The famous Marguerite de Valois, sister of King Francis, was prominent both as an authoress and as a protectress of literature, and her influence was always ready in behalf of the undertakings of Estienne. Pierre du Chastel, who had been an instructor of Marguerite, and who was one of the few Greek scholars of the kingdom, was also a serviceable friend to Estienne. Du Chastel had succeeded in securing a patron for the unfortunate Dolet after his first heretical offences (an interposition which brought upon Du Chastel himself the suspicion of the orthodox), and he had also obtained from the King a pardon for the Waldenses. In neither case did it prove possible to secure a lasting protection. Dolet was burned a few years later, while the persecution of the Waldenses was also renewed with fresh bitterness after the death of Francis. Dolet was a scholar who, having studied jurisprudence and, later, served as instructor, finally became a printer. He devoted himself particularly to the study of the writings of Cicero, and published a _Commentaria Linguæ Latinæ_ and also the _Formulæ Latinarum locutionum illustriorum_. Niceron says that he was the author of not less than twenty-four separate works. He was imprisoned on various occasions for his freedom of speech on religious subjects, and was finally burned as a heretic in 1546. His heresy was evidently not of the kind to secure the sympathy of Calvin, who referred to him as an “impious wretch.” Henry II., who, in 1547, succeeded to the throne of France, while not possessing the distinctive interest in literature which had characterised his father Francis, was, nevertheless, at least at the outset, favourably disposed towards the men of letters with whom Francis had come into personal relations, and he was prepared to carry out the engagements into which his father had entered concerning the printing-office and type-foundry. He also took up the issue that had been raised between his father and the divines of the Sorbonne. In the first year of his reign, he commanded the divines forthwith to complete their list of _censuræ_, and threatened, in the event of further contumacy, severe measures for their chastisement. This produced an engagement on their part that by the following All Saints’ Day should finally be made public the long-promised schedules of all the errors and heresies discovered by them in the several Bibles of Robert Estienne. On the day specified, however, in place of the promised _censuræ_, the divines presented simply a fresh petition that the sale of the Bibles might be interdicted, on the general ground that their editor was a sacramentarian, and that he had spoken of the souls of men as mortal. The petition received no attention, and after some months’ further delay, ten divines presented themselves at the palace at Fontainebleau, with a list of forty-five objectionable articles or passages. The presentation was made before