Nurturing an interest in the developing religious reform, she transmitted it to her children through their instructors. Berauld, an associate of French humanists and a friend of Erasmus, became Gaspard’s tutor. This parent- tutor guidance developed in the young man, according to a biographer,
“the fine combination of the heroic, the courtly, the scholarly, and the spiritual, and in Gaspard the balance of these seems to have been as nearly perfect as in any character that greets us from the pages of history.” — Ibid., pp. 247,248.
He remained with his mother at Chatillon-sur-Loing until he was eleven, when she became lady in waiting to the new Queen Eleanor, wife of Francis I, at the court of France. Here the lad soon distinguished himself for his scholarly interests. When he was fifteen the study of Cicero and Ptolemy had a greater interest for him than the opportunity of joining the king’s hunting parties. His love of reading and his study in solitude developed in him an excellent knowledge of Latin and of politics, and an admiration for honor, virtue, bravery, and sagacity that kept him above the intrigues of a court famous for its sensuality and pleasure seeking.
By 1545 he had been presented at the court and in its inner circle had become the recognized leader of the Coligny family. At this time he had also risen to the acknowledged status of an experienced cavalryman, a soldier statesman, and a favorite of the dauphin. His courage and leadership had made him a respected officer on the military expeditions against Emperor Charles V in northern France, Italy, Lorraine, and Flanders, where he was described as being
“always loyal, and never weighing his life against the interests of the king.” — Ibid., p. 249.
As a result of his military ability he became the colonel general in full charge of the French infantry in 1547, the year of the death of Francis I and the accession of Henry II. As such, he was the first among army officials to institute military reforms, called “ordinances.” Within his command and among the foreign troops employed by the king he stopped the looting, dueling, swearing, and raping by armed men, and turned these men into a respectable, orderly body of soldiers who gave deference to the lives of nonbelligerents, to property, and to the honor of women. Under
his command the uniform of a soldier came to denote honor and distinction.
Coligny’s elevation to colonel general also resulted in his becoming a knight in the Order of St. Michael, also known as the Order of the King. In the same year he married Charlotte de Laval, daughter of Count Guy, an event which brought out the king with his entire court. Its festivities included many sports and masquerade balls, and concluded with four more days of revelry at the home of the cardinal of Ferrara. Three sons and two daughters were born of this marriage.
His wife died in 1568, and three years later he married Jacqueline, countess of Montlul and Entremont, “a young, beautiful, intelligent, and pious lady of Savoy,” later to become a victim of the St. Bartholomew Massacre.
In 1552 Coligny was made admiral of France, a title by which he is generally known. It was purely an honorary title, for it had no connection with the French navy. The governorship of Picardy came into his hands in 1555, and in the same year he began his colonizing endeavors in the New World in behalf of the persecuted Huguenots, although he himself had not yet become one of them.
Although unsuccessful in its immediate purpose, the plan encompassed three separate attempts and historically established the opening of an era which led Quakers, Catholics, and Puritans to the Western Hemisphere in quest of religious liberty.
The first Huguenot colony was established in Brazil, but Ville-gagnon, the leader selected by Coligny for the expedition, joined the Catholic Church soon after reaching South America and thus left the Protestants a prey to the Portuguese.
The second contingent, under Jean Ribauk, reached South Carolina; and the third, under Rene de Laudonniere, was sent to assist the second. Upon the arrival of the latter no settlers of the second colony were found;
consequently Laudonniere continued southward and began a colony in Florida in 1564. The pioneers of this ill-fated adventure were massacred the following year by the forces of the Spaniard, Menendez de Aviles, who is purported to have said, “I do this not as to Frenchmen, but as to Lutherans.”
In the days of religious and national hatreds this episode did not conclude the matter. In 1568 Dominique de Gourges arrived in Florida to seek revenge on the Spanish. He in turn massacred the garrison, and the following remark is attributed to him:
“I do this not as to Spaniards, nor as to mariners, but as to traitors, robbers, and murderers.” — Quoted in Ploetz’ Epitome of History, pages 288,289.
An example of Coligny’s statesmanship and diplomacy appeared in his negotiation of the truce of Vaucelles, in 1556, with Philip II of Spain, which resulted in a cessation of hostilities during the intermittent wars of the time. Henry II of France broke the truce, however, much against Coligny’s counsel, and this brought the combined strength of Spain and England against the French. The strategy developed to counteract the encroachments of these united forces placed the defense of Saint-Quentin on the Somme under the command of Coligny in 1557. Here he spoke the opening words of this chapter, indicative of his direct and masterful nature.
