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 made rapid progress. One of its first witnesses in the court of royalty was the celebrated Princess, Margaret of Yalois, Duchess of Alen^on, 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, &c.

'• 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 lo 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. 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 priests, 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. He ihen withdrew to Meiz, where more awful sulferings awaited him, and again in the power of