an informal decree was passed, with
the consent of Navarre, Conde, Coligny, and the chancellor[1104]--those
members of the council who happened to be in the audience chamber--that
the bishops should not be made judges; that to one of the secretaries of
state should be assigned the duty of writing out the minutes of the
conference, but that the Protestants should retain the right of
appending such notes as they might deem proper. The king would be
present at the discussions, together with the princes of the blood. But
Catharine peremptorily declined to grant a formal decree according these
points. This, she said, would only be to furnish the opposite party with
a plausible pretext for refusing to enter into the colloquy.[1105]
Meanwhile she urged them to maintain a modest demeanor, and to seek only
the glory of God, which she professed to believe that they had greatly
at heart.[1106]

[Sidenote: Last efforts of the Sorbonne to prevent the colloquy.]

The Romish party, however, was unwilling to approach the distasteful
conference without a final attempt to dissuade the queen from so
perilous an undertaking. As the Protestants left Catharine's apartments,
a deputation of doctors of the Sorbonne entered the door. They came to
beg her not to grant a hearing to heretics already so often condemned.
If this request could not be accorded, they suggested that at least the
tender ears of the king should be spared exposure to a dangerous
infection. But Catharine was too far committed to listen to their
petition. She was resolved that the colloquy should be held, and held in
the king's presence.[1107]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 968: Evidently the Guises had acquiesced with so much alacrity
in the convocation of the States General only because of their
confidence in their power to intimidate any party that should undertake
to oppose them. Chantonnay, the Spanish ambassador, informed Philip of
this before Francis's death, and gave the Cardinal of Lorraine as his
authority for the statement: "Le ha dicho el cardenal de Lorrena que
para aquel tiempo avria aqui tanta gente de guerra y se daria tal orden
que a qualquiera que quiziesse hablar se le cerrasse la boca, y assi ne
se hiziesse mas dello que ellos quiziessen." Simancas MSS., _apud_
Mignet, Journal des savants, 1859, p. 40.]

[Footnote 969: Letter of Beza to Bullinger, Jan. 22, 1561, Baum, ii.,
App., 18.]

[Footnote 970: From Nov. 20th to Dec. 1st, De la Place, 77, 78.]

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