CALVIN'S FLIGHT.
(SPRING, 1536.)
Duke Hercules of Este had remarked that certain changes had taken place
since the arrival of the Frenchman. Calvin's discussion with François
the chaplain could not be kept secret. Borgia's grandson knew that the
pope, under the pretence of heresy, might deprive him of his states;
already his father, Duke Alphonso, through being on bad terms with Rome,
had passed many years in exile. The Inquisition had a tribunal at
Ferrara, and what was going on at court was more than enough to alarm
it. A report had been made to the pope; Charles V. had been informed;
and Paul III. proposed a treaty to the duke, in which there was a secret
article stipulating the removal of all the French then at Ferrara; but
there was one among them for whom a severer fate was reserved. The duke,
retracting the indulgence he had conceded to his wife, declared that he
was resolved to put an end to the schismatic intrigues of which the
court was the theatre; that the count and countess of Marennes, Soubise,
the other gentleman, and even Marot, must quit his states; 'and as for
M. d'Espeville,' he added, 'know, madam, that if he is discovered, he
will forthwith be dragged to punishment on account of religion.'[809]
[Sidenote: TRIALS OF RENEE.]
This order was like a thunderstroke to Renée. Called to leave the land
of her ancestors, she had created a little France at Ferrara; and now,
all who gave her any comfort in her exile were about to be torn from
her. Rome would deprive her of that pious and learned teacher who had
given her such good counsel; perhaps he would expiate on an Italian
scaffold the crime of having proclaimed the Gospel. All the lords and
ladies of the court, and even the satirical Marot, were to leave
Ferrara. Leon Jamet seems to have been the only Frenchman permitted to
stay; the duchess, who required a secretary, had obtained her husband's
permission for this ex-clerk of the treasury to remain with her in that
character. Thus the daughter of Louis XII., after the bright days she
had enjoyed, was condemned to remain almost alone in her palace, as in a
gloomy chamber; her slightest movements were watched; she was tormented
by priests whom she despised, and exposed by the grandson of Borgia to
unjust harshness. Marot, touched by so many misfortunes, and knowing the
part which the queen of Navarre, Renée's cousin, would take in this
great trial, addressed her in these touching lines:
Ah! Marguerite, écoute la souffrance
Du noble cœur de Renée de France;
Puis comme cœur, plus fort en espérance,
Console-la.
Tu sais comment hors son pays alla,
Et que parents et amis laissa là;
Mais tu sais quel traitement elle a
En terre étrange![810]
Renée was to suffer a pain still greater than that caused by the
dismissal 'beyond the mountains' of her friends from France. That
iniquitous institution, decorated with the name of the _Holy Office_,
which was destined a little later to make thousands of martyrs in Spain,
the Netherlands, and other countries, desired for the moment to strike
the teacher who had excited the greatest terror and hatred at Rome. The
Inquisition had discovered Calvin's residence. His name and his _crime_
were inscribed in the black-book of that cruel institution.[811] Heresy
was flourishing at the court of Este; the chief culprit was pointed out,
and if the others were allowed to depart, he at least must be punished.
[Sidenote: CALVIN'S ARREST.]
Calvin, forewarned of what was going on, was at the palace Del
Magistrato, where he and Du Tillet lived, and was hurriedly getting
ready for his departure, when the agents of the inquisitors, who were on
the watch, arrived, seized the 'pestiferous disturber,' and dragged him
away a prisoner.[812] It was not their intention to leave him in a place
where the evangelical doctor possessed many influential friends. They
determined to have him tried at Bologna, a city in the States of the
Pope, not far distant from Ferrara, where they would be entirely the
masters. The young Frenchman was therefore placed in the charge of some
familiars of the Holy Office, and guarded by them was to proceed to that
ancient city which boasted of possessing within its walls the ashes of
St. Dominick, the founder of the Inquisition.
