had declared that he had done nothing except through
righteous zeal, and in order to preclude many scandals. Geneva MS.,
_apud_ Bonnet, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 1054: See the royal letters of prorogation of March 25th, Mem.
de Conde, ii. 281-284.]

[Footnote 1055: La Place, Commentaires, 140; De Thou, iii. 57; Mem. de
Castelnau, 1. iii., c. 4.]

[Footnote 1056: The famous chateau of St. Germain-en-Laye, a favorite
residence of the monarchs of the later Valois branch, is situated on the
river Seine, a few miles below Paris. Poissy, where the assembly of the
prelates convened, was selected on account of its proximity to the
court. It is also on the Seine, which, between Poissy and St. Germain,
makes a great bend toward the north; across the neck of the peninsula
the distance from place to place is only about three miles. Pontoise,
deriving its name from its bridge over the river Oise, a tributary of
the Seine, lies about eight miles north of St. Germain.]

[Footnote 1057: The origin of the singular designation of this
officer--a designation quite unique--is discussed _con amore_ by
Chassanee, in that remarkable book, Catalogus Gloriae Mundi (edition of
1586), lib. xi., c. 5, fol. 239. Chassanee, who was himself of Autun,
traces the title and office of _vierg_ back to the Vergobretus of
ancient Gallic times. Caesar, Bell. Gallic, i. 16.]

[Footnote 1058: The curious may find an instructive paragraph in his
speech, devoted to a list of onerous taxes bearing in great part, or
exclusively, on the people. La Place, 145.]

[Footnote 1059: "Le temps est une creature de Dieu a luy subjecte, de
maniere que dix mille ans ne sont une minute en la puissance de nostre
Dieu." The long speech of M. Bretagne, certainly one of the noblest
pleas for freedom of religious worship to be found within the limits of
the sixteenth century, is inserted in full in the Recueil des choses
memorables (1565), 620-645, in La Place, liv. vi. 141-150, and in the
Hist. eccles. des eglises reformees, i. 298-305. Summary in De Thou,
iii. 57, 58.]

[Footnote 1060: Projects somewhat similar had been made, early in the
year, in some of the provincial estates. In those of Languedoc, held at
Montpellier in March, 1561, Terlon, a "capitoul" of Toulouse, speaking
for the "tiers etat," advocated the sale of all the secular possessions
of the clergy, reserving only a residence for the incumbent, and
assigning him a pension equal to his present income, to be p