Note 252 — Chapter V · FROM THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES IX. TO THE MASSACRE AT VASSY. [1560–1562.]

After the massacre of Vassy (February, 1562), Condé offered the queen-mother the support of 2150 Reformed churches. Montfauçon, Monumens de la Monarchie, fol. 1733, v. p. 109. In 1598, the date of the Edict of Nantes, it was calculated that there were in France 694 public chapels and 257 private, over which 2800 ministers and 400 curates presided. There were 274,000 families, making about 1,250,000 souls, and of those families 2468 were noble. In 1561 there may have been 250,000 more.