History of the Great Reformation Part 52

[955] Ut nemo non commoveretur et profecto fere mihi lacrymas excussisset. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 255.)

The Romanist minority rejected these propositions: "Basle," said they, "is not like Berne and Zurich. Its revenues are derived in great measure from countries opposed to the Reformation!" The priests having refused to resort to the weekly conferences, they were suspended; and during a fortnight there was neither sermon nor ma.s.s at the cathedral, or in the churches of St. Ulric, St. Peter, and St. Theodore.

Those who remained faithful to Rome resolved upon an intrepid defence.

Meltinger placed Sebastian Muller in the pulpit at St. Peter's, from which he had been interdicted, and this hot-headed priest vented such abusive sarcasms against the Reform, that several of the Evangelicals, who were listening to the sermon, were insulted and nearly torn in pieces.

[Sidenote: A NIGHT OF TERROR.]

It was necessary to arouse Basle from this nightmare, and strike a decisive blow. "Let us remember our liberty," said the reformed citizens, "and what we owe to the glory of Christ, to public justice, and to our posterity."[956] They then demanded that the enemies of the Reformation, friends and relations of the priests, who were the cause of all these delays and of all these troubles, should no longer sit in the councils until peace was re-established. This was the 8th February. The council notified that they would return an answer on the morrow.

[956] Cogitans quid gloriae Christi, quid just.i.tiae publicae, quidque posteritati suae deberet. (col. Zurich MS.)

At six o'clock in the evening, twelve hundred citizens were a.s.sembled in the corn-market. They began to fear that the delay required by the senate concealed some evil design. "We must have a reply this very night," they said. The senate was convoked in great haste.

From that period affairs a.s.sumed a more threatening att.i.tude in Basle.

Strong guards were posted by the burghers in the halls of the different guilds; armed men patrolled the city, and bivouacked in the public places, to antic.i.p.ate the machinations of their adversaries;[957]

the chains were stretched across the streets; torches were lighted, and resinous trees, whose flickering light scattered the darkness, were placed at intervals through the town; six pieces of artillery were planted before the town hall; and the gates of the city, as well as the a.r.s.enal and the ramparts, were occupied. Basle was in a state of siege.

[957] Ne quid forte ab adversariis insidiarum strueretur. (Ibid.)

There was no longer any hope for the Romish party. The burgomaster, Meltinger, an intrepid soldier and one of the heroes of Marignan, where he had led eight hundred men into battle, lost courage. In the darkness he gained the banks of the Rhine with his son-in-law, the councillor Eglof d'Offenburg, embarked unnoticed in a small boat, and rapidly descended the stream amid the fogs of the night.[958] Other members of the council escaped in a similar manner.

[958] Clam conscensa navicula fuga, nescio senatu, elapsus est. (col.

Zurich MS.)

[Sidenote: THE IDOLS BROKEN.]

This gave rise to new alarms. "Let us beware of their secret manuvres," said the people. "Perhaps they are going to fetch the Austrians, with whom they have so often threatened us!" The affrighted citizens collected arms from every quarter, and at break of day they had two thousand men on foot. The beams of the rising sun fell on this resolute but calm a.s.sembly.

It was midday. The senate had come to no decision: the impatience of the burghers could be restrained no longer. Forty men were detached to visit the posts. As this patrol was pa.s.sing the cathedral, they entered it, and one of the citizens, urged by curiosity, opened a closet with his halberd, in which some images had been hidden. One of them fell out, and was broken into a thousand pieces against the stone pavement.[959] The sight of these fragments powerfully moved the spectators, who began throwing down one after another all the images that were concealed in this place. None of them offered any resistance: heads, feet, and hands--all were heaped in confusion before the halberdiers. "I am much surprised," said Erasmus, "that they preformed no miracle to save themselves; formerly the saints worked frequent prodigies for much smaller offences!"[960] Some priests ran to the spot, and the patrol withdrew.

[959] c.u.m halpardis quasi per ludum aperirent armarium idolorum, unumque idolum educerent. (Ibid.)

[960] Erasm. Opp. p. 291.

