ved when the artist is skilful, than simple
truths when miserably executed. Medals of this class are numerous, and
were the precursors of those political satires exhibited in caricature
prints.[92] There is a large collection of wooden cuts about the time of
Calvin, where the Romish religion is represented by the most grotesque
forms which the ridicule of the early Reformers could invent. More than
a thousand figures attest the exuberant satire of the designers. This
work is equally rare and costly.[93]

Satires of this species commenced in the freedom of the Reformation; for
we find a medal of Luther in a monk's habit, satirically bearing for its
reverse Catherine de Bora, the nun whom this monk married; the first
step of his personal reformation! Nor can we be certain that Catherine
was not more concerned in that great revolution than appears in the
voluminous Lives we have of the great reformer. However, the reformers
were as great sticklers for medals as the "papelins." Of Pope John
VIII., an effeminate voluptuary, we have a medal with his portrait,
inscribed _Pope Joan!_ and another of Innocent X., dressed as a woman
holding a spindle; the reverse, his famous mistress, Donna Olympia,
dressed as a Pope, with the tiara on her head, and the keys of St.
Peter in her hands![94]

When, in the reign of Mary, England was groaning under Spanish
influence, and no remonstrance could reach the throne, the queen's
person and government were made ridiculous to the people's eyes by
prints or pictures "representing her majesty naked, meagre, withered,
and wrinkled, with every aggravated circumstance of deformity that could
disgrace a female figure, seated in a regal chair; a crown on her head,
surrounded with M. R. and A. in capitals, accompanied by small letters;
_Maria Regina Angliae!_ a number of Spaniards were sucking her to skin
and bone, and a specification was added of the money, rings, jewels, and
other presents with which she had secretly gratified her husband
Philip."[95] It is said that the queen suspected some of her own council
of this invention, who alone were privy to these transactions. It is,
however, in this manner that the voice which is suppressed by authority
comes at length in another shape to the eye.

The age of Elizabeth, when the Roman pontiff and all his adherents were
odious to the people, produced a remarkable caricature, and ingenious
invention--a gorgon's head! A church bell forms the helmet; the