a procession. The
Grand Duke Cosmo had pointed out two years before that an insidious
peace would afford excellent opportunities of extinguishing
Protestantism; and he derived inexpressible consolation from the heroic
enterprise.[94] The Viceroy of Naples, Cardinal Granvelle, received the
tidings coldly. He was surprised that the event had been so long
postponed, and he reproved the Cardinal of Lorraine for the
unstatesmanlike delay.[95] The Italians generally were excited to warmer
feelings. They saw nothing to regret but the death of certain Catholics
who had been sacrificed to private revenge. Profane men approved the
skill with which the trap was laid; and pious men acknowledged the
presence of a genuine religious spirit in the French court.[96] The
nobles and the Parisian populace were admired for their valour in
obeying the sanctified commands of the good King. One fervent enthusiast
praises God for the heavenly news, and also St. Bartholomew for having
lent his extremely penetrating knife for the salutary sacrifice.[97] A
month after the event the renowned preacher Panigarola delivered from
the pulpit a panegyric on the monarch who had achieved what none had
ever heard or read before, by banishing heresy in a single day, and by a
single word, from the Christian land of France.[98]

The French churches had often resounded with furious declamations; and
they afterwards rang with canticles of unholy joy. But the French clergy
does not figure prominently in the inception or the execution of the
sanguinary decree. Conti, a contemporary indeed, but too distant for
accurate knowledge, relates that the parish priest went round, marking
with a white cross the dwellings of the people who were doomed.[99] He
is contradicted by the municipal Registers of Paris.[100] Morvilliers,
Bishop of Orleans, though he had resigned the seals which he received
from L'Hopital, still occupied the first place at the royal council. He
was consulted at the last moment, and it is said that he nearly fainted
with horror. He recovered, and gave his opinion with the rest. He is the
only French prelate, except the cardinals, whose complicity appears to
be ascertained. But at Orleans, where the bloodshed was more dreadful in
proportion than at Paris, the signal is said to have been given, not by
the bishop, but by the King's preacher, Sorbin.

Sorbin is the only priest of the capital who is distinctly associated
with the act of the Government. It