Note 234 — Chapter V · FROM THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES IX. TO THE MASSACRE AT VASSY. [1560–1562.]

In 1561, Micheli, the Venetian embassador, says that three-fourths of the kingdom are filled with heresy. They met and preached without any regard to the royal prohibition; and he notes it as very remarkable, that “priests, monks, and nuns, and even bishops, and many of the most distinguished prelates, had caught the infection.... Excepting the common herd, all have fallen away.”