222 The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan
[ 217 ] fluence 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
322 Ibid. 323 Ibid.