ld be executed with all discretion.[144]

The same ideas pervaded the Sacred College under Gregory. There are
letters of profuse congratulation by the Cardinals of Lorraine, Este,
and Pelleve. Bourbon was an accomplice before the fact. Granvelle
condemned not the act but the delay. Delfino and Santorio approved. The
Cardinal of Alessandria had refused the King's gift at Blois, and had
opposed his wishes at the conclave. Circumstances were now so much
altered that the ring was offered to him again, and this time it was
accepted.[145] The one dissentient from the chorus of applause is said
to have been Montalto. His conduct when he became Pope makes it very
improbable; and there is no good authority for the story. But Leti has
it, who is so far from a panegyrist that it deserves mention.

The theory which was framed to justify these practices has done more
than plots and massacres to cast discredit on the Catholics. This theory
was as follows: Confirmed heretics must be rigorously punished whenever
it can be done without the probability of greater evil to religion.
Where that is feared, the penalty may be suspended or delayed for a
season, provided it be inflicted whenever the danger is past.[146]
Treaties made with heretics, and promises given to them must not be
kept, because sinful promises do not bind, and no agreement is lawful
which may injure religion or ecclesiastical authority. No civil power
may enter into engagements which impede the free scope of the Church's
law.[147] It is part of the punishment of heretics that faith shall not
be kept with them.[148] It is even mercy to kill them that they may sin
no more.[149]

Such were the precepts and the examples by which the French Catholics
learned to confound piety and ferocity, and were made ready to immolate
their countrymen. During the civil war an association was formed in the
South for the purpose of making war upon the Huguenots; and it was
fortified by Pius V. with blessings and indulgences. "We doubt not," it
proclaimed, "that we shall be victorious over these enemies of God and
of all humankind; and if we fall, our blood will be as a second baptism,
by which, without impediment, we shall join the other martyrs
straightway in heaven."[150] Monluc, who told Alva at Bayonne that he
had never spared an enemy, was shot through the face at the siege of
Rabasteins. Whilst he believed that he was dying, they came to tell him
that the place was taken. "Thank God!"