Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/121

106 the King's choristers," "an attorney." Here it is the middle-class that is attacked.

Nor was this all. Not only life but reason was menaced. On the 26th February the King suspended the action of the Press. No more books were to be printed. So ordained the friend and patron of the Estiennes, the Founder of the College of France. But the thing was impossible; France could no longer live, work, pursue her daily affairs, without the Press. Not only Jean du Bellay and the learned Budé, but even the reactionary Parliament protested against so grotesque a prohibition. The King was content with imposing a censorship of the Press.

So completely had Francis turned upon his steps. Perhaps we find the reason in the fact that Béda, the intrepid Béda, returned from exile in 1535, accused the King himself of leaning towards heresy. Francis threw the rash syndic into prison again; obliged him to do public penance, in a sheet and holding a candle; finally confined him in the prison of Mont St. Michel, where the cutting winds and stormy weather of the ensuing spring cooled for ever the very heart of Béda. But Francis, though avenged, was not appeased. A horror of his own laxity was upon him. Still the persecution continued; till finally the Protestants of Germany complained of his rigour towards unfortunates whose only crime was professing the religion which they themselves, the King's allies, believed. They also deplored the rumoured alliance between Francis and Soliman. The King's answer has been preserved. He, to some extent, admits a friendly intention towards the Porte, acknowledging that he had received the Turkish Ambassador. The Emperor, he reminds them, had done as much; and it is well