ubjects from his own kingdom." Fanatical passions were already
at work, though the parties were too unequal as yet to come to actual
force.

Against such passions the Reformers found Francis I. a very indecisive
and very inefficient protector. "I wish," said he, "to give men of
letters special marks of my favor." When deputies from the Sorbonne came
and requested him to put down the publication of learned works taxed with
heresy, "I do not wish," he replied, "to have those folks meddled with;
to persecute those who instruct us would be to keep men of ability from
coming to our country." But in spite of his language, orders were given
to the bishops to furnish the necessary funds for the prosecution of
heretics, and, when the charge of heresy became frequent, Francis I. no
longer repudiated it. "Those people," he said, "do nothing but bring
trouble into the state." Troubles, indeed, in otherwise tranquil
provinces, where the Catholic faith was in great force, often accompanied
the expression of those wishes for reform to which the local clergy
themselves considered it necessary to make important concessions. A
serious fire took place at Troyes in 1524. "It was put down," says M.
Boutiot, a learned and careful historian of that town, "to the account of
the new religious notions, as well as to that of the Emperor Charles V.'s
friends and the Constable de Bourbon's partisans. As early as 1520 there
had begun to be felt at Troyes the first symptoms of repressive measures
directed against the Reformation; in 1523, 1527, and 1528, provincial
councils were held at Meaux, Lyons, Rouen, Bourges, and Paris, to oppose
the Lutherans. These councils drew up regulations tending to reformation
of morals and of religious ceremonies; they decided that the
administration of the sacraments should take place without any demand for
money, and that preachers, in their sermons, should confine themselves to
the sacred books, and not quote poets or profane authors; they closed the
churches to profane assemblies and burlesques (fetes des fous); they
ordered the parish priests, in their addresses (au prone), to explain the
gospel of the day; they ruled that a stop should be put to the abuses of
excommunication; they interdicted the publication of any book on
religious subjects without the permission of the bishop of the diocese.
. . . Troyes at that time contained some enlightened men; William Bude
(Budaeus) was in uninterrupted commun