The Swedish vernacular is represented by the patriotic poem of Bishop Thomas of Strängnäs, who, in the fourteenth century, wrote in praise of the national hero, Engelbrekt. Metrical and stanza form are both of the hymnal type.[15] The Romance languages afford myriad examples of the sequence form. St. Martial, near Limoges, already cited as a center in the production of the sequence, and Paris, the home of the Victorine school, are both places of origin for vernacular lyrics. A close connection has been traced between the sequence and the French romantic lyric, especially the _lai_, a connection amply illustrated and tabulated for the convenience of the student.[16] More familiar, perhaps, than the _lais_ are the appealing lines of François Villon, “Dame des cieulx, regente terrienne,” which possesses all the charm of the Marian lyric at its best. About the year 1270, Alfonso X of Castile made a collection of 400 poems in the Galician-Portuguese dialect, the _Cántigas de Santa María_ around which a considerable literature has grown up. All are devotional in subject matter. Alfonso X was a literary patron. Ramon Lull (c. 1315) was himself a poet who wrote in the Catalan tongue although his mystical writings are better known than his poetry. His _Hours of our Lady St. Mary_ was modeled upon the hymn and set to a hymn tune.[17] The Italian poets of religious verse flourished as writers both in the vernacular and in Latin. St. Francis of Assisi, (1181-1226), whose _Cantico di fratre sole_[18] is known and loved by countless persons in our own day, was among the earliest poets of the _Laudi spirituali_. The origin of the _laudi_ has been traced in part to the ejaculations of the flagellants of northern Italy where bands of these penitents were commonly seen in the thirteenth century. A century earlier, religious societies of singers, the _laudisti_, were in existence in Venice and Florence. Arezzo knew such a group as early as 1068.[19] Included among the known writers of _laudi_ are Jacopone da Todi, (1230-1306), and Bianco da Siena, (c. 1307), both classified today as writers of hymns. The movement represented by the _laudisti_ spread to France, German-speaking lands, the Low Countries and Poland. Everywhere the vernacular was used with popular unison melodies. As we approach the Renaissance, Florence is still conspicuous for her authors of the religious vernacular lyric, among them Lorenzo di Medici and Savonarola, (1452-1498), better known as the Florentine preacher whose passionate denunciations of the evils of his day brought him into conflict with the Church and resulted in his execution. His _Laude al crucifisso_ has been translated in part by Jane F. Wilde as a hymn, “Jesus, refuge of the weary.”