insure him a hardy and vigorous constitution, according to the superstitious notions and practice of the Bearnoise in those times, he rubbed his Uttle lips with a clove of garlic, and made him suck a little wine out of a gol den cup, saying, "Thou shalt be a true Bearnese." He next has tened with him to the courtiers who were waiting the event in the ante-chamber, and in a transport of joy, holding him up that all might see him, he exclaimed, as if forecasting the future greatness of the infant, "See, my lords, my sheep has born me a lion." This he said in ridicule of the sarcasm of the Spaniards, who, on hearing that his queen Marguerite's first child was a daughter, namely, Jeanne d'Albret, said with contemptuous laughter, by a coarse aUu sion to the arms of the house of Navarre, "The cow has brouo-ht forth a sheep ;" an insult which he never forgot, and which he flat tered himself would be avenged upon Spain by this promising boy.' In less than two years after the birth of this child, Jeanne lost her father, who died, May 25, 1555, at Hagetmau in Beam, which is twenty miles distant from Pau. During life, his heart had been fondly set on the recovery of the lost portion of his hereditary do minions ; and in his last wiU he ordered that his corpse should be conveyed to Pampeluna, the capital of Upper Navarre, and buried in the tomb of his ancestora. But this rich portion of his ancestral territories being in the possession of Spain, it was impossible to carry this dying command into execution, and his remains were en tombed at Lescar in Beam. On the 18th of August, 1555, the ceremony of the coronation of ' Perefixd. France.] Jeanne dAlbret. 393 Jeanne and Antoine was celebrated in the great hall of the castle of Pau, in the presence of the chief nobles, the municipalities and the officers of the various courts of Beam, Bigorre, Foix, and Lower Navarre; and the usual oaths were administered to them by the Bishop of Lescar, Louis d'Albret, natural son of Jean, King of Navarre, Jeanne's grandfather. At this time, though Jeanne had not yet deserted the com munion of the Popish church, her religious sentiments and sym pathies were all in favour of reform. Her education, her own indi vidual inquiries, her correspondence and intercourse with Eenee, Duchess of Ferrara, with whom she was on terms of intimate friend ship, all contributed to sway her judgment in thia direction. This we learn from a letter which she wrote, only four days after her coronation, to Viscount Gourdon, a nobleman of high character, wisdom, and mUitary reputation, favourable to reform, whom she invited to confer with her secretly at the castle of Odos in Bigorre, as to the course proper for her, as a sovereign, to adopt in reference to the two religions. " Monsieur le -sdacomte, — I write to inform you that up to the present time, I have followed in the path indicated by the deceased queen, madame my most honoured mother (whom may God ab solve), relative to my .choice between the two religions; neverthe less, the said queen being persuaded by her brother, monseigneur King Francis I., of happy and glorious memory, my most revered uncle, not to puzzle her brains -with new dogmas, after a time seemed to care only for humorous and witty romances. Moreover, well do I remember, that long previously, the king, monsieur my most honoured father and lord, hearing that the said queen was engaged in prayer iu her own apartments, with the ministers Eoussel and Farel, entered, and deaU her a blow on the right cheek, the minis ters havhig contrived to escape in gi-eat perturbation, while he soundly chastised me with a rod, forbidding me to concern myself with matters of doctrine ; the which treatment cost me many bitter tears and held me in dread until his decease. At the present 394 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. moment, however, free by the demise of the said monseigneur my father two months ago, and incited by the example and the exhor tations of my cousin, the Duchess of Ferrara,. it appears to me thr.t reform is as reasonable as it seems necessary ; so much so, that I deem it disloyal cowardice towarda God, towards my conscience, and towards my people, to halt longer in suspense and perplexity, I-n- ,iamuch aa the long disputes and altercations between monseigneur King Henry of France and the pope, resulted, three years ago, in the publication of an edict of great severity against the aaid reform, it seems needful to me that all worthy people should confer together, to meet such present and future danger. Ha-vdng, therefore, been duly apprized that you have about you certain reverend person ages, and that in yourself are united wisdom, nobility, and courage, if you will with them repair to the castle of Odos in Bigorre, I, for my part, will not fail to give you a meeting there towards the end of the ensuing month of September. Hoping there to meet you, ,1 pray God, monsiem- le viscomte, to have you in his holy keeping. Written at Pau, this 22d day of August, 1555. — Your sincere and faithful friend, Jeanne Queen." ' Whether the interview here soUcited took place qr.not is not recorded, btit from this letter it is evident that, had she acted in con formity with her own deliberate convictions pf truth, Jeanne would have espoused and actively promoted the cause of reform within her territories. Considerations of political expediency, however, prevented her from following the dictates of her o-wn judgment; and it waa not tiU more than five years after the date of this letter that she made an open profession of the Eeformed faith. Many of her subjects, and many of the nobility were zealously attached to the Eomish church, and she did not wish to offend them. Hor adoption of heresy might result in the loss of her crown. It would provoke againat her the resentruent of the courts of France and Spaiu, aud afford them a pretext for seizing upon her territories, which both of them coveted. A Papal bull of excommunication '-Sliss Freer's ii;-<; o/Zcanjie d'^iirci, vol. i. p. 123. France.] • Jeanne d'Albret. 39.5 might haaten the catastrophe, for she could not forget that it was in consequence of a Papal interdict that Upper Navarre had been wrested from her ancestors by the arms of Spain. She therefore, in the meantime, from motives of self-interest, pursued a temporiz ing policy. Antoine, on the contrary, testified in the most open manner his predeliction for reform. He refused to accompany his consort to mass in the cathedral, and ostentatiously attended tha Eeformed worship established at Pau by her mother. He had Protestant sermons deUvered in the great hall of the castle. He chose for his chaplain, Peter David, a monk who preached the new opinions, but a man, as afterwarda appeared, of no principle. He appointed La Gaucherie, a zealous Eeformer, tutor to his son. In 1557, he brought the Eeformed minister, Francis Guy de Boynormant, from Geneva to the court, for the religious instruction of the royal household. On ¦visiting the French court, he took his chaplain along with him, and regularly favoured the Huguenot meetings with his presence, how ever humble the people of whom they were composed.' Had there been no danger in all this, Jeanne, who was secretly friendly to the Eeformed doctrines, would not have been disposed to find fault. But she had not yet, as afterwards, formed the resolution to sacri fice all for the truth ; and when the pope and the Cardinal d', Ar magnac, Archbishop of Toulouse, and metropolitan of B6ai-n, an active and subtle prelate of great influence, who waa at Eome, were loud in their objurgations — when many of her subjects and nobility were dissatisfied — when the French court, where the Guises, the implacable enemies of heresy, were omnipotent, threatened to make war against Antoine should he continue to aUow the Eeformed to preach pubhcly in B6arn, and to encourage them as he was doing, she became alarmed atthe threatened perU of invasion and dethrone ment, and remonstrated with him on the impolicy of his conduct. " If you have a mind," said she, " to risk the loss of your own do- 1 Beza, Hist. Eccl., tom, i, pp, 102, 103, 106, 107, 140, OUiagaray, Hist, de Foix, ic, pp, 302, 517. 396 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Franob. mains by your imprudent patronage of the new opinions, that may be no business of mine ; but as to myself, it is not my intention to lose the little that has been left of the kingdom once possessed by my royal ancestors." ' She even went so far as to sanction various measures for the repression of reform. Jeanne's fifth and last child, a daughter, was born at Paris, Feb ruary 7, 1559, and was named after Catharine de Medicis, who stood godmother. About the end of September, 1560, Antoine, attended by a nu merous retinue, accompanied his brother the Prince of Conde, to the French court at Orleans. The prince, as we have seen in the Introduction, had been summoned thither by the French king, pro fessedly to vindicate himself from the charge of being implicated in the conspiracy of Amboise, but in reality with the intention of throwing him into prison and bringing him to trial as the leading conspirator. Suspecting some treacherous design on the part of the Guises, Jeanne strongly adidsed both her husband and her brother- in-law not to go to court unless under the protection of an armed force sufficiently powerful to overawe their enemies ; but they were not to be dissuaded. After their departure, Jeanne, with her children, left Nerac for Pau. Here, about the middle of October, she received a charge from the French privy council, which was then carrying on with great severity the persecution against the Eeformed, to arrest the ministers, David, Boynormant, Theodore Beza, and some others of inferior celebrity, and to send them under 'a strong guard to Orleans, that they might be brought to trial for sedition. The council, doubtful whether she would obey their orders, instructed the mar shal De Termes to concentrate the troops uuder his command on the frontier of Beam, to be in readiness to give effect to the coun cU's resolution should Jeanne prove refractory. With the mandate of the French councU she had no intention of complying, both be cause she regarded it as an invasion upon her sovereign rights, and ^ Er.autume, tom. iii, p, 237, France.] ' Jeanne d'Albret. 397 because, becoming truer to her own convictions, she was resolved at least to have no share in persecuting these ministers whom she knew to be innocent of all crime, save proclaiming what she be Ueved to be the truths of God. Apprehensive, therefore, that the Guises might revenge themselves upon her for her disobedience, she assembled her council to consult what was to be done in the pre sent emergency. By their advice she levied troops, strengthened and garrisoned her fortresses bordering upon France, made all active preparations to defend her principality from attack, and betook herself, with her children, for protection, to Navarrens, the best fortified town in B6arn, which she prepared for sustaining a protracted siege by providing it with a large store of ammunition and proviaiona. Eesolved to act with firmness, and yet with pru dence, she issued a proclamation from this fortress, refusing to de Uver up the ministers to the tender mercies of the court at Orleans, but revoking the permission granted them to teach throughout the duchy of Albret and the other dominions which she held as fiefs of the cro-wn of France, limiting their ministrations to the princi pality of BSarn, over which she claimed an entirely independent authority. While at Navarrens ahe received inteUigence of the imprison ment and trial of the Prince of CondS at Orleans, and of her own husband's being the object of such strict surveillance that he was in a manner a prisoner. This confirmed all her former suspicions, and now she fully believed that the Guises had conspired for the deatruetion of the Bourbon princes, aa a means of preserving the absolute authority they had acquired, and of crushing heresy. At the same time, she was ujformed of meetings which had been held in Spain, ha-ving for their object the sudden invasion of the princi pality of B6am and of Lower Navarre, and their annexation to the Spanish dominions. These alarming circumstances threw her into great distress, and they became the meana, by the blessing of God, of producing an important change, if not on her religious senti ments, yet upon her conduct. Hitherto from the dread of injuring 398 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. her worldly interest she had carried herself more coldly towards the Eeformers than her husband. , But how mysterious are the ways of Providence ! While he soon after deserted the party of which at first he was so zealous a patron, aud lent all his energies to crush it, she, at this time, became its cordial, decided, open, unflinching, un changing friend. Disappointed in the confidence she had reposed in man, and deprived of all human succours, she betook herself to God with deep prostration of spu-it and many teai-s, as the only re fuge now open for her ; and solemnly engaging to serve him, made pubUc profession of the Eeformed religion. In talcing this course, she was encouraged, directed, and confirmed, by Francis le Guy de Boynormant, and N. Henry of Pau, both faithful ministers of the Word. Having thus devoted herself to God, and devolved all her interests upon him, she acquired new fortitude, and was prepared to defend herself and her kingdom to the last.' She was still in Navarrens when she received tidings of the iU ness of Francis IL, and subsequently of his death, which took place December 5, 1560. By this event, her brother-in-law, the Prince of Conde, and her husband, having escaped the toUs of their enemies the Guises, she quitted the fortress of Navarrens, and proceeded to Pau, where, before her depai-ture for Nerac, she again made public confession of her faith, and joined in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, according to the Eeformed ritual, in the cathedral at Pau, at the following Christmas, Soon after, she sent to the new sove reign of France, Charles IX,, a confession of her faith, composed, written, and signed with her own hand,- In passing through Con dom, on her way to Nerac, she bestowed the Franciscan monastei-y of that place as a gift upon the Protestants, to be converted into a theological college.' 1 Beza. Hist. Eccl., tom. i. pp. 324-327. 2 lbid, Olhagaray, p. 530, corapared with Bayle's Dict.,'zrt, "Navarre, Joanne de." ^ VauviUiei-s, Histoire de Jeanne d'Albret, tom. i. p. 165. JFbancs.] . Jeanne d'Albret. 399 CHAPTEE II. PROM HER JOURNEY TO THE FRENCH COURT, TO ATTEND THE COL LOQUY OP POISSY, TO HER FLIGHT TO ROCHELLE, TO JOIN THE PRINCE OF CONDE, AND HIS CONFEDERATES. While Jeanne waa resident at Nerac, Antoine remained at Paris .with the court. Meanwhile, she received repeated and eamest iu- ¦vitations to join her husband from Catharine de Medicis, who, in addition to other arguments; urged her to hasten her arrival that she might be present at the conference about to be opened at Poissy, between the Eoman Catholic clergy of France and twelve distin guished ministers of the Eeformed church. At the end of July, or beguming of August, 1561, accompanied by her two children, and by a numerous retinue, she quitted Nerac on her joumey to the court. Before, setting out, she converted the spacious monastery of the Franciscan friars at Nerac, then deserted by its inmates, into a residence for the Protestant ministers, and a college for the educa tion bf youth. While passing through Perigueux, complaints hav ing been made to her of the imprisonment of a Protestant preacher, Simon Brossier, for having preached in the suburbs, and afterwards in the town itself, in the house of Sieur de Memy, she ordered him to be instantly liberated. She, at the same time, warned the canons and the seneschal of the town, a renegade from the Eeformed re ligion, who had excited the Popish populace against Brossier and thaacast him into prison, that, should any injury be done him, she would hold -them answerable.' On her arrival at Paris she took up her lodgings- at the Hotel de Cond6, in the Eue de GreneUe, decUn ing the invitation of the. queen-regent to make the Louvre her home during her sojourn. On the Qth of September opened the conferences of Poissy, in the refectory of one of the largest convents. Jeanne, with other ladies 1 Beza, Hist. Eccl., tom. i. pp. 793, 791. '400 Ladies of the Reformation. ]^Francb;. of distinction, as Catharine de Medicis, Een^e, Duchess of Ferrara, and the Duchess of Montpensier, were present at all the meetings. The discussions, which were conducted with good temper on both sides, were barren of favourable results to either party, aud simply discovered the hopeleasness of restoring reUgious harmony upon the ground of uniformity of opinion. From the popularity the Eeformed doctrines had acquired, in consequence of their having been embraced by the King of Na varre, an intrigue was cai-ried on by the leaders of the Eoman Catholics in France, by his holiness the pope, and by the court of Spain, having for its object his recovery to the bosom of the infalli ble church, and a reconciliation between him and the princes of the house of Lorraine. They were encouraged in the hope of success from their knowledge of his vacillating character, and from their belief that he had been led to head the Huguenots more from the love of distinction than from conviction. They assured him that, provided he returned to the Eoman Catholic church, either his lost kingdom of Upper Navarre would be restored to him, or the beauti ful and fertile island of Sardinia would be given him aa a recom pense, thi-ough the influence of the pope with the King of Spain — a prospect which it was probably never intended to fulfil. They en deavoured to persuade him that, though he was the first prince of the blood after the king's brothers, he would under no circumstances be elevated to the throne of France, so long as he remained a Hu guenot. They fiattered him with the hope of obtaining the hand of Mary, Queen of Scots, the niece of the Guises, and the most beauti ful and accomplished woman in Europe, with a kingdom for her dowry ; and they gave him to understand that the pope would not only dissolve his marriage with Jeanne, but would also deprive her of her domiuiona, on the ground of heresy, and confer them upon him. Antoine, after a few days' deliberation, which he requested, resisted this last temptation ; but by degrees, the other arguments prevailing, he abandoned the Eeformed church for the Eoman Ca tholic, and became reconciled to the princes of Lorraine, to whom France.] Jeanne d' Albret. 401 he had hitherto been opposed on every political and reUgious ques tion, and from whom he had received a succession of insults and injuries.' Being thus gained over to the Eoman Catholic party, he imme diately dismissed his Proteatant ministers, and attended masa in the most conspicuous churches of Paris. To insure his queen's conformity, he proceeded even the length of compulsion, and inter dicted the ministrations of the Eeformed ministers in her residence. " Madame de VendQme," says the Spanish ambassador Chantonnay, '¦has been compelled by her husband to forego her preachings; no sermons are now permitted in her apartments at the castle of St. Germain, which causes grief and astonishment to many. Madame de Crussol, Madame I'Admirale, and the Bishop of Valence, and such like personages, cease not to importune the queen -with their accustomed pernicious wickedness to restore them." ^ Catharine de Medicis having recommended Jeanne to attend mass, as the only means of conciliating her husband and preserving her dominions for her son, Jeanne resolutely and energetically answered, "Had I my kingdom in the one haud and my son in the other, I would throw them both into the depths of the sea rather than go to mass."' Unable to subdue her steadfastness, Antoine ordered her to return to Navarre, and to leave behind her their son, whom he intended to educate in the Popish reUgion ; aud in prosecution of thia object, he removed La Gaucherie, the Proteatant tutor of the young priuce, and substituted Popish teachers. Distressing aa were these proceedings to Jeanne, they had only the effect of strengthen ing her attachment to the Eeformed faith. She herself was very anxious to depart from Paris, but was de tained from various circumstances. Meanwhile, she continued the object of incessant persecution on the part of her husband ; and by the crafty enemies who sun-ounded her, plots were formed for her destruction. It was formally proposed and concluded in council, ' Le Laboui-eur, Additions aux Castelnau, tom. ii. pp. 744, 745. z Mismoires ds Condi, tom. iii. pp. 189, 190, ' Beza, Hist. Eccl., tom, i. p, 689, 26 402 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. with Antoine's approbation, that she should be arrested and im prisoned in one of the strongholds of France, Being informed of this resolution, she conveyed to the Prince of CondS intelligence of her danger, and the plot having transpired, the Huguenots of the capital gathered in tumultuous crowds around the Hotel de Conde, where she lodged, to protect her from threatened arrest. Her situation in Paria thus becoming daily more perilous, and hav ing reason to dread the worst as to the mischief which might be brewing over her head, she renewed the demands she had pre viously made for permission to depart. The councU, afraid, from the popular demonstration in her favour, of a serious outbreak should they attempt to apprehend her iu the capital, agreed that she should be allowed to depart ; but they secretly resolved to ar rest her at Vendome, where, on her way to B^arn, she would proba bly rest for some days,' Meanwhile, she sent a letter by a special messenger to Beza, who was then with the Huguenot troops at Orleans, informing him of her intended departure from the French court to the hills of her native Beam, and requesting an escort. Beza, immediately on re ceiving her letter, sent an answer by the bearer, dated May 13, 1562, approving of her resolution of retiring in the present state of affairs iuto B6arn, where she might be in greater safety and be sur rounded by more congenial society, but expressed his doubta as to the policy of her procuring an escort from the troops of the Prince of Conde, as this might irritate her enemies, by rendering them more suspicious of her intentions, and afford them a pretext, which they were eagerly seeking, of wreaking their vengeance upon her. At the same time he directed her as to how she might otherwise be escorted, and requested her, after she had maturely weighed the considerations suggested in his letter, to let him and his friends at Orleans know what she judged to be necessary,^ Before setting out on her journey for B6ai-n, Jeanne visited her ' Beza, Hist. Eccl., tom. i. p. 795. Miss Freer, vol. i. pp. 264-266. "^ Memoires de Conde, tom. ii. pp. 350-363. France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 403 son Henry at St. Germain-en-Laye, whither his father had sent him to reside. On this occasion, as we are informed by an eye witness, the Cardinal of Ferrara, she took the young prince, then a boy of ten years of age, in her arms, and, with all the fondness of maternal affection, gave him a long and earnest exhortation never to go to mass on any account whatever, assuring him that, if he dis obeyed her in this, she would disinherit him, and he need regard her no longer as his mother. Henry, who was greatly attached to his mother, bursting into tears at her affecting exhortations, aud at the thought of being separated from her, promised to obey her.' He, alas! afterwards forgot and disobeyed her solemn injunctions, when, to secure the crown of France, he abjured the faith in which he had been educated and which he had long professed. Having taken farewell of Antoine — a final separation, as after wards appeared — whom she counseUed, but in vain, to break off' ali connection with the Guises, she quitted Paris, probably in the course of the latter half of the month of May, 1562.^ Upon her reaching the castle of Vend6me, the ancestral seat of her husband, the intentions of her enemies to arrest her there were defeated, from the confusion caused by a sudden incursion of a mercenary band of 400 horsemen, who plundered the town. Leaving Ven dome after the stay of a few days, she again proceeded ou her jour ney f but she had new dangers to encounter, Antoine, who was governor of the French province of Guienne, instigated by his new friends, despatched instructions to Blaise de Montluc, his Ueute nant in that province, to intercept her, and bring her back to Paris, She had, however, happily, before setting out, adopted precautions ' Lettres Politiciy.es, p, 136, Before this, Henry at one time, when his father attempted to compel Jeanne, hy unmanly violence, to attend mass, courageously threw himself be tween her and his father, protesting that he would defend his raother, that she should not be forced to go to raass, and that he himself would not go either, Antoine, reproach ing the gaUant boy for his insolence, gave him a box ou the ear, and commanded his preceptor to administer to him farther castigation. — Vauvilliers, Hist, de Jeanne d'Albret. 2 Jameson, in his Notices of the Reformation in the South-west Provinces of France, says '* Ul the beginning of April," but, from the dats of Beza's letter to her, it is evident that lier departure must have been later. 3 Memoires de Conde, tom ii. Vauvilliers, Hist, de Jeanne d'Albret. 404 Ladies of tim Reformation. [France. to secure her safety by giviug orders to the seneschal in Beam, the Sieur de d'Audaux, to meet her on the banks of the Garonne with as large a force as he could muster. In obedience to her orders D'Audaux, who at this period was a professed friend of the Ee formed cause, though subsequently its traitor, and a man of immoral habits, promptly assembled a body of 800 horse, which went to meet her at the place appointed, and conducted her in safety to Pau.' Her presence was at this time much needed to protect the Ee formed in that quarter from the violence of the Eomanist party. The Eeformers had become numerous in Guienne and B^arn, nearly equalling in numbers the Eoman Catholics, and serious contests not unfrequently took place between the two parties. Incited and en couraged by the clergy, aud in some instances by the magistrates, the Eomanists insulted, maltreated, and massacred the Protestants. Exasperated by such cruelties, the Protestants rose up in self-de fence. In some instances they drove the friars from the monas teries and burned to ashes these estabUshments, with the images, altars, and relics they contained.^ To maintain the peace in B^am and in the neighbouring provinces, the King of Navarre, shortly after the death of Francis IL, had, with the advice of Catharine de Medicis, then queen-regent, commissioned Blaise de Montluc to raise a military force. A worse agent could hardly have been selected for such a purpose. Montluc waa one of the most ferocious perse cutors of his clay, and he made this commission a cover for execut ing mortal vengeance on the hated Protestants. In ferocious cruelty, he resembled Dalziel of Binns, the bloody persecutor of the Scot tish Covenanters in the reign of Charles II. From their infernal delight in wholesale and cold-blooded murder, both seemed as if incarnate demons. Their very names produced a shuddering horror among the victims of their relentless fury. Speaking of Montluc's proceedings in Guienne, at this period, Beza says, "It would be end less to relate in detail the unheard-of and more than savage cruelties 1 Jameson's Notices, &.c. 2 Beza, Hist. Eccl., tom. i. pp. 793, 794. France. Jeanne d^ Albret. 405 committed at this time in diverse places.'" One or two facts will suffice to illustrate the character of the man. Two counsellors had been appointed to attend him whilst maintaining order in the dis turbed counties ; but finding that these counseUors, instead of pro ceeding in an arbitrary and summary manner, were desirous of observing something Uke the forms of justice in dealing with breaches of order, he dismissed them, and selected in their place two of the most athletic of his soldiers, and of like brutality with himself, whom he armed with battle-axes, and to whom, from their constantly at tending him, was applied the sobriquet of "Montluc's lackeys." On oae occasion M. Verdier, who was a zealous Protestant and a Moi)tluc'9 Justice, nephew of the Queen of Navarre's advocate, with a deacon of one of the Eeformed churches, and two other adherents of reform, being brought before him, he flercely denounced them ; and Verdier hav ing, in answer to some of his contumelies, retorted with spirit, that • Beza, Hist. Eccl., tom. i. p. 795. 406 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. he served a greater king than the governor of France, the savage ruffian, in a paroxysm of fury, seized Verdier by the collar, and throwing him with violence on the ground, ordered his two "lac keys" to despatch hira, which they immediately did by hacking hini to pieces with their axes. The other two were hung, without even the form of a trial, on a neighbouring elm tree, and the poor deacon, though he escaped the fate of being hanged, was condemned, by a sentence as merciless, to a severe flogging, of which he died eight days after. Six gentlemen and thirty individuals of humbler con dition, who had been taken prisoners at St, Livrade by a detach ment of Montluc's forces, were also hanged in the same summary manner.' Exasperated by such atrocities, the Protestants prepared for self- defence, and the whole extent of couutry from the Garonne to the Pyrenees exhibited a seene of confusion and misery both before and at the time of Jeanne's arrival in Beam, On her arrival she did all in her power to throw the shield of her protection over the suffer ing disciples of reform. One of her first acts was an attempt to restrain the inhumanity of Montluc, by pressing him to suspend hostilities, upon condition of her undertaking to oblige the Protes tants to lay down arms ; and when Montluc, who knew that she was acting without the concurrence and sanction of her husband, who was now enUsted on the side of Eomanism, refused a cessation of hostiUties, she furnished the Protestants with troops to aid them in their own defence,^ Jeanne had not been long in B6arn when tidings were brought her of her husband's death. While engaged with the Duke of Guise in besieging Eouen, which was occupied and defended by the Huguenots, he received in the trenches, October 25, 1562, a severe wound. The wound was not mortal, but having been foolishly ne glected, it terminated in his death, on the 17th of the foUowing month. On his deathbed his former convictions revived, and he died professing his faith in the Eeformed doctrines. Severely tried ' Jameson's Notices, 6ic. - lbid. France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 407 as his queen had been by his tyrannical, heartless, unmanly conduct towards her, as well as by his unfaithfulness to his marriage vow, she sincerely and deeply lamented his death, forgiving and forget ting aU the wrongs he had heaped upon her in the tender recollec tion of the mutual love and domestic happiness of the earlier yeard of their union. Upon the intelligence reaching her, she retired from the castle of Pau to her favourite retreat, the castle of Orthez, there to remain during the period of her mourning; and she had the comfort to receive numerous letters of condolence from her Protes- t.tnt friends,' Having it now in her power to act with more independence than when Antoine was alive, she determined, without delay, to estabUsh the Eeformed religion throughout her donjinions. In the beginning of June, 1563, she assembled her council, and issued from the castle of Pau her celebrated edict abolishing the Eoman Catholic worship throughout B6arn, confiscating to the crown the temporalities of the chm-ch, and establishing the Calvinistic faith and worship. For the settlement of ecclesiastical affairs and for the administratiou of ec clesiastical revenues, a permanent council of nine persons was ap pointed. She published a second edict, appropriating a part of the church revenues to the founding of schools, colleges, and charitable institutions in various parts of Beam — but appropriating no part to her own private use, nor to state purposes, nor to private individuals — and ordaining that the parish churches in places where there were few Eomanists, should be the exclusive property of the Protestants, and that in places where the numbers of the adherents of the two religions were about equal, each party should have an equal right to the churches. Her next edict decreed the removal of images, altars, crucifixes, relics, and shrines from the churches. In some instances when her officers were putting this edict into execution, the populace, incited by the priests, resisted ; but in general, no dis- ' Six of these letters are printed in Memoires de Conde, tom. iv. pp. 123, 126-130. The ¦n-riters are the Count de la Rochefoucault; his cquntess, Charlotte de Roye; the Priuce of Cond€; the Princess of Conde; Siem- Fum6e, councillor to the parhament of Paris; and the Prince de Melphi. 408 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. turbance of the public tranquillity occurred. So strong was the general feeUng in favour of the queen's measures of reform, that the monks, dreading popular insult or violence, prayed when remov ing from the monasteries, that they might be protected by a guard of soldiers.' Serious obstacles might have obstructed her path, had her estates of B6arn, which consisted mostly of the higher orders of the clergy and of the nobles, persevered in opposing these ecclesias tical changes ; but they yielded to the strong will of their sovereign, who told them that in what she had done, she had acted, in the first Jilace, in conformity with her own sense of duty, aud secondly, from a regard to the spiritual welfare of her subjects. Having adopted these measures, Jeanne sent to Geneva for the famous minister Sieur Merlin, desiring him to come to assist her in the great work she had now commenced ; and soou after she brought back to her territories, at her own expense, about twenty ministers who had been natives of B6arn or of Biscay, to preach to the people iu their respective vernacular dialects, and especiaUy to instruct her subjects of Lower Navarre, who were still blindly wedded to the Eoman Catholic faith in which they had been nurtured, ^ The Cardinal d' Armagnac, who held the office of Papal legate for Bfiarn and Lower Navarre, having returned to Beam from the coun cil of Trent, and learned the state of matters, wrote to Jeanne a long expostulatory letter upon the course she had taken, dated August 18, 1563. It is written in a respectful strain, but hardly makes any attempt at argumentation. Violent in the epitheta it applies to heresy and heretics, it is also strong in its appeals to her fears, her self-interest, and her maternal aff'ections. He is confident that her subjects in Beam and Lower Navarre would never abandon the re ligion in which they had been educated, or consent to tho planting of a new religion, and that she would alienate their affections from her, and forfeit the allegiance they had yielded to her ancestors, should she attempt to force their consciences. He beseeches her to reflect that her states were surrounded by the dominions of two ox ' Olhagaray, Hat. de Foix, Sza. '' Ibid p. 635, France,] Jeanne d Albret. 409 tho most powerful kings of Europe, who abhorred nothing so much as the new religion of which she was a patron ; that the King of Spain would gladly avail himself of the pretext of her heresy to invade her dominions, and that the King of France might himself seize upon them, rather than suffer them to fall into the possession of another. He would have her to consider that her children had not deserved so ill of her as that she should voluntarily deprive them of the valuable heritages transmitted by her regal ancestors of sacred memory.' Jeanne, who wielded both a vigorous and ready pen, having commanded the courier who brought the cardinal's letter to wait for her answer, immediately retired iuto her cabinet, and on the spur of the moment wrote a long and spii-ited reply, which demonstrates equally her great talents aud her energetic decision of character. She defends the work of reformation she had already begun, and expresses her determination to complete it through her whole do minions of B^arn. She assures him that he must have been misin formed, both as to the answer of her states, who yielded obedience to her in religious matters, and as to the condition of her subjects — ecclesiastics, nobles, and peasants — who, with the exception of some rebels, continued true to their aUegiance. She did nothing by com- piUsion, not having had recourse to the infliction of death, nor to imprisonment, nor to legal proceedings of any kind. She was per fectly well acquainted with the potent sovereigns who were her neighbours. Though the King of Spain hated her religion, as she had no favour for his, she was, notwithstanding, confident that she and he would continue good friends and neighbours ; but should it turn out otherwise, she was not destitute of relations, allies, and friends, both domestic and foreign. The French king, the root of that race of which it was her greatest honour to be a small branch, did not abhor the Eeforraed religion, as the cardinal represented, but allowed its exercise in some around his person, among whom was hor own son, and throughout his kingdom. Should it, then, 1 See-this letter in Memoires de Conde, tom. iv. pp, 594 600, 410 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [.France. happen, which she was sure it would uot, that her subjects shonid apply to either of these powers, the one (Spain) would uot listen to them lest it should offend in hera greater, "for,"' says she, "you know the importance of this country to France;" and the other (France) was neither a tyrant nor an usurper, but the wing under whose shadow she found protection.' Both the cardinal's letter to her and her answer thereto, were printed, aud widely circulated throughout her dominions. AU, even her enemies, involuntarily adraired the bold and masculine elo quence of her repty ; aud it raised to the highest pitch the enthu- .si.astic loyalty of the Protestant portion of her subjects. Meanwhile a prosecution was raised at the court of Eome against Jeanne as a heretic, aud the patron of heretics. The Cardinal of Lorraine, who was then at Eome, and PhiUp, King of Spain, who wished not only to retain Upper Navarre, but to seize upon the other parts of her kingdom, were the chief instruments in pressing on the prosecution. They represented to his holiness tliat not only had she herself embraced heresy, but that she was compelling all her subjects to embrace it by persecuting the Eomau Catholics, to whom she no longer permitted the exercise of their reUgion ; that as her territories bordered upon Aragon, Upper Navarre, and a part of Catalonia, provinces of Spain, it was much to be dreaded that, frora the habitual intercourse which the inhabitants of the two kingdoms had with each other, the venom of heresy Vi'ould be pro pagated in these latter provinces; and that it was necessary to arrest the evil before it had made greater progi-ess. Witnesses were exa mined by the inquisitor-general at Eome (who afterwards became Pope Pius v.), and they bore testimony to the truth of these several charges." Accordingly, on the 28th of September, 1563, a raonitory or citation by the authority of the' pope, was issued a.gainst her from the Inquisition office at Eome, and affixed to the doors of the cathe- ' See this letter in Memoires de Conde, tom. iv. pp. 600-006. '- lbid. torn. V. p. 25. Memoires de Castelnau., in Petitot, tom xxxiii. IJ. 334, Llorente, Histoire Critique de C Inquisition d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 7-11. France.] Jeanne d Albret. 411 dral of St. Peter, and of the court of the Inquisition, By thia cita tion ahe was summoned to compear personally before his holiness and the most illustrious preLates aud most reverend cardinals at Eome, to answer for the crime of heresy, under the imputation of whioh she was declared to be notoriously lying, and that within aix mouths, no other citation to be given her, there beiug, as was pretended, no safe access to her dorainions; and failing to com pear within the fixed period, she was to be declared convicted of hereay, contumacious, deprived of her royal dignity, kingdom, prin cipalities, sovereignties, lordships, and possessions, whicii were to be given to the first Catholic prince who should concpier them, or to whomsoever it might please his holiness or his successors to be stow them,' To theae proceedings the attention of the French government was speedily called, and being then at peace with the Hugu.enot party, it came to the resolution, from various motives, hostUe as it was to heresy and devoted as it was to the Holy See, not to suffer the pope to punish the heretical Queen of Navarre, by depriving her and her children of their dominions. She was herself nearly related to his majesty, both on the father and mother's side ; and she was the relict of the priuce of the blood next to the king's bro thers. His majesty had taken under his protection her children, who were still minors, and he could not therefore allow their rights and posaeaaions to be invaded. This was an audacious assumption of supreme authority over crowned heads ; and it too nearly af fected his majesty and all the sovereigns of Europe, who, when they provoked the displeasure of the pontiff, might fall under the same condemnation, to be passed over without remonstrance and opposi tion. If Ferdinand, King of Aragon, had, on the excommunication ' The citation is printed in Mimoires de Condi, tom. iv. pp. 669-679; but the copy from whioh that reprint was made, aud which w,^s the ouly one ever published, was full of mis takes, iu conse The details of this conspiracy are given in Mimoires Secrets de M. de Villerm; m Llo rente's Histoire Critique de I'InquisUion d'Espagne, tom. iii. pp. 11-15; and in Do Thou's Histoire, tom. iii. liv, xxxvi, pp, 497-499, 416 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [France. June that year, carae to the resolution to despatch a deputation to Paris, beseeching her entirely to abolish the Eoman Catholic faith throughout her hereditai-y dorainions. Ecclesiastics and all lay pa trons throughout B6arn, Foix, and Navarre, were deprived of tho patronage of church livings. The power of bestowing lapsed bene fices was limited to the board to which the adrainistration of confis cated ecclesiastical property was intrusted. Public Popish proces sions, interment in the churches, dissolute amusements, and games of chance were interdicted. All persona excommunicated by Ee forraed ministers, unless, before the lapse of a year after the pro nouncing of the sentence, they submitted to the church and received absolution, were to be considered guilty of felony, and to incur the forfeiture of their property.' This last part of the edict is certainly incapable of vindication. Excommunication being purely an eccle siastical spiritual censure, its effects ought to be limited to exclusion from the fellowship and privileges of the church. It follows, there fore, that to arm it with civil penalties is to divest it of its tme character, converting it into a politico-ecclesiastical sentence. To employ the agency of civil power or coercion for recovering the lapsed members of the church is not less objectionable than to eraploy it for raaking members. Nor can these civil effects in any degree serve to accompUsh the great design of the censure, which is to bring the person by faith, repentance, and prayer to the blood of Christ, They may make hypocrites, but, unable to reach the conscience, they cannot make true penitents. It is, however, to be remembered, when aniraadverting on this error into which the Queen of Navarre fell, that the Eeformers had come out of the Church of Eome, in which excommunication inferred the forfeiture not only of the privi leges of the church, but those of citizens, and even the comraon rights of humanity ; and it could not in reaaon be expected that on all points of civil and ecclesiastical polity, they should attain to cor- I'eot and liberal views all at once. The queen's dorainions being divided on the question of the two ' Olhagaray, Hist, de Foix, &c., p, 5C3, France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 417 reUgions, this edict, of course, did not meet the approbation of all parties. It was not to be carried into effect without formidable opposition. Dangerous leagues were formed by Popish ecclesiastics aud Popish barons to resist its publication— to arrest, imprison, and, dethrone the queen, and to offer her dominions to the crown of -Franco or Spain — to massacre the Protestants, and to restore the Eoman Catholic faith to its former ascendency. But amidst theae alarming demonatrationa of diaaffection, reaolute on proceeding in her reforming career, she courageously enforced the publication of her letters-jjatent. She also appointed commissioners to pass through the kingdom, for the purpose of removing iraages from the chm-ches, overthrowing the shrines and altars, seizing the clerical vestments, and interdicting the celebration of raass in the churches and chapels.' In the second civil and religious war in France, though all her syrapathies were on the side of the Huguenots, she took no active share. The perfidy of the French court, in violating the peace of Chartres, by which the second civil war was terrainated, was what deterrained her to consecrate her energiea and everything she had to the defence of the Eeformed faith and its adherents in France. Among other breaches of the treaty, a plot had been formed by Catharine de Medicis and the Cardinal of Lorraine, to arrest the Prince of Conde. Discovering this plot, the prince precipitately fled, with his consort, who was near the time of her confinement, his eldest son, and four young children, from Noyers to EocheUe. which, with the country around, was almost exclusively Protestant, and which now becarae the centre and the principal seat of the Eeformed party — the Geneva of France, as Voltaire calls it. Leam ing, by a messenger from Cond6, this and other instances of the treachery of the com-t, and persuaded of its hostile intentions against the princes of the blood, not excepting herself and her chU dren, she came to the resolution to make common cause with the prince and the persecuted Huguenots. This was a resolution in- ' Olhagaray, pp. 566, 569. Vauvilliers, tom. ii. - Olhagaray, p, 669. At 418 Ladies of tlie Reformation, [France. volving gieat sacrifices. Situated between the frontiers of France and Spain, her sraall kingdom was peculiarly open to invasion on both sides. The loss of the crown of Navarre and of his ancestral possessions to her son, whom she loved with the tenderest affection — exile and poverty to herself, were the price she raight have to pay for her heroic devotion ; but she had counted the cost, and she de spatched a raessenger to the Prince of Conde, assuring him and his corapatriots of her friendly disposition, and promising to join them at EocheUe, at no distant period. What strengthened her determi nation was the discovery of a conspiracy of the French court, to take her son from her and restore him to the court, where he might be under the entire control of the queen-mother and her faction, and might be induced to change his religion. Her purpose she kept secret, for she waa afraid of Montluc, who, she well knew, was a zealous partizan of the Guises. Thia apprehension was but too well founded; for — what probably she was ignorant of — he had been actuaUy authorized by Catharine de Medicis and the Car dinal of Lorraine, who were suspicious of her intention to join the Prince of Cond6, to prevent her by every means from leaving her own dorainions. In preparation for her flight, she appointed her personal friend and fellow-professor of the Eeforraed faith, D'Arros, her lieutenant during her absence, and sent letters to some of her barons in whoae fidelity she could confide, requiring them to be ready to accompany her with aa many cavalry as they could muater. She wrote also to her friend the Viscount de Gourdon a letter, dated Nerac, Septera ber 1, 1568, explaining the sentiraents and feelings by whieh she was actuated in the step she now took. Its bold tone and vigorous style, so characteristic of her raental energy and firraness of pur pose, cannot fail to strike the reader. " You are, I presurae, in formed, ere thia, that by the grace of God, and without sloth or deceit, I have openly engaged to follow the profession of the Ee forraed faith, and to peril ray crown, my dominions, and my son, to insure its public exercise and the safety of all its professors. France.] Jeanne dAlhret. 419 . The Prince of Conde, my brother-in-law, has solicited and obtained the aid of the princes of Germany ; and the Queen of Eng land, who shares and sustains our beUef, will in a short time aid me with troops and money; and not myself alone, but also all those faithful ones who refuse to bow the knee before Baal. You aud the other "viscounts, also, who, like myself, are firmly built up in the faith, must set an example of fortitude and resignation. The eter nal God rejects the weak and faint-hearted. The blessed hour ia at hand, when those who ai-e of Israel must risk the loss of their worldly goods, to build teraples wherein God may be adored iu spu-it and in truth, in bodily worship, and with the homage of the heart; but where abominable idols are now enthroned before the mighty and jealous God. For thia purpose, at the end of the pre sent month, I shall join the prince at La EocheUe, with my son the Prince of Biarn, who bears your esteem and love.'" On Sabbath, September 6, five days after the date of this letter, after receiving, very early in the moming, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, in the chapel of Nerac, Jeanne, with her son and daughter Catharine, left that to'wn, attended by fifty brave cava liers. She herself, her daughter, and Madarae de Thignonville, her daughter's governess, rode in a litter. As she advanced in her jour ney she waa strengthened by fresh accessions of troops, under the command of her faithful barons, whom she had advertised, and by volunteers from the to^wns and villages through which she passed. Hearing of her departure from Nerac, Montluc, conjecturing her intentions, went on Monday morning to Agen, and despatched or ders to aU the captains and sieurs in Guienne, to advance in all haste -with a body of horse, that they might intercept her in her flight.^ But she eluded aU her pursuers. Having arrived at Ar- chiac, accompanied by a body of troops, now amounting to 3000 foot and 400 horse— an important addition to the strength of the Huguenot army, she was, after a sojourn of a few days, escorted 1 MS. Bibl. Eoy. quoted by Miss Freer, voL il. p. 116. 2 Commentaires de Montluc, iu Petitot, tom. xxii. pp. 246-251. 420 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. from this town by the Prince of Conde, attended by a body of troops and the most distinguished of the Huguenot chieftains, to EocheUe, into which she made her entry on the 28th of Septeraber, 1568. She was on horseback, her son Henry, then fifteen years of age, riding on her right hand, and the Prince of Cond6 on her left. The Hfitel de Ville, "KocheUe. As she approached, the mayor and other raagistrates in their robes met her, and presented her with the keys of the town. On her en tering, she was welcoraed by a cavalcade of ladies, headed by Ma darae d'Andelot, the Princess of Cond6, who was near the time of her accouchment, being unable to take part in the procession ; and, amidst the acclamations of thousands of spectators, she was con ducted to the hdtel de ville, where she and her suite were to take up their residence.' ' De Thou, Histoire, tom. iv. hv. xhv, pp. 140, 141 Miss Freer, vol. ii. p, 131. France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 421 CHAPTEE III. FROM HER APPOINTMENT AS GOVERNESS OF ROCHELLE, AND ADMI NISTRATOR OF THE FINANCIAL AFFAIRS OP THB CONFEDERATES, TO HER DEATH. On the day foUo-wing, the council of the confederated array having assembled at the hStel de -ville, where she was now resident, una nimously appointed, at the nomination of the Prince of Conde, her son Hem-y comraander-in-chief of the Huguenot array. At the ear nest desire of the council, she herself undertook the government of the to-wn of EocheUe and adjacent country, together with the raan- agement of the financial affairs of the confederates, of negotiations with the French and foreign governments, and of whatever related to the commissariat of the garrisons and array. Theae involved arduous duties; but to the adrairation and gratitude of all con cerned, she perforraed them with unremitting activity, consummate ability, and great success.' Arn mig her first acts, when invested -with this office, waa her endeavoura to obtain the assistance of Elizabeth, Queen of Eng land. Before the 15th of October, she had despatched the Sieur de la Chastelliers-Portaut, a trustworthy gentleraan of her household, with a letter to that queen, attributing the war to the treachery and barbarous poUcy of the Cardinal of Lorraine against the Hu guenots and against the Prince of Cond6, whom he had conspired to an-est — protesting that it was her determination to spare neither her blood nor her treasures to insure its success ; and as it was not against the king that the Huguenots had taken up arms, begging her majesty to be pleased to aid them in a cause in which all Protestants had an interest, and to grant for the future protection to her and to her children. This appeal being supported by the Cardinal of Chatillon, who was then at the English court, and v/ho ' De Thou. 422 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. had great influence with Elizabeth, produced all the effect that Jeanne could desire. The English queen, who always showed her self a warm and steady friend to Jeanne and her son, iramediately sent to EocheUe 100,000 gold angelota' and six pieces of cannon, with a large supply of ammunition. She also gave a cordial wel come to all the French exiles, who, driven from Normandy and other pro-vinces of France, on account of religion, had taken refuge in England. And not content with granting asaiatance herself, she encouraged her subjects to extend their aid to the Huguenot re fugees.^ Still farther to provide the funds necessary for the vigorous pro secution of the war, the Queen of Navarre proposed that the tempo ralities of the Eomish chm-ch, including lands and the ornaments of the churches, situated within the provinces where the Huguenots had the ascendency, should be confiscated and sold ; and a corarais sion was issued in her and the Prince of Conde's name, for carrying this proposition into effect.^ Jeanne's flight to EocheUe was most disastrous to her dominions, and threatened her with the entire loss of her kingdom. The stan dard of revolt was iramediately raised by the disaffected Popish barons within her own kingdom, headed by the Count de Luxe; rebellion prevailed through its whole extent ; and the fury of the Papists againat the Protestants broke out in violence and raassacres. Upon recei-ving intelligence of her fiight, the French govemment immediately sequestrated the lands she held in fief of the crown of France. The Spaniards taking advantage of her absence, and of the rebelUon of her subjects, entered Foix, and besieged the castle of D'Heura, the Spanish monarch, it may be presumed, intending to conquer her kingdom, and to annex it to his 0"wn. Not doubting that such was the intention of Philip, the French government de- ' i. e., £50,000, an angelot being of the value of ten shillings. This coin was struck in the reign of Henry VI., and it received its narae from an engraving upon it of the figui-e ot an angel, bearing the shields of France and England. 2 De Thou, Histoire, tom. iv. liv. xliv. pp. 159, 160. 3 Mimoires de Castelnau, liv. vii. ch, ii. France,] Jeanne d'Albret. 423 termined to occupy her territories, which were declared by royal proclamation to be forfeited, and in which the French monarch appointed the Count de Luxe to act as his lieutenant. D'Arros and Montamar prepared with indefatigable energy for the defence of B6arn; and the states of that principality testified the utmost loyalty to their queen, levying forces and raising money for her service. The queen herself issued from EocheUe coraraissions to the Viscounts de Bourniquel, Montclar, Gourdon, and Eapin, to raise new levies, and to march with all speed to succour D'Arros and Montamar. These viscounts, faithful to their sovereign, raised a body of heroic troops, to whose valour she was afterwards greatly indebted for the preservation of her kingdom. But in the mean time it seemed as if she had lost all. The Viscount de Terrode at the head of a French army entered Bfiarn, and subjugated the greater part of her dominions, restoring at Easter, 1569, the Eomish worship, and prohibiting the Eeformed worship, under the penalty of death.' This was followed by new disasters to Jeanne and her party. The fall of the Prince of Conde and the defeat of his troops at the battle of Jarnac (March 12 or 13, 1569), were mournful events to the Huguenots. Upon receiving the distressing inteUigence by a messenger from the Admiral de ColUgny, Jeanne burst iuto tears ; but recovering herself she earnestly turned her thoughts to the raeans of strengthenmg the Protestant army, and wiUing to con secrate her aU to the cause, she imraediately hurried with Henry, her son, and Henry, eldest aon of the deceased Prince of Conde, to Cognac, where the Protestant lords and array were aaaerabled. Here, as she rode along the front ranks, having her own son on ber right hand, and Condffs son on her left, she was greeted with enthusiastic cheers, as if new life had been already infused into the army. Cheers were also given for the Prince of Navarre, who was now for the first time introduced to the array, which was 1 Olhagaray, H'lSt. de Foix, &o, Favin, Hht. de Navarre, liv. xiv. Commentaires de Montluc, in Petitot, tom. xxii. 424 Ladies of the Reformation. [Francb. afterwards so often to conquer under his command. He had re ceived in the mountains of B6arn a manly and warlike education, and by his affability and martial air he drew forth the warmest affections and confiding admiration of the soldiers. The sight of his cousin Henry, the young Prince of Conde, inspired alternately tenderness and enthusiasra. To comfort the leaders, and to reani mate the courage of the army, all the officers and troops having formed a circle around her, Jeanne addressed them in an eloquent and impressive oration. She began with paying an affectionate tribute to the virtues and talents of the deceased Prince of Coud6, her brother-in-law, who, said she, had shown even to the death not less fidelity than valour in maintaining the good cause he had been led to espouse. She exhorted them to imitate his intrepidity and firmness, and, after his example, courageously to resolve to fight in defence of the truth and of the liberties of their country, which wicked men were impiously labouring to destroy. " You are not to imagine," she added, " that so good a cause has died with that great prince. The calaraity which has befallen him ought not to cast into despair raen so worthy and pious as those whom I now ad dress. God, in whose cause he fought, and bled, and died, has jdi-o- vided instrumenta by which that cause may still be upheld. The leaders who were associated with him while he Uved, are in a condi tion quickly and easily to remedy the disasters which his death raay have occasioned. You see before you the Prince of Beam, my son, whose interests I wish to be indissolubly bound up with yours, and you see before you the son of the great Cond6, who is not less the heir of his father's valour than of his narae. I doubt not but these two young princes, assisted by the honourable persons in this assembly, will one day be in a condition to maintain a cause so worthy in every respect of their moat zealoua support." She ex horted the soldiers never to lose the remembrance of their ancient virtue, telling them also that she bestowed upon them, and com mitted into their hands, her only son as their chief, and that the safety of the army was dearer to her than that of her o"wn son. France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 425 She assured them that she was resolved to make every sacrifice, and not to treat with the enemy save on conditions the moat favour able for her religion.' The mascuUne courage and energj' displayed by Jeanne on this occasion revived the drooping spirits of the officers and of the army. The two piinces were unanimously and enthusiastically chosen as new chiefs, the pre-eminence being assigned to her son, who, from this raoraent, becarae the head of the Huguenot party. An oath of fidelity to the chiefs was then swom. Having thus settled matters in the army, and given her son, in private, such lessons as she judged best adapted to kindle in his young heart an enthusiastic devotion to the Eeformed cause, Jeanne returned to EocheUe. To preserve the memory of the great event that had just taken place, she caused a medal to be struck, on the one side of which were engraven these words : — "Pax certa, victoria Integra, mors honesta,"^ and on the other, her own and her son's name.' This was meant to express the resolution which she and her son had formed courageously to die in defence of the Eeformed religion. To procure succom-s for her party, whose finances were exhausted, now again specially deraanded from her renewed attention and fresh exertions. She made a new appeal to Elizabeth, Queen of England, to whom she offered in pledge for a supply of money, valuable jew els and other effects belonging to the Prince of Coud6 and to the Admiral de ColUgny ; a diamond necklace of her own, valued at 160,000 crowns, "being set with eleven large table diamonds, one diaraond being set clear as a pendant;" a ring of her own set with a large balass ruby, surrounded by pearls, and valued at 1000 crowns.' Upon these precious articles, Elizabeth, who promised to keep them under her special charge, advanced conaiderable sums, ' De Thou, Histoire, tom. iv. p. 178. Anonymous Life of Admiral de ColUgny, pp. 125- 127. Petitot, tom. XX. pp. 136, 136, ''i.e., " Certain peace, complete victory, or honom-able death," 3 Petitot, tom. xx. pp. 135, 136. * The inventory of the jewels sent by Jeanne to Elizabeth is dated June 4, 1560. 420 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. and sent to EocheUe a second aupply of artillery and ammuni tion. Jeanne was thus enabled, not only to aid the confederates, but to transmit the money required by her faithful and heroic vis counts, who were engaged in suppressing rebelUon in her own do minions. She had given ample proof of her own disinterestedness, and she exhorted all to prefer security and liberty of conscience to honours, grandeur, property, and even life itself.' Meanwhile, Jeanne received the most distressing intelligence from her hereditary dominions. EebelUon and all the miseries of civil and religious war were prevailing in every part. The haU of the population of Beam, being Papists, declared for subraission to the authority of Charles IX.; the other half who were Protestants, comprehending the poorer portion, by whom the queen, from the un affected frankness of her raanners, and the proofs she had given of her deep interest in their welfare, was greatly beloved, declared for maintaining their allegiance to their legitimate sovereign. In other parts of her kingdom, where the Protestants were fewer in num ber, the rebels were stronger. To subdue this wide-spread insur rection, she issued orders for raising additional levies to strengthen the troops of the viscounts, and she appointed Gabriel de Lor- ges. Count of Montgommery, a nobleman of Scottish descent, who was distinguished both for his military talents and for his devotion to the cause of reform, to be coraraander-in-chief of her arraies in the south, investing him with unlimited powers for the restoi-ation of peace and of the Protestant faith in Beam. Having tendered to her majesty the oath of allegiance, Montgoraraery left EocheUe at the end of June, 1569, full of resolution and of hope, though escorted only by 200 cavalry. As he advanced, he drew to hia standard nuraeroua volunteers attached to the queen, and by the middle of July, her army numbered many thousands. With incredible rapid ity he accomplished, by his cool courage and his bold, well-laid plana, a march of 150 leagues, through a country swarming -with hostUe armies, completely evading all the precautionary measures ^ Matthieu, q^uoted in Petitot, tom. xxxiv, pp, 258, 259. Miss Freer, vol. ii. p. 164. France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 427 taken to arrest his progress, raeeting with aa little opposition as if he had been in a friendly country ; and he entered Beam on the 6th of August, When now within the principality, his career was one of triumphant success. He had to encounter the armies of the. queen's rebellious barons, of France, and of Spain ; but by the deci sive superiority of hia arma, he crushed all oppositiou, committing many deeds of horror, as always happens in civil and religious war, and on the 23d of August, he had completed the subjugation of B6arn and the other principalities. Before withdrawing hia troops, he, in obedience to the commands of the queen, suppressed the Eo man Catholic faith, which, dm-ing the rebellion, had been restored, and re-established the Protestant institutions, and all the laws and ordonnances of the legitimate sovereign which had been abolished. His rapid and resistless progress seeras almost fabulous, and Mont luc, who was himself an intrepid and skilful general, was able to account for it only on the supposition that the heretics had received assistance from the evil one.' The third pacification followed soon after, namely, August 8, 1570. But Jeanne and the other Huguenot leaders, suspecting, aa frora past experience they had too good reason to suspect, the sincerity of the court, instead of retiring to their respective chateaux, resolved to continue their residence in EocheUe, at once to secure their personal safety and to maiutain and even strengthen the confederacy for the preservation of their liberties. This poUcy, which aubsequent eventa proved to be prudent, greatly disappointed the court, which had anticipated that, immediately on the conclusion of the peace, the Protestant leaders would disperse and dissolve the confederacy, and thus easily become the victiras of that scheme of extermination now in contemplation. To withdraw them from EocheUe, and thus bring them into the snare, was now the great object aimed at; and for this purpose, caresses, proraises, and flattery were lavished upon them. The Queen of Navarre was receiving almost daily letters from Catharine de Medicis full of the warmest expressions of 1 Olhagaray, Hist, de Foix, &c. 428 Ladies of the Reformation. [francs friendship, and containing the most urgent invitations to come to the court; but weU knowing the unforgiving character of Catharine, whom, by making common cause with the Huguenots, ahe had raortally offended, she distrusted these professions of friendship, and was in no hurry to leave EocheUe, The Great Cloek Tower, Rochelle. At last, the Marshal de Coss6 was despatched by the French court to renew these in"vitations, and to lay before Jeanne a proposi tion for a matrimonial alliance between her son, now about eighteen yeara of age, and Marguerite de Valoia, the king's sister. The latter part of his coramission when coraraunicated to her by Coss6, flatter ing as was the prospect of worldly advantage which it opened up, excited in her breast painful rather than agreeable eraotions. She was afraid that it might be merely intended as a snare to lull the suspicions of herself and of her friends, and that under it might be concealed some raeditated purpose of vengeance against thera. The France.] Jeanne dAlbret. 429 thought that Marguerite de Valois had been brought up in a court proverbially corrupt, and under such a mother as Catharuie de Me dicis, increased her feelings of repugnance. She had serious objec tions, too, on the score of the difference of reUgion. She therefore declared that while fully sensible of the honour and advantage of the alUance, she thought that a matter so iraportant required seri ous deliberation ; that she did not know whether her conscience would permit her to acquiesce in opposition to the difficulties aris ing from difference of religion ; that she would consult her di-vinea, and consider whether suoh an alliance would conduce to the glory of God and the good of the kingdom.' She, however, consented to appoint envoys who might proceed to the French court to make it the subject of deliberation, and to represent and seek the redress of various grievances and -violations of the pacification. These nego tiations continued to go on. The French monarch and his court professed the most eager desire for the proposed matrimonial alli ance, and the greatest readiness to redress the gTievances com plained of by the Queen of Navarre. Suspicious of pei-fidy, she continued to hesitate. Her spirit seemed as if oppressed by fore bodings of the approach of some undefined but terrible calamity, springing it might be out of thia marriage. Meanwhile, a synod of the Eeformed Church of Fi-ance, with the sanction of Charles IX., met at EocheUe, April 2, 1671. Theo dore Beza was chosen moderator. The Queen of Navarre, her son Henry, the Prince of CondS, Louis, Count of Nassau, the Admiral de CoUigny, and divers other lords, were present. The Queen of Navarre asked the advice of the synod, " whether, through want of others, she might -with a good conscience receive and establish Eoman Catholic officers in her dominiona, as also in her court and family." The synod humbly recommended, "That her majesty should take special heed about her doraestic officers, and, aa rauch as possible, should employ only peraons fearing God and of the Ee formed reUgion ; that ahe should cause the Papists that are peace- ' De Thou, Histoire, tom. iv, liv, ], pp. 489, 490. 430 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. able, and of unblemished lives, to be instructed; and that she should utterly discard those traitors, who forsook her in her neces sities, and cruelly persecuted God's saints in these last troubles." This recommendation approved itself to the judgment of the queen, and through her chaplain, Le Nord, she gave the assembly thanks for their advice, by which she declared she would be regulated.' Dm-ing the sitting of this assembly the queen's translation of the New Testaraent into the Basque dialect, or the language of Biscay — which had never before been comraitted to -writing — waa pub lished. She had employed the Protestant minister, Jean de Licar- rague, to execute this translation for the benefit of such of her sub jects as spoke that dialect, which was widely different from the Bearnese, and from the other dialects spoken in the peninsula. It was printed, at her expense, at EocheUe, in a beautiful type, and dedicated to her by the translator. For this achievement, so hon ourable to a Christian queen, she received the thanks of the as sembly.^ By her orders, and at her expense, the Geneva Catechism and Liturgy were also translated into the Biscayan language, and Eeformed ministers acquainted with that language sent into Biscay to instruct the people in the evangeUcal doctrines.^ The expense she incurred by these undertakings, at a time when her financial resources were suffering from the exhausting Huguenot wars, and from the efforts necessary to put do"wn rebeUion in her own terri tories, afforded additional proof of her zeal for the diffusion of the Eeformed faith. It may here be stated that Jeanne had entered privately into a second marriage, which was not openly avowed, probably because the bridegroom was her inferior in rank. Bayle refers to a tradi tion which, after much investigation, he was unable to authenticate, that she had re-married clandestinely. From two papers in the Memoires et Correspondance de Duplessis Mornay,'' the truth of this ' Quick's Synodicon, vol. i. p. 99. 2 Do Thou, Memoires in Petitot, tom. xxxvii. p. 305. Quick's Synodicon. M'Cric's Hist, of Ref. in Spain, p. 201. 2 De Thou, Histoire, tom. iv. Uv, li. p. 541. ' Tom, ii, pp. 18-20. France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 431 tradition is fully established. The first of these papers is entitled. Advice upon the Marriage of the Queen Jeanne d'Albret, dated Paris, 23d February, 1571, and is signed by several rainisters. The other advice, dated EocheUe, sorae raonths after, ia also signed by several ministers, among whom is the name of Theodore Beza. As the parties had made their engageraents before a competent number of witnesses, the ministers admit the validity of the marriage, but pronounce such marriages ao objectionable on various grounds, eapeciaUy from the scandal they tend to create, as to infer exclusion from the feUowship of the church, unless raeans are speedily taken to raake thera known to the church and the world. About the raiddle of September, 1571, Jeanne, accompanied by her son and daughter, the Prince of Conde, aud a, numerous suite, left EocheUe, amidst the regrets of the inhabitants, for the castle of ¦ Pau; and about the middle of October, she entered the city of Pau, hailed by the loud and enthusiaatic cheera of the thousands who had collected together to witness her entry. Soon after her arrival, in furtherance of the ruling principle of her government, she convoked the states of the principality to re establish the Eeformed faith, and to pass various laws for the pro motion of raoraUty and good order araong her subjects. A code of ecclesiastical ordonnances was brought under the consideration of her states on the 26th of November. The states gave their sanction to the code, and it was published, January 15, 1572.' While con taining many things excellent, it is doubtless objectionable in de creeing the infiiction of civil penalties for ecclesiastical offences. "I now inform you," writes she to the Viscount de Gourdon, in a letter dated Pau, November 29, 1571, "that I have issued general orders for the maintenance of discipline in the church iu Beam, as it is my resolve that the Eeformed religion shall remain dominant through out my sovereignties, all superstition and idolatrous practices being ' On the firet day, Jeanne issued a proclamation reforming the calendar, and fixing the commencement of theyear on the 1st of January. A similar change had been efl'ected in France shortly hefore by Clu-mcellor I'Hopital. 432 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. from henceforth suppressed. It is my wiU that all my subjects throughout my dorainions shall attend public worship, under cer tain penalties ; and that all persons who absent themselves from the holy coraraunion more than once, without good and reasonable ex- cuae, shall suffer banishment.'" The penalties here referred to were as follows : — For absence from public worship, for the first offence, five sous if the offender was poor, and ten if he was rich ; for the second offence, five livres if the offender was poor, and ten if he was rich; for the third offence, imprisonment. For absence from the holy communion raore than once, the penalty was banishment for two years.