New Campaign--Farel's Call to the Ministry--An
Outpost--Lyons--Sebville at
Grenoble--Conventicles--Preaching at Lyons--Maigret in
Prison--Margaret intimidated.
[Sidenote: NEW CAMPAIGN--FAREL CALLED.]
God usually withdraws his servants from the field of battle, only to
bring them back stronger and better armed. Farel and his friends of
Meaux, Metz, Lyons, and Dauphiny, driven from France by persecution,
had been retempered in Switzerland and Germany among the elder
reformers; and now, like an army at first dispersed by the enemy, but
immediately rallied, they were turning round and marching forward in
the name of the Lord. It was not only on the frontiers that these
friends of the Gospel were assembling; in France also they were
regaining courage, and preparing to renew the attack. The bugles were
already sounding the reveillé; the soldiers were girding on their
arms, and gathering together to multiply their attacks; their leaders
were planning the order of battle; the signal, "Jesus, his Word, and
his grace," more potent in the hour of battle than the sound of
warlike music, filled all hearts with the same enthusiasm; and
everything was preparing in France for a second campaign, to be
signalized by new victories, and new and greater reverses.
Montbeliard was then calling for a labourer in the Gospel. The
youthful Duke Ulrich of Wurtemberg, a violent and cruel prince, having
been dispossessed of his states by the Swabian league in 1519, had
taken refuge in this earldom, his only remaining possession. In
Switzerland he became acquainted with the reformers; his misfortunes
had proved salutary to him; and he took delight in the Gospel.[962]
Œcolampadius intimated to Farel that a door was opened at
Montbeliard, and the latter secretly repaired to Basle.
[962] Le prince qui avoit cognoissance de l'Evangile. Farel, Summaire,
c'est à dire, briève déclaration de G. Farel, in the concluding part.
[Sidenote: THE MINISTRY--THE GOSPEL AND NOT THE FATHERS.]
Farel had not regularly entered on the ministry of the Word; but we
find in him, at this period of his life, all that is necessary to
constitute a minister of the Lord. He did not lightly and of his own
prompting enter the service of the Church. "Considering my weakness,"
said he, "I should not have dared preach, waiting for the Lord to send
more suitable persons."[963] But God at this time addressed him in a
threefold call. As soon as he had reached Basle, Œcolampadius,
touched with the wants of France, entreated him to devote himself to
it. "Behold," said he, "how little is Jesus Christ known to all those
who speak the French language. Will you not give them some instruction
in their own tongue, that they may better understand the
Scriptures?"[964] At the same time, the people of Montbeliard invited
him among them, and the prince gave his consent to this call.[965]
Was not this a triple call from God?......"I did not think," said he,
"that it was lawful for me to resist. I obeyed in God's name."[966]
Concealed in the house of Œcolampadius, struggling against the
responsibility offered to him, and yet obliged to submit to so clear a
manifestation of the will of God, Farel accepted this charge, and
Œcolampadius set him apart, calling upon the name of the Lord,[967]
and addressing his friend in language full of wisdom. "The more you
are inclined to violence," said he, "the more should you practise
gentleness; temper your lion's courage with the meekness of the
dove."[968] Farel responded to this appeal with all his soul.
[963] Ibid.
[964] Ibid.
[965] Etant requis et demandé du peuple et du consentement du prince.
Summaire.
[966] Farel, Summaire.
[967] Avec l'invocation du nom de Dieu. Ibid.
[968] Leoninam magnanimitatem columbina modestia frangas. Epp. p. 198.
Thus Farel, once the zealous follower of the old Church, was about to
become a servant of God in the new. If Rome imperatively requires in a
valid ordination the imposition of the hands of a bishop who descends
from the apostles in uninterrupted succession, it is because she
places human traditions above the Word of God. In every church where
the authority of the Word is not absolute, some other authority must
needs be sought. And then, what is more natural than to ask of the
most venerated of God's ministers, that which they cannot find in God
himself? If we do not speak in the name of Jesus Christ, is it not
something at least to speak in the name of Saint John or of Saint
Paul? He who speaks in the name of antiquity is stronger than the
rationalist who speaks only in his own name. But the christian
minister has a still higher authority: he preaches, not because he
descends from St. Chrysostom or St. Peter, but because the Word that
he proclaims comes down from God himself. The idea of succession,[969]
venerable as it may appear, is not the less a human system,
substituted for the system of God. In Farel's ordination there was no
human succession. Nay more: we do not see in it that which is
necessary in the Lord's fold, where every thing should be done
_decently and in order_, and whose God _is not a God of confusion_.
