d himself, through fear, receded from
his advanced position, the doubtful honor is ascribed of having been
prominent in exertions to overcome the prelate's lingering scruples.
However this may be, when Briconnet had given sufficient guarantees to
satisfy the Sorbonne that no apprehension need be entertained of a
repetition in Meaux of the dangerous experiment of the public
instruction of the people in the Holy Scriptures, there was nothing to
be gained by his condemnation. He was accordingly acquitted of all
charge of heresy, although condemned to pay the sum of two hundred
livres as the expense of bringing to trial the "heretics" whom he had
himself helped to make such.[168] Hereupon he is said to have returned
to his diocese, and, having convened a synod, to have prohibited, as we
have seen, the circulation of Luther's writings, reintroduced the
ecclesiastical practices that had been condemned or discarded, and given
to the persecution now set on foot his unequivocal sanction.[169]

[Sidenote: Dispersion of the reformed teachers.]

The teachers whom Briconnet had so cordially invited to assist him were
compelled one by one to abandon Meaux. Among the earliest to leave was
Farel.[170] His was no faint heart. If he gave up his activity in Brie,
it was only to return to his native Dauphiny, where a young nobleman,
Anemond de Coct, and a preacher, Pierre de Sebeville, were among the
leading men whose conversion was the fruit of his indefatigable
exertions. After a visit to Guyenne, of which little is known, he passed
into German Switzerland, and labored successively in Basle, Strasbourg,
and Montbeliard.[171]

[Sidenote: Annoyances of those who remain.]

Lefevre and Roussel were among the last to withdraw; but, beset with
watchful enemies, they found their position neither safe nor
comfortable. It was as difficult to maintain a semblance of friendship
with an ecclesiastical system which they detested in their hearts, as to
refuse their sympathy and support to the persecuted whose opinions they
shared without possessing the courage necessary to suffer in attestation
of the common faith. Busy informers at one time found evidence, more
than warranting the suspicion that Roussel's manuscripts had furnished
the material of which scandalous placards defamatory of the Pope were
framed.[172] A little later the proctor of the cathedral drew attention
to the irregular conventicles held in the church itself, every Sunday
and fea