^ The enactment of these civil pains for offences pm-ely ecclesiastical has exposed the Queen of Navarre to much unmerited reproach. She has, on that account, been stigmatized as a perse cutor not lesa atrocious than Nero or Caligula, But in coraraon faimess three things are here to be taken into consideration — first, as haa been noted before, our Eeforraera, ha'ving corae out of a per secuting church, could hardly be expected to acquire correct and Uberal views on all questions of civil and ecclesiastical polity all at once. Secondly, the raoderation of these penalties, when compared with the cold-blooded cruelties of the Eomish church, show an im mense advance in the direction of leniency in the treatment of dis sentients frora the established faith. A single instance cannot be adduced in which this queen put a Papist to death simply on the ground of his religion. Thirdly, from the perpetual plotting- of the Papists against her crown, her liberty, and even her Ufe — frora the turaults and rebellions they were constantly exciting, and from the massacres of her Protestant subjects they had often committed, she had good reason for believing that her own safety and the public peace would never be secure so long as priests and Papists existed within her dominions. Without entering into a particular exami nation of the edict, we may only observe, in opposition to the prin ciple of indiscrirainate adraission to the holy communion, which it recognizes and undertakes to compel, that this is an institution in- • Miss Freer, vol. ii. p. 260 - Jameson's Notices, &c., pp. 103-109. France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 433 tended excluaively for the friends of Christ, and that it belongs to the church, not to the civil magistrate, to judge of the qualifications of those to be admitted to its obaervance. Yet Jeanne's administration and its fruits were such as to reflect no little honom- upon her as an enlightened ruler. " Taking up the work of Marguerite de Valois, her mother, she opened schools, col leges, and hospitals. Soon there waa not a beggar in Beam. The chUdren of the poor who showed any aptitude for sciences and literature, were educated at the expense of the treasury. Drunk enness, usury, and games of hazard were severely repressed. AU the arts flourished with the new faith ; and even now, at the end of three centuries, the people of Bfiarn pronounce the name of the good queen, who so greatly raised the prosperity of their country, with an affectionate veneration." ' WhUe Jeanne was resident at Pau, embassies frora the French court continued to arrive, iraportuning her consent to the raarriage of her son with Marguerite de Valois, entreating her to come to the court with her son, reiterating expressions of the warmest esteem and friendship, and assuring her of the wiUingness of the king that the marriage should be solemnized according to the formula of her o"wn church. At last, yielding to the persuasions of her states, which she assembled for consultation, and of the Admiral de Col Ugny, who aU represented the match aa proraising great advantages to the Eeformed cause in France, she consented to go to the court to negotiate the marriage ; and in a letter to the French raonarch she signifled her resolution, and that he raight expect her arrival soon. She would not, however, on any account, allow her son to accompany her, or afterwards to follow her, till the raarriage should be finally settled and the contract signed. She trerabled at the thought of the dangers to which he might be exposed among the proffigate ladies of the court, the more especially as he had already begun to show some propensity to that licentiousnesa for which he was so notorious in after life. She appointed him her lieutenant-general ' Felice's Hist, of the Protestants of France, p. 121. S3 434 Ladi<;s of tlie Reformation. '[.Fbance. in Beam dming her absence. Henry, who was strongly attached to his mother, and who paid her the utmost deference, was entu-ely obedient to these expressions of her will. When advised by sorae uot to remain behind her, he replied, " It is the order of my mo ther," as if her commands were to him a law. He was the more reconcUed in this instance to obey her, as Marguerite de Valois had not awakened in his heart any peculiarly strong sensations of ten derness, and as the object of his devoted affection at this time, the Countess of Guiche, was resident in B6arn.' Early in January, 1572, Jeanne left Pau for Nerac, whence, after having, according to previous arrangement, met and conferred with her faithful nobles of Beam, Foix, and Navarre, and after having taken farewell of her son, whom she was never to see again in this world, ahe departed for the French court. She was accompanied by her daughter Catharine, and an honourable suite, in which were Biron, Louis, Count of Nassau, the Viscount of Eohan, the Count of la Eochefoucault, Teligny, La Noue, De Eosny (the father of the famous Duke of Sully), Madame de Thignonville, MademoiseUe de Perray, and others. On her way, while passing on to Tours, she met Cardinal Alex- andrin, who, in the preceding year, had been at the courts of Spain and Portugal as the pope's legate, and who was now hurrying from Italy to the French court to remonstrate, in the name of his holi ness Pius v., against the intended marriage. On meeting her, such was the contempt of the haughty prelate for a Protestant queen, that he passed by without saluting her. He went directly to the court at Blois and immediately obtained a secret audience, at whioh he asked the king, in name of the pope, among other things, to marry his sister to the King of Portugal, instead of giving her to the Prince of Navarre, whom his mother had matured in heresy and to re nounce all intercourse with heretics, as being equally pemicious to the kingdom and to himself.'' The day follo-.ving Jeanne's arrival at Tours, she was visited by '' Jliss Freer, vol, ii, pp. 270, 290. '^ De Thou, tom, iv, liv, li, p, 535. .France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 435 Catharine de Medicis, who had left Blois, where the court was then residing, to confer with her respecting the intencled marriage. After the departure of Cardinal Alexandrin from Blois, Jeanne, accompanied by Louis de Nassau, brother of the Prince of Orange, proceeded from Tours to the court. Like ColUgny, she was wel comed with affected demonstrations of the warmest friendship. On the day of her arrival she was so much caressed by the queen-mo ther, and especially by the king, who called her "his grand aunt," " his all," " his best beloved," that all were astonished at the ap parent affection and unusual respect with which she was treated.' Court of the Cislle of Blois, Catharine, in the many private interviews she had with Jeanne about the marriage and other topics, was anxious to draw frora her the intentions of the Protestant party ; but in this she corapletely faUed. Irritated at the reserve of the Huguenot queen, she begged Marshal de Tavannes, of whose knowledge of huraan nature she had a high opinion, to teU her how she might extract secrets so impor tant. " Madame," he freely answered, " put her into a passion, and keep your own temper : you will then leam everything from her, 1 L'Estoile'in Petitot, tom, xlv, pp, 71-78, 43G Ladies rf the Reformation. [franc and she nothing frora you ; this is the way to manage women in general," Afraid of inspiring with distrust the Queen of Navarre, Catharine did not follow this advice. But though she expressed her determination to maintain the peace, and spoke strongly of the importance of the contemplated marriage as a raeans of cementing the union of the two parties which divided the kingdora, she waa less successful on this occasion in diaaembling than her son.' She could not conceal the contempt and ill-will with which she regarded the Queen of Navarro. Jeanne, in a letter she -wrote at this tirae to her son from Blois, graphically describes the ill treatraent sho received from Catharine, the mortification it caused her, and the corruption of manners prevaiUng at the French court. She com plains that the queen-mother treated her shockingly, derided her anxiety to have the marriage celebrated according to the Huguenot form, repeated to every one the very contrary of what she (the Queen of Navarro) had said, and, when complained to on that score, denied the thing fiatly, " laughing in my face, and treating me in suoh a sharaeful faahion, that you may believe my patience aurpasses that of Griselda herself."^ She laraents that the queen- raother would yield nothing as to the masa, and spoke of it very differently from what she had ever done before. She informs him that she easily perceived that, in the event of the marriage taking place, the court conteraplated his becoming a convert to Popery ; that her situation was wretched, from the disrespect shown her; that the patience she displayed was truly miraculous, though her health had begun to be affected. She eulogizes the beauty and accomplishments of Marguerite de Valois, but does so with trem bling, when refiecting how that princess had been brought up in a court the most corruj^t, perhaps, that ever existed. She speaks of the licentiousness of the court as far greater than what she had be lieved, great as she knew it to have been. She tells him that ono 1 Petitot, tom. xx. pp. 141-146. 2 Griselda, the heroine's name in the beautiful story of Chaucer and Boccaccio, whose patience has hecome a proverb. France,] Jeanne d'Albret. 4S7 reason why she wished him married was, that he and his wife might withdraw from a court where he could not preserve hia vir tue uncontaminated without an extraordinary measure of Divine grace. And finding, contrary to what she had been led to beUeve, that Marguerite de Valois was a bigoted Papist, as well as ap parently cold in regard to the marriage,' her forraer scruples iu reference to it returned, and she advised her son not to corae to the court.- The letter evidently expresses the inmost feelings of her heart — every word is marked by deep sincerity; it bears testimony to her strong practical good sense, her penetration in detecting the motives of the queen-mother and of the court, her high-toned reli gious principle, and her natural irritability of temper. It is writ ten, not -with the asperity of the ascetic, who wished to censure everything and praiae nothing, but with the desponding regret of an enUghtened and high-principled Christian, who would have re joiced had truth permitted her to give a representation more favourable. While the negotiations were going on, Charles at laat declared that he would insist on no conditions whatever, provided the Queen of Navarre would consent that the prince, her son, should come in person to the court to receive the hand of his bride instead of wed ding her by proxy. This concession of the king appeared so gene rous, and the condition ou which it was made so reasonable, that the queen, implored by all in whom she raost confided, no longer to oppose what promised to establish upon a firra basis order and tranquillity in the kingdom, gave a tardy and reluctant consent, though neither her disinclination to the marriage nor her distrust of the court had in the least diminished. The marriage contract was signed April 11, 1572. Among its other provisions the king engaged to give his sister for dowry, 300,000 crowns of gold, each cro-wn being valued at fifty-four sous ; 1 WeU-founded reports were current at court as to the inclinations of the young prin cess for the Duke of Guise; but Jeanne, it is said, was ignorant of these reports, 2 See this letter in Le Laboureur, tom, i, p. 858. 438 Ladies of the Reformation. [France.; but it contained no reference to the difference of religion between the contracting parties,' One obstacle to the marriage still remained. The relationship of the parties being within the prohibited degrees of conaanguinity according to the canon law, and one of them being a heretic, a dia- pensation from the pope was necessary, conforraably to the rules of the Eoraish church, to render the marriage valid. No sooner, therefore, was the marriage contract signed, than the French king despatched u, courier to the Cardinal of Lorraine, who was then at Eome, requiring him to apply immediately to the pope for a dispen sation. This request Pius V., who then wore the Papal tiara, abso lutely refused to grant. The relationship of the parties might have caused no great difficulty ; but it was a more serious matter, and liable to graver objections, to grant a dispensation for the marriage of a faithful daughter of the church with a heretic, and the son of an excommunicated heretic — for a marriage, too. in the solemnization of which many of the usuaUy observed forms and ceremonies were to be omitted, while, besides, the marriage contract contained no article securing to the bride the free exercise of her reUgion. At length, however, the Papal dispensation arrived, or waa said to have arrived. Some authors affirm that, hopeless of overcoming the objections of Gregory XIIL, who had just ascended the Papal throne, Catharine de Medicis and her son caused a Papal dispensa tion to be forged. By other writers it is stated that the dispensa tion was granted by Gregory XIIL, after he had been made ac quainted with the projected massacre of St, Bartholoraew by the Cardinal of Lorraine, One or other of these statements must have been the fact ; but which of them is an historical problem still re maining to be solved. If the document was not forged by Catha rine, it can hardly be believed that the pope would ao readily have granted such a dispensation, unless in anticipation of, and as a means of realizing some great good to the chm-ch, such as the con templated raassacre of the Huguenots in his judgment would be, aa * De Thou, Histoire, tom. iv. liv. li. p. 537. France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 4S9 we know from his having, after it had talcen place, issued a bull for a jubilee to celebrate the joyful event, and from his having ordered a medal to be struck to perpetuate its memory. After the arrival, or alleged arrival of the dispensation, the Queen of Navarre authorized her son to come to the court; but her instructions were that he should not come with too numerous a suite. On the 15th' of May, Jeanne, attended by her suite, left Blois for Paris, to make preparation for the celebration of the approach ing nuptials. On her arrival in Paris she took up her residence in the H6tel de Conde, in the Eue de GreneUe St. Honor6.'^ Ha-ving occupied lierself for some days in Paris in purchasing jewelry and rich dresses, and in making other preparations for the marriage, she complained on Wednesday evening, the 4th of June, of severe pain in her limbs, and of great lassitude. At first her illness did not present any alarming symptoms, and her attendants did not anticipate danger, but she early apprehended a fatal issue, and prepared for the solemn change. It may, perhaps, be regarded as a mortal symptom, that though, imraediately before her illhess, she had sho"wn great anxiety to provide for her son's marriage on a scale of magnificence fitting the splendour of the a,Uiance, yet that from the first day of her sickness, such was her total forgetfulness or neglect of sueh matters, that she never made the most distant aUusion to them. On the second day of her iUness, the great oppression of her chest and other symptoms caused anxiety to her 0"wn physicians, Caillard and Desnoeux, and the physicians of the king's household were summoned to assist with their advice; but she derived little benefit from the remedies they applied. Believing that her recovery was hopeless, she desired to be attended by sorae of her chaplains, who might minister to her the consolations of reUgion. A minister hav ing been sent for, he explained to her, frora the Scriptures, the duty 1 De Thou, 2 Favin, liv. xiv. De Thou says that she lodged in the palace of the Bishop of CharLrca, a friend of the Eeformed religion.— .ffist., tom. iv. liv. Ii. p. 537. 440 Ladies of tlie Reform.ation. [France. of submission to the will of God, and how, though the Diviue chas tisements might seem to the fiesh to be severe, God, as being per fectly just, could do nothing wrong, and as being a merciful Father, could not but intend, by all his corrections, the good of his chU dren. "I take all this," said she, "as sent from the hand of God, my most merciful Father. Nor have I, during this extreraity, been afraid to die ; much less have I murraured against God for this in fliction, knowing that whatsoever he does shall, in the end, tum to my everlasting good." The minister having reminded her of the duty of looking beyond secondary causes to the great First Cause, she said, "I depend wholly on the pro"vidence of God, knowing that all things are wisely disposed by hira ; and my prayer to him is that he would vouchsafe me the grace he sees to be necessary for my sal vation. As to this life, I am in a good measure weaned from the love of it, through the affiictions which have foUowed me from my youth to the present hour, but especiaUy because I cannot live with out daily offending my good God, with whom I desire to be with all my heart." The minister having next observed that long life, how full soever of troubles, is to be accounted among the blessings of God, as om- lives may, in many ways, promote his glory, she replied : "In regard to myself ray Ufe is not dear to me, for so long as I live in this frail flesh I am prone to sin against God. Only I am con cemed about the children whom God has given me— that they should so soon be deprived of a mother's care. Should he, however, be pleased to remove me, I doubt not but that he himself will be a .Father and a Protector to them, aa he has been to me in my greatest afflictions, and therefore I corarait them wholly to his providence and fatherly care." Shortly after, she said that death was not ter rible to her, because it waa the way by which she should pass hence to her everlasting rest. With hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, she acknowledged that the sins she had committed were innumer able, and more than sufficient to insure her everlasting conderana tion, but she, notwithstanding, hoped for forgiveness and salvation through the merits of Christ, in which alone she trusted. France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 441 The minister then dwelt at some length on the grounds she had to trust in the mercy of God in Christ, after which, that he might not exhaust her strength and spirits by a lengthened address, he wished to desist; but she earnestly begged him to continue speaking to her about these matters of life and etemal salvation, adding, "Now I feel the want of such discourses, for since my coming to Paris, I have been somewhat remiss in hearing exhortations from the Word of God, and therefore I am the more glad to receive com fort from it in this my great extremity." In compliance with her request, he spoke of the felicity enjoyed by the saints in the blissful presence of God in heaven. He then asked her, "Do you verily be lieve that Jesus Christ came into the world to save you ? And do you expect the full forgiveness of your sins by the shedding of his blood for you ?" "Yes," she repUed, "I do ; believing that he is my only Saviour and Mediator, and I expect salvation from no other, knowing that he has fully satisfied justice for the sins of the world. I am therefore assured that God, for his sake, according to his gra cious promise in him, wiU have mercy upon me." ' On the third day of her iUness, with a mind perfectly composed, she made her last wiU and testament. In this docuraent, after re commending her soul to God, she expresses her desire to be bmied without ceremony in the tomb of Henry d'Albret, her father, in the cathedral of Lescar near Pau. She earnestly enjoins her son Henry to cultivate piety, to abide steadfastly by the Eeformed religiou in which he had been educated, and not to suffer himself to be tumed aside by ambition, or the pleasures of the world. She charges him to preserve inviolate the laws and constitutions which she had pub lished in Beam and iu Lower Navarre. She exhorts hira to banish from his court atheists, fiatterers. debauchees, and such like charac ters ; and to retain about his person good men of unblemished repu tation, as De Beauvoir, De Francourt, and De B6thune. She be seeches him to aot towards hia sister Catharine the part of an affec tionate brother, to educate her in Beam in the same school of piety 1 Foxo's Acts, &.O., edit. London. 1631, foho, vol. iii. App. pp. 52, 63. 442 Ladies of the Reformation. [T'ranok. in which he himself had been brought up, and when she should bo of age, to bestow her in marriage upon a prince of her own rank and religion. She directs that Madame de Thignonville should be retained as Catharine's governess, and that Madames de Vaulx, De Fontrailles, and MademoiseUe de Perray should be appointed ladies of her household, "being all ladies of rank of the Eeformed faith, whose deportraent corresponded with their religious profession." She farther exhorts Henry to love his cousins-german, Henry, the Prince of Conde, and Francis, the Prince of Conty,' as if they were his brothers, and to labour to maintain, for the glory of God, the close union which had always existed between them and Adrairal de CoUigny. Having given these advices she appoints him her heir, bequeathing to him all her dominions, lordships, and fiefs, "in testimony of the love and dutiful reverence he had always sho-wn towards her ;" and she bequeaths to her daughter Catharine all her jewels, excepting only those in the poaaession of EUzabeth, Queen of England (formerly noticed), which she leaves to her son aa heir looms of the cro"wn of Navarre. She beseeches the French king, the queen-mother, the Duke of Anjou, and the Duke of Alencon, the king's brothers, to take her children under their protection, and to allow them the free exercise of their religion. She entreats Ma dame Marguerite, her prospective daughter-in-law, to love Catha rine as her sister. Finally, ahe appoints Cardinal Charles de Bour bou, brother of the late King of Navarre, and Admiral de ColUgny, executors of this her last will and testament.^ On the evening of Saturday, June 7, the queen, having given orders that Madame de Thignonville should be brought to her, con ferred with her in reference to Catharine. She besought her to treat the princess with affectionate tenderneaa, and quitting the French court to return with her into Beam. " Tell her," said the queen, "that her dying raother iraplored her to repose a firra and constant trust iu God, to be obedient to her brother and to her ' The sons of the late Louis, Prince of Cond6. '¦= De Thou, Histoire, tom. iv. liv. h. pp. 541-643. Foxe, vol. iii App. p.' 55. France.] Jeanne d'Albret, 443 preceptress, who, both of thera, will guide her steps through the danger which besets her ; let her receive their counsels as if I myself spake them. FinaUy, tell my beloved child that I solemnly confide her to the care of Alraighty God, who will protect and bless her if she offers him faithful service."' During the time of her sickness she often gave utterance to the most fervent aspirations after the enjoyment of the presence of God in heaven. These words were often in her mouth : " O my, God, iu thy good time deliver me from this body of death, and from the raiseries of the present life, that I raay no raore offend thee, and that I may attain that felicity which thou in thy Word hast pro mised me." During the time that the minister was praying with her, she, with hands and eyes lifted up to heaven, heaved many sighs, especially when mention was made of the mercy which God in Chiist extends towards poor sinners. Observing the ladies and gentlemen around her bed weeping, she besought them not to weep for her, since God, by that sickness, was calling her from this world to the enjoyraent of a better life — to enter the desired haven whither this frail vessel of hers had for a long time been steering. She also expressed her sorrow that her sudden and severe illness prevented her, as she could have desired, from rewarding them and many other faithful servants of her household. " But." said she, " I will not fail to give orders about this raatter to the utmost of my abUity." On the Sth of June, which was Sabbath, the day before her death, she called for one of her miniaters, persuaded that her de parture was at hand. At her desire he spake to her as to the temptations with which Satan is wont to assault God's chosen ones in their last conflict. He then asked her whether she placed her whole confidence in Christ crucified, who died for her sins and rose again for her justification ? She answered, " I expect neither salva tion, nor righteousness, nor life from any but my Saviour Jesus Clirist, being assured that hia merits alone are abundantly sufficient ' Miss Freer, vol. ii, p, 331. 444 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. to make full satisfaction for all my sins, innumerable though they be." " Madame," said he, " should it please God by this sickness to put an end to thia your weary pilgriraage, and to call you home to himself, of which we see some evident signs, are you wUling to go to him T' " Yes, I ara willing," was her reply. " Then, madame," said he, " open the eyes of your faith, and behold Jesus your great Eedeemer sitting at the right hand of his Father, reaching forth his hand to receive you to himself; are you wiUing to go to hira?" " Yes, most wUling," she answered ; " much more willing than to linger here below, where I see nothing but vanity," Not long after. Admiral de ColUgny came in to see her, ac companied by a minister, to whose discourse she listened with at tention for some tirae, aud after he had engaged in prayer, she re quested that he and the other rainister would stay all night with her in her chamber, which they cordially consented to do. The greater part of that night they spent iu religious conversation with her, in reading appropriate passages from the Scriptures, and in prayer. The passages of Scripture they read were the 14th, 15th, leth, and 17th chapters of the gospel of John, and several of the Psalms of David, concluding with the 31st Psalm. To all these ex ercises she devoutly Ustened, and much as she suffered, she betrayed no signs of impatience, eveu when her affliction was most severe. Thia was her last night on earth.' In the early part of the foUowing moming she lay in a, state of exhaustion, apparently painless, with her eyes shut. This was fol lowed by a severe sudden paroxysm of suffering from the difficulty of breathing. It now seeraed from her convulsive heavings as if she was in the agonies of dissolution. She was raised in the arms of her attendants ; and by the direction of Caillard, her chief phy sician, her chest was rubbed with stimulants ' to restore the circu lation. The difficulty of breathing waa at length much relieved, but after this she was unable agaiu to speak, and it was manifest that Ufe was fast ebbing to its close. She, however, retained the ' Foxe, vol, iU, App, p, 66. France.] Jeanne d'Albret. 445 exercise of her raental faculties to the last, and by a gesture she signified to her chaplain that intercessions should still be offered up in her behalf to the Hearer of prayer. A sraile, expressive of the peace and joy aniraating her aoul, passed over her countenance as the minister read these words beginning the 31st Psalm, " In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust." She continued to sink till between eight and nine o'clock in the morning of the 9th of June, when her spirit calmly passed away from all its labours and trials in this life — which to her had been pre-eminently a scene of painful warfare — and entered into rest. She was in the forty-fourth year of her age. From her deathbed chamber all Popish superstitions were strictly excluded ; and the French court so far respected her memory as not to interfere in this respect -with the arrangements of her Protestant attendants. Marguerite de Valois, the intended bride of her aon, i-e- corda in her meraoira of herself an incident which took place in her deathbed charaber, strikingly deraonstrating how, when a hated fel low-creature has been smitten down by death, this for the time sub dues the passion of hatred, and excites feelings of sympathy and compassion in the bosom even of an enemy, " The Duchess of Ne vers,"' says she, "whose temper you know, came with the Cardinal de Bourbon, her sisters the Duchess of Guise ^ and the Princess of Conde,' and myself, to the lodgings of the late Queen of Navarre, at Paris, in order to perform the laat marks of respect due to her rank and to our relation to hor, not with the pomp and ceremonies of our religion, but with the unceremonious preparations allowed by the Huguenot religion. The deceased queen was in her ordinary bed, the curtains open, without candles, without priests, without crosses, and without holy water. WhUe we remained at the distance of five or six feet from her bed, with the rest of the corapany, the Duchess of Nevers, whora the deceased queen during life had hated more than anybody else, and who had reciprocated this hatred both in will and words, as you know she could well do to those whom ahe ' Henrietta, daughter and heiress of Francis, the flrst Duke of Nevers, '^ Catharuie. " ^ Mary, the youngest sister. 446 Ladies of the Reformation. '[France, hated, rose from amongst us, and, with many polite and lowly curt sies, went to her bed, took her by the hand, and kissed it, after which, making again a profound respectful obeisance, ahe took her place beside us. This," she adds, " surprised all present who knew the hatred that existed between them."' The mortal remains of the queen lay in state in the Hotel de Cond6 during the days subsequent to her death, after which they were placed iu a leaden coffin. In her last will she had expressly enjoined that she should be interred in the torab in the cathedral of Lescar, where the remains of her beloved parents were laid. But in disregard of her dying coramands, her corpse, by the orders of the Freuch king, was conveyed to VendSme, and deposited in the ancestral sepulchre of her husband, in St. George's ch.apel, in the cathedral of Vendome. Her funeral was almost without pomp, and was conducted in strict conforraity with the forras of the Hu guenots, none of the Popish ceremonies usually practised on such occasions being observed. It was attended by a large concourse of the Huguenot nobility, who were anxious to perforin the laat offices of respect to a princess to whom they were so much indebted, and whom they so greatly loved and admired for the rare virtues and qualities with which she was endowed. An epitaph, which is sim ply a record of her parentage, and of the date and place of her birth and death, was afterwards inscribed on her tomb." The unexpected death of the Queen of Navarre gave rise to a good deal of talk. Some regarded it as a bad omen — as a prognos tication that the marriage about to be celebrated, being in a manner preceded by funereal torches, would prove unfortunate.^ A report, also, became widely current, and was credited by many, that she had been poisoned. It was affirmed that her disease was in the brain, and that the cause of her death was poison, communicated to the brain by the scent of a pair of perfumed gloves of which Ca- ' Memoires de Marguerite de Valois, iu Petitot, tora. xxxvii. p. 47. 2 Sainte-Marthe, Hist. Ginialogique de la Maison Royale de France. 3 De Thou, Histoire, tom. iv. hv, li. p. 643, . France.] Jeanne dAlbret. 447 tharine de Medicis had made her a present,' and which had been prepared by Eenfi, Catharine's Italian perfuraer, by her orders, for the express purpose of poisoning the Queen of Navarre.^ But the suspicion is by no raeans well founded. That Catharine and the court were capable of such a deed of atrocity, no one who knows theu- character and their history will deny, and the general convic tion araong the Huguenots that they were capable of the deed, pro bably originated and gave currency to the rumour and belief that the Queen of Navarre had fallen a victim to unfair dealing. But all the evidence goes to show that the sickness of Jeanne was owing to a disease of the lungs previously existuig, which the great heat at that season of the year, and the hurry and agitation caused her by her preparations for the approaching marriage, had irritated and inflamed into a fever. To ascertain the cause of her death, her corpse, by the orders of the king, who at least professed much grief at her death, was opened and closely examined by a considerable number of learned physicians and surgeons, who found all the parts in a healthy state, with the exception of the lungs, which were af fected on the right side with an uncommon hardness and a large imposthume or abscess, which they unanimously pronounced to have been the cause of her death. From the appearance of the posthurae, it was evident that the lungs had been long in an ulcer ated state, but there was no trace of poison in the lunga, nor in the stomach, nor in the brain.^ Many, indeed, confidently asserted ' Petitot, tom. xx. pp. 141-145. De Thou says, " Others pubhshed that this queeu had been poisoned by the perfume of a pair of gloves, which had been sold to her by a Milanese perfumer named Remi, a wicked man, who had been bribed to do this." — Histoire, tom. iv. liv. li. p. 543. 2 L'EstoUe asserts this as the true cause of her death.— See his M6mou-es, &c., m Petitot, tom. xlv. pp. 71-73. D'Aubignii has no doubt of it.— Hist. Unirer., tom. ii. liv. i. ch. ii. Olhagaray, a Protestant, in his Histoire de Foix et Beam, also maintains that she w,as poisoned. De Thou leaves the question undecided.— //isioire, tom. iv. liv. li. p. 643. - Johu de Serres, Recueil des Choses Mimorables, quoted in Petitot, tom. xlv, pp, 71-73, Matthieu, Histoire dc France, tom, i, liv. vi. Claude Eegm, Bishop of Oleron, when recording, iu his MS. joranal, her death, does not even hint the least ground for suspect ing that slie had been poisoned. He simply says that she died, on the 9th of June, 1572, of a pleurisy wliich she had caught on the 3d ofthat raonth, during the preparations for tlie nuiitials oi her son Henry with Marguerite de Valois,— Petitot, tom, xlv, p, 73, 448 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. that the i^hysicians did not open the brain, the court having inten tionally Umited the exaraination to the interior of the body,' and that had the head been opened, the poison, which, it was said, had acted upon the brain, would have been discovered. But the head tvas opened, and no such discovery was made. Thia ia estabUshed from the testiraony of Caillard, ordinary physician to the Queen of Navarre, which Victor Cayet, who was intiraately connected with the faraUy of Navarre, has preserved. Some persons having main tained before that physician that Jeanne had periahed by poison, he denied the allegation, and gave hia reasons for the denial. "Gentlemen," said he, "you all know the comraand I many times received from my mistress the queen, that if I were near her at her death I should see to it that her brain was opened, in order to ascertain the cause of the troublesorae itching she ordinarily felt iu the crown of the head, that should the prince her son and the princess her daughter be similarly affected, a remedy might be dis covered by knowing the cause. In obedience to this coram.and, Desnoeux, her surgeon, sawed through her head, and we found that this itching proceeded from certain minute vesicles full of water, situated between the brain and the membrane investing it. After a nan-ow inspection, Desnoeux said to the assistants. 'Gentlemen, had her majesty died from poisoned scent, you would have seen the marks of it in the coating or membrane of the brain, but it is as healthy as could be desired. Had she died from swaUowing poison, it would have appeared in the stomach, but nothing of the kind ap pears there ; there is, therefore, no other cause of her death but the abscess in her lungs.' "° If the testimony of these medical gentle raen is to be credited, the suspicion that the Queen of Navarre had died of poison ia unfounded. The king, who appeared greatly affected at the death of the Queen of Navan-e, put on mourning, and the whole court followed 1 John de Sen-es, in his Recveil des Choses Mimorables, says that " they were not com manded to open the brain," De Thou asserts that "her brain was not opened, although the king had expressly commanded it." — Histoire, tom. iv. p. 543. 2 Cayet, Chron. Novenaire, liv, iv, quoted by Petitot, tom. xx. pp. 141-145. France.] Jeanne d Albret. 449 his example — a mark of respect which could not have been omitted without creating distrust in the minds of the Huguenots, and risk ing the defeat of the projected St. Bartholomew massacre, for which the preparations were advancing. The melancholy and unexpected tidings of his mother's death reached Henry at Chaunay, in Poictou, whither he had arrived on his way to the French court. Excitement and raental sorrow threw him into a fever which rendered him unable to proceed in the raean tirae to Vendome, to perform the last duties to his " very dear and honoured mother." After his arrival at Vendome, all the tribute of gratitude and filial affection he could pay her was to visit and weep over her tomb. Not being yet fully recovered, he remained here for some time. At laat, in compliance with the urgent solicitationa of Admi ral de ColUgny, Henry, who had now assumed the title of King of Navarre, left VendSme for the court, escorted by 800 of the flower of the Huguenot cavaliers, all clad in mourning apparel. As he approached the suburbs of Paria he was welcomed by the Dukes of Anjou and Alenjon, accompanied by the Duke of Guise, the four marshals of France, and 400 of the courtiers, by whom he was con ducted to the Louvre. He arrived on Tuesday, the Sth of July. On the 18th of August, 1572, the marriage between Henry and Marguerite de Valois was solemnized in Notre Dame ; and a few days after, namely, on Sabbath, the 24th of that month, waa perpe trated the dreadful massacre of St, Bartholomew. 29 CHARLOTTE AEEALESTE, WIFE, FIRST OF SEIGNEUR DE FEUQUERES, AND SECONDLY, OF PHILIP DB MORNAT.' HAELOTTE AEBALESTE was daughter of Arbaleste, Seigneur de la Borde, president of tbe chamber of accounts at Paris, by his wife Magdalene Chevalier, She was born in February, 1549. Her raother, who died December 31, 1590, though she never deserted the coraraunion of the Eomish church, was enlight ened enough to perceive many of its abuses, and desired its refor mation. Her father, in the latter yeara of his life, became a con- vei-t to the Eeformed faith. The circumstances which conduced to his conversion are particularly narrated by his daughter ; and they afford a striking illustration of the impolicy of religious persecution. In hia youth he had traveUed in Germany and Italy for his im provement, at the tirae when the former country was thrown into general ferraentation by Luther and his doctrines. At Strasburg he had heard some sermons preached by the Eeformed rainisters, and was present at a disputation between the great German Eefor- ^ Our authority in this life, imless when otherwise indicated by the references at the foot of the page, is Charlotte's Mimoires de Duplessis Mornay, her second husband, in which she records raany particulars in her o-wn history. France.] Charlotte Arbaleste. %5\ mer and some of the Popish doctors. By this means he discovered the abuses of the Popish church, but he remained ignorant of evan geUcal truth, and upon his return to. Paris, ecclesiastical questions scarcely ever engaged his thoughts, nor had he the most distant in tention of abandoning the religion in which he had been educated. Yet he did not escape being suspected of heresy, and by the Duke of Guise he was persecuted as if a secret Huguenot. At this treat ment he naturally felt exasperated; his sympathies became en listed on the side of the e"vil-entreated Huguenots, and he was led to serious inquiry, which resulted in his sincerely embracing and making public profession of the Eeformed faith, in which, undis mayed by danger, he persevered to his death. He died August 15, 1570 — the cloae of the third ci-vil war. His last words were, "Lord, thou gavest me a soul flfty-eight years ago — thou gavest it me white and clean ; I render it to thee impure and poUuted — wash it in the blood of Jesus Chriat thy Son.'' On Sabbath, September 28, 1567, his daughter Charlotte, the sub ject of this notice, was married at La Brye, to Jehan de Pas, Seigneur de Feuqueres, a zealous Huguenot, famous for his miUtary talents and bravery, who having joined the Prince of Conde, had been shortly before elevated to the situation of first adjutant-general in the prince's army. She was then eighteen and a half years of age. After their marriage they went to La Borde, her father's residence, whence Feuqueres departed, on an early day, to join the Prince of Conde and Admiral de ColUgny, who confirmed hira in his situa tion. He was present at the battle of St. Denis, where he eamed new laurels by his skill and courage. Whilst he was absent with the army, Charlotte stayed at Orleans with her father, who had re tired thither for greater security amidst these intestine commo tions, whUe her raother, who made no profession of the Eeformed religion, remained at Paris, endeavouring, as far as the times per mitted, to preserve the property of her husband. Feuqueres came to meet his wife and her father at Orleans. Thence they went all together to La Borde, where they remained during the spring. In 452 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. the suramer, taking leave of her father, which proved to be a final parting, she and her husband went to Ardennes. In the month of August, 1568, he waa sent for by the Prince of Conde, who was at Noyers, exposed to imminent personal danger from the perfidy of the court, and about to take refuge iu EocheUe. He was, however, detained by various circumstances in other parta. During his ab sence, Charlotte's daughter, Susan, was born at Sedan on the 29th of December. Thia child the father never had the happineaa to see. Being struck by a horse at La CharitS, in 1569, he fell into a fevei', of which he died on the 23d of May that year, leaving behind him a narae erabalmed in the affectionate remembrance of all who knew liim. Charlotte received at Sedan the afflicting tidings of her bereave ment. She had previously lost, by death, her father, one of her sistera who was about to be married, and her father-in-law; and now, when only nineteen years of age, ahe was reduced to widovir- hood. It was an aggravation, too, of her afflictiou, that she was far away from home and kindred, and that her owu small property having been seized upon from the confusion of the times, she was without the means of subsistence. In the midst of so raany trials, Providence, as she gratefully records, raised up for her friends, by whose kindness she was relieved from her pressing difficulties. Yet the grief which crushed her spirits at this period permanently affec ted her health. Upon the conclusion of the third peace, complyint^ with the wishes of her raother, she repaired to Paris, where, having received her share of her father's inheritance, she continued to re side about two years, endeavouring to secure the property of her daughter. She was resident in Paris at the tirae of the St. Bartho loraew raassacre. To relieve her raind, suffering from sorrow and anxiety, and for the benefit of her health, she had purposed to pasa the winter -with her sister Madame de Vaucelas, and having fixed upou leavinrf Paris on the Monday after St. Bartholomew's Day, ahe intended to go on the Sabbath preceding to the Lou-vi-e, to take leave of the France.] Charlotte Arbaleste. 453 Prince of Conde, the Duchess of Bouillon, the Marchioness of Eothelin, and Madame de Darapierre. But the St. Bartholoraew massacre taking place, prevented her frora carrying these intentions iuto effect. In that massacre, which came upon the Huguenota ao suddenly and unexpectedly, she was in the utmost danger of perishing, and so remarkable were her escapes, that even minds the least prone to contemplate the Divine interposition in human affairs, can hardly fail to ascribe them to the merciful protection of Heaven. In her meraoirs of her second husband, PhiUp de Mornay Duplessis, she gives an interesting narrative of the perils she encountered on that day and for sorae tirae after, till she at last succeeded in making good her fiight from France, and in reaching Sedan, where she found a secure asylum. This narrative we shall give nearly at full length, and raostly in her own language. Whilst she was still in bed on the morning of St, Bartholomew's Day, one of her maid-servanta, who was of the Eeformed religion, .and who had just returned from the city, came to her iu great alarm and told her that a general massacre had begun. Doubting at the raoraent whether the intelligence waa correct, she was not much affected; but when, having put on part of her dress, she looked out at her window and perceived iu the great street of St. Antoine, where she resided, the whole population in commotion, and many companies of soldiers, each wearing a white cross in his hat, she was convinced that something serious was going on. She iramedi ately despatched a messenger to her mother's house, where her brothers lived, to learn what was the matter. Her messenger found them all in great consternation, her brothers being professors of the Eeformed religion. Suspecting something alarraing, her maternal uncle, Peter Chevalier, Bishop of Senlis, ordered her to i-emove what ever articles of value she had, and promised to send some person to conduct her without delay to a place of safety. But whilst pur- liosing to do this, he received information that his brother Charles Chevalier, Lord of Esprunes, who was devotedly attached to the Ee- 464 Ladies of tlie Reforination. [France; formed faith, had been killed in the street De Betizy, and this so gi-eatly distracted his mind that all thoughts about her entu-ely vanished from his memory. His own, life was in imminent peril. In attempting to raake his way through the street he wa,s arrested by the mob, by whora, but for the sign of the cross which they saw hira raake (for he had no knowledge of the Eeformed religion), he would probably have been pierced by a bullet or a dagger. Having waited about half-an-hour without hearing from her uncle, and ob serving that the commotion increased in the street of St, Antoine, Charlotte sent a maid-servant with her daughter, who was then three and a half years old, to the house of Monsieur de Pereuse, master of requests in the royal household, and one of her kindest relatives and friends. He admitted the child by a back door, and taking it under his protection, sent a kind raessage assuring her that she would be cordially welcome to his horse if she would ven ture to corae. Eunning the hazard, she removed to his house -svith her domestics, in all seven in number. He aa yet knew only a part of the atrocities committed on that morning. Intelligence had, how ever, been brought him by one of his servants whom he had sent to the Louvre, that Admiral de ColUgny had been assassinated ; that many lords and gentlemen had also fallen ; and that tumult and murder were raging throughout the city. It was then eight o'clock iu the morning. Scarcely had she left her lodgings when they were entered by sorae of the servants of the Duke of Guise, who deraanded of her landlord where she was, and searched every corner to find her. Not succeeding iu theu- object, they at last despatched one of their number to her mother's house, with a promise that they would save Madame de Feuqueres' Ufe, and all her furniture, for the gift of 100 crowns. Charlotte's answer to her mother, who found means of communicating with her, was, "Inform them that you cannot tell what is becorae of me, and at the same time give them the sum whicii they demand." As no inforraation respecting her could bo obtained, her lodgings were plundered. France.] Charlotte Arbaleste. ' i55 Many others betook themselves for refuge to the houae of De Pereuae, until the number of refugeea under hia roof araounted to no less than forty. In order to remove all suspicion of his house, he sent for provisions to another part of the town, and either he hira self, or his wife; reraained at the front door to say a courteous word to Monsieur de Guise or Monsieur de Nevers, and other lords who passed and re-passed that way, as well as to the captains of Paris, who piUaged the neighbouring houses of the Huguenots. The re fugees reraained with him till Tuesday. Suspicion ha-ving been ex cited, orders had been given that his house should be searched that afternoon. Having learned from secret information this intention, he gave timely warning to his friends under his protection, who all betook themselves to another asylura, except Madeinoiselle de Chan- freau and Charlotte Ai-baleste. "It being necessary," says Charlotte, "that we should be secreted, he concealed Maderaoiselle de Chanfreau and her raaid in a wood- house outside, whilst I and one of ray maids were put iuto an empty loft; the rest of our people he disguised and concealed as well as he could. While in this loft, which was just over his granary, I heard the raost fearful cries of the raen, women, and children whom the soldiers were butchering in the streets, and having left my daughter below, I was thrown into such a state of agitation and e-fen despair, that had I not been restrained by the fear of offending God, I should have cast myself down headlong, rather than fall alive into the hands of the populace, or see my child massacred, whom I loved more than my own life. One of my maid-servants took her, and carried her through the midst of all these dangers, and went in search of Marie GuiUard, Lady d' Esprunes, my maternal grand mother, who was still living, and left the chUd with her, with whom she remained till my grandmother's death. . . . " We had now to consider how we should most effectually dis- guiae om-selves, iu order to search for a new place of safety. It was impossible for rae to go to my mother's house, a guard having been stationed around it. I went to the house of a marshal, a raan of a 456 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. turbulent character, who was captain of the watch in the quarter where he lived. I encouraged myself in the hope that, should his wife, who had been one of his own aervants, show me compassion, he would not do me any injury. " In the evening my mother came to visit me at that retreat. She was more dead than alive, and more stupified with terror than myself. I passed that night at the house of this captain-marshal ; and it was my lot to hear him incessantly uttering imprecations against the Huguenots, and to see his party bringing in the plun der of the Huguenots' houses which they had piUaged. He roughly declared to me that I must, without doubt, go to maaa. " On the Wedneaday morning my mother aent to President de Tambonneau, to ask hira whether provision might not be made for my safety in his house. About raid-day I went thither quite alone. Not knowing the way, I followed a little boy, who went before me. The president was living in the cloister of Notre Dame, and none but the lady of Lieutenant Morin, who was his mother-in-law, and alao the raother of the lady of the chancellor De I'HSpital, the lady of the president, their brother Monsieur de Paroy, and one of their servants, named Jaraes Minier, knew that I was there. I entered the house unobserved, and was lodged in the study of Monsieur de Tambonneau, where I remained all the Wednesday, and till Thurs day night. On Thursday evening, the family having got secret warning that the house was to be searched for some of their rela tives, and apprehensive lest in making this search I should be dis covered, advised me to change my quarters, which I accordingly did about midnight, between Thursday and Friday. " They caused me to be conducted to the house of a corn-mer chant who served them, a man of respectable chai-acter. I remained there five days, during which I received from the president, his wife, and the whole faraily, so rauch kindness and assistance in this my need, that apart frora the relationship which exists between the Lady President de Tambonneau and myself, I will never forget the deep debt of gratitude which I owe them. France,] Charlotte Arbaleste. 457 " On the Tuesday following, my mother, having prevaUed upon . my brothers to go to masa, in order to save their Uves, thought to save me by the same means ; and, at her request, our cousin, M. de Paroy, spoke to me on the subject. After many conversations be tween us, he found me, by the grace of God, most determined in my refusal. " On Wednesday morning, my mother, after some efforts to per suade me to comply, not receiving frora me the answer she wished, but only a supplication to get me out of Paris, sent to tell me that she should be under the necessity of sending my daughter back to me. The answer I returned to her was, that in the event of her doing so, I would take my daughter in my arms, and we would sur render ourselves together to the dagger of the assassin. But at the same time I resolved to leave Paris at all hazards, and besought the bearer of the message to go and secure a place for rae in the pas sage-boat, or in any other about to go up the river Seine. The time of my abode in the corn-merchant's house was not w-ithout its share of anxiety. I occupied a chamber immediately above an apartraent inhabited by Madame de Foiasy, a Eoraan Catholic lady — a circum stance which, by av/akening the dread of being discovered, pre vented me from walking in my room ; nor could even a candle be lighted, lest her auspicious and those of the neighbours should be excited. When anything was brought me to eat, it was a little morsel concealed under an apron, the bearer pretending to come with linen or for it to this lady. In short, I left this house 011 Wedneaday, the eleventh day of the raassacre, at about eight o'clock in the moming, and got into a boat about to sail for Sens, for ray messenger did not take a place for me in the passage-boat, afraid lest, from the great number who travelled in it, I should be recog nized. " When I entered this boat, I found in it two monks, a priest, and two merchants, with their wives. On reaching Tournelles, where a guard was stationed, the boat was stopped, and our pass ports were demanded, which all were able to shov/, except myself. 458 Ladies of ihe Reformation. [Fra who had none. The guard then began to accuse me of being a Huguenot, crying out that I raust be drowned ; and they made me come out of the boat. I prayed them to conduct me to the house of Monsieur de Voysenon, auditor of accounts, who was one of ray friends, and transacted the business of the late Madame d'Esprunes, Ctiarlutte anj Ihu Suldiers itl llie Gale ol M de Vov^enon my grandmother, who was a zealous Eoman Catholic, assuring them that he would answer for me. Two soldiers of the part}^ took me, and brought me to the house I had named. " Pj-ovidentially they remained at the gate, and allowed rae to Prance.]' Charlotte Arbaleste. ' 459- go up stairs. I found poor Madame de Voysenon greatly alarraed ; and so completely was I disguised, that she addressed me as a stranger, and took me for one of those who had taken refuge under her roof. I told her husband that I had not time to liiSten to him (for I thought that the soldiers were following me) — that it seemed as if God meant to make him the instrument of preser"ving my life — that otherwise I considered ray doom fixed. He went down stairs to the soldiers, and assured them that he had often seen me in the house of Madame d'Esprunes, whose son was Bishop of Senlis, that they were good Catholics, and universally kno-wn to be so." " We are not," said the soldiers courteously, "raaking any inquiry about that family, but about her." "I have formerly seen her a good Catholic," he replied, "though it is not in my power to pronounce whether or not she is so now," At this moment a respectable wo man came up, and asked them, "What do you intend to do with the lady?" "This' is a Huguenot," said they with an oath; "she must be drowned, for we see how terrified she is I " " You know me," she answered ; " I am no Huguenot ; I go regularly to mass ; but I am so frightened, that for these eight days past I have been in a fever." "And I, and all of us," rejoined one of the soldiers with an oath, "have been pretty weU agitated." Thus they took her back to the boat, assuring her that had she been of the other sex she should not have escaped so easily. At the very tirae of her being arrested in the boat, tho house which she had quitted was ransacked, and had she been found there, her life would have been in the utmost danger. " We raade our voyage," she continues, "and the night took us into a place called Le Petit la Borde. Iramediately after dinner in the inn where we were to lodge for the night, the monks aud merchants chuckled over what they had seen in Paris, and when I spoke a word they told me that I spoke like a Huguenot. . . In the inn there was only one chamber, where were three beda. The two monks and the priest lay in one ; the two merchants in another ; the two women and myself in the third. I was not without 4G0 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [i'RANCE.' anxiety ; for as I wore a shift richly ornamented with lace and needle-work, which the Lady President de Tambonneau had lent me, I was much afraid lest this, being observed by these two wo men whUe I was lying between them, it should raake them suspect me to be a different person from what my dress would have led thera to believe. " On Thursday raorning as we entered the boat, Minier whispered to me that I should take care not to go to Corbeil nor to Melun, of which we were seigneura, lest, being known in these places, I should incur danger, but that I should go out at the vil lage of Yuri, a short league from Corbeil, When I saw the village, I requested the boatman to let me out, which he refused to do ; but in the good providence of God, the boat, when opposite the viUage, grounded, which compeUed him to set on shore all the passengers. Having paid our fare, Minier and I went to the village of Yuri, where, upon our arrival, he resolved to conduct me to Bouachet, a manaion belonging to President de Tambonneau, and to put me into the house of his vinedresser. Thus we travelled five leagues ou foot ; and having left me at the house of this excellent poor man, he went to Vallegrand, the residence of the chancellor De I'HSpital, nearly a league distant, to ascertain whether I might there obtain it safe asylum with the lady chancellor ; but he found them all in great consternation, a strong garrison having been sent from the king to the chancellor's house under pretence of affording him pro tection. The lady chancellor, who professed the Eeformed reUgion, had already been compelled to go to mass. The chancellor sent Minier to offer me his house, but at the same time to tell rae that I could not remain there without going to raass, which he did not thiuk I would do, considering the resolution I had taken of depart ing from Paris, and of expoaing myself to so many dangers," Minier returned to Paris, while Charlotte continued at the house of the vinedresser fifteen days, after which, attended by the vine- dresaer, she journeyed, riding on an ass, to Esprunes, u hous3 be longing to her late grandmother. At the end of two weeks she France.] Charlotte Arbaleste. 401 proceeded thence to the house of her eldest brother, M. de la Borde, which was four leagues distant. She found hira in great perplexity, both because he had been corapelled to go to raass to escape death, and because he waa urgently iraportuned to make a formal solemn abjuration of the Eeformed faith. After a short stay she left hira for Sedan. Without encountering any obstruction, she arrived at Sedan on the 1st of Noveraber. Here, at length, after having been long ex posed to terapest and peril, she fouud a secure and peaceful haven, like many other Protestants — honourable persona, ministers of the gospel, meu of letters, and men of all professions, who, after the St. Bartholoraew massacre, had fied thither for safety. Many friends offered her ample supplies of everything. She was not an hour iu the town when she was clothed in the dress of a lady. From the Duke and the Duchess of BouiUon especially, she received much honour and friendship. At Sedan she lodged iu the house of a gentleman who had been physician to the late Duke of Bouillon, and in order to relieve and soothe her solitude, she applied herself to the study of arithmetic, painting, and other subjects. While resident here she became ac quainted with the celebrated PhiUp de Mornay, Seigneur du Plessis- Marly,' a devoted disciple of the Eeforraed faith, who, like herself, had alraost miraculously escaped the massacre of St. Bartholomew. He had previously dwelt iu Sedan, and after the death of Charles IX., had returned with his eldest brother. The raotive of wealth in no respect influenced hira in making choice of Madame de Feu queres for his wife ; for, on account of her Protestant principles, ' From his hereditary estate he is usually designated by his countryraen, Duplessis Mornay. He was the son of Jacques de Mornay, Seigneur de Buhy (who was descended from one of the most ancient noble families of France), by his wife Francoise du Bee. His father never left the communion of the Romish church, but iu his last illness he de clined the assistance of a priest, aud died trusting solely for salvation to the merits of Christ. His mother was a Huguenot. Intimidated by the raging fury of persecution, she did not for some time openly profess her sentiments ; hut from the first she made them known to her husband and children, on all of whom they produced an indelible impression. De Moi-nay was equaUy distinguished as a Cliristian, a soldier, a statesman, and an author. i'Q2 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. she had been despoiled of whatever she possessed. It was her per sonal quaUties which gained his heart, and made hira prefer a raa- triraonial union with her to all the rich and honourable connections to which, frora his position and prospects, he might have aspired. "If you wish to marry her," said sorae officious advisers, "you should make particular and exact inquiries as to her property— what she has by her first marriage contract, and what she re ceived upon the death of her late father." " I am Uttle concerned about what property she has," repUed De Momay ; "that is the last thing to bo thought of in marriage, the principal thing is the quali ties of the person with whom I am to be united for life, especially that she be irabued with the fear of God, and have a good reputa tion.'' They were married on Sabbath,' January 3, 1576, with the entire approbation of all friends on both sides, even of the relatives of Charlotte's first husband, whom, as well as other friends, she con sulted. Towards the end of that year De Momay became one of Henry, King of Navarre's, counciUors. In the year 1577, he was despatched as Henry's ambassador to the court of EUzabeth, Queen of England, and subsequently, in the same capacity, to the court of WUUam, Prince of Orange, in Holland. Madame de Mornay foUowed him to these countries. During her residence in HoUand in 1582, the first attempt was made to. assassinate William, Prince of Orano-e ; and she had the melancholy satisfaction of attending Charlotte de Bourbon, the prince's wife, on her deathbed, and of minister ing to her the consolations of reUgion. She and De Mornay re turned to Paris in July, 1582. In HoUand she had felt very happy, and left it with much regret, her mind being greatly depressed from the thought of the calaraities which, to all appearance, were impending over France, and particularly from a distressing appre hension that henceforth she would be raore separated from the society of her husband than she had ever been before, ' The Huguenots were often married on Sabbath (the communion Sabbam excepted* wluch was sanctioned by the decrees of their synods.— Quiok's Synodicon, voh i. p. S3. " .France.] Charlotte Arbaleste.. 463 In the beginning of the suraraer of the year 1583, after her re turn to France, anticipating death from the infirm state of her health, she raade her testament, dated Buhy, June 11, that year, not with the object of bequeathing property or raoney, a raatter which she left with full confidence to the discretion of her husband, but principaUy to leave behind her a dying testimony to the Eeformed faith. It is entirely her own composition, and was written with her own hand.' In the suramer of the year 1584, Madame de Mornay, with her husband and family, removed to Montauban. What brought them The Town of Montauban. hither was the approaching meeting of the deputies of the Eeforraed church of the kingdom of Navarre, at that town, on the 20th of August. De Mornay, from his official situation as superintendent of the royal household, could not conveniently reside at a distance from his master, Henry, King of Navarre ; and though his majesty had not yet fixed upon the place of his principal residence, yet as he resolved to be preaent at that synod, which was to meet under 1 See this document at length in Mimoires, &c., de Duplessis, tora. ii. pp. 257-269. 464 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. his sanction, De Momay, m the meantime, brought his whole faraily to that town, the more especially aa his consort eamestly desired to witness the synodical proceedings. Madame de Mornay had not been long resident at Montauban when she became entangled in a dissension with the consistory of the Eeforraed church of that place, about a matter apparently tii- vial, but which yet can hardly be called trivial, as it is a matter about which the Spirit of inspiration has given directions in the Scriptures — the cU-ess becoraing women professing godliness. The Eeformed church of Montauban had three ministers, and the consistory waa very rigid in the exerciae of diacipline. Holding that it was unbecoming Christian women to wear their hair in curls, they prohibited the practice, under the penalty of exclusion from the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. This prohibition had caused no sraall contentiou in that church. Many famiUes, in all respects exemplary, having declined solemnly to engage, as the consistory required, that neither their wives nor their daughters should ever wear their hair curled, had been excluded from coraraunion, and their naraes had been read out before the congregation, as scanda lous persons, who were cut off frora ecclesiastical fellowship. Even farailies whose wives and daughters had complied with the regula tion, incurred censure siraply for opposing the rigour of the con sistory, which was attributed chiefly to Michel Berault,' one of thc rainisters. The authority upou whieh the consistory founded the rightfulness of its procedure was especially these two texts of Scrip ture — 1 Tim. ii. 9, 10, and 1 Pet, iii, 4, It raay be noticed, that in the last of these texts — "whose adorning, let it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold, or of puttino- on of apparel" — the wearing of plaited hair or of gold cannot obvi ously be understood as absolutely prohibited ; for if so understood, the putting on of apparel, or the wearing of clothes at all, must also be understood as absolutely prohibited, 1 Berault was a much respected minister of the French Eeformed church He was chosen moderator of its synodical assembhes on several occasions. France.] Charlotte Arbaleste. 465 Such was the state of thinga in the Eeformed church of Montau ban when Madame de Mornay arrived in that to-wn, and the conten tion had continued to rage for not lesa than four yeara pre-vioualy to her arrival. The question now waa, How were she and her daugh ters, and the females of her household, to act in reference to this matter 2 were they to comply with the regulation of the consistory, or were they to refuse compliance? Had the merabers of that church been agreed in regard to it, viewing the wearing of the hair in curls as a point in itseU indifferent, she would, as she declared to the consistory, without raising the question as to the real merits of the case, have conformed to the custora, not considering herself jus tified in disturbing the peace of the church on that ground. But as the merits of the question had been brought under discussion from the division which it had caused in the congregation, she saw that while by her compliance she could not heal the schisra, she would thereby be supporting the imposition of unwarrantable terras of church communion upon a diaaenting party, who in her judgment were unjustly excluded from the feUowship of the church. She therefore made no change upon the faahion of her garb and head dress, which she had worn for fifteen years before in the Eeforraed churches of Sedan, Germany, England, the Low Countries, and France, "without having heard any complaint. When the time for the celebration of the supper arrived, she and her . daughters, not having conformed to the regulation as to the hair, were, with her whole household, even De Momay himself and the male servanta of the family, who had not "violated that regulation, refused admission to the ordinance by the consistory. De Momay severely reprehended Berault and the consistory in pushing matters to such extremity, by which they had not only created a lamentable schism in the congregation, but were striking against lawful ecclesiastical authority, which is ever endangered by the unwarrantable and tyrannical exerciae of church diacipline. The consistory of the court and a considerable number of French Eeformed ministers, well-kno"wn at that time, having assembled 30 iGQ Ladies of the Reformation. [France. with the consistory of Montauban, to give their advice as to the hair schism, recommended a forbearing policy, and especiaUy the admission of Madarae de Momay and her household to the com munion. But Berault and his consistory, being deterrained to act in their o"wn way, were inflexible. At the close of the Eeformed assembly at Montauban, De Mor nay, being requested by the deputies to proceed in company with another coraraissioner to the King of France, with the viTitten re solutions of the assembly, left his "wife to raaintain the conflict single-handed with the consistory, which she did with great spirit. Another communion season having returned, Berault again ex cluded her and her whole household, men as well as women, frora the ordinance. Offended at this renewed deed of exclusion, she ¦wrote and transraitted to the consistory a representation and com plaint ; in which ahe maintained that Berault had hereby exceeded his authority as a minister of Christ; that the procedure of the consistory was not sanctioned by any act of the Eeforraed church of France, nor by any law of Scripture, otherwise she would have subraitted ; that neither the words of Paul in 1 Tim. ii, 9, where as Calvin shows in his exposition, the apostle's object was rather the reformation of manners than of dress, nor the words of Peter (1 Pet, iU, 3), gave thera any support. But aU her representations were without avaU. The consistory revoked their former sentence as to the exclusion of the raen in her household, but were uncom promising as to herself and the ladies, unless the obnoxious curls were removed. Afterwards, she appeai-ed personaUy before the consistory, and finding them pertinacious as ever, read to them a long paper, in which she appealed to a national synod, and requested them, pend- mg her appeal, to adrait her and her family to the sacrament of the supper. "Since," says she, "it were very pernicious that the opin ions of men, although good and holy, should be put in place of the commandments of God, as we have too weU experienced in the Chureh of Eome, this is the principal reason why I desire that this Fbance.] Cliarlotte Arbaleste. 467 matter may be cleared up for the well-being and concord of the churches ; for if it is a comraand of God, as is pretended, all Chris tian churches throughout the world, and not only that of Montau ban, ought to be subject to it. If it is a thing indifferent, as I be Ueve it to be, the pastor cannot admonish and reprove to edifica tion.'' This paper charges Berault with having railed against her and her family from the pulpit. If he did so, which, from the excited state of his mind, is not improbable, this was preaching himself — his 0"wn passion — not Christ Jesus the Lord, and giving ground for the suspicion that from being an enemy of the curled hair, he had allowed himself to become the enemy of the persons who wore it, because they did not conform to his ideas of Christian propriety. At last, Madame Duplessis and the female portion of her family, having gone to a neighbouring congregation, distant about three leagues from Montauban, and under the jurisdiction of the same colloquy or presbytery, were there admitted to the Lord's Supper, upon their having explained to M. 1' Hardy, the minister, and some of the elders, all that liad taken place at Montauban. Her whole case was remitted to the synod to be held at Montpellier iu the month of May following. How it was disposed of by the synod vve are not informed.' In this affair of the ladies' head costume, the position taken up by Madame de Mornay, that the question in dispute was a raatter of indifference, may be just ; but this did not meet the difficulty of the case. Had the consistory held it to be a matter of indifference, and yet made the wearing of curled hair a ground of exclusion 1 Mimoires et Correspondance de Duplessis Momay, tom. ii. pp. 4S7-5I4. It is curious to find Anthony Bacon, son of Lady Bacon, noticed iu the first series of these Biographies, taking the part of the consistory of Montauban in opposition to Madame Duplessis. ' ' Mr. Bacon," says Birch in his Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, " found his residence at Montauban less agreeable than it had been before, because Madame Duplessis, perceiv ing that he would not hite at the bait which was laid for him, by marrying her daughter [probably Susan, her daughter by her first man-iage], . . and being likewise ex tremely incensed against him for taking the part of the principal minister, whom she persecuted for censuring her scandalous excess in her head attire, alienated her husband's mind from him, and broke US' the friendship which had been betweeu them." — Vol. i. p. 53. 468 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. from the fellowship of the church, they could not have resisted the conclusion that they were making laws originating in their own au thority, and enforcing them as if they were the laws of Christ — a principle which, if once admitted, would lead to the indefinite ex tension of unwarranted human impoaitious, according to men's caprice or pleasure. But the consistory denied that the question in dispute was a matterof indifference, and rested their judgment upon two passages of Scripture, whether their interpretation of these passages was right or -wrong. Such being the position as sumed by the two parties, the one affirming and the other denying the question in dispute to be a matter of indifference, the true and short way of meeting the case would have been to test the question by the scriptural doctrine of Christian forbearance. Even granting that the wearing of curled hair, by women professing the gospel, was not a raatter of indifference, yet had the consistory understood the principles of Christian forbearance laid down and iUustrated by a parallel case in the 14th chapter of Paul's epistle to the Eo raans, they would have seen that the high ground they assuraed in enforcing their views as a term of church fellowship was untenable. Paul, though, by the unerring guidance of the Spirit of inspiration, he had pronounced the observances of the Levitical econoray to be no longer obligatory, yet forbids the exclusion of Christian brethren frora the fellowship of the church, simply for their continuing to observe some of the Le"vitical rites, because their judgraents could not acquiesce even in this inspired decision, and enjoins upon par ties who held different sentiments on that question the exercise of mutual forbearance. In the first part of the year 1589, she and her family removed to Sauraur, where, after shifting about frora place to place, in conse quence of the confusiona and convulaions of the times, they now enjoyed the coraforts of a settled horae. The reason of their takinw up their residence here was the appointment of De Mornay to the sUuation of govemor of Saumur, by Henry, King of Navarre, to whora that fortress had been ceded as one of the provisions of the France.] Charlotte Arbaleste. 