The Huguenot Bartholomew Dupuy and his descendants

RISE OF FRENCH REFORMERS. 7
In 1516, lie was appointed Bishop of Meaux, introd.
an important town twenty-eight miles east of 1521.
Paris. Impressed with the low state of piety
among the clergy, and imbued with the teach-
ing of Lefevre, Briconnet determined to bring
about a reform in the ministry of his diocese.
Accordingly, he demanded of the clergy
greater faithfulness to pastoral duties, forbade
their habit of spending time in pleasure
at the capital, and prohibited the Franciscan
monks from entering the pulpits of his diocese.
In 1521, when opposition arose in the faculty Opposiof
the University at Paris to the Reformed *^°°'
teaching, Briconnet, wishing to train up a
pure ministry for his churches, invited and
gathered about him quite a group of scholars,
including Lefevre, Farel, Martin Mazurier, Scholars
Gerard Roussel and others, by whom the Me^iux.
gospel was preached with much fervor for two
years in the churches of his diocese, which resulted
in the forming of a Protestant colony at
Meaux. In 1523, when strenuous opposition
was brought to bear by the faculty of the Uni-
versity against the movement, which scattered 1523the
scholars, Farel, before refugeing to Switz- ^^sca?-"
erland, went to the southeast border of the tered.
countr}^ where he labored for a time
with^^^^^^
great activity, and contributed to the spread southof
the Reformation in the provinces of the east.
Saone, of the Rhone and of the Alps. It was
in 1523, that Briconnet made Lefevre his vicargeneral,
and also responded to the Monks who
waited on him and insisted that he, ''Crush
this heresy, or else the pestilence, which is
already desolating the city of Meaux, will
spread over the whole kingdom.'^
But instead of doing it, he went into the
pulpit and justified the teaching of Lefevre,