pleasant green fields and led them into the middle of the Hall where the Spectators were with much pleasure entertained with new Dances about the Fountain for a full hour Then the defendants being prevailed upon by their entreaties the Knights Errant that were shut up in Hell were released who presently in a confused skirmish break their spears at last the Gunpowder that was laid by pipes about the Fountain being fired fire broak forth with a great noise and consumed all their Scenes and so all departed This shew was variously interpreted for that the assailants who were most of them Protestants did in vain attempt to get into the seats of the blessed and were afterwards thrust down into Hell for so they put a mockery upon the Protestants and others did bode that it portended some mischief However certain it is that Francis E. of Momorancy whether suspecting some evil or being indisposed by reason of the tossing of the Sea as lately returned from his Ambassy in England having obtained leave of the King went to Chantilly for his healths sake leaving in the Court Henry d'Anville Carolus Meruvius and Gulielmus Thoraeus his Brethren and that very happily for that most Illustrious Family V. Da. p. 370. for it was the general opinion that the plotters of the following Massacre would have comprehended them all in this conspiracy had they not feared that Momorancy who was now absent would have revenged it The next day being Thursday there was running at Tilts held in the Court-yard of the Louvre in which on the one side the King and his Brethren together with the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Aumale in the habit of Amazons and on the other side the King of Navar with his party in Turkish habits contended with their launces Scaffolds being set up on either side from which the Queen-Mother the King's Wife Lorain and all the Court-Ladies beheld the sports 8. Two days before the Counsel concerning the Massacre being not yet concluded the King with great shew of kindness bespeaks Coligni thus You know Father so he called him upon the account of his age and honour what you undertook to me that you would offer no injury so long as you are at Court to the Guises and they again engaged that they as they ought would behave themselves toward you and yours honourably and modestly I repose very great trust in your words but I have not the like confidence in their promises For besides that I know the Guises do by all means seek revenge I know their daring and haughty nature and in what favour they are with the people of Paris It would be a very great grief to me if they who under pretence of coming to the Marriage have brought with them a great party of souldiers well appointed should attempt any thing to your hurt for that would be an injury to my self Therefore if you think it expedient I think it convenient that the Regiment of the Guards be drawn into the City under these Commanders then he named those who were no way suspected who if any turbulent persons attempt any thing may be ready at hand to secure the publick Peace To such friendly discourse Coligni easily yielded his assent out of a desire of domestick Peace and being already overcome by the Court-flatteries therefore a Regiment is drawn within the walls without any suspition of the Protestants 9. This being done they enter into Counsel * Lib. 51. He mentions a former Consultation between the Queen-Mother Anjou Cardinal Lorain Aumale Guise Birage and others in the same Chamber wherein Guise was afterwards by the King's Command killed and afterwards in the same buildings where the King himself Henr. 3. here called Anjou was murthered by a Fryer again and after some debate the thing was left undetermined their opinions varying according to the condition of places and of the persons admitted to the Council For thus it was discoursed before the King with whom were in Council the Queen-Mother the Duke of Anjou and others There are two factions in the Kingdom one of the Momorancies to whom the Colignies were formerly added but now upon the account of Religion by which they have engaged many to them they constitute a new faction The other is of the Guises nor will France ever be quiet or that Majesty that is taken from Kings by the Civil Wars thence arising ever be restored till the chief of their Heads who disturb the most flourishing Empire and the publick Peace be stricken off They by the troubles of the Kingdom have grown to so great Power that they cannot be taken away at the same time they are severally to be taken off and set one against the other that they may destroy one another Coligni must be begun with who only survives of his Family who being taken out of the way it would much weaken the Momorancies who lie under so great an odium upon the account of their joyning with Coligni But this is an unworthy thing and not to be suffered by you said they directing their discourse to the King that a man whom only Nobility commends one that is advanced to honour by the favour of Kings now grown burdensom