As the literature on the subject of this Massacre is
attracting some -attention, we may extract a curious passage from the festival oration delivered at Rome, on receipt of the news of the Massacre, by Marcus Antonius Muretus, which confirms the view taken above of the French Ambassador's gross misrepresentation of the true nature of the event. Muretus is speaking of the Huguenots, and ;says :—" Veriti non aunt adversus illius regis caput ac salutem oonjurare, a quo post tot atrocia facinora non modo veniain .consecuti erant sed etiam benigne at amanter excepti." And he goes on in the same strain to the following apostrophe :—" 0 noctem Warn memorabilem,—quas paucorurn seditioaorurn interitu regem a praesenti caedis periculo, regnum a perpetuo civilium bel- forum formidine liberavit l" The sum and substance of the matter is, that the French Foreign Office, or their ambassadors, or both, lied horribly, and that Rome was only too eager to believe the lies. Probably the Pope did not realise in those days that he was infallible when he spoke ex cathedra'. If he had, he would have hesitated, for the Church's sake, to betray his immense fallibility as an ordinary ruler.
Previous page
