high officials of the kingdom in the great hall of the bishop’s palace.
With a sorrowful countenance he appeared before them, and in words of
moving eloquence bewailed “the crime, the blasphemy, the day of sorrow and
disgrace,” that had come upon the nation. And he called upon every loyal
subject to aid in the extirpation of the pestilent heresy that threatened
France with ruin. “As true, Messieurs, as I am your king,” he said, “if I
knew one of my own limbs spotted or infected with this detestable
rottenness, I would give it you to cut off.... And further, if I saw one
of my children defiled by it, I would not spare him.... I would deliver
him up myself, and would sacrifice him to God.” Tears choked his
utterance, and the whole assembly wept, with one accord exclaiming, “We
will live and die for the Catholic religion!”(340)
Terrible had become the darkness of the nation that had rejected the light
of truth. “The grace that bringeth salvation” had appeared; but France,
after beholding its power and holiness, after thousands had been drawn by
its divine beauty, after cities and hamlets had been illuminated by its
radiance, had turned away, choosing darkness rather than light. They had
put from them the heavenly gift, when it was offered them. They had called
evil good, and good evil, till they had fallen victims to their wilful
self-deception. Now, though they might actually believe that they were
doing God service in persecuting His people, yet their sincerity did not
render them guiltless. The light that would have saved them from
deception, from staining their souls with blood-guiltiness, they had
wilfully rejected.
A solemn oath to extirpate heresy was taken in the great cathedral where,
nearly three centuries later, the “Goddess of Reason” was to be enthroned
by a nation that had forgotten the living God. Again the procession
formed, and the representatives of France set out to begin the work which
they had sworn to do. “At short distances scaffolds had been erected, on
which certain Protestant Christians were to be burned alive, and it was
arranged that the fagots should be lighted at the moment the king
approached, and that the procession should halt to witness the
execution.”(341) The details of the tortures endured by these witnesses
for Christ are too harrowing for recital; but there was no wavering on the
part of the victims. On being urged to recant, one answered: “I only
believe in what the prophets and the apostles formerly preached, and what
all the company of saints believed. My faith has a confidence in God which
will resist all the powers of hell.”(342)
Again and again the procession halted at the places of torture. Upon
reaching their starting-point at the royal palace, the crowd dispersed,
and the king and the prelates withdrew, well satisfied with the day’s
proceedings, and congratulating themselves that the work now begun would
be continued to the complete destruction of heresy.
The gospel of peace which France had rejected was to be only too surely
rooted out, and terrible would be the results. On the 21st of January,
1793, two hundred and fifty-eight years from the very day that fully
committed France to the persecution of the Reformers, another procession,
with a far different purpose, passed through the streets of Paris. “Again
the king was the chief figure; again there were tumult and shouting; again
there was heard the cry for more victims; again there were black
scaffolds; and again the scenes of the day were closed by horrid
executions; Louis XVI., struggling hand to hand with his jailers and
executioners, was dragged forward to the block, and there held down by
main force till the axe had fallen, and his dissevered head rolled on the
scaffold.”(343) Nor was the king the only victim; near the same spot two
thousand and eight hundred human beings perished by the guillotine during
the bloody days of the Reign of Terror.
The Reformation had presented to the world an open Bible, unsealing the
precepts of the law of God, and urging its claims upon the consciences of
the people. Infinite Love had unfolded to men the statutes and principles
of heaven. God had said, “Keep therefore and do them; for this is your
wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall
hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and
understanding people.”(344) When France rejected the gift of heaven, she
sowed the seeds of anarchy and ruin; and the inevitable outworking of
cause and effect resulted in the Revolution and the Reign of Terror.
