ted submit
with as good grace to the arbitrary decrees of the usurpers who, through
their connection with a minor king, have made themselves supreme, as to
the legitimate authority of the monarch, advised by his council of
state? The Gospel, doubtless, enjoins upon all Christians the most
patient submission to legally constituted authority. Its success is to
be won by the display of faith and obedience. But concession may
degenerate into cowardice, and submission into craven subserviency.
Obedience to a tyrant is rebellion against the king whom he defrauds of
his authority, his revenues, and his reputation; and treason against
God, whose name is suffered to be blasphemed, and whose children are
unjustly distressed."

[Sidenote: Oppression becomes intolerable.]

[Sidenote: The convocation of the States General.]

The religious grievances thus ran parallel with the political, and could
scarcely be distinguished in the great aggregate of the intolerable
oppression to which France was subjected. The legislation of which such
grave complaint was made, it must be admitted, was sometimes
sufficiently whimsical. The resources of the royal treasury, for
instance, being inadequate to meet the demands of creditors, it was
necessary to silence their importunity. An inhuman decree was
accordingly published, enjoining upon all petitioners who had come to
Fontainebleau, where the king was sojourning, to solicit the payment of
debts or pensions, to leave the court within twenty-four hours, on pain
of the halter! A gallows newly erected in front of the castle was a
significant warning as to the serious character of the threat.[803] In
order to provide against uprisings such as the violent course taken was
well calculated to occasion, the people must be disarmed. Accordingly,
an edict was published, within a fortnight after the accession of
Francis, strictly forbidding all persons from carrying pistols and other
firearms, and the prohibition was more than once repeated during this
brief reign.[804] While thus seeking to repress the display of the
popular displeasure in acts of violence and sedition, the Guises
resolved to prevent the overthrow of their usurped authority by
legitimate means. The convocation of the States General was the
safety-valve through which, in accordance with a wise provision, the
overheated passions of the people were wont to find vent. But the
assembling of the representatives of the three orders would be
equ