Page 15 - 12 The French Reformation

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