Epilogue.
On this day, the 29th of September, 1609, I, Antonicq Lebrenn, now in my sixty-first year, close, on our farm of Karnak, this legend of our family, which is the continuation of the narrative written and bequeathed to us by my grandfather Christian the printer and friend of Robert Estienne.
Immediately upon the raising of the siege of La Rochelle I married Cornelia Mirant. Shortly after I put into execution a project that I had long been fondly nursing—that of moving to Brittany and establishing myself in the neighborhood of the cradle of my family. Before leaving La Rochelle, Colonel Plouernel, who recovered from his wounds sustained in the siege, renewed his offer of leasing out to me a farm belonging to the seigniorial estate of Mezlean, a patrimony of his wife's father, and known as the Karnak farm by reason of its being in the close neighborhood of the druid stones that bear that name. These stones are still extant, ranged in wide avenues, as they stood in the days of Julius Caesar, when our ancestress Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen, offered herself to the gods as a holocaust, in the hope of causing them to render the arms of the Gauls victorious in their impending struggle for independence. I accepted Colonel Plouernel's offer, an offer that also pleased Cornelia and her father, who, as he continued almost constantly to travel by water between La Rochelle and Vannes, a port located near Karnak, foresaw, as happened in fact, that he would spend near us all the time that he did not spend aboard ship. I sold my armorer's shop. Leaving my sister Theresa and her husband Louis Rennepont at La Rochelle, where the latter practiced the profession of law, and taking with us my uncle the Franc-Taupin, who promised to himself the pleasure of rocking our children on his knees and singing to them his Franc-Taupin songs, as he had done to my father Odelin, my ill-starred aunt Hena, and my uncle Hervé of sad memory, we departed from La Rochelle and settled down on our farm of Karnak on October 20 of the year 1573.
My sister Theresa and her husband Louis Rennepont still reside in the old Protestant city. Every year they come to see us. Thanks to the numerous trips that his profession compelled him to make to Paris, my brother-in-law came in contact with several Huguenots who were well informed on current events. His conversations with them, together with extracts from several books that were published concerning leading public men and important occurrences, furnished him with copious materials which he left with me. These materials enable me here to make a summary sketch of the leading events since the siege of La Rochelle was raised:
The edict of pacification of La Rochelle was not wholly satisfactory to the Huguenots of the other provinces. The example of the Low Countries, then in successful revolt against the monarchic-clerical power of Spain, and organized upon the republican pattern, inspired their brothers in France to renewed efforts. The "Politicals" gained new recruits every day. The Prince of Condé, ashamed of his act of desertion, fled the court and issued a manifesto from Strasburg repudiating his abjuration. Measures were in train to renew the war, and to overthrow Charles IX, when his death gave a new turn to affairs.
The monster expired in 1574, barely twenty-four years of age and haunted by his bloody deeds. "Oh! nurse, nurse!" he would cry in agonies of terror; "Oh! nurse, how much blood—it is St. Bartholomew's blood! Oh! how many murders—how many victims struggling to escape under the sword. I see them—Oh! what wicked councillors I had! Oh, God! Oh, God! have mercy upon me!"[85]
Charles IX was followed by his brother the Duke of Anjou, who, in the meantime, had been elected King of Poland. Apprized by his mother of his brother's decease, he fled his Polish kingdom, and mounted the French throne under the name of Henry III. True to his family traditions, Henry III sought at first to violate the Edict of La Rochelle. Finding this act of treachery unfeasible, he vacillated between extreme reaction and progress. This course earned for him the suspicion of the Catholic clergy and he was assassinated by a Dominican monk, James Clement, in 1589.
