Here he stopped short. This of itself may have been a very good text for the friar's purpose; but it was not finished, and had a most unfortunate conclusion. Caturce cried with a loud voice: "Continue the text; finish reading it."

The Dominican seemed to be embarrassed, and was silent.

"If you do not wish to finish the passage I will do it for you," continued the martyr; and in a full, strong voice, he concluded the text:

"Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of those which believe and know the truth."

It was often playing with edged tools for the Roman Catholics to deal much in Scripture before those men who had ventured everything to its teachings.

The Dominican was silent with rage and shame, and Caturce delivered, in the place of the sermon on the Catholic faith, a sermon on the Lutheran faith. He spoke with holy energy, and showed, in the heavenly eloquence which proceeds from a renewed heart, that he died only for having wished to be faithful to the teachings of the primitive Church. His scholars, who were listening, were deeply touched. They had once learned from him the science of law. Now they were learning the way of salvation. He died praising God in the flames.

Where was Margaret de Valois while these things were passing?

Not able to serve all, but doing what she could to protect the Protestants; one day interceding with the king her brother, the next encouraging some fainting Christian.

Soon after Caturce's death she published a religious work which she had written herself, called, "The Mirror of the Sinful Soul" (Le Miroir de l'Ame Pécheresse.) It was soon in the hands of almost every one, not escaping the keen eyes of Bedier and the Sorbonne. It was immediately attacked by them most bitterly, even from the pulpit, and with a rage which prompted them to make use of personalities.

Margaret complained to her brother, who, as we have already hinted, was beginning to show some favor to the persecuting monks. Giving himself up to his pleasures, Francis I. cared little either for the pope or the Bible, beyond what was of direct interest to himself; but he was indignant that one so near the throne should be attacked by the priests. A number of those who had been most forward were prosecuted and imprisoned, and Bedier himself was banished from the court. This gave new courage to the Reformers, and some who had fled returned to Paris. Any favorable dispositions, however, on the part of the king toward the Protestants which might yet linger round his heart, were soon to disappear. It came about thus:

On the 13th of October, 1533, Clement VII. made his solemn entry into the city of Marseilles. This pope, old in years and infirm, brought with him his niece, a young and beautiful woman. By birth and education an Italian, she possessed every accomplishment which wealth and a high position could procure for her. Every eye was fixed upon her, and no one, to behold that lovely countenance, would ever suppose that she was afterward to become celebrated for her ingenuity and boldness in crime; that the present Duchess of Urbin was to become Catharine de Medicis, the mother of Charles IX.

The cunning pope said that he had

come to Marseilles to present his niece to Francis I. But this was

The real one was to make

only the apparent reason. the king a more thorough Romanist, and to destroy the influence of Margaret de Valois. For this purpose he had calculated rightly that his fair companion would be a valuable assistant.

The first public interview of the two monarchs was one of great pomp. It took place in the presence of the great dignitaries of the court of Rome and of France. The pontiff, dressed in great splendor, was seated on a high and glittering throne. The king of France, with his head uncovered, advanced toward him, knelt before the holy father, then swore obedience to him, and kissed his feet, afterward his hand, and was finally allowed the exalted privilege of kissing him on his face. The eldest son of the king was permitted to enjoy the same favors, but the two younger sons were only allowed to kiss his feet and hands. The pope's old and shriveled face was denied to them. It must have been a sad disappointment to the two boys. The grandees of the court were only allowed to kiss the sacred feet. The sub-nobility were allowed to take a look at them. The Archbishop of Paris, in the name of Francis, then addressed the pope as follows:

"The very Christian king, as the eldest son of the Church, acknowledges him in all humility and devotion as pontiff and true vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ, venerates him as successor of St. Peter, and promises to him obedience and fidelity; offering himself with all his powers for the defense of his holiness and of the holy apostolical see, as his predecessors have done."*

*Sismondi, Hist. des Français, tom. xvi, p. 429.

In due time, with marks of great mutual affection, the two potentates separated.

Francis I. did not always keep his promises, but this time he was too faithful. As he returned from Marseilles, he sent from Lyons to the Archbishop of Paris letters containing the following words: “To prosecute all those whom it was possible to convict of the crime of heresy, who multiply and increase in the good city of Paris."

This was on the 10th day of December, 1533, not two months after the entry into Marseilles of his holiness. From this time Francis was cured of any proclivities toward the Reformation.

Who will say that the old pope did not thirst for Protestant blood?

DURING much of the time in which we now find ourselves, Lefevre and Farel, strong in the faith, were laboring in Geneva. The good seed was bearing a great harvest in Switzerland, and parts of France bordering on that country. The progress the Reformation had there made gave its adherents power to destroy in important cities the superstitions of Rome, and to establish Protestant worship.

A man by the name of Feret, sent to Switzerland by the brethren in Paris, beholding their success returned, filled with zeal and a desire to imitate what he had seen. He succeeded in inspiring them with his own enthusiasm, and they resolved upon a procceding, not only

imprudent, but injurious to the cause for which they were laboring. On the morning of the 18th day of October, 1534, the Parisians on awaking beheld their public places placarded with little tracts. They approached and read them. Great was their astonishment at beholding their mass attacked in a most violent manner by epithets abusive and insulting. Many who read were more indignant at the style than at the matter contained in the placards. Some who would have applauded an article by Melancthon against the mass, were full of anger against the authors of the papers they were reading, because they seemed to them imprudent and uncourteous. The following fragments are a specimen of their style:

"True articles upon the horrible, great, and insupportable abuses of the papal mass, invented directly against the holy supper of our Lord (only Mediator and only Saviour) Jesus Christ.”

"As hostile to God's holy word, with good reason they ought to be rejected, and greatly detested."

"They are not ashamed to put the body of Jesus in their wafers, and to allow him to be eaten by rats, and spiders, and vermin, as it is written in their missals: If the body of the Lord should be consumed by mice and spiders, or a worm should be found in it, let it be burned and put in the relic box.' O earth, why do you not open to engulf these horrible blasphemers? O detestable villains! Is this the body of the Lord Jesus, true Son of God? Is he eaten by the mice and by the spiders? He who is the bread of angels and the child of God, is he given to us to make meat for beasts? O miserable wretches, if there is no other evil in your infernal theology, but that you speak irreverently of the precious body of Jesus, how greatly would you merit the fagots and the fire, you blas