THE GOSPEL PREACHED AT THE LOUVRE AND IN THE METROPOLITAN CHURCHES.
(LENT 1533.)
The alliance with England, and the hope of being able, sooner or later,
to triumph over Charles V., filled the King of France with joy; and
accordingly the carnival of the year 1533 was kept magnificently at
Paris. The court was absorbed in entertainments, balls, and banquets.
The young lords and ladies thought of nothing but dancing and
intriguing, at which soberer minds were scandalised. 'It is quite a
Bacchanalia,' said the evangelicals.[272] As soon as the carnival was
ended, Francis started for Picardy; leaving the King and Queen of
Navarre at Paris. Margaret now breathed more freely. She had been
compelled, willingly or unwillingly, to take part in all the court
fêtes; and she now determined to make up for it by organising a great
evangelical preaching instead of the 'bacchanalia' at which she had
sometimes been present. Was not Francis holding out his hand to the King
of England and to the protestants of Germany? The opportunity should be
seized of preaching the new doctrine boldly. The Queen of Navarre sent
for Roussel and communicated her intention to him. She will open the
great churches of the capital, and from their pulpits the inhabitants of
Paris shall hear the mighty summons. The poor almoner, in whom courage
was not the most prominent virtue, was alarmed at first. In the handsome
saloons of Margaret he might indulge in his pious and rather mystical
aspirations; but to enter the pulpits of Paris ... the very thought
dismayed him, and he begged the queen to find some other person. Roussel
did not deny that it was right to preach the Gospel publicly, but
declared himself to be incompetent for the work. 'The minister of the
Gospel,' he said, 'ought to possess an invincible faith.[273] The enemy
against which he fights is the kingdom of hell with all its
powers.[274]... He must defend himself on the right hand and on the
left.... What do you require of me? To preach peace, but under the
cross! To bring in the kingdom of God, but among the strongholds of the
devil.... To speak of repose in the midst of the most furious tempests,
of life in the midst of death, of blessedness in the midst of hell! Who
is fitted for such things?... Doubtless it is a noble task, but no one
ought to undertake it unless he is called to it. Now I feel nothing in
me which a minister of the Gospel of Christ ought to possess at this
moment.'[275]
[Sidenote: ROUSSEL'S HESITATION.]
Such a man as Calvin would certainly have been preferable, but Margaret
would neither have dared nor wished to put him in the front. These
sermons undoubtedly formed part of the chaplain's duty; and hence the
Queen, an energetic and impulsive woman, being determined to profit by
the opportunity of giving the Gospel free entrance into Paris, persisted
with Roussel, promised him the help of her prayers and of her favour,
and at last prevailed on him to preach. In truth, his modesty is an
honour to him: no doubt there was boldness wanted; but many humble and
candid souls would have hesitated like him. He was fitter than he
imagined for the work which the Queen of Navarre had taken in hand.
This obstacle having been surmounted, Margaret met with another. It was
the custom for the Sorbonne to appoint the preachers, and it was
impossible to get them to accept Roussel. 'They will nominate some
furious and insolent monks,' says Calvin, 'who will make the churches
ring with their insults against truth.'[276] The struggle began, and
despite the absence of Francis, despite the influence of the Queen of
Navarre, the Sorbonne gained the day, and the pulpits of the capital
were closed against the almoner. Margaret was very indignant at these
doctors, who looked upon themselves as the doorkeepers of the kingdom of
heaven, and by their tyranny prevented the door from being opened; but
Roussel was by no means sorry to be prohibited from a work beyond his
strength.
[Sidenote: PREACHINGS AT THE LOUVRE.]
But nothing could stop the queen. Being resolved to give the Gospel to
France, she said to herself that it must be done now or never. Her zeal
carried her to an extraordinary act. The Sorbonne closed the doors of
the churches against Roussel: Margaret opened to him the palace of the
king. She had a saloon prepared in the Louvre, and gave orders to admit
all who desired to enter. Was the king informed of this? It is possible,
and even probable, that he was. He did not fear to show the pope and
Charles V. how far his alliance with Henry VIII. and the protestants
would extend. He would not have liked to appear schismatic and
heretical; but he sometimes was pleased that his sister should do so;
and he could always vindicate himself on the ground of absence.