War again broke out, with Henry of Bearn now at the head of the Huguenots, to whom he returned during the reign of Henry III. Henry of Bearn now claimed the crown by inheritance as Henry IV, besieged Paris, and was finally crowned, but not until he once more abjured Protestantism. His reign was benign and favorable to the Reformation. In 1598 the Edict of Nantes was signed, granting the Huguenots absolute freedom of conscience. The policy of Henry IV enraged the priesthood, and he also fell a victim to the assassin's knife. The assassin's name was Francis Ravaillac. "Nine days after the death of Henry IV, on Tuesday, May 23, 1610, an altercation took place between Monsieur Leomenie and Father Cotton in full council. Leomenie said to the Jesuit that it was he and his Society of Jesus that murdered the King. On that same day, Ravaillac, being interrogated by the commission, answered in accordance with the maxims of the Jesuits Mariana, Becanus and others, whose writings recommend the killing of a tyrant."
The death of Henry IV conjured away the danger that Rome, the Empire and Spain saw themselves threatened with—the Christian Republic and the perpetual peace of Europe. The fresh murder, also committed at the instigation of the disciples of Loyola, had fatal consequences. But sooner or later Right triumphs over Wrong, Justice over Iniquity. Therefore, Oh, sons of Joel! no faltering. Some day the Universal Republic will unfurl the red banner of freedom, and will break the yoke both of the Roman Church and of this royalty that has oppressed Gaul for so many centuries.
As to our own family, Cornelia Mirant with whom I have now been married thirty-seven years, gave me after twenty years of our wedded life, a son whom I have named Stephan. We have lived on our farm near the sacred stones of Karnak, and not far from Craigh, the high hill upon which, according to our family traditions, stood the house of our ancestor Joel in the days of Julius Caesar. My uncle the Franc-Taupin remained with us to the end of his long and eventful life. He died on the 12th of November, 1589.
My brother-in-law Louis Rennepont continues to exercise his profession at La Rochelle. The youngest of his sons, Marius Rennepont, embraced the career of merchant mariner and sailed away, when still very young, on board a merchant vessel commanded by one of Captain Mirant's friends. Captain Mirant died in 1593. That same year we lost our old friend Master Barbot, the boilermaker of the isle of Rhe.
I preserved amicable relations to the end with Colonel Plouernel, since the battle of Roche-la-Belle the head of his house. Shortly before his death we visited upon his invitation the old Castle of Plouernel, where our ancestor Den-Brao the mason was buried alive together with other serfs in the donjon constructed by themselves, and out of which Fergan the Quarryman, Den-Brao's son, rescued his own child, a poor boy whose blood was to assist the incantations of Azenor the Pale, the mistress of Neroweg VI. Nothing is left to-day of that feudal edifice but imposing ruins. Its place is now taken by a magnificent castle built in the style of the Renaissance, and raised at the foot of the mountain. Colonel Plouernel's son remained faithful to the Reformed religion, but, after his death, his son abjured Protestantism and took up his residence at the court of Louis XIII, the successor of Henry IV, with whom he became a favorite. The new head of the family never returned to his own castle, which, together with the vast domains attached to it, is ruled by the bailiffs of the seigniories of Plouernel and Mezlean.
Once, on the occasion of a trip to the port of Vannes, I met a traveler just arrived from Germany, who informed me of the death of Prince Charles of Gerolstein, a descendant of one of the branches of our plebeian family whose ancestor was Gaëlo, one of the companions of old Rolf, the chief of the Northman pirates. Prince Charles left a son behind, heir of his principality, who remains faithful to the Reformed religion.
Our life has run peaceful and happy at this place. We cultivate our fields, and they satisfy our wants. My son Stephan, now sixteen years of age, helps me in my field labors. He is of a kind, timid and diffident disposition, although born of so intrepid a mother as Cornelia. He will, I hope, live peacefully here, unless the civil discords, which already begin to threaten the minority of Louis XIII, should extend into Brittany.
I shall here close this narrative which my grandfather Christian the printer began under the reign of Francis I. I shall join it to the archives and relics of our family together with the pocket Bible printed by my grandfather, and which his daughter Hena, baptized in religion Sister St. Frances-in-the-Tomb, held in her hands before she was plunged twenty-five times into the flames on the 21st of January, 1535, under the eyes of King Francis I, to the greater glory of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church.
