scussion
of political questions.

These were the closing scenes of the exciting drama. The king had
triumphed, but not without encountering a spirited opposition from
parliament, university, and clergy. If these had succumbed, it had only
been before superior strength, and each of the bodies reserved to itself
the right of treating the concordat as a nullity and the Pragmatic
Sanction as still the ecclesiastical constitution of the land.

[Sidenote: The resistance not altogether fruitless.]

Nor was this altogether an empty claim. Some of the provisions of the
concordat were never enforced, and that was a solid advantage gained
through the opposition. The parliaments persisted in rendering judgment,
in such cases as came before them, in conformity with the Pragmatic
Sanction. The Bishop of Albi, chosen by the canons, was confirmed in his
see, notwithstanding the pretensions of a nominee of the crown. And yet
the concordat was not merely maintained by the Pope and the king, but, a
few years later, its provisions were extended to monastic foundations
previously possessed of an undisputed title to elect. This was done to
gratify Francis on the marriage of his second son Henry to Catharine de'
Medici, niece of Clement, the reigning pontiff. The somewhat suspicious
story is told, that, to aid in carrying out this new act of injustice,
Cardinal Duprat, having ordered all ecclesiastical bodies to send him
the original documents attesting their right of election, at once
consigned the parchments to the fire, in order to destroy all memory of
these troublesome claims. If the tale be apocryphal, it at least
indicates sufficiently well the estimation in which the prelate's
character was held by his contemporaries.

[Sidenote: Advantages gained by the crown.]

The clergy reluctantly admitted the concordat into their books after the
lapse of two centuries, but solely, as they declared, for convenience of
reference. The restoration of the Pragmatic Sanction continued to be
demanded by one or all the orders of the States General, during the
reigns of Francis the Second, Charles the Ninth, and their successors,
not least on the ground that the day that witnessed its repeal also
beheld the introduction of the "heresy" that had since attained such
formidable proportions.[67] But, if opposed and denounced, the concordat
was carried into execution, so far as most of its provisions were
concerned, until the French revolution. The advan