Protestantism in France From Death of Henry IV to the Revolution - James Aitken Wylie

monarch had allied himself, as we have already
related, with the northern Protestant nations. Louis
XIII disconnected himself from his father's allies,
and joined himself to his father's enemies, by the
project of a double marriage; for while he solicited
for himself the hand of the Spanish Infanta, he
offered his sister in marriage to the Prince of the
Asturias. This boded the ascendency of Spain and
of Rome once more in France – in other words, of
persecution and war. Sinister reports were
circulated through the kingdom that the price to be
paid for this double alliance was the suppression of
heresy. Soft words continued to come from the
court, but the acts of its agents in the provinces
were not in correspondence therewith. These were
hard enough. The sword was not brought forth, it is
true, but every other weapon of assault was
vigorously plied. The priests incessantly
importuned the king to forbid the Protestants from
calling in question, by voice or by pen, the
authority of the Church or of the Pope. He was
solicited not to let them open a school in any city,
not to let any of their ministers enter a hospital, or
administer religious consolation to any of their
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