A NEW REFORMER AND AN IMAGE-BREAKER.
(1531.)
In 1511 William Viret, a burgess of Orbe, 'cloth-dresser and tailor,'
had a son born to him whom he named Peter. The boy had grown up in the
midst of the wool-combers, and had watched his father's workmen as they
pressed, or glossed, or fulled the cloths as they came from the hands of
the weavers. But he took no delight in this, for he was not born a
tradesman. It was the inner man that was to be developed in him: he felt
within himself a necessity for seeking God, which impelled him towards
heaven. He sought the society of the best-informed burgesses, and even
had some relations with the nobles;[398] but the first object of his
wishes was God. If he took a walk alone, or with one of his brothers
Anthony and John, along the picturesque banks of the Orbe, through the
charming country bathed by its waters, and even to the foot of the
Jura,[399] he looked around him with delight, but afterwards lifted his
eyes to heaven. 'I was naturally given to religion,' he said, 'of which
however I was then ignorant.... I was preparing myself for heaven,
seeing that it was the way of salvation.'[400] He resolved to devote
himself to the service of the altar, which his father did not oppose,
townspeople and peasantry alike regarding it as an honour to count a
priest among their children. Peter, who had a good understanding and
memory, soon learnt all that was taught in the school at Orbe, and
turned his eyes towards the University of Paris, that great light which
twelve years before had attracted Farel's footsteps. His father, whose
trade had placed him in easy circumstances, consented to send him to
Paris, whither the boy proceeded in 1523, being then a little over
twelve years of age. The same year and about the same time John Calvin
of Noyon, who was two years older than Viret, arrived in the same city
and entered the college of La Marche. Did these two boys, who were one
day to be so closely united, meet then, and did their friendship begin
with their childhood? We have not been able to satisfy ourselves on the
point.
[Sidenote: VIRET GOES TO PARIS.]
Viret distinguished himself at college by his love of study; 'he made
good progress in learning;' and also by his devotion to the practices of
the Roman Church. 'I cannot deny,' he said, 'that I went pretty deep
into that Babylon.'[401] In one of the last visits he made to Paris,
Farel seems to have remarked Viret, whose charming modesty easily won
the heart, and to have helped in freeing the young Swiss from the
darkness in which he still lay. The Gospel penetrated the soul of the
youthful scholar of Orbe almost at the same time as it enlightened the
large understanding of the scholar of Noyon. The mildness of his
character softened the struggles which had been so fierce in Farel and
Calvin. And yet he too had to tread the path of anguish to arrive at
peace. Perceiving a frightful abyss and an eternal night beneath his
feet, he threw himself into the arms of the Deliverer who was calling
him: 'While still at college,' he said, 'God took me out of the
labyrinth of error before I had sunk deeper into that Babylon of
Antichrist.'[402] The time having arrived when he should receive the
tonsure, he felt that he must make up his mind: the struggle was not a
long one; he refused, and was immediately 'set down as belonging to the
Lutheran religion.'[403] Foreseeing what awaited him, he hastily quitted
Paris and France, and 'returned to his father's house.' In after years
he exclaimed: 'I thank God that the mark and sign of the beast were not
set upon my forehead.'[404]
[Sidenote: VIRET'S STRUGGLES.]
