Chapter X (3)

[Footnote 890: La Place, 54, 55, and La Planche, 351, are, as usual in this reign, our best authorities in reference to Coligny's address and the presentation of the petition; see also Hist. eccles., i. 173, 174; De Thou, ii. 797; Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 8; Davila, bk. ii., p. 30. La Place and Jean de Serres, De statu, etc., i. 96 (who are followed by De Thou, etc.), seem to be more correct in assigning the address to the _second_ session, than La Planche, the Hist. eccles., etc., who place it at the very commencement of the _first_. Calvin, in a letter to Bullinger, Oct. 1, 1560 (Bonnet, iv. 135) describes the scene in the same manner as La Place. Vita Gasparis Colinii (1575), 27, etc.; Vie de Coligny (Cologne, 1686), p. 213, etc. Mr. Browning (Hist. of the Huguenots, i. 29) erroneously attributes the authorship of the last mentioned work to Francis Hotman (who died in 1590); whereas the author wrote after Maimbourg and Varillas, whose statements he controverts. (Pref., p. ii., and p. 86.) Hotman, as noticed elsewhere, was the author of the preceding and much more authentic book.]

[Footnote 891: Not, however, precisely in the ranks of the clergy. Marillac was a layman, whose success in negotiation had been rewarded with the archiepiscopal see of Vienne. In his youth he had been suspected of composing an apology for a "Lutheran" burned at the stake in Paris; and he died broken-hearted, seeing the ruin to which both church and state were tending, two months after the Assembly of Fontainebleau. La Place, 72, 73; La Planche, 360, 361. Neither was Montluc of Valence a clergyman. Paris, Negotiations sous Francois II., Notice, p. xxxvii.]

[Footnote 892: It was not unfrequently recommended, as a species of panacea for the evils in the church, that the bishops should all be sent off to their dioceses. An edict to that effect had recently been promulgated, and it was supposed that the parish curates would soon be directed to follow their example. (Languet, ii. 68.) "What else will result from this I know not," quietly adds the sensible diplomatist, "but that they will betray their ignorance and baseness, and that the contempt and hatred already entertained for them by the people will be augmented." Elsewhere, in expressing the same view of the absurdity of the order, he gives this unflattering description of the prelates: "cum plerique sint plane indocti et praeterea luxu, libidinibus, et aliis sceleribus perditissimi," etc. (Ibid., ii. 73.)]

[Footnote 893: "Autant de deux escus que les banquiers avoyent envoyes a Rome, autant de cures nous avoyent-ils renvoyes," adds Montluc. La Place, 56.]

[Footnote 894: The harangue of Montluc is contained word for word, though with erroneous date, in the Recueil des choses memorables (1565), pp. 286-305; also in La Place, 55-58; Mem. de Conde, 557-562. Summary in De Thou, ii. 797-800; Jean de Serres, De statu rel. et reip. (1571), i. 99-106.]

[Footnote 895: "Et qu'en tout evenement nous ne voulons perir pour luy complaire." La Place, 60; La Planche, 354.]

[Footnote 896: "Et sur ce, ne fault espargner les Italiens qui occupent la troisiesme partie des benefices du royaume, ont pensions infinies, succent nostre sang comme sangsues," etc. La Place and La Planche, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 897: La Place, 64; La Planche, 359. Both historians give the speech _verbatim_. J. de Serres, i. 106-126; Letter of Calvin to Bullinger, Oct. 1, 1560, _ubi supra_; Hist. eccles., i. 174-178. Would that these words of wholesome advice and sound philosophy had not been left unheeded by royalty and _noblesse_! The course of politic humanity to which they pointed might have saved a monarch his head, the noblesse countless lives and the loss of large possessions, and France a bloody revolution.]

[Footnote 898: La Planche, 361; La Place, 66; De Thou, ii. 802; Mem. de Castelnau, liv. ii. c. 8; Hist. eccles., i. 178; Jean de Serres, i. 127.]

[Footnote 899: La Planche, 361, 362; La Place, 67. The latter and J. de Serres, i. 129, are certainly wrong in attributing this passionate menace to the Cardinal of Lorraine. De Thou, ii. 802; Castelnau, 1. ii., c. 8.]