to the Nobility equal to Princes in honour grievous to your self should come to that height of madness and boldness that he should count it a sport to mock at Royal Majesty and every day at his own lust to raise Wars in the Kingdom Certainly his madness is above all things by you if you be indeed King to be restrained that by his example all may learn to bear their fortunes decently and use them modestly Nor only shall the faction of the Momorances be broken by his death but the power of the Protestants shall be over-turned of which when he is the very heart and soul in him alone the Protestants seem to live and he being dead they will fall with him This is not only useful but necessary for setling the publick Peace when as experience doth shew that as one house cannot not keep two Dogs nor one tree relieve two Parrots so one and the same Kingdom cannot bear two Religions This may be done without danger or blame if some cut-throat as there are enough of them to be had be suborned to take away the life of Coligni encouraged by some present reward and hopes of future who having done the thing may make his escape by the help of a light horse prepared for that purpose V. Dav. p 368 370 The opinion of Alberto Gondi Coun. of Retz For then without doubt the Protestants who are very numerous in the City supposing it to be done by the Guises will presently as you know they are a furious sort of people take up Arms and setting upon the Guisians they shall easily be cut off by their greater numbers for the people of Paris are much addicted to them and perhaps the Momorances so hateful to the Parisians shall be involved in
drew him on who yet wavered to the slaughter of all the Protestants in the City so that not knowing where he set his foot they brought him by degrees to this pass that he should take the whole blame upon himself and so case the Guisians who were not able to bear such a burden And to that end Anjou did as it it was laid produce Letters found in Teligny's desk written by the hand of Momorancy in which after the wound given to Coligny he did affirm that he would revenge this injury upon the Authors of it who were not unknown with the same mind as if it had been offered to himself Thereupon the Queen and Anjou took occasion to shew the King That if he persisted in his former dissimulation things were come to that pass that he would endanger the security of the Kingdom his Fortunes Riches and Reputation For the Guisians who do by these Letters and otherwise understand the mind of the Momorancies being men desirous of troubles and seeking grounds of them upon every occasion will never lay down their Arms which they have by the King's command taken up to offer this injury that they will still keep them under pretence of desending their safety which they say is aimed at by the enemy and so that which was thought to have been the end of a most bloudy war will prove to be the beginning of a more dungerous one For the remainders of the Protestants who see their matters distressed will without doubt gather themselves to the Momorancies who are of themselves strong and thence will take new strength and spirits which if it should happen what a face of the Kingdom will appear when the name and authority of the King's Majesty being slighted and trampled upon every one shall take liberty to himself and indulge to private hatred and affections according to his own lust Lastly what will foreign Princes think of the King who suffers himself to be over-ruled by his subject who cannot keep his subjects in their duty and lastly who knows not how to hold the reins of legal power Therefore there is no other way to prevent so great an evil but for the King to approve by his publick Proclamation of what was done as if it had been done by his command For by this means he should take the arbitrement and power to himself and on the one hand disarm the Guises and on the other hand keep the Momorancies from taking up Arms and lastly should bring it about that the Protestant affairs now already very low should be separated from the cause of the Momorancies That the King ought not to fear the odium of the thing for there is not so much danger in the horridness of a fact the odium whereof may be somewhat allayed by excuse as in the confession of weakness and impotency which doth necessarily bring along with it contempt which is almost destructive to Princes By these reasons they easily perswaded an imperious Prince who less feared hatred than contempt that he might recall the Guisians to obedience and retain the Momorancies in their loyalty to confirm by publick testimony that whatsoever had been done was done by his will and command Therefore in the morning viz. upon the Tuesday he came into the Senate with his Brethren the King of Navar and a great retinue of Nobles after they had heard Mass with great solemnity and sitting down in the Chair of State all the orders of the Court being called together He complained of the grievous injuries that he had from a child received from Gaspar Coligny