France was now about to undertake a still greater task. We have seen that there were at that time two systems of reform: Margaret's system and Calvin's. It was in the order of things that the one which remained nearest to catholicism should be tried first. If the most eminent persons of the age, who sought in this middle course the last and supreme resource of christendom, did not see their efforts crowned with success, it would be necessary to undertake, or rather to continue spiritedly, a more simple, more scriptural, more practical, and more radical reform. When Margaret failed, there remained Calvin. The realisation of this specious but illusory system, recommended in after years to Louis XIV. by a great protestant philosopher of Germany, was about to be tried by Francis I. The narrative of this experiment ought to occupy a remarkable place in the religious history of the sixteenth century.
[586] Rœhrich, Reform in Elsass, ii. p. 274.
[587] 'Dominus excitet multos isti heroï similes.'—Bucer to Chelius.
[588] 'Adhuc vehementer laboratur.'—Du Bellay to Bucer.
[589] 'Omnes enim bene sperare jubent.'—Du Bellay to Bucer.
[590] 'Etiam rex ipse, cujus animus erga meliores litteras magis ac magis augetur.'—Ibid.
[591] 'Una tamen in re vehementer a Germanis abhorret.'—Ibid.
[592] Béthune MSS. 8493. Ranke, iii. p. 456.
[593] 'Restitutio ducis Wurtembergensis brevi magnos motus pariet. Divinationes meas nosti.'—Corp. Ref. ii. p. 706.
[594] 'Magna et periculosa res universo orbi terrarum ac præcipue nobis.'—Ibid. p. 728.