Long before the persecution excited by the placards, the bold and ardent
Farel had been forced to flee from the land of his birth. He repaired to
Switzerland, and by his labors, seconding the work of Zwingle, he helped
to turn the scale in favor of the Reformation. His later years were to be
spent here, yet he continued to exert a decided influence upon the reform
in France. During the first years of his exile, his efforts were
especially directed to spreading the gospel in his native country. He
spent considerable time in preaching among his countrymen near the
frontier, where with tireless vigilance he watched the conflict, and aided
by his words of encouragement and counsel. With the assistance of other
exiles, the writings of the German Reformers were translated into the
French language, and together with the French Bible, were printed in large
quantities. By colporteurs, these works were sold extensively in France.
They were furnished to the colporteurs at a low price, and thus the
profits of the work enabled them to continue it.
Farel entered upon his work in Switzerland in the humble guise of a
schoolmaster. Repairing to a secluded parish, he devoted himself to the
instruction of children. Besides the usual branches of learning, he
cautiously introduced the truths of the Bible, hoping through the children
to reach their parents. There were some who believed, but the priests came
forward to stop the work, and the superstitious country people were roused
to oppose it. “That cannot be the gospel of Christ,” urged the priests,
“seeing the preaching of it does not bring peace, but war.”(345) Like the
first disciples, when persecuted in one city he fled to another. From
village to village, from city to city, he went, traveling on foot,
enduring hunger, cold, and weariness, and everywhere in peril of his life.
He preached in the market-places, in the churches, sometimes in the
pulpits of the cathedrals. Sometimes he found the church empty of hearers;
at times his preaching was interrupted by shouts and jeers; again he was
pulled violently out of the pulpit. More than once he was set upon by the
rabble, and beaten almost to death. Yet he pressed forward. Though often
repulsed, with unwearying persistence he returned to the attack; and one
after another, he saw towns and cities which had been strongholds of
popery, opening their gates to the gospel. The little parish where he had
first labored, soon accepted the reformed faith. The cities of Morat and
Neuchâtel also renounced the Romish rites, and removed the idolatrous
images from their churches.
Farel had long desired to plant the Protestant standard in Geneva. If this
city could be won, it would be a center for the Reformation in France, in
Switzerland, and in Italy. With this object before him, he had continued
his labors until many of the surrounding towns and hamlets had been
gained. Then with a single companion he entered Geneva. But only two
sermons was he permitted to preach. The priests, having vainly endeavored
to secure his condemnation by the civil authorities, summoned him before
an ecclesiastical council, to which they came with arms concealed under
their robes, determined to take his life. Outside the hall, a furious mob,
with clubs and swords, was gathered to make sure of his death if he should
succeed in escaping the council. The presence of magistrates and an armed
force, however, saved him. Early next morning he was conducted, with his
companion, across the lake to a place of safety. Thus ended his first
effort to evangelize Geneva.
For the next trial a lowlier instrument was chosen,—a young man, so humble
in appearance that he was coldly treated even by the professed friends of
reform. But what could such a one do where Farel had been rejected? How
could one of little courage and experience withstand the tempest before
which the strongest and bravest had been forced to flee? “Not by might,
nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.”(346) “God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”
“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God
is stronger than men.”(347)
Froment began his work as a schoolmaster. The truths which he taught the
children at school, they repeated at their homes. Soon the parents came to
hear the Bible explained, until the schoolroom was filled with attentive
listeners. New Testaments and tracts were freely distributed, and they
reached many who dared not come openly to listen to the new doctrines.
After a time this laborer also was forced to flee; but the truths he
taught had taken hold upon the minds of the people. The Reformation had
been planted, and it continued to strengthen and extend. The preachers
returned, and through their labors the Protestant worship was finally
established in Geneva.
The city had already declared for the Reformation, when Calvin, after
various wanderings and vicissitudes, entered its gates. Returning from a
last visit to his birthplace, he was on his way to Basel, when, finding
the direct road occupied by the armies of Charles V., he was forced to
take the circuitous route by Geneva.
In this visit, Farel recognized the hand of God. Though Geneva had
accepted the reformed faith, yet a great work remained to be accomplished
here. It is not as communities but as individuals that men are converted
to God; the work of regeneration must be wrought in the heart and
conscience by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by the decrees of
councils. While the people of Geneva had cast off the authority of Rome,
they were not so ready to renounce the vices that had flourished under her
rule. To establish here the pure principles of the gospel, and to prepare
this people to fill worthily the position to which Providence seemed
calling them, was no light task.
