as their very life and blood. He was inclined to
limit the assumption of monastic vows to persons of mature age, and to
give monks and nuns the right of renouncing their profession and
marrying. He favored the conversion of monasteries into seminaries of
learning. While the French theologians insisted upon the celibacy of the
priesthood, for himself he would suggest the middle ground of permitting
such priests as had already married to retain their wives, while
prohibiting others from following their example, unless they resigned
the sacerdotal office. He would have the sacramental cup administered
to the laity when desired, and hoped to obtain the Pope's consent. He
even admitted the necessity of reform in some of the daily prayers, and
reprehended the want of moderation exhibited by the Sorbonne, which not
only condemned the Germans, but would not hesitate on occasion to
censure the cardinals or the Holy Pontiff himself.

[Sidenote: The Germans are not deceived.]

We cannot find that Du Bellay's honeyed words produced any very deep
impression. Princes and theologians knew tolerably well both how sincere
was the king's profession of friendliness to the "Lutheran" tenets, and
what was the truth respecting the persecution that had raged for months
within his dominions. The western breezes came freighted with the fetid
smoke of human holocausts, and not even the perfume of Francis's
delicately scented speeches could banish the disgust caused by the
nauseating sacrifice. The princes might listen with studied politeness
to the king's apologetic words, and assent to the general truth that
sedition should be punished by severity; but they took the liberty, at
the same time, to express a fervent prayer that the advocates of a
reformed religion and a pure gospel might not be involved in the fate of
the unruly. And they disappointed the monarch by absolutely declining to
enter into any alliance against the Emperor Charles the Fifth. The
French ambassador returned home, and Francis so dexterously threw aside
the mask of pretended favor to a moderate reformation in the church,
that it soon became a disputed question whether he had ever assumed it
at all.[380]

[Sidenote: Efforts of the French Protestants in Switzerland and
Germany.]

Meantime the French Protestants were unremitting in their efforts to
obtain a more satisfactory solution of the religious question than was
contained in the Declaration of Coucy. They wrote to St