Although the colloquy came to nothing, the actual result was a victory to the Huguenots by clearing their character from the many aspersions cast upon it. They had shown that they were not disloyal subjects, and were not in the habit of practicing infamous crimes; and their faith spread so rapidly in consequence, that the demand for pastors to preside over the new congregations was greater than the Swiss churches could supply. The countenance of the court gave them boldness. During the sittings at Poissy they assembled by thousands outside the walls of Paris to listen to Beza, whose enemies have computed his hearers at 8000, and whose friends at 50,000.[251] The smaller number appears quite large enough for any voice to reach in the open air. Necessity very early compelled these congregations to assume a sort of military formation. The women and children were placed in the centre nearest the preacher; behind them stood the men on foot, next came the men on horseback, and outside all were ranged armed men, soldiers or arquebusiers, to protect the unarmed crowd. As Paris was particularly lawless, Condé collected a volunteer guard of about 400 gentlemen, to whom were added 300 old soldiers under Andelot, with 300 students and as many citizens. Certainly no public worship was safe without some such precautions, but the wisdom of such a display of force, when private worship was possible, is open to doubt. From a list presented to the queen-mother about this time by Coligny, it would seem that there were more than 2000 Reformed and organized churches in France. Some have calculated the Huguenots to number one-half of the population, while the least sanguine reckoned them at one-tenth. The Chancellor l’Hopital estimated that “a fourth part of the kingdom was separated from the communion of the Church.” This part, he adds, “consists of gentlemen, of the principal citizens, and of such members of the poorer sort as have seen the world and are accustomed to bear arms. They have with them more than three-fourths of the men of letters, and a great proportion of the large and good houses, both of the nobility and third estate, being on their side, they do not want money to carry on their affairs.”[252] To the same effect wrote Castelnau; and Micheli, the Venetian embassador, one of the shrewdest of observers, declared that there was no province of France untainted by Protestantism; and that Normandy and Brittany, Gascony and Languedoc, Poitou and Touraine, Provence and Dauphiny--comprising three-fourths of the kingdom--were full of it. “In many provinces,” he says, “meetings are held, sermons preached, and rules of life adopted, entirely in accordance with the example of Geneva, and without any regard to the royal prohibition. Every one has embraced these opinions, and, what is most remarkable, even the religious body, not only priests, monks, and nuns--very few of the convents have escaped