Chapter V (2)

Four months had not elapsed since the unsuccessful issue of his first mission, before Du Bellay was again in Germany. On the nineteenth of December, he presented himself to the congress of Protestant princes at Smalcald. Much of his address was devoted to a vindication of his master from the charge of cruelty to persons of the same religious faith as that of the hearers. The envoy insisted that the Germans had been misinformed: If Francis had executed some of his subjects, he had not thereby injured the Protestants. The culprits professed very different doctrines. The creed of the Germans had been adopted by common consent. Francis admitted, indeed, that there were some useless and superfluous ceremonies in the church, but could not assent to their indiscriminate abrogation unless by public decree. Ought not the Protestant princes to ascribe to their friend, the French king, motives as pure and satisfactory as those that impelled them to crush the sedition of the peasants and repress the Anabaptists? As for himself, Francis, although mild and humane, both from native temperament and by education, had seen himself compelled, by stern necessity and the dictates of prudence, to check the promptings of his own heart, and assume for a time attributes foreign to his proper disposition. For gladly as he listened to the temperate discussion of any subject, he was justly offended at the presumption of rash innovators, men that refused to submit to the judgment of those whose prerogative it was to decide in such matters as were now under consideration.

[Sidenote: He makes, in the name of Francis, a Protestant confession.]

Not content with general assurances, Du Bellay, in a private interview with Brueck, Melanchthon, and other German theologians, ventured upon an exposition of Francis's creed which we fear would have horrified beyond measure the orthodox doctors of the Sorbonne.[379] He informed them, with a very sober face, that the king's religious belief differed little from that expressed in Melanchthon's "Common Places." His theologians had never been able to convince him that the Pope's primacy was of _divine_ right. Nor had they proved to his satisfaction the existence of _purgatory_, which, being the source of their lucrative masses and legacies, they prized as their very life and blood. He was inclined to limit the assumption of monastic vows to persons of mature age, and to give monks and nuns the right of renouncing their profession and marrying. He favored the conversion of monasteries into seminaries of learning. While the French theologians insisted upon the celibacy of the priesthood, for himself he would suggest the middle ground of permitting such priests as had already married to retain their wives, while prohibiting others from following their example, unless they resigned the sacerdotal office. He would have the sacramental cup administered to the laity when desired, and hoped to obtain the Pope's consent. He even admitted the necessity of reform in some of the daily prayers, and reprehended the want of moderation exhibited by the Sorbonne, which not only condemned the Germans, but would not hesitate on occasion to censure the cardinals or the Holy Pontiff himself.

[Sidenote: The Germans are not deceived.]

We cannot find that Du Bellay's honeyed words produced any very deep impression. Princes and theologians knew tolerably well both how sincere was the king's profession of friendliness to the "Lutheran" tenets, and what was the truth respecting the persecution that had raged for months within his dominions. The western breezes came freighted with the fetid smoke of human holocausts, and not even the perfume of Francis's delicately scented speeches could banish the disgust caused by the nauseating sacrifice. The princes might listen with studied politeness to the king's apologetic words, and assent to the general truth that sedition should be punished by severity; but they took the liberty, at the same time, to express a fervent prayer that the advocates of a reformed religion and a pure gospel might not be involved in the fate of the unruly. And they disappointed the monarch by absolutely declining to enter into any alliance against the Emperor Charles the Fifth. The French ambassador returned home, and Francis so dexterously threw aside the mask of pretended favor to a moderate reformation in the church, that it soon became a disputed question whether he had ever assumed it at all.[380]

[Sidenote: Efforts of the French Protestants in Switzerland and Germany.]

Meantime the French Protestants were unremitting in their efforts to obtain a more satisfactory solution of the religious question than was contained in the Declaration of Coucy. They wrote to Strasbourg, to Berne, to Zurich, to Basle, imploring the intercession of these states. Particular attention was drawn to the severe treatment endured by their brethren in Provence and Dauphiny. The writers declared themselves to be not rebels, but the most loyal of subjects, recognizing one God, one faith, one law, and one king. They were not "Lutherans," nor "Waldenses," nor "heretics;" but simply _Christians_, accepting the Decalogue, the Apostles' Creed, and every doctrine taught in either Testament. It was unreasonable that they should be compelled by fines, imprisonment, or bodily pains, to abjure their faith, unless their errors were first proved from the Bible, or before the convocation of a General Council.[381]

[Sidenote: An appeal from Strasbourg and Zurich.]

