es has
always taken the central place; Nimes will therefore be the pivot round
which our story will revolve, and though we may sometimes leave it for a
moment, we shall always return thither without fail.

Nimes was reunited to France by Louis VIII, the government being taken
from its vicomte, Bernard Athon VI, and given to consuls in the year
1207. During the episcopate of Michel Briconnet the relics of St. Bauzile
were discovered, and hardly were the rejoicings over this event at an end
when the new doctrines began to spread over France. It was in the South
that the persecutions began, and in 1551 several persons were publicly
burnt as heretics by order of the Seneschal's Court at Nimes, amongst
whom was Maurice Secenat, a missionary from the Cevennes, who was taken
in the very act of preaching. Thenceforth Nimes rejoiced in two martyrs
and two patron saints, one revered by the Catholics, and one by the
Protestants; St. Bauzile, after reigning as sole protector for
twenty-four years, being forced to share the honours of his guardianship
with his new rival.

Maurice Secenat was followed as preacher by Pierre de Lavau; these two
names being still remembered among the crowd of obscure and forgotten
martyrs. He also was put to death on the Place de la Salamandre, all the
difference being that the former was burnt and the latter hanged.

Pierre de Lavau was attended in his last moments by Dominique Deyron,
Doctor of Theology; but instead of, as is usual, the dying man being
converted by the priest, it was the priest who was converted by de
Lavau, and the teaching which it was desired should be suppressed burst
forth again. Decrees were issued against Dominique Deyron; he was
pursued and tracked down, and only escaped the gibbet by fleeing to the
mountains.

The mountains are the refuge of all rising or decaying sects; God has
given to the powerful on earth city, plain, and sea, but the mountains
are the heritage of the oppressed.

Persecution and proselytism kept pace with each other, but the blood that
was shed produced the usual effect: it rendered the soil on which it fell
fruitful, and after two or three years of struggle, during which two or
three hundred Huguenots had been burnt or hanged, Nimes awoke one morning
with a Protestant majority. In 1556 the consuls received a sharp
reprimand on account of the leaning of the city towards the doctrines of
the Reformation; but in 1557, one short year after this admon