A rumour, however, having spread that a disturbance had taken place in this church, three hundred men came to the support of the forty.

"Why," said they, "should we spare the idols that light up the flames of discord?" The priests in alarm had closed the gates of the sanctuary, drawn the bolts, raised barricades, and prepared everything for maintaining a siege. But the townspeople, whose patience had been exhausted by the delays of the council, dash against one of the doors of the church: it yields to their blows, and they rush into the cathedral. The hour of madness has arrived. These men are no longer to be recognized, as they brandish their swords, rattle their pikes, and utter formidable cries: are they Goths, or are they fervent worshippers of G.o.d, animated by the zeal which in times of yore inflamed the prophets and the kings of Israel? However that might be, these proceedings were disorderly, since public authority alone can interfere in public reforms. Images, altars, pictures--all were thrown down and destroyed. The priests who had fled into the vestry, and there concealed themselves, trembled in every limb at the terrible noise made by the fall of their holy decorations. The work of destruction was completed without one of them venturing to save the objects of his worship, or to make the slightest remonstrance. The people next piled up the fragments in the squares and set fire to them; and during the chilly night the armed burghers stood round and warmed themselves at the crackling flame.[961]

[961] Lignis imaginum usi sunt vigiles, pro arcendo frigore nocturno.

(Zurich MS.)

The senate collected in amazement, and desired to interpose their authority and appease the tumult; but they might as well have striven to command the winds. The enthusiastic citizens replied to their magistrates in these haughty words: "What you have not been able to effect in three years, we will complete in one hour."[962]

[962] De quo vos per triennium deliberastis, nihil efficientes, nos intra horam omnem absolvemus. (col. Capitoni, Basle MS.)

In truth the anger of the people was no longer confined to the cathedral. They respected all kinds of private property;[963] but they attacked the churches of St. Peter, St. Ulric, St. Alban, and of the Dominicans; and in all these temples "the idols" fell under the blows of these good citizens of Basle, whom an extraordinary zeal inflamed.

Already they were making preparations to cross the bridge and enter Little Basle, which was devoted to the cause of Popery, when the alarmed inhabitants begged to be allowed to remove the images themselves, and with heavy hearts they hastily carried them into the upper chambers of the church, whence they hoped to be able after a time to restore them to their old position.

[963] Nulli enim vel obolum abstulerunt. (Ib.)

[Sidenote: THE REFORM LEGALIZED.]

They did not stop at these energetic demonstrations; the most excited talked of going to the town-hall, and of constraining the senate to accede to the wishes of the people; but the good sense of the majority treated these brawlers as they deserved, and checked their guilty thoughts.

The senators now perceived the necessity of giving a legal character to this popular movement, and of thus changing a tumultuous revolution into a durable reformation.[964] Democracy and the Gospel were thus established simultaneously in Basle. The senate, after an hour's deliberation, granted that in future the burghers should partic.i.p.ate in the election of the two councils; that from this day the Ma.s.s and images should be abolished throughout all the canton, and that in every deliberation which concerned the glory of G.o.d or the good of the state the opinion of the guilds should be taken. The people, delighted at having obtained these conditions, which secured their political and religious liberty, returned joyful to their houses. It was now the close of day.[965]

[964] Cedendum plebi. (col. Capitoni, Basle MS.)

[965] His conditionibus plebs laeta domum rediit, sub ipsum noctis crepusculum. (Ibid. Zurich MS.)

[Sidenote: OBJECTIONS.]

On the morrow, Ash-Wednesday, it was intended to distribute the ruins of the altars and other ornaments of the Church among the poor, to serve them for firewood. But these unhappy creatures, in their eagerness for the fragments, having begun to dispute about them, they constructed great piles in the cathedral close and set fire to them.

"The idols," said some wags, "are really keeping their Ash-Wednesday to-day!" The friends of Popery, turning away their horror-stricken eyes from this sacrilegious sight, says colampadius, shed tears of blood. "Thus severely did they treat the idols," continues the reformer, "and the Ma.s.s died of grief in consequence."[966] On the following Sunday hymns in German were sung at every church; and on the 18th February a general amnesty was published. Everything was changed in Basle. The last had become first, and the first last. While colampadius, who a few years before had entered the city as a stranger, without resources and without power, found himself raised to the first station in the Church, Erasmus, disturbed in the quiet study whence during so long a period he had issued his absolute commands to the world of letters, saw himself compelled to descend into the arena.

