Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/123

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(1536–1538.)

the field of Pavia, Francis had sent his ring to Soliman. The King had established the College of France, in spite of the Sorbonne. In defiance of the Church, he had endowed two chairs of Greek. In founding two Professorships of Hebrew, he had taken its reproach and its squalor from the Ghetto. The Jews, the learned, these two persecuted and endangered peoples he had glorified and reassured. In sending his ring to Soliman, Francis embraced the last enemy of mediæval Christendom—the Turk.

In the Turk Francis perceived the one ally that could truly aid him against the Emperor. Venice, the enlightened eye of Europe, already perceived the undue predominance of Austria, and saw in Soliman the natural balance. With Venice, whose trade required the Porte; with England, whom the Church no more controlled; with Scotland, Denmark, and the Saxon princes—France might head a formidable confederation, capital danger to the Empire and the Inquisition. Such a league was the dream of the