and wicked men falsly pretending the name of Religion but that he had forgiven them by Edicts made for the publick Peace That Coligny that he might leave nothing to be added to his wickedness had entred into a conspiracy how to take away him his mother his brethren and the King of Navar himself though of his own Religion that he might make young Conde King whom he determined afterwards to slay likewise that the Royal Family being extinct he usurping the Kingdom might make himself King That he when it could not otherwise be did though full sore against his will extinguish one mischief by another and as in extream dangers did use extream remedies that he might extirpate that impure contagion out of the bowels of the Kingdom Therefore that all should take notice that whatsoever had been that day done by way of punishment upon those persons had been done by his special command After he had said these things Christophorus Thuanus chief President in a speech fitted to the time commended the King's prudence who by dissembling so many injuries had timely prevented the wicked conspiracy and the danger that was threatned by it and that that being suppressed he had now setled peace in the Kingdom having well learnt that saying of Lewis XI He that knows not how to dissemble knows not how to reign Then the Court was commanded that diligent enquiry should be made concerning the conspiracy of Coligny and his Associates and that they should give sentence according to form of Law as the heinousness of the fact did require Then lastly Vidus Faber Pibraccius Advocate of the Treasury or Attorney-General stood up and asked the King whether he did will and command that this declaration should be entred into the acts of the Court to the preservation of the memory of it whether the orders of Judges and Civil Magistrates which he had complained were corrupted should be reformed And lastly whether by his command there should be an end put to the slaughters and rapines To these things the King answered that he did command the first that he would take care about the second and that for the third he did give command by publick proclamation through all the streets of the City that they should for the future abstain from all slaughters and rapines Which declaration of the King astonished many and among the rest Thuanus himself who was a man of a merciful nature and altogether averse from bloud and feared that example and the danger that was threatned thereby who also did with great freedom privately reprove the King for that if the conspiracy of Coligny and his company had been true he did not rather proceed against them by Law This is most certain he did always detest St. Bartholomews-day using those verses of Statius Papinius in a different case Excidat illa dies aevo nec postera credaut Saecula nos certe taceamus obruta multa Nocte tegi propriae patiamur crimina Gentis So that he seems to have commended the King's art by a speech fitted to the present time and place rather than from his heart The advising of the King to enquire into this conspiracy is thought to have been from James Morvillerius Bishop of Orleans who had left his Bishoprick to give himself wholly to the Court a man of a cautious nature but moderate and just and who was never the
author of that bloudy counsel But when as that which was done could not be undone he thought it was best for the reputation of the King and for the publick Peace that since the odium of it could not be wholly abolished yet that it might by some means be mitigated he perswaded the King and Queen that to the things being now done they should though in a preposterous manner apply the authority of Law and that proof being made of the conspiracy judgment should be passed upon the conspirators in form of Law which thing Thuanus himself approved being consulted about it by Morvillerius upon the King's command Two days after a Jubilee is appointed and Prayers are made by the King and a full Court in a great assembly of people and thanks were returned to God for that things had succeeded so happily and according to their desires And the same day an Edict was published wherein the King declared that Whatsoever had happened in this matter was done by his express command not through hatred of their Religion or that it should derogate from the Edicts of Pacification which he would have to stand still in force and to be religiously observed but that he might prevent the wicked conspiracy of Coligny and his confederates Therefore that he did will and command that all Protestants should live at home quietly and securely under his protection and patronage and did command all his Governors to take diligent care that no violence or injury should be offered to them either in their lives goods or fortunes adding a sanction that whosoever did otherwise should understand that he did it under pain of life To these things a clause was finally added which the Protestants did interpret to contradict what he had said before that Whereas upon the account of their meetings