These declarations from the King of France forwarded the enterprise; before taking such a step, he must have been very clear in his intentions. We may well ask, however, if the letter was sincere. In history, as in nature, there are striking contrasts. While these things were passing in the upper regions of society, scenes were occurring in the lower regions which ran counter to those fine projects of princes and scholars. The Swiss divines maintained that the whole affair was a comedy in which the king and his ministers played the chief parts. That may be questionable, but the interlude was a blood-stained tragedy. In the very month when Francis I. wrote to Melancthon, a poor husbandman of La Bresse, John Cornon, was arrested while at work in the fields, and taken to Macon. The judges, who expected to see an idiot appear before them, were astonished when they heard that poor peasant proving to them, in his simple _patois_, the truth of his faith, and displaying an extensive knowledge of Holy Scripture. As the pious husbandman remained unshaken in his attachment to the all-sufficient grace of Jesus Christ, he was condemned to death, dragged on a hurdle to the place of execution, and there burnt alive.[699] In the following month of July, Dennis Brion, a humble barber of Sancerre, near Paris, and a reputed heretic, was taken in his shop. He had often expounded the Scriptures, not only to those who visited him, but also to a number of persons who assembled to hear him. Nothing annoyed the priests so much as these meetings, where simple Christians, speaking in succession, bore testimony to the light and consolation they had found in the Bible. Brion was condemned, as the husbandman of La Bresse had been, and his death was made a great show. It was the time of the _grands jours_ at Angers; and there he was burnt alive, in the midst of an immense concourse of people from every quarter.[700] It is probable that those executions were not the result of any new orders, but a mere sequel to the cruelties of the 21st of January, the influence of which had only then reached the provinces. These two executions, however, made the necessity of laboring to restore peace and unity still more keenly felt. Those engaged in the task saw but one means: to admit on one side the evangelical doctrine, and on the other the episcopal form with a bishop _primus inter pares_. Western Christendom would thus have a protestant body with a Roman dress. The Church of the Reformation (it was said) holds to doctrine before all things, and the Church of Rome to its government; let us unite the two elements. The Wittemberg doctors hoped that the substance would prevail over the form; the Roman doctors that the form would prevail over the substance; but many on both sides honestly believed that the proposed combination would succeed and be perpetual. [Sidenote: Du Bellay Goes To Rome.]