[Footnote 900: La Planche, etc., _ubi supra_. Calvin to Bullinger, Oct. 1, 1560 (Bonnet, iv. 136).]

[Footnote 901: La Planche, 362, 363; La Place, 67; J. de Serres, De statu rel. et reip., i. 128-131; De Thou, ii. 802, 803. After seeing the head instigator of persecution, still gory with the blood of the recent slaughter, assume with such effrontery the language of pity and toleration, we may be prepared for his duplicity at the interview of Saverne. The compiler of the Hist. eccles. (i, 179) explains the consent of the Guises to the convocation of the estates by supposing them to have hoped by this measure not merely to take away the excuse of their opponents, but, by obtaining a majority, to secure the declaration of Navarre and Conde as rebels, whether they came or declined to appear. Calvin (letter to Bullinger, _ubi supra_, p. 137) gives the same view. So does Barbaro: "Forse non tanto per volonta che s'avesse d'esseguirle quanto per adomentare gli risvegliati, et guadagnar, come si fece." The Pope and Philip violently opposed the plan "perche ne l'uno ne l'altro sapeva il secreto." "By the plan of the council, ... they succeeded in feeding with vain hopes (dar pasto) those who sought to make innovations in the faith." Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. 524, etc.]

[Footnote 902: La Planche, 363, 364; La Place, 68; De Thou, ii. 803 (liv. xxv). Cf. the edict in full _apud_ Negociations sous Francois II., 486-490; also a letter of Francis in which he explains his course to Philip II., ib. 490-497.]

[Footnote 903: The cardinal had, however, made a somewhat similar discourse, just about six months before, to Throkmorton, much to the good knight's disgust. He had expressed a recognition of the faults prevalent in the church, and pretended to be desirous of reforming it in an orderly manner. "I am not so ignorant," he said, "nor so led with errors that reigne, as the world judgeth." He declared himself in favor of a general council, and spoke with satisfaction of an edict just despatched to Scotland, "to surcease the punishment of men for religion." "And of this purpose," adds the ambassador with pardonable sarcasm, "he made suche an oration as it were long to write, _evon as thoughe he had bene hired by the Protestants to defend their cause earnestly_!" Despatch to the queen, Feb. 27, 1559/60, Forbes, State Papers, i. 337, 338.]

[Footnote 904: Sommaire recit de la calomnieuse accusation de M. le prince de Conde, Memoires de Conde, ii. 373; Languet, ii. 66.]

[Footnote 905: Throkmorton to Cecil, Sept. 3, 1560, State Paper Office; La Place, 68, 69; La Planche, 345, 346; De Thou, ii. 804-806; Castelnau, 1. ii., c. 7.]

[Footnote 906: La Planche, p. 375. Instructions to M. de Crussol, going by order of the king to the King of Navarre, Aug. 30, 1560, _apud_ Negoc. sous Francois II., pp. 482-486. The beginning of this paper, directing Crussol to express regret that Navarre had not come to the council of Fontainebleau, and to announce the result of its recommendations, is sufficiently conciliatory. If, however, Navarre should hesitate to obey the summons, the agent was bidden to frighten him into compliance. On the first show of resistance, Francis would collect his own troops, consisting of thirty thousand or forty thousand foot, and seven hundred or eight hundred horse, expected levies of ten thousand Swiss, and six thousand or seven thousand German lansquenets. Philip had assured him of the assistance of all his forces, foot and horse, both from the side of Netherlands and of Spain. The Dukes of Lorraine, Savoy, and Ferrara would bring fourteen thousand to sixteen thousand foot and one thousand five hundred horse. The king's arrangements were complete, and he was resolved to make an example. The arrest of La Sague was, however, not to be mentioned. Letter of Francis to the King of Navarre, Aug. 30, in Recueil des choses mem. (1565), 75, 76, and Mem. de Conde, i. 573.]

[Footnote 907: See the message in cipher appended to a despatch to the French ambassador at Madrid, Aug. 31, 1560, _apud_ Neg. sous Francois II., pp. 490-497. The discovery is said to have been made within five or six days. Conde is implicated. Against Navarre there is as yet no proof. The Queen of England, is suspected of complicity, despite the recent treaty (of July 23d, by which Mary, Queen of Scots, renounced her claims upon the crown of England). The affright of the Guises may be judged from the circumstance that two copies of the despatch were forwarded--one by Guyenne, the other by Languedoc--so that at least one might reach its destination.]