and publick Assemblies great troubles and grievous offences had been stirred up they should for the future abstain from such meetings whether publick or private upon what pretence soever till further order was taken by the King upon pain of life and fortunes to those that disobeyed 26. These Edicts and Mandates were diversly entertained in the Provinces according to the divers natures and factions of the Governors for those that were addicted to the party of the Momorancies made a moderate use of them but great was the rage and fury of others to whom secret commands were brought not in writing but by Emissaries following the example of the Parisian Massacre The beginning was at Meaux as being nearest where the same day that the Massacre had been at Paris above two hundred were thrown into prison by Cossetus Advocate of the Treasury an impudent man who was chiefly assisted by Dionysius Rollandus an Apparitor and Columbus a Mariner The next day they set upon the Market that is out of the City and the men being slipt away they fell upon the women whereof 25 were slain and some of them violated by the rude murderers The day following after they had every where rifled the houses of the suspected they come to those that were imprisoned who being called out one by one by Cossetus himself were there slain as Oxen by Butchers in a Slaughter-house and thrown into the Castle-ditch and the greatest part of them the cut-throats being wearied were drowned in the River Marne And then Cossetus exhorts the neighbouring places that they should proceed in what had been so happily begun But the presence of Momorancy President of l'Isle la France who was then at Cantilia not far from thence did hinder the seditious from stirring at Senlis But great was the rage at Orleans which being once or twice taken by the Protestants the sad ruines of the demolished Churches lying open to the eyes of all did enkindle the minds of the people to revenge their injuries being yet fresh the day following therefore they began upon Campellus Bovillus one of the King's Counsellors whom being ignorant of what had happened at Paris Curtius a Weaver the leader of the seditious with some of his party went as it were to visit in the evening he thinking that they came as friends to sup with him entertained them as at a feast which entertainment the murderers having received they acquaint him with what was done at Paris and withal demand his Purse which being delivered they in the midst of their entertainment slay their Host From thence as if this had been the sign given they flock together for three days to murder and spoil above 1000 men women and children as it was thought were slain part were cast into the river Loire those that were slain without the City were thrown into the ditch Great was the plunder that was taken in all that time and especially the copious Library of Peter Montaureus a learned man who died four years since of grief of mind at Sancerra furnished with Books of all sorts especially with mathematical Manuscripts the greatest part of them Greek and corrected and illustrated by the labours of Montaureus himself as also with instruments useful in that Science contrived with admirable artifice was with a most barbarous outrage taken away Also some were slain at Gergolium the people raging through the neighbouring Cities Towns and Villages after the manner of the Inhabitants of Orleance The same was done at Angiers they beginning with Johannes Massonius Riverius who was most barbarously slain as he walked in his Garden by a cut-throat let in by his Wife who suspected no such thing as also others Barbeus Ensign of the Prince of Conde's Regiment eâ—â—â—â—…ed the danger by flight as also Renatus Roboreus Bressaldus one that was very troublesome to Priests many of whom he had unworthily maimed was afterwards executed The Townsmen of Troyes of whom Coligny had a little before complained to the King when they heard of the tumult at Paris presently set guards at the City-gates that none might slip forth and having upon 3 Kal. VII bris August 30th cast all the suspected into prison five days after by the command Anna Valdraeus Simphalius Governor of Troyes upon the instigation of Petrus Bellinus who as was believed came lately from Paris with private commands they were brought out one by one and slaughtered by the cut-throats and buried in a ditch digged in the very prison and presently after the King's Proclamation wherein they were commanded to leave of killing and spoiling was published by Simphalius who as it is said received it before the slaughter was committed At Vierzon when as at the yet uncertain report of the news the Gates of the City were shut up by the diversity of Letters that were sent in the King's Name the Townsmen held their hands for some time from violence contenting themselves to have cast the suspected into prison till at last stirred up by the example of the men of Orleance they raged with the same madness against the imprisoned Franciscus Hottomannus and Hugo Donellus who professed Civil Law in that City by the
