There was a house at Basle, on the heights of St. Pierre, known by the sign of the _Black Bear_, where there was a printing office belonging to Thomas Plater, the Valaisan. Calvin often went there. Plater, who had come to Basle with Myconius, as we have seen, was at first a student, then a professor, and finally 'the large sums gained by the printers,'[364] had given him the desire to become a printer also. When Calvin was looking for a publisher for his _Institutes_, the learned Grynæus recommended Plater to him. The latter had the honour of printing that work, and from that time Calvin kept up an occasional intercourse with this singular man. When, some years later, Felix Plater, the son of Thomas, who was going to study medicine at Montpelier, passed through Geneva, Calvin, to whom he brought a letter from his father, called him _my Felix_, and received him with much cordiality. 'I heard him preach on Sunday morning,' said the young man in his memoirs; 'and there was a great crowd of people.'[365] It was, as we have said, in August 1535, that Calvin handed Thomas Plater his epistle to Francis I. to be printed. He had written it in French, and the French edition bears the date of the 1st of August; but he immediately translated it into Latin and printed this version on the 23rd of the same month, which is the date of the Latin edition.[366] It is probable that the epistle to Francis I. was printed in both languages, and that the French text was sent to the king, and the Latin to the German doctors, in September 1535. Did Francis ever receive the letter? Did he listen to this admirable apology? It is certain that his heart was not softened. It is even possible that the pleasures and policy of the monarch made him contemptuously throw aside this appeal from one of the poorest of his subjects. However, nothing prevents us from believing that the king did read it, for the style alone was worthy of a monarch's notice. Calvin's friends, and even Calvin himself, hoped much from it. 'If the king would but read that excellent letter,' said one of them, 'a mortal wound (or we are greatly mistaken) would be inflicted on that harlot of Babylon.'[367] But was an ambitious, false-speaking, and libertine king competent to understand the noble thoughts of the reformer? [Sidenote: CALVIN STARTS FOR ITALY.]