Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/47

32 up on the death of a certain prelate. Neither she nor her son were in awe of the Church, of their faith, of their Deity even. But they had an immense reverence for the temporal authority of Rome. "Any other religion would prejudice my estate," says Francis; and in this opinion, adds Brantôme, King Soliman perfectly agreed. This quoting of the Grand Turk, the Antichrist himself, as to the importance of the Catholic Church, proves exactly how much and for what reasons the Court of France respected it. Heresy as an opinion was perfectly in accord with the King's liberal taste; but heresy as an agent, as a factor, must be put down with fire and sword. Gradually Briçonnet apprehended this fact; and, being an excessively timid and hesitating nature, he bitterly regretted having gone too far. In sore distress of mind he wrote to Margaret—this Briçonnet who had so sternly admonished her for procrastination—"Let it please you to slacken the fire for some time. The wood you wish to burn is so green that it will put out the fire; and we counsel you (for several reasons, of which I hope to tell you the rest some day) to leave it alone; if you do not wish to quite extinguish both the brand as well as the surplus which desires to burn and to enflame others." But Margaret was too deeply in earnest to hesitate; she never had learned to be afraid. Her sanguine temperament had no doubt of success; and she seemed in a fair way to succeed. Madame had read St. Paul, from curiosity and for amusement; her daughter already made sure of her conversion. "My sister-in-law, my dear sister, is quite of our opinion," she writes to Briçonnet. This may have been Madame de Vendôme (the other grandmother of Henri IV.,) but I am inclined to