The accession of the young king produced no amelioration in the condition of the Lutherans. “In the midst of all these great matters and business,” writes Throckmorton, “they here do not stay to make persecution and sacrifice of poor souls. The 12th of this month [July] two men and one woman were executed for religion.” This was a remnant of the last reign. That the new reign would not be more tolerant was shown by a proclamation issued the next day, “by sound of trumpet, that all such as should speak either against the Church or the religion now used in France, should be brought before the several bishops, and they to do execution upon them.”[104] The edict of Villars-Cotteret (4th September) forbade all “unlawful” meetings, whether by night or by day; the houses in which such meetings were held were to be pulled down, and the proprietors held to bail for their future good behavior. Another edict (that of Blois, November, 1559) punished all who attended the assemblies with death “without hope of pardon or mitigation.” By other decrees (13th November) a reward of 100 crowns and a free pardon were offered to any person who should give information of a secret meeting. Nor were these severe measures confined to Paris. On 23d September, 1559, the magistrates of Poitiers issued an order forbidding religious assemblies, enjoining all strangers to leave the town in twenty-four hours, and innkeepers to send in lists of the lodgers in their houses. There was to be no preaching in public or private, the citizens were to give neither fire nor water to the pastors whom any body might arrest, they were to be tried for sedition, and the lightest penalty was confiscation of goods.[105] The result was that the country was overrun with spies and informers, and the charge of heresy was often made the means of gratifying private revenge.