Note 488 — CXXXI.—To Farel.[488]

Misled by the false reports of the secret agents of the Cardinal du Tournon, and by the calumnious denunciations of the Baron d'Oppède, Francis I. at length was prevailed upon to carry into execution the sentence pronounced by the Parliament of Aix against the Vaudois of Provence, and to give the signal of the dreadfully atrocious massacres of Cabrières and of Merindol.—Hist. des Martyrs, lib. iii.; De Thou, lib. vi. On hearing the sad intelligence, Calvin set out from Geneva in all haste for Berne, to implore at Berne and Zurich the interference of the Reformed cantons, even at the eleventh hour, in favour of these unhappy victims of intolerance and fanaticism.