Such were the most important features of a law the promulgation of which
marks the termination of the first great period in the history of the
Huguenots of France--the period of persecution inflicted mainly
according to cruel legal ordinances and under the forms of judicial
procedure. From the moment of the publication of this charter--imperfect
and inadequate as it manifestly was--the Huguenots ceased to be outlaws,
and became, in the eye of the law, at least, a class entitled within
certain limits to the protection of the ministers of justice. Unhappily
for France, the solemn recognition of Protestant rights was scarcely
conceded by representatives of the entire nation before an attempt was
made by a desperate faction to annul and overturn it by intrigue and
violence. The next act in this remarkable drama is, therefore, the
inauguration of the period of _Civil War_, or of oppression exercised in
defiance of acknowledged rights and of the accepted principles of
equity--a lamentable period, in which every bloody contest originated in
the determination of the one party to circumscribe or destroy, and of
the other to maintain in its integrity the fundamental basis of
toleration laid down in the Edict of January.

END OF VOLUME I.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1108: La Place, 154; Baum, Theodor Beza, ii. 230-234. To the
names mentioned in the text must be added the name of Jean de l'Espine,
who joined his brethren soon after their arrival at Poissy. He was a
Carmelite monk of high reputation for learning, who now, for the first
time, threw aside the cowl and subscribed to the reformed confession of
faith. For an interesting account of his conversion caused by conversing
with and witnessing the triumphant death of a Protestant, Jean Rabec,
executed April 24, 1556, see Ph. Vincent, Recherches sur les
commencements et premiers progres de la Ref. en la ville de la Rochelle,
1693, _apud_ Bulletin, ix. 30-32. The delegates of the churches were
more numerous than the ministers; there were twenty-two, according to
the Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 316; though the Abbe Bruslart (Mem. de
Conde, i. 51), swells the number to twenty-eight. The names of twelve,
representing twelve of the principal provinces, are given, with
variations, by two MSS. of the National Library of Paris (Dupuy Coll.,
vols. 309 and 641), see F. Bourquelot, notes to Mem. de Claude Haton, i.
155.]

[Footnote 1109: Beza to Calvin, Sept. 12, _apud_ Baum, ii., App. 61