or worship to
other places, either in the suburbs, or--in the case of cities which the
Huguenots had held on the seventh of March, 1563--within the walls. But,
soon after the restoration of peace, the consuls and inhabitants of Milhau
presented a petition to Charles the Ninth, in which they make the
startling assertion that the entire population has become Protestant ("de
la religion"); that for two years or thereabouts they have lived in
undisturbed peace, whilst other cities have been the scene of
disturbances; and that, at a recent gathering of the inhabitants, they
unanimously expressed their desire to live in the exercise of the reformed
faith, under the royal permission. By the king's order the petition was
referred for examination to the commissioners for the execution of the
edict in the province of Guyenne. All its statements were found to be
strictly correct. There was not one papist within the city; not one man,
woman, or child expressed a desire for the re-establishment of the Roman
Catholic ceremonial. The monks had renounced the cowl, the priests their
vestments. Of their own free will, some of the friars had married, some
had taken up useful trades. The prior had voluntarily resigned the greater
part of his revenues; retaining one-third for his own support, he had
begged that the remainder might be devoted to the preaching of God's Word
and the maintenance of the poor. The two churches of the place had for
eighteen months been used for Protestant worship, and there were no other
convenient places to be found. Indeed, had the churches been given up,
there would have been no one to take possession. A careful domiciliary
examination by four persons appointed by the royal judge had incontestably
established the point. Over eight hundred houses were visited,
constituting the greater part of the city. The occupants were summoned to
express their preferences, and the result was contained in the solemn
return of the commission: "We have not found a single person who desired
or asked for the mass; but, on the contrary, all demanded the preaching of
the Word of God, and the administration of His holy sacraments as
instituted by Himself in that Word. And thus we certify by the oath we
have taken to God and to the king."[315]

[Sidenote: The cry for ministers.]

From other places the cry of the churches for ministers to be sent from
Geneva was unabated. In one town and its environs, so inadequate was a
single minist