regulations were mild in
comparison with the previous practice, which consigned all the guilty
alike to death, and left no room for repentance. Consequently, there
were not a few, especially of the learned who had been suspected of
heresy, that were found ready to avail themselves of the permission,
even on the prescribed terms.

[Sidenote: Alleged intercession of Pope Paul III.]

In explanation of this change in the policy of Francis, the most
remarkable rumors circulated among the people. Not the least strange was
one that has been preserved for us by a contemporary.[360] It was
reported in the month of June, 1535, that Pope Paul the Third, having
been informed of "the horrible and execrable" punishments inflicted by
the king upon the "Lutherans," wrote to Francis and begged him to
moderate his severity. The pontiff did, indeed, express his conviction
that the French monarch had acted with the best intentions, and in
accordance with his claim to be called the Very Christian King. But he
added, that when God, our Creator, was on earth, He employed mercy
rather than strict justice. Rigor ought not always to be resorted to;
and this burning of men alive was a cruel death, and better calculated
to lead to rejection of the faith than to conversion.[361] He therefore
prayed the king to appease his anger, to abate the severity of justice,
and grant pardon to the guilty. Francis, consequently, because of his
desire to please his Holiness, became more moderate, and enjoined upon
parliament to practise less harshness. For this reason the judges
ceased from criminal proceedings against the "Lutherans," and many
prisoners were discharged both from the Conciergerie and from the
Chatelet.

That this extraordinary rumor was in general circulation appears from
the circumstance that it is alluded to by a Paris correspondent of
Melanchthon; while another account that has recently come to light
states it not as a flying report, but as a well-ascertained fact.[362]
Its _singularity_ is shown from its apparent inconsistency with the
well-known history and sentiments of the Farnese Paul. It is difficult
to conceive how the pontiff who approved of the Society of Jesus and
instituted the Inquisition in the kingdom of Naples, could have been
touched with compassion at the recital of the suffering of French
heretics. Yet the paradoxes of history are too numerous to permit us to
reject as apocryphal a story so widely current, or to explain i