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

een printed the year before. He carried it to his
brother the cardinal, who all the time of the
massacre had been loitering by the wall of the
churchyard, and presented the Bible to him as a
sample of the pestiferous tenets of the Huguenots.
"Why, brother," said the cardinal, after scanning its
title-page a moment, "there is no harm in this book,
for it is the Bible--the Holy Scripture." "The duke
being offended at that answer," says Crespin,
"grew into a greater rage than before, saying,
'Blood of God! --what!--how now!--the Holy
Scripture! It is a thousand and five hundred years
ago since Jesus Christ suffered his death and
passion, and it is but a year ago since these books
were imprinted; how, then, say you that this is the
Gospel?'"[13]
The massacre at Vassy was the first blow
struck in the civil wars of France, and it is
important to note that it was the act of the
Romanists. Being done in violation of the Edict of
January, which covered the Protestants of Vassy,
and never disowned or punished by any constituted
authority of the nation, it proclaimed that the rule
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