who,but I shall speak of him here after. Now, to my shame be it spoken, though I was intimately acquainted with Henri, I was not quite so familiar with his mother. I had admired her spirited conduct at Rochelle, and reverenced her as the mother of a hero; but I was less conversant with her history at home, in this her little kingdom, than I ought to have been, before I visited her romantic capital. Here, she had fought the good fight of faith,' with eminent success; here she had planted the standard of truth, which, for half a century, had waved in these sunny realms, lifted up on the high mountains.'"'

"In giving a picture of the times when Protestantism prevailed in Bearn, I have not finished the sketch by painting its ruins. The landscape of this period would neither be picturesque nor pleasing. It would be like a view of that part of the ocean, where some lamented friend was lost. There are only ten small places, (the French wordtemple' is neither significant nor Christian,) of Protestant worship in this district of Bearn, now the department of the lower Pyrennèes. They are at Bayonne, Orthez, Sauveterre, Lagorre, Monte, Castletarb, Nay, Osse, Salieres, and Pau; at which latter town, the Protestants assemble in a small room, rented by the English visitants for their own use. That amiable lady, the duchess of Gordon, has purchased a site for a Protestant church and school-room, both of which are in great forwardness; but the finishing of which is now suspended for want of funds. Alas! that all who behold it,' of the Romish Church, 'begin to mock.' I wish I could induce my readers, (if I have any,) to aid in the restoration of religion amongst the Bearnoise. They are of a mild plastic temperament and lively capacity, fitting them for instruction; they live under tolerant laws, and they have the memory of the good old times' of Jeanne d'Albret still in remembrance, to inspirit the effort for their recurrence. Their present Protestant pastor, M. Jules Leonard Buscarlet, a man of piety and ardent feeling, must find his exertions futile to increase his congregation, until a fit place for assembly is opened. The Romish Church in France is reviving its ancient spirit of assumption. The existing laws prohibit public processions of Roman ceremonies in towns where there are Protestant ، temples. The erection of convents is also illegal. But both these prohibitions are violated."

We will now quote a few notices of the excellent queen Jane.

"Jeanne d'Albret was born at the Chateau de Pau, the 7th of January, 1528. But this only child was separated from her parents by the paramount influence of her uncle, the king of France, (Francis) who dreaded that her hand might be given to young Philip of Spain by her father, and her mind drawn away from Romanism by her mother. To prevent these consequences, injurious alike to his interests and his inclination, Francis, compulsorily, married his niece, when only in her twelfth year, to the Duke of Cleves. (It is said that the infant bride was so overloaded with the weight of her gorgeous finery, as to be unable to walk; which compelled the constable of France to carry her in his arms from her carriage to the church.) The lonely mother was thus deprived of the society of her child, and when her next warmest object of regard, her brother Francis, died, (March 31, 1547) her spirit seems to have forsaken her, and the world to have become valueless. She retired to the little village of Tusson, in Angouleme, joining a religious community of females, over whom she presided. Subsequently she removed to the Chateau d'Odos, near Tarbes, where she died December 21, 1549, from the effects of exposure in observing a comet. The Romish writers claim her as a re-convert, because, in her dying moments, she kissed a crucifix which was placed before her. She, who had embraced the cross in early life, and had so long borne it typically by patient endurance, might, surely, while in the agony of leaving one world, and in the earnest expectation of entering another, have clasped a crucifix without any superstitious feeling. The materialism of religion could have had but little influence over the dying senses of a Christian like the Queen of Navarre, who, while her paralytic hands grasped a crucifix, sufficiently declared the sort of feeling with which she viewed it, by thrice exclaiming, as she expired— Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!'"

"Henry d'Albret survived his Queen about six years. His government was mild and beneficial to his people, nor does he appear to have enforced his 'Ordonnance' against the Reformed doctrines with any severity, but to have satisfied himself with declaring his own opinions by his publication. The incongruous marriage of his daugh

ter, Jeanne d'Albret, with the Duke of Cleves, had been dissolved by Papal licence, and another contracted (October 20, 1548) with Antoine de Bourbon, Duke de Vendome. The Princess Jeanne was young and handsome, lively, and, as Brantome tells us, 'aimait une danse aussitot qu'un sermon.' She was of a shrewd discerning intellect, possessing the literary propensities and tastes of her mother, but with a far more determined and selfconfident spirit. Though brought up in the Romish faith, yet she had a full knowledge of the reformed doctrines, and early manifested an aversion to the grosser superstitions of Popery, yet without any earnest adherence to either faith.

