[251] The letter is given by Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta, fol. 50; also Gerdes., iv. (Doc), 48-50.
[252] Gerdes., iv. 51; Crespin, fol. 49-52; Haag, s. v.
[253] The incident, it must be confessed, is by no means above suspicion (see Kirchhofer, Life of Wm. Farel, London ed., p. 40, and Schmidt, Wilhelm Farel, p. 6), although, as Merle d'Aubigné observes, Hist. of the Reformation, bk. xii. c. 13, it is in keeping with Farel's character. Œcolampadius, foreseeing the possibility of his indulging in such inconsiderate words and actions, warned him, as early as Aug. 19, 1524, to temper his zeal with mildness, and to treat his opponents rather as was most expedient, than as they deserved to be treated. Herminjard, i. 265-267.
[254] "Ceste hérésie luthérienne, qui commance fort à pulluler par deça. Et jam plures de cineribus valde (Valdo) renascuntur plantulæ." Council of the Archbishop of Lyons to Noel Beda, January 23, 1525. The title of primate was assumed both by the Archbishop of Sens and the Archbishop of Lyons, the former having apparently the better claim and enjoying nominally a Wider supremacy (as "Primat des Gaules et de Germanie"); but the latter gradually vindicated his pretension to spiritual authority over most of France. See Encyclopédie méthodique, s. v. Sens, and Lyon.
[255] Gaillard, Hist. de François premier, vi. 408.
[256] Registres du parlement, Feb. 26, 1417/8, Preuves des Libertez, i. 124, etc.
[257] Yet the trial of Aimé Maigret had been specially committed by Louise to the Sorbonne, as early as January, 1525 (Letter of the Council of the Archbishop of Lyons to Beda, Jan. 23, 1525, Herminjard, i. 326); and Zwingle knew, in March, of a more or less successful effort to convince the regent that the evangelical doctrines were subversive of peace—the proof alleged being drawn from Germany, where "everything was turned upside down." Dedication to Francis I., prefixed to De vera et falsa religione commentarius, Herminjard, i. 351.
[258] See Mézeray's unfavorable portrait of the unscrupulous Duprat, Abrégé chron., iv. 584.
[259] The four were Philippe Pot, President in the chambre des enquêtes, and André Verjus, a counsellor, from parliament, and Guillaume Du Chesne and Nicholas Le Clerc, doctors of theology. For the first on the list, Jacques de la Barde was soon after substituted. Registres du parlement, March 20, 1524/5, Preuves des Libertez, i. 164.
[260] Registres du parlement, ubi supra.