d the guilty one from her legitimate judges. Nicolas eluded
the injunction, protested his obedience, and did not obey. The Pope
fulminated against him in the Bull _Maleficus pastor_, in which the
venerable pontiff was accused of being a disobedient member of the
Church, a heretic, or one smelling of heresy, a keeper of concubines,
a committer of incest, a corrupter of the people, an old woman and a
meddling old fool, and was passionately admonished.

In this way the Bishop did himself a great deal of harm without any
benefit to his beloved niece. King Berlu, having been threatened with
excommunication if he did not lend his secular arm to the Church in
pursuit of the Edenites, sent some men-at-arms to the episcopal palace
of Trinqueballe.

They tore Mirande from her asylum: she was brought before the inquisitor
Caquerole, thrown into a deep dungeon, and fed upon bread which the
jailers' dogs had refused; but what afflicted her most was that she was
forcibly compelled to don an old frock and a hood, and that she could no
longer be certain of not sinning.

The monk Sulpice escaped the investigations of the Holy Office and
succeeded in reaching Mambournia, and found an asylum in a monastery of
that kingdom, where he established new sects even more pernicious than
the previous one.

Nevertheless, heresy, fortified by persecution, and exulting in danger,
now spread its ravages over the whole of Vervignole. All over the
kingdom there were seen in the fields thousands of naked men and women,
nibbling the grass, bleating, lowing, roaring, neighing, and contending
at night with sheep, cattle, and horses for the use of stable and
manger. The inquisitor informed the Holy Father of these horrible
scandals, and warned him that so long as the Protector of the Edenites,
the odious Nicolas, remained seated on the throne of St. Cromadaire, the
evil could only continue to increase. Conformably with this advice the
Pope hurled against the Bishop, like a thunderbolt, the Bull _Deterrima
quondam_, by which he deprived him of all his ecclesiastical functions,
and cut him off from the communion of the faithful.

CHAPTER VI

CRUSHED by the Vicar of Jesus Christ, steeped in bitterness, overwhelmed
by affliction, the holy Nicolas stepped down without regret from his
illustrious seat, and departed, no more to return thither, from the city
of Trinqueballe, which for thirty years had witnessed his pontifical
virtues and apostolic labou