THE HISTORY OF THE Bloody Massacres OF THE PROTESTANTS IN FRANCE IN THE Year of our LORD 1572. WRITTEN In Latin by the Famous HISTORIAN J A. AVG. THVANVS and faithfully rendred into English LONDON Printed for John Leigh at the Sign of the Blew-Bell by Flying-horse-Court in Fleet-street 1674. A brief Introduction to the History of the MASSACRE THE Lords of the House of Guise whether through the instigation of the Jesuites whom they first introduced into France and highly favoured or through their emulation * V. Discourse sect 40. against the Princes of the Blood who favoured the Reformed Religion or both professing themselves great zealots for the Papal Authority and irreconcilable enemies to the Hugonots as they called them of the Reformed Religion especially after the dissentions grew high between them and the Princes to whom they doubted not but the Protestants would adhere as well upon the account of Religion as of the Right of the Princes having * V. Disc sect 41. by force gotten the young King Charles 9. into their hands endeavoured by all means to raise in his mind as great prejudice and hatred against the Protestants and the chief men of their party as possible The young King thus trained up in prejudice against them and moreover from his youth inured to cruelty and the slaughters of his Subjects even in cold blood whereof by the D. of Guise he had been early made a spectator V. Dâ—sc sect 42. was scarce out of his minority when he was ivited by the Pope the K. of Spain and the D. of Savoy to joyn in a holy League for the extirpation of the Hereticks but being by nature of an Italian genius and well instructed by his Mother in the policies of her Country he chose as a more safe and surer way to attempt that rather by secret stratagems and surprize than by open hostility And therefore at an enterview at Bayonne between him with his Mother and his Sister the Queen of Spain accompanied with the D. of Alva having by the way had secret conference at Avignon with some of the Pope's trusty Ministers the Pope having perswaded that meeting and earnestly pressed the King of Spain himself to be present at it it was concluded to cut off the chief heads of the Protestants and then in imitation of the Sicilian Vespers to slaughter all the rest to the last man But the design being discovered to the Prince of Conde Colinius and others of the Nobility when they perceived such preparations made for the execution of it as unless timely prevented they were likely suddenly to be all destroyed V. Disc sect 43. they put themselves into a posture of defence whereupon broke out a Civil War But that being contrary to the design to effect the business by stratagem and surprize it was in few months composed for the present but shortly after when the same design was again perceived to be carried on and the like inevitable danger approached as neer as before was again renewed in the former manner and continued somewhat longer and hotter than before V. Disc sect 45. Whereupon the King perceiving that the greatest difficulty was to beget and confirm in the Protestant Nobility a trust and confidence in himself used all arts imaginable to do that and to that purpose in all solemn manner granting and confirming to the Protestants in France very fair terms of peace and security he at the same time pretended a resolution to make a war with Spain entred into a League with the Queen of England and with the Protestant Princes of Germany and which was the principal part of the policy proposed a match between the Prince of Navar the first Prince of the Blood and chief of the Protestant Party and his Sister Margaret as that which would not only serve his purpose to beget a confidence in the Protestants of his sincerity and good intention but moreover afford him a fair opportunity at the solemnization of the Marriage of effecting his design at last which had been so often and so long disappointed All which having managed with wonderful art and dissimulation be at last obtained what he desired as in the following History is more particularly related THE HISTORY OF THE MASSACRES OF THE Protestants at PARIS and many other places in FRANCE in the Year of our Lord 1572. 1. THE day of the Nuptials between Henr. Lib. 5â— King of Navar and Margaret Sister to the King of France drawing on which was appointed the * August 18th 15th of the Kalends of September the King by Letters solicits Coligni that he should come to Paris having before given in charge to Claudius Marcellus Provost of the Merchants that he should see to it that no disturbance did arise upon Colignie's coming to Paris Likewise Proclamation was published the third of the Nones of July July 5th when he was at Castrum-Bononiae about two miles from the City wherein it was forbidden that any of what condition soever should dare to renew the memory of things past give occasion of new quarrels carry pistols fight duels draw their swords especially in the King's retinue at Paris and in the Suburbs upon pain of death