Calvin began the journey, surrounded by the men appointed to conduct
him. He might then have said of himself, as he afterwards said of
another: 'Although he hopes still, he is assailed by a hundred deaths,
so that there is not an opening, be it ever so small, for escape.'[813]
The tribunal of the Inquisition, which was never tender, would certainly
not be so towards a heretic of this kind. The squadron which had him in
charge, turning towards the south, crossed a fertile country and
proceeded without obstacle towards the city of Bologna.[814] They had
already gone more than halfway, when some armed men suddenly made their
appearance.[815] They stopped the escort, and ordered them to release
their prisoner. We do not know whether there was any resistance; but
this much is certain, that the inquisitors, little accustomed to yield,
saw the doctor taken from them whom they were conducting to certain
death. Calvin was set at liberty[816] and strained every nerve to get
out of Italy.
His sojourn in that country, as we read of it in authentic documents, is
far from being a blank page, as some have supposed. The last event that
we have mentioned, according to Muratori, has even a particular
interest. It reminds us of a well-known circumstance in the history of
the German reformation, when Luther, returning from Worms, was carried
off by horsemen masked and armed from head to foot. But Calvin's case
was more serious than that of the Saxon reformer, who was taken to a
castle belonging to friends, beyond the reach of danger; while Calvin
was left alone, almost in the middle of Italy, and forced to make his
way through a hostile country, where he ran the risk of being arrested
again.
It has been asked who snatched this choice prey from the tribunals of
Rome, and even in the states of the pope; whence did the blow
proceed?[817] It was bold and rash; it exposed its contrivers and agents
to great danger, for the papacy and the Inquisition were all-powerful in
Italy. A strong affection, a great respect for the reformer, and
boundless devotion to the cause of truth, can alone account for such an
audacious adventure. One person only in the Italian peninsula was
capable of contriving it and of carrying it out, and that was—is it
necessary to say?—the daughter of Louis XII. Everybody ascribed the
reformer's liberation to her. It might be expected that the Inquisition,
always so suspicious and severe, would be implacable in its vengeance.
Renée escaped, at least for the moment. It is possible that Hercules of
Este exerted his influence at the pontifical court to hush up the
affair, and promised to keep the duchess closer in future. He kept his
word but too well.
Calvin did not hesitate to take advantage of this rescue; but from that
moment we have no sufficient data about him or his route. To find any
traces of him, we must examine local traditions, which ought not to be
despised, but which do not supply us with historical certainty. It was
natural—the map indicates it—that the fugitive should turn his steps in
the direction of Modena. In the environs of that city there lived a
celebrated man of letters, Ludovico Castelvetro, who was suspected of
heresy. He was an esteemed critic and skilful translator; he had
rendered into Italian one of Melanchthon's writings, and when he quitted
Italy many years after this, he passed through Geneva, where he visited
some friends. When the ancient villa of Castelvetro was pulled down in
the first half of this century, the workmen discovered a sealed chest,
which contained the earliest editions of Calvin's works in marvellous
preservation.[818] The reformer had no doubt heard this scholar
mentioned at the court of Ferrara; but there is nothing to prove that he
sought a temporary asylum under the roof of Melanchthon's translator,
who does not appear to have made at that time a frank profession of the
Gospel.[819]
[Sidenote: CALVIN'S ROUTE.]
Tradition relates that Calvin, instead of going northwards towards
Switzerland, skirted the Apennines, turned to the west, and reached the
Val di Grana, between Saluzzo and Coni, where he preached. It is
affirmed that the priests of the village of Carigliano so excited the
women of the parish, that with savage cries they stoned the Frenchman
out of the place. It is added that Calvin went thence to Saluzzo, and
preached there, but with as little success.[820] In our opinion, these
traditions are not sufficiently corroborated to deserve a place in
history. It seems more likely that Calvin took the shortest road to
Switzerland and made for the St. Bernard pass. If he had possessed
leisure for evangelical excursions, he might no doubt have gone to the
Waldensian valleys, which his cousin Olivetan had visited, and where the
latter had conceived the project of translating the Bible, at which he
himself also labored and was still to labor. But there is no indication
of his having ever visited those mountains. He arrived at the city of
Aosta.
[Sidenote: THE CITY OF AOSTA.]
The first gleams of the Word of God were beginning, as we have said, to
enlighten that cisalpine region which lies at the foot of the St.
