The French at Basle--Encouragement of the Swiss--Fears of
Discord--Translating and Printing at Basle--Bibles and
Tracts disseminated in France.
[Sidenote: THE FRENCH AT BASLE--ENCOURAGED BY THE SWISS.]
The exertions of the friends of the Gospel in France were paralyzed.
The men in power were beginning to show their hostility to
Christianity; Margaret was growing alarmed; terrible news would soon
be coming across the Alps and plunging the nation into mourning,
filling it with one thought only--of saving the king, of saving
France. But if the Christians of Lyons were checked in their labours,
were there not soldiers at Basle who had escaped from the battle and
who were ready to begin the fight again. The exiles from France have
never forgotten her. Driven from their country for nearly three
centuries by the fanaticism of Rome, their latest descendants have
been seen carrying to the cities and fields of their ancestors those
treasures of which the pope still deprives them.[995] At the very
moment when the soldiers of Christ in France were mournfully laying
down their arms, the refugees at Basle were preparing for the combat.
As they saw the monarchy of Saint Louis and of Charlemagne falling
from the hands of Francis I., shall they not feel urged to lay hold of
_a kingdom which cannot be moved_.[996]
[995] The General Committee of the Evangelical Society of Geneva,
which sends a hundred missionaries and _colporteurs_ into France, is
composed almost entirely of the descendants of French refugees.
[996] Hebrews xii. 28.
Farel, Anemond, Esch, Toussaint, and their friends formed an
evangelical society in Switzerland with the view of rescuing their
country from its spiritual darkness. Intelligence reached them from
every quarter, that there was an increasing thirst for God's Word in
France;[997] it was desirable to take advantage of this, and to water
and sow while it was yet seedtime. Œcolampadius, Zwingle, and
Oswald Myconius, were continually exhorting them to do this, giving
the right hand of fellowship, and communicating to them a portion of
their own faith. In January 1525, the Swiss schoolmaster wrote to the
French chevalier: "Banished as you are from your country by the
tyranny of Antichrist, even your presence among us proves that you
have acted boldly in the cause of the Gospel. The tyranny of christian
bishops will at length induce the people to look upon them as
deceivers. Stand firm; the time is not far distant when we shall enter
the haven of repose, whether we be struck down by our tyrants, or they
themselves be struck down;[998] all then will be well for us, provided
we have been faithful to Christ Jesus."
[997] Gallis verborum Dei sitientibus. Coct to Farel, 2d Sept. 1524,
Neufchatel MS.
[998] Non longe abest enim, quo in portum tranquillum perveniamus, &c.
Osw. Myc. to Coct. Ibid.
[Sidenote: FEARS AND DIVISIONS.]
These encouragements were of great value to the French refugees; but a
blow inflicted by these very Christians of Switzerland and Germany,
who sought to cheer them, cruelly wrung their hearts. Recently escaped
from the scaffold or the burning pile, they saw with dismay the
evangelical Christians on the other side of the Rhine disturbing the
repose they enjoyed by their lamentable differences. The discussions
on the Lord's Supper had begun. Deeply moved and agitated, feeling
strongly the necessity of brotherly unity, the French would have made
every sacrifice to conciliate these divided sentiments. This became
their leading idea. At the epoch of the Reformation, none had greater
need than they of christian unity; of this Calvin was afterwards a
proof. "Would to God that I might purchase peace, concord, and union
in Jesus Christ at the cost of my life, which in truth is of little
worth," said Peter Toussaint.[999] The French, whose discernment was
correct and prompt, saw immediately that these rising dissensions
would check the work of the Reformation. "All things would go on more
prosperously than many persons imagine, if we were but agreed among
ourselves. Numbers would gladly come to the light; but when they see
these divisions among the learned, they stand hesitating and
confused."[1000]
[999] Neufchatel MS. 21st Dec. 1525.
[1000] Ibid.
The French were the first to suggest conciliatory advances. "Why,"
wrote they from Strasburg, "is not Bucer or some other learned man
sent to Luther? The longer we wait the greater will these dissensions
become." Their fears grew stronger every day.[1001] At length, finding
all their exertions of no avail, these Christians mournfully turned
their eyes away from Germany, and fixed them solely upon France.
[1001] Multis jam christianis Gallis dolet, quod a Zwinglii aliorumque
de Eucharistia sententia dissentiat Lutherus. Toussaint to Farel, 14th
July 1525.
France--the conversion of France, thenceforth exclusively occupied the
hearts of these generous men whom history, that has inscribed on her
pages the names of so many individuals vainly puffed up with their own
glory, has for three centuries passed over in silence. Thrown on a
foreign land, they fell on their knees, and daily, in silence and
obscurity, invoked God in behalf of the country of their
forefathers.[1002] Prayer was the power by which the Gospel spread
through the kingdom, and the great instrument by which the conquests
of the Reformation were gained.
[1002] Quam sollicite quotidianis precibus commendem. Toussaint to
Farel, 2d Sept. 1524, Neufchatel MS.
[Sidenote: TRANSLATION AND PRINTING AT BASLE.]
