ranism
in special abhorrence." But, like so many others, providentially guided to
the Bible, he was amazed to find there, "not the doctrines of Rome, but
the doctrines of Luther."(321) Henceforth he gave himself with entire
devotion to the cause of the gospel.

"The most learned of the nobles of France," his genius and eloquence, his
indomitable courage and heroic zeal, and his influence at court,--for he
was a favorite with the king,--caused him to be regarded by many as one
destined to be the Reformer of his country. Said Beza, "Berquin would have
been a second Luther, had he found in Francis I. a second elector." "He is
worse than Luther,"(322) cried the papists. More dreaded he was indeed by
the Romanists of France. They thrust him into prison as a heretic, but he
was set at liberty by the king. For years the struggle continued. Francis,
wavering between Rome and the Reformation, alternately tolerated and
restrained the fierce zeal of the monks. Berquin was three times
imprisoned by the papal authorities, only to be released by the monarch,
who, in admiration of his genius and his nobility of character, refused to
sacrifice him to the malice of the hierarchy.

Berquin was repeatedly warned of the danger that threatened him in France,
and urged to follow the steps of those who had found safety in voluntary
exile. The timid and time-serving Erasmus, who with all the splendor of
his scholarship failed of that moral greatness which holds life and honor
subservient to truth, wrote to Berquin: "Ask to be sent as ambassador to
some foreign country; go and travel in Germany. You know Beda and such as
he--he is a thousand-headed monster, darting venom on every side. Your
enemies are named legion. Were your cause better than that of Jesus
Christ, they will not let you go till they have miserably destroyed you.
Do not trust too much to the king's protection. At all events, _do not
compromise me_ with the faculty of theology."(323)

But as dangers thickened, Berquin's zeal only waxed the stronger. So far
from adopting the politic and self-serving counsel of Erasmus, he
determined upon still bolder measures. He would not only stand in defense
of the truth, but he would attack error. The charge of heresy which the
Romanists were seeking to fasten upon him, he would rivet upon them. The
most active and bitter of his opponents were the learned doctors and monks
of the theological department in the great University of Paris, one of