Note 987 — Chapter XI

The chancellor's address is given in extenso in Pierre de la Place, Commentaires de l'estat de la religion et république pp. 80-88; and in the Histoire ecclés. des égl. réf., i. 257-268. De Thou, iii. (liv. xxvii.) 3-7. "Habuit longam orationem Cancellarius," says Beza, "in qua initio quidem pulchre multa de antiquo regni statu disseruit, sed mox aulicum suum ingenium prodidit." Letter to Bullinger, Jan. 22, 1561, Baum, Theod. Beza, ii. App., 19. Prof. Baum has shown (vol. ii., p. 159, note) that this last assertion is fully borne out by portions of the speech, even when viewed quite independently of the impatience naturally felt by a Huguenot when an enlightened statesman undertook to sail a middle course where justice was so evidently on one side. I refer, for instance, to that extraordinary passage in which L'Hospital speaks of the treatment to which the Protestants had hitherto been subjected as so gentle, "qu'il semble plus correction paternelle que punition. Il n'y a eu ni portes forcées, ny murailles de villes abbattues, ni maisons bruslées, ny priviléges ostés aux villes, commes les princes voisins ont faict de nostre temps en pareils troubles et séditions." La Place, ubi supra, p. 87. See other points specified in Histoire ecclés., ubi supra.