THE SCHOOLMASTER AND CLAUDINE LEVET.
(NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 1532.)
[Sidenote: FRESH ATTEMPTS UPON GENEVA.]
Farel, seeing his labours in these different localities crowned with a
success that promised to be lasting, turned his eyes with all the more
ardour to Geneva. The numerous victories of Neuchatel and Vaud seemed to
augur new ones to be gained in the city of the huguenots. There were,
however, great obstacles. A fanatical party, directed by monks and
priests, was opposed to all change, and even the enlightened catholics,
who desired the abolition of crying abuses, kept repeating that the
church ought first of all to be maintained, and then reformed. 'A
purification is not enough,' said Farel; 'a transformation is wanted.'
But who was to bring it about? He had been banished from Geneva, and for
a time could not return there.
Froment, young, poor, simple-minded, but intelligent, had refused to
undertake so difficult a task. Farel tried once more. Froment did not
understand how the attack of one of the strongest fortresses of the
enemy could be entrusted to so young a man. 'Fear nothing,' said Farel;
'you will find men in Geneva quite ready to receive you, and your very
obscurity will protect you. God will be your guide, and will guard your
holy enterprise.'[561] Froment yielded, but felt humbled; and reflecting
on the task entrusted to him, he fell on his knees: 'O God,' he said, 'I
trust in no human power, but place myself entirely in thy hands. To thee
I commit my cause, praying thee to guide it, for it is thine.'[562] He
did not pray alone. The little flock at Yvonand, affected at this call
which was about to take away their pastor, said: 'O God, give him grace
to be useful for the advancement of thy Word!' The brethren embraced,
and Froment departed, 'going to Geneva,' he tells us, 'with prayers and
blessings.' It was the 1st November 1532.
He reached Lausanne, whence he took his way along the shore of the lake
towards Geneva. The poor young man stopped sometimes on the road, and
asked himself whether the enterprise he was about to attempt was not
sheer madness. 'No,' he said, 'I will not shrink back; for it is by the
small and weak things of this world that God designs to confound the
great.' And then he resumed his journey.
The Genevese were much occupied at that time with signs in the heaven. A
strange blaze shone in the firmament; every night their eyes were fixed
upon a long train of light, and the most learned endeavoured to divine
the prognostics to be drawn from it. 'At the new moon,' says a
manuscript, 'there appeared a comet, at two in the morning, which was
visible from the 26th September to the 14th of the following month.
About this time Anthony Froment arrived in Geneva.'[563] Many huguenots,
irritated at the reception given to Farel, despaired of seeing Geneva
reformed, and its liberties settled on a firm basis. Some, however, who
were adepts in astronomy, wondered whether that marvellous sheen did not
foretel that a divine light would also illuminate the country. They
waited, and Froment appeared.
[Sidenote: FROMENT COLDLY RECEIVED.]
The young Dauphinese was at first much embarrassed. He tried to enter
into conversation with one and another, but they were very short with
the stranger. He hoped to find 'some acquaintance with whom he could
retire safely and familiarly;' but he saw none but strange faces.
'Alas!' he said, 'I cannot tell what to do, except it be to return, for
I find no door to preach the Gospel.'[564] Then, calling to mind the
names of the chief huguenots, friends of Farel, who (as he said) would
give him the warmest welcome, Froment resolved to apply to them, and
waited upon Baudichon de la Maison-Neuve, Claude Bernard, J. Goulaz,
Vandel, and Ami Perrin, ... but strange to say he everywhere met with
embarrassed manners and long faces. The mean appearance of the young
Dauphinese disconcerted even the best disposed. Farel (they thought)
might at least have sent a scholar, and not a working man. Geneva was an
important and learned city. There were men of capacity among the Roman
clergy, who must be opposed by a minister of good appearance, a
well-established doctor.... The huguenots bowed out the mean little man.
