History of the Great Reformation Part 54

[985] To the left of the modern road from Vevay to Friburg.

[Sidenote: FAREL IN NEUCHATEL.]

The Reformer, not allowing himself to be stopped by the necessity of defending himself in Morat, or by the inclemency of the season, immediately carried the Gospel to those beautiful hills that soar between the smiling waters of lakes Morat and Neuchatel into the villages of the Vully. This manuvre was crowned with the most complete success. On the 15th February four deputies from the Vully came to Morat to demand permission to embrace the Reform, which was immediately granted to them. "Let our ministers preach the Gospel,"

said their excellencies of Berne to the Friburgers, "and we will let your priests play their monkey tricks. We desire to force no man."[986] The Reform restored freedom of will to the Christian people. It was about this time that Farel wrote his beautiful letter "To all lords, people, and pastors," which we have so often quoted.[987]

[986] Missive of Berne, Choupart MS.

[987] A tous seigneurs, peuples, et pasteurs. See above, Vol. III.

book xii.

The indefatigable reformer now went forward to new conquests. A chain of rocks separates the Juran valley of Erguel, already evangelized by Farel, from the country of the ancient Rauraci, and a pa.s.sage cut through the rock serves as a communication between the two districts.

It was the end of April when Farel, pa.s.sing through the _Pierre-Pertuis_,[988] descended to the village of Tavannes, and entered the church just as the priest was saying Ma.s.s. Farel went into the pulpit: the astonished priest stopped,--the minister filled his hearers with emotion, and seemed to them an angel come down from heaven. Immediately the images and the altars fell, and "the poor priest who was chanting the Ma.s.s could not finish it."[989] To put down Popery had required less time than the priest had spent at the altar.

[988] Petra Pertusa.

[989] Donc le pauvre pretre qui chantoit sa messe ne la peut pas achever. (Old MS. quoted in the Choupart MS.)

A great part of the bishopric of Basle was in a few weeks gained over to the Reformation.

During this time the Gospel was fermenting in Neuchatel. The young men who had marched with Berne to deliver Geneva from the attacks of Savoy, recounted in their jovial meetings the exploits of the campaign, and related how the soldiers of Berne, feeling cold, had taken the images from the Dominican church at Geneva, saying: "Idols of wood are of no use but to make a fire with in winter."

[Sidenote: THE HOSPITAL CHAPEL.]

Farel re-appeared in Neuchatel.[990] Being master of the lower part of the town, he raised his eyes to the lofty rocks on which soared the cathedral and the castle. The best plan, thought he, is to bring these proud priests down to us. One morning his young friends spread themselves in the streets, and posted up large placards bearing these words: "_All_ _those who say Ma.s.s are robbers, murderers, and seducers of the people_."[991] Great was the uproar in Neuchatel. The canons summoned their people, called together their clerks, and marching at the head of a large troop, armed with swords and clubs, descended into the town, tore down the sacrilegious placards, and cited Farel before the tribunal as a slanderer, demanding ten thousand crowns damages.

[990] Farellus suo more magna fort.i.tudine jam jam agit. Megander to Zwingle, 6th Aug. 1530.

[991] De Chambrier, Hist. de Neuchatel, i. p. 293

The two parties appeared in court, and this was all that Farel desired. "I confess the fact," said he, "but I am justified in what I have done. Where are there to be found more horrible murderers, than these seducers who sell paradise, and thus nullify the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ? I will prove my a.s.sertion by the Gospel." And he prepared to open it, when the canons, flushed with anger, cried out: "The common law of Neuchatel, and not the Gospel, is in question here!

Where are the witnesses?" But Farel, always returning to that fearful a.s.sertion, proved by the Word of G.o.d that the canons were really guilty of murder and robbery. To plead such a cause was to ruin Popery. The court of Neuchatel, that had never heard a similar case, resolved according to ancient custom to lay it before the Council of Besancon,[992] which not daring to p.r.o.nounce the first estate of the General Audiences guilty of murder and robbery, referred the matter to the Emperor and to a general council. Bad causes gain nothing by making a disturbance.

