general distrust respecting the orthodoxy of the entire body.[691] Nor
was the suspicion groundless. Chosen from among the most highly educated
of French jurisconsults, belonging to a court upon which high
prerogatives had been conferred, holding for life a post of enviable
distinction, and regarded as the supreme guardians of law and equity, it
was in accordance with the very nature of things that the counsellors of
the Parisian parliament should so far participate in the progress of
ideas in the sixteenth century as to begin to look with abhorrence upon
the bloody task imposed on them by the royal edicts. Into what
profession would liberal views gain an earlier admission than that of
the appointed expositors of the rules of right?

Some recent occurrences not only seemed to demonstrate the fact that the
principles of clemency had penetrated into the halls of parliament, but
pointed out the very chamber which was most influenced by them. In the
_Tournelle_, or criminal chamber of parliament--before which those
accused of Protestantism most naturally came--under the presidency of
Seguier,[692] the majority of the counsellors had recently conducted a
trial of four youths, on a charge of "Lutheranism," in so skilful a
manner as to avoid asking any question the answer to which might
compromise the prisoners. And when the bigots insisted on propounding a
crucial inquiry, and elicited a decided expression of Protestant
sentiments, some of the judges showed unmistakable sympathy, and the
chamber, to save appearances in some slight degree, condemned them to
leave the country within a fortnight, instead of instantly confirming
the sentence of death which had been pronounced against three of their
number by the inferior courts.[693] Other "Christaudins" had been sent
to their bishops for trial, although their guilt was patent to all.[694]
In fine, the Cardinal of Lorraine laid to the account of parliament the
spread of the new doctrines throughout France.[695]

[Sidenote: The Mercuriale.]

In order to discover the truth of the charges, a convocation of the
members of all the chambers was ordered for the last Wednesday of April,
Such a gathering for inquiry into the sentiments and morals of the
judges was called, from the day of the week on which it was held, a
_Mercuriale_.[696] The object of the convocation was announced by the
royal procureur-general, Bourdin, to be the establishment of an
understanding between the "Grand'