the honor of women.”  In the administration of justice he accomplished important reforms, called for by the states-general of 1484 and promised by Louis XI. and Charles VIII., but nearly all of them left in suspense.  The purchase of offices was abolished and replaced by a two-fold election; in all grades of the magistracy, when an office was vacant, the judges were to assemble to select three persons, from whom the king should be bound to choose.  The irremovability of the magistrates, which had been accepted but often violated by Louis XI., became under Louis XII. a fundamental rule.  It was forbidden to every one of the king’, magistrates, from the premier-president to the lowest provost to accept any place or pension from any lord, under pain of suspension from their office or loss of their salary.  The annual Mercurials (Wednesday-meetings) became, in the supreme courts, a general and standing usage.  The expenses of the law were reduced.  In 1501, Louis XII. instituted at Aix in Provence a new parliament; in 1499 the court of exchequer a Rouen, hitherto a supreme but movable and temporary court became a fixed and permanent court, which afterwards received under Francis I., the title of parliament.  Being convinced before long, by facts themselves, that these reforms were seriously meant by their author, and were practically effective, the people conceived, in consequence, towards the king and the magistrates a general sentiment of gratitude and respect.  In 1570 Louis made a journey from Paris to Lyons by Champaigne and Burgundy; and “wherever he passed,” says St. Gelais” men and women assembled from all parts, and ran after him for three or four leagues.  And when they were able to touch his mule, or his robe, or anything that was his, they kissed their hands . . . with as great devotion as they would have shown to a reliquary.  And the Burgundians showed as much enthusiasm as the real old French.”

Louis XII.’s private life also contributed to win for him, we will not say the respect and admiration, but the good will of the public.  He was not, like Louis IX., a model of austerity and sanctity; but after the licentious court of Charles VII., the coarse habits of Louis XI., and the easy morals of Charles VIII., the French public was not exacting.  Louis XII. was thrice married.  His first wife, Joan, daughter of Louis XI., was an excellent and worthy princess, but ugly, ungraceful, and hump-backed.  He had been almost forced to marry her, and he had no child by her.  On ascending the throne, he begged Pope Alexander VI. to annul his marriage; the negotiation was anything but honorable, either to the king or to the pope; and the pope granted his bull in consideration of the favors shown to his unworthy son, Caesar Borgia, by the king.  Joan alone behaved with a virtuous as well as modest pride, and ended her life in sanctity within a convent at Bourges, being wholly devoted to pious works, regarded by the people as a saint, spoken of by bold preachers as