[464] By royal letters of July 16, 1535, and May 31, 1536. Histoire ecclés., i. 23.
[465] There is even greater discrepancy than usual between the different authorities respecting the number of Waldenses cited and subsequently condemned to the stake. Crespin, fol. 90, gives the names of ten, the royal letters of 1549 state the number as fourteen or fifteen, the Histoire ecclésiastique as fifteen or sixteen. M. Nicolaï (Leber, Coll. de pièces rel. à l'hist. de France, viii. 552) raises it to nineteen, which seems to be correct.
[466] Histoire ecclés., i. 23; Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta, fol. 90; De Thou, i. 536; Nicolaï, ubi supra; Recueil des anc. lois françaises, xii. 698. See the arrêt in Bouche, Hist. de Provence, ubi supra. The last-mentioned author, while admitting the proceedings of the Parliament of Aix to be apparently "somewhat too violent," excuses them on the ground that the Waldenses deserved this punishment, "non tant par leurs insolences et impiétez cy-devant commises, mais pour leur obstination à ne vouloir changer de religion;" and cites, in exculpation of the parliament, the "bloody order of Gastaldo," in consequence of which, in 1655, fire, sword, and rapine were carried into the peaceful valley of Luserna (ibid., 615, 623)! The massacre of the unhappy Italian Waldenses thus becomes a capital vindication of the barbarities inflicted a century before upon their French brethren.
[467] See the remark of M. Nicolaï (Leber, Coll. de pièces rel. à l'hist. de France, viii. 556).
[468] Crespin (fols. 91-94) gives an interesting report of some discussions of the kind. It may be remarked that the Archbishop of Aix, who was the prime mover in the persecution, had exposed himself to unusual censure on the score of irregularity of life.
[469] The remark is ascribed to Chassanée: "itaque decretum ipsi tale fecissent, eo consilio factum potius, ut Lutheranis, quorum multitudinem augeri quotidie intelligebant, metus incuteretur, quam ut revera id efficeretur quod ipsius decreti capitibus continebatur." Crespin, ubi supra, fol. 98.
[470] Crespin, ubi supra, fol. 100.
[471] The ludicrous story of the "mice of Autun," which thus obtains a historic importance, had been told by Chassanée himself. It appears that on a certain occasion the diocese of Autun was visited with the plague of an excessive multiplication of mice. Ordinary means of stopping their ravages having failed, the vicar of the bishop was requested to excommunicate them. But the ecclesiastical decree was supposed to be most effective when the regular forms of a judicial trial were duly observed. An advocate for the marauders was therefore appointed—no other than Chassanée himself; who, espousing with professional ardor the interests of his quadrupedal clients, began by insisting that a summons should be served in each parish; next, excused the non-appearance of the defendants by alleging the dangers of the journey by reason of the lying-in-wait of their enemies, the cats; and finally, appealing to the compassion of the court in behalf of a race doomed to wholesale destruction, acquitted himself so successfully of his fantastic commission, that the mice escaped the censures of the church, and their advocate gained universal applause! See Crespin, fol. 99; De Thou, i. 536, Gamier, xxvi. 29, etc. Crespin, writing at least as early as 1560, speaks of the incident as being related in Chassanée's Catalogus Gloriæ Mundi; but I have been unable to find any reference to it in that singular medley.
[472] De Thou, i. 539.
[473] This striking incident is not noticed in the well-known Memoirs of Du Bellay, written by his brother. The reader will agree with me in considering it one of the most creditable in Du Bellay's eventful life. Calvin relates it in two letters to Farel, published by Bonnet (Calvin's Letters, i. 162, 163-165). The reformer had had it from Du Bellay's own lips at Strasbourg, and had perused the letter in which the latter threw up his alliance with Montmian, and stigmatized the baseness of his conduct.