tages gained by the
crown were too palpable to be voluntarily relinquished. Almost the
entire patronage of the church was thrown into the hands of the king,
who, in the reign of Louis the Fifteenth, held at his disposal eighteen
archbishoprics, 112 bishoprics, 1,666 abbeys for men, and 317 abbeys and
priories for women.[68] It must not be forgotten that the _annats_, or
first-fruits of benefices, now regularly falling into the pontifical
treasury, made the concordat scarcely less valuable to the Papal
See.[69]

[Sidenote: Era of the Renaissance.]

The most enviable distinction of the reign of Francis the First
consisted in the fact that it was the era of that extraordinary
development of the fine arts and of literature known as the
_Renaissance_. Illustrious during the Middle Ages, and foremost in the
pursuit of scholastic learning, France had unfortunately lost that proud
eminence when the revival of letters enkindled elsewhere a new passion
for discovery. Her adventurous sons had taken the lead in the crusades
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, but three hundred years later no
expeditions were fitted out in her ports to explore and appropriate the
virgin territories beyond the western sea. The art of printing and the
impulse given to astronomical research originated abroad. The famous
mediaeval seat of learning seemed to have been suddenly visited with a
premature decay. Even the exiled scholars of the East, fleeing before
Turkish barbarism, disdained to settle in a country where the treasures
of ancient science which they had brought with them from Mount Athos and
Constantinople were so inadequately appreciated.[70]

[Sidenote: Francis's attainments overrated.]

[Sidenote: A munificent patron of art.]

The reign of Francis the First, however, was destined to remove much of
the reproach which had been incurred by reason of this singular
tardiness in entering the path of improvement. Born of parents possessed
of unusual intelligence and yet rarer education, and stimulated by the
companionship of an elder sister whose extensive acquirements furnished
the theme of countless panegyrics, Francis early conceived the design of
making his court illustrious for the generous patronage extended to the
disciples of the liberal arts. His own attainments have been overrated,
and posterity has too credulously believed all that admiring and
interested courtiers chose to invent in his praise. But, if he was
himself ignorant