469 confederacy then formed between him and Henry III. of France against the leaguers. Yet military and state affairs often rendered it necessary for Do Momay to be absent from her. After the assassination of Hemy The Town and Castle of Saumur. IIL, when the King of Navarre, being the nearest heir to the French crown, assumed the title of Henry IV., King of France, De Mornay took the field with his master against the leaguers, who opposed the elevation of the Bearnese Huguenot to the throne of France. He was present at the famous battle of Ivry, fought March 14, 1590, in which Henry IV., with a much inferior force, gained a complete victory over the leaguers. A few days before the battle, he thus -svrites to Madame de Mornay :— " I have writ ten to M. d'Espina, soliciting in our behalf the public prayers. I know that the prayers of the famUy wUl not be wanting. Trusting in God, who disposes all things, having him, and nature, and right, on our side, we are stronger than our enemies. Human means do not fail us. If a battle ensue, we are confident of victory. You shall very soon have good news. Afflict not yourself, for God 470 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. shall give you joy, and our prayers shall be turned into thanks givings,"' At Sauraur, Madame Duplessis and her husband were erainently useful by their charity to the poor, and by their liberality in sup porting the evangelical ministry. As an instance of her freehearted zeal, it is recorded that when De Mornay, about 1590, was necessi tated, after having been appointed by Henry IV. one of the coun cillors of state, to leave the court frora the jealousy and enmity of some of the French nobility, he found her, upon his retm-n to Sau mur, employed in building, entirely at her own expense, a church for the Eeforraed congregation of the place ; and so far was it ad vanced, that a few days after his return the congregation assem bled in it for public worship. He himself at the same time ob tained a charter for the foundation of a university at Sauraur, which was afterwards estabUshed and becarae fiourishing. These acts of liberality are entitled to the higher coraraendation, from their having been exercised at a tirae when De Momay's pecuniary resources had been drained by large suppUes which he had fiu-- nished for the service of Henry IV. Of all her children, her only survi"ving son, PhiUp, Sieur des Bovea — for such was hia designation — was Madarae de Mornay's greatest favourite. To train up them aU for God, was the object of her higheat arabition; bnt he waa the apecial object of her pious and maternal solicitude. She had early and sedulously cultivated his mind, his heart, and his manners. And he promised, should his life be spared, to become all that she could "wish. His talents were superior; his scholarship, considering hia age, was highly credit able ; his diapoaitiona were generous, open, and engaging ; and he seemed impressed with the sentiments of piety. When in the year 1595, being then about sixteen years of age, he was about to pro ceed to Holland for the farther prosecution of his studies, and for his improveraent by travelling in foreign countries, she wrote hira a most impreasive and affectionate letter, full of Chriatian counsel 1 The letter is dated Chateaudun, March 9, 1590. France.] Charlotte Arbaleste. ¦i71 and warning, adapted to his altered position, when he would cease to be under the eyes and restraints of his parents, and be left in a great measure to act according to his own discretion. The letter is prefixed to her meraoira of her husband, which she had expressly written for the instruction of this beloved son, in whoae welfare she felt so deeply concerned.' The necesaary preparationa for her son's journey to Holland having been made, the father took leave of him at Paris, and re turned to Saumur, in the month of the May following the date of this letter. A few days after, she herself went from Saumm- to Paria to bid him farewell. On this occasion she had the pleasure, as De Mornay had alao had when in Paris, of rene"wing her acquaintance with her old friend Louise de CoUigny, Princess-Dowager of Orange, who had come to France in the preceding year on some affairs of her own. The princess promised her much friendship and favour for her son during his stay in Holland. After an absence of some time young De Mornay returned to France. In the beginning of the year 1599, he again repaired to HoUand for his improvement in the miUtary profession, by serving in the army of Maurice, Prince of Orange, the most celebrated general of his age ; and he had soon an opportunity of acquiring distinction by his cool intrepid courage in an action against the Spaniards. He retumed a second time in safety to France. His mother was particularly gratified to find that his residence abroad had not abated his zeal for the Protestant religion, in which he had been so sedulously instructed. She records with satisfaction the spirited replies he made in defence of the Eeformed faith and of his father, when, being at Fontainebleau, he was incessantly attacked by a party of courtiers upon the subject of heresy, and twitted on his father's alleged defeat in the disputation between hia father and the Bishop of E-vreux. On one of these occasions he unguardedly said, in the excitement of the moment, "Have you not the penetration to see that the king, in order to please the pope, has sacrificed the > See thia letter in Appendix, No. II. 472 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. honour of my father?" This beiug reported to the Fi-ench mo narch, gave him great offence ; aud when a courtier apologized for the rashnesa of Des Boves. by observing that he was a young man, and naturaUy jealous of whatever related to his father's honom-, the king replied, " He is not young, he is forty years old — twenty from age and other twenty from his father's instructions." After this he attended the court at Paris in the hope of obtain ing a situation as officer in the Prench army. During his stay at court, he gained the affection of all his acquaintances, from his open, generous, and obliging disposition. Yet he was well-nigh in volved in the guilt of fighting a duel. In the performance of some public duty, he had the raisfortune to give deep offence to a gentle man, who thought himself so deeply injured, that he deraanded re- pai-ation, by sending him a challenge. DuelUng was then abun dantly common among the nobiUty of France, few adraitting its flagrant criminality, and young De Mornay, rather than incur the iraputation of cowardice, aud sacrificing to public opinion whatevep scruples about duelling he raight have imbibed from his religious education, accepted the challenge ; but by the interposition of the king, the actual rencounter was prevented, and thua waa young De Mornay saved from the risk of losing his own life or of destroying that of his antagonist. Not obtaining preferraent as he expected, his chivalrous and active spirit longing for stirring and raanly oc cupation, by which to earn distinction, he aaked permission from the king to return to HoUand again, to serve in the array of Prince Maurice against the Spaniards. This was immediately granted; upon which he hastened to Saumur to take farewell of his parents, previously to his departure. They were averse to his now leaving them ; but they yielded to, hia wishes, commending him, with many tears and prayers, to the protection of Heaven. His mother's part ing words were the touching language of Jacob — " Eemember, my son, that if mischief befall you, then will you bring do"wn our gray hairs with sorrow to the grave." Her fears for his safety were, unhappily, soon verified. After France,] Charlotte Arbaleste. il[ his arrival in Holland, he signalized himself on several occasions by his mUitary achievements ; but on the morning of the 23d of October, 1605, when a division of the army of Prince Maurice had commenced an attack upon the town of Gueldres, young De Mor nay, while standing upon the bank of the ditch, with his sword in his hand, calling out, in order to rally the soldiers beside him, re ceived a wound in the breast which penetrated to the heart, and he immediately fell, without heaving a single sigh. Thus was he cut off in the fiower of his days, aged twenty-seven,' and taken away from those who loved him so tenderly. DenDh of young De Mornay Prmce Maurice, on hearing of the death of this promising youth, was affected even to tears ; and in hia letters written on the occa sion, he represented the sorrow caused by his death, among both officers and soldiers, as not less than if a considerable part of the army had been lost. By his orders the bowels were interred in the town of Wesel, with the solemnities usually observed at the obse quies of a distinguished chief, although young De Mornay was only a private soldier— being borne to the grave by the officers of the ' He was bom at AntweriJ, July 20, 1579, 474 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. armies of aU nations, the troops not entering into the town, in con sequence of the neutrality which it observed, but reraaining before it. By his orders, also, the corpse was sent horae to the parents, and he hiraself, with all the counts of the house of Nassau, attended it in procession as it was carried to the boat in which it was to be conducted to Eotterdam, on its way to Saumur. The melancholy tidings were first sent, not to the parents, but to some of their friends, who were requested to make the communica tion to them with all possible tenderness. Monsieur Samuel Bou- chereau, rainister of the Eeformed church in Sauraur,' and another friend, were employed to perform this office of friendship. Upon arriving at the castle, which was on the evening of Thursday, the 24th of November, they met De Mornay coraing out of his lady's chamber, deeply dejected from sorae unfavourable reports which had arrived. After friendly salutations, they communicated to him the diatreaaing intelligence. " I have no longer a aon," exclaimed the affiicted but reaigned father ; " I have, therefore, no longer a wife ;" by which he meant — and the event verified his forebodings — that thia bereavement would give her a shock which would speedily bring her to the grave. But how was he to apprize her of the mournful event? He trembled at the thought of the fatal blow it would infiict upon her ; and yet this painful duty he now behoved to perform. Entering her apartment, he said to her, his agitated countenance and trerabUng voice betraying the eraotions of sorrow struggling in hia boaom, " My love, God now calls us to the proof of our faith and obedience. Since he has done it, it becomes us to be silent," From his manner and words she at once anticipated all, and overwhelraed by the blow, which the exhaustion of long previous illness made it more difficult for her to bear, she fell into a fainting fit attended with con-vulsions. For a long time she lost her speech, and it seeraed as if she would never, revive. On reviv ing, her first words were, "The will of the Lord be done. We ' Bouchereau had studied at Leyden, in Holland, Madame Duplessis describes him as *' a young raan endowed with rare gifts, in which, by the grace of God, he daily in creased." France,] Charlotte Arbaleste. 475 might have lost him in a duel, and in that case what comfort could we have had in thinking of him?" "The rest," she adds, with touching pathos, in recording this scene, " -will be better expressed to every person of sensibiUty by silence. We felt our bowels torn, our hopes cut off, our designs and our desires dried up. For a long time we could only speak and think about him ; for next to God he was the subject of our conversation and of our thoughts, our daugh ters, not-withstanding the disfavour of the court, being happily mar ried.' He was, therefore, the centre from which all the lines of our life diverged, and in which they aU met ; and we perceive that, by taking him away, God has taken away aU from us, doubtless in order to sever our affections entirely from the world, that nothing may bind us to it at whatever hour he may be pleased to call us hence, and that, in the meantirae, we raay account his church our horae, our proper family, and transfer to it all our care.'' Yet, whatever might be the agony of her raaternal feelings, she was too chivalrous, public-spirited, and self-sacrificing, not to derive some consolation from the thought that her son fell honourably in supporting the Low Countries in their struggles for their civil and religious liberties against the tyranny and intolerance of Spain. Even in the midat of her anguiah, when ahe felt that her hopes with respect to him were, in the mysterious providence of God, baffled and denied, and when his loss went to her heart like the chilling stroke of death, she could not avoid exclairaing, "Happy end to one bom in the church of God, brought up in his fear, distinguished, even at that age, for his virtues, who died in a just quarrel and in * Madame de Momay's daughters were aU married into Protestant famihes ; — I. Her daughter Susan, by her first husband, was married in 1597, to Ren6 de la Vairie, who was afterwards appointed gentleman of the household of Henry IV. '2. Martha, her eldest daughter hy De Momay (hom at Plessis, December 17, 1576), was married at Sau mur, AprU 14,1599, to Jehande Jaucourt, eldest son of the house of Villai-noul. 3. Ehza beth (hom at London, June 1, 1578) was married at Saumur, May 3, 1601, to James de St. Germain, of Normandy, son of Giles de St. Germain, Sieur de Fontenay, of the house of Rouvrou. 4. Anne was married, October 29, 1603, to the Biirou de la Lande, son of M. de la Tabarrifere, govemor of Fontenay. Madame de Moi-nay had, by her second mar riage, several other children ; hut they died in infancy. 476 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. an honom-able action, but to us the beginning of a grief which wiU ouly end with our lives." Under this bereaveraent Madarae Duplessis and her husband met with very general syrapathy. Their daughters and sons-in-law, on receiving the sad news, hastened to Sauraur, arriving one after another, to mingle their tears with those of their parents. The in habitants of Saumur, even those of the Eoraan Catholic religion, deeply laraented the death of the young soldier, araong whora, from his amiable and obliging dispositions, he was a universal favourite, and were touched with sincere unaffected compassion for his sorrow ing parents. The French raonarch Henry IV., on reading the letter written to hira by Prince Maurice coramunicating the tidings, ex claimed, "I have lost the most promising gentleraan in my king dom ; I pity the father, and must send to console him : his loss ex ceeds that of any other parent." Forgetting the groundless offence he had taken at his old and faithful servant, whom he could not but respect, Henry iramediately despatched one of his secretaries with a very gracious and consolatory letter written with his own hand to De Momay.' "Having been informed," says he, "of what has be fallen your son, I have been affected on your account -with the grief which your faithful services aud the affection which I bear to you deserve. Your loss, in whioh I participate, is great ; I feel it as well on your account as on my own, as a good master ought, for such I ara to the father, and such I was to the son. I hoped that he would iraitate your fidelity and devotion to my service, even as he endea voured to imitate your virtues, God has willed thus to dispose of hira. Be comforted, both in the favour of an indulgent raaster, and frora your own wisdora and constancy, , , I pray God to com fort you, and to have you in his holy keeping."^ Many of the nobi lity of the French court, both lords and ladies, of the Eoraan Catholic as well as of the Protestant reUgion, following the exaraple of the king, sent letters of condolence to Madarae de Mornay and her hus- ' It is dated Paris, November 20, 1605. - Mimoires et Correspondance de Duplessis Momay, tom. a. p. 13S, J"RANCE,] Charlotte Arbaleste. 477 band." But by none waa a stronger and more lively sympathy manifested than by the Eeforraed churches, both those in the neigh- bom-hood and those at a distance, "All this," says Madame de Momay, "ought to have mitigated our grief, and yet it rather lent it aggravation, because it made us ao much the raore sensible of our loss." Her son's corpse arrived at Sauraur, April 21, 1606, and, at tended by an honourable concourse of persons of distinction and citizens, was conveyed to its last resting-place, in the new tomb erected by his parents for themselves, adjoining the church which they had built for the Eeformed congregation of Saumur. With the death of her son the pen drops from the mother's hand. She had written her narrative of the Ufe of the father chiefiy for the benefit of the son ; but this object on which her heart had been so intently set could now no longer be reaUzed, and after recording the death of her son, she thus affectingly concludes: "And here it is reasonable that this book of mine should close with him for whose sake it was undertaken, with the view of describing to him our pilgrimage through life, God having been pleased that his should corae to a speedier and sweeter termination than our own ; and indeed, I should be exceedingly desirous to follow hira, were it not for the affliction which this would cause to M. Duplessis, who, in proportion as my distress increases, makes me feel the tenderness of his affection.'' As De Moi-nay had predicted, his consort never recovered from the shock she received from this bereavement. In the presence of others, and especially of her husband, that she might not add to his grief, she struggled to coramand her feelings, and to bear up under her affliction; but these strained efforts to keep her aorrow under restraint only broke her heart the aooner, and in solitude she was constantly weeping whenever she could conceal- her tears from others. Thus were the constitutional and other maladies aggra- ' Several of these lettera are printed in Memoires et Correspondance de Duplessis Momay tom. X, pp. 140, 149, 151. 478 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [France. vated, frora which she had been almost a constant sufferer for many years before; and she survived the loss of her son only a few months. Her own impression was that she would not long survive him; and now the great subject of her thoughts and of her conver sation with her attendants was how to be prepared for death. On Sabbath, the 7th of May, 1606, she attended the church, but immediately after dinner felt unwell. Struggling against her illness, she wished to attend the usual exercise of catechizing conducted in the church in the afternoon ; but the severity of her indisposition compelled her to remain at home, and she passed the afternoon in her own chamber in her wonted devotional exercises. Upon the return of Duplessis frora the church, she said to hira, " I ara de sirous to draw up a paper containing advices concerning the edu cation of my gTandchildren, to be left to my daughters. I request you to exaraine and re"vise it, when I shall have finished it, and to add to it what you may judge requisite to render it more complete." This he promised to do ; and shortly after she went to bed. To pro vide against the uncertainties of the future, they jointly made their last will and testaraent — a docuraent breathing the most fervent piety and the tenderest affection towards each other — in which, while di"viding their property among their chUdren, they reserve large bequests for religious and charitable objects, and Madame de Momay, in the event of her death, begs him, besides the distribu tion of a certain sum among the poor, to bestow upon every servant in their household one year's wages. Her illness was abscess of the bowels (aa was discovered from a post mortem examination), a trouble from which she had suffered about six months before. The remedies prescribed by her ordi nary physician not yielding her much relief, Duplessis, apprehend ing, frora the previously weak state of her health, that her illness might terminate in death, caUed other three celebrated physicians to assist with their advice, one of whom, however, only arrived after her death. But their efforts afforded very Uttle mitigation to her severe sufferings, which she patiently endured ; and — what France.] Cliarlotte Arbaleste. 479 rarely happens even with the best on the bed of death — no doubts or temptationa appear to have obscured her prospects, or inter cepted the peace and joy derived from the consolations and pro mises of the gospeL Chastened by protracted affliction, her mind had been much turned to the solemn reaUties of death and eternity, and her faith led to cling to that one sacrifice by which alone the last eneray can be divested of his terrors. She frequently expressed her eamest desire to be separated frora the body that she might go to God. Much of her time was eraployed in prayer and in hearing the Scriptures read, in which she was assisted by Bou chereau, and by one of the most illustrious of our Scottish worthies, Eobert Boyd of Trochrig, who shortly before had been appointed professor of divinity in the college of Sauraur and one of the min isters of the to"wn. Her only regret in the prospect of her depar ture was that her husband would be left alone in the world ; and she declared that if she felt auy wiah to have her days on the earth prolonged, it was solely for his sake. On the evening of Sabbath, the 14th of May, when De Momay, who watched by her bedside Aay and night, had retired to his own chamber to take a little rest, an attendant, by the orders of her ordinary physician, came to inform him that she had become so low that her departing hour might possibly be at hand. FeeUng herself to be worse, she also desired him to be brought to her. He immedi ately sent for Bouchereau, and went to her chamber. She had often expressed to hira a desire that on her deathbed she might be told when it was thought the great change was near, that by the grace of God she might make confession of her faith even to her last breath. This duty he now resolved to perform, with all the delicacy and tenderness he could. But on approaching her bedside and embracing her, he felt as if his lips were sealed. Her first words, however, encouraged him. " I must now," said she, '' no longer think upon the world but only upon God." Observing her in ao favourable a frame of mind, he said, " My dearest Charlotte, though God is all powerful to restore you in answer to our prayers, 480 Ladies of the Reformation. [France. it is nevertheless proper for you to be prepared for whatever raay be his will." She immediately understood his raeaning, and asked hira if it was the opiuion of the physicians that she was iu danger. " They entertain serious apprehensions as to the issue of your trou ble," was his reply. This intimation she received not only with composure and fortitude, but with joy. Then addressing him, she said, "Next to the knowledge of my salvation in Jesus Christ, I have nothing to thank God so much for as for having given me to you. O pray constantly for me that he would take me away from the great sufferings I endure. God has still more work for you to do ou earth, and let not the grief which you feel on account of my death render you less useful to his chm-ch. I beseech Him with all my heart to bless you more and raore. As to myself, I am going to my God, persuaded that nothing can separate me from the love which he has for rae iu his well-beloved Son. I know that ray Eedeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. He has triuraphed : he is in full possession of the field, and by his grace I share the fruits of his "victory. I ara confi dent, therefore, that in this very flesh I shall yet one day see ray God." Great as was her weakness, she spoke these words with a strong voice. Other expressions, equally solid and edifying, she uttered; and her quotations frora Scripture were so appropriate and so correctly repeated, as to show that neither her judgraent nor her meraory was in the least irapaired. Duplessis was deeply af fected, and to sustain his own spirit, as well as to corafort her, he quoted various texts of Scripture suitable to her condition; to which she raade apt and encouraging rephes, all bearing testimony to the peace, and hope, and joy that reigned within. Bouchereau having arrived, repeated to her some of the most comfortable passages of Scripture; and pausing at intervals, he af forded her an opportunity of giving utterance to her thoughts, con formably to a wiah he had often heard her express, that she would desUe to occupy her last iUness in rautual interchange of pious thought with Christian friends, thua at the aame time deri-vino- France.] Charlotte Arbaleste. 481 comfort from their lips, and on her part making confession of her faith. They passed together upwards of four hom-s in mutual con versation on Divine thinga, in prayer, and in reading Psalms, or other parta of Scripture, of her 0"wn selection, as Psalras xvi., xxv., xxxii., xci., and cxxx. When 'those verses raost pregnant with as surances of the grace of God, and of salvation to the faithful, were read, she remarked, "That belongs to me ;" "that is said for me," applying to herself, with full confidence, the promises made by God to his children. She sometiraes alao requested a short silence to be observed, that she might lUt up her soul to God, and meditate on the blessedneas of that world whither she was going, which " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man." Then a Uttle after she, of her own accord, resumed the conversation. One of the physicians who attended her during her illness was M. Millon of Poitiers, a Eoman CathoUc. On one occasion he ex horted her to take courage, to which she replied, " My courage is from above." Upon witnessing her firmness, which surpassed that of any whom he had ever before visited in similar circumstances, he advised her attendants and friends to speak to her no more of the things of this world. The day before her departure, having entered into conversation with him on the subject of death, she spake of the superior consolation afforded by the principles of the Eeformed faith, in prospect of that solemn event, corapared with that which Popery administered to the sick and dying; "for," said she, " according to your doctrine, they must be told of the fire of purgatory awaiting them hereafter, which, in your opinion, is far more intolerable than the greatest sufferings that can be endured in this world. Such discourse is more fitted to overwhelm them with anguish and despair than to support and corafort them in their departing hour. It ia different with us; for, after remonstrances intended to awaken us to a sense of our guilt, and exhortations to repentance and prayer for pardon, the discourse is tm-ned solely to the infinite depth of the Di-vine mercy — to Jesus Christ crucified 482 Lci,dies of the Reformation. [France. and raised again for the remission of our sins, and interceding for us at the right hand of God his Father— to the promises of the gospel, and to the most consoling declarations of Scripture ; which being appropriated by faith, enable us to leave this world "with joy and peace of conscience,'' Her affectionate concern for her family and frienda appeared now not less than when she was in perfect health. She desU-ed that the news of her death should be communicated in the most delicate maimer to her daughters, especially to Madarae de Fon tenay, who was about to be confined ; and she left it to them as her dying injunction, that they should train up theu- children in the fear of God. She particularly requested Dupleaais to be a father to the boy De la Vairie, son of her daughter of the first raarriage ; and gave him instructions as to the tokens of remembrance she wished to leave to her servants and attendants. She comforted aU around her with great affection, reminding them of the miaeriea from whioh she would be delivered, and of the bleasedness which awaited her; and beseeching God to bless thera, she took farewell of them all. Some words she had spoken to the Eoman Catholic physician Millon, caused her anxiety after he had left her, and shortly before her death, when her voice had become feeble, she turned towards Duplessis, who was at her bedside, and towards her other atten dants, and said, "As long as I am able to speak, there ia something lying upon ray raind of which I wish to disburden myseU. When I asked Monsiem- Millon if this state of severe suffering- would con tinue long, and if he had no reraedy for it, I am afraid that he has raistaken my words, which I waa unable to finish, from the pain I suffered, as indicating an irapatient desire for deliverance. This is the very opposite of what I intended ; and I desu-e that he may be so inforraed, that he raay not frora rae have occasion to speak evU of ray profession, and that ray language, being misunderstood, raay not obstruct his edification." She had requested M. Bouchereau to recall to her reeoUection, France.] Charlotte Arbaleste. 483 in her last moments, theae words, uttered by the Saviour upon the croaa, " Father, into thy handa I commend my spirit," as it was her wish to repeat them just before breathing out her spirit. But she remerabered them herself, and pi-onounced them distinctly, adding the words immediately following in the Psalm (xxxi. 5) from which they are a quotation — " For thou hast redeemed me, O etemal God of truth." She then desired M. Bouchereau to offer up the Lord's Prayer. After he had concluded, she continued uttering holy words, according to her abUity to speak; but gradually her tongue faltered, her articulation became less distinct and audible, and she expired with the word "Jesus'' upon her lips. She died between five and six o'clock in the morning of the 15th of May, 1606, having com pleted, in the month of February preceding, the fifty-seventh year of her age. On the following Tuesday, May 23, she was buried in the family vault, beside her son, a space being reserved between them, at De Mornay's particular desire, as his own last resting place. Her fun eral was attended by the most distinguished people of the place, and by the elders and merabers of the Eeformed church of Saumur; and her death was lamented by the whole population of the town, Eoraan Catholic as well as Protestant. By this second stroke following so soon the loss of his son, Du plessis was plunged into the deepest distress. "My afflictions," says he, "with affecting tenderness and sensibility, in writing to Ca saubon, " are such as you may easily conceive. I endure the bitter ness as weU as I am able, and I find my only consolation in God. To him my remaining days shall be devoted— days whioh, however short, wUl be too long for me." He composed on the occasion two beautiful sonnets, in one of which he pathetically describes the in tensity of his sorrow, and in the other the happy death of the dear departed. He had, indeed, lost in her one of the best of wives. "There was no woman of her time," says his secretary, "raore adomed with every kind of virtue. She had a clear understanding, a judgment uncommonly sound, courage vfhioh nothing could shake. 484 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [France. and so great a detestation of vice, that even the most noble of her acquaintance were afraid to incur her censure. Besides this, her heart glowed with charity to the poor; and, above all, her zeal for the glory of God, and the advanceraent of his church, was ardent and conspicuous." "To her," says De Mornay, in their last will and testaraent, " I owe this testiraony, if I would not be ungrateful to God, that in the labours, disappointraents, and sufferings which have befaUen me in his holy cause, she has never been a burden to me, but, on the contrary, always a consolation, both by word and deed," Under his affliction he experienced the syrapathy of his affec tionate daughters and sons-in-law, and of numerous friends, both in France and in foreign countries, who wrote to him letters of con dolence,' But he found his greatest comfort in the study of the Vford of God and in the exercises of devotion. To fortify his mind with Christian resignation, he wrote his meditations upon these words in the book of Proverbs — "My aou, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint wheu thou art rebuked of hira; for whora the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." His sorrow yielded to the infiuence of time. His numerous duties and the extensive correspondence he carried on with many of the beat and most distinguished men of his age, by occupying his thoughts, also brought alleviation. But he ever cherished the raeraory of his beloved wife. " She assisted me m living weU," said he; "and by her pious death she has taught me how to die well." He survived her upwards of seventeen years, having died in November, 1523, and his death was as peaceful and triuraphant as hers. ' See several of them in liis Mimoires et Coi-respondance, tom. s. pp. 178, ir;, 177-179. M@©®^@www^@^^®®@®'(^ ^tiks i)t tSe Eeformation IW ITALY. -tl- "Italia! 0 Italia ! thou who hast The fatal gift of beauty, which became A funeral dower of present woes and past, On thy sweet brow is sorrow plough'd by shame, And annals graved in characters of flame. O God ! that thou wert in thy nakedness Less lovely, or more powerful, and couldst claim Thy right, and awe the robbers back, who press To shed thy blood, and drink the tears of thy distress." — Byron's Childe Harold, canto iv. stanza xiii. -VX- INTEODIJCTION. -T the era of the Eeformation, Italy, from its emi nence in learning and refinement, was in a condition |r peculiarly favourable for subjecting the great doc trines of the Eeforraation to the test of free inquiry. The taste for classical, especiaUy Grecian literature, which Petrarch and Boccaccio had created in the fourteenth cen- tm-y, but which languished after their death, was partially revived, about the beginning of the fifteenth century, by those learned Greeks whom the court of Constantinople had despatched as arabassadors to Eorae, to invoke the aid of the pontiff againat the forraidable power of the Turks, and who were prevailed upon to settle perraa nently in Italy, to teach their language. This taste was more widely diffused by the much larger number of learned Greeks who, upon the overthrow of the Byzantine erapire by the taking of Con stantinople in 1453, sought refuge in Italy, and who, carrying with thera the choicest treasures of the classic Greek authors, inspired a passion for the knowledge of the language and literature of Greece. At the close of the fifteenth, and in the beginning of the sixteenth century, "almost every city of Italy," says Eoscoe, "was a new Athens, and that favoured country could boast its historians, its poets, its orators, and its artists, who may contend with the great 488 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. namea of antiquity for the palm of mental exceUence ; when Venice, MUan, Eome, Florence, Bologna, Ferrara, and several other places, vied with each other, not in arms, but in science and in genius ; and when the splendour of a court was estimated by the nuraber and talent of the leamed men who iUustrated it by their presence."' In these respects, Italy surpassed all the other countries of Europe, and it was from her they derived the literature and the civilization in which they first emulated, and afterwards surpassed her. "To her they owe both the science and the practical example of every art — intelligent agriculture — liberal commerce—the revival of ancient learning — the creation of modern literature — the fu-st great schools of medicine and jurisprudence — artists, poets, and phUosophers, when there were none beside." ^ Many who assiduously cultivated, and munificently patronized letters, sorae of whom were the popes themselves, had, indeed, no thought of achieving ecclesiaatical reform. To search out and to preserve the ancient classic authors, to restore them to their original purity, to correct their errors and supply then- defects from a com parison of different copies, to iUustrate them by scholia and explana tory notes, to translate the most admU-ed of the Greek authors into the Latin tongue — these were the only objects aimed at by a nume rous class of ItaUan literati. Many of them were prepared to sup- pox-t any ecclesiastical systera, however corrupt, which proraoted their personal intereata, and arrayed themselves, without hesitation, against the Eeformation. Others, who saw and lamented the cor ruptions of the church, had not the fortitude and the principle to enter into the contest with Eome, and to expose theraselves to the danger of becoming exiles or mendicants, or of peiishing at the stake, by embarking in the cause of ecclesiastical reform. But others of the Italian learned raen extended the newly-awakened spirit of free inquiry to the region of theology and of the church, and had the boldness to avow the results of their inquUies. They assiduously studied the Hebrew and Greek Scriptm-es, which had * Life of Lorenzo de Medici, vol. i. Pref. p. vi. 2 Edinhuryh Review, vol. Iv. p. 396. Italy.] Introduction. 489 hitherto been allowed to lie neglected in convent and other libraries, printed them both in the original and in the vernacular tongue for circulation, and unfolded then- meaning by the principles of sound interpretation. The inevitable consequence was the diffusion of new ideas on the subject of religion and of the church, and the dis covery that Popery was a system of superstition, corruption, and ira posture. When this effect of the re"vival of letters became apparent, the interested supporters of the existing corruptions, who had for merly been the patrons of letters, mortified at their short-sighted policy iu ha'ving themselves sharpened those weapons which were now pointed "with such threatening effect against the Popish church, would gladly have extinguished the light which at first they had assisted to produce. Leo X., that vaunted patron of literature and of the arts, issued, in 1515, severe restrictions against printing and pubhshing any books translated from the Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic' Thus prepared, Italy received a powerful impulse in the right direction from Gerraany. The controversy in which Luther had become involved -with the Papal com-t, arrested the attention of the Italians, many of whom, notwithstanding their prejudices against the Germans as a barbarous people, admired and applauded his boldness and talents in defending his cause, and secretly rejoiced iu his success in humbUng the pride of the Vatican. So early as the beginning of the year 1519, only two years after he had lifted up his voice against indulgences, some of his works had been conveyed into Italy, where they were eagerly read by the learned. In defi ance of Papal anatheraas, and of the vigilance of inquisitors, the works of Luther and Melancthon, of Zwingle and Bucer, found their way, at later periods, into Italy, where they were instruraental iu widely spreading a spirit of disaffection to the Eoman church. Some of them were translated into the Italian language for the bene fit of the people ; and, that they might escape the scrutinizing eye of the censors of the press, they were published under fictitious 1 Villers' Essay on tlie Reformation, p. SDO. 490 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. names. So dexterous waa the disg-uise, that, their authors not being at first suspected, the books obtained, for some tirae, an un challenged circulation. They were admitted even into the palace of the Vatican, and were read and eulogized by merabers of the sacred college of cardinals, till, ou discovering the authora, the outwitted cardinala became exasperated at works which they before admired, proscribed them as pregnant -with danger, and threatened the ven geance of the church against whoever should read them. To the Italian people at large, the knowledge of the truth was also unfolded by the oral instructions of learned and effective preachers. Among these may be particularly named, Bernardino Ochino, Peter Martyr, Celio Secundo Curio, John MoUio, Aonio Paleario, and Pierpaolo Vergerio. From the great rarity of public preaching of any kind at that period, as in the present day in Italy, and from the novelty of the doctrines of salvation, so different from the legends and miracles of saints, which the Italians, when they heard orations at all from their illiterate priests, had been accus tomed to hear, these preachers attracted numerous auditors. Peter Martyr was the most leamed among them, almost rivaUing in learning, acuteness, and solidity of judgment, John Calvin; but Bernardino Ochino was the moat eloquent. While in Italy, he did not abandon the communion of the Eoraish church, nor did he openly attack Popish superstition, error, and corruption ; but evan geUcal truth was the exclusive theme of his discourses, and from his singular gift of utterance, accompanied with the most admirable action, persons of all ranks and sexes crowded every church where he preached, and heard hira with entranced admiration. Even raonarchs, bishops, and cardinals, who regarded the Eeforraation with unraixed aversion and horror, were raviahed by his eloquence, and — what is still raore astonishing — by the doctrines he taught, not aware that these doctrines were precisely those taught by Luther and the other Eeformers. The phlegmatic Charles V. was so moved by his pathetic oratory, that after hearing him he exclaimed, "that man would make the stones weep." Cardinal Pole was loud in his Italy.] Introduction. 491 praise, and the Papal secretary, Bembo, declared that he listened to hira "with a pleasure which he could not sufficiently express.'' Many of the most eminent Italian converts to Protestantism, of that day, owed their conversion to his rainistry. By these and other raeans, the doctrines of the Eeformation excited a general fermentation through alraost the whole of Italy. They spread more or lesa extenaively in Ferrara, Modena, Bologna, Venice, Naples and Sicily, in the Milanese and Siennese, in the cities of Lucca and Locarno, and in other cities. In Italy, as in other countries, the proclamatiou of the doctrines of the Eeforraa tion found a ready echo in the heart of woraan. At the close of the iUteenth century any piety existing there waa almost exclusively confined to the feraale part of the population, irreligion and infidel ity, notwithstanding the observance of the external forms of the established chm-ch, being generally prevalent among the other sex. An ItaUan author, who writes in the middle of the sixteenth cen tury, speaking of the attainments of his countryworaen in the know ledge of Divme truth, and of their fervent devotion, says, " In om- age we behold the admirable spectacle of women (whose sex is more addicted to vanity than learning) having their minds deeply im bued with the knowledge of heavenly doctrine. In Campania, where I now write, the raost learned preacher may becorae raore learned and holy by a single conversation with sorae woraen. In my native country of Mantua, too, I found the same thing ; and were it not that it would lead me into a digression, I could dilate with pleasure on the many proofs which I received, to my no small edification, of an unction of spirit and fervour of devotion in the sisterhood, such aa I have rarely met with in the moat learned men of my profession."' This was descriptive of many nuns iu the con vents, and of many who had never taken the veil. Among the nuraerous feraale adherents of the Eeformation in Italy, numbers, in addition to their erainent piety, were illustrious 1 Folengius in Psalmos, apud Gerdesii Ital. Ref., p. 261, q^uoted in M'Crie's Hist, of the Ref, in Italy, p. 159. 492 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. for their high bu-th, as well as for their genius and mental cultiva tion. This is true of two of the ladies included in the sketches of this portion of our work. The other, Olympia Morata, had, in deed, no pretensions to noble birth, but she was inferior to neither of her condisciples in piety, and she surpassed them in native genius and literary attainments. The claims of another lady who illumin ated Italy in the sixteenth century, Vittoria Colonna, wife of the famous Marquis of Pescara, to a, place araong the woraen of thu Eeformation in Italy, have been disputed. She certainly, at first, delighted in hearing the Eeformed doctrines preached by Bernar dino Ochino, and, w© believe, embraced them with her heart; but if, from her esteem and admiration of Ochino, she ever felt dis posed to separate frora the Church of Eome and join the ranks of the Eeforraers, she was prevented by the insinuating arts of Car dinal Pole.' Proraising as were the appearances at first, the cause of the Ee forraation did not triumph in Italy, aa it did in other countries of Europe, where the prospect of success was far lesa encouraging. This is not to be attributed to any defect of zeal, fidelity, and ability on the part of her Eeformers, who did all that they could do in the circumstances in which they were placed, and who, by their deeds and sufferings, have earned a claim to everlasting admiration and gratitude. The prostration of the Eeformed cause in Italy was owing to a combination of causes ; and to the chief of theae we may briefly advert. The violence of persecution, as being the raore direct and im mediate cause, is entitled to be first, if not more especially noticed. To this the Vatican trusted more than to anything else, reo-arding it as the speediest and the raost effectual means of exterminatino- heresy and heretics. To carry ou this work with the greater vigour and success, the Spanish Inquisition was established in Italy by a bull of Paul IIL, dated April 1, 1543. The buU " granted the title and rights of inquisitors-general of the faith to six cardinals, and 1 See notice of this lady hi Appeudix, No. III. Italy.] Introduction. 493 gave them authority, on both sides of the Alps, to try all causes of heresy, with the power of apprehending and incarcerating suspected persons and their abettors, of whatsoever state, rank, or order; of nominating officers under them, and appointing inferior tribunals in all places, with the same or limited powers."' The Vatican suc ceeded in peaceably establishing this horrible tribunal not only in the Papal Statea, but in other states of Italy. Upon ita establish ment, by which, it may be aaid, the doom of the Eeforraation in Italy waa sealed, spies and inquisitors iu great nurabers prowled throughout the country, as beasts of prey in search of their -victims; the prisons were everywhere filled with real or suspected heretics, inclucUng persons of noble bU-th, male and feraale, scholars and mechanics, some of whom were sent to the gaUeys, others banished, others sold as slaves, others cruelly tortured to extort from them information, others brought forth and mercilessly coraraitted to the flames, and others kept for years in dark unwholesome dungeons, without seeing any one save their jailers, "with the view of subduing them into an abjuration of their faith, and of striking terror into their friends. The state of matters in the year 1568 is thus described by a contemporary, who waa then residing on the borders of Italy : "At Eome some are every day burned, hanged, or beheaded; all the prisons and places of confinement are filled ; and it is necessary to build new ones. That large city cannot furnish jails for the num bers of pious persons who are continually apprehended."^ Towards the close of the sixteenth century, so complete was the work of sup pression, that the inquisitors could hardly discover any more heretics in Italy, though during the seventeenth century there still lingered in secret sorae who were attached to the Eeformed faith. Another cause why the Eeforraation failed in establishing itself in Italy was the want of the support of any of the Italian govern ments. In those times, when governments either actively advanced the Eeformation, or met it by fierce persecution, the protection and 1 M'Crie's Hist, ofthe Ref. in Italy, p, 201, 2 Thobias Eglinus ad Bullingerum, 2 Mart, 156S, quoted in M'Crie, p. 272. 494 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. support of civil authority was necessary to its obtaining a free and unobstructed course. It is a remarkable fact that in every country, with only one exception, where it ultiraately triumphed, it enjoyed this protection and support. The exception referred to is Holland and the other parts of the Netherlands, afterwards formed into the United Provinces, which, in opposition to the formidable power of Spaiu, imder the government of which they were placed, secm-ed for themselves, at the same tirae, poUtical liberty and the free pro fession of the Eeformed faith. But it may be doubted whether the Eeforraation even there, though embraced by hundreds of thou sands of the people, would have been successful against the might of Spain, had not the nobility, and especially Williara, Prince of Orange, a prince of great military genius, of vast resources, and of untiring energy, come to the rescue. In Italy the magiatratea of some of the atates, in some instances, protected for a time individual Eeformers, and were averse to the measures of unrelenting severity had recom-se to by the Vatican against heretics ; but none of the Italian governments openly arrayed theraselves on the side of the Eeformation. Judging from the means by which that great cause becarae triuraphant in other countries, this support, in addition to that of a numerous body of the people, seemed necessary to carry it on to victory in Italy. And it may be further observed, that it v/ould have been also necessary for such of the governments as took up this position, to combine or confederate, as did the Swiss cantons, for their defence against whatever opposition they might in conse quence have had to encounter. The want of confederation among the Italian states, whioh have always consisted of numerous sraall disjointed principalities or kingdoms, has been a source of much calaraity to Italy. It has tempted ambitious sovereigns to invade her, and made her an easy prey to conquest. And had some of the Italian states espoused the Eeformation, while yet they did not con federate and concentrate their energies for theu- protection, this want of union would have exposed them to the utmost dauger of being speedUy and finaUy crushed. Italy.] Introduction. 493 A third cause, to which may be attributed the failure of the triumph of the Eeformation in Italy, is to be found in those influ ences which operated to prevent the adherents of the Eeformation in that country from becoraing so overwhelraing in point of num bers as to master the opposition that might be brought to bear againat them. Indifference about religion and infidelity were power ful obstacles against which the Eeforraation had to contend in Italy. The Italians, who possessed better means of becoming acquainted with the corruptions of the court of Eorae than those who lived at a distance, had never the same veneration for the Holy See as the people of other countries. Nor was this veneration increased by the popular writings of their most celebrated literati of the mid dle ages — Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio — whose lashing satU-es ag-ainst the vices of the clergy, including the highest dignitaries of the church, and even the holy father himself, were read and re peated with applause by the people. The church had, indeed, be come so degi-aded in the eyes of the Italians, by the infamous lives of the ecclesiastics, that raany of them rejected or disregarded not only Popery, but all religion whatsoever. In no country did infidels or indifferentists so much abound aa in Italy, and especially in and about Eorae. " The nearer people are to Eome, which is the capi tal of Christianity,'' says Machiavel, who describes what carae un der his 0"wn observation, " the less religion they have. . . . The scandalous example and the crimes of the court of Eome have been the cause that Italy has lost entirely all the principles of piety, and every sentiment of religion. . . . We Italians, then, owe this important obligation to the church and to priests, that we have be corae reprobates and viUains.'" On persona of this character, who are more than ordinarUy hardened against conviction, the Eeforraa tion raade small unpression. It left them, to a great extent, infidels and indifferentists, as it found them. National vanity kept in the ranks of the Papacy many who might otherwise have joined the ranka of reform. Eome had long been the mistress of the world. » Quoted in ViUera' Essay on the Reformation, p. 9S. 49 G Ladies of the Ref ormation. [Italy. Formerly it was the capital of the Eomau erapire, and the terror of kings. Now it was the capital of Christendom, and invested with the majesty of being the seat of the supreme spiritual ruler of the Chriatian world. This was the boast of the Italians. But were the Papacy to be overthrown, the city of Eome would be dragged from this proud pre-eminence. Considerations of personal or family in terest prevented many of the Italians from erabracing the Eeforraed religiou. An iramense stream of wealth had for ages flowed from all the countries of Europe into Eome, and had thence been spread over Italy ; but the Eeformation threatened to dry up this stream. The pope had the patronage of many wealthy li"vings in aU the countries of Europe ; and theae, when he did not seU them to the highest bidder, he gifted to the Italians, in whose fidelity he could more fully confide than in that of foreigners ; but by the destruc tion of the Papacy, all this patronage would have been destroyed at a single blow. There was hardly a family among the Italian nobi lity whose sons, brothers, or uephewa were not in lucrative situa tions dependent upon the pope, or who had not the hope of ob taining them, and most of the learned men were either holders of benefices, or derived from them pensions of greater or less value. A powerful class was thus attached to the Papacy from raotives of personal or faraily interest, which di.sposed them to shut their eyes to the vices of the church, and to oppose the progress of enlightened opinion in religion. Again, the Italian princes, in another point of view, were under the strongest temptations to support the old sys tem of priestcraft and tyranny. At one time or another, the popes had advanced pretensions to most of the states and cities of Italy. The foundations upon which these claims reated were indeed auch as would raake a private family asharaed of the title deeds of their ancestors; but from the ignorance and superstition of the times, the popes had a wonderful power of making the worse appear the bet ter cause ; and though, from the liraited extent of the states under their immediate authority, their power, intrinsically considered, was small, yet they could command powerful assistance, both from the Italy.] Introduction. 497 other Italian states and from abroad. They were, therefore, at that time foi-midable adversaries. And had any Italian prince evinced favour for the new opinions, he might have expected a revival of the Papal claim upon his territories, and, after the fulmination of a Papal bull of excommunication against him, the invasion of. them by the pope, who would either have added them to his o"wn domin ions, or have gifted them to whoever might conquer them. Need we wonder, then, that the Italian princes shrunk from entering into such unequal contest with the pope, the probable result of which would have been defeat and ruin ? From all these causes combined, the Papacy succeeded in sup pressing the Eeformation in Italy, which ever since has suffered, as it had suffered ages before, all the miseries of political and ecclesias tical despotism, oppreaaion, and misrule. But is Italy always to remain in this condition? We believe that she is not. Whatever judgments may yet be brought upon her as the chief seat of Antichrist, it cannot be doubted that at the period when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, the Italians, like the other nations of the world, shall be a truly Chriatian, enlightened, free, and happy people. Of late years the grmding tyranny by whioh they have been so long trodden to the dust has awakened a spirit of resistance; and as it is the tyranny of priests under which they have suffered, their hatred has especially been excited against the prieata, Cruahed as their energies have been by oppression, they have shown, in their recent struggles for freedom, the capacity alUie of enduring and of resisting. Unaided, and in opposition to a power far superior to their own, they have fought with a heroism not unworthy of the brightest days of Eoman valour, giving proof that stiU some of the old Eoman blood fiows in their veins; and they would probably have succeeded in throwing off the yoke of their local governments, had they not been overpowered and borne down by the muskets, bayonets, and cannon of Austria and France. But how is Italy to be socially and poUticaUy regenerated? The 3« 498 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italt. idea entertained by some of her liberal men that this may be done by simply overthrowing the secular power of the pope, while Eo manism, including the Papal supremacy or infallibility in matters of religion, is preserved, can never be realized. Byron, in his Childe Harold, while painting, in some of the finest stanzas which ever fell from his pen, the present desolation of Italy contrasted with her former glory, anticipates that the revival of the study of her old classic authors will be the means of achieving for her the blessing of freedom and all that can make her great and glorious. "Alas ! for Tully's voice aud Virgil's lay. And Livy's pictured page — hut these shall be Her resurrection," But whatever advantages she might derive from the revival of the study of the Eoman classics, something better adapted to the spU-it of the age is necessary to make her a land of Uberty and happi ness. It is only by the overthrow of Popery within her, and by the substitution of the pure Christian faith in its place, that she can be politically and sociaUy regenerated. The former is the true cause of all her miseries. The latter has ever quickened and invi gorated the love of freedom, and inspired the resolution to achieve it : assailing ignorance and superstition, it strikes against the two great piUars of spiritual despotism ; and teaching the true dignity of man, and the relation of all men to each other, it strikes against tyranny in secular rulers. HENEE, DUCHESS OF FEERAHA CHAPTEE I. rP.OM HEB BIRTH TO THB EXTINCTION OF THE REFORMED CHTJRCH IN FERRARA. 1 UEING the firat half of the sixteenth century, Ferrara was one of the most flourishing cities of Italy. Situated in a low and insalubrious plain on an arm of the Po, it is indeed by no means equal, in reapect of natural advantages, to some of the other Italian cities. But its na tural deficiencies were in a great measure com pensated by the superior wisdom and paternal policy of its rulers, the dukes of the illustrious house of Este, who were the munificent patrons of industry, com merce, science, and the fine arts. Their liberality attracted to the city the most celebrated scholars and poets of the age ; and their court was distinguished for its elegance, taste, and refinement, rival- Img that of the Medici of Florence. Ferrara, too, was famous for the generous protection it extended for some time to the friends of the Eeformation, to -whom it was often a sanctuary of safety, when their Uves were in peril in the other Italian states, or in other countries. This patronage is to be ascribed to the warm sym- 500 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. pathy and active benevolence of one individual, a princess who was looked up to by the Protestants of Italy and France with the high est veneration — the enlightened and accomplished Eenee, Duchess of Ferrara. This princess was bom at Blois, October 15; 1510.' She was the second daughter of Louis XII. of France, by his queen the beauti ful Anne of Bretagne, the rich heiress of the duchy of that name, and widow of Charles VIII. Her father, whose paternal care for the welfare of his subjects procured him the name of "Father of the people," is celebrated by all historians. He exerted his royal power in diminishing the taxes, and in introducing salutary iraproveraents into the administration of justice.^ Though he never deserted the Popish church, he was too humane and generous to persecute peace able and loyal subjects, simply for the offence of heresy. Being urged, in 1501, on occasion of his making a tour through Dauphiny, by sorae of the bigoted nobiUty, to exterrainate the Waldenses from the province in which their fathers had dwelt from tirae immemo rial, he fii-st desired to know of what criraes they were guilty, and sent his own confessor, Parvi, to institute an inquiry into their character and habits. The report was so favourable that he swore by all the saints that they were better Christians than himself, or any of his other subjects. He accordingly gave orders that the goods which had been taken from thera should be restored, and that the judicial processes commenced against them should be cast into the Ehone.^ He became involved in serious wars with Julius IL, a pontiff of savage ferocity and ungovernable ambition ; and in the height of his contest "with that pontiff, he caused a medal to be struck at Naples with the legend afterwarda adopted by Luther — Perdam Babylonis nomen {i. e., "I will destroy the name of Baby- Ion"),"' Unhappily, his hostiUty was directed against the pope, • Nolten, Vita Olympioi Morata. ^ Gaillard, Histoire de Frangois I., i, 62-64. 3 Heury's Life and Times of Calvin, vol, i. pp. 11, 12. 4 Gerdesius, Historia Evangelii Renovati, tora.. i. p. 19, The die for this medal is pre served in the royal museum at Paris. The medal itself is considerably larger than the engraving in p. 501, Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 601 ¦^dewed exclusively as a temporal sovereign, whom, in this character alone, he vowed to humble and overthrow His faith in Popery as a religious system never appears all the while to have been shaken. Zledal stnicl: hy Louis XII, "The Babylon," as Smedley justly observes, "which Louis vowed to destroy was not the spiritual Babylon, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations, drunken -with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. The monarch of France was fully prepared to strip Eome of her fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, decked 'with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, but he was not equally prepared to come out of her himself, and to invite his people also to come out of her, ihat they be not partakers of her sins, and that they receive not of her plagues."^ The marriage of Een6e, while she was yet a child, formed the subject of varioua negotiations dictated by state policy, Ferdinand, King of Aragon, sought her in marriage for one of his grandsons, namely, Ferdinand, second son of Philip, Archduke of Austria,^ In 1513, her father, from the distressed state of his affairs— his armies having sustained several defeats, and Milan and Genoa having been -wrested from him— entered, with the view of retrieving his fortunes, into a treaty with the Emperor MaximiUan and Ferdinand, King of Aragon, one article of which was that Eenee, who was then a ohUd of only three years, should, when of age, become the wife of Charles (afterwards Charies V.), eldest son of Philip, Archduke of Austria, already mentioned, and grandson of both these sovereigns : and that ' Hist, of the Rtf. Religion in France, vol. i. p. 3. ' Lettres de Louis XIL, iv. 251. 503 Ladies of tlie Reformation [Italy. in the meantime she should be delivered to MaximUian, as it were, in pledge for the fulfilment of the treaty. But the maternal mind of her mother revolting from this last provision, the whole affair, mainly through Anne's opposition, came to nothing. EenSe was next promiaed in marriage to Joachim, eldest son of Joachim I., Elector of Brandenburg, a boy nearly six years older than herself. But thia contract was also abandoned.' In the third year of her age, EenSe lost her mother, who died at the castle of Blois, on the 21st of January, 1513. The light of the Eeformation had scarcely dawned upon France in Anne of Bre- tagne's days, and her eyes were never opened to a discovery of the true character of Popery. After the differences betweeu Louis XII. and the pope had arisen, she was unceasing in her endeavours to reconcile the king to his holiness and to the Eomish church, for which she was not leas beloved and revered than the king was hated by the Catholic princes and prelates. The reconciUation of hia majesty with Leo X., the successor of Julius IL, shortly before her death, gave her great satisfaction. Another proof of her devo tion to the Papacy to the last, is recorded by Brantome. " I have seen," says that -writer, "at St. Denis, a splendid embroidered cloak covered with pearls, which she had expressly raade as a preseut for the pope, but was prevented by her death from presenting it. Her funeral was very superb and honourable, and her mortal remains were deposited at St. Denis." ^ In her fifth year, Eenee was bereaved of her father. After the death of her mother, peace having been concluded between him and England, he had married for his third wife Mary, sister of the Eng lish monarch Henry VIIL, a young princess only sixteen years of age, celebrated for her beauty. The change of habits thus produced on his already debilitated frame shortened his days. He lived only two months and a half after the marriage, having died on the lat of January, 1515. Finding his strength exhausted by fever and dy sentery, he sent for Francis, Duke of Angouleme (who succeeded > Nolten, Vita Olympics Moriitce. » Brant6me, (Euvres, v. 10, 22, 23. Paris edit, 1S23. Italy,] Renee of Ferrara. 503 him), then in the twenty-first year of his age,' and stretching forth his attenuated and enfeebled arms, said to him; " I am dying; I re commend to you my subjects ;'' expressing at the same time regret at being taken away so soon from his beloved people, for he was only fifty-three years pf age. He expired a few hours after, in the arms of Francis. In obedience to his dying command, he was buried in the same tomb with his second wife, Anne of Bretagne, at St. Denis, where a magnificent monument of white marble was erected to their memory by Francis." Though Een6e thus early became an orphan, her education was not neglected by her brother-in-law Francis I.,' to whose guardian ship she had been committed. Her education was also watched over by Mai-guerite, sister of Francis, and Queen of Navarre. She was provided with able teachers— among the female portion of whom Madame de Soubise was not the least distinguished for worth and accomplishments;* and catching the spirit of the age, the taste of which for knowledge knew no bounds, she pursued her studies with great avidity, more as an amusement than as a task, and, endowed with great natm-al talents, she made uncommon pro ficiency in all kinds of learning, and became one of the most ac complished princesses of Europe. In languages, history, philo sophy, and especiaUy in astronomy and the moral sciences, so far aa these were known in her day, her attainments were high, even be yond the most of the other sex. " She was very learned," says Brant&me; "and I have heard her discom-se very eruditely, flu ently, and gtavely, of all the sciences, even of astrology and the knowledge of the stars, concerning which I saw her one day con versing with the queen-mother [Catharine de Medicis], who, on * Francis was hom in 1494. -.¦ Brant6me, (Euvres, tom, v. pp, 22, 23., Gaillard, tom. i, pp, 62-64, 67. s That monarch was married to her sister Claude, who was between ten and eleven yeai-s her senior. * This lady, who waa a native of Bretagne, had been one of Anne of Bretagne's maids- of-honour, and had heen appointed by Anne to be Rente's governess. Her maiden name waa MicheUe de Saubonne. By the favour of Anne of Bretagne, she was married in 1507, to Jean de Partheuai-l' Archev6q.ue, Lord of Soubise. Bayle's Diet., art "Parthenai, Anne de." 504 Ladies of tlie Reformation. ,, [Italy. hearing her so speak, said that the greatest philosopher living could not talk better about them."' Her studies were of the same intel lectual character with those of Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, but of a severer kind. Gifted with a mind less imaginative, indeed, but not leaa vigorous, and of a more practical and persevering cast, she exarained raore thoroughly the questions to which its attention was tumed, comprehended them more fully, and adhered with propor tionally greater tenacity to the particular views she had once adopted. She was remarkable, too, for -delicacy and readiness of wit, for becoming dignity of deportment and manners, and for sin gular amiableness and generosity of disposition, united with in- corrupted virtue and a deep senae of piety. In regard to her per son, there were some defects in her shape ; but even in her external appearance, as described by a contemporary biographer, there was something peculiarly prepossessing. " The daughter of Louis XIL," he aaya, "without being handaome, was one of the most engaging persona in the world. She had an agreeable expression, fine eyea, beautUul teeth, and an air of youthful bloom, which rendered her countenance inexpreasibly pleasing." " The truth of this description is confirraed by the portraits of her still in existence. At the court of Francis I., along with a taste for letters, Een6e imbibed a taste for theological learning, and acquired the know ledge of the Lutheran doctrines, of the truth of which she had at an early period of her IUe a strong con-viction. Marguerite, sister of Francis I., to whom friendship united her even more than blood, had no inconsiderable share in imparting to the youthful mind of the orphan princess an inclination towards the new tenets. Meet ing both at Paris and at Nerac with the learned Eeforraers whom Marguerite supported and protected, Een6e, who much revered them for theu- character and learning, derived much advantage from their conversation. The instructions of her governess Ma dame de Soubise, a lady not only of great abiUty as a teacher, but ^ Brant6me, (Euvres, tom. v. p. 213. 2 Quoted in Mrs. GiUespie Smith's Life of Olympia Morata, p. 33. Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 505 an enlightened and intrepid supporter of the Eeformation, gave her miud an impulse in the same direction. From the severe measures adopted to suppress the new opinions, the.se various influences acted upon her mind with redoubled effect. The spectacle of peaceable and loyal subjects scourged through the public streets of Paris, burned on the cheek with a red hot iron, banished from their homes and country, cruelly mutilated in their bodies, even burned alive, and all this simply for holding the Eeformed sentiments, con tributed greatly to alienate her generous mind from the Papacy, and to strengthen her sympathy for the proscribed Eeformers and their faith. Eoman Catholic historians, to throw discredit upon her as a disciple of the Eeformation, have attributed her conversion to Lutheranism, mainly to the inextinguishable hatred "with which they EtSirm she regarded the Papacy, on account of the opposition made by Julius II. to her father.' " She had been heard to say," says Maimbourg, " oftener than once, that, being a woman incapa ble by the Salic law of succeeding to the crown, she had no other way of being avenged on the pope." Muratori, while assigning this as one cause of her having embraced the Eeformation, adds, as a second, the goodness of her heart, which led her to sympathize with the persecuted Protestants.^ That the wicked character of Julius IL, and of the other popes, all of whom, with few excep tions, were notoriously vicious, and some of them rather monaters than raen, served, in no small degree, to undermine her faith, as it served to undermine the faith of many others in the Papal infallibi lity, and consequently in the whole Popish system, may be readUy admitted; but that her renunciation of Popery, and her adoption of the Eeformation, originated in inveterate prejudice and hatred contracted against Julius IL, is supported by no satisfactory evi dence. This was the result of rational inquiry and enlightened con- 1 Petitot, Introduction aux Mimoires de du Bellay, tom, xvii, pp. 101, 102, Maim bourg, Histoire du Calvinisme, tom, i, pp, 95, 96, Braut6me, an earlier writer than either of these, and from whom both of them boiTow, is less dogmatic, assigning this only as possibly the cause why Reufie was so favourably inclined to the Reformed religion and its adherents. — (Euvres, v 214. ^ Quoted in Black's Life of Torquato Tasso, i. 123. 506 Ladies of the Ref ormation. [Italy. viction. Aa to the observation attributed to her by Maimbourg, and aa to which Brantdme says, "I have it from good authority that ahe often said so," there is no ground to question its truth. But it is a jocular remark, to whioh she would give utterance more likely after than before her conversion to Lutheranism, in the playful freedom of confidential intercourse with the Eeformers, when the hostiUty of the pope and of the clergy had been roused against her. After Marguerite de Valois had declined to supplant Katharine of Aragon, by becoraing, in the event of the divorce of that queen, the wife of Henry VIII. of England, Cardinal Wolsey, who had been bent upon that match, directed his attention to Eenee, and it not being doubted that the divorce would be obtained, one of the private objects of his joumey into France in 1527, was to arrange a marriage between his master and this princess, who was then scarcely seventeen years of age. But the scheme failed. The French king, it is probable, was indifferent to the proposal, -from a jealouay lest a monarch so powerful as Henry VIII. raight, in the event of that union, lay claim to the duchy of Bretagne, Eenee's maternal inheritance.' This duchy Francis wished to secure to hiraself unchallenged. On the 28th of June, the following year, EenSe was married to Hercules, eldest son of Alfonso I,, Duke of Ferrara, by his wife Lucretia Borgia, daughter of the profiigate pontiff Alexander VL, a woman of great beauty and brilliant talents, but in early life of infamous character, having been suspected of incest with her bro thers and father,- Francis I,, the raain instrument in bringing about the marriage, was actuated chiefiy, if not solely, by political motives. According to some he conceived that a prince so limited in resources and so far distant, would never think of making a quarrel with hira about the duchy of Bretagne, whereas a powerful prince, if united to EenSe, raight make pretensions to that duchy." 