The latter was so democratically chosen that even the peasants voted.

Whether they had voted in 1484 is not known, but it is certain that they did so in 1560, and that it was in the interests of the crown to let them vote is shown by the increase in {213} the number of royal officers among the deputies of the third estate.

The peasants still regarded the king as their natural protector against the oppression of the nobles.
The Estates were opened by Catharine's minister, Michael de L'Hopital.
Fully sympathizing with her policy of conciliation, he addressed the Estates as follows: [Sidenote: February 24, 1561] "Let us abandon those diabolic words, names of parties, factions and seditions:--Lutherans, Huguenots, Papists; let us not change the name of Christians." Accordingly, an edict was passed granting an amnesty to the Huguenots, nominally for the purpose of allowing them to return to the Catholic church, but practically interpreted without reference to this proviso.
But the government found it easier to pass edicts than to restrain the zealots of both parties.

The Protestants continued to smash images; the Catholics to mob the Protestants.

Paris became, in the words of Beza, "the city most bloody and murderous among all in the world." Under the combined effects of legal toleration and mob persecution the Huguenots grew mightily in numbers and power.