'Ah!' said Froment, returning to his inn, 'I found them so cold, so
timid, and so startled at what had been done to Farel and his
companions, that they dared not unbosom themselves, and still less
receive me into their houses.' Confounded and dejected at seeing all his
plans overthrown, he walked thoughtfully through the streets with his
eyes bent on the ground. He entered the inn, shut himself up in his
room, and asked himself what was to be done next. Those who seemed to
wish to hear the Gospel looked at him with contemptuous eyes. If he
spoke to any persons, they turned their backs on him. Not one door was
opened to the Word of God.... His feelings were soured. Wearied and
dejected he sank under the weight, and lost courage. 'I am greatly
tempted to go back,' he said.[565]
Froment went to the landlord, paid his bill, strapped his little bundle
on his shoulders, and, without taking leave of the huguenots, bent his
steps towards the Swiss gate, and quitted the city. But he had not gone
many yards before he stopped; he felt as if he were detained by an
invisible hand; a voice was heard in his conscience, telling him he was
doing wrong; a force greater than that of man compelled him to retrace
his steps. He returned to his room, shut the door, and sat down; leaning
on the table with his head in his hands, he asked what God wanted with
him.[566] He began to pray, and seemed to witness in himself the
realisation of the promise: _I will lead thee in the way in which thou
shouldst walk_. He called to mind what Farel had told him, and what the
reformer had done at Aigle. A flash of light illumined his soul. They
will have nothing to do with him in Geneva, because his appearance is
mean. Be it so; he will undertake with humility the work that God gives
him; and since he is rejected as an evangelist, he will turn
schoolmaster.
[Sidenote: FROMENT ADVERTISES HIS SCHOOL.]
During his walks Froment had met with one Le Patu, a man but little
known, whom he asked if he could procure for him a place for a school.
Le Patu answered that there was the great hall at Boytet's, at the Croix
d'Or, near the Molard.[567] They went there together; Froment measured
its dimensions with his eye, and hired the room. He breathed again; he
had now one foot in the stirrup; it only remained to get into the
saddle, and begin his course. It was necessary to find scholars; with
God's help Froment despaired of nothing. Returning to the inn, he drew
up a prospectus, made several copies in his best handwriting, went out
with them, and posted them in all the public places. They ran as
follows: 'A man has just arrived in this city who engages to teach
reading and writing in French, in one month, to all who will come to
him, young and old, men and women, even such as have never been to
school; and if they cannot read and write within the said month, he asks
nothing for his trouble. He will be found at Boytet's large room, near
the Molard, at the sign of the Croix d'Or. Many diseases are also cured
gratis.'
These papers having been posted about the city, many of the passers-by
stopped to read them. 'We have heard him speak,' said some with whom he
had conversed; 'he talks well.' Others thought that the promise to teach
reading and writing in a month was suspicious; to which more benevolent
men replied, that in any case he did not aim at their purses. But the
priests and devout were irritated. 'He is a devil,' said a priest in the
crowd; 'he enchants all who go near him. You have hardly heard him
before his magical words bewilder you.'[568]
The school opened, however, and he did not want for young pupils.
Froment, who had talent (his book of the _Actes et Gestes de Genève_
proves this), taught with simplicity and clearness. Before dismissing
his scholars he would open the New Testament and read a few verses,
explaining them in an interesting manner; after which (as he had some
knowledge of medicine) he would ask them whether any in their families
were sick, and distribute harmless remedies among them. It was by the
instruction of the mind and the healing of the body that the evangelist
paved the way to the conversion of the heart. The school and medicine
are great missionary auxiliaries. The children ran home and told their
parents all; the mothers stopped in their work to listen to them, and
the fathers, especially the huguenots, made them tell it again. Some of
the boys and girls were continually prattling about it; they even
'accosted men and women in the streets, inviting them to come and hear
_that man_.'[569] In a short time the city was full of the schoolmaster
who spoke French so well.
[Sidenote: FROMENT'S SUCCESS.]
Several adults resolved to hear him, either from a desire to learn, or
from curiosity, or in sport. Wives, however, stopped their husbands;
jesters played off their jokes, and priests uttered their anathemas. But
nothing could stop the current, for people thought the schoolmaster
would speak against the lives of the priests, the mass, and Lent....
