History of the Great Reformation Part 57

George de Rive, in alarm, convoked the magistrates of all the districts in the earldom. These good folks believed that their consciences, as well as their places, depended upon Madame de Longueville. Affrighted at the thought of freely receiving a new conviction from the Word of G.o.d, they were quite ready to accept it from the countess as they would a new impost. A sad helotism, in which religion springs from the soil, instead of descending from heaven! "We desire to live and die under the protection of our lady," said the magistrates to the Lord of Rive, "without changing the ancient faith, _until it be so ordered by her_."[1037] Rome, even after her fall, could not receive a deeper insult.

[1037] Choupart MS. Nous voulons vivre et mourir sous la protection de Madame, sans changer l'ancienne foi, _jusqu' a ce que par elle en soit ordonne_.

[Sidenote: FAILURE OF THE PLOT.]

These a.s.surances of fidelity and the absence of the Bernese restored De Rive's confidence, and he secretly prepared a reaction among the n.o.bles and the lower cla.s.ses. There is in every historical catastrophe, in the fall of great establishments, and in the spectacle of their ruins, something which excites and improves the mind. This was what happened at the period in question. Some were more zealous for Popery after its fall than in its day of power. The priests gliding into the houses said Ma.s.s to a few friends mysteriously called together around a temporary altar. If a child was born, the priest noiselessly arrived, breathed on the infant, made the sign of the cross on its forehead and breast, and baptized it according to the Roman ritual.[1038] Thus they were rebuilding in secret what had been overthrown in the light of day. At length a counter-revolution was agreed upon; and Christmas day was selected for the restoration of Roman-catholicism. While the Christians' songs of joy should be rising to heaven, the partisans of Rome were to rush into the church, expel the heretical a.s.sembly, overthrow the pulpit and the holy table, restore the images, and celebrate the Ma.s.s in triumph. Such was the plan of the Neuchatelan vespers.[1039]

[1038] Berne to Neuchatel, 17th December.

[1039] Berne to the Governor, 23d December.

The plot got wind. Deputies from Berne arrived at Neuchatel on the very eve of the festival. "You must see to this," said they to the governor: "if the Reformed are attacked, we, their co-burghers, will protect them with all our power." The conspirators laid down their arms, and the Christmas hymns were not disturbed.

This signal deliverance augmented the devotion and zeal of the friends of the Gospel. Already Emer Beynon of Serriere, where Farel had one day landed from a small boat, ascending the pulpit, had said to his parishioners: "If I have been a good priest, I desire by the grace of G.o.d to be a still better pastor." It was necessary for these words to be heard from every pulpit. Farel recommenced a career of labours, fatigues, and struggles, which the actions of the apostles and missionaries alone can equal.

[Sidenote: FAREL'S LABOURS.]

Towards the end of the year 1530, he crossed the mountain in the middle of winter, entered the church of Valangin, went into the pulpit, and began to preach at the very moment that Guillemette de Vergy was coming to Ma.s.s. She endeavoured to shut the reformer's mouth, but in vain, and the aged and n.o.ble dowager retired precipitately, saying: "I do not think this is according to the old Gospels; if there are any new ones that encourage this, I am quite amazed."[1040] The people of Valangin embraced the Gospel. The affrighted lieutenant ran to Neuchatel, thence to Berne, and on the 11th February 1521 laid his complaint before the council; but all was useless. "Why," said their excellencies of Berne to him, "why should you disturb the water of the river? let it flow freely on."

[1040] Chambrier, Hist. de Neuchatel et Valangin, p. 299. Je ne crois pas que ce soit selon les vieux evangiles; s'il y en a de nouveaux qui fa.s.sent cela faire, j'en suis esbahie.

Farel immediately turned to the parishes on the slopes between the lake and Mount Jura. At Corcelles a fanatic crowd, well armed and led on by the curate of Neuchatel, rushed into the church where the minister was preaching, and he did not escape without a wound. At Bevay, the abbot John of Livron and his monks collected a numerous body of friends, surrounded the church, and having thus completed the blockade, entered the building, dragged the minister from the pulpit, and drove him out with blows and insults. Each time he reappeared, they pursued him as far as Auvernier with stones and gunshots.

[Sidenote: THE PASTOR MARCOURT.]