He was not regularly ordained by the Church: but extraordinary times
justify extraordinary measures. At this memorable epoch God himself
interposed. He consecrated by marvellous dispensations those whom he
called to the regeneration of the world. In Farel's ordination we see
the infallible Word of God, given to a man of God, that he might bear
it to the world,--the call of God and of the people,--the consecration
of the heart, and a solemn appointment by one of the ministers of the
Church; and all this was the best substitute of which his case
admitted for the full and formal seal of the Church on his ministry.
Farel took his departure for Montbeliard in company with Esch.
[969] See vol. I. page 2.
[Sidenote: AN ADVANCED POST.]
Farel thus found himself stationed as it were at an advanced post.
Behind him, Basle and Strasburg supported him with their advice and
their printing-presses; before him lay the provinces of Franche Comté,
Burgundy, Lorraine, the Lyonnais, and the rest of France, where men of
God were beginning to struggle against error in the midst of profound
darkness. He immediately began to preach Jesus Christ, and to exhort
the faithful not to permit themselves to be turned aside from the Holy
Scriptures either by threats or stratagems. Beginning, long before
Calvin, the work that this reformer was to accomplish on a much larger
scale, Farel was at Montbeliard, like a general on a hill whose
piercing eye glances over the field of battle, cheering those who are
actively engaged with the enemy, rallying those ranks which the
impetuosity of the charge has broken, and animating by his courage
those who hang back.[970] Erasmus immediately wrote to his
Roman-catholic friends, that a Frenchman, escaped from France, was
making a great disturbance in these regions.[971]
[970] This comparison is employed by one of Farel's friends during his
stay at Montbeliard. Strenuum et oculatum imperatoram, qui iis etiam
animum facias qui in acie versantur. Tossanus Farello, MS. in the
conclave of Neufchatel, 2d September 1524.
[971] Tumultuatur et Burgundia nobis proxima, per Phallicum quemdam
Gallum qui e Gallia profugus. Er. Epp. p. 809.
[Sidenote: PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL--LYONS.]
Farel's labours were not unfruitful. "On every side," wrote he to a
fellow-countryman, "men are springing up who devote all their powers
and their lives to extend Christ's kingdom as widely as
possible."[972] The friends of the Gospel gave thanks to God that his
blessed Word shone brighter every day in all parts of France.[973] The
adversaries were astounded. "The _faction_," wrote Erasmus to the
Bishop of Rochester, "is spreading daily, and is penetrating Savoy,
Lorraine, and France."[974]
[972] Suppullulare qui omnes conatus afferant, quo possit Christi
regnum quam latissime patere. Neufchatel MS., 2d August 1524.
[973] Quod in Galliis omnibus sacrosanctum Dei verbum in dies magis ac
magis elucescat. Ibid.
[974] Factio crescit in dies latius, propagata in Sabaudiam,
Lothoringiam, Franciam. Erasm. Epp. p. 809.
For some time Lyons appeared to be the centre of evangelical action
within the kingdom, as Basle was without. Francis I., marching towards
the south on an expedition against Charles V., had arrived in this
city with his mother, his sister, and the court. Margaret brought with
her many gentlemen devoted to the Gospel. "All other people she had
removed from about her person," says a letter written at this
time.[975] While Francis I. was hurrying through Lyons an army
composed of 14,000 Swiss, 6000 French, and 1500 lances of the
nobility, to repel the invasion of the imperialists into Provence;
while this great city re-echoed with the noise of arms, the tramp of
horses, and the sound of the trumpet, the friends of the Gospel were
marching to more peaceful conquests. They desired to attempt in Lyons
what they had been unable to do in Paris. Perhaps, at a distance from
the Sorbonne and from the parliament, the Word of God might have freer
course? Perhaps the second city in the kingdom was destined to become
the first for the Gospel. Was it not there that about four centuries
previously the excellent Peter Waldo had begun to proclaim the Divine
Word? Even then he had shaken all France. And now that God had
prepared everything for the emancipation of his Church, might there
not be hopes of more extended and more decisive success? Thus the
people of Lyons, who were not generally, indeed, "poor men," as in the
twelfth century, were beginning more courageously to handle "the sword
of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."
[975] De Sebville to Coct, 28th December 1524. Neufchatel MS.
[Sidenote: ARANDE, PAPILLON, VAUGRIS, DU BLET.]
Among those who surrounded Margaret was her almoner, Michael d'Arande.
The duchess caused the Gospel to be publicly preached at Lyons; and
Master Michael proclaimed the Word of God with courage and purity
before a great number of hearers, attracted partly by the charm that
attends the glad tidings wherever they are published, and partly also
by the favour in which the preaching and the preacher were held by the
king's beloved sister.[976]
[976] Elle a ung docteur de Paris appelé maître Michel,
Eleymosinarius, lequel ne prêche devant elle que purement l'évangile.