1 Turner's Henry VIIL, ii. pp, 135-138, 169, Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, i. p. llo. 2 Nolten, Vita Olympice Morales. Bonnet, Vie d' Olympia Moraia, p. 7, 3 Mezeray, Histoire de la Ligue de Cambrai. Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 507 Others affirm that he was govemed by the consideration of the pro bable influence of the marriage of his sister-in-law with an Italian prince, in promoting the success of the war he was prosecuting in Italy.' He very Ukely acted under the combined operation of both these motives. The family to which Een6e had now become related had long been distinguished for their love and patronage of learning ; in con sequence of which, their names and achievements have been trans mitted with renown to our day by the illustrious poets who flour ished under their favour." Her husband, who, on the death of hia father, which took place in 1534, became Hercules IL, Duke of Fer rara, had enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education, and could "write "with elegance in prose and verse. Ariosto eulogizes hira as one of the most cultivated poets of the day; and like his predecessors, he was the munificent patron of learning and of the fine arts. If Ariosto and Bernardo Tasso adorned the court of his father Alfonso I., Torquato Tasso— the Milton of Italy — the son of the latter of these poets, and a man surpassing his father in genius, adorned the court of Hercules IL, who, frora judgment and personal taste, extended to men of talent ahd genius that patronage which was yielded by contemporary princes, merely in conformity with fashion, and to maintain their refutation as the: benefactors of learning. He invited to Ferrara many men of letters, and nume- i-ous literai-y works were dedicated to him and pubUshed under his auspices. Inspired -with an enthusiastic taste for the memorials of antiquity, he gathered together, at great expense, a collection of medals admirable for the time, and is thus entitled to be considered the founder of the celebrated museum of Este. He is commemo rated for the palace with which he adorned his capital, and for the viUas with which he embeUished the banks of the Po.= He is also eulogized for his fine person, his naturally engaging dispositions, his affability, justice, and liberality. The great stain upon his memory ' Petitot, tom. xvii, pp. 101, 102. 2 M'Crie's Ref. in Italy, p. 67. 3 Jules Bonnet, Vie d'Olympia Morata, pp. 5-7, 508 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. is the harsh treatment he exercised towards his duchess on account of her religion, and the facility with which he was brought by foreign influence to persecute, and finaUy to disperse the infant church of Ferrara. This certainly detracts from the generosity The Ducal P,iliiee of Ferrara, usually ascribed to his character, whether, wrought upon by the in tolerant spirit of Popery, he imagined it right to force the con sciences of his wife and subjects, or whether, as is more probable, he was governed by worldly considerations — by the desire of keep ing on good term.s with the pope, whoae wrath at that time it was perilous to provoke. Eenee was the chief ornament of the court of Hercules. She brought into it the moat brilliant gifta of mind with the elegance Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 509 aud urbanity of manners she derived from the courts of Francis I. and Marguerite, Queen of Navarre ; and her life is honourably as sociated with the revival of letters and of the arts in Italy, in the sixteenth century. Upon the ducal throne of Ferrara she exem plified the virtues of her mother Anne of Bretagne, associated with the goodness of her father Louis XII. The attendants or com panions brought by her from France, she had selected on account of their accomplishments and attachment to the Eeformed princi ples. By this select society, which enhanced the splendour of her court, she loved to be surrounded, and it was to her, as it were, an image of her 0"wn country. Among its number were Madamo de Soubise, formerly her governess ; Jean de Parthenai, Sieur de Sou bise, son of that lady, who, at a later period, acted a conspicuous part as leader of the Protestants iu France dm-ing the civil wars ; Anne de Parthenai, daughter of the sarae lady, equally distinguished for her beauty and her talents — who had enthusiastically cultivated the study of the ancient classics and theology, to which she added exquisite skiU iu music: — and Antoine de Pons, Count of Marennes, the future husband of Anne de Parthenai, a nobleman who warmly supported the Eeformed cause until the death of his wife.' Another of this select society was Anne de Beauregard, who died in the flower of her age under a foreign sky, a lady on whose prema ture death, Clement Marot wrote a feeUng epitaph, in which he introduces her as addressing the reader, telling him, that when a child, she had forsaken parents, country, friends, and France, to follow the Duchess Eenfe into Italy, but that she had since left the duchess, her intended husband, beauty, youth, to go to her own inheritance in heaven, leaving the world with less regret than she had left France to come into Italy. "De Beauregard Anne suis qui d'enfanco, Laissay parents, pa.vs, amis et Franco Pour suivre icy la Duchesse Renee, Laquelle jay depuis abandonnce, • M'Crie's History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation -in Italy, p, 60. 510 Ladies of the Reforination. [Italy. Futur 6poux, beauts, ileurissant aage. Pour aller veoir au ciel mon hMtage ; Laissant Ie monde avec moindre soucy, Qu'en laissant France alors que vius icy. From the comraeucement of her married life Een6e's heart was eamestly intent upou the introduction of the Eeformation iuto the dominions of which her husband was the heir. So early as 1528, the year after her marriage, the gospel, it is said, was taught by several Eeformed preachers in Ferrara ; but whether they were per raitted to preach it publicly, or did so only in private, we are not inforraed.' Nor is it kno-wn whether or not they had been brought to Ferrara by Eenee. Her father-in-law, Alfonso I., who was still alive, being a devoted Eoraanist, she adopted, and could only adopt, indirect means for the diffusion of the truth. Availing herself of the patronage which Alfonso aud Hercules extended to men of letters, she succeeded, under colour of patronizing men of talent and genius, in getting the principal situations in her household esta blishment filled with such accompUshed ladies and learned raen as were secretly or avowedly favourable to the Eeforraed doctrines. Several of the tutors whom she selected for the education of her chUdren, were professedly Eeformers. Pier Angelo ManzoUi, her husband's chief physician, waa among the asserters of evangeUcal truth in her court, though he does not appear to have formally joined the ranks of the Eeformers. His works, in which the vici ous Uvea of the Eomiah clergy are satirized, were put into the In dex Expurgatorius by the pope, and after his death his corpse was disinterred and burned, in punishment of his heresy.^ Some of the learned men who then taught in the university of Ferrara, as Celio Calcagnini, Lilio Gregorio Giraldi, and Marco Antonio Fla- ' M'Crie's Ref. in Italy, p, 75. 2 Pier Angelo Mamiolli was the author of the Latin poem entitled The Zodiac of Life, in which human hfe is described in allusion to the twelve signs of the zodiac. This poem he dedicated to Hercules, aud it was published under the fictitious name Marcellus Pahn- genius, by wluch, according to Nolten ( Vita Olympice Moratce), he intended to pay a con cealed compliment to Een^e, as his patroness, Palingenius having in Greek the same meaning as Renatus in Latin, namely, being bom again. But the name is rather ana- grammatical. Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 511 minio, U not professed Protestants, were decided friends to free in quiry and to many of the Protestant doctrinea. But it was mainly by individuals whom Eenee had selected to occupy situations in her family, or who had fled to her for protection, that the Eeforraed faith was propagated in Ferrara. Eenfe's piety was eminently practical. With unwearied activify and princely liberality, she extended her beneficence to the poor and the sick, the fatherless and the widow, and to whomsoever she could benefit. In the city of Ferrara there was scarcely an indivi dual who had not, in some instance, a personal experience of that munificent goodness which had so long diffused itself upon all her subjects, without raissing rich or poor. Towards her own poor countrymen whom circumstances had brought into Italy, her com passion was particularly excited. "Never," says Brantome, "did a necessitous Frenchman who, in passing through Ferrara, addressed himself to her, depart without receiving ample assistance in money for prosecuting his journey to his country and home ; and if unable to proceed from sickness, she carefully provided him with the best medical aid in her power, and, on his recovery, supplied him with Uberal alms to carry him forward on his journey.'" Numerous were the individuals whose wants and sufferings she thus relieved and alle"viated. "I have been informed," says the same author, "by a great many soldiers, who spoke from personal knowledge, and by others of good authority, that in the expedition of the Duke of Guise into Italy [1557],* she saved, after his return, more than 10,000 poor Frenchraen, consisting of soldiers and others, who, but for her, would have died of hunger and destitution. On their pass ing by Ferrara, she succoured them all, supplying thera largely with medicines and money; and among the number of the necessitous were many gentlemen of good family. I have heard some of them say, that without her they would never have been able to return to France, so great was her kindness and liberality towards her own 1 Brant6me, (Euvres, tom, v, p, 15. 2 This was an expedition to assist the pope, Paul IV., against Phihp, King of Spain. 512 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. countrymen. I have been told by the governor of her household that this exercise of charity cost her raore than 10,000 crowns, and that when remonstrated with as to the vast expense, the only answer she made was, ' What would you have me to do ? These are poor Frenchmen and countryraen, and had God given me a beard — had I been bom a raan, or had that iniquitous Salic law' not inter fered to prevent it, might have been my aubjects.' This good ness and liberality of the Princess of Ferrara," adds Brantorae, "is much to be praised, for without her, the proverb would, on this occa sion, have been realized — that Italy is the grave-yard of France."* This refers to the numerous wars carried on by the French mon archs in Italy, having, for their special object, the possession of dis puted provinces of that beautiful country, and to the vast nuraber of French soldiers who fell in these wars. Araong the many Huguenot refugees to whom Een6e affordea security at her court at Ferrara, two of them deserve to be particu larly noticed — Clement Marot and John Calvin — men celebrated on very different grounds, representing a double revolution — that of learning, and that of religion — and driven from France about the same time for their adventurous boldness of religious sentiment. On being compelled to fiee frora France for his suspected Luther anisra in 1534, Cleraent Marot, after lurking for some time in Beam, with Marguerite, Queen of Navarre,^ betook himself to the court of Een^e at Ferrara, where he might be at a greater dis tance from Paris, He brought with him high testimonials from Marguerite, Queen of Navarre ; and his talents and genius, together with his sufferings for freedom of thought, secured him a favour able reception frora Eenee. At the recommendation of Madame de 1 In France the S,alic law excluded the female children of the monar.-h from succeed ing to the throne, eveu in default of male offspring. This law was almost pecuhar to France ; for in Spain, Navarre, England, Scotland, Hungary, Naples, and Sicily, the daughters of the monarch iu default of male issue succeeded to the sovereign power. The etymology of the word Salic is uncertain, Brantome enumerates seven diiferent ex planations, by seven diiferent authors, — CEuvres, tom, v, pp, 166, 167. But for this law Ren^e, had her sister Claude, who waa her senior, died without issue, or had Claude's issue become extinct, would have inherited the French thi-one. ^ Brantome, (Euvres, tom, v. pp, 15, 16. s g^g p_ 354^ Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 513 Soubise, she appointed him her secretary.' With his conversation she was greatly delighted ; he got highly into her good graces ; and he is said to have been instrumental, in no small degree, in confirm ing her attachment to the Eeformed faith.* He addressed to her several of the poems he then composed, which were either strongly tinctm-ed "with Lutheranisra, or had a decided anti-Papal tendency. In a poetical effuaion "written by him in prospect of the birth of her third infant, Louis, who became Cardinal d'Este, he indulges in a vein of vaticination as to the succeasful and happy result of the conflict already commenced "against ignorance and its insensate herd," promising her — what doubtless it would have gratified her to see — the ruin of the pope and of the Papacy, these enemies of her houae, as he calls them. He did not, however, reside long at the court of Ferrara, having been corapelled to leave it, in con sequence of the league into which the duke had entered with the pope and the emperor in the year 1536, by a secret article of which, the duke bound himself to expel aU the French who were resident at his court. Marot retired to Venice, and his friend Lyon Jamet, a man of good abilities and of similar sentiments in reUgion, who had also taken refuge at Ferrara, being allowed to remain with the duchess, probably as being a person of less notoriety thau Marot, succeeded hira as her secretary. In the same year Marot obtained permission to retum from Venice to France.' Whether this per mission was the fruit of Eenee's intercession in his behalf "with Francis I., or of his personal application to that monarch, or of the infiuence of some other party, is uncertain. It has been affirmed that the boon was obtained from Francis by Een6e, upon condition that Marot should again become a true disciple of the Popish faith, from whioh he had made defection, and conduct himself with greater discretion for the time to come.'' In Marot's works there is no aUusion to her having had any share in this transaction, and it may be fairly questioned whether her zeal for the Eeformed faith ' M'Crie's Ref. vn Italy, p, 70, " Nolten, Vita Olympics Morata. ' M'Crie's Ref. in Italy, pp, 70, 71. * Maimbourg, Hist, du Calvinisme, liv, u, p. 97. 33 514 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. was not too sincere and ardent to allow her to negotiate for permis sion to him to retm-n to his native country upon such conditions. Shortly after Marot had taken refuge at the court of Ferrara, there appeared at that asylum the man of the greatest intellect and leaming of all the Eeformers — John Calvin — in quest, also, of pro tection. Ha"ving, from his ability and the freedom of his religious sentiments, become conspicuous, he had been under the necessity of leaving his native country France, to escape the persecution which, by reason of the placards, had arisen there against the Eeformers. Accompanied by his friend Louis du Tillet, he had set out for Basle, where he lurked in concealment, and published, in 1535, in Latin, the first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion, which he dedicated to Francis I.' Whether or no Francis read the power fully pathetic appeal addressed to him in that decUcation, which has been justly pronounced "one of the most masterly composi tions of raodern tiraes," it ia certain that the flaraes of persecution which had been kindled against heresy, so far frora being extin guished, burned raore fiercely than ever, and extended through the whole kingdom, by the new ordinances issued by that raonarch. Thus finding that there was no safety for him in his own country, Cal"vin resolved to cross the Alps and to proceed to Ferrara, where he might at one and the same time find shelter in that coramon sanctuary of the persecuted, and see what might be achieved against Popery in Italy, its stronghold. In thia laat intention he waa encouraged, from the intelUgence he had received of the diffu sion of the evangelical doctrines in that land, and especially at Fer rara. He accordingly started from Basle about the eud of the year 1535, or early in the year 1536, and directed his steps towards Ferrara,* where, ou his arrival, he was received with the greatest kindness, and treated with the utmost hospitality, by the duchess. For the sake of greater security, he assumed during his stay the ^ Calvin's Preface to his Commentaries on tlie Psalms. 2 Beza is doubtftil as to the precise time of this joumey, Bayle fixes it at the end of the year 1535 ; Dr, Henry, in March, 1536. Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 515 fictitious name of M. Charles Heppeville— a name by which he fre quently subscribed himseK in his correspondence to the close of his life — that remaining incognito he might not, by the letters he "wrote to his friends, endanger their safety. Only a few particulars respecting his visit to Ferrara are pre served. At the court he was introduced to a highly accomplished and enlightened circle of ladies and gentlemen, as Madame de Sou bise, her daughter Anne de Parthenai, her son Jean de Parthenai, "with whom he maintained epistolary intercourse at a later period, and, not to name others, Cleraent Marot, who, like hiraself, having incurred the suspicion of heresy, had been obliged to fiee from France.' In token of his gratitude and respect, he presented Een6e with a copy of his Institutes, a work which she read with the same a-vidity as her friend Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, and other ladies of France. At her earnest requeat, he preached in her pri vate apartments ;* and she often conversed "with him on those great theological questions discussed in so masterly a manner in his Insti tutes, and on the condition and prospects of the cause of the Eefor mation, so dear to the hearts of them both. How delightful, as well as iraproving, must it have been to one of her pious and intel lectual cast of mind, to join "with the chosen few of her court, like- minded with herself, in discoursing with Calvin on these and kin dred topics ! — topics engrossing to them beyond what it is poasible for us adequately to conceive, even though we may attempt, by placing ourselves, as it were, in their circumstances, to realize their feeUngs. It is interesting to picture to our minds this intellectual group of Eeformers, engaged, in some apartment of the palace,^ in free confidential intercourse, upon themes on which it would have * Henry's Cal'vin, vol. i, pp, 99, 100, Dyer's Calvin, pp, 32 37. 2 Maimbourg, Hist, du Calmnisme, tom, i, pp. 92, 93, 3 The palace, which still exists, "is now the Austrian and Papal legations, and lite rally a barrack for soldiers. Amid the venerable but decaying fabrics of the city, it erects its square unadorned mass of dull red, edged with a strip of lawn, a few cypresses, and a moat brimful of -water, which not only surrounds it on all sides, but intersects it by means of arches, and makes the castle almost a miniature of Venice, Good part of tho interior ia occupied aa passpoi-t ofl&cea and guard-rooms,"— Dr. Wylie's Pilgrimage from tlie Alps to tlie Tiber, pp. 210-214. 516 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. been perilous to speak freely to every one ; upon the truth of the Eeformed faith ; upon the wrongs of the French Eeformers ; upon the heroic bearing of the confessors and martyrs ; upon the tyranny and persecuting spirit of the Papacy, the swindling traffic of indul gences, the fiction of purgatory, the absurdities of transubstantia tion, the blaspheray of the raass, and the thousand impieties and fooleries which Popery would never have got men to believe had they not been given over to strong delusions to believe a Ue. It was truly surprising to find so formidable an adversary of Anti christ as Calvin speaking iu an Italian court, which was a vassal of the pope, with as rauch freedora and independence as Luther spake in the castle of the Elector of Saxony. By this "visit Calvin greatly confirmed Eenee and her select so ciety in the Eeforraed doctrines, watering, by his instructions, the seeds of truth which had already been sown in their minds. Maim bourg, after observing that her hatred of Julius IL, who had ao in juriously treated her father, was the cause of her adoption and pro fession of the Eeformed sentiments, adds, " But the conferences she had with Calvin, together with the conversation and poetry of Cleraent Marot, whom she took into her service as secretary, when, fleeing from France to escape the flaraes, he went in search of an asylum to her court, corapleted the fatal perversion of her raind, so that she could never be brought to abjure her errors.'" From Cal vin's personal instructions, and from reading his Institutes, she generally coincided rather with hira than with Luther on those points on which these two illustrious Eeformers were divided. Calvin's stay at Ferrara is said to have been only for some raonths.* It is doubtful whether it was even so long. He used to say that he had no sooner entered Italy than he was obliged to leave it. A raore lengthened sojourn raight have been of great ad- ' Histoire du Calvinisme, tom. i. pp. 95, QQ. 2 The apartment in the ducal palace occupied by Calvin, during his sojourn with Ren6e, is still pointed out. "It is a small room in the southern .quadrangle. It is now fitted up as an oratory ; and a very pretty little show-room it is, with its marble altar- piece, its silver candlesticks, its crucifixes, and, in short, all the paraphernaha of such places." — Dr. Wyhe's Pilgrimage, &c., ut supra. Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 517 vantage to the Eeformation at Ferrara, where the ground had already partially received the seeds of Divine truth, and was pre pared for their farther reception through the quiet labours of the pious men whom Een6e had, frora time to time since her marriage, brought to that city. But he did not remain long enough to extend his influence beyond her domestic circle. His departure from Fer rara, as Beza's language seems to imply, was occasioned by the death of his eldest brother Charles, a priest, and consequently un married, in 1536, in consequence of which the parental inheritance devolved upon hira. " This," says Dyer, " seeras to have been the event which recalled him to his native to-wn, which he now visited for the last time. After seUing his estate and putting his affaU-s in order, he quitted Noyon for ever, accorapanied by his brother An toine, his sister Maria, and a few other friends." Circumstances led him to Geneva, and this decided the whole colour of his future Ufe,' After parting with EenSe, Cal'vin had never the pleasure of again meeting her face to face ; but ha"ving on this occasion con tracted a mutual esteem and friendship, they maintained an epis tolary correspondence, which only terrainated "with the death of Calvin. Amidst the temptationa and trials by which she was as sailed in professing the Eeformed faith, and in exercising humanity towards its persecuted disciples, she found in him a wise counsellor and a sympathizing comforter ; and in his wisdom, fldeUty, and in tegrity she reposed with greater confidence than in the "wisdom, fideUty, aud integrity of any other raan. The treaty into which the Duke of Ferrara had entered in the year 1536, with the pope and the emperor, by which he secretly engaged to banish from Ferrara all the French who were resident in his court, was a great affliction to Eenee. Not only were her secretary Marot, and other Protestant refugees, thus driven from Ferrara, but the whole of that select society, including Madame de ' After quoting Beza's Latin life of that Reformer, Dyer adds, "Tet there is a httle discrepancy in Beza's French life, in which he makes Calvin returu to Basle after leaving Italy."— ii/e of Calvin, pp. 32-37. '^18 Ladies of tJie Reformation. [Italy. Soubise aud her accomplished family, who had contributed so much to the happiness of the duchess since she came into Italy,' To be compeUed to part with these dear friends— to have the Alps between her and them— to be isolated in a foreign court— to have none but strangers for her companions and attendants— this was a species of doraestic persecution ; and unhappUy it became aggravated in sub sequent years, which caused her the deepest anguish, though she laboured to conceal it. The grief, the agony she thus felt, found an echo in the bosom of Clement Marot, who had been a confiden tial witness of its bittemess. His pathetic address to Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, whose sympathy for the noble-hearted Eenfie he invokes, may be considered not simply as an expression of his own feeUngs, but as the touching, the melancholy complaint of the select society which was thus uncereraoniously dispersed.* In the series of letters which passed between Een^e and Calvin dming the long course of their correspondence, araong the eariiest of his communications to her is one written from Geneva m October, 1541. A preacher named Franjois, professedly attached to the Ee forraation, whom she had appointed her almoner, had industriously laboured to persuade her that the mass is neither so wicked nor so abominable, but that U is allowable to perform it, and for the faith ful to be present at its celebration; and that those who hold itin such horror as to make the coming in contact with it a matter of conscience, are the distui-bers of the church's peace, by stin-mg np scandals among the weak, whom we are commanded to strengthen By his insmuating sophistry and address, she was prevailed upon to go to mass, and in some way to partake of it as a celebration of the Lord's Supper. He had, moreover, prejudiced her mind against such of her household aa, followmg their own convictions, refused, the wf • '™',!" * ^'°' T"*'"" ^ ""' 5"^" l^^"' ^^5'=- "Monsieur de Limoges who wai ht^vuT Tl, r-^™"' *'"™° *''"' *''^ D''^^ "f F«'-'-. Without givto" cZr^ r ''""'^' '"'°* °™" *" '¦''' "¦"P^^"'-' "^ '^f^^d to Prance TlS™! cumatance there IS reason to i'eai-, wiU cause great uneaamesa to Madame Sende-^he abtt ht-l'h ¦'''™ ^l '™''"' ^^^ ^^^™^==' ^-- ^-- --^ haa ae? t^^ wome: about her, which la no good sigu,"-Bayle'a Diet., art, "Parthenai, Anne de " (Euvres de CUm^nl Marot, tom, ii, p, 317, M'Crie's Ref m Holy, pp 70 71 Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 519 in this i-espect, to imitate her example. Such was the occasion of Calvin's writing to her at that time. His main object was to con vince her of the sinfulness of attending mass, by expoaing ita blas phemy and idolatry ; and to show, in opposition to the argumenta tion of Francois, that while as to things indifferent we are to be studious of pleasing our neighbours, yet in regard to things which God has forbidden, as the celebration of the mass, we are not al lowed to practise them, although, by our refuaal, we should offend the whole world. The more effectually to carry conviction to her judgment, he, at the same time, sent her a letter he had published at Geneva in 1537, addressed to a friend, " On Shunning the Un- la"wful Eites of the Ungodly, and Preserving the Purity of the Christian Eeligion;"' and a small tract on "The Lord's Supper."* Eenee had to the Duke of Ferrara five children, two sona and three daughtera: — AUonao, afterwards Duke of Ferrara; Louis, afterwards Cardinal of Este ; Aune, afterwards Duchess of Guise ; Lucretia, afterwarda Duchess of Urbino ; and Leonora, who died unmarried. The eldest daughter bore the name of her raaternal grandraother, Anne of Bretagne; the second, the name of her pater nal grandmother, Lucretia Borgia ; and the third, the name of Leo nora, queen of Francis I. EenSe's attention and solicitude were early and um-emittingly directed to the intellectual, moral, and religi ous culture of her children, particularly of her daughters. " These three daughters," says Brant6me, the enthusiastic panegyrist of fe male beauty and loveliness, " were the most beautiful ever bom in Italy ; but the mother adorned them stiU more by the elegant edu cation she gave them, instructing them in the sciences and in polite letters, in which they made great proficiency, putting to shame the most learned of the other sex, so that, if diatinguished for personal beauty, they were equally so for beauty of raind." ^ She provided them with able teachers, in selecting whom, as already observed, she had a regard, in addition to their scholarship, to their secret, if t See this letter iu Calvin's Tracts, Calvin Trans. Soc, edit,, voh iii, p, 359, &c. 2 Calvin's Letters, English edit., i. 271-282. ^ Braut6me, (Euvres, v. 215. 520 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. not avowed favour towards the Eeformation. Chilian and John Sinapi, two brothers frora Germany, the former a lawyer, the other a physician, who taught her chUdren Greek, were either secret or avowed disciples of Luther. Aonio Paleario, who also gave them lessons in the Greek language, was an eminent Italian Eeforraer.' But of all the teachers to whom she committed the education of her children, the most illustrious was Olympia Morata, a lady who, when scarcely thUteen years of age, was appointed by the duchess, companion and governess to her daughter Anne. This situation Olympia filled with great credit to herself, and with great advan tage to her pupil, who was only five years her junior. In the edu cation of Italian children it was at that tirae coraraon to acoustora them to i-epresent the Eoman comedies and tragedies, and Eenee's children had been early trained to exercises of this sort. Such was the zeal with which their education had been conducted, that, on the occasion of a visit paid by the pontiff Paul III. to Ferrara, in 1543, they acted before his holiness the Adelphi of Terence. The Princess Anne sustained the character of an enamoured youth ; Lu cretia spoke the prologue ; Leonora supported the person of a young girl; the Prince Alfonso that of a youth; and Prince Louis the part of a slave.* All these children, except Anne, who was about twelve years of age, were under ten, and each perforraed his or her part to the admiration of every one present. Had his holiness then known, which he did not, that the masters under whom these young princes and princesses attained to such early proficiency, were tainted with hereay, and had taught them heretical doctrines, this would doubtless have considerably moderated the tone of the panegyric he pronounced on witnessing this exhibition of juvenile classical acquirement. 1 He had beeu puhUc teacher of Greek and Latin at Sienna, where, at a later period, he read lectures iu philosophy aud belles lettres. Iu 1543, he published an Italian tract on the Benefits of Clu-ist, a work afterwards translated iuto Spanish, French, and Euglish, and so popular, that 40,000 copies were sold withiu the course of aix yeai-a. He was at last atraugled aud then consigned to the flamea for heresy, ou the 3d of July, 1570, in the seventieth year of his age. — Nolten, Vita Olympice Moratce. 2 Black's Life qf Tonjiialo Tasso, vol. i. p. 133, Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 521 In the year 1542, Eenee's friendly services were extended to the celebrated ItaUan Eeformer Bernardino Ochino. Having become seriously suspected of heresy, he waa under the necessity of fieeing frora his native country ; and in his escape, attracted by her well- kno"wn sympathy for the Eeformed, he hastened to Ferrara. By her assistance he succeeded in eluding the ai-med pursuers who had been despatched to apprehend him, and reached Geneva in safety in September, that year,' For a number of years no atterapt was made to disturb the Ee forraers of Ferrara, who, aware of their perilous position, conducted theraselves with prudent circumspection But representations hav ing been made to Pope Pius IIL, that the Catholic church was in danger from the progresa of heresy in Ferraxa, his holiness, in the year 1545, authorized and enjoined the ecclesiaatical authoritiea of that city to aummon before them persona of every rank and order suspected of hereay, strictly to investigate, with the aid of torture if necessary, their conduct and sentiments, and to give iaaue to the trial by a definite sentence ; all which being done, the depositions taken and the whole process were to be transmitted to Eorae for final judgment,* Another base measure adopted by the same pon tiff, and by his successor Julius III,, for discovering persons hereti- cally inclined in Italy, was to disperse throughout aU its cities spies, who might mingle with persons of every rank and condition of life, fish out their reUgious sentiments, and communicate to the inquiai- tors the discoveries by thia means made. Theae infamous cha racters, carrying -with them high testimonials, obtained introduction into private famiUes, the palaces of the great, the seminaries of edu cation, the recesses of monasteries, and the cottages of the poor; and by their artful insinuating manners, gaining the confidence of many, they frequently succeeded in ensnaring unsuspecting individuals into an expression of their secret leanings towards the Eeformed principles. From these two measures combined, the Protestants in the city and court of Ferrara were exposed to the most imminent 1 M'Crie's Ref. in Italy. Regist-ersof Geneva CoimcU, 2 M'Crie's Ref. in Italy, p, 211. 522 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. danger. In the year 1547, in particular, they were eagerly searched for, and became the objects of relentless persecution. It was at this time, and for reasons connected at least with her embraceraent of heresy, that Olympia Morata, Anne's governess, was under the necessity of leaving the court. The accession of Juliua III. to the Papal chair on the death of Paul IIL, who died in 1549, afforded no reapite to the suffering Protestants. The flames of persecution rather burned "with in creased violence. The new pontiff, who left the raanageraent of state and church affairs to others, sanctioned without hesitation the most sanguinary measures which their zeal for the Papacy prompted thera to recommend. It is not said by any author whom we have consulted that Eenee interceded in behalf of the persecuted at this period, though we certainly know that the devotion of her heart to the cause of the Eeformation, and her sympathy for its proscribed adherents, were not in the least diminished. If at this distressing conjuncture she remained silent — which, however, we have no evidence that she did — it must have been from finding that the spirit of opposition to heresy on the part of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities was so violent, and the determination to effect its extirpation so strong, that her attempted interference would not only have been -without avail to the sufferers, but would have brought down upon herself the more speedily, and the more ruthlessly, the Papal vengeance, of which she was hourly in danger. By the severe persecution thus carried on, in which the usual merciless processes for exterminating heretics — the prison, exile, tor ture, the halter, and the faggot — were all had recourse to, the Ee formed church of Ferrai-a, which had subsisted for a nuraber of years, was finally dispersed in 1550, and the light of the Eeforraed faith to all appearance extinguished in that city. Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 523 CHAPTEE II. FROM THE PERSECUTION RAISED AGAINST EENEE FOE HERESY TO HER DEATH. The persecutors, ha-ving now given the Eeformed church of Fer rara its death-blow, would, it raight be supposed, have felt entire satisfaction in what they had so successfuUy achieved. But their satisfaction was not entire. The joy -with which they sung their Te Deum, in comraeraoration of so signal a triumph, was abated by one circurastance — -the circumstance that the lady who occupied the highest rank in Ferrara was a heretic and the protectress of here tics. To the Eomish clergy, and especially to the head of the Eom ish church, this gave raortal offence; it was like gall and wormwood in their con-vivial cups. That she was a person of exalted station, distinguished talents, and high character, only raade them hate her with a raore -virulent hatred, and resolve the more unrelentingly to harass and afflict her, if they could not overthrow her faith and fortitude. Their resolves were soon embodied in action. The first open step in the conspiracy against her was taken by the pope himself, who made heavy complaints against her to the duke. Christ and Peter taught husbands to love their -wives, but his holiness, the pro fessed "vicar of Christ and successor of Peter, industriously set hira- seK to blow the fires of strife between the duke and the duchess. "See," said he to the duke, "how the minds of your wife, children, and servants are corrupted by pestilent heresy, and are setting a pernicious example to all your subjects; your honourable house, your fathers from time immemorial have been renowned for the purity of their faith, and their fealty to the Holy See ; but now the leprosy of heresy has infected your hitherto pioua family ; and let me remind you, that if you and they are not purified from the nox ious contagion, the anathemas of the church must be launched 524 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. againat you, and you raust incur the resentment of every Catholic prince." These raenaces had the desired effect upon Hercules— they threw hira into agonies of terror ; nor is this siirprizing, proceeding, as they did, from the Papal throne, whioh then wielded powers at which the stoutest monarchs blanched and quailed. He reasoned and remonstrated with the duchess. "You perceive,'' said he, "the predicament into which you have brought me by embracing these novel and heretical opmions. Surely you will not hesitate to re nounce what must, in every way, be ruinous to yourself, to your children, and to me, and conform to the religion, in the faith of which our ancestors in comraon have Uved and died." He used rougher language than this, and to work still more upon her fears, he even threatened her. But his point he gained not. Deriving her religion from the Bible, and not from eatabliahed usage, she re fused to renounce the Eeformed opinions which she had acquired from that pure and unpolluted source, and to conform to the Eom ish church, which, though bearing the Christian narae, she believed to be the Antichrist of Scripture. To subdue her resolution, aud to corapel her to return to the Eomish church. Pope Julius IIL, whether "with or without the con sent of the duke it is not said, had recourse to foreign influence. He forraed a league with Henry IL' of France, her nephew, who even surpassed Francis I. in his zeal against heresy, to corapel her to re-enter the Catholic church.* At the instigation of his holiness, Henry despatched Dr. Oriz, inquisitor of the faith in France, to the court of Fei-rara, with ample and forraidable instructions. Oriz was to ascertain the extent to which ahe had been infected "with Lutheranism, to inform her of the grief with which his most Chris tian raajesty had heard that the court of his aunt, whom he had always so highly loved and esteeraed, was the great nursery and hot-bed of heresy iu Italy ; and in order to restore her to the church, he was to ply her with all the gentle and insinuating arts of per suasion. Provided these raeasures were unsuccessful, he was in- 1 The son of Francia I. , by his queen Claude, Rente's sister. 2 Hemy's Calmn, i, 10, II. Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 525 structed to call in the aid of harsher appliances. He was to demand the duke, in his majesty's name, to exclude her from all society, that she might not have it in her power to contaminate the minds of others — to remove her children from her, that she might not sow in their tender minds the seeds of the baneful principles she had imbibed — and not to allow any of the heretical members of her household to approach her. The latter were, indeed, to be brought to trial, and exemplary punishment was to be inflicted upon them.' This commission the inquisitor executed to the letter without much delicacy or humanity. Humanity, indeed, has very rarely been an attribute of inquisitors; seldom has any such weakness kept them back from doing a cruel action. To use the words of the jester in Ivanhoe, "to restrain them by their sense of humanity "was the same as to stop a runaway horse -with a bridle of silk thread." These menaces would have crushed and subdued a woman of less spirit than the daughter of Louis XII. With a courage equal to the occasion, she still persisted in fidelity to her honest convic tions. Her resolution at this time was greatly confirmed by Calvin, who, on learning that Oriz had passed through Geneva on his way to Ferrara, on the above mission, and afraid that by promises or threatenings she might be brought to yield, had instantly de spatched a messenger named Colonge to Ferrara with a letter, dated August 6, 1554, encouraging her to steadfastness in the faith, and exhorting her to receive the messenger as coming, not from him, but from God.* This bold aaaertion of the rights of conscience drew upon her the execution, to the letter, of the punishment threatened iu Henry II.'s instructions to Oriz. Obedient to the Eoman See and to the French monarch, her husband, to his lasting disgrace, confined her for a considerable time to some apartments in the castle of Ferrara, separated her from all intercourse with her children, the female portion of whom, on being taken from her, were educated in a nunnery, and gave orders that her servants should be proceeded against as heretics. This cruel treatment, ' See Oriz's Instructions, in Appendix, No. IV. ^ Hemy'e Calvin, vol. ii, p. 374. 52 G Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. there is reaaon to believe, is to be imputed, not only to the intoler ance of the duke's education and of the tiines, but also to his grow ing indifference towards the person of his wife. The duchess was no Stoic, and she was deeply affected. The hand from which she now suffered was what moved her most of all. The unfriendly con duct of her nephew she might have overlooked, the unmanly inso lence of the inquisitor she could have despised, but the reproaches, the unkindness, and the cruelty of her husband pierced her inmost soul. Very soon, also, did she begin sorely to feel the separation from her fine and beloved children. Still she was not to be broken into submission even by this brutaUty. Aided by the power of faith, ahe bore it with heroic fortitude. Another scene in the trial of her Christian principle now opens. The sky around her suddenly deepens in blackness, and a more dreadful terapest speedily gathers, threatening to burst and pour forth its collected elements of destruction upon her defenceless head. On the accession of a new pontiff, the truculent Paul IV, to the Papal chair, in 1555, the fiames of persecution began to rage in Italy with increased violence, and she was wamed to prepare for more terrible punishment. Threatened thus, she began to waver, and in so far made compliances. It is not afflrraed by any autho rity that she actually made a forraal recantation, which it was the object of the pope, of Henry IL, of Oriz, and of the duke her hus band, to force her to make. The extent to whioh her submission went, perhaps, consisted m her joining in the Popish worship, in witnessing its ceremonies of impiety and idolatry, at which she had forraerly refused to be present. Thia was a cause of deep grief to the Eeforraers most attached to her, and particularly to Calvin, who, since he had enjoyed her hos pitality and society during his brief sojourn at Ferrara, entertained towards her the highest regard. In November, 1555, writing to Farel, he says, " We have received sad news of the duchess ; her courage ia overpowered by misusage and threats.'" In judging of ' Henry's Calvin, voh ii. pp, 102, 103. Italy.] B&nee of Ferrara. 627 this part of Eenee's history, candour will make due allowances for her cU-cumstances. Deprived of the counsel and support of friends — seeing no loving face and hearing no sympathizing voice — seized at the sarae tirae with an irapatient longing to be restored to the society of her children — left to rurainate on her wretched condition, in a state of horrid suspense as to the intentions of her persecu tors—and haviug none she knew who could effectually interpose for her safety, it is not surprising that, bewildered and racked with a thousand agonizing thoughts, and letting go for the time her faitii in the Divine protection which had hitherto sustained her, she, as has often been the case with the bravest, experienced a sinking of the heart, which for the time overcame her resolution. Her faith was not, however, doomed to extinction. Though her enemies seemed at last to have succeeded in their purpose, their success was only apparent They doubtless thought that they had gained a triumph ; but it was in truth no triuraph at all. Persecu tion raay raake hypocrites, but it can never make true converts to any system. Eenee's convictions remained unchanged. She con tinued the inward, the secret disciple of Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin. She could no more be compelled to believe, against the clear Ught in her raind, the puerilities and absurdities to which the ghostly fathers of Italy demanded her assent, than GalUeo, by being thro"wn into the dungeons of the Inquisition for teaching that the earth movea round the sun, and finally conderaned to renounce the heresy in the presence of an assembly of ignorant and bigoted car dinals and raonks, kneeling before them with his hand upon the gospels, could be compelled to believe, against the clear light of science, that the earth stands still. And as that great philosopher, though he went through the cereraony of formally abjuring and detesting the heretical doctrine of the earth's motion, no sooner rose from doing so, than, indignant at having swom in violation of his firm convictions, he exclaimed, striking the earth with hia foot, "Yet it moves;" so this princess, though she made concessions, could not heljj, while she felt the truth beaming bright and glorious 528 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. as ever upon her mind, frora expressing sentiments which testified that she had never renounced it with the heart ; and afterwards ris ing superior to the terrors of persecution, she fearlessly avowed be fore the world her honest con"viotions, upon which she steadUy acted, in the face of much opposition and danger, to the close of her life- Correspondence between her and Calvin, after some interruption. was at length resumed. In a letter to her written some yeara pos terior to her temporary vacillation of purpose and conduct, he en courages her, now that she again professed the Eeformed faith, to maintain it with steadfastness and fortitude, in spite of every dis couragement, opposition, and hardship. " Meditate carefully on the truth alluded to by Paul, namely, that if a perishable raetal must be proved in the fire, much leaa can faith be spared the trial ; but if you feel that you are weaker than you ought to be, turn yourself to Him who has proraised that all who trust in him shall be as the tree planted by the water-side, which, with its li"ving root, shall never perish, whatever the storms which beat upon it. Give not the devU the opportunity of surprising you, and do not allow yom-self to ima gine that, by i-ecanting, you can avoid the conflict. Your fears will give the enemy the victory, which he so greatly desires: we must be aware of his cunning to overcorae it. For the rest harden yourself, dear lady, against the frowns of the world. If you do good, this is the reward promised us from above." ' In 1559, Eenee became a widow, aud her eldest son, Alfonso IL, succeeded to the dukedom. Her nephew and persecutor, Henry II. of France, departed this life in the sarae year, and was succeeded by his son Francia II. Under the new reign, her son-in-law the Duke of Guise, and his brother the Cardinal of Lorraine, as we have al ready seen,* engrossed the whole government of the kingdom, and set on foot a terrible persecution, ha"ving for its object the coraplete de struction of the Huguenots. This persecuting policy, pursued by her sanguinary relatives, was very distressing to Eenee; and araong the motives which led her to the resolution to spend the reraainder of 1 Heuiy'a Calvin, vol, ii, p, 374, 2 geep, 291. Italy.] Rerde of Ferrara. 529 her days in France,' one of the chief was a desire to throw the shield of her protection over the sufferers for religious and civil freedom. Leaving Italy, she proceeded to Orleans, where the court was then resident. On her arrival, she was'welcomed by the king and the whole court with every demonstration of respectful homage. But her satisfaction at this honourable welcome was abated upon her finding that her friend, the Prince of Cond6, the noble and pa triotic Huguenot chieftain, had been iraprisoned by the Duke of Guise and his brother, on the charge of being the secret ringleader m the conspiracy of Araboise. His incarceration had taken place only two days before her arrival at Orleans, No sooner was she informed of this than she bitterly reproached the Duke of Guise. " Had I come to Orleans," said she, "before the imprisonment of the prince, I would have opposed such a proceeding to the utraost of my power. You ought in future to treat the princes of the blood -with more respect. Whoever has counselled the king to follow this com-se has acted a very impolitic part. You are opening a wound, the bleeding of which will not be so speedily stanched; and you will very likely have reaaon soon to repent of your rashness, iu daring to attack ao distinguished a personage."* Eegardless of Ee nee's reproaches, the duke and his brother, aa has been observed before, brought the prince to trial before an illegally constituted tribunal, by which he was condemned to capital punishment, and he was only saved from execution by the timely death of Francis IL, an event which completely altered the prospects of the house of Guise, Though Een6e could not claira, as a right, a share in the admin istration of the govemment, yet through her son-in-law and his bro ther, who were desirous of obtaining to their raeasures the sanction of a princess of the royal house of France, she waa invited to take part in the counaels of the French cabinet, and an oath of fidelity to the government, now more than ever the iraplacable eneray of the Eeformed faith and its disciples, involving unwarrantable en- ^ Le Laboureur, tom. i. p. 719. - Brantome, (Euvres, tom. v. p. 213, Do Thou, Histoire, tom, ii. liv, x.-rvi, p, 330. 34 530 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. gagements, had been extorted from her. This oath it was wrong for her to take, and questioning its obligation, after having taken it, she sought the advice of Calvin, who, in a letter to her, dated July 5, 1560, thus writes : — " With regard to the oath which you were forced to swear, since you have sinned and offended God in taking it, you are not bound to keep it, any more than a supersti- . tious vow. You know that Herod is not praised for having ob served the oath which he rashly took ; but is known rather to havc fallen into a twofold condemnation."* He strongly advises her to have no connection with the government, as her counsels, however wise, would not be listened to, and as it was only intended to take advantage of her name. He would have her, setting all worldly considerations aside, to devote herself wholly to the support of the Eeformed religion. "Jesus Christ,'' says he, "is well worth youi forgetting, for his sake, France as well as Ferrara."' Eenee now took up her residence in the old castle of Montargis,' which was about sixty miles south-east of Paris ; and throwing off all reserve, she made open profession of the persecuted faith, and ^ upon this letter Dyer, in his Life of Calvin {pp. 361, 362), founds the unwarrantablo assertion, that "Calvin's conscience was rather pliant in the matter of reservations," and adds, what is equally untrue, "these reservations became characteristic of the Puritans," referring, in corroboration, to a very indiS'erent authority, Dr. Maitland's Essays on the Reformation, essays i. and ii. — a work whose object is to villify the English Reformers, and to vindicate theii* persecutors. Calvin's words, it is obvious, simply mean that no person can lawfully bind himself by oath to anything which is sinful, and that consequently it is unlawful to keep such an oath. Dr. Paley, who will not be accused of partiality, either to Calvinism or Puritanism, teaches the same doctrine. "Promissory oaths," says he, "are not binding ¦vfh.ere the promise itself would not be so. Promises ai'e not so where the performance is unlawful ; as where an assassin promises his employer to despatch his rival or his enemy — a servant to betray his master. The parties in these cases are not . obliged to perform what the promise requires, because they were under a -prior obligation to tlie contrary. The guilt, therefore, of such promises lies in the making, not in the breaking of them." — Moral and- Political Philosophy, chaps, v. , xvi. As to taking oaths with mental reservation, tliis is a doctrine maintained by the Jesuits, but neither by Calvin uor by the Pmitans, in whose writings it is uniformly condemned. - Henry's Calvin, vol. i. p. 473, and vol. ii. p. 375. ^ This castle stands on a somewhat elevated slope, commanding the town of Montargis to the south, and overlooking an extensive forest to the north. It was defended by eight large towers. The great hall was 189 feet long by 72 feet broad. It is asserted that, in dependently of a numerous court, the castle could receive 6000 of a garrison , who could easily be drawn up in three great court-yards, which were in advance of buildings used a3 dwellings. — Touchai'd Lafoise, La Loire Historique, iii. 596. Italy,] Renee of Ferrara. 631 threw the shield of her protection over its persecuted preachers and adherents. On thia account her castle obtained the name of " H6tel Dieu." " I have heard some of her own people state,'' says Bran- Ihe Castle of Montargis as pxisting in 1818 t6me, " that having returned to France, and retired to her town and castle of Montargis, she harboured with her, during the civil wars, as long as she lived, a vast number of people of her own re ligion, who had lost their property and had been banished from their homes ; she aided, succoured, and supported them to the ut most of her ability."' Deairoua to be furnished with a Eeformed pastor from Geneva, who raight regularly rainister to her and her household at Montargis, she raade application to the council of Geneva, who granted her request, with only this exception, that neither Calvin nor Beza should be sent. The rainister she received was Francis de Morel,^ A Eeformed church was thus established and the ordinances of religion regularly observed at her new resi dence. In her place of worship no images nor other idolatrous and superstitious relics of Popery were to be seen. 1 (Euvres, tom, v. pp. 16, 17. 2 Registers, July 3, 1561. Among others who afterwards officiated as her chaplain at the castle of Montargis, was the distinguished Spanish Eeformer Juan Perez. — M'Crie's Ref. in Spain, p. 200. 632 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [italt. The inhabitants of the town of Montargis were very ignorant, rude, turbulent, and blindly devoted to Popery. They had an op portunity, if inclined, of attending the church in Eenee's castle, and of listening to the incorrupted truths of God's Word; but the great raass of the people contemned this privilege, seeking only occasion« and means of creating riot and disturbance. Their rudeness and violence often occasioned Eenee no small perplexity and even alarm On receiving the melancholy tidings of the raassacre of the Hu guenots at Vasay, perpetrated by her son-in-law the Duke of Guise, she wished, while the gates of the town were guarded and ali neces aary precautions adopted to preserve the peace, that none, whether of the Popish or Protestant religion, who were peaceably disposed, should be denied free egress and entrance. But sorae of the inha bitants, whose savage bigotry was excited by the great numbers of the Eeformed who had fled thither for shelter, having originated and circulated a report that the heretics had forraed a plot to pull down the images on the night of the feast of the Ascension, serious riots took place in the town during three successive nights. Eenee defeated a conspiracy to raassacre the Huguenots when ripe for exe cution ; but all her efibrts failing to appease the mob and to restore tranquillity, she, on the third evening, sent with all diligence a courier to Orleans to the Prince of Conde, to solicit military assist ance for the restoration of peace. A body of horse and foot was iiumediately despatched at her requeat, and having arrived, they disarraed the rioters and carried their arras to the castle. Some of the rioters were arrested, of whom three were sentenced to be hanged. Shortly after the execution of these three, clemency being extended to the rest, they were set at liberty. By these vigorous measures jDeace was restored and the town continued trauquil, afibrding a retreat to many poor Proteatant fugitives, with their wives and children, frora raany parts of the kingdom, as from Paris, Melun, Nemours, Lorris, Sens, Blois, Tours. Even raany of the Popish religion fled from the tumult and horrors of the war to tliis sanctuary of safety, and, notwithstanding the fury of the Duke of Italy,] Renee of Ferrara. 533 Guise, were taken under the protection of the corapassionate EenSe, who relieved the raiserable wherever ahe found them, without re gard to difference of religious creed. A letter which she received in the course of the year 1561 from ber friend Calvin, was well calculated to corafirra her in fidelity to the Eeformed cause, and in her course of active beneficent sym pathy towards the suffering members of Jesus Christ. " Although," says he, " I am well aware that I have cause to thank God that he continues to guide and uphold .you in his fear, and in obedience to his will, yet I hope that you will see how necessary it ia to go for ward, and to increaae in steadfastness, and that you will thank me if, both frora regard for you and care for you and your soul, as well as frora zeal for the glory of God's name, I strive to render you as much help as possible. I know that you are willingly taught and admonished, and receive with a childlike teachableness what you regard as coming frora God. Well, then, gracious lady, if it waa said to you in former times, that in order to become righteous you raust forget all worldty considerations, it is now the season for you to act. We need not nuraber all the difficulties which may arise in your way, and deter you from glorifying God; you are raade aware of them too soon — but by so much the more must the hope that He who has begun a good work in you will finish it, will strengthen you for victory. Do but arm yourself with his pro mises, and seek for refuge in the strength of his Spirit, which is sufficient to secure your triumph iu every struggle. In the mean tirae, I beseech you, gi-acious lady, to afford such an example in the high station in which God has placed you, as you know he requires from you, and that the good may thereby be encouraged and the wicked shamed. Yea, though the wicked boast, you raust continue to despise thein, and give glory to God by your obedience. In the second place, I admonish you, gracious lady, to go on as you have begun, to protect the poor merabers of Jesus Christ, and to provide for the tranquillity of the church, When you know, moreover, that this is an acceptable service to God, an offering well-pleasing in his 534 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy, sight, so must you fiud great encouragement in that word of the Holy Scripture which aays, that they who comfort the suffering raerabers of Christ are helpers of God's raercy, which is so honour able a title, that we should lose no tirae in endeavouring to obtain it. Thus, as the wanderer hastens on his path when the night begins to fall around him, so should increasing years remind you, gracious lady, to strive the raore diligently to leave a good witness npon earth, or rather to obtain it before God and the angels, having proved that the church of Jesus Christ was dearer to you than any earthly advantage. If you resolve upon this, as it becoraes you to do, then do I hope, gracious lady, that God will so profitably eraploy your nobleness of heart and constancy, that all believers may with one mouth and oue heart bless your return, and acknowledge that God has indeed had mercy on them through you, and stretched out his hand to them, having brought you back to France in your old age. But since this is a work which passes all human ability, so do I beseech you, gracious lady, daily to encourage and excite your self thereto, remembering the holy admonitions whieh we find wi-it- ten in the Word of God,'" The Prince of CondS, shortly after he had taken possession of Orleans, which was on the lat of April, 1562, having been informed that the enemy was approaching that city, sent a message to Een^e requesting that all his troops at Montargis might join his army in Orleans. She imraediately despatched thera, and in their place raised a sraall number of soldiers to guard the castle and the gates of the town, which she still wished to be open to persons of both religions, without distinction." Many raonths had not elapsed after the departure of Conde's troops fi-ota Montargis for Orleans, vvhen she and her proteges were assailed with new troubles and dangers. The royalists, or the Popiah troops, on their return frora the siege of Bourges, of which they had obtained possession through the incapacity of the gover nor, took the road by Montargis. On receiving this intelligence, 1 Hem-j's Calvin, vol, i, pp, 450, 451, ^ Beza, Hist. Eccl., tom, ii, pp. 463, 404.' Italy.] Reme of Ferrara. 535 Eenee was extreraely concerned how she might secure the many poor families then in the town from being molested or pillaged by this hostile army. It was her purpose to stand by them at all hazards ; and she happily so prevailed that not one of them was injured, despite the brutal violence of the soldiers. She first warned her own minister, Francis de Morel, and Pierre Antin, minister of Autry, to betake themselves to the castle of a friendly nobleman, until thia storm had passed away. On the road they were in imminent hazard of their lives from a large troop of horse, consisting of French and Scotch, who suspected thera of heresy from their gravity, and because, in conversation, they did not swear like themselves; and they would doubtless have been shot or poniarded, had not some of the Scotch, moved by corapaaaion, separated them from the rest, and conducted them to their intended asylum. All the other poor fugitives, by the orders of the ducheaa, retired to the castle, which they almost filled, so that it much re- sembledanhoajjita], "presenting a spectacle," says Beza, "which pro bably excited in their enemies some compassion.'' But their safety, we apprehend, waa rather owing to the deference paid by the com manders of the army to EeniSe. The Cardinal of Lorraine, with the Duchess of Guise, Eenfee's daughter, arrived at Montargis with the vanguard. In hia inter view with Een^e, the cardinal exerted all his eloquence and ingenu ity to persuade her that there was no intention to injure anybody on account of his religion, it being only against rebels who occupied the king's towns that the hostility of the govemment was directed — a pretext, the hoUowness of which she easily discovered. Henry IL, her nephew, afterwards arrived in person with the main body of the army, and was followed by the Duke of Guise. The monarch lavished upon her the warmest expressions of endearment, calling her " his dear aunt," kissing her repeatedly, and weeping — a tender ness of feeling perhaps produced at the raoment by the calamities of war he had witnessed. But from the shortness of his stay, it was impossible for him to conversa with her long apart. The sol- 536 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. diers, however, who lodged in the town, taking the sarae license here as in other places, committed the raost wanton depredations, breaking in pieces the seats and the pulpit of the Huguenot meet ing-house, and setting xi-p as many images and altars as they could recover. At the sarae time the rioters who had formerly created diaturbances, re-entered the town, and aasumed a menacing attitude. Being informed of these proceedings, Eenfie prevailed upon the king to issue a proclaraation with sound of trurapet, forbidding any vio lence to be done to any person, whether of the old or new religion, under the penalty of death, and a soldier was actually hanged upon the spot for having dared to violate this ordinance. Thus, by her prompt interference, was a stop put to these disorders. In meeting with the Duke of Guiae, whose cruelty towards the Huguenota ex cited in her feelinga of the deepest anguish, and from whom she had received various instances of disrespect, as well as harsh treatment, she had no great comfort. So little deference did he show her that, at his departiu'c from Montargis, he reraoved the guard of the town, v/ho had been appointed at her recoramendation, and substituted a creature of his own, Eynaudes, an archer of the guard, an apostate from the Eeformed religion, and for that very reason holding u higher place in his favour. She was, moreover, forbidden to admit to sermon in her Huguenot place of worship, any except her own domestics, a prohibition which, if at first submitted to by her, from raotives of prudence, she veiy soon entirely disregarded. After the battle of Dreux, fought on the 19th of December, 1562 at which, though the Huguenots sustained a defeat, the loss of their enemies was much greater than their own, mutual aniraosities, viru lent as they were before, became still raore inflamed. The aggra vated calaraities of her country — converted into a field of intestine discord and desolation — torn by its own children, and drenched with their blood, greatly affiicted Een^e ; and if she hated cruelty on the part of the eneraies of religion, she equally hated ever3rthing like vindictiveness on the part of those of her own creed. Writing to Calvin after the battle of Dreux, she thus expresses herself : — " I Italy.] Renee of Ferrara, 5Z1 am more afflicted than you can imagine, at beholding how half the people in this kingdom conduct themselves ; the most pitiable de ceits and enmities everywhere prevail. Such is the state of things, that little simple gu-ls have been led to say that they are ready to kill and slay with theu- own hands. This is not the rule which Christ and hia apostles have given ns ; and I aay it in the deepest distress of heart, because of the love which I bear for my faith, and for all who adhere to that which Christ has taught. I apeak not of all, but of those whom I know.'" The humane, peaceable teraper breathed in this extract is highly honourable to Eenfe ; and if the latter part of it seeras to contain a reflection upon the Huguenots as entertaining a too sanguinary spirit towards their eneraies, it onght to be remembered that it was their adversaries, who, seeking their extermination, had driven them to take up arms, and who made the conflict fierce, bloody, and protracted. That the Huguenots, even those of thera who were naturally raost oool, not to speak of their men of ardent teraperaraent, should never have been hurried into excesses in a struggle like this — a struggle in which, by the raerciless cruelties infiicted by their eneraies — by the privations, fatigues, and dangers to which they were exposed, for no crime but for simply claiming liberty of conscience — their patience and forbearance were taxed to the utmost, is more than could be expected from huraan nature. " Oppression makes a wise man raad." But taking all the circumstances of the case into account, never did any body of men so strong in purpose, and having often so ample a comraand of raili tary resources, show such moderation in their demands, such a sin cere desire to effect an honourable peace, and such humanity to wards their opponents, when they had it in their power to take a terrible revenge, as the French Huguenots. Eenee's heresy and the protection she afforded to the Eeformed brought npon her new troubles, of which her son-in-law, the Duke of Guise, was the main author. When, in the comraenceraent of the year 1563, he was making preparations for besieging Orleans, think- 1 Henry's Calvin, vol. ii. p 402. 538 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. iug now to carry all before him, the King of Navarre, lieutenaut of the kingdora of France, being dead, the Prince of Cond6 being his prisoner, and the Connetable Montraorency, the duke's rival, being also prisoner in the hands of the Huguenot array — he purposed, by a serious invasion upon her liberty, to deprive her of all power of protecting the Huguenots at the castle of Montargis, which he called "a nest of Huguenots," He caused an order to be passed in council that the Duchess of .Ferrara ahould quit the castle of Montargis, and take up her residence, whether willing or not, in sorae one of the royal palaces, three of which were at her option — namely, the palace of Fontainebleau, that of St. Germain-en-Laye, or that of Vincennes — under pretext that the town and the castle of Mon targis were of great importance to his raajesty's service. The Duke of Guise has been praised for his courtesy and generosity. Courteous aud generous he may have been among his own party ; but his treatraent of his mother-in-law, the daughter of a king, now in her old age and infirm in body, was certainly the very re verse of these qualities ; and towards her party, he was, with rare exceptions, coarse in manners, and relentlessly cruel. Captain Poulin, captain of the guard, a man of nefarious character, was com missioned to proceed to Montargis to deliver to Eenee the ordi nance of council and letters express frora Catharine de Medicis, the queen-mother. To frighten her into submission, Poulin was fol lowed by Jean de Malicorne, at the head of four companies of horse, who, against her will, entered the town of Montargis, and before her eyes — for she was looking on from a window of the castle — brutally beat a poor man of the Eeformed religion, whora they dragged frora his sick-bed out of the town, exciting the pas sions of the people against hira ; and the poor raan, by an efibrt, casting hiraself into the river to escape their barbarity, he was wounded by an arquebuse, and finally despatched by the strokes of a dagger, Poulin having arrived at Montargis and delivered his commis sion, Eenee, in her reply to hira, expressed how much she felt ag- ^^^^^m^mm Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 539 grieved at the unjust decree, and gave him to understand that she did not, in the meantime, intend to obey it. "I evidently see," said she, "that the intention to dislodge me ia for another purpose than for the service of the king. What is alleged as to the iraportance of the place for his raajesty's service is a raere pretence, neither the town nor the castle being tenable without great reparations. Aa to the town, there ia no ground to entertain suspicions, since it is iu the hands of the archer of the guard, whom the Duke of Guise had appointed, and I have no person in the castle who is not, and who has not always been, his majesty's most loyal subject. To put me into any of the royal houses specified, placea of no great strength, and two of which are at the gates of Paris, will be to expose rae to butchery — a fate which I have not deserved ; and I am fully con vinced that the king, ray nephew, does not intend nxj destruction. I therefore desire to be more fully informed respecting his inten tions ; and I pray you to return to the court with a gentleman whom I shall delegate, with the view of coming to a better understanding as to this matter." Whilst Poulin was proceeding to court with Eenfie's answer, Malicorne, to subdue her, attempted to ala.rm her fears, threatening that, if ahe did not voluntarily quit the castle of Montargis, and de liver up to him the leading Huguenots whom she was protecting, he would advance with his artillery, and battering the walls, take her and them out by force. His object was partly to gratify his master the Duke of Guise, by whom he had been created chevalier, and from whom he expected still greater promotion, and partly to em-ich himself with the spoil of the Huguenots. Four of Eenee's refugees, who were the king's officers and men of honourable rank, besides others, he purposed to put to death ; and he had doomed the ministers to perish by the sword or to be hanged. But his threatening failed to produce the efiect he anticipated. Eenee's vahant heart was not to be thus subdued. Her courage and self- respect were awakened by the indignity, and she instantly made thia reply, so worthy of a princess—" Malicorne, consider well what 540 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. you do, for no raan in this kingdom has a right to commaud me but the king; and if you advance, I will put myself foremost in the breach and see whether you will have the audacity to kill a king's daughter, whose death heaven and earth would avenge on you and your seed, even to the children of the cradle." This answer, gene rous as it was magnanimous, awed Malicorne, who pled in excuse that he was acting in conformity to hia coramission. The assassination of Een6e's son-in-law, the Duke of Guiae, fol lowed soon after, naraely, in February, 1563, Deep as was the grief with which this event afflicted her, she was far from iraputing the guilt of the action indiscriminately to the whole of the Huguenots or to theu- raost distinguished leaders, whether lay or ecclesiastical. She indeed well knew that they regarded — justly regarded him as the chief author of the cruel persecutions they suffered, and of the calamities endured by their oppressed, down-trodden country. Nor was she ignorant that sorae of the most erainent araong thera, as Beza and Calvin, had often desired and prayed God either to change the heart of the duke or to deliver the kingdora by some judicial infliction from so ruthless a tyrant; for they both had so expressed theraselves to her in writing, and the forraer orally as well as by letter, Beza, when examined as to the depositions of Poltrot against him, made a confession to this effect before the queen-mo ther and her privy counsellors,' And Calvin, in a letter to Eenee, thus writes with respect to the duke; — "For my own part, as I have always prayed God to have mercy upon him, so, too, have I often desired that God would lay his hand upon him to deliver his church, if it waa not his will to convert hira. Yet," adds he — for he condemned asaasaination even when ita victims were the adversaries of the church — " I can solemnly protest, that just before the war I was the means of keeping back, by my exhortations, certain ac tive and determined men who had resolved upon his destruction." - There is reason to think that, from her natural affection for her son- in-law, the forra of prayer adopted by these two illuatrious Eefor- 1 Mimoires de Condi, tom. iv. pp. 233, 204- ^ Ilcnry's Calvin, vol. ], p, 234. Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 541 raers, in reference to the duke, did not altogether raeet her approba tion. But still she did not believe that either of them, or that the Huguenots in general, whatever might be the case aa to particular individuals, would have encouraged or that they appi'oved the assas sination of the duke, even though many of thera, like Beza, raight acknowledge that it waa " a just judgment of God, threatening the like or greater punishment to all the sworn enemies of the ho)y gospel, and who are the causes of so raany miseries and calaraities to this kingdom,'" Een6e, especially, would never believe that Admiral de CoUigny had any concern, one way or other, in the as sassination of the duke. She thoroughly knew the man, and was perfectly persuaded that he was morally incapable of counselling the commission of so atrocious a deed. Convinced of the falsehood of the accusations of his privacy to it, so eagerly circulated by his enemies, she did everything in her power to mediate between the house of Chatillon and the house of Guise." While, however, convinced that Poltrot had been bribed or in stigated by nobody, and in concert with nobody, and while makhig no attempt to vindicate the deceased duke, Een6e was, nevertheless, dissatisfied with the comments pronounced upon hia career and death by sorae of the Eeforraed rainiaters, reckoning thera too ae- vere; though, when we take into account his cold-blooded butcheriea of the Huguenots, to every one of whora life, liberty, and coinfort were as precious as to hira, and the recital of whose excruciating tortures and horrible deaths in the pages of Beza and other au thors, is enough to make one's blood run cold, these coraraents could hardly have exceeded on the score of severity. Yet she complained to Calvin of their exceeding the bounds of raoderation. In his an- 1 A few there might be who would vindicate tlie deed of Poltrot from that of Ehud, who thrust his dagger into the bowels of Eglon, King of Moab ; and from that of Jael, the wife of Heber, who drove the deadly nail into the temples of Sisera ; or having recomse for authority to the Apocrypha, from the deed of Judith in cutting off tlie head of Holo fernes, chief captain of tlie Assyrian army. But the great body of the French Keformei-s, almost intolerable as were theii- sufferings, abhorred the idea of assassinating even the bloodiest of their persecutors, '^ Mimoires de Condi, tom. v, pp, 31, 34, 39; and tom, iv. p. 201. 542 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [Italy. swer he vindicated the ministers, maintaining that this was a pro per manifestation of zeal for the cause of true religion, and of that hatred towards the enemies of God which David taught us by his exaraple to exercise. Eeturning to the subject in her next letter to hira, Een^e observed that "David's example belonged only to those times when, according to the rigour of the law, it was allowed men to hate their eneraies.'' She had not attended to Calvin's distinc tion between our own enemies and Ood's enemies. He therefore, in his next letter to her, keeping this distinction in view, endeavours to show that she was -wrong in supposing that men were ever per mitted to hate their own eneraies ; and in reference to sympathy for the fate of the Duke of Guise, he observes : — " We ought not, under the pretence«of Jove to raankind, to grow cold as to the duty which we owe to the honour of God and the preservation of his church." For her fuller satisfaction, he refers her to his Commentary on the Psalms, where in many places she would find the whole subject more fully explained.' The Dnchess of Guise, as was not unnatural, thinking differently from her mother, entertained strong suspicions, or rather fully be lieved that Admu-al de Colligny and other leading Eeformers had instigated Poltrot to assassinate her husband, and she was assi duous in her endeavours to prevail upon the government to bring them to a legal trial. "Madame de Guise," says the Spanish am bassador'' in France, in a letter, dated Paris, April 24, 1563, "is in this city to demand justice and to proceed against the said Admiral [de Colligny] aud others, upon the deposition of him who killed Monsieur de Guise." ^ But the queen-raother, frora political raotives, resisted the prosecution, unmoved by the solicitations of the duke's party, and by the importunity of his duchess, who, frora her place ' Henry's Calvin, vol. i. pp. 284-287 Without entering into all Calvin's explanations as to hating God's enemies, we may here merely state, that in quoting the example of David, lie views him, partly at least, in liis official character, in wliicli it was his duty to punish tlie criminal ; aud that though he does not formally make the distinction, yet it manifestly ilows from his remarks, that we are to hate God's enemies, simply as God's enemies — that is, we are to hate enmity to God in them, uot their pei-sons. - Monsieur Perrenot dc Chantonney ^ Mimoires de Condi, torn, ii. p. 153. Italy.] Renee of Ferrara. 543 and rank, had access to her majesty at all times and on all occa sions,^ The Duchess of Guise had hitherto shown a compasaionate spirit towarda the persecuted Huguenots, and had eraployed her influence with her husband and the court for raitigating their suf ferings ; but now her syrapathy foi' tiiera was extinguished, and to Adrairal de Colligny especially she could never afterwards be reconciled. So strong were her convictions that the leading Ee forraers were privy to the assassination of her huaband, that she contracted deep unmitigated resentment against the whole body, whom she in a raanner identified with the assassin Poltrot. Of this her raother heavily coraplains in a letter written to Calvin ouly a few raonths before hia death. " I do not wiah to diatress you,'' says she, "but I am corapelled to pour out my heart to you with the sorrow which is common to all the children of God, You know what the enemies of truth design. The treaty of the pope with the King of Spain, with Venice and the other Italian powers, among which is our neighbour — these imagine that they can root Chris tianity entu-ely out of the world ; and the Duchess of Guise resigns herself to a course which can only lead to ruin. Thankful should I be if she could be led by your influence to bridle her passions,"^ Cal-vin's letters to Een6e abound with encomiums upon her Chris tian worth ; and these encomiuras are of the greater value aa com ing from a man who was too upright and sincere to administer to any one, whatever his or her rank, the unction of flattery — whose words are to be understood in the strict and literal sense, not aa raere corapliraents meaning nothing. In a letter to her, written from Geneva, May 10, 1663, he dwells with delight on the hospi tality and protection ahe so largely extended to the persecuted Pro testants, some examples of which we have already given, " I know, madame, how God has strengthened you during the rudest attacka, and how, by his grace, you have piously resisted all teraptations, not being asharaed of the cross of Jesus Christ. Whilst the pride of hia enemies exalted them above the clouds, so much the raore did you t Mimoires de Condi, torn, v, pp. 31, 34, ^ Henry's Calvin, vol. ii. p. 404. 544 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. show yourself a nursing raother of the poor faithful, driven from their homes, and knowing not where to hide themselves. I am well aware that a princess who cared only for the world would blush and regard it as an injury to hear her palace called an H6tel-Dieu ; but I could not show you greater honour than by speaking thus, and thereby recognizing and exalting the huraanity which you have exercised towards the children of God, who have found a refuge in your castle. Often, madame, have I thought that God has reserved these trials for your old age, in order to pay himself the arrears which you have accumulated by your timidity in earlier years. I speak in the language of men ; for though you should do a hundred and a thousand times as rauch aa you have done, you could never repay that which you owe hira, day by day, for the infinite benefits which he continues to bestow upon you. But I learn that he has done you singular honour, employing you in such duties ; making you bear his standard that he raay be glorified in you; choosing you as a lodging for his Word, which is the inestiraable treasure of sal vation, and as a refuge for the merabers of his Son. So much the greater, madame, ought to be your care to preserve your manaion pure and entire for the future that it raay be dedicated to him." ' To alienate Eenee from the cauae of the Eeforraation, some en deavoured to infuse into her mind prejudices against the Eeformed ministers, by loading them with calumnies and detraction. To pre vent her from being corrupted by this, the comraon device of the enemies of religion, Calvin cautioned her against lending a ready ear to theae caluraniatora and detractors. "It is good," says he, "that you should be warned of one thing, namely, that the devil has iu all tiraes laboured to render the ministers of the gospel con- temjjtible by sinister reports and detractions, so as to raake men hate or desjjise them. It is, therefore, the duty of the faithful to guard themselves against this fraud : for to becorae disgusted with the pastures of salvation is more detrimental to us than the mortifi cation of the body, for this is a question of the life of souls. Howso- ' Henrj-*s Calvin, vol. i. p. 103, Italy,] Renee of Ferrara. 545 ever, then, it may be, madame, if there be those who would fain, by some oblique method, discourage you from pursuing what you have so well begun, you muat avoid thera as deadly pests. And, in fact, the devil does raise up such persons to alienate you in a secret way from God, who desires to be confessed among his faithful ones."' Imitating the example of some other Protestant ladies of rank, Een6e, it would appear, sat in the consistory or kirk-session in her castle, and took part in its proceedings. This was clearly contrary to the rules of ecclesiastical procedure laid down by Paul (1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35 ; 1 Tim. ii. 11-14), who forbids woraen to assurae ecclesi astical authority ; and Calvin, in a letter to her, written January 8 , 1564, reraonstrates with her as to this part of her conduct, calling npon her to remeraber that, in spiritual matters, she herself as a woman ought humbly to submit to the authority of the consistory, aud to subject her people to the same authority. In this letter he blames her too passionate temper, which was likely to produce much evil; but he commends her honeat and pure confession, which she not only made with her lips, but proclaimed by her noble actions, which nothing could surpaaa. Along with the letter, he sent her a medal which her father Louis XII. had struck, and on which he was represented on horseback with the inscription, '¦'Per dam Babylonis nomen."'' Eenee received his admonitions in the best spirit. In her answer ahe aaaurea him with humility and re apect that ahe would follow hia counsel, and not appear again in the consistory, although the Queen of Navarre, Lady Admiral de Colligny, and Lady de Eoye, mother-in-law of the Prince of Cond6, did not scruple to be present. She thanked him for the gold medal which he had sent her, adding, "I had never before seen one of the same kind ; and I have thanked God that the king, my father, chose the motto which it bears. Though God may not have given him the gi'ace to fulfil the idea thus expressed, yet he may perhaps accomplish it by those who shall succeed to his place."' • Henry's Calvin, vol, i, pp, 313, 314 2 Ibid, vol, ii, p, 375, ' Ibid, vol. ii, pp, 403, 404, 85 54 S Ladies ofthe Reformation. [Italy. Her respected and beloved friend Calvin, from whose con-espon dence she had derived so rauch advantage, was now hastening to the terraination of his earthly career; and it is worthy of obser vation that the nearer he approached the grave, his sentiments of esteem for her seemed to increase. In a letter to her, dated April 4, 1564, written only about six weeks before his death,' he says, " As the mother-in-law of the late M. de Guise, you have been so m.uch the more beloved and honoured, seeing that this has not de terred you from making a right and pure profession of Christi anity, and that not with the lips only, but by the most notable of deeds. With regard to myself, I protest to you that this has always led rae to view your virtues with so much the gi-eater ad miration." - Eenee survived Cidvin about eleven years, and continued to cherisli his memory with profound veneration. " She esteeraed him before all others," says Beza, "as long as he lived, and now that she survives him, consecrates to his meraory the fairest proofs of her veneration."' In subsequently following her down the vale of years, it ia delightful to find that she continued to the last, though deprived of his counsels, to profesa the truth with unchang ing fidelity, and to retain towarda the Huguenots who suffered so much frora persecution and the civil wars into which their enemies had forced them in self-defence, the same tenderness of heart, and the same spirit of open-handed liberality so eminently charactei-istio of her early days. " I rayself," says Brantome, " during the second troubles, saw the troops of Gascogne, conducted by Messieurs De Terride and De Montsales, to the number of 8000 raen, on their way to the king. We passed by Montargis, and the principal officers and gentleraen went to pay their respects to the Duchess of Ferrara, as was our duty; and we saw in the castle, I believe, more than 300 persons of the Eeformed religion, who, from all parts of the country, had fled thither for safety. An old inn-keeper in her service, a ' Calvin died May 27, 15G4. z Henry's Calvin, vol, i, p, 104, 3 Quoted in Henry's Calvin, vol, i. ji, 102, Italy.] Reme of Ferrara. 647 very honourable gentleraan, whom I have known at Ferrara and in France, swore to me that she fed every day raore than 301) of these poor refugees."' The French monarch, on being informed of her corapassion and princely charity, iraperatively commanded that she should disraiss them. With the royal mandate she was forced to coraply; but to help them forward on their journey — for two-thirds of thera consisted of helpless women and children — she furnished them with 140 waggons, eight travelling coaches, and many horses. She lived to witness the horrible tragedy of the St. Bartholomew massacre, enacted in 1572 ; and on that occasion, acting with her accustomed huraanity and liberality, she protected from butchery many French Protestants, who would otherwise have fallen victims to the vengeance of their infuriated persecutors, and supplied their necessities when otherwise they raight have been in danger of per ishing frora want.^ Een6e died in the castle of Montargis, on the 12th of June, 1575, being about sixty-five years of age. She died in peace, inspired with the hope of entering a better world, and calmly bidding fare well to the present scene, in which she had endured her own share of trials, raany of them for the sake of Chriat. Her death was deeply lamented by the French Proteatanta, many of whora had ex perienced the fruits of her uncommon Christian liberality. Henry IIL, who was then King of France, cauaed a Popish service to be performed over her mortal rem.iins in the chapel of Bourbon, as a pare of her funeral soleranities, on Saturdaj', the 18th of that raonth. How the Eoman Catholic priests, in perforraing this service, dis posed of the immortal spirit of a princesa who lived and died a heretic, and the protectress of heretics, it is not said. According to their creed, a spirit so defiled with the pollution of heresy, could not find admission into heaven, nor even into purgatory, to be puri fied by its fires ; but must have been consigned imraediately and irretrievably into hell. In whatever way the Popish prieats pi-o- ' Brant6me, CEuvres, tom. v. pp, 217, 21S, ^ Nolten, Vita Olympue Moratce. 3 Nolten, Vita Olympics Moratce. L'Estoile, in Petitot, tom, xlv, pp, 117, US. 543 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [Italy. nounced upon her allotraents in a future state, her whole life, in the exuberant fruits of her piety, charity, and all the graces, gave evi dence of a regenerated heart, and to few could the Saviour say more emphatically than to her, as we doubt not he did say to her de parted spirit, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world : for I waa an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me in : naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye visited me : I waa in priaon, and ye came unto me. . . . Inasmuch as ye have done it nnto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me " (Matt. xxv. 34-40). OLYMPIA MORATA, WIFE OF ANDREW QKUNTHLEE.' CHAPTEE I. FROM HEE BIRTH TO HER MARRIAGE WITH ANDREW GRUNTHLER. ;)LYMPIA MO.EATA was born at Ferrara in the year 1626. She was the eldest child of a family of four daughters and a son. Her father, Fulvio Peregrino Morato, who waa a native of Mantua, the birth place of Virgil, filled the chair of humanity in the nniveraity of Ferrara, and was, at the same time, preceptor to the two sons of -Alfonso I., Duke of Ferrara, Ippolito, afterwards cele brated as cardinal, and Alfonso, brothers of Duke Hercules II. To these situations his eminence as a classical scholar had gained him the appointraent, and he discharged their duties with much 1 The life of Olympia Morata haa been repeatedly vmtten. John Arnold Nolten was her earliest biographer. Hia life of her, -which is in Latin, first ajipeared in 1731. An edition of it, printed at Frankfort in 1775, is enriched with notes, by "Jo. Gust. VHelm. Hesse, V. D. M." An English life of her, with translations of the most important of her writings, by Mrs. GiUespie Smith, of Gibliston, was published at London in 1834. And a French life of her, with a cons-derable number of her lettera translated into that lan guage, by Jules Bonnet, made its appearance at Paria in 1S50. An English translation of thia laat forms a volume in Johnatone and Hunter's Fu-eside Library, The chief source whence the materiala for these several lives have been derived, ia Olympia's own worka, written mostly in Latin, but partly in Greek and Italian, which were collected and pub lished after her death, by her friend Celio Secundo Curio, These interesting remains contain records of the pi-incipal events of her life, and are a monument of her talents. 550 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. approbation and success. During the earlier part of hia career, his attention was absorbed by literary pursuits, and by the labours of his office as a teacher of youth, to the exclusion of concern about religion. But in the year 1539 or 1540, his understanding and heart were opened to the reception of Divine truth, by the instru mentality of the distinguished Eeformer Celio Secundo Curio, a native of Piedmont, who, driven from place to place by persecution, had taken refuge at Ferrara, where he resided above a year in the hospitable house of Morato, and between whom a lasting friendship was formed. This obligation Morato gratefully acknowledges in a letter to him, written subsequently to Curio's departure from Fer rara; in which, after lamenting their separation, and describing that Eeformer as a Divine teacher sont to him for his instruction and conversion by God, even as Ananias had been sent to Paul, he adds, "It is true, that even in former times, before you were sent from God to take shelter under my roof, I was wont, when at lei sure (which was rarely), from my avocations, to snatch, in spite of bodily infirmity, and with age stealing npon me, an occasional moment, and pick np by reading, somewhat of good from Paul and John, and the other sacred writers. But it was your living elo quence and mighty spirit, which, all sparkling and luminous, in a lively and efficient manner, moved, affected, excited, and warmed me ; so that now I acknowledge my former ignorance, and can aay, It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me and I in Christ." Olympia's raother's narae was Lucretia. She was a woman of superior understanding, aud distinguished by her doraestic virtues and piety. IJnder the severe and varied trials of her life, she exer cised exemplary patience and fortitude ; and the strength of her re- piety, goodness of heart, and somidness of judgment. They passed tlirough four editions, all printed at Basle; the first, in 155S, in which the Greek poems are much more cor rectly printed than in the subsecLuent editions ; the second, which is much enlarged, in l.:i(J2; the third, in 1570, containing the additional matter of seven Latin letters, two Italian letters, and two epitaphs by Olympia, besides many lettei-s and orations bv Celio Secundo Curio ; and the foui-th, which is exactly the same as the third, in 15S0. The first edition was dedicated to Isabella Manricha, of Bresegna, one of the most illustrious of the Italian female adherents of the Eeformation ; and the other editions to Eli2abeth, Queeu of England. The edition from which we quote in this life is the second. Italy. j Olym-pia Morata. 551 ligious principle was evinced by her constancy in adhering to the Eeformed faith, in the raidst of unrelenting persecution. Olyrapia received from her father the first rudiments of learn ing. After having taught her Italian — ^her native tongue — he gave her lessons in Latin. At a later period, she was instructed in the elements of the Greek language, by Chilian Sinapi,' professor of Greek in the university of Ferrara, Her uncommon capacity for the acquisition of learning, particularly of the claaaic languages, ap peared from the first, and with this was combined docility, and great steadiness of application. The learned Celio Calcagnini, a canon of the cathedral of Ferrara, who had been her godfather at her baptisra, early discovered her genius and talents, and advised her father to afford her all the advantages of a superior education. Morato's other learned friends — Lilio Giraldi, Bartoloraeo Eiccio, the two brothers Chilian and John Sina.pi, and others, had also observed the precocious talents of Olympia, at whose ready and shrewd answers to the questions they put to her upon their visiting her father's house, they were astonished. His partiality for his daughter, and his enthusiastic devotion to literature, disposed Mora to to follow the advice of Calcagnini, and no man was better quali fied than himself to foster and expand her opening faculties. He laid down the plan of her training, to which he strictly adhered, and thus the powers of her mind, never fatigued or exhausted by de sultory studies, were brought into application, in their unbroken vigour, upon a determinate object. From her childhood, the naraes of Homer and Virgil, of Plato and Cicero, were farailiar to her as household words ; and with their respective languages she rapidly became nearly as farailiar as with her raother tongue. Beloved and honoured for his acquirements and virtues, equally by the duke and by the learned, her father became the object of the en'vy and malice of certain parties who laboured to destroy his credit by misrepresentation and detraction, and who did this so suc cessfully that he fell under the displeasure of the duke. Having I This she states in a Greek letter she wrote to him, 0x>era Olympia:, p. 85, 552 Ladies ofthe Reformation, [Italy. been treated by the court, iu many respects imkindly, which he par tiently bore for some time, he at last left Ferrara, or was, in a man ner, compelled to leave it, about the year 1534. He firat betook himaelf to Vicenza, where he made a short stay, and then went to Venice, where his literary reputation procured him a warm recep tion, and where, assuming the name of Fulvio, from the dread of his adversaries, he, for some years, exercised his profession of teacher with much applause. His withdrawment or banishment from Ferrara was much regi-etted, not only by his learned friends, but by the students of the university, by whom he was much re spected and beloved. Calcagnini, in writing to him when at Venice, says, "All good and learned men love and admire you, and all ac knowledge that by your departure, our city [Ferrara] has sustained a great loss ; for most of the young men who were under your instruc tion are displeased with the other teachers ; ingenuously declaring that none araong them can be compared with you either in ability, or in the choice of subjects.'" Nor does he fail to remember his favourite Olympia. "Iraprint," says he, "a kiss in my name, on the brow of the little maiden, already endeared to me by her sprightly prattle." At last, by the active ze.il and kind interposi tion of Calcagnini, Morato's innocence having been fully established, he waa recalled by Duke Hercules IL, in 1639, to re-occupy his chair as jjrofessor in the university of Ferrra-a.^ At the time of her father's return to Ferrara, Olyrapia was about thirteen years of age, and so great pains had been taken upon her education that, aa Nolten observes, " she had been already exercised not only in the Latin and Greek languages, but also in rhetoric and other branches of learning." From her high reputation for scholar ship and general accomplishment, she was at that early age intro duced into the court of Eenee, Duchess of Ferrara, who selected her to be the corapanion of her eldest daughter, Anne (a girl about eight years of age), whose studies she might share and assist. The duchess, who was herself a highly cultivated woman, in order to ^ Calcagnini Opera, pp. 156, 157, quoted in Nolten'a Vita Olympice^ sec. i. 2 rbid. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 553 give her daughter and her other children all the advantagea of men tal culture then to be enjoyed, had brought to Ferrara a galaxy of learned men for their tuition; and such was the progress of the Princess -Anne that, at an age when children hardly know more than their mother tongue, she could translate .ZEsop's fables and recite passages from Demosthenes and Cicero. But her mothsr, judging that those studies, which had hitherto been conducted by the princess alone, would be prosecuted by her with greater appli cation and success in fellowship with another young lady of talent, diligence, and accomplishraent, who might inspire her with an hon ourable emulation, selected for this purpose Olympia, of whose ex traordinary abilities and acquireraents she had heard from the learned men of her court. Olyrapia uow left her father's house to reside in the palace of the duchess, where she- greatly contributed to promote -Anne's devotion to literary pursuits, and gained the affections both of the young princeaa and of her mother. Upon her receiving this appointment, her friend Calcagnini, who probably had some influence in procuring it, wrote her a congratu latory letter, in which he at the aame time gave her such advices as he thought might be of use to her in her new position, " You have drunk in a taste for letters," says he, "with your mother's milk, and by a Divine mystery, as it were, you have derived from the same parent both your body and your mind. I therefore congratu late you, and exhort you, most accomplished girl, diligently to per severe in your studies, and to make daily increasing progress. . . . While you bring with you from your home the good in stmctions of your parents — chastity, hmnility, the firat principles of polite letters — endeavom- to add thereto wisdora, refinement of manners, greatness of mind, and a contempt of everything mean."' Though now resident at the court, and chiefly under the tuition of the same masters with the Princess Anne, Olympia continued to enjoy the instructions of her father. He had early taught her the art of recitation, and to stimulate her efforts for attaining to higher 1 Opera Olympice, pp. 90, 91, 554: Ladies ofthe Reformation. [Italy. perfection in thia art, he coraraitted to writing, in the forra of a letter,' the lessons he had forraerly given her orally ou the subject of a good delivery, the jjerfection of which he placed not, as Deraos thenes does, in action, but in an elegant pronunciation, including a proper modulation of the voice. " A matron," says he in this letter, " before leaving her private chamber, consults her looking-glass and her raore intiraate female attendant to know how she will look on making her appearance in public. A like attention should be paid to the voice. . . The persuasiveness of Pitho, the suavity of Periclea, the bee of Plato, the chains of Hercules, the harps of Or pheus aud of Amjjhion, the sweetness of Nestor, and the grace of Christ hiraself- — these mean nothuig else thau an elegant and en- gaguig utterance, without affectation or straining. , . . Virgil, Cffisar, Brutus, and Cicero were most admirably skilled and effec tive iu pronunciation. Minerva, Mercury, the nine Muses, the or der of the Spheres, the chorda of the lyre, Apollo, who presides over the Muses, Echo, which reverberates sounds — do not these just denote the multiplied elegancies and harmonies of the human voice? Who does not take pleasure in listening to a sweet and beautiful speaker? At the sound of a sweet voice, even Cerberus, the porter of hell, relentingly inclines his ears, aud the wheels of Ixion stand still."' The recitation of passages from the Greek and Eoraan authors was a literary exercise often assigned to Olympia by her teachers, aud in this art she was universally allowed to have attained to no comraon excellence. In addition to recitations, Olyrapia explained, iu the private aca deray of the Duchess of Ferrara, before a select audience, sorae of the classic authors ; for ahe had beeu taught to appreciate the beau- tiea and to enter into the raeaning and spirit of the authors she read. On such occasions she introduced her expositions by a Latin prologue of her own composition, delivered from memory, usually abounding in classical allusions, and the drift of which was to be- 1 The letter is dated June 26, 1540, 2 He refers to these words in Psalm xlv, 2, "Grace is poured into thy lips." 3 Opera Olyr,ipiai, pp, 74-82. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 555 speak the favour of her auditors. Three of these prologues, pro nounced before her lectures on Cicero's Paradoxes, are printed in her works. Celio Secundo Curio, when at Ferrara, had witnessed these literary efforts which excited the admiration of all who heard thera; and many years after, referring to them in a letter to a friend "written in commendation of Olympia, he says : — " In the court of Ferrara, I myself have heard her declaiming in Latin, speaking in Greek, explaining tlie Paradoxes of Cicero, and answering quea tioua. She indeed reminded me of the renowned learned virgins araong the ancients, with whom she raight justly be compared."' The same writer informs us,^ that when she "wrote these prologues on the Paradoxes of Cicero, she was scarcely sixteen years of age, and that when he heard her gracefully declaim them, many, both male and female, were present. While resident in the court of Ferrara, Olympia exercised her self much iu coraposition, both iu Greek and in Latin. During the earlier years of her residence, she wrote in Greek an eulogium on Mutius Scaevola, which, along with a letter in Greek, ahe sent as an humble memorial of respect to Chilian Sinapi, who had taught her the elements of the Greek language. Thia piece ia printed in her works. Dm-ing the aame period, besides other literary composi tions, she wrote a defence of Cicero against sorae of his detractors. Cicero's various -writings, as well as the poetry of Virgil, had been severely aud contemptuously criticized by some of those Greek scholars who, upou the overthrow of the Byzantine erapire, had come into Italy, and were the meaus of the restoration of Greek letters iu that country. Prejudiced against the Eomau clasaica, from overweening partiality for their own classic writers, they had represented Cicero as a sciolist iu the Greek language, and as un acquainted with the different sects of philosophy to which so many of his writings relate. By this raeans they succeeded in lowering his reputation in the estiraation of many of their pupils. But I O-pei'd Olympice, p, 109, 2 In his dedication of the flrst edition of her works to IsabeUa Manricha of Bresegna. 556 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. among the learned Italians there were not wanting charapions who came forth to vindicate his fame." Olympia tried her powers on the same subject, and produced a defence of the great Eoman ora tor against tho Grecian critics, which called forth the high commen dation of her frieud Calcagnini, to whom she presented it in grateful acknowledgment of his friendship. " The performance which you have lately executed in defence of Cicero," says he, " I have read with the greatest pleasure, both because it has proceeded from you, whose studies I have now for a considerable time regarded with a favourable eye, and because it is wonderfully pervaded by the beau ties and graces whioh diatinguish your father's comi:>ositions. The circumstance, that yon have been pleased to present it to me, is an additional recommendation. I ara gratified with the gift: and it has obtained a place araong the most sacred treasures of my library. I congratulate you upon this very happy effort of your talents. It is full of wit and erudition, of which I find the most undoubted proof in the felicity and copiousness of the language, and in the abundance of arguments which, with admirable skill, you have ac cumulated, so that you seem to have laid under contribution almost all the resources of oratory. My admiration is enhanced when I reflect that, while other young ladies occupy themselves in going about and plucking the fiowers of spring, with which to weave for themselves a variegated crown, you have employed yourself in ga thering, not theae quickly-fading flowera, but imraortal amaranths in the garden of the Muses, with which, as with inlaid and tesse lated workraanship, you have adorned and interspersed your whole oration, and which have. this advantage, by the blessing of Heaven, that they never decay, but flourish the fresher with increasing years." ^ Not liraiting herself to the study of the classical languages, Olyrapia applied her mind to the cultivation of the higher branches of philosophy, in mauy of wliich, as Chilian Sinapi observes, she was self-taught, and in which, as in her other literary studies, * Gibbon's Becline, &c., chap. Ixvi, 2 Opera Olympics, p. 92. Italy;] Olympia Moraia. 557 from the versatility of her powers, ahe soon excelled, penetrating ¦with great facility and acuteness of miud into the most difficult questions.' In the court of Ferrara, Olyrapia, by her learniug and urbanity of manners, maiutained the high reputation she had previously acquired, and gained the affection of all by whom she was sur rounded. From the diiohesa, who was greatly pleased in having fouud a companion for her daughter in all respects so suitable, she received every mark of esteem and kindness. Between her and Anne, whose tastes were similar to hers, and who looked np to her superior genius and acquirements with feelings of respect, un mingled with envy, a close affectionate intimacy was formed. To this early intimacy, which had been more gratifying to her thau the intoxicating praises of the learned, Olympia makes a touching aUusion iu a letter which she wrote to that princess, when time aud distance had for many years broken up intercourse betweeu them, and when Olympia, to whom she was as dear as ever, feared that the chord of sympathy on the part of the princess towards her had relaxed. "You know," says she, "how farailiarly (although you were my pi-incess and mistress) we lived together for so raany years, and how we prosecuted together the same studies, which ought surely to increase continually the friendly feeling then formed between us." In the court of Ferrara, Olympia contracted friendship "with se veral other young ladies of rank, who were diatinguished for their talents and their virtues aa well as for their secret devotion to the new opinions. Araong these especially were the Princess Lavinia della Eovere, of the house of Urbino, wife of Paolo Orsini, and her two sisters-in-law. Madonna Maddelena, wife of Liho de Ceri, and Madonna Cherubina.^ Sorae of her happiest hours were spent in conversation with these excellent ladies, to whora she ever after continued bound by the ties of warm affection, and in whose S3rm- * Nolten's Vita Olympia:, sec. viii. 2 M'Crie's Hist, of tin Ref. in Italy, p. 1'61. Bonuot, Vie d'Olympia,, pp. 53, 54. 558 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Ital-t. pathy and kindness, when driven from the palace and subjected to persecution on account of her religion, she found au alleviation of her sorrows. Frora the tirae that she entered the court of Ferrara, Olympia waa surrounded by influences favourable to her embraceraent of the Eeformed faith. In this faith she was instructed by Johu Si napi and her other teachers, and to their instructions were per haps added the lessons and exhortations of the duchess herself. Be sides, as we have seen in the life of Eenee, the court of Ferrara was at that time adorned with a constellation of celebrated literati fa vourable to reforra, whom that princess had, by liberal encourage ment, brought to the city. Her court, too, being a secret asylum for the teachers of the proscribed doctrines, there were often in it learned men frora other countries, whom persecution had driven into exile, as Bernardino Ochino, Peter Martyr, Celio Secundo Cu rio, John Calvin, and others. Thus Olympia was brought into fre quent intercourse with meu of talent and learning, who were either the secret friends of the Eeformed faith or its avowed and fer vent propagators, and the aociety of such men, whora she behoved greatly to admire, could not fail to have a powerful influence upon her mind. The pious frauds practised upon Eomanists, and the profligate lives of the Popish clergy, greatly contributed to undermine Olyra- pia's faith in the Church of Eome, and to open her mind to the reception of a purer system of religion. Of this we have e"vidence, in her haviug selected, as a literary exercise, the translation of the two first tales of Boccaccio's Decameron, from Italian into Latin. The first, which ia intended to illustrate the deception constantly practised iu the Church of Eome upon the credulity of the people, is the tale of a base character who, having spent his life iu impiety and wickedness of every kind, succeeded, upou his deathbed, in im posing upon his confessor, and who, after his death, being canon ized, was held iu such reputation for sanctity, that his shrine waa resorted to by vast raultitudes, and was said to work the most as- Italy.] Olympia Mo'rata. 559 tonishing miracles. The other, which is a pungent satire upon the vices of the clergy, is the tale of the conversion of a Jew to Chris tianity. A friend, by his argumeuts iu favour of the Christian re ligion, had so far succeeded that the Jew resolved to visit the capi tal of Christendom, to see what evidence for or against Christianity might be derived thence. His frieud, from his knowledge of the inauners of the pope and his clergy, afraid that such a journey was raore likely to make a Chriatian a Jew than a Jew a Christian, en deavoured to dissuade him from his purpose. But the Jew was uot tobe dissuaded; he proceeded to Eome, and on his return, repairing to the house of hia friend, he avowed his conversion to Christianity and his readiness to be baptized; "for,'' said he, "I have observed the pope, his cardinals, and clergy, aud I am uow convinced tliat your religion must be Divine, for were it otherwise, it would have beeu ruined long ago under the care of such guardians." The exact time wheu Olympia tranalated these two tales is unknown, but it waa probably during her residence in the court of Ferrara. Though int,tructed in the knowledge of the truth in that court, Olympia, there is good reason to believe, continued for some years in the ducal palace, indifferent to personal religion. She read and studied the classic authors of antiquity with far more attention aud interest than the Scriptui-es. Her mind was more intent upou the acquisition of literary fame, and even upon the decoration of her person, upon the poraps and vanities of life, than uj)on the acquisi tion of the knowledge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, which is life eternal. In a supposed conversation be tween herself and her friend Lavinia della Eovere, she puts the fol lov/ing words into her own mouth, which, no doubt, exactly express the truth as to herself in forraer days : — " Would to God that I had not myself been so long iu this greatest of errors [preferring human to Di"vine studies], and iu this ignorance of the most iraportant of all thinga ; I thought myself very learned because I read and had become conversant with the works of learned, men on the various branches of human knowledge. But at the very time when I was SCO Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. exalted to heaven by the praises of all, I soou discovered my desti tution and ignorance of all true learning." ' Aud iu another sup posed conversation between herself and the same friend, she intro duces Lavinia as thus speaking : " Far be it frora rae to desire to en joy any improper degree of liberty ; but I would sometiraes wish to go abroad for the sake of raeeting acquaintances, to have carriages and horses suited to my rank, to have a numerous retinue, to have elegantly ornamented fumiture and rich tapestry, and a delicately fm-nished table, that I might be able sometiraea to invite ray feraale fi'ienda to a dinner or supper, and to have abundance of ready money to enable me to give largely to others." To this Olyrapia answers : "While yon have been enuraerating these thiugs, I have been think ing of ray own follies; for I also was once entangled iu the same raire, and must still have so reraained, had not God, of his great mercy, extricated me."^ All Italy, at the period referred to, re sounded with the praises of her piety and virtue ; but says she to Lavinia, "You can bear testimony to my aversion at that tirae to true religion."^ When her raind began to be solemnly impres sed with Divine thiugs, she, like other anxious inquirers, passed through a stage of doubt as to the truth of sorae of the first prin ciples of religion, before experiencing the joy and peace that are in believing. " Soraetiraes," she says, " I was hurried into the error of thinking that all things happen by chance, and that God does uot govern mankind. Such was the darkness that overspread my mind, wheu God himself began to dispel it, causing a ray of his matchless and Divine wisdora to shine upon rae.'" The precise period of the coramencement of her serious and deep impressions on the subject of religion is uncertain. From a passage already quoted, in which she states that, " at the very time wheu she was exalted to heaven by the praises of all, she discovered her destitution and ignorance of all true learning," it may be concluded that it was while she was resident in the palace of Ferrara, in the 1 Opera Olympias, p. 48. 2 i^a. p_ gg, Mra, Smith's Life of Olympia, p. 853. ' Opera Olympiai, p. 49. 4 njjd. p. 48. ;¦ r Italy.] Olympia Moretta. 561 full blaze of the suuahme of the court ; for it was only then, not at the tirae she left it nor aftei-wards, that she had lavished upon her a profusion of adulation. Yet the following passage frora one of her letters to her friend Celio Secundo Curio, would seem to refer her conversion to a period posterior to her leaving the court : " Had I remained longer in the court, it raight have been all over -with rae and ray salvation ; for never whilst I was there could I relish any thing exalted and Divine, nor could I read the books either of the Old or New Testament." ' This, however, may simply raean that the engrossment of a multiplicity of objects, the intoxication of flattery, the bustle and gayety of fashion and festivals, had then greatly distracted her mind, and by irapairing her taste for heavenly thought and devotional exercise, had perilled her spiritual interests. Hitherto Olympia's life in the court of Ferrara had beeu one of unclouded prosperity. She had been conversant only with books, or "with men only smiling admiration and approbation upon her. Such a situation was favourable neither to the cultivation of per sonal piety nor to her acquiring a just acquaintance with the world. It was necessary for her best interests that she should undergo a different kind of discipline, and new lessons were now to be taught her by that hard master, adveraity. Her first trial was the death of her father in 1548. In conse quence of the infirmities of age, he had retired for a nuraber of years pre-riously from his duties as professor in the university of Ferrara, and in that year he became dangerously ill. On hearing of his illness, her mother's health being delicate, she left the palace to attend him on his sick-bed. He believed that he was dying, but he had been long preparing for death, and he met the last enemy with Christian fortitude aud faith. In the prospect of entering another world he was sustained and comforted by the promises of the Divine Word, aud he reposed with unshaken confidence in the mercy of God through the finished work of Christ. In a letter to Celio Secundo Curio, dated Augsburg, October 7, 1550, she says, " I 1 Opera Olympice, p. 107. 36 562 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. must inform you that two years ago my father, after much suffering, departed with singular faith iu God from this world of pollution and trouble.'" While she was attending her father upou his deathbed, evil tongues were active in the court iu endeavouring, by calumnious re presentations, to injure her reputation, and unhappily with too much success. The minds of Duke Hercules and of the Duchess Eenfie were filled with prejudices and resentment against her. She was banished from the court, of which she was one of the brightest ornaraents, and her sisters, who were loaded with the sarae accusa tions, were treated with great unkindness. What a change had uow come over her condition and prospects ! She who a little before received nothing but smiles, flattering attentions, and the enco miums drawn forth by her superlative abilities, now met only with frowns, censure, and reproach. How easy, aud often how sudden, 011 the part of man is the transition from love to hatred! How small a circurastance — aud a word dropped frora the tongue of a slan derer is one of these circumstances — will often convert the admiring cry of hosanna into some cry of deadly hate and execration ! This, whioh was a new, was a very distressing experience to Olympia, who, during her nine years' residence iu the court, had never, in a single inatance, acted a part unworthy of the situation of high trust and honour whicii ahe held as the corapanion of the Princess Anne, Writing to her friend Celio Secundo Curio about two years after, she says, " Iramediately after my father's death I was abandoned by those who ought to have befriended rae, aud met with the most un merited treatment. Nor did I suff'er alone — my sisters shared my • lot ; and in return for om- labours and services we received nothing but hatred. You cannot imagine what was then my distress. No one espoused our cause, and we were surrounded by difficulties from which deliverance seemed to be hopeless." ^ In regard to the duchess, she says more explicitly in the same letter, "She who ought to have protected us became alienated from om- family by the 1 Opn-a Olympice, p. 105. ^ yoi,x. p. 106. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 563 raaiice and misrepresentations of certain wicked persons."' Had Een6e, as Olyrapia naturally expected, taken her part iu oppositiou to her calumniators, this would have been like a rainbow arching in calm brightness the blackest part of the heaven, and would have cheered her heart amidst the thick gloom of the tempest. But to find that, when the weapons of calurany were launched against her, her raistreas, who had before treated her with raaternal kindness, instead of protecting her from the raaiice of her eneraies, lent a credulous ear to theu- slanders — this shook her to the very heart, and alraost overwhelmed her. Her ill-treatment waa the more agonizing, too, that it came upon her and her family at the very time when they were mourning the death of a beloved father. The cause or causes of the disfavoui- into which Olympia fell with the com-t are involved in obscurity. It has been supposed that her father's dying admonitions and death had so quickened in her mind deep religious feeling, that she then, for the first tirae, raade an open profession of the Eeforraed faith, regardless of the persecuting opposition of the court, and that the iraputation of heresy was the cause of her disgrace. This may probably be a part of the explanation, but it cannot be the whole. Olympia complains of being the -victim of the "misrepresentations of certain wicked persons," but she would not have applied this terra to the simple charge of her holding heretical opinions. She also blames the duchess for having becorae alienated frora her and her family in consequence of these misrepresentations. But to suppose that Eenee would have withdrawn her affections from her Protestant friends siraply because they had been accused of heresy, would be to suppose what is inconsistent with the whole character of that princess, who had hitherto uniforraly extended sympathy and pro tection to such as were persecuted for their attachment to the Ee formed faith. Had thia been the only accuaation, Een§e, so far from becoraing cold or hostile to Olyrapia, would have cordially sympathized with her as a sufferer for righteousness' sake; though w ' Ope)'a Olympiai, p. 107. 564 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. at present, wheu she herself, ou account of her favom? for the Ee forraed faith, had incurred the disjaleasm-e of her husband, and waa in the continual presence and dread of perd, it might have been impossible for her, however willing, to throw the shield of her pro tection over her. What was the nature of these calumnies it may be impossible now to ascertain. No accouut of their nature is to be found either in Olyrapia's own letters or in those of her correspon dents. But whatever they were, there was at thia tirae in the court of Ferrara an unprincipled man named Jerome Bolsec, whom the duchess had cordially welcomed under the character of a French Protestant refugee, and had appointed her almoner, who, availing hiraself of his opportunities of access to her presence and of the confidence she reposed in hira, had an active share in infusing, by his misrepresentations, prejudices into her raind and into the mind of Duke Hercules agaiust Olyrapia,' Banished from the court, Olympia fouud refuge in the house of her pious and affectionate mother. Being the eldest daughter, and her raother's health being in a declining state, the manageraent of household affairs devolved upon her. These humble duties she uow engaged in contentedly, aud performed admirably well. She also undertook the task of carrying on the education of her brother aud sisters, happy in having this opportunity of evincing her aflection for them. Her brother was too young to have made much pro gresa iu hia atiidiea, but her sisters, who, being older, were more advanced, she eaercised in all the branches of learning, sacred aud profane, even in such as are usually confined to the other sex, and made one of them, Vittoria, who seeras to have reserabled herself in talents and avidity for intellectual pursuits, so excellent a Latin scholar, and so great a proficient in polite literature, that within a short time ahe surpassed most of the illustrious females of Italy. To her other duties she added the daily reading of the Scriptures; and she filled up her leisure hours by the composition of Greek poeras and by writing elegaut letters,^ 1 Bonnet, Vie d'Olympia, p. 68, - Nolten, Vita 0ly;npi(e, see. -xi. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 565 Painful to her feelings as was this sad reverse, and dark as was the cloud which it cast around her future prospects, yet, viewed in regard to her best interests, it was a wise and raerciful providence. It removed her from a situation, which she had hitherto found, as she coraplains iu her letters, unfavourable to her spiritual iraprove ment, and where, the Scriptures being now prohibited and true re ligion branded as heresy, she would have had to encounter tempta tions to unfaithfulness to God and conscience difficult to resist. It disposed her mind to heavenly raeditation. It disengaged her heart from all iu this world that raen covet most, and it excited her aa- pu-ations after objects more precious, more satisfying, raore endur ing. Her tirae being usefully and agreeably occupied, the agitation and distress of her mind gradually subsided aud gave place to more jdeasureable feelings. On all these accounts she felt and acknow ledged that she had reason rather to be grateful than to repine in having been driven from a aituation ao brilliant, but ao dangeroua, to the hurable dwelling of her mother. Writuig to Celio Secundo Curio, a considerable time after, she says, " I was no longer attrac ted so powerfully aa I had been by thinga transient and perishable. God inflamed my raind with the desire of dwelKng in that heavenly habitation in which it is more delightful to dwell for oue short day than to live for a thousand years in the courts of princes. Thus did I resume Divine studies. The poeras which I wrote last year are a proof of this, and I seud them to you that you may see how, when oppressed by so raany calaraities, I found, by the goodnesa of God, recreation and refreshment iu the cultivation of letters.'" At thia period of darkneaa and diatreaa, a German medical stu dent named Andrew Grunthler, a young man of good faraily, with a competent patrimony at his own disposal, of amiable dispositions and eminent talents, and a true-hearted disciple of the Eeformed faith, became tenderly attached to Olyrapia. He was a native of Schwein furt, one of the free towns of Bavaria, on the banks of the Main. It being, at that tirae, customary for foreign students, especially ' Opera Olympice, p. 108. 566 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. students of medicine, to travel into Italy to improve themselves at once in classical learning, and in the particular science to the pro fession of which they aspired, he had come to Ferrara to attend the lectures of John and Chilian Sinapi, who, like himself, were natives of the town of Schweinfurt,' and to obtain the degree of doctor of raedicine. He waa a frequent visitor at the houses of these twc professors, whose confidence and esteera he secured by his excellent and engaging character, and by his distinguished scholarship. On such occasions he frequently heard his hosts expp.tiating on the virtues and talents of Olympia Morata, with the various particulars of whose history he became inforraed. Being introduced to her ac quaintance, his tastes and pursuits being sirailar to hers, he often conversed with her upon literary subjects, and the raore he knew her, the more waa he impresaed with admiration of her high mental endo-wmenta. He observed, with not less respect and admiration, her filial and sisterly conduct towards her mother, her brothers, and sisters, with whom she was now living contented and happy. But raore tender eraotions than those of respect and admiration gradu ally gained possession of his heart, and these were heightened by the sympathy created by the injustice she had suffered from the court of Ferrara, There was another subject npon which he began to take greater delight in conversing with her than even literature. His affection was responded to by Olympia, and their marriage was celebrated, probably about the spring of the year 1649, she beiug then in the twenty-third year of her age. This union, which pro mised much earthly happiness, taking place at a time when the great aud the noble, on whom her young hopes had rested, had proved like a fragile and broken reed, was conteraplated by Olympia as a gracious interposition of Pro-vidence, and it drew from her heart the pious effusions of gratitude to the Father of the father less. Writing to Celio Secundo Curio, she says, "He who is the best father of orphans did not allow me to reraain longer than two years in this calaraitous condition ; for, influenced by Hira, Andrew ' Their father was a consul of that to-ivn, — Nolten, Italy,] Olympia Morata. 567 Grunthler, a German, greatly skilled in philosophy and medicine, fell in love with me, and iu spite of the displeaam-e of the prince and of my forlorn estate, made me his wife," ' CHAPTER II, FROM HER MAREIAGE TO HER ARRIVAL IN HEIDELBERG. To become a medical professor in one of the Gerraan universities was the object of Grunthler's highest ambition, and from the influ ence of his o-wn or Olympia's friends with persons of rank in Bava ria and iu the Palatinate, he had every prospect of obtaining a medical chair in some of the universities of these principalities. With a view to promote his success, about the middle of March,^ shortly after his marriage, he took a journey into Gerraany, leaving behind hira Olyrapia, whom he purposed to rejoin as early as poa sible, in order to make preparations for their final removal to the situation to which he raight be appointed. From the unsettled con dition of Germany, in consequence of the commotions excited at that time by the Interim of Charles V,, travelling there was at tended with no inconsiderable perils. This made the separation the more trying to Olyrapia, aud during the whole period of Grun thler's absence, she was iu great anxiety about his safety. Her iraagination even exaggerated the difficulties and dangers of the journey. A letter, still extant, which she wrote to hira at this time, shows how tender were her afi'ectiona as a wife, aud how she clung to him with all the devotedness of genuine and unrepressed attachment,^ During his sojourn in Gerraany, he received the most fiattering promises of proraotion. John Sinapi, who had been ne- 1 Opera Olympice, p. 106. '' In a letter to John Sinapi, dated May IS [1549], Olympia says that her husband had then been two months absent from her.— Ibid. p. 99. 3 Opera Olympice, p. 49. Two other of her letters to him, printed in her works (pp. 150-152), appear to have been written at a later period in her life. 568 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. cessitated, on account of his attachment to the Eeformed faith, to leave Ferrara, and who was now chief physician to Melchior Zobel, Biahop and Prince of Wurzburg, being peraonally acquainted with and rauch eateemed by Ferdinand, King of the Eoraans, brother to Charles V,, had it iu his power to do much for Grunthler, Olym pia, by her letters, earnestly besought him to use his influence with Ferdinand and with Count Fugger, who resided at Augaburg (a nobleman famed for hia vast wealth, and for his patronage of learn ing), to promote the interest of her husband ; ' and Sinapi rendered hira all the services which friendship could perform, recoraraending hira in the strongest terms to Ferdinand, to George Hermann, Ferdi nand's councillor, and to Count Fugger, and with suoh success that these distinguished personages, though no opening as yet presented itself, promiaed to do all iu their power to further the object of Grunthler'a arabition. The influence of Lavinia della Eovere's father-in-law. Count Camillo Orsini, with Ferdinand, was also, through the friendly offices of that lady, exerted in his behalf," After an absence of several raonths, Grunthler returned to Olym pia at Ferrara.^ Having made the necessary preparations for their departure, they finally left Italy in the beginning of June, 1550,' and proceeded to Germany to visit his friends, hoping soon to rea lize the fruits of the promised patronage. The necessity of leaving her native land, and especially of leaving behind her, in such trying times, her beloved mother and her three sisters, deeply affected Otympia. With weeping eyes, and with faltering accents, she took farewell of her widowed mother, who, enfeebled by infirraity and agitated by emotion, sobbed out her fears that she would never again see her daughter in this world, but at the same tinit. expressed her ' Opera Olympia:, pp, 96-99. i Ibid. p. 101. ^ The exact time of his retum is uncertain. He had returned prior to, probably a consider.able time before, Noveniber 2 [1549], as is evident from a letter of Lavinia della Rovere's of that date to Olympia, in wliich she congrfitnlates her npon the safe an-ival of her husband. — Opera Olympia;, p. 100. ^ On May 29 [1650], Olympia, previously to their departure, wrote from Ferrara a letter to John Sinapi, requesting his kind offices with the King of the Romans, and with Count Fugger, in reference to the professorship.— C!2)e?-a Olympia, p. 90. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 669 hope of an eternal re-union in that better world where separations are unknown. Her brother Erailio, then eight years of age, to whom she was strongly attached, she purposed to take with her to Germany. Grunthler and Olympia arrived safely at Augsburg ou June 12,' and were cordially welcomed by George Hermanu, councillor to the The Townhall, 1 Perlach Tower, Augsburg. King of the Eoraans, a nobleman who was both a patron and a suc cessful cultivator of letters. Under hia hospitable roof they re mained for several months, residing with him sometiraes in his house at Augsburg, aud soraetimes iu his house at Kauffbeuren, a small to-wn distant from Augsburg about a day's journey. Suoh was his affection for his gueata, which was increased by Grunthler's ^ Opera Olympia:, p, 99. 570 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. success iu restoring his life from a severe illness, that he insisted on their staying with him beyond the time they at first contemplated, and at last reluctantly allowed them to depart,' During her stay with Hermann, Olyrapia, whose active mind would never allow her to be idle, was always usefully engaged. In tent upon mental iraprovement, she asaiduoualy devoted herself to studies, literary and religious. '"' Here," says she, writing to Lilio Giraldi, "I feel myself very happy. I pass the whole day in the delights of the Muses, frora which there is nothing to distract me. I also often apply myself to Divine studies, from which I derive both greater advantage and pleasure than from the former,"' Here, too, by epistolary communication, she renewed intercourse with one of her father's and of her own beat friends, Celio Secundo Curio, who was theu professor of huraanity in the university of Basle — a chair to which he had been appointed in 1547 ; and their epistolary correspondence waa only terminated by the death of Olym pia, In a letter to hira, dated Augsburg, October 7 [1550], along with which she sent him some of her poeras composed at Ferrara the preceding year, after having inforraed him of her father's death, her disfavour with the court, and her marriage, ahe adds, "My husband brought rae into Gerraany, where we have been residing for some time at Augsburg, with George Hermann, councillor of the kiug, whom he restored from a severe illness. Thence, shortly, we are to go to my husbaud'a native place, which is situated in Franconia, and there we shall spend aorae raonths with his relations and friends. Of his excellent chai-acter, and of his skill in the Greek and Latin languages, I would rather that yon should be inforraed by othera than by my letters. This only I will say, that were I in the highest favour with my priuce, aud were he to load me with bene fits, I could not be placed in a raore desirable situation than that iu which, when despoiled and miserable, I have now been placed by God. My husband is a learned man, born of a good family, and had left him, by hia father, aorae property. His affection for me is ' Opera Olympia:, pp, 99, 101, 2 n,ij, p, J04, Italy.] Olympia Morata. 571 such that it could not be surpassed. I can only pray that God would be equally kind to my three sisters, all marriageable, whom I have left at Ferrara "with my mother.' My little brother, who is eight years old, I have brought with me, and I am endeavouring, accord ing to my ability, to instruct him iu the Greek and Latin lan guages." ^ Cm-io's reply, which is dated Basle, Septeraber 5 [1551], breathes the tenderness of a father, and displays equally the accoraplished scholar and the earnest enlightened Christian. " I give you eternal thanks, ray Olyrapia, the glory and ornaraent of your sex, that, after an interval of so raany years, and in spite of the great dis tance between us, you have uot forgotten me, and that you wish to preserve, as an hereditary possessiou, your father's friendships, . . . No one, I assure you, more highly esteeraed your father while he was alive than I did ; and since you emulate him in your devotion to liberal studies, aud especially in piety, there is no one in the world, ray wife and daughters excepted, whom I more love and respect than yourself. I therefore congratulate your most excellent husband aa cordially aa if he were united to one of ray own daughters. . The 46 th Psalra, which you have trans lated into Greek, has very rauch pleased me. I wish you would write similar translations of more of the Psalms. We shall no longer envy the Greeks their Pindar, Go on, then, my Olyrapia, whither the Muse in-vites you. Crown your inspired brow with the sacred laurel. Tou have drunk the poetic inspiration from a more sacred fountain thau Pindar or than Sappho herself, . . . ' In a subsequent letter to Curio, dated Schweinfurt, October 1 [1551], Olympia in forms him that one of her sisters was in the service of Helena Rangone of Bentivoglio ; '•" that another of them, who had beeu in the service of the daughter of that lady in Milan, had, since she last wrote to him, been man-ied to a wealthy young gentleman of that city, and had, with her husband, gone to Ferrara in May last, to visit her mother, with whom they stjiyed several days ; and that her third sister, Vittoria, Lavinia della Rovere had taken with her to Roms, Thus the mother was left alone at Ferrara, — Opera Olympice, p, 116, 2 Ibid, pp, 106, 107, Mrs, Smith's Life of Olympia, p. 264. * This lady was among the frienrla of the Keformed doetrine, and " appears to have belonged to the noble family of that name in Modena, which had long been distinguished, both on the male and female side, for the cultivation nnd patronage of learning. " — M'Crie's Iliai. of tlie Ref. in Italy, p. 161. 572 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. I wish, my dearest Olympia, you would write me more frequently, for nothing can be more acceptable to me than your letters. I am exceedingly delighted with their elegance, piety, and sweetness."^ While she was residing with Hermann, the current of OlymjDia's thoughts and sympathies often flowed towards that excellent man Faventino Fannio, whom^ when she was at Ferrara, she had visited in his prison, in which he had now for a long time been confined, on account of his steadfast confession of the Eeformed faith, and whose life was in the utmost danger. Upon the court of Ferrara she could obviously have no direct influence. But she implored in his behalf the kind offices of her fi'iend Lavinia della Eovere, v/ho, from her high rank and thi'ough her relations, was not without in fluence.^ No intercession could, however, save him from the flames, to which he was consigned in 1550.^ The interest taken by these two ladies in this martyr will be more particularly related in our notice of Lavinia. Having, in October, 1550,* taken farewell of Councillor Hermann 1 Opera Olympim, pp. 111-113. '^ Ibid. p. 102. ^ The relation of his martj-rdom by Francis Niger, of Bassano, printed at Cleres, beara the date October 31, 1550, the year in which he was put to death. — Nolten's Vita Olympia, sec. xiii. The letter of Olympia to Lavinia in behalf of Fannio, referred to in the text, therefore, fixes 1550 as the year of her stay at Augsburg with Hermann ; and it combines "With the internal evidence of other of her letters, or of lettei-s addressed to her, in con firming the accuracy ofthe date we have assigned (p. 5G6) to her maniage, as to the date of which historians and biogi-aphei-s are uot agreed. Her latest biographer. Bonnet, refers it to the end of the year 1550. She died October 25, 1555, says he, as the inscriptiou on her monument attests ; and Grunthler, in a, letter to Celio Secundo Curio, after her death, says, " She lived with m.e not five years complete;" consecLuently their maniage must have taken place some time after October 25, 1550. {Vie d'Olympia, Appendix, iv.) But if Grunthler did not make a slip in stating the length ofthe period of theii- imion, may not this be an error of the press or of the editor ? From Olympia's own letters it is in contestably evident that Ihe first summer after the marriage lie was absent from her for several montlis, and that it was only in the beginning of the second summer after it that they removed from Ferrara to Germany. If, therefoi'e, their marriage took place in the close of the year 1550, it must have been in the summer or autumn ofthe year 1552 that Olympia wrote this letter from Germany, with a view, if possible, to save the life of Fannio — that is to say, nearly two years after he had been committed to the flames at Ferrara. Olympia frec[uently afOxes the day of the month to her letters, but she generaUy omits the year. This has involved in pei-plexity the chronology of some of the leading events of her life. The dates of the year supplied by the editor of her works are often incorrect. ¦* They wore still with Hermann on the 7th of October that year, but purposed to leave within a shoi-t time, as we leamfi-omalett2roi Olympia's to Curio. — Opera Olympics,-^. 105. Italy.] Otympia Morata. 673 and his family, Olympia, -with her husband and brother, left Augs burg for Schweinfurt, where they intended to stay some months with her husband's friends, but on their way they purposed to pass through Wiii-zburg, in order to pay a visit to Olympia's old pre ceptor and friend John Sinapi,' who, as has been already stated, was at this time chief physician to the Bishop of Wiirzburg. By this learned man and his excellent family, comprising, besides him self, his wife Francisca Bucyronia, Theodora, their daughter, Bri gida, his niece, and another relative named Leonora,^ both of them were welcomed with the utmost cordiality; and by all of them Olympia was tenderly beloved. During her residence here she continued to devote herself to the cultivation of literature. In a letter to George Hermann, without date, she says: — "We are still at Wiirzburg with Sinapi. The reason of our protracting our departure is, that oLir luggage, which as yet is at Bamberg, may be brought to us. Do you ask what I am doing? I betake myself to letters, and often spend the whole day in reading. In nothing do I find greater alleviation. My husband takes equal delight in such studies."^ During her stay with Sinapi, her brother Emilio made a narrow escape from severe injury or death. While playing with some other children, he suddenly fell from a high window to the ground, and yet he rose up himself immediately, not having received the small est injury. His reraarkable preservation deeply affected Olympia, who piously and gratefully ascribed it to the merciful providence of God. In the letter to Hermann last quoted, she thus -writes : — " To teach us from experience that God charges his angels to bear up his children with their hands, lest when they fall they should dash themselves against a stone, my little brother, a few days ago, fell from a high window upou rough stones, sustaining as little harm as if he had fallen upon soft earth ; he suffered no fracture, nor any • His brother Chilian, who had left Ferrara about the same time -with himself, went to Spires, in Germany, where he successfally practised as a lawyer. He did not teach medicine there, as Nolten asserts. —Note of Hesse in Nolten's Vita Olympics, sec. riii. 2 Opera Olympics, p. 159. ^ Ibid. p. 127. 574 Ladies of the Reformation. [iTALT. injury whatever. He is in health and lives, to the great wonder of us all. It is indeed marvellous, I may say a miracle, that from so senous a fall he should not be hurt iu any way. Thus God, who is The street of the Cathedral, -Wrirzburg. able to raise the very dead to life, is wont to protect and to pre serve his own."' And in a letter to Celio Secundo Curio, dated Schweinfurt, October 7 [1551], in referring to this event, whioh, says 1 Opei'a Olympia:, p. 127. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 575 she, " happened last year,'' she writes : — " The height was so great that I still tremble when I think of it. I have not ventured to write my mother of this wonderful deliverance, for it would be im possible to bring her to believe that he is still alive, unless she saw him with her own eyes."' It appears to have been during his stay with Sinapi that Grun thler received an earnest invitation from the senate of Schweinfurt, his native town, to whom his ability in his profession was well known, to come and fix his residence there, for a time at least, to afford medical assistance to the Spanish troops which the emperor, Charles V., had sent thither to winter.'' About the end of October, he and Olympia, with her young bro ther, ha-ving taken leave of Sinapi and his family, proceeded to Schweinfurt, which is situated about a day's journey from Wiirz burg. They arrived safe at the place of their destination, five months having now elapsed since they left Ferrara. Not long after they were settled in Schweinfurt, their friend. Councillor Hermann, by his interest with Ferdinand, King of the Eomans, obtained for Grunthler an appointment to a chair of me dicine in the academy of Linz, the capital of Upper Austria — a chair to which the prince had guaranteed great advantages. Grunthler and Olympia, upon receiving intelligence of this ap pointment, by a letter from Hermann, were inclined, from a desire to better their outward circumstances, to accept of the offered pre ferment, provided they were allowed the free exercise of the Re formed religion; but should thia, as they had reason to fear, be denied them, they were resolved rather to remain in their present obscure situation than part with the truth at the solicitations of worldly honour and affluence. To ascertain whether they would be permitted openly to profess the Eeformed faith at Linz, Olympia wrote to Anthony Hermann, son of the councillor, requesting infor mation on that subject. " Your father," says she, " has written to us a very kind letter, ' Opera Olympics, pp. 116, 117. " lbid. p. 121. 