Farel was confident that he had found in Calvin one whom he could unite
with himself in this work. In the name of God he solemnly adjured the
young evangelist to remain and labor here. Calvin drew back in alarm.
Timid and peace-loving, he shrank from contact with the bold, independent,
and even violent spirit of the Genevese. The feebleness of his health,
together with his studious habits, led him to seek retirement. Believing
that by his pen he could best serve the cause of reform, he desired to
find a quiet retreat for study, and there, through the press, instruct and
build up the churches. But Farel’s solemn admonition came to him as a call
from heaven, and he dared not refuse. It seemed to him, he said, “that the
hand of God was stretched down from heaven, that it lay hold of him, and
fixed him irrevocably to the place he was so impatient to leave.”(348)
At this time great perils surrounded the Protestant cause. The anathemas
of the pope thundered against Geneva, and mighty nations threatened it
with destruction. How was this little city to resist the powerful
hierarchy that had so often forced kings and emperors to submission? How
could it stand against the armies of the world’s great conquerors?
Throughout Christendom, Protestantism was menaced by formidable foes. The
first triumphs of the Reformation past, Rome summoned new forces, hoping
to accomplish its destruction. At this time, the order of the Jesuits was
created, the most cruel, unscrupulous, and powerful of all the champions
of popery. Cut off from earthly ties and human interests, dead to the
claims of natural affection, reason and conscience wholly silenced, they
knew no rule, no tie, but that of their order, and no duty but to extend
its power.(349) The gospel of Christ had enabled its adherents to meet
danger and endure suffering, undismayed by cold, hunger, toil, and
poverty, to uphold the banner of truth in face of the rack, the dungeon,
and the stake. To combat these forces, Jesuitism inspired its followers
with a fanaticism that enabled them to endure like dangers, and to oppose
to the power of truth all the weapons of deception. There was no crime too
great for them to commit, no deception too base for them to practise, no
disguise too difficult for them to assume. Vowed to perpetual poverty and
humility, it was their studied aim to secure wealth and power, to be
devoted to the overthrow of Protestantism, and the reestablishment of the
papal supremacy.
When appearing as members of their order, they wore a garb of sanctity,
visiting prisons and hospitals, ministering to the sick and the poor,
professing to have renounced the world, and bearing the sacred name of
Jesus, who went about doing good. But under this blameless exterior the
most criminal and deadly purposes were often concealed. It was a
fundamental principle of the order that the end justifies the means. By
this code, lying, theft, perjury, assassination, were not only pardonable
but commendable, when they served the interests of the church. Under
various disguises the Jesuits worked their way into offices of state,
climbing up to be the counselors of kings, and shaping the policy of
nations. They became servants, to act as spies upon their masters. They
established colleges for the sons of princes and nobles, and schools for
the common people; and the children of Protestant parents were drawn into
an observance of popish rites. All the outward pomp and display of the
Romish worship was brought to bear to confuse the mind, and dazzle and
captivate the imagination; and thus the liberty for which the fathers had
toiled and bled was betrayed by the sons. The Jesuits rapidly spread
themselves over Europe, and wherever they went, there followed a revival
of popery.
To give them greater power, a bull was issued re-establishing the
Inquisition.(350) Notwithstanding the general abhorrence with which it was
regarded, even in Catholic countries, this terrible tribunal was again set
up by popish rulers, and atrocities too terrible to bear the light of day
were repeated in its secret dungeons. In many countries, thousands upon
thousands of the very flower of the nation, the purest and noblest, the
most intellectual and highly educated, pious and devoted pastors,
industrious and patriotic citizens, brilliant scholars, talented artists,
skilful artisans, were slain, or forced to flee to other lands.
Such were the means which Rome had invoked to quench the light of the
Reformation, to withdraw from men the Bible, and to restore the ignorance
and superstition of the Dark Ages. But under God’s blessing and the labors
of those noble men whom He had raised up to succeed Luther, Protestantism
was not overthrown. Not to the favor or arms of princes was it to owe its
strength. The smallest countries, the humblest and least powerful nations,
became its strongholds. It was little Geneva in the midst of mighty foes
plotting her destruction; it was Holland on her sand-banks by the northern
sea, wrestling against the tyranny of Spain, then the greatest and most
opulent of kingdoms; it was bleak, sterile Sweden, that gained victories
for the Reformation.
For nearly thirty years, Calvin labored at Geneva; first to establish
there a church adhering to the morality of the Bible, and then for the
advancement of the Reformation throughout Europe. His course as a public
leader was not faultless, nor were his doctrines free from error. But he
was instrumental in promulgating truths that were of special importance in
his time, in maintaining the principles of Protestantism against the
fast-returning tide of popery, and in promoting in the reformed churches
simplicity and purity of life, in place of the pride and corruption
fostered under the Romish teaching.
From Geneva, publications and teachers went out to spread the reformed
doctrines. To this point the persecuted of all lands looked for
instruction, counsel, and encouragement. The city of Calvin became a
refuge for the hunted Reformers of all Western Europe. Fleeing from the
awful tempests that continued for centuries, the fugitives came to the
gates of Geneva. Starving, wounded, bereft of home and kindred, they were
warmly welcomed and tenderly cared for; and finding a home here, they
blessed the city of their adoption by their skill, their learning, and
their piety. Many who sought here a refuge returned to their own countries
to resist the tyranny of Rome. John Knox, the brave Scotch Reformer, not a
few of the English Puritans, the Protestants of Holland and of Spain, and
the Huguenots of France, carried from Geneva the torch of truth to lighten
the darkness of their native lands.
13. THE NETHERLANDS AND SCANDINAVIA.
[Illustration: Chapter header.]
In the Netherlands the papal tyranny very early called forth resolute
protest. Seven hundred years before Luther’s time, the Roman pontiff was
thus fearlessly impeached by two bishops, who, having been sent on an
embassy to Rome, had learned the true character of the “holy see:” God
“has made His queen and spouse, the church, a noble and everlasting
provision for her family, with a dowry that is neither fading nor
corruptible, and given her an eternal crown and scepter; ... all which
benefits you like a thief intercept. You set up yourself in the temple as
God; instead of pastor, you are become a wolf to the sheep; ... you would
make us believe you are a supreme bishop, but you rather behave like a
tyrant.... Whereas you ought to be a servant of servants, as you call
yourself, you endeavor to become a lord of lords.... You bring the
commands of God into contempt.... The Holy Ghost is the builder of all
churches as far as the earth extends.... The city of our God, of which we
are the citizens, reaches to all the regions of the heavens; and it is
greater than the city, by the holy prophets named Babylon, which pretends
to be divine, wins herself to heaven, and brags that her wisdom is
immortal; and finally, though without reason, that she never did err, nor
ever can.”(351)
Others arose from century to century to echo this protest. And those early
teachers, who, traversing different lands and known by various names, bore
the character of the Vaudois missionaries, and spread everywhere the
knowledge of the gospel, penetrated to the Netherlands. Their doctrines
spread rapidly. The Waldensian Bible they translated in verse into the
Dutch language. They declared “that there was great advantage in it; no
jests, no fables, no trifles, no deceits, but the words of truth; that
indeed there was here and there a hard crust, but that the marrow and
sweetness of what was good and holy might be easily discovered in
it.”(352) Thus wrote the friends of the ancient faith, in the twelfth
century.
