not come!' And yet we have
here no day or hour. _What would not you do had you the Emperor and
Ferdinand favoring your attempts?_ Entreat God, therefore, in behalf of
France, that she may at length be worthy of His word."[180]

The remainder of the task imposed on the weak Bishop of Meaux and his
new allies, the monks of St. Francis, proved a more difficult
undertaking. The shepherds had been dispersed, but the flock refused to
forsake the fold. From the nourishing food they had discovered in the
Word of God, they could not be induced to return to the husks offered to
them in meaningless ceremonies, celebrated in an unknown tongue by men
of impure lives. The Gospels in French remained more attractive than
the legendary, even after the bishop had abandoned the championship of
the incipient reformation. Briconnet's own expressed wish was granted:
if he had "changed his speech and teaching," the common people, at
least, had not changed with him.

[Sidenote: The wool-carder, Jean Leclerc, tears down a papal bull.]

[Sidenote: His barbarous sentence.]

Among the first fruits of the Reformation in Meaux was a wool-carder,
Jean Leclerc, into whose hands had fallen one of Lefevre's French
Testaments. He was a man of strong convictions and invincible
resolution. A bull, issued by Clement the Seventh in connection with the
approaching jubilee, had been posted on the doors of the cathedral
(December, 1524). It offered indulgence, and enjoined prayers, fasting,
and partaking of the Communion, in order to obtain from heaven the
restoration of peace between princes of Christendom. Leclerc secretly
tore the bull down, substituting for it a placard in which the Roman
pontiff figured as veritable Antichrist. Diligent search was at once
instituted for the perpetrator of this offence, and for the author of
the subsequent mutilation of the prayers to the Virgin hung up in
various parts of the same edifice. A truculent order was also issued in
the bishop's name, threatening all persons that might conceal their
knowledge of the culprits with public excommunication, every Sunday and
feast-day, "with ringing of bells and with candles lighted and then
extinguished and thrown upon the earth, _in token of eternal
malediction_."[181] Leclerc was discovered, and taken to Paris for
trial. The barbarous sentence of parliament was, that he be whipped in
Paris by the common executioner on three successive days, then
transferred to Meaux to receive