Of this individual, Beza remarked ; ' It was he who boldly began the revival of the holy religion of Jesus Christ.' Thus a new era opened in France, and the Reformation soon niade rapid progress. One of its first witnesses in the court of royalty was the celebrated princess, Margaret of Valois, Duchess of Alencon, and sister to the reigning monarch, Francis the First.* She is said to have dignified her profession by a pure, religious and blameless life, amidst the dissolute and literary household of her royal brother, etc.

" The Bishop of Meaux, through Margaret, sent to the king a translation of St. Paul's epistles richly illuminated, adding : ' They will make a truly royal dish of a fatness that never corrupts ; and, having a power to restore all manner of sickness, the more we taste them, the more we hunger after them, with desires that are ever fed and never cloyed.'

" The fires of persecution now began to rage against this new sect.

<» Margaret selected for her emblem the marigold, " Which,'' says Brantome, the annalist of the court, "in its flower and leaf has the most resemblance to the sun, and, turning, follows its course. Her device was. 'Non inferiora secutus'-- ' I seek not things below; '-- signify- ' tng," continues our author, that her actions, thoughts, purposes and desires, were directed to that exalted Sun, namely God."

59° ' HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

John Le Clerc was the first martyr of the gospel in France. He was the pastor of the Church at Meaux. For writing against Antichrist of Rome, he was seized by the enraged priest, whipped three successive days, and then branded as a heretic with a heated iron on his forehead. But the martyr uttered not a groan, and he was again set at liberty.