Not long afterward Renaudot’s two sons, both of whom had by this time completed the regular course of studies at the Medical Schools, made a respectful request to the Faculty for permission to appear before them for the examination to which all candidates for the degree of Doctor of Medicine were obliged to submit. In the meantime, as if to show his approval of the request which Renaudot’s sons had made, Richelieu had taken Eusebius with him as his physician-in-ordinary when he joined Louis XIII. at the seat of war in the southern part of France. But neither this kindly act on the part of the Cardinal, nor any of the other efforts made by Renaudot’s friends in behalf of his two sons, seemed to make any impression upon the Faculty. They refused point blank to grant the desired opportunity for an examination. As a last resort, Isaac appealed to Parliament “to issue a decree to the effect that the Faculty of Medicine must confer the degree of M.D. on both Isaac and Eusebius Renaudot _within fifteen days_; and declaring that, if the decree should not be obeyed within the prescribed limits of time, the decree itself should serve as full equivalent for the title in question.” The Faculty duly entered the decree upon their registers, but in secret they determined that the two Renaudot brothers should be excluded from all their official meetings. Théophraste Renaudot protested and the Faculty of the University of Montpellier pleaded warmly in his behalf, but it was of no avail. After the death of Richelieu the Paris Faculty had no difficulty in thwarting nearly all the excellent schemes of Renaudot. He was obliged to abandon the plan of building, at his own expense, a hospital, and his two sons were not permitted to practice medicine in Paris. He continued, however, to edit the Gazette up to the time of his death in 1653. Gilles de la Tourette, in his interesting memoir, makes the following reflection upon the career of this pioneer journalist:—“All the innocent inventions of this benefactor of humanity are prospering to-day. In addition to his plan for building a hospital, he was the first to organize the whole scheme of Public Assistance—viz., charitable consultations (not unlike our dispensary work) and gratuitous visits at the residences of the poor. And, in addition to these, he introduced the _Monts-de-Piété_ into Paris and also his Bureau of Addresses of exchange and redemption. To this man whose guiding maxim was ‘Lend money to the poor without expecting any return,’ posterity owes some reparation, and I hope that soon it will be possible to erect in one of our public squares a monument that will perpetuate the memory of the greatest philanthropist of the seventeenth century.”[2] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ BOOK II MEDICINE IN NORTHERN AND CENTRAL GERMANY DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY