[1149] Beza's speech is given in full by La Place, 179-189; Hist. eccl. des égl. réf., i. 350-362; and J. de Serres, i. 282-312. See also De Thou, iii. 71, and N. des Gallars, ubi supra.
[1150] "Et hoc quidem prorsus inepte, quia neque conquesti eramus, neque quemquam poterat videri magis accusare, quam eum ipsum [sc. Cardinal Loth.] cui accesserat advocatus." Letter of Beza, Sept. 27th, apud Baum, ii., App., 75. It was Beza's firm belief that D'Espense had been hired by Lorraine to compose his speech of the 16th of September, as well as to defend him on the present occasion. He therefore not inappositely calls him, in this letter to Calvin, "conductitius Balaam."
[1151] La Place, 189, 190; Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 364; Jean de Serres, i. 315; Beza, ubi supra.
[1152] La Place, 192; Jean de Serres, i. 321-323; Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 370; Beza to Calvin, Baum, ii., App., 77; N. des Gallars to the Bishop of London, ibid., 81; De Thou, iii. 73.
[1153] Letter of Beza to Calvin, Sept. 27th, ubi supra. Besides permitting the communication of this information, the break in the conferences (caused by the discovery, on Catharine's part, that the majority of the prelates had resolved to submit a proposition respecting the mass, drawn up in a strictly Romish sense—a refusal to sign which they intended to take as the signal for declining to hold any further intercourse with the Protestants) furnished an opportunity for Montluc, Bishop of Valence—a prelate suspected of Protestant proclivities—and Claude d'Espense, one of the most moderate of the theologians of the Sorbonne, to meet privately, by request of Catharine de' Medici, with Beza and Des Gallars. The result of their interview was the provisional adoption of a declaration on the subject of the eucharist, which, though undoubtedly Protestant in its natural import, was rejected by the rest of the ministers as not sufficiently explicit. Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., ubi supra. See a full account in Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 342-344. They rightly judged that where there is essential discrepancy of belief, little or nothing can be gained by cloaking it in ambiguous expressions.
[1154] Beza's address is inserted in La Place, 193-196; Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 371, etc. See also De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.), 74; letters of Beza to Calvin, and N. des Gallars to the Bishop of London, ubi supra; Jean de Serres, i. 327, etc.
[1155] La Place, De Thou, letters of Beza, and des Gallars, etc., ubi supra. "Comme si les feu rois François le grand, Henry le débonnaire, François dernier décédé, et Charles à present règnant (et faisoit sonner ces mots autant qu'il pouvoit) avoient été tyrans et simoniacles." Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 375.
[1156] La Place, Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., etc., ubi supra. Letter of Beza to the Elector Palatine, Oct. 3d, Baum, ii., App., 88, 89.
[1157] Because he was not sufficiently familiar with French, according to La Place, 197 (ne sçachant parler françois); and in order to make himself better understood by the queen "ut a regina intelligi posset," than he would have been had he spoken in Latin. Letter of Beza, Baum, ii., App., 79. "D'Espense," says La Place ubi supra, "lors donna ceste louange audict Martyr, qu'il n'y avoit eu homme de ce temps qui si amplement et avec telle érudition eust escript du faict du sacrement que luy."
[1158] Although Lainez spoke in Italian (see Baum, ii. 363), it is needless to say that the Cardinal of Lorraine made no objection to the use of a language which, it may be added, he understood perfectly. The reader may see some reason in the summary of Lainez's speech given in the text, for dissenting from the remark of MM. Oimber et Danjou, iv. 34, note: "Il [Lainez] fit entendre dans le colloque de Poissy, des paroles de paix et de conciliation."