Daily Life During The Reformation (19 page)

France by history and geography was highly varied, and
conditions in one region did not necessarily apply to other regions. In some
places farmers could supplement family income by putting the household to work
spinning and weaving for a little pay from textile manufacturers, but in remote
areas this was not always possible.

CONSPIRACY OF AMBOISE 1560

The Guise family strongly opposed the more tolerant policy
of Catherine toward Protestants, keeping young Charles IX under their thumb. To
thwart the power of Guise over king and country, the Protestants plotted to
kidnap Charles IX from the clutches of their enemies by arresting the Guise
brothers. They were betrayed and failed. Catherine forsook her policy of
toleration and compromise and now took up a hard-line Catholic position issuing
an edict taking away freedom of worship from the Huguenots and ordering their
ministers out of the country. The Guises exercised merciless vengeance killing
large numbers of Huguenots and casting the bodies into the Loire River. The
stage was set for civil war. Leaflets, tracts, and sermons from the pulpit
promoted the concept that any religious views outside of the Catholic Church
constituted heresy. The struggle against Huguenots took on the form of a Holy
War. In an attempt to avoid this, Catherine renewed her policy of moderation.
This did not please the very Catholic city of Paris or the Guise. The people of
the city listened intently to the ardent and vehement sermons of their priests
against the Huguenots and the crown that tolerated them. Parisians were of two
kinds: those who put religion before law and were ready to kill for it and
those of more moderate disposition, merchants, and traders, who disliked
Huguenots but preferred to live and let live in peace under the law.

In the grimy narrow allies of the back streets of Paris,
the destitute and despaired found a
cause celebre
in the words of their priests. The
Huguenots in Paris remained in the shadows and held secret services in private
houses.

Catherine’s daughter, Marguerite of Valois, married the
Huguenot, Henri III of Navarre, on August 18, 1572. The wedding took place in
Paris. A large contingent of the Huguenot nobility came to Paris for the
wedding. This presented the opportunity to eliminate the Huguenot leadership.

MASSACRE OF SAINT BARTHOLOMEW’S DAY

Just before dawn on August 24, 1572, the slaughter
commenced. Crowds ran through the streets, knives and cleavers in hand,
breaking into houses and dragging out hapless Huguenots in a killing frenzy.
The Seine River, where the bodies were dumped, ran red with blood

Navarre’s attendants inside the Louvre palace were
butchered although Henri himself was not hurt.

The slaughter continued the following day and spread to the
provinces, the relentless blood bath reached Rouen, Lyon, Bourges, Orleans, and
Bordeaux, continuing to the beginning of October. Current estimates put the
number at about 3,000 killed in Paris alone. Felipe II of Spain welcomed the
news of the carnage as did the Pope Gregory XIII. Protestant countries were
appalled at the atrocities, and to explain the mass murder, Charles IX claimed
the Huguenots had been plotting against the crown.

Rather than extirpating the Huguenots, the massacre
intensified the bitter hatred between them and Catholics. They abandoned
Calvin’s principle of obedience, adopting the view that rebellion was
legitimate under such circumstances. Catherine was now seen as an intolerant
Catholic extremist.

The massacre was a catalyst for further religious warfare
in France that would continue off and on throughout the sixteenth century. It
generated a new mindset among the Huguenots. Previously obedient to the laws of
the land and to officials, as Calvin had demanded they now brushed aside such considerations
and called for the elimination of the monarchy and the king of France who had
been party to the massacre. Not only were Huguenots fighting Catholics and the
Church for freedom of religion, but they were also fighting the monarchy for
political freedom.

In the 1590s, bad years for the common people, the weather
had been cold and wet for three years, and there were three bad harvests in a
row. Religious warfare destroyed transportation networks and food sources.
Bread was scarce, and prices of food, fuel, and housing rose, while wages saw
little increase. Taxes were high to pay for the wars and large national debt.
The effects of war were so severe in northern France that two-thirds of the
population of Picardy were widows and orphans.

Charles IX passed away on May 30, 1574, not yet 24 years
old. The crown went to Henri III. Upon the death of the heir-presumptive to the
throne, youngest son of Catherine, the duke of Anjou made the Protestant Henri
of Navarre heir in 1584. Failing to convince Henri to renounce Protestantism
for the sake of the people, Henri III banned the reformed religion and ordered
all Protestants to renounce their faith on pain of exile. Further battles
ensued between Huguenots and the powerful Guise Catholic League.

EDICT OF NANTES

When Henri IV came to the throne after the murder of Henri
III, he had second thoughts and realized that peace in the land would depend on
a Catholic king. In 1593, he renounced his Protestant views. Nevertheless, on
April 13, 1598, in Brittany, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes that granted
the Protestants full civil rights, which resulted in the end of the civil wars.
A court was set up, the
Chambre de l’E´dit
, where both Protestants and
Catholics could deal with problems and disagreements. It upheld their right to
believe as they chose, Protestant ministers were to be paid by the state, and
public worship was now legal in most of the kingdom although not in Paris,
which was too volatile and where trouble would most certainly ensue.