Viret found Orbe greatly changed; the contest then going on between the
gospel and popery intimidated him at first. His was one of those
reflective souls which, absorbed by the struggles within, naturally
shrink from those without. Like other reformers, he had a difficulty in
quitting the body of catholicity, but a severe conscience obliged him to
seek truth at any sacrifice. Sometimes the Church of Rome, with all its
errors and abuses, alone struck his imagination, and he would exclaim
with emotion: 'It is the stronghold of superstition, the fortress of
Satan.'[405] Then all of a sudden and before he had time to defend
himself, the old system of catholicism resumed its power over him, and
he found himself in anguish and darkness. He struggled and prayed: the
truth, for a moment hidden, reappeared before his eyes, and he said:
'Rome asserts that antiquity is truth; but what is there older in the
world than lies, rebellion, murder, extortion, impurity, idolatry, and
all kinds of wickedness and abomination?... To follow the doctrine of
Cain and of Sodom is verily to follow an old doctrine.... But virtue,
truth, holiness, innocence, and thou, O God which art the Father of them
all, are older still!'[486]
The priests of Orbe, who were strongly attached to the Romish doctrine,
seeing the cloth-dresser's son often solitary and full of care, began to
grow uneasy about him: they accosted him and spoke of the old doctors,
of the testimony of the saints, of Augustin, Cyprian, Chrysostom, and
Jerome. These testimonies had much weight in Viret's mind. His head was
bewildered, his feet slipped, and he was on the point of falling back
into the gulf, when snatching again at the word of God, he clung to it,
saying: 'No, I will not believe because of Tertullian or Cyprian, or
Origen, or Chrysostom, or Peter Lombard, or Thomas Aquinas, not even
because of Erasmus or Luther.... If I did so, I should be the disciple
of men.... I will believe only Jesus Christ my Shepherd.'[407]
At length the divine Word delivered Viret from the theocratic dominion
of Rome, and he then began to look around him.... Alas! what did he see?
Chains everywhere, prisoners held fast 'in the citadel of idolatry.' He
felt the tenderest affection for the captives 'Since the Lord has
brought me _out_' he said, 'I cannot forget those who are
_within_.'[408] Two of these prisoners were never out of his thoughts:
they were his father and mother. At one time absorbed by the cares of
business, at another mechanically attending divine service, they did not
seek after the one thing needful. The pious son began to pray earnestly
for his parents, to show them increased respect, to read them a few
passages of Holy Scripture, and to speak gently to them of the Saviour.
They felt attracted by his conduct, and the faith he professed took hold
of their hearts. The grateful Viret was able to say: 'I have much
occasion to give thanks to God in that it hath pleased him to make use
of me to bring my father and mother to the knowledge of the Son of
God.... Ah! if he had made my ministry of no other use, I should have
had good cause to bless him.'[409]
As soon as Viret met Farel again at Orbe, he immediately became one of
the evangelist's hearers, and ere long took his father along with him.
The most intimate union sprung up between these men of God. One
completed the other. If Farel was ardent, intrepid, and almost rash,
Viret 'had a wondrously meek temper.'[410] There was in him a grace that
won the heart, and a christian sensibility that was really touching; and
yet, like Farel and Calvin, he was firm in doctrine and morals. Farel,
always eager to send workmen into the harvest, persuaded his friend to
preach not only in the country but in Orbe itself. The young and timid
Viret recoiled from the task Farel proposed to him; but the reformer
pressed him, as others had pressed Luther and Calvin; he believed that
Viret, who belonged to the city, and was loved by everybody, would
receive a favourable welcome. The thought of the divine grace, the
strength of which he knew, decided Viret. 'Let it not be my mouth which
persuades,' he said, 'but the mouth of Jesus Christ; for it is Jesus
Christ who pierces the heart with the fiery arrow of his Spirit.'[411]
[Sidenote: VIRET PREACHES AT ORBE.]
On the 6th May 1531 an unusual crowd, not only of townspeople but of
persons from the neighbourhood, filled the church of Orbe; the son of
one of the most respected of the burgesses, a child of the place, was to
enter the pulpit. He was accused of being rather heretical, but he was
so inoffensive, that nobody would believe it; and besides, many of the
young folks of Orbe, who had sported with him on the banks of the river,
wished to see their old playfellow in the pulpit. The congregation, who
were waiting impatiently, saw the young man appear at last: he was of
small stature and pale complexion, his face thin and long, his eyes
lively, and the whole expression meek and winning;[412] he was only
twenty years old, but appeared to be younger still. He preached: his
sermon was accompanied by so much unction and learning, his language was
so persuasive, his eloquence so searching and penetrating, that even the
most worldly men were attracted by his discourse and hung, as it were,
upon his lips.[413] The proverb 'No man is a prophet in his own country'
was not exemplified in Viret's case. The 6th of May was a great day for
him. All his life through he preserved the recollection of his first
sermons. Thirty years later he said to the nobles and burgesses of Orbe:
'Your church was the first in which God was pleased to make use of my
ministry, when it was still in its youth, and I was very young.'[414]
From that day Viret took his place in that noble army of heralds of the
Word which the Lord was raising among the nations. His part in it was
modest but well marked. The college of reformers, as well as the college
of the apostles, contained the most different characters. As the sap is
everywhere the same in nature, the Spirit of God is everywhere the same
in the Church; but everywhere alike each of them produces different
flowers and different fruits. The ardent Farel was the St. Peter of the
Swiss Reform, the mighty Calvin the St. Paul, and the gentle Viret the
St. John.
