A Student of Noyon--Character of young Calvin--Early
Education--Consecrated to Theology--The Bishop gives him the
Tonsure--He leaves Noyon on Account of the Plague--The two
Calvins--Slanders--The Reformation creates new
Languages--Persecution and Terror--Toussaint put in
Prison--The Persecution more furious--Death of Du Blet,
Moulin, and Papillon--God saves the Church--Margaret's
Project--Her Departure for Spain.
[Sidenote: A SCHOLAR OF NOYON.]
While men were thus putting to death the first confessors of Jesus
Christ in France, God was preparing mightier ones to fill their
places. Beda hurried to the stake an unassuming scholar, an humble
hermit, and thought he was dragging almost the whole of the Reform
along with them. But Providence has resources that are unknown to the
world. The Gospel, like the fabulous phœnix, contains a principle
of life within itself, which the flames cannot consume, and it springs
up again from its own ashes. It is often at the moment when the storm
is at its height, when the thunderbolt seems to have struck down the
truth, and when thick darkness hides it from our view, that a sudden
glimmering appears, the forerunner of a great deliverance. At this
time, when all human powers in France were arming against the Gospel
for the complete destruction of the Reformation, God was preparing an
instrument, weak to all appearance, one day to support His rights and
to defend His cause with more than mortal intrepidity. In the midst of
the persecutions and blazing piles that followed each other in close
succession after Francis became Charles's prisoner, let us fix our
eyes on a youth, one day to be called to the head of a great army in
the holy warfare of Israel.
[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF YOUNG CALVIN.]
Among the inhabitants of the city and colleges of Paris who heard the
sound of the great bell was a young scholar of sixteen, a native of
Noyon in Picardy, of middle stature, sallow features, and whose
piercing eye and animated looks announced a mind of no common
sagacity.[1094] His dress, extremely neat but of perfect simplicity,
betokened order and moderation.[1095] This young man, by name John
Cauvin or Calvin, was then studying at the college of La Marche, under
Mathurin Cordier, a rector celebrated for his probity, erudition, and
peculiar fitness for the instruction of youth. Brought up in all the
superstitions of popery, the scholar of Noyon was blindly submissive
to the Church, cheerfully complying with all her observances,[1096]
and persuaded that the heretics had richly deserved their fate. The
blood which was then flowing in Paris aggravated the crime of heresy
in his eyes. But although naturally of a timid and fearful
disposition, and which he himself has styled soft and pusillanimous,[1097]
he possessed that uprightness and generosity of heart which lead a man
to sacrifice everything to his convictions. Accordingly, in vain had
his youth been appalled by those frightful spectacles, in vain had
murderous flames consumed the faithful disciples of the Gospel on the
Grève and in front of Notre-Dame; the recollection of these horrors
could not prevent him from one day entering on the new path, which
seemed to lead only to the prison or the stake. Moreover, there were
already perceptible in the character of young Calvin certain traits
that announced what he would become. Strictness of morals in him led
the way to strictness of doctrine, and the scholar of sixteen already
gave promise of a man who would deal seriously with every principle he
embraced, and who would firmly require in others what he himself found
it so easy to perform. Quiet and serious during his lessons, never
sharing in the amusements or follies of his schoolfellows during the
hours of recreation, holding himself aloof,[1098] and filled with
horror at sin, he would often reprimand their disorders with severity
and even bitterness.[1099] And hence, as a canon of Noyon informs us,
his fellow-students nicknamed him the _accusative case_.[1100] Among
them he was the representative of conscience and of duty, so far was
he from being as some of his calumniators have depicted him. The pale
features and the piercing eyes of the scholar of sixteen had already
inspired his comrades with more respect than the black gowns of their
masters; and this Picard youth, of a timid air, who daily took his
seat on the benches in the college of La Marche, was even then, by the
seriousness of his conversation and life, an unconscious minister and
reformer.
[1094] Statura fuit mediocri, colore subpallido et nigricante, oculis
ad mortem usque limpidis, quique ingenii sagacitatem testarentur. Bezæ
Vita Calvini.
[1095] Cultu corporis neque culto neque sordido sed qui singularem
modestiam deceret. Ibid.
[1096] Primo quidem quum superstitionibus Papatus magis pertinaciter
addictus essem. Calv. Præf. ad Psalm.
[1097] Ego qui natura timido, molli et pusillo animo me esse fateor.
Ibid.
[1098] Summam in moribus affectabat gravitatem et paucorum hominum
consuetudine utebatur. Ræmundi Hist. Hæres. vii. 10.
[1099] Severus omnium in suis sodalibus censor. Bezae Vita Calv.
[1100] Annales de l'Eglise de Noyon, par Levasseur, chanoine, p. 1158.
It was not in these particulars alone that the youth of Noyon was
already far above his schoolfellows. His great timidity sometimes
prevented him from manifesting all the horror he felt at vanity and
vice; but he already consecrated to study the whole force of his
genius and of his will, and to look at him one might see he was a man
who would spend his life in toil. He comprehended everything with
inconceivable facility; he ran in his studies while his companions
were lazily creeping along, and he impressed deeply on his profound
genius what others spend much time in learning superficially.
Accordingly, his master was compelled to take him out of the classes,
and introduce him singly to fresh studies.[1101]
[1101] Exculto ipsius ingenio quod ei jam tum erat acerrimum, ita
profecit ut cæteris sodalibus in grammatices curriculo relictis, ad
dialecticos et aliarum quas vocant artium studium promoveretur. Beza.
[Sidenote: CALVIN'S FATHER--THE MOMMORS]
Among his fellow-students were the young De Mommors, belonging to the
first nobility of Picardy. John Calvin was very intimate with them,
especially with Claude, who afterwards became abbot of Saint Eloi, and
to whom he dedicated his commentary on Seneca. It was in the company
of these young nobles that Calvin had come to Paris. His father,
Gerard Calvin, apostolic notary, procurator-fiscal of the county of
Noyon, secretary of the diocese, and proctor of the chapter,[1102] was
a man of judgment and ability, whose talents had raised him to offices
sought after by the best families, and who had gained the esteem of
all the gentry in the province, and in particular of the noble family
of Mommor.[1103] Gerard resided at Noyon;[1104] he had married a young
woman of Cambray, of remarkable beauty and unassuming piety, by name
Jane Lefranq, who had already borne him a son named Charles, when on
the 10th of July 1509 she gave birth to a second son, who received the
name of John, and who was christened in the church of St.
Godeberte.[1105] A third son, Anthony, who died young, and two
daughters, made up the family of the procurator-fiscal of Noyon.
[1102] Levasseur, doctor of the Sorbonne, Annales de l'Eglise
Cathédrale de Noyon, p. 1151. Drelincourt, Défense de Calvin, p. 193.
[1103] Erat is Gerardus non parvi judicii et concilii homo, ideoque
nobilibus ejus regionis plerisque carus. Beza.
[1104] Dans la place où est bastie maintenant la maison du Cerf.
Desmay, doctor of the Sorbonne, Vie de Jean Calvin, hérésiarque, p.
30. Levasseur, Ann. de Noyon, p. 1157.
[1105] The calumnies and extravagant tales about Calvin began early.
J. Levasseur, afterwards dean of the canons at Noyon, relates that
when Calvin's mother was in labour, "before the child was born, there
came forth a swarm of large flies, an indubitable presage that he
would one day be an evil speaker and a calumniator." Ann. de la Cath.
de Noyon, p. 1157. These absurdities and many others of the same kind
refute themselves, without our taking upon ourselves to do so. In our
days, those Romish doctors who are not ashamed to employ the weapons
of calumny, make a selection from these low and ridiculous stories,
not daring to cite them all; but they are all equally worthless.
[Sidenote: EARLY EDUCATION.]
Gerard Calvin, living in familiar intercourse with the heads of the
clergy and the chief persons in the province, desired that his
children should receive the same education as those of the best
families. John, whose precocious habits he had observed, was brought
up with the sons of the Mommor family; he lived in their house as one
of themselves, and studied the same lessons as Claude. In this family
he learnt the first elements of literature and of life; he thus
received a higher polish than he appeared destined to acquire.[1106]
He was afterwards sent to the college of the Capettes, founded in the
city of Noyon.[1107] The child enjoyed but little recreation. The
austerity, that was one of the characteristic features of the son, was
found also in the father. Gerard brought him up strictly; from his
earliest years, John was compelled to bend to the inflexible rule of
duty, which soon became habitual to him, and the influence of the
father counteracted that of the Mommor family. Calvin, who was of a
timid and somewhat rustic character (as he says himself),[1108] and
rendered still more timid by his father's severity, shrunk from the
splendid apartments of his protectors, and loved to remain alone and
in obscurity.[1109] Thus in retirement his young mind formed itself to
great thoughts. It would appear that he sometimes went to the village
of Pont l'Evêque, near Noyon, where his grandfather resided in a small
cottage,[1110] and where other relatives also, who at a later period
changed their name from detestation of the heresiarch, kindly received
the son of the procurator-fiscal. But it was to study chiefly that
young Calvin devoted his time. While Luther, who was to act upon the
people, was brought up like a child of the people, Calvin, who was to
act especially as a theologian and profound reasoner, and become the
legislator of the renovated Church, received even in childhood a more
liberal education.[1111]
[1106] Domi vestræ puer educatus, iisdem tecum studiis initiatus,
primam vitæ et literarum disciplinam familiæ vestræ nobilissimæ
acceptam refero. Calv. Præf. in Senecam ad Claudium.
[1107] Desmay, Remarques, p. 31; Drelincourt, Défense, p. 158.
[1108] Ego qui natura subrusticus. Præf. ad Psalm.
[1109] Umbram et otium semper amavi......latebras captare. Ibid.
[1110] Le bruit est que son grand-père était tonnelier. Drelincourt,
p. 30; Levasseur, Ann. de Noyon, p. 1151.
[1111] Henry, Das Leben Calvins, p. 29.
[Sidenote: DEVOTED TO THEOLOGY.]
