f Henry III---390]

"The time was ill chosen by Henry III. for this change of habits and for
becoming an indolent and voluptuous king, set upon taking his pleasure in
his court and isolating himself from his people. The condition and ideas
of France were also changing, but to issue in the assumption of quite a
different character and to receive development in quite a different
direction. Catholics or Protestants, agents of the king's government or
malcontents, all were getting a taste for and adopting the practice of
independence and a vigorous and spontaneous activity. The bonds of the
feudal system were losing their hold, and were not yet replaced by those
of a hierarchically organized administration. Religious creeds and
political ideas were becoming, for thoughtful and straightforward
spirits, rules of conduct, powerful motives of action, and they furnished
the ambitious with effective weapons. The theologians of the Catholic
church and of the Reformed churches--on one side the Cardinal of
Lorraine, Cardinals Campeggi and Sadolet, and other learned priests or
prelates, and on the other side Calvin, who had been nursed, so to speak,
in the lap of war, of that manly and warlike courage which had been so
much admired. He no longer rode on horseback; he did not show himself
amongst his people, as his predecessors had been wont to do; he was only
to be seen shut up with a few favorites in a little painted boat which
went up and down the Saone he no longer took his meals without a
balustrade, which did not allow him to be approached any nearer; and if
anybody had any petitions to present to him, they had to wait for him as
he came out from dinner, when he took them as he hurried by. For the
greater part of the day he remained closeted with some young folks, who
alone had the prince's ear, without anybody's knowing how they had
arrived at this distinction, whilst the great, and those whose services
were known, could scarcely get speech of him. Showiness and effeminacy
had taken the place of the grandeur and majesty which had formerly
distinguished our kings." [De Thou, Histoire universelle, t. vii.
p. 134.]

The time was ill chosen by Henry III. for this change of habits and for
becoming an indolent and voluptuous king, set upon taking his pleasure in
his court and isolating himself from his people. The condition and
ideas of France were also changing, but to issue in the assumption of
quite a different charact