Louis XII. and the Assembly of Tours--Francis and
Margaret--Learned Men--Lefevre--His Courses at the
University--Meeting between Lefevre and Farel--Farel's
Hesitation and Researches--First Awakening--Lefevre's
Prophecy--Teaches Justification by
Faith--Objections--Disorder of the Colleges--Effects on
Farel--Election--Sanctification of Life.
[Sidenote: LOUIS XII.--FRANCIS AND MARGARET.]
One day in the year 1510, or shortly after, the young Dauphinese
arrived in Paris. The province had made him an ardent follower of the
papacy; the capital was to make him something very different. In
France the Reformation was not destined to go forth, as in Germany,
from a small city. All the movements that agitate the people proceed
from the metropolis. A concurrence of providential circumstances made
Paris, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, a focus whence a
spark of life might easily escape. The young man from the
neighbourhood of Gap, who arrived there humble and ignorant, was to
receive that spark in his heart, and many others with him.
Louis XII., the father of his people, had just convoked the
representatives of the French clergy to meet at Tours. This prince
seems to have anticipated the times of the Reformation; so that had
this great revolution taken place during his reign, the whole of
France might have become protestant. The assembly of Tours had
declared that the king possessed the right of waging war on the pope,
and of enforcing the decrees of the Council of Basle. These measures
were the object of general conversation in the colleges, the city, and
the court; and must have made a deep impression on the mind of young
Farel.
Two children were then growing up in the court of Louis XII. One was a
prince of tall stature, striking features, who showed little
moderation in his character, and followed blindly wherever his
passions led him; so that the king was in the habit of saying: "That
great boy will spoil all."[698] This was Francis of Angoulême, duke of
Valois, and cousin to the king. Boisy, his tutor, had taught him,
however, to honour literature.
[698] Mezeray, vol. iv. 127.
By the side of Francis was his sister Margaret, his senior by two
years, "a princess," says Brantôme, "of great mind and ability, both
natural and acquired."[699] Accordingly, Louis had spared no pains in
her education, and the most learned men in the kingdom hastened to
acknowledge her as their patroness.
[699] Brant., Dames illustres, p. 331.
Already, indeed, a group of illustrious men surrounded these two
Valois. William Budœus, a man giving the run to his passions, fond
of the chase, living only for his hawks, his horses, and his hounds,
on a sudden, at the age of twenty-three, had stopped short, sold his
hunting train, and applied himself to study with the zeal he had
formerly displayed in scouring the fields and forests with his
dogs;[700] the physician Cop, Francis Vatable, whose knowledge of
Hebrew was admired by the Jews themselves; James Tusan, a celebrated
Hellenist; and many others, encouraged by Stephen Poncher, bishop of
Paris, by Louis Ruzé, the civil lieutenant, and by Francis de Luynes,
and already protected by the two young Valois, resisted the violent
attacks of the Sorbonne, who looked upon the study of Greek and Hebrew
as the most deadly heresy. At Paris, as in Germany and Switzerland,
the restoration of sound doctrine was to be preceded by the revival of
letters. But in France the hands that thus prepared the materials were
not destined to construct the edifice.
[700] His wife and sons came to Geneva in 1540, after his death.
[Sidenote: LEARNED MEN--LEFEVRE.]
Among all the doctors who then adorned the capital, was observed a man
of very diminutive stature, of mean appearance, and humble
origin,[701] whose intellect, learning, and powerful eloquence had an
indefinable attraction for all who heard him. His name was Lefevre;
and he was born about 1455 at Etaples, a village in Picardy. He had
received a rude, or as Theodore Beza calls it, a barbarous education;
but his genius had supplied the want of masters; and his piety,
learning, and nobility of soul, shone out with so much the brighter
lustre. He had travelled much, and it would appear that his desire of
acquiring knowledge had led him into Asia and Africa.[702] As early as
1493, Lefevre, then doctor of divinity, was professor in the
university of Paris. He immediately occupied a distinguished rank,
and, in the estimation of Erasmus, was the first.[703]
[701] Homunculi unius neque genere insignis. Bezæ Icones.
[702] In his Commentary on 2 Thessalonians ii. will be found a curious
account of Mecca and its temple, furnished to him by some traveller.
[703] Fabro, viro quo vix in multis millibus reperias vel integriorem
vel humaniorem, says Erasmus. Epp. p. 174.
[Sidenote: LECTURES AT THE UNIVERSITY.]
