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

ands of that King whom God hath set upon the
holy hill of Zion. The great ones of the earth did
not understand the Reformation, and trembled
before it. A power which the sword could slay
would have caused them little uneasiness; but a
power which had been smitten with the sword,
which had been trodden down by armies, which
had been burned at the stake, but which refused to
die--a power which the oftener it was defeated the
mightier it became, which started up anew to the
confusion of its enemies from what appeared to be
its grave, was a new thing in the earth. There was a
mystery about it which made it a terror to them.
They knew not whence it came, nor whereunto it
might grow, nor how it was "to be met." Still the
sword was the only weapon they knew to wield,
and this caused them to meet often together to
consult and plot.
The Council of Trent, which had just closed its
sittings, had recommended--indeed enjoined--a
league among the Roman Catholic sovereigns and
States for the forcible suppression of the Reformed
opinions; and Philip II of Spain took the lead in
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