* * * * *
You can see the copies of the two letters which Messieurs of Berne
have written. It might, perhaps, have been desirable that the first,
dated the 15th March, should have been kept back.[421] But the thing
is done. The remedy is good, inasmuch as the latter is as full as
could be desired. Having perused the whole, we beg of you to forward
them to the prisoners aforesaid. Our brother, Peter Viret, commends
himself most heartily to you.
[_Fr. orig. autogr._--_Library of Saint Gall._ Vol. 7, p. 211.]
[421] In a letter to the King of the 15th March, Messieurs of Berne
had made strong complaint of the conduct of the Cardinal de Tournon,
who, after having promised them to interest himself in behalf of the
five students, had, with the utmost rigour, instituted proceedings
against them. In a second letter, written three days later, they
represented to this prince the innocence of their scholars, arrested
at Lyons before they had sojourned there a single day, and condemned
to death, although they had neither preached, nor dogmatized,
nor excited any disturbance in the kingdom. They concluded by
saying,--"We very humbly pray your Majesty to bestow them on us as
a pure, royal, gratuitous, and liberal gift, which we shall esteem
as great and precious, as if a present had been made us of an
inestimable amount of gold and silver." These petitions were of no
avail. Inspired by the fatal genius of the Cardinals of Tournon and
of Lorraine, Henry II. confirmed the sentence of the parliament of
Paris.