PLOT OF THE WOMEN AGAINST REFORM; FAREL'S PREACHING.
(1531.)
The Reformation brought great benefits to women. The divine Word which
it placed in their hands, and which it desired to see in their hearts,
would free them from the dominion of the priest to put them under that
of the Saviour; give them that meek and peaceful spirit which (as Calvin
says) becomes their sex; and substitute for a religion of external
practices an inner, holy, and useful life. However, the women, attached
to their priests and ceremonies, and who are easily aroused, were often
opposed to the Reform, of which we shall have instances.
Hollard's mother was not of this number. Strongly attached to her son,
she gave way to her maternal sorrow. Her son a prisoner, her son without
a protector, her son exposed to the vengeance of the exasperated
Roman-catholics—thoughts like these caused her the deepest anxiety. She
could think of nothing but saving him, ready to incur any danger, and to
brave even the anger of the enemies of the gospel. The bailiff of Berne,
she said to herself, alone can save Hollard. He lives at Echallens, in a
castle, surrounded with his officers; he is a haughty Bernese, a cold
diplomatist perhaps.... It matters not; the poor woman will go and
implore his help. Romain will not abandon her; if there are any
difficulties, any dangers, he will be near her; he will protect the
mother and deliver the son. Madame Hollard and the schoolmaster set off
together for Echallens, and presenting themselves at the castle, inform
the bailiff of Diesbach of the monk's insulting address and its
consequences.... O happiness! the Bernese magistrate is moved, grows
angry, and departs immediately. The lord-bailiff felt that the friar's
insults were the cause of all the disorder; that by denouncing the
married priests and monks as apostates and villains, he had attacked the
gospel and the Reformation, recognised by My Lords of Berne; and that
the friar was the person to be blamed.
[Sidenote: FRIAR MICHAEL ARRESTED.]
Arriving the same day about four o'clock, Diesbach would not go to the
guildhall or the castellan's; but sitting down in the open air near the
old castle,[384] he sent his officers to fetch Friar Juliani. The
sergeants carefully searched the convent and several houses without
finding the monk, who was hiding in the house of a woman named 'Frances
Pugin, instructress of girls in all virtue and learning.' Being informed
of the search, he took courage, left the house, and went straight to the
bailiff, who was still seated in front of the castle, waiting the result
of his enquiries. Friar Michael saluted him respectfully; but the lord
of Diesbach, rising up, caught him by the hand and said: 'I arrest you
in the name of My Lords,' and then, taking him to the prison, 'drew
Hollard out of his hole and put the said friar in his place.' Such were
the energetic proceedings of Berne.
[Sidenote: ROMAIN IS ILL-TREATED.]
Mark Romain, as pleased at having rescued his friend, 'as if he had
gained a thousand crowns, and thinking he had achieved a master-piece,'
says a contemporary, was going quietly home. Meanwhile the people,
alarmed at the arrival of the bailiff and the imprisonment of the monk,
had assembled in the market-place, and spoke of flinging the
schoolmaster into the river to punish him for having gone to fetch the
Sieur de Diesbach. Unfortunately Mark Romain came in sight just at this
moment. The townspeople, 'seeing him come joyfully along,' pointed him
out to one another. 'There he is,' they said, and began to cry: 'Master,
come here!' Romain, observing the tumult, passed suddenly from joy to
fear and took to flight, all following in pursuit. They gained upon him:
he looked from side to side to see if some door would not open to
receive him, but all remained closed. Arriving in front of the church,
he rushed into it; but had hardly set his feet inside, when he stopped
in astonishment. The women who had desired to tear Hollard to pieces
were in the church, as well as some men, on account of the _Salve
Regina_ which was said daily at five in the afternoon. Kneeling before
the altar, with clasped hands and eyes turned to the ground, they were
invoking the _Queen of heaven_: 'Hail, queen of mercy; we send up our
groans to thee! O thou who art our advocate, save us!' At the moment
when Romain entered, the women turned their heads and caught sight of
him; being suddenly changed into furies, they rushed upon him, as they
had done before upon Hollard, 'caught him by the hair, threw him on the
ground, and beat him.' The women were the champions of Catholicism in
Orbe. The grand banneret looked on quietly at this execution. 'I saw the
whole affair,' he said, 'and I did not think the schoolmaster would ever
get out alive.' Pierrefleur took care not to go to his help, and the
blows continued to fall on poor Romain, until one of his friends
arrived. 'I am certain,' says the banneret, who had seen all this
without being moved, 'that had it not been for the assistance he
received from this Lutheran, he would never have gone out of the place
until he was dead.'[385] We read in Scripture of people who ceased not
to beat St. Paul; Romain, who experienced 'this riotous and cruel rage,'
was afterwards a minister of the gospel. He was now going through his
apprenticeship.
