d he incited the judges to fresh zeal by the
consideration that the new madness that had fallen upon the world was
prepared to confound and overturn, not religion alone, but all rule,
nobility, pre-eminence and superiority--nay, all law and order. The
reader, it may be feared, will tire of the frequency with which the
same trite suggestions recur. It is, however, not a little important to
emphasize the argument which the Roman Curia, and its emissaries at the
courts of kings, were never weary of reiterating in the ears of the rich
and powerful. And as they seized with avidity every slight incident of
disorder that could by any means be associated with the great religious
movement now in progress, and presented it as corroboratory proof of the
charge preferred against the "Lutherans," it is not surprising that they
were generally successful in their appeal to the fears of a class which
had so much at stake.

In addition to his endorsement of their pious zeal, Clement's brief
informed the judges of parliament that they would find in the
accompanying bull his formal confirmation of the inquisitorial
commission.[265]

This "letter with the leaden seal," dated the seventeenth of May, might
well have opened the eyes of less devoted subjects of the Roman See to
the injury they were inflicting upon the French liberties, heretofore so
cherished an object of judicial solicitude. Addressing itself to the
four commissioners named by parliament, the bull recited the lamentable
progress of the doctrines of that "son of iniquity and heresiarch,
Martin Luther," and praised the ardor displayed to stay their
dissemination in France. It next declared that the Pope, by the advice
and with the unanimous consent of the cardinals, instructed the
commissioners to proceed either singly or collectively against those
persons who had embraced heretical views, "simply and quietly, without
noise or form of judgment." He empowered them to act independently of
the prelates of the kingdom and the Inquisitor of the Faith, or to call
in their assistance, as they should see fit. They might summon
witnesses, under pain of ecclesiastical censures. They might make
investigations against and put on trial all those infected with heresy,
even should the guilty be bishops or archbishops in the church, or be
clothed with the ducal authority in the state. When convicted, such
persons were to be punished by arrest and imprisonment, or cut off,
"like rotten member