note 511: The hero of this action was of course arrested. Crespin,
fol. 120.]

[Footnote 512: Hist. eccles., i. 33; Crespin, fol. 121.]

[Footnote 513: Hist. eccles., i. 33-35.]

[Footnote 514: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 515: Hist. eccles., i. 34. Occasionally, instead of cutting
out the tongue of the "Lutheran," a large iron ball was forced into his
mouth, an equally effective means of preventing distinct utterance. This
was done to two converted monks, degraded and burned in Saintonge, in
August, 1546. A. Crottet, Hist. des eglises ref. de Pons, Gemozac et
Mortagne, 212.]

CHAPTER VIII.

HENRY THE SECOND, AND THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT
CHURCHES.

[Sidenote: Death of Francis I.]

[Sidenote: Impartial estimates of his character.]

On the thirty-first of March, 1547, Francis the First died, leaving the
throne to his only surviving son. With whatever assiduity the poets and
scholars of whom the late king had been a munificent patron, and the
courtiers who had basked in the sunshine of his favor, might apply
themselves to the celebration of his resplendent merits, posterity, less
blind to his faults, has declined to confirm the title of "great"
affixed to his name by contemporaries. The candid historian, undazzled
by the glitter of his chivalric enterprises, may condemn the animus, but
can scarcely deny the substantial truth of the bitter reproaches in
which the Emperor Charles the Fifth indulged, respecting the uniform
faithlessness of his ancient rival.[516] Much less can he pardon the
cruel persecution which Francis allowed to be exercised against an
unoffending part of his subjects, less from zeal for the tenets of the
church whose cause he espoused than from a selfish fear lest his
prerogative might be impaired.

[Sidenote: His three sons.]

[Sidenote: Henry, Duke of Orleans.]

[Sidenote: Character of the new king.]

Of the three sons of Francis, the dauphin and his youngest brother, the
Duke of Angouleme, had been snatched away by death during the lifetime
of their father.[517] The Duke of Orleans, who now ascended the throne
as Henry the Second, was not a favorite son.[518] More than once he had
incurred his father's grave displeasure by insubordination. A mad
frolic, in which the young prince undertook in sport to distribute the
high offices of state, as if his father were already dead, and disclosed
his intention to recall to power the monarch's disgraced courtiers,
oc