[992] Prendre les _entraives_.

[Sidenote: CIVIL POWER INVOKED.]

At every step they wished to drive him back, Farel made one in advance. The streets and the houses were still his temple. One day when the people of Neuchatel were around him, "Why," cried they, "should not the Word of G.o.d be proclaimed in a church?" They then hurried Farel along with them, opened the doors of the Hospital Chapel, set the minister in the pulpit, and a numerous crowd stood silent before him. "In like manner as Jesus Christ, appearing in a state of poverty and humility, was born in a stable at Bethlehem,"

said the Reformer; "so this hospital, this abode of the sick and of the poor, is to-day become his birthplace in the town of Neuchatel."

Then feeling ill at ease in the presence of the painted and carved figures that decorated the chapel, he laid his hands on these objects of idolatry, removed them, and broke them in pieces.[993]

[993] Choupart MS.

Popery, which anger had blinded, now took a step that it undoubtedly had a right to take, but which destroyed it: it had recourse to the secular arm, and the governor sent a deputation to the Bernese council, praying the removal of Farel and his companions.

But almost at the same time deputies from the townspeople arrived at Berne. "Did not these hands bear arms at Interlaken and at Bremgarten to support your Reformation? and will you abandon us in ours?"

Berne hesitated. A public calamity was at that time filling the whole city with mourning. One of the most ill.u.s.trious citizens of the republic, the Banneret of Weingarten, attacked by the plague, was expiring amid the tears of his sons and of his fellow-citizens. Being informed of the arrival of the Neuchatelans, he rallied his waning strength: "Go," said he, "and beg the senate in my name to ask for a general a.s.sembly of the people of Neuchatel for Sunday next."[994]

This message of the dying banneret decided the council.

[994] Wingarterus iste infectus peste apud senatum nostrum, pia legatione. (Megander to Zwingle.)

The deputies from Berne arrived in Neuchatel on the 7th August. Farel thought that during the debates he had time to make a new conquest, and quitted the city. His zeal can be compared only to St. Paul's. His body was small and feeble, but his activity was wholly apostolic: danger and bad treatment wasted him every day, but he had within him a divine power that rendered him victorious.

[Sidenote: THE FEAST OF a.s.sUMPTION.]

VII. At the distance of a league from Neuchatel, beyond the mountain, extends the Val de Ruz, and near its entrance, in a precipitous situation, where roars an impetuous torrent surrounded by steep crags, stands the town of Valangin. An old castle, built on a rock, raises its vast walls into the air, overlooking the humble dwellings of the townspeople, and extending its jurisdiction over five valleys of these lofty and severe mountains at that time covered with forests of pine, but now peopled by the most active industry.[995]

[995] Here are situated Chaux de Fonds, Locle, &c.

In this castle dwelt Guillemette de Vergy, dowager-countess of Valangin, strongly attached to the Romish religion and full of respect for the memory of her husband. A hundred priests had chanted high ma.s.s at the count's burial; many penitent young women had been married, and large alms distributed; the curate of Locle had been sent to Jerusalem, and Guillemette herself had made a pilgrimage for the repose for the soul of her departed lord.

Sometimes, however, the Countess of Gruyere and other ladies would come and visit the widow of Vergy, who a.s.sembled in the castle a number of young lords. The fife and tambourine re-echoed under its vaulted roofs, chattering groups collected in the immense embrasures of its Gothic windows, and merry dances followed hard upon a long silence and gloomy devotion.[996] There was but one sentiment that never left Guillemette--this was her hatred against the Reformation.

[996] Chambrier, Hist. de Neuchatel, p. 276.

[Sidenote: THE Ma.s.s INTERRUPTED.]

