In a paper written with great acrimony he complained of the injustice with which France was on all occasions treated by that See which ought to extend a parental protection to every part of Christendom.

Many signs indicated his fixed resolution to support the pretensions of his candidate by arms against the Pope and the Pope's confederates.

[452] Thus Lewis, by two opposite errors, raised against himself at once the resentment of both the religious parties between which Western Europe was divided.

Having alienated one great section of Christendom by persecuting the Huguenots, he alienated another by insulting the Holy See.

These faults he committed at a conjuncture at which no fault could be committed with impunity, and under the eye of an opponent second in vigilance, sagacity, and energy, to no statesman whose memory history has preserved.