His defense of Saint-Quentin, although unsuccessful, was possibly among his outstanding military achievements, for it delayed by seventeen days the advance of an overwhelming enemy and gave the French an
opportunity to concentrate their forces for the protection of Paris.
With the capitulation of Saint-Quentin, Coligny became a prisoner of the Spanish in the Netherlands, where he remained until after the peace of Chateau-Cambresis in 1559, when he was released upon payment of a ransom of 50,000 crowns. A report of the defense of Saint-Quentin is found among his memoirs.
Following his release, he stepped into full and open championship of the Huguenot cause. The specific time, however, of his mental abjuration of Catholicism is vague. Doubtless his mother’s attitude toward the new faith, and the type of teachers she procured for him, bore fruit, first in humanistic ideas and then in the acceptance of the principles of
Protestantism. His consideration of the Huguenots also pointed toward Protestant sympathies. His severance from Romanism became
unmistakably clear during his imprisonment in the Netherlands.
One chronicler states that during this time he requested that a Bible be provided —
“to ease the griefe and sorrowe of his minde with reading it. And he studied so much upon it, that he began from thensforth to have a taste of the pure religion and trew godliness, and to leame the right maner of calling uppon God.” — Quoted by A.W. Whitehead in Gaspard de Coligny, page 69.
During this period he also received books from his brother and letters from Calvin, all tending to give him a deeper understanding of the basic issues of the Reformation. Like many others, he had maintained that the church could be changed from within, but eventually he, too, gave up that idea as improbable of fulfillment.
Upon his liberation he also found his political and military status changed, for King Henry II, his friend, had died that same year, 1559, from a wound received in a tourney; and his enemies, the Guises, dominated the court under the new king Francis II, husband of Mary, later Queen of Scots.
For a period the admiral retired to the comforts and quiet of Chltillon, where he owned one of France’s most beautiful homes, which, as an art collector, he had filled with the finest masterpieces. There, too, he had established a college and employed a staff of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew scholars. He also demonstrated his faith in liberty of conscience by
recognizing the rights of Catholics and Protestants alike, and permitted the priests a great degree of freedom.
His public profession of faith may have been delayed by fear of the possible consequences to his family, for he recognized the dangers to which the Huguenots were subjected. But when once his wife assured him that she would rather endure any type of hardship or torture than to see him turn from Christ, he forthwith made arrangements for a Protestant chaplain for the castle and the town. Shortly after this he celebrated the Lord’s Supper with the little Huguenot congregation close by, and automatically stepped into national leadership of that sect, along with their head, the Bourbon Louis, prince of Conde. Opposed to them was the powerful Catholic party, headed by Francis, duke of Guise.
The addition of such strong leadership from the nobility was most fortunate for the Huguenots, for Protestantism in France was at that moment entering upon a period of acute danger. To their aid Coligny brought the greatness of his political stature and turned them into a politico-religious party sufficiently strong to be virtually a government within a government. The Huguenots hailed Coligny as their deliverer, and Calvin remarked,
“There is one among the chiefs who acts wisely.” — Ibid., p. 93.
Time after time through the ensuing years of colloquies, wars and
massacres, Coligny’s astuteness at the conference table and his experience in military tactics saved the Huguenot cause.
At the Assembly of Notables called by Catherine de’ Medici at
Fontainebleau in August, 1560, he petitioned that Huguenot persecutions cease. At a time when it meant death to champion the cause of these people, he asked that they be permitted to worship God according to their interpretation of the Scriptures and that “temples” be provided for them.
He presented a written copy of his request to the king, but his appeal was unsuccessful.
In March of that year the Bourbons had laid an unwise plot to seize the king and put the power now in the hands of the Guises back into their own. The scheme, known as the Conspiracy of Areboise, failed; and the Catholic Guises called for a wholesale massacre of the Huguenots, as well as for the death of their leader, the prince of Conde.
But at that moment the king, Francis II, died, and the 11-year-old son of Catherine, Charles IX, came to the throne. Of this timely demise Calvin wrote to Sturm,
“Did you ever read or hear of anything more opportune than the death of the king? The evils had reached an extremity for which there was no remedy, when suddenly God shows Himself from heaven. He who pierced the eye of the father has stricken the ear of the son.” — Quoted by Thomas M. Lindsay in A History of the Reformation, vol. 2, p. 178.
The head of the prince of Conde was saved, but not yet the lives of the Huguenots; their slaughter continued, although at a somewhat decreased tempo.