A Lutheran sermon at the Louvre! That was truly a strange thing; and
accordingly the crowd was so great that there was not room for them.
Margaret threw open a larger hall, but that too was filled, as well as
the corridors and ante-chamber.[277] A third time the place of meeting
was changed.[278] She had vainly selected the largest hall; the
galleries and adjoining rooms were filled, and room was wanting still.
These evangelical preachings at the Louvre excited a lively curiosity in
Paris. They were all the fashion, and the worthy Roussel, to his great
surprise, became quite famous. He preached every day during Lent,[279]
and every day the crowd grew larger. Nobles, lawyers, men of letters,
merchants, scholars, and tradespeople of every class flocked to the
Louvre from all parts of Paris, especially from the quarters of the
University and St. Germain. At the hour of preaching, the citizens
poured over the bridges in a stream, or crossed the Seine in boats. Some
were attracted by piety, some by curiosity, and others by vanity. Four
or five thousand hearers crowded daily round Roussel.[280]
When the worthy citizens, students, and professors had climbed the
stairs at the Louvre, crossed the antechambers, and reached the door of
the principal saloon, they stopped, opened their eyes wide, and looked
wonderingly on the sight presented to them in the monarch's palace. The
King and Queen of Navarre were in the chief places, seated in costly
chairs, whence the active Margaret cast a satisfied glance on all those
courtiers, those notables of the city, those curious Parisians, those
friends of Reform, who were flocking to hear the Word of God. There were
people of every rank: John Sturm, already so decided for the Gospel, was
seen by the side of the elegant John de Montluc, afterwards Bishop of
Valence. At length the minister appeared; he prayed with unction, read
the Scriptures with gravity, and then began his exhortations to the
hearers. His language was simple, but it stirred their hearts
profoundly. Roussel proclaimed the salvation obtained by a living faith,
and urged the necessity of belonging to the invisible Church of the
saints. Instead of attacking the Roman religion, he addressed his
appeals to the conscience; and this preaching of the Gospel (rather
softened down as it was) won, instead of irritating, men's minds.
Accustomed as they were to the babbling of the monks, the congregation
listened seriously to the practical preaching of the minister of God.
Here were no scholastic subtleties, no absurd legends, no amusing
anecdotes, no burlesque declamations, and no unclean pictures: it was
the Gospel.[281] As they quitted the Louvre, men conversed about the
sermon or the preacher. Sturm of Strasburg and John de Montluc, in
particular, often talked together.[282] The satisfaction was general.
'What a preacher!' they said; 'we have never heard anything like it!
What freedom in his language! what firmness in his teaching!'[283] Some
of his hearers wrote in their admiration to Melanchthon, who informed
Luther, Spalatin, and others of it.[284] Germany rejoiced to see France
begin to move at last.
Margaret, who had a lively imagination and warm heart, was all on fire.
She spoke to the worldlings of that 'peace of God which passeth all
understanding.' She said to the friends of the Gospel: 'The Almighty
will graciously complete what he has graciously begun through us.' She
added: 'I will spend myself in it.' She excited and stirred up everybody
about her, and the crowded congregations of the Louvre were in great
measure the result of her incessant activity. She knew how by a word or
a message to attract courtiers whose only thoughts were of debauchery,
and catholics whose only wish was for the pope. Like a sabbath-bell, she
called Paris to hear the voice of God, and drew the crowd. Possessing in
the highest degree, so long as her brother did not check it, that energy
which women often show in religious matters, she was resolved to
prosecute her work and win the prize of the contest.
