rotestantism would have been long
delayed. But no such cause existed for the success of the Reformation
on French soil. The slumbering germs of heresy, left perhaps by
Abelard, or by the heretics in Toulouse and Provence, were quickly
warmed into life. It may be also that the memory of her desertion by
the Church, once her only friend and champion, gave such intensity to
the welcome of a "Reformation" by the people. At all events, whatever
the explanation, a religious war was at hand which was going to stain
the fair name of France more even than the treacheries of her civil war.

The question at issue was deeper than any one knew. Neither Luther nor
Leo X. understood the revolution they had precipitated. Protestants
and Papists alike failed to comprehend the true nature of the struggle,
which was not for supremacy of Romanist or Protestant; not whether this
dogma or that was true, and should prevail; but an assertion of the
right of every human soul to choose its own faith and form of worship.
The great battle for human liberty had commenced; the struggle for
religious liberty was but the prelude to what was to follow. There was
abundant proof later that Protestants no less than Papists needed only
opportunity and power to be as cruel and intolerant as their
persecutors had been. Before the Reformation was fifty years old,
Servetus, one of the greatest men of his age, a scholar, philosopher,
and man of irreproachable character, was burned at Geneva for heretical
views concerning the nature of the Trinity; Calvin, the great organizer
of Protestant theology, giving, if not the order for this odious crime,
at least the nod of approval for its commission.

France had known many tragedies. But when Francis, in pursuance of his
Italian policy, secured the hand of Catharine de' Medici for his son
and heir, Henry II., he prepared the way for the most tragic event in
her history. Powerless to win the affection, or even confidence, of
Henry while he lived, Catharine remained unobserved; but, as the event
proved, not unobservant. Her astute mind had been studying every
current in the kingdom.

Two families had come into prominence during this reign which were to
play leading parts in the immediate future: the family of Guise, of the
house of Lorraine, represented by Francis, Duke of Guise; and that of
Chatillon, of which Admiral Coligny was the head, both of whom
Catharine hated and had marked for destruction.

Mar