The Swiss and Germans made a prompt response. The Senate of Strasbourg addressed Francis, praising his clemency, but calling his attention to the danger all good men were exposed to. "If but a single little word escape the mouth of good Christian men, directed against the most manifest abuses, nay, against the flagitious crimes of those who are regarded as _ecclesiastics_, how easy will it be, inasmuch as these very ecclesiastics are their judges, to cry out that words have been spoken to the injury of the true faith, the Church of God, and its traditions?"[382]

Zurich, going even further, made the direct request of its royal ally, that hereafter all persons accused of holding heretical views should be permitted by his Majesty to clear themselves by an appeal to the pure Word of God, and no longer be subjected without a hearing to torture and manifold punishments.[383] Berne and Basle remonstrated with similar urgency.

[Sidenote: An embassy receives an unsatisfactory reply.]

Receiving no reply to their appeal, in consequence of the king's attention being engrossed by the war then in progress with the emperor, and by reason of the dauphin's unexpected death, the same cantons and Strasbourg, a few months later, were induced to send a formal embassy. But, if the envoys were fed with gracious words, they obtained no real concession. Francis assured the Bernese and their confederates that "it was, as they well knew, only for love of them that he had enlarged the provisions of his gracious Edict of Coucy, by lately[384] extending pardon to all exiles and fugitives"--that is, "Sacramentarians" and "relapsed" persons included. This, it seemed to him, "ought to satisfy them entirely."[385] It was a polite, but none the less a very positive refusal to entertain the suggestion that the abjuration of their previous "errors" should no longer be required of all who wished to avail themselves of the amnesty. Nor did it escape notice as a significant circumstance, that Francis selected for his mouth-piece, not the friendly Queen of Navarre, but the rough and bigoted _Grand-Maitre_--Anne de Montmorency, the future Constable of France.[386]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 328: Melanchthon to Du Bellay, Aug. 1, 1534, Opera (Bretschneider, Corpus Reformatorum), ii. 740.]

[Footnote 329: This is only a brief summary of the most essential points in these strange articles, which may be read entire in Melanch. Opera, _ubi supra_, ii. 744-766.]

[Footnote 330: Ibid., ii. 775, 776.]

[Footnote 331: See the interesting letter of a young Strasbourg student at Paris, Pierre Siderander, May 28, 1533, Herminjard, Correspondance des reformateurs, iii. 58, 59. The refrain of one placard,

"Au feu, au feu! c'est leur repere!
Faiz-en justice! Dieu l'a permys,"

gave Clement Marot occasion to reply in a couple of short pieces, the longer beginning:

"En l'eau, en l'eau, ces folz seditieux."
]

[Footnote 332: Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta (Ed. of 1560), fol. 64.]

[Footnote 333: Bulletin, ix. 27, 28.]

[Footnote 334: Merle d'Aubigne, on the authority of the hostile Florimond de Raemond, ascribes it to Farel. But the style and mode of treatment are quite in contrast with those of Farel's "Sommaire," republished almost precisely at this date; while many sentences are taken verbatim from another treatise, "Petit Traicte de l'Eucharistie," unfortunately anonymous, but which there is good reason to suppose was written by Marcourt. The author of the latter avows his authorship of the placard. See the full discussion by Herminjard, Correspondance des reformateurs, iii. 225, note, etc.]

[Footnote 335: Courault was foremost in his opposition. Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta, fols. 64, 65.]

[Footnote 336: "Qui estes pire que bestes, en vos badinages lesquels vous faites a l'entour de vostre _dieu de paste, duquel vous vous jouez comme un chat d'une souris_: faisans des marmiteux, et frappans contre vostre poictrine, apres l'avoir mis en trois quartiers, _comme estans bien marris_, l'appelans Agneau de Dieu, et lui demandans la paix."]

[Footnote 337: This singular placard is given _in extenso_ by Gerdesius, Hist. Evang. Renov., iv. (Doc.) 60-67; Haag, France prot., x. pieces justif., 1-6; G. Guiffrey, Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, Appendix, 464-472.]

[Footnote 338: Journal d'un bourgeois, 442. Not _Blois_, as the Hist. ecclesiastique, i. 10, and, following it, Soldan, Merle d'Aubigne, etc., state. Francis had left Blois as early as in September for the castle of Amboise, see Herminjard, Corresp. des reformateurs, iii. 231, 226, 236.]

