estant allies. William the Silent continued to solicit his aid;
Elizabeth consented to stand godmother to the daughter who was born to
him in October; he was allowed to raise mercenaries in Switzerland; and
the Polish Protestants agreed to the election of his brother. The
promised evidence of the Huguenot conspiracy was forgotten; and the King
suppressed the materials which were to have served for an official
history of the event.[74]

Zeal for religion was not the motive which inspired the chief authors of
this extraordinary crime. They were trained to look on the safety of the
monarchy as the sovereign law, and on the throne as an idol that
justified sins committed in its worship. At all times there have been
men, resolute and relentless in the pursuit of their aims, whose ardour
was too strong to be restricted by moral barriers or the instinct of
humanity. In the sixteenth century, beside the fanaticism of freedom,
there was an abject idolatry of power; and laws both human and divine
were made to yield to the intoxication of authority and the reign of
will. It was laid down that kings have the right of disposing of the
lives of their subjects, and may dispense with the forms of justice. The
Church herself, whose supreme pontiff was now an absolute monarch, was
infected with this superstition. Catholic writers found an opportune
argument for their religion in the assertion that it makes the prince
master of the consciences as well as the bodies of the people, and
enjoins submission even to the vilest tyranny.[75] Men whose lives were
precious to the Catholic cause could be murdered by royal command,
without protest from Rome. When the Duke of Guise, with the Cardinal his
brother, was slain by Henry III., he was the most powerful and devoted
upholder of Catholicism in France. Sixtus V. thundered against the
sacrilegious tyrant who was stained with the blood of a prince of the
Church; but he let it be known very distinctly that the death of the
Duke caused him little concern.[76]

Catherine was the daughter of that Medici to whom Machiavelli had
dedicated his _Prince_. So little did religion actuate her conduct that
she challenged Elizabeth to do to the Catholics of England what she
herself had done to the Protestants of France, promising that if they
were destroyed there would be no loss of her good will.[77] The levity
of her religious feelings appears from her reply when asked by Gomicourt
what message he should tak