Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/243

 Rh of possibly very deferential, but decidedly very distinct, resistance to the will of the Pope, who was, on his part, little disposed to put up with it. Agents were now despatched to and fro between Paris and Rome, but no form of explanation which Noailles could suggest found acceptance with the Pope, and at last, on the 3d March 1718, there appeared a decree of the Holy Office condemning severely the appeal of the four Bishops and Cardinal Noailles. This was followed up by tidings of the imminent issue of a Brief declaring those schismatics who did not accept the Bull simply and purely, whereupon Noailles, to have the start of the Pope, convened a General Assembly of the Chapter of Notre Dame where he made public his appeal, which next day was stuck against the church-doors in his diocese. This led to a furious decree of the Inquisition of the 12th August 1719 against the Cardinal, and in July, Dorsanne tells us, the Pope's mind was wholly set on the project of stripping Noailles of his hat and stockings. Yet with all the passions excited against the recalcitrant obstinacy of the French Prelate in refusing to accept Papal dictation implicitly, the desire to wreak the uttermost vengeance on his head was arrested by the sense of the practical difficulties that stood in the way of its accomplishment. In spite of the Pope's animosity and the fanning action of the Jesuits, it was found desirable to let the matter drop. Cardinal Noailies, though censured and fulminated against, escaped further prosecution, and continued Archbishop of Paris to his death, before