ier, Du Bellay had, while on an embassy,
set forth his royal master's pretended convictions in favor of the
Reformation with so much verisimilitude as to alarm the papal nuncio,
who dreaded the effect of his speeches upon the Protestants. "Non e
piccola murmoration qui en Corte, ch'l Orator Francese _facea piu che
l'officio suo richiede in animar Lutherani_." Aleander to Sanga,
Ratisbon, July 2, 1532, Vatican MSS., Laemmer, 141.]

[Footnote 380: Sleidan, De statu rel. et reipubl., lib. ix., ad annum
1535. The Jesuit Maimbourg rejects the secret conference of Du Bellay as
apocryphal, in view of Francis's persecution of the Protestants at
Paris, and his declaration of January 21st. But Sleidan's statement is
fully substantiated by an extant memorandum by Spalatin, who was present
on the occasion (printed in Seckendorff, Gerdes, iv. 68-73 Doc., and
Bretschneider, ii. 1014). It receives additional confirmation from a
letter of the Nuncio Morone to Pope Paul III., Vienna, Dec. 26, 1536
(Vatican MSS., Laemmer, 178). Morone received from Doctor Matthias,
Vice-Chancellor of the Empire, an account of Francis's recent offer to
the German Protestants "_di condescendere nelle loro opinioni,_" on
condition of their renouncing obedience to the emperor. He reserved only
two points of doctrine as requiring discussion: the sacrifice of the
mass, and the authority and primacy of the Pope. The Protestants
rejected the interested proposal of the royal convert.]

[Footnote 381: The authorship of this interesting document, and the way
it reached its destination, are equally unknown. It is published--for
the first time, I believe--in Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss, Opera Calvini
(1872), x. part ii. 55, 56.]

[Footnote 382: Senatus Argentoratensis Francisco Regi, July 3, 1536,
ibid., x. 57-61.]

[Footnote 383: Senatus Turicensis Francisco Regi, July 13, 1536, ibid.,
x. 61.]

[Footnote 384: Edict of Lyons, May 31, 1536, Herminjard, iv. 192.]

[Footnote 385: Francois I^er aux Conseils de Zurich, Berne, Bale et
Strasbourg, Compiegne, Feb. 20, and Feb. 23, 1537, Basle MSS., ibid.,
iv. 191-193. Cf. the documents, mostly inedited, iv. 70, 96, 150.]

[Footnote 386: Le Conseil de Berne au Conseil de Bale, March 15, 1537,
ibid., iv. 202, 203, Sleidan (Strasb. ed. of 1555), lib x. fol. 163
_verso_. It must, however, be remarked that the "evangelical cities"
would not take the rebuff as decisive, and, within a few months, were
again writing to Francis i