THE END.
Footnotes:
[1] Tire-Laines means literally Wool-Pluckers.
[2] Tire-Soies: literally Silk-Pluckers.
[3] Mauvais-Garçons; literally Bad Boys.
[4]
From the bowels of the earth I have cried up to thee, O, Lord;
O, Lord, give ear unto my voice.
May thy ears be ready to listen
To the voice of my supplications.
[5] This whole sermon la a reproduction from the records of the time. See Merle d'Aubigné, History of the Reformation in the XVI Century, vol. 1. p. 332. (Pp. 86, 87, edition H. W. Hagemann Publishing Co., New York, 1894.)
[6] We consider it our duty to cite literally the monstrous fact against which the heart rises in revolt, and reason feels indignant:
"Sub commissariis insuper ac praedicatoribus veniarum imponere ut si quis, per impossibile. Dei genetricem, semper virginem violasset, quod eundem indulgentiarum vigore absolvere posset luce clarius est...."—(l'ositiones fratris J. Tezelil, quibus defendit indulgentias contra Lutherum. Theses 99, 100 and 101). Cited by Merle d'Aubigné, History of the Reformation in the XVI Century, p. 86, edition H. W. Hagemann Publishing Co., New York, 1894.
[7] Merle d'Aubigné. History of the Reformation in the XVI Century, vol. I, pp. 328, 329. (P. 88, edition H. W. Hagemann Publishing Co., New York, 1894.)
[8] The seat of the University of Paris.
[9] For these horrible calumnies spread by the clergy against the Reformation, see De Thou, vol. I, book II, p. 97.
[10] In Spanish, as well as French, "woman" and "wife" are the same word. Loyola punned upon the word.
[11] For a thrilling account of one of these invasions, see "The Iron Arrow Head," the tenth of this series.
[12] "Executio ad alios pertinet."—Bellarmin, vol. I, chap. VII, p. 147.
[13] Mariana, De Rege, vol. I, chap. VI, p. 60.
[14] "'Alas', the monk explained, '... men have arrived at such a pitch of corruption now-a-days, that unable to make them come to us, we must e'en go to them, otherwise they would cast us off altogether;... our casuists have taken under consideration the vices to which people of various conditions are most addicted, with a view of laying down maxims which... are so gentle that he must be a very impracticable subject indeed who is not pleased with them.'"—Blaise Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VI, pp. 219, 220, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[15] Practice According to the School of the Society of Jesus (Praxis ex Societatis Jesu Schola). The passage reads: "Si habitum dimmittat ut furetur occulte, vel fornicetur."—Treatise 6, example 7, number 103. Also in Diana: "Ut eat incognitus ad lupanar."—Cited by Blaise Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VI, p. 215, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[16] Father Gaspar Hurtado, On the Subject of Sins (De Sub. Pecc.), diff. 9; Diana, p. 5; treatise 14, r. 99.—Cited by Blaise Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VII, p. 234, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[17] Father Anthony Escobar of Mendoza, Exposition of Uncontroverted Opinions in Moral Theology, treatise 7, example 4, no. 223.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VI, p. 226, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[18] Father Etienne Bauny, Summary of Sins (1633), sixth edition, pp. 213, 214.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VI, p. 226, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[19] "Non ut malum pro malo reddat, sed ut conservet honorem." are the words of Reginaldus, in Practice According to the School of the Society of Jesus, book 21, no. 62, p. 260. Also Lessius, Concerning Justice (De Justitia), book 2, chap. 9, division 12, no. 79.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VII, pp. 233, 234, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[20] Sanchez, Moral Theology, book 2, chap. 39, no. 7.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VII, p. 237, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[21] Molina, vol. 1, treatise 2, division 88, no. 6. Also Escobar, Moral Theology, treatise 6, example 6, no. 48.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VIII, pp. 249, 250, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[22] Father Bauny, Summary of Sins, chap. 14.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VIII, p. 252, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[23] "Media benevolentia."—Escobar, Moral Theology, treatise 3, example 5, no. 4.33,34.