Note 345 — CCLXXXIV.—To Bullinger.[345]
Reading edition
The new opinions made every day fresh progress in France, in spite of the rigour of the edicts, and the severity of the judges. Inspired by the evil spirit of Cardinals Tournon and Lorraine, the King resorted to measures of great cruelty. The Edict of Chateaubriand, issued on the 27th of June 1551, declared Protestants amenable at once to ecclesiastical and civil tribunals, so that if absolved by the jurisdiction of the one, they were liable to condemnation by that of the other! This was a violation of the laws of the most ordinary justice; but at a time when the Emperor, aided by the heretic Maurice of Saxony, was attacking the Pope, the King of France could not give too strong a pledge of his orthodoxy. The blood of the disciples of the Gospel flowed like water, to expiate the alliance of this persecuting monarch with the Lutherans of Germany.—Haag, France Protestante, Introduction, p. x.