tion of the vicar of Christ, and was declared to be worthy
of the loyalty of the faithful.

We have called this a _farce_. And yet can it be justly called so? The
proud spirit of the king must indeed have been humiliated ere he could
have consented to such a degradation. The spirit ennobled can bid
defiance to any amount of corporeal pain. It is ignominy alone which
can punish the soul. The Pope triumphed; the monarch was flogged. It
is but just to remark that the friends of Henry deny that he was
accessory to this act of humiliation.

The atrocious civil war, thus virtually, for a time, terminated, was
caused by the Leaguers, who had bound themselves together in a _secret
society_ for the persecution of the Protestants. Their demand was
inexorable that the Protestants throughout France should be proscribed
and exterminated. The Protestants were compelled to unite in
self-defense. They only asked for liberty to worship God according to
their understanding of the teachings of the Bible. Henry, to
conciliate the Catholics, was now compelled to yield to many of their
claims which were exceedingly intolerant. He did this very
unwillingly, for it was his desire to do every thing in his power to
meliorate the condition of his Protestant friends. But,
notwithstanding all the kind wishes of the king, the condition of the
Protestants was still very deplorable. Public opinion was vehemently
against them. The magistrates were every where their foes, and the
courts of justice were closed against all their appeals. Petty
persecution and tumultuary violence in a thousand forms annoyed them.
During the year of Henry's coronation, a Protestant congregation in
Chalaigneraie was assailed by a Catholic mob instigated by the
Leaguers, and two hundred men, women, and children were massacred. A
little boy eight years old, in the simplicity of his heart, offered
eight coppers which he had in his pocket to ransom his life; but the
merciless fanatics struck him down. Most of these outrages were
committed with entire impunity. The king had even felt himself forced
to take the oath, "I will endeavor with all my power, in good faith,
to drive from my jurisdiction and estates all the heretics denounced
by the Church."

The Protestants, finding themselves thus denounced as enemies, and
being cut off from all ordinary privileges and from all common
justice, decided, for mutual protection, vigorously to maintain their
political organization. The k