[Sidenote: CONVERSION OF ELIZABETH D'ARNEX.]
Farel, Viret, Romain, Hollard, and the other evangelicals waited for the
effects of the preaching at Orbe. They saw clearly 'some slight touches
and pricks, but few persons had been wounded and pierced to the quick,'
and so overwhelmed with the feeling of everlasting death, that they
thought of looking for help solely to the grace of Jesus Christ. All of
a sudden, and a month only after Farel's arrival, the report of an
unexpected conversion filled Orbe with astonishment, and became the
subject of general conversation. It was said—and he who repeated it
could hardly believe it—that Madame Elizabeth, the wife of the lord of
Arnex, the very same who had planned the women's conspiracy and so
severely beaten Farel, was entirely changed; that even her husband, who
had become bail for Juliani, and had set him at liberty, had changed
likewise. The bigots of both sexes could not deny the fact. 'Really,'
they said, 'she has become one of the worst lutherans in the city.' Not
long after, they made a great noise because at All Saints or some feast
of Our Lady, Elizabeth had a large wash or other manual labours at her
house.[415] They shook their heads, shrugged their shoulders, and
smiled. The evangelicals did not imitate them: they thought, to borrow
the language of one of their leaders, that though these iron-hearted
people smiled, it was a forced smile,[416] for they felt as if inwardly
choking.... They knew that God's word is a hammer, and that there is
nothing so hard, so massive, or so hidden in the heart of man that its
power cannot reach.... Had not Paul been a persecutor like Elizabeth and
Hugonin?
Worse still, at least in the opinion of the catholics, happened ere
long. One of the ecclesiastics of the place was George Grivay, surnamed
Calley, an excellent musician who had been appointed precentor. He had
been trained by a fervent catholic mother, and had received a good
education in the church.[417] In order to receive further instruction
his parents had sent him to Lausanne, where he had been made chorister
and had particularly improved in the knowledge of music. On his return
to Orbe the nobles and priests had given him a flattering reception; and
he deserved it, for he enchanted the people by his singing or
electrified them by his discourses. But on the 10th May 1531, the same
month in which Viret delivered his first sermon, Grivat had gone up into
the pulpit and astonished his hearers by preaching the evangelical
doctrine in the clearest manner. This was too much; his father and his
brothers were in despair; nobles and friends who had received him so
well exclaimed in great irritation: 'Have we not given him good wages;
has not the Church fed and taught him? and now he wants to imitate the
cuckoo that eats the mother who reared it.'[418]
[Sidenote: LORD'S SUPPER AT ORBE.]
