It was awakening of itself.

Scholars like William Bude and the Estiennes, thinkers like Dolet and Rabelais, poets like Marot, were the natural product of French soil.

Everywhere, north of the Alps no less than south, there was a spontaneous efflorescence of intellectual activity.
The Reformation is often contrasted or compared with the Renaissance.
In certain respects, where a common factor can be found, this may profitably be done.

But it is important to note how different in kind were the two movements.

One might as well compare Darwinism and Socialism in our own time.