57(j Ladies of the' Reformation. [Italy. in which he offers us such a situation as we would gladly accept. But there is one difficulty which we cannot help thinking may prove an insuperable obstacle to our accepting it; and as it may possibly be in your power to remove it, I have thought it proper with all freedom to make it known to you by letter, and to request your friendly assistance. You are not ignorant, I suppose, that we are soldiers of Christ, and that we are bound to his service by an oath so sacred, that were we unfaithful to it we should bring upon ourselves everlasting destruction. Such is the majesty and great ness of the Prince under whom we serve, that he not only has the power of life and death over his soldiers, but can even adjudge them to everlasting punishment, nor will he suffer any of them for a single instant to be off their duty. We ought, therefore, to be especially careful, lest, from the fear of the enemy, we should cast away the shield of faith, or lest we should rashly bring ourselves into dangerous situations, by which we would sin against God. Dreading this, I earnestly beg you to let tis know, by a letter from yourself and from your friends who reside in the town of Linz, whether, as we have been told, it is true that Antichrist is there exercising his cruelty, and persecuting without mercy all who do not attend mass and who worship God according to the true reli gion. For it is our steadfast resolution openly to profess the pure Christian faith, and not to conform to the worship of a perverted and impious religion. If, therefore, the inquisitors of Antichrist should there watch us and wish to compel us to be present at their religious worship, we cannot go to that place-; for, as I have just now said, by doing so we should sin against God. I beseech and entreat you to grant us information in this matter. Farewell.'" This was her only difficulty. To her, distance of locality was no thing. "My husband," says she, "than whom no other object in this world is dearer to me, I have already followed over the sum mits of the Alps, and I would gladly follow him to the inhospitable Caucasus."" ' Opera Olympics, p 12-1. 2 ibid. p. 132. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 577 The reply Olympia received being to the effect that she and her husband would be expected to conform to the established religion, they deliberately and decidedly declined the situation. This mag nanimous sacrifice of worldly considerations at the shrine of con science and duty reflects the highest honour upon them both, the more especially as they were at that period of life when worldly splendour and dignity most powerfully fascinate the fancy and in flame the ambition. The thick cloud which, during Olympia's last days in Ferrara, had gathered around the cause of the Eeformation in Italy, had, since her departure from her native land, become darker and more threatening. A system of espionage had been established, and a more ruthless persecution was carried on against all suspected of heresy. The intelligence of this, which Olympia received from her friends, filled her heart with the deepest sorrow, and extinguished ¦within her all desire of returning to the land of her birth. In a let ter to Curio, dated Schweinfurt, October 1 [1551], she writes:— "I cannot say that we will ever again return to Italy. We have not come here with that intention ; for you are not ignorant how dan gerous it is to profess Christianity in that country where Antichrist has his throne. I hear that the rage against the saints is at present so violent, that former severities were but child's play compared with those which are practised by the new pope [Julius III.] He has sent into all the cities of Italy his spies, and he cannot, like his predecessor, be moved by entreaties and intercessions. Last year, one Fannio, a pious man of the most constant faith (for neither by the fear of death nor by the love of his wife and children could he be tempted to depart from the truth) was strangled, then commit ted to the flames, and his persecutors, not content with this, ordered his ashes to be cast into the Po. Although, therefore, I feel bound to my country by the strongest ties of affection, I would prefer go ing to the most distant lands to returning to Italy, where Antichrist is raging so fiercely." ' 1 Opera Olympixs, p. 115. 37 578 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. But notwithstanding her having relinquished all thought of ever again returning to Italy, it was one of the most fervent wishes of her heart, and one of her most earnest prayers at the throne of grace, that her countrymen, who were still blinded and enslaved by Popery, might be illuminated by the light of the gospel. As a meaus for helping to accomplish an object so desirable, she ear nestly entreated her friend, "the pious and leamed Matthew Flac- cus lUyricus,'" to translate into Italian a small work of Luther's exposing the errors of Popery, or to compose himself a similar work in Italian for general circulation in Italy. In a letter to him, dated "Schweinfurt, May 25, 1552," she says: — "Most excellent Illyricus, — ^After I had muclj and long considered by what means I might enrich my Italian friends and countrymen with those trea sures which so much abound in Germany, and had lamented my own inability to render them this service, the idea occurred to me that this might be easily effected if I succeeded in securing the friendly offices of learned men. When you became known to me by your writings, you were the first to whom I thought of apply ing, as you seemed to me to be the person most likely to be of the greatest service to my Italian countrymen, who are in want of hea venly blessings and carried away by many errors. If you would translate into Italian a small book of Luther's, written in German, in which he refutes the errors of Eome (for I, as yet, am but imper fectly acquainted with the German language, otherwise I would not have shrunk from the labour myself),^ or if you would compose something in Italian on the same subject, which, from your pro found knowledge of the Scriptures, you are certainly much better qualified to do thau I am, who have but slightly tasted these living ' This Reformer " was born at Albona, in Istria, March 3, 1521, and died at Franltfort, ' March 11, 1575. He published a number of remar-kahie works, of which the most valu able is Catalogus Testium Veritatis, ito, Basle, 1556. He was one of the principal authors of the collection of ecclesiastical history entitled the Magdeburg Centuries." — Bonnet, Vis d'Olympia, p. 190. Melchior Adamus, in his Vita: Eruditorum, tum Germanorum, tum Ex terorum, has given a sketch of his life. Thu-d edition, Fi-ankfort-upon-the-Maine tom. i. pp. 226-227. ' 2 She had at this timo soj ourued about a year and a half in Germany. iT.iLT.] Olympia Morata. 579 waters, I am confident that you would thus deliver many pious per sons from the errors in which they are unconsciously living. If, for the sake of the church, for which we ought to sacrifice even our life, you are willing to undertake this task, you will confer an obli gation upon my countrymen, and bind them to you in everlasting gratitude. But it is essential to the utility of the book that it be written in Italian, for many of them are altogether unacquainted \vith the learned languages. I earnestly beseech and implore you, by Christ, to put your hand to the work. He will consider it a benefit conferred upon himself; and although I cannot give you adequate thanks. He will repay you with interest." ' Exempted from persecution and in the enjoyment of domestic peace, Olympia unremittingly devoted herself at Schweinfurt to active and useful labours. Domestic cares, as became a wife, occu pied her first attention. She personally conducted the education of her brother Emilio, commenced by her at Ferrara, and with him was associated Theodora, daughter of John Sinapi, whose tuition, at the request of her father, she had undertaken, in testimony of her respect and gratitude to her old preceptor. She gave them lessons in the Greek and Eoman classics ; and it was one of her rules, as an instructress, to make them fully understand every les son aa they proceeded. She often quoted to them the remark of Pliny the younger, "It is better to know one thing well than to know many things superficially." Would they attain to emi nence as scholars, it was also necessary for them diligently to prosecute by themselves the study of many things, as to which their instructors could only give them directions. "Teachers," said she, "do not communicate everything, but point, as it were, with the finger, to the sources whence you may draw."" Nor did she neglect what is most important of all — the cultivation of the hearts of her pupils, and their instruction in the principles of the true Christian faith. Under suoh a teacher, Emilio aud Theodora made laudable proficiency. In a letter to Sinapi, dated Schweinfurt, 1 Opera Olympia:, p. 139. " Ibi*- P- 134- 580 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. January 12, 1553, Olympia says, "Your little daughter is well, and learns something every day.'" But in December, 1553, Theodora was called home by her father, in consequence of the death of her mother. Olympia's life at Schweinfurt was passed, also, in the con stant exercise of benevolence. She visited the poor, the sick, and the dying, nor did she grudge the bestowment of a portion of her pecuniary means for their relief. Amidst these varied duties, she found time to engage in divers literary exercises. She translated into Greek verae many of the Psalms, though only a few of these translations have come down to our time. From the specimens of them still existing, it is evident that she almost uniformly imitated Homer, and generally adopted the heroic measure. The forty-sixth Psalm is translated into Greek verse of the Sapphic measure, and has been greatly admired by the most competent judges. "The verse, in imitation of that of Sappho," aays Bonnet, "is rapid, energetic, and impetuous as the thought. It is Luther's heroic invocation as he repaired to Worms, repeated from the heart of a woman, who in the sacred cause of conscience, shrank not from conflict, self-sacrifice, and suffering." " These trans lations she executed not simply as literary exercises or for amuse ment, but as a means of cultivating personal piety. The Psalms se lected by her for translation,' may be considered as descriptive of the feelings of her own mind, and of the communings of her heart with God. She likewise composed Latin dialogues, two of which are still extant, being supposed conversations between herself and her friend Lavinia della Eovere. Nor was the study of the sacred Scriptures neglected. She made them the subject of her daily per usal and meditation ; to which she added the reading of other reli gious books. In a letter to Lavinia della Eovere, dated Schwein furt, she thus writes: — "And, indeed, unless I had in Germany the consolation of being permitted to have those books which I would 1 0pe)-a Olympia:, p. 136. ^ Bonnet, Vie d'Olympia, chap. iv. See a literal version of her Greek translation of this psalm in Mi-s. Smith's Life of Olympia, p. 194. 3 Of tliese only the Ist, 2d, 23d, 34th, 46th, 70th, 125th, aud 150th have been preserved. Ihly.] Olympia Morata. 581 not be permitted to enjoy iu Italy, I could not bear up against mj' longing for my friends." ' The habits of Olympia's family were simple, but refined, intellec tual, and devout. In the society of a few pious friends, of con genial minds, belonging to the evangelicid church of Schweinfurt, some of whom had been converted to the Eeformed faith at Fer rara, she and her husband found the resources of social happiness, heightening the delights of domestic love. In a letter to one of her correspondents, who was still in the com-t of Ferrara,' after speak ing highly of the Eeformed minister of Schweinfurt, she adds, "There are also some other good men here — men born agaiu of in corruptible seed by the Word of the living God, whose society makes our residence in this place agreeable, so that we most cheerfully resign to you the flesh-pots of Egypt."' The day was closed by reading a portion of the Scriptures, and singing one of Luther's Ger man hymns, which had acquu-ed so great popularity in Germany. Grunthler having set to music such of the Psalms as Olympia had translated into Greek verse, these sacred compositions in the lan guage and verse of Homer and of Sappho, were also used by this accomplished and pious pair in the worship of their God.* From all these sources, so adapted to minister enjoyment to a mind like hers, Olympia derived the purest pleasure, and her days for a time glided gently and pleasantly away. She preferred her present comparatively humble but happy condition in this unpo lished town to all the fascinations of the brilliant tmd accomplished com-t of Ferrara. Far away from the splendours of a palace, she liad fewer temptations, and better means of cultivating piety. In her letters she delights to expatiate on the fulness of her happiness. The only thing she regretted was her separation from so many of her beloved friends. But this period of felicity was of short dm-ation. A dreadful ' Opei-a Olympia, p. 1 19. '^ Valentinus Carchesius. ' Opera Olympia, p. 130. By "the flesh-pots of Egypt," she means the luxuries of the com-t of FeiTara. ¦¦ Ibid. p. 172. Mrs. Smith's Life of Olympia, pp. 308, 309. 582 Ladies ofthe Reformation. [Italy. storm suddenly and unexpectedly bui-st over Ol3rmpia's head. Ger many had been long a prey to violent internal discord, caused by the efforts of Charles V. and of the Eomau Catholic German princes to overthrow the Eeformation in that country. The treaty of Pas sau, sig-ned August 2, 1552, which secured to the Protestants im portant advantages, seemed to promise a termination to these dis sensions, and the restoration of lasting peace and prosperity. But Albert of Brandenburg, avowedly a Lutheran in his religious tenets, but a man of a turbulent spirit, of boundless ambition, sanguinary, rapacious, and governed by no principle save self-interest, still kept the country in a state of great confusion. This Alcibiades of Ger many, as he has been called, had hitherto spread his devastations over whole districts, burning defenceless villages and tov/ns, exacting contributions, and seizing upon the territories of other princes. In 1552, previously to the treaty of Passau, he commanded a body of troops in support of Maurice, Elector of Saxony, against the emperor. Eut refusing to accede to that treaty, he continued to keep his army iu the field, watching opportunities for his farther aggrandizement; and soon after he joined the banner of the emperor to assist him against the French. Having, from the violent commotions he was exciting, and from his wanton and cruel ravages in the peaceful ter ritories of other princes, been placed under the ban of the empire by the imperial chamber, and the German princes having entered into a league against him, April 2, 1553,' he intrenched himself with his troops in the imperial city of Schweinfurt, on account of its advantageous position. Here he was besieged by the united armies of the Bishops of Wurzburg and Bamberg, Maurice, Elector of Saxony, the Duke of Brunswick, and the city of Nlirnberg.- Thus were Otympia, her husband, and her brother exposed to all the miseries of a protracted siege ; and they had reason equally to dread the army within the town and the besieging forces without. This siege, many authentic and affecting details of which are to ' Robertson's Charles V., books x. xi. '- Optra Olympic:, p. 137. Nolten, Vita Olympia', sec. xvii. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 583 be found in Olympia's letters to her friends, commenced in the month of April, 1553, and lasted fourteen months. During this period the to'wn suffered more than the hardships ordinarily inci dent to a state of siege. The inhabitants were kept in constant agitation and alarm by the unremitting bombardment of the town by the besieging army. They were besides harassed and impover ished by the exactions of Albert's mercenary and lawless troops, who, not being regularly paid, and habituated to plunder, invaded their houses and compelled them to give them money, or whatever else they desired. The increasing scarcity of food gradually pro duced all the miseries of famine, in recording which, Olympia grate fully acknowledges the goodness of Providence in that she and her family had still the necessaries of life, and were even in a condition to afford assistance, in some degree, to others. A pestilential fever broke out among the soldiers ; and not confining itself to them, it attacked nearly all the inhabitants, causing, by the violence of the pain which accompanied it, insanity in many of the sufferers, and carrying off half the pojjulation of the town. Olympia's husband, in his indefatigable efforts for the relief of the sick, caught the epidemic, and for several days he seemed at the gates of death. This created her greater apprehension than all the hardships and dangers of the siege. From her affectionate concern for his safety, she herself constantly attended his sick bed, except when some repose was necessary to recruit her from the fatigues of watching; and she poured forth unceasing prayers to God for the restoration of a life more precious to her than her own. Special prayers were also offered up in his behalf by the Eeformed chm-ch of Schweinfurt, by all the members of which he was much respected and beloved. The cry of prayer prevailed. Without the use of any medioine-for, from the number of the sick, everything of this sort was exhausled-and with nothing but the tender unwearied care of his faithful loving wife, Grunthler, by the blessing of Providence, was brought back from the brmk of the grave. This was in the ninth month of the siege. Upon his 584 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. recovery Olympia, being relieved from the chief cause of her anxiety, had composure of mind, amidst the distractions and alarms of the siege, to write a letter to her friend Lavinia della Eovere,' inform ing her of the perilous circumstances in which she was placed, and giving expression to her feelings of gratitude to God for his protec tion, and especially for the merciful deliverance of her husband. "Our lives," says she, "have uow for a long time been in the greatest hazai-d, as they still are, and on every side we are sur rounded by many dangers. . . . But God has so shielded and preserved us that, incredible as it may appear, no one has been killed by the cannon balls which day and night have been fired against the town. . . My husband was infected with the pre valent pestilence, and was so seriously and dangerously ill that there seemed to be no hope of his life. But he who is wont to bring down to the grave, having compassion upon me who could not have borne so great an afiiiction, brought him up again in answer to my own and the church's earnest and continued prayers."^ In the saiue letter Olympia, who retained her fortitude and faith in God in all circumstances, adds, "Under all these distresses we have found our chief consolation iu the Word of God, by whioh we have been sustained. For this reason I have never looked back to the flesh-pots of Egypt, and would rather perish in the ruins of thia town than enjoy all the pleasures of the world elsewhere. And al though we are still exposed to these calamities, yet as God is always so graciously present with us, we hope to be delivered from them in his own good time. Unite your prayers with ours that to us all these afilictions, under which we have been now lying for nine months, may be productive of good." Hitherto the besiegers by all their efforts had failed to make au impression upon the walls of the town, or to reduce Albert, who made an obstinate and able defence, to the necessity of capitulating. But their indifferent success did not determine them to raise the siege. Having obtained reinforcements, just after Grunthlers cou- ' The letter is dated Schweinf lu-t, Feb. 2, [1554]. 2 Opera Olympia:, p. 1.10. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 585 valescenoe, they carried it on with fresh resolution and vigour. They continued to cannonade the walls with such unintermitting fury, day and night, that Albert's soldiers declared they had never wit nessed anything equal to it, and at night the town seemed as ii enveloped in flames. The inhabitants betook themselves for safety to the securest parts of the town, and all the cellars were filled. Olympia, her husband, and her brothei-, now took up their abode in a wine-cellar. But, v/hat is very surprising, few of the inhabitants lost their lives.' At last, Albert's patience becoming exhausted by the perseverance of the besiegers, or his troops having been so greatly reduced in number by pestilence as to render them unable to stand on the defensive much longer, or absolute famine staring them in the face — probably from all these causes combined — he evacuated the town by night, after holding out for fourteen months, expecting in his progress to increase his army by such adventurers as might be attracted to his standard from the love of plunder. His departure gave great joy to the inhabitants, who flattered them selves with the hope of being now delivered from their protracted miseries, and restored to a state of tranquillity and safety. Their hopes were speedily and sadly disappointed. While Maurice, Elector of Saxony, and the Duke of Brunswick, set off in pursuit of Albert, whom they overtook at Sievershausen, where, after a bloody battle, he was defeated, the Bishops of Wurzburg and Bamberg, with the NUmberg forces, iu violation of it promise which, in obedience to the orders of the emperor and other princes, they had made to disperse, entered the town the day after Albert's retreat, and, turn ing the resentment that burned in their breasts against him upon the unoffending inhabitants, they fii-st plundered the town and then set it on fii-e. These scenes caused indescribable confusion and terror among the inhabitants. Old and young, male and female, husbands with their wives, mothers with their children in their arms, were to be I "Nam guamdui obsessi fuimus, pauci ex nostris oecidisse." Letter of Olymp.a to her sister Vittona, dated Heidelberg, August S [1554], in her Opera, p. 195. 586 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. seen running in all directions for safety, uttering shrieks of horror, .and prayiug the soldiers to spare their lives. Olympia, her husband, and her brother, thinking onlj' of saving their lives, left their house with all their property, including her books and manuscripts, which were more precious to her than any thing else she possessed, to the devouz-ing element. They had not rescued from the wreck even the smallest piece of money — all per ished in the flames. Along with multitudes of others, tliey fled for refuge to the church of the town, which, it -was hoped, the soldiers would spare ; but on their way they were urged by one of them to quit the to-wn immediately else the)' would be buried in its ashes. Olympia and her Husband despoiled by the Soldiers, This was a truly providential warning; it was the means of saving their lives, for, taking his advice, they escaped the fate of such as fled to the chm-ch, all of whom fell victims either to suffocation or to the flames. But while hastening to escape from the burning citj', they fell in v/ith a party of soldiers differently disposed, who forci- Italy.] Olympia Mm-ata. 587 bly took from them even the clothes upon their persons in tho streets, leaving Olympia with only a single garmen1>— a linen shift —to cover her. They, at the same time, made her husband a pri soner, and this to her was the greatest calamity of all. She im plored thom with tears to let him go, and from her inmost soul she ejaculated fervent prayers to God for his release; but the soldiers at first disregarded her cries and entreaties. " Had he been long de tained," says she in a letter to her sister Vittoria, " or had God, who speedily restored him iu answer to my prayer, delayed his aid, I must have died from the bitterness of my grief. I could easily have borne the loss of all other things (though I had nothing left me except a shift with which to cover my person) — I could not have borne that of my dearest husband. But our heavenly Father heard my groans."' Grunthler having been released, he and Olympia left the city, and after some hesitation whither they should direct their stej^s, they set out for Hamelburg, a small village about three leagues (or nine English miles) distant from Schweinfurt. On the way she re ceived from a poor but kind-hearted woman the loan of a tattered gown. The road was rough, covered with stones and flints, and she was barefooted, for in the hurry of flight she had lost her shoes. Her health, too, was so infirm, from the agitating scenes througli which she had passed, that she was scarcely able to walk. Her husb.and did all he could to support hsr feeble frame and depressed spirits, but so ready was she to sink from pure exhaustion that she often cried out, " I can proceed no farther — now must I lie dov/n and die;" and often did she cry to God in her despair, "Lord, if thou wouldst have me to live, bid thine angels cari-y me, for I myself can do no more."^ She at length arrived at Hamelburg, as she herself informs us, pale, emaciated, with her hair dishevelled, covered with rags, her bare feet bleeding — in .short, as she adds, with a touch of pleasantry, "looking like the queen of the begg.ars."-' ' Opera Olympice, p. 196. - Mrs. Smith's Life of Olympia, p. 2C1. ' Opera Olympice, p. 179. 588 Ladles of tlie Reformation. [It.vly. This was in the month of July. By one accustomed, as she had been, to all the conveniences and comforts of a luxurious court, the fatigues, privations, and dangers of this journey, which, from the season of the year, was not improbably prosecuted under a fierce unmitigated sun, must have been severely felt, the more especially in her then weak state of health; and they brought upon her a fever from which she never afterwards fully recovered. Iu such circum stances, when she so greatly stood in need of quiet and repose, to proceed on her way was to endanger her life ; but the inhabitants, having been forbidden to extend the rites of hospitality to fugitives from Schweinfurt, and being afraid of incurring the resentment of the bishops who had been besieging that town, were unwilling to allow the strangers to remain in the place, and compelled them on the fourth day after their arrival to resume their wiary journey. Leaving Hamelburg, they passed through one of the episcopal towns, where Grunthler was once more made prisoner by the bishop's lieutenant, who told them that he had received strict orders from the bishop to put to death all fugitives from Schweinfurt. Here, again, Olymjiia trembled for the life of her husband, whose danger more oppressed her mind than her own illness, and she again sought relief in prayer to God. "You may believe," saj's she, in a letter to Madonna Cherubiua Orsini, "that if ever I knew sorrow, or if ever I prayed heartily in my life, it was then ! From the bottom of my angxiished heart, I cried with groans unutterable, ' Help, Lord ! help me, for the sake of Christ:' nor did I cease till it pleased God to hear me, and deliver my husband."' Her agonizing suspense of mind was, after a short time, relieved by an order which came from the bishop, comm.anding that the prisoner should be set at liberty. Our wanderers now left thia village, and they were enabled to pursue their journey with the greater comfort, by the assistance of a present of fifteen gold crowns, sent them by a benevolent noble man unknown to them even by name. Under the guidance of Pro vidence, they fell in with several counts, governors of cities and ' Mrs. Smith's Life of Olympia, p. 2S4. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 589 forts, who, learning their character and talents, and moved by the story of their sufferings, i'eceived them honourably, and furnished them with clothes and other neceasariea. Among this number, Olympia particularly mentions two at whose seats thej' were hospi tably entertained, and by whom they were loaded with presents. The first is the Count of Eeineck, a nobleman "not less illustrious," as John Sinapi describes him, "for his piety than his rank,"' and warmly attached to the Eeformed cause, for which he had perilled both his life and fortune. The other is Eberard, Count of Erbach, a nobleman who had also hazarded his life and fortune in the same cause, and whose zeal in promoting the spiritual welfare of his domestics and tenantry has been equalled by few in any age. This nobleman had two brothers similar to himself iu character, who resided in his family, and three daughters, "as beautiful aa they were pioua and accomplished," all of whom vied with each other in expresaiona of sympathy and kindness towards the illustrious stran gers. His wife Elizabeth, daughter of John, presumptive heir to the electorate palatine, and sister of Frederick, who succeeded to tho electorate in 1559, under the title of Frederick III., a lady of ardent piety, and whose sympathies had been quickened by her own protracted trials, treated Olympia with the care and tenderness of a mother. "This most noble lady," aays she, "received me in my distress with such charity and kindness, that she herself ministered to me when sick with her own hands, and presented me with u, very valuable cloak.^ . . She carries her cross, and that not a light one. During nineteen years, she has scarcely been a single day free from sickness. But being a lady of eminent piety, she al ways speaks of God and of a future life with great desire and eager ness." Olympia had not remained long in the hospitable mansion of this noble family, when, through the interest of the Count of Erbach with his relative the prince palatine, her husband was ap- ^ Opera Olympice, p. 153. 2 "lilt pallam egregiam donavit, plustiuam mille sestertium nummum sestimatara." ~1UI. p. 1,7. 590 Ladies of tlw Reformaiion. [italt. pointed to a medical professorship in the university of Heidelberg, then one of the most flourishing seminaries of learning in Germany The dignity of lady of honour to the electress palatine was, at the same time, offered to Olympia ; but her past experience of the dan gers and difliculties of a, court life made her decline the flattering offer. After the appointment to the medicul chair, she and her hua band, with her brother Emilio, having bidden their hosts adieu with grateful hearts, set out for Heidelberg, a distance of about teu leagues. On their journey, they were escorted by guides from the household of Count Eberard, and they arrived, by easy stages, at the place of their destination about the beginning of August, 1554. CHAPTEE III. FROM HER ARRIVAL IN HEIDELBERG TO HEE DEATH. At Heidelberg, the prospect of a happy and permanent settle ment now opened up before Olymjiia, and fervent gratitude to God filled her heart. In a letter to her friend Madonna Cherubina Or sini, written only a few daya after her arrival in that city, having detailed the calamities which had befallen herself and those dearest to her, and the deliverances granted, she says, "I write you these particulars that you may thank God -with us, and observe that he never forsakes his own in their distresses, and thus be confirmed in the confidence that he will never forsake you, should you be called on to suffer for the truth. We must all, as Paul says, be conformed to the image of Chriat, and suffer -with him, if we would reign with him. He only that overcometh ahall receive the crown.'" After her arrival in Heidelberg, Olympia received from her frienda warm congratulationa and substantial tokens of affectionate sympathy. John Sinapi, her old pi-eceptor, -wrol^e to her husband a letter full of Christian consolation,^ and sent along with it a copy of I Mi-s. Smith's Life of Olympia, p. 285. '^ It is dated Wui-zburg, July 25, 1554. Tt.aly.] Olympia Moraia. 591 Plutarch's Lives, bearing her name inscribed upou the last page, found among the ruins of Schweinfurt, the only remaining relic of her father's valuable library, which she had brought to that town at great expense. "I had beeu informed," says hc, "that the epitajDhs of Schweinfurt had been taken away from the monuments and walls, and some of them secretly brought hither. Whilst I was searching among them for my father's epitaph, which I indeed fell upon and got possession of, I learned that a book had been sold at Schweinfurt. I immediately made diligent inquiry what book it was, by whom, to whom, and at what price it was sold. I traced it, which I found to be Plutarch's Lives, to the purchaser, and ob serving Olympia's name written on the last page of it, I forthwith obtained it, on giving him the price, and I send it to you, as a poor captive redeemed from pirates. I have carefully inquired whether anything more, either clothes or books, is to be had, offering the value and more than tho value for them, but I have found out nothing."' Celio Secundo Curio wrote to herself an affectionate and comforting leiJter,^ iu which he promises her several books. "I have directed my printers to send you, as a gift, in my name, from Frankfort, the Homer which you ask, along with some other little books of mine. I have taken care that you shall have the commen taries on the Lamentations of Jeremiah, if they are to be found m that city, since, like him, you are lamenting over the fate of youi- husband's native country. Go on, execute some work worthy of Sophocles, that we may crown you with the laurel which you have long since merited.'" Curio and her other literary friends in Basle and Frankfort, among whom were the chief printers in these towns, generously lent their assistance to repair the disaster the flames of Schweinfurt had wrought upon her library, by Hberal contributions of books. Nothing could have been more acceptable to her thau these literary treasures, and she duly expressed her gi-atitude to the friendly donors. "Thank, in our name," says she in a letter to > Opera Olympice, p. 166. ' It is dated Basle, September 1, 1554. ' Opera Olympiai, p. 183. 692 Ladies of the Reformation. [Ttaly. Curio,' "our friend John Herold, and the very learned and kind Isingrinius, Oporinus, Hervagius, Frobenius, and Episcopius, who have sent us presents of so many celebrated authors. We can never be forgetful of so great favours."^ But devoted as was Olympia to literary pursuits, she was not neglectful of her domestic duties. She who had contributed to en lighten and adoi-D a court and the first literary circles of the age, could, aa we learn from her correspondence, descend to the hum blest cares of house-keeping, without thinking it any degradation. Upon her arrival iu Heidelberg, while her husband was preparing his medical lectures, she was occupied with true matronly solicitude in making all the arrangemeuta necesaary for the settlement of their house in comfort, purchasing furniture, hiring servants, and exer cising in all these matters a commendable, but not penurious eco nomy. Judicious management and «, careful regulation of expendi ture, ]5roportioned to the extent of her husband's means, were duties \vhich now engaged her attention. Amidst the jiursuits of letters and the -sires of lier household, Olympia did not forget the wretched inhabitants of Schweinfurt. When now set down hei-self at Heidelberg in safety and comfort, she was touched with compassion in thinking of those children of suffering and sorrow, who, without any fault of theirs, had lost their all, and who were wandering about the smoking ruina of their foi-mer habitationa, sick and ghastl}', with despairing hearts, desti tute of even the means of existence, without bread to eat, without garments to cover them, without a roof to shelter them. "But it is not enough," she said to herself, "to cherish towards them com passionate feelings ; I must do something to relieve their wants and alleviate their distresses." And although the outlay caused by the purchase of household fui-niture had so drained their resources that her husband was nnder the necessity of borrowing twenty gold florins, she appropriated a sum of money for the relief of the press ing wants of these sufferers, and sent it to a benevolent individual 1 The letter is dated Heidelberg, December 1 [1554]. 2 Qp^a Olympia, p. 185. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 593 at Schweinfurt for distribution, inquiring at the same time, in a letter with which she accompauied it, about those sick and poor people who had experienced her kindness, during the period of her residence in that town, and on whose hearts she had gained by the winning suavity of her manners. Writing to her in reply, her al moner aaya: — "The money which you have sent shall be distri buted as you request, so that you ahall have nothing to wish for in that respect. But the poor people whom you were accustomed to visit in the hospital, about, whom you express solicitude, are all dead or were dispersed in the flight, and it is not known what has become of them." Such was her Christian and considerate sym pathy for the wretched and poverty-stricken people of the sacked towu of Schweinfurt, that it was her purpose to select from among them two female servants whom she required. But from the terri ble effects of the sword, famine, and pestilence upon that unfor tunate to-wn, it was impossible to procure two females sufficiently strong and healthy to engage in her service. " You must accept of one reply," says her correspondent in the letter just now quoted, " to the two lettera you aent me in August from Heidelberg, desir ing me to procure you women-servants from hence, but in which I have been unsuccessful. The reason is, that all of both sexes have hitherto been so sickly that an immense number have died, and not a few are still dying daily. I never go out iuto the streets without meeting the sick and such as are scarcely able to drag their languid limbs along, and seem likely shortly to expire.'" The sympathies of Olympia, which embraced the cause and peo ple of God throughout the world, were at this time powerfully ex cited by the terrible persecutions suffered by the Protestants in various countries of Europe — in her own beloved Italy, in England, and in France. While rejoicing in the fidelity of the martyrs who refused to purchase life by an ignominious recantation of the truth, she wept over the dreadful tortures and deaths to which they were doomed by their merciless persecutors. The violence exercised ' Mrs. Smith's Life of Olympia, pp. 222, 223. oo 594 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. against the Eeformed church in Ferrara, which issued in its extinc tion, and the defection of some of its adherents from the dread of suffering, deeply affected her heart. " From the last letter I have received from Italy,'' says .she, in writing to Chilian Sinapi,' " I un derstand that the Christians of Ferrara are subjected to cruel perse cution ; neither the highest nor the lowest are spared ; some are im prisoned, some are banished, and some seek safety in flight."^ And in a letter to Vergerio, without date, she aays: — "Concerning the state of matters in Ferrara, of which .you -write in your letter of December, we have had information to the aame effect by a letter from a certain godly man. To us who intimately know her [the Duchess of Ferrara], her defection has caused no sm-prise.' We are more surpriaed at the falling away of aome other peraons from Christ.'"' It was comforting to her to know that her mother and sisters, whom in her correspondence she had always exhorted to steadfastness, had persevered in the profession of the Eeformed faith in the midst of great difliculties and dangers. " We give thanks to God," says she in the letter last quoted, "that my mother has re mained constant in these storms, and ascribe it wholly to his grace. I have implored her to come to us, along with my sisters, out of that Babylon.'' It was with deep concern she heard, that in Eng land, under the reign of Queen Mary, the flames of perse cation were rekindled, spreading terror and misery throughout that coun try, and compelling such of her countrymen as had taken refuge there under the reign of Edward VL, to escape for their lives. " In England," says she in a letter to her sister Vittoria, " the godly are 1 Her letter is dated Heidelberg, 7 Cal. Febmary [ ? 1654J. = Opera Olympics, p. 180. 2 Here Olympia's estimate of the character of her former mistress, as if little reliance was to be placed upon her as a disciple of the Reformation, is unjust, .and betrays a de- gi-ee of prejudice. The reader will remember that some misunderstanding had ai-isen be tween these two distinguished ladies; and few minds rise superior to the prejudices created by misunderstanding. If Renee's constancy was for a time subdued by the har assing persecutions to wliich she was subjected by her husband, we must remember that she did not yield without making repeated and courageous resistance. Her sincerity, too, was proved by her subsequent imwavering adlierenoe to the Reformation, and her generous intrepid support of the Rofoi-mers. * Opera Olympia: p. 175. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 595 exceedingly harassed. I hear that that truly Christian man Ber nardino Ochino, of Sienna, has fled from thence to Geneva, so that in all places, whoever would be a Christian must bear the cross. But I would rather thus suffer with Chiist than possess the whole world without him." ' Her sympathies were equally moved towards the French Huguenots, under their cruel persecutions. The noble and touching letter, so full of piety, dignity, magnanimity, and ge nerous feeling, which she -wrote at this time to Anne of Este, her old pupil and friend, and now the wife of the Duke of Guise, one of the most ruthless and bloody persecutors of his age, imploring her to interpose with her husband and the French monarch in their behalf, waa dictated by this powerful sympathy as well as by ardent solicitude for the best interests of that illustrious lady. Thia letter, which is inserted in the Appendix,^ appears not to have been altogether lost upon Anne of Este. A few years after, when, amidst the horrors of the civil war, the court was witnessing the execu tion of the sentences, so atrocious for their cruelty, by which the government crushed the conspiracy of Amboise, only one person among these courtly apectatora seemed to be horrified at the scene, and to have a heart beating in compassion for the sufferers, and that person was Anne of Este, who, with tears in her eyes, warned Catharine de Medicis of the calamities she was bringing upon the king and the kingdom of France by thus punishing the innocent. She probably remembered at that very moment the impressive ap peal of her old teacher and friend Olympia Morata. The advancement of evangelical truth in Italy engaged Olympia's thoughts and anxieties to the cloae of her life. Among the last let ters she wrote was one to Paolo Vergerio, formerly Bishop of Capo d'Istria, who had embraced the doctrines of the Eeformation iu 1540, and who was now residing at Tubingen, in the duchy of Wiir- temburg,' beseeching and conjuring him, in the name of Christ, to translate Luther's Larger Catechism, which, says she, " you must be ' Opera Olympia:, p. 198. This letter is dated Heidelberg, August 8. 2'See No. V. ' M'Crie's Hist, of ths Ref. in Italy, p. S79. 596 Lctdies of the Reformation. [Italt. aware would be of great benefit to our Italian countrymen, especi ally to the young, if diligently studied.'" Olympia seems never to have enjoyed good health in Heidelberg. The anxieties, watchings, and privations of the siege of Schwein furt, protracted during fourteen months — the excitement and alarm caused her by the plundering and burning of the town — her flight — the fatigues and hardships of the journey, gave a shock to her deli cate frame from which she never recovered, and sowed in her con stitution the seeds of that fatal disease which brought her prema turely to the grave. Her letters to her friends during her residence at Heidelberg, contain frequent references to the weak or dangerous state of her health; and she appears to have had presentiments that her earthly course was near its termination. Her thoughts were now chiefly turned to Divine and eternal things, and she be came increasingly desirous to promote the spiritual welfare of others. Writing to her favourite and beloved aiater Vittoria, she says : — " O my aiater ! pray with Moses in the 90th Paalm, ' Lord, teach me to number my days, and to have their fewness always be fore me, that, despising this vain life, I may apply myself wholly to wisdom and to the contemplation of eternal things.' Seek the Lord while he may be found ; call upon him continually : when yon take your food, give him thanks ; give yourself up wholly to his love ; follow not the path of the wicked ; keep yourself pure and chaste, that at length, aa a conqueror, you may carry off' the palm. . . Farewell, aud overcome, my deareat sister Vittoria." ^ And in an eloquent, touching, and affectionate letter which she wrote to Madonna Cherubina Orsini, she concludes thus : — " May God grant, for the sake of Christ, that I have not written in vain ! The pain in my breast has been considerably increased by the exertion, but 1 sincerely wish I were able, by my death, to assist you and others in the things which pertain to salvation." ' Towards the close of the year 1554, she waa seized with an ill- ' Opera Olympia;, pp. 174, 175. 2 Opa-a Olympia:, p.I02. ' Mrs. Smith's Life of Olympia, p. 823. Italy.} Olympia Morata. 597 ness so severe that on the second day it deprived her of her senses. " That grievous and deadly disease has now left me," says she, in writing to Celio Secundo Curio, December 1 [1554], "but I am not yet restored to my former strength. With perfect truth I may affirm that God has raised me up from the depths of the grave."' But her constitution was now broken, and any partial improvement she felt was only temporary and deceptive, being succeeded by re newed or aggravated languor. In the month of June that same year, she thus -writes to Curio concerning her health : — " I am every day more and more wasted by disease, and am hardly one hour free from fever. Thus are we chastened of the Lord that we may not perish with this world.'"* Ciu-io was much affected on. hearing these mournful tidings, and in an affectionate, sympathizing reply, after informing her of his recovery from sickness, about whioh she had expressed deep concern, and 'of the condition of his daughter Violan- this, wife of the celebrated Jerome Zanchius, who had been long dangerously ill, but who was now somewhat relieved, he proceeds to minister to her pious consolations, and concludea with these words : — " Farewell, my dearest Olympia. Be careful of your health, that you may be longer spared as the ornament of our age. We are, indeed, envious of the city that posaeases you."' But aU- that care, and akill, and affection could do to remove her complaint was unavailing. She continued gradually to grow worse. Believing that her death was fast approaching, she wished vo an swer Curio's letter, to bid an affectionate farewell to this tried and faithful friend ; and as he had requested her to send him some of her compoaitiona, she intended to send him, aa a dying memorial, along with her letter, copies written from memory of some Psalms she had translated into Greek verse, and a few epigrams, the origi nals of which had periahed in the flamea at Schweinfurt. This affecting letter, which is her last, we shall here give entire. ' Opera Olympice, p. 184. In the same letter she informs him that the pestilence had broken out in Heidelberg, that many were preparing for flight, but that she and her hus band had resolved not to remove, commending themselves to the protection of God. •- Opera Olympice, p. 180. ' Ibid. p. 189. 598 Ladies of the Reformation. I Italy. "My dearest father Celio, — You may conceive how tenderly those who are united by true, that is. Christian friendship, feel for one another, when I tell you that the perusal of your letter drew tears from my eyes; for, on learning that you had been rescued from the jaws of the grave, I wept for joy. May God long preserve you to be a blessing to his church ! It grieves me much to hear of the indisposition of your daughter ; but I comfort myself with the hopes you entertain of her recovery. "As to myself, my dear Celio, I must inform you that there are no hopes of my surviving long. No medicine gives me any relief ; every day, indeed every hom-, my friends look for my dissolution. It is probable that this may be the last letter you will receive from me. My body and strength are wasted; my appetite is gone; night and day the cough threatens to suffocate me. The fever is strong and unremitting ; and the pains which I feel over the whole of my body deprive me of sleep. Nothing, therefore, remains but that I breathe out my spirit. But so long as life continues I will remember my friends, and the benefits I have received from them. " I return the warmest thanks to you for the books you sent me, and to those worthy men who have bestowed upon me such valua ble presents. Had I been spared I would have shown my grati tude. But it is my opinion that my departure is at hand. I com mend the clmrch to your care. O let all you do be directed to its advantage ! "Farewell; excellent Celio, and do not distress yourself when you hear of my death; for I know that I shall be victorious at the last, and am desirous to depart and be with Christ. Salute youi- family in my name. I send you such of the poems as I have been able to write out from memory since the destruction at Schweinfurt— all my other writings have perished. I request that you will be my Aristarchus, and polish them. Again farewell. " HEinELBBRG, [October, 1555.J"' ' Opera Olympia, p. 208. The translation we have bon-owed from M'Crie's J7,s;. ofthe Ref. in Italy, Appendix, I^'o. vii. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 599 Upon looking over the first copy of this letter, which she wrote ¦with her own hand, she made some alterations, and attempted to write a new copy, but was obliged to desist on account of her weak ness, and to consign the task to her husband. Not long after, and before an opportunity was found of sending off this farewell letter to the much respected friend to whom it was addressed,' the hand that wrote and the heart that dictated its affecting sentences were cold in death. For some days before her departure she often declared with great assurance that she desired nothuig so much as to die and to be with Christ. Whenever she obtained respite from the violence of her disease, she ceased not to speak of the grace and mercy of God, in having enlightened her mind in the knowledge of his Word, tumed away her heart from all the pleasures of this world, and kindled within her the desire of eternal life ; nor did she hesitate in all her conversation to call herself a child of God, often quoting the text, "I will be a Father to you, and ye shall be my sous and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Nothing gave her greater pain than when any one, with a view to her consolation, expressed a hope that she might recover from her illness. " God," said she, " has allotted me a short course of life, but yet one which has been full of labour and sorrow. I have no desure, now that I have reached the end of my race, to be brought back to the beginning." In her last moments no shade of doubt and darkness rested upon her mind— all had passed away, and it seemed as if the unclouded radiance of celestial glory encompassed her spirit, filling it with a seraphic joy. Being asked by a pious man whether her mind was distracted by doubts or fears, she replied, "During the last seven years the devil has never ceased from endeavouring, by every means, to draw me from the true faith ; but now, as if he had lost all his weapons, he has never made his appearance, nor do I now have any other feeling in my mind than the greatest tranquillity and peace . ' This letter was brought to Curio by the same messenger who brought to him a letter from GruntUer, conveying the intelligence of her death. 600 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. of Christ." " But," sa3's her husband, to whom we are indebted for the particulars of her last illness, " it would be endless were 1 to enumerate all the affecting words which she uttered, or to dwell upon the holiness and piety, the constancy and fortitude with which she spoke, to the great admiration of us who heard her."' A little before her death, upon her awaking from a short sleej^ into which she had fallen, her husband observed her smiling to her self with a delightful sweetness which he knew not how to express. He went near her, and asked why she smiled so sweetly. " I be held," said she, "just now, while lying quiet, every place filled with the purest and brightest light." Her extreme weakness prevented her from saying more. " Come," said her husband, " be of good cheer, my dearest Olympia, you shall soon dwell in that beautiful light." She again smiled, and nodded assent, and a little after, she said, " I am all gladness." She did not again apeak till her sight began to fail, when ahe said to him, " I can scarcely any longer see you, but all around seems to me to be full of the most beautiful flowers." These were her last words. Not long after, as if fallen into a peace ful slumber, she ceased to breathe, and her spirit entered into the paradise above. She died on the 25th of October, 1555, not haviug completed the twenty-ninth year of her age.^ To her husband, who loved her with a more than common attach ment, this desolating stroke was almost overwhelming. He felt as if he had never been tried till now, and every fountain of earthly happiness seemed to him to be dried up. In communicating the tidings of his bereavement to Celio Secundo Curio, he thua writes ; " Behold, I pray you, moat accomplished Celio, in how many ways God afflicts me, how, after the destruction of my native town, the plunder of my property, and the death of my friends and of nearly all my neighbours, he has at length taken away from me alao my dearest wife. While ahe yet remained with me all other loaaes seemed comparatively light. But this, the greatest calamity of all, like the tenth wave following the others, completely overwhelms ' Opera Olympia:, p. 205. 2 Ibid. p. 20-t. Italy.] Olympia Morata. GOI me; nor can I find any possible alleviation to my grief. She, indeed, departed with great desire, and if I may so speak, with a kind of alacrity in dying, arising from her full persuasion that she was called away from long-continued afilictions, and from this most miserable life to everlasting felicity. I cannot tell how, but the remembrance of the very sweet and happy life we lived together ministers to me no consolation. She lived with me not quite five years ; but never have I seen a soul more sincere and upright, nor a deportment more virtuous and holy. What shall I say of her singular piety and learning? I do not think it necessary to praise her to you, both because she is already well known to you, and be cause I do not -wish to seem anxious to extol what was my own. I therefore transfer this task entirely to you and her other most learned and very kind friends, some of whom, I doubt not, will pay a just tribute to her memory by a poem or an oration. To this I also will add my tears when a mitigation of my grief will permit ; for there is a kind of sorrow like mine, and it is the greatest of any, in which tears cannot even be shed, because the mind, already exhauated by an accumulation of calamities, becomes stupified by the stroke of some new afiiiction." He then proceeds to inform Celio concerning the manner of her death; and feeling perplexed as to how he was to convey the distressing tidings to her mother, ho requests him to prepare the way by va-iting to her first, which Curio did in an admirable letter.' Ol.ympia was interred in a chapel of the cathedral of Heidelberg. Grunthler did not long survive his beloved partner. The plague was raging in Heidelberg and sweeping away multitudes. Uni versal consternation prevailed, and hundreds had left the city ; but this excellent man, who, from the benevolence of his spirit, forgot himself in his devotion to the good of others, remained, and, disre garding the hazards, ministered day and night for the welfare of the sick. In the midst of his disinterested and arduous labours he was attacked by the fatal distemper, of which he died on the 22d of 1 Opera Olympia, pp. 203, 204, 207, 213. G02 Ladies of the Ueformation. [Italy. November, lesa than a month after the loss of the object dearest to his heart. In his last moments he tho'dght of his Olymi^ia : when the cold dews of death stood upon his brow, and he was scarcely able to speak, he uttered with broken accents some verses of a touching monody whioh he had composed on her death, beginning vi'ith these words of the forty-second Psalm, " As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul .after thee, 0 God. . . When shall I come and appear before God?"' Her brother Emilio, for whom she had done ao much, followed, silent and dejected, the corpse of Grunthler to its last resting-place, as he had done that of his sister ; and having now lost his two pro tectors, one who had been to him as a beloved father, and the other as .". tender niother, he felt like a poor desolate orphan in a friend less world, and pined .away in the anguish of his spirit. It seemed as if he could not survive their fostering care. Olympia had borne testimony that he listened with attention to the preaching of the Word, and delighted in reading the Bible ; and while now weeping over what he had lost, he relieved his bursting heart by prayer to God. He soon followed those so dear to him to another world. Thus, within the course of a few weeks, was this house of genius, love, and piety made desolate. And were there nothing beyond the grave, suoh a providence would baffle every attempt at explanation. But an here after solves the mystery, and vindicates, as fraught with love and mercy, the dispensation by which a household of s^ich i-are excellence and so lovely in their lives, were, in their deaths, which gathered them into one society iu a better world, not long divided. Grunthler and Emilio were buried beside Olympia. Soon after, a monument, with suitable inscriptions in Latin, was erected to their memory over their graves. It is still to be seen, and the in scriptions, which commemorate their worth and eminence in simple language, have been recently restored. The following is a transla tion of the part relating to Olympia : — "Sacred to the ever-living God, ahd to the virtue and memory of Oltmpia Morata, daugli- 1 Unpublished correspondence, quoted by Bonnet in liis Vic d'Olympia, chap. vi. Italy.] Olympia Morata. 60J ter of the very learned Fulvio Morato of Mantua, and the beloved wife of Andrew Grunthler, physician — a woman whose genius and singular knowledge both of the Greek and Eoman languagea — whose probity of deportment and ardour of piety — were always accounted above what is common. This judgment formed concerning her in her life, was confirmed by the solemn testimony of her death, which was happy, holy, and peaceful. She died in a foreign land, in the year of our Lord 1555, in the twenty-ninth year of her age. She is buried here with her husband and her brother Emilio."' Bouse of Olympia Morata at Schweinfurt Olympia's learned friends emulated each other in paying respect ful tribute to her memory. In their letters they express their un feigned sorrow on hearing the tidings of her death, tmd speak in the highest terms of her piety, erudition, and sweetness of manners. 1 Opera Olympice, pp. 271, 272. 604 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. Her death was deplored, and her worth and genius honoured, by nu merous jioems, written in Greek and Latin.' The town of Schwein furt rebuilt, at the public expense, the house in which she had resided among them for three years, and engraved upon it the fol lowing simple but appropriate inscription : — "Vilis et exilis domus hcec quamvis, liabitatrix Clara tamen claram sat facit et celebrem." — i. e., " Humble and poor as this house is, yet the fame of her who dwelt in it gives it distinction and celebrity."^ Her early friend Curio, that he might erect to her name a still more enduring monument, set about collecting, with persevering zeal, such of her writiugs as might exist, in order to publish them to the world, which he afterwards did ; and before his death, he superintended three editions of them in their progress through the press. But even this effort of friendship could not do full justice to her emi nent piety, talents, and literary acquirements, the most of the fruits of her pen having been destroyed with the town of Schweinfurt. Of the extent of this loss, an idea may be formed from a passage in Curio's dedication of the first edition of her works to Isabella Manricha of Bresegna. "She had written critical observations on Homer, the prince of the poets,'' says he, "and had composed numerous poems, chiefly on religious subjects, which were distin guished at once by their elegance and variety ; besides dialogues in Greek and Latin, in imitation of Plato and Cicero, so perfectly elaborated that not even Zoilus himself could have found in them anything to censure, . . . allwhich perished with Schweinfm-t." 1 These are printed at the end of her works. * Note of He,=ise in Nolten's Vita Olympia:, sec. xxii. LAYINIA DELLA EOVEEE, princess orsini. f,AVmiA FEANCIOTTI DELLA EOVEEE was the daughter of Nicolo, the son of a daughter of the illustrious Delia Eovere family. Her father had a brother named Galeotto, who was Cardinal of St. Piero iu Vincula, and a sister Lucretia, who was married to Marc- Antonio Colonna. Her mother's name and family we have not discovered. Some' have incorrectly described her as descended from the Dukes of Urbino. But though not descended from that ducal family, she was related to it. One of her paternal grandmother's brothers, Giovanni, who was prefect of Eome, and Lord of Sinlgaglia, having, in 1474, married Giovanna di Montefeltro, daughter of Federigo, Duke of Urbino, the eldest son of this mar riage, Francesco Maria, became the fli-st of the Dukes of Urbino of the Delia Eovere line. This duke " was Lavinia's father's cousin. She was connected by birth, and afterwards by marriage, with many other illustrious families of Italy. Two of the popes were branches ' As Nolten and Jules Bonnet, in their Lives of Olympia Morata. ^ His eon and successor, Giudobaldo II., had a daughter named Lavinia, "who," says Dennistoun, "from similarity of name, has been confused by Dr. M'Crie and others," with Lavinia, the daughter of Nicolo. — Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, vol. iii. p. 117. Here Dennistoun, who probably wrote from memoiy, is mistaken. The two ladies are not confounded, at least by Dr. M'Crie, who, in -ivriting of Lavinia, the sub ject of our notice, says notliing respecting her parentage or blood relations, aud aU whose statements respecting her are founded upon the con-espondence between her and Olym pia Morata. 006 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. of the same stock from which she had aprung, and precede her at no great distance of time in the genealogical table. Pope Sixtus IV., who was born 1414 and died 1484, was her great grand paternal uncle, and Pope Julius II., "the greatest if not the holiest of popes,' as he has been described,' who was born 1453 and died 1513, was her grand paterual uncle.^ Born in an age when learning was enthusiastically cultivated in Italy, Lavinia received a learned education, and possessing from na ture an excellent capacity, she attained to no common proficiency in literature and philosophy. Nor was she less distinguished for her virtues, and for all the agreeable qualities that can adorn her sex, than for the lustre of high birth and superior talents and ac complishments. In 1541, at an early age, she became the wife of Paolo Orsini, son of the celebrated Camillo Orsini,^ who, in the wars of Italy, had acquired a high military reputation, aud who possessed great influence at the court of Eome. After her marriage, she resided for some time at Ferrara. It was here, in the palace of the Duchess Een6e, that she first became acquainted with Olyrapia Morata, than whom none among that brilliant assemblage of ladies which gave lustre to the court of the duchess more attracted her notice and admiration. The elegance of Olympia's manners, her learning and taste, the sprightliness of her conversation, the suavity of her dispositions, and her becoming de portment, were all calculated to gain her a high place in the esteem and affections of a lady of Lavinia's refined taste and cultivated un derstanding. An intimate friendship aprung up between them, the cordiality and fervour of which waa never for a moment chilled by the assumption of superiority or distance of behaviour on the part of Lavinia, on account of her elevated rank, and they often spent together hours in the unreserved interchange of thought, some timea on literary aubjects, sometimes on those of a more serious and important nature. The supposed dialogues between them, which ' Mariotti's Italy. '- Dennistoun's Memoirs of the Dukes of t/rbino, vol. ii.. Genealogical Table opposite p. 267. 3 xbid. Italy.] Lavinia della Rovere. 607 Olympia, after they were far aepa'i-ated from each other, composed, in imitation of the celebrated authors of antiquity, but which, though clothed in the drapery of their classic language, are ani mated by the inspiration of nobler, because Chi-istian sentiments, may be considered as memorials or reminiscences of the familiarity of their intercourse in days gone by, which both of them delighted to recall. One of these dialogues thus begins : — " Lavinia. — Will you alwa.ys be poring over books, Olympia, and never remit in your application ? You should allow yourself some relaxatio-a at times, and then you might return again to your fa vourite studies. The mind, when thus refreshed, will, upon re newed application, the more quickly make itself maater of what you wish to learn. " Olympia. — I admit the truth of what you say, Lavinia, and yet I agree with the observation of the philosopher, that all time is lost which is abstracted from study; nor do I forget that the loss of time is of all losses the greatest ; and I seem to myself to be guilty of sin if I do not consecrate to the cultivation of letters the leisure which God has given me: — ' Daus nobis hsec otia fecit ; ' especially as I have no other solace by which to alleviate the long ing I feel on account of the absence of my husband.'" Lavinia's friendship for Olympia remained unchanged under all circumstances. She stood by her when driven from the court of Ferrara, under the load of malignant alandera, although, notwith standing her high favour at court, she was unable to afford her pro tection. She often visited Olympia in her mother's house after this court disgrace, and gave proof of a warm affectionate interest in her mother and sisters, as well as in herself. Their subsequent separa tion put an end to their personal intercourse, but they still con tinued to maintain epistolary correspondence, which was termi nated only by the death of Olympia. When far removed from each other, Olympia thus -wi-ites to her: — "You are ever in my heart, 1 Opera Olympice Morata:, p. 47. 608 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. and I continually make mention of you in my prayers." ' Writing to her afterwards from Schweinfurt, during the siege of that town, she says : — " I am exceedingly glad, in the midst of our great cala mities, to have an opportunity offered me of writing to you, who, with the exception of my mother, are my most affectionate and dearest female friend, to inform you of our circumstances." ^ This letter she wrote under the infiuence of deep feeling and affection ; and when she was about to finish it, all the sluices of her heart seem to have been opened. Having bidden Lavinia farewell, she subjoins a short postscript, concluding with these touching words, in writing which her whole soul muat have been agitated with the tenderneaa of her emotiona, while the teai'S were running do-wn her cheeks : — " Again farewell, my dearest Lavinia, always present to my inmost soul, and whom I never can forget whilst life remains in this mortal body. Farewell, and again and agaiu farewell." Writing to her sister, she says : — " I greatly long for a letter from your Lady Lavinia, who is exceedingly dear to me, and whom I name with the most sincere respect. Her sweetness and piety never pass from my mind." ^ It was probably at Ferrara that Lavinia first received into her mind some rays of that Divine light which was then dawning upon benighted Italy, and became imbued with sentiments of piety. But, like Olympia Morata, she was for some time perplexed with doubts as to some of the most important truths of religion. Even after her mind was opened to a discovery of the doctrine of salvation by grace, she was stumbled at the doctrine of the sovereignty of that grace. Bewildered by the mystery of predestination, on which the Italian Eeformers had adopted the views of Calvin, she thought that, without the knowledge of her election, she could not come to God and ask from him eternal life in the hope of receiving it; " for," said she, " if I am not elected, it is needless for me to pray to him for salvation." She was?, however, at length relieved from her agitation and distress arising from this source, by a clearer under- 1 Opera Olympice Morata, p. 119. 2 jbij. p. 135. 3 n,!,!. p. 202. Italy.] Lavinia della Rovere. 609 standing of the unrestricted freedom of the gospel offer of salvation to all. "God, in his Word and gospel," ahe reasoned, "freely and earnestly invites all to come to him and receive salvation. My duty therefore is, letting secret things alone, which belong not to us but to God, to comply with his gracious invitations, in which, as it is impossible for him to lie, he must be sincere; and if I comply with them, my personal salvation must be infallibly secured."' Thus did she ultimately acquiesce in the doctrine of God's aovereignty ; and such was her eminence for piety, that Olympia Morata bears thia emphatic testimony concerning her — "Than whom I know not a more learned, or, what is still higher praise, a more pioua woman in Italy." Lavinia was far from happy in her married state. To her hus band she was attached with an almost idolatrous affection ; but, ambitious of acquiring military fame, he had entered the service of Henry II. of France, and was almost continually absent from her. Having no children, the care of whom, by occupying her thoughts and attention, would have lightened the trial of his absence, she pined in solitude, and had more the feelings of disconsolate widow hood than of conjugal happiness. One of the supposed dialogues between her and Olympia Morata, the drift of which is to illustrate wherein true happiness consists, was -written by Olympia with the view of reconciling the mind of the princess to this domestic aiflio- tion. She is introduced as lamenting over the unhappiness of her condition in these words : — " You have come at the moment when you were much needed ; for I am so affiicted with grief that I could not have remained much longer alone; but perhaps it may be al layed by yom- presence and conversation. . . . It is unneces sary for me to tell you the cause of my diatress, for, from the close friendship subsisting between us, and there being no woman with whom I am more intimate than with you, I have long since told you all my secrets. How much I am afflicted by the frequent ab sence of my husband is well known to many of my friends. I am ' Opera Olympia Morata, p. 120. 39 610 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. at present suffering from this very cause. He has again gone away and left me, regardless of my miserable loneliuess, for his absence, which renders me unhappy, seems to contribute to his enjoyment. . . . When I was but a girl, there was nothing which I more ardently desired than to be united to a husband whoae habits and dispositions should be congenial with my own, and whose society I might always enjoy. I thought that in this life there could be no greater felicity than to spend one's days with a truly affectionate husband, and I married chiefiy from the hope of realizing this feh city. But the event has turned out differently from what I antici pated ; and I am the more distressed because I had flattered myself with expectations of greater happiness." ' Lavinia ' endeavoured to sustain her spu-it under the cheerless blank created by her husband's absence; but she often felt as if ready to sink under the hea-vy pressure of her bm-den. Olympia Morata, by her society when she was at Ferrara, and by her letters and the communication of religious books when she had left it, contributed, in some degi-ee at least, to support and comfort her be loved friend. On one occasion she sent her a dialogue composed by Celio Secundo Curio, entitled De Amplitudine Regni Dei, the object of which is to prove that the kingdom of God, or of the elect, is more extensive than that of the devil, or of the reprobate. Ou another occasion she sent her some of Luther's works, the reading of which had afforded herself great delight, in the hope that they might be strengthening and refreshing to Lavinia. These she ac companied with a composition of her own — ^the dialogue between herself and La-vinia, last referred to. In a letter to her from Schweinfurt she thus writes : " I am greatly concerned about . your welfare, and am afraid that you disquiet yom-self day and night, as you have been accustomed to do, and wear yourself out -with cares. Although, therefore, engrossed by important occupations, I have laid all aside to compose the accompanying dialogue, that, at least, in reading it, your mind may be abstracted from your * Opera Olympia, p. 58. Italy.] Lavinia della Rovere. 611 vexations. I suppose that war having broken out in France, your husband will have left you, and that you will be distressed in your usual manner ; I have, therefore, as you will see, iutersperaed in the dialogue some things adapted to your case, though all may not be equally suitable.'" And in a letter to her sister Vittoria, she says, " Tell your mistress Lavinia, to seek in Christian philosophy allevi ation for her sorrows and anxieties, aud rest from all her cares. In a short time we shall arrive at the wished-for haven. Time flies equally in prosperity and in adversity." - Lavinia took a deep interest in the fate of Faventino Fannio, ah-eady referred to, who, in 1548, had been arrested and conducted in chains to Ferrara, where he was thrown into prison, and, two years after, was first strangled and then committed to the flames. For some time his friends and strangers were allowed access to him in his prison. During that period Lavinia, sometimes alone and sometimes accompanied by Olympia Morata, paid him repeated visits. Fannio always welcomed her as an angel of mercy come to strengthen and comfort him ; and she never left his gloomy dun geou without receiving impressions which made her both -wiser and better. Witnessing his equanimity and fortitude as he lay, with fettered limbs, on his lowly pallet, and hearing him express his readiness uot to be bound and imprisoned only, but also to die for tho name of the Lord Jesus — an intrepid resolution, the more re markable in one naturally so gentle and so delicate in his outward frame — she was confij-med in the faith, of which he was so valiant a confessor, and learned those lessons of magnanimity which en abled her to bear witness to the truth, not only at Ferrara, but at Eome also. To deliver Fannio from the flames, of which he was in the utmost peril, was a labour of love which Lavinia was very desirous to ac comphsh. She often commended his case to the compassion of Duke Hercules, and up to the very time of his martyrdom, she did all in her power to save his life. Olympia Morata, after having left Fer- ' Opera Olympice Morata, p. 119. ' Ibid. p. 201. 