[420] _On the back._--To my kind brethren and friends, the brothers
Christopher and Thomas Zollicoffre, merchants of Saint Gall,
dwelling at Lyons. Pardon the mistake as to the names and the haste.
The 21st May 1552. The Seigneury of Berne, informed of the arrest of
the five Scholars of Lausanne, had written to the King of France to
solicit the deliverance of their "pensionaires." The burgomaster of
Zurich, John Hab, obtained an audience of this prince and found him
inflexible. The following year, March 1553, the Bernese solicited
anew the pardon of the five prisoners, condemned by the official of
Lyons and the parliament of Paris. It is to this last intercession,
urged forward by Calvin and Viret, that the letter of the Reformer
to the brothers Zollicoffre refers.
Last steps in favour of the Prisoners of Lyons.