DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0158
120
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
of Zurich, who promised him a place in heaven in the
company of Hercules and Cato. The King graciously accepted
their homage. “ I have no wish,” he said, “ to persecute;
I should only be preventing clever men from coming into the
country.” This was to his credit, at a time when German
princes were killing the monks of Antwerp—when even in
England parents were burned for teaching their children the
Pater and the Credo in English (1511). Like Margaret,
Francis was fond of inviting the Reformers to his table,
and discussing their subjects with them during dinner; and
what he thoroughly enjoyed was getting a laugh at the
Pope: the sly laugh of the schoolboy at the expense of a
tyrant pedagogue.
Margaret was bent on the further conversion of both
Francis and Louise. She introduced into the family circle
a certain Michel d’Arande, a scholar of the new faith, whom
she made her special “ Reader.” Unlike their brethren at
Geneva, who read the whole of the Bible, the French Reformers
devoted themselves to the New Testament. Michel d’Arande
read portions of it daily to his three royal friends in their
private apartment, and held debates as he went on. Louise
and Francis became more heterodox, and Margaret rejoiced
in her success. “The King and Madame,” she wrote to a
friend,1 “are more than ever inclined to aid the Reform of
the Church, and resolved to let the world know that God’s
truth is not heresy.” Another of her converts was the
sister of Louise, Philiberte de Savoie, widow of Leo X’s
brother. Philiberte returned from Italy to France and “fell
1 Brigonnet. 1521.
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
of Zurich, who promised him a place in heaven in the
company of Hercules and Cato. The King graciously accepted
their homage. “ I have no wish,” he said, “ to persecute;
I should only be preventing clever men from coming into the
country.” This was to his credit, at a time when German
princes were killing the monks of Antwerp—when even in
England parents were burned for teaching their children the
Pater and the Credo in English (1511). Like Margaret,
Francis was fond of inviting the Reformers to his table,
and discussing their subjects with them during dinner; and
what he thoroughly enjoyed was getting a laugh at the
Pope: the sly laugh of the schoolboy at the expense of a
tyrant pedagogue.
Margaret was bent on the further conversion of both
Francis and Louise. She introduced into the family circle
a certain Michel d’Arande, a scholar of the new faith, whom
she made her special “ Reader.” Unlike their brethren at
Geneva, who read the whole of the Bible, the French Reformers
devoted themselves to the New Testament. Michel d’Arande
read portions of it daily to his three royal friends in their
private apartment, and held debates as he went on. Louise
and Francis became more heterodox, and Margaret rejoiced
in her success. “The King and Madame,” she wrote to a
friend,1 “are more than ever inclined to aid the Reform of
the Church, and resolved to let the world know that God’s
truth is not heresy.” Another of her converts was the
sister of Louise, Philiberte de Savoie, widow of Leo X’s
brother. Philiberte returned from Italy to France and “fell
1 Brigonnet. 1521.