A mob had collected round the castle in which Friar Michael was
confined, and angry voices were heard loudly demanding his liberty. At
this moment the bailiff of Diesbach came out to return to his place of
residence, having Hollard by his side, whom he was going to restore to
his mother. When he saw the crowd he was much astonished, for 'all were
crying out and demanding their good father.' 'Why have you arrested
Friar Michael?' asked some. 'Why have you delivered Christopher?' asked
others. 'By order of My Lords of Berne,' answered the imperturbable
bailiff; and then added, pointing to the lofty walls of the castle, 'If
you can set him at liberty, you may take him ... but I advise you
not.'[386] 'We will be bail for our good father, body for body, goods
for goods,' exclaimed the burgesses; but the bailiff kept on his way
without answering them.
The Sieur of Diesbach had hardly arrived at the great square, when he
perceived the ladies and other women of the city waiting for him, their
hearts full of sorrow and anguish. They all fell on their knees 'with
many tears,' and stretching their hands towards him exclaimed: 'Mercy
for the good father! set him at liberty!' These cries softened the
Bernese, he stopped and could hardly speak for emotion. He made them
understand, however, that it was not in his power to liberate Juliani,
and then returned home, for 'the hour was late.'[387]
[Sidenote: FAREL ARRIVES AT ORBE.]
The principal catholics now assembled to consider what was to be done. A
priest put in prison in Orbe, for a strictly Romish sermon.... What a
scandal! They resolved to appeal from the heretical Bernese bailiff to
the Friburgers who were good catholics. The grand banneret volunteered
for this important mission, and next day Noble P. de Pierrefleur and
Francis Vuerney set out for Friburg, where they related everything to
the council. The lords and princes of that city were much 'concerned and
vexed,' and a deputation composed of Bernese and Friburgers received
instructions to arrange the difference. But this measure, far from
diminishing the struggle, was destined to increase it. As the deputation
passed through Avenches, a Roman city older than the Cæsars, they fell
in with Farel, who for more than a month had been preaching the gospel
there, amid its ruined aqueducts and amphitheatres, and had met with
nothing but lukewarmness. Without hesitation the evangelist left
Avenches, and departing with the Bernese arrived at the banks of the
Orbe, whither the noise of battle attracted him. No ruins were to be
seen there: but seven churches and twenty-six altars testified to the
ancient splendour and Romish fervour of the city.
It was the 2nd of April, Palm-Sunday. Mass had been celebrated, the
various offices had been said, even to vespers. Farel, who had stayed
quietly in doors, observing that the service was over, left his inn
'with presumptuous boldness.' His friends followed him, idlers flocked
round him, the devout ran after, and a crowd of men, women, and children
soon filled the church with a great noise. Then 'without asking leave of
any one, Farel went into the pulpit to preach.' But he had scarcely
opened his mouth, when everybody, 'men, women, and children, hissed,
howled, and stamped with all sorts of exclamations to disconcert him.
Dog, they cried; lubber, heretic, devil, and other insults: it was a
glorious noise.' 'You really could not have heard God's thunder,' said
Pierrefleur. Farel, who was accustomed to tumult, as a soldier to the
whistling of the bullets, continued his address. Anger got the better of
some of them. 'Seeing that he would not desist, they grew riotous,
surrounded the pulpit, pulled him out of it, and would even have
proceeded to blows.' The confusion was at its height, when the bailiff,
'fearing that worse would follow,' rushed into the midst of the crowd,
took the reformer by the arm, and escorted him to his lodging.
