prosecuted the work. Some of the Waldenses were put to
death, others were branded upon the forehead. Even the ordinary rights
of the accused were denied them; for, in order to leave no room for
justice, the Parliament of Aix had framed an iniquitous order,
prohibiting all clerks and notaries from either furnishing the accused
copies of legal instruments, or receiving at their hands any petition or
paper whatsoever.[462] Such were the measures by which the newly-created
Parliament of Provence signalized its zeal for the faith, and attested
its worthiness to be a sovereign court of the kingdom.[463] From its
severe sentences, however, appeals had once and again been taken by the
Waldenses to Francis, who had granted them his royal pardon on condition
of their abjuration of their errors within six months.[464]

[Sidenote: Inhabitants of Merindol cited.]

The slow methods heretofore pursued having proved abortive, in 1540 the
parliament summoned to its bar, as suspected of heresy, fifteen or
twenty[465] of the inhabitants of the village of Merindol. On the
appointed day the accused made their way to Aix, but, on stopping to
obtain legal advice of a lawyer more candid than others to whom they had
first applied, and who had declined to give counsel to reputed
Lutherans, they were warned by no means to appear, as their death was
already resolved upon. They acted on the friendly injunction, and fled
while it was still time.

[Sidenote: The atrocious Arret de Merindol, Nov. 18, 1540.]

Finding itself balked for the time of its expected prey, the parliament
resolved to avenge the slight put upon its authority, by compassing the
ruin of a larger number of victims. On the eighteenth of November, 1540,
the order was given which has since become infamous under the
designation of the "_Arret de Merindol_." The persons who had failed to
obey the summons were sentenced to be burned alive, as heretics and
guilty of treason against God and the King. If not apprehended in
person, they were to be burned in effigy, their wives and children
proscribed, and their possessions confiscated. As if this were not
enough to satisfy the most inordinate greed of vengeance, parliament
ordered _that all the houses of Merindol be burned and razed to the
ground, and the trees cut down for a distance of two hundred paces on
every side, in order that the spot which had been the receptacle of
heresy might be forever uninhabited_! Finally, with an affectati