of Switzerland approved the sentence with a unanimous voice.
4. It was of the utmost importance for the Reformation to
separate distinctly its cause from that of such an
unbeliever as Servetus. The Catholic Church, which in our
day accuses Calvin of having participated in his
condemnation, much more would have accused him, in the
sixteenth century, with having solicited his acquittal.]

At this time the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of France
were Catholics--it has generally been estimated a hundred to one; but
the doctrines of the reformers gained ground until, toward the close
of the century, about the time of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, the
Protestants composed about one sixth of the population.

The storm of persecution which fell upon them was so terrible that
they were compelled to protect themselves by force of arms. Gradually
they gained the ascendency in several cities, which they fortified,
and where they protected refugees from the persecution which had
driven them from the cities where the Catholics predominated. Such was
the deplorable condition of France at the time of which we write.

In the little kingdom of Navarre, which was but about one third as
large as the State of Massachusetts, and which, since its
dismemberment, contained less than three hundred thousand inhabitants,
nearly every individual was a Protestant. Antony of Bourbon, who had
married the queen, was a Frenchman. With him, as with many others in
that day, religion was merely a badge of party politics. Antony spent
much of his time in the voluptuous court of France, and as he was, of
course, solicitous for popularity there, he espoused the Catholic side
of the controversy.

Jeanne d'Albret was energetically a Protestant. Apparently, her faith
was founded in deep religious conviction. When Catharine of Medici
advised her to follow her husband into the Catholic Church, she
replied with firmness,

"Madam, sooner than ever go to mass, if I had my kingdom and my son
both in my hands, I would hurl them to the bottom of the sea before
they should change my purpose."

Jeanne had been married to Antony merely as a matter of state policy.
There was nothing in his character to win a noble woman's love. With
no social or religious sympathies, they lived together for a time in a
state of respectful indifference; but the court of Navarre was too
quiet and religious to satisfy the taste of the volu