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

way--was abhorrent to him. There remained but
one other device--namely, that each should tolerate
the other. Simple as this way seems to us, to the
men of the times of L'Hopital, with a few rare
exceptions, it was unthought of and untried, and
appeared impossible. But, soon after the
breakdown of Poissy, we find the chancellor
beginning to air, though in ungenial times, his
favorite theory--that men might be loyal subjects of
the king, though not of the king's faith, and good
members of the nation, though not of the nation's
Church; in short, that difference of religious
opinions ought not to infer exclusion from civil
privileges, much less ought it to subject men to
civil penalties.
Another important result of the Colloquy at
Poissy, was that the Reformation stood higher in
public estimation. It had been allowed to justify
itself on a very conspicuous stage, and all to whom
prejudice had left the power of judging, were
beginning to see that it was not the disloyal and
immoral System its enemies had accused it of
being, nor were its disciples the vicious and
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