Bishops
Montluc of Valence, and Du Val of Seez in Normandy, the Abbe's de
Salignac and Bouteiller, and D'Espense, doctor in the Sorbonne, were
probably all believed to be half inclined to fall in with the
reformatory current. Of Montluc and D'Espense, mention has already more
than once been made. Bouteiller, it will be remembered, was the priest
who had officiated in the Cardinal of Chatillon's episcopal palace at
Beauvais, the last Easter preceding, when the communion was administered
under both kinds, "after the fashion of Geneva."[1162] Salignac was a
timid man, a fair sample of the "Nicodemites," who had proved the bane
of the Reformation in France. For thirty years he had held, and to some
extent--if we may credit his own words--professed the same doctrines as
Calvin, continually exhorting his hearers to turn from an empty, formal
worship, to Christ as the only Saviour. Confessedly he had not rejected
"_that false doctrine_"--for thus he did not hesitate, in his private
correspondence with a Protestant, to designate the Romish creed--so
openly as the reformers were wont to do; but he claimed to have won the
universal approval of the best men around him by his attacks upon
"Babylon," which he had approached sometimes "by mines," sometimes "in
open warfare," according to time and circumstances.[1163] Since no
violent opposition seems ever to have been made, no persecution ever to
have arisen against Salignac, and in view of the fact that the conflict
of the last thirty years had been sufficiently sanguinary and little
calculated to reassure timid combatants, it is highly probable that the
prudent abbe's subterranean operations greatly outnumbered his more
valiant exploits. Well might the reformers, who knew that victory was to
be obtained, not by burrowing under the ground, but by facing the perils
of the battle-field, exclaim:

Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis
Tempus eget.

[Sidenote: Conference at St. Germain.]

[Sidenote: A discussion of words.]

Theodore Beza, Peter Martyr, Angustin Marlorat, Jean de L'Espine, and
Nicholas des Gallars, were appointed to represent the Protestants, and
it was arranged that secretaries should be present at the conferences to
note the progress made toward unity. The ten theologians met in the
apartments of the King of Navarre, at St. Germain. Their conclusions
were to be submitted to the Protestant ministers and delegates present
at the court, and at the same tim