sident at the
court, than whom probably no other person in France felt obliged to keep
himself better informed, wrote to Cecil respecting the Prince of Conde's
strength: "I can assur you att thys dyspatche _he ys the strongest
partie_, and in suche state his matter standeth, that _these men_ [the
court] _wold fayne have a reasonable end, thoughe yt were with some
dishonnour_." MSS. State Paper Office, Duc d'Aumale, Princes de Conde,
Pieces justif., i. 370.

[86] It is strange that a historian at once so conscientious and generally
so well-informed as M. Rosseeuw Saint-Hilaire should, in his Histoire
d'Espagne, ix. 60, 61, have made the grave mistake of holding Calvin
responsible for the excesses of the iconoclasts. See the Bulletin, xiv.
127, etc., for a complete refutation.

[87] Like the undeceived dupe in the old Athenian comedy, who mournfully
laments that he had been led to worship a bit of earthenware as a god:

Oimoi deilaios,
Hote kai se chutreoun onta theon hegesamen.
(ARISTOPHANES, CLOUDS, 1473, 1474.)

On the other hand, the zealous Roman Catholic had his arguments for the
preservation and worship of images, some of which may strike us as
sufficiently whimsical. "I confess," says one, "that God has forbidden
idols and idolatry, but He has not forbidden the images (or pictures)
which we hold for the veneration of the saints. For if that were so, _He
would not have left us the effigy of his holy face_ painted in His
likeness, on the cloth which that good lady Veronica presented Him, which
yet to-day is looked upon with so much devotion in the church of St. Peter
at Rome, nor the impression of His holy body represented in the 'saint
suaire' which is at Chambery. Is it not found that Saint Luke thrice made
with his own hand the portrait of Our Lady?... That holy evangelist ought
certainly to have known the will of his Lord and Master better than you,
my opponent, who wish to interpret the Scripture according to your
sensuality." Discours des Guerres de Provence (Arch. curieuses, iv. 501,
502). Of course, the author never dreamed that his _facts_ might possibly
be disputed.

[88] Les Recherches et Antiquitez de la ville de Caen, par Charles de
Bourgueville, sieur du lieu, de Bras, et de Brucourt. A Caen, 1588. Pt.
ii. 170-172. From page 76 onward the author gives us a record of notable
events in his own lifetime. So also at Clery, it is to be regretted that,
not co