chambre" and the "Tournelle"--the
former of which relentlessly condemned the "Lutherans" to the flames,
while the latter, to the great scandal of justice, had let off several
with simple banishment. The wily adversary of the "new doctrines,"
therefore, called upon the judges to express their opinions respecting
the best method of effecting a return to uniformity. The snare was not
laid in vain. For in the free declaration of sentiment, in which the
members according to custom indulged, several judges were bold enough to
call for the assembling of the Oecumenical Council promised by the
lately ratified treaty of peace, as the sole method of extirpating
error, and to propose meanwhile the suspension of the capital penalties
ordained by the royal edicts.[697]

At his admission into parliament each judge had taken an oath to
maintain inviolable secrecy in reference to the deliberations of the
court. This was rightly supposed to relate in particular to the
expressions of opinion before any formal decision. Nevertheless, the
king was at once acquainted by the First President, Le Maistre, and by
Minard, one of the presidents _a mortier_, with the entire proceedings
of the _Mercuriale_. He was told that the "Lutheranism" of certain
judges was now manifest. They had spoken in abominable terms of the
mass, of the ecclesiastical ordinances, and of prevailing abuses. It
would be the ruin of the church if such daring were suffered to pass by
unrebuked.[698]

The representation of these enormities inflamed Henry's anger. His
courtiers took good care not to suffer it to cool. What if, emboldened
by impunity, the Protestants, of whose rapid growth in all parts of
France such startling reports were brought to him, should attempt to
carry out the plan that was talked of among them, and seize the
opportunity of the wedding festivities solemnly to present to his
Majesty, by the hands of one of the nobles, the confession of faith of
their churches? What punishment of the audacious agent employed would
remove from the minds of the orthodox foreign princes present at court
the sinister impression that heresy had struck deep root in the realm of
the Very Christian King?[699]

[Sidenote: Henry goes in person to listen to the deliberations, June 10,
1559.]

If a candid gentleman of the bed-chamber, like Vieilleville, privately
urged Henry to reject the advice of prelates in secular matters, and
respectfully decline the assumption of the po