Coligny again pleaded the cause of his coreligionists at the Assembly of the States General at Orleans in December, 1560. This time he was successful; persecution ended, and a mutual spirit of toleration became apparent. Peace seemed near, and refugees returned from Switzerland, England, and Germany. The next year came the conference at Poissy, attended by Catholic and Protestant celebrities alike, resulting in the proclamation of an edict of toleration. But this was shattered the next year by the massacre at Vassay, inspired by the duke of Guise. In,the
succeeding years, as the Huguenots and the Catholics fought it out on the field of battle, Coligny repeatedly saved the remnants of the defeated Protestant army.
Two months after the Vassay massacre the duke of Guise was
assassinated, and Coligny was accused of instigating the murder, a charge which he denied and of which he was later proved innocent.
Coligny realized that in order to attain his purpose, namely, that of making France a Protestant nation, he would need to win the friendship and confidence of the able and unscrupulous Catherine de’ Medici, who constantly played the Catholics against the Protestants to maintain a balance of power and gain her own ends. He would likewise need to ingratiate himself with the young king, her son. He set himself at once to his diplomatic task.
The prince of Conde was slain at the battle of Jarnac in 1569, leaving Coligny the only great leader of the Huguenot party. The peace of Saint- Germain-en-Laye, in 1570, brought a respite from fighting, and during this pause Coligny was well received at court. He stepped into kingly favor by advocating a war against Spain by which, he believed, all religious
differences could be wiped out; and a united France, shorn of Spanish predominance, might rise to international renown.
In this connection the Protestant and Catholic factions were to be drawn together through the marriage of the French king’s sister, Margaret of Valois, with Henry, prince of Navarre and later to become Henry IV of
France. The bridegroom was the son of the late Antoine de Bourbon and his Protestant queen, Jeanne d’Albret.
For his part in the successful wedding negotiations Coligny was showered with tokens of the royal family’s good will. His friends, however, feared for his safety in the Catholic court and warned him of his danger, a peril which arose as soon as Catherine realized Coligny’s growing influence over her son. Her jealousy, urged on to fever pitch by the Guise hatred of Coligny, and led by the son of the murdered duke, outran her reputation for resourceful capability; and she, with the Catholic Guises, began to plan Coligny’s assassination.
As the admiral was walking leisurely homeward on August 22, 1572, four days after the wedding of Henry and Margaret, a shot, fired by a hidden assailant, severed the index finger of his right hand and broke his left arm.
The next day the king and the queen mother called on Coligny, and after the visit the king confided to his mother that the admiral had urged him to reign without interference from her.
Catherine’s plan to be rid of the Huguenot leader now took on expanded proportions, to include as many of his followers as possible. Quickly, but secretly, she summoned her advisers, who agreed to Coligny’s immediate death and also to the wholesale massacre of the Huguenots.
Early Sunday morning, August 24, 1572, a few men entered his room and brutally killed him. His body was tossed from the window to the
courtyard below, where the young Guise turned it over to make sure it was his enemy. With head severed, Coligny’s torso was dragged through the streets and hung by the heels from the gallows of Montfaucon. This was the signal for the infamous massacre to begin, the
“blackest in the black catalogue of crime, most horrible among the fiendish deeds of all the dreadful centuries.” — Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, page 272.
Huguenots everywhere who had trusted the promise of their king were betrayed. The Huguenot nobles were brought from the Louvre to be butchered in the courtyard. Eight hundred noblemen and gentlemen who had accompanied Henry of Navarre to the wedding were killed. Thousands were aroused from their beds and slain. Day after day the bath of blood
continued throughout the city, into the suburbs, and then to all of France.
Estimates of the toll of dead ranged from 20,000 to 100,000.
The unutterable grief that hung over France and plunged thousands of homes into bleakest despair transformed Rome into scenes of festive joy, followed by a proclamation of a solemn jubilee. The information of the treacherous slaying of Coligny and the rank butchery of the Huguenots caused Pope Gregory XlII to have the Te Deum sung and thirty-three pontifically clad cardinals and state dignitaries to go to the French Church of St. Louis. The painter Vasari was employed to paint frescoes of the massacre on the walls of the Vatican. Nothing could have been more significant of, nor a greater tribute to, the position which the Huguenots had gained in France.
After a few days Coligny’s body was removed from the gallows and buried. Later it was reinterred in his ancestral castle wall, which was destroyed during the French Revolution.
Following his death his papers, including his History of the Wars of Religion in France, were seized and burned by command of the queen dowager. His furniture, consisting of eighty wagonloads, was sold at public auction in Paris, and his village was razed.