The Sorbonne, said Berquin to himself, represents the papacy. It must be overthrown in order that Christ may triumph. He began first to study the writings of Beda, who had so bitterly censured those of his adversaries, and extracted from them twelve propositions ‘manifestly impious and blasphemous’ in the opinion of Erasmus. Then, taking his manuscript, he proceeded to court and presented it to the king, who said: ‘I will interdict Beda’s polemical writings.’ As Francis smiled upon him, Berquin resolved to go further, namely, to attack the Sorbonne and popery, as equally dangerous to the State and to the Church, and to make public certain doctrines of theirs which struck at the power of the throne. He approached the king, and said to him in a lower tone: ‘Sire, I have discovered in the acts and papers of the Sorbonne certain secrets of importance to the State ... some mysteries of iniquity.’[629] Nothing was better calculated to exasperate Francis I. ‘Show me those passages,’ he exclaimed. Meantime he told the reformer that the twelve propositions of the syndic of the Sorbonne should be examined. Berquin left the palace full of hope. ‘I will follow these redoubtable hornets into their holes,’ he said to his friends. ‘I will fall upon these insensate babblers, and scourge them on their own dunghill.’ Some people who heard him thought him out of his mind. ‘This gentleman will certainly get himself put to death,’ they said, ‘and he will richly deserve it.’[630] Everything seemed to favour Berquin’s design. Francis I. was acting the part of Frederick the Wise: he seemed even more ardent than that moderate protector of Luther. On the 12th of July, 1527, the Bishop of Bazas appeared at court, whither he had been summoned by the king. Francis gave him the twelve famous propositions he had received from Berquin, and commanded him to take them to the rector of the university, with orders to have them examined, not only by doctors of divinity, of whom he had suspicions in such a matter,[631] but by the four assembled faculties. Berquin hastened to report this to Erasmus, still hoping to gain him over by the good news.