The evangelist soon extended his christian activity beyond the walls of the city. Many natives of Berry, who had heard him at Bourges, had been charmed with his addresses. 'Come and preach these beautiful words to us,' they said. Calvin gradually laid aside his natural timidity, and being cheerful and fond of walking, he visited the castles and villages.[84] He introduced himself affectionately into all the houses at which he stopped. 'A graceful salutation,' he said in after years, 'serves as an introduction to converse with people.'[85] He delivered several sermons in these hamlets and country-seats. On the banks of the Arnon, ten leagues from Bourges, there stands a little town named Lignières, at that time the seat of a considerable lordship.[86] Every year certain monks came to preach in the parish church, and were bountifully received at the château, where they complained of their wretchedness in the most pitiable tone. This offended the lord of Lignières, who was not of a superstitious character. 'If I am not mistaken,' he said, 'it is with a view to their own gain that these monks pretend to be such drudges.'[87] Disgusted with their hypocrisy, M. de Lignières begged Calvin to come and preach in their stead. The law-student spoke to an immense crowd with such clearness, freedom, depth, and vitality, that every one was moved.[88] 'Upon my word,' said the lord to his wife, 'Master John Calvin seems to me to preach better than the monks, and he goes heartily to work too.'[89] [Sidenote: RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT AT BOURGES.] When the priests saw the young evangelist so well received, they cried out and intrigued against him, and did all in their power to get him put into prison.[90] It was at Bourges that Calvin began to see that 'everything among men is full of vexation.' He said: 'By the assaults made against them, Christ sounds the trumpet to his followers, in order that they may prepare themselves more cheerfully for battle.'[91] In this way Calvin laboured in the town, in the villages, and in the châteaux, conversing tenderly with children, preaching to adults, and training heroes and martyrs. But the same circumstance which had taken him away from Orleans, suddenly occurred at Bourges. One day he received a letter from Noyon, written probably by his brother Anthony. Alas! his father was dead! and he was far from him, unable to lavish upon him the attentions of his filial piety. 'While he was at Bourges his father died,' says Theodore Beza, 'and he was obliged to return to Noyon.'[92] The death was very sudden.[93] Calvin did not hesitate; he bade farewell to Berry, to those pious families which he had edified, to his studies, and to his friends. 'You held out your hand to me,' he said to Wolmar, 'and were ready to support me from one end to the other of my course; but my father's death takes me away from our conversations and our lessons.'[94]