§ 120.8. =Humanism in France and Spain.=--In =France= humanist studies were kept for a time in the background by the world-wide reputation of the University of Paris and its Sorbonne. But a change took place when the young king Francis I., A.D. 1515-1547, became the patron and promoter of humanism. One of its most famous representatives was =Budæus [Buddæus]=, royal librarian, who aided in founding a college for the cultivation of science free from the shackles of scholasticism, and exposed the corruptions of the papacy and the clergy. But much as he sympathized with the spirit of the Reformation, he shrank from any open breach with the Catholic church. He died in A.D. 1540. His like-minded contemporary, =Faber Stapulensis=, as a teacher of classical literature at Paris gathered crowds of pupils around him, and from A.D. 1507 applied himself almost exclusively to biblical exegetical studies. He criticised and corrected the corrupt text of the Vulgate, commented on the Greek text of the gospels and apostolic epistles, and on account of this, as well as by reason of a critical dissertation on Mary Magdalene of A.D. 1521, was condemned by the Sorbonne. Francis I. and his sister Margaret of Orleans protected him from further persecution. Also his former pupil, William Briçonnet, Bishop of Meaux, who was eagerly endeavouring to restore morality and piety among his clergy, appointed him his vicar-general, and gave him an opportunity to bring out his French translation of the New Testament from the Vulgate in A.D. 1523, which was followed by a translation of the Old Testament and a French commentary on the pericopes of the Sundays and festivals. As Faber here represented the Scriptures as the only rule of faith for all Christians, and taught that man is justified not by his works, but only by faith in the grace of God in Christ, the Sorbonne charged him with the Lutheran heresy, and Parliament, during the king’s imprisonment in Spain (§ 126, 5) in A.D. 1525, appointed a commission to search out and suppress heresy in the diocese of Meaux. Faber’s books were condemned to the flames, but he himself, threatened with the stake, escaped by flight to Strassburg. After his return the king provided for him a safe retreat at Blois, where he wrought at his translation of the Old Testament, which he completed in A.D. 1528. He spent his last years at Nérac, the residence of his patroness Margaret, now Queen of Navarre, where he died in A.D. 1536 in his 86th year. Though at heart estranged from the Catholic church, he never formally forsook it.--In =Spain= Cardinal Ximenes (§ 118, 7) acted as the Mæcenas of humanist studies. The most distinguished Spanish humanist was =Anton of Lebrija=, professor at Salamanca, a fellow labourer with Ximenes on the Complutensian Polyglott, and protected by him from the Inquisition, which would have