Protestantism in France From Death of Francis I to Edict of Nantes - James Aitken Wylie

Reformed pastors. So far did the Queen Regent
carry her favors to the Protestants, that the Roman
Catholics took alarm, fearing that she had gone
over, not in seeming only, but in reality, to the
"religion." There was little cause for their alarm.
Catherine had no intention of becoming a
Huguenot. She was merely holding the balance
between the two parties--making each weaken the.
other--judging this to be the most effectual way of
strengthening herself.
These favors to the Protestants roused the
slumbering zeal of the Romanists. Now arose the
Triumvirate. The party so named, which makes
some figure in the history of the times, was formed
for the defense of the old religion, its members
being the Duke of Guise, the Constable Montmorency,
and the Marshal St. Andre. These three
men had little in common. The bond which held
them together was hatred of the new faith, the
triumph of which, they foresaw, would strip them
of their influence and possessions. There had been
a prodigal waste of the public money, and a large
confiscation of the estates of the Protestants under
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