th me and my house. Ingrate that you are, you
have forgotten all the benefits you have received at my hands." The
chancellor's answer was quiet and dignified. "I shall always be ready,
even at the peril of my life, to return my obligations to you. I cannot do
it at the expense of the king's honor and welfare." And he added the
pointed observation that the cardinal was desirous of effecting, by
intrigue, what he had been unable to effect by force of arms. Others took
up the debate, the old constable himself disclaiming any intention of
disputing respecting doctrines which he approved, but expressing his
surprise that Lorraine should disturb the tranquillity of the kingdom, and
take up the cause of the Roman pontiff against a king through whose
liberality he was in the enjoyment of an annual revenue of three or four
hundred thousand francs. Catharine, as usual, did her best to allay the
irritation; but the cardinal, greatly disappointed, retired to
Rheims.[329]

[Sidenote: Opposition of Du Moulin.]

A few months after the scene at Melun, the most eminent of French jurists,
the celebrated Charles Du Moulin, published an unanswerable treatise,
proving that the Council of Trent had none of the characteristics of a
true oecumenical synod, and that its decrees were null and void.[330] And
the Parliament of Paris, although it ordered the seizure of the book and
imprisoned the author for some days, could not be induced to consent to
incorporate in the legislation of the country the Tridentine decrees, so
hostile in spirit to the French legislation.[331] Evidently parliament,
although too timid to say so, believed, with Du Moulin, that the
acceptance of the decrees in question "would be against God and against
the benefit of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, against the ancient councils,
against the majesty of the king and the rights of his crown, against his
recent edicts and the edicts of preceding kings, against the liberty and
immunity of the Gallican Church, the authority of the estates and courts
of parliament of the kingdom, and the secular jurisdiction."[332]

It was shortly before this time that the report gained currency that
Charles the Ninth had received an embassy from Philip of Spain and the
Duke of Savoy, inviting him, it was said, to a conference with all other
"Christian" princes, to be held on the twenty-fifth of March (1564), to
swear submission in common to the decrees of Trent and devise means for
the repression