"We had beaten our enemies over and over again," cried the Catholic soldier Montluc in a rage, "we were winning by force of arms but they triumphed by means of their diabolical writings." The Huguenots, however, did not rely entirely on the pen.

Their stronghold was no longer in the north but was now in the south and west.

The reason for this may be partly found in the preparation of the soil for their seed by the medieval heresies, but still more in the strong particularistic spirit of that region.

The ancient provinces of Poitou and Guienne, Gascony and Languedoc, were almost as conscious of their southern and Provencal culture as they were of their French citizenship.

The strength of the centralizing tendencies lay north of the Loire; in the south local privileges were more esteemed and more insisted upon.