Although the initial purpose of the conspiracy had failed, namely to take the King and drive out the Guises,[144] Condé and his followers did not fail to perceive that things were not entirely unfavorable.[145] Catherine de Medici, who while jealous of the position of the Guises in a place which naturally, and by tradition, if the regencies of Blanche of Castille and Anne of Beaujeu counted as precedents, belonged to her, had nevertheless sustained the drastic policy followed out after the execution of Du Bourg, in spite of the arguments of the admiral.[146] Now, however, she saw her opportunity to make head against the cardinal and his brother and played into the hands of Coligny and Condé.[147] She prevailed upon the King to send the admiral upon a special mission to Normandy late in July, where he was expected to take the edge off the Marshal Termes’ conduct, and secretly abetted the faction of the constable.[148] The opportunity was the better to do these things owing to the death of the chancellor Olivier on March 27,[149] who had been an instrument of the Guises, and the queen mother was quick to seize it. The famous Michel de l’Hôpital[150] was immediately appointed to the vacancy. He was a man of great knowledge in the law and of great culture; at the moment he was president of the _chambre des comptes_ and had been chancellor to Madame Marguerite of France, the duchess of Savoy (who had Protestant leanings, and had interceded for Du Bourg), and was a member of the _conseil privé_ of the King. L’Hôpital’s accession was followed by the proclamation of letters of pardon to all recent offenders, provided they lived as good Catholics, the King declaring that he was unwilling to have the first year of his reign made notorious to posterity for its bloody atrocities and the sufferings of his people.[151] This was followed in May, 1560, by the royal edict of Romorantin, whereby the jurisdiction of legal processes relating to religion was completely taken away from the courts of parlement and from lay judges who had power to pass summary judgments, and was remitted to the ecclesiastical judges; which was interpreted as an assurance to accused persons that they needed no longer fear the penalty of death, owing to the opportunity of delaying sentences by means of appeals from the acts and sentences of bishops to archbishops and from thence to Rome.[152] In August a supplementary decree ordered the bishops and all curates to reside at their churches, the bishops being prohibited in the future from proceeding against anyone in the matter of religion except the Calvinist preachers or persons in whose houses Huguenot meetings were held, the government thus tacitly permitting others to live in their own way, which was interpreted as a virtual “interim.”[153] The spirit of this legislation, as well as the skilful use of the law made therein, is certainly due to the heart and brain of the