Neufchatel MS.
Anthony Papillon, a man of highly cultivated mind, an elegant Latin
scholar, a friend of Erasmus, "the first in France for knowledge of
the Gospel,"[977] accompanied the princess also. At Margaret's request
he had translated Luther's work on monastic vows, "in consequence of
which he had much ado with those Parisian vermin," says Sebville;[978]
but Margaret had protected him against the attacks of the Sorbonne,
and procured him the appointment of headmaster of requests to the
dauphin, with a seat in the Great Council.[979] He was not less useful
to the Gospel by his devotedness than by his prudence. A merchant,
named Vaugris, and especially a gentleman named Anthony du Blet, a
friend of Farel's, took the lead in the Reformation at Lyons. The
latter person, a man of great activity, served as a bond of union
between the Christians scattered throughout those countries, and
placed them in communication with Basle. While the armed hosts of
Francis I. had merely passed through Lyons, the spiritual soldiers of
Jesus Christ halted there with Margaret; and leaving the former to
carry the war into Provence and the plains of Italy, they began the
fight of the Gospel in Lyons itself.
[977] Ibid.
[978] Ibid.
[979] Ibid.
[Sidenote: THE SAONE AND MACON--SEBVILLE AT GRENOBLE.]
But they did not confine their efforts to the city. They looked all
around them; the campaign was opened on several points at the same
time; and the Christians of Lyons encouraged by their exertions and
their labours all those who confessed Christ in the surrounding
provinces. They did more: they went and proclaimed it in places where
it was as yet unknown. The new doctrine ascended the Saone, and an
evangelist passed through the narrow and irregular streets of Macon.
Michael d'Arande himself visited that place in 1524, and, aided by
Margaret's name, obtained permission to preach in this city,[980]
which was destined at a later period to be filled with blood, and
become for ever memorable for its _sauteries_.[981]
[980] Arandius prêche à Mascon. Coct to Farel, December 1524,
Neufchatel MS.
[981] After the taking of Macon in 1562, the governor, St. Pont,
amused the dissolute women who were invited to his table, by taking
several Huguenots from prison and compelling them to _leap_ (sauter)
from the bridge over the Saone into the river. It is added that he did
not confine his savage cruelty to the Huguenots, but would seize other
persons, untainted with heresy, and put them to the same inhuman
death.
After exploring the districts of the Saone, the Christians of Lyons,
ever on the watch, extended their incursions in the direction of the
Alps. There was at Lyons a Dominican named Maigret, who had been
compelled to quit Dauphiny, where he had boldly preached the new
doctrine, and who earnestly requested that some one would go and
encourage his brethren of Grenoble and Gap. Papillon and Du Blet
repaired thither.[982] A violent storm had just broken out there
against Sebville and his preachings. The Dominicans had moved heaven
and earth; and maddened at seeing so many evangelists escape them (as
Farel, Anemond, and Maigret), they would fain have crushed those who
remained within their reach.[983] They therefore called for Sebville's
arrest.[984]
[982] Il y a eu deux grands personages à Grenoble. Neufchatel MS. The
title of _Messire_, given to Du Blet in Coct's letter, indicates a
person of rank. I am inclined to think that the epithet _negotiator_,
elsewhere applied to him, refers to his activity; it is possible,
however, that he may have been a great merchant of Lyons.
[983] Conjicere potes ut post Macretum et me in Sebvillam exarserint.
Anemond to Farel, 7th September 1524. Neufchatel MS.
[984] Les Thomistes ont voulu procéder contre moi par inquisition et
caption de personne. Letter from Sebville. Ibid.
[Sidenote: FONDNESS FOR SYMBOLS--CONVENTICLES.]
The friends of the Gospel in Grenoble were alarmed; must Sebville also
be taken from them!......Margaret interceded with her brother; many of
the most distinguished personages at Grenoble, the king's advocate
among others, open or secret friends to the Gospel, exerted
themselves in behalf of the evangelical grayfriar, and at length their
united efforts rescued him from the fury of his adversaries.[985]
[985] Si ce no fut certains amis secrets, je estois mis entre les
mains des Pharisiens. Letter from Sebville, Neufchatel MS.