[Footnote 339: "Ne me puis garder de vous dire qu'il vous souviengne de _l'opinion que j'avois que les vilains placars estoient fait par ceux guiles cherchent aux aultres_." Marg. de Navarre to Francis I., Nerac, Dec., 1541, Genin, ii. No. 114. Although Margaret's supposition proved to be unfounded, it was by no means so absurd as the reader might imagine. At least, we have the testimony of Pithou, Seigneur de Chamgobert, that a clergyman of Champagne confessed that he had committed, from pious motives, a somewhat similar act. The head of a stone image of the Virgin, known as "Our Lady of Pity," standing in one of the streets of Troyes, was found, on the morning of a great feast-day in September, 1555, to have been wantonly broken off. There was the usual indignation against the sacrilegious perpetrators of the deed. There were the customary procession and masses by way of atonement for the insult offered to high Heaven. But Friar Fiacre, of the _Hotel-Dieu_, finding himself some time later at the point of death, and feeling disturbed in conscience, revealed the fact that from religious considerations he had himself decapitated the image, "_in order to have the Huguenots accused of it, and thus lead to their complete extermination_!" Recordon, Protestantisme en Champagne, ou recits extraits d'un MS. de N. Pithou (Paris, 1863), 28-30.]

[Footnote 340: A. F. Didot, Essai sur la typographie, in Encyclop. moderne, xxvi. 760, _apud_ Herminjard, iii. 60.]

[Footnote 341: That is, 1535 New Style. For it will remembered that, until 1566, the year in France began with Easter, instead of with the first day of January. Leber, Coll. de pieces rel. a l'hist. de France, viii. 505, etc.]

[Footnote 342: "Combien que ... nous eussions prohibe et defendu que nul n'eust des lors en avant a imprimer ou faire imprimer aulcuns livres en nostre royaulme, sur peine de la hart." As neither of these disgraceful edicts was formally registered by parliament, they are both of them wanting in the ordinary records of that body, and in all collections of French laws. The _first_ seems, indeed, to have disappeared altogether. M. Crapelet, Etudes sur la typographie, 34-37, reproduces the _second_, dated St. Germain-en-Laye, February 23, 1534/5, from a volume of parliamentary papers labelled "Conseil." Happily, the preamble recites the cardinal prescription of the previous and lost edict, as given above in the text. M. Merle d'Aubigne carelessly places the edict abolishing printing _after_, instead of _before_, the great expiatory procession. Hist. of the Reformation in the Time of Calvin, iii. 140.]

[Footnote 343: Felibien, Hist. de la ville de Paris, ii. 997.]

[Footnote 344: Soissons MS., Bulletin, xi. 255.]

[Footnote 345: I. e., _gainier_, sheath-or scabbard-maker. Hist. ecclesiastique, i. 10; Journal d'un bourgeois, 444; see Varillas, Hist. des revol. arrivees dans l'Eur. en matiere de rel., ii. 222.]

[Footnote 346: "Qui ad se ea pericula spectare non putabant, qui non contaminati erant eo scelere, hi etiam in partem poenarum veniunt. _Delatores et quadruplatores_ publice comparantur. Cuilibet simul et testi et accusatori in hac causa esse licet." J. Sturm to Melanchthon, Paris, March 4, 1535, Bretschneider, Corpus Reformatorum, ii. 855, etc.]

[Footnote 347: The _name_ and the _affliction_ of this first victim give Martin Theodoric of Beauvais an opportunity, which he cannot neglect, to compare him with a pagan malefactor and contrast him with a biblical personage. "Hunc gladium ultorem persenserunt quam plurimi degeneres et alienigenae in flexilibus perversarum doctrinarum semitis obambulantes; inter alios, _paralyticus Lutheranus Neroniano Milone perniciosior_. Cui malesano opus erat salutifer Christus, ut _sublato erroris grabato, viam Veritatis insequutus fuisset_. At vero elatus, in funesto sacrilegi cordis desiderio perseverans, _flammis combustus_ cum suis participibus seditiosis Gracchis, exemplum sui cunctis haereticis relinquens deperiit. Et peribunt omnes sive plebeii, sive primates," etc. Paraclesis Franciae (Par. 1539), 5.]

