f
the Church_. These generous economists found that, according to the
ancient customs, one-third of the ecclesiastical revenues ought to be
employed for the support of the clergy, one-third to be given to the
poor, and the remaining third expended in keeping the sacred edifices in
repair. They proposed, therefore, to relieve the clergy of the latter
two-thirds of their possessions, and apply them to the extinction of the
royal debt, assuming that the nation would maintain the churches in
better condition, and feed the poor more effectively than had ever been
done hitherto! Languet, Letter of Aug. 17th, Epist. secr., ii. 136.]

[Footnote 1175: Baum, ii. 408.]

[Footnote 1176: Oct. 20th, according to Recueil des anc. lois franc.,
xiv. 122.]

[Footnote 1177: Text of the edict in Mem. de Conde, ii. 520-528 (De
Thou, iii. 99, following the Hist. eccles. des egl. ref., erroneously
gives the date as Nov. 3d); Letter of Beza, Oct. 21st, Baum, ii., App.,
109; Letter of Martyr, Oct. 17th, ibid., 107.]

[Footnote 1178: Beza, _ubi supra_; Car. Joinvillaeus, Nov. 5th, Baum,
ii., App., 123.]

[Footnote 1179: Oct. 19th, according to Bruslart, Mem. de Conde, i. 59.
According to La Place, the assembly of the prelates did not break up
until the 30th of October, after a session of about three months: "Et le
trentiesme dudict mois ... fut ainsi finie ladicte assemblee, sans
apporter autre fruict, apres avoir este toutesfois assembles [les
prelats] par l'espace de trois mois ou environ." (Page 201.)]

[Footnote 1180: "De fait," wrote Calvin of the Augsburg Confession,
"elle est _si maigrement bastie, si molle et si obscure_, qu'on ne s'y
sauroit arrester." Letter to Beza, Sept. 24, 1561. Bonnet, Lettres
franc., ii. 428; Baum, ii., App., 70.]

[Footnote 1181: The account of the occasion of the mission of delegates
from Germany, given in the text, is based on Soldan, Gesch. des Prot, in
Frankreich, i. 531-537. He has, I think, sufficiently demonstrated the
inaccuracy of the ordinary story (accepted even by Prof. Baum, Theod.
Beza, ii. 370, 419, etc.), which attributes their advent chiefly, if not
wholly, to the desire of Lorraine. It is said that, after hearing Beza's
speech of the ninth of September, the cardinal sought to obtain, through
the instrumentality of the Marshal de Vieilleville, at Metz, and his
salaried spy Rascalon, at Heidelberg, some decided Lutherans, to be
employed in bringing the Protestants at Poissy into contempt,