The mixed commission was empowered to restore peace to this agitated
city; but as for Farel he had but one idea: _Woe to me if I do not
preach the gospel_. If he cannot preach it in the church, he will do so
in the open air. On the following day (Monday) he left the house of his
entertainer at six in the morning, and proceeding towards the great
square, began to preach. There was nobody present; it mattered not; he
thought that his powerful voice would soon collect a good assembly. But
satisfied with the victory of the evening before, the inhabitants of
Orbe had said to themselves that they would leave the preacher alone: he
had not a single hearer.[388] That was not, however, the only reason: a
plot was concerting against Farel—a women's plot naturally; for the men
in general were cold in comparison with the other sex.
There was a noble dame at Orbe, a native of Friburg, Elizabeth, wife of
Hugonin, lord of Arnex, an honest and devout woman, but enthusiastic,
violent, and fanatical. Elizabeth, being persuaded that the death of the
reformer would be a very meritorious work, had assembled at her house
some other bigoted women, had addressed them, and worked upon them, so
that they had agreed to beat the reformer and even kill him: they only
waited for an opportunity. The same day at four in the afternoon a city
council was held at which the deputies of Berne and Friburg and even
Farel also were present. When the council was over, the reformer came
out: it was the moment that Elizabeth and her accomplices, informed of
the circumstance, had selected to carry out their plot. A gentleman,
Pierre de Glairesse, knowing the danger the evangelist ran, quitted the
council after him, and begged permission to accompany him. Meanwhile the
women who had left their houses were waiting for Farel in the middle of
a street through which he must necessarily pass. Approaching them
without any mistrust, they fell upon him unawares, 'and took him by the
cloak _so gently_,' says the chronicler ironically, 'that they made him
stagger and fall.' They then attempted to ill-treat him and beat him;
but Pierre de Glairesse rushing in between them, took him out of their
hands, and said, bowing to them very politely: 'Your pardon, ladies; at
present he is under my charge.' They all let go of him, and Glairesse
conducted him to the inn where My Lords of Berne awaited him.
[Sidenote: FRIAR MICHAEL EXAMINED.]
While Elizabeth was trying to kill the reformer, her husband, William of
Arnex, as bigoted as herself, was pleading the cause of the monk. The
mediators had ordered that Friar Michael should be put on his trial. He
was taken to the castle in agitation and alarm, and the lords of Berne,
bringing a criminal charge against him, said: 'You asserted that the
poor in spirit are the monks.'
_Friar Michael_: 'I deny it.'
'You said that to resist the pope, the bishops, and other ecclesiastics
is resisting the commandment of God.'
_Friar._ 'I deny saying it in those terms.'
'You said that few follow the new law, except a heap of lascivious
monks.'
_Friar._ 'I deny having said it in that way, and I named nobody.'
'You said that when priests marry, the women they take are not their
wives but their harlots, and that their children are bastards.'
_Friar._ 'I confess it.'
'You said that Mary was the treasure-house of graces.'
_Friar._ 'I did.'
'You said the saints, like St. Anthony, expel and cure certain
diseases.'
_Friar._ 'I did.'
'You said that those who deny that the books of the Maccabees form part
of Holy Scripture, are heretics.'
_Friar._ 'I did.'
'You said that those who have adopted the new law have no good in them,
and deny the articles of faith.'
_Friar._ 'I did not.'[389]
This mixture of denials and confessions disarmed the judges. They
listened to the solicitations of D'Arnex and set Juliani at liberty. The
Bernese, however, bound him to preach in future nothing but the Word of
God. 'Most honoured lords,' exclaimed the poor friar, 'I have never
preached anything that is not found in the holy gospel, in the epistles
of St. Paul, or in some other part of Holy Scripture.' Friar Michael,
confounded at not gaining a triumph as striking as that of his patron
with the brilliant helmet, and fearing lest he should be sent back to
prison, thought only of saving himself. He entered the convent for a
short time, and then fled into Burgundy,[390] The deputies returned home
and Farel remained.
