nds aright and knows how to hunt with
the falcon. "Cease," cries the church through the poet to the French
princes, "cease to load me down with gewgaws, with chalices, crosses,
and sumptuous ornaments. Furnish me instead with virtuous ministers. The
exquisite beauty of abbeys or of silver images is less pleasing in God's
sight than the holy life of good prelates."[127] As it is, the dissolute
ministers of religion are engrossed in forbidden games, in banquets, and
the chase. Decked out with flowers, rings, and trinkets, the bishop in
his dress is more like a soldier or a juggler, than a servant of the
church. He recites his prayers reluctantly, while words of profane
swearing flow freely from his lips. From such disorders as these the
church invokes her worldly protectors to deliver her.

The abuses which Jean Bouchet described, and other abuses of a similar
kind, were so notorious that no intelligent man could close his eyes to
the evidence of their existence. They had been recited again and again
by more eloquent tongues than that of the poet of Poitiers. Dante and
Petrarch had held them up to immortal contempt. Boccaccio had made them
the subject of ridicule in his popular stories. But neither remonstrance
nor taunt had effectually abated the prevailing corruption. It remained
that a new remedy should be tried, and the time for its application was
close at hand.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Changes in the boundaries of France during the sixteenth
century.]

It must not be forgotten that the boundaries of France varied
considerably during the sixteenth century. Thus Artois and
Flanders, at the accession of Francis the First, were nominally
fiefs of the French crown, for which Charles of Austria sent to
France a very honorable embassy, with Henry, Count of Nassau, at
its head, to do homage to the young prince. It was on this occasion
that Francis, desirous of gratifying Charles, proposed or consented
to the marriage of his favorite with Claude de Chalons, daughter of
the Prince of Orange (Jean de Serres, Inventaire General de
l'Histoire de France, 1619, ii. 4, Motley, Dutch Republic, i. 234).
Eleven years later, January, 1526, by the Treaty of Madrid, Francis
renounced his suzerainty over the counties of Artois and Flanders,
as a condition of his release from captivity (Inventaire General,
ii. 96). On the other