Proceedings
On 9 September the representatives of the rival denominations began their pleadings. The proceedings were opened by a speech of Chancellor L'Hôpital, who emphasized the right and duty of the monarch to provide for the needs of the Church. Even should a general council be in session, a colloquy between Frenchmen convened by the king was the better way of settling religious disputes; for a general council, being mostly composed of foreigners, was deemed incapable of understanding the wishes and the needs of France.
The spokesman of the Reformed Church was Beza, who, in the first session, gave a lengthy exposition of its tenets. Beza's speech explained the principles of the Reformed understanding of the Eucharist; it was later revised and emended, and published in France. He excited such repugnance by his pronouncements on the Communion that he was interrupted by Cardinal François de Tournon.
Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine replied in the second session (September 16). On the motion, however, of Ippolito d'Este, the legate, exception was taken to the further conduct of the negotiations in full conclave; and a committee of twenty-four representatives, twelve from each party, was appointed ostensibly to facilitate a satisfactory decision. On the Catholic side there existed little wish for conciliation.
The Jesuit Laynez then claimed that the divinely appointed judge of the religious controversies was the Pope, not the Court of France. The acrimony with which he opposed the Protestants at least clarified the situation.
Catharine appointed a smaller committee of five Calvinists and five Roman Catholics. Their task was to devise a formula on which the two churches might unite with regard to the question of the Eucharist. The Cardinal of Lorraine had asked whether the Calvinists were prepared to sign the Confession of Augsburg, a matter of dissension between them and the Lutheran Protestants. The committee drafted a vague formula which could be interpreted in a Catholic or a Calvinistic sense, and was consequently condemned by both parties. The assemblage of prelates refused assent, and the Calvinists would not sign up to the Lutheran Confession.
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