She returned to her first idea. She said to herself that the best way to
effect a reform in the Church without occasioning a schism, was for the
Gospel to be preached in the churches of Paris and of France. The
ceremonies of the Roman worship and the jurisdiction of the bishops
would remain, but Christ would be proclaimed. This system, which was
fundamentally that of Melanchthon and even of Luther at this time,[285]
she did her best to realise. The victory she had just achieved at the
Louvre doubled her courage; she determined to have the churches which
had been refused to her at first. She therefore began to work upon the
king, and, as he was thinking only of his alliances with Henry VIII. and
the protestants, she obtained from him an order authorising the Bishop
of Paris to appoint whom he pleased to preach in his diocese.[286] The
prelate, who was a brother of the diplomatist Du Bellay, passed like him
for a friend of the Reformation. At Margaret's request he named two
evangelical Augustine monks—Courault and Berthaud. 'Strange!' said the
public voice; 'here are men of the order to which Luther belonged going
to preach the doctrine of the great reformer in the capital of France.'
All the evangelicals were overjoyed and wrote to their friends
everywhere that 'Paris was supplied with three excellent preachers,
announcing the truth ... with a little more boldness than was
customary.'[287]
[Sidenote: ESSENCE OF EVANGELICAL PREACHING.]
Courault, a sincere scriptural christian, who did not participate in
Margaret's subtleties, preached at St. Saviour's. The inhabitants of the
quarter of St. Denis and from other parts crowded to this church. Many
persons who had said of the preachings at the Louvre, 'They are not for
us,' hastened to the place which belonged to the people. The man who
occupied the pulpit was about the middle age; he did not possess
Roussel's grace, he was even somewhat rough, and preached the Gospel
without reserve and without disguise. His lively and aggressive style,
his expressive and rather threatening gestures arrested attention. He
attacked unsparingly the errors of the Church and the vices of
christians. Courault did not come, as the Roman preachers had done up to
that very hour, to impose on his hearers certain laws, ceremonies, and
acts of worship by means of which they could be reconciled to God and
merit his favour. He spoke not of feasts, or of dedications, or of
customs, or of those mechanical prayers and chantings, in which the
understanding and the heart have no share, and with which the Church
burdened believers. He had a special horror of all that mixes up the
worship of the creature with the adoration of God, and would not suffer
the perfect work of Christ to be obscured by the invocation of other
mediators. He preached that the true worship of the New Testament was
faith in the Gospel, and the love which proceeds from faith; that it was
communion with Christ, patience under the cross, and a holy activity in
doing good, accompanied by the constant prayers of the heart. This
preaching, so new in the capital, attracted an immense crowd. The
enthusiasm was universal. 'This man is in the first rank among good
men,' was the general opinion.[288] 'He is like a sentinel on a tower
who, with his eyes fixed on the east, proclaims that the sun, so long
hidden, will shine at last upon the earth.'[289] Light beamed from
Courault's discourses. His sight was weak, and in after years, during
his exile in Switzerland, where he was Calvin's colleague, he became
quite blind; but his language was always marked by great clearness. It
was said of him that 'although blind he enlightens the soul.'[290] Among
his hearers was Louis du Tillet, Calvin's friend, and the youthful canon
was deeply excited by the living faith of the aged Augustine. 'Oh! what
piety I found in him!' he exclaimed on a later occasion.[291]
Berthaud, the other preacher named by the bishop, subsequently deserted
the Gospel and died a canon of Besançon: so that each of them reminds us
of our Saviour's words: _There shall two be in the field; the one shall
be taken, and the other left_.[292]
These evangelical preachings in the palace of the king and in the
churches of Paris were important facts, and there has been nothing like
it since in France. The alarm was consequently at its height. People
asked whether the sentinels of the Church were asleep, and whether the
bark of St. Peter would founder, while the Gospel ship seemed floating
onwards in full sail.
[Sidenote: AGITATION OF THE SORBONNE.]
But the doctors of the Sorbonne were not asleep; on the contrary, they
were on the watch, they sent their spies into the evangelical
assemblies, received their reports, and took counsel together every day.
The members of this society, the principal, the prior, the senior, the
recorder, the professors, the proctors, and the librarians declared
boldly and unanimously that all was lost if they did not make haste to
check the evil. The evangelicals and the men of letters were informed of
these fanatical discussions. 'What a horde of scribes and pharisees!'
they exclaimed.[293] But that did not stop the horde. 'What must be
done?' they asked; and Beda replied: 'Let the preachers be seized and
put to death like Berquin.' Some, more moderate or more politic, knowing
that Roussel was preaching by order of the king's sister, shrank from
this proposal, fearing they would offend their sovereign.[294] 'What
foolish policy!' exclaimed Beda, 'what ineffable cowardice!... Is not
the Sorbonne the oracle of Europe? Shall it render ambiguous answers,
like the pagan oracles of old?'
Beda prevailed, and Roussel was denounced to the king. 'Apply to my
chancellor,' said Francis, who did not wish to say either yes or no. The
Sorbonne delegates then waited upon Duprat. 'Apply to the bishop,' said
the cardinal, who was afraid of displeasing the king. The Sorbonnists
went to their diocesan, rather anxious about the reception they would
receive from him; and with good reason, for the liberal Du Bellay only
laughed at them.[295] The exasperated but indefatigable doctors now
turned to the first president, who was one of their party; but that
magistrate, believing the Sorbonne to be in disgrace, was not anxious to
support their cause. The wrath of the doctors now became unbounded.
Would there no longer be any justice in France for the champions of the
papacy? The friends of letters, who had carefully noted all these
repulses, smiled at the confusion of the priests; and Sturm in
particular, the reviver of learning at Strasburg, and now professor at
Paris, did not spare them: 'Look at these _Thersites_!' he said,
comparing them to the ugliest, most cowardly, and most ridiculous of the
Grecian host at Troy. 'They are at the end of their tether and cannot
succeed,' continued Sturm; 'for those who can help them will not, and
those who will cannot.'[296]
The doctors of the Sorbonne now lost all moderation. 'The king,' said
they, 'who publicly supports the heretics, his sister and the Archbishop
of Paris, who protect them, are as guilty as they.' Orders were sent
through all the camp: every pulpit became a volcano. Furious
declamations, superstitious sermons, scholastic discourses, violent and
grotesque speeches—the supporters of Rome made use of all. 'Do you know
what an heretical minister is?' asked a monk. 'He is a pig in a pulpit,
decorated with cap and surplice, and preaching to a congregation ... of
asses.'[297]
[Sidenote: THE FIREBRAND LE PICARD.]
The most active firebrand in this conflagration was Le Picard, a
bachelor of divinity, professor of the college of Navarre, and
subsequently dean of St. Germain l'Auxerrois. He was twenty-nine years
old, of a 'stormy' temper if ever there was one, and in truth he did
'storm' in the churches and at the meetings of the priests. He went into
the pulpit to oppose Courault; and the people who had gone to hear the
Augustine monk, crowded also to hear his opponent. The latter
gesticulated much, shouted loudly, invoked the Virgin, and attacked the
king, accusing him bluntly of heresy. He was a true precursor of those
who advised the massacre of St. Bartholomew; and indeed he made a
proposal, not long after, worthy of the Guises and the Medici. 'Let the
government pretend to be Lutheran,' he said, 'in order that the reformed
may assemble openly; then we can fall upon them and clear the kingdom of
them once for all.'[298] A monk, charmed with his virtues, has written
his life under the title of _The Perfect Ecclesiastic_.[299]
[Sidenote: SEDITION OF BEDA AND MONKS.]
Yet if Le Picard was the most active champion, Beda was still general.
