ces from touching upon the authority of the Guises or that of the
Church, and especially to defeat the election of any but undoubted
friends of the Roman Church, his friends were successful in neither
attempt. The voice of the oppressed people made itself heard in
thunder-tones at Blois, at Angers,[921] and elsewhere. Even in
Paris--the stronghold of the Roman faith--the reformed ventured, in face
of a vast numerical majority against them, to urge in the Hotel-de-Ville
the insertion of their remonstrances in the "cahiers" of the city. Of
thirteen provinces, ten addressed such complaints to the States
General.[922]

[Sidenote: Clerical demands at Poitiers.]

But the clerical order did not forget its old demands, even where the
Tiers Etat leaned to toleration. The provincial estates of Poitou,
meeting in the Dominican convent of Poitiers, presented a contrast of
this kind. The delegates of the people, after listening to the eloquent
appeal of an intrepid Huguenot pastor, determined to petition the States
General for the free exercise of the reformed religion. The
representatives of the church made its complaints regarding the
"ravishing wolves, false preachers, and their adherents, who are to-day
in so great numbers that there are not so many true sheep knowing the
voice of their shepherds." The "mild and holy admonitions" of the church
having been thrown away upon these reprobates, the clergy proposed to
open a register of all that should neglect to receive the sacrament at
Easter, and to attend the church services with regularity. And it made
the modest demand that all persons honored with an entry in this book
should, as heretics, be deprived of all right to make contracts, that
their wills be declared hull and void, and that all their property--in
particular all houses in which preaching had been held--be confiscated.
Of course, the aid of the secular arm was invoked, in view of "the great
number and power of the said heretics."[923]

[Sidenote: Theodore Beza invited to Nerac.]

[Sidenote: Jeanne d'Albret.]

On the twentieth of July, at the urgent request of the King and Queen of
Navarre, the "Venerable Company of the Pastors of Geneva" had sent the
eloquent Theodore Beza to Gascony "to instruct" the royal family in the
word of God.[924] In the dress of a nobleman he had traversed France and
reached Nerac in safety. Here he at once exercised a powerful influence
upon the king. The fickle mind of Antoine was susce