While Farel was thus preaching in the plain, he sent one of his brethren into the valley; it was John de Bely, a man of good family from Crest in Dauphiny. Beyond Valangin, at a little distance from Fontaine, on the left side of the road to Cernier, was a stone that remains to this day. It was here in the open air, as if in a magnificent temple, that this herald of the Gospel began to proclaim salvation by grace.[1041] Before him stretched the declivity of Chaumont, dotted with the pretty villages of Fenin, Villars, Sole, and Savagnier, and beyond, where the mountains fell away, might be seen the distant and picturesque chain of the Alps. The most zealous of his hearers entreated him to enter the church. He did so; but suddenly the priest and his curate "arrived with great noise." They proceeded to the pulpit, dragged Bely down; and then turning to the women and young persons of the place, "excited them to beat him and drive him away."[1042]

[1041] It does not appear that Bely could have stood and preached on this stone, as is generally said, unless what now remains is but a fragment of the original.

[1042] MS. AA. in the Choupart MS.

John de Bely returned to Neuchatel, hooted and bruised, like his friend after the affair at Valangin; but these evangelists followed the traces of the Apostle Paul, whom neither whips nor scourges could arrest.[1043] De Bely often returned to Fontaine. The Ma.s.s was abolished erelong in this village; Bely was its pastor for twenty-seven years; his descendants have more than once exercised the ministry there, and now they form the most numerous family of agriculturists in the place.

[1043] 2 Cor. xi. 24, 25.

Farel, after evangelizing the sh.o.r.es of the lake to the south of Neuchatel, had gone to the north and preached at St. Blaise. The populace, stirred up by the priests and the lieutenant, had fallen upon him, and Farel escaped from their hands, severely beaten, spitting blood, and scarcely recognisable. His friends had thrown him hurriedly into a boat, and conveyed him to Morat, where his wounds detained him for some time.[1044]

[1044] De Perrot: L'Eglise et la Reformation, ii. p. 233.

At the report of this violence the reformed Neuchatelans felt their blood boil. If the lieutenant, the priest, and his flock have bruised the body of Christ's servant, which is truly the altar of the living G.o.d, why should they spare dead idols? Immediately they rush to St.

Blaise, throw down the images, and do the same at the abbey of Fontaine-Andre,--a sanctuary of the ancient worship.

[Sidenote: DISGRACEFUL EXPEDIENT.]

The images still existed at Valangin, but their last hour was about to strike. A Frenchman, Anthony Marcourt, had been nominated pastor of Neuchatel. Treading in Farel's footsteps, he repaired with a few of the citizens to Valangin on the 14th June, a great holiday in that town.[1045] Scarcely had they arrived when a numerous crowd pressed around the minister, listening to his words. The canons, who were on the watch in their houses, and Madame de Vergy and M. de Bellegarde from their towers, sought how they could make a diversion against this heretical preaching? They could not employ force because of Berne.

They had recourse to a brutal expedient, worthy of the darkest days of Popery, and which, by insulting the minister, might divert (they imagined) the attention of the people, and change it into shouts and laughter. A canon,[1046] a.s.sisted by the countess's coachman, went to the stables and took thence two animals, which they led to the spot where Marcourt was preaching. We will throw a veil over this scene: it is one of those disgraceful subjects which the pen of history refuses to transcribe.[1047] But never did punishment follow closer upon crime. The conscience of the hearers was aroused at the sight of this infamous spectacle. The torrent, that such a proceeding was intended to check, rushed out of its channel. The indignant people, undertaking the defence of that religion which their opponents had wished to insult, entered the church like an avenging wave; the ancient windows were broken, the shields of the lords were demolished, the relics scattered about, the books torn, the images thrown down, and the altar overturned. But this was not enough: the popular wave, after sweeping out the church, flowed back again, and dashed against the canons'

houses. Their inhabitants fled in consternation into the forests, and everything was destroyed in their dwellings.

[1045] This incident is generally attributed to Farel, but Choupart, following an older ma.n.u.script, says, _le ministre de Neuchatel_, by which t.i.tle he always means Marcourt, and never Farel.

[1046] Some historians say "the coachman of the countess;" but Choupart, on three different occasions, writes _a canon_. The latter is no doubt more revolting; but there is nothing incredible in it.

[1047] De equo admissario loquitur qui equam init.

[Sidenote: THE REFORM ESTABLISHED.]

