_1550._ It is ordered that if a book has been printed without a permit, but is found on examination to contain nothing pernicious, the printer is simply condemned to banishment for life, first making payment of a fine of 300 _caroli_. The possession or the reading of heretical books was in itself sufficient evidence of heresy. A person found guilty of heresy was permitted, for a first offence, to purge himself of his sin by recantation. If the delinquent persisted in his heresy, the penalty, under the edicts of 1529 and 1531, was for men, beheading, for women, burial alive. Heretics who had recanted and later relapsed were burned.[64] =4. Regulations in France, 1521–1551, concerning the Production and the Use of Books.=--It was the case in France as in England that the control of the supervision of the printing-presses and of the business of book-distribution rested from the outset with the Crown; and that as far as regulations were framed by the theological faculty of the Sorbonne or by the bishops, this was done under the authority and instructions of the king. In France, however, another division of the temporal power, namely, the Parliament of Paris, undertakes from time to time the publication of regulations for the control of the press, or for the prohibition of books already in print; but by the close of the 16th century this independent action on the part of the Parliament comes to an end; Thereafter the orders concerning books are based on the sole authority of the king, and are, as a rule, issued by the royal chamberlain. _1521._ _Francis I_ issues an edict, framed at the instance of the University of Paris, prohibiting the printing of any new works, either in Latin or in French, having to do with matters of faith or with the Scriptures, until the texts had been examined and approved by the theological faculty.[65] _1528._ _A Provincial Council, held at Sens_, acting under the instructions of the King (Francis I), issues a decree forbidding the possession of copies of the writings of Luther and his followers. There is also a prohibition of the reading or the circulation of any works on religious subjects which do not bear record of a permit from the bishop. _1528._ _A Provincial Council at Bourges_ issues a decree which is in its wording precisely identical with the above. It is probable that they were both prepared in Paris.