But if Sebville's life was saved, his mouth was stopped. "Remain
silent," said they, "or you will be led to the scaffold."--"Silence
has been imposed on me," he wrote to Anemond de Coct, "under pain of
death."[986] These threats alarmed even those of whom the most
favourable hopes had been entertained. The king's advocate and other
friends of the Gospel now showed nothing but coldness.[987] Many
returned to the Romish worship, pretending to adore God secretly in
their hearts, and to give a spiritual signification to the outward
observances of Romanism. A melancholy delusion, leading from
infidelity to infidelity. There is no hypocrisy that cannot be
justified in the same manner. The unbeliever, by means of his systems
of myths and allegories, will preach Christ from the christian pulpit;
and a philosopher will be able, by a little ingenuity, to find in an
abominable superstition among the pagans, the type of a pure and
elevated idea. In religion the first thing is truth. Some of the
Grenoble Christians, among whom were Amadeus Galbert, and a cousin of
Anemond's, still clung fast to their faith.[988] These pious men would
meet secretly with Sebville at each other's houses, and _talk_
together about the Gospel. They repaired to some secluded spot; they
visited some brother by night; or met in secret to pray to Christ, as
thieves lurking for a guilty purpose. Often would a false alarm
disturb the humble assembly. The adversaries consented to wink at
these secret conventicles; but they had sworn that the stake should be
the lot of any one who ventured to speak of the Word of God in
public.[989]
[986] Ibid.
[987] Non solum tepidi sed frigidi. Neufchatel MS.
[988] Tuo cognato, Amedeo Galberto exceptis. Ibid.
[989] Mais de en parler publiquement, il n'y pend que le feu. Ibid.
[Sidenote: PREACHING AT LYONS--MAIGRET IMPRISONED.]
Such was the state of affairs when Du Blet and Papillon arrived at
Grenoble. Finding that Sebville had been silenced, they exhorted him
to go and preach the Gospel at Lyons. The Lent of the following year
would present a favourable opportunity for proclaiming the Gospel to a
numerous crowd. Michael d'Arande, Maigret, and Sebville, proposed to
fight at the head of the Gospel army. Everything was thus preparing
for a striking manifestation of evangelical truth in the second city
of France. The rumour of this evangelical Lent extended as far as
Switzerland. "Sebville is free, and will preach the Lent sermons at
Saint Paul's in Lyons," wrote Anemond to Farel.[990] But a great
disaster, which threw all France into confusion, intervened and
prevented this spiritual combat. It is during peace that the conquests
of the Gospel are achieved. The defeat of Pavia, which took place in
the month of February, disconcerted the daring project of the
reformers.
[990] Le samedi des Quatre-Temps. Dec. 1524. Neufchatel MS.
Meantime, without waiting for Sebville, Maigret had begun early in the
winter to preach salvation by Jesus Christ alone, in despite of the
strenuous opposition of the priests and monks of Lyons.[991] In these
sermons there was not a word of the worship of the creature, of
saints, of the virgin, of the power of the priesthood. The great
mystery of godliness, "God manifest in the flesh," was alone
proclaimed. The old heresies of the poor men of Lyons are reappearing,
it was said, and in a more dangerous form than ever! But
notwithstanding this opposition, Maigret continued his ministry; the
faith that animated his soul found utterance in words of power: it is
in the nature of truth to embolden the hearts of those who have
received it. Yet Rome was destined to prevail at Lyons as at Grenoble.
Maigret was arrested, notwithstanding Margaret's protection, dragged
through the streets, and cast into prison. The merchant Vaugris, who
then quitted the city on his road to Switzerland, spread the news
everywhere on his passage. All were astonished and depressed. One
thought, however, gave confidence to the friends of the Reformation:
"Maigret is taken," said they, "but _Madame d'Alençon is there;
praised be God_!"[992]
[991] Pour vray Maigret a prêché à Lion, maulgré les prêtres et
moines. Ibid.
[992] Neufchatel MS.
[Sidenote: MARGARET INTIMIDATED.]
It was not long before they were compelled to renounce even this hope.
The Sorbonne had condemned several of this faithful minister's
propositions.[993] Margaret, whose position became daily more
difficult, found the boldness of the partisans of the Reformation and
the hatred of the powerful increasing side by side. Francis I. began
to grow impatient at the zeal of these evangelists: he looked upon
them as mere fanatics whom it was good policy to repress. Margaret,
thus fluctuating between desire to serve her brethren and her
inability to protect them, sent them word to avoid running into fresh
dangers, as she could no longer intercede with the king in their
favour. The friends of the Gospel believed that this determination was
not irrevocable. "God has given her grace," said they, "to say and
write only what is necessary to poor souls."[994] But if this human
support is taken away, Christ still remains. It is well that the soul
should be stripped of all other protection, that it may rely upon God
alone.
[993] Histoire de François I. par Gaillard, iv. 233.
[994] Peter Toussaint to Farel, Basle, 17th December 1524. Neufchatel
MS.