ated the
divine ordinance with many of the nobility, all partaking both of the
bread and of the wine, thus earning for themselves the nickname of
Protestants.[1077]

[Sidenote: Determination of Catharine and L'Hospital.]

What with the disinclination of the bishops to enter into the
consideration of the real difficulties that beset the kingdom, and the
open hostility of the Pope and of Philip the Second[1078] to any
assembly that bore the least resemblance to a national council,
Catharine and her principal adviser, the chancellor, had an arduous and
well-nigh hopeless task. They strove to quiet the King of Spain and the
Pope by the assurance that the prelates had only been assembled in
order to prepare them to go in a body to attend the universal council
soon to be convened. "Those who are dangerously ill," wrote Catharine in
her defence, "may be excused for applying all herbs to their ache, in
order to alleviate it when it becomes insupportable. Meanwhile they send
for the good physician--whom I take to be a good council--to cure so
furious and dangerous a disease." Only those who feel the suffering, she
intimated, can talk understandingly with respect to its treatment.[1079]

[Sidenote: A remarkable letter to the Pope.]

[Sidenote: Effect produced at Rome.]

Catharine was not, however, satisfied with this general apology; she
even undertook to express to the pontifical court her idea of some of
the reforms which were dictated by the times.[1080] On the fourth of
August--nearly three weeks before Beza's arrival--she wrote a letter to
Pius the Fourth of so radical a character that its authenticity has been
called into question, although without sufficient reason. After
acquainting the Pope with the extraordinary increase in the number of
those who had forsaken the Roman Church, and with the impossibility of
restoring unity by means of coercion, she declared it a special mark of
divine favor that there were among the dissidents neither Anabaptists
nor Libertines, for all held the creed as explained by the early
councils of the Church. It was, consequently, the conviction of many
pious persons that, by the concession of some points of practice, the
present divisions might be healed. But more frequent and peaceful
conferences must be held, the ministers of religion must preach concord
and charity to their flocks, and the scruples of those who still
remained in the pale of the Church must be removed by the abolition of