Lefevre saw that he had a task to perform. Although attached to the
practices of the Romish Church, he resolved to attack the barbarism
then prevailing in the university;[704] he began to teach the various
branches of philosophy with a clearness hitherto unknown. He
endeavoured to revive the study of languages and learned antiquity. He
went farther than this; he perceived that, as regards a work of
regeneration, philosophy and learning are insufficient. Abandoning,
therefore, scholasticism, which for so many ages had reigned supreme
in the schools, he returned to the Bible, and revived in Christendom
the study of the Holy Scriptures and evangelical learning. He did not
devote his time to dry researches, he went to the heart of the Bible.
His eloquence, his candour, his amiability, captivated all hearts.
Serious and fervent in the pulpit, he indulged in a sweet familiarity
with his pupils. "He loves me exceedingly," wrote Glarean, one of
their number, to his friend Zwingle. "Full of candour and kindness, he
often sings, prays, disputes, and laughs at the follies of the world
with me."[705] Accordingly, a great number of disciples from every
country sat at his feet.
[704] Barbariem nobilissimæ academiæ......incumbentem detrudi. Beza
Icones.
[705] Supra modum me amat totus integer et candidus, mecum cantillat,
ludit, disputat, ridet mecum. Zw. Epp. p. 26.
[Sidenote: FAREL'S DEVOTION TO THE POPE.]
This man, with all his learning, submitted with the simplicity of a
child to every observance of the Church. He passed as much time in the
churches as in his study, so that a close union seemed destined to
unite the aged doctor of Picardy and the young scholar of Dauphiny.
When two natures so similar as these meet together, though it be
within the wide circuit of a capital, they tend to draw near each
other. In his pious pilgrimages, young Farel soon noticed an aged man,
and was struck by his devotion. He prostrated himself before the
images, and remained long on his knees, praying with fervour and
devoutly repeating his hours. "Never," said Farel, "never had I seen a
chanter of the mass sing it with greater reverence."[706] This man was
Lefevre. William Farel immediately desired to become acquainted with
him; and could not restrain his joy when he found himself kindly
received by this celebrated man. William had gained his object in
coming to the capital. From that time his greatest pleasure was to
converse with the doctor of Etaples, to listen to him, to hear his
admirable lessons, and to kneel with him devoutly before the same
shrines. Often might the aged Lefevre and his young disciple be seen
adorning an image of the Virgin with flowers; and alone, far from all
Paris, far from its scholars and its doctors, they murmured in concert
the fervent prayers they offered up to Mary.[707]
[706] Ep. de Farel à tous seigneurs, peuples et pasteurs.
[707] Floribus jubebat Marianum idolum, dum una soli murmuraremus
preces Marianas ad idolum, ornari. Farel to Pellican, anno 1556.
Farel's attachment to Lefevre was noticed by many. The respect felt
towards the old doctor was reflected on his young disciple. This
illustrious friendship drew the Dauphinese from his obscurity. He soon
acquired a reputation for zeal; and many devout rich persons in Paris
intrusted him with various sums of money intended for the support of
the poorer students.[708]
[708] Geneva MS.
Some time elapsed ere Lefevre and his disciple arrived at a clear
perception of the truth. It was not the hope of a rich benefice or a
propensity to a dissolute life which bound Farel to the pope; those
vulgar ties were not made for souls like his. To him the pope was the
visible head of the Church, a sort of deity, by whose commandments
souls might be saved. Whenever he heard any one speaking against this
highly venerated pontiff, he would gnash his teeth like a furious
wolf, and would have called down lightning from heaven "to overwhelm
the guilty wretch with utter ruin and confusion."--"I believe," said
he, "in the cross, in pilgrimages, images, vows, and relics. What the
priest holds in his hands, puts into the box, and there shuts it up,
eats, and gives others to eat, is my only true God, and to me there is
no other, either in heaven or upon earth."[709]--"Satan," says he in
another place, "had so lodged the pope, the papacy, and all that is
his in my heart, that even the pope had not so much of it in himself."
[709] Ep. de Farel. A tous seigneurs, &c.
[Sidenote: HESITATION AND INQUIRY--FIRST AWAKENING.]
Thus, the more Farel appeared to seek God, the more his piety decayed
and superstition increased in his soul; everything was going from bad
to worse. He has himself described this condition in energetic
language:[710] "Alas! how I shudder at myself and at my faults," said
he, "when I think upon it; and how great and wonderful a work of God
it is, that man should ever have been dragged from such an abyss!"
