commun estat, au paiement de la ditte rancon, etc."
Labbei Concilia, xix. fol. 1137.]

[Footnote 278: The reason assigned for not convoking the States General
in proper form, viz., that time did not permit the necessary delay, must
be considered scarcely sufficient to explain the irregularity. Ibid.,
_ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 279: "Fist un discours farci de latin et de citations de
l'Ecriture, dans lequel il conclut que le traite de Madrid estoit nul."
Isambert, xii. 299.]

[Footnote 280: The declaration is significant and noteworthy as the
first of many similar assurances. Among the documents in Isambert,
Recueil des anc. lois francaises, is a full account of the proceedings
of the notables, xii. 292-301.]

[Footnote 281: If Francis was sanguine of success in suppressing the
Reformation in his kingdom, there were others who went farther still.
Barthelemi de Chassanee this very year (1527) chronicles the destruction
of "Lutheranism" in France as _an accomplished fact_! The passage is not
unworthy of notice. After explaining the significance of the
_fleurs-de-lis_ on the royal escutcheon by the wonderful efficacy of the
lily as the antidote of the serpent's poison, and remarking that the
kings of France had thrice extracted the mortal virus from the bite of
Mohammed, "serpentis venenosi," the writer adds: "Et, his temporibus,
videmus nostram fidem et religionem Christianam _sanatam esse a morsu
pestiferi serpentis Lutheri_, qui infinitas haereses in fide Christiana
seminavit, _quae fuerunt extirpatae a Rege nostro Francisco
Christianissimo_, qui non cessat insudare, ut Clemens summus Pontifex a
sua Sede ejectus restituatur, quem Carolus Borbonius dux exercitus
Caroli Austriaci electi in Imperatorem, in urbe obsederat _hoc anno
Domini_ 1527 die 6 Maii." Catalogus Gloriae Mundi, fol. 143.]

[Footnote 282: Labbei Concilia, xix. fol. 1160.]

[Footnote 283: The reader may, if his patience will hold out, wade
through the prolix decrees of the Council of Sens as published by
Cardinal Duprat in 1529, and printed in Labbei Concilia (Venice, 1732),
xix. 1149-1202. It is worthy of remark that the confiscation of the
property of condemned heretics, if laymen, to the state, is ordered,
"_tanquam reorum laesae majestatis_." Fol. 1159.]

[Footnote 284: Labbei Concilia, xix. fol. 1139.]

[Footnote 285: The words of the decree are sufficiently distinct: "Illam
plurimum gravem et onerosam ecclesiis, laicis vero contemtibilem,
sac