These worthy huguenots, as they passed through the streets, heard
'numerous loud jests and whispered hints' around them.[570] They took
their places behind the children and listened. Froment began: 'He speaks
well,' said his hearers. He did even more than he had promised; he
taught arithmetic, which was very acceptable to the Genevese, who are by
nature rather calculating. It was the sermon, however, which the hearers
waited for, and that was very different from what they had expected—a
homily instead of a philippic. In the course of his lessons Froment read
at one time a story from the Bible, at another one of our Lord's
sermons, giving the Scripture as the Scriptures of God, explaining as he
went on the difficult words, and then applying the doctrine
affectionately to the consciences of his hearers. They were all ears;
leaning forward and with half-opened mouth, each one seemed afraid of
losing a word. A few boys turned glances of triumph on those whom they
had brought there. Froment joyfully marked the effect produced by his
teaching. 'They were much astonished, for they had never heard such
doctrine.'[571] Some began to understand that evangelical Christianity
did not consist in mocking the priests and the mass, but in knowing and
loving the Saviour. 'Those who heard him conceived in their hearts some
understanding of the truth.'[572]
In a short time the success of this simple instruction surpassed the
hopes of the teacher. Those who had heard him talked of the beautiful
discourses delivered at the Croix d'Or. 'Come,' said they, 'for he
preaches very differently from the priests, and asks nothing for his
trouble.'—'Good,' said some citizens more ignorant than the rest; 'we
will go and hear him; we will learn to read and write, and hear what he
says.'[573] Men, women, and children hastened to the hall, striving
which should be there first.[574] The poor man whom the Genevans had
repulsed had suddenly grown in their estimation. The disputes between
huguenots and mamelukes, the claims of the Duke of Savoy and Bishop De
la Baume were forgotten; nothing was thought of but the evangelist. At
the epoch of the Reformation nothing was more striking than the great
difference between the instruction given by the priests and that given
by the reformers. 'Their teaching,' it was said, 'is not such a cold,
meagre, lifeless thing as that of popery. True, our masters sing loud
enough, and preach whatever pleases their patrons, but they chirp out
divine things in a profane manner; their discourses have no reverence
for God, and are full of fine words and affectation.... In the others,
on the contrary, instead of mere words and idle talk, there is virtue
and efficaciousness, a life-giving spirit and divine power.'[575]
[Sidenote: THE BEWITCHED.]
The friends of the priests could not hear such remarks without feeling
the deepest alarm. 'Pshaw!' they said, 'you speak as if the man had
enchanted you. By what sounds, figures, or magical operations has he
bewitched you? Or is it else by fine words, great promises, or other
means of seduction ... by money?' From that time if they saw in the
street a man or woman who attended the meetings at the Croix d'Or, they
would cry out: 'Ho! ho! there goes one of the possessed!'[576]
Complaints were made and bitter reproaches: signs of disapprobation were
heard; but 'notwithstanding all this contrary movement the number of
hearers increased daily. Many of those whom curiosity had attracted were
interested, enlightened, and touched, and returning home they praised
and glorified God.'[577]
All were not, however, won over to the Gospel. Certain huguenot leaders,
Ami Perrin, John Goulaz, Stephen d'Adda, and others, took no great
pleasure in the preacher's sermons; but believing that this new
doctrine, which fell from the skies, would overthrow the dominion of the
priests and mamelukes, they did not hesitate to range themselves among
Froment's hearers, and to support him energetically in the city.[578]
Ere long matters went still worse for Rome. Some of Froment's hearers
invited certain priests who were liberally inclined, to come and hear
the schoolmaster. The idea of sitting on the benches at the Croix d'Or
alarmed these churchmen, the huguenots repeated the Frenchman's words:
'Truly,' said the priests, 'these doctrines are good, and we should do
well to receive them.'—'Ho! ho!' said certain of the citizens, 'the
clerks who made such a brag are now converted themselves.'
The alarm increased. The most bigoted monks and priests entered private
houses, addressed the groups assembled in the public places, and jeered
at Froment's doctrine and person. 'Will you go and hear that devil?'
they said; 'what can that little fool (_folaton_) know who is hardly
twenty-two?'—'That fool,' answered Froment's admirers, 'will teach you
to be wise.... That devil will cast out the devil that is in you.'[579]
[Sidenote: CLAUDINE LEVET.]
