with which, it was said, they accompanied it, to
guide in the future interpretation of the law, or that the majority
regarded it as a piece of deceit.[825]

[Sidenote: A year's progress.]

[Sidenote: Beza's comment.]

In spite of its insincerity, however, the edict, wrung from the
unwilling hands of the cardinal and the privy council, marks an
important epoch in the history of the Reformed Church in France. Barely
nine months had elapsed since five members of the Parisian Parliament
had been thrown into the Bastile for daring to advocate a mitigation of
the penalties pronounced against the Protestants, until the assembling
of the long-promised Oecumenical Council. Little more than two months
had passed since one of their number, and the most virtuous judge on the
bench, had been ignominiously executed. And now the King of France, with
the approval and almost at the instigation of the chief persecutor,
proclaimed an oblivion of all offences against religion, and the
liberation of all persons imprisoned for heresy. The reformers, who had
rarely succeeded by their most strenuous exertions in obtaining the
release of a few of their co-religionists, could scarcely restrain a
smile when they discovered what a potent auxiliary they had obtained
unawares--in the _fears_ of their antagonists. "Would that you could
read and understand the number of contradictory edicts they have written
in a single month!" wrote one who took a deep interest in French
affairs. "You would assuredly be amazed at their incredible fright, when
no one is pursuing them, except Him whom they least fear! What you could
not succeed in obtaining by any of your embassies in former years, they
have given of their own accord to those who sought it not--the
liberation of the entire number of prisoners on all sides. Most have
been released in spite of their open profession of their faith. The
injustice of the judges has, however, led to the retention of a few in
chains up to this moment."[826]

[Sidenote: A powerful party had arisen.]

Notwithstanding its incompleteness and insincerity, however, "the Edict
of Forgiveness," as it was termed, is a significant landmark in the
history of French Protestantism. It is the point where begins the
transition from the period of persecution to the period of civil war. By
this concession, reluctantly granted and faithlessly executed, the first
recognition was made of the existence of a large and powerful body of
dissi