"In 1555 Jeanne ascended the throne of her ancestors; and she and her husband took the usual oaths, according to the forms of the Roman Catholic Church, to the rites and discipline of which they in every respect conformed. Two days after this solemn ceremony, the estates of Bearn (consisting of the nobility, clergy, and deputies of towns) presented an address to their new sovereigns, stating that A sect had latterly sprung up, infected with heresy, which offended the faithful by their contempt and transgression of the divine precepts; that, as it was the duty of the sovereign to protect the church against all injustice and persecution, they prayed their majesties to exhort the bishops to search diligently after these new sectaries, and to direct that, in case of negligence on the part of the prelates, the delinquents should be prosecuted by the judges of the ordinary court, who should report, every two months, their proceedings thereon; and that proclamation should be made by sound of trumpet in all towns and markets, commanding all classes of people to abstain from disputing on, or in any manner questioning, the constitutions of the church.

"It is evident, from the presentation and terms of this address, that the Reformed doctrines were, as yet, chiefly confined to the lower classes of the Béarnoise people, although some, at least, of the prelates were disposed to favour them. That the 'sect' had become considerable in number, is also evinced by all classes of people in all towns and markets,' requiring a legislative admonition.

"The king and queen of Navarre averred, in their answer to this address, that they desired to extirpate heresy in their dominions, and would direct the bishops to proceed against heretics in conformity with the edict

of the late king Henry, issued 1546.' An order was subsequently published, threatening the prelates with the seizure of their temporalties, in the case of laxity in the pursuit of heretics, and directing certain legal proceedings for their prosecution, in order that all heresy and all heretics should be exterminated.' Notwithstanding this apparent inquisitorial vigour, no prosecution was commenced against the new heresy. Jeanne d'Albret, when she came to reside in Bearn, was brought into association with the friends of her late mother. These faithful adherents were the Protestant exiles whom the pious and tender-hearted Marguerite had sheltered from persecution; the learned Theodore Beza, the eloquent Henri Barran, and the enthusiastic and venerable Jaques Lefevre, who, when in the hundred and first year of his age, lamented, with his dying breath, that he had missed the crown of martyrdom. These and other eminent individuals were gladly welcomed by the filial feeling and acute understanding of the queen of Navarre. Her mother's writings and personal example were admonitory records; her mother's friends, illustrious examples, of the purer doctrines which she found extending around her. The king, her husband, who was of a vicillating temper, appears to have been lured, by the talents of those whom the Queen had received into favour, to listen with complacency, if not with conviction.

Under these circumstances, the fulminations against heresy were mere summer thunderings, which, instead of causing ravage, only cleared and refreshed the atmosphere.

"So great was the encouragement given by the sovereigns of Navarre to the remnant of the reformers who remained in that kingdom, after the death of Marguerite de Valois, that many others shortly joined them. Amongst these was a Genevese minister, Francis Guy de Boisnormand, a man of considerable talent, who, with Henri Barran, formerly a monk of Bèarn, obtained so great an influence over the Queen, that she became a decided patroness of their doctrines. The Navarrese court again became the place of refuge for the oppressed Protestants of France and Germany, and, on every side, the welcomed strangers repaid the hospitality they received, by their missionary efforts.'

These proceedings attracted the notice of the courts of Rome and Paris; and and Paris; and admonitions,

threats, ill usage, and bribes, were employed, to bring back the king and queen, with their people, to the thraldom of Popery. The king yielded, to the great distress of the queen, and placed their son, young Henry, under Romish governors; but Jane stood firm, declaring that, sooner than go to mass, or willingly suffer her child or subjects to do so, she would, were it possible, cast them into the depths of the sea. She escaped by flight, in April, 1561, from the snares which were thickening around her; and being sheltered among her native hills at Bèarn, learned, with deep affliction, but without being able to prevent, the severities with which her subjects were visited by her husband and the French court, in order to extirpate the Protestant faith. The king dying at the close of 1562, from a wound received while engaged against the Huguenots, Jane determined to act as an independent sovereign, and to encourage the reformed faith at all hazards to herself. She accordingly ordered an appropriation of ecclesiastical revenue, for the support of Protestant worship, and forbad the public processions of the Romish church. The Roman ists, in consequence, complained to the cardinal D'Armagnac, who addressed to the queen a letter, which Mr. Jameson has inserted, together with her reply. As we do not recollect having seen these documents in the popular narratives of the life of Jane of Navarre, in our religious biographies, we will insert, long though it is, the queen's admirable reply to the cardinal's astute (Mr. Jameson is pleased to call it " Puseyite") letter. It strikingly exhibits the mental ability, the shrewd tact, the courage, and the piety, of this extraordinary woman; and its arguments are not destitute of forcible application to our own

times. To appreciate duly the christian resolution of the writer, it must be remembered that Rome was at that period in the plenitude of her dominancy; that the petty domain of Navarre was encircled by France and Spain, the former under the sway of the patron of the St. Bartholomew massacre, and the latter of Philip, the husband of our bloody Mary," of Smithfield memory; and that the queen's own nobles, dignified clergy, and state advisers, were for the most part, openly or secretly, Papists. With this preface we copy the document.