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VIII, p. 253, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[24] Lessius, confirmed by Escobar, treatise 3, example 2, no. 163.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VIII, pp. 254, 255, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[25] Lessius, book 2, chap. 14, division 8; approved and endorsed by Escobar: "Quamvis mulier illicite acquirat, licite tamen retinet acquisita." treatise 1, example 8, no. 59.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VIII, pp. 257, 258, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[26] Lessius, book 2, chap. 14, division 8. Also Escobar, treatise 1, example 9, no. 9.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VIII, p. 256, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[27] Vasquez, Treatise upon Alms, chap. 4. So, also, Diana.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VI, p. 214, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[28] Escobar, treatise 3, example 1, no. 23; treatise 5, example 5, no. 53.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter VIII, p. 258, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[29] Sanchez, part 2, book 3, chap. 6, no. 13; Filiutius, treatise 25, chap. 11, nos. 331, 328.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter IX, pp. 276, 277, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[30] Father Bauny, Summary of Sins, p. 148.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter IX, p. 279, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[31] Escobar, chapter on thieving, treatise 1, example 9, no. 13.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter IX, p. 281, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[32] "Ob naturalem fastus inclinationem"—Escobar, treatise 1, example 8, no. 5.—Cited by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter IX, pp. 279, 280, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[33] Father Bauny, Summary of Sins, p. 165.—Alluded to by Pascal, Letters to a Provincial, Letter IX, p. 279, edition Houghton, Osgood & Co., Boston, 1880.
[34] To the greater glory of God.
[35] Confession of Faith of the English Reformers.—Theodore de Beze, Ecclesiastical Annals, vol. 1, pp. 109-118.
[36] This charming passage is to be found in The Book of Master Bernard Palissy; quoted in the Protestant Review, vol. I, p. 23.
[37] Form adopted by the Consistory
[38] Protestant marriage service, according to the Psalms of David; translated into French by Clement Marot, Geneva.
[39] History of the Town of Paris, by Dom Felibien, of the congregation of St. Maur; Paris, 1725, vol. V, p. 343. Also given in the Registers of the Town Hall of Paris, and the Registers of the Parliaments, folios 507-686.
[40] Dom Felibien, History of the Town of Paris, vol. V, pp. 343-347; French Ceremonial, pp. 940 and following; Registers of the Town Hall of Paris, etc.
[41] De Thou, History of France, book I, p. 271.
[42] These monstrosities seem to exceed the boundaries of the possible. Let us quote literally the text of the historians:
"On the evening of the same day (January 21, 1535) the six culprits were taken to the parvise of Notre Dame, where the fires were prepared to burn them. Above the pyres rose a sort of scaffolding on which the patients were tied fast. The fire was then lighted under them, and the executioners, GENTLY slacking the rope of the lever, allowed the miscreants to dip down to the level of the flames, in order that they be caused to feel the sharpest smart; they were then raised up again, kept hanging ablaze in midair, and, after having been several times put through that painful torment, they were dropped into the flames where they expired." (History of France by Father Daniel of the Society of Jesus, vol. IV, page 41, Paris, 1751.)
"On the said day (January 21, 1535) in the presence of the King, the Queen and all the court, and after the aforesaid remonstrances, the six heretics were brought forward to make the amende honorable before the church of Notre Dame of Paris, and immediately after they were burned alive." (Acts and Deeds of the Kings of France and England, by Jean Bouchet. Poitiers, 1557, in-folio, pp. 271-272.)
"In order to purge their sin, the said heretics were burned to death on the said day (January 21, 1535) at several places, as the King passed by, while in vain the poor sufferers cried and implored him for mercy." (History of the State of Religion, by Jean Sleidan. 1557, vol. IX, p. 137). (Quotations from Catholic works.)
