[199] They were the Earls of Thierry of Mandersheit, and William Nuenar, magni consilii et dignitatis viri.—Sleidan, book xii. p. 352.
[200] See that answer related fully in Sleidan, book xiii. pp. 353-61.
[201] In the intense desire of concluding an agreement with the King of England, the German princes shewed their willingness to open a colloquy for that object, but these conferences did not take place, and the hope of a happy reconciliation between the churches of England and Germany was not realized.—Sleidan, book xiii. p. 361.
[202] Without doubt on the subject of the free proclamation of the Gospel in that town, then subject to England. It was not restored to France till 1558, by Francis of Lorraine, Duke of Guise.
[203] Gaspar, called Cormel, minister of Neuchatel.
[204] Peter Toussain, late canon of Metz and almoner to the Queen of Navarre. He was at this time minister of the Church of Montbeliard, which he administered till an advanced old age.
[205] William du Bellay, Viceroy of Piedmont.
[206] While he sought the alliance of the Protestant princes of Germany, Francis I. persecuted the Protestants in his own dominions with an extreme rigour, under the odious designation of Sacramentaries. The year 1540 witnessed numerous burnings at the stake, in the provinces of Dauphiny, Vivarais, at Paris, and in the valleys of Provence. There dwelt for many centuries a pastoral population, which was only known to the world by simplicity of manners and the purity of its faith. De Thou, liv. v. c. 7; Histoire des Martyrs, liv. iii. pp. 133-146. The Vaudois of Cabrières and Merindol, hated by the Roman Catholic clergy on account of their being estranged from the superstitions of the time, were devoted to death by the fanatical fury of the parliament of Aix. The arrêt, which condemned in the mass an innocent and inoffensive people to extermination, was dated 18th November 1540. The intercession of the Senate of Strasbourg, of the Swiss Cantons, and of the German princes, suspended the execution of it until the year 1545.
[207] A meeting was convocated for the month of July 1540, in the town of Haguenau, in order to prepare matters for a general conference between the Roman Catholic and Reformed theologians. See following letter.
[208] Ambroise Blaurer, minister and reformer of the town of Constance.