nt events sufficiently proved.

[Sidenote: Lambert, the first French monk to embrace the Reformation.]

At Avignon, copies of several of the writings of Martin Luther fell into
the hands of Francois Lambert, son of a former private secretary of the
papal legate entrusted with the government of the Comtat Venaissin. He
was a man of vivid imagination, keen religious sensibilities, and marked
oratorical powers. He had at the age of fifteen been so deeply impressed
by the saintly appearance of the Franciscans as to seek admission to
their monastery as a novice. No sooner did he assume, a year later
(1503), the irrevocable vows that constituted him a monk, than his
disenchantment began. According to his own account, the quarrelsome and
debauched friars no longer felt any of the solicitude they had
previously entertained lest the knowledge of their excesses should deter
him from embracing a "religious" life. A few years later Lambert became
a preacher, and having, through a somewhat careful study of the Holy
Scriptures, embraced more evangelical views than were held by most of
his order, began to deliver discourses as well received by the people as
they were hated by his fellow-monks. Great was the outcry against him
when he openly denounced the misdeeds of a worthless vender of papal
indulgences; still greater when copies of Luther's treatises were found
in his possession. The books were seized, sealed, condemned, and burned,
although scarcely a glance had been vouchsafed at their contents. It was
enough for the monkish judges to cry: "They are heretical! They are
heretical!" "Nevertheless," exclaims honest Lambert, kindling with
indignation at the remembrance of the scene, "I confidently assert that
those same books of Luther contain more of pure theology than all the
writings of all the monks that have lived since the creation of the
world."[241]

[Sidenote: He is also the first to renounce celibacy.]

Lambert had made full trial of the monastic life. He had even immured
himself for some time in a Carthusian retreat, but found its inmates in
no respect superior to the Franciscans. At last an opportunity for
escape offered. In 1522, when a score of years had passed since he
entered upon his novitiate, he was despatched with letters to the
general of his order. Instead of fulfilling his commission, he traversed
Switzerland, and made his way to Wittemberg, where he satisfied the
desire he had long entertained, of meeting t