t away by
making it only a popular echo of the convictions of the more enlightened
as to the views that were most befitting the claimant to a universal
episcopate.

[Sidenote: Clemency again dictated by policy.]

Francis himself, however, made no such statement to the Venetian
ambassador at his court. Marino Giustiniano, who gave in his report to
the doge and senate this very year, was informed by the French king
that, on hearing of the suspension by the Emperor Charles the Fifth of
all sentences of death against the Flemish heretics, he had also himself
ordered that against every species of heretics, except the
Sacramentarians, proceedings should indeed be held as before, but _not
to the extremity of death_.[363] It is evident, therefore, that the
suppression of the most cruel features of the persecution had no higher
motive than political considerations. Francis had worked himself into a
frenzy, and counterfeited the sincerity of a bigot, when it was
necessary to make the Pope a friend, and a show of sanguinary ardor
seemed most adapted to accomplish his object. He now became tolerant, on
discovering that the course he had entered upon was alienating the
Protestant princes of Germany, upon whose support he relied in his
contest with Charles the Fifth. The turning-point appears to have been
coincident with the time when he found that the emperor was endeavoring
to outbid him by offering a short-lived toleration to the Netherlanders.

[Sidenote: Francis writes to the German princes.]

Only eleven days after the solemn propitiatory procession, and while the
trial and execution of the French reformers were still in progress,
Francis had written to his allies beyond the Rhine, in explanation of
the severe punishment of which such shocking accounts had been
circulated in their dominions. He justified his course by alleging the
disorderly and rebellious character of the culprits, and laid great
stress upon the care he had taken to secure German Protestants from
danger and annoyance.[364]

[Sidenote: Melanchthon entreated to come to France.]

A month later, Vore de la Fosse was on his way to Wittemberg, on a
private mission to Melanchthon. He was bearer of a long and important
letter from John Sturm. The learned writer, a German scholar of eminence
and a friend of the reformed doctrines, was at this time lecturing in
Paris, and after his departure from Francis's dominions, became rector
of the infant university of Stra