We may be more exacting than M.Sainte-Beuve; we may regret that Marot, whilst rescuing it from the streets, confined it too much to the court; the natural and national range of poesy is higher and more extensive than that; the Hundred Years' War and Joan of Arc had higher claims.

But it is something to have delivered poesy from coarse vulgarity, and introduced refinement into it.

Clement Marot rendered to the French language, then in labor of progression, and, one might say, of formation, eminent service: he gave it a naturalness, a clearness, an easy swing, and, for the most part, a correctness which it had hitherto lacked.

It was reserved for other writers, in verse and prose, to give it boldness, the richness that comes of precision, elevation, and grandeur.
In 1534, amidst the first violent tempest of reform in France, Clement Marot, accused of heresy, prudently withdrew and went to seek an asylum at Ferrara, under the protection of the duchess, Renee of France, daughter of Louis XII.

He there met Calvin, who already held a high position amongst the Reformers, and who was then engaged on a translation of the Psalms in verse.