France, Scotland, and Holland. His doctrine was harsh and stern, aiming
at the utmost simplicity of worship, and denouncing the existing
practices so fiercely, that the people, who held themselves to have been
wilfully led astray by their clergy, committed such violence in the
churches that the Catholics loudly called for punishment on them. The
shameful lives of many of the clergy and the wickedness of the Court had
caused a strong reaction against them, and great numbers of both nobles
and burghers became Calvinists. They termed themselves Sacramentarians
or Reformers, but their nickname was Huguenots; probably from the Swiss,
"_Eidgenossen_" or oath comrades. Henry II., like his father, protected
German Lutherans and persecuted French Calvinists; but the lawyers of
the Parliament of Paris interposed, declaring that men ought not to be
burnt for heresy until a council of the Church should have condemned
their opinions, and it was in the midst of this dispute that Henry was
slain.


3. The Conspiracy of Amboise.--The Guise family were strong Catholics;
the Bourbons were the heads of the Huguenot party, chiefly from policy;
but Admiral Coligny and his brother, the Sieur D'Andelot, were sincere
and earnest Reformers. A third party, headed by the old Constable De
Montmorençy, was Catholic in faith, but not unwilling to join with the
Huguenots in pulling down the Guises, and asserting the power of the
nobility. A conspiracy for seizing the person of the king and
destroying the Guises at the castle of Amboise was detected in time to
make it fruitless. The two Bourbon princes kept in the background,
though Condé was universally known to have been the true head and mover
in it, and he was actually brought to trial. The discovery only
strengthened the hands of Guise.