Ab Hofen now fell into a state of discouragement more serious than the former. 'All my efforts are vain,' he wrote to Zwingle; 'there are about _seven hundred_ clergymen in Geneva who do their utmost to prevent the Gospel from flourishing here.[725] What can I do against such numbers? And yet a wide door is opened to the Word of God.... The priests do not preach; and as they are unable to do so, they are satisfied with saying mass in Latin.... Miserable nourishment for the poor people!... If any preachers were to come here, proclaiming Christ with boldness, the doctrine of the pope would, I am sure, be soon overthrown.'[726] But such preachers did not appear. Convinced of his insufficiency, and continually repeating that true ministers, like Zwingle and Farel, were wanted in that city; finding that many of the Genevans desired to be liberated not only from the vexations of Savoy, the shuffling of the bishop, and the doctrines of the pope, but also from the laws of morality; struck with the evils he saw ready to burst upon Geneva, and which the Gospel alone could avert,—this simple-minded, pious, and sensitive man returned heartbroken to Berne. Had this disappointment any effect upon his health? We cannot say; but he died not long after, in the month of November, 'as a christian ought to die,' it was said. It was found after his departure that his exertions had not been useless, and that some Genevans at least had profited by his teaching: among their number were counted Besançon Hugues and Baudichon de la Maison-Neuve. Some astonishment may be felt at seeing these two names together, for they are those of the chiefs of two opposite parties; but there is nothing improbable about it, for Hugues must have been frequently brought into contact with Ab Hofen, and it is not impossible that he listened to his religious conversation. Hugues was a serious man; he was, moreover, a statesman, and must have desired to know something about the religious opinions which seemed at that time likely to be adopted by the whole confederation; but his policy consisted in maintaining the rights of the bishop-prince on one side, and those of the citizens on the other; as for his religion, he was a catholic, and we do not see that he changed in either of those relations. What he might have been, if he had been living at the time when the Reformation was carried through, no one can say. De la Maison-Neuve, on the contrary, was a decided huguenot, and certainly needed the Gospel to moderate the ardour of his character. William de la Mouille, the bishop's chamberlain and confidant, appears to have been the person who profited most by the teaching of the layman of Berne. [Sidenote: SACK OF ROME.]