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 MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW 143

exhortations were addressed from Rome to Henry him- self by IVluzio, a layman who had gained repute, among other things, by controversia:I writings, of which Pius V. said that they had preserved the faith in whole districts, and who had been charged with the task of refuting the Centuriators. On the 17 th of July 1574, Muzio wrote to the King that all Italy waited in reliance on his justice and valour, and besought him to spare neither old nor young, and to regard neither rank nor ties of blood. l These hopes also were doomed to disappointment; and a Frenchman, writing in the year of Henry's death, laments over the cruel clemency and inhuman mercy that reigned on St. Bartholome\v's Day.2 This was not the general opinion of the Catholic world. In Spain and Italy, where hearts were hardened and consciences corrupted by the Inquisition; in Switzer- land, where the Catholics lived in suspicion and dread of their Protestant neighbours; among ecclesiastical princes in Germany, whose authority waned as fast as their subjects abj ured their faith, the massacre was welcomed as an act of Christian fortitude. But in France itself the great mass of the people \vas struck with consternation. 3 "Which maner of proceedings," writes Walsingham on the 13th of September, U is by the Catholiques themselves utterly condemned, who desire to depart hence out of this country, to quit themselves of this strange kind of government, for that they see here none can assure themselves of either goods or life." Even in places still steeped in mourning for the atrocities suffered at the hands of Huguenots during the civil war, at Nîmes, for instance, the King's orders produced no act of vengeance. At Carcassonne, the ancient seat of the Inquisition, the Catholics concealed the Protestants in their houses.' In 1 Infin che ne viverà grande, 0 picciolo di loro, mai non Ie mancheranno insidie (Lettere delllIuzio, 1590, p, 232), 2 Coupez, tronquez, cisaillez, ne pardonnez à parens ny amis, princes et subiets,
 * IY à quelque personne de quelque condition qu'ils soient (D'Orléans, Premier

advertissement des Catholiques Allglois aux FrallfOis Catholiques, 1590, p, 13). The notion that Charles had displayed an extreme benignity recurs in many books: .. ostre Prince a surpassé tout mesure de c1 mence" (Le Frère de Laval Hidoire des Troubles, 1576, p, 527), 3 Serranus, Comment. iv. 51. 4 Bouges, Histoire de Carcassonne, p, 343,