So striking a conversion gave fresh vigour to the evangelical movement. Hitherto Bilney and Latimer had been the most zealous champions of the two opposite causes; the one despised, the other honoured; the weak man had conquered the strong. This action of the Spirit of God was not thrown away upon Cambridge. Latimer's conversion, as of old the miracles of the apostles, struck men's minds; and was it not in truth a miracle? All the youth of the university ran to hear Bilney preach. He proclaimed "Jesus Christ as He who, having tasted death, has delivered his people from the penalty of sin."[489] While the doctors of the school (even the most pious of them) laid most stress upon _man's_ part in the work of redemption, Bilney on the contrary emphasized the other term, namely, _God's_ part. This doctrine of grace, said his adversaries, annuls the sacraments, and contradicts baptismal regeneration. The selfishness which forms the essence of fallen humanity rejected the evangelical doctrine, and felt that to accept it was to be lost. "Many listened with _the left ear_," to use an expression of Bilney's; "like Malchus, having their _right_ ear cut off;" and they filled the university with their complaints. [489] Christus quem pro virili doceo.....denique et satisfactionem. Ep. ad Tonstallum episcop. Foxe, Acts, iv, p. 633. But Bilney did not allow himself to be stopped. The idea of eternity had seized on his mind, and perhaps he still retained some feeble relic of the exaggeration of asceticism. He condemned every kind of recreation, even when innocent. Music in the churches seemed to him a mockery of God;[490] and when Thurlby, who was afterwards a bishop, and who lived at Cambridge in the room below his, used to begin playing on the recorder, Bilney would fall on his knees and pour out his soul in prayer: to him prayer was the sweetest melody. He prayed that the lively faith of the children of God might in all England be substituted for the vanity and pride of the priests. He believed--he prayed--he waited. His waiting was not to be in vain. [490] Ibid. p. 621. [Sidenote: NATURE OF THE MINISTRY.]