HENRY
226
HENRY
origin of the famous epigram so often attributed to
the king. The opinion that the conversion of Henry
IV was not sincere is refuted l)y the circumstances of
his conversion, bj' the great interest Henry IV took in
the so-called theological colloquies between Catholics
and Protestants, and liy his regarding it as a point of
honour to seek and find theological reasons before
carrying out that religious change necessitated by
poUtical exigency.
When, on 2 August, 15S9, by the death of Henry III, Henry of Bourljon definitively inherited the royal crown, he had on his side the Protestants, the poli- tiquc.i, who belonged mainly to parliamentary and Galilean circles, and finally many Catholics who entreated him to become a member of the Catholic Church; against him he had the Guises and the League supported by Philip II of Spain and Pope Gregory XIV. Among the Catholics who stood by Henry of Bourbon, a certain number, from 1591 to 1593, seeing that he took no steps to be instructed in the Catholic Faith, began to form a tiers parti, who were in favour of selecting as king the young Car- dinal Charles de Bourbon, second son of Louis I, Prince of Conde. Not having received Holy orders, Charles could have married. By the spring of 1593 the more moderate members of the League, fearing the influence of Philip II on French affairs, were in agree- ment with the tiers parti to elect a Catholic Bourbon, that is to say, Henry of Bourbon, if he would be con- verted, or, if he would not. Cardinal Charles de Bour- bon. Henry IV had declared on several occasions that he would never embrace Catholicism for merely political reasons. " Religion is not changed as easily as a shirt", he wrote in 15S3. "It would be setting very little value on either religion", said Villeroy, Henry's representative, in 1592, " to promise a change before being instructed and well-informed." From March, 1592, Henry IV had an intimate friend in Jacques Davy Duperron, a convert from Protestant- ism, later a priest and a cardinal, and the conversa- tions with Uuperron had a great influence on his mind. The theological conference at Mantes (April, 1593) in which, for seven consecutive days, Duperron argued with four Protestant pastors as to whether the whole Christian doctrine is contained in the Sacred Scriptures, ended in the defeat of the pastors. One of them, Palma Gayet, who had been Henry of Bour- bon's tutor, carried away from the discussion the germs of his own conversion to the Catholic Faith. At the same time Sully, although he was a Protestant, told Henry IV that the means of salvation through Christ were to be found in the Catholic as well as in the Reformed Church, and he urged him to become a Catholic in order to win the tiers parti over definitively. Henry IV announced to the Grand Duke of Tuscany on 26 April, 1.593, and to the Prince de Conti on 10 May, 1593, his coming sul>mission to the Catholic Church; on Ki May the royal council pronounced in favour of the conversion. In the beginning of June Henry IV assisted at Mantes at another di.scussion on the Church and salvation, in which Duperron, who had just been named Bishop of Evreux, again vanquished two Protestant pastors; then on 22 July he went to Saint-Denis, where a score of bishops and theologians awaited him. The following morning he had a conference with Duperron, with the Archliishop of Bourges, and with the Bishops of Le Mans and Nantes; he questioned them on three points that were not yet clear to him — the veneration of the saints, au- ricular confession, and the authority of the pope. The discussion lasteil five hours. That afternoon, after a lengthy discussion, Henry signed a formula of adhesion to the Catholic Faith, and a special promise of obedi- ence to the Holy See. On 24 ,Iuly he renewed his declaration before the assembled theologians; and on 25 July, ami<lst great pomp, Renaud de Beaune de Semblan(,ay, .;Vrchbishop of Bourges and Grand
Almoner of France, received his abjuration at the door
of the basilica of Saint-Denis, and then heard his con-
fession. The joy of the people was unbounded.
But it was necessary to have the situation regular- ized by the Holy See, which had formerly excommuni- cated Henry of Bourbon. An officer "of the king's household. La Clielle, was dispatched to Rome in September to announce to Pope Clement VIII that Louis de Gonzague, Duke of Nevers, would soon arrive with a solemn embassy to offer the pope the obedience of Henry IV. Cardinal Toledo informed La Clielle, in the name of Clement VIII, that it was first necessary for Henry to do penance and be ab- solveil from the crime of heresy, and that the embassy woukl not be received for the time being. In fact, the Jesuit, Possevino, was sent to meet it and to for- bid it to come to Rome, though Kevers was permitted to enter the city alone, and even then, not as an am- bassador, but as a private individual; between 21 November, 1593, and 14 January. 1.594, he had five audiences with the pope, but obtained nothing, the pope refusing even to receive three of the French bishops, then in Rome, who had taken part in the ceremonies at Saint-Denis. In February, 1594, Car- dinal de Plaisance, papal legate in France, learning that Henry IV was to be consecrated at Chartres on 27 February, informed the Catholics that he would not be absolved. This caused a great sensation in France, and soon Cardinal de Plaisance began to fear that a schism like that of Henry \'III in England was imminent. Cardinal de (iondi. Archbishop of Paris, finally won (May, 1.594) the consent of Clement VIII to enter into negotiations with Henry IV. Henry first charged Arnaud d'Ossat, a priest living in Rome, with the preliminary secret negotiations. The papacy first contended that Henry required not only absolution, but rehabihtation, which would render him capable of being recognized as a legitimate sovereign; d'Os.sat, little by little, won some con- cessions. But the measures taken liv the Parlement of Paris against the Jesuits in January, 1.595, after the attempt of Jean Chastel on the life of Henry IV, were exploited at the papal court Ijy the ambassador of Philip II; and Clement VIIl seemed, for a time, de- cided to make the recall of the Jesuits the comlition sine <iua non of the absolution of Henry. It was a French Jesuit, .Vlexandre Georges, who. being pre- sented to the pope by Father .\c(|uaviva, general of the Society, represented to Clement VIII that the public weal demanded a prompt reconciliation be- tween the Holy See and France. Clement allowed him.self to be persuaded, and on 12 July, l.')95, Du- perron, the official ambassador of Henry, arrived in Rome to settle the conditions of absolution. Clem- ent VIII did not confirm purely and simply the absolution pronounced at Saint-Denis, but took an- other course, and on 17 September, 1.595, in the portico of St. Peter's, solemnly declared the King of France free from all excommunication. This moral triumph was followed by the victory of Fontaine Fran^aise (1595) which gave Burgundy to Henry IV, by the capture of .\miens which gave him Picardy. by the defection of the Duke of Mercocur which put him in possession of Brittany, and by the Treaty of Vervins, conchuled in 1.59S with Philip II. On the dissolution of his marriage with Margaret of Valois, sister of Charles IX, by the Holy See, in 1.599, he married Marie de' Aledici (1000).' This union resulted in an increase of French influence in Italy.
Henry's foreign policy consisted in preserving peace to allow France time to strengthen her finances and her army; he negotiated with the Low Countries against Spain, and with the Protestant princes of Germany against the empire, but without going the length of open hostilities. His plan was to gather the weaker states around France and unite against the Hapsburgs. Sully in his "Economies Royales"