A spirit of piety early showed itself in the child's heart. One author
relates that he was accustomed, when very young, to pray in the open
air, under the vault of heaven; a habit which contributed to awaken in
his heart the sentiment of God's omnipresence.[1112] But although
Calvin might, even in infancy, have heard the voice of God in his
heart, no one at Noyon was so rigid as he in the observance of
ecclesiastical regulations. And hence Gerard, remarking this
disposition, conceived the design of devoting his son to
theology.[1113] This prospect no doubt contributed to impress on his
soul that serious form, that theological stamp, by which it was
subsequently distinguished. His spirit was of a nature to receive a
strong impression in early years, and to familiarize itself from
childhood with the most elevated thoughts. The report that he was at
this time a chorister has no foundation, as even his adversaries
admit. But they assure us that, when a child, he was seen joining the
religious processions, and carrying a sword with a cross-shaped hilt
by way of a crucifix.[1114] "A presage," add they, "of what he was one
day to become!" "The Lord hath made my mouth like a sharp sword," says
the servant of Jehovah in Isaiah. The same may be said of Calvin.
[1112] Calvin's Leben von Fischer, Leipzig, 1794. The author does not
quote his authority for this fact.
[1113] Destinarat autem eum pater ab initio theologiæ studiis, quod in
illa etiam tenera ætate mirum in modum religiosus esset. Bezæ Vita
Calv.
[1114] Levasseur, Ann. de Noyon, pp. 1159, 1173.
[Sidenote: THE TONSURE--HE LEAVES NOYON.]
Gerard was poor; his son's education had cost him much, and he wished
to attach him irrevocably to the Church. The Cardinal of Lorraine had
been coadjutor of the Bishop of Metz at the age of four years. It was
then a common practice to confer ecclesiastical titles and revenues on
children. Alphonso of Portugal was made cardinal by Leo X. at the age
of eight, and Odet of Châtillon by Clement VII. at eleven; and
subsequent to Calvin's day, the celebrated Mère Angélique of Port
Royal was appointed coadjutrix of that nunnery at the age of seven
years. Gerard, who died a good catholic, was regarded with favour by
Messire Charles de Hangest, bishop of Noyon, and by his
vicars-general. Accordingly, when the chaplain of La Gésine resigned,
the bishop, on the 21st May 1521, conferred this benefice on John
Calvin, who was then nearly twelve years old. The appointment was
communicated to the chapter twelve days after. On the eve of Corpus
Christi, the bishop solemnly cut off the child's hair;[1115] and by
this ceremony of the tonsure, John became a member of the clergy, and
capable of entering into holy orders, and of holding a benefice
without residing on the spot.
[1115] Vie de Calvin, par Desmay, p. 31; Levasseur, p. 1158.
Thus was Calvin called to make trial in his own person of the abuses
of the Romish Church. Of all who wore the tonsure in France, there was
none more serious in his piety than the chaplain of La Gésine, and the
serious child was probably astonished himself at the work of the
bishop and his vicars-general. But in his simplicity he felt too much
veneration towards these exalted personages to indulge in the least
suspicion on the lawfulness of his tonsure. He had held the title
about two years when Noyon was visited by a dreadful pestilence.
Several of the canons petitioned the chapter that they might be
allowed to quit the city. Already many of the inhabitants had been
carried off by the _great death_, and Gerard was beginning to fear
that his son John, the hope of his life, might in a moment be snatched
from his tenderness by the scourge of God. The young de Mommors were
going to Paris to continue their studies; this was what the
procurator-fiscal had always desired for his son. Why should he
separate John from his fellow-students? On the 5th of August 1523, he
petitioned the chapter to procure the young chaplain "liberty to go
wherever he pleased during the plague, without loss of his allowance;
which was granted him until the feast of Saint Remy."[1116] John
Calvin quitted his father's house at the age of fourteen. It requires
great audacity in calumny to ascribe his departure to other causes,
and in mere wantonness challenge that disgrace which justly recoils on
those who circulate charges the falsehood of which has been so
authentically demonstrated. It appears that in Paris, Calvin lodged at
the house of one of his uncles, Richard Cauvin, who resided near the
church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois. "Thus flying from the pestilence,"
says the canon of Noyon, "he went to catch it elsewhere."
[1116] This is what the priest and the vicar-general Desmay (Jean
Calvin, hérésiarque, p. 32), and the canon Levasseur (Ann. de Noyon,
p. 1160), declare they found in the registers of the chapter of Noyon.
Thus these Romanist authors refute the inventions or mistakes of
Richelieu and other writers.
[Sidenote: THE TWO CALVINS--SLANDERS.]
Some years after Calvin had quitted Noyon, another individual of the
same name arrived in that city.[1117] John Cauvin was a young man of
corrupt principles, but as he came from another part of France, and
was a stranger (_or_ unknown) in Noyon, he was received among the
priests who chanted in the choir, and in a short time a chapel was
given him, as in the case of the first Calvin. As this took place at a
time when the latter had already "turned to heresy," the good canons
looked upon Cauvin's arrival as a sort of recompense and consolation;
but it was not long before the disorderly life of this wretched man
excited alarm among his protectors. He was reprimanded, punished, and
even deprived of his stipend: but to this he paid no attention,[1118]
continually lapsing again into incontinence. "Seeing then," says the
canon, "his hardness of heart, which made him neglect every kind of
remonstrance," the canons deprived John Cauvin of his chapel and
expelled him from the choir. James Desmay, a priest and doctor of
divinity, who had studied at Noyon everything that concerned this
church, adds, that he was privately scourged in 1552, and then driven
from the town.[1119] This is indeed a disgraceful end for a priest!