Guillemette de Vergy and M. de Bellegarde, agitated and trembling behind their battlements, repenting, but too late, of their monstrous expedient, are the only ones who have not yet suffered the popular vengeance. Their restless eyes watch the motions of the indignant townspeople. The work is completed! the last house is sacked! The burghers consult together.--O horror!--they turn towards the castle,--they ascend the hill,--they draw near. Is then the abode of the n.o.ble counts of Arberg about to be laid waste? But no!--"We come,"

said the delegates standing near the gate of the castle, "we are come to demand justice for the outrage committed against religion and its minister." They are permitted to enter, and the trembling countess orders the poor wretches to be punished who had acted solely by her orders. But at the same time she sends deputies to Berne, complaining of the "great insults that had been offered her."[1048] Berne declared that the Reformed should pay for the damage; but that the countess should grant them the free exercise of their worship. Jacques Veluzat, a native of Champagne, was the first pastor of Valangin. A little later we shall see new struggles at the foot of Mount Jura.

[1048] Curate of Bezancenet's chronicle. Des grands vituperes qu'on lui avait faits.

Thus was the Reformation established at Valangin, as it had been at Neuchatel: the two capitals of these mountains were gained to the Gospel. Erelong it received a legal sanction. Francis, Marquis of Rothelin, son of the d.u.c.h.ess of Longueville, arrived in the princ.i.p.ality in March, 1581, with the intention of playing on this small theatre the part of a Francis I. But he soon found out that there are revolutions which an irresistible hand has accomplished, and that must be submitted to. Rothelin excluded from the estates of the earldom the canons who had hitherto formed the first power, and replaced them by four bannerets and four burgesses. Then, availing himself of the principle that all abandoned property falls to the state, he laid his hands upon their rich heritage, and proclaimed freedom of conscience throughout all the country. All the necessary forms having been observed with Madame, the politic M. de Rive became reformed also. Such was the support Rome received from the State, to which she had looked for her deliverance.

[Sidenote: GATHERING TEMPEST.]

A great energy characterized the Reformation of French Switzerland; and this is shown by the events we have just witnessed. Men have attributed to Farel this distinctive feature of his work; but no man has ever created his own times; it is always, on the contrary, the times that create the man. The greater the epoch, the less do individualities prevail in it. All the good contained in the events we have just related came from that Almighty Spirit, of which the strongest men are but weak instruments. All the evil proceeded from the character of the people; and, indeed, it was almost always Popery that began these scenes of violence: Farel submitted to the influence of his time, rather than the time received his. A great man may be the personification and the type of the epoch for which G.o.d destines him: he is never its creator.

But it is time to quit the Jura and its beautiful valleys, brightened by the vernal sun, to direct our step towards the Alps of German Switzerland, along which thick clouds and horrible tempests are beginning to gather. The free and courageous people, who dwell below the eternal glaciers, or on the smiling banks of the lakes, daily a.s.sume a fiercer aspect, and the collision threatens to be sudden, violent, and terrible. We have just been witnessing a glorious conquest: a dreadful catastrophe awaits us.

BOOK XVI.

SWITZERLAND--CATASTROPHE. 1528-1531.

I. It was the will of G.o.d that at the very gates of his revived Church there should be two great examples to serve as lessons for future generations. Luther and the German Reformation, declining the aid of the temporal power, rejecting the force of arms, and looking for victory only in the confession of the truth, were destined to see their faith crowned with the most brilliant success; while Zwingle and the Swiss Reformation, stretching out their hands to the mighty ones of the earth, and grasping the sword, were fated to witness a horrible, cruel, and b.l.o.o.d.y catastrophe fall upon the Word of G.o.d--a catastrophe which threatened to engulf the Evangelical cause in the most furious whirlpool. G.o.d is a jealous G.o.d, and gives not his glory to another; he claims to perform his own work himself, and to attain his ends sets other springs in motion than those of a skilful diplomacy.

We are far from forgetting that we are called upon to relate facts and not to discuss theories; but there is a principle which the history we are narrating sets forth in capital letters: it is that professed in the Gospel, where it says: THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE ARE NOT CARNAL, BUT MIGHTY THROUGH G.o.d! In maintaining this truth we do not place ourselves on the ground of any particular school, but on that of universal conscience and of the Word of G.o.d.

[Sidenote: ZWINGLE.]

Of all carnal support that religion can invoke, there is none more injurious to it than arms and diplomacy. The latter throws it into tortuous ways; the former hurries it into paths of bloodshed; and Religion, from whose brow has been torn the double wreath of truth and meekness, presents but a degraded and humiliated countenance that no person can, that no person desires to recognise.