612 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Italy. rara, in June, 1550, -wrote an earnest appeal to her in his behalf. Lavinia had then the prospect of soon going to Eome, and in her answer she assured Olympia that nothing she could do would be wanting to deliver this persecuted servant of Christ from the ap parently impending doom of death ; that all her infiuence with her Lavinia and Olympia Morata vlGiting Faiiiiiu in Prison. father-in-law, who had great authority at the Vatican, would be employed to induce him to interpose for the life of one whom she so greatly honoured and loved. Olympia's answer to this letter, while it shows how much concerned she herself was to secure the safety of Fannio, bears testimony to a corresponding ardour of sympathy and Italy.] Lavinia della Rovere. 613 interest in his behalf on the part of Lavinia. " Your letter,'' says she, " gave me great pleasure, because, as I desired, it informed me what you were doing and where you were. I was indeed afraid lest, before you went to Eome, you should not write to let me know how to address my letters to you. I therefore give you thanks for relieving me from this anxiety, but more especially for promising me your assistance and exertions in the cause of Fannio. Nothing, I assure you, could have given me more gratification than such a pro mise, for this your journey, from the great influence which I know you have at Eome, seems to me to afford some ground of hope. Be sides, it strikes me that yom- departure from Ferrara may, in some measure, conduce to his advantage ; for, when you are about to de part, the duke will no doubt promise to do you any service in his power, and you can therefore ask him if he would confer a favour upon you, to pardon one who is guilty of no ci-ime, and who has - already suffered what would be an adequate pumshment for even a grave offence. In this matter you will prudently consider what is best to be done ; and not being yourself a stranger to affliction, you will be the more disposed to succour the affiicted, especially those who are afflicted, not for any fault of theirs, but for the sake of Christ. You are well aware that whatever kindness or benefit you bestow upon them will be considered by Christ as bestowed upon himself. I will add no more on this subject, because I well know that your heart is not less set than my own vipon saving the life of Fannio. Only I would exhort you not to allow yourself to be moved from your magnanimous firmness of purpose in what per tains to the pure religion of Christ, by all that men can malig nantly say to move you."' But all Lavinia's efforts to rescue Fannio, both in the ducal palace at Ferrara and at the court of Eome through the intervention of her father-in-law, were unavailing. When the pontiff Julius III. heard of the object of her suit, there waa aomething in hia look and growl which told at once that he was not in a mood to be propiti- ' Opei'a Olympics Morata, p. 101. 614 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. ated, but had determined, by infiicting vengeance, to inspire with terror all who had embi-aced, or who were disposed to embrace he retical opinions. Concluding that her sentiments ran in the same channel with her sympathies, he even hinted that it was not credit able nor even safe for her to have such characters ss, her clients ; and but for the illustrious rank of her relatives, and their high favour at the court of Eome, she might have been herself arrested and punished as guilty of participation in the crime of the person for whom she interceded. From what she had witnessed of the spirit of the pei-secutors, Fannio's committal to the flames hardly took her by surprise, yet it was not without deep distress of mind that she received the tidings. She lost no time in conveying the mteUi gence in all its particulars to Olympia Morata, to whom, as well aa to herself, everything relating to his martyrdom was invested with a sacred, though melancholy mterest. Writing in reply, Olympia says, "Your very sweet letter excited in me mingled emotions of grief and joy. I could not but be affected at the news of the death of a man of Fannio's eminent piety, although afterwards my grief was allayed by the thought of his admirable constancy." ' Lavinia when she went to Eome was accompanied by her sister- in-law Cherubina Orsini, and she took with her as her companion Vittoria Morata, one of Olympia's sisters — a kindness for which Olympia expresses her heartfelt gratitude, the more especially as it was wholly unexpected and unsolicited; and in whioh she rejoiced, not because this might open up for her sister prospects of worldly advancement, but because it placed her in a situation where she would have favourable opportunities of improving in Divine know ledge and cultivating personal piety .^ At Eome, Lavinia witnessed and heard much to strengthen her feelings of ahenation from the Popish church. The licentiousness of the clergy produced upon her mind a powerful effect, as it did upon the mind of the Jew in the tale of Boccaccio's Decameron, which had often been to her and to Olympia Morata a subject of enter- ' opera Olympics Morata, p. 121. 2 Ibid. pp. 121, 194. Italy.] ' Lavinia della Rovere. 615 taining conversation at Ferrara; but the conclusion she drew from it assumed a somewhat different form from his, namely, that the Eo man church was Antichrist, and that the Eeformed church was the true church of Christ. "Here," said she to herself, "is the metro polis of Christendom, a city full of prelates, priests, monks, nuns, religious observances and ecclesiastical establishments of all kinds, and under the superintendence and tutelage of the vicar of Christ, the infallible head of the chtu-ch; surely here Christianity should be presented in its purest form — this should be the paradise of innocence and sanctity — and yet here the morals of the clergy have sunk to the lowest depth of corruption. There is no conformity between the lives of these men and the precepts of Christianity, of which they profess to be the guardians. Can this den of idolatry, blasphemy, impurity, and all abominations, represent that church for which Christ laid down his life that he might redeem her from all ini quity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works? Can those men who are bloated with profiigacy, who are perpetuating ignorance, idolatry, and superstition — who will neither go in to the kingdom of heaven themselves nor suffer them that are entering to go in — be the ministers of Christ and the custodiers, the sole custodiers, as they pretend, of the treasures of pardon and etemal life?" Thus confirmed in the belief that the Church of Eome was Anti christ, and that the doctrines of the Eeformation were the truths of Christ, La-vinia, during her stay at Eome, remained faithful to her convictions. The pope's warehouse of indulgences got no patronage from her. She never appeared at the confessional. She declined being present at the idolatrous worship and puerile superstitions of St. Peter's or of any Popish temple of inferior note. She sought no religious advice or instructions from the ecclesiastics of Eome, de voting herself to the study of the Bible— that book which was in little request with them, infallible heads being far above its teach ing. She and her sister-in-law Cherubina Orsini, " the best of wo men," as Olympia Morata, who was her correspondent, describes C16 Ladies of the Reformation. [Italy. her," and Vittoria Morata, often joined together in reading the Scriptures, in prayer, and in mutual exhortations to the cultiva tion of piety. Lavinia, too, had always a word to speak in vindi cation of the persecuted. She entreated her father-in-law to com passionate those persons, who, under the charge of heresy, had fallen into the hands of the Inquisition, and assured him that he could confer upon her no greater favour than by interposing to save their lives. To do all this required on her part greater moral courage than at first sight might be supposed. It was exposing herself to the obloquy of being branded as a heretic, and stigmatized as taking part with the enemies of religion, who were exciting commotions through the whole of Europe, and threatening the destruction of the chm-ch. It was to bring upon herself the displeasure of her friends, and to subject her to their harassing importunities to conform to the eatabliahed faith ; and it waa to riak encountering the resents ment of the Vatican, which would not suffer a single heretical sen tence to spread its pestilential breath through the city, if persecu tion could prevent it. " It requires both refiection and sensibility," says Dr. M'Crie, "to form a jiroper estimate of the trials which a distinguished female must endure when placed in the circum stances of Lavinia della Eovere. A cup of cold water, or even a kind message, sent to a prisoner in the cells of the Inquisition — a word spoken in behalf of the truth, or a modest refusal to be pre sent at a superstitious festival — afford in such cases a stronger and more unequivocal proof of a devoted soul than the most flaming professions, or a fortune expended for religious purposes by one who lives in a free country, and is surrounded by persons who are friendly to the gospel."" How long Lavinia stayed at Eome is uncertain, but from the let ters of Olympia Morata we learn, that in August, 1554, she was again at Ferrara, whither she had been accompanied by her sister- in-law Cherubina and by Vittoria Morata. At this time, Duke Hercules, in his efforts to exterminate heresy in Ferrara, was exer- 1 Opera Olympia, p. 103. 2 Hist, of tlie Ref. in Italy, p. 161. Italy.] Lavinia della Rovere. 617 eising great severity against all suspected of holding the obnoxious tenets ; but Lavinia maintained her steadfastness, in which she was encouraged by the exhortations of Olympia Morata. "I have learned from my friends," says Olympia in a letter to her, dated Heidelberg, August 1 [1554], "to whom I wrote, making inquiries about you, that you are at Ferrara. . . , You have many com panions in your aifiictions. Be assured there is no one who desires to live godly in Christ, who does not experience bitter grief and calamities. . , . Apply yourseK diligently to the study of the Holy Scriptures, and often pray to God that you may not follow the example of the multitude of the ungodly, who everywhere aboimd. . , . Let it be your endeavour to have greater fear of that God, who is supreme over all things, who can oast body and soul together into hell, than of feeble men, whose life is, in the Scriptures, compared to a shadow, to grass, to a flower, to smoke. Be courageous and vahant. All sufferings, however severe, if of short duration, ought to be endurable." ' And in a letter written to Cherubina, but whioh was equally intended for Lavinia and Vit toria, Olympia thus encourages them to constancy in the confeaaion of Chriat in the midst of the dangers and persecutions to which, on that account, they might be exposed:— "To the letter I have already -written you, I wish to add a few lines, for the purpose of exhorting you to pray to God that he would give you strength, lest, through fear of those who can kill the body only, you offend that gracious Eedeemer who has suffered for our sakes ; and that he would enable you gratefully to confess him, according to his will, before this per verse generation, and ever to keep in remembrance the words of Da-vid, 'I hate the congregation of sinners, and will not sit in the company of the wicked.' 'I am weak,' you will be apt to say, 'and cannot do this.' O ! do you imagine that so many saints and pro phets, that so many martyrs, even in our day, have remamed firm in their own unaided -vii-tue, and that it was not God who gave them strength? Then consider, that those whose weakness is men- 1 Opera Olympia, pp. 192-104. 618 Ladies of thfi. Reformation. [Italy". tioned in the Scriptures did not continue always infirm. St. Peter's denial of his Master is not recorded as an example for our imitation, but in order to display the great mercy of Christ, and to show us our own frailty — not to excuse it. He soon recovered from his weakness, and obtained suoh a degree of strength, that he afterwards rejoiced to suffer for the cause of Christ. From these considera tions we should be induced, when we are sensible of our infirmity, to apply by prayer to the Physician, and request that he would make us strong. Provided we pray to him, he will not fail to perform his promise ; only he does not wish us to be inactive, but to be continu ally exercising ourselves with that armour of which St. Paul speaks in the sixth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians."' Here our notices of La-vinia must abruptly close. We have failed to trace any particulars in her subsequent history. It would appear that she survived Olympia Morata, and she probably sup plied Celio Secundo Curio, who was her intimate friend, with the dialogues and lettera written to her by Olympia, in whoae works, which Curio had undertaken to publish, they might be included. ' M'Crie's Hist, of the Ref in Italy, p. 422. The letter is without date, but judging from internal evidence, tt was written somewhat later than the preceding. ° ¦'-T- ^-H aaDi'es; of tfte ^aeformatiou IN SPAIN. "What pageant's hour approached? The sullen gate Of a strong ancient prisonhouse was thrown Back to the day. And who, in moumfal etate, Came forth, led slowly o'er its threshold -stone? They that had learn'd, in cells of secret gloom. How sunshine is forgotten ! They, to whom The very features of mankind were grown Things that bewildered ! O'er their dazzled sight They lifted their wan hands, and cower'd before the light !" (From description of an aulo-de-fs in Mrs. Hemana' Forest Sanctua')'y.) INTRODUCTION. f /^UTHEE had not long lifted up the standard of defi- ' Y^lnr, ance against the pope as Antichrist, when in Spain his opinions awakened attention, and found converts. After the elevation of Charles V. to the imperial dignity, Spain, from the more frequent intercourse then maiatained between it and Germany, became accessible, iu a still greater degree, to the inroads of the Lutheran heresy. The diffusion of the Protestant principles in Spain was, at an early period, promoted by the works of the German Eeformer, some of which in Latin, and others of them translated into the Spanish language, having been printed at Antwerp, were sent into the Peniu- sula, where they were eagerly read. Those learned Spaniards who, on visiting foreign heretical countries, as England and Germany, became infected with heresy, were also instrumental, on returning home, in propagating the contagion among their countrymen. And in Spain, as in other nations of Europe, the stability of the Popish superstition was greatly shaken in many minds, and the doctrines of the Eeformation extended by vernacular translations of the Scrip- tm-ea. From the vigilance of officera placed at all the sea-ports and land-passes, to search every package and the person of every traveller that should enter the kingdom, it seemed a task of great, apparently 622 Introduction. [Spain. insuperable difficulty to introduce these translated editions of the Scriptures into Spain. Yet, in 1557, Julian Hernandez, who, from his small stature, was usually called Julian the Little, undertook the seemingly desperate enterprize, and, by his address, succeeded in conveying safely from Geneva by land to Seville, two large casks filled with the vernacular Scriptures and other Proteatant booka in Spanish.' Pretending commercial speculations, he deceived the officers by concealing the precious cargo in double casks, holding a small portion of French wine between an outer and an inner range of staves. - The Spanish converts included many of the most learned and the most distinguished of all ranks. " In Spain," says a contempor ary Protestant author, Cypriano de Valera, " many .very learned, many very noble, and many of the most distinguished of the gen try, have for this cause been led forth to the scaffold. There is not a city, and, if one may so speak, there is not a village, nor a hamlet, nor a noble house, that has not had, and still has, one or more that God of his infinite mercy has enlightened with the light of the gos pel. It is a common proverb in Spain in the present day, when speaking of a learned man, to say he is so learned that he is in dan ger of being a Lutheran." ^ " Perhaps," says Dr. M'Crie, " there never was in any other country so large a proportion of persons, illustrious either for their rank or then- learning, among the con verts to a new and proscribed religion. This circumstance helps to account for the singular fact that a body of dissidents, who could not amount to fewer than 2000 persons, scattered over an extensive country, and loosely connected with one another, should have been able to communicate their sentiments and hold their private meet ings for a number of years, without being detected by a court so jealous and -vigilant as that of the Inquisition."'' Such was the jjrogress of the Eeformed faith in Spain, that ' M'Crie's mst. ofthe Ref. in Spain, pp. 128, 130-IS2, 200, 205. - Account of Spanish Protestants in Quarterly Review, toI. xxix:. p. 250. 3 Quoted iu Castro's Spanish Protestants, p. 15. *^ Hist, of tlie Rif. in Spain, p. 234. Spain.] Introdiiction. ' 623 within a short time, had not severe measures been adopted, it would in all probability have become the prevailing religion in that kingdom. The character, talents, and zeal of the converts, threatened thia dreaded consummation. Had not the Inquisition interfered when it did, says Paramo, heresy would have run like wildfire through Spain, so disposed were persons of all degrees and of both sexes to embrace it.' An emphatic testimony to the same effect is borne by the contemporary Eoman Catholic historian Illes- cas, in his Pontifical History. "Formerly,'' says he, "Lutheran heretics were now and then apprehended and burned in Spain ; but all these were foreigners — Germans, Flemings, or English. At other times mean people, and of a base race, used to be aent to the scaffold, and to wear san-benitos in the churches ; but in these latter years we have seen the prisons, the scaffolds, and even the burning pile crowded with persons of noble birth, and, what is even more to be deplored, with persons illustrious, in the opinion of the world, for letters and piety. ... I withhold their names, in order not to tarnish, with their injured reputation, the fair fame of their des cendants, or even of some illustrious houses to whom thia poison attaches. They were suoh and so mauy, that, it was believed, if two or three months more had been suffered to elapse before apply ing a remedy to this mischief, the conflagration would have spread itself all over Spain, and brought upon her the moat dire misfor tunes she has ever seen." ^ " If you will but stay persecution for four months,'' said the celebrated Cazalla to the inquisitors, at one of his examinations, " we shall, at the end of that time, be equal in number to yourselves." The great instrument by which heresy was resisted and ulti mately suppressed in Spain was the Inquisition. The general principle upon which the Inquisition was founded may be said to have been acted upon as far back as the fourth cen tury, when the secular power for the first time sent out searchers to ' Article on Spanish Inquisition, by Southey, in Quarterly Review, toI. vi. p. 332. 2 Quoted by Castro, p. 14. &24 Ladies of the Reformation. [Spain. discover, arrest, and deliver up heretics for punishment. But as a distinct tribunal it did not exist till the thirteenth century, when it was established for the special purpose of assisting in the war for the extermination of the Albigenses in France. It was soon ex tended to Spain. This has been called the old Inquisition, in dis tinction from the modern or the uew form in which it was organ ized in Spain towards the close of the fifteenth century, in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Then it was revived by statutes and regulations so severe, as, under the control of able but sanguinary inquisitors, to become the moat effective and dreadful engine for the repression of heresy which it is perhaps possible for merciless and envenomed bigotry to invent. This properly constitutes the Spa nish Inquisition, for the tribunal under this terrible form was con fined to Spain, Portugal, and their dependencies. The avowed object of the establishment of the modern Inquisi tion was to prevent the Spanish Jews who had professed the Chris tian religion from relapsing into Judaism, and to punish such as had relapsed ; but the real or the principal motive was to prosecute against the Jews, whose wealth was immense, a vigorous system of confiscation. Ferdinand was easily persuaded to adopt a measure which promised to replenish the royal coffers, exhausted by the ex penses of protracted wars ; and the humane scruples of Isabella, at establishing so severe a tribunal, being overcome by the priests' working upon her superstitious fears, a bull was granted by Pope Sixtus IV., in 1478, for erecting it in Castile. On the 17th of November, 1480, Ferdinand and Isabella appointed two Domini cans as inquisitors, with an asaessor and a fiaeal attorney. In 1583, Father Thomas de Torquemada, a Dominican monk of remorseless cruelty, was appointed inquisitor-general of Aragon, and thus the modern Inquisition was erected in that kingdom.' Being thus established, the Inquisition proceeded in its career with appalling rigour and relentless vengeance, sparing neither sex, Ferdinand and Isabella, by its agency, commit- ^ Llorente, Histoire Critique de V Inquisition d' Espagne, chaps, v. and vi. Spain.] Introduction. 625 ted to the flames more than 20,000 persona suspected of maintain ing the Jewish religion, confiscating their property,' and expelled from Spain 800,000 Jews." After the doctrines of Luther had made their way into Spain, the energies of the Inquisition were du-ected against a new class of heretics. In 1534, several persons suspected of being favourable to the new opinions, and in danger of being apprehended, made their escape; othei-s less fortunate were arrested and thrown into the secret prisons of the Holy Office. It was not, however, until the year 1557 that the fury of the Inquisition against the Lutheran Ee formers in Spain rose to its utmost pitch. For a considerable time previously to this, many of the Spaniards who had embraced the Eeformed doctrines had held secret assemblies in Valladolid, then the capital, and in Seville, one of the most noted commercial cities, as well as corresponded with their brethren in other parts of the country. But they succeeded in eluding the vigilance even of the lynx-eyed inquisitors until that year when the adherents of the Ee formation in both these cities were discovered. Upon their making this discovery, the rage of the monks, who had not imagined that heresy was so widely spread in Spain, was unbounded, and the most ¦vigorous proceedings were instituted to repress and crush the obnoxious opinions. Vast numbers, not a few of whom were dis tinguished for their rank and learning, were thrown into prison ;^ and in 1559 and 1560, many were committed to the fiames at Valla dolid, Seville, Toledo, Logrono, and other cities. Alarmed at the dangers to which they were exposed, multitudes fled from their na tive land and sought refuge on foreign shores. For carrying on its work the apparatus of the Inquisition was immense. In the united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon there ' " A third of all the confiscated property went to the inq^uisitors ; a third to the ex traordinary expenses of the faith — that is, it went the same -way ; the remainder was the goTenunent's share of the plunder."— CiMrt^-'y Review, vol. vi. p. 329. - Puigblanch's Lnquisition Unmasked, vol. ti. pp. 211-215. 3 In Seville alone the number of prisoners amounted to 800 ; and the prisons not being large enough to contain them, private houses were converted into prisons for tlie occasion. 40 626 Ladies of the Reform,ation. [Spain. were eighteen different mquisitorial courts, all regulated and con trolled by the council of the supreme, consisting of the inquisitor- general as president and three councillors. Each of these courts had ita apostolic inquisitors, its secretaries, sergeants, and other officers. Besides these there were 20,000 familiars dispersed through out the kingdom, who acted as spies and informers, and who were employed to apprehend all suspected persons, and to commit them for their trial to the prisons of the Inquisition.' As all the ladies in the following sketches, with one exception, suffered martyrdom by the Inquisition — for history has supplied ua -with nothing in the lives of the Spanish female friends of the Ee formation but the persecutions they endured — it may not be inap propriate here to glance, in a few particulars, at the criminal process through which they had to pass," and to describe the solemnity of the auto-de-ft, in which all of them, with one exception, were made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. In conducting a crimiual process, the Holy Office, if the evidence obtained against a person accused was deemed sufficient, issued an order for his arrest. If he succeeded in eluding the officers by flight, they were furnished with a minute description of his person and with his portrait, rendering it next to impossible for him ulti mately to escape. If he was apprehended he was thrown into one of the secret dungeons — ^those dungeons specially intended for here tics or persons suspected of hereay — narrow and unventilated, damp, if .subterraneous, and dark, admitting the light only by a small chink. Here the prisoner lay, strictly excluded from intercourse with all aave a priest of the Eomish church and his jailer, and ¦without a fire or light in ¦winter to dispel the cold and the darkness during the long and cheerless nights. Meanwhile, a circular was sent to all the tribunals in the pro vince to ascertain whether any charge or charges existed against him in their registers. If it turned out that there did, the deposi- 1 Mariana, lib. xxiv. cap. xvi. p. 137. 2 A full detail ia given by Llorente, chap ix. Spain.] Introdiiction. 627 tions of the different witnesses recorded in one of the registers, or the entries in different registers, though referring to the same fact yet beiug expressed in different terms, were, with flagrant injustice, converted into so many distinct charges — it might be four, five, or six — against the prisoner. These extracts thus constructed were then communicated in -writing to the qualificators of the Holy Office, who were the interpreters of what constituted heresy. The qualiflcators being monks, almost always ignorant and fanatical, generally found heresy in everything above the reach of their o'wn understandings, or belonging to a region beyond the limited range of their own studies, which had been exclusively confined to scholastic theology. In the three first days following the imprisonment of the culprit he had three audiences of monition, in which he was recommended to speak the truth, without evasion or concealment, both respecting himself and others, otherwise he would be proceeded against ¦with the utmost rigour. Kept in ignorance of the precise nature of the cause of his arrest, he was simply told that no person was taken to the prisons of the Holy Office ¦without sufficient proof, and that it would be for his own interest to confess his crimes voluntarily. By this base artifice, resembling that to which the ¦witnesses were sub jected, he was not unfrequently, like them, betrayed into making declarations implicating others and gi^ving rise to new processes for heretical offences. If the inquisitors concluded, as they usually did, that he had not made a full confession, they ordered him to be put to the question by the rack, the pulley, or the fire — the three modes of torture to which they had recourse. This ordeal he went through in a sub terraneous vault, where the cries of the victim could be heard by none save his tormentors, and the horrors of which it is impossible to exaggerate. If the extremity of pain extorted from him a con fession of guilt, he was required on the following day to confirm it upon oath, and should he retract instead of coniirming it, he was condemned to a repetition of the same sufferings.' At the conclu- i By a regulation of Philip II., the repetition of the torture in the eame process was 628 Ladies of the Reformation. [Spain. sion of the torture he was conveyed back to his dungeon, where in solitude and darkness he was left, racked -with pain and parched with fever, to await the doom, which, if he was obstinate, was to consign him to the flames, or if he was penitent, to deprivation of rank, titles, and dignities — provided he was a person of noble con dition—to confiscation of goods, perpetual imprisonment, and to various penances involving his degradation for life, and entailing infamy, beggary, and ruin upon his offspring to the latest posterity. The prisoner never received his accusation in writing, to enable him deliberately to reply to the charges. He simply heard it read in the audience-chamber by the secretary, and the procurator-fiscal, between each article, called upon the prisoner to reply to it in stantly, and to declare whether it was true or false — a proceeding calculated and intended to throw him into embarrassment by com pelling him to give his answers without previous reflection. He was, indeed, allowed a sort of defence; but he could select his counsel only from a list of advocates belonging to the Holy Office, and instead of the original process, the advocate was favoured only with garbled extracts from the depositions of the witnesses, nor was he permitted to confer with his client. The prisoner, besides, was never confi-onted either with his accuser or ¦with the witnesses, of whose names he was even kept in ignorance ; and the whole pro ceedings were shrouded from the public view in impenetrable secrecy. From these few particulars as to the mode of conducting the criminal process against the prisoners, the reader may judge of all the rest, which equally set both humanity and justice at defiance. "The whole was a confused labyrinth, from the snares and windings of which the honour, and life, and liberty of the accused could scarcely be extricated. An impossibility, almost absolute, on the part of the culprits to substantiate the justice of their cause, and a forbidden. But the inquisitors evaded tlie law by pretending, after every new infliction , that the torture was only suspended, not terminated ; and thus they could repeat it upon the same person as often as they pleased. Spain.] Introduction. 629 _ facility almost boundless on the part of the inquisitors to aggrieve them, were the two principal hinges on which its judicial examina tions turned in criminal cases." The closing scene of this horrible tragedy was the auto-de-fe, or act of faith, being the public exhibition connected with the pro nouncing and execution of the sentences upon the respective pri soners. It was celebrated with great pomp and solemnity, that, by striking dismay into the minds of the people, it might contribute to uphold the majesty and authority of the Holy Tribunal. It was bor rowed from the imposing spectacle of the ancient Eoman triumph, and with unmatched impiety it was at the same time an imitation of, and intended to represent by anticipation, the awful solemnities of the last judgment. The auto-de-fe was particular or general. The particular, called autillo, or the little auto, which took place when the culprits were few, was conducted either iu the church pubhcly, or privately in the sessions-hall of the court. It is of the general auto, which took place when the culprits were numerous, that we here treat. It is horrifying to think that the Sabbath, the standing memorial of re deeming love, and consecrated to be a day of rejoicing to the chil dren of men, was generally selected, and wheu not the Sabbath a holiday, for the celebration of this bloody demonstration of Catho lic zeal. It was solemnized sometimes in a large church, but more frequently in the principal square of the town or city. And as a multitude of spectators served to enhance the display, and heighten the effect, it was previously intimated in all the churches and mo nasteries in the neighbourhood, sometimes proclaimed also by the public crier ; and as an inducement to the people to attend, an in dulgence of forty days was announced and promised to all who should be present. On the evening preceding the auto, all the male prisoners whose punishments and penances were to be short of death, were collec ted together into one large prison, and the female prisoners of the 1 Puigblanch's Lnquisition Unmasked, vol. i. p. 130. 630 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Spain. same class into another, to hear read to them their respective sen-, tences. Those who were doomed to expiate their offences at the stake were kept apart, each in his own prison ; and at ten or eleven o'clock at night, a priest was aent to communicate to them the tid ings of their doom, and to prepare them for it by confesaing them, if penitent, and exhorting them, if obstinate, to abjure their dam nable heresies, in which case, besides securing the salvation of their souls, they would obtain the favour to die> by strangulation, before being touched by the fire. Early on the foUowing moming, the great work of the day was announced by the ringing of the church bells. On hearing this signal, all the familiars and officers of the Holy Tribunal hastened to the prison to make the necessary arrangements, especially to attire the prisoners in the several habits in which they were to make their appearance, and which, with slight variations in different places and at different times, were of the following description : — The peni tents were clothed in the san-benito, a coarse woollen garment of a yellow colour, brought close round the neck, and descending loosely like a frock to the knees ;' and it was the same for them all, except that it was differently decorated according to the different classes of the penitents. Those of them who abjured, as slightly suspected of heresy, wore it without the cross ; those who abjured as atrongly suspected, wore it with half the cross ; and those who were formal heretics, wore it with the cross entire. The prisoners condemned to death wore, besides the san-benito, a pasteboard conical cap, three feet high, called coroza, on the head. These two articlea of dress were the same for them all, with the exception of being diffe rently decorated for the different classes. Those who had repented before being sentenced, wore them embroidered, each with a scarlet cross; those who had repented after their sentence, and before < This was a habit worn by penitents, as the name imports. The penitential habit was called sac by the Jews. Before the tliirteenth century it waa the custom to bless the soc, which was worn in a public penance, aud hence it had added to it the epithet Bendito, i.e., blessed. The word san-benito is a corruption of these two words. The real name iu Spanish is mmarra. — Llorente, chap. iv. Spain.] Introduction. 631 they were conducted to the auto-de-fe, wore them ornamented, each with a portrait representing the wearer in the midst of flames, which were reversed, denoting that hes was not to be burned until he had been first strangled ; and those who had refused to recant wore them decorated, each with a portrait representing the wearer in the midst of flames which were ascending, to denote that he was to be burned alive, and garnished, in addition, with black grotesque figures of dragons and de^vils in the act of carrying faggots or fan ning the fiames, typical of the torments of hell, which were await ing the obstinate heretic in another world. The prisoners had also a rope round the neck, and were required to carry a yellow ¦wax taper unlighted in the hand.' The ceremony of dressing the pri soners being concluded, they had provided for them, as if in mock ery of their misery, a sumptuous breakfast, which, as they had little appetite to partake of the dainty fare, was greedily devoured by the f amUiars of the Holy Office. At the appouited hour, the various parties who were to join in the solemnities of the day assembled in the court of the prison ; and the procession, in pompous ceremonial, moved slowly on, ge neraUy in the following order: — A party of soldiers went before to clear the way. Then came first a body of priests in their surplices, attended by a company of students, who, with the priests, made great show of piety, chanting the Liturgy, which they repeated al ternately with the chorus, "Ora pro illis" — i. e., "Pray for them." Succeeding these were those officials who carried, fixed upright on long poles, the effigies of persons condemned, previously dead, or who had made their escape, with their names inscribed in large let ters on the breasts of their effigies. Next advanced the prisoners- first the penitents, iu an order corresponding to the degrees of their reputed guilt, beginning with the least crimiual ; and then the pri soners destined to the flames, the most of them -with gags in their mouths, those who had abjured heresy in the hope of obtaining par- * In the case of those who were to be reconciled, the taper was lighted after the cere mony of reconciliation was performed.— Llorente, chap. ix. Puigblanch, vol. i. p. 295. 632 Ladies of the Reformation. [Spain. don, but whom repentance could not save from the flames, going before, while such of them as had continued constant to the last closed this part of the procession. Each prisoner was guarded by two armed familiars, and those condemned to death were besides attended by two monks, who were incessantly attempting to convert them. The prisoners were followed by the magistratea and judgea of the place, the king'a lieutenant, and by a number of the nobihty on horseback. Behind them were the ecclesiastics, priests, clergy men, and curates of the parishes. After them, all the chapter of the great church. Then the abbots and priors of the monasteries, with their retinue. At a short distance from these were to be seen, marching with a grave and solemn step, the venerable members of the Inquisition, preceded by their procurator-fiscal carrying the standard of the Holy Office, which was made of red silk damask, and embroidered on one aide by the portrait, name, and arms of Pope Sixtus IV., and on the other side by the portrait, name, and arms of Ferdinand I., the two personages to whom Spain was in debted for the blessing of the modern Inquisition, and surmounted by a silver crucifix, overlaid -with gold, which the superstitious peo ple held in veneration, as peculiarly sacred. The holy fathers were followed by their body guard, the familiars, on horseback, among whom, as honorary members, were many of the Spanish grandees, all clothed iu the aame sable livery. Then followed in confusion an immense crowd of people, drawn together from curiosity from all the surrounding country to witness this triumphal show of Ca tholic zeal The procession having arrived at the place where the ceremonies of the auto were to be performed, the inquisitors ascended the plat form erected for them, and the prisoners were conducted to another directly opposite. All the parties having taken their seats, the pro ceedings began with a sermon, generaUy preached by some digni tary of the church, after which the sentences of the respective pri soners were publicly read, beginning with those who were reputed less guilty, or who were penitents, and ending with those who were Spain.] Introduction. 633 pronounced obstinate. The penitents were publicly reconciled, and the obstinate were relaxed — that is, delivered over as impenitent heretics to the civil magistrate, whose office it now was to execute upon them the penalty awarded to heretics by the civil law, whioh was death by burning. To produce effect, all this was done with much formality, and with many ceremonies. Then the penitents were conducted back to their respective prisons, and the others were led away to the place where the stakes were fixed, which was with out the waUs of the town.' To pass through the fearful scenes now described, was, it might be supposed, a trial to which few, in respect either to the powers of their physical frame or to their mental energies, were equal. A long and solitary imprisonment — the privations and horrors of the grave-like dungeons — frequent and harassing examinations before cruel and ensnaring judges — the repeated endurance of the torture — the agony of being kept in a state of constant suspense, all end ing in the barbarous exhibitions of a whole day, " where the agency of shame and terror, and every circumstance which the ingenuity of cruelty could devise," were employed to crush the spirits of the pri soners; — ^this overwhelming load, it might be supposed, was enough to lay prostrate the mental as well as the physical powers of the strongest. Yet many of the Spanish martjTS, including an hon oured list of the tender sex, upheld, doubtless, by more than human strength, had the fortitude to endure all this, and to close the scene by braving the torment of the flames, repelling to the last all the officious distracting efforts made by the monks to overthrow their faith. In the accounts of the Spanish martyrs given by Llorente, as de rived from the records of the Spanish Inquisition, a great number, including some of the most enlightened, devoted, and distinguished, are indeed said to have recanted at the stake, simply for the sake of being strangled before being consumed by the flames. But the 1 Histoire des Martyrs, pp. 683, 534. Puigblanch, vol. i. pp. 293, cSlo. M'Crie's Hist. ofthe Ref. in Spain, pp. 274-280. 634 Ladies of the Reformation, [Spain. truth of these representations is extremely doubtful. Instances of such recantations at the stake may have occurred. There is, how ever, reason to believe that many who remained steadfast to the last were strangled before being burned, as if they had recanted, partly to destroy the effect which their constancy had in producing on the minds of the spectators an impression favourable to themselves and to the cause in which they suffered, and partly to confirm the spec tators in their devotion to the Popish faith, by making them be lieve that the heretics, in the prospect of death, were glad to return to the bosom of the infallible church, in which alone salvation was to be obtained. " There is nothing so improbable," says Southey, "as the recantation of a man at the stake. Our own histories, which we know to be authentic, do not afford a single instance, not even when life has been offered and earnestly pressed upon the suf ferer as the price ; stUl more improbable is it when the only thing to be gained is to die by strangulation instead of fire."' That, from human infirmity, many who were arrested by the Spanish Inqui sition for heresy should, under the dread of torture and death, yield to temptations so strong, and deny principles of the truth of which they were, notwithstanding, fully perauaded, is what might naturally have been expected. But that of thoae whose constancy had stood unshaken under long imprisonment and under the sever est torture, and even after being bound to the stake, many, at the last moment, when divested of all hope of saving their lives, and when in the immediate prospect of appearing before God in judg ment, should belie their most solemn convictions by renouncing the truths of the gospel, through faith in which alone they believed they could be saved, and desire to be reconcUed to the Popish church, which they believed to be Antichrist, simply for the miser able boon of being strangled before being burned, is in the highest degree incredible. The Eeformation numbered among its proselytes numerous fe males in Spain, many of whom were ladies of quality. This, when * Quarterly Review, vol. vi. p. 334. Spain.] Introduction. 635 the circumstances are considered, affords a signal proof of the power of truth upon the mind, and of the heroic devotion of woman, of which so many examples are to be found in the history of the Ee formation, in sacrificing personal interest and safety at the shrine of conscience. These female confessors embraced the Eeformed faith ¦with the full knowledge that they would thua array againat them the whole power wielded by a tribunal so formidable and so relent lessly fierce as was the Inquisition. Nor when they fell, as many of them did, into the hands of the inquisitors, did they meet with more leniency than the other sex. Some of them perished in the secret dungeons. Some of them, overcome by the temptations to recant, had their lives spared; but they were condemned to wear the san-benito — the coat of infamy — for life, to perpetual imprison ment, to confiscation of goods, and to various penances. Others, who refused to abjure, were consigned without mercy to the de vouring flames. And all these, whatever the kind of their punish ment, left behind them to their families and children an infamous reputation as their only inheritance. It is appalling to think of the vast number of women, many of them of high or noble parentage, who were thus treated by the Spanish Inquisition. We may not be at a loss to explain how the monks and friars treated woman so cruelly. Forbidden by their system of celibacy to enter into the conjugal relation, intended by Providence to be the chief spring of human happiness and human ¦virtue — never sharing ¦with woman in the common responsibilities, solicitudes, hopes, and joys of domestic life — they came to regard her only as ministering to the gratification of their licentious passions; and when invested with irresponsible power and urged on by fana ticism to deeds of cruelty, they had no principle of delicacy, respect, or compassion towards woman, impelling them to make her an ex ception to the cruelty they wantonly exercised towards their own sex. But the wonder is, that when the monks thus dared to violate home, to rupture the most sacred ties on earth, to insult and out rage woman by tearing her at their pleasure from her husband and 636 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Spain. children, the centre of her affections, cares, and happiness — or if she was a maiden, by tearing her frora her parents, throwing her into a dungeon, torturing her in every limb, and wreaking the last effort of their cruelty upon her by committing her to the flames — the wonder is that the spirit of chivalry was not awakened in the Spa nish grandees, and that, stung with a consciousness of wrong and having some ideas of human rights, they did not rise up against the contemptible and dastardly fraternity of monks by whom these atrocities were perpetrated, supported though the monks were by a fanatical and sanguinary monarch. The monarch under whom the ladies whom we are about to no tice suffered, was Philip IL, a sovereign in whose character there is not a single redeeming feature. A barbarous husband and an un natural parent in his family, he was a gloomy, inhuman tyrant and persecutor in his kingdom. To a man who had so deeply imbibed iu all its virulence a persecuting spirit, as publicly to declare that were his own son to become a heretic he would himself carry the wood to burn him, the Inquisition was the most precious institu tion in his kingdom, and from such a man mercy was not to be looked for. His unbounded arrogance in requu-iug that none should ever speak to him but on his knees, and in gi-ving his commands with only half a phrase, is a trait of character which we may pasa over simply with contempt ; but his sullen bigotry and fanaticism, which wrought so much woe to Spain and to the world, are more serious imputations, and have earned him the infamous celebrity of being ranked with the most execrable tyrants and persecutors re corded in the pages of history. LEANOR DE CISNEEOS, WIFE OF ANTOKIO HEEEZUELO. EANOE DE CISNEEOS was married to An tonio Herezuelo, a learned advocate in Toro, an ancient city of no inconsiderable impor tance in the province of Leon, about the year 1553, when she was only eighteen years of age. At that time the Eeformation, which was spreading in every du-ection in Spain, had many converts in almost all the to^wns, and in many of the villages of the province of Leon. Leanor and her husband had become disciples of the new faith. They were probably converts of Don Carlos de Seso, a distinguished nobleman of Italian birth, to whom Charles V., in return for the important ser^vices rendered to him by that nobleman, had given in marriage Dona Isabella de Castilla, a descendant of the royal family of CastUe and Leon; or they were at least confirmed byhis insti-umentality. While resident at Valladolid, Seso connected him self -with the Protestants of that city; and at Toro, of which he W3,s corregidor, or mayor, he laboured with ardent devotion to pro mote the cause of the Eeformation by distributing among the people 638 Ladies of the Reformation. [Spain. the works of the Eeformers, and by personally expounding and vin dicating the articles of the new faith.' It being discovered by the Inquisition that Leanor and her hus band had embraced the Lutheran opiniona, they were arreated and thrown into separate dungeons at Valladolid. This was probably about the spring or early in the summer of the year 1558. In prison, Leanor did not exhibit the same fortitude and con stancy as Herezuelo. He assumed from the first and maintained throughout a, firmness which rose superior to all the arts and cruelties of the Inquisition. In all the examinations he underwent, he unhesitatingly avowed tbat he was a Protestant, and that he had been even a teacher of his sect in the city of Toro, the place of his residence. Being required by the inquisitors to give the names of those whom he had instructed in the new doctrines, he refused, and not all the agonies of torture could compel him to betray his friends. On the other hand, Leanor, when she found herself within the gloomy walls of a dungeon, became fearful and irresolute, and was at last induced to declare, which she did in trembling and timid accents, that she had permitted her mind to become entangled with, and to be led astray by heretical opinions. Her temptations to waver and yield were certainly very great. She was kept m entire seclusion from her husband, and the inquisitors, with their usual secrecy, concealed from her his firmness of purpose. None of her friends, by whom she might be comforted and her resolution con firmed in her melancholy solitude, were allowed to visit her. The privations and miseries of a dungeon were hard to bear. Then there were the horrors of the rack and the terrors of the stake to fill her imagination with horrible ideas, and these the inquisitors kept constantly in her view, assuring her of the utter hopelessness of her being able to escape them unless by recantation. She may also have been deceived into the belief that her husband had sought reconciliation with the church — that on the day of the auto-de-fe, provided she recanted, she would have the pleasure of meeting him ' M'Crie's Uist. of tlie Ref. in Spain, pp. 231-233. Spain.] Leanor de Cisneros. 639 among the penitents whose Uves would be spared — and that they would yet one day be restored to each other's arms. All these cir cumstances contributed to enfeeble her constancy, and it is not sur prising that under their combined infiuence, a woman of her youth ful years was tempted to abjure with the mouth that truth to which she still clung, with undoubted faith, in her heart. Her sentence, as we shall afterwards see, was, in consequence, more lenient than that of her husband. At the first public auto-de-fe of Protestants in Spain, which was celebrated at Valladolid, May 21, 1559, being Trinity Sunday, she and Herezuelo were brought forth, with other heretical culprits, to have publicly pronounced upon them their respective sentences. Great preparations had been made for this triumphal demonstra tion over heresy, which was to be witnessed by one of the most splendid assembUes that Spain, then at the height of its glory, was able to display. Juana, aiater of Philip 11.,^ Don Carloa, his son, the heir-apparent to the throne, then only fourteen years of age, the other princes, the lords and ladies of the com-t, the nobility and gen try of that ancient capital and of the neighbourhood were aU to be there. In the market-place, between the church of St. Francis and the house of the consistory, was raised a scaffold or platform, upon which the inquisitors were to take their seats under a canopy, facing an altar surmounted by a crucifix, and bearing the candlesticks and sacred vessels which are required at the celebration of mass. Next to the altar stood a pulpit, on which the appointed preacher was to address the con'victs, and from whence, at the conclusion of the act, their respective sentences were to be made public by the secretary of the tribunal. In the centre of the scaffold was erected a bench intended for the prisoners, having six seats rising above each other in the form of steps. This bench was so large at the bottom as to allow ten persons to sit ¦with ease, and so naiTOW at the top as to afford room for only one. At the side of the inquisitors' platform was formed a gaUery which connected with the townhouse, ' She was Queen-dowager of Portugal, and Regent of Spain during Philip's absence. 640 Ladies of the Reformation. [Spain. through which access was thus obtained to the platform, without interruption from the crowd. Upon this gallei-y was constructed a box, intended for Juana, the king's sister, Don Carlos, the grandees and ladies of their suite, with the other nobility and gentry. The proceedings had been appointed to commence at six o'clock in the morning. At that early hour the procession advanced from the prison to the scaffold, amidst so great a crowd that not, only the windows of the houses but all the streets were full of spectators. The prisoners amounted to thirty, of whom sixteen were penitents, and fourteen were to be delivered over to the secular arm, aa ob stinate heretics, to be burned. Along with the prisoners were car ried in procession the bones and effigy of a lady of condition, reputed to have been a heretic, who had died some years before. Leanor and the other penitents were the first of the prisonera in the proces sion. They wore the san-benito upon which were red crosses before and behind, and had each a wax candle burning in then- hands. Her husband and those doomed to the fiames as obstinate heretics foUowed. They had upon their heads each a coroza ; they also wore the san-benito, and before them was carried a crucifix covered with a black crape in token of mourning. Also, about six o'clock in the morning, Juana, Don Carlos, and the other princes and lords, with the guard of archers and halberdiers, lea-ving the royal palace, proceeded to the townhouse, four heralds who marched before them bearing the armorial ensigns, while the Count of Buendia carried a dra-wn sword. These illustrious personages having taken their places in the box appropriated for them, Francisco Baca, Arch bishop of Seville, who was to preside, the members of the Inquisi tion, the magistrates, the secular and monastic clergy of the city, who all appeai-ed in magnificent attire, ascended the platform through the townhouse, and took their seats. After this the pri soners were placed upon the bench which had been raised for them, each according to his or her reputed criminality. All this being done, a sermon, which lasted about an hom-, was preached by Mel chior Cano, a monk of the order of St. Dominic, and Bishop of the Spain.] Leanor de Cisneros. 641 Canaries. Then the Archbishop of Seville, passing from the plat form of the inquisitors to that on which Juana, Queen-dowager of Portugal, Don Carlos, and other princes and lords were seated, exacted from each of them, beginning with Juana and Don Carlos, a solemn oath, which they made placing their hand upon a missal within which was the picture of a crucifix, to support the Holy In quisition in prosecuting Lutherans without respecting any person of whatever estate or quality, and to comjiel all their subjects to sub mit themselves to the Eomish church. Next the sentences of the several priaonera were read by the clerk of the Holy Office, the sentences of the penitents being first read. Leanor was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, that is, to be confined during the plea sure of the Holy Office, in one of the houses of seclusion prepared for penitent heretics, where, wearing the san-benito and submitting to the prescribed penances, she might receive the punishment due to her errors, and a lesson for the future. Her goods were alao confiscated. Herezuelo, as being an obstinate heretic, was con demned to be delivered over to the secular power to be burned alive, and his goods were confiscated. Leanor and her husband were doubtless very anxious to know how each other had been sustained in the trying scenes through which they had passed, and what was to be the fate of each. This they ascertained when, upon the line of the procession being formed, they observed each other's dress and the place which each occupied, even before they had heard their respective sentences publicly read. The discovery was distressing to them both. Herezuelo had for montha before dwelt in thought on that day. He had aummoned up aU his courage and energy firmly and calmly to bear the ig nominy of the spectacle and the torture of the fire, and he grew more calm and fearless as the hour of his fate approached. But to see on that fatal day his wife, the object of his youthful and ten derest affection, among the penitents, this saddened hia heart with a more fearful anxiety than the proapect of the atake. If, during the whole proceedinga, a ahiver shook his frame, it was from the 41 642 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Spain. overwhelming bitterness of distress he experienced at this unlooked- for sight; and though it did not subdue hia fortitude, it almost over came, for the moment, his feelings. Nor waa Leanor herself more satisfied with her own position. She felt it to be false and humili ating — what her own judgment did not sanction or justify. Still she went through the forms prescribed for penitents at an auto-de-fe. Her aentence having been read, she fell on her knees, and laying her hand on the missal, repeated her confession. The aame having been done by the other penitenta, the presiding inquiaitor, descend ing from the throne on which he sat and advancing to the altar, absolved them a culpa, lea-ving them, according to the doctrine and practice of the Eomish church, to suffer the several punishments to which, according to the degrees of their eatimated guilt, they had been sentenced. But Leanor was soon recovered from her fearfulness and irreso lution to a bold confession of the truth, which she had never re nounced with the heart ; and from that confeaaion, neither a pro tracted impriaonment, nor torture, nor death could ever afterwards make her shriuk. The means of her recovery was the steadfastness and parting look of her huaband. Pasising by Leanor while he was conducted from the scaffold to the place of execution, he cast upon her an expressive look,' for he was prevented fi-om speaking by an iron gag put into his mouth. There were mingled pity, sadness, and agony in that look It seemed to say to her that to see her among the penitents made to him the pangs of separation, from her the more severe, and would sharpen the agonies of his martyrdom. This look, so mournful, so upbraiding as she felt it to be, at once startled her as if she had awakened from some fearful dream; it sent a thril- • The monks, true to their vocation, endeavoui-ed to load his memoi-y witli obloquy, by circulating the slander that upon descending from the auto-de-fi, and perceiving her with the san-benito of the reconciied, on wiiich there were neither the figures of flames nor of devils as upon his o-wn, he not only cast upon her a scowl of bitter reproach, but that, in tlie fui-y of his indignation, he kicked her with his foot, saying to her, " Is that tlie value you put npon the doctrine wliich I have taught you for six years !" Llorente, contrary to his usual candour, adopts this infamous slander. — Hist. Crit. de Iiu^uisition d'Espagne, tom. ii. p. 231. paCO cnO Oei ooHOO Spain.] Leanor de Cisneros. 643 ling indescribable anguish to her heart, the more so that she was a woman of an ardent and susceptible mind ; it changed the whole current of her thoughts aud gave her another spirit. His constancy was brought so suddenly and so strongly into contrast with her painful indecision and defection, .that she was overwhelmed with shame and self-reproach, ^nd from that moment she resolved to emulate his fortitude and constancy. On returning to her cell in the extremity of a wretchedness more deep and bitter than even the torments of the stake, as she thought of that parting look from a husband ever so dear to her and now dearer to her than ever, and of the cruel pangs she had infiicted on his soul in the last di-eadful struggle, she knelt before her God, and, while the tears of penitence fiowed do-wn her cheeks, she implored his pardoning mercy for her sin in ha-ving denied him and his holy Word ; solemnly resolved in his presence that by his grace no degree of suffering would ever make her again renounce her faith, aud prayed for Divine strength to enable her to carry into effect this her deliberate resolve, to do aU and to suffer all for Christ. This solemn vow to return to the Eeformed principles, and to cleave to them at whatever sacrifice, brought back, in some degree, peace to her soul. In pursuance of her vow she immediately broke off her course of penance, boldly avowed her faith in the Lutheran tenets, and ex pressed her deep sorrow that she had ever abjured them. Upon this she was again thrown into one of the secret dungeons of the Inquisition. Numerous attempts were made to bring her again to recant, but she steadily persevered in the purpose she had formed. No arguments, persuasions, entreaties, nor threatenings could move her. From every attempt to convert her the prieata returned baf fied, disappointed, and -withal astonished to find that her resolution had now assumed a strength which, from her previous timid and shrinking deportment, they had not anticipated. She had formerly lost her tranquiUity by defection, and had obtained it only by returning to her faith ; and was she again to plunge herself into that deep mental distress which had weighed upon and crushed 644 Ladies of the Reformation. [Spain. her spu-its, and which had been infinitely more bitter to her than a cheerless prison and the bitterness of the cruellest death 1 Such was the train of thought which passed through her mind, and by which she triumphed over the terrors of the rack and the stake. She continued eight years in prison, and during that long period she endured horrors and privations such as were usually suffered in those fearful dungeons, and which it required almost more than human fortitude to support. At times her heart and frame were ready to sink, but still she maintained a quiet, calm, unconquerable endurance. At last she was condemned to be burned alive as an obstinate heretic, and the sentence was executed at an auto-de-fe celebrated at Valladolid. With the utmost composure she went forward to her doom, and at the place of execution, when the dread ful array of death met her view — the stakes, the gathered pile, the grim executioner and guards — she looked upon the whole with a fearless unblanching countenance. " In the year 1568, on the 26th of September," says a contemporary Popish historian, "justice was executed on Leanor de Cisneros, widow of the bachelor Herezuelo. She suffered herself to be burned alive, notwithstanding the gi-eat and repeated exertions made to bi-ing her to a conviction of her errors. Finally, ahe resisted, what was aufficient to melt a stone, an admirable sermon preached at the auto of that day by his excel lency Don Juan Manuel, Bishop of Zamora, a man no less learned and eloquent in the pulpit than illustrious in blood. But nothing could move the heart of that obstinate woman.'" 1 lllescas. Hist. Pontif., tom. ii. f. 451, a., quoted in M'Crie's Hist, ofthe Ref. in Spain, p. 290. Histoire des Martyrs, pp. 539, 540. ,i ;i Va4i#' i^L :' I'lriza d'Aiit)gua, ValliiJolid. DONA LEANOR DE YIBERO, WIFE OF PEDRO CAZALLA. HE Inquisition did not confine the outrages it com mitted to the living. Aa if bidding defiance to death to bound its terrible power, and to defraud it of its victims, it invaded the grave to avenge itself of he resy and of heretics. This has the appearance of even greater malignity and injustice than its conduct towarda the living. With regard to them, they had at least the semblance of the privilege of making their defence ; but to proceed against the dead was to institute criminal proceedings against those who could not stand up in their own vindication ; and to disinter, expose to indignity, and commit to the fire their earthly remains, after they had been deposited in the bosom of the earth, was to violate the most commendable laws of humanity, and to perpetrate an act which would have shocked the feelings of even many of the hea then, who sacredly revered the ashes of the dead. 646 Ladies of the Reforination. [Spain. In Dofia Leanor de Vibero we have an example of this implaca ble rage of the Inquisition and of Antichrist, displayed so often againat heretics, in exhuming their remains and consigning them to the flames, if not already mouldered into dust. She was the daugh ter of Juan de Vibero, who held an office in the treasury, by his wife Conatanza Ortiz, who waa of Jewiah origin. Her husband, Pedro Cazalla, also descended from Jewiah anceators, was comp troller of the king's household. On March 24, 1526, a process waa commenced againat her mother (who had died in 1524), as having died in a atate of relapae to Judaiam, aud but for the influence of her son-in-law with the inquisitor Moriz, her corpse would have been disinterred and infamy entailed upon her descendants.' Lea nor herself was a secret convert to the Eeformed doctrines, and the Protestants of Valladolid frequently assembled in her house for worship; but so cautiously had she deported herself, that during her lifetime no accusation of heresy was ever preferred against her. She died long before 1558, the year in which the great persecution against the Spanish Protestants arose, and was buried in a chapel in the Benedictine convent of Valladolid, of which she was proprie tress. At her death, and long after, she was reputed sound in the faith. Nothing in impeachment of her orthodoxy had reached the ears of the Inquisition until 1558. In that year many of the Pro- testants of Valladolid were arrested upon information communi cated to the Holy Office, respecting the house where they met. The informer was a fanatical woman, the wife of Juan Garcia, a silver smith and Protestant of Valladolid, who, by dogging his footsteps one night as he went to the meeting, discovered the place, of which, knowing her to be the slave of superstition, and entu-ely under the management of her confessor, he had prudently kept her in ignor ance. Under the severity of the torture or of threateninga, several of the prisonera confeased that the Lutherans of VaUadolid had held their secret assemblies in the house of Leanor de Vibero during her lifetime, and subsequently to the death of her husband. This at once ' Llorente, tom. ii. pp. 25-27. Spain.] Dona Leanor de Vibero. 647 excited suspicious as to her souudness in the faith, and these suspi cions were increased from the circumstance that five of her children^ were at that time lying in the prisons of the Inquisition accused of heresy. This was considered presumptive of her guilt. How could so many of her children, it was argued, have fallen victims to here tical error but from her instructions ? She was now beyond the reach of the rage and violence of men. But the Inquisition, impotent as was now their malice, instituted a criminal process against her. The procurator-fiscal of the court brought against her a charge of Lutheranism, although he said, that to conceal her true sentiments, she had received in her last illness the sacraments of penance, of the eucharist, and of extreme unction; and he demanded that she should be tried. The trial went on; and several of the prisoners already referred to, who had been put to the torture or threatened with it, having made depositions supporting the accusation, it was found proven that she had died in the Lutheran faith. The sentence was to the efiect that Dona Leanor de Vibero having died in a state of • Leanor's five cMldren, who had been arrested for heresy, and who appeared at the same auto-de-fe at which her effigjand bones were exhibited, were— 1. Doctor Augustin, priest of Valladolid, formerly chaplain to the late emperor Chai-les V., and one of the greatest pulpit orators in Spain. He was deflcient in courage, according to the records ofthe In quisition, and he therefore occupied on the scafibld a place among the penitents ; but he was considered too important a peraon to have his life spared. A tradition was, however, long current in Valladolid, handed down from father to son, that, when the martyr was led to the place of execution, he told the people that he was about to die for the truth,* 2. Francisco, parish priest of Hormigos. The toi-ture, it is said, had once subdued his steadfastness ; but on the day of the auto-de-fe he betrayed- no signs of a disposition to recant, and he intrepidly submitted to the flames. 3. Dona Beatrix, who was involved in the same fate ; but she was strangled before being consumed by the fire. 4 . Constanza, widow of Fernando Ortiz of Valladolid, and the mother of thirteen cliildren. She ap peared among the penitents, and was condemned to wear the san-benito for life, to confis cation, of goods, and to x^erpetual imprisonment. Her brother Augustin, when passing before the Princess Juana on his way to execution, implored her highness to compassionate the mother of so numerous an or^ihan charge. "The request must have been fruitless ; for what could be expected fi-oni hearts that could behold and hear these things without breaking?" 5. Juan, who was condemned tothe sarae punishment as his sister Constanza. Thus were five of Leanor's childi'en at this time doomed, according to the degree of their constancy, or according to the vnM of the inquisitoi-s, to perish in the flames, or to live henceforth a wretched existence in infamy, poverty, and durance. * Quarterly Review, vol. \\. p. A'i-i. 648 Ladies of the Reformation. [Spaiw. heresy, her memory was condemned to infamy, even in her pos terity, and her goods confiscated ; that her dead body should be exhumed, and, being placed in a coffin, should, with her efBgy dressed in a san-benito de flammes and pasteboard mitre, be carried in the procession to the scaffold on the day of the auto-de- fe, and together delivered to the flames; that her house should be razed to the ground, never henceforth to be rebuilt ; that the ruins should be sown with salt, and that over them should be erected a marble column with an inscription recording the cause of the direful doom, for a warning to the then existing and to future generations. The sentence was carried into effect to the letter. The marble column with the inscription was to be seen until the year 1809, when, by the orders of one of Napoleon's generals, it was thrown down, as being a memorial of rancour, intolerance, and fanaticism too revolting to be permitted longer to exist.' Harmless as all such proceedings were to the dead, they weie far from being harmless to their descendants. The children and grandchildren of such as had undergone this ordeal were in conse quence branded with indelible infamy, deprived of the property they had inherited from them, and disabled for holding numerous employments and offices, among which were thoae of judges, jus tices of the peace, governors of castles and prisons, bailiffs, alder men, jurists, inspectors, notaries, lawyers, attornies, accountants, physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, brokers, and traders.^ ' Llorente, tom. ii. pp. 221, 222. 2 PuigWanch's Inquisition Unmashd, toI. i. p. 292. THE DONAS GONZALEZ, SISTERS OF DOCTOR JUAN GONZALEZ. HE story of the Doiias Gonzalez and their brother Juan is an affecting record of heroic devotion to the 'X) Eeformed faith ; and it has engaged the pen of one of our female poets, most distinguished for the touch ing tenderness of her muse. Mrs. Hemans has made it the subject of some of the finest atanzas in that pathetic poem, the Forest Sanctuary, in which a Spaniah Proteatant refugee is made to relate, amidat the wilderneas in a North American forest where he found an aaylum, his own conflicts and the religious persecutiona of his countrymen.' Juan Gonzalez is introduced under the name of Alvar, and the two sisters under the namea of Thereaa and Inez. Theae young ladies were of Moorish descent. They were pro bably instructed in the Lutheran faith by their brother Doctor Juan Gonzalez, a Eeformed preacher, famed throughout Andalusia for his eloquence and knowledge of the Scriptures. They had espe cially learned from his instructions these fundamental doctrines of the Eeformation upon which he chiefly insisted iu his sermons — that man cannot be justified before God by his own good works, and that justification is to be obtained exclusively through faith in the plen ary satisfaction rendered by Christ to the law and justice of God. Being arrested by the officers of the Inquiaition, under the accu- • stanzas xxii.-lxxiii. of part i. are devoted to this theme. 650 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Spain. sation or suspicion of Lutheranism, they were thro-svn into some of the dungeons of the castle of Ti-iana. The Holy Tribunal did not need to have recourse to the testimony of witnesses to convict them of heresy, for they did not deny their sentiments. In prison they maintained them with the utmost steadfastness, every artifice being employed in vain to induce them to recant ; and the torture, repeat edly applied, could not draw from them the least evidence against their religious associates. Their brother Juan, who had also been apprehended, in passing through the same ordeal, did not dishonour the high position he occupied among the Eeformed, his constancy being auch aa to preclude all hopes of extorting from him a recanta tion, or any information against his Protestant brethren. All three were sentenced to be delivered over to the secular magistrate aa ob stinate heretics. The auto-de-fe at which they were exhibited was that celebrated at Seville in the square of St. Francis, the principal square of the town, on the 24th of September, 1559, about fom- months after the auto-de-fe of Valladolid, some of the proceedings of which have been laid before the reader. It surpassed that of Valladolid — not, indeed, in respect of the rank of the spectators, for none of the royal family, though many of the nobility, were present — but in respect of the number of prisonera who appeared on the scaffold, amounting to 101, male and female, of whom twenty-one were delivered over to the secular arm to be burned, while eighty were condemned to lesser punishments. The mother and another brother of the Donas Gon zalez were also in prison at this time, and resembling them in fide lity and intrepidity, they, too, were doomed to the flamea ; but they were reaerved for the next auto-defe at SevUle, which took place December 22, 1560.' When on the fatal morning the two aisters and their brother ' " Of the thirty-iive men and -women who died at these two civios of Seville, no less than twenty-seven submitted to be bui-iied alive, ratlier than belie their conscience. Thir teen of these heroic sufferers were females, .and most of them the wives, daughters, or sisters of distinguished individuals." — Account of Spanish Protestants in Quarterly R,- viev, vol. xxix. p. 255. Spain.] The Doiias Gonzalez. 