ABSTRACT
Francis I was not in the same class as Henry VIII where paradox was concerned; he never executed three Protestants and three Catholics on the same day. Yet his religious policy does not strike one as a model of consistency. Until the autumn of 1534 he seems to have been on the whole well-disposed towards reformers, protecting them from persecution by the Sorbonne and the parlement. Francis, however, could not be expected to endorse it. Since the beginning of his reign he had extended his patronage to humanism and had earned international acclaim for this. Such was the background to the long struggle between the king and the Sorbonne over the persecution of heretics. Francis and the parlement clashed over many issues. A disagreement between the king and the parlement was all the more likely to happen when they were separated by a considerable distance.