Bernard, Mont Blanc, and Mont Rosa. Aosta, founded by Augustus, after
whom it was named, had received an evangelical impulse from Switzerland.
The Bernese had thought that if the Divine Word crossing the St. Gothard
had made conquests near the banks of the Ticino, it might make others in
the valley of Aosta by crossing the St. Bernard. Italian, Bernese, and
Genevan documents all bear witness alike to the religious fermentation
then prevailing in that city. 'The Gospel is spreading beyond the
mountains,' wrote Porral, the envoy of Geneva at Berne, 'and it must go
forward in despite of princes, for it is from God.' Ere long the Roman
hierarchy made use of their customary weapons against those who embraced
the Reform, and Porral announced that the Aostans had 'serious questions
with their bishop, on account of the _excommunications_, which they
could not bear.'[821] We have told how the Bernese plenipotentiaries
went to Aosta in November 1535, to confer with the duke of Savoy. They
pleaded there in favor of Geneva, and demanded the liberation of
Saunier, then a prisoner at Pignerol.[822] They talked with everybody
they met about the great questions then under discussion, and invited
them to receive the teaching of Holy Scripture. Some dwellers in the
valley, both among the nobility and burghers, welcomed the principles of
the Reformation.[823] Among those won to the Gospel were the Seigneurs
De la Crète and De la Visière, the pious and zealous Leonard de Vaudan,
Besenval, Tillier, Challans, Bovet, Borgnion, Philippon, Gay, and
others.[824]
But if there were hearts in the valley of Aosta ready to receive the
Gospel, there were others determined to resist it. At the head of its
opponents were two eminent men. Among the laity was Count René de
Challans, marshal of Aosta, full of enthusiasm for popery and feudalism,
and bursting with contempt for the heretics and republicans of
Switzerland. Distressed at witnessing the reverses suffered by his
master, the duke of Savoy, he had sworn that in Aosta at least he would
exterminate the Lutherans. His fellow-soldier in this crusade was Pietro
Gazzini, bishop of Aosta, one of the most famous prelates of Italy.
Priests and devotees extolled his virtues and his learning, but what
distinguished him most was the haughty temper and domineering humor
which so often characterizes the priests of Rome. Gazzini was a canon of
the Lateran, the first patriarchal church of the west, and served as the
channel between the duke and the pope. He was at Rome when evangelical
doctrine began to spread in his diocese, and he then tried to manage
that the council, which was to put an end to heresy, should be held in
the states of the duke his master.[825] He even carried his ambition for
his sovereign very far. 'It was becoming,' he told the pontiff, 'that
the direction of the council should be given to the duke of Savoy by the
emperor and the king of France.'[826] The direction of a council given
to a secular prince by the pope and two other secular princes is an idea
apparently not in strict harmony with the theocratic omnipotence of the
pontiff, which many men boast of so loudly.
In the bishop's absence there was a person at Aosta quite worthy of
supplying his place: this was the guardian of the Franciscan monastery,
Antonio Savion (Antonius de Sapientibus), a well-informed, zealous man,
who afterwards became general of the order, and was one of the fathers
of the Council of Trent. Savion uttered a cry of alarm.
One day, when Gazzini was performing his duties in the basilica of St.
John, he received letters describing the state of affairs at Aosta. The
alarmed prelate did not hesitate. 'When Calvin's heresy was penetrating
into his diocese,' said Besson, the Savoyard priest, 'he hastened to
block up the road.'[827]
As soon as the bishop arrived, he visited every parish with
indefatigable diligence; he went into the pulpits and 'kept the people
in sound doctrine by his sermons.'[828] He told them that 'Satan was
prowling about, like a roaring lion, to devour them; that they must
therefore keep a strict watch and drive back the ferocious beast.' To
these exhortations he added censures, monitions, and excommunications.
All readers of Holy Scripture were to be driven from the fold of the
church.
A general assembly of the Estates of the valley to regulate the affairs
of the district was held on the 21st of February, 1536. Among the
deputies were several friends of the Reformation: De la Crète, Vaudan,
Borgnion, and others indicated in the _cahier_ of the Estates.[829] Two
subjects in particular filled the majority of the assembly with anxiety.