As these successive conversions gave the evangelicals more courage, they
took an important step. Feeling the necessity of being strengthened in
the faith by the celebration of the Lord's Supper, they asked for it,
and Farel, who was then at Morat, immediately returned to Orbe. On
Whitsunday (28th May) at six in the morning—an hour selected to insure
tranquillity for the act they were about to perform—he announced to a
numerous assembly collected in the church the remission of all sins by
the breaking of Christ's body on the cross; and as soon as the sermon
was ended, eight disciples came forward to break bread. They were
Hugonin of Arnex and his wife, C. Hollard and his aged mother, Cordey
and his wife, William Viret, Peter's father, and George Grivat,
afterwards pastor at Avenches; many of the evangelicals did not think
themselves sufficiently advanced in the faith to take part in this act,
and doubtless Peter Viret was absent. Two of the eight disciples
modestly spread a white cloth over a bench, on which they placed the
bread and wine. Farel sank on his knees and prayed, all following his
prayer in their hearts. When the minister rose up he asked: 'Do you each
forgive one another?'... and the believers answered Yes. Next Farel
broke off a morsel of bread for each, saying he gave it them in memory
of Christ's passion, and after that he handed them the cup. The minister
and these true disciples possessed by faith the real presence of Jesus
in their hearts. They had hardly finished when the exasperated priests
entered the church hastily and sang the mass as loud as they could. The
next day, Whitmonday, there was a fresh scandal: the evangelicals were
at work. 'Ha!' said many indignantly; 'they keep no holiday, _except the
Sunday_!'[419]
If the evangelisation had continued in a peaceful course of christian
edification, the city would in all probability have been entirely gained
over; but the Reformation had its 'enfants terribles.' Calvin said in
vain: 'Those who are wise according to God are modest, peaceable, and
gentle. They do not conceal vices; they endeavour rather to correct
them, but provided it be in peace, that is to say, with so much
moderation that unity remains unbroken. Peaceable and loving
representations ought not to be laid aside, and those who desire to be
physicians must not be executioners.'[420]
A fine stone crucifix in St. Germain's cemetery had been thrown down,
and another, which stood at a cross road near the city, had been
destroyed: but this had been done at night and it was not known by whom.
Ere long the ardent reformers grew bolder, and especially Christopher
Hollard, a true iconoclast of the Reform, who thought more of pulling
down than of building up. One day, as Farel was preaching before the
deputies of Berne and Friburg, Hollard flew at an image of the Virgin
and dashed it to pieces. Another day he threw down the great altar of
the church of Our Lady. This was not enough.
According to Hollard, whose mind was upright, and even pious, but
ardent, extreme, and rather deficient in judgment, the Reformation, that
is to say, the destruction of images and altars, did not go on fast
enough, and he therefore resolved to carry it out on a grand scale. He
took twelve companions with him; and these agents of the judgments of
God (as they thought themselves), going from street to street and from
church to church, 'pulled down all the altars' in the seven churches of
the city; twenty-six heaps of rubbish bore witness to their triumph.
They could say, no doubt, that all worship paid to an image is a relic
of paganism; but their fault was to suppose that catholics ought to
adore God, not according to their catholic conscience, but according to
that of the reformed protestants. The people looked at each other with
alarm, but said nothing. 'I was greatly astonished,' says De
Pierrefleur, 'at the patience of the populace.' 'Sir banneret,' observed
some catholics, 'if we did not feel great loyalty towards our lords of
Berne, the body of Christopher Hollard would not have touched earth;'
that is to say, they would have hanged him. These combatants were pretty
well matched for gentleness. The catholics set up tables in the place of
the altars, upon which they celebrated mass 'rather meanly.'[421]
[Sidenote: ARREST OF THE PRIESTS.]
The intolerance of Christopher Hollard and of one of his friends, named
Tavel, threatened to substitute a new tyranny for the ancient tyranny of
popery. Alas! the protestant clergy have sometimes been known to oppose
the disciples and doctrines of the gospel, just as the Romish clergy
would have done. Intolerance is a vice of human nature which even piety
does not always cure. The priests saying mass at their little tables
offended Hollard and Tavel. Agasse was no longer governor; he had been
removed by the influence of Berne, and Anthony Secretan, one of the
reformed, put in his place. The two fiery Lutherans laid a complaint
before him against all priests as being murderers (of souls); and
according to the custom of the age, surrendered themselves prisoners.
