§ 70. HUMANISM IN FRANCE, 643
Troy. At that time the French still regarded themselves as descendants of Hector. If we except Paj^^s, none of the Erench imiyersities took ^rt in the_movemei\t. Jndiyidualjvriters and printing-pressesjit Paris, Lyons, Rouen and other cities became its centres and sources. William Fichet and Gaofuin are usually looked upon as the first French Humanists. Fichet introduced " the eloquence of Rome " at Paris and set up a press at the Sorbonne. He corresponded with Bessarion and had in his library volumes of Petrarca, Guarino of Verona and other Italians. Gaguin copied and corrected Suetonius in 1468 and other Latin authors. Poggio's Jest-book and some of Valla's writings were translated into French. Jin the reign of Louis XL, who gloried in the title " the firstphristian king," French poets celebrated his deeds. The homage of royalty took in part the place among the literary men of France that the cult of antiquity occupied in Italy. ^
Greek, which had been completely forgotten in France, had its first teachers in Gregory Tifernas, who reached Paris, 1458, John Lascaris, who returned with Charles VIII., and Hermonymus of Sparta, who had Reuchlin and Budaeus among his scholars. An impetus was given to the new studies by the Italian, Aleander, afterwards famous for his association with Luther at Worms. He lectured in Paris, 1509, on Plato and issued a Latino-Greek lexicon. In 1512 his pupil, Vatable, published the Greek grammar of Chrysoloras. William Budaeus, perhaps the foremost Greek scholar of his day, founded the College de France, 1530, and finally induced Francis I. to provide for instruction in Hebrew and Greek. The University of Paris at the close of the 14th century was sunk into a low condition and Erasmus bitterly complained of the food, the morals and the intellectual standards of the college of Montague which he attended. Budaeus urged the combination of the study of the Scriptures with the study of the classics and exclaimed of the Gospel of John, " What is it, if not the almost perfect sanctuary of the truth ! " ^ He
1 Imbart, II. 364-372. Louis XI. was eulogized as being greater than Achilles, Alexander and Scipio, and the mightiest since Charlemagne.
2 Imbart, II. 645.
644 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
persisted in setting himself against the objection that the study of the Languages of Scripture led on to Lutheranism.
Lefevre studied in Paris, Pavia, Padua and Cologne and, for longer or shorter periods, tarried in the greater Italian cities. He knew Greek and some Hebrew. From 1492-1506 he was engaged in editing the works of Aristotle and Raymundus Lullus and then, under the protection of Brigonnet, bishop of Meaux, he turned his attention to theology. It was his purpose to offset the Sentences of Peter the Lombard by a system of theology giving only what the Scriptures teach. In 1509, he published the Psalterum quiiituplex, a combination of five Latin versions oftKe P^salmsrincluding a revision and a commentary by his own hand. In 1512, he issued a revised Latin translation of the Pauline Epistles with commentary. In this work, he asserted the authority of the Bible and the doctrine of justification byTaith, wTtEout appreciating, however, the far-reaching significance of the latter opinion.! He also called in guestiqn the merit, of ^od works and priestly celibacx- In his Preface to the Psalms Lefevre said, "For a long time I followed Humanistic studies and I scarcely touched my books with things divine, but then these burnt upon me with such light, that profane studies seemed to be as darkness in comparison." Three years after the appearance of Luther's New Testament, Lefevre's French translation appeared, 1523. It was made from the Vulgate, as was his translation of the Old Testament, 1528. In 1522 and 1525, appeared his commentaries on the four Gospels and the Catholic Epistles. The former was put on the Index by the Sorbonne. The opposition to the free spirit of inquiry and to the Reformation, which the Sorbonne stirred up and French royalty adopted, forced him to flee to Strassburg and then to the liberal court of Margaret of Angouleme.
A£iong__tho^e_vvli£L_eanifi intg contact with ^Lefevre were Farel and Calvin, the Reformers of Geneva. In the mean-
1 Imbart, II. 394, says, II va dnnner iin singuUer eclat a la doctrine, de la justification par la foi, sans, cependant, sarrificr les oeuvres. This author draws a comparison between Lef6vre and Erasmus. See, however, Lefevre's Preface itself, and Bonet-Maury in Herzog, V. 715.