But this king of the schools had no desire to lay down his sceptre before the sovereign people. For a long time he used to turn aside his head when he met his friend colampadius. Besides he feared by remaining at Basle to compromise himself with his protectors. "The torrent," said he, "which was hidden underground has burst forth with violence, and committed frightful ravages.[967] My life is in danger: colampadius possesses all the churches. People are continually bawling in my ears; I am besieged with letters, caricatures, and pamphlets. It is all over: I am resolved to leave Basle. Only shall I or shall I not depart by stealth? The one is more becoming, the other more secure."

[966] Ita saevitum est in idola, ac missa prae dolore expiravit. (col.

Cap. Zurich MS.)

[967] Basilica torrens quidem, qui sub terra labebatur, subito erumpens, &c. (Er. Epp. ad Pirkheimer July, 1539.)

Wishing as much as possible to make his honour and his prudence agree, Erasmus desired the boatman with whom he was to descend the Rhine to depart from an unfrequented spot. This was opposed by the senate, and the timid philosopher was compelled to enter the boat as it lay near the great bridge, at that time covered with a crowd of people. He floated down the river, sadly bade adieu to the city he had so much loved, and retired to Friburg in Brisgau with several other learned men.

New professors were invited to fill the vacant chairs in the university, and in particular Oswald Myconius, Phrygio, Sebastian Munster, and Simon Grynaeus. At the same time was published an ecclesiastical order and a confession of faith, one of the most precious doc.u.ments of this epoch.

[Sidenote: PRINCIPLES OF THE REFORMATION.]

Thus had a great transformation been effected without the loss of a single drop of blood. Popery had fallen in Basle in despite of the secular and spiritual power. "The wedge of the Lord," says colampadius, "has split this hard knot."[968]

[968] Malo nodo suus cuneus obvenit. (col. Capit.)

We cannot, however, help acknowledging that the Basle Reformation may afford ground for some objections. Luther had opposed himself to the power of the many. "When the people p.r.i.c.k up their ears, do not whistle too loud. It is better to suffer at the hand of one tyrant, that is to say, of a king, than of a thousand tyrants, that is to say, of the people." On this account the German Reformer has been reproached for acknowledging no other policy than servilism.

Perhaps when the Swiss Reformation is canva.s.sed, a contrary objection will be made against it, and the Reform at Basle, in particular, will be looked upon as a revolution.

The Reformation must of necessity bear the stamp of the country in which it was accomplished: it will be monarchical in Germany, republican in Switzerland. Nevertheless, in religion as in politics, there is a great difference between reformation and revolution.

In neither of these spheres does Christianity desire either despotism, servitude, stagnation, retrogression, or death. But while looking for progress, it seeks to accomplish it by reformation and not by revolution.

Reformation works by the power of the Word, of doctrine, cultivation and truth; while revolution, or rather revolt, operates by the power of riot, of the sword, and of the club.

Christianity proceeds by the inner man, and charters themselves, if they stand alone, cannot satisfy it. No doubt const.i.tutions are one of the blessings of our age; but it is not sufficient for these securities to be committed to parchment; they must be written in the heart, and guaranteed by the manners of the people.

Such were the principles of the Swiss Reformers, such were those of the Reform at Basle, and by these it is distinguished from a revolution.

[Sidenote: FAREL'S COMMISSION.]

There were, it is true, some excesses. Never perhaps has a reformation been accomplished among men without some mixture of revolution. But it was doctrines, however, that were in question at Basle: these doctrines had acted powerfully on the moral convictions and on the lives of the people; the movement had taken place within before it showed itself without. But more than this: the Reformation was not satisfied with taking away; it gave more than it took; and, far from confining itself to the work of destruction, it scattered rich blessings over all the people.[969]