It was already possible to distinguish in him, in some features at least, the character of chief of the Reform. As he possessed great facility of correspondence, he kept himself informed, and others also, of all that was passing in the christian world. He made about this time a collection of papers and documents relating to the most recent facts of the Reformation, and sent them to Duchemin, but not for him to keep.[149] 'I send them to you on this condition,' wrote Calvin, 'that, in accordance with your good faith and duty, they may pass through your hands to our friends.'[150] To this packet he added an epitome,[151] some commentaries, and a collection of notes made probably by Roussel during his residence at Strasburg. He purposed adding an appendix:[152] 'But I had no time,' he said.[153] Calvin desired that all the friends of the Gospel should profit by the light which he himself possessed. He brought the new ideas and new writings into circulation. A close student, an indefatigable evangelist, this young man of twenty was, by his far-seeing glance, almost a reformer. He did not confine his labours to Paris, Orleans, Bourges, or Noyon: the city of Meaux occupied his attention. Meaux, which had welcomed Lefèvre and Farel, which had heard Leclerc, the first martyr, still possessed Briçonnet. This former protector of the evangelicals would indeed no longer see them, and appeared absorbed in the honours and seductions of the prelacy. But some men thought that at the bottom of his heart he still loved the Gospel. What a triumph if the grace of God should once more blossom in his soul! Daniel had friends at Meaux; Calvin begged of him to open the door (or, to use his own expression, _the window_) of this city for him. In the number of these friends was a certain _Mæcenas_. The young doctor, writing from Meaux, gives a portrait of this individual which exactly fits the bishop. He does not name Briçonnet; but as he often suppresses names, or employs either initials or pseudonyms, we might almost say that the name was not necessary here. Daniel accordingly wrote to Mæcenas, who returned a very cold answer.[154] 'I cannot walk with those people,' he said; 'I cannot conform my manners to theirs.'[155] Daniel insisted; but it was all of no use: the timid Mæcenas would on no account have anything to do with Calvin. Briçonnet, we learn, was surrounded by friends who were continually repeating to him: 'A bishop ought to have no commerce with persons suspected of innovation.'[156] Calvin, animated by the noblest ambition, that of bringing back to God a soul that was going astray, finding himself denied every time he knocked at the gate of this great personage, at last gave up his generous enterprise, and, shaking the dust from his feet, he said with severity: 'Since he will not be with us, let him take pleasure in himself, and with a heart full, or rather inflated by his own importance, let him pamper his ambition.'[157]