Placed as on a hill, he overlooked the field of battle, examined where
it was necessary to send help, wrote every day to the orators of his
party—to Le Picard, Maillard, Ballue, Bouchigny, and others, and
conjured them not to relax for an instant in their attacks. 'Stir up the
people by your discourses,' he said.[300] It was a critical moment: it
was in the balance whether France would remain catholic or become
heretic. 'Though the monarch deserts the papacy,' he said, 'agitate,
still agitate!' Then the fanatical monks went into the pulpits and
aroused the people by their fiery eloquence: 'Let us not suffer this
heresy, the most pestilential of all, to take root among us.... Let us
pluck it up, cast it out, and annihilate it.'[301]
All the forces of the papacy were engaged at this time as in a battle
where the general launches his reserves into the midst of the struggle.
The mendicant friars, those veteran soldiers of the popedom, who had
access into every family, were set to work. Dominicans, Augustines,
Carmelites, and Franciscans, having received their instructions, entered
the houses of Paris. The women and children, who were used to them,
saluted them with 'Good morning, friar John or friar James;' and while
their wallet was being filled, they whispered in the ears of the
citizens: 'The pope is above the king.... If the king favours the
heretics, the pope will free us from our oaths of fidelity.'
They went still further. Whenever it is felt desirable to arouse the
people, they require to be excited by some spectacle. A _neuvaine_ was
ordered in honour of St. James. The crowd flocked to adore the good
saint with his long pilgrim's staff; and for nine days the devout of
both sexes, kneeling round his image, crossing themselves and employing
other usual ceremonies, loudly called upon the saint to give a
knock-down blow with his staff to those who protected the heretics.
These incendiary discourses and bigoted practices succeeded. The people
began to be restless and to utter threats.[302] They paraded in bands
through the streets, they collected in groups in the public places, and
cries were heard of: 'The pope for ever! down with his enemies!...
Whoever opposes the holy father, even if he be a king, is a knave and a
tyrant, to whom the Grand Turk is preferable.... We will dye our streets
with the blood of those people.'... There was already in the veins of
the inhabitants of Paris the blood of the men of the Reign of Terror.
The crowds who filled the streets stopped before the booksellers' shops,
where books and pictures, defamatory of the reformers and even of the
Queen of Navarre, were displayed. Among the books was a 'stage play'
aimed at the king's sister: it was probably that entitled: _The Malady
of Christendom, with thirteen characters_.[303]
But even that was not sufficient. There was still wanting a theological
decision from the first academical authority of christendom, which
should place Roussel in the same rank as the arch-heretic Luther. The
Sorbonne, wishing to strike a decisive blow, published a certain number
of the so-called pernicious and scandalous doctrines imputed to Roussel,
and condemned them as being similar to the errors of Luther. The alarm
and agitation were now at their height; the people fancied they could
see the monk of Wittemberg breathing his impious doctrines over Paris.
Rome fought boldly, and everything was in confusion.[304]
What became of Calvin during all this uproar? 'What is this madness,' he
said on a later occasion, 'which impels the pope and his bishops, the
priests and the friars, to resist the Gospel with such obstinate
rebellion?... The servants of God must be furnished with invincible
constancy in order to sustain without alarm the commotions of the
people. We are sailing on a sea exposed to many tempests; but nothing
ought to turn us aside from doing our duty conscientiously.[305] The
Lord consoles and strengthens his servants when they are thus
agitated.... He has in his hand the management of every whirlwind and of
every storm, and appeases them whenever it seems good to him.... We
shall be roughly handled, but he will not suffer us to be drowned.'[306]
[Footnote 272: 'Bacchanalia factis multis regiis conviviis.'—Siderander
Bedroto, Strasburg MSS. ed. Schmidt.]
[Footnote 273: 'Exigit invictum fidei robur.'—Roussel to Œcolampadius,
_Ep. Ref. Helvet._ p. 20.]
[Footnote 274: 'Adversus totum inferorum regnum, a dexteris et a
sinistris.'—Ibid.]
[Footnote 275: 'Nihil minus in me sentiam quam quod ad evangelicum
dispensatorem et ministrum attinet.'—Ibid.]
[Footnote 276: 'Quisque erat clamosissimus et stolido furore præditus.'—
Calvinus Danieli, _Epp._ p. 3. Genève, 1575.]
