Note 421 — CCCXIII.—To Christoper and to Thomas Zollicoffre.[420]
Reading edition
In a letter to the King of the 15th March, Messieurs of Berne had made strong complaint of the conduct of the Cardinal de Tournon, who, after having promised them to interest himself in behalf of the five students, had, with the utmost rigour, instituted proceedings against them. In a second letter, written three days later, they represented to this prince the innocence of their scholars, arrested at Lyons before they had sojourned there a single day, and condemned to death, although they had neither preached, nor dogmatized, nor excited any disturbance in the kingdom. They concluded by saying,—"We very humbly pray your Majesty to bestow them on us as a pure, royal, gratuitous, and liberal gift, which we shall esteem as great and precious, as if a present had been made us of an inestimable amount of gold and silver." These petitions were of no avail. Inspired by the fatal genius of the Cardinals of Tournon and of Lorraine, Henry II. confirmed the sentence of the parliament of Paris.