. Evidently the fate of
Theramenes impends over me; for I believe Xenophon, who affirms that he
was a good man, not Lysias, who reviles him."[375]

[Sidenote: The proposed conference reprobated by the Sorbonne.]

Meanwhile the proposed conference encountered no less decided
reprobation from the Sorbonne, to which Francis had submitted his
project. For the "articles" drawn up by Melanchthon, a year before, in a
spirit of conciliation much too broad to please the Protestants, when
placed in the hands of the same theological body, in a modified form,
and without the name of the author, were returned with a very
unfavorable report. The Parisian doctors suggested that, as an
appropriate method of satisfying himself whether there was any hope of
accommodation, Francis might propound such interrogatories as these to
the German theologians from whom the articles emanated: "Whether they
confessed the church militant, founded by divine right, to be incapable
of erring in faith and good morals, of which church, under our Lord
Jesus Christ, St. Peter and his successors have been the head. Whether
they will obey the church, receive the books of the Bible[376] as holy
and canonical, accept the decrees of the general councils and of the
Popes, admit the Fathers to be the interpreters of the Scriptures, and
conform to the customs of the church?" As an insufferable grievance they
complained that the "articles" were not a request for _pardon_, but
actually a demand for _concessions_.[377]

The plan to entrap Melanchthon and some considerable portion of the
German Protestants into conciliatory proposals which Luther and the more
decided reformers could not admit, having failed through the abrupt and
tolerably rude refusal of the Elector of Saxony to permit his
theological professor to comply with the invitation of Francis, the
latter appears to have determined to put the best appearance upon the
affair. Accordingly, he promptly signified to the Sorbonne his approval
of its action, and he seems even to have suffered the rumor to gain
currency that he was himself dissuaded from bringing Melanchthon to
France, by the skilful arguments of the Cardinal of Tournon.[378]

In spite of the rebuff he had received, however, Francis made an attempt
to effect such an arrangement with the Protestant princes of Germany as
would secure their co-operation in his ambitious projects against
Charles the Fifth. To compass this end he was quite willing to m