ca le cose di Cabrieres,
che da vostra Signoria Reverendissima e stato si lungamente ricordato et
sollicitato et procurato." Even Melanchthon was provoked by the death of
Cromwell to exclaim that there is no better deed than the slaughter of a
tyrant; "Utinam Deus alicui forti viro hanc mentem inserat!" And in 1575
the Swedish bishops decided that it would be a good work to poison their
king in a basin of soup--an idea particularly repugnant to the author of
_De Rege et Regis Institutione_. Among Mariana's papers I have seen the
letter from Paris describing the murder of Henry III., which he turned
to such account in the memorable sixth chapter: "Communico con sus
superiores, si peccaria mortalmente un sacerdote que matase a un tirano.
Ellos le diceron que non era pecado, mas que quedaria irregular. Y no
contentandose con esto, ni con las disputas que avia de ordinario en la
Sorbona sobre la materia, continuando siempre sus oraciones, lo pregunto
a otros theologos, que le afirmavan lo mismo; y con esto se resolvio
enteramente de executarlo. Por el successo es de collegir que tuvo el
fraile alguna revelacion de Nuestro Senor en particular, y inspiracion
para executar el caso." According to Maffei, the Pope's biographer, the
priests were not content with saying that killing was no sin: "Cum illi
posse, nec sine magno quidem merito censuissent." Regicide was so
acceptable a work that it seemed fitly assigned to a divine
interposition.

When, on the 21st of January 1591, a youth offered his services to make
away with Henry IV., the Nuncio remitted the matter to Rome:
"Quantunque mi sia parso di trovarlo pieno di tale humilita, prudenza,
spirito et cose che arguiscono che questa sia inspiratione veramente
piuttosto che temerita e leggerezza." In a volume which, though recent,
is already rare, the Foreign Office published D'Avaux's advice to treat
the Protestants of Ireland much as William treated the Catholics of
Glencoe; and the argument of the Assassination Plot came originally from
a Belgian seminary. There were at least three men living far into the
eighteenth century who defended the massacre of St. Bartholomew in their
books; and it was held as late as 1741 that culprits may be killed
before they are condemned: "Etiam ante sententiam impune occidi possunt,
quando de proximo erant banniendi, vel quando eorum delictum est
notorium, grave, et pro quo poena capitis infligenda esset."

Whilst these principles were current