Louis II. acceded to this demand, and on the 15th of October, 1524, he issued a severe ordinance against the Reformation. ‘This _thing_ displeases me greatly,’ he said. ‘We desire that our subjects should keep pure from all stain and all errors the faith which we have received from our ancestors; and we some time ago decreed that no one in our kingdom should embrace or approve this sect.’[535] Next, he commanded those whom he addressed, on pain of forfeiting life and goods, to do every thing possible to stay the Lutheran heresy. The archbishop of Gran, who was returning from Rome, and Cardinal Szalkai caused commissaries to be appointed for the suppression of heresy; and, as Hermanstadt was causing the greatest uneasiness, they directed them first to this town. A good many people were astonished to see these agents of the pope intent at such a time on persecution. The Turks were threatening an invasion of Hungary; and was this the moment to breed division among the citizens? Was there not a necessity for establishing a good understanding among them all, and of uniting them in heart and in will? Ought Hungary to be exposed, by a division of its forces, to a frightful catastrophe? All these considerations were ineffectual. The Roman clergy shrank from nothing. Dreading the Gospel more than the Turk, they rashly flung their brands of discord into the midst of a generous people. The fire, however, did not burn so well as had been hoped. When the commissaries arrived in Transylvania, they found opinions so decided in favor of the Gospel, that they renounced their intention of burning men and confined themselves to burning the books. The writings of the apostles and the reformers were taken by force from the townsmen; a huge fire was kindled in the market-place, and the best of the books were thrown into it. The archiepiscopal commissaries could not deny themselves the pleasure of being present at this execution, for want of others, and they watched the flames with a joy which they could hardly suppress. Meanwhile, a psalter on fire, caught up by the wind, fell upon the bald head of one of them, and the poor man was so dangerously injured that he died within three days. The death intended for the persecuted overtook the persecutors. Executions of a like kind took place in other Hungarian towns. The warden of the Franciscan convent at Oedenburg displayed extraordinary zeal and ordered the works of the great Luther to be burnt by the hangman. In the archives of the town may still be read the following entry—‘Anno 1525, Monday after New Year’s Day, paid to the hangman for burning the Lutheran books, 1 d. d.’[536]