[1169] Letter of N. des Gallars, ubi supra, 84: "Quum hanc formam legisset Cardinalis, mire approbavit, ac lætatus est quasi ad ejus castra transissemus."
[1170] "Intelligimus etiam ipsos a suis objurgari quasi sentiant nobiscum aut colludant." Letter of N. des Gallars, Oct. 6th, ubi supra. See also letter of Beza, Oct. 3d, Baum, ii., App., 94.
[1171] The most extended and accurate view of the Colloquy of Poissy is afforded by Prof. Baum, who has consecrated to it two hundred and fifty pages of the second volume of his masterly biography of Beza (pp. 168-419). The correspondence of Beza and others that were present at the colloquy, collected by Prof. Baum in the supplementary volume of documents (published in 1852), and the detailed accounts of the Histoire ecclés. des égl. réf, of La Place (Commentaires de l'estat de la rel. et république, which here terminate), and of Jean de Serres, who, in this part of his history, does little more than translate La Place, are the most important sources of authentic information. Castelnau's account of the colloquy (1. iii., c. 4) is remarkably incorrect. He makes the ten delegates confer together for three months, without agreeing on a single point, and finally separate on the 25th of November. Davila is brief and unsatisfactory (pp. 50, 51).
[1172] From what Martyr wrote to the magistrates of Zurich (Oct. 17th) respecting the conduct of the bishops in connection with the subscription to the canons, it would appear that the close of the prelatic assembly did not disgrace the amenities of the debates at its commencement (see ante, p. 499): "Accidit mira Dei providentia, ut repente inter episcopos, qui erant Poysiaci, tam grave dissidium ortum fuerit, ut fere ad manus venerint, imo, ut homines fide digni affirmant res ut pugnis et unguibus est acta." Baum, ii., App., 107. See also the extract from Martyr's letter of the same date to Bullinger, cited by Prof. Baum, ii. 401, note.
[1173] Histoire ecclés., i. 383-405. See Baum, ii. 399-401.
[1174] The vote was, according to Beza's letter of Oct. 21st, sixteen millions of francs with interest within six years (Baum, ii., App. 109); according to the Journal of Bruslart, Mém. de Condé, i. 53, within twelve years. Prof. Soldan, Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 512, 513, gives the details of the famous "Contract of Poissy." It must be admitted that both nobles and people were ready enough with plans for paying off the national indebtedness out of the property of the Church. These generous economists found that, according to the ancient customs, one-third of the ecclesiastical revenues ought to be employed for the support of the clergy, one-third to be given to the poor, and the remaining third expended in keeping the sacred edifices in repair. They proposed, therefore, to relieve the clergy of the latter two-thirds of their possessions, and apply them to the extinction of the royal debt, assuming that the nation would maintain the churches in better condition, and feed the poor more effectively than had ever been done hitherto! Languet, Letter of Aug. 17th, Epist. secr., ii. 136.
[1175] Baum, ii. 408.
[1176] Oct. 20th, according to Recueil des anc. lois franç., xiv. 122.
[1177] Text of the edict in Mém. de Condé, ii. 520-528 (De Thou, iii. 99, following the Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., erroneously gives the date as Nov. 3d); Letter of Beza, Oct. 21st, Baum, ii., App., 109; Letter of Martyr, Oct. 17th, ibid., 107.
[1178] Beza, ubi supra; Car. Joinvillæus, Nov. 5th, Baum, ii., App., 123.