deteriorated. To this contrast certainly eminent exceptions can be at once quoted. Even in Casaubon's time, 1597, the other ministers at Montpellier were of a grade of intellect below Gigord. Casaubon tells of a young minister, he does not name him, who inveighed in his sermon against the practice of those preachers who uncovered the head whenever they had occasion to mention the divine name. On coming out of church, Casaubon ventured to tell the youth that this was the practice of all the Reformed churches in Germany and Switzerland, to which the young zealot replied that "he anathematised all those "churches." "He was one of those," observes Casaubon, "who "believe themselves gifted with all wisdom and all knowledge to "begin with." Such men of true puritan stamp, divinely enlightened, contemners of human learning, might be found among the ministers of that day. But the management of the Reformed churches was in better hands. Literature was respected. But the respect raid it was made up mainly of a sense of its utility in controversy, in a less degree of a perception, never wholly wanting, of its intrinsic worth. Casaubon, though not an official deputy, was invited to be present, as " amicus "curiæ," at the national synod held at Montpellier in August 1598. The ministers patronised or tolerated him.' (Pp. 94-6.)

It was at Montpellier that Casaubon commenced his wellknown Ephemerides, or Diary. The first entry was made on the 18th February, 1597, and it is continued, without the omission of a single day, to the 16th June, 1614, just a fortnight before the writer's death. Every entry is by Casaubon's own hand and in Latin, with one single exception, that upon the 13th February, 1601, which is in French, and was made by Madame Casaubon during his absence. We shall give later some account of this curious and characteristic memorial. For the present it will be enough to gather from it a description of the routine of the daily life of this indefatigable student. His day began commonly at five A. M. Six was a late hour for him to enter his study, where his first act was to perform his morning devotion upon his knees. After half an hour given to religious reading, frequently the Hebrew Scriptures, the time up to dinner was occupied by whatever author or subject he chanced to have in hand; and after dinner, which in university and higher life was then commonly at ten A.M., he spent some hours in preparing for his lecture which was at four P.M. After a few months he undertook in addition an elementary Greek class. After lecture, friends, supper, and then to books again, if only friends will go away in good time.' Saturday was occupied with attendance at the public disputations. Wednesday was a holiday. It was expected, although not prescribed by statute, that all should attend at two sermons on Sundays, as also at a sermon on Wednesday morning; and

Casaubon paid this further deference to the religious character of the Sunday, that, although he worked as usual at his books, his reading on that day was chiefly confined to theology and patristic studies, which, however, he alternated with correspondence. On very rare occasions he sought relaxation in 'a walk beyond the walls to a friend's country villa, or down 'to the sea, or to see the ruins at Maguelonne.' Such was his habitual course of life, except in the vacations, of which there were three in the year, of three or four weeks' duration. During these he sometimes ventured on a more distant visit, to his friend De Fresne, or to his mother at Die, and on one occasion as far as Lyons and Paris.

His lectures at Montpellier were eminently successful. Taking his tone from the habits of the place, he gave to his Latin and Greek lectures a practical character in the eyes of students of law, by selecting from time to time eminent authors or subjects bearing upon the legal antiquities of Greece and Rome as the Laws of the XII Tables; the Constitution and Administration of the Roman Republic; the Digests; and other kindred subjects; and Mr. Pattison observes, that out of the eight courses which he delivered at Montpellier only a single one, that on Plautus, was a purely philological or language lecture; which is the more worthy of note as this was the only lecture which was not chosen by himself but at the request of his class.

It was while he was thus occupied with public duties at Montpellier that he was engaged with his greatest literary work, the Edition and Commentary on Athenæus; and Mr. Pattison's account of the routine of his daily occupations at the time is a picture of student life for which few parallels will be found:

'But not all his day was given to his lecture and to preparing his Athenæus. The Diary enables us to trace day by day his private reading at this period. Besides the devotional book in the early morning, he looks into a variety of books in the course of the day, but has always one author whom he steadily goes on with every day till he has read him through. The first such achievement in 1597 is Basil, the whole of whom is read between February 19 and March 11. As this must have been Froben's edition of 1551, which contains 698 folio pages of Greek type, packed exceptionally close, we have an average reading of thirty-five pages per day; yet he was ill most of the time, and more than one day out of the twenty was curtailed or lost altogether by business. Either his own health or the atmosphere of the place set him next upon Hippocrates, the whole of which takes him only twentyfive days, though here he was helped by the Easter holidays. After this feat it seems disproportionate that Cedrenus takes thirteen days,

but other books were in hand during the time. We have mention, besides, of Jerome, Chrysostom, Tertullianus, Menander Rhetor, Philostratus, Apicius, all between January and July. And yet the Diary omits to mention many readings. This is evident, not only from citations in his commentaries on authors, but from the volumes once in his possession, still extant. There is, e.g. in the British Museum, a copy of Calvin's "Epistolæ," edition Hanau 1597, marked throughout by Casaubon's pen. We have in it a volume of 780 pages, in small type, and not on a classical subject, read attentively, and yet not noticed in the Diary, unless we assume that a Frankfort book, published in 1597, did not come into Casaubon's hands till after 1603. In this case it might have been spoken of in that fascicule of the Diary which is lost. While lectures are proceeding, Athenæus is in hand; he is continually ill, has his correspondence to keep up, and, worst of all, is Rector of the faculty. This is the most vexing distraction of all. It involves him, besides the comparatively simple business of the faculty, in looking after the lower school, and providing it with regents. This "hated office" (munus invisum) was fortunately only for a year. Books of controversy, e.g. Bulenger against Duplessis, he looks into in what he calls his "leisure hours" (hore succisive), though it is not easy to see where, in the life we have described, were any such.' (Pp. 116-7.)