[Footnote 908: Thomas Shakerly, the Cardinal of Ferrara's organist, sent him budgets of news not less regularly than the secretary of the Duke of Savoy's ambassador at Venice supplied the English agent copies of all the most important letters his master received. See the interesting letter of John Shers to Cecil, Venice, Jan. 18, 1561, State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 909: Throkmorton to queen, Poissy, Oct. 10, 1560, State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 910: In a despatch to his ambassador at Madrid, Sept. 18, 1560 (Negoc. sous Francois II., 523, etc.), Francis states that 1,000 or 1,200 armed soldiers had been posted in sixty-six houses, ready to sally out by night, capture the city, and open the gates to 2,000 men waiting outside. Of course, according to the king or his ministers, the object was plunder, and the enterprise a fair specimen of Huguenot sanctity.]

[Footnote 911: La Planche, 365-368; La Place, 69; Neg. sous Francois II., _ubi supra_; Mem. de Castelnau, 1. ii., c. 9; Languet, ii. 70; De Thou, ii. 806. Calvin, in a letter to Beza (Sept. 10, 1560), seems to allude, though not by name, to Maligny, and to condemn his rashness; but the passage is purposely too obscure to throw much light upon the matter. Bonnet, iv. 126, etc.]

[Footnote 912: Letter of the king, _apud_ Negoc. sous Francois II., 580, 581.]

[Footnote 913: The curious reader may task his ingenuity in deciphering the somewhat remarkable spelling in which the count quaintly relates the occurrence in question: "Aytant o Pont-Sainct-Esperit, je trouvis entre les mains de Rocart, capitayne de la, deux charges de mulles de _livres de Genaive, fort bien reliez_: toutefoys cela ne les en carda que je ne les fice toux bruler, comensent le prumier a les maytre o fu; de coe je fu bien suivi de monsieur de Joyeuse, vous asseurent qu' _ill i en avoet beocoup de la copagnie qu'il les playnoet fort_, les estiment plus de mille aycus: pour sayte foys-la je ne les voullus croere." Letter of Villars to the constable, Oct. 12, 1560, _apud_ Negoc. sous Francois II., p. 655.]

[Footnote 914: On Sunday, the 28th of July, a gathering composed almost entirely of women was discovered. Nothing daunted, 1,200 persons met the next night, with torches and open doors, in the large school-rooms, where their pastor, Maupeau, preached an appropriate sermon from Rev. vi. 9, on "the souls of them that were slain for the word of God." Soon the same place was resorted to by day. Summoned before the magistrates, judge, and consuls, the Huguenots declared their loyalty, but said that they had no idea that the king wanted to dictate to the conscience, which belongs to God. Presently the church of St. Michael was seized. Then the Cardinal of Lorraine (Oct. 14th) wrote to the bishop, telling him to call upon M. de Villars for aid in suppressing assemblies and the preaching. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 207-210.]

[Footnote 915: They are Nismes, Montpellier, Montagnac, Annonay, Castres, Marsillargues, Aigues Mortes, Pezenas, Gignac, Sommieres, St. Jean de Gardonnenches, Anduze, Vauvers (Viviers?), Uzes, and Privas.]

[Footnote 916: Sommaire des instructions donnees a Pignan envoye au roy par Honorat de Savoye, Cte. de Villars, Oct. 15, 1560, _apud_ Negoc. sous Francois II., 659-661.]

[Footnote 917: On hearing of the seizure of Aigues Mortes by treachery. Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 211.]

[Footnote 918: Letters of De Villars to the Guises, Oct. 27 and 29, 1560. Neg. sous Francois II., 671.]

[Footnote 919: Letter of the king to the Cte. de Villars, November 9, 1560. Ib., p. 673.]

[Footnote 920: H. Barnsleye to Cecil, August 28, 1560, State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 921: I know of no more scathing exposure of the morals of the clergy than that given by Francois Grimaudet, the representative of the Tiers Etat of Anjou, and inserted _verbatim_ in La Planche, 389-396. It was honored by being made the object of a special censure of the Sorbonne!]

