diff --git a/basis/base64/base64.factor b/basis/base64/base64.factor
index 111fe49f95..47147fa306 100644
--- a/basis/base64/base64.factor
+++ b/basis/base64/base64.factor
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ io.streams.byte-array kernel math namespaces
 sequences strings io.crlf ;
 IN: base64
 
+ERROR: malformed-base64 ;
+
 <PRIVATE
 
 : read1-ignoring ( ignoring -- ch )
@@ -18,8 +20,6 @@ IN: base64
     "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/"
     nth ; inline
 
-ERROR: malformed-base64 ;
-
 : base64>ch ( ch -- ch )
     {
         f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f