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

kingdom. Several of these, especially in the great
cities, were composed of from 4,000 to 8,000
communicants. The Church at Paris had no less
than 20,000 members. As many as 40,000 would at
times convene for sermon outside the gates of the
capital. This multitude of worshippers would
divide itself into three congregations, to which as
many ministers preached; with a line of horse and
foot, by orders from Catherine de Medici, drawn
round the assembly to protect it from the insults of
the mob.[4] The number of the Reformed in the
provincial cities was in proportion to those of Paris.
According to contemporary estimates of the
respective numbers of the two communions, the
Reformed Church had gathered into its bosom from
one fourth to one half of the nation--the former is
the probable estimate; but that fourth embraced the
flower of the population in respect of rank,
intelligence, and wealth.
The chiefs of Romanism beheld, with an alarm
that bordered on panic, all France on the point of
becoming Lutheran. The secession of so great a
kingdom from Rome would tarnish the glory of the
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