Protestantism in France From Death of Francis I to Edict of Nantes - James Aitken Wylie

withhold from him the praise of a generous
disposition, a cultivated taste, and a chivalrous
bearing; but it is equally impossible to vindicate
him from the charge of rashness in his enterprises,
negligence in his affairs, fickleness in his conduct,
and excess in his pleasures. He lavished his
patronage upon the scholars of the Renaissance,
but he had nothing but stakes wherewith to reward
the disciples of Protestantism. He built
Fontainebleau, and began the Louvre. And now,
after all his great projects for adorning his court
with learned men, embellishing his capital with
gorgeous fabrics, and strengthening his throne by
political alliances, there remains to him only
"darkness and the worm." Let us enter the royal
closet, and mark the setting of that sun which had
shed such a brilliance during his course. Around
the bed upon which Francis I lies dying is gathered
a clamorous crowd of priests, courtiers, and
courtesans,[2] who watch his last moments with
decent but impatient respect, ready, the instant he
has breathed his last, to turn round and bow the
knee to the rising sun. Let us press through the
throng and observe the monarch. His face is
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