The canon Levasseur disputes the scourging, but admits all the rest.
[1117] Annales de l'Eglise de Noyon, at the chapter entitled, _D'un
autre Jean Cauvin_, chapelain, vicaire de la même église de Noyon, non
hérétique, by Jacques Levasseur, canon and dean of that city.
[1118] Ibid.
[1119] Vie de Jean Calvin, par T. Desmay, imprimée à Rouen, chez
Richard l'Allement, 1621.
In the following year the same circumstances happened again, for the
history of popery abounds in such adventures.
A certain Baldwin the younger, also chaplain at Noyon, having taken to
live scandalously with him certain women of suspicious character,[1120]
was condemned to attend every service in the church during a month, and
to be scourged.[1121]
[1120] Scandalose vivendo cum quibusdam mulieribus suspectis. Annales
de l'Eglise de Noyon, p. 1171.
[1121] Præfati Domini ordinarunt ipsum cædi virgis. Ibid.
While these two Romanist authors agree in relating the disorders and
punishments inflicted on these young ecclesiastics, they likewise
agree in declaring that they had found nothing at Noyon or in its
registers against the morals of the great French reformer, and are
content to execrate his error; "for to call a man a heretic, is to
call him by the most opprobrious of names."[1122]
[1122] Ann. de l'Egl. de Noyon, 1162.
The Dean of Noyon goes even farther in his zeal for the papacy, and
relates that John Cauvin, who had been expelled in 1552 for
incontinence, died a _good catholic_. "Thanks be to God," adds he,
"that he never turned his coat, nor changed his religion, to which his
libertine life and the example of his namesake Calvin seemed to
incline him." The dean concludes his strange narrative, the discovery
of which is highly valuable to the history of the Reformation, in
these words: "I thought it my duty to add this chapter to the history
of the first Calvin the reformer, _ad diluendam homonymiam_ (to guard
against the similarity of names), for fear one should be taken for the
other, the catholic for the heretic."[1123]
[1123] Ibid. 1171.
Never was fear better founded. We know what the popish writers are
accustomed to do. They take advantage of the misdeeds of John Cauvin
at Noyon, and ascribe them to the reformer. They tell their readers
gravely that he was driven from his native town for misconduct, after
having been condemned to be scourged and even branded. In spite of all
the pains taken by the Dean of Noyon to add a chapter _for fear one
should be taken for the other, the catholic for the heretic_, the
apologists of Rome fail not to ascribe to the reformer the
debaucheries of his namesake. What engrossed the thoughts of the canon
of Noyon was the glory of John Cauvin who died a good catholic, and
he feared lest Calvin's heresy should be laid to him. And,
accordingly, he clearly assigns _incontinence_ to the one, and
_heresy_ to the other. There have indeed been _equivocations_, as he
says, but in a contrary direction. Let us now return to Calvin at
Paris.
[Sidenote: A NEW WORLD--NEW LANGUAGES.]
A new world opened before the young man in the metropolis of letters.
He profited by it, applied to his studies, and made great progress in
Latin literature. He became familiar with Cicero, and learned from
this great master to employ the language of the Romans with a
facility, purity, and ease that excite the admiration even of his
enemies. But at the same time, he found riches in this language which
he afterwards transferred to his own.
[Sidenote: CALVIN'S INFLUENCE ON THE FRENCH LANGUAGE.]
Up to this time Latin had been the only language of the learned; and
to our own days it has remained the language of the Roman Church. The
Reformation created or at least emancipated the vulgar tongue. The
exclusive office of the priest had ceased; the people were called to
learn and know for themselves. In this one fact was involved the ruin
of the language of the priest, and the inauguration of the language of
the people. It is no longer to the Sorbonne alone, to a few monks, or
ecclesiastics, or literary men, that the new ideas are to be
addressed; but to the noble, the citizen, and the labourer. All men
are now to be preached to; nay more, all are to become preachers--
wool-combers and knights, as well as doctors and parish-priests. A new
language is wanted, or at the least the language of the people must
undergo an immense transformation, a great enfranchisement, and, drawn
from the common uses of life, must receive its patent of nobility from
renovated Christianity. The Gospel, so long slumbering, has awoke; it
speaks and addresses whole nations, everywhere kindling generous
affections; it opens the treasures of heaven to a generation that was
thinking only of the mean things on earth; it shakes the masses; it
talks to them of God, of man, of good and evil, of the pope and the
Bible, of a crown in heaven, and perhaps a scaffold upon earth. The
popular tongue, which hitherto had been the language of chroniclers
and troubadours only, was called by the Reformation to act a new
part, and consequently to new developments. A new world is opening
upon society, and for a new world there must be new languages. The
Reformation removed the French from the swaddling bands in which it
had hitherto been bound, and reared it to its majority. From that time
the language has had full possession of those exalted privileges that
belong to the operations of the mind and the treasures of heaven, of
which it had been deprived under the guardianship of Rome. No doubt
the language is formed by the people themselves: they invent those
happy words, those energetic and figurative expressions, that impart
to language such colouring and life. But there are resources beyond
their reach, and which can only proceed from men of intellect. Calvin,
when called upon to discuss and to prove, enriched his mother-tongue
with modes of connexion and dependence, with shadows, transitions, and
dialectic forms, that it did not as yet possess.
