3] acquit Gregory the Thirteenth of any knowledge of the disaster
impending over the admiral and the Huguenots. It was what he wished for
and prayed for, but with little hope of seeing the accomplishment. In
fact, he was brought to the verge of despair in respect to the hold of the
papacy upon the kingdom of France. Nuncio Salviati, at Paris, had, indeed,
conceived the hope that some disaster would befall the Huguenots in
consequence of Coligny's imprudence and the desperation of the queen
mother and of the Roman Catholic party at finding the authority slipping
from their hands. But his astonishment and that of the pontiff at the
general massacre of the Protestants was surpassed only by their common
delight. The fragments of the despatches from Salviati to the Roman
secretary of state, which have been suffered to find their way into print,
seem to settle this point beyond all controversy.

[Sidenote: Pius the Fifth instigates the French court.]

[Sidenote: He indorses the cruelties of Alva.]

We have in previous chapters seen the Pope assisting Charles with money
and troops in the prosecution of the last two wars against the Huguenots.
But this aid was accompanied with perpetual exhortations to do the work
thoroughly, and not to repeat the mistakes committed by his predecessors.
"That heresy cannot be tolerated in the same kingdom with the worship of
the Catholic religion," writes Pius the Fifth to Sigismund Augustus of
Poland, "is proved by that very example of the kingdom of France, which
your Majesty brings up for the purpose of excusing yourself. If the former
kings of France had not suffered this evil to grow by neglect and
indulgence, they would easily have been able to extirpate heresy and
secure the peace and quiet of their realm."[1234] Of all the leaders of
the day, the Duke of Alva alone earned, by his unrelenting destruction of
heretics, the unqualified approval of the pontiff. When the tidings of the
successes of the "Blood Council" reached Rome, Pius could not contain
himself for joy. He must congratulate the duke, and spur him on in a
course upon which the blessing of Heaven so manifestly rested. "Nothing
can occur to us," said he, "more glorious for the dignity of the Church,
or more delightful to the truly paternal disposition of our mind to all
men, than when we perceive that warriors and very brave generals, such as
we previously knew you to be and now find you in this most perilous war,
consult not