In truth an astonishing work was going on in Geneva at this time; many
souls were gained to the evangelical faith, and as in the times of the
apostles, it was the women of distinction who believed first,[580]
Paula, the wife of John Levet, and probably the same as Pernetta of
Bourdigny, was daughter of the lord of Bourdigny, in the _mandement_ of
Peney. The members of this house had been styled nobles or _damoiseaux_
as far back as the thirteenth century, and many of them had been syndics
of Geneva.[581] This lady, prepared by the teachings of the evangelists
who had preceded Froment, 'had become very zealous for the Word,' and
earnestly desired to bring to the Gospel her sister-in-law Claudine,
wife of a worthy citizen, Aimé Levet. The latter, 'an honest, devoted,
and wondrously superstitious woman,' was upright and sincere, and more
than once had combatted zealously her sister's opinions. One day when
Paula was at Claudine's house, she conjured her to come and hear the
schoolmaster. 'I have so great a horror of him,' replied her
sister-in-law, 'that for fear of being bewitched, I will neither see nor
hear him.'—'He speaks like an angel,' answered Paula. 'I look upon him
as a devil,' retorted Claudine. 'If you hear him, you will be
saved.'—'And I think I shall be damned.' Thus contended these two women.
Paula was not discouraged. 'At least hear him once,' she said, and then
added with emotion: 'Pray hear him once for love of me!' She prevailed
at last, though with great difficulty.
Dame Claudine, although yielding to her sister's entreaties, resolved to
protect herself thoroughly. She armed herself carefully with all the
antidotes provided in such cases; she fastened fresh-gathered rosemary
leaves to her temples, rubbed her bosom with virgin wax,[582] hung
relics, crosses, and rosaries round her neck, and shielded by these
amulets, she accompanied Paula to the Croix d'Or. 'I am going to see an
enchanter,' she said, so deceived[583] was she. She promised herself to
lead back the Demoiselle de Bourdigny into the fold.
Claudine entered the hall and sat down in front of the magician in
mockery and derision, says the chronicle. Froment appeared, having a
book in his hand. He mounted on a round table, as was his custom, in
order to be better heard, and opening the New Testament, read a few
words, and then began to apply them. Claudine, without caring the least
for the assembly, and wishing to make her catholicism known, crossed
herself several times on the breast, at the same time repeating certain
prayers. Froment continued his discourse and unfolded the treasures of
the Gospel. Claudine raised her eyes at last, astonished at what she
heard, and looked at the minister. She listened, and ere long there was
not a more attentive hearer in all the congregation. Froment's voice
alone would have been 'wasted,' but it entered into the woman's
understanding, as if borne by the Spirit of God. She drank in the
reformer's words; and yet a keen struggle was going on within her. Can
this doctrine be true, seeing that the church says nothing about it? she
asked herself. Her eyes often fell on the schoolmaster's book. It was
not a missal or a breviary.... It seemed to her full of life.
[Sidenote: CLAUDINE ALONE WITH THE BIBLE.]
Froment having completed his sermon, the children and adults rose and
prepared to go out. Claudine remained in her place: she looked at the
teacher, and at last exclaimed aloud: 'Is it true what you say?'—'Yes,'
answered the reformer. 'Is it all proved by the Gospel?'—'Yes.'—'Is not
the mass mentioned in it?'—'No!'—'And is the book from which you
preached a genuine New Testament?'—'Yes.' Madame Levet eagerly desired
to have it: taking courage, she said: 'Then lend it me.' Froment gave it
to her, and Claudine placing it carefully under her cloak, among her
relics and beads, went out with her sister-in-law, who was beginning to
see all her wishes accomplished. As Claudine returned home she did not
talk much with Paula: hers was one of those deep natures that speak
little with man but much with God. Entering her house, she went straight
to her room and shut herself in, taking nothing but the book with her,
and being determined not to come out again until she had found the
solution of the grand problem with which her conscience was occupied. On
which side is truth? At Rome or at Wittemberg? Having made arrangements
that they should not wait meals for her, or knock at her door, 'she
remained apart,' says Froment, 'for three days and three nights without
eating or drinking, but with prayers, fasting, and supplication.' The
book lay open on the table before her. She read it constantly, and
falling on her knees, asked for the divine light to be shed abroad in
her heart. Claudine probably did not possess an understanding of the
highest range, but she had a tender conscience. With her the first duty
was to submit to God, the first want to resemble Him, the first desire
to find everlasting happiness in Him. She did not reach Christ through
the understanding; conscience was the path that led her to Him. An
awakening conscience is the first symptom of conversion and consequently
of reformation. Sometimes Claudine heard in her heart a voice pressing
her to come to Jesus; then her superstitious ideas would suddenly
return, and she rejected the Lord's invitation. But she soon discovered
that the practices to which she had abandoned herself were dried-up
wells where there had never been any water. Determined to go astray no
longer, she desired to go straight to Christ. It was then she redoubled
those 'prayers and supplications' of which Froment speaks, and read the
Holy Scriptures with eagerness. At last she understood that divine Word
which spake: 'Daughter, thy sins are forgiven thee.' Oh, wonderful, she
is saved! This salvation did not puff her up: she discovered that 'the
grace of God trickled slowly into her;' but the least drop coming from
the Holy Spirit seemed a well that never dried. Three days were thus
spent: for the same space of time Paul remained in prayer at
Damascus.[584]
[Sidenote: HER CONVERSION.]
