ABSTRACT
The birth of a syndicate of officials within the parlement at Bordeaux in November 1561 would prove to be an important milestone in the evolution of Catholic militancy in the south-west. Here the already flourishing symbiosis between certain Catholic magistrates and existing militant bodies is evident, with sizeable elements of the Confraternity of Saint-Yves and armed basochiens proffered to the civic corporation to supplement the guard on numerous occasions. Debate over the use of Catholic militia in urban and regional defence had, in fact, been going on throughout 1560 and 1561. In order to combat the potential of the syndicate and its militia, Jacques-Benoit de Lagebton and Sieur de Burie launched a two-pronged assault on the Catholic corpus. The debate closed with Lagebton and Burie agreeing that it would be wise to remove all powers from the syndicate and its officials, and to prohibit further Catholic association within the town.