It is plain from this sketch that, however his financial position may have been improved by migration to Montpellier, the change had done very little towards realising the great aspiration of his life-undisturbed leisure for study and unrestricted freedom for literary work. He was led too by the representations of visitors and correspondents to hope for better and higher things elsewhere; and in the autumn of 1597 De Fresne and other friends who had been to Paris carried back to him flattering though vague representations, which held out hopes of the King's favour there, and of a position in every way more advantageous. The desire of change thus suggested was stimulated by the difficulties which he encountered at Montpellier as to the printing of his Athenæus;' and during a journey which he was making to Geneva, on occasion of the death of his father-in-law in 1598, an opportunity unexpectedly presented itself as he was passing through Lyons upon his way. He was there introduced to M. Meric de Vic, a man of cultivated and liberal tastes and a warm patron of letters, who being summoned to Paris to attend the King, induced Casaubon to accompany him. At Paris he was warmly received into the most distinguished literary society, and realised for the first time what had been a dream of years-an introduction to the library of De Thou. His own impressions of this magnificent collection are characteristic. He had heard much of it, but it surpassed his expectations. When he read the titles,

authors he had never seen or known to exist in print, his 'heart sank at the thought of how little he knew.' And this library, coupled with the Royal collection, with which Queen Catherine's had now been united, opened to him that supply 'for which he had so long thirsted. From this moment his desire to remove to Paris became paramount.'

The preliminaries of his transfer to Paris, however, were tedious and tantalising. He was received most graciously by the King, who kept him three hours talking over the affairs of the university, and ended by inviting him to a professorship therein. He was introduced to the then heir presumptive of the Crown, the young Prince of Condé. Other evidences of distinguished favour were heaped upon him. But still no step seemed to be taken towards actual appointment, and after a long delay he was obliged to return to Montpellier in October, still with expectation, but still in uncertainty. He gave notice of his intended resignation, but in the meantime entered upon a voluntary Greek course which he continued till the January of 1599.

At length on the 24th of that month the tardy missive arrived; but it proved not to be the expected nomination to a professorship, but simply an order under the sign manual to 'leave Montpellier and to hasten to Paris, where it was the 'King's intention to employ him in the profession of classical 'letters in the university.' As to conditions of stipend it merely conveyed a promise, as well as of the expenses of removal.

Casaubon, however, vague as was the summons, was but too glad to obey. He set out from Montpellier on the 26th of February, and after a visit to his mother at Bordeaux in Dauphiné, whither he had sent his wife and children, he reached Lyons in the beginning of March. With all his eagerness, however, a delay was here interposed of which no satisfactory account is given, whether in the Diary or in the Correspondence of Casaubon. For nearly twelve months he lingered at Lyons, chiefly as M. de Vic's guest; nor was it till February 28, 1600, that he at last set out for Paris. The explanation of this delay suggested by Mr. Pattison is highly probable. Casaubon began to suspect, while at Lyons, that to the promised appointment would be attached the same condition under which Henry had himself received the crownnamely abjuration of Protestantism. It was the age of conversions, and although Casaubon's Paris friends for the most part were content to have him, all Calvinist as he was, Du Perron and the Catholic junta would not give gratis; they ' resolved to dangle the professorship before his eyes, but not

'to bestow it till they had his recantation.' The pious zeal of his friends, M. and Madame de Vic, seconded this design. At Lyons Casaubon was prevailed on to talk over disputed points with two learned capuchins; a report was gradually whispered about that he was preparing to go over;' and Casaubon was deeply concerned to find that it was beginning to obtain credence among his own co-religionists.

At last, in the midst of these perplexities, a peremptory summons to Paris arrived from De Vic. Casaubon at once complied. He set out on the 28th of February, 1600. On his arrival he was immediately admitted by the King to an audience. He was received with demonstrative courtesy. The same confident assurance of employment in the restoration of the university,' was repeated. He received a gratification of two hundred crowns as an earnest of what was to come. But the matter rested there. No appointment was made: no employment was assigned to him; and he had begun to repine at the continued prospect of enforced inactivity, when in the end of April he received a summons, written with the King's own hand, to attend without delay at Fontainebleau, where the Court was at the time, upon an affair which the King had 'much at heart.' This affair was the well-known Conference of Fontainebleau.

Mr. Pattison's account of the occasion of this conference is very minute and curious. For our purpose it will be enough to say that the object proposed in the meeting was to procure an authentic adjudication as to the accuracy of certain quotations from the fathers in Philip Duplessis-Mornay's celebrated Treatise on the Eucharist, which had been declared spurious or garbled by Du Perron, Bishop of Evreux ;-an imputation into which De Mornay had challenged inquiry. The citations in De Mornay's book are exceedingly numerous, amounting to nearly 5,000, the principal object of the treatise being to show that the doctrines of the Roman Church on the Mass are not in accordance with the belief of the fathers or schoolmen. It was answered by various Catholic controversialists, Bulenger, Fronto le Duc, and Richcome; but the most systematic challenge of the fidelity of the quotations was that of Mgr., afterwards Cardinal du Perron, who publicly averred that he had already, after a partial examination, discovered no fewer than five hundred false citations. De Mornay challenged a public trial. Henry IV. took the matter up, and insisted on having a debate in form at Fontainebleau, in his own presence. It was arranged that the issue was to be decided by six commissioners, four Catholic and two Protes