[Footnote 348: The Journal d'un bourgeois, 444-452, gives an account, in the briefest terms and without comment, of the sentences pronounced and executed. See also G. Guiffrey, Cronique du Roy Francois I^er, 111-113.]

[Footnote 349: The real message sent by Francis I. to his mother, after the disaster of Pavia, was quite another thing from the traditional sentence: "Tout est perdu sauf l'honneur." What he wrote was: "Madame, pour vous avertir comme je porte le ressort de mon infortune, de toutes choses ne m'est demeure que l'honneur _et la vie sauve_," etc. Papiers d'Etat du Card, de Granvelle, i. 258. It is to be feared that, if saved in _Italy_, his honor was certainly lost in _Spain_, where, after vain attempts to secure release by plighting his _faith_, he deliberately took an _oath_ which he never meant to observe. So, at least, he himself informed the notables of France on the 16th of December, 1527: "Et voulurent _qu'il jurast; ce qu'il fist, sachant ledict serment n'estre valable, au moyen de la garde qui luy fust baillee, et qu'il n'estoit en sa liberte_." Isambert, Recueil des anc. lois franc., xii. 292.]

[Footnote 350: Registres de l'hotel de ville. Felibien, pieces justif., v. 345. In the preceding account these records, together with those of parliament (ibid., iv. 686-688), the narrative of Felibien himself (ii. 997-999), and the Soissons MS. (Bulletin, xi. 254, 255), have been chiefly relied upon. See also Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, 113-121.]

[Footnote 351: "En sorte que si un des bras de mon corps estoit infecte de cette farine, je le vouldrois coupper; et si mes enfans en estoient entachez, je les vouldrois immoler." Voltaire (Hist. du parlement de Paris, i. 118), citing the substance of this atrocious sentiment from Maimbourg and Daniel, who themselves take it from Mezeray, says incredulously: "Je ne sais ou ces auteurs ont trouve que Francois premier avait prononce ce discours abominable." M. Poirson answers by giving as authority Theodore de Beze (Hist. eccles., i. 13). But on referring to the documentary records from the Hotel de Ville, among the _pieces justificatives_ collected by Felibien, v. 346, the reader will find the speech of Francis inserted at considerable length, and apparently in very nearly the exact words employed. The contemporary Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, giving the fullest version of the speech (pp. 121-12), attributes to the king about the same expressions.]

[Footnote 352: Histoire eccles., i. 13.]

[Footnote 353: Histoire eccles., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 354: "Une espece _d'estrapade_ ou l'on attachoit les criminels, que les bourreaux, par le moyen d'une corde, guindoient en haut, et les laissoient ensuite tomber dans le feu a diverses reprises, pour faire durer leur supplice plus longtems." Felibien, ii. 999.]

[Footnote 355: Gerdes, Hist. Evang. renov., iv. 109. For the nature of the penalty, see Bastard D'Estang, Les parlements de France, i. 425, note on punishments.]

[Footnote 356: When John Sturm wrote, March 4th, _eighteen_--when Latomus wrote, somewhat later, _twenty-four_--adherents of the Reformation had suffered capitally. Bretschneider, Corp. Reform., ii. 855, etc. "Plusieurs aultres hereticques en grant nombre furent apres bruslez a divers jours," says the Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, p. 129, "_en sorte que dedans Paris on ne veoit que potences dressees en divers lieux_," etc.]

[Footnote 357: G. Guiffrey, Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, 130-132; Soissons MS. in Bulletin, etc., xi. 253-254. We may recognize, among the misspelt names, those, for example, of _Pierre Caroli_, doctor of theology and parish priest of Alencon, already introduced to our notice; _Jean Retif_, a preacher; _Francois Berthault_ and _Jean Courault_, lately associated in preaching the Gospel under the patronage of the Queen of Navarre; besides the scholar _Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples_, and _Guillaume Feret_, who brought the placards from Switzerland.]

[Footnote 358: Under the head of _Sacramentarians_ were included all who, like Zwingle, denied the bodily presence of Christ in or with the elements of the eucharist.]

[Footnote 359: "De ne lire, dogmatiser, translater, composer ni imprimer, soit en public ou en prive, aucune doctrine contrariant a la foy chretionne." Declaration of Coucy, July 16, 1535, Isambert, Recueil des anc. lois franc., xii. 405-407. See also a similar declaration, May 31, 1536, ibid., xii. 504.]