6.91 Juan were brought out with the other prisoners to the court of Triana, to be put in their places in the procession, Juan began to chant the 109th Psalm, " Hold not thy peace, 0 God of my praise ; for the mouth of the wicked, and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue," &c., in which he was joined by his sistera. The procession, accompanied by an immense crowd of people, moved slowly on in its way to the scaffolds, erected in the square of St. Francis. In the Forest Sanctuary the Spanish Protestant refu gee, who describes it as an eye-witness, thus commences his de scription : — " But on-(vard moved the melancholy train. For their false creeds in liei-y pangs to die. This was the solemn sacrifice of Spain — Heaven's offei-ing from the land of chivalry ! Thro' thousands, tliAisands of their race they mov'd." In the sad procession one of the prisoners especially arrested his gaze. This was his friend, his heart's first friend Alvar, with whom he had been a playmate in boyhood ; but years had passed, severing their paths, since he had seen him before. He was struck with ad miration at Alvar'a lofty mien, and at the sense of power which sat on his pale forehead on that awful morning. On beholding the in trepid martyr, all the past scenes of their youth flashed to his me mory, and deep was his regret that he could uot fall upon the neck of his friend and weep. Upon all this he expatiates, and then re lates how he aaw also the siaters of Alvar moving on. " He passed me — and what ne.-ct? I look'd on two Following his footsteps to the same dread place. For the same guilt — his sisters ! WeU I knew The beauty on those brows, though each young face Was chang'd — so deeply chang'd— a dungeon's air Is hard for lov'd and lovely things to bear ; And ye, O daughters of a lofty race. Queen-like Theresa ! radiant Inez ! — flowers So cherish'd ! were ye, then, but rear'd for those dark hours?" He then deacribea the eldeat of the two aiaters, Theresa, who had alwaya been remarkable for the contemplative cast of her mind, as brino-ing out on this occasion the hidden might of her soul, and as 652 Ladies of the Reformation. [Sp.un. summoning up her energies all the more from her overflowing sisterly affection, that she might encourage her brother and sister to the cheerful surrender of their lives for the truth. -- Therefore didst thou, through that lieart-shaking scene As through a triumph move. * * * -> K- -;t * O faithful sister ! cheering thus the guide. And friend, and brother of thy sainted youth. Whose hand had led thee to the som-ce of truth, Where tliy glad soid from earth was purified. ******* Thou hadst bound his faith Unto thy soul — one light, one hope ye chose — one death. ******* So didst thou jiass on brightly ! " He beheld the younger sister also pass, but the bitter fear of death had taken hold upon her. He saw all the other prisoners pass^"the fearful, and the desperate, and the strong." The throng rolled on, and he was borne along, powerleaa to reaist, with the liv ing tide. The procession reached the stately square, and the parties ascended the scaffold. In the midst stood elevated an altar gor geously decked— "a place for prayer, and praise, and offering." This fearful prostitution of the services of devotion — this mockery of the God of love and mercy, as if the shedding of the blood of the innocent were an acceptable sacriflce to him— greatly excited the refugee's feeUngs, and in a prayer thrillingly sublime and impressive he invokes the vengeance of Heaven upon the guilty authors of these deeds of cruelty, thua blasphemously sanctified by the name of Christ and avowedly committed for the advancement of his religion. . " Could the earth supply No fruits, no flowers for saci-ifice, of aU Whioh on her sunny lap unheeded fall? No fair young flrstling of the flock to die. As when before their God the patriarchs stood? Look down ! man brings thee ! Heaven, his brother's guiltless blood ! " Hear its voice, hear ! - a cry goes up to thee From its stain'd sod ; make thou thy judgment known On him tlie shedder ! let his portion be The fear that w-alks at midnight — give the moan In the wind haunting him a power to say. Sp.vin.] , The Donas Gonzalez. 653 ' Where is thy brother?' and the stais a ray To search and shake his spirit, when alone, With the dread splendour of their burning eyes ! So shall earth own thy wUl — mercy, not sacrifice ! " All this entirely harmonizes with the ti-uth of the history. In the poem various imaginary scenes are next introduced ; but these, though happily conceived, and expressed with characteristic pathos and tenderness, we pass over, contenting ourselves with a narration of the facts as derived from our historical authoritiea. On the acaffold the brother, having observed one of his sisters apparently depressed in spirit, addressed to her some words of com fort, and encouraged her to remain firm in the faith to the last, reminding her that their sufferings would be brief, whereas the blessedness of heaven upon which they would enter immediately after death would be everlasting. Upon this, to silence him, the gag was immediately put into his mouth. But his comfortable words re-vived the spirits and courage of his sister, and she re tained her fortitude and composure through all the subaequent try ing scenea. After all the sentences were publicly read, Juan, being a priest, was degraded from his office in the usual form by the bishop, who first dressed him in priestly vestments, as if he had been going to celebrate mass, and then took them ott' piece by piece with certain gestures, words, and chants proper to each piece. This ceremony being ended, he and his sisters were delivered over to the secular power, and thence they were conducted to the piles erected out of the town.' At the atake the aiaters stiU jDreserved their fortitude. They were encouraged on observing that their brother showed no signs of fear, but on the contrary unabated courage in the presence of the people, to whom he had formerly preached the evangelical doc- ' The Quemadero (burning-place) of SeviUe, foi-ming a large brick erection, where thousands of human beings, including Jews, Lutherans, and witches, had been reduced to ashes, was demoUshed in 1810, to erect a battery against the approaclung French army. — Account of Spanish Protestants in Quarterly Review, vol. xxix. p. 257. 654 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Spain. trines. The attending priests exhorted them to confeaa their err ors, that they might have the beneflt of dying by strangulation before their bodies should be consumed in the flames. They bade them repeat the Apostles' Creed. This the sisters did not refuse to do ; but when on coming to the article, / believe in the Holy Ca tholic Church, they were desired to say. The Holy Catholic Eoman Church, they refused. The priests importuned them to repeat the article with thia addition. StiU they declined, and anawered that they would do aa their brother did. They were devotedly attached to their brother, not simply on the ground of relationahip, but also on account of his wisdom and sanctity, and to his advice they were therefore disposed to attach great importance. They did not, how ever, make this answer, as if they had been doubtful or undeter mined whether they would repeat the article with this addition or not, or as if they had entertained the least apprehension of their brother's recanting and exhorting them to follow his example ; but they made it that, the inquisitors being thus induced to remove from him the gag, he might once more, before he died, have an op portunity of confessing hia faith. The instrument being taken out of his mouth, instead of persuading his sisters to abandon the Ee formed faith, as the inquisitors expected, he confirmed them in it, repeating and enforcing with redoubled energy the new doctrines — forbade them to yield to the clamours or threatenings of the priests by adding the word Eoman to the definition of the Catholic church in the creed — encouraged them to be of good cheer, and exhorted them bravely to sustain, without shrinking, the brief horrors of the fire, as these would be succeeded by the everlasting joys of heaven. The priest, who was standing near, hearing their brother exhort them to keep the faith, caught at the word as if it had meant the doctrinea of the Church of Eome, exclaiming that they had recanted. The executionera were therefore inatantly ordered to strangle them all three, and the priest, turning to the crowd, cried out that they had died in the Holy Eoman Catholic faith.' At the 1 This falsehood the inc[uisitoi-s have not inserted in tlie records of the Inquisition. Spain.] The Bonis Gonzalez. 655 same moment that they were strangled, the lighted torches were applied to the piles, which were quickly ignited, and the flames soon enveloped these intrepid sufferers. "Clouds of smoke for a time rendered them invisible ; but when these were dispersed, the eye of the spectator could discern on the ground three heaps of bones and ashes, the remains of the licentiate Gonzalez and his two siaters, martyra to the truth and to Uberty of conscience.'" By the executions at this auto-de-fe a general terror seized upon the public mind in Spain, and a powerful sympathetic feeling was excited among many in Seville and in other parts of the nation ; but it was entertained by too few, compared with the great body of the population, to make it operate with irresistible effect, and it was restrained by the strong hand of power. The martyr who forms the subject of our next sketch suffered at the same auto-de-fe. > Histoire des Martyrs, p. 544. Castro's Spanish Protestants, pp. 241-243. The Gre»C Square, Seville. MARIA DE BOHORQUES. ;"AEIA DE BOHOEQUES was a natural daughter of Don Pedro Garcia de Xeres y Bohorques, a Spanish grandee of the first class, and related to some of the Spanish nobility, among others to the Marquis of Euchena. Gifted from childhood -with superior men tal capacity, and inspired with an ardent thirst for learning, she had more than ordinary care bestowed upou her education. Her preceptor was the celebrated Spanish Eeformer Juan Gil, or Egidius, under whose tuition she became a proficient in the Latin tongue, and well acquainted with Greek. By him she was also instructed in the Lutheran tenets. Familiar with the Latin language, she had early read and studied the Scriptures in the Vulgate, at the time that Popish tyranny strictly prohibited the printing or reading of the sacred booka in the -vulgar tongue. She had committed to me mory the gospels ; she had also read the works of Juan Perez, Con- Spain.] Maria de Bohorques. 657 stantino, and other Protestant writers, in which the statements of Scripture on the doctrines of justification and good works, the sacra ments, and the distinctive marks of the true church were explained in the Lutheran sense ; and she had conversed with some of the ablest of the Protestants of Seville on the Lutheran opinions, by all which she became con-vinced that the doctrines and worship of the Eomish church were at variance with the teachings of the Scrip tures. Upon this change in her sentiments, there doubtless would start in her mind a train of serious and saddened reflections, as she thought of the contumely, defamation, and persecution even to the death, to which she would be exposed by making an open profes sion of the proscribed doctrines ; and for some time she might waver in auapenae. But young as she waa, she did not long hesitate. She magnanimously cast in her lot with the persecuted Eeformers. At that time the Eeformation numbered many converts in Seville, and these among the most enlightened and virtuous of the inhabitants. Among that number, Maria waa noted for the ability and readineas with which she could defend the Eeformed faith by arguments drawn from the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Many who were accounted learned in Seville confeaaed that, in thia re apect, she far surpassed them. Dr. Egidius waa wont to say that he always left her aociety a wiser man. The Protestants of Seville were accustomed to assemble together for Divine worship in the house of Doiia Isabel de BaeQa, a wealthy lady of that city. Here Dr. Christobal Losada, pastor of the Pro testant church in Seville, and other Lutheran ministers, often preached. At these meetings, which of course were held secretly, Maria was usually present, and they doubtless contributed to pre pare her mind for the courageous endurance of the fiery trial which was now before her. In the year 1559, when she had not yet completed the twenty- first year of her age, she was apprehended by the inquisitors under the charge of Lutheranism. Three other young ladies of rank. Dona Isabel de Baena, Maria de Virves, Maria de Cornel, and 42 658 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Spain. others, their acquaintances and neighbours, were arrested at the same time, and they were all thrown into the secret prisons. When brought before the inquisitors, Maria' confessed that .she believed in the Lutheran opinions imputed to her, and defended them as Catholic. These, she maintained, were not heresies, but the truths taught by Christ and his apostles, which Luther aud the other Eeformers had restored iu their purity from the corruptions with which, through the prevailing ignorance and superstition, they had been mixed up and hidden for ages. She embraced them solely because they were derived from God's Word. She joyfully confessed that they were her faith, and was ready to die in that confession. "Instead of punishing me," she added, "for holding these -doctrines, it would be better for you to follow my example by embi-acing them.'' As to the depositions of the witnesses, she ad mitted that some of them were true, but the truth of others of them she denied. Maria having exercised great reserve under her examinations, and havuig especially refused to say anything which might discover or criminate any of her fellow-Protestants, the inquisitors ordained that she should be put to the torture. On the morning appointed, she was condui^ted by the jailer to the place where this infernal operation was performed. Everything about the place was de signed and calculated to terrify. It was a dark subterraneous vault passed to through several windings and doors, being thua se cluded to prevent the horrible cries extorted by the sufferings of the victim from being heard. Here scarcely a single ray of the light of day ever penetrated, and when the torture was to be administered, ' Maria's story became celebrated £rom its having been made the subject of a novel, under the title of Cornelia Bororquia, by a Spanish writer. In the title he unites the ^ names of the two ladies Maria de Cornel and Maria de Bohorques, to designate an ima- " ginary person. He claims for his work the credit of its being rather a history than a romance. Llorente says, " It is neither the one nor the other, but a coUection of scenes and events badly conceived, the author not liaving imderstood the history of the Inquisi tion. . . His intention was to criticize and ridicule the Inquisition ; but a good cause is injured when falsehood is employed in its defence. The true history of the In quisition is suflScient to show how much it merits the detestation of the human race, and it is therefore useless to employ fiction or satire." — Tom. ii. p. 2t>7. Spain.] Maria de Bohorques. 659 torches were kindled to give light. Here stood the horrid instru ments so often employed in inflicting agony on every nerve of the human frame. On an elevated bench were seated the inquisitor, the priest appointed to attend the prisoner, and a notary, who, all hardened and remorseless by habit, looked on with the most perfect indifference. The executioner was habited in a close gown of black cloth extending from head to foot, and wore upon his head a black bood which completely covered his face, there being only two holes at the eyes to enable him to see — this dress being intended to inspire the victim -with greater terror, aa if the arch-fiend himaelf had come Maria de Bohorques before the Inquisitors. in peraon to inflict the torture. The monsters seated on the bench renewed their admonitions to the prisoner, in words to this effect : — "Now tell us, of your own accord, all the truth, otherwise," point ing to one of the instrumenta, "you see what awaits you ; and 660 Ladies of the Reformation. [Spain. should yom- arm or any of your other members be bruised or broken, or should you die under the operation, the fault -will be yours, not ours." During these threatenings and protestations, the prisoner, whether man or woman — for no deference was paid even to the modesty of woman — was stripped naked, and then the execu tioner proceeded with his dreadful work. Maria endured all, hor rible as it was, with much firmness ; but the inquisitors, by increas ing the violence of the rack,' extorted from her the confession that her sister Juana knew her sentiments, that they had sometimes con versed together upon the Eeformed doctrines, and that Juana had not expressed her disapprobation of them as heretical.^ We shall afterwards see the sad consequences of this revelation. Adhering with inflexible persistency to her opinions, Mai-ia was doomed, as an obstinate heretic, to the flames. As the sentence waa not communicated to the prisoners till the evening before the auto-de-fe, the inquiaitora, either yielding to the intercessions of her relatives or desirous of making a proselyte of a young lady so ac complished, made several attempts to convert her to the Popish faith. On this errand they firat aent to her cell two Jesuits, and afterwards two Dominicans. She received them courteously, and patiently heard their arguments ; but it was impossible to persuade her that the doctrines and worship of Popery were in harmony -with the teachings of the inspired Word. Their reasonings pro duced no conviction in her mind, nor did they stagger her resolu tion even for a moment. This of course was humbling to their pride, and they left her chafed at the fruitlessness of their logic and rhetoric, pronouncing her self-suflacient, unteachable, intractable; but at the same time they could not help admiring the learning, readiness, and courage with which she repUed to their arguments, and explained in a Lutheran sense the texts of Scripture which they proposed. On the evening preceding the auto-de-fe the two Do minicans again went to her cell, accompanied by other two of their ' She was probably toi-tuied in the engine oaUed the burro, described lu the subsequent life, p. 666. 2 Histoire dss Martyrs, pp. 527, 52S, 544. Spain.] Maria de Bohorques. 661 order, to make a renewed effort for her conversion. They were fol lowed by several other theologians of different religious orders. All these priests laboured with great zeal to enlighten her ignorance and subdue her obstinacy, and professed the deepest concern for her salvation ; but all was in vain. She received them with courtesy as before, but told them that they had come on a fruitless errand; that it was quite unnecessary for them to spend their time and labour in the hopeless task of endeavouring to convert her to Popery ; that theu- solicitude about her salvation, which she believed to be sin cere, could not exceed that which she herself felt as being the party most interested ; that did she entertain the least doubt as to the truth of her sentiments she would at once renounce them ; but that if convinced of their truth before falling into the handa of the In quiaition, ahe was now much more so since so many Popish theolo gians had not been able, after many attempts, to adduce any argu ments in support of their own faith or against the Eeformed doc trines, the futility of which she did not at once discover, and to which she was not prepared to return a solid and conclusive answer. On the morning of the auto-de-fe at SevUle, September 24, 1559, at which she appeared, when brought out of prison to be conducted in procession to the place of execution, she betrayed no signs of fear. It seemed, from her undismayed and even joyful countenance, as if that was a day of triumph rather to her than to her persecutors. Such was the firmness of her demeanour, that while the line of the procession was forming she comforted her fellow female prisoners, and made them join with her in singing a psalm suitable to the occasion. Upon this the gag was put into her mouth, by which she was prevented from farther giving expression to her sentiments and feelings. On the scaffold, her sentence having been read, condemning her to be delivered over to the secular power, the gag was taken out of her mouth, and she was asked if she would now renounce those errors which she had so obstinately maintained. With a loud and distinct voice she promptly answered, " I neither will nor can re- 662 Ladies ofthe Reformaiion, [Spain. nounce them." She and the others condemned to death were forth- ¦with delivered by the inquisitors into the hands of the magistrates, by whom they were conducted to the place at which they were to undergo their final doom. At the fatal spot, Don Juan Ponce de Leon, who, after he was bound to the stake, overcome, as has been alleged, by the horrors of being bumed alive, abjured the Eeformed faith, and, upon making confession, was absolved by one of the attendant priests (by which all he gained was strangulation before being consumed by the fire), urged her, as has also been affirmed, to follow his example, and to disregard the exhortations of the friar Casiodoro, who, from amidst the flames, encouraged her to persevere steadfastly to the end. Still maintaining an unconquerable resolution, she reproached him, it has been said, for his pusillanimity, charged him with tempting her by giving an advice neither wise in him to give nor in her to take, adding that it was not now time for disputation, and that the few remaining moments they had to live ought to be oc cupied in meditating upon the passion and death of the Eedeemer, thereby to re-animate that faith through which alone they could be justifled and saved.' She gave still another proof of her constancy. At the place of execution it being customary, as a last effort, for the priests to importune the sufferers to renounce their errors and to make confession of the Eoman Catholic faith, several priests and a great number of monks, after Maria was bound to the stake, en treated that, in consideration of her youth and talents, she might be spared the torments of the fire by being strangled before being burned, if she would consent to repeat the creed. The presiding magistrate yielding to their request, delayed the lighting of the pile. ' Our authority for asserting that Ponce de Leon abjured the Reformed faith after be ing bound to the stake, and exhorted Jrfaria to do the same, and that she reproached him for his cowardice, is the records of the Inquisition as given by Llorente. But Montanus affirms that Juan died in the profession ofthe Reformed doctrines ; and the records of the Inquisition do not venture to deny his flrmness tiU the last moment. There is therefore ground for suspecting that his aUeged flnal convei-sion to Popery was a pious fraud— a mere fabrication. But whatever m.ay be as to this, the inquisitors themselves bear ample testi mony to Maria's heroic steadfastness. Spain.] ' Maria di Bohorques. 663 Being asked if she would repeat the creed, she immediately did so ¦ with a firm and distinct voice ; but no sooner had ahe come to the close, than she began to explain the articles upon the Holy Catholic church and the judgment of the quick and the dead in the Lutheran sense. This explanation she was not aUowed to finish. The execu tioner was ordered to strangle her, and then the pile was lighted by whieh her corpse was reduced to ashes. After the auto-de-fe the vengeance of the Inquisition was exe cuted even upon the walls of the house of Isabel de Baena, within which Maria and others of the Eeformed had been wont to assem ble for prayer and to hear the preaching of the Word. It was or dained that this house should be razed to the foundations; that in token of perpetual desolation salt should be scattered over its ruins; and that a pillar of marble should be erected on the spot to per petuate the memory of the abominations and horrors by which it had been desecrated ; for thus did the Holy Tribunal, in its detes tation of heresy, stigmatize the Eeformed worship.' ' Histoire dss Martyrs, p. 544. Llorente, tom. ii. pp. 26S-271. DONA JUANA DE BOHORQUES, baroness of higuera. kONA JUANA DE BOHOEQUES was the legitimate daughter of Don Pedro Garcia de Xeres y Bohorques; a wealthy citizen of Seville, and the wife of Don Francisco de Vargas, Baron of Higuera, a nobleman of distinction. In the year 1560, this lady was apprehended, simply on suspicion of holding the Lutheran doctrines, and impriaoned in the castle of Triana. The only ground upon which this suspicion rested was, that her sister Maria de Bohorques, just now noticed, had, under the extremity of the torture, confessed that she had sometimes con versed with her sister Juana about the Eeformed doctrines without having drawn from her any expressions of disapprobation. When Juana was arrested, it was at first intended to imprison her in one of the secret dungeons of the Inquisition ; but it being ascertained that she was advanced six months in pregnancy, this order was countermanded, and she was put into one of the public prisons. Here she was neither ao atraitly shut up nor treated with such inhumanity as prisoners guilty or suspected of heresy ordi narily were. But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. The inquisitors had no intention of allowing her to escape their iron graap. They only deferred the exercise of their barbarity upon her till after her confinement. At the end of three months her confine- Spain.] Dona Juana de Bohorques. 665 ment of a son took place, and on the eighth day after her infant was taken from her, whUe, upon the lapse of other seven days, she was removed from the public prison and shut up in one of the secret, gloomy, subterraneous dungeons. Now she suffered all the rigours usually experienced by other prisoners charged with heresy, and the same insidious arts usually practised upon them were practised upon her to extort from her confessions. In this her great affliction none of her friends was admitted to visit her, to minister to her comfort and to beguile the weary hours of her captivity. One conaolation she however had — the company of a worthy young woman, afterwards burned at the stake for he resy, who was imprisoned in the same cell, and who, compassiona ting her condition, did all she could by kiud attentions to minister to Juana's comfort in her feeble condition, and to promote her re covery. But this female confessor was soon rendered unable to liestow these friendly servicea, and needed them for heraelf. Being brought for examination before the Holy Tribunal, and the tribunal finding the proof of her guilt incomplete, or wishing to extort from her additional evidence against herself or criminating matter against others, ahe was subjected to the torture, by which all her limbs were bruised and almost dislocated. Being brought back in this maimed and mangled state to the prison, she was cast upon a small miserable bed of reeds, the only one in the prison. Juana had now an opportunity of repaying the care and kindness she had formerly received frora this young woman. She dressed her wounds, spoke to her in words of sympathy and comfort, aud treated her with the utmost tenderness. Scarcely had her fellow-prisoner begun to recover from the effects of the cruel torture, when peremptory orders were given that Juana should pass through the same ordeal, to compel her to discover her faith and all whom she knew to be infected with hereay. She waa brought to the subterranean dungeon appropri ated for this horrid operation. The thought of what her feUow- prisoner had suffered, and the very sight of the dreadfvd engines. 666 Ladies of the Reformation. [Spain. were enough to unnerve the courage and energy of even the strong est mind, much more of a delicate lady who had not yet fully re covered from the weakness arising from her recent confinement. But she maintained the utmost intrepidity. They put to her many questions, but she would make no disclosures criminating herself or others. She waa then placed in the machine called in Spanish the burro,^ and her arms, legs, and thighs were strongly bound to the machine with the cords, causing her intolerable pain. Being again interrogated and warned to speak freely the truth, ahe would an swer nothing. The inquisitors, thinking that by increasing the torture they would the sooner and the more effectually accomplish their purpose of getting out of her auch information as they want ed, ordered the executioner to tighten the cords still more. This he immediately did, and she was again pressed freely to tell the truth ; but indescribable as her agony was, she persisted in main taining the deepest secrecy. Irritated at her resolution, theae cold blooded monaters ordered the executioner again to tighten the cords, upon which he drew them with such force that they pene trated even to the bones of the arms, the legs, and thigha ; and some of the internal vessels having burst, the blood gushed in tor rents from her mouth and nostrils. Having now done their utmost ^ The toi-ture was generally iniUcted by the Inquisition in one or other of three modes — by the pulley, the fire, or the burro. That inflicted by the burro, called also in the Cas tilian dialect escalera, and in French clievalet, or wooden horse, vfo& the most commonly used. The victim being stripped naked, was stretched on his back along a w-ooden machine or bench formed like a groove, long enough to hold the body of a man, -without a bottom, but having a stick or sticks across, Uke a ladder, over which the body fell in such a position that the feet were much higher than the head. The arms, legs, and thighs w-ere strongly bound with smaU cords of hemp to tlie machine, in such a manner as to leave the suiferer no room to move. In this attitude he experienced eight strong contortions in his limbs, namely, two on the fleshy parts of the ai-m above the elbow, and two below, one on each tliigh and also on the legs. The cords were wound round eight, ten, or eleven times; and sometimes they were so tightly drawn as to penetrate deep into the flesh, even to the very bones. The face of the person tortured was then covered with a tlun piece of Unen, through which water was made to mn into his moutli and nostrils, by wliich he was prevented from breathing. At other tiraes the water was slowly poured into his mouth on a piece of silk or ribbon, which, by the pressm-e of the water, gUded down the throat so as to produce aU the horrid sensations of a person who is drowning. He was often in this manner obliged to swallow many pints of water. — Histoire des Martyrs, p. 528. Llorente, chap. xiv. Puigblanch, i. p. 252. Spain.] Bona Juana de Bohorques. 667 to expiscate from her secrets, but in vain, the inquisitors, afraid lest she should die among their hands, conveyed her to her cell iu a state of insensibility, and placed her upon the bed of reeds, from which she never rose again. She lingered for eight days, when, after great suffering, she expired. " Under what an overwhelming responsibility," exclaims Llorente, " must these cannibals appear one day before the tribunal of the Deity ! " The inquisitors, afraid, it, would appear, lest the general indig nation should be excited against them, were extremely desirous to prevent it from being known to the public that this lady had died under their savage tortures. The facts did find their way to the public ears by some of the actors themselves, who could not re main silent; but such was the prostration of the public mind, that, supported by all the power of the government, and wielding a legally sanctioned irresponsible power, they ran little riak of be ing called to account before any earthly tribunal, or of auffering any penalty at the hands of men. After Juana had breathed her last mortal breath, to allay the resentment that might have been awa kened in the breasts of her relatives, and as if to atone for the exe crable murder, they publicly read a sentence at the auto-de-fe which took place at Seville, December 22, 1560, pronouncing her innocent of the crime of heresy, in the following terms : — " Because DoSia Juana de Bohorques died in prison [the reader will observe that they conceal the cause of her death], and because the merits of her process having been diligently and fully investigated and considered, she should have been found innocent, therefore the Holy Tribunal discharge her from all that the fiscal brought forward against her, freeing and absolving her entirely from the instituted action, and restoring her to her innocence and good reputation : commanding . all her goods previously put and sequestered in the hands of justice to be restored to her heirs." ' By this their own sentence the in quisitors stand self-condemned of injustice and barbarity, in their treatment of this lady, against whom, notwithstanding all their arts • Histoire des Martyrs, p. 537. 668 Ladies of tlie Reformation. [Spain. of circumvention, they confess they had found nothing criminal, even according to their own laws.' This is shocking enough; but the history of the Inquisition is just a continued series of similar or greater atrocities. It never knew what it was to pity or to spare. It aeemed as if the actors in these tragedies had been incarnate fiends ; and if we conceive them to have been swayed by a sense of what they considered to be duty, though in the great majority of, casea it may be doubted whe ther conscience had anything to do in the matter, this would only afford a more melancholy proof that fanaticism, when armed with absolute irresponsible power, is the greatest curse that can befall a nation. It was this which, by all manner of barbarities, suppressed the Eeformation in Spain, so bright in its early promise; and it was this which sunk Spain from the high place she once occupied among the kingdoms of Europe, to that state of degradation, misery, and ruin in which she has remained for ages, as if, in the righteous retribution of Heaven, paying the penalty for having permitted the Inquisition to exist or to continue upon her soil, and to extinguish that truth which would have been to her, as to all the nations that have embraced it, a conservator and a source of greatness. 1 Histoire des Martyrs, p. 537. Llorente, tom. ii. pp. Ref. in Spain, pp. S19, 320. i-295. M'Crie's Hist, of the ¦*-++**+-*++++^»+-4'+-+*-+-*'*+-**-*+***-++*-**-*-*- s-ji APPENDIX. No. I.— (p. 100.) Elizabeth, Queen of Christian II. , King of DewmarTc. This queen had become a convert to the Reformed doctrines before her con sort had been deposed from his throne. After his arrival in Germany, she conversed, at Wittenberg, with Luther, by whom she was confirmed in the new doctrines. Many of his booka had been sent to her by Albert, Duke of Prussia, and they had the same effect. In October, 1523, when she was at Niirnberg, it became known that she had publicly professed the Lutheran doctrinea.' Her brother Ferdinand, on hearing of this, was so indignant, that he said he would rather she had been drowned in the sea than that she had conversed with Luther at Wittenberg. At Easter, next year, she pub licly joined in the celebration of the sacrament of the supper under both kinds, in the castle of Nurnberg. This, when reported to Ferdinand, in creased his indignation,, and he told her to her face that he wished she had not been his sister. Her calm yet firm reply reflects honour upon her me mory. "Ferdinand," said she, "we were both brought into the world by one mother. 1 wiU hold by the Word of God, and by it alone, and will fol low no man. In other respects I will do everything to please you. Will you yet disown me as your sister? If you do, I only regret it ; I cannot act otherwise ; I cannot offend God to please even those on earth whom I love moat." This queen's earthly course was now near its close, and she died steadfast in the confession of the Protestant dootrities. Luther, in a Latin letter to John Agricola, schoolmaster of Eisleben, dated February 18, 1526, refemng to her death, thus writes ; — " Elizabeth, wife of the King of Den mark, has departed this life. King Christian has apprized me of the melan choly event by a letter written with his own hand. She died in great faith. 670 Appendix. having received the Lord's Supper as administered according to its original institution by Christ, nor, though strongly tempted by the nobles, could she be persuaded to return to the faith of the pope.'' Luther, in celebrating the example of illustrious persons who had received the evangelical doctrine at the risk and loss of whatever they possessed, particularly names this queen, who, says he, died in exile, when she might, perhaps, have been re stored had she denied the gospel. • 1 No. IL— (p. 471.) Letter of Madame de Mornaij to her son PhiUp, Sieur des Bovea. " Mt son, God is my witness, that even before your birth he inspired me with a hope that you would serve him ; and this to you ought to be some pledge of his grace, and an admonition to perform your duty. With this intent your father and I have been at pains carefully to bring you up in his fear, which we have endeavoured, according to our ability, to make you drink in with your milk. We have also taken care, in order to your being the better fitted for receiving it, to instruct you in every branch of useful learning (and, thanks be to Him, with some measure of success), to the end you may not only live, but also shine in his church. ' ' 1 now see you read}- to go forth into the world, to become acquainted with the manners of men and the condition of nations ; and although 1 can not follow you with my eye, I shall follow you with the same aflfection, and beseech God that the same instructions may accompany you wherever you go ; that you may grow in the fear and love of God, advance in the know ledge of everything good, be strengthened in the calling you have received from Him to his service, and make every gift and talent with which he has aheady endued you, or may hereafter endue you, contribute to his honour and glory. He has pri-vdleged you with being bom in his church — a privi lege which he has denied to so many nations and so many distinguished men. Adore, my son, reverently adore the privilege of being born a Chris tian ! He has caused you to be bom in the light of a church withdrawn from the kingdom of darkness and from the tyranny of Antichrist, which had encompassed us in preceding ages, although the great ones of the world, the powers of the present age, for the most part continue to wallow in it. Adore, with renewed gratitude, this mercy, this special care which God has 1 Seek. Hist. Luth. lib. i. sec. cxlvii. p. 261 ; sec. clx. p. 2S.Q : and lib. ii. see. xiii. p. 123. Luther's Letters in his AVorlcs, Walch's Gennan edition, toI. xxi. p. 998. vouchsafed to you, in exempting you from ihe general apostasy whioh has reigned over so many nations, and during so many ages. But he has also given you a father, by whom he has seen fit to be served in his day, and wiU still be served to hia glory — who has dedicated you to his service from your infancy — wlio in this hope has educated you, according to your age, in piety and learning — who, in short, haa omitted nothing, neither fervent prayers to God nor anxious care for your instruction, in order to render you one day capable of inheriting his work. " Reflect that by suoh means God desires to bring you to great things, to make you an instrument, in your time, of that restoration of the church which cannot be much longer delayed. Lift up your whole soul to this pur pose ; and doubt not in the meantime, my son, that God will assist you — that in seeking him you will find him ready to meet you — that in pursuing his honour you will receive more than the world can either give or promise. But also be afraid of his judgments if you neglect him, or if you possess his favours in ingratitude; for mercy despised turns to condemnation, and the more special the favours, the more deserving of punishment will be the ne glect or abuse of them. " You are young, my son, and divers imaginations present themselves to youth, but always remember the saying of the Psalmist, ' How shall a young man direct his way ? Certainly by conducting himself according to thy word, O Lord.' Nor will there be wanting persons who will desire to turn you aside therefrom to the left hand or to the right. But say also with the Psalmist, ' I will associate only with those that keep thy laws. Thy laws, 0 God, shall be the men of my counsel.' " But again, that you may not be without a guide, here is one which I present to you with my own hand to attend you. It ia the example of your father; aud I adjure you to keep ever before your eyes the information which 1 have been able to collect concerning his life, notwithstanding the frequent inten-uptions of our intercourse in consequence of the calamities of the tiines. Here you will find enough to make you acquainted with the graces with which God has endowed him, as well as with the zeal and affec tion with which he haa employed them, and to give you hope of like aa sistance from the Divine goodnesa when you reaolve to serve God with all your heart. " I am in a delicate state of health, and have reason to think that God -will not continue me long in this world. Carefully keep this writing in re membrance of me ; and when it shall please God to remove from you your father, 1 desire you to finish what I have begun to ^vrite as to the course of our life. But above all, my son, I would believe that you will not lend a deaf ear when 1 exhort you to serve God wherever you go, and to follow the example of your father. 1 shall go down contented to the grave at what- C72 Apjjendix. ever hour God. may call me, when 1 shall have beheld you with swift and steady steps advancing his honour, whether by assisting your father in his holy labours, so long as God shall preserve him to you (and I beseech God that it may be for many years, to promote his glory and to guide you through the paths of the world), or whether by causing him to live again in you, if God in his goodness appoint you to survive him. " I further commend your sisters to your care. Show, by your tender aflfection towards them, that you love yom- mother, and would have con tinued to love her. Reflect, also, that young as you are, should God re move us hence, you ought to be to them a father. And I pray God, my son, that he may grant you all to live in his fear and in true affection to wards each other ; and in confidence of this 1 give you my blessing, and be seech him with all my heart that he may give it effect iu Jesus Christ his Son, and communicate to you his Holy Spirit. " Written at Saumur, this Tuesday, the 2oth of April, 1595. — Your most affectionate and loving mother CHAELOTTE Aebaleste." No. III.— (p. 492.) Notice of Vittoria Colonna. If doubts exist as to whether this lady ultimately joined the ranks of the Reformers, yet as it is certain that she adopted some of the fundamental principles of the Reformation, and as a glance at some passages in her his tory may serve still further to show the strong tendencies towards Protes tantism in Italy in her day, some notices of her may here be subjoined. Vittoria Colonka was bom in the year 1490. She was the daughter of Fabrizio Colonna, Lord of Marino, Duke of Albi and Tagliacozza, by his wife Agnesina, daughter of Federigo di Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, by his second wife, Battista Sforza.' Vittoria's mother, and especially her grandmother, were women distinguished for their talents and their literary tastes. These distinctions she inherited from her mother and grandmother, whom .she even surpassed in genius and learning ; and to these endowments were added beauty and piety — all whichhave been celebrated in the highest strains by her contemporaries. In conformity with the customs of the age, she was, at the age of four, betrothed to Ferdinando Francesco Davalos, son of the Marquis of Pescara, who was horn in the same year as herself; and their marriage was cele- ' Dennistoun's Memoirs ofthe Dukes of Urbino, vol. i. pp. 212, '277. Appendix. G73 brated when they were seventeen years of age ; soon after wliich Ferdinando came to the title of Marquis of Pescara, by the death of his father. During the first four years of their married life, Vittoria and her husband resided in a palace, which was one of the family residences, in the island of Ischia, and here she employed much of her time in the cultivation of the elegant arts and literature. At the close of that period Ferdinando left her to join the imperial army. At the battle of Eavenna, which was fought soon after, he commanded as general of the cavalry ; but he was there taken prisoner, and held in captivity for nearly a year. Having obtained his li berty, he subsequently occasionally visited Vittoria at Ischia, but in conse quence of the wars in which Charles V. was involved, he could stay with her only for a short period. During the time of their separation she allevi ated her solitude, which was the more irksome that she had no children, by devoting herself to intellectual pursuits. She had early shown a genius for poetry, and now she found a pleasing occupation in those elegant poetical compositions in which she celebrates the virtues of her husband, and gives vent to the tenderness and strength of her own affection. These eflFusions of her genius she regularly sent to him, and he responded, if not in poems, yet in letters breathing the tenderest attachment. At the battle of Pavia, fought February 24, 1525, he was generalissimo of the imperial army, and contributed greatly by his courage and military akill to the gaining of that battle by the Imperialists. He was, however, wounded on that memorable day, and died at Milan, November 29, that year, when only in the thirty-fifth year of his age, while besieging the for tress ofthat place. Vittoria, on receiving the intelligence of his death, was inconsolable, and when she was able to compose herself to write, she gave expression to her grief in strains of poetry. The following is one of the tender and beautiful sonnets in which she pours forth her feelings of desola tion in her state of mournful widowhood : — " Methinks the siui his wonted beam denies, Nor lends so fair light to his sister's car ; Methinks each planet mild, and lovely star, Has left its sweet course in the spangl'd skies. Fallen is the heart of noble enterprise, True glory perish'd, and the pride of war ; All grace and ev'ry virtue faded are — The leaf is wither'd and the flow'ret dies, Unmov'd I am, though earth and heav'n invite, Warm'd by no ray, nor fann'd if zephyr blow ; All offices of nature are derang'd. Since the bright sun that cheer'd me vanish'd eo — The courses ofthe world have quite been chang'd. Ah, no ! but sorrow veils them from my sight." » ' Glassford's Lyrical Compositions selected, from tlie Italian Poets, p. 79. 43 671 Appendix. Vittoria, though in the prime of life when bereaved of her huaband, and though she survived hirn upwards of twenty-one years, cherished hig memory with such rare constancy that she could never be induced to contract a second marriage, of which 'she had repeated proposals made to her. "To others," she said, "the noble Pescara may be dead; to me he still lives." Having resolved now to spend the remainder of her days in seclusion from the gay world, coveting neither its pleasures nor the incense of its flattery, she sought and found in literary and sacred studies, and in devotional exercises, resources by which to solace the solitariness of widowhood. Yet, while cultivating mortification to the world as a prime religious duty, she never bound herself by the monastic vow-s ; nor did she so abstract herself from society as not to maintain intercourse with many chosen friends, among whom were a con siderable number of learned men, who admired the elegance of her genius, and were attracted by the charms of her conversation. Bom and brought up in the Church of Rome, she observed the outward forms of the worship of that church ; but her enhghtened mind rising superior to its superstitions, she placed religion mainly in mortification to the world and self, and in the con templation and love of God. In one of her sonnets, in which she represents these as the chief constituents of aU true piety, ahe says : — " Etemal God, what peace of mind has he — What light, wliat love, what joy of various kind — When to the world and self no more inclined. His heart with full desire is tmned to thee ! " ^ And Aretino in writing to her says, " It surely is not your opinion that the silent tongue, the downcast eyea, and the coarse raiment are the great essen tials, but purity of soul."'' While she was residing at Naples, the doctrine of justification by faith in the satisfaction of Chriat without human merita, waa extensively propagated in that city by the zealous private inatruetiona of a Spaniard, Juan Valdez, who -waa one of the viceroy's secretaries. From his position in society, his engaging manners, his eminent talents, and hia uncommon conversational powers, Valdez had acquired great influence, and had succeeded in rendering that doctrine highly popular among many in Naples, not only of the common people, but of the learned and of the higher ranks of both sexes. Among other women of distinction who became converts to this the fundamental doctrine of the Reformation was Vittoria Colonna.-' It seemed to her to be the plain teaching of the Scriptures, and it also recommended itself to her judgment as the truth of God, from its adaptation to the deep wants of man's spmtual nature, who, as a sinner, needs above all things reconciliation -witli ' Glassford's Lyrical Compositions, &c., p. 69. 2 Ranke's Hist, qf tlie Popes, hook ii. 3 lhid. Appendix. 675 God. Other correlative doctrines were embraced by her not less sincerely and strongly. She -was convinced, for example, that all spiritual life, that all grace and strength, must be derived from vital union to Christ, and that without supplies from him neither spiritual life nor Christian fruitfulness can be maintained. This doctrine she beautifully lays down and dwells upon in one of ber sonnets, in whioh she delineates her own experience. " Thanks to thy sovereign grace, O God ! if I Am graff'd in that true vine a living shoot. Whose arms emtirace the world, and in whose root. Planted hy faith, our life must hidden lie. But thou beholdest how I fade and dry. Choked with a waste of leaf, and void of fruit, Unless thy spring perennial shall recruit My sapless branch, still wanting fresh supply. 0 cleanse me, then, and make me to abide WhoUy in thee, to drink thy heaveidy dew. And, watered daUy with my tears, to grow. Thou art the Truth, thy promise is my guide ; Prepare me when thou comest. Lord, to show Fruits answering to the stock on which 1 grow." ' These resuscitated and living truths engaged much of the attention of Vittoria, who was so greatly disposed to religious contemplation and in quiry; and in the religious moveraent in Naples she took a lively interest. Between the Reformers in that city and her there was a comraunity of con viction ; she assembled with them in their meetings, and in contemporary documents she is referred to as one of the raost illustrious converts in Italy to the new opinions.^ Among her most intimate friends and most welcome visitants, were some of those Italian divines who favoured the doctrines of the Reformation. The celebrated Bernardino Ochino, in particular, occupied a high place in her esteem. No one more revered his character, or more admired his unrivalled eloquence, or more ardently drunk in evangelical truth from his eloquent and impassioned diacouraea when he preached at Naplea, than Vittoria. The friendahip existing between Vittoria and Ochino was -well known ; and in the year 1538, when the principal inhabitants of Venice, araong whom a strong tendency to evangelical truth had sprung up, were passion ately desirous to procure him to preach to thera during the approaching Lent, Cardinal Berabo, at their request, wrote to Vittoria, beseeching her to use her influence with Ochino, which was great, to induce hira to comply -with thia invitation. This she did -with success; aud after Ochino had been for aorae time preaching to the people of Venice, Bembo, in an elegant ^ Glassford's Lyrical Compositions, &c., p. 71. 2 M'Crie's History ofthe Reformation in Italy, p. 164, 676 Appendix. letter addressed to her from that eity, February 23, 1539, while describing the entrancing power of Ochino's oratory, and the excellence of the matter he delivered, returns her thanks for aending them a preacher from whoae serraons he and the people of Venice had received so much instruction and delight. "I send your highness," aays he, "the extracts of our very reve rend Frate Bernardino, to whom I have hstened, during the small part of this Lent which is over, with a pleasure whioh I cannot sufBciently express. Assuredly I never have heard a preacher more useful or holier than he. I do not wonder that your highness esteems him so much as you do. He dis courses very differently from, and in a more Christian manner than any other that has mounted the pulpit in my day, and with more lively charity and love, brings forth truths of superior exceUence and uaeftdness. He pleases everybody above mea.sure, and will carry the hearts of all with him when he leaves this place. From the whole city I send your highness immortal thanks for the favour you have done ua, and I, especially, will ever feel obliged to you," In another letter to her, dated March 1.5, he says: — "I talk with your highness as I talked this moming -with the reverend father, Frate Bernar dino, to whom I have laid open my whole heart and soul, as I would have done to Jesus Christ, to whom I am persuaded he is acceptable and dear. Never have I had the pleasure to speak to a holier man than he. I should have been now at Padua, both on account of a business which has engaged me for a whole year, and also to shun the applications with which I am incessantly assailed in consequence of tbis blessed cardinalate;' but 1 was unwilling to deprive myself of the opportunity of hearing his most excellent, holy, and edifying sermons." And on the 14th of April be -writes : — " Our Frate Bernardino, whom I desire henceforth to call mine as well as yours, is at present adored in this city. There is not a man or woman who does not extol him to the skies. 0 what pleasure ! 0 what delight ! 0 what joy has he .given ! But I reserve his praises until I meet your highness, and, in the meantime, suppUcate our Lord to order his life so as that it may endure longer to the honour of God and the profit of man, than it can endure according to the treatment which he now gives it."- Among others with whom Vittoria was on terms of intimate friendship, was Reginald Pole, afterwards made cardinal, who had quitted England rather than acknowledge Henry VIII.'s assumed supremacy over the church. Brought into fellowship vrith many of the literati in Italy who had embraced the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ alone, he pro- ' Bembo had lately received a cardinal's hat from Rome. '' M'Crie's Hisl. ofthe Ref. in Italy, pp. 112-114. Appendix. 677 fessed himself an ardent convert to this doctrine ; he even laboured to in stil it into the minds of others, joined with those favourable to evangelical truth in religious exercises, and was the means of drawing raany into their society, though, unhappily, in his subsequent career, his narae is ingloriously associated with that of Queen Mary in the persecution of the Protestants of Eugland. Taken altogether, he was just such a man as Vittoria was very likely to admit into her friendship. Hia fine talenta — hia literary tastes — his complaisant manners, and his ostentatious pretensions to piety, were aU calculated to win upon her, and they gained him in a high degree her confidence and esteem. ' From her admiration of Ochino's eloquence, aud her veneration for his character, fears were entertained, when he threw off his connection with the Roman CathoUc church, that she also would break off from its com munion. This issue Cardinal Pole, who, notwithstanding his warra approval of the doctrine of justification by faith, and his professed desire for the removal of ecclesiastical corruptions, never contemplated the overthrow of the Papal supremacy, or a separation from the Church of Rome, was vei-y desirous, if possible, to prevent. The loss of «¦ personage who en joyed such high and well-merited fame as Vittoria, would have been the loss of a name which refiected lustre upon the Romish church; and there can be no doubt that, had she taken the decisive step of practically testifying againat it as the Antichrist of Scripture, by a formal separation from its communion, this would have exercised an important influence, injurious to that church, upon many minds in Italy, who honoured her for the excellence of her cha racter, and acknowledged the fascinating power of her genius. Pole, there fore, exerted himself to the best of his ability to convince her that it would be dangerous for her to foUow the example of Ochino, who was himself on the road to eternal ruin, and who was drawing others to the same condem nation ; that her wisest and safest course would be to remain within the bosom of the Holy Catholic church, out of which there was no salvation, and to throw the weight of her influence into the scale of those who were endeavouring to protect the church against the dangerous designs and mea sures of such as were seeking its destruction ; that even to correspond with Ochino would expose her to the utmost peril, and that, therefore, should she receive letters from that bewitching orator, she ought to consult with him or Cardinal Cervini before reading them, or at least before returning an answer to them. From the high opinion she had formed of Pole, ber mind was greatly swayed by his counsel. It operated, if not in producing, yet in strengthen ing her aversion to the idea of abandoning the fellowship of the Church of ' Ranke's Hist, of the Popes, book ii. 678 Appendix. Rome, and it estranged her heart from her old friend Ochino. Having re ceived a packet from Ochino, sent her from Bologna, she now, acting upon Pole's advice, transmitted it for examination to Cervini, afterwards Pope MarceUus II., along with a letter to hira, in which she informs him that she had acted herein in conformity with the recommendation of her English friend, in complying with whose counsels she was persuaded, from her per sonal knowledge of his character, that she could not be wrong. In a post script to the letter she thus writes — a plain evidence of Pole's success in bringing her into precisely the state of mind he desired; — "I am grieved to see that the more he [Ochino] thinks to excuse himself he condemns him self the more, and the more he believes he will save others from shipwreck the more he exposes himself to the deluge, being out of the ark which saves and gives security."' The concluding part of this sentence, which is the latest expression of her sentiments on the question of separation from the Roman Catholic church that we have raet -with, reveals the mistaken principle which entangled the mind of Vittoria ; she clung to the idea of the unity of that church — to the belief that it alone was the fold of Christ, that in it alone salvation was to be found. The breaking of this unity was also the point at whioh many of the literati of Italy, whose opinions as to doctrine harmonized to a great extent with those of the Protestants, stmnbled. It was well that the Refoi-mers broke through the speU of the unity of the Romish church; for had there been no separations, no ruptures, the swelling agitations of the sixteenth century might gradually have subsided, and things have sunk down to the old level, and bave moved on in the old channel. Vittoria died at Rome, in 1547. Michael Angelo, one of her many de voted friends, visited her on her deathbed, and saw her expire. "When her lofty and gentle spirit had forsaken its fair tenement, he raised her hand and kissed it with a sacred respect."^ He composed a touching sonnet to her memory. Her worth and genius have also been embalmed by Ariosto, in seven stanzas of his Orlando Furioso, book xxxvii. Of her writings, ouly a few fugitive pieces remain. They are remarkable for the taste they dis play, corabined with the purest morality and the most fervent piety. "She is one of the best of the Italian sonnetteers,'' says a critic in the Ediribwrgh Review, "and in the grave dignity other sonnets, and in the absence of con ceits and epigramraatic turns, approaches nearly to the style of Words worth.' ^ 1 M'Crie's Ref. in Italy, pp. 164, 16S. " Mrs. Jameson. = Vol. lx. p. 359. Appendix. 679 No. IV.— (p. 525). Instructions of Henry II. of France to Oriz,. in Relation to Renee, Duchess of Ferrara. "Dr. Okiz, one of the penitentiaries of our holy father the pope, on ar riving at Ferrara, whither the king forthwith sends him, shall deliver to the Duke of Ferrara the letters which the said lord [Henry II.] has ¦written to him with his own hand, and shall make kno-svn to him how he [Oriz] has express commission from his majesty to exert himself to the ut most in the business in regard to which he is despatched. Immediately hereupon, he shall be informed by the said duke as to the means he shall adopt in order to begin and prosecute, in the best manner, so good, so holy, and salutary a work, which, by commandment of the king, he has imder taken. *' After having understood from the said duke what he is to do, and after having, from personal conversation with the duchess, carefully inquired into, and informed himself of the chief poiuts upon which she has fallen into error, that, precisely knowing her sentiments, he may advise as to the re monstrances, proposals, and arguments which he shall employ in order to reclaim her and bring her back to the flock of Jesus Christ, he shaU deliver the letter wiitten to her bythe king with his own hand. At the same time, he shall say to her that his majesty — ^having heard from several quarters of the calamity, than which a greater could not have happened to her, she had been brought into by precipitating herself into the labyrinth of these un happy and execrable opinions, contrary to our holy faith and religion — has been aflFected with a degree of sorrow impossible for hira to express, such news heing to him not less distressing than if he had heard of the death both of the body and soul of his only aunt, whom he has always so greatly loved, esteemed, and honoured, as he still does in no common degree; so that when he shall hear of her being reconciled and brought back to the tme obedience of the church, the relief and deUght this will aflford hira wiU not be less than if he saw her raised from death to life ; and the thanks he renders to God for the greatest blessings he has received will not be exceeded by the grati tude of heart he wiU experience on seeing her, as he hopes shortly to do, re conciled to, and restored to the pale of our holy mother church, and freed and purified from these accursed, execrable, and soul-ruining errors. To this she ought the more effectually to be persuaded, from the consideration of the great favours God has conferred upon her, and among others, of her being descended from the purest blood of the most Christian house of France, in which no monster haa ever dwelt. To see tbat that lady, instead of fol- 680 Appendix. lowing the footsteps of her progenitors, who with singular zeal have always protected our Holy Catholic faith, was resolved to continue pertinaciously ob stinate, would be exceedingly displeasing to the king, and would make him withhold the friendship, attentions, and marks of affection she might otherwise have expected from a good nephew, holding, aa he did, nothing in greater detestation than all who belong to such reprobate sects, of which he is a mortal enemy. " If after using suoh remonstrances and arguments as these, together with those whieh, from his office and profession, he shaU employ to instruct her in the truth and in the diflference between light and darkness, the said Dr. Oriz finds it impossible, by gentle methods, to gain and reclaim her, he will consider with the said duke what can be done by rigour and severity to bring her to reason. * ' And in the first place, the king is of opinion that the duke should cause some sermons to be preached by the said Oriz, upon the chief points as to which she is found to be most in error ; the duke himself to attend the ser mons and to enforce the attendance of the said lady with her whole house hold, however she may refuse or whatever objection she may make. Hav ing continued that exercise for some days, if he sees that such means are ineffectual in producing upon her a favourable impression, the said Oriz shall declare to her, in presence of the duke, that the king has given him express charge, by the present instructions, signed with his own hand, which he shaU theu show her, that if, after all possible endeavours have been made to bring her to a right mind, she is still resolved to continue obstinate and per tinacious in her said errors, without any wish to be brought back to the obedience of the church and to the observance of our Holy Catholic faith, his majesty wills, and indeed most earnestly beseeches and exhorts the duke to cause the said lady to be shut up in seclusion from all society, that she may no longer be able to corrupt anybody but herself, removing from her entirely her o-wn children and her whole household, of whatever nation, who have been accused or strongly suspected of the said errors and false doc trines ; and in order judicially to proceed against them, names the said Oriz as a person who is experienced in such matters, as being inquisitor of the faith in this kingdora : and their said process beiug ended, exemplary pun ishment is to be inflicted on the dehnquents, his majesty remitting it to the said duke to cause that in such executions and legal proceedings, as also that in what touches or concerns the person of the aaid lady and thoae who depend upon her, such moderation may be exercised that, the claims of justice being duly regarded, no scandal or cause of reproach may arise." ' ' Le Laboureur, tom. i. pp. 717, 718. Apperidix. 681 No. v.— (p. 595.) Letter of Olym.pia Morata to Anne of Este, Duchess of Guise. "Most iUustrious Princess Anne, — Although we are now far separated from each other, yet I have never ceased to remember you. I would have ¦written to you sooner, had it not been that for many good reasons 1 could not venture to do so. But 1 have embraced the opportunity whioh has now presented itself from the visit paid us here by a learned and pious man from Lorraine, of whom I inquired with the greatest earnestness how you were. When he promised to see to it that my letter should be conveyed to you, 1 could not think that you would be so unkind as not to read with pleasure a letter from her who was brought up with you from your tender years. You know how familiarly (although you were my princess and raistress) we lived together for so many years, and how we prosecuted together the same studies, which ought, surely, to increase continually the friendly feeling then formed between us. I indeed call God to witness, iUustrious princess, that from my heart I wish you all prosperity and happiness, and though I have no desire to live again in a court — for that, were I so inclined, I miglit do here — yet if, notwithstanding our distance from each other, I could do you service by ministering to your consolation, or in any other way, be ^ssured that I would do so with the greatest pleasure aud devotion. " There is nothing which I raore desire than that you should seriously apply yourself to the study of the sacred Scriptures, which alone can unite you to God and comfort you under all the miseries of this life. I myself have certainly no other consolation, no other delight. From the time wheu, by the singular goodness of God, I departed from the midst of the idolatry of Italy, and came with my husband, Andrew Grunthler, ^^ physician, into Germany, it is incredible what a change God has wrought upon my mind, so that in the reading of the Scriptures, for which I had formerly the greatest aversion, I now find my sole delight, and study them continually with all the application of mind of which I ara capable, despising aU those things — riches, honours, and pleasures — whioh forraerly I was wont so much to ad mire. 1 indeed wish, most excellent princess, that you would take these things into your most serious consideration. Believe me, there is nothing stable here ; all things are subject to change ; and the path of death, as the poet says, must one day, and that shortly, be trodden by us aU. Time flies away : neither riches nor honours, nor the favour of kings, are of any avail for our salvation ; that faith by which we embrace Christ can alone deliver 682 Appendix. us from eternal death and condemnation ; and this mith, as it is the gift of God, you ought to seek frora him by earnest, importunate prayer. " It is not enough to be acquainted with the history of Christ, of which even the devil is not ignorant ; it is necessary, besides, to ha-Ve that faith whieh worketh liy love, and by which you may be emboldened to profess Christ in the midst of his enemies ; for he says, ' Whosoever shaU be a.shamed of me, of him also shall I be ashamed before my Father ;' nor would there ever have been any martyrs had they concealed their faith. " Wherefore, ray deareat princess, sinoe God has so greatly favoured you as to have made known to you his truth, and since you well know that those persons who are now committed to the flaraes in such numbers, in France, are innocent, and undergo so many torments for the sake of the gospel of Christ, it is certainly your duty to make known your sentiments, either by vindicating them before the king or by interceding in their be half. If you hold your peace or connive, and suffer your brethren to be thus tormented and burned, -«'ithout manifesting, at le.ist by words, your displeasure at such proceedings, you will seem by your silence to conspu-e for their destruction, and to league with the enemies of Christ. " But perhaps you will say, ' Were I to do this 1 might excite the anger of the king or of my husband against me, and make many others my ene mies.' 0 consider that it is much better for you to be hated by men than by God, who is able to torment not only the body, but also the soul in ever lasting fire ! But if you have Him, in whose hands are all things, for your friend, no one can hurt you without his permission. Revolve, I pray you, these things in your mind. 0 that I had the satisfaction of knowing that you are in good earnest cultivating piety and the fear of God ! " Be dUigent, I beseech you, in the study of the Word of God and in prayer. ' Whatsoever,' says Christ, ' ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he will give it you' (John xv. 16). Eemember that you were born in a mortal condition, and do not listen to those who say, ' This life is very short, therefore let us foUow the desires of our heart, let us enjoy the plea sures of this world.' Listen rather to Paul, who says, ' If ye live after the flesh (that is, if ye surrender yourselves to sensual pleasures) ye shall perish for ever.' " Should I learn that my letter has been agreeable to you, I wiU write raore at length on this subject ; and if you desire to leam Christ, I will take care to have some Christian books conveyed to you. This letter I have written under the impulse of feelings of the most ardent affection towards you. Since God has called me to his most glorious heavenly kingdom, it is my most fervent desire that you may become a partaker of the same etemal blessings, and the knowledge that in answer to my prayers you have become Appendix. 683 so, would afford me the greatest happiness, and would call forth my most fervent gratitude to God. Farewell. "Heidelberg, Juhj 1, 1554.'" The scene at the execution of some of the Amboise conspirators, referred to in the Life of Olympia Morata as a probable evidence that this letter was not altogether without effect upon Anne of Este, may here be more fully described. Castelnau of Chalost, ^ with fifteen gentlemen who had been concerned in that conspiracy, having surrendered to the Duke of Nemours, on condition that they should be permitted to lay their- grievances before the king and then depart whithersoever they pleased, they were, in viola tion of this solemn promise which the Duke of Nemours had signed with his own hand, beheaded on a scaffold erected in front of the castle of Am boise. The king, queen, queen-mother, and all the lords and ladies of the court, witnessed the execution of the whole sixteen from the windows and balconies of the castle. The courtly spectators, with one exception, were all gay, as if witnessing sorae scene of amusement, talking and smiling to one another. This exception was the Duchess of Guise, who was reluctantly present and beheld the dismal spectacle with deep distress. The sufferers died off'ering up loud and fervent prayers to God, and appealing to Him in vindication of their innocence of any hostile purpose against the king or any ofthe royal family. Villemongue, one ofthe sufferers, having, before his execu tion, dipped his hands in the blood of his companions, raised them to heaven and cried with a loud voice, " Lord ! behold the blood of thy children most cruelly slain. Thou wilt take vengeance.'' At this appeal to Heaven, which went Uke a dagger to her heart, the Duchess of Guise gave a shriek of horror, and starting from her seat, rushed into the chamber of Catharine, the queen- mother, where she sobbed and cried most bitterly. The queen-mother, whose conscience was less easily impressed, asked the duchess why she lamented after such a manner. "Alas! madame, " replied she, "have Inot cause? I have witnessed the most strange and piteous tragedy — the effusion of inno cent blood — blood of the best and most faithful subjects the king ever had ; and much I fear some heavy curse will faU upon our house, and that God will exterminate us for this barbarity."^ 1 Opera Olympice Moratce, p. 146. - This was a different person from Castelnau de la Mauvissiere, author of the Memoires, who was a distinguished leader on the other side. ^ De Thou, Histoire, tom. ii. p. 773. Mrs. Marsh's Hist. Ref. in France, vol, i. pp. 132, 133. BLACKIE AND SONi THE IMPERIAL ATLAS OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY; An Extensive Series op Maps, embracing the most Recent Discoveries, aud the Latest Political Divisions of Territory, in all parts of the World. Compiled from the most Authentic Sources. Now publishing in Parts, 2s. Qd. each. THE COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, Civil and Military, Religious, Intellectual, and Social; from the Earliest Period to tlie Present Time. 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