CHAPTER VIII.-HENRY THE FOURTH.

ENRY was, for several years, King in name only; for the League had possession of Paris and of the greater part of the kingdom. The Duke of Mayenne declared the Cardinal de Bourbon to be King, as soon as he heard that Henry III. was dead; and when the Cardinal died, he

plotted with Philip, King of Spain, to make the Infanta (or Princess) of Spain Queen of France, and to marry her to some one of the leaders of the League. This will show you, that beside their zeal for the religion of the Pope, the Catholics were moved by their desire to keep the King of Navarre from the throne.

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You have seen, again and again, that it was not love of the Gospel alone which the Huguenot chiefs felt. Some of them, I believe, were truly religious men, and so were vast numbers of the common soldiers in their armies. They could not have continued so long as they did, had there not been such men amongst them. But most of the leaders were gay, gallant gentlemen, in no respect different from those of the Catholic League, except that instead of attending upon long, showy masses, performed by priests, they pretended to listen to long, dry sermons from Calvinistic preachers. And they cared as little about the sermons as the others did about the masses, perhaps even less. It was a constant grief to some of the best men on the side of the Reformers, that the new King was in private so wicked a man. He lived with women to whom he was not married, as if each was his wife; and he did not show that regard for his wife that he ought, just as the Romanist sovereigns had done.

Henry's first care was to get the Romanists to agree to his being King. Instead, therefore, of securing to the Huguenots all the liberty for worship that they had a right to expect, now that he (who had so long been their head and protector) was the rightful ruler in France, he allowed them no more than Catharine de Medicis had given them, by one of the many treaties made with her. And he promised to be "instructed" by the priests, which, as the Protestants knew, signified that he would give up "the Religion," and submit to the Pope again. It is true

that, if he had not done this, he could not have persuaded any of the Romanists, who belonged to the former king's army, to stop with him; and perhaps he might not have gained the crown at all. But had he been at heart a follower of Jesus, he would not, for ten armies, nor for the crown of the whole world, have given up the Scriptures and the Saviour, and taken to the Pope and the priests, and their falsehoods,-surely he would not.

I need not tell you about the war-how Henry defeated the Leaguers at Arques and at Ivry; how he besieged Paris; how the Duke of Parma came from the Netherlands against him; and how, after all, in spite of the numbers of his enemies, he was conqueror. It will be quite enough to say that, after having received the "instruction" he asked, he left the Reformers, and became a member of the Church of Rome again, and very soon afterwards entered Paris peaceably, but in triumph.

His chief councillor, Sully, advised him thus to purchase the kingdom, by giving up his profession of Protestantism; but he did not himself give it up. Another friend of Henry's, named Du Plessis de Mornay, who, by his consistency and earnestness, became the chief stay of the Huguenots, showed his love for him by the faithfulness with which, on all occasions, he spoke and wrote to him. At one time he so deeply offended the king, that he allowed him to be most unkindly treated in a controversy with a cardinal, about a book he had written; but Henry afterwards took him into favour again. There were

two other Huguenot leaders who ought to be spoken of — D'Aubigné, who wrote the history of the Reformed Religion, and who was more like Sully than like De Mornay; and Turenne, Duke de Bouillon, who, with the steadfastness of a man of honour, held fast to the religion for which he had fought so bravely.

Henry showed more prudence than principle in the beginning of his reign. He did not give up his old Huguenot comrades and friends, and at the same time he laboured hard to conciliate the Leaguers, who had been most opposed to him. The Jesuits, who were more popish than the Pope himself, were so angry because he did not persecute the Protestants, that they tried to have him killed; one man, Chastel by name, made the attempt, and wounded him in the face. The Jesuits were all banished from France for their part in this crime, to the joy of most persons, both Reformers and Romanists, but to the great displeasure of the Pope.

Not till the end of nine years after he had begun to reign, was Henry able quite to put down the League, and to drive out the Spaniards; and during all that time the friends of the Reformers had to bear great afflictions wherever the King's enemies had the power to do them harm. On one occasion, about two hundred of them, who had assembled, unarmed, for public worship, were murdered; and there were women and little children amongst them; and, worst of all, it was a lady who set the murderers upon them!

In that ninth year, however, on April 7th, 1598, Henry sent out the Edict of Nantes; a proclamation which honestly gave greater freedom to the Protestants than even Catharine had permitted them to enjoy when she was trying to ensnare and destroy them. And yet it was not what we should call freedom: for they might not hold a meeting for worship nearer to Paris than five leagues; and many things in the Edict showed that they were considered, even by Henry, who had been a Protestant, to be worse citizens, because of their religion, than the Romanists were. But they all rejoiced, and although the Parliament would not at first consent to make the Edict into a law, they took courage, and began to set their churches and congregations in order, and to repair the mischief done by the war.

The affairs of the nation now had but little to do with the Reformation in France; and few things happened which need to be spoken about, or which showed more than the quietness which followed so much warfare and trouble. I will tell you what will best make you know, dear young friends, how it went with the Huguenots under Henry the Great; and I am sure that you will be thankful, indeed, that you have been born in happy England, and in these days; and that you can read the history of the times before in other countries as well as in your own, and see what warnings and what wisdom it has even for such as you.

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You must imagine how, in general, week after week, and year after year, so long as Henry lived,

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