But if any difference should arise among the Nobles concerning their Honour or Reputation they should be bound to bring their plaint to the Duke of Anjou the King's Deputy throughout the whole Kingdom and to pray justice of him if they were of the Commons they should betake themselves to the High Chancellor de l'Hospital if it shall happen among those that shall not be in the Court but in Paris they shall go before the ordinary Magistrate It was also provided by the same Proclamation that those who were not of the Courts of any of the Princes or Nobles or of the Retinue of others or were not detained upon some necessary business but were of uncertain abode and habitation about Paris or the Suburbs should depart from the Court City within 24 hours after the publication of this Edict upon the same pain of death This was published for three days together with the sound of Trumpet in the Court and through the City and it was ordered that the publication should be repeated week by week upon the Sabbath-day Also there was adjoyned to the guards of the King's body for his greater security a guard of 400 choice Souldiers all which Coligni full of confidence and good assurance so interpreted as if the King desirous of the publick Peace did only prepare a contrary strength against those which were seditious and movers of troubles Therefore he comes into the City though many were greatly disturbed at it to whom when they importunately dehorted him both by letter and word of mouth he after he had given them thanks answered in one word That he was resolved now that Peace was concluded and things past forgotten to rely upon the saith of the King and that he had rather be dragged
might be before-hand with them stirred up so great a party of the Nobles and Parisians that they by their help cut off the Guards that he had assigned to Coligny and as many of his friends as they met and this example was followed with such fury and violence throughout the City that such a remedy as might be wished could not be applied in any due time Now at last the sedition that seemed to be allayed was again upon old grudges between the two Families revived which thing since it hapned contrary to his will he would that all should understand that the Edict lately published was not thereby in any part violated but he did command that it should be religiously observed and that the Governors should see to it that mutual slaughters should not be committed in other Cities nor that they should take Arms one against another but that every one should keep home in the City and Countrey and abstain from violence upon pain of death to those that did not obey In the end of the Letter these words were added Here I am with my Brother of Navar and my Cousin Conde ready to undergo the same fortune with them The same day were Letters of the same contents written by the Queen sent not only through the Kingdom but to the Dyet or Assembly of Switzers and dispersed by the King's command through England and divers places in Germany 23. The next day slaughters and rapines were continued Petrus Platius President of the Court of Customs a man eminent for his gravity learning and integrity whom one Michael by name Captain of a Band had the day before cheated of a great sum of Gold by the help of slingers lent to him by Nic. Bellofremontius Senescaeus and Carronius Provost of the Merchants defended himself from the fury of the people That Senescaeus was lately by the King put into the place of Innocentius Triperius Monstrolius great Provost del ' Hospital under whom that Office whose jurisdiction belonged only to some mean person of the King's Retinue after that began to be conferred upon Gentlemen as all those things which belong to the Master and Colonels of the Horse He first obtained the name of great Provost those being much offended at it who by how much was added to him in titles did complain that by so much their jurisdiction was diminished That so large jurisdiction for some time after the death of Monstrolius had ceased which at last the King conferred upon Senescaeus for the Nobleness of his Family and such learning as with us is rare in a military person Therefore Senescaeus coming this day from the King to Placius told him that though the King resolved utterly to root out the Protestants by flaying them that there should not remain one that pisseth against the wall yet that for many reasons he would give him his life and sent him to conduct him to the Louvre for that he did desire to learn from him many things concerning the affairs of the Protestants which it behoved him to know Then Placius desired to excuse himself and desired that he might stay till the fury of the people were somewhat allayed that in the mean time he might be kept prisoner wheresoever it pleased the King On the other side Senescaeus who had received such command from the Queen did hasten him that he should without delay obey the King's command and assigned him Pezovius one of the privy leaders of the Sedition for his greater security as he