the German monk to the flames, on the ground that they
were seductive, insulting to the hierarchy, contrary to Scripture, and
schismatic. It likened his latest production, _De Captivitate
Babylonica_, to Alcoran. It branded as preposterous the notion that God
had reserved the discovery of what is needful to the salvation of the
faithful for Martin Luther to make; as though Christ had left his
spouse, the Church, so many centuries, and until now, in the darkness
and blindness of error. Such sentiments as he uttered were a denial of
the first principles of the faith, an unblushing profession of impiety,
an arrogance so impious that it must be repressed by chains and
censures--nay, by fire and by flame, rather than refuted by
argument.[234] A long list of heretical propositions selected from
Luther's works was appended.[235]

[Sidenote: Melanchthon's defence.]

In the month of June following, Melanchthon replied to the Sorbonne's
condemnation. He declared that, could the great Gerson and his
illustrious associates and predecessors rise from the dead, they would
fail to recognize in the present race of theologians their legitimate
offspring, and that they would deplore the misfortune of the university
as well as of the whole of Christendom, in that sophists had usurped the
place of theologians, and slanderers the seat of Christian doctors. As
for the silly letter prefixed to the decree, the reformer wrote, it is a
feeble production full of womanish fury: "He pretends to the sole
possession of wisdom. He contemns us. He is a Manichaean, a Montanist; he
is mad. Let him be compelled by fire and flame." Who could refrain from
derisive laughter at the unmanly and truly monkish weakness of such
threats?[236]

[Sidenote: Regency of Louise de Savoie.]

In the summer of 1523 the king, in order to provide for the government
of France during his expected absence from the capital, appointed his
mother temporary regent--a dignity which Louise de Savoie enjoyed more
than once during Francis's reign. The chancellor, Antoine Duprat,
embraced the opportunity to persuade the queen mother that she could
not better atone for the irregularities of her own life than by
enforcing submission to the authority of the papal church. What causes
had contributed to the very radical change apparently effected in her
mental attitude to the established ecclesiastical system, since she had
in the preceding December discovered the monks, of whatever colo