History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume III Part 50

Among all the doctors who then adorned the capital, was observed a man of very diminutive stature, of mean appearance, and humble origin,[701] whose intellect, learning, and powerful eloquence had an indefinable attraction for all who heard him. His name was Lefevre; and he was born about 1455 at Etaples, a village in Picardy. He had received a rude, or as Theodore Beza calls it, a barbarous education; but his genius had supplied the want of masters; and his piety, learning, and n.o.bility of soul, shone out with so much the brighter l.u.s.tre. He had travelled much, and it would appear that his desire of acquiring knowledge had led him into Asia and Africa.[702] As early as 1493, Lefevre, then doctor of divinity, was professor in the university of Paris. He immediately occupied a distinguished rank, and, in the estimation of Erasmus, was the first.[703]

[701] Homunculi unius neque genere insignis. Bezae Icones.

[702] In his Commentary on 2 Thessalonians ii. will be found a curious account of Mecca and its temple, furnished to him by some traveller.

[703] Fabro, viro quo vix in multis millibus reperias vel integriorem vel humaniorem, says Erasmus. Epp. p. 174.

[Sidenote: LECTURES AT THE UNIVERSITY.]

Lefevre saw that he had a task to perform. Although attached to the practices of the Romish Church, he resolved to attack the barbarism then prevailing in the university;[704] he began to teach the various branches of philosophy with a clearness. .h.i.therto unknown. He endeavoured to revive the study of languages and learned antiquity. He went farther than this; he perceived that, as regards a work of regeneration, philosophy and learning are insufficient. Abandoning, therefore, scholasticism, which for so many ages had reigned supreme in the schools, he returned to the Bible, and revived in Christendom the study of the Holy Scriptures and evangelical learning. He did not devote his time to dry researches, he went to the heart of the Bible.

His eloquence, his candour, his amiability, captivated all hearts.

Serious and fervent in the pulpit, he indulged in a sweet familiarity with his pupils. "He loves me exceedingly," wrote Glarean, one of their number, to his friend Zwingle. "Full of candour and kindness, he often sings, prays, disputes, and laughs at the follies of the world with me."[705] Accordingly, a great number of disciples from every country sat at his feet.

[704] Barbariem n.o.bilissimae academiae......inc.u.mbentem detrudi. Beza Icones.

[705] Supra modum me amat totus integer et candidus, mec.u.m cantillat, ludit, disputat, ridet mec.u.m. Zw. Epp. p. 26.

[Sidenote: FAREL'S DEVOTION TO THE POPE.]

This man, with all his learning, submitted with the simplicity of a child to every observance of the Church. He pa.s.sed as much time in the churches as in his study, so that a close union seemed destined to unite the aged doctor of Picardy and the young scholar of Dauphiny.

When two natures so similar as these meet together, though it be within the wide circuit of a capital, they tend to draw near each other. In his pious pilgrimages, young Farel soon noticed an aged man, and was struck by his devotion. He prostrated himself before the images, and remained long on his knees, praying with fervour and devoutly repeating his hours. "Never," said Farel, "never had I seen a chanter of the ma.s.s sing it with greater reverence."[706] This man was Lefevre. William Farel immediately desired to become acquainted with him; and could not restrain his joy when he found himself kindly received by this celebrated man. William had gained his object in coming to the capital. From that time his greatest pleasure was to converse with the doctor of Etaples, to listen to him, to hear his admirable lessons, and to kneel with him devoutly before the same shrines. Often might the aged Lefevre and his young disciple be seen adorning an image of the Virgin with flowers; and alone, far from all Paris, far from its scholars and its doctors, they murmured in concert the fervent prayers they offered up to Mary.[707]

[706] Ep. de Farel a tous seigneurs, peuples et pasteurs.

[707] Floribus jubebat Marianum idolum, dum una soli murmuraremus preces Marianas ad idolum, ornari. Farel to Pellican, anno 1556.

Farel's attachment to Lefevre was noticed by many. The respect felt towards the old doctor was reflected on his young disciple. This ill.u.s.trious friendship drew the Dauphinese from his obscurity. He soon acquired a reputation for zeal; and many devout rich persons in Paris intrusted him with various sums of money intended for the support of the poorer students.[708]

[708] Geneva MS.

Some time elapsed ere Lefevre and his disciple arrived at a clear perception of the truth. It was not the hope of a rich benefice or a propensity to a dissolute life which bound Farel to the pope; those vulgar ties were not made for souls like his. To him the pope was the visible head of the Church, a sort of deity, by whose commandments souls might be saved. Whenever he heard any one speaking against this highly venerated pontiff, he would gnash his teeth like a furious wolf, and would have called down lightning from heaven "to overwhelm the guilty wretch with utter ruin and confusion."--"I believe," said he, "in the cross, in pilgrimages, images, vows, and relics. What the priest holds in his hands, puts into the box, and there shuts it up, eats, and gives others to eat, is my only true G.o.d, and to me there is no other, either in heaven or upon earth."[709]--"Satan," says he in another place, "had so lodged the pope, the papacy, and all that is his in my heart, that even the pope had not so much of it in himself."

[709] Ep. de Farel. A tous seigneurs, &c.

[Sidenote: HESITATION AND INQUIRY--FIRST AWAKENING.]

Thus, the more Farel appeared to seek G.o.d, the more his piety decayed and superst.i.tion increased in his soul; everything was going from bad to worse. He has himself described this condition in energetic language:[710] "Alas! how I shudder at myself and at my faults," said he, "when I think upon it; and how great and wonderful a work of G.o.d it is, that man should ever have been dragged from such an abyss!"

[710] Quo plus pergere et promovere adnitebar, eo amplius retrocedebam. Farellus Galeoto, MS. Letters at Neufchatel.

From this abyss he emerged only by degrees. