Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/582

 366 kEiGN OP ELIZABETH. [CM. 67. and Parma would then be free to act with Guise, either in France or against the Queen of England. The Queen-mother had done her work at Chalons. She had promised in the King's name that heresy should no longer be tolerated six months might be allowed to the King of Navarre and the Huguenots to make their peace and surrender their towns but if they had not complied at the end of that time, they were to be declared public enemies. The King, after a faint resistance, confirmed his mother's engagements. He was terrified by the threat of excommunication, and the dread of being de- posed. 'He hated the Guises/ Sir Edward Stafford repeated, ' with a hatred which would never be quenched ; ' there were those about him who foresaw the tragedy of Blois ; but for the present he yielded to the times. The edicts were finally revoked, and it was declared with ingenious irony ' that there was to be but one religion in France, after the example of the Queen of England.' 1 To the enunciation of these resolutions the King of Navarre replied with an appeal to Europe. ' In the presence of God, by whom he looked to be judged, he declared himself a Christian. He accepted the decrees of the antient Councils of the Church : he professed himself willing to submit again to the judgment of any fresh Council lawfully called. The ecclesiastical corrup- tions universally acknowledged, but as yet unreformed, had compelled him and others to introduce reforms 1 M. de Clairvaux to "Walsingham, June 1222 : MSS. France.