upon the queen-mother to “compel the Huguenots to accept it, or else exterminate them, for France is a country that has never put up with heresy.” Catherine, however, did not yield, but sharply charged them with a perverse desire to prolong the disturbances of the kingdom. The Moderate party still clung to the hope of reconciliation, and at a later meeting the chancellor boldly said: “The State and Church are two things, not one. A man may be a good subject, though a bad Christian. You may excommunicate a man, but he is still a citizen.” L’Hopital was too far in advance of his age.[248] Catherine appears to have acted in a straightforward manner during the colloquy; and, when the members had separated, she did not relax in her exertions to arrive at an acceptable compromise. She suggested that the French bishops should present an address to the king, praying him to move the pope to permit the marriage of priests and the communion in both kinds. They did so, and Pius IV. replied that he had always held these changes to be right and fair, for which he had been taunted with Lutheranism at the last conclave; but he could do nothing without the cardinals, who would not consent.[249] Writing to the embassador at the imperial court (16th February, 1562), the queen-regent complains of the time spent in “idle disputes;” and in a letter to De Lisle, his envoy at Rome, Charles defends what had been done at Poissy, on the ground that it was impossible to carry out the existing edicts; “I therefore resolved,” he says, “to leave my kingdom no longer in a confusion, which became greater the more the remedy was deferred.” The government, enlightened by what had taken place in Germany and Switzerland, began to look upon Protestantism as a barrier against anarchy. Minds that had left the safe anchorage of the Church of Rome were drifting to and fro, and the only resting-place against the torrent which had hurried so many into the errors of anabaptism was the creed of Luther and of Calvin. Heresy was better than a revival of the excesses of Munster.[250] During the colloquy a synod was held, at which the impracticable temper of the Huguenot pastors was forcibly shown by a memoir they drew up, demanding “the exclusion of women from the government of the state, and the establishment of a legitimate regency;” thus alienating the queen-mother, who was drawing nearer to them every day. They also called for severe measures against “infidels, libertines, and atheists;” like some modern patriots, who love liberty so much that they would keep it all for themselves.