the Roman party was plotting, and been able to tell his friends the probable issue of the crisis. He had often asked the sons of Budæus what their father was planning.[348] 'He is much with the bishop,' answered they, 'but he is planning nothing.'[349] Thus Siderander did all he could, but to no purpose, to elicit some interesting communication and to learn some rare news. He was unable to satisfy his extreme curiosity. 'And that is not all,' he said to himself, 'for if, instead of losing my time under the portico of the Sorbonne, I had been elsewhere, I might have learnt something.' He desired to be everywhere, and yet was nowhere. 'Ha!' he said with vexation as he returned from running after Budæus, 'while I throw my hook in at one place, the fish goes to another. Things occur in our quarter which the inhabitants of the others know nothing about, and we know nothing of what takes place elsewhere.[350] Alas! everything assumes a threatening aspect; everything announces a violent storm.'[351] [Sidenote: SIDERANDER'S CURIOSITY.] The Sorbonne, the religious orders, and all fervent catholics, being convinced that the innovators, by exalting Jesus Christ and his Word, were humbling the Church and the papacy, were determined to wage a deadly war against them. They thought that if they first struck down the most formidable of their adversaries, they could easily disperse the rest of the rebel army. But against whom should the first blow be aimed? This was the subject of deliberation in those councils which the curious Siderander desired so much to overhear. Before we learn what was preparing at the Sorbonne, we must enter more illustrious council-chambers, and transport ourselves to Bologna. [Footnote 307: 'Rex Navarræ instinctu uxoris et episcopus regem sollicitare ... seditionis crimen intendere.'—Sturm to Bucer.] [Footnote 308: 'Gerardum removeat a concionibus.'—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 648.] [Footnote 309: 'Placuit regi ut Beda cum suis oratoribus et G. Rufus, quisque in suis ædibus, tanquam privata custodia detineretur.'—Sturm to Bucer.] [Footnote 310: 'Ut ne accusatores viderentur, sed opinatores tantum, et inquisitores hæreticæ pravitatis.'—Ibid.] [Footnote 311: 'Tum bonus noster Beda in Monte suo Acuto manere coactus est.'—Siderander Bedroto.] [Footnote 312: 'In mulo suo equitantem vidi.'—Siderander Bedroto.] [Footnote 313: 'Judicium de hæresi sibi reservavit.'—Sturmius Bucero.] [Footnote 314: 'Vociferati sunt seditiosissime, regi minantes ipsi.'— Melanchthon to Spalatin, _Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 685.] [Footnote 315: 'Rex, quoniam esset exacerbatus, irrisit tanquam Arcadicorum pecorum.'—Sturm to Bucer.] [Footnote 316: H. de Coste, _Le parfait Ecclésiastique_, p. 73.] [Footnote 317: 'Cujus vel permissu vel jussu populum commovissent et læsissent regem.'—Sturm to Bucer, ed. Schmidt.] [Footnote 318: 'Responderunt ex consensu et placito magistrorum nostrorum.'—Sturm to Bucer, ed. Schmidt.]