Babinot having reached the banks of the Garonne and entered Toulouse, resolved to address in the first place the young noblemen who were studying there. A learned man (he had lectured at Poitiers on the _Institutes_ of Justinian), he was firm, upright, zealous in the faith, and at the same time very gentle, so that he was called _the Goodfellow_ (Bonhomme). Many students were brought to the light by him. He next began to visit several little flocks in the neighbourhood, and celebrated the Lord's Supper with them after the manner which the man of God (as he called Calvin) had taught him.[125] 'He went through the country, praying secretly here and there in humble conventicles.' A regent or schoolmaster of Agen, named Sarrasin, having permitted him to speak in his school, was himself converted to the Gospel, and immediately began to teach the Word of God, but not so as to attract observation. Véron, who was as remarkable for his activity as Babinot for his gentleness, carried also into every place the news of the truth: he spent more than twenty years in this occupation.[126] He walked on foot through Poitou, Anjou, Angoumois, Saintonge, and even Guyenne. 'I desire,' he said, 'to gather up the stray sheep of the Lord.' Wherever he went, he invited souls to come to the good shepherd, _who giveth his life for the sheep_; and those who could distinguish the voice of the shepherd from that of the wolf, and see the difference between the call of God and the inventions of men, answered and entered into the fold. And hence he was called the Gatherer (_ramasseur_). 'Of a truth,' said Cayer the priest, 'this Gatherer marches out and does not leave a corner of our province, where he does not go sounding his way, to try and make some prize.'[127] On arriving in any town or village, he inquired for the best disposed persons, entered their houses, and sought to instruct them in the truth. He had taken with him some of Calvin's manuscripts, and when he desired to strengthen his hearers' souls, he would take them out of his pocket-book, and show them, saying that they were the writings of a great man; and then, after reading a few extracts, he would return them carefully to their place. 'The _gatherer_,' said fervent Roman-catholics, 'shows these papers as a great curiosity, as if they were Sibylline verses.'[128] [Sidenote: THE REFORM AND THE YOUNG.]