[Footnote 277: 'Vix enim locus inveniebatur qui satis capax esset.'—
Letter dated Paris, May 28, 1533, by Peter Siderander. Strasburg MSS.
Schmidt, _G. Roussel_, p. 201.]
[Footnote 278: 'Adeo ut ter mutare locum coactus sit.'—Ibid.]
[Footnote 279: 'Concionatus est autem quotidie per totam hanc
quadragesimam.'—Ibid.]
[Footnote 280: 'Ut nulla fere concio facta fuerit quin hominum quatuor
vel quinque millia adfuerint.'—Siderander, Strasburg MSS.]
[Footnote 281: Schmidt, _G. Roussel_, p. 85.]
[Footnote 282: See Sturm to Montluc, June 17, 1562.]
[Footnote 283: 'Gerardus libere docet Evangelium in ipsa Lutetia ... in
aula reginæ Navarræ magna animi constantia.'—Melanchthon, _Corp. Ref._
ii. p. 658.]
[Footnote 284: 'Hæc certa sunt et mihi, ex Parisiis, ab optimis viris
diligenter perscripta.'—Ibid.]
[Footnote 285: Negotiations of Smalcald, Aug. 1531.]
[Footnote 286: 'Allatum est regium diploma quo parisiensi episcopo
permittitur præficere quos velit singulis parochiis concionatores.'—
Calvini _Epp._ p. 3.]
[Footnote 287: Théod. de Bèze, _Hist. des Eglises Réformées_, i. p. 9.]
[Footnote 288: 'Qui inter bonos postremus non erat.'— Calvini _Epp._
p. 3.]
[Footnote 289: 'In specula nostra, donec appareat quod nunc absconditum
est.'—Ibid.]
[Footnote 290: Théod. de Bèze, _Hist. des Eglises Réformées_, i. p. 9.]
[Footnote 291: _Correspondance de Calvin et Du Tillet_, p. 78.]
[Footnote 292: Matthew, xxiv. 40.]
[Footnote 293: 'Turba illa scribarum et pharisæorum.'—Strasburg MSS.]
[Footnote 294: 'Non facile contra regem temere ausi sunt certamen
suscipere.'—Ibid.]
[Footnote 295: 'Hic aperte eos illusit.'—Sturm to Bucer, ed. Strobel, p.
106.]
[Footnote 296: Isti Thersitæ . . . hi qui possunt nollent, et qui
cuperent non auderent adesse.'—Ibid.]
[Footnote 297: One of the stalls in a church at Toulouse represents a
similar scene, with these words: _Calvin the pig preaching_.]
[Footnote 298: Labitte, _Démocratie des Prédicateurs de la Ligue_, p.
3.]
[Footnote 299: H. de Coste, _Le parfait Ecclésiastique, ou Histoire de
Le Picard_, 12mo, Paris, 1658.]
[Footnote 300: 'Beda sollicitabat suos oratores ut ne cessarent in suis
demegoriis concitare populum.'—Sturm to Bucer. Strasburg MSS.]
[Footnote 301: 'Populum stimulare ne hæresim hanc pestilentissimam
radices agere pateretur.'—Siderander Bedroto. Ibid.]
[Footnote 302: 'Ad extremum populus etiam mussitare et minari cœpit.'—
Sturm to Bucer.]
[Footnote 303: Typographi in suis pægmatis scriptura et pictura et ludo
scenico læserunt reginam.'—Ibid. _The Moralité de la Maladie de la
Chrétienté_, 8vo, appeared at Paris this very year (1533). The learned
biographer of Roussel and of Sturm supposes, very reasonably as it
appears to me, that this is the _ludus scenicus_, the play of which
Sturm speaks.]
[Footnote 304: 'Omnino res cœpit esse θορυβώδης.'—Sturm to Bucer.]
[Footnote 305: 'En rondeur de conscience.'—Calv. _Opusc._]
[Footnote 306: Calvin, _in Acta_ xix.]