Bouillon. Both of them were dukes; but Henry, who was the father, and who did not actually change his religion, was the marshal. The following notices of him will more than confirm the remark made by Sismondi; Mém. de Bassompierre, vol. i. p. 455; Smedley's Reformed Religion in France, vol. iii. p. 99; Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 107; Le Vassor, Hist. de Louis XIII, vol. ii. pp. 420, 467, 664, vol. iv. p. 519; Mém. de Richelieu, vol. i. p. 104, vol. ii. p. 259; Mém. de Duplessis Mornay, vol. xi. p. 450, vol. xii. pp. 79, 182, 263, 287, 345, 361, 412, 505.
131
Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. i. pp. 121, 298, vol. ii. pp. 5, 180, 267, 341; Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 267; Felice's Hist. of the Protestants of France, p. 206. Sully advised Henry IV., on mere political considerations, to become a Catholic; and there were strong, but I believe unfounded rumours, that he himself intended taking the same course. See Sully, Œconomies Royales, vol. ii. p. 81, vol. vii. pp. 362, 363.
132
‘There were, among all the leaders, but the Duke de Rohan and his brother the Duke de Soubise, who showed themselves disposed to throw their whole fortunes into the new wars of religion.’ Felice's Hist. of the Protestants of France, p. 241. For this, M. Felice, as usual, quotes no authority; but Rohan himself says: ‘C'est ce qui s'est passé en cette seconde guerre (1626), où Rohan et Soubise ont eu pour contraires tous les grands de la religion de France.’ Mém. de Rohan, vol. i. p. 278. Rohan claims great merit for his religious sincerity; though, from a passage in Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil, vol. i. p. 418, and another in Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. ii. p. 173, one may be allowed to doubt if he were so single-minded as is commonly supposed.
133
Sismondi notices this remarkable change; though he places it a few years earlier than the contemporary writers do: ‘Depuis que les grands seigneurs s'étoient éloignés deg églises, c'étoient les ministres qui étoient devenus les chefs, les représentans et les démagogues des huguenots; et ils apportoient dans leurs délibérations cette âpreté et cette inflexibilité théologiques qui semblent caractériser les prêtres de toutes les religions, et qui donnent à leurs haines une amertume plus offensante.’ Sismondi, Hist. des Français, vol. xxii. p. 87. Compare p. 478. In 1621, ‘Rohan lui–même voyait continuellement ses opérations contrariées par le conseil–général des églises.’ Lavallée, Hist. des Français, vol. iii. p. 88. In the same year, M. Capefigue (Richelieu, vol. i. p. 271) says, ‘Le parti modéré cessa d'avoir action sur le prêche; la direction des forces huguenotes, était passée dans les mains des ardents, conduits par les ministres.’
134
The church of Rome has always seen this, and on that account has been, and still is, very pliant in regard to morals, and very inflexible in regard to dogmas; a striking proof of the great sagacity with which her affairs are administered. In Blanco White's Evidence against Catholicism, p. 48, and in Parr's Works, vol. vii. pp. 454, 455, there is an unfavourable and, indeed, an unjust notice of this peculiarity, which, though strongly marked in the Romish church, is by no means confined to it, but is found in every religious sect which is regularly organized. Locke, in his Letters on Toleration, observes, that the clergy are naturally more eager against error than against vice (Works, vol. v. pp. 6, 7, 241); and their preference of dogmas to moral truths is also mentioned by M. C. Comte, Traité de Législat. vol. i. p. 245; and is alluded to by Kant in his comparison of ‘ein moralischer Katechismus’ with a ‘Religionskatechismus.’ Die Metaphysik der Sitten (Ethische Methodenlehre), in Kant's Werke, vol. v. p. 321. Compare Temple's Observations upon the United Provinces, in Works of Sir W. Temple, vol. i. p. 154, with the strict adhesion to formularies noticed in Ward's Ideal Church, p. 358; and analogous cases in Mill's Hist. of India, vol. i. pp. 399, 400, and in Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. p. 87; also Combe's Notes on the United States, vol. iii. pp. 256, 257.
135
Blanco White (Evidence against Catholicism, p. vi.) harshly says, ‘sincere Roman Catholics cannot conscientiously be tolerant.’ But he is certainly mistaken; for the question is one, not of sincerity, but of consistency. A sincere Roman Catholic may be, and often is, conscientiously tolerant; a consistent Roman Catholic, never.
136
We also see this very clearly in England, where the dissenting clergy have much more influence among their hearers than the clergy of the Establishment have among theirs. This has often been noticed by impartial observers, and we are now possessed of statistical proof that ‘the great body of Protestant dissenters are more assiduous’ in attending religious worship than churchmen are. See a valuable essay by Mr. Mann On the Statistical Position of Religious Bodies in England and Wales, in Journal of Statist. Soc. vol. xviii. p. 152.
137
Respecting the working of this in England, there are some shrewd remarks made by Le Blanc in his Lettres d'un François, vol. i. pp. 267, 268; which may be compared with Lord Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party, vol. ii. p. 253, where it is suggested, that in the case of complete emancipation of the Catholics, ‘eligibility to worldly honours and profits would somewhat abate the fever of religious zeal.’ On this, there are observations worth attending to in Lord Cloncurry's Recollections, Dublin, 1849, pp. 342, 343.
138
‘Les processions catholiques seraient interdites dans toutes les places, villes et châteaux occupés par ceux de la religion.’ Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 39.
139
Of these facts we have the most unequivocal proof; for they were not only stated by the Catholics in 1623, but they are recorded, without being denied, by the Protestant historian Benoist: ‘On y accusoit les Réformez d'injurier les prêtres, quand ils les voyoient passer; d'empêcher les processions des Catholiques; l'administration des sacremens aux malades; l'enterrement des morts avec les cérémonies accoutumées; … que les Réformez s'étoient emparez des cloches en quelques lieux, et en d'autres se serroient de celles des Catholiques pour avertir de l'heure du prêche; qu'ils affectoient de faire du bruit autour des églises pendant le service; qu'ils tournoient en dérision les cérémonies de l'église romaine.’ Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. ii. pp. 433, 434; see also pp. 149, 150.
140
‘On pouvait dire que La Rochelle était la capitale, le saint temple du calvinisme; car on ne voyait là aucune église, aucune cérémonie papiste.’ Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 342.
141
Mém. de Richelieu, vol. ii. p. 100. For other and similar evidence, see Duplessis Mornay, Mémoires, vol. xi. p. 244; Sully, Œconomies Royales, vol. vii. p. 164; Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. ii. pp. 70, 233, 279.
142
Quick's Synodicon in Gallia, vol. ii. p. 196.
143
For a striking instance of the actual enforcement of this intolerant regulation, see Quick's Synodicon in Gallia, vol. ii. p. 344.
144
Bazin, Hist. de Louis XIII, vol. ii. p. 124; Mém. de Richelieu, vol. ii. pp. 109, 110; Felice's Hist. of the Protestants of France, p. 238.
145
In 1625, Howell writes that the Protestants had put up an inscription on the gates of Montauban, ‘Roy sans foy, ville sans peur.’ Howell's Letters, p. 178.
