The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 229

The 21st of January, 1535, was fixed upon for the awful ceremonial.
The superstitious fears and bigoted hatred of the whole nation had
been roused. Paris was thronged with the multitudes that from all the
surrounding country crowded her streets. The day was to be ushered in
by a vast and imposing procession. “The houses along the line of march
were hung with mourning drapery, and altars rose at intervals.” Before
every door was a lighted torch in honor of the “holy sacrament.” Before
daybreak the procession formed at the palace of the king. “First came the
banners and crosses of the several parishes; next appeared the citizens,
walking two and two, and bearing torches.” The four orders of friars
followed, each in its own peculiar dress. Then came a vast coll ection of
famous relics. Following these rode lordly ecclesiastics in their purple
and scarlet robes and jeweled adornings, a gorgeous and glittering array.
“The host was carried by the bishop of Paris under a magnificent
canopy, ... supported by four princes of the blood.... After the host
walked the king.... Francis I on that day wore no crown, nor robe of
state.” With “head uncovered, his eyes cast on the ground, and in his
hand a lighted taper,” the king of France appeared “in the character of
a penitent.”—Ibid., b. 13, ch. 21. At every altar he bowed down in
humiliation, nor for the vices that defiled his soul, nor the innocent blood
that stained his hands, but for the deadly sin of his subjects who had
dared to condemn the mass. Following him came the queen and the
dignitaries of state, also walking two and two, each with a lighted torch.
As a part of the services of the day the monarch himself addressed
the high officials of the kingdom in the great hall of the bishop’s palace.
With a sorrowful countenance he appeared before them and in words
of moving eloquence bewailed “the crime, the blasphemy, the day of
sorrow and disgrace,” that had come upon the nation. And he called
upon every loyal subject to aid in the extirpation of the pestilent heresy
that threatened France with ruin. “As true, messieurs, as I am your king,”
he said, “if I knew one of my

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