[43] Exhortation of the King of France against the Heretics, Jean Bouchet, Poitiers, 1557, in-folio, p. 272.
[44] On the subject of this decree, which was later forcibly annulled, see Extracts of the Registers of the Parliament of Paris, LXXVI, folio 113, collated and extracted by M. Taillandier.—Cited in the introduction to the History of the Printing Press in Paris, Memoirs of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. XII.
[45] It was no infrequent occurrence to cause the tongues of heretics to be cut out, in order to prevent them from confessing aloud the Evangelical doctrine as they marched to the stake.—See the following citation, from Theodore of Beze.
[46] "Among those burnt at Paris that day, January 21, 1535, were: John Dubourg, a merchant-draper of Paris, living in St. Denis Street, at the sign of the Black Horse; Etienne Laforge, of Tournay, but long an inhabitant of Paris, a man very rich and very charitable; a schoolmistress named Mary La Catelle; and Anthony Poille, an architect formerly of Meaux, and blessed of God in that he carried off the palm among the martyrs, for having been the most cruelly treated. He had his tongue cut out, as more fully it is set forth in the book of the martyrs."—Ecclesiastical Chronicles, Theodore of Beze, vol. I, p. 1.
[47] "Jacques Bonhomme," literally Goodman Jack, or Jack Drudge.
[48] Contribution in forced labor.
[49] Latin: "Let us pray."
[50] Brantoine, Illustrious Women, vol. IX, p. 171.
[51] Register Journal of L'Etoile, p. 28.
[52] The queen's words are historical. The book was Marvelous Discourses on Catherine De Medici, by Robert Estienne, Geneva, 1565.
[53] Register Journal of L'Etoile, p. 30.
[54] That was the familiar appellation at court of Princess Marguerite, the daughter of Catherine of Medici and Henry II, so famous for her excesses. She married Henry IV, who later divorced her.
[55] De Thou, History of France, book LXXIV, p. 240.
[56] Register Journal of L'Etoile, supplement, p. 57.
[57] Register Journal of L'Etoile, supplement, p. 198.
[58] Register Journal of L'Etoile, p. 234. It is impossible to cite in full this all too true satire on the abominable morals of the court of France in the sixteenth century.
[59] Register Journal of L'Etoile, supplement, pp. 236, 239.
[60] Register Journal of L'Etoile, supplement, p. 239.
[61] "Driven thereto by the Cardinal of Lorraine, who blamed the conduct of the Duke of Anjou, the Queen came to the army in person in order to enlighten herself upon the mistake of not having engaged battle before the enemy's forces had effected a junction, that is, after the death of the Duke of Deux-Ponts, who was poisoned by some wine presented to him by a wine merchant of Avallon. Her Majesty wished to take the field with Marshal Tavannes."—Memoirs of Gaspard of Sault, Seigneur of Tavannes. pp. 322-323.
[62] Letters of Pius V. March 23-April 13, 1569, at Catena—Life Of Pius V, p. 85.
[63] De Thou, History of France, LXXXV, p. 129.
[64] Machiavelli, The Prince, chap. 18.
[65] Journal and Memoirs of Francis of Lorraine, Duke of Aumale and of Guise, containing the affairs of France and the negotiations with Scotland, Italy and Germany, pp. 664-665.
[66] Exodus 21, 23-25.
[67] Morning prayer of the guard, 1569.—Protestant Review, vol. I, p. 105.
[68] The document, here reproduced, is the literal testament of Admiral Coligny, taken from the original manuscripts of the National Library, Collection of Puy, vol. LXXXI. This document, of so great a historic value, was first published in full in 1852 by the Historical Society of French Protestants, vol. I. p. 263. That which, in our estimation, imparts a double interest to the testament, is the circumstance that it was written by the Admiral during the war (June, 1569) after the battle of Jarnac and before the battle of Montcontour.
