Francis hated Lutheranism because he believed that it tended more to the overthrow of kingdoms and monarchies than to the edification of souls.

He told Aleander, the papal nuncio, that he thought Luther a rascal and his doctrine pernicious.

[Sidenote: March, 1521] [Sidenote: April 1523] The king was energetically seconded by the Parlement of Paris.

A royal edict provided that no book should be printed without the imprimatur of the university.

The king next ordered the extirpation of the errors of Martin Luther of Saxony, and, having begun by burning books, continued, as Erasmus observed was usually the case, by burning people.