264 REVIEWS OF BOOKS April communication between the Grisons and the Valais was facilitated, while Swiss support was within easy reach for any movement of the Milanese against their masters. Above all, the low ridge athwart the Valtellina, on which Bellinzona stands, was the bolt which had barred Swiss access to the lakes, even as northwards Basel was the key which locked the Rhine. Louis XII's Genoese campaign of 1507 had a baleful influence upon the relations of the confederacy to the French Crown. The revolt of Genoa developed from a faction fight between people and nobles into virtual secession from French suzerainty, for the popular party declared Genoa to be a chamber of the empire. Louis, knowing that the cantonal governments were bent upon a policy of neutrality, asked for a levy of 4,000 men, under the express promise that they were intended only to serve as his escort to Milan, and that no attack would be made on the interests of the emperor or the pope. Maximilian made a strong protest to the confederacy that Louis was aiming at the empire, but this arrived too late to stop the men from marching. The cantons, as soon as it was suspected that their men were meant for Genoa, ordered them to halt north of the Po, and those of the eastern cantons were in fact for some time delayed. The French had, however, now got complete control of the mercenaries, and nothing would stop the troops eager for pay and plunder. The cantonal governments were rightfully indignant at the deceit, and there was a revulsion of feeling towards Maximilian, caused partly by fear of French predominance in north Italy, partly by the geniality of Maximilian, who posed as the oldest and best of confederates, and promised to set one of Ludovico Moro's sons upon the Milanese throne. There was too an interesting revival of national German feeling, especially strong in the forest cantons, nervous as to their retention of Bellinzona in face of a stronger France. As usual, however, no common policy could be framed, though the general feeling was in favour of strict neutrality as between France and the empire. Any cantonal declaration in this sense was set at nought by the gold and the skill of French envoys, so that from the summer of 1507 until the end of 1508 mercenaries flocked into the service of France, of Maximilian, and even of Venice. Neverthe- less Louis XII's deceit was not forgotten, and was among the causes which led to his expulsion from the throne of Milan. The present volume ends rather clumsily with the first pact of the League of Cambrai war ; Swiss policy with relation to this can be better treated when this fresh and valuable work reaches its conclusion. E. Armstrong. La Reforme en Italie. Premiere Partie. Par E. Rodocanachi. (Paris : Picard, 1920.) The Italian reformation was effectively crushed by the forces of the catholic reaction, and the fact of its failure is perhaps the chief cause of the comparative neglect with which historians have treated the subject. M. Rodocanachi's book is a welcome contribution to our knowledge of a phase of the reformation movement which is both distinctive and interest- ing. The two preliminary chapters deal with the general character and causes of the reform movement in Italy, while the remainder of the volume
