the French monarch the example of King Saul,
who, when commanded by God, through Samuel the Prophet, so to smite the
Amalekites, an infidel people, that none should escape, neither man nor
woman, neither infant nor suckling, incurred the anger and rejection of
the Almighty by sparing Agag and the best of the spoil, instead of utterly
destroying them.[668]

Two weeks later the pontiff received the unwelcome tidings that some of
the Huguenot prisoners taken in the battle of Jarnac had been spared. La
Noue, Soubise, and other gentlemen had actually been left alive, and were
likely to escape without paying the forfeit due to their crimes. At this
dreadful intelligence the righteous indignation of Pius was kindled. On
one and the same day (the thirteenth of April) he wrote long letters to
Catharine, to Anjou, to the Cardinal of Lorraine, to the Cardinal of
Bourbon, as well as to Charles himself.[669] Of all these letters the
tenor was identical. Such slackness to execute vengeance would certainly
provoke God's patience to anger; the king must visit condign punishment
upon the enemies of God and the rebels against his own authority. To the
victor of Jarnac he was specially urgent, supplicating him to counteract
any leanings that might be shown to an impious mercy. "Your brother's
rebels have disturbed the public tranquillity of the realm. They have, so
far as in them lay, subverted the Catholic religion, have burned churches,
have most cruelly slain the priests of Almighty God, have committed
numberless other crimes; consequently they deserve to receive those
extreme penalties (_supplicia_) that are ordained by the laws. And if any
of their number shall attempt, through the intercession of your nobles
with the king your brother, to escape the penalties they deserve, it is
your duty, in view of your piety to God and zeal for the divine honor, to
reject the prayers of all that intercede for them, and to show yourself
equally inexorable to all."[670]

[Sidenote: The sanguinary action of the Parliament of Bordeaux.]

Was it in consequence of the known desire of the occupant of the Holy See
that the policy of the French courts of justice became more and more
sanguinary? We can scarcely doubt that the Pope's injunctions had much to
do with these increasing severities. Beginning in March, 1569, the
Parliament of Bordeaux issued a series of decrees condemning a crowd of
Protestants to death. The names that appear upon the records wi