aid by the
cities of the kingdom. Chabot, a lawyer of Nismes, went further, and,
when the clamor of the people had secured the hearing at first denied
him, did not hesitate to say that the burdens of the province should be
placed upon the shoulders of the priests and monks--whom he stigmatized
as ignorant and corrupt--because of the evils they had inflicted upon
the people. He even wanted a petition to this effect, signed by thirty
syndicates favorable to the reformed religion, to be inserted in the
_cahier_ of Languedoc. Memoires d'Achille Gamon--advocate and consul of
Annonay--_apud_ Collection de Memoires, Michaud et Poujoulat, 611. Some
such wholesale confiscation seems even to have entered into the plans of
the cabinet. In May, 1561, royal letters were sent to the Bishop of
Paris, to the provost, and indeed, throughout France, demanding a return
of the true value of all episcopal and other revenues (Memoires de
Conde, i. 27). The object was plain enough. The clergy remonstrated
energetically, as may be imagined (Ib., i. 29-39). The Paris clergy had
especial recourse to the Cardinal of Lorraine, in a letter of June 3d.
Honest Abbe Bruslart, touched to the quick by the suggestion, notes in
his quaint journal: "Voila les incommoditez de la nouvelle religion,"
etc. (Ib., i. 28).]

[Footnote 1061: "La diversite d'opinion soubstenues par vos subjects ne
provient que d'ung grand zelle et affection qu'ils ont au salut de leurs
ames."]

[Footnote 1062: La Place, 152; De Thou, iii. 58, 59; Hist. eccles., i.
306; Garnier, H. de France, xxix. 308, etc., who gives a very full
abstract; but Ranke, v. 93-97, publishes from the MS. the hitherto
inedited _cahier_.]

[Footnote 1063: Catharine's own account is given in an important letter
to the Bishop of Rennes, written September 14, 1561--five days after the
colloquy commenced: "Ayant este requise, y a deja quelques mois, de la
pluspart de la noblesse et des gens du tiers estat de ce Royaume, de
faire ouir lea ministres, qui sont departis en plusieurs villes de cedit
Royaume, sur leur Confession de Foy; je fus conseillee par mon frere le
Roy de Navarre, les autres Princes du sang, et les Gens du Conseil du
Roy Monsieur mon fils, de ce faire; ayant avise apres avoir longuement
et meurement delibere la-dessus, que aux grands troubles ... il n'y
avoit meilleur moyen ny plus fructueux pour faire abandonner les dits
Ministres et retirer ceux qui leur adherent, que en faissant confond