112
ESSAYS ON LIBERTY
influence of the House of Guise over the Catholics of France. In May 1572 he went to Rome; and he was still there when the news came from Paris in September. He at once made it known that the resolution had been taken before he left France, and that it was due to himself and his nephew, the Duke of Guise. 1 As the spokesman of the Gallican Church in the following year he delivered a harangue to Charles IX., in \vhich he declared that Charles had eclipsed the glory of preceding kings by slaying the false prophets, and especially by the holy deceit and pious dissimulation \vith which he had laid his plans. 2 There was one man who did not get his knowledge from rumour, and who could not be deceived by lies. The King's confessor, Sorbin, afterwards Bishop of Nevers, published in I 574 a narrative of the life and death of Charles IX. He bears unequivocal testimony that that clement and magnanimous act, for so he terms it, was resolved upon beforehand, and he praises the secrecy as well as the justice of his hero. s Early in the year a mission of extraordinary solemnity had appeared in France. Pius V., who was seriously alarmed at the conduct of Charles, had sent the Cardinal of Alessandria as Legate to the Kings of Spain and Portugal, and directed him, in returning, to visit the Court at Blois. The Legate was nephe\v to the Pope, and the man whom he most entirely trusted. 4 His char- acter stood so high that the reproach of nepotism ,vas never raised by his promotion. Several prelates destined to future eminence attended him. His chief adviser
1 Attribuisce a se, et al nipote, et a cas a sua, Ia morte del' ammiraglio, gloriandosene assai (Desp. Oct. I; Theiner, p. 331). The Emperor told the French ambassador .. que, de puis les choses avenues, on lui avoit mandé de Rome que Mr, Ie Cardinal de Lorraine avoit dit que tout Ie fait avoit esté délibéré avant qu'il partist de France" (Vulcob to Charles IX., Nov, 8; Groen van Prinsterer, Archives de Nassau, iv. App. 22), 2 Marlot, Histoire de Reims, iv, 426, This language excited the surprise of Dale, Walsingham's successor (Mackintosh, iii. 226), 3 Archives Curieuses, viii. 305. 4 Egli solo tra tutti gli altri è solito particolarmente di sostenere Ie nostre fatiche. . . . Essendo partecipe di tutti i nostri consigli, et consapevole de segreti dell' intimo animo nostro (Pius V. to Philip II" June 20, 1571; Zucchi, Idea del Segretario, i. 544).
