[Footnote 381: The authorship of this interesting document, and the way it reached its destination, are equally unknown. It is published--for the first time, I believe--in Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss, Opera Calvini (1872), x. part ii. 55, 56.] [Footnote 382: Senatus Argentoratensis Francisco Regi, July 3, 1536, ibid., x. 57-61.] [Footnote 383: Senatus Turicensis Francisco Regi, July 13, 1536, ibid., x. 61.] [Footnote 384: Edict of Lyons, May 31, 1536, Herminjard, iv. 192.] [Footnote 385: François I^er aux Conseils de Zurich, Berne, Bâle et Strasbourg, Compiègne, Feb. 20, and Feb. 23, 1537, Basle MSS., ibid., iv. 191-193. Cf. the documents, mostly inedited, iv. 70, 96, 150.] [Footnote 386: Le Conseil de Berne au Conseil de Bâle, March 15, 1537, ibid., iv. 202, 203, Sleidan (Strasb. ed. of 1555), lib x. fol. 163 _verso_. It must, however, be remarked that the "evangelical cities" would not take the rebuff as decisive, and, within a few months, were again writing to Francis in behalf of his persecuted subjects of Nismes and elsewhere. Le Conseil de Berne à François I^er, Nov. 17, 1537, Berne MSS., Herminjard, iv. 320.] CHAPTER VI. CALVIN AND GENEVA.--MORE SYSTEMATIC PERSECUTION BY THE KING. [Sidenote: The placards of 1534 mark an epoch in the history of the Huguenots.] In the initial stage of great enterprises a point may sometimes be distinguished at which circumstances, in themselves trivial, have shaped the entire future. Such a point in the history of the Huguenots is marked by the appearance of the "Placards" of 1534. The pusillanimous retreat of Bishop Briçonnet from the advanced post he had at first assumed, robbed Protestantism of an important advantage which might have been retained had the prelate proved true to his convictions. But the "Placards," with their stern and uncompromising logic, their biting sarcasm, their unbridled invective, directed equally against the absurdities of the mass and the inconsistencies of its advocates, exerted a far more lasting and powerful influence than even the lamentable defection of the Bishop of Meaux. Until now the attitude of Francis with respect to the "new doctrines" had been uncertain and wavering. It was by no means impossible that, imitating the example of the Elector of Saxony, the French monarch should even yet put himself at the head of the movement. Severe persecution had, indeed, dogged the steps of the Reformation. Fire and gibbet had been mercilessly employed to destroy it. The squares of Paris had already had the baptism of blood. But the cruelties complained of by the "Lutherans," if tolerated by Francis, had their origin in the bigotry of others. The Sorbonne and the Parisian Parliament, Chancellor Duprat and the queen mother, Louise of Savoie, are entitled to the unenviable distinction of having instigated the sanguinary measures of repression directed against the professors of the Protestant faith, of which we have already met with many fruits.