issue a decree
granting liberty of conscience and restricted liberty of worship.
[Sidenote: 1577]

Under the oppression of the ruinous civil wars the people began to grow
more and more restless. The king was extremely unpopular. Perhaps the
people might have winked even at such outrages against decency as were
perpetrated by the king had not their critical faculties been sharpened
by the growing misery of their condition. The wars had bankrupted both
them and the government, and the desperate expedients of the latter to
raise money only increased the poverty {223} of the masses. Every
estate, every province, was urged to contribute as much as possible,
and most of them replied, in humble and loyal tone, but firmly, begging
for relief from the ruinous exactions. The sale of offices, of
justice, of collectorships of taxes, of the administration, of the
army, of the public domain, was only less onerous than the sale of
monopolies and inspectorships of markets and ports. The only
prosperous class seemed to be the government agents and contractors.
In fact, for the first time in the history of France the people were
becoming thoroughly disaffected and some of them semi-republican in
feeling.

[Sidenote: 1584]

The king had no sons and when his only remaining brother died a new
element of discord and perplexity was introduced in that the heir to
the throne, Henry of Navarre, was a Protestant. Violent attacks on him
were published in the pamphlet press. The League was revived in
stronger form than before. Its head, Guise, selected as candidate for
the throne the uncle of Henry of Navarre, Charles, Cardinal of Bourbon,
a stupid and violent man of sixty-four. The king hastened to make
terms with the League and commanded all Protestants to leave the
country in six months. At this point the pope intervened to strengthen
his cause by issuing the "Bull of Deprivation" [Sidenote: 1585]
declaring Henry of Navarre incapable, as a heretic, of succeeding to
the throne. Navarre at once denounced the bull as contrary to French
law and invalid, and he was supported both by the Parlement of Paris
and by some able pamphleteers. Hotman published his attack on the
"vain and blind fulmination" of the pontiff.

[Sidenote: Battle of Coutras, October 20, 1587]

An appeal to arms was inevitable. At the battle of Coutras, the
Huguenots, led by Henry of Navarre, won their first victory. While
this increased {224} Navarre's power