he Roman
church. Clement VIII., on the 2d of August, assembled his consistory,
whither went all the cardinals, save two partisans of Spain who excused
themselves on the score of health. Parleys took place as to the form of
the decree which must precede the absolution. The pope would have liked
very much to insert two clauses, one revoking as null and void the
absolution already given to the king by the French bishops at the time of
his conversion, and the other causing the absolution granted by the pope
to be at the same time considered as re-establishing Henry IV. in his
rights to the crown, whereof it was contended that he was deprived by the
excommunication and censures of Sixtus V. and Gregory XIV., which this
absolution was to remove. The two French negotiators rejected these
attempts, and steadily maintained the complete independence of the king's
temporal sovereignty, as well as the power of intervention of the French
episcopate in his absolution. Clement VIII. was a judicious and prudent
pope; and he did not persist. The absolution was solemnly pronounced on
the 17th of September, 1595, by the pope himself, from a balcony erected
in St. Peter's Square, and in presence of the population. The gates of
the church were thrown open and a Te Deum was sung. A grand ceremony
took place immediately afterwards in the church of St. Louis of the
French. Rome was illuminated for three days, and, on the 7th of November
following, a pope's messenger left for Paris with the bull of absolution
drawn up in the terms agreed upon.

Another reconciliation, of less solemnity, but of great importance, that
between the Duke of Mayenne and Henry IV., took place a week after the
absolution pronounced by the pope. As soon as the civil war, continued
by the remnants of the dying League, was no more than a disgraceful
auxiliary to the foreign war between France and Spain, Mayenne was in his
soul both grieved and disgusted at it. The affair of Fontaine-Francaise
gave him an opportunity of bringing matters to a crisis; he next day
broke with the Constable of Castile, Don Ferdinand de Velasco, who
declined to follow his advice, and at once entered into secret
negotiations with the king. Henry wrote from Lyons to Du Plessis-Mornay,
on the 24th of August, 1595, "The Duke of Mayenne has asked me to allow
him three months for the purpose of informing the enemy of his
determination in order to induce them to join him in recognizing me an