Catholic manner, granting them
permission, if they were otherwise disposed, to sell their property and
leave the kingdom.[1032]

[Sidenote: Opposition of the Parliament of Paris.]

It would have been not a little surprising if so tolerant an edict, even
though it did little more than repeat the provisions of the last royal
letters on the same subject (of the twenty-eighth of January), had been
accepted without opposition by the Romish party.[1033] Still more
strange if parliamentary jealousy had not taken umbrage at the neglect
of immemorial usage, when the letter was sent to the lower courts before
having received the honor of a formal registry at the hands of the
Parisian judges. It is difficult to say which offence was most resented.
Toleration, parliament remonstrated, was a tacit approval of a diversity
of religion--a thing unheard of from Clovis's reign down to the present
day. Kings and emperors--nay, even popes--had fallen into error and
been proclaimed heretical or schismatic, but never had such calamity
befallen a king of France. It were better for Charles to make open
profession of his intention to live and die in his religion, and to
enforce conformity on the part of his subjects, than to open the door
wide to sedition by tolerating dissent. Better to renew the prohibition
of heretical conventicles, and to reiterate the ancient penalties.
Particularly ill-advised was it that Charles should be made to pronounce
seditious those who applied the names "Papist" and "Huguenot" to their
opponents, for it seemed to establish side by side two rival sects,
although the name of the one was so novel as never to have found a place
in any former missives of the crown.[1034]

[Sidenote: Popular cry for Protestant pastors.]

The refusal of the Parisian parliament to verify the edict in the
customary manner prevented its universal observance; but,
notwithstanding this untoward circumstance, it proved exceedingly
favorable to the development of the Huguenot movement.[1035] Scarcely a
month after its publication, Calvin, in a letter to which we have more
than once had occasion to refer, expressed his astonishment at the ardor
with which the French Protestants were pressing forward to still greater
achievements. The cry from all parts of Charles the Ninth's dominions
was for ministers of the Gospel.[1036] "The eagerness with which
pastors are sought for on all hands from us is not less than that with
which sacerdotal office