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

the Bible should rule in the discussion, had raised a
commotion, the words of Beza, asserting the
Protestant doctrine on the great point at issue
between Rome and the Reformation, evoked quite
a storm. First, murmurs were heard; these speedily
grew into a tempest of voices. "He has spoken
blasphemy!" cried some. Cardinal Tournon
demanded, anger almost choking his utterance, that
the king should instantly silence Beza, and expel
from France men whose very presence was
polluting its soil and imperilling the faith of the
"most Christian king." All eyes were turned upon
Catherine de Medici. She sat unmoved amid the
clamor that surrounded her. Her son, Charles IX,
was equally imperturbable. The ruse of the Roman
bishops had failed -- for nothing else than a ruse
could it be, if the Romanists did not expect the
Protestant deputies quietly and without striking a
blow to surrender their whole cause to Rome--and
the assembly by-and-by subsiding into calm, Beza
went on with his speech, which he now pursued
without interruption to its close.
The feeling among the bishops was that of
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