[1119] La Place, 159; Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf. i. 316. The current, but erroneous belief, that this confession was first composed by Theodore Beza at the Colloquy of Poissy, has already been noticed. It had been printed, as we have seen (ante, c. viii. p. 343), in the Geneva Liturgy as early as in 1542; and earlier still in that of Strasbourg. It was already the favorite of martyrs and confessors. Jean Vernou, in 1515, recited it at the estrapade. "Verum antequam mactaretur," says Jean Crespin, "preces ad Deum fudit, ita exorsus: 'Domine Deus et Pater omnipotens ego certe coram sacrosancta majestate tua ex animo et syncere agnosco me peccatorem esse miserrimum,' et cætera quæ in precationum formula recitantur statim initio." The margin reads: "Initium precum solennium Geneuæ." Actiones et monimenta martyrum, Genevæ 1560, fol. 321.
[1120] La Place, 159; Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 316.
[1121] "De Bèze portant la parole pour tous les autres, commença et continua longuement sa rémonstrance en assez doux termes, se soûmettant souventefois, si l'on montroit par la Sainte Escriture," etc. Letter of Catharine de' Medici to the Bishop of Rennes, Sept. 14, 1561, apud Le Laboureur, Add. Castelnau, i. 733.
[1122] "His solumodo verbis Cardinales atque Episcopi usque adeo exasperati atque exacerbati sunt, ut in hæc verba, orationem ipsius interpellates, proruperint: blasphemavit, blasphemavit Deum! Sed eorum adversis admurmurationibus D. Beza minime perturbatus, eodem vultu," etc. Letter of Joh.. Guil. Stuckius to Conrad Hubert, Sept. 18, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 66.
[1123] "Da Beza eine schöne Oration gethon, darinn er kurtz perstringiert alle strytigen Artikel, und als er letstlich kom uff den Artikel von der Gegenwirtikeit Christi im Sacrament, und under anderm gesagt das sige so veer von einander als der Himmel von der Erden, habend die Sorbonischen angfangen klopfen, rütschen, brummlen, das nieman nüt mer mögen hören, dess die alte Königin übel zufriden gsyn. Dessgleichen auch der Cardinal von Lutringen und sy gheissen in Stille losen, man werde sy doch hernach auch gutwilliklich verhören." Letter of Haller to Bullinger, Sept. 25, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 73. "Cela fut trouvé si nouveau et estrange entre les prélats, que soubdain ils commencèrent tous à murmurer et faire un grand bruict; lequel toutesfois estant aucunement appaisé," etc. La Place, 167, 168. "Hic enim mussitare Cardinales et Episcopi, et tantum non vestes scindere." Letter of Martyr to the Senate of Zurich, Sept. 12, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 63.
[1124] Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 327.
[1125] Letter of Haller, ubi supra.
[1126] The admirable speech of Theodore Beza is given word for word by La Place, 159-167, and somewhat modernized by the Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 316-327. Cf. De Thou, iii. 67, 68; Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 4; Abbé Bruslart, Mém. de Condé, i. 51; Letters of Stuck, Haller, and Martyr, ubi supra. Summa eorum quæ a die 22. Augusti usque ad 15. Septembr. in aula regis Galliæ acta sunt, apud F. C. Schlosser, Leben des Theodor de Beza und des Peter Martyr Vermili (Heidelberg, 1809), Appendix, 355-359. Discours des Actes de Poissy, ubi supra, 652-657.
[1127] Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 327; La Place, 168; De Thou, iii. 68; Letter of Haller, ubi supra; Actes de Poissy, Recueil des choses mém., 657, 658.
[1128] The response of the queen is concisely given by La Place, the Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., the Actes de Poissy, and De Thou (ubi supra); but the graphic account upon which the text is based is found in the letter of Haller to Bullinger, Sept. 25, 1561, which Prof. Baum discovered at Zurich, and has published in the volume of documents which figures as an appendix to the second volume of his extremely valuable biography of Beza. It is superfluous for me to acknowledge formally my obligations to this rich storehouse of original authorities, since the frequent references that I have already made, and shall doubtless have occasion for some time to make, to its separate documents, will sufficiently attest the high estimate I place upon its value. The correspondence of the reformers is always an important commentary upon the contemporaneous history. In the present instance, much of the most trustworthy information is derived from it. Prof. Baum's own narrative is admirable (Book iv., c. 5).