It was Tausen who gave the signal for this awakening. He was all this time in the monastery of Antwerskow. His piety and his virtues diffused light there in the midst of the darkness of the age; but most of the monks, carried away by their vices and their hatred of the Gospel, endeavored to extinguish it. In vain he sought to lead them to the truth by kindly speech and by patient setting forth of the Gospel. He tried to catch them separately, to open to them the errors of the Romish religion and to show them how far they were removed from the way of salvation.[255] These representations were very unwelcome to the monks. Tausen resolved to avail himself of the approaching festival of Easter solemnly to call his hearers to the faith, even at the risk of an explosion. He obtained leave of the prince to preach on Good Friday, March 25, 1524. The young Johannite entered the pulpit determined to utter on this occasion all his thought without any reserve prompted by worldly prudence. He pointed out to his hearers that man is powerless; that his good works and pretended satisfactions are poverty itself.[256] He set forth the merits of Christ and all the greatness of this mystery; he urged them to condemn the depraved and profane life which they had hitherto lived, and to come to Christ who would cover them with his righteousness. The blow was struck. This preaching gave rise to great excitement, and the audience were scandalized by a doctrine which appeared to them entirely new. All the monks, his superiors, blinded by papal superstition, thought only of how to get rid of such a heretic.[257] The prior had hardly patience to wait for the end. He was indignant that a young man to whom he had shown so much kindness had the audacity publicly to profess the doctrines of the reformer; and he saw with alarm his convent falling under suspicion of Lutheranism. He determined therefore to get rid of such a dangerous guest. He summoned Tausen into his presence, and after censuring him for his fault told him that he was very desirous of not inflicting on him a penalty too severe, and would therefore confine himself to sending him to the second house of the order, at Viborg, which he could enter under the _surveillance_ of the provost Peter Jansen, until he had retrieved his errors. Tausen set out for his place of exile. [Sidenote: Tausen At Viborg.]