[_Lat. copy._--_Imperial Library, Coll. of Dupuy_, 102.]
[374] See the eloquent appeal addressed to Bullinger, _ante_, pp.
329, 341. The latter had written to Calvin, giving him an account
of the fruitless efforts of the Cantons with Henry II., and of the
haughty response of that monarch: "He lives who delivered his people
from Egypt; he lives who brought back the captivity from Babylon; he
lives who defended his Church against Cæsars, kings, and profligate
princes. Verily we must needs pass through many afflictions into
the kingdom of God. But woe to those who touch the apple of God's
eye."--_Calv. Opera_, tom. ix. p. 68.
[375] See the following Letter.
CCXCVI.--TO THE FIVE PRISONERS OF LYONS,--MARTIAL ALBA, PETER
ESCRIVAIN, CHARLES FAVRE, PETER NAVIHERES, BERNARD SEGUIN.[376]
[376] In the month of April 1552, five young Frenchmen, instructed
at the school of theology of Lausanne, and devoted to the functions
of the ministry, made arrangements for returning to their own
country. These were Martial Alba of Montauban, Peter Ecrivain of
Gascony, Charles Favre of Blanzac in Angoumois, Peter Navihères of
Limousin, and Bernard Seguin of La Reole. After having spent some
days at Geneva, they set out for Lyons, and met on the way at the
Bourg de Colognes, nigh to L'Ecluse, a stranger, who offered himself
as their fellow-traveller. They consented without harbouring any
suspicion. Arrived at Lyons, they parted with their travelling
companion, who pressed them to visit him at his dwelling of Ainay.
They went thither without any distrust, were arrested and led
away to the prisons of that jurisdiction. Such was the origin of
a long and doleful process, which held the Churches of France
and Switzerland for a long time in suspense, and during which,
the blood-thirsty cruelty of the judges was only equalled by the
constancy of the victims. On the first rumour of the arrest of
the five students, the Church of Geneva took the matter up, and
lavished upon the captives, by the voice of Calvin, the most lively
testimonies of their sympathy.
Information on various doctrinal points, and assurances of
Christian sympathy.
FROM GENEVA, _this 10th of June 1552_.
MY VERY DEAR BRETHREN,--Hitherto I have put off writing to you,
fearing that if the letter fell into bad hands, it might give fresh
occasion to the enemy to afflict you. And besides, I had been
informed how that God wrought so powerfully in you by his grace,
that you stood in no great need of my letters. However, we have
not forgotten you, neither I nor all the brethren hereabouts, as
to whatever we have been able to do for you. As soon as you were
taken, we heard of it, and knew how it had come to pass. We took
care that help might be sent you with all speed, and are now waiting
the result. Those who have influence with the prince in whose power
God has put your lives, are faithfully exerting themselves on your
behalf, but we do not yet know how far they have succeeded in their
suit. Meanwhile, all the children of God pray for you as they are
bound to do, not only on account of the mutual compassion which
ought to exist between members of the same body, but because they
know well that you labour for them, in maintaining the cause of
their salvation. We hope, come what may, that God of his goodness
will give a happy issue to your captivity, so that we shall have
reason to rejoice. You see to what he has called you; doubt not,
therefore, that according as he employs you, he will give you
strength to fulfil his work, for he has promised this, and we know
by experience that he has never failed those who allow themselves to
be governed by him. Even now you have proof of this in yourselves,
for he has shown his power, by giving you so much constancy in
withstanding the first assaults. Be confident, therefore, that
he will not leave the work of his hand imperfect. You know what
Scripture sets before us, to encourage us to fight for the cause
of the Son of God; meditate upon what you have both heard and seen
formerly on this head, so as to put it in practice. For all that I
could say would be of little service to you, were it not drawn from
this fountain. And truly we have need of a much more firm support
than that of men, to make us victorious over such strong enemies as
the devil, death, and the world; but the firmness which is in Christ
Jesus is sufficient for this, and all else that might shake us were
we not established in him. Knowing, then, in whom ye have believed,
manifest what authority he deserves to have over you.
