MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 149
connected with religion; the Pope believed in the existence of the plot; the plot was a reality; the medal is fictitious; the massacre was a feint concerted with the Protestants themselves; the Pope rejoiced only when he heard that it was over. l These things were repeated so often that they have been sometimes believed; and inen have fallen into this way of speaking whose sincerity was unimpeachable, and who were not shaken in their religion by the errors or the vices of Popes. Möhler was pre-eminently such a man. In his lectures on the history of the Church, which were published only last year,2 he said that the Catholics, as such, took no part in the massacre; that no cardinal, bishop, or priest sha1"ed in the councils that prepared it; that Charles informed the Pope that a conspiracy had been discovered; and that Gregory made his thanksgiving only because the King's life was saved. s Such things will cease to be written when men perceive that truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
1 Per Ie notizie che rice vette della cessata strage (Moroni, DiziolWriO di Erudizlone Ecclesiastica. xxxii. 298).
[1868.] B Kircltengeschickte, iii,
II.
