The Huguenot Bartholomew Dupuy and his descendants

12 RISE AND PROGRESS OF HUGUENOTS.
introd . France. The country was being flooded with
literature of the Eeformers.
We will consider next the 7'oyal influence
which aided the Rise of the Reformation.
Louis Louis XII., who was reigning when Lefevre's
^.gfJJ;^ Commentary of Paul's Epistles appeared, died
less than three years afterwards, January 1,
1515; and Francis I. (son of Charles of Orleans,
and son-in-law of the King by marriage to
his daughter, Claude, in 1514), succeeded him
of Francis I. to
Francis I. to the throuc. The friendship
^*°g- the sciences, and his attachment and generosity
to learned men induced many persons of
genius, who were favorable to the Reformation
to take up their residence in France and
;
the writings of the Protestants being generally
better compositions than those of the
papists were introduced extensively through-
out the country and eagerly read.
Influence TMs patronage which Francis gave to learn-
FrancisL^^S uot ouly causcd Fraucc to pass from the
on the middle ages to modern times, but also con-
^^^9J^*" tributed to aid and inspire the Reformers.
He prepared the way for the truths of
the Reformation to root and spring up by
founding Hebrew and Greek professorships.
Hence Theodore Beza, in placing his portrait
at the head of the Reformers, says: "Pious
spectator! do not shudder at the sight of
this adversary! Ought he not to have a
part in this honor, who expelled barbarism
from the world, and with firm hand
I52I.
substituted in its stead three languages and
sound learning, to be as it were the portals
to the new building that was shortly to be
erectedr' In 1521 when the deputies of the
Sorbonne waited upon Francis to remonstrate
against the Reformers, as heretics, he re-