Thus politicians were intriguing on every side. In Germany, France, and England, the princes imagined that they could conquer by means of diplomacy; but far different were the forces by which the victory was to be gained. In the midst of all this activity of courts and cabinets, there was an inner and secret activity which stirred the human mind and excited in it a burning thirst, which the truth and the life of God alone could quench. Centuries before, as early as 1020, the revival had begun in Aquitaine, at Orleans, and on the Rhine. Men had proclaimed that christians 'ought to be filled with the Holy Ghost; that God would be with them, and would give them the treasures of his wisdom.'[255] This inward movement had gone on growing from age to age. The Waldenses in the twelfth century, the purest portion of the Albigenses in the thirteenth, Wickliffe and the Lollards in the fourteenth, and John Huss and his followers in the fifteenth, are the heroes of this noble war. This christian life arose, increased, and spread; if it was extinguished in one country, it reappeared in another. The religious movement of the mind gained strength; the electricity was accumulated in the battery; the mine was charged, and the explosion was certain erelong. All this was being accomplished under the guidance of a sovereign commander. He applied the match in the sixteenth century by the hand of Luther; once more he sprang the mine by the powerful preaching of Calvin, Knox, and others. It was this that won the victory, and not diplomacy. However, we have not yet done with it. [Sidenote: MEETING OF FRANCIS AND HENRY.] At this time Francis I. was enraptured with Henry VIII., calling him his 'good brother' and 'perpetual ally.' Wearied of the pope and of the popedom, which appeared as if unable to shake off the tutelage of Charles V., the King of France saw Germany separating from Rome, and England doing the same, and Du Bellay was continually asking him why he would not conclude a triple alliance with these two powers? Such a coalition, formed in the name of the revival of learning and of reform in the Church, would certainly triumph over all the opposition made to it by ignorance and superstition. Francis I. had not made up his mind to break entirely with the pope, though he was resolved to unite with the pope's enemies. In order to conclude a close alliance with Henry, he chose the moment when that prince was most out of humour with the court of Rome. The articles were drawn up on the 23rd of June, 1532.[256]