said by whom he was delivered into the hands of those that lay in wait and being thrown off his Mule upon which he rode he was stabbed with daggers his body was dragged and thrown into the stable of a publick house and his house lay three days open to ransacking his wife being fled and his children wandring hither and thither His office which in his absence in the time of war was managed by Stephanus Nuellius a factious and bloud-thirsty man and who was believed to have hired these cut-throats against the life of Placius was by him obtained of the King 24. Such cruelty raging every where while the Heavens seemed more than ordinarily serene an accident hapned whereby the minds of the enraged people were after a strange manner inflamed An Oxyacantha which is a kind of shrub which they call white-thorn growing in the Church-yard of St. Innocents did whether of its own accord which sometimes happens when nature failing that plant is come to that that it is about to dry up or whether by warm water poured upon it by impostors did in an unusual time put forth its flower All which the factions flattering themselves in their madness did refer to God signifying by these tokens that what they had done was acceptable to him And therefore they said that the Heavens did rejoyce to see the Massacre of the Protestants And James Carpenter alluding to the Month in a writing that he published called that light Augusta Therefore the seditious flocking together at the fame of the blossoming thorn did skip about with great joy which they also testified by the unusual beating of a Drum though without command for even that they might do then and so interpreted it as if the Protestants being rooted out the Catholick Religion and the Kingdom of France should recover its ancient splendor and flower But the Protestants argued otherwise and if this were to be looked upon as a Miracle they said this was portended by this sign that though the Church might seem by this wound to be utterly extinct yet it should come to pass that it should in a wonderful and incomprehensible manner revive and flourish which also they did confirm by the example of the wonder shewed to Moses in the bush which though it burned yet was it not consumed They added that it might be said rather to belong to the commendation of innocence than the approbation of butchery because the thorn blossomed in a place which took its name from Innocents The same day some drawn out of the King's Life-Guard by Gaspar Castreus Nancaeus are by the King's command sent to †Castillionem ad Lupam Chastillon to take and bring Coligny's wife and children as also the sons of Andoletus But Franciscus the Eldest Son of Coligny and Vidus Lavallus the Eldest Son of Andoletus had already faved themselves by flight All the rest are taken and brought with all their precious houshould-stuff to Paris 25. It was the King's design that as soon as the slaughter of Coligny and his followers had been performed the Guises should immediately depart the City and go every one to his own house that thereby all might take notice that whatsoever had been done at Paris proceeded from their faction But the Queen and Anjou especially who did both of them with an over-weaning affection incline to the party of Guise did intercede seeing the King was at first enraged only against Coligny as not yet forgetting his flight from Meaux
carkasses were unworthy of burial Therefore upon a sign given there is a concourse made and they are thrown by the enraged people into the River the grosser bodies being given to the Apothecaries upon their desir for their fat as is reported by those who wrote whiles things were fresh Nor did the slaughter slay here For not long after the two Brothers Darutii Merchants of great account Labessaeus Galterus and Floccardus honourable Citizens being brought out of the prison had their throats cut and were cast into the River Rhone Among these slaughters some escaped by the help of the guards and the favour of Manta the Governor among whom were Jo. Ricaldus and Antonius Callia Pastors of the City when as Joannes Anglus chief Pastor was slain in the first tumult It is said that 800 of all kinds and sexes were barbarously slain the carkasses of the slain swimming down Rhone to Turnonium lay so thick about the banks that the Townsmen affrighted at the accident cried Arm Arm as if the enemy had been coming upon them by and by being amazed with horror and detesting the authors of such a villany though they had no favour for the Religion of the Protestants to remove that sad spectacle they set men to thrust the bodies off with poles from the banks which the swift stream brought down So horrid a spectacle they also detested at Vienne at Valence at Burgh at Viviers at the Temple of the Spirit yea at Avenion where there is great hatred of the Protestants But at Arles when through want of wells and springs they drink of the water of the River the Townsmen besides the detestableness of the villany were grievously distressed when as they would not use the