In England, the famous chancellor, Thomas More, one of the greatest men of his time, being on the point of falling a victim to court intrigues, was able, when on the fatal scaffold, to procure respect to his beard in presence of all the people, and saved it, as one may say, from the fatal stroke which he could not escape himself. When he had laid his head on the block, he perceived that his beard was likely to be hurt by the axe of the executioner, on which he took it away, saying: _My beard has not been guilty of treason; it would be an injustice to punish it_.[16] Footnote 16: Bullart’s elogy of More. In France, the wise and learned bishop of Bellai, John Peter Camus, one of the greatest men of his time, and one of the greatest enemies of the monks, was likewise famous for a long beard. When he preached, he used to divide it into two or three tufts, according to the number of heads his sermon was divided into. A bishop of Grenoble was famous in his time for the length of his beard.[17] Molé, the lord keeper of the great seal, who had likewise a very long one, having seen the bishop of Grenoble’s, said, _Now, God be thanked, my beard is under shelter_. Footnote 17: One day, this bishop let fall something, when he was at table, on his long beard. One of the servants said to him: _There is a bit of meat on your excellency’s beard_. The servant was answered: _Why dost thou not say on the excellency of your beard?_ What a number of beards should I have to celebrate, if I had resolution enough, to do it! what a crowd of names of heroes and philosophers would come to embellish this precious enumeration! You would be banished from it, sages of the age, who wish only to appear so in your writings; shaved philosophers, whose effeminate appearance always belies the glorious title under which you conceal the pusillanimity of your souls. But you would have an honourable place there, divine men, the pride of Rome and Greece! You, adorable Anacreon, the _patriarch of gallantry_, you, worthy to rank with the longest bearded of the ancients, who took care to let posterity know your pleasures and the beauty of your beard; come and convince our age that this mark of virility is not the enemy of gallantry. And you, O Adrian![18] who, of all the Roman emperors, were the first that brought in vogue this ornament of masculine faces, your example is a proof that the introduction of a like usage is not beneath the greatest prince: I would place on your head an everlasting laurel, and by your side a French monarch, your wise imitator: the friend and protector of arts and sciences. He thought the revival of the majesty of long beards was still wanting to his glory; and, in order to insure more certain and general success to this noble enterprize, he, as the first of his kingdom, let grow out on his royal chin that hair which characterises vigour and majesty. In this manner did chance favour the wise projects of Francis I.