[710] Quo plus pergere et promovere adnitebar, eo amplius
retrocedebam. Farellus Galeoto, MS. Letters at Neufchatel.
From this abyss he emerged only by degrees. He had at first studied
the profane authors; his piety finding no food there, he began to
meditate on the lives of the saints; infatuated as he was before,
these legends only made him still more so.[711] He then attached
himself to several doctors of the age; but as he had gone to them in
wretchedness, he left them more wretched still. At last he began to
study the ancient philosophers, and expected to learn from Aristotle
how to be a Christian; again his hopes were disappointed. Books,
images, relics, Aristotle, Mary, and the saints--all proved
unavailing. His ardent soul wandered from one human wisdom to another,
without finding the means of allaying its burning thirst.
[711] Quæ de sanctis conscripta offendebam, verum ex stulto insanum
faciebant. Farellus Galeoto, MS. Letters at Neufchatel.
Meantime the pope, allowing the writings of the Old and New Testaments
to be called _The Holy Bible_, Farel began to read them, as Luther had
done in the cloister at Erfurth; he was amazed[712] at seeing that
everything upon earth was different from what is taught in the
Scriptures. Perhaps he was on the point of reaching the truth, but on
a sudden a thicker darkness plunged him into another abyss. "Satan
came suddenly upon me," said he, "that he might not lose his prize,
and dealt with me according to his custom."[713] A terrible struggle
between the Word of God and the word of the Church then took place in
his heart. If he met with any passages of Scripture opposed to the
Romish practices, he cast down his eyes, blushed, and dared not
believe what he read.[714] "Alas!" said he, fearing to keep his looks
fixed on the Bible, "I do not well understand these things; I must
give a very different meaning to the Scriptures from that which they
seem to have. I must keep to the interpretation of the Church, and
indeed of the pope."
[712] Farel. A tous seigneurs, &c.
[713] Ibid.
[714] Oculos demittens, visis non credebam. Farellus Natali Galeoto.
[Sidenote: THE PANTHEON--LEFEVRE'S PROPHECY.]
One day, as he was reading the Bible, a doctor who happened to come in
rebuked him sharply. "No man," said he, "ought to read the Holy
Scriptures before he has learnt philosophy and taken his degree in
arts." This was a preparation the apostles had not required; but Farel
believed him. "I was," says he, "the most wretched of men, shutting my
eyes lest I should see."[715]
[715] Oculos a luce avertebam. Farellus Natali Galeoto.
From that time the young Dauphinese had a return to his Romish
fervour. The legends of the saints inflamed his imagination. The
greater the severity of the monastic rules, the greater was the
attraction he felt towards them. In the midst of the woods near Paris,
some Carthusians inhabited a group of gloomy cells; he visited them
with reverence, and shared in their austerities. "I was wholly
employed, day and night, in serving the devil," said he, "after the
fashion of that man of sin, the pope. I had my Pantheon in my heart,
and such a troop of mediators, saviours, and gods, that I might well
have passed for a papal register."
The darkness could not grow deeper; the morning star was soon to
arise, and it was destined to appear at Lefevre's voice. There were
already some gleams of light in the doctor of Etaples; an inward
conviction told him that the Church could not long remain in its
actual position; and often, at the very moment of his return from
saying mass, or of rising from before some image, the old man would
turn towards his youthful disciple, and grasping him by the hand would
say in a serious tone of voice: "My dear William, God will renew the
world, and you will see it!"[716] Farel did not thoroughly understand
these words. Yet Lefevre did not confine himself to this mysterious
language; a great change which was then wrought in him, was destined
to produce a similar effect on his disciple.
[716] A tous seigneurs.--See also his letter to Pellican. Ante annos
plus minus quadraginta, me manu apprehensum ita alloquebatur:
"Gulielme, oportet orbem immutari et tu videbis!"
[Sidenote: THE LEGENDS AND THE WORD OF GOD.]
The old doctor was engaged in a laborious task; he was carefully
collecting the legends of the saints and martyrs, and arranging them
according to the order in which their names are found in the
calendar. Two months had already been printed, when one of those beams
of light which come from heaven, suddenly illuminated his soul. He
could not resist the disgust which such puerile superstitions must
ever cause in the heart of a Christian. The sublimity of the Word of
God made him perceive the paltry nature of these fables. They now
appeared to him no better than "brimstone fit to kindle the fire of
idolatry."[717] He abandoned his work, and throwing these legends
aside, turned ardently towards the Holy Scriptures. At the moment when
Lefevre, quitting the wondrous tales of the saints, laid his hand on
the Word of God, a new era began in France, and is the commencement of
the Reformation.