These elements were already beginning to ferment in the head of the
young student at the college of La Marche. This lad, who was destined
to exercise so powerful a mastery over the human heart, was also to
subjugate the language he would have to use as his weapon. Protestant
France subsequently habituated itself to the French of Calvin, and
Protestant France comprehends the most cultivated portion of the
nation; from it issued those families of scholars and dignified
magistrates who exerted so powerful an influence over the refinement
of the people; out of it sprung the Port Royal,[1124] one of the
greatest instruments that have ever contributed to form the prose and
even the poetry of France, and who, after endeavouring to transfer to
the Gallican catholicism the doctrine and language of the Reformation,
failed in one of his projects, but succeeded in the other; for
Roman-catholic France was forced to go and learn of her Jansenist and
reformed adversaries how to wield those weapons of language without
which it cannot contend against them.[1125]
[1124] M. A. Arnauld, grandfather of the Mère Angélique, and of all
the Arnaulds of Port-Royal, was a Protestant. See Port-Royal, by
Sainte Beuve.
[1125] Etude littéraire sur Calvin, par M. A. Sayous, Genève, 1839,
art. iv. It has been followed by others on Farel, Viret, and Beza.
[Sidenote: PERSECUTIONS AND TERROR.]
While the future reformer of religion and language was thus growing to
maturity in the college of La Marche, everything was in commotion
around the young and serious scholar, who took no part as yet in the
great movements that were agitating society. The flames that consumed
the hermit and Pavanne had spread terror through Paris. But the
persecutors were not satisfied; a system of terror was set on foot
throughout France. The friends of the Reformation no longer dared
correspond with one another, for fear their intercepted letters should
betray to the vengeance of the tribunals both those who wrote them and
those to whom they were addressed.[1126] One man, however, ventured to
carry intelligence from Paris and France to the refugees at Basle, by
sewing a letter that bore no signature under his doublet. He escaped
the squadrons of arquebusiers, the maréchaussée of the several
districts, the examinations of the provosts and lieutenants, and
reached Basle without the mysterious doublet being searched. His
tidings filled Toussaint and his friends with alarm. "It is
frightful," said Toussaint, "to hear of the great cruelties there
inflicted!"[1127] Shortly before this, two Franciscan monks had
arrived at Basle, closely pursued by the officers of justice. One of
them named John Prévost had preached at Meaux, and had afterwards been
thrown into prison at Paris.[1128] All that they told of Paris and
Lyons, through which they had passed, excited the compassion of these
refugees. "May our Lord send his grace thither," wrote Toussaint to
Farel; "I assure you that I am sometimes in great anxiety and
tribulation."
[1126] Il n'y a personne qui ose m'écrire. Toussaint to Farel, 4th
September 1525. Neufchatel MS.
[1127] Ibid.
[1128] Ibid. 21st July 1525.
[Sidenote: HOPE AND LIBERTY.]
These excellent men still kept up their courage; in vain were all the
parliaments on the watch; in vain did the spies of the Sorbonne and of
the monks creep into churches, colleges, and even private families, to
catch up any word of evangelical doctrine that might there be uttered;
in vain did the king's soldiers arrest on the highways everything that
seemed to bear the stamp of the Reformation: those Frenchmen whom Rome
and her satellites were hunting down and treading under foot, had
faith in better days to come, and already perceived afar off the end
of this Babylonish captivity, as they called it. "The seventieth year,
the year of deliverance, will come at last," said they, "and liberty
of spirit and of conscience will be given to us."[1129] But the
seventy years were destined to last nearly three centuries, and it was
only after calamities without a parallel that these hopes were to be
realized. It was not in man, however, that the refugees placed any
hope. "Those who have begun the dance," said Toussaint, "will not stop
on the road." But they believed that the Lord "knew those whom he had
chosen, and would deliver his people with a mighty hand."[1130]
[1129] Sane venit annus septuagesimus, et tempus appetit ut tandem
vindicemur in libertatem spiritus et conscientiæ. Toussaint to Farel,
21st July 1525.
[1130] Sed novit Dominus quos elegerit. Ibid.
The Chevalier d'Esch had in effect been delivered. Escaping from the
prison at Pont à Mousson, he had hastened to Strasburg; but he did not
remain there long. "For the honour of God," immediately wrote
Toussaint to Farel, "endeavour to prevail on the knight, our worthy
master,[1131] to return as speedily as possible; for our brethren have
great need of such a leader?" In truth, the French refugees had new
cause of alarm. They trembled lest that dispute about the Lord's
Supper, which had so much distressed them in Germany, should pass the
Rhine, and cause fresh troubles in France. Francis Lambert, the monk
of Avignon, after visiting Zurich and Wittemberg, had been in Metz;
but they did not place entire confidence in him; they feared lest he
should have imbibed Luther's sentiments, and that by controversies,
both useless and "monstrous" (as Toussaint calls them), he might check
the progress of the Reformation.[1132] Esch therefore returned to
Lorraine; but it was to be again exposed to great dangers, "along with
all those who were seeking the glory of Jesus Christ."[1133]
[1131] Si nos magistrum in terris habere deceat (if it becomes us to
have any master upon earth) he adds. Ibid. Neufchatel MS.
