THE TOWN OF NEW ROCHELLE. 589 



Whoever bore this name were imprisoned, arraigned for their lives ; and 

 adhering to their profession, were condemned by merciless judges to the 

 flames. Some, of the name and character, were murdered in cold 

 blood, and massacred without any legal forms of justice. 



" It is a singular fact, (continues Mr. Disosway, to whom we are in- 

 debted for the materials of this sketch,) that the Reformation originated 

 in France, upon her own soil, and its earliest seeds were germinated in 

 the University of Paris, then a stronghold of Romanized faith. At this 

 time, the University was the principal seat of European learning and 

 Roman Catholic orthodoxy. 



"Among the people of Picardy and Dauphiny, the first principles of 

 the great work appeared before they were manifest in any other country. 

 This is the fact, if we regard dates ; and, therefore, the earliest honors 

 of the Reformation belong to France ; a circumstance which has been 

 generally overlooked. Still Luther, in zeal, knowledge and success, 

 was the master-spirit of the age ; and, in its fullest sense, he deserves 

 the epithet of the first reformer. 



" Among the first doctors of theology in Paris, who zealously em- 

 braced the ever-blessed Reformation, was Lefevre ; who, while engaged 

 in a task of collecting the legends of saints and martyrs, felt a ray of 

 divine light from on high suddenly flash into his mind; and, abandoning 

 his work, cast away such foolish things and embraced the Holy Scrip- 

 tures. The new impulse grew rapidly in his heart, and he soon com- 

 municated its divine truth to his classes in the University. 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 wit- 

 nesses in the court of royalty was the celebrated princess, Margaret of 

 Valois, Duchess of Alencon, and sister to the reigning monarch, Francis 

 the Firsts She is said to have dignified her profession by a pure, relig- 

 ious 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. trans- 

 lation 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. 



a 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 iuf eriora secutus '— ' I seek not things below ; '—signify- ' 

 ing," continues our author, "that her actions, thoughts, purposes and desires, were directed 

 to that exalted Sun, namely God." 



