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

Dieppe, Angers, Orleans, Tours, Poictiers, Saintes,
Marennes, Chatellerault, and St. Jean
d'Angely.[10] Pastor Francois Morel, Sieur of
Cellonges, was chosen to preside. Infinite
difficulties had to be overcome, says Beza, before
the Churches could be advertised of the meeting,
but greater risks had to be run before the deputies
could assemble: hence the fewness of their number.
The gibbet was then standing in all the public
places of the kingdom, and had their place of
meeting been discovered, without doubt, the
deputies would have been led in a body to the
scaffold. There is a simplicity and a moral grandeur
appertaining to this assembly that compels our
homage. No guard stands sentinel at the door. No
mace or symbol of authority traces the table round
which the deputies of the Churches are gathered;
no robes of office dignify their persons; on the
contrary, royal edicts have proclaimed them
outlaws, and the persecutor is on their track.
Nevertheless, as if they were assembled in peaceful
times, and under the shadow of law, they go on day
by day, with calm dignity and serene power,
planting the foundations of the House of God in
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