[717] A tous seigneurs, peuples et pasteurs.
In effect, Lefevre, weaned from the fables of the Breviary, began to
study the Epistles of St. Paul; the light increased rapidly in his
heart, and he immediately imparted to his disciples that knowledge of
the truth which we find in his commentaries.[718] Strange doctrines
were those for the school and for the age, which were then first heard
in Paris, and disseminated by the press throughout the christian
world. We may easily understand that the young disciples who listened
to them were aroused, impressed, and changed by them; and that thus,
prior to the year 1512, the dawn of a brighter day was preparing for
France.
[718] The first edition of his Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul
is, if I mistake not, that of 1512. A copy is extant in the
Bibliothèque Royale of Paris. The second edition is that from which I
quote. The learned Simon says (Observations on the New Testament),
that "James Lefevre deserves to be ranked among the most skilful
commentators of the age." We should give him greater praise than this.
[Sidenote: JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH--OBJECTIONS.]
The doctrine of justification by faith, which overthrew by a single
blow the subtleties of the schoolmen and the observances of popery,
was boldly proclaimed in the bosom of the Sorbonne. "It is God alone,"
said the doctor, and the vaulted roofs of the university must have
been astonished as they re-echoed such strange sounds, "it is God
alone, who by his grace, through faith, justifies unto everlasting
life.[719] There is a righteousness of works, there is a
righteousness of grace; the one cometh from man, the other from God;
one is earthly and passeth away, the other is heavenly and eternal;
one is the shadow and the sign, the other the light and the truth; one
makes sin known to us that we may escape death, the other reveals
grace that we may obtain life."[720]
[719] Solus enim Deus est qui hanc justitiam per fidem tradit, qui
sola gratia ad vitam justificat æternam. Fabri Comm. in Epp. Pauli, p.
70.
[720] Illa umbratile vestigium atque signum, hæc lux et veritas est.
Fabri Comm. in Epp. Pauli, p. 70.
"What then!" asked his hearers, as they listened to this teaching,
which contradicted that of four centuries; "has any one man been ever
justified without works?" "One!" answered Lefevre, "they are
innumerable. How many people of disorderly lives, who have ardently
prayed for the grace of baptism, possessing faith alone in Christ, and
who, if they died the moment after, have entered into the life of the
blessed without works!"--"If, therefore, we are not justified by
works, it is in vain that we perform them," replied some. The Paris
doctor answered, and the other reformers would not perhaps have
altogether approved of this reply: "Certainly not! they are not in
vain. If I hold a mirror to the sun, its image is reflected; the more
I polish and clear it, the brighter is the reflection; but if we allow
it to become tarnished, the splendour of the sun is dimmed. It is the
same with justification in those who lead an impure life." In this
passage, Lefevre, like Augustine in many, does not perhaps make a
sufficient distinction between sanctification and justification. The
doctor of Etaples reminds us strongly of the Bishop of Hippona. Those
who lead an unholy life have never received justification, and
therefore cannot lose it. But Lefevre may have intended to say that
the Christian, when he has fallen into any sin, loses the assurance of
salvation, and not salvation itself. If so, there is no objection to
be made against his doctrine.
[Sidenote: DISORDERS IN THE COLLEGES--UPROAR.]
Thus a new life and a new teaching had penetrated into the university
of Paris. The doctrine of faith, formerly preached in Gaul by Pothinus
and Irenæus, was heard there again. From this time there were two
parties, two people in this great school of Christendom. Lefevre's
lessons and the zeal of his disciples formed the most striking
contrast to the scholastic teaching of the majority of the doctors,
and the irregular and frivolous lives of most of the students. In the
colleges, they were far more busily engaged in learning their parts in
comedies, in masquerading, and in mountebank farces, than in studying
the oracles of God. In these plays the honour of the great, of the
princes, of the king himself, was frequently attacked. The parliament
interfered about this period; and summoning the principals of several
colleges before them, forbade those indulgent masters to permit such
dramas to be represented in their houses.[721]
[721] Crévier, Hist. de l'Université, v. 95.
But a more powerful diversion than the decrees of parliament suddenly
came to correct these disorders. Jesus Christ was preached. Great was
the uproar on the benches of the university, and the students began to
occupy themselves almost as much with the evangelical doctrines as
with the quibbles of the school or with comedies. Many of those whose
lives were the least irreproachable, adhered however to the doctrine
of works; and feeling that the doctrine of faith condemned their way
of living, they pretended that St. James was opposed to St. Paul.