[Footnote 360: Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, 458, 459.]

[Footnote 361: Neantmoins Dieu le createur, luy estant en ce monde, a plus use de misericorde que de rigueur, et qu'il ne faut aucunes fois user de rigueur, et que c'est une cruelle mort de faire brusler vif un homme, dont parce il pourroit plus qu'autrement renoncer la foy et la loy. Ibid., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 362: "Et le tres-crestien et bon roy Francois premier du nom, _a la priere du pape_, pardonna a tous, excepte a ceulx qui avoient touche a l'honneur du saint sacrement de l'autel." Soissons MS., Bulletin, xi. 254. Sturm to Melanchthon, July 6, 1535, says: "Pontificem etiam aiunt aequiorem esse, et haud paulo meliorem quam fuerunt caeteri. Omnino improbat illam suppliciorum crudelitatem, et _de hac re dicitur misisse [literas ad Regem]_." Herminjard, iii. 311. Cf. Erasmus Op., 1513.]

[Footnote 363: "Sapendo, _come sua Maesta m'ha detto_, che Cesare in Fiandra aveva sospeso ogni esecuzione di morte contro questi eretici, ha anche egli concesso che contra ogni sorte di eretici si proceda come avanti, ma _citra mortem_, eccetto i sacramentarii." Relazione del clarissimo Marino Giustiniano (1535), Relaz. Venete, i. 155.]

[Footnote 364: Francis I. to the German Princes, February 1, 1535, Bretschneider, Corpus Reform., ii. 828, etc.]

[Footnote 365: Sturm to Melanchthon, March 4, 1535, Bretschneider, Corpus Reform., ii. 855, etc.]

[Footnote 366: A letter of Vore is found in Bretschneider, _ubi supra_, ii, 859.]

[Footnote 367: Melanchthon to Sturm, May 5, 1535, ibid., ii. 873.]

[Footnote 368: Ibid., ii. 879. The address was, "Dilecto nostro Philippo Melanchthoni."]

[Footnote 369: "Nihil est quod de vestro congressu non sperem," are Cardinal du Bellay's words, June 27th. Ibid., ii. 880, 881.]

[Footnote 370: Ibid., ii. 904, 905. The university had been temporarily removed from Wittemberg to Jena, on account of the prevalence of the plague.]

[Footnote 371: Luther to the Elector of Saxony, Aug. 17, 1535, Works (Ed. Dr. J. K. Innischer), lv. 103.]

[Footnote 372: August 28, 1535. The reasons alleged to Francis were, the injurious rumors the mission might give rise to, and the damage to the university from Melanchthon's absence. At some future time, the elector said, he would permit Melanchthon to visit the French king, should his Majesty still desire him to do so, and present hinderances be removed.]

[Footnote 373: "Subindignabundus hinc discessit." Luther to Justus Jonas, Aug. 19.]

[Footnote 374: "Daneben was eurer Person halb, dessgleichen auch in Sachen des Evangelii fuer Trost, Hoffnung oder Zuversicht zu dem Franzosen zu haben, ist wohl zu bedenken, dieweil vormals wenig Treue oder Glaube von ihm gehalten, wie solches die oeffentliche Geschicht anzeigen." Letter of Aug. 24, 1535. The elector expressed himself at greater length to his chancellor, Dr. Brueck (Pontanus). Such a mission would appear suspicious when the elector was on the point of having a conference with the King of Hungary and Bohemia. Melanchthon might make concessions that Dr. Martin (Luther) and others could not agree to, and the scandal of division might arise. Besides, he could not believe the French in earnest; they doubtless only intended to take advantage of Melanchthon's indecision. For it was to be presumed that those most active in promoting the affair were "more Erasmian than evangelical (_mehr Erasmisch denn Evangelisch_)." Bretschneider, ii. 909, etc.]

[Footnote 375: See the three letters, and other interesting correspondence, Bretschneider, ii. 913, etc. However it may have been with M., _Luther's_ regret at the elector's refusal was of brief duration. As early as Sept. 1st he wrote characteristically to Justus Jonas: "Respecting the French envoys, so general a rumor is now in circulation, originating with most worthy men, that I have ceased to wish that Philip should go with them. It is suspected that the true envoys _were murdered on the way, and others sent in their place_(!) with letters by the papists, to entice Philip out. You know that the Bishops of Maintz, Luettich, and others, are the worst tools of the Devil; wherefore I am rather anxious for Philip. I have therefore written carefully to him. The World is the Devil, and the Devil is the World." Luther's Works (Ed. Walch), xxi. 1426.]