[Footnote 922: La Planche, 387-397; Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 199.]

[Footnote 923: Remonstrances, plaintes, et doleances de l'estat eccles., MSS. Arch. du depart, de la Vienne, Hist. des Protestants et des eglises ref. du Poitou, par A. Lievre (Poitiers, 1856), i. 84, 85.]

[Footnote 924: Geneva MS., _apud_ Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 110.]

[Footnote 925: See the interesting passage in the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 204.]

[Footnote 926: "As touching the occurrents of this Court, it may please your Majesty to be advertised, that the King of Navarre being on his way to this Court, hath had letters, as I am informed, written unto him, of great good opinion conceived of him by this King, with all other kind of courtesies, to cause him to repair thither." Despatch of Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, Orleans, Nov. 17, 1560, Hardwick, State Papers, i. 138.]

[Footnote 927: The portrait of this personage is painted in no flattering colors by Calvin in two letters, to Sulcer, Oct. 1, 1560 ("whose mind is more lumpish than a log, unless when it is a little quickened by wine"), and to Bullinger, of the same date ("one whom you might easily mistake for a cask or a flagon, so little has he the shape of a human being"). Bonnet, Eng. tr., iv. 131-135.]

[Footnote 928: The despatches that passed between the court and the French ambassador in Spain reveal the general alarm. Oct. 4th, Cardinal Lorraine expects Navarre and Conde within the first half of the month, "dont je suis fort ayse." Oct. 5th, Francis writes that, within two days, he has heard that they intend carrying out their enterprise. Oct. 9th, the secretary of state complains of "fresh alarm daily." Negoc. sous Francois II., 604-607, 610, 650. Others were, in the end, as much astounded as the Guises at Navarre's pacific attitude. Throkmorton, writing to the privy council that this king was looked for shortly at Orleans, adds that all bruits of trouble by him were clean appeased, _which caused great marvel_. Despatch to privy council, Paris, Oct. 24, 1560, State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 929: Letter of Bishop of Limoges to the Cardinal of Lorraine, Sept. 26, 1560, _apud_ Negotiations sous Francois II., 562: "Je vous supplie de croire que le roy et mes seigneurs de son conseil [_i. e._, Francis and the Guises] ne feront rien pour extirper un tel mal qui ne soit icy [in Spain] bien pris et receu _a_ _l'endroict de qui que ce soit_ [sc. Navarre and Conde]: tant ceux-cy craignent qu'il y ait changement en notre religion et estat." Cf. also pp. 551, 552.]

[Footnote 930: Negociations sous Francois II., 553, 554.]

[Footnote 931: Instructions of the king to M. de La Burie, commanding in Guyenne, Sept., 1560, _apud_ Negociations sous Francois II., 578-580; also Ib., 644.]

[Footnote 932: La Planche, 377.]

[Footnote 933: La Planche, 375; Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 120-123, whose account of this episode in the reformer's life is well written and interesting. For the general facts above stated the best authority is, as usual, La Planche, 373-377; see also La Place, 71; De Thou, ii. 807, 827; Hist. eccles., i. 205; Castelnau, l. ii., c. 9; Davila, 34, 35; Calvin's Letters (Bonnet), iv., pp. 132, 137, 143, 147-151.]

[Footnote 934: Calvin to Bullinger, Dec. 4th, and to Sulcer, Dec. 11, 1560 (Bonnet, iv. 149 and 151).]

[Footnote 935: La Planche, 377; Agrippa d'Aubigne, liv. ii., c. 19.]

[Footnote 936: La Planche, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 937: Sommaire recit de la calomnieuse accusation de M. le prince de Conde, in the Recueil des choses mem. (1565), 722-754, and Memoires de Conde, ii. 373-395--a contemporaneous account by one who speaks of himself as "ayant assiste a la conduicte de la plus grand part de tout le negoce."]

[Footnote 938: "Nevertheless, upon his coming, being accompanied with his brethren, the Cardinal of Bourbon and Prince of Conde, after they have [had] done their reverence to the king and queens, the Prince of Conde was brought before the council, who committed him forthwith prisoner to the guard of Messrs. de Bresy and Chauveney, two captains of the guard, and their companies of two hundred archers." Despatch of Sir Nicholas Throkmorton, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 939: "The King of Navarre goeth at liberty, but as it were a prisoner." Despatch of Sir Nich. Throkmorton, _ubi supra_. "Tanquam captivus." Same to Lord Robert Dudley, same date, State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 940: La Place, 73; La Planche, 380, 381; Castelnau, 1. ii., c. 10.]

