Du noble cœur de Renée de France;
Puis comme cœur, plus fort en espérance,
Console-la.
Tu sais comment hors son pays alla,
Et que parents et amis laissa là;
Mais tu sais quel traitement elle a
En terre étrange![810]
Renée was to suffer a pain still greater than that caused by the dismissal 'beyond the mountains' of her friends from France. That iniquitous institution, decorated with the name of the Holy Office, which was destined a little later to make thousands of martyrs in Spain, the Netherlands, and other countries, desired for the moment to strike the teacher who had excited the greatest terror and hatred at Rome. The Inquisition had discovered Calvin's residence. His name and his crime were inscribed in the black-book of that cruel institution.[811] Heresy was flourishing at the court of Este; the chief culprit was pointed out, and if the others were allowed to depart, he at least must be punished.
=CALVIN'S ARREST.=
Calvin, forewarned of what was going on, was at the palace Del Magistrato, where he and Du Tillet lived, and was hurriedly getting ready for his departure, when the agents of the inquisitors, who were on the watch, arrived, seized the 'pestiferous disturber,' and dragged him away a prisoner.[812] It was not their intention to leave him in a place where the evangelical doctor possessed many influential friends. They determined to have him tried at Bologna, a city in the States of the Pope, not far distant from Ferrara, where they would be entirely the masters. The young Frenchman was therefore placed in the charge of some familiars of the Holy Office, and guarded by them was to proceed to that ancient city which boasted of possessing within its walls the ashes of St. Dominick, the founder of the Inquisition.