The royal authority still further aided the medical profession and the faculty in gathering students: for instance, an order was issued granting physicians titles of nobility and coats of arms in cases of great merit; they were also exempted from taxes and other contributions to the crown, for, says Louis XIV., who speaks, “We cannot withhold such marks of honor to men of learning and others who by their devotion to a noble profession and personal merit are entitled to a rank of high distinction.” Besides, some of the greatest names in France were inscribed on the registers of the faculty; let us cite, for instance, Prader, Mersenne, Saint Yon, Montigny, Mauvillain, Sartes, Revelois, Montrose, Farcy, Jurency, and others. Can it be astonishing that the Faculty of Medicine, considering such high favors, was so deeply attached to the royalty that gave liberty and reputation to the great thinkers of the age? The dean, who before the thirteenth century only had the title _Magister Scolarum_, administered the affairs of the faculty without control, and was recognized as the chief hierarch of the corporation; but he was elected by all the professors, and often chosen outside the professors of the Faculty. This high office was thus duly dignified, and it was only justice. Above the dean, however, was the first Physician to the King, who was a high officer of the crown, having the same rights and privileges as the nobility, securing on his appointment the title of Count with hereditary transmission of same to his family; he was also a Councillor of State and wore the costume and decorations of this order. When he came to the faculty meetings he was received by the dean and bachelors, for he was also grand master of hygiene and legal medicine in the realm; he named all the salaried medical appointments, notably those of experts in medical jurisprudence. Under Charles VIII., Adam Fumee and Jean Michel, sitting in Parliament as Councillors; Jacques Coictier, physician to Louis XI., was the President of the Tax Commission; while Fernel, no less celebrated as a mathematician than as a physician, was the intimate friend of Henri II. at the same time that Ambroise Pare was surgeon to the latter King and his two successors; F. Miron, too, afterwards became Embassador to Henri III.