But these Frenchmen were not merely men of prayer: never has the
evangelical army contained combatants more ready to sacrifice their
lives in the day of battle. They felt the importance of scattering the
Holy Scriptures and pious books in their country, still overshadowed
with the gloom of superstition. A spirit of inquiry was breathing over
the whole kingdom: it seemed necessary on all sides to spread the
sails to the wind. Anemond, ever prompt in action, and Michael Bentin,
a refugee like himself, resolved to unite their zeal, their talents,
their resources, and their labours. Bentin wished to establish a
printing press at Basle, and the chevalier, to profit by the little
German he knew, to translate the best works of the Reformers into
French. "Oh," said they, rejoicing in their plans, "would to God that
France were filled with evangelical volumes, so that everywhere, in
the cottages of the poor, in the palaces of the nobles, in cloisters
and presbyteries, nay, in the inmost sanctuary of the heart, a
powerful testimony might be borne to the grace of Jesus Christ!"[1003]
[1003] Opto enim Galliam Evangelicis voluminibus abundare. Coct to
Farel, Neufchatel MS.
[Sidenote: TRACTS DISTRIBUTED IN FRANCE.]
Funds were necessary for such an undertaking, and the refugees had
nothing. Vaugris was then at Basle; on his departure Anemond gave him
a letter for the brethren of Lyons, many of whom abounded in the
riches of this world, and who, although oppressed, were faithful to
the Gospel; he requested them to send him some assistance;[1004] but
that did not suffice; the French wished to establish several presses
at Basle, that should be worked night and day, so as to inundate
France with the Word of God.[1005] At Meaux, at Metz, and in other
places, were men rich and powerful enough to support this enterprise.
No one could address Frenchmen with so much authority as Farel
himself, and it was to him that Anemond applied.[1006]
[1004] Ut pecuniæ aliquid ad me mittant. Ibid.
[1005] Ut præla multa erigere possimus. Ibid.
[1006] An censes inveniri posse Lugdunæ, Meldæ, aut alibi in Galliis
qui nos ad hæc juvare velint. Coct to Farel, Neufchatel MS.
It does not appear that the chevalier's project was realized, but the
work was done by others. The presses of Basle were constantly occupied
in printing French works; they were forwarded to Farel, and by him
introduced into France with unceasing activity. One of the first
writings sent by this Religious Tract Society was Luther's
_Explanation of the Lord's Prayer_. "We are retailing the Pater at
four deniers of Basle each," wrote Vaugris to Farel, "but we sell them
wholesale at the rate of two florins the two hundred, which comes to
something less."[1007]
[1007] Vaugris to Farel, Basle, 29th August 1524. Neufchatel MS.--The
value of the florin is about 1s. 9d. sterling.
Anemond sent to Farel from Basle all the useful books that appeared or
that arrived from Germany; at one time a work on the appointment of
Gospel ministers, at another a treatise on the education of
children.[1008] Farel examined these works; he composed, translated or
got others to translate them into French, and seemed at one and the
same time entirely devoted to active exertions and to the labours of
the study. Anemond urged on and superintended the printing; and these
epistles, prayers, books, and broadsheets, were the means of the
regeneration of the age. While profligacy descended from the throne,
and darkness from the steps of the altar, these unnoticed writings
alone diffused throughout the nation beams of light and seeds of
holiness.
[1008] Mitto tibi librum de instituendis ministris ecclesiæ cum libro
de instituendis pueris. Coct to Farel, 2d September 1524. Ibid.
[Sidenote: THE NEW TESTAMENT--COLPORTAGE.]
But it was especially God's Word that the evangelical merchant of
Lyons was calling for in the name of his fellow-countrymen. These
people of the sixteenth century, so hungering for intellectual food,
were to receive in their own tongue those ancient monuments of the
first ages of the world, in which the new breath of primitive humanity
respires, and those holy oracles of the Gospel times in which shines
forth the fulness of the revelation of Christ. Vaugris wrote to
Farel: "I beseech you, if possible, to have the New Testament
translated by some person who can do it efficiently: it would be a
great blessing for France, Burgundy, and Savoy. And if you want proper
type, I will have some brought from Paris or Lyons; but if there be
any good types at Basle, it will be all the better."
Lefevre had already published at Meaux, but in detached portions, the
books of the New Testament in French. Vaugris wished for some one to
revise it thoroughly, and to superintend a complete edition. Lefevre
undertook to do so, and he published it, as we have already seen, on
the 12th of October 1524. An uncle of Vaugris, named Conrard, also a
refugee at Basle, immediately procured a copy. The Chevalier Coct
happening to be at a friend's house on the 18th of November, there saw
the book, and was filled with joy. "Lose no time in reprinting it,"
said he, "for I doubt not a great number will be called for."[1009]
[1009] Neufchatel MS.
Thus was the Word of God offered to France in opposition to the
traditions of the Church, which Rome still continues to present to
her. "How can we distinguish what is of man in your traditions, and
what is of God," said the reformers, "except by the Scriptures of God?
The maxims of the Fathers, the decretals of the pontiffs, cannot be
the rule of our faith. They show us what was the opinion of these old
doctors; but the Word alone teaches us what is the judgment of God. We
must submit everything to the rule of Scripture."
Such were the principal means by which these writings were circulated.
Farel and his friends consigned the books to certain pedlars or
_colporteurs_, simple and pious men, who, laden with their precious
burden, passed from town to town, from village to village, and from
house to house, in Franche Comté, Lorraine, Burgundy, and the
adjoining provinces, knocking at every door. They procured the books
at a low rate, "that they might be the more eager to sell them."[1010]
Thus as early as 1524 there existed in Basle a Bible society, a tract
society, and an association of colporteurs, for the benefit of France.
It is a mistake to conceive that these efforts date only from our own
age; they go back in essentials not only to the times of the
Reformation, but still farther to the primitive ages of the Church.
[1010] Vaugris to Farel, Neufchatel MS.