[301] C. S. P. Ven., No. 237, February 17, 1561. The action practically flouted a papal bull of November 20, 1560, convening the Council at Trent, which was intended to anticipate and prevent any such action as this at Orleans (La Planche, 403).
[302] There was also a technical argument based on the fact that in the bull of the Council the words “sublata suspensione” were interpreted to mean that the Pope intended to continue the Council already commenced, and that the decrees already made were to be valid; which offended France. The cardinal of Lorraine was the one who raised these difficulties, though he tried to give the opposite impression; from him came the opposition to the words of the bull (C. S. P. Ven., No. 229, January 7, 1561; Despatches of Suriano (Huguenot Society), January 14, 1561).
[303] C. S. P. Ven., No. 237, January 23, 1561; La Place, 124-26, practically paraphrases the edicts.
[304] Rel. vén., I, 443.
[305] Despatches of Suriano (Huguenot Society), February 17, 1561.
[306] Castelnau, Book III, chap, ii, says 42,000,000; Throckmorton put the figures at 43,000,000: C. S. P. For., No. 1,032, February 26, 1561; cf. No. 988, February 12, 1561; Suriano, the Venetian ambassador, also gives the amount as eighteen million crowns (ibid., Ven., No. 237, February 17, 1561). This would approximate $75,000,000.
The debt of the King to the Genoese, Germans, Milanese, Florentines, and Lucca amounted to 644,287 ducats (ibid., For., No. 1,432, October 5, 1560).
[307] Dareste, Histoire de France, III, 456, 457.
[308] Lorenzo Contarini in 1550 speaks with satisfaction of the even balance of the finances; Soranzo in 1556 speaks of their disorder (cf. Ranke, Französische Geschichte, Book VII, chap, iv, n. 2).
[309] An ordinance of 1270 authorized a loan of 100,000 livres tournois for the crusade that culminated in disaster before Tunis. Cf. G. Servois, “Emprunts de St. Louis en Palestine et en Afrique,” Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartes, sér. IV, IV, 117. Philip III borrowed of his great vassals and from the Flemish towns (Langlois, Le règne de Philippe le Hardi, chap. v).