[Footnote 941: La Place, 74: La Planche and Castelnau, _ubi supra_; Sommaire recit, _ubi supra_. "Madame de Roy (Roye), the Admiral of France his sister ... is taken and constituted prisoner." Despatch of Sir Nich. Throkmorton, Orleans, November 17, 1560, Hardwick, State Papers, i. 139.]

[Footnote 942: "The Dutchess of Ferrara, mother to the Duke that now is, according to that I wrote heretofore to your Majesty, is arrived at this Court, the 7th of this present, and was received by the King of Navarre, the French King's brethren, and all the great Princes of this Court." _Ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 943: Brantome, Femmes illustres, Renee de France; La Planche, 381; La Place, 74; "que si elle y eust este, elle l'eust empesche, et que ceste playe saigneroit long temps apres, d'autant que jamais homme ne s'estoit attache au sang de France, qu'il ne s'en fust trouve mal." De Thou, ii. 830.]

[Footnote 944: "He remaineth close in a house, and no man permitted to speak with him; and his process is in hand. And I hear he shall now be committed to the castle of Loches, the strongest prison in all this realm." Sir Nich. Throkmorton, November 17, 1560, _ubi supra_, i. 138.]

[Footnote 945: La Place, 75, _ubi supra_; De Thou, ii. 832, 833 (liv. 26); Sommaire recit, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 946: La Planche, 402.]

[Footnote 947: Ib., 401; La Place, 75; Sommaire recit, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 948: La Planche, 400; Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 10.]

[Footnote 949: Sommaire recit, _ubi supra_. "For, being a prince of the blood, he said, his process was to be adjudged either by the Princes of the blood or by the twelve Peers; and therefore willed the Chancellor and the rest to trouble him no further." Throkmorton, Nov. 28, 1560, Hardwick, State Papers, i. 151. Castelnau (liv. ii., c. 11) has, by a number of precedents, proved the validity of this claim.]

[Footnote 950: Memoires de Conde, i. 619, containing the royal _arret_ of Nov. 20th, rejecting Conde's demand; Sommaire recit. The (subsequent) First President of parliament, Christopher de Thou, was, after Chancellor L'Hospital, the leading member of the commission. His son, the historian, may be pardoned for dismissing the unpleasant subject with careful avoidance of details. La Planche makes no mention of the chancellor in connection with the case, but records Conde's indignant remonstrance against so devoted a servant of the Guises as the first president acting as judge.]

[Footnote 951: La Planche, 399.]

[Footnote 952: La Planche, 401; Davila, 37, 38; Castelnau, l. ii., c. 12. The unanimous voice of contemporary authorities, and the accounts given by subsequent historians, are discredited by De Thou alone (ii. 835, 836), who expresses the conviction, based upon his recollection of his father's statement, that the sentence was drawn up, but never signed. He also represents Christopher de Thou as suggesting to Conde his appeal from the jurisdiction of the commission, and opposing the violent designs of the Guises.]

[Footnote 953: La Planche, 401; Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 12.]

[Footnote 954: La Planche, 405, 406, has preserved this striking speech, which I have somewhat condensed in the text. Agrippa d'Aubigne, Histoire universelle, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 955: La Planche, it may be noticed, leans to this supposition. Ibid., 405.]

[Footnote 956: Ibid., 406; D'Aubigne, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 957: See Michele Suriano's account, Rel. des Amb. Ven., i. 528. The ambassador seems to have entertained no doubt of the complete success that would have crowned the movement had Francis's life been spared: "Il quale, se vivea un poco piu, non solamente averia ripresso, _ma estinto dal tutto_ quell' incendio che ora consuma il regno." The Spanish ambassador, Chantonnay, writing to his master, Nov., 1560, confirms the statements of Protestant contemporaries respecting the plan laid out for the destruction of the Bourbons, and then of the admiral and his brother D'Andelot; but the wily brother of Cardinal Granvelle, much as he would have rejoiced at the destruction of the heads of the Huguenot faction, was alarmed at the wholesale proscription, and expressed grave fears that so intemperate and violent a course would provoke a serious rebellion, and perhaps give rise to a forcible intervention in French affairs, on the part of Germany or England. "Pero a mi paresce que seria mas acertado castigar poco a poco los culpados que prender tantos de un golpe, porque assi se podrian meter en desesperacion sus parientes, y causar alguna grande rebuelta y admitir mas facilmente las platicas de fuera del reyno ... o de Alemania o de Inglaterra." Papiers de Simancas, _apud_ Mignet, Journal des Savants, 1859, p. 39.]