Shortly after Easter there came a mandate from Berne ordering that
whenever Farel desired to preach, he should be given a hearing, support,
and favour. As soon as the mandate had been read, the people, without
waiting for the opinion of the Council, exclaimed, 'Let him go about his
business, we do not want him or his preaching.' The lords of Berne
answered that Farel was to be free to speak, but that no inhabitant was
constrained to hear him. The evangelist gave notice that he would preach
on the Saturday after Quasimodo, at one o'clock, when he would expose
Juliani's errors.
[Sidenote: FAREL'S STRANGE CONGREGATION.]
The catholics, not content with the permission given them to keep away,
determined to organise a reception for Farel that should disgust him for
ever with preaching. As soon as the minister entered the church the
strangest of congregations met his eyes: all the brats (_marmaille_) of
the place were assembled; lying in front of the pulpit and all round it,
the children pretended to be asleep, snoring and laughing in their
sleeves. Farel observing three persons who appeared to be serious, went
into the pulpit and said, pointing to the little ragamuffins: 'How many
weapons Satan has provided to hinder our cause! Never mind, we must
surmount every obstacle.' Being determined to refute Friar Michael, he
began his discourse; but on a sudden the children started to their feet,
as sharp-shooters lying flat behind the bushes start up at the approach
of the enemy, and salute him with their fire. The young scamps exerted
their lungs, howling and shouting with all their might, and at last
quitted the church with a horrible uproar. 'Nobody was left but the
minister, quite amazed. And this was the first sermon preached in the
town of Orbe,' says the grand banneret maliciously.[391]
The next day, Sunday, there was a great procession. Priests, monks, and
all the parish, chanting as loud as they could, proceeded according to
custom to St. George's, outside the town. Farel profited by the
departure of the enemy to seize upon the place, and the last parishioner
had hardly crossed the threshold of the church, when he entered it,
followed by his friends, went up into the pulpit, and loudly declared
the truth. Ten evangelicals, Viret, Hollard, Secretan, Romain, and six
of their friends, composed the whole of his congregation. Meanwhile the
procession was on its way back. First appeared the children two and two,
then the exorcist with the holy water and the sprinkler, then came the
priests, magistrates, and people, all singing the litany. The children,
seeing the minister in the pulpit, and remembering the lesson they had
received, rushed into the church, whistling, howling, and shouting as on
the evening before. The priests and people who followed them made
threatening motions, and Farel, understanding that the storm was about
to burst, showed a moderation he did not always possess, came down from
the pulpit and went out.[392]
The clergy exulted: they ascribed Farel's retreat to weakness and fear,
and said openly in the city: 'The minister cannot refute the articles of
faith established by Juliani.' 'Indeed,' answered the Bernese bailiff,
'you have heard the monk and you now complain that you have not heard
the minister.... Very good! you shall hear him. It is the will of the
lords of Berne that every father of a family be required to attend his
sermon under pain of their displeasure.'
[Sidenote: FAREL ON PENANCE.]