"My Cousin, From my earliest years I have been acquainted with the of my kindred. I am not authorized zeal which attached you to the service by ignorance of that zeal to refuse it the praise and the esteem it merits, or to be prevented from feeling a gratitude which I should be desirous to continue towards those who, like you, having partaken of the favour of my family, have preserved good-will and fidelity towards it. I should trust you would still entertain those feelings towards me, as you profess to do, without allowing them to be changed or destroyed by the influence of I know not what religion or superstition; thanking you at the same time for the advice you give me, and which I receive according to its varied character, the dissimilar and mingled points it touches, being divided between heaven and earth, God and men!

As to the first point, concerning the reform which I have effected at Pau and Lescar, and which I desire to extend throughout my sovereignty, I have learned it from the Bible, which I read more willingly than the works of your doctors. I have there found, in the account of king Josias, a model by which I ought to regulate my conduct, in order that I may not draw on myself the reproach cast on those kings of Israel, who pretended to serve the Lord while they allowed the high places to remain.

"As to the ruin impending over me, through bad counsel, under the colour of religion, I am not so devoid of the gifts of God, or of the aid of friends, as to be unable to make choice of persons worthy of my confidence, and capable of acting, not under a vain pretence, but with the true spirit of religion. Such as is the head, so are the

members. I have not undertaken to plant a new religion in my dominions, but rather to rebuild the ruins of the ancient faith, which can only be regarded as a good design, and which 1 trust will be successful. I clearly perceive that you have been misinformed, both respecting the answer of my estates and the disposition of my subjects. The two estates have professed their obedience to religion. The three first remonstrances were unfounded, but being satisfactorily answered, my subjects, ecclesiastics, nobles, and citizens, without exception, have vowed obedience, which is the safeguard against rebellion. I use no compulsion, nor punish with death or imprisonment the expedients of arbitrary power.

"I know who my neighbours are: the one hates my religion as much as I do his; but that does not affect our mutual relations; and, besides, I am not so destitute of advice and friends, as to have neglected all necessary precaution for the defence of my rights, in case of attack. My other neighbour I regard as the stem from which I have the honour to be an offshoot. Far from abhorring my religion, he protects it in the persons of the nobles; and of my son, who, like myself, is flattered by

the honour which this connexion attaches to our house. Both modes of worship are recognized in his dominions, nor is any one despised on account of his faith. But even supposing that it were so; allowing even that my subjects should desire to claim the aid of either of these princes; the one would hesitate to receive them, through fear that, in offending me, he might irritate a superior power, that is to say, France, to whom, as you know, this country is of great importance; while the other, far from being, in my estimation, a tyrant or usurper, on the contrary, covers and protects me under the shadow of his wings, where I feel assured of safety. Although you think to intimidate me, I am protected from all apprehension. First, by my confidence in God, whom I serve, and who knows how to defend his cause. Secondly, because my tranquillity is not affected by the designs of those whom I can easily oppose, and because the effect of these designs will never be to weaken my spirit, or turn aside the resolution I have taken, and which I will execute, with the grace of Him who encompasses my country, as the ocean does England!

"I do not perceive that I run the risk of sacrificing either my own welfare, or that of my son; on the contrary, I trust to strengthen it in the only way which every Christian should pursue; CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 18.

and even though the Spirit of God might not inspire me with a knowledge of this way, yet human intellect would induce to act as I do, from the many examples which I recal with regret, especially that of the late king, my husband, of whose history you well know the beginning, the course, and the end. Where are the splendid crowns you held out to him? Did he gain any by combating against true religion and his conscience? Yes, his conscience, as witness his last words addressed to the queen, declaring that he would cause the reformed ministers to preach throughout his territories, if he should be cured of his wound. Mark the fruit of the gospel, which divine mercy causes to be gathered in its time and place. See the care of the eternal Father, who remembers those upon whom his name is called.

