As always within human sciences the way we categorize things determine what those things are. In archaeology it is called contextualization, in order to see the forest for the trees, sometimes it is necessary to take a step back from the obvious and look for instead the strange or to decontextualize. Stephen J Gould once told me he looks for the” logic of mistakes when he reads”. “mostly in order to not make them again” I think that some times these mistakes are completely the result of askew parallax. When I try and think back to 1594, the context is so fragmented, partly due to the nature of information we have from then and partly because there is no way to deal with the enormity of the information we have. It takes time,, more time that anyone can have. History presses on. We try and hook onto it, and I think that there is a necessity for chance, to get us moving. I find a new book, one i’ve never seen before and it brings me somewhere…. new
On December 27 December 1594, Jean Chastell, who was about 19 years old and ‘Jesuit educated’ at the College of Clermont ,some how snuck into the bed chamber of King Henry IV’s mistress in Paris. Henry was there and Chastell tried to stab him in the stomach,but he missed as the Kind was bending down and instead stabbed him in the mouth. On December 29 Chastell was brought before the Parliament of Paris. Chastell, confessed and when asked about his motivations he confirmed that he was inspired by the Jesuit father Jean Gueret. Parliament condemned Chastell to death, to be executed later that day. (fast justice indeed) They also ordered the Jesuits to leave France within two days. The Parliament further stated that any Frenchman who sent his child to a Jesuit College (even out side of France) was guilty of treason. Father Gueret was executed on January 7th.
The importance of the justification or regicide by the Jesuits was not missed by John Donne, who in His Pseudo Martyr (1610) sides with The Parliament of Paris, in fact referring to this case.
312G Boucher, Jean. 1589-1610 
Apologie povr Iehan Chastel Parisien, execvte a morte: et povr les peres & escholliers, de la Societé de Iesvs, bannis du royaume de France. Contre l’arrest de Parlement, donné contre eux a Paris, le 29. Decembre, 1594. Diuisée en cinq parties
[Paris? : s.n.] or [Low Countries : Louvain ?, Antwerp ?, s.n.], 1595 $3,800
Octavo, . First Edition A6 B-R8 This copy is bound in the original limp vellum.
This book is an defence of J. Chastel’s failed attempt upon the life of Henri IV in 1594, and of the Jesuits who had approved the attack and who were going to be banished from France.
The French priest J. Boucher, a leading member of the Ligue, urges for a more fortunate re)attempt of the assassination (which eventually happened in 1610). “François Verone” was a pseudonym for Jean Boucher In this book he justifies the attempt by stating that it was ‘right and heroic’ and urges for a new and more successful attempt, which indeed took place in 1610 and provoked the appearance of a second edition of this book. Charles Labitte characterizes this by stating that this murder ‘never has been approved with more scholastic coolness, cold rigour and thirst for blood’
Jesuits were accused of complicity in Jean Chastel’s attempt to assassinate Henry IV on 27 December 1594. Chastel’s actions gave Jesuit opponents just what they needed to achieve their goal of expelling the hated Society. Expelled from most of France by the parlement of Paris and by several other parlements, the Jesuits only returned when the king granted them clemency.
Backer-Sommervogel,; vol. 11, col. 541, no. 57;Pettegree FB 50702 = NB 5579. BT 377. Adams B-2569. Hauser 3122.
Some times I find these OcLC Subject Headings: interesting.
So this book is French History, A Jesuit Book, Political science, Law (trials) Regicides (John Donne) …
Where does this book go to next.
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