The Huguenot Bartholomew Dupuy and his descendants

18 RISE AND PROGRESS OF HUGUENOTS.
introd . serted their belief and contended for the
doctrines of the Reformation to the last.
Hence Farel had to flee the country, and the
other two were martyred. In France the Rise
of the Reformation had no leader, as it had in
Germany in Martin Luther, who was sufficiently
supported by the civil power to make
him bold, aggressive, and antagonistic to
Rome. The whole civil and ecclesiastical
power in France was arrayed against the
movement, and it was not possible for any one
person to have maintained its leadership:
death would have been his inevitable fate.
Hence its doctrines had to work silently like
leaven, diffusing themselves in the hearts of
the people secretly, until a firm and permanent
belief was established, sufficient to maintain
itself; which was effected in about twenty
years from its first promulgation by James
Lefevre.
II.
Tne Persecution of tne Reformers under tKe lorms of
law, until tlieir religion was recognized, (1534-62}.
Persecu- Persecution began against the Reformers as
Rrforai- ^^^'ly ^s 1521, but it was not until the year
ers. 1534 that it became active and of organized
1534. form. In the summer of that year, the pious
Protestants of Paris began to discuss among
themselves the perils of their condition, and
to reform
whether it were wiser to attempt
the Romish church, or to organize a new one.
To decide the question, they despatched a messenger
to Switzerland to consult Farel and the
Mani- other refugees. The advice of the refugees
festo. was that a "Manifesto," in the form of placards
and pamphlets, should be secretly posted