[1132] Vereor ne aliquid monstri alat. Toussaint to Farel, 27th Sept.
1525.
[1133] Audio etiam equitem periclitari, simul et omnes qui illic
Christi gloriæ favent. Ibid. 27th December 1525.
[Sidenote: TOUSSAINT AT PARIS--IMPRISONED.]
Yet Toussaint was not of a disposition to send others to the battle
without joining in it himself. Deprived of his daily intercourse with
Œcolampadius, reduced to associate with an ignorant priest, he had
sought communion with Christ, and felt his courage augmented. If he
could not return to Metz, might he not at least go to Paris? True, the
piles of Pavanne and the hermit of Livry were smoking still, and
seemed to repel from the capital all those who held the same faith as
they did. But if the colleges and the streets of Paris were struck
with terror, so that no one dared even name the Gospel and the
Reformation, was not that a reason why he should go thither? Toussaint
quitted Basle, and entered those walls where fanaticism had taken the
place of riot and debauchery. While advancing in christian studies, he
endeavoured to form a connexion with those brethren who were in the
colleges, and especially in that of the Cardinal Lemoine, where
Lefevre and Farel had taught.[1134] But he could not long do so
freely. The tyranny of the parliamentary commissioners and of the
theologians reigned supreme in the capital, and whoever displeased
them was accused of heresy.[1135] A duke and an abbot, whose names are
unknown to us, denounced Toussaint as a heretic; and one day the
king's sergeants arrested the youth from Lorraine and put him in
prison. Separated from all his friends, and treated like a criminal,
Toussaint felt his wretchedness the more keenly. "O Lord," exclaimed
he, "withdraw not thou thy Spirit from me! for without it I am but
flesh and a sink of iniquity." While his body was in chains, he turned
in heart to those who were still combating freely for the Gospel.
There was Œcolampadius, his father, and "whose work I am in the
Lord," said he.[1136] There was Leclerc, whom he no doubt believed, on
account of his age, "unable to bear the weight of the Gospel;"[1137]
Vaugris, who had displayed all the zeal "of the most affectionate
brother" to rescue him from the hands of his enemies;[1138] Roussel,
"by whom he hoped the Lord would bring great things to pass;"[1139]
and lastly, Farel, to whom he wrote, "I commend myself to your
prayers, for fear that I should fall in this warfare."[1140] How must
the names of all these men have softened the bitterness of his
imprisonment, for he showed no signs of falling. Death, it is true,
seemed hanging over him in this city where the blood of a number of
his brethren was to be poured out like water;[1141] the friends of his
mother, of his uncle the Dean of Metz, and the Cardinal of Lorraine,
made him the most lavish offers.[1142]......"I despise them," answered
he; "I know that they are a temptation of the devil. I would rather
suffer hunger, I would rather be a slave in the house of the Lord,
than dwell with riches in the palaces of the wicked."[1143] At the
same time he made a bold confession of his faith. "It is my glory,"
exclaimed he, "to be called a heretic by those whose lives and
doctrines are opposed to Jesus Christ."[1144] And this interesting and
bold young man subscribed his letters, "Peter Toussaint, unworthy to
be called a Christian."
[1134] Fratres qui in collegio Cardinalis Monachi sunt te salutant.
Toussaint to Farel, Neufchatel MS.
[1135] Regnante hic tyrannide commissariorum et theologorum. Ibid.
[1136] Patrem nostrum cujus nos opus sumus in Domino. Toussaint to
Farel, Neufchatel MS. This letter is undated, but it would seem to
have been written shortly after Toussaint's deliverance, and shows the
thoughts that then filled his mind.
[1137] Faber impar est oneri evangelico ferendo. Ibid.
[1138] Fidelissimi fratris officio functum. Ibid.
[1139] Per Rufum magna operabitur Dominus. Touss. to Farel, Neuf. MS.
[1140] Commendo me vestris precibus ne succumbam in hac militia. Ibid.
[1141] Me periclitari de vita. Ibid.
[1142] Offerebantur hic mihi conditiones amplissimæ. Ibid.
[1143] Malo esurire et abjectus esse in domo Domini......Ibid.
[1144] Hæc, hæc gloria mea quod habeor hæreticus ab his quorum vitam
et doctrinam video pugnare cum Christo. Ibid.
[Sidenote: FIRMNESS AND COURAGE.]
Thus, in the absence of the king, new blows were continually aimed
against the Reformation. Berquin, Toussaint, and many others, were in
prison; Schuch, Pavanne, and the hermit of Livry, had been put to
death; Farel, Lefevre, Roussel, and many other defenders of the holy
doctrine, were in exile; the mouths of the mighty ones were dumb. The
light of the Gospel day was growing dim; the storm was roaring
incessantly, bending and shaking as if it would uproot the young tree
that the hand of God had so recently planted in France.
