he authority of the king;[1255] but with the vast
majority the dictates of self-preservation prevailed over the slavish
doctrine of unquestioning submission. The right to worship God as He
commands cannot, they argued, be abridged even by the legitimate
sovereign; and in this case there is even the greatest probability that he
acts under constraint, or that wily courtiers forge his name, since the
most contradictory orders emanate ostensibly from him.

[Sidenote: Nismes.]

Such was the attitude assumed by the brave inhabitants of Nismes. Here the
Roman Catholics had displayed a more charitable disposition than in many
other places. The "juge mage," on receipt of secret orders to massacre the
Protestants, instead of complying, gave directions for assembling the
extraordinary council, consisting of the magistrates and most notable
citizens. By this council, upon his recommendation, it was unanimously
resolved to close all the gates of Nismes, with the exception of one. This
was to be guarded in turn by the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. All
the citizens were directed to take a common oath that they would assist
each other without distinction of creed, and maintain order and security,
in obedience to the king's authority, and according to the provisions of
his edict of pacification. It was a solemn scene when all those present in
the great municipal meeting, the vicar-general of the diocese among the
number, with uplifted hands called upon God to witness their
engagement.[1256] The oath was well observed. The Viscount of Joyeuse,
acting as lieutenant-governor of Charles in Languedoc, at first approved
the compact; for the king's early letters, as we have seen, expressed
indignation at Coligny's murder, and ascribed it to the personal enmity of
the Guises. But the viscount took a different view of the matter when the
monarch, throwing off the mask, himself accepted the responsibility.
Joyeuse now called on the citizens of Nismes to lay down their arms, to
expel all the refugees, and to receive a garrison. But the Nismois firmly
declined the summons, grounding their refusal partly on their duty to
themselves, partly on the manifest inhumanity of surrendering their
fellow-citizens to certain butchery. As was true in more than one
instance, it was the _people_ that, by their decision, saved the rich from
the inevitable results of their own timid counsels. Most of the judges of
the royal court of justice, and most of the