was firm in the faith, and would not tolerate heresy. The Cardinal of Lorraine strongly advised a similar course; while Marshal Vieilleville tried to dissuade the king: “Sire,” he said, “if you think of going to play the theologian or inquisitor, we must get the cardinal to come and teach us how to hold our lances in the tournament.”[71] But the churchman prevailed; not, however, until the king was threatened with the anger of God if he refused a _Mercurial_ against those free-thinking lawyers. These Mercurials were assemblies of the Parliament held on Wednesday (_dies Mercurii_), at which the members of that body were censured for any thing they might have done contrary to their dignity or duty. The word was afterward extended to the censure or judgment itself. On the 15th June, 1559, “after dinner” (about noon) Henry, attended by the Cardinals of Lorraine and Guise, unexpectedly entered the great hall of the Augustines’ convent, where the sittings of Parliament were temporarily held, just as the councillors were discussing the means of settling a uniform jurisprudence in heretical matters.[72] After taking his seat, the king said: “I desire to secure the repose of my kingdom, and the maintenance of religion. Having concluded a peace abroad, I will not have it disturbed at home by religious disorders. For this reason I am come among you, that I may hear what is your opinion about the present religious differences, and know why you have not carried out my edicts constraining the judges to condemn all Lutherans to death.” Undismayed by the king’s presence, the moderate party defended what they had done. Louis du Faur acknowledged that the present troubles were caused by religion, but he added: “We must trace them back to their source, lest we be exposed to the reproach the prophet Elijah made to King Ahab: ‘I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father’s house.’” Anne du Bourg was equally bold in his language: “There are certain crimes,” he said, “that deserve to be punished without mercy; such are adultery, blasphemy, and perjury, which are countenanced daily by men of disorderly life and infamous amours. But of what do men accuse those who are handed over to the executioner? of treason?... They never omit the name of the king from their prayers. What revolt have they headed? what sedition have they stirred up? What! because they have discovered, by the light of Holy Scripture, the great vices and the scandalous offenses of the Roman Church--because they have petitioned for a reform: is that an offense worthy of the stake?” The king trembled with anger, but listened with pleasure to the first president, Gilles le Maistre, who advised him to treat the new sectarians as the Albigenses had been treated by Philip Augustus, who burned six hundred of them in one day; and the Vaudois by Francis I., who killed them in their own houses, or stifled them in the caverns to which they had fled for