of Paris began to exhibit reluctance to shed more innocent
blood, it was far otherwise with the decemvirate to whom the three
cardinals had delegated their inquisitorial functions, and whose power
was supreme.[672] But, to the prosecution of the work of exterminating
heresy in France, the continuance of the war with Spain offered
insurmountable obstacles. It diverted the attention of the government
from the multiplication of "Lutheran" churches and communities. It
hampered the court, by compelling it to mitigate its severities, in
consequence of the importunate intercessions of its indispensable
allies, the Protestant princes across the Rhine and the confederated
cantons of Switzerland. Besides, the war had borne no fruit but
disappointment. If Calais had been recovered, St. Quentin and other
strongholds, which were the key to Paris, had been lost. The brilliant
capture of Thionville (on the twenty-second of June, 1558) had been more
than balanced by the disastrous rout of Marshal de Thermes at Gravelines
(on the thirteenth of July).[673]

The almost uninterrupted hostilities of the last twelve years had not
only exhausted the few thousand crowns which Henry had found in the
treasury at his accession to the throne, but had reduced the French
exchequer to as low an ebb as that of the Spanish king.[674] His
antagonist was as anxious as Henry to reduce his expenditures, and
obtain leisure for crushing heresy in the Low Countries and wherever
else it had shown itself in his vast dominions. Constable Montmorency,
too, employed his powerful influence to secure a peace which would
restore him liberty, and the place in the royal favor likely to be
usurped by the Guises, if his absence from court were to last much
longer. And Paul the Fourth was now as earnestly desirous of effecting a
reconciliation between the contending monarchs--that they might unitedly
engage in the holy work of persecution--as he had been a few years
before to embroil them in war.[675]

[Sidenote: The treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, April 3, 1559.]

The common desire for peace found expression in the appointment of
plenipotentiaries, who met, about the middle of October, in the
monastery of Cercamps, near Cambray. France was represented by
Montmorency, the Cardinal of Lorraine, Marshal St. Andre, Morvilliers,
Bishop of Orleans, and Claude de l'Aubespine, Secretary of State. The
Duke of Alva, William of Orange, Ruy-Gomez de Silva, the Bishop of
Arras, and Vi