"I blush with shame when you talk of the many atrocities which you allege to have been committed by those of our faith: cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and thou shalt then see clearly the mote in thy brother's eye: purify the earth that is stained with the innocent blood which those of your party have shed, a fact you can bear testimony to; and I well know whence sprung the first disturbances, when the ministers of the Gospel preaching everywhere under the sanction of the edict of tolerance issued in January 1559, you and the Cardinal de Tournon injured the character of the late king, my husband, by inducing him to interrupt their efforts? I am far, however, from approving here the excesses committed in many places under the name of religion, and which our miuisters deplore equally with all men of rectitude. My voice calls loudly for vengeance against their authors, who have profaned the true faith; by the grace of God, the disgrace of these disorders shall be effaced from Bearn, which will be saved from this ruin, as well as all others with which it is threatened.

"You are ignorant of what our ministers are, who preach patience, obedience to sovereigns, and the other virtues of which the apostles and the martyrs have left them an example. You will not dispute, you observe, about our doctrine: nor will I, although its truth is so manifest, that it is vain for you to call it false. It is not through mistrust of my cause that I refrain, but from the fear of making useless efforts to conduct you to the hill of Zion. You affirm that multitudes draw back from our belief, while I maintain that the number of its ad3 B

herents increases daily. As to ancient authorities, I hear them every day cited by our ministers. I am not, indeed, sufficiently learned to have gone through so many works; but neither, I suspect, have you, nor are better versed in them than myself, as you were always known to be more acquainted with matters of State than those of the Church. You do wrong to blame us for having quitted the ancient faith. Take that blame to yourself, you who have rejected the milk with which you nourished my mother, before the honours of Rome had fascinated your eyes.

"We are agreed on the reading the Scriptures, without looking further. We acknowledge that there are difficult passages; your corruptions, which have rendered them so, have eaten like a canker. It is also too true, that the spirit of darkness blinds men; you and others have been examples of it. I have learned in our religion, that St. Augustine (versus Adamantus), had well explained these words, This is my body,' in saying that Jesus Christ spoke of his own body, while he gave the sign of it. This explanation is a better elucidation than that which you give of the passage, where the Saviour said, that he would speak no longer in parables, since, then, the supper had been finished. Read again these passages attentively, before you explain them so unhappily on any other occasion; it might be pardonable in me as a female, but you, a cardinal, to be so old and yet so ignorant! Truly, my cousin, I feel shame for you!

"You affect to repeat often, my doctors, my ministers. Would to God they were mine, and that I was enriched with so great a treasure. I would say with St. Paul, I am not ashamed of the Gospel. But do not however believe, that I consider them infallible. I place no reliance on doctors, not even Calvin, Beza, and others, but as they follow Scripture. You would send them to a council. They desire it, provided that it shall be a free one, and that the parties should not be judges. The motive of the surety they require, is founded on the examples of John Huss and Jerome of Prague.

"There are not many sects amoung our ministers, but rather amongst you, as I learned at the conference between the Protestants and Romanists held in 1560, at Poissy. We have one God, one faith, one Church, which he has promised to govern until the end of the world. As to the morals and manners of our ministers, are you of opinion that they should go to Rome to learn better? You make them declare that the

Church has lain hid for twelve or thirteen hundred years. They said nothing like it, for they acknowledge an universal Church, where it has been always existing, but not with you whom they deny to be the true Church. They carry no further a decision on the fate of those who preceded you in the same belief, leaving all to the secret judgment of God. False assertions should not be made, when one wishes to be believed.

"I am equally astonished with you, that persons of good sense should be misled, and if you lose patience at it, I, who have much less than you, only view it in the same light.

"Nothing afflicts me more than that you, after having received the truth, should have abandoned it for idolatry, because you there found the advancement of your fortune and worldly honours. I believe that if you are not guilty of the sin against the Holy Ghost, you are very nearly so. Hasten, I entreat you, to pray, for fear that the door of mercy may be shut against you. I must stop here, practising obedience to what God commands- Be ye angry and sin not.'

"If it is true, as you say, that the followers for the faith have become persecutors, keep those titles for yourself which the Holy Spirit ascribes to you. When you call our ministers disturbers, it seems to me that I hear Ahab addressing Elijah, but the prophet answered, 'I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy Father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and hast followed Balaam.' Have you no shame in inducing me to take a part, only sustained by those who league against their sovereign and God; so that far from thus gaining a title to my esteem, you hazard having to repent of your own attempts.

"I understand, better than you do, how to act towards the princes, my allies, and to my son, who belongs to that Church, out of which there is no salvation, and in which I feel assured of my own safety.

"You beg me not to consider it strange or wrong that you have thus addressed me, since you act as legate of the pope; but I will not receive one at the same price which France has paid, who has had to repent of the bargain. I acknowledge God, as the only being to whom, in Bearn, I am responsible for the exercise of my authority. I have not withdrawn from the Catholic church, nor adopted any error contrary to its creed. Keep, therefore, your tears to mourn your own danger, to