himself in
goodly raiment, wearing "a cloak of velvet, a doublet of satin and damask,
and golden hose."(325) He was about to testify to his faith in presence of
the King of kings and the witnessing universe, and no token of mourning
should belie his joy.

As the procession moved slowly through the crowded streets, the people
marked with wonder the unclouded peace, the joyous triumph, of his look
and bearing. "He is," they said, "like one who sits in a temple, and
meditates on holy things."(326)

At the stake, Berquin endeavored to address a few words to the people; but
the monks, fearing the result, began to shout, and the soldiers to clash
their arms, and their clamor drowned the martyr's voice. Thus in 1529, the
highest literary and ecclesiastical authority of cultured Paris "set the
populace of 1793 the base example of stifling on the scaffold the sacred
words of the dying."(327)

Berquin was strangled, and his body was consumed in the flames. The
tidings of his death caused sorrow to the friends of the Reformation
throughout France. But his example was not lost. "We too are ready," said
the witnesses for the truth, "to meet death cheerfully, setting our eyes
on the life that is to come."(328)

During the persecution at Meaux, the teachers of the reformed faith were
deprived of their license to preach, and they departed to other fields.
Lefevre after a time made his way to Germany. Farel returned to his native
town in eastern France, to spread the light in the home of his childhood.
Already tidings had been received of what was going on at Meaux, and the
truth, which he taught with fearless zeal, found listeners. Soon the
authorities were roused to silence him, and he was banished from the city.
Though he could no longer labor publicly, he traversed the plains and
villages, teaching in private dwellings and in secluded meadows, and
finding shelter in the forests and among the rocky caverns which had been
his haunts in boyhood. God was preparing him for greater trials. "The
crosses, persecutions, and machinations of Satan, of which I was
forewarned, have not been wanting," he said; "they are even much severer
than I could have borne of myself; but God is my Father; He has provided
and always will provide me the strength which I require."(329)

As in apostolic days, persecution had "fallen out rather unto the
furtherance of the gospel."(330) Driven from Paris and Meaux, "they that
were scattered abroad went every