APPENDIX 123manded to \eep their eyes carefully on the carrying out of the said
Edict; and that along with this the sacred Sunday and day of rest be
solemnized duly and in accordance with its majesty; then there would
be hope that God would ma\e peace with us. In doing this, all things
would be changed into a better condition. Instead of our having, as
heretofore, the seasons of the year disarranged and debauched, not keep
ing at all their proper nature and quality, it will render them regular
for us, ready and eager to perform the service to which they are des
tined. So that when they do their duty, it would not be for the advan
tage of our enemies, since we should have none, but for our profit; along
with this the earth, being well seasoned by them, would not deceive our
good hopes, producing only a fourth part of what we would expect, but
would repay with very great interest that which will have been lent
her. In place of war, it would grant us much-desired peace; in place of
sterility, abundance of goods; in place of sickness, health; in place of
pestilence, a good and salubrious air; in place of enmity and estrange
ment, friendship and communion; and so many murders would not be
committed daily, which, without doubt, according to the word of God,
derive only from the said blasphemies: as Moses says that the knife will
not go out of the house of him who takes the name of his Lord God in
vain. In short, heaven, the stars, the air, and the earth, common mother
of all, would smile upon us, and would furnish for us gladly what be
fore she gave grudgingly and as by constraint and with regret. By this
means the time of Saturn and the golden age of the good King Francis,
author of this Edict, of which we speak, would come to flourish. This
is not by any means a fabricated tale, but the oracle and express wish of
God, as those know who have tasted not merely with the edge of the
lips the sweet and savorous beverage of Wisdom, but who have savored
and imbibed it well. At Paris, the first of August,