t of Christianity.[596]

The president, Seguier, and a counsellor (Adrien du Drac) were deputed
to justify before the monarch the course taken by parliament. The royal
court was at this time at Villers-Cotterets, not far from Soissons, and
the commissioners were informed on their arrival that Henry, displeased
and scandalized at the delays of parliament, had begun to suspect it of
being badly advised respecting religion and the obedience due to the
church. He had said "that, if twelve judges were necessary to try
Lutherans, they could not be found among the members of that body." The
deputies were warned that they must expect to hear harsh words from the
king's lips. Admitted, on the twenty-second of October, into Henry's
presence, President Seguier delivered before the Duke of Guise,
Constable Montmorency, Marshal St. Andre, and other dignitaries civil
and ecclesiastical, an address full of noble sentiments.[597]

[Sidenote: Speech of President Seguier in opposition.]

"Parliament," said Seguier, "consists of one hundred and sixty members,
who, for ability and conscientious discharge of duty, cannot be matched.
I know not any of the number to be alienated from the true faith.
Indeed, no greater misfortune could befall the judicature, than that
the supreme court should forfeit the confidence of the monarch by whom
its members were appointed. It is not from personal fear that we oppose
the introduction of the Inquisition. An inquisition, when well
administered, may not, perhaps, always be injurious. Yet Trajan, an
excellent emperor, abolished it as against the early Christians,
persecuted as the 'Lutherans' now are; and he preferred to depend upon
the declarations of those who revealed themselves, rather than to foster
the spread of the curse of informers and sow fear and distrust in
families. But it is as _magistrates_ that we dread, or rather abhor, the
establishment of a bloody tribunal, before which denunciation takes the
place of proof, where the accused is deprived of the natural means of
defence, and where no judicial forms are observed. We allege nothing of
which we cannot furnish recent examples. Many of those whom the agents
of the Inquisition had condemned have appealed to parliament. In
revising these procedures, we found them so full of absurdities and
follies, that, if charity forbids our suspecting those who already
discharge this function among us of dishonesty and malice, it permits
and even bids us de