each counsellor was compelled to express his own sentiments, which
were then committed to writing. As some of the high dignitaries of state
also gave their opinions, there were altogether more than 150 speakers,
and parliament met twice a day to listen to them. The Bishop of Paris,
after harshly advocating the rekindling of the extinct fires of the
estrapade, was compelled to hear in return some plain words from Admiral
Coligny, who boldly accused the bishops and priests of being the cause
of all the evils from which the Christian world was suffering, while at
the same time they instigated a cruel persecution of those who exposed
their crimes. The letters of Hubert Languet, who was in Paris at the
time, are exceedingly instructive. Epist. secr., ii. 122, 125, etc.]

[Footnote 1044: Or _seven_, according to Languet, Epist. sec., ii. 130.]

[Footnote 1045: Journal de Bruslart, Memoires de Conde, i. 40, etc.;
Despatches of Chantonnay, Mem. de Conde, ii. 12-15; La Place, 130; Hist.
eccles., i. 293, 294; De Thou, iii. (liv. xxviii.) 54. Cf. Martin, Hist.
de France, x. 82, Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. 172, etc., and Soldan,
Geschichte des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 428.]

[Footnote 1046: It is styled a "_mercuriale_" in a contemporary letter
of Du Pasquier (Augustin Marlorat), Rouen, July 11, 1561, Bulletin, xiv.
(1865) 364: "On dit que la mercuriale est achevee, mais la conclusion
n'est pas encores publiee."]

[Footnote 1047: H. Martin, Hist. de France, x. 83.]

[Footnote 1048: The text of the Edict of July is given in Isambert,
Recueil gen. des anc. lois fr., xiv. 109-111; Histoire eccles., i.
294-296; Mem. de Conde, i. 42-45. Cf. La Place, 130, 131; De Thou, iii.
54, 55; Mem. de Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 3.]

[Footnote 1049: "Que son epee ne tiendrait jamais au fourreau quand il
serait question da faire sortir effet a cet arrete." Martin, x. 83.]

[Footnote 1050: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1051: The cathedral alone persisted in holding out a day or
two longer, and then made an unwilling sacrifice of its pictures,
protesting at the same time that it only wanted peace and friendship.]

[Footnote 1052: Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., i. 530-532.]

[Footnote 1053: Letter to the church of Sauve, July, 1561, Bonnet,
Lettres franc., ii. 415-418. It is instructive to note that the
Provincial Synod of Sommieres took the decisive step of deposing the
pastor of Sauve; nor was he pardoned until he had been convinced of his
error, and