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. [Footnote 586: Rœhrich, _Reform in Elsass_, ii. p. 274.] [Footnote 587: 'Dominus excitet multos isti heroï similes.'—Bucer to Chelius.] [Footnote 588: 'Adhuc vehementer laboratur.'—Du Bellay to Bucer.] [Footnote 589: 'Omnes enim bene sperare jubent.'—Du Bellay to Bucer.] [Footnote 590: 'Etiam rex ipse, cujus animus _erga meliores litteras_ magis ac magis augetur.'—Ibid.] [Footnote 591: 'Una tamen in re vehementer a Germanis abhorret.'—Ibid.] [Footnote 592: Béthune MSS. 8493. Ranke, iii. p. 456.] [Footnote 593: 'Restitutio ducis Wurtembergensis brevi magnos motus pariet. Divinationes meas nosti.'—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 706.] [Footnote 594: 'Magna et periculosa res universo orbi terrarum ac præcipue nobis.'—Ibid. p. 728.] [Footnote 595: 'Mit monstrosen Figuren.'—Seckendorf, p. 833.] [Footnote 596: 'Gallum iterum venturum in potestatem imperatoris Caroli.'—Ibid.] [Footnote 597: 'Leo carebit auxilio et decipietur a lolio.'—Ibid. The correct reading is evidently _lilium_ (lily) and not _lolium_ (tares). The preposition _a_ indicates that the word is taken in a symbolical sense.] [Footnote 598: 'Dolore et indignatione accensus replicui.'—Sanchez' report to Ferdinand: Bucholz. Ranke.] [Footnote 599: 'Cassellæ nescio quid memorant noctu, super aquis monstri visum esse.'—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 729.] [Footnote 600: Ranke, _Deutsche Geschichte_, iii. p. 459.] [Footnote 601: 'Quid si Deus illa publica vitia tum punire, tum aliqua ex parte tollere decrevit?'—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 729.] [Footnote 602: 'Ut Christum invocare et præsentiam ejus experiri discamus.'—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 730.] [Footnote 603: Sleidan, i. liv. ix p. 365. Ranke, iii. p. 461. Rommel, ii. p. 319.] [Footnote 604: 'In senatum pontifex venit, lectæque ibi sunt litteræ fratris Caroli.'—Pallavicini, _Conc. Trid._ i. p. 294.] [Footnote 605: 'The Duke of Wyttemberg lately restored by his and his good brother's meanes.'—_State Papers_, vii. p. 568.] [Footnote 606: Sleidan, i. pp. 366-368. Ranke, iii. pp. 465-468.]