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

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the majority, however. They recalled the examples<br />

<strong>of</strong> old days, when the Albigensian heretics had<br />

been slaughtered <strong>in</strong> thousands by Innocent III; and<br />

when the Waldenses, <strong>in</strong> later times, had been<br />

choked with smoke <strong>in</strong> their owal dwell<strong>in</strong>gs, and the<br />

dens <strong>of</strong> the mounta<strong>in</strong>s; and they urged the <strong>in</strong>stant<br />

adoption <strong>of</strong> these time-honored usages. When the<br />

op<strong>in</strong>ions <strong>of</strong> the sena<strong>to</strong>rs had been marked, the k<strong>in</strong>g<br />

<strong>to</strong>ok possession <strong>of</strong> the register <strong>in</strong> which the votes<br />

were recorded, then ris<strong>in</strong>g up, he sharply chid those<br />

members who had avowed a preference for a<br />

moderate policy; and, <strong>to</strong> show that under a despot<br />

no one could honestly differ from the royal op<strong>in</strong>ion<br />

and be held guiltless, he ordered the Constable <strong>to</strong><br />

arrest Du Bourg. The capta<strong>in</strong> <strong>of</strong> the k<strong>in</strong>g's guard<br />

<strong>in</strong>stantly seized the obnoxious sena<strong>to</strong>r, and carried<br />

him <strong>to</strong> the Bastile. Other members <strong>of</strong> Parliament<br />

were arrested next day at their own houses.[20]<br />

The k<strong>in</strong>g's resohtion was fully taken <strong>to</strong> execute<br />

all the sena<strong>to</strong>rs who had opposed him, and <strong>to</strong><br />

exterm<strong>in</strong>ate Lutheranism everywhere throughout<br />

<strong>France</strong>. He, would beg<strong>in</strong> with Du Bourg, who, shut<br />

up <strong>in</strong> an iron cage <strong>in</strong> the Bastile, waited his doom.<br />

42

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