in extenso_ by Gerdesius,
Hist. Evang. Renov., iv. (Doc.) 60-67; Haag, France prot., x. pieces
justif., 1-6; G. Guiffrey, Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er, Appendix,
464-472.]

[Footnote 338: Journal d'un bourgeois, 442. Not _Blois_, as the Hist.
ecclesiastique, i. 10, and, following it, Soldan, Merle d'Aubigne, etc.,
state. Francis had left Blois as early as in September for the castle of
Amboise, see Herminjard, Corresp. des reformateurs, iii. 231, 226, 236.]

[Footnote 339: "Ne me puis garder de vous dire qu'il vous souviengne de
_l'opinion que j'avois que les vilains placars estoient fait par ceux
guiles cherchent aux aultres_." Marg. de Navarre to Francis I., Nerac,
Dec., 1541, Genin, ii. No. 114. Although Margaret's supposition proved
to be unfounded, it was by no means so absurd as the reader might
imagine. At least, we have the testimony of Pithou, Seigneur de
Chamgobert, that a clergyman of Champagne confessed that he had
committed, from pious motives, a somewhat similar act. The head of a
stone image of the Virgin, known as "Our Lady of Pity," standing in one
of the streets of Troyes, was found, on the morning of a great feast-day
in September, 1555, to have been wantonly broken off. There was the
usual indignation against the sacrilegious perpetrators of the deed.
There were the customary procession and masses by way of atonement for
the insult offered to high Heaven. But Friar Fiacre, of the
_Hotel-Dieu_, finding himself some time later at the point of death, and
feeling disturbed in conscience, revealed the fact that from religious
considerations he had himself decapitated the image, "_in order to have
the Huguenots accused of it, and thus lead to their complete
extermination_!" Recordon, Protestantisme en Champagne, ou recits
extraits d'un MS. de N. Pithou (Paris, 1863), 28-30.]

[Footnote 340: A. F. Didot, Essai sur la typographie, in Encyclop.
moderne, xxvi. 760, _apud_ Herminjard, iii. 60.]

[Footnote 341: That is, 1535 New Style. For it will remembered that,
until 1566, the year in France began with Easter, instead of with the
first day of January. Leber, Coll. de pieces rel. a l'hist. de France,
viii. 505, etc.]

[Footnote 342: "Combien que ... nous eussions prohibe et defendu que nul
n'eust des lors en avant a imprimer ou faire imprimer aulcuns livres en
nostre royaulme, sur peine de la hart." As neither of these disgraceful
edicts was formally registered by parliament, they are both of them
wanti