It was the very extension of the Reform in Switzerland that exposed it to the dangers under which it sunk. So long as it was concentrated at Zurich, it continued a religious matter; but when it had gained Berne, Basle, Schaffhausen, St. Gall, Glaris, Appenzell, and numerous bailiwicks, it formed inter-cantonal relations; and--here was the error and misfortune--while the connexion should have taken place between church and church, it was formed between state and state.

As soon as spiritual and political matters became mingled together, the latter took the upperhand. Zwingle erelong thought it his duty to examine not only doctrinal, but also federal questions; and the ill.u.s.trious reformer might be seen, unconscious of the snares beneath his feet, precipitating himself into a course strewn with rocks, at the end of which a cruel death awaited him.

The primitive Swiss cantons had resigned the right of forming new alliances without the consent of all; but Zurich and Berne had reserved the power. Zwingle thought himself therefore quite at liberty to promote an alliance with the Evangelical states. Constance was the first city that gave her adhesion. But this Christian co-burghery, which might become the germ of a new confederation, immediately raised up numerous adversaries against Zwingle, even among the partisans of the Reformation.

There was yet time: Zwingle might withdraw from public affairs, to occupy himself entirely with those of the Gospel. But no one in Zurich had, like him, that application to labour, that correct, keen, and sure eye, so necessary for politicians. If he retired, the vessel of the state would be left without a pilot. Besides, he was convinced that political acts alone could save the Reform. He resolved, therefore, to be at one and the same time the man of the State and of the Church. The registers prove that in his latter years he took part in the most important deliberations; and he was commissioned by the council of his canton to write letters, compose proclamations, and draw up opinions. Already, before the dispute with Berne, looking upon war as possible, he had traced out a very detailed plan of defence, the ma.n.u.script of which is still in existence.[1049] In 1528 he did still more; he showed in a remarkable paper, how the republic should act with regard to the Empire, France, and other European states, and with respect to the several cantons and bailiwicks. Then, as if he had grown grey at the head of the Helvetic troops (and it is but just to remark that he had long lived among soldiers), he explained the advantages there would be in surprising the enemy; and he described even the nature of the arms, and the manner of employing them. In truth, an important revolution was then taking place in the art of war. The pastor of Zurich is at once the head of the state and general of the army: this double--this triple part of the reformer was the ruin of the Reformation and of himself. Undoubtedly we must make allowances for the men of this age, who, being accustomed to see Rome wield two swords for so many centuries, did not understand that they must take up one and leave the other. We must admire the strength of that superior genius, which, while pursuing a political course, in which the greatest minds would have been absorbed, ceased not however to display an indefatigable activity as pastor, preacher, divine, and author. We must acknowledge that the republican education of Zwingle had taught him to confound his country with his religion, and that there was in this great man enough to fill up many lives. We must appreciate that indomitable courage which, relying upon justice, feared not, at a time when Zurich had but one or two weak cities for allies, to confront the redoubtable forces of the Empire and of the Confederation; but we should also see in the great and terrible lesson that G.o.d gave him, a precept for all times and for every nation; and finally, understand what is so often forgotten, "that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world."

[1049] Escher et Hottinger, Archives, ii. p. 263.

[Sidenote: PERSECUTIONS.]

The Roman-catholic cantons, on hearing of the new alliances of the Reformed, felt a violent indignation. William of Diesbach, deputy from Berne at the diet, was forced to submit to the keenest reproaches. The sitting, for some time interrupted, was resumed immediately after his departure. "They may try to patch up the old faith," said the Bernese, as he withdrew, "it cannot, however, last any longer."[1050] In truth, they patched away with all their might, but with a sharp and envenomed needle that drew blood. Joseph Am Berg of Schwytz and Jacques Stocker of Zug, bailiffs of Thurgovia, treated with cruelty all who were attached to the Gospel. They enforced against them fines, imprisonment, torture, the scourge, confiscation, and banishment; they cut out the ministers' tongues, beheaded them, or condemned them to be burnt.[1051] At the same time they took away the Bibles and all the evangelical books; and if any poor Lutherans, fleeing from Austria, crossed the Rhine and that low valley where its calm waters flow between the Alps of the Tyrol and of Appenzell,--if these poor creatures, tracked by the lansquenets, came to seek a refuge in Switzerland, they were cruelly given up to their persecutors.