[Sidenote: PERSECUTION MORE VIGOROUS--DU BLET AND MOULIN.]
Nor was this all. The humble victims who had already fallen were to be
succeeded by more illustrious martyrs. The enemies of the Reform in
France, having failed when they began with persons of rank, had
submitted to begin at the bottom, but with the hope of rising
gradually until they procured the condemnation and death of the most
exalted personages. The inverse progress succeeded with them.
Scarcely had the ashes with which the persecution had covered the
Grève and the avenues of Notre-Dame been dispersed by the wind, before
fresh attacks were commenced. Messire Anthony Du Blet, that excellent
man, the Lyons merchant, sunk under the persecutions of these enemies
of the truth, in company with another disciple, Francis Moulin, of
whose fate no details have been handed down.[1145] They went further
still; they now took a higher aim; there was an illustrious person
whom they could not reach, but whom they could strike in those who
were dear to her. This was the Duchess of Alençon. Michael d'Arande,
chaplain to the king's sister, for whose sake Margaret had dismissed
her other preachers, and who proclaimed the pure doctrine of the
Gospel in her presence, became the object of attack, and was
threatened with imprisonment and death.[1146] About the same time
Anthony Papillon, for whom the princess had obtained the office of
chief master of requests to the Dauphin, died suddenly, and the
general report, even among the enemies, was that he had been
poisoned.[1147]
[1145] Periit Franciscus Molinus ac Dubletus. Erasm. Epp. p. 1109. In
this letter, addressed to Francis I. in July 1526, Erasmus gives the
names of all those who, during the king's captivity, had fallen
victims to these Roman fanatics.
[1146] Periclitatus est Michael Arantius. Ibid.
[1147] Periit Papilio non sine gravi suspicione veneni. Ibid.
[Sidenote: TERROR AND MOURNING.]
Thus the persecution spread over the kingdom, and daily drew nearer to
the person of Margaret. After the forces of the Reform, concentrated
at Meaux, at Lyons, and at Basle, had been dispersed, they brought
down one after another those isolated combatants who here and there
stood up for it. Yet a few more efforts, and the soil of France will
be free from heresy. Underhanded contrivances and secret practices
took the place of clamour and the stake. They will make war in open
day, but they will also carry it on in darkness. If fanaticism employs
the tribunal and the scaffold for the meaner sort, poison and the
dagger are in reserve for the great. The doctors of a celebrated
society have made too good a use of these means, and even kings have
fallen under the dagger of the assassins. But justice demands that we
should remember if Rome has had in every age its fanatical assassins,
it has also had men like Vincent de Paul and Fenelon. These blows
struck in darkness and silence were well adapted to spread terror on
every side.
To this perfidious policy and fanatical persecution from within, were
added the fatal reverses from without. A veil of mourning hung over
the whole nation. There was not a family, particularly among the
nobles, whose tears did not flow for the loss of a father, a husband,
or a son left on the fields of Italy,[1148] or whose hearts did not
tremble for the liberty and even the life of one of its members. The
great reverses that had fallen upon the nation diffused a leaven of
hatred against the heretics. People and parliament, church and throne,
joined hand in hand.
[1148] Gaillard, François I. vol. ii. 255.
Was it not enough for the Duchess of Alençon that the defeat of Pavia
should have deprived her of a husband, and made her brother a
prisoner? Must the torch of the Gospel, in whose mild light she so
rejoiced, be extinguished perhaps for ever? In May 1525, she had felt
increase of sorrow. Charles of Lannoy had received orders to take his
prisoner into Spain. Margaret had recourse to the consolations of
faith, and having found them, immediately communicated them to her
brother. "My lord," she wrote, "the farther you are removed from us,
the stronger is my hope of your deliverance: for when the reason of
man is troubled and fails, then the Lord performs his mighty
works.--And now, if he makes you partaker of the pains he has borne
for you, I beseech you, my lord, to believe that it is only to try how
much you love him, and to afford you space to learn how he loves you;
for he will have your whole heart, as he through love hath given his
own. After having united you to himself by tribulation, he will
deliver you to his glory and your consolation, by the merits of his
victorious resurrection, in order that by you his name may be known
and sanctified, not only in your kingdom, but in all Christendom,
until the conversion of the unbelievers. Oh! how blessed will be your
brief captivity, by which God will deliver so many souls from unbelief
and eternal condemnation!"[1149] Francis I. deceived the hopes of his
pious sister.
[1149] Letters de la Reine de Navarre à François I. p. 32.
[Sidenote: GOD PRESERVES THE CHURCH.]
The news from Spain soon increased the general sorrow. Mortification
and illness endangered the life of the haughty Francis. If the king
remains a prisoner, if he dies, if his mother's regency is prolonged
for many years, will not the Reformation be crushed for ever? "But
when all seems lost," said the young scholar of Noyon at a later
period, "God saves his Church in a marvellous way."[1150] The Church
of France, which was as if in the travail of birth, was to have an
interval of ease before her pains returned; and to this end God made
use of a weak woman, who never openly declared in favour of the
Reformation. At that time she thought more of saving the king and the
kingdom, than of delivering obscure Christians, who nevertheless
rested great hopes in her.[1151] But under the splendour of worldly
affairs God often conceals the mysterious ways by which he governs his
people. A noble project arose in the mind of the Duchess of Alençon.