Lefevre, resolving to defend the treasure he had discovered, showed
the agreement of these two apostles: "Does not St. James in his first
chapter declare that every good and perfect gift cometh down _from
above_? Now, who will deny that justification is the good and perfect
gift?......If we see a man moving, the respiration that we perceive is
to us a sign of life. Thus works are necessary, but only as signs of a
living faith, which is accompanied by justification.[722] Do
eye-salves or lotions give light to the eye?......No! it is the
influence of the sun. Well, then, these lotions and these eye-salves
are our works. The ray that the sun darts from above is justification
itself."[723]
[722] Opera signa vivæ fidei, quam justificatio sequitur. Fabri Comm.
in Epp. Pauli, p. 73.
[723] Sed radius desuper a sole vibratus, justificatio est. Ibid.
[Sidenote: EFFECTS ON FAREL--THE CROSS--ELECTION.]
Farel listened earnestly to this teaching. These words of salvation by
grace had immediately an indescribable charm for him. Every objection
fell: every struggle ceased. No sooner had Lefevre put forward this
doctrine than Farel embraced it with all the ardour of his soul. He
had undergone labour and conflicts enough to be aware that he could
not save himself. Accordingly, immediately he saw in the Word that God
saves freely, he believed. "Lefevre," said he, "extricated me from the
false opinion of human merits, and taught me that everything came from
grace: which I believed as soon as it was spoken."[724] Thus by a
conversion as prompt and decisive as that of St. Paul was Farel led to
the faith,--that Farel who (as Theodore Beza says), undismayed by
difficulties, threats, abuse, or blows, won over to Jesus Christ
Montbelliard, Neufchatel, Lausanne, Aigle, and finally Geneva.[725]
[724] Farel. A tous seigneurs.
[725] Nullis difficultatibus fractus, nullis minis, convitiis,
verberibus denique inflictis territus. Bezæ Icones.
Meanwhile Lefevre, continuing his lessons, and delighting, as Luther
did, in employing contrasts and paradoxes containing weighty truths,
extolled the greatness of the mysteries of redemption: "Ineffable
exchange," exclaimed he, "the innocent One is condemned and the
criminal acquitted; the Blessing is cursed, and he who was cursed is
blessed; the Life dies, and the dead live; the Glory is covered with
shame, and He who was put to shame is covered with glory."[726] The
pious doctor, going still deeper, acknowledged that all salvation
proceeds from the sovereignty of God's love. "Those who are saved,"
said he, "are saved by election, by grace, by the will of God, not by
their own. Our own election, will, and works, are of no avail: the
election of God alone is profitable. When we are converted, it is not
our conversion that makes us the elect of God, but the grace, will,
and election of God which convert us."[727]
[726] O ineffabile commercium!......Fabri Comm. 145, verso.
[727] Inefficax est ad hoc ipsum nostra voluntas, nostra electio: Dei
autem electio efficacissima et potentissima est, &c. Ibid. p. 89,
verso.
[Sidenote: SANCTIFICATION OF LIFE.]
But Lefevre did not confine himself to doctrines alone: if he gave to
God the glory, he required obedience from man, and urged the
obligations which proceed from the great privileges of the Christian.
"If thou art a member of Christ's Church, thou art also a member of
his body," said he; "and if thou art a member of Christ's body, thou
art full of the Divinity; for in him dwelleth the fulness of the
Godhead bodily. Oh! if men could but understand this privilege, how
chastely, purely, and holily would they live, and they would look upon
all the glory of this world as disgrace, in comparison with that inner
glory which is hidden from the eyes of the flesh."[728]
[728] Si de corpore Christi, divinitate repletus es. Fabri Comm. p.
176, verso.
Lefevre perceived that the office of a teacher of the Word is a lofty
station; and he exercised it with unshaken fidelity. The corruption of
the times, and particularly that of the clergy, excited his
indignation, and became the subject of severe rebuke. "How scandalous
it is," said he, "to see a bishop asking persons to drink with him,
gambling, rattling the dice, spending his time with hawks and dogs,
and in hunting, hallooing after rooks and deer, and frequenting houses
of ill-fame![729]......O men deserving a severer punishment than
Sardanapalus himself!"
[729] Et virgunculas gremio tenentem, cum suaviis sermones miscentem.
Ibid. p. 208.