The political and the religious situation of the city appeared equally
threatened. Men's eyes were turned to Switzerland, and it was asserted
that designs of political conquest were combined in the minds of the
Bernese with the too manifest desire of religious conquest. At a time
when the house of Savoy was exposed to the attack of France, many wanted
to see the valley of Aosta take advantage of this to join the Helvetic
League and rally under the standard of the Gospel. The members of the
assembly were convinced that the Swiss desired 'to canton' all the
country, and by that means extend their confederation on both sides of
the Alps. But the other danger was still more alarming to the chiefs of
the Roman party, and they earnestly represented to the Estates that the
attachment of the city and valley to the holy see of Rome was
threatened; and that the Bernese Lutherans, who were not content with
laying hands upon the territory of Vaud, but had introduced and
propagated their 'venomous sect,' wanted to do the same in Aosta.[830]
The assembly resolved to maintain the Roman-catholic faith and continue
loyal to his ducal highness, and it was enacted that every transgressor
should be put to death.[831]
[Sidenote: CALVIN AT AOSTA.]
It is a matter of notoriety that Calvin passed through the city of
Aosta; but did he arrive at this epoch, and was he there during part at
least of the session of the Estates? This is affirmed by documents of
the 17th and 18th centuries, and his presence there is not impossible;
but there is, in our opinion, one circumstance adverse to its
acceptance. The official documents of the period, and more especially
the journals of the assembly of February and March, 1536, make no
mention of Calvin's presence, and do not even allude to it. It would,
however, have been worth the trouble of recording, if he were only
designated, as he was a little later in the Registers of Geneva, as _a
Frenchman_. Two important facts, in a religious point of view, occurred
at Aosta in the early months of the year 1536: the Assembly of the
Estates and the passage of Calvin. The first took place in February and
March; the second probably a little later. Tradition makes them
coincide, which is more dramatic; history sets each in its right place.
But because the reformer did not (during the sitting of the Assembly)
play the part assigned to him, it must not be assumed that he never
passed through that city.
Calvin had his reasons for taking the Aosta and St. Bernard route. It
had been in use for centuries, and he had no doubt learnt during his
residence at Basle, what was universally known in Switzerland, that the
Bernese had frequent relations with this country, that they had
introduced the Gospel there, and that some of the inhabitants had
adopted the principles of the Reformation. An ancient document gives us
to understand that Calvin passed through Aosta both going and
returning.[832] In our opinion that would be quite natural. The reports
circulated in Switzerland about that city would induce him to take that
road on his way to Italy, and we can easily conceive, as regards his
return, that a fugitive would take a road already known to him, and
where he was sure of meeting friends. But we do not press this, and are
content to follow the traces Calvin left in the country on his return,
and which are still to be found there.
[Sidenote: CALVIN'S FARM.]
At the foot of the St. Bernard, very near the city of Aosta, stood a
house on some rising ground, where a grange may still be seen. In order
to reach it you leave the St. Bernard road a short distance from the
city and take a footpath, near which a little chapel now stands. The
meadows around it, the abrupt peaks rising above it, the Alps hiding
their snowy heads in the clouds, the view over Aosta and the valley—all
combined to give a picturesque aspect to that house. If the traveller
asks the inhabitants of the country what house that is, he will be told
it is 'Calvin's Farm;' and they add that when the reformer was passing
through Aosta, he was sheltered there by one of the most zealous of the
reformed, Leonard de Vaudan. It was very natural that Calvin should
prefer such a retired habitation to a house in the city.
We do not know what Calvin did or said at Aosta. The only fact which
appears proved—and a monument more than three centuries old attests
it—is that his presence did not remain unknown, and caused a sensation
there more or less lively. The reformer would have run great danger had
he been arrested in the city of Bishop Gazzini, 'who by his vehement
discourses was arming all his flock against the heretics, and who,
seeing Satan incarnate in the evangelical teachers, called upon them to
expel the ravenous beast.' Such are the expressions made use of by the
historian of the diocese.[833] Calvin, already a fugitive, hastened to
leave the neighborhood of the city. To these simple and natural facts
some extraordinary circumstances have been added. For instance, certain
writers have represented the Count of Challans in fierce pursuit of
Calvin, and following him with drawn sword into the very heart of the
mountains. This is a legend tacked on to history, as happens far too
frequently.
