--when, lo! she was suddenly
transformed into a cruel tyrant. It was perhaps hard to detect the exact
connection between the acceptance of the holy book and so disastrous a
change of character--neither the students of the College de Navarre nor
their teachers thought it worth while to trouble themselves about such
trifles--but there was no difficulty in recognizing Margaret in the
principal actor of the play, or in deciphering the name of Master Gerard
Roussel--Magister Gerardus--in _Megaera_, the fury with the flaming
torch, that seduced her. On complaint of his sister, Francis, in some
indignation, ordered the arrest of the author of the insipid drama, as
well as of the youthful performers. The former could not be found, and
the latter, thanks to the queen's clemency, escaped with a less rigorous
punishment than the insult deserved.[315]

[Sidenote: Her Miroir de l'ame pecheresse.]

An equally audacious act was the insertion of a work published by
Margaret, under the title of _Le miroir de l'ame pecheresse_, in a list
of prohibited books. When the university, to whom the censorship of the
press was entrusted, was called to account by the king, all the
faculties promptly repudiated any intention to cast doubt upon the
orthodoxy of his sister, and even the originator of the offensive
prohibition was forced to plead ignorance of the authorship of the
volume in question. The rector of the university terminated the long
series of disclaimers by rendering thanks to Francis for his fatherly
patience.[316]

[Sidenote: Rector Cop's address to the university.]

Just a month after the unlucky dramatic representation of the College de
Navarre, the city was furnished with fresh food for scandal. On All
Saints' day (the first of November, 1533), the university assembled
according to custom in the church of the Mathurins, to listen to an
address delivered by the rector. But Nicholas Cop's discourse was not of
the usual type. Under guise of a disquisition on "Christian Philosophy,"
the orator preached an evangelical sermon, with the First Beatitude for
his text, and propounded the view that the forgiveness of sin and
eternal life are simple gifts of God's grace that cannot be earned by
man's good works.[317]

[Sidenote: Its extraordinary character.]

Never had academic harangue contained sentiments savoring so strongly of
the tenets of the persecuted reformers. True, the rector had not omitted
the ordinary invitation to his he