Now began the Romish persecutions; but in the midst of fagots and torture
the believers continued to multiply, steadfastly declaring that the Bible
is the only infallible authority in religion, and that “no man should be
coerced to believe, but should be won by preaching.”(353)
The teachings of Luther found a congenial soil in the Netherlands, and
earnest and faithful men arose to preach the gospel. From one of the
provinces of Holland came Menno Simons. Educated a Roman Catholic, and
ordained to the priesthood, he was wholly ignorant of the Bible, and he
would not read it, for fear of being beguiled into heresy. When a doubt
concerning the doctrine of transubstantiation forced itself upon him, he
regarded it as a temptation from Satan, and by prayer and confession
sought to free himself from it; but in vain. By mingling in scenes of
dissipation he endeavored to silence the accusing voice of conscience; but
without avail. After a time he was led to the study of the New Testament,
and this, with Luther’s writings, caused him to accept the reformed faith.
He soon after witnessed in a neighboring village the beheading of a man
who was put to death for having been rebaptized. This led him to study the
Bible in regard to infant baptism. He could find no evidence for it in the
Scriptures, but saw that repentance and faith are everywhere required as
the condition of receiving baptism.
Menno withdrew from the Roman Church, and devoted his life to teaching the
truths which he had received. In both Germany and the Netherlands a class
of fanatics had risen, advocating absurd and seditious doctrines,
outraging order and decency, and proceeding to violence and insurrection.
Menno saw the horrible results to which these movements would inevitably
lead, and he strenuously opposed the erroneous teachings and wild schemes
of the fanatics. There were many, however, who had been misled by these
fanatics, but who had renounced their pernicious doctrines; and there were
still remaining many descendants of the ancient Christians, the fruits of
the Waldensian teaching. Among these classes Menno labored with great zeal
and success.
For twenty-five years he traveled, with his wife and children, enduring
great hardships and privations, and frequently in peril of his life. He
traversed the Netherlands and northern Germany, laboring chiefly among the
humbler classes, but exerting a wide-spread influence. Naturally eloquent,
though possessing a limited education, he was a man of unwavering
integrity, of humble spirit and gentle manners, and of sincere and earnest
piety, exemplifying in his own life the precepts which he taught, and he
commanded the confidence of the people. His followers were scattered and
oppressed. They suffered greatly from being confounded with the fanatical
Munsterites. Yet great numbers were converted under his labors.
Nowhere were the reformed doctrines more generally received than in the
Netherlands. In few countries did their adherents endure more terrible
persecution. In Germany Charles V. had banned the Reformation, and he
would gladly have brought all its adherents to the stake; but the princes
stood up as a barrier against his tyranny. In the Netherlands his power
was greater, and persecuting edicts followed each other in quick
succession. To read the Bible, to hear or preach it, or even to speak
concerning it, was to incur the penalty of death by the stake. To pray to
God in secret, to refrain from bowing to an image, or to sing a psalm, was
also punishable with death. Even those who should abjure their errors,
were condemned, if men, to die by the sword; if women, to be buried alive.
Thousands perished under the reign of Charles and of Philip II.
At one time a whole family was brought before the inquisitors, charged
with remaining away from mass, and worshiping at home. On his examination
as to their practices in secret, the youngest son answered, “We fall on
our knees, and pray that God may enlighten our minds and pardon our sins;
we pray for our sovereign, that his reign may be prosperous and his life
happy; we pray for our magistrates, that God may preserve them.”(354) Some
of the judges were deeply moved, yet the father and one of his sons were
condemned to the stake.
The rage of the persecutors was equaled by the faith of the martyrs. Not
only men but delicate women and young maidens displayed unflinching
courage. “Wives would take their stand by their husband’s stake, and while
he was enduring the fire they would whisper words of solace, or sing
psalms to cheer him.” “Young maidens would lie down in their living grave
as if they were entering into their chamber of nightly sleep; or go forth
to the scaffold and the fire, dressed in their best apparel, as if they
were going to their marriage.”(355)
As in the days when paganism sought to destroy the gospel, the blood of
the Christians was seed.(356) Persecution served to increase the number of
witnesses for the truth. Year after year the monarch, stung to madness by
the unconquerable determination of the people, urged on his cruel work;
but in vain. Under the noble William of Orange, the Revolution at last
brought to Holland freedom to worship God.