cried, 'Heretic! devil!' They knew he was not the latter, or they would have been silent enough. The curate was as cautious as Shimei; and the knight stayed close in his castle. Farel passed on, leaving the revilers to take comfort from their impudence.

On reaching Morat, Farel brought to nothing the schemes of the Popish minority, and gave strength to the growing cause. Not spending time and breath to defend himself, he hastened to preach in the adjoining districts. He filled all Mittellach with his doctrine. He crossed the little lake of Morat, and entered into the villages of the valley, lying between it and Lake Neufchatel. There, on the beautiful hills, he planted that heavenly vineyard, better than the earthly ones that covered them. The effort was fully successful. Friburg objected to the movement. Berne replied, 'Let our ministers preach the gospel, and we will let your priests play their tricks. We desire to force no man. The majority should rule.' Farel was raising up the majorities. The people began to find true liberty in that religion which is its source, its regulator, and its defence. It was about this time that he wrote his powerful letter 'To all lords, people, and pastors.'

The reformer took all the margin that was on his commission. The Bernese senate reminded him that his special field was now Morat, and that he should remain where his instructions were so eagerly received, unless sent for by others who were willing to hear him. But he thought it his duty to sow, and God would take care of the harvest. He went into the northern part of the canton of Berne, awakening the people of the valleys and the villages.

One day, in April, he entered the church at Tavannes, just as the priest was saying mass. Farel went into the

pulpit. The astonished priest stopped. The minister preached until the people were so moved, that it seemed as if an angel had come down from heaven. 'The poor priest, who was chanting the mass, could not finish it.' He fled from the altar. The people were so roused that they demolished the images on the spot, and pulled down the altars. They were putting down Popery in a shorter time than the priest had spent in its most pretentious rite. The other ministers came to the work. The whole valley was soon disposed to adopt the reformation, in spite of the protests from the Bishop of Basle. The parish afterwards was favoured with a settled pastor.

On a cold day in 1529, some Bernese soldiers were trying to pass away their time, while they were defending the city of Geneva from the army of Savoy. With them were some young men from Neufchatel, and the talk often ran upon what a good work Haller and his friends were doing. The young Bernese were shivering, and it was proposed to have a fire. Where could dry wood be got? Some of them knew; for every Romish church had its idols. They went to the Dominican church, and brought away arm-loads of the sacred trash, saying, 'Idols of wood are of no use but to make a fire with in winter.' The young men of Neufchatel returned home wiser than they left it; and it was their delight to recount, in their jovial meetings, the exploits of the campaign, and the way they kept warm at Geneva.

These young men were to cause an uproar in Neufchatel. They were waiting for Farel to return. He reappeared about the middle of the year 1530. Being master of the lower part of the city, he raised his eyes to the lofty cathedral and castle. The best plan, said he, is to bring these proud priests down to us.' His young

friends hit upon a scheme that had cost more than one man his liberty. They went here and there through streets, early one morning, and posted up large placards bearing these words, 'All those who say mass are robbers, murderers, and seducers of the people.' There was no lack of readers, talkers, clamourers, and agitators. The noise grew louder. The town began to shake. The canons summoned the people, called together the clerks, and armed a large troop with clubs and swords. Then, marching at their head, they descended into the city, tore down the placards, cited Farel before the court as a slanderer, and demanded ten thousand crowns damages.

The two parties appeared in court, and this was all that Farel desired. I confess the fact of the placards,' said he; 'but I am justified in what I have done. Where can be found more horrible murderers than these misleaders, who sell paradise, and thus nullify the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ? I will prove my assertion by the gospel.' He began to open his Bible.

'The common law of Neufchatel,' the canons cried out, flashing with rage, and not the gospel, is in question here. Where are the witnesses ?'

'Here are witnesses enough in this holy word.' Farel was not to be cried down. He persisted in the testimony of the Scriptures against his accusers, and proved that the canons were really guilty of the charges on the placards. To make good such a proposition was to ruin Popery. The court were perplexed; they had never heard a similar case. They resolved to lay it before the Council of Besançon. Thence it went up to the emperor and to a general council. Perhaps it lost itself on the way to Rome. The bad cause gained nothing by making

a disturbance. Farel took advantage of the lull in the

storm.

He preached again in private houses and on public squares. These were still his temple. When his opposers wished to drive him back he made a step in advance. One day, when the people were around him, they asked, 'Why should not the word of God be proclaimed in a church?' They hurried him along with them, opened the doors of the hospital chapel, set him in the pulpit, and a large audience stood silent before. him.

'As Christ was born in a manger at Bethlehem,' said the preacher, in his first sermon in a church of the city, 'so this hospital, this abode of the sick and the poor, is to-day become His birthplace in the town of Neufchatel.' Then feeling ill at ease amid the painted and carved figures that decorated the chapel, he laid his hands on these idols and cast them down, breaking them in pieces by the fall.

The civil power was now invoked by the Papists. They had a right to ask its protection; but, asking it, they destroyed what they wished to save. The governor prayed the Bernese senate to remove Farel and his companions. But the friends of the reformer were not thus to be outdone. They also sent deputies to Berne, who asked, 'Did not our young men bear arms to assist you in reformation? Will you abandon us in ours?' The Bernese hesitated in order to decide justly between the two parties.

your

A dying man was to turn the scale. One of the most illustrious citizens of the Bernese republic was expiring, amid the tears of his sons and his neighbours. All Berne was full of mourning for him, and in fear of the plague of

which he was a victim. He was told of the two appeals from Neufchatel, and, rallying his waning strength, he said, 'Go and beg the senate, in my name, to ask for a general assembly of the people of Neufchatel for Sunday next. Let the vote be taken.' The message of the dying noble decided the senate. Berne sent deputies to Neufchatel, who arrived August 7, 1530. Farel thought that, during the debates, he had time for a new conquest, and he went into Valangin, where we will trace his steps in the next chapter.

The governor did all he could to support the priests and put down the people, but soon found himself at his wit's end. He sent to the Princess Joan, 'begging her to cross the mountains to appease her people, who were in terrible trouble because of the Lutheran religion.' (It was not Lutheran, however.) The princess was too much absorbed with the gaieties of the Parisian court to care for the religion of the canton.

The lines were more and more clearly drawn between the canons and the citizens. The townspeople asked the priests to give up the mass, but they refused. Then the canons were urged, by a written petition, to discuss the question with Farel. But there was the same refusal. 'But, for goodness' sake, speak either for or against!' It was all of no use. They feared debate.

Sunday, October 23d, was a day long to be remembered. Farel had returned, and he was preaching in the hospital. He knew that the magistrates of the city were inclined to act with the people against the priests, and that they had talked of giving up the cathedral to the reformers. 'Will you not,' said he in his sermon, 'honour the gospel as much as the other party does the mass? If this superstitious act is performed in the high church, shall