[Footnote 958: Mem. de Castelnau, liv. ii., c. 12; La Planche, 404; Memoires de Mergey (Collection Michaud and Poujoulat), 567. The Count of La Rochefoucauld, hearing through the Duchess of Uzes--a bosom confidant of Catharine, but a woman who was not herself averse to the Reformation--that Francis had remarked that the count "must prepare to say his _Credo_ in Latin," had made all his arrangements to pass from Champagne into Germany with his faithful squire De Mergey, both disguised as plain merchants.]

[Footnote 959: La Planche, 404; De Thou, ii. 835 (liv. xxvi.). The latter does not place implicit confidence in these reports, while conceding that subsequent events would induce a belief that they were not destitute of a foundation. According to Throkmorton, also, writing to Cecil, Sept. 3, 1560, the chief burden was to rest with the clergy, who gave eight-tenths of the whole subsidy. State Paper Office.]

[Footnote 960: Ibid., 403; De Thou, iii. 82.]

[Footnote 961: Throkmorton's despatches from Orleans, several frequently sent off on a single day, acquaint us with the rapid progress of the king's disease, and the cold calculations based upon it. "The constitution of his body," he writes in the third of his letters that bear date Nov. 28th (Hardwick, State Papers, i. 156), "is such, as the physicians do say he cannot be long-lived: and thereunto he hath by his too timely and inordinate exercise now in his youth, added an evil accident; so as there be that do not let to say, though he do recover this sickness, he cannot live two years; _whereupon there is plenty of discourses here of the French Queen's second marriage_; some talk of the Prince of Spain, some of the Duke of Austrich, others of the Earl of Arran." No wonder that cabinet ministers and others often grew weary of the interminable debates respecting the marriages of queens regnant, and that William Cecil, as early as July, 1561, wrote respecting Queen Bess: "Well, God send our Mistress a husband, and by time a son, that we may hope our posterity shall have a masculine succession. This matter is too big for weak folks, and too deep for simple." Hardwick, State Papers, i. 174.]

[Footnote 962: Throkmorton to Chamberlain, Nov. 21, 1560. British Museum.]

[Footnote 963: De Thou, ii. 833, etc. (liv. 26); D'Aubigne, liv. ii., c. 20, p. 103.]

[Footnote 964: On the 17th of Nov. Throkmorton had written: "The house of Guise practiseth by all the means they can, _to make the Queen Mother Regent of France_ at this next assembly; _so as they are like to have all the authority still in their hands, for she is wholly theirs_." Hardwick, State Papers, i. 140. D'Aubigne (_ubi supra_), who attributes to the sagacious counsel of Chancellor de l'Hospital the credit of influencing Catharine to take this course.]

[Footnote 965: I must refer the reader for the details of this remarkable interview and its results, which, it must be noted, Catharine insisted on Antoine's acknowledging over his signature, to the _Histoire de l'Estat de France, tant de la republique que de la religion, sous le regne de Francois II._, commonly attributed to Louis Regnier de la Planche (pp. 415-418)--a work whose trustworthiness and accuracy are above reproach, and respecting which my only regret is that its valuable assistance deserts me at this point of the history.]

[Footnote 966: Ibid., 413.]

[Footnote 967: The words in the text are those of Calvin, in a letter to Sturm, written Dec. 16, 1560, not many days after the receipt of the astonishing intelligence. "Did you ever read or hear," he says, "of anything more opportune than the death of the king? The evils had reached an extremity for which there was no remedy, when suddenly God shows himself from heaven! He who pierced the eye of the father has now stricken the ear of the son." Bonnet, Calvin's Letters, Am. ed., iv. 152.]