Guillemette and the priests had in fact reason to tremble. The 15th August was a great Romish festival--Our Lady of August, or the a.s.sumption. All the faithful of the Val de Ruz were preparing to keep it. This was the very day Farel selected. Animated by the fire and courage of Elijah, he set out for Valangin, and a young man, his fellow-countryman, and, as it would appear, a distant relation, Anthony Boyve, an ardent Christian and a man of decided character, went along with him.[997] The two missionaries climbed the mountain, plunged into the pine forest, and then descending again into the valley, they traversed Valangin, where the vicinity of the castle did not give them much encouragement to pause, and arrived at a village, probably Boudevilliers, proposing to preach the Gospel there.[998]

[997] Annals of Boyve and a family MS.--This family has since given several pastors to the church of Neuchatel.

[998] There are two original ma.n.u.scripts (both quoted in the Choupart MS.) which give an account of this transaction. One says that Farel preached at Valangin, the other indicates a village near Valangin.

Ruchat has adopted the former version; I think the latter preferable.

The second MS. appears to me older and more correct than the first.

Already on all sides the people were thronging to the church; Farel and his companion entered also with a small number of the inhabitants who had heard him at Neuchatel. The reformer immediately ascended the pulpit, and the priest prepared to celebrate the Ma.s.s. The combat begins. While the voice of Farel is preaching Jesus Christ and his promises, the voices of the priests and of the choir are chanting the missal. The solemn moment approaches: the ineffable transubstantiation is about to take place: the priest p.r.o.nounces the sacred words over the elements. At this instant the people hesitate no longer; ancient habits, an irresistible influence, draw them towards the altar; the preacher is deserted; the kneeling crowd has recovered its old worship; Rome is triumphant.......Suddenly a young man springs from the crowd,--traverses the choir,--rushes to the altar,--s.n.a.t.c.hes the host from the hands of the priest, and cries, as he turns towards the people: "This is not the G.o.d whom you should worship. He is above,--in heaven,--in the majesty of the Father, and not, as you believe, in the hands of a priest."[999] This man was Anthony Boyve.

[999] Choupart MS.

[Sidenote: FAREL'S DANGER.]

Such a daring act at first produced the desired effect. The Ma.s.s was interrupted, the chantings ceased, and the crowd, as if struck by a supernatural intervention, remained silent and noiseless. Farel, who was still in the pulpit, immediately took advantage of this calm, and proclaimed that Christ "whom the heaven must receive until the times of rest.i.tution of all things."[1000] Then the priests and choristers with their adherents rushed to the towers, ran up into the belfry, and sounded the tocsin.

[1000] Acts iii. 21.

These means succeeded: a crowd was collected, and if Farel had not retired, his death and Boyve's would have been inevitable. "But G.o.d,"

says the chronicle, "delivered them." They crossed the interval that separates Boudevilliers from Valangin, and drew near the steep gorges of the torrent of the Seyon. But how traverse that town, which the tocsin had already alarmed?

Leaving Chaumont and its dark forests to the left, these two heralds of the Gospel took a narrow path that wound beneath the castle: they were stealing cautiously along, when suddenly a shower of stones a.s.sailed them, and at the same time a score of individuals,--priests, men, and women,--armed with clubs, fell furiously upon them. "The priests had not the gout either in their feet or arms," says a chronicler; "the ministers were so beaten that they nearly lost their lives."[1001]

[1001] Les pretres n'avoient pas la goutte aux pieds et aux bras, et ils les battirent tellement que peu s'en fallut qu'ils ne perdissent la vie. (Choupart MS.)

Madame de Vergy, who descended to the terrace, far from moderating the anger of the priests, cried out: "Drown them!--drown them! throw them into the Seyon--these Lutheran dogs, who have despised the Host!"[1002] In fact, the priests were beginning to drag the two heretics towards the bridge. Never was Farel nearer death.

[1002] A l'eau! a l'eau! jettez les dans le Seyon ces chiens de Lutheriens qui ont meprise le bon Dieu! (Choupart MS.)

[Sidenote: ILL-TREATMENT OF FAREL.]