[Footnote 376: That is, including the apocryphal books.]

[Footnote 377: "Qui est, Sire," they observe with evident amazement at the bare suggestion, "demander de nous retirer a eux, plus qu'eux se convertir a l'Eglise." The _articles_ having been submitted through Du Bellay, August 7, 1535, the Faculty's answer was returned on the 30th of the same month, accompanied by a more elaborate _Instructio_, the former in French, the latter in Latin. Both are printed among the _Monumenta_ of Gerdes, 75-78, and 78-86.]

[Footnote 378: Florimond de Raemond (l. vii. c. 4), and others writers copying from him, represent Tournon as purposely putting himself in the king's way with an open volume of St. Irenaeus in his hands. Obtaining in this way his coveted opportunity of portraying the perils arising from intercourse with heretics, the prelate enforced his precepts by reading a pretended story related by St. Polycarp, that the Apostle John had on one occasion hastily left the public bath on perceiving the heretic Cerinthus within. Soldan (Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 163) sensibly remarks that little account ought to be made of the statements of a writer who associates Louise de Savoie--in her later days a notorious enemy of the Reformation, _who had at this time been four years dead_--- with her daughter Margaret, in "importuning" the king to invite Melanchthon.]

[Footnote 379: Some years earlier, Du Bellay had, while on an embassy, set forth his royal master's pretended convictions in favor of the Reformation with so much verisimilitude as to alarm the papal nuncio, who dreaded the effect of his speeches upon the Protestants. "Non e piccola murmoration qui en Corte, ch'l Orator Francese _facea piu che l'officio suo richiede in animar Lutherani_." Aleander to Sanga, Ratisbon, July 2, 1532, Vatican MSS., Laemmer, 141.]

[Footnote 380: Sleidan, De statu rel. et reipubl., lib. ix., ad annum 1535. The Jesuit Maimbourg rejects the secret conference of Du Bellay as apocryphal, in view of Francis's persecution of the Protestants at Paris, and his declaration of January 21st. But Sleidan's statement is fully substantiated by an extant memorandum by Spalatin, who was present on the occasion (printed in Seckendorff, Gerdes, iv. 68-73 Doc., and Bretschneider, ii. 1014). It receives additional confirmation from a letter of the Nuncio Morone to Pope Paul III., Vienna, Dec. 26, 1536 (Vatican MSS., Laemmer, 178). Morone received from Doctor Matthias, Vice-Chancellor of the Empire, an account of Francis's recent offer to the German Protestants "_di condescendere nelle loro opinioni,_" on condition of their renouncing obedience to the emperor. He reserved only two points of doctrine as requiring discussion: the sacrifice of the mass, and the authority and primacy of the Pope. The Protestants rejected the interested proposal of the royal convert.]

[Footnote 381: The authorship of this interesting document, and the way it reached its destination, are equally unknown. It is published--for the first time, I believe--in Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss, Opera Calvini (1872), x. part ii. 55, 56.]

[Footnote 382: Senatus Argentoratensis Francisco Regi, July 3, 1536, ibid., x. 57-61.]

[Footnote 383: Senatus Turicensis Francisco Regi, July 13, 1536, ibid., x. 61.]

[Footnote 384: Edict of Lyons, May 31, 1536, Herminjard, iv. 192.]

[Footnote 385: Francois I^er aux Conseils de Zurich, Berne, Bale et Strasbourg, Compiegne, Feb. 20, and Feb. 23, 1537, Basle MSS., ibid., iv. 191-193. Cf. the documents, mostly inedited, iv. 70, 96, 150.]

[Footnote 386: Le Conseil de Berne au Conseil de Bale, March 15, 1537, ibid., iv. 202, 203, Sleidan (Strasb. ed. of 1555), lib x. fol. 163 _verso_. It must, however, be remarked that the "evangelical cities" would not take the rebuff as decisive, and, within a few months, were again writing to Francis in behalf of his persecuted subjects of Nismes and elsewhere. Le Conseil de Berne a Francois I^er, Nov. 17, 1537, Berne MSS., Herminjard, iv. 320.]