rson,
it is said, that caught the ribald words which were really uttered
instead: "Let us deceive this people, since it wishes to be
deceived."[617]

[Sidenote: Fresh projects to introduce the Spanish Inquisition.]

[Sidenote: Henry's letter to the Pope.]

It was fitting that to such a legate should be committed the task of
making a fresh effort to introduce the Spanish Inquisition into France.
The Cardinal of Lorraine had been absent in Italy the year before, when
the first attempt failed through the resolute resistance of parliament.
He was now present to lend his active co-operation. Yet with all his
exertions the king could not silence the opposition of the judges,[618]
and was finally induced to defer a third attempt until the year 1557,
and to give a different form to the undertaking. In the month of
February of this year, Henry applied to the Pontiff, begging him to
appoint, by Apostolic brief, a commission of cardinals or other
prelates, who "_might proceed to the introduction of the said
inquisition_ in the lawful and accustomed form and manner, under the
authority of the Apostolic See, and with the invocation of the secular
arm and temporal jurisdiction." He promised, on his part, to give the
matter his most lively attention, "_since he desired nothing in this
world so much as to see his people delivered from so dangerous a
pestilence as this accursed heresy_."[619] And he solicited the greatest
expedition on the part of the Pope, for it was an affair that demanded
diligence.

[Sidenote: The papal bull.]

[Sidenote: The three inquisitors-general.]

[Sidenote: Odet, Cardinal of Chatillon.]

[Sidenote: His Protestant proclivities.]

Paul, who was in the constant habit of saying that the inquisition was
the sole weapon suited to the Holy See, the only battering-ram by means
of which heresy could be demolished,[620] did not decline the royal
invitation. On the twenty-sixth of April he published a bull appointing
a commission consisting of the Cardinals of Lorraine, Bourbon, and
Chatillon, with power to delegate their authority to others. Of the
three prelates, the first was the real instigator of the cruelties
practised during this and the subsequent reigns. The Cardinal of Bourbon
was known to be as ignorant as he was inimical to the Reformation, and
could be depended upon to support his colleague. The Cardinal of
Chatillon, brother of Admiral Coligny and of D'Andelot, was added, it is
not improbable,