Note 316 — CCLXXI.—To Viret.[316]

Always attentive to regulate by ordinances the different points of religious and ecclesiastical life, the Seigneurs of Berne had just published (Dec. 1550) new edicts more rigorous than those which had preceded them. These edicts were especially directed against the gross notions and certain customs of the Papists, which Berne punished by fine. Indulgent to the taking of oaths, of which the custom was generally disseminated among the Catholic population subject to their dominion, the Seigneurie seemed to reserve all their severity for the offence of not observing the feasts abolished at Geneva.