[999] Beza, Letter to Bullinger, Geneva, Jan. 22, 1561; Baum, Th. Beza, ii., App., 21, 22; Calvin to Ministers of Paris, Lettres franç., ii. 348.
[1000] "Hanc supplicationem, scribitur ad nos, Regina ex Amyraldi manu acceptam promisisse se Concilio exhibituram, et magna omnium spes est nobis omnia hæc concessum iri, modo privatis locis et sine tumultu pauci simul conveniant.... Ita brevi futurum spero ut Gallia tandem Regem et nomine et re christianissimum habeat." Beza, ubi supra.
[1001] Catharine's fears that the States would enter upon the discussion of matters affecting her regency undoubtedly had much to do with this action (Hist. ecclés. des églises réf., i. 280: "qu'on craignoit vouloir passer plus outre en d'autres affaires qu'on ne vouloit remuer"). Ostensibly in order to avoid confusion and expense, each of the thirteen principal provinces was to depute only two delegates to Pontoise.
[1002] Letter of Charles IX., Jan. 28, 1561, Mémoires de Condé, ii. 268.
[1003] March 1st, "puysque la volunté du Roy est," Mém. de Condé, ii. 273. When the secretary of state, Bourdin, brought to parliament the mandates of Charles and Catharine from Fontainebleau, of Feb. 13th and 14th, ordering its registry, he stated that Charles had granted this document "at the urgent prayer of the three estates, and in order to obviate and provide against troubles and divisions, while waiting for the decision of the General Council granted by the Pope." On the 22d of February a new missive of the king was received in parliament, enjoining the publication of the letter of January 28th, with the modification that any of the liberated prisoners that would not consent to live in a Catholic fashion must leave the kingdom under pain of the halter. Mém. de Condé, ii. 271, 272.
[1004] Calvin, Mémoire aux églises réf. de France, Dec., 1560, Lettres franç. (Bonnet), ii. 350.
[1005] Letter of Calvin to brethren of Paris, Feb. 26, 1561, ap. Baum, ii., App., 26; Bonnet, Lettres fr. de Calvin, ii. 378, etc.
[1006] "E benchè la più parte fossero ignoranti, e predicasse mille pazzie, però ogn'uno aveva il suo séguito." Michel Suriano, Commentarii del regno di Francia, Relations des Amb. Vén. (Tommaseo), i. 532. M. Tommaseo supposes this relation to belong to 1561, and mentions the somewhat remarkable opinion of others that it was somewhere between 1564 and 1568. The document itself gives the most decided indications that it was written in the early part of 1562, before the outbreak of the first civil war—indeed, before the return of the Guises to court. After stating that Charles IX. when he ascended the throne was ten years old (page 542), the author says that he is now eleven and a half. The proximate date would, therefore, seem to be January or February, 1562. Throkmorton wrote to the queen, Paris, Nov. 14, 1561, that "the Venetians had sent Marc Antonio Barbaro to reside there, in the place of Sig. Michaeli Soriano." State Paper Office MSS.
[1007] Gaberel, Histoire de l'église de Genève, i., pièces just., p. 201-203, from the Archives of Geneva; Soulier, Histoire des édits de pacification (Paris, 1682), 22-25.
[1008] Gaberel, Hist. de l'église de Genève, i. (pièces justif.), 203-206. He gives the deliberation of the council, as well as the reply. Lettres franç. de Calvin, ii. 373-378. It needs scarcely to be noticed that the "Sieur Soulier, prêtre," while he parades the royal letter as a convincing proof of the seditious character of the Huguenot ministers, does not deign even to allude to the satisfactory reply. No wonder; so apposite a refutation would have been sadly out of place in a book written expressly to justify the successive steps of the violation of the solemn compacts between the French crown and the Protestants—to prepare the way, in fact, for the formal revocation of the edict of Nantes (three years later) toward which the priests were fast hurrying Louis XIV.