state, nor alienate Burgundy, which, being a fief of the first rank and
a bulwark of the kingdom, was inseparable from France. But probably the
whole prodigious mass of classic lore, and of scriptural quotation, even
more unfamiliar to most of his hearers, which the pedantic president
forced upon the digestion of the unfortunate notables, was required to
prove to their satisfaction that Francis had in this affair played the
part of the "gentilhomme" he boasted of being.

[Sidenote: Speech of the Cardinal of Bourbon.]

The speech of the Cardinal of Bourbon was especially important. He
announced the willingness of the representatives of the French clergy
cheerfully to supply the 1,300,000 livres asked of their order, although
at the same time he suggested the propriety of first convoking
provincial councils, in which the church might be more fully consulted.
With this gracious concession, however, the cardinal coupled three
requests, of which the first and third concerned the liberation of the
Pope from his imprisonment and the conservation of the liberties of the
Gallican church; but the second had a pointed reference to the
Reformation: he prayed "that the king might be pleased to uproot and
extirpate the damnable and insufferable Lutheran sect which had, not
long since, secretly entered the realm, with all the other heresies that
were multiplying therein." By thus acting, he assured him, Francis
"would perform the duty of a good prince bearing the name of _Very
Christian King_."

[Sidenote: Francis promises to prove himself "Very Christian."]

The gratified monarch, delighted with the complaisance of his clerical
subjects, did not hesitate to accede to all the petitions the Cardinal
offered, and declared that, "so far as concerned heresies, he was
determined not to endure them, but would cause them to be wholly
extirpated and driven from his kingdom," inflicting on any found tainted
therewith such exemplary punishment as to demonstrate his right to the
honorable title he bore.[280]

It was a rash promise that Francis had made. Like many other absolute
monarchs, he expected without trouble to bring the religious convictions
of his subjects into conformity with the standard he was pleased to set
up.[281] He had yet to learn that there are beliefs which, when they
take root in the hearts of humble and illiterate peasants or artisans,
are too firmly fixed to be eradicated by the most excruciating tortures
man's inge