sed the relaxation of the rigorous treatment of the adherents of
the Reformation. _Extermination_ was out of the question. The numbers of
the Protestants had become too great to permit the entertaining of such
a thought. Moreover, the court might be assured that there were
those--and they were not few--who would no longer consent to endure the
cruelty to which, for forty years, they had been subjected, especially
now that it was exercised under the authority of a young king governed
by persons "more hated than the plague," and known to be inspired less
by religious zeal than by excessive ambition, and by an avarice that
could be satisfied only by obtaining the property of the richest houses
in France. An edict of toleration, couched in explicit terms and
honestly executed, was the only remedy to restore peace and quiet until
the convocation of a free and holy council.[823]

[Sidenote: The edict of amnesty March, 1560.]

[Sidenote: It is promptly registered.]

The privy council, if not persuaded of the propriety of initiating a
policy of toleration, were at least convinced of the necessity of
yielding temporarily to the storm; and even the Guises deemed it
advisable to make concessions, which could easily be revoked on the
advent of more peaceful times. Accordingly, an edict of pretended
amnesty was hastily drawn up, and as expeditiously published. The king
was moved to take this step--so the edict made him say--by compassion
for the number of persons who, from motives of curiosity or simplicity,
had attended the conventicles of the preachers from Geneva--for the most
part mechanical folk and of no literary attainments--as well as by
reluctance to render the first year of his reign notable in after times
for the effusion of the blood of his poor subjects. By the provisions of
this important instrument the royal judges were forbidden to make
inquisition into, or inflict punishment for any _past_ crime concerning
the faith: and all delinquents were pardoned _on condition that they
should hereafter live as good Catholics and obedient sons of Mother Holy
Church_. But from the benefits of the amnesty were expressly excluded
all preachers and those who had conspired against the person of the king
or his ministers.[824] The edict--much to the surprise of those who knew
the sanguinary disposition of the judges--was promptly registered by
parliament; whether it was that the judges were reconciled to the step
by a secret article