principles of the reformation which she afterwards favoured in England.

Louis was dying at the period of this illassorted marriage; he survived it but a short time. At his death, the crown of France devolved to his cousin and son-in-law, Francis I.

The daughter of Louis XII. is well known in the interesting annals of the early-commenced reformation in Italy. Renée, duchess of Ferrara, was one of its first converts. But Ferrara, at whose gay court the celebrated Olympia Morata lived, was in the dominions of the pope, and was much too near to Rome to allow of the progress of the reformation. On the death of her husband, the duchess of Ferrara left that scene of religious persecution, and returned to her native land, where, at her residence near Paris, to which she afterwards retired, she sheltered the Protestants of France.

CHAPTER III.

FRANCIS I. 1515-1547.

DURING the thirteenth century, a singular revolution was effected almost throughout Europe; not in the religion only which was then established, but in the politics which then prevailed.

That century is remarkable for having produced a number of men such as might each, singly, have reflected some lustre on his age. A Raphael alone would have done so. Talent, genius, and art, appeared at once to break forth upon the world where ignorance had reigned. Ignorance had long fostered superstition, and superstition had cherished ignorance. Darkness had covered "the earth, and gross darkness the people." The Spirit of the Lord was moving through the gloom, and when the time was fully come, and the professing church had too deplorably filled up the measure of her iniquity, "God said, Let there be light: and there was light."

Irrespectively of the great reformers, whose learning and mental powers astonish us in a more enlightened age, the chief thrones of the

These

world were at that period filled by illustrious monarchs, and their courts frequented by men of literature, and by artists whose productions may never yet have been equalled by their successors. Such sovereigns as Charles v. emperor of Germany, Francis 1. king of France, Henry VIII. of England, pope Leo x. of Rome, and Solyman the Magnificent, sultan of the Turks, would probably have cast some celebrity over the age in which they contemporaneously appeared; but undoubtedly their times have cast additional celebrity over them. powers kept one another in balance; their great talents, equal valour, and abilities, were constantly in opposition, and prevented any one from gaining undue pre-eminence; while they afforded to all such occupation as contributed materially to favour the progress of opinion, and the course of innovation. stop these, a more powerful opposition would have been at once excited, had the reigning pope been more active and more persecuting than was Leo X., the munificent patron of the arts, the lover of literature, luxury, and pleasure.

To

This epoch was undoubtedly a most important one in the history of Europe; it is one that marks the termination of what are called the "middle ages," to a large portion of which the designation of "dark" may truly be given.

At the dawn of the sixteenth century, Europe appeared to be awaking to a general movement of mind; a spirit of inquiry was aroused

and continued; passive obedience, enchaining mankind in the bonds of a blind superstition, was no longer universal; knowledge was increased, and it was still further extended by the use of the printing-press. The chief nations of Europe were in a transition state; and, if the vigorous minds that then threw off the long-prevailing lethargy, and dared to question the realities of the doctrines they were taught to believe, had not been guided into truth by the word of God, and by the power of his Spirit, undoubtedly they must have turned to infidelity as the result of their bold investigations.

Who, that reads the description of the court and clergy of Rome, when Luther visited it, during the pontificate of Julius II. (the predecessor of Luther's antagonist, Leo x.) but must see that the reformation was the only escape from infidelity:

What would probably have been the case with the reformers, had not the Spirit of God guided and sanctified the efforts of their minds, has too generally occurred in the land of which we write. In France, there have been, and are, men-yes, and even women also-of intellect too elevated to believe all that their church teaches, or to practise all it requires. They unhappily turn aside, disgusted with the externals which their religion presents; refuse to look for the truth that is overlaid with so much error; and, because required to believe too much, end in believing nothing. There are numbers who

are led to deny the Godhead of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, on account of the ridiculous honours paid to the virgin Mary.

We must now trace the long and troubled course of events by which that reformation was prevented from being established in France, and pursue our history of Protestantism unconnected with the diversified events and characters of the German reformation.

The name of Francis 1. is usually associated with ideas of all that is brilliant and dazzling. He possessed all the qualities which constituted what, in the language of his age, was called a chevalier. He was handsome, brave, generous, sensitive of honour, and desirous of glory. He possessed also that love of learning and of the fine arts which was becoming general in his time. His court-the gayest, the most brilliant and dissipated, perhaps, in the world-welcomed the men of letters, the great painters, and sculptors, which the age produced. Among the former were some who, it was said, were "inclining to Lutheranism;" and some who, in the universities of Paris, had learned or taught the truths of the gospel.

Francis, in the early part of his reign, saw only learned men in the professors of different religious opinions, and received and listened to them as such. The learned, but timid Erasmus, was invited to his court, and says that the . king, by drawing thither the learned men who were inclining to Lutheranism, expected to adorn and distinguish his reign more magni