[1139] Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 332-348; La Place, 170-177; De Thou, iii. 70; J. de Serres, i. 273-280. The impression made by the cardinal's speech upon his Romanist and Protestant hearers differed widely. According to the Abbé Bruslart (Mém. de Condé, i. 52), he spoke "en si bons et élégans termes, et d'une si bonne grace et asseurance, que nos adversaires mesmes l'admiroient." Stuck makes him speak "admodum inepte" (ap. Baum, ii., App., 66); while Beza writes: "Nihil unquam audivi impudentius, nihil ineptius.... Cætera ejusmodi quæ certe mihi nauseam moverunt" (Ib., 63, 64). Peter Martyr judged more leniently (Ib., 67, 68). It is, therefore, hardly likely that Beza said, as Dr. Henry White alleges without referring to his authority (Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 64); "Had I the Cardinal's eloquence I should hope to convert half France."
[1140] La Place, 178; Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., ubi supra; Jean de Serres, i. 280; De Thou, iii. 71.
[1141] La Place, etc., ubi supra; J. de Serres, i. 281.
[1142] "Nobis certum est," says Beza in a letter of Sept. 17th, "vel mox congredi vel protestatione facta discedere, si pergant diem de die ducere." Baum, ii., App., 64.
[1143] "Quid novi sperare possim non video. Nempe vel ipsa necessitas aliquid extorquebit, vel, quod Deus avertat, expectanda sunt omnia belli civilis incommoda. Quotidie ex diversis regni partibus multa ad nos tristia afferuntur in utramque partem, quoniam utrinque peccatur plerisque locis." Letter of Beza, Sept. 17th, ubi supra. In a similar strain Stuck writes on the next day: "In Gascony and Normandy scarcely an image is any longer to be seen; masses have ceased to be said. Undoubtedly, unless the liberty of preaching and hearing the Gospel with impunity be granted, there is great reason to fear an intestine war." Baum, ii., App., 67. Cf. Summa eorum, etc., apud Schlosser, Leben des Theodor de Beza, Anhang, 358, 359.
[1144] La Place, Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., Jean de Serres, etc., ubi supra, Castelnau, l. iii., c. 4.
[1145] No wonder; the prelates had just solemnly decreed, as Abbé Bruslart informs us (Mém. de Condé, i. 52): "Non erat congrediendum cum his qui principia et fundamentum totius nostræ fidei et religionis christianæ negant." Not only so; but they had protested against the heretics being heard, and had declared that whoever conferred with them would be excommunicated! "Disants que ceux qui conféreroient avec eux seroient excommuniés." The reader, if he cannot admire their consistency, will certainly be struck with astonishment at the fortitude of the prelates who, a few hours later, could bring themselves with so little apparent trepidation under the highest censures of the Church. Bruslart goes on to tell us that it was the Cardinal of Lorraine who brought them into this dreadful condemnation, partly hoping to convert the Huguenots, partly to please Catharine de' Medici!
[1146] "Mais ce ne fut pas en si grande compagnie qu'auparavant. Car Messieurs les preslats croignoyent que le monde ne fut infecté de nos heresies, qu'ils appellent." Letter of Beza to the Elector Palatine, Oct. 3, 1861, Baum, ii., App., p. 88.
[1147] Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 311, 312.
[1148] Ib., ubi supra, Hist. ecclés., i. 349. Letter of N. des Gallars to the Bishop of London, Sept. 29th, Baum, ii., App., 80.