Note 28 — IX.—To Francis Daniel.[27]

Margaret of Valois, sister of Francis I., Queen of Navarre, one of the most distinguished women of her age, both by the generosity of her character and the graces of her understanding. Inclined by the bent of her mind towards reform, by the devout breathings of her soul, of which we find the expression in her poetry and in her letters, she made use of her influence with her brother, the French monarch, to abate the persecution directed against the disciples of the Evangel, and her generous conduct more than once aroused the fury of the Sorbonne against her. Calvin, exiled from France, had recourse on more than one occasion to the influence of this Princess, and addressed very free exhortations to her. See, in this collection, the letter of Calvin to the Queen of Navarre, of the 28th April, 1545.