The governor ordered the Roman ecclesiastics to be arrested, which was
no easy matter, for there were some sturdy fellows among them. Three
sergeants having attempted to seize Messire Pierre Bovey in the street,
the stout priest 'dragged them into the passage of a house,' and there
beat them so that they were glad to escape out of his hands. Having thus
defended himself like a lion, he remained free; but it was not so with
Blaise Foret, the curé, who 'went like a sheep straight to prison.' The
officers put him along with the rest, who were 'well treated at bed and
board, with permission to go all over the castle.'[422] Some bold
priests (for they were not all shut up) chanted mass at five o'clock in
the morning, notwithstanding the prohibition. The catholics attended
'armed with pikes, halberds, and clubs; and rang the bells as if the
city were on fire'. Before long the intolerant protestants received a
severe and well merited lesson.
[Sidenote: RELEASE OF THE PRIESTS.]
The grand banneret Pierrefleur, who was a man of the world, well read,
of a cultivated mind, charming simplicity, and profound intelligence,
combined great decision of character with Vaudois good-temper. Being a
catholic from conviction, and knowing that the majority of the
inhabitants were for the Roman faith, and disgusted at seeing the
priests in prison and the faithful compelled to hear mass almost in
secret, he summoned a general council of the people. 'Will you,' he
asked them, 'will you have the mass, and live and die in the holy faith,
like your forefathers? If you do wish it, let every one hold up his
finger, and if perchance there should be any one of a contrary opinion,
let him leave the assembly.' Every one raised his finger in token of an
oath, whereupon the Friburgers sent a herald to Orbe. The priests were
taken out of prison, and those who had helped to pull down the altars
were put in their place. There were fifteen in all, and among them was
Elizabeth's husband, the noble Hugonin of Arnex. They were not so well
treated at 'bed and board' as the priests had been, but were put on
bread and water; after three days, however, they were allowed to return
home.[423] During this time the priests and fervent catholics were
restoring the altars everywhere. It required more than twenty years for
the Reform in Orbe to recover from the blow inflicted on it by the
intolerance of Hollard and his friends. It was not until 1554 that an
assembly of the people decided by a majority of eighteen votes in favour
of the establishment of evangelical worship. The priests, nuns, and
friars then left the city for ever, amid the tears of their
supporters.[424]
[398] 'Moy qui suis nay, et ay esté dès mon enfance nourry au milieu de
vous.'—_Ep. de Viret aux nobles et bourgeois d'Orbe_, p. 13.
[399] These districts have been admirably described in a recent
work—_Horizons prochains_.
[400] _Disputations Chrestiennes_, par Pierre Viret, Geniève, 1544.
_Préface._
[401] Ibid. _Préface._
[402] _Disputations Chrestiennes. Préface._
[403] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, p. 37.
[404] _Disputations Chrestiennes. Préface._
[405] 'Arcem illam superstitionis et idolatriæ, et Satanæ propugnacula.
Viret, _De verbi Dei ministerio_, Senatui Lausan. Ep.
[406] _Disp. Chrest._ p. 9.
[407] Ibid. pp. 195-6.
[408] _Disp. Chrest._ Préface.
[409] Viret: _Du vrai ministère de la vraye Eglise de Jésus-Christ_.
Préface.
[410] Théod. de Bèze.
[411] Viret: _Du vray ministère_, pp. 47, 57.
[412] 'Fuit corpusculo imbecillo, moribus suavis.'—Melchior Adam,
_Vitæ erudit_.
[413] 'Oris præcipue facundia excellens, ut homines etiam religioni
minus addictos, faciles tamen auditores habuerit, cum omnes ab ejus ore
penderent.'—Ibid.
[414] _Du combat des hommes contre leur propre salut_, pp. 7-8.
[415] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, pp. 133-134.
[416] Un ris d'hôtellier.
[417] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, p. 263.
[418] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, p. 41.
[419] We are indebted to the catholic Pierrefleur for these particulars.
_Mémoires_, p. 44.
[420] Calvin, _Op._ S. Jacques, iv. 18.
[421] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, pp. 41-42, 50-51.
[422] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, pp. 52-53.
[423] _Mém. du Sire de Pierrefleur_, p. 56.
[424] 'Vicerunt nostrioctodecim suffragiis.'—Viret to Calvin, 11th
August, 1554. See also Pierrefleur, p. 297.