The Huguenots retained control over the cities or
strongholds they possessed as of August 1597. The edict also restored
Catholicism in areas where it had existed previously and prohibited any
extension of Protestantism in France. Nevertheless it was fiercely resented by
the pope as well as by the French Catholic clergy. But, once there was no
threat of a Protestant king, the Catholic League faded away. The edict brought
a measure of peace, but France was still divided into Protestant and Catholic
enclaves. The common people, however, could resume a normal life without threat
of war and devastation to their property, but distrust lingered on. Protestants
settled down to agriculture, trade, and manufacturing, becoming the most
prosperous people of France. They engaged in maritime commerce and brought
prosperity to themselves and the country. The burgeoning silk industry and the
manufacturing of fine linen in the seventeenth century owes their origins to
Protestant entrepreneurs.

Abraham Bosse. Engraving, 1633.
Louis XIII sits on his throne surrounded by courtiers. Eight men kneel in front
of him receiving honors. Through the window fortifications can be seen with
cannons, bell tents, and soldiers in formation.

PEASANTS AND WAR

During the period of attempted reform of the Church in
France and the subsequent civil wars, the country people frequently saw their
houses razed, crops ruined, animals slaughtered, and anything of value carted
away by armies or marauding soldiers. Poverty-stricken families made their way
to towns in search of food, but often found themselves locked out at the gates.

During the many civil wars that racked France between 1562
and 1598, peasant life could be sheer misery. From time to time they were
forced to quarter soldiers (without recompense) when an army—Catholic or
Protestant—was on campaign. Through the sweat of peasants the privileged were
fed and their grand style of living promoted, whereas in return, the peasants
were mocked as artful, vulgar, and as dull-witted as their animals.

Those farmers who were well off with oxen or horses of
their own as plow animals were reduced to a pitiful state of poverty during the
interminable wars over religion. Soldiers confiscated the animals to pull their
wagons and cannon and often simply ate them. Fields went unplowed, no crops
were planted, no seedlings were produced for the next year’s planting, and the
people, living on roots and water, starved.

Even under conditions not ravished by war, life was hard
for those who worked the land. In much of the country, means of transportation
were destroyed, and food, especially bread, was scarce. Troops pillaged
granaries and trodden-down grain fields. At the same time the cost of living
rose, while wages remained low and taxes high.

In northern France, family farms were generally too small
to support more than three people: the farmer, his wife, and a child. The heir
had to wait until the father’s death before marriage. Inheritance was difficult
for parents living on a small plot of land with several children. To divide the
land equally among them would render each plot too small to make a living. To
bequeath it to only one such as the oldest child, would leave the others
landless.

Misery and debt mounted as the wars continued. Soldiers
left along their marches a trail of murder, rape, pillage, and smoking ruins of
farmhouses and barns. Many farmers were forced to leave the wasteland of their
farms and join the multitude of vagrants roaming the countryside and were often
forced into one army or another.

MIDDLE CLASS

While the peasants were undergoing difficult times, the
middle class was increasing its wealth. For example, in Calais, on the north
Atlantic coast, there was an active maritime trade with other French ports, as
well as with the English, and the Dutch. The quality of life improved. Town
dwellers now had time to spend on leisure in gambling dens and taverns.

In England, Italy, Germany, and many other countries,
commerce was an honorable profession, but not in France or Spain where work was
beneath the dignity of the nobility. Most of the pious, prudent, parsimonious,
and obsequious middle class merchants lived in their quarter of the city and
seldom ventured out of it except on an occasional visit to the fresh air of the
countryside. Most of them spent their waking hours sheltered from the elements
by an arcade tending their sidewalk stalls, selling their fruits and
vegetables, meat or wares, and sometimes shouting out bargains to attract
customers. When evening descended and the light faded, they checked receipts,
counted the money, swept out the shop and retired to their quarters. Religious
or civic ceremonies offered some diversions to this routine.

HOUSES

In Paris, houses were constructed of large, unpolished
stones covered with plaster. They had as many as six storeys, the roofs covered
with tiles. Other cities employed timber, clay, and plaster to build their
houses, which were not as high. Almost every house had a wine cellar in which
cider, wine, and other beverages were stored. Some of the windows were glazed,
and many had shutters that were closed at night. Streets were mostly just wide
enough for two carts to pass. Houses in the villages were usually made of
timber and clay with thatch, but those belonging to the wealthy were similar to
the residences in towns. Palaces of the nobility were made of stone, and those
of the king had carved stone and sometimes marble pillars.

SERVANTS

Every household with enough money had servants, and the
more they had, the more prestige the owner enjoyed. After 1565, it became
illegal to employ a domestic without a certificate and proper papers. Those who
had worked before had to produce a letter from their previous employer giving
the reasons why they had left. Servants were paid a wage or compensated in some
other way for their work. In the latter case, the employee was forced to depend
entirely upon the munificence of the employer. Generosity was fairly rare,
however, and the compensation was sometimes as little as five livres or 100
sous a year for a man and perhaps 60 for a women. Compared to An unskilled
urban worker who made about six sou per day or enough for two moderate loaves
of bread, five livres did not go very far. The servant, of course, generally
had clothes and meals supplied.