It was natural that Calvin, under the circumstances in which he was
placed, should not take the ordinary road, as it was certain he would be
looked for there, and he might easily have been overtaken. It would
appear, if we follow the traces his passage has left round Aosta, that
he sought to escape from the enemies of the Reformation. When we leave
'Calvin's Farm,' and turn to the right, we come to a bridge near Roisan,
below the village of Closelina. This is called in the neighborhood
'Calvin's Bridge.' Calvin crossed it, and thus followed a more difficult
and less frequented road than the St. Bernard. If we climb the mountain
in the direction of the valley of La Valpeline, we arrive at a col
inclosed by Mont Balme, Mont Combin, and Mont Vélan: this is the 'pass
of the window,' afterwards named 'Calvin's Window,' and by it the
reformer entered Switzerland again.[834]
As we have said, Calvin's passage had made a deep impression in Aosta.
The inhabitants of that most catholic city looked upon their opposition
to the reformer, and the flight to which they compelled him to have
recourse, as a glory to their city calculated to bring upon them the
admiration of the friends of the papacy. Consequently, five years after
these events, on the 14th May, 1541, the Aostans erected a stone cross
in the middle of their city in memory of the act. As this primitive
monument had become decayed, it was replaced two centuries later (1741)
by a column eight feet high, which Senebier mentions, and on which there
was this inscription:[835]
'HANC CALVINI FUGA EREXIT ANNO MDXLI.
RELIGIONIS CONSTANTIA REPARAVIT MDCCXLI.'
Finally, a hundred years later, this was succeeded by the monument,
which every traveller can now see as he passes through Aosta, and which
we have examined more than once ourselves.[836] There are thus three
centuries and three successive monuments. Calvin's passage through the
city of Aosta is, therefore, among the number of historic facts
commemorated on the very spot where they occurred, in the most
peremptory manner.
[Sidenote: CALVIN RETURNS TO FRANCE.]
Calvin passed through Switzerland, halted at Basle, and thence proceeded
to Strasburg. He determined to choose one of these two cities, in which
to pass that studious and peaceful life he desired so much, either in
the society of Cop, Gryneus, and Myconius, or of Bucer, Capito, and
Hedio. But he desired first to return to Noyon, where he had some
business to arrange. Leaving Du Tillet at Strasburg, he started for
France, which he could do without imprudence; for he had not left his
country under the weight of any judicial sentence which he had evaded.
Moreover the government just then was less severe.
The arrival of the young doctor was no sooner known in Paris than many
friends of the Gospel hastened to his inn. They were never tired of
listening to him. 'There is not in all France,' they told him, 'a man
who inspires us with so much admiration as you do.'[837]
But Calvin was eager to reach Noyon, where a severe disappointment
awaited him: his brother Charles, the chaplain, was no more.[838] The
circumstances of his death filled Calvin with sorrow and with joy.
'Charles openly confessed Jesus Christ on his dying bed,' his surviving
brother, Anthony, and his sister Mary told John, 'and desired no other
absolution than that obtained from God by faith. Accordingly, the
exasperated priests had him buried by night, between the four pillars of
the gallows.'
Calvin invited Anthony and Mary to leave a country in which believers
were covered with infamy.
His stay at Noyon was very short. It was not possible for him to go
direct to Basle or Strasburg, because of the war between Charles V. and
Francis I., which prevented his crossing Champagne and Lorraine; but he
learnt that he could, without encountering any difficulty, pass through
Bresse, then ascend the Rhone, traverse Geneva, and so reach Basle by
way of Lausanne and Berne. He took this road. 'In all this,' says Beza,
'God was his guide.'[839]
Thus drew near to Geneva the great theologian who discerned more clearly
than any other man of that day what, in doctrine and in life, was in
conformity with or opposed to God's truth and will. Whereas his
predecessors had left some few traditions existing by the side of
Scripture, he laid bare the rock of the Word. Truth had become the sole
passion of that ardent and inflexible soul, and he was resolved to
dedicate his whole life to it. At that time, however, he had no idea of
performing a work like Luther's; and if he had been shown the career
that was opening before him, he would have shrunk from it with terror.