[69] Register Journal of L'Etoile, p. 217. The original of this monstrous letter was deposited among the manuscripts of the National Library of France by decree of the Convention, the 11th, Ventose, year II of the Republic. The immortal Constitutionals wished thus to nail royalty once more to the pillory of history.
[70] "While the admiral was in camp, Dominic, one of his chamber valets, convicted of having tried to poison his master, was hanged.... Having been captured by La Riviere, captain of the guard of the Duke of Anjou, he was overwhelmed with promises; he was made to expect everything, if he would poison his master. Dominic yielded, received money and a poisonous powder, and returned to the camp of Monsieur Coligny."—De Thou, History of France, vol. V, p. 626-627. See the same historian on the poisoning of the Duke of Deux-Ponts, of Dandolet, and others.
[71] Inhabitants of the fortified city of La Rochelle.
[72] For the details of this battle, see De Thou, vol. V. p. 500; Memoires of Gaspard of Sault, Seigneur of Tavannes, vol. I, p. 323 and following. Memoires of Francis of Lanoüe, vol. I, p. 623, and following.
[73] Memories of the State of France under Charles IX, vol. 1, pp. 5-12.
[74] "Contre-Un" (Against-One) is the title at a book written in the sixteenth century by Estienne of La Boetie against monarchy.
[75] La Boétie is to-day known mainly through the friendship that united him to Montaigne, and which inspired the latter to write one of his most charming passages.
La Boétie was born in Sarlat, November 1, 1530; he died in Germignat, near Bordeaux, August 18, 1563. He left several works, all of which are to-day almost unknown. Unquestionably the most curious of his productions is the one mentioned by Montaigne in these terms:
"My power of handling not being such that I dare to offer as a fine piece richly painted and set off according to art, I have therefore thought best to borrow one of Estienne of La Boetie, and such a one as will honor and adorn all the rest of my work: namely, a discourse that he called Voluntary Servitude, which others have since further baptized the Contre-Un, a piece written in his younger years, by way of essay, in honor of liberty against tyranny, and which has since been in the hands of several men of great learning and judgment, not without singular and merited commendation, for it is finely written and as full as anything can possibly be."—Montaigne, Essays, Book I, chap. 27.
[76] An allusion to the Vision of Victoria, depicted in "The Casque's Lark," the fifth of this series.
[77] It is certain that Admiral Coligny's head departed for Rome; whether it ever arrived there is not known. Mandelot, the Governor of Lyons, acknowledged receipt of a letter from Charles IX ordering the nobleman "to arrest the carrier of the head, and to take the same away from him."—Extracts from the correspondence of Mandelot, published by M. Paulin, Paris, 1845, p. 119.
[78] Out of respect for our female readers we dare not here quote the Register Journal of L'Etoile, page 81, where is found in extenso the conversation, marked by a savage obscenity, between the Queen and the court ladies who accompanied her. The conversation is confirmed by all contemporaneous historians.
[79] See "The Brass Bell," number two in this series.
[80] See "The Carlovingian Coins," the ninth of this series.
[81] See, on the siege of La Rochelle, the daring manoeuvres of Captain Mirant; the combat sustained by Barbot the boilermaker, single-handed against two companies; the firing of the stranded ship L'Ensensoir by the Rochelois women, and their heroism in the combats in which they took part, History of La Rochelle and of the Country of Aunis, by Arcère 1756, 2 vols. in quarto. I refer my readers to that excellent work in order that those who would wish to certify the facts may see that all the episodes herein narrated concerning the siege of La Rochelle are strictly historic.
[82] As thrillingly recounted in "The Pilgrim's Shell," the twelfth work of this series.
[83] As an instance of the proud and noble bearing of the staunch republicans in this Council, the story is told that when it was found that in the passport issued by the Duke of Anjou the Rochelois were designated as "rebels," they refused to accept it, and Anjou was forced to send another passport.—History of La Rochelle, by Arcere, p. 417.
[84] "I am guilty, I am guilty, I am very guilty."
[85] Register Journal of L'Etoile, p. 34.