The world has long known how much misery it is in the power of crowned bigots to inflict.
On the other hand, the Holy League, the sacred Confederacy, was catholic or nothing.

Already it was more papist than the pope, and loudly denounced Sixtus V.as a Huguenot because he was thought to entertain a weak admiration both for Henry the heretic and for the Jezebel of England.
But the holy confederacy was bent on destroying the national government of France, and dismembering the national domain.

To do this the pretext of trampling out heresy and indefinitely extending the power of Rome, was most influential with the multitude, and entitled the leaders to enjoy immense power for the time being, while maturing their schemes for acquiring permanent possession of large fragments of the national territory.

Mayenne, Nemours, Aumale, Mercoeur longed to convert temporary governments into independent principalities.

The Duke of Lorraine looked with longing eyes on Verdun, Sedan, and, the other fair cities within the territories contiguous--to his own domains.