Madame Levet having read the Gospel again and again desired to see the
man who had first led her to know it. She sent for him. Froment crossed
the Rhone, for she lived at the foot of the bridge, on the side of St.
Gervais. He entered, and when she saw him Claudine rose in emotion,
approached him, and being unable to speak burst into tears. 'Her tears,'
says the evangelist, 'fell on the floor,' she had no other language.
When she recovered, Madame Levet courteously begged Froment to sit down,
and told him how God had opened to her the door of heaven. At the same
time she showed herself determined to profess without fear before men
the faith that caused her happiness. 'Ah!' she said, 'can I ever thank
God sufficiently for having enlightened me?' Froment had come to
strengthen this lady and he was himself strengthened. He was in great
admiration at 'hearing her speak as she did.'[585] A conversion so
spiritual and so serious must needs have a great signification for the
Reformation of Geneva, and as Calvin says in other circumstances where
also only one woman seems to have been converted: 'From this tiny shoot
an excellent church was to spring.'[586]
[561] 'Obscuritatem nominis præsidio futuram, Deum itineri ducem et
cœpto patronum.'—Spanheim, _Geneva restituta_, p. 47.
[562] Froment, _Gestes de Genève_, p. 12.
[563] Badollet MS. in Berne library, _Hist. Helv._
[564] Froment, _Gestes de Genève_, p. 13.
[565] Froment, _Gestes de Genève_, p. 13.
[566] 'Cum jam pedem ex urbe efferret, nescio qua vi humana majore, se
vel reluctantem revocari sensit.'—Spanheim, _Geneva rest._ p. 47;
Froment, _Gestes_, p. 13.
[567] The sign of the Golden Cross is still on the house, but it was not
an inn, as some assert.
[568] Froment, _Gestes_, p. 14.
[569] Ibid.
[570] Froment, _Gestes_, p. 14.
[571] Ibid.
[572] Froment, _Gestes_, p. 14.
[573] 'Nous verrons ce que c'est qu'il dit.'—Froment, _Gestes_,
p. 14.
[574] 'A viris et fœminis certatim ad Fromentium itum.'—Spanheim,
_Geneva restit._ p. 48.
[575] Calvin, _passim_.
[576] Badollet MS. in Berne library, _Hist. Helv._
[577] Froment, _Gestes_, pp. 14-15.
[578] Council Registers, 31 Dec. 1532.
[579] Froment, _Gestes_, p. 13.
[580] 'And some of them consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the chief
women not a few.'—Acts xvii. 4.
[581] Galiffe, _Notices Généalogiques_, I. p. 446.
[582] 'Recente verbena tempora vincta, cera virginea pectus
munita.'—Spanheim, _Geneva restit._ p. 50.
[583] 'Embabuynée,' Froment, _Gestes_, p. 16.
[584] Froment, _Gestes_, p. 16; Gautier MS.
[585] Froment, _Gestes_, p. 16.
[586] Calvin on Lydia, Acts xvi. 14.