fishes and water that they could be supplied with only from Rhone yea they abhorred the very sight of the River 28. But in Dauphine and Provence things were carried after far another manner For Claudius Sabaudus Count of Tende who was very nearly allied to the Momorancies when Letters were brought him about the same business by Josephus Bonifacius Mola who two years after came to an †Being executed and his quarters set upon the City-gates unhappy end at Paris ingenuously answered that he did not think that that was the King's pleasure but that some that were evilly affected to the publick Peace did falfly pretend his name when as not many days since he had received quite other commands that therefore he would rather obey the former as more worthy of the King's Faith and Clemency But he not long after being at Avignon died of a sudden disease to the great grief of the people of Provence not without suspition given him by the Emissaries of the seditious In Dauphine Bertrandus Simienus Gordius educated in the Family of the Momorancies receiving the same command he excused himself pretending the great danger he was like to be in from the powerfulness of Mombranius and other Protestants in * In allobrogibus Savoy and Dauphine yet some were slain at Valence Also at Romans there were some slain though it were late first Septembr 22. viz. 10 Kal. VIII br where when many of that great number that was cast into the prison for fear of death returned to the Religion of their Ancestors only seven were stabbed with daggers by the raging people Also Santeranus Governor of Auvergne who also was well affected to the Momorancies used the same moderation and made the same answer to those that came posting to him from Court that the Count of Tende had done before him adding to this moreover that he would never obey such commands unless the King in person did command him Greater was the fury that did rage at Tholouse for news of what had been done at Paris being brought prid Kal. VII br which was the Lord's-day August 31. upon which the Protestants went out of the City to Castanetum to Sermon straitway the Gates were shut up and care was taken that no one should go out but that whosoever would might come in But many of those that had gone out would not return into the City but went thence to †Podium Laurentii le Puy St. Laurence Montauban * Regium montem Regimont and some one way some another Two days after by authority of the Senate publick Proclamation was made that no violence or molestation should be offered to the Protestants The day following Guards being set at the Gates of the City and in the Streets those that were suspected are some of them distributed into Monasteries others are cast into the common prisons some days after upon the coming from Court of Delpechius and Madronius rich Merchants and most bitter enemies to the Protestants they were all thrown into the Palace prison where presently in the night by certain cut-throats chosen out of the Students of the Civil Law that went to the Fencing-School among whom one Turrius was most eminent together with other men of lewd life and conversation 200 were barbarously slain and among them some Senators and in the first place Johannes Corasius who afterwards to double their cruelty were hanged in their Senatorian habits upon an Elm growing in the Palace-yard the bodies of the dead were buried in a ditch made in the Arch-Bishop's house At the same time but with greater slaughter were things carried at Rouen where Tanaquilius Venator Carrugius the Governor of the chief Nobility of Provence a man of a merciful disposition did what he could to hinder it But at last not being able any longer to withstand the violence of the seditious and especially of those who the year before were by the decree of the Judges delegated from Paris proscribed who hoped that by this course they should both revenge the injury offered them and also obliterate the memory of the Decree many were thrown into prison Septemb. 17. and afterwards 15 Kal. of VIII br being called out one by one by the voice of the Cryer were cruelly slain by those Emissaries Maronimus a most wicked wretch leading them on Upon this they set upon private houses and that day and the day following they fell upon men women without distinction and 500 of both sexes and all ages were slain and their bodies being stripped were cast into the ditches ad Portam Caletensem and their garments all bloudy as they were were distributed among the poor they seeking even by these murders to ingratiate themselves with the people This the Senate was in shew offended at and began to proceed against the Authors of this fact but through connivance it came to nothing the murderers and cut-throats for a time slipping out of the City This example raged through other Cities and from Cities to Towns and Villages and it is reported by many that †It was Credibly reported that there were slain above 40000 Hugonots in a few days saith Davila p. 376. more than thirty thousand were slain in those tumults throughout