6 LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

was not yet dry on the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel; Mary
Queen of Scots was not yet born, but would be before the year closed.
Catherine de Medici was a child; Elizabeth of England was not yet
in her teens; Calvin, Benvenuto Cellini, and the Emperor Charles Y.
were at the top of their fame, and each was manufacturing history
after his own peculiar fashion ; Margaret of Navarre was wilting the
* Heptameron' and some religious books,—the first survives, the
others are forgotten, wit and indelicacy being sometimes better

literature preservers
than holiness ; lax
court morals and the
absurd chivalry busi-
ness were in full fea-
ther, and the joust

and the tournament were
the frequent pastime of titled fine gentlemen who could fight
better than they could spell, while religion was the passion of
their ladies, and classifying their offspring into children of full
rank and children by brevet their pastime. In fact, all around,
religion was in a peculiarly blooming condition: the Council of
Trent was being called; the Spanish Inquisition was roasting, and
racking, and burning, with a free hand; elsewhere on the continent the
nations were being persuaded to holy living by the sword and fire; in