region and in the kingdom to allow some hope of vanquishing their enemies.
If Sauveterre had been left to his own devices, he would have taken up his cross without further ado, and run headlong to his own death, so great was his dislike of dissimulation, and so violent was his agitation at seeing the errors of the papists (as he called them) gain credence throughout the land. If he restrained himself, it was not out of any fear of the stake—his austere management of the wealth of Mespech was ample proof of his disdain for this world—but rather out of fear of making his way alone, and without his beloved brother, to the felicities of eternal life. I read in a touching marginal note added by Sauveterre to my father’s entry of 12th June 1552, “I arose today at five o’clock and looked out of my window at the pure sky and the sun shining on the foliage, the birds singing by the thousands. And yet, what is all of this compared to the happiness and the glory we will know in Our Lord when we have left our mortal remains here below? Oh, Jean, how you do delay! Of course I know that you would feel a deep sadness in leaving behind Mespech and your family, but think only what measure of thing you leave behind in comparison to what you will receive in the life hereafter.”
To which my father wrote in reply on the following day: “We did not take Mespech from the mouth of the wolf only to abandon it to the wolf cubs. The same goes for my wife and beloved children, François and Pierre.” This is the first time that I am mentioned by name in the
Book of Reason
, along with my elder brother.
Continuing their dialogue on paper, my father later entered an argument which must have touched Sauveterre even more deeply:“It is written in the Holy Book: ‘If thou obeyst the voice of the Lord, blessed will be the offspring of thy cattle, blessed thy fruits and thy honey.’ Certainly, in this respect, we have no reason to complain of Mespech. Is this not the proof that our house is seen as the house of God, since He makes us to prosper in this world, as is promised in the Scriptures? Must we think of destroying everything He has built and ourselves destroy the roof over our heads, our descendants, our servants and our flocks, giving ourselves to the stake and Mespech to the papists? No, my brother, we owe the truth in our hearts only to God, whereas to the enemies of God that we have encountered thus far we owe only ruses and lies: to the Devil go the fruits of the Devil…”
And so, every Sunday, while the curate of Marcuays said Mass to Isabelle de Siorac and to our servants in the chapel on the ground floor of the east tower, the two brothers, deaf to the Latin intonations of the Mass filtering through the grate from below, softly chanted the Psalms of David in their first-floor library.
In the midst of the many benedictions which the Lord rained down on Mespech, there were nevertheless a few afflictions, and among these were the premature deaths of three children, whose names are entered in the
Book of Reason
. But I must guard against any implication that these were punishments from on high. For there was no family in France of this century exempt from such grief, and some mourned more than half of the children they brought into this world.
In entries in the
Book of Reason
dated a few months before my birth, I read repeated notes from Sauveterre, “I pray for you, Jean,” which of course excited my curiosity, especially since my father never answered them. What sickness did Jean de Siorac have that should provoke his brother’s repeated prayers, and what sudden attack of ingratitude kept my father from ever thanking his brother for these orisons?
I must confess here what I but guessed during my childhood, and only fully understood much later. Between my father and my mother, almost from the first day of their marriage, there raged a small war of religion, which, whether latent or openly engaged, knew no respite. For
If Sauveterre had been left to his own devices, he would have taken up his cross without further ado, and run headlong to his own death, so great was his dislike of dissimulation, and so violent was his agitation at seeing the errors of the papists (as he called them) gain credence throughout the land. If he restrained himself, it was not out of any fear of the stake—his austere management of the wealth of Mespech was ample proof of his disdain for this world—but rather out of fear of making his way alone, and without his beloved brother, to the felicities of eternal life. I read in a touching marginal note added by Sauveterre to my father’s entry of 12th June 1552, “I arose today at five o’clock and looked out of my window at the pure sky and the sun shining on the foliage, the birds singing by the thousands. And yet, what is all of this compared to the happiness and the glory we will know in Our Lord when we have left our mortal remains here below? Oh, Jean, how you do delay! Of course I know that you would feel a deep sadness in leaving behind Mespech and your family, but think only what measure of thing you leave behind in comparison to what you will receive in the life hereafter.”
To which my father wrote in reply on the following day: “We did not take Mespech from the mouth of the wolf only to abandon it to the wolf cubs. The same goes for my wife and beloved children, François and Pierre.” This is the first time that I am mentioned by name in the
Book of Reason
, along with my elder brother.
Continuing their dialogue on paper, my father later entered an argument which must have touched Sauveterre even more deeply:“It is written in the Holy Book: ‘If thou obeyst the voice of the Lord, blessed will be the offspring of thy cattle, blessed thy fruits and thy honey.’ Certainly, in this respect, we have no reason to complain of Mespech. Is this not the proof that our house is seen as the house of God, since He makes us to prosper in this world, as is promised in the Scriptures? Must we think of destroying everything He has built and ourselves destroy the roof over our heads, our descendants, our servants and our flocks, giving ourselves to the stake and Mespech to the papists? No, my brother, we owe the truth in our hearts only to God, whereas to the enemies of God that we have encountered thus far we owe only ruses and lies: to the Devil go the fruits of the Devil…”
And so, every Sunday, while the curate of Marcuays said Mass to Isabelle de Siorac and to our servants in the chapel on the ground floor of the east tower, the two brothers, deaf to the Latin intonations of the Mass filtering through the grate from below, softly chanted the Psalms of David in their first-floor library.
In the midst of the many benedictions which the Lord rained down on Mespech, there were nevertheless a few afflictions, and among these were the premature deaths of three children, whose names are entered in the
Book of Reason
. But I must guard against any implication that these were punishments from on high. For there was no family in France of this century exempt from such grief, and some mourned more than half of the children they brought into this world.
In entries in the
Book of Reason
dated a few months before my birth, I read repeated notes from Sauveterre, “I pray for you, Jean,” which of course excited my curiosity, especially since my father never answered them. What sickness did Jean de Siorac have that should provoke his brother’s repeated prayers, and what sudden attack of ingratitude kept my father from ever thanking his brother for these orisons?
I must confess here what I but guessed during my childhood, and only fully understood much later. Between my father and my mother, almost from the first day of their marriage, there raged a small war of religion, which, whether latent or openly engaged, knew no respite. For
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