[1179] Oct. 19th, according to Bruslart, Mém. de Condé, i. 59. According to La Place, the assembly of the prelates did not break up until the 30th of October, after a session of about three months: "Et le trentiesme dudict mois ... fut ainsi finie ladicte assemblée, sans apporter autre fruict, après avoir esté toutesfois assemblés [les prélats] par l'espace de trois mois ou environ." (Page 201.)
[1180] "De fait," wrote Calvin of the Augsburg Confession, "elle est si maigrement bastie, si molle et si obscure, qu'on ne s'y sauroit arrester." Letter to Beza, Sept. 24, 1561. Bonnet, Lettres franç., ii. 428; Baum, ii., App., 70.
[1181] The account of the occasion of the mission of delegates from Germany, given in the text, is based on Soldan, Gesch. des Prot, in Frankreich, i. 531-537. He has, I think, sufficiently demonstrated the inaccuracy of the ordinary story (accepted even by Prof. Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. 370, 419, etc.), which attributes their advent chiefly, if not wholly, to the desire of Lorraine. It is said that, after hearing Beza's speech of the ninth of September, the cardinal sought to obtain, through the instrumentality of the Marshal de Vieilleville, at Metz, and his salaried spy Rascalon, at Heidelberg, some decided Lutherans, to be employed in bringing the Protestants at Poissy into contempt, through the wrangling of their theologians with those of Germany. See the Hist. ecclés. des égl. réf., etc. Yet it is not improbable, as La Place, Commentaires, 200, seems to hint that Navarre's project was maliciously countenanced by the Cardinal of Lorraine. But the circumstance that, of the five German theologians, not less than two were opposed to the Augsburg Confession, proves conclusively that they could not have been despatched with the view of helping the cardinal out in his attempt. Bossuet's admiration of the prelate's sagacity, in thus seeking to give a brilliant demonstration of the variations of doctrine among Protestants, certainly seems to be wasted.
[1182] Ante, c. xi., p. 493.
[1183] See the list of the twenty members of the council, in Recueil des anc. lois franç., xiv. 55, 56.
[1184] See Baum, ii. 215.
[1185] "Affulserat aliqua spes concordiæ, sed Legatus Pontificius, i. e., Cardinalis Ferrariensis omnia perturbavit." Letter of Martyr to the magistrates of Zurich, Oct. 17, 1561, Baum, ii., App., 108.
[1186] "Quique ingenio, eloquentia, artificio plurimum valebat." Prosp. Santacrucii, Comment de civil. Galliæ dissen., 1461.
[1187] "Ne ipse exequiis, ut dicebat, illius regni interesset." Ibid., ubi supra. Somewhat maliciously Santa Croce suggests that Gualtieri was all the more reluctant to remain after he heard of the creation of nineteen new cardinals, and learned that his own name was not included in the list.
[1188] "Angebatur interea Romæ gravissimis curis Pius pontifex, quod nec quæ legati fecissent satis probaret, et in dies malum magis serpere, omniaque remedia minus juvare audiebat." Ib., 1462.