deter- to continue their meetings. It is, he says, the plain duty of Christian princes to prevent this evil, and he trusts the Emperor to act, and he himself desires to co-operate to stop this schismatical action.[1]
In his zeal for the Catholic faith King Henry took much to heart this disobedient attitude of the Council of Basle towards Pope Eugenius IV. By his Bull Doctoris gentium in September 1537, the Supreme Pontiff declared the Council ended, and later transferred it to Ferrara. The Fathers at Basle, or, rather, some of them, refused to recognize the right of the Pope to do this, and they desired to continue their discussions in spite of him. On reports of this action reaching the King, he addressed a strong letter of expostulation to the recalcitrant Fathers. He deplored their attitude, which must bring grief and dismay to all faithful sons of the Church. He begs them to pause and consider what they are doing in actually citing "the most Holy father and lord Eugenius, a man who from his youth onward has ever enjoyed the reputation of holiness and modesty, and who possesses every moral quality to make him the pious
- ↑ Beckytnon Correspondence, p. 84.
