After master John Petit had finished his harangue, he requested of the duke of Burgundy that he would vouch for all he had said, which the duke granted, and avowed the whole of what master John Petit had laid to the charge of the late duke of Orleans, in the presence of the dauphin, who represented the person of the king, and all the other princes and lords before particularized. The orator, after this, declared that the duke of Burgundy had reserved some charges of a deeper nature to lay before the king personally, when a proper occasion should offer.
The assembly now broke up, and the princes and lords retired to their different hôtels. The duke of Burgundy was escorted to his hôtel d’Artois by a large body of men at arms and archers.
There were great murmurings in Paris among all ranks, for the assembly had been open to all, respecting the charges made against the late duke of Orleans, and various were the opinions concerning them. Those attached to the Orleans-party declared they were all false, whilst the Burgundians maintained the contrary.
Shortly afterward, queen Isabella of France, apprehensive of consequences to herself and children, set out from Paris with her son the duke of Acquitaine and the others, accompanied by Louis duke of Bavaria, her brother, and fixed her residence in the castle of Melun. The king, who had been very ill of his disorder for some time, now recovered: the duke of Burgundy waited on him, and was not only reconciled but obtained letters sealed with the king’s seal and signed with his own hand, by which he was pardoned for what had lately happened to the duke of Orleans, to the astonishment of many great lords and wise men, but at this moment it could not be otherwise.
CHAP. XL.
THE KING OF FRANCE SENDS A SOLEMN EMBASSY TO THE POPE.—THE ANSWER THEY RECEIVE.—THE POPE EXCOMMUNICATES THE KING AND HIS ADHERENTS.
About this period, some persons came to the king and the lords then at Paris, to inform them, that the pope and his rival would neither of them resign the popedom, as they had promised in the city of Savona,—but by various deceitful means kept up the schism that had so long hurt the true interests of the church. The king, in consequence, wrote letters to the pope, and sent them by Jean de Château-morant and Jean de Coursen, knights, his ambassadors, to declare, that if peace were not firmly established throughout the Christian church by Ascension day next ensuing, he himself and the clergy, nobles and people of his realm and of Dauphiny, would no longer obey him or his adversary.
Pope Benedict was not well pleased with the contents of these letters, nor with the embassy, although he dissembled with the ambassadors. He made them a short answer, saying he would speedily reply to the letters they had brought, after which they took leave of him and returned to Paris, to make the king and council acquainted with all that had passed. It was not long before a messenger from the pope arrived at Paris, who went to the hôtel de St Pol, and, understanding the king was in his oratory at the commencement of the mass, proceeded thither, and presenting the king with an apostolical letter instantly departed.
When mass was over, the king caused the letter to be opened, and deliberately read, by which he learnt that he himself and all his subjects were excommunicated.
Search was instantly made in Paris after the person who had brought this excommunication, but in vain, for he had quitted the city as secretly and suddenly as he could. The king and his council, noticing the manner and form of this act, in compliance with the exhortations of the university of Paris, the greater part of his council, and the princes of the blood, who were all much angered with the pope, he withdrew himself from his obedience to the holy see.