As I hope to write to you again, I shall not at present lengthen
my letter. I shall only reply briefly to the point which brother
Bernard has asked me to solve. Concerning vows, we must hold to
this rule, that it is not lawful to vow to God anything but what he
approves. Now the fact is, that monastic vows tend only to corrupt
his service. As for the second question, we must hold that it is
devilish presumption for a man to vow beyond the measure of his
vocation. Now, the Scripture declares, both in the nineteenth of St.
Matthew and in the seventh of the First to the Corinthians, that
the gift of continence is a special grace. It follows, then, that
those who put themselves in the position and under the necessity of
renouncing marriage for the whole of their life, cannot be acquitted
of rashness, and that by so doing they tempt God. The question
might very easily be spun out to a greater length, by stating that
we ought to consider, first, who He is to whom we vow; secondly, the
nature of that vow; and thirdly, the party making the vow. For God
is too great a master for us to trifle with, and man is bound to
consider his own capabilities; for to present a sacrifice without
obedience, is nothing but thorough pollution. However, this one
point may suffice you to prove to them that the gift of continence
is a special gift, and in suchwise special, that for the most part
it is only for a season. So that he who possessed it for thirty
years, like Isaac, may not do so for the remainder of his life.
Hence you may conclude, that the monks, in binding themselves never
to marry, attempt without faith to promise what is not given to
them. As for their poverty, it is quite the reverse of that which
our Lord enjoined upon his followers.
Concerning the nature of a glorified body, true it is, that the
qualities thereof are changed, but not entirely. For we must
distinguish between the qualities which proceed from the corruption
of sin, and those which belong to and are inseparable from the
nature of the body. St. Paul, in the third chapter of the Epistle
to the Philippians, says that our vile or weak body shall be made
like to the glorious body of Christ. By this humble expression or
_Tapinosis_, he points out which of the qualities that we at present
bear about with us in our bodies are to be changed; those, namely,
which are of the corruptible and fading nature of this world. And on
this subject St. Augustine says, in _the Epistle to Dardanus_, which
in number is the 57th, "_He shall come again in the same form and
substance of the flesh, to which certainly he gave immortality; he
hath not taken away the nature. In this form he must not be supposed
to be everywhere diffused._" This argument he follows out at greater
length, showing that the body of Christ is contained within its own
dimensions. And in fact our glorified bodies will not be ubiquitous,
although they will have that likeness of which St. Paul speaks. As
for the passage of the Apocalypse, the words are these in the fifth
chapter: "_And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth,
and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are
in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and
power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb,
for ever and ever._" Now you see that it is a childish cavil to
apply this to souls in purgatory; for St. John, by the figure which
is called _Prosopopœia_, rather conveys that even the fishes
blessed God. And in regard to the passages of the Doctors, refer
your people to the 27th Epistle of St. Augustine, _To Boniface_,
where he states, toward the end, _that the sacraments have a certain
similitude of those things which they represent_. _From whence it
comes to pass, that after some fashion the sacrament of the body of
Christ may be the body of Christ._ Item, that which he treats of in
the third book, _Of Christian Doctrine_, where he says, among other
things in the fifth chapter, "_Such is the completely miserable
bondage of the soul in conceiving of the signs in place of the
things signified, and never lifting up the eye of the understanding
above the corporeal creature to breathe eternal light_." Item,
in the ninth chapter.--"_The believer knows by experience, and
understands_, [agnoscit] _to what the mystery of baptism, and the
celebration of the body and blood of the Lord, may be referred, so
that the soul can offer religious worship, not in the bondage of the
flesh, but rather in the liberty of the spirit. So to follow the
literal sense, and in suchwise to conceive of the signs instead of
the things sealed or signified by them, is a slavish weakness; that
mere symbols should be so unprofitably interpreted, is the result
of vague error_." I do not heap up quotations, because these will
be quite enough for your purpose. In conclusion, I beseech our good
Lord that he would be pleased to make you feel in every way the
worth of his protection of his own, to fill you with his Holy Spirit
who gives you prudence and virtue, and brings you peace, joy, and
contentment; and may the name of our Lord Jesus be glorified by you
to the edification of his Church!
[_Fr._--Printed in _Histoire des Martyrs_, lib. iv. p. 225.]