'I will try to earn my living in a private station,' he said.[840] The
ambition of Francis I. changed everything. That prince, unwittingly,
accomplished the designs of God, who desired to place the reformer in
the centre of Europe, between Italy, Germany, and France.
[809] _Défense de Calvin_, par Drelincourt, p. 337.
[810] _Œuvres de Cl. Marot_, ii. p. 337.
[811] 'Vengo assicurato da chi ha veduto gli atti dell' Inquisizion di
Ferrara.'—Muratori, _Annali d'Italia_, xiv. p. 305.
[812] 'Che si pestifero mobile fu fatto prigione.'—_Ibid._
[813] Calvin on _Acts_ xii. 6.
[814] 'Mentre che era condotto da Ferrara a Bologna.'—Muratori, _Annali
d'Italia_, xix. p. 305.
[815] 'Gente armata.'—_Ibid._
[816] 'Fu messo in libertà.'—_Ibid._
[817] 'Onde fosse venuto il colpo.'—Muratori, _Annali d'Italia_,
xiv. p. 305.
[818] Bayle's Dictionary, _sub voce_ Castelvetro.—J. Bonnet: _Calvin_.
The discovery happened in 1823.
[819] Tiraboschi, _Hist. de la Litt. ital._ vii. p. 169.
[820] Bonnet, _Calvin au Val d'Aoste_, pp. 13, 14.
[821] Dépêches d'Ami Porral au Conseil de Genève.
[822] Lettres du Conseil de Berne au duc de Savoie du dernier Septembre
1535, et au Conseil de Genève du 24 Décembre 1535. These letters were
communicated to me, along with others, by M. de Steiner, librarian of
the city of Berne, and M. de Stürler, Chancellor of State.
[823] 'Quæ factæ sunt per Bernenses Leuteranos in Provincia Augustana,
etc.' Procès-verbal de l'Assemblée du 28 Février 1536.
[824] Many of these names are still to be found in Suisse Romande where
the bearers of them had been forced to take refuge.
[825] _Il vescovo d'Agosta allo duca di Savoia._ The author found this
letter, dated from Rome, in the General Archives of the kingdom of
Italy, preserved at Turin.
[826] 'Di far dare il governo del Concilio, tanto da sua Santità quanto
dallo Imperatore, e re di Francia, a vostra Eccellenza (the
duke).'—_Ibid._
[827] _Mémoires des diocèses de Genève, d'Aoste, etc._, par le curé
Besson, p. 260.
[828] _Ibid._ p. 261.
[829] 'Nobilis Nicolaus de Crista, Antonius Vaudan, Bartolomæus,
Borgnion, pro communitate parochiæ Sancti Stephani electi, etc.' General
Council of February 1536. Archives of the Intendance of Aosta.
[830] 'Illa secta venenosa leuterana.'—Procès-verbal of the Assembly.
Archives of the Intendance of Aosta.
[831] MS. in the Archives of the kingdom at Turin.
[832] Documents in the Archives of M. Martinet, formerly deputy of
Aosta.—J. Bonnet, _Calvin au Val d'Aoste_, p. 21.
[833] _Mémoires des diocèses de Genève et d'Aoste, etc._, par le curé
Besson, p. 261.
[834] The idea of Calvin's passage by this _col_ is now generally
admitted, and even in Murray's Guide we read, '_Calvin fled by this pass
from Aosta_.'
[835] _Histoire littéraire de Genève_, i. p. 182 (edit. 1786).
[836] To the inscription given above, these words have been added:
'CIVIUM MUNIFICENTIA RENOVAVIT ET ADORNAVIT.
ANNO MDCCCXLI.'
[837] Godefridus Lopinus, _Calvino_. MS. preserved in the public Library
at Geneva.
[838] Beza, _Vita Calvini_.
[839] 'Divinitus perductus.'—Beza, _Vita Calvini_.
[840] _Lettres françaises de Calvin_, i. p. 22.