'icy se
faconnera par la main d'un si excellent ouvrier qui nous est venu; mais
que les chanoines mesmes de Sainte-Croix le viendront ouyr en ses lecons,
ce qu'ils ont desja declare. De quoy sortiront des fruicts surmontant
toute expectation." Gaberel, Hist. de l'egl. de Geneve, i., Pieces
justificatives, 168.

[28] The archives of Stuttgart contain the instructive correspondence
which the Duke of Guise had, ever since the previous summer, maintained
with the Duke of Wuertemberg. From the letters published in the Bulletin of
the French Protestant Historical Society (February and March, 1875), we
see that Francois endeavored to alienate Christopher from the Huguenots by
representing the latter as bitter enemies of the Augsburg Confession, and
as speaking of it with undisguised contempt. (Letter of July 2, 1561,
Bull., xxiv. 72.) Christopher made no reply to these statements, but urged
his correspondent to a candid examination of religious truth, irrespective
of age or prescription, reminding him (letter of Nov. 22, 1561) that our
Lord Jesus Christ "did not say 'I am the _ancient custom_,' but 'I am the
_Truth_.'" (Ibid., xxiv. 114.) And he added, sensibly enough, that, had
the pagan ancestors of both the French and the Germans followed the rule
of blind obedience to custom, they would certainly never have become
Christians.

[29] Guise's original invitation was for Saturday, January 31st, but
Christopher pleaded engagements, and named, instead, Sunday, Feb. 15th.
(Ibid., xxiv. 116, 117.)

[30] The relation was first noticed and printed by Sattler, in his
Geschichte von Wuertemberg unter den Herzoegen. I have used the French
translation by M. A. Muntz, in the Bulletin, iv. (1856) 184-196.

[31] In a letter of Wuertemberg to Guise, written subsequently to the
massacre of Vassy, he reminds him of the advice he had given him, and of
Guise's assurances: "Vous savez aussi avec quelle asseurance vous m'avez
respondu _que l'on vous faisoit grand tort_ de ce que l'on vous vouloit
imposer estre cause et autheur de la mort de tant de povres chrestiens qui
ont espandu leur sang par ci-devant," etc. Memoires de Guise, 494.

[32] There are some characters with whom mendacity has become so essential
a part of their nature, that we cease to wonder at any possible extreme of
lying. It was, however, no new thing with the cardinal to assume
immaculate innocence. Over two years before this time, at the beginning of
the reign of Francis