and mocked the contemporary fashion of Italianised French.

The study of history is supported on the one hand by such erudite
research as that of Fauchet and Pasquier; on the other hand it is
supported by political philosophy and speculation. To philosophy,
in the wider sense of the word, the sixteenth century made no large
and coherent contribution; the Platonism, Pyrrhonism, Epicureanism,
Stoicism of the Renaissance met and clashed together; the rival
theologies of the Roman and Reformed Churches contended in a struggle
for life. PIERRE DE LA RAMEE (1515-72) expressed the revolt of
rationalism against the methods of the schoolmen and the authority
of Aristotle; but he ordinarily wrote in Latin, and his _Dialectique_,
the first philosophical work in the vulgar tongue, hardly falls within
the province of literary history.

The philosophy of politics is represented by one great name, that
of JEAN BODIN (1529-96), whose _Republique_ may entitle him to be
styled the Montesquieu of the Renaissance. In an age which tended
towards the formation of great monarchies he was vigorously
monarchical. The patriarchal power of the sovereign might well be
thought needful, in the second half of the century, as a barrier
against anarchy; but Bodin was no advocate of tyranny; he condemned
slavery, and held that religious persecution can only lead to a
dissolution of religious belief. A citizen is defined by Bodin as
a free man under the supreme government of another; like Montesquieu,
he devotes attention to the adaptation of government to the varieties
of race and climate. The attempts at a general history of France in
the earlier part of the sixteenth century preserved the arid methods
and unilluminated style of the mediaeval chronicles;[3] in the second
half of the century they imitated with little skill the models of
antiquity. Histories of contemporary events in Europe were written
with conscientious impartiality by Lancelot de la Popeliniere, and
with personal and party passion, struggling against his well-meant
resolves, by Agrippa d'Aubigne. The great _Historia mei Temporis_
of De Thou, faithful and austere in its record of fact, was a
highly-important contribution to literature, but it is written in
Latin.

[Footnote 3: The narrative of the life of Bayard, by his secretary,
writing under the name of "Le Loyal Serviteur" (1527), is admirable
for its clearness, grace, and simplicity.]

With a peculiar gift for narrative, the