Note 475 — Chapter VII

Calvin's Letters (Bonnet), i. 228, 229. Strange to say, even M. Nicolaï, otherwise very fair, credits one of these absurd rumors (Leber, ubi supra, xvii. 557). While the inhabitants of Mérindol entered into negotiations, it is stated that those of Cabrières, subjects of the Pope, took up arms. Twice they repulsed the vice-legate's forces, driving them back to the walls of Avignon and Cavaillon. Flushed with success, they began to preach openly, to overturn altars, and to plunder churches. The Pope, therefore, Dec., 1543, called on Count De Grignan for assistance in exterminating the rebels. But the incidents here told conflict with the undeniable facts of Cardinal Sadolet's intercession for, and peaceable relations with the inhabitants of Cabrières in 1541 and 1542; as well as with the royal letters of March 17, 1549 (1550 New Style), and the report of Du Bellay. Bouche, on the weak authority of Meynier, De la guerre civile, gives similar statements of excesses, ii. 611, 612.