, and subject entirely to the control of
his mother, whom he most tenderly loved, and whose views, as one of
the most prominent leaders of the Protestant party, he was strongly
inclined to espouse.

The sanguinary conflict still raged with unabated violence throughout
the whole kingdom, arming brother against brother, friend against
friend. Churches were sacked and destroyed; vast extents of country
were almost depopulated; cities were surrendered to pillage, and
atrocities innumerable perpetrated, from which it would seem that even
fiends would revolt. France was filled with smouldering ruins; and the
wailing cry of widows and of orphans, thus made by the wrath of man,
ascended from every plain and every hill-side to the ear of that God
who has said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

At last both parties were weary of the horrid strife. The Catholics
were struggling to extirpate what they deemed ruinous heresy from the
kingdom. The Protestants were repelling the assault, and contending,
not for general liberty of conscience, but that their doctrines _were
true_, and _therefore_ should be sustained. Terms of accommodation
were proposed, and the Catholics made the great concession, as they
regarded it, of allowing the Protestants to conduct public worship
_outside of the walls of towns_. The Protestants accepted these terms,
and sheathed the sword; but many of the more fanatic Catholics were
greatly enraged at this toleration. The Guises, the most arrogant
family of nobles the world has ever known, retired from Paris in
indignation, declaring that they would not witness such a triumph of
heresy. The decree which granted this poor boon was the famous edict
of January, 1562, issued from St. Germain. But such a peace as this
could only be a truce caused by exhaustion. Deep-seated animosity
still rankled in the bosom of both parties; and, notwithstanding all
the woes which desolating wars had engendered, the spirit of religious
intolerance was eager again to grasp the weapons of deadly strife.

During the sixteenth century the doctrine of religious toleration was
recognized by no one. That great truth had not then even dawned upon
the world. The noble toleration so earnestly advocated by Bayle and
Locke a century later, was almost a new revelation to the human mind;
but in the sixteenth century it would have been regarded as impious,
and rebellion against God to have affirmed that _error_ was not to be
pursued a