tter of Beza, _ubi supra_, p. 20.]
[Footnote 991: All previous legislation appears to have proved
fruitless. "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be
gathered together." It was all in vain to endeavor to confine the gay
and aspiring ecclesiastics to the provinces, so long as promotion was
only to be found at Paris and worldly pleasures in the large cities. An
edict of 1557, enjoining residence, Haton tells us, had little effect.
It was obeyed only by the poorest and most obscure of the curates, and
by them only for a short time. The great were not able to observe it, if
they would. How could they? They could not have told on which benefice
to reside, for they held many. "Ung homme seul tenoit un archevesche, un
evesche et trois abbayes tout ensemble; ung aultre deux ou trois cures,
avec aultant de prieurez, le tout par permission et dispense du pape....
_Et pour ce ne scavoient auquel desditz benefices ilz debvoient
resider._" Mem. de Claude Haton, i. 91.]
[Footnote 992: La Place, Commentaries, 89-93; De Thou, iii. (liv.
xxvii.) 8-10, Hist. eccles., i. 277-279.]
[Footnote 993: La Place, Commentaires, 89; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.)
8-10; Hist. eccles., i. 277, 279. None of these authors give more than a
very imperfect sketch of L'Ange's harangue. Beza, in the letter more
than once referred to above, says: "Nobilitatem ferunt valde fortiter et
libere locutam, sed plebs imprimis graviter et copiose disseruit de
rerum omnium perturbatione, de intolerabili quorundam potentia, etc....
adeo ut omnes audientes valde permoverit." Baum, Theod. Beza, ii., App.,
20, 21.]
[Footnote 994: "Quasi noyes de telles trop frequentes inondations des
infectees lagunes de Geneve." The mention of the heretical capital
requires an apology on the part of our pious orator, and he adds in
Latin, after the fashion of other parts of his mongrel address:
"Desplicet aures vestras et os meum foedasse vocabulo tam probroso,
sed ex ecclesiarum praescripto cogor." La Place, 101.]
[Footnote 995: "Encores, Sire, vous supplierons-nous tres-humblement
pour ce tant bon et tant obeissant peuple francois, duquel Dieu (vostre
pere et le leur aussi) vous a faict seigneur et roy; prenez en pitie,
sire, et soublevez un peu les charges que des long temps ils portent
patiemment. Pour Dieu, sire, ne permettez que ce tiers pied de vostre
throne soit aucunement foule, meurtry ny brise." La Place, 108.]
[Footnote 996: Quintin's speech is given in
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