=THE FRANCISCAN FRIAR.=
The second to feel the king's hand was the prior of the Franciscans who had proposed to sew Margaret in a sack and throw her into the Seine. 'Let him suffer the punishment he desired to inflict upon the queen,' he exclaimed. On hearing of this sentence the monks became irritated, and the populace, according to one historian, got up a riot. But the queen interceded for the wretch, and his life was spared; he was simply deprived of his ecclesiastical dignities and sent to the galleys for two years.[428]
The play represented against the queen, as well as the priests who had composed it and superintended the representation, next engaged the king's attention; he resolved not to spare them, and at the least to put them in a terrible fright. He issued his orders, and immediately the lieutenant of police marched out and appeared at the head of a hundred archers before the college of Navarre.[429] 'Surround the building,' he said, 'so that no one can escape.'[430] The archers did as they were ordered. For this narrative we are again indebted to Calvin, who continued to take the deepest interest in the whole affair. The orders of the lieutenant were not executed without noise, and some of the professors and pupils, attracted to the windows, had watched the movements of the municipal officers. The author of the drama, who had expected nothing like this, and who was very vain and continually boasting of his pious exploit, happened to be in the room of a friend, joking about the queen and the famous comedy, when suddenly he heard an unusual noise.[431] He looked out, and, seeing the college surrounded by soldiers, became alarmed and confused. 'Hide me somewhere,' he exclaimed. He was put in a place where it was supposed nobody could find him: there are always good hiding-places in colleges. 'Stay there,' said his friends, 'until we find an opportunity for your escape.'[432] And then the door was carefully shut.
=ARRESTS IN THE COLLEGE OF NAVARRE.=
Meanwhile the lieutenant of police had entered with a few of his archers, and demanded the surrender of the author of the satire against the Queen of Navarre. The head of the college, a man of distinction, profound learning, and great influence, whom Calvin styles 'the great Master Lauret,' and Sturm 'the king of the wise,' did not deserve his name. He refused everything. Upon this, the sergeants began to search the building for the culprit; and professors and students were in great anxiety. But every nook and corner was explored in vain; they found nothing.[433] The lieutenant thereupon ordered his archers to lay hands upon the actors in default of the author, and he himself arrested one of the persons who had taken a part in the play. This was the signal for a great tumult. Master Lauret, knowing himself to be more guilty than those youths, rushed upon the lieutenant and endeavoured to rescue the scholar;[434] the students, finding themselves supported by their chief, fell upon the archers, and kicked and beat them, some even pelting them with stones.[435] There was a regular battle in the college of Navarre. But the law prevailed at last, and all the beardless actors fell into the hands of the police.
The lieutenant was bent on knowing the nature of their offence. 'Now,' said he to the juvenile players, 'you will repeat before me what you said on the stage.'[436] The unlucky youths were forced to obey; in great confusion and hanging their heads, they repeated all their impertinence. 'I have not done,' resumed the lieutenant, turning to the head of the college; 'since the author of the crime is concealed from me, I must look to those who should have prevented such insolence. Master Lauret, you will go with me as well as these young scamps. As for you, Master Morin (he was the second officer of the college), you will keep your room.' He then departed with his archers; Lauret was taken to the house of a commissary, and the students were sent to prison.
The most important affair still remained—the decision come to by the Sorbonne against Margaret's poem. The king, wishing to employ gentle means, simply ordered the rector to ask the faculty if they had really placed the Mirror in the list of condemned books,[437] and in that case to be good enough to point out what they saw to blame in it. To the rector, therefore, was confided the management of the affair. A new rector had been elected a few days before (10th of October); and whether the university perceived in what direction the wind was blowing, or wished to show its hostility to the enemies of the light, or desired to court the king's favour by promoting the son of one of his favourites, the chief physician to the court, they had elected, in spite of the faculty of theology, Nicholas Cop, a particular friend of Calvin's. 'Wonderful!' said the friends of the Gospel: 'the king and his sister, the rector of the university, and even, as some say, the Bishop of Paris, lean to the side of the Word of God; how can France fail to be reformed?'
The new rector took the affair vigorously in hand. Won over to the Gospel by Calvin, he had learnt, in conversation with his friend, that sin is the great disease, the loss of eternal life the great death, and Jesus Christ the great physician. He was impatient to meet the enemies of the Reform, and the king gave him the desired opportunity.... He had several conversations with Calvin on the subject, and convened the four faculties on the 24th of October, 1532. The Bishop of Senlis, the king's confessor, read his Majesty's letter to them; after which the youthful rector, the organ of the new times, began to speak, and, full of the ardour which a recent conversion gives, he delivered (Calvin tells us) a long and severe speech,[438] a christian philippic, confounding the conspirators who were plotting against the Word of God. 'Licence is always criminal,' he said; 'but what is it when those who violate the laws are those whose duty it is to teach others to observe them?... Now what have they done? They have attacked an excellent woman, who is alike the patroness of sound learning and mother of every virtue.[439] They penetrate into the sanctuary of the family of our kings, and encroach upon the sovereign majesty... What presumptuous temerity, what imprudent audacity!... The laws of propriety, the laws of the realm, the laws of God even, have all been violated by these impudent men... They are seditious and rebellious subjects.' Then turning to the faculty of theology, the rector continued: 'Put an end, Sirs, to these foolish and arrogant manners; or else, if you have not committed the offence, do not bear the responsibility. Do you desire to encourage the malice of those who, ever ready to perpetrate the most criminal acts, wipe their mouths afterwards and say: "It is not I who did it! it is the university!" while the university knows nothing about it?[440] Do not mix yourselves up in a matter so full of danger, or ... beware of the terrible anger of the king.'[441]
=THE SORBONNE DISAVOWS ITS ACT.=
This speech, the terror inspired by the king's name, and the recollection of Beda's imprisonment, disturbed the assembly. The theologians, who were all guilty, basely abandoned their colleague, who had only carried out a general resolution, and exclaimed unanimously: 'We must disavow the rash deed.'[442] The four faculties declared they had not authorised the act of which the king complained, and the whole responsibility fell on Le Clerq, curé of St. André, who had taken the most active part in the matter. He was the Jonah to be thrown into the sea.