Theodore Agrippa D'Aubigné was among the commentators struck by the intransigence of the Parisians throughout the siege of 1590. The council in question was formed from within the Paris League to advise the Duke of Nemours. D'Aubigné's bitter suggestion that these League preachers kept them-selves well fed even as Parisians starved only underscores his anxiety over their influence. After all, these men were members of a spiritual elite, products of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Paris. A regent master in the Faculty as well as a highly respected scholar of scriptural and patristic works, the Franciscan Feuardent perhaps enjoyed the highest renown of all.

Since the support of such prominent clerics gave the Catholic League credibility among many Catholics, we can well understand why royalist supporters were nervous about their political activism. While the political influence of the Faculty after 1588 is a matter of record, how the Faculty mobilized its members in support of the League is still poorly understood. Franciscan relations with the Faculty nevertheless suggest that, at least for these members of the august institution, one critical factor was the Faculty's role as a site of intellectual, literary, and political interaction. The rigorous scholastic theological training provided by the Faculty of Theology throughout the Wars of Religion vested Franciscan preaching with special authority, and gave men such as Feuardent an opportunity to shape French religious life at the highest levels of political and ecclesiastical governance.