created for the trial of heretics (October 8, 1547). It became known as la Chambre Ardente, and fully deserved its name. From the beginning of December, 1547, to January 10, 1550, it must have condemned to death at least a hundred persons, belonging for the most part to the class of smaller shopkeepers and artisans, and that although its jurisdiction was confined to a quarter of France. The provincial Parliaments, especially those of Rouen, Toulouse, and Aix, were no less active. Owing to the jealousy of the ecclesiastical Courts the sole right of trying cases of heresy was restored to them by an Edict of November 19, 1549, and the Chambre Ardente was temporarily suppressed. But the ecclesiastical Courts continued to show remissness; and a new Edict was issued from Chateaubriand on June 27, 1551. It transferred to the civil Courts the cognisance of heretical acts which involved a public scandal or disturbance, and encouraged informers by the promise of a third of the accused's property. Fresh executions in various parts of France showed that the judges were more to be relied on than the Bishops. In March, 1553, the Chambre Ardente was revived, and soon afterwards an execution took place at Lyons which made a deep impression on the public mind. It was that of the " Five Scholars of Lausanne.11 Natives of different places in the south-west of France, they had gone to Lausanne to prepare themselves by study for the work of evangelisation. One had lodged with Beza, another with Viret. On their return home they were arrested at Lyons (May 1, 1552) and condemned to death for heresy by the ecclesiastical judge. Having appealed to the Parliament of Paris, they were kept for a whole year in prison awaiting its decision. Beza, Pierre Viret, the Cantons of Zurich and Bern, interceded in vain with the King and with the Cardinal of Tournon. The scholars were burnt on May 16, 1553. They had been guilty of no crime except that of heretical opinions; they had committed no act which could possibly be construed as dangerous to the public peace or to the orthodox religion. Their execution made a deep impression, and the account of it fills a large space in Crespin's Martyrolpgy which appeared in the following year (1554), and immediately took rank with the Protestant Bible and the Protestant Psalter as a cherished source of inspiration and support in persecution.
In the year 1555 French Protestantism took a definite step forwards. It began to organise its Churches. It is true that before this date Churches had been established at Meaux (1546) and Nismes (1547), but they had both been broken up by persecution. Now Paris set the example. The Church was organised, as that of Meaux had been, on the model of that of Strassburg, founded by Calvin in 1538. Jean le Maçon, surnamed Le Rivière, was chosen as pastor, and he was assisted in the work of government by a consistory of elders and deacons. In the same year Churches were organised after the same pattern at Angers, Poitiers, and Loudun, and in the little peninsula of Arvert, between the Gironde
