DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0160
122
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
In spite of occasional opposition, they continued to work
and strive. They got hold of the weavers of Meaux,
Leclerc’s fellow-artisans, a handful of starving men, fit
subjects for religious revival. So matters went on till 1523.
That year the fanatic, Noel Beda, began a systematic
persecution and obliged them to scatter and to flee. Farel
went to the Dauphine and sowed the seeds of Reform;
Roussel followed him there, but not for long. The indefatig-
able Margaret gave him the Abbey of Clerac. When things
were quieter she even got him a Bishopric, and the title
of Royal Almoner and Confessor to herself and the King.
It is remarkable that so many men of distinction, bound
to each other by kindred aims, should have left so little
mark behind them. The fact is that not one of them was
a real leader. They were all thinkers and theorists rather
than doers. Berquin, who was fervent, had no wisdom;
Farel, a man of action, lacked magnetism and did not
possess the requisite largeness of vision; and Roussel, with
his separate creed, left the high-road for a by-path. The
two most promising members were Bri^onnet and his Grand
Vicar, Lefebre d’Etaples; but they too failed, for reasons
peculiar to their characters.
Bri^onnet’s nature is summed up in Robert Browning’s
Bishop Blougram—the man of good aspirations who com-
promised with the world. The son of a priest whom
Julius II excommunicated, he was first made Comte de
Montbrun, then took orders and obtained the confidence of
Louis XII, later of Francis I. Twice Extraordinary Ambas-
sador to Rome and Representative of France at Papal
Councils, he followed up his honours by gaining the rich
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
In spite of occasional opposition, they continued to work
and strive. They got hold of the weavers of Meaux,
Leclerc’s fellow-artisans, a handful of starving men, fit
subjects for religious revival. So matters went on till 1523.
That year the fanatic, Noel Beda, began a systematic
persecution and obliged them to scatter and to flee. Farel
went to the Dauphine and sowed the seeds of Reform;
Roussel followed him there, but not for long. The indefatig-
able Margaret gave him the Abbey of Clerac. When things
were quieter she even got him a Bishopric, and the title
of Royal Almoner and Confessor to herself and the King.
It is remarkable that so many men of distinction, bound
to each other by kindred aims, should have left so little
mark behind them. The fact is that not one of them was
a real leader. They were all thinkers and theorists rather
than doers. Berquin, who was fervent, had no wisdom;
Farel, a man of action, lacked magnetism and did not
possess the requisite largeness of vision; and Roussel, with
his separate creed, left the high-road for a by-path. The
two most promising members were Bri^onnet and his Grand
Vicar, Lefebre d’Etaples; but they too failed, for reasons
peculiar to their characters.
Bri^onnet’s nature is summed up in Robert Browning’s
Bishop Blougram—the man of good aspirations who com-
promised with the world. The son of a priest whom
Julius II excommunicated, he was first made Comte de
Montbrun, then took orders and obtained the confidence of
Louis XII, later of Francis I. Twice Extraordinary Ambas-
sador to Rome and Representative of France at Papal
Councils, he followed up his honours by gaining the rich