Chambre Ardente

To remedy the situation, Francis "authorized the erection in the Parliament of Rouen of a special chamber, consisting of ten or twelve of the most learned and zealous judges, to take cognizance of the crime of heresy to the exclusion of all other employments".

The members of the new commission were selected from among the parliamentary counselors who were removed from any suspicion of heresy and known to be active in the prosecution of offenses against 'mother holy Church.

[3][4] This special court ultimately came to have a reputation of "sending to the flames as many as fell into its hands" and gained the unofficial designation of "la chambre ardente".

Of the sentences pronounced, 39 individuals were able to vindicate themselves and were set free with only an injunction that they live "as good Christians in the holy Catholic faith".

The "penalties" in these cases were fairly mild and included fines, public ceremonies of penance, banishments, and beatings with warnings never to engage in heresy again.

Such intellectual demands were beyond the capabilities of an uneducated peasantry that could neither afford books nor read anything but the local patois that dominated the rural areas.