They dared not disobey, and the church was thronged. Filled with joy at
the sight of such a congregation, Farel ascended the pulpit: never had
he been clearer, more energetic and more eloquent. He passed in review
all the subjects of which Juliani had treated; at one time attacking the
pardons which the Romish Church sells to credulous souls, at another the
doctrine which assigns the keys of heaven to St. Peter. 'The key of the
kingdom of heaven,' he said, 'is the Word of God—the Holy Gospel.' One
day Farel spoke of the stupid practices imposed upon catholics under the
name of penance. 'The penance which God demands,' he said, 'is a change
of heart, life, and conversation.'[393] Another day he battled with
indulgences: 'The pope's pardons take away _money_,' he said, 'but they
do not take away _sin_. Let every christian be aware that nobody can
escape the anger of God, except through Jesus.'[394] He thundered
against auricular confession: 'Confession in the priest's ears which the
pope commands,' he said, 'helps him to learn the secrets of kings and
aids him in catching countries and kingdoms. But how many souls have
been cast into hell by it! how many virgins corrupted! how many widows
devoured! how many orphans ruined! how many princes poisoned! how many
countries wasted! how many large establishments of men and women given
up to debauchery.... O Heaven, unveil these accursed horrors! O Earth,
cry out! Creatures of God, weep; and do thou, O Lord, arise!'[395]
Farel, without possessing the iconoclastic ardour which Hollard
displayed ere long, was indignant at the worship paid to the images of
the saints, and strove against them with the arms of the Word. 'The
people,' he said, 'set candles before the saints who are out of this
world and have nothing to do with them.... While if those saints were
alive and had need of a light to read the Gospel by, instead of giving
them candles, you would tear out their eyes!' ... Then scandalised at
the disorderly living of the world and the Church, the christian orator
exclaimed: 'Farces full of scoffing, filth, and ribaldry: obscene and
idle songs, books full of vanity, lewdness, falsehood and blasphemy,
wicked and illicit conversations ... all this is suffered openly.... But
the New Testament which contains the doctrine and passion of Christ is
forbidden, as if it were the Koran of Mahomet, or a book of witchcraft
and enchantment.... O Sun, canst thou pour thy light on such countries?
O Earth, canst thou give thy fruits to such people? And thou, O Lord
God, is thy vengeance so slow against such a great outrage? Arise, O
Lord, and let the trumpet of thy holy Gospel be heard unto the ends of
the earth.'[396]
Although the catholics were indignant, and not without reason, at the
order from Berne, which obliged them to attend the sermons opposed to
their faith, the reformer preached without difficulty the first and
second day; but on the third, the alarmed priests harangued their flocks
and thundered from their pulpits against the heretical discourses; and
from that time Farel counted few hearers in the church besides the
friends of the Gospel. The bailiff had the good sense not to observe
this disobedience.
[Sidenote: FAREL'S CARE FOR THE MINISTRY.]
The surrounding districts compensated Farel for the contempt of Orbe.
His reputation having spread into the neighbouring villages, the people
eagerly desired to hear him. Receiving message after message, and
touched at the sight of these worthy peasants knocking at his door, he
wrote to Zwingle: 'Oh! how great is the harvest! No one can describe the
ardour the people feel for the Gospel, and the tears I shed when I see
the small number of reapers.'[397] Several of the evangelicals of Orbe
asked to be sent out to preach, but Farel, thinking them not ripe
enough, refused. There were some who took offence at this, but it did
not move Farel. 'It is better to offend them,' he said, 'than to offend
God.'
Saint Paul said: _Lay hands suddenly on no man_. Farel and the other
reformers desired that the minister should honour his ministry. He
required above all things a converted heart, but that was not enough. It
is a bad sign when the Church admits into the number of those who are to
point out the gate of salvation, either men who have not passed through
it or who have not the gift of the Word, or are deficient in wisdom. But
if the leaders of the Church are faithful, God will send them true
ministers.
[384] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, p. 17.
[385] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, p. 19.
[386] Ibid. p. 20.
[387] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, p. 19.
[388] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, pp. 21, 22.
[389] 'Negat dixisse.'—_Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, pp. 24-28.
[390] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, pp. 21-32.
[391] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, p. 35.
[392] Ibid.
[393] _Sommaire_, &c., par G. Farel, p. 191. We give Farel's exact
expressions on the subjects handled by Juliani, just as they are found
in his writings, without being able to say that they were precisely
those he employed on this occasion.
[394] Ibid. p. 125.
[395] Farel, _Sommaire_, pp. 96, 191, 210.
[396] Ibid. p. 154.
[397] 'Quanta sit messis, quis populi ardor in Evangelium, paucis nemo
expresserit. Sed paucitatem operariorum deflere cogimur.'—_Farellus
Zuinglio_, Orba, anno 1531. _Ep._ ii. p. 648.