To cross the sea or the Pyrenees, and rescue Francis from the power of
Charles V., was now the object of her life.
[1150] Nam habet Deus modum, quo electos suos mirabiliter custodiat,
ubi omnia perdita videntur. Calvin, in Epp. ad Rom. xi. 2.
[1151] Beneficio illustrissimæ Ducis Alanconiæ. Toussaint to Farel.
[Sidenote: MARGARET'S PROJECT.]
Margaret of Valois announced her intention, which was suggested by her
mother, and all France hailed it with shouts of gratitude. Her great
genius, the reputation she had acquired, the love she felt for her
brother, and that of Francis towards her, were a great counterpoise in
the eyes of Louisa and Duprat to her attachment to the new doctrine.
All eyes were turned upon her, as the only person capable of
extricating the kingdom from its perilous position. Let Margaret visit
Spain, let her speak to the powerful emperor and to his ministers, and
let her employ that admirable genius which Providence has bestowed on
her, for the deliverance of her brother and her king!
Yet very different sentiments filled the hearts of the nobles and of
the people, as they saw the Duchess of Alençon going into the midst of
the enemy's councils, and among the fierce soldiery of the catholic
king.
All admired the courage and devotion of this young woman, but did not
share it. The friends of the princess had fears on her behalf, which
were but too near being realized. The evangelical Christians were full
of hope. The captivity of Francis I. had brought unheard-of severities
on the friends of the Reform; his liberation, they thought, might
bring them to an end. To open the gates of Spain to the king, would be
to close those of the prisons into which the servants of the Word of
God had been thrown. Margaret encouraged herself in a project towards
which all her soul felt attracted by so many different motives:
Heaven's height cannot my passage stay,
Nor powers of hell can bar my way,
My Saviour holds the keys of both.
Her woman's heart was strengthened by that faith which overcomes the
world, and her resolution was irrevocable. Every preparation was made
for this important and dangerous journey.
The Archbishop of Embrun, afterwards Cardinal of Tournon, and the
president Selves, were already at Madrid, treating for the king's
deliverance. They were placed under Margaret's orders, as was also the
Bishop of Tarbes, afterwards Cardinal of Grammont; full powers being
given to the princess alone. At the same time Montmorency, afterwards
so hostile to the Reform, was sent in all haste to Spain to procure a
safe-conduct for the king's sister.[1152] The emperor objected at
first, and said that it was the duty of his ministers alone to arrange
this affair. "One hour's conference," exclaimed Selves, "between your
majesty, the king my master, and the Duchess of Alençon, would forward
the treaty more than a month's discussion between diplomatists."[1153]
[1152] Mémoires de Du Bellay, p. 124.
[1153] Histoire de France, par Garnier, tome xxiv.
[Sidenote: MISSION AND SAFE-CONDUCT.]
Margaret, impatient to arrive in consequence of the king's illness,
set off without a safe-conduct, accompanied by a splendid train.[1154]
She quitted the court, moving towards the Mediterranean; but while she
was on the road, Montmorency returned with letters from Charles
guaranteeing her liberty for three months only. That matters not; she
will not be stopped. The eagerness for this journey was such that the
Duchess had been compelled to ask the king whom she should select to
accompany her. "Your good servants have so great a desire to see you,
that each one prays to be allowed to go with me," she wrote to her
brother.
[1154] Pour taster au vif la voulunté de l'esleu empereur......madame
Marguerite, duchesse d'Alençon, très-notablement accompaignée de
plusieurs ambassadeurs......Les gestes de Françoise de Valois, par E.
Dolet, 1540.
Margaret had scarcely reached the shores of the Mediterranean when the
fears of those about her on the insufficiency of the safe-conduct, but
especially the bad weather and the tempest, made her halt. "The seamen
themselves (wrote she to Montmorency) are alarmed." On the 27th August
she made up her mind. "The bearer," she wrote to the king on the very
day, "the bearer will tell you how the heavens, the sea, and the
opinions of men have retarded my departure. But He alone to whom all
things pay obedience, hath given such favourable weather that every
difficulty is solved......I will not delay either on account of my own
security or of the sea, which is unsettled at this season, to hasten
towards the place where I may see you; for fear of death,
imprisonment, and every sort of evil are now so habitual to me, that I
hold lightly my life, health, glory, and honour, thinking by this
means to share your fortune, which I would desire to bear
alone."[1155] Nothing therefore could detain this princess at
Aigues-Mortes,[1156] and in this port Margaret embarked on board the
ship prepared for her. Led by Providence into Spain, rather for the
deliverance of humble and oppressed Christians, than to free the
mighty King of France from his captivity, she confided herself to the
waves of that sea which had borne her brother a captive after the
disastrous battle of Pavia.
[1155] Lettres de la reine de Navarre à François I. pp. 39, 40.
[1156] Jam in itinere erat Margarita, Francisci soror......e fossis
Marianis solvens, Barcinonem primum, deinde Cæsar Augustam appulerat.
Belcarius, Rerum Gallic. Comm. p. 565.
END OF VOLUME THIRD.