The example thus set at Meaux was imitated in other parts of France; but, far from checking the progress of the new doctrines, it served to prove the strong faith of the converts. Thus Jean Chapot, who had been denounced for bringing a bale of heretical books from Geneva, would not give up the names of the persons to whom he had sold them, though he was almost torn asunder on the rack. One Mark Moreau of Troyes displayed similar firmness and constancy at the stake, to which he was condemned after being tortured, because he refused to betray the other Lutherans in that city. Francis Daugy cried out from the midst of the flames: “Be of good cheer, brethren, I see heaven opening and the Son of God stretching out his arms to receive me.” As the Demoiselle Michelle de Caignoncle was going to the stake, one of her poor pensioners ran by her side crying: “You will never give us alms again.” “Yes, once more!” she said, and threw her slippers to the woman, who was barefoot. One Thomas of St. Paul was taken out of the flames and urged to recant. “Put me back into the fire,” he exclaimed: “I am on the road to heaven.” Among the victims of this reign was one whose name occupies a conspicuous place in the history of the revival of learning. Stephen Dolet, famous among the poets of the Renaissance, had set up a printing-press at Lyons, where he appears to have been unpopular among those of his own trade, through supporting the compositors who had “struck” for higher wages. He had been twice condemned for heresy: once on the information of the infamous Anthony Mouchi, a doctor of the Sorbonne and heretic-finder to the Inquisition, who has transmitted his name to posterity under the form of _mouchard_. Dolet had escaped to Piedmont; but yearning with that love for his native country, which is so strong a characteristic of the French people, he returned to Lyons, where he was speedily arrested and carried to Paris. Here he was accused and convicted of atheism, the charge being founded on his translation of a passage in Plato. While in prison, hourly expecting death, he exclaimed: “My whole life has been a struggle; thank God, it is over at last.”[22] When he was led to the stake in the Place Maubert, the executioner bade him invoke the Virgin and St. Stephen, his patron saint, or else his tongue would be cut out and he would be burned alive. Dolet repeated the required formula, and then was hanged and burned (3d August, 1546). Dolet must not be ranked among the martyrs of religion: he suffered because he had offended the clergy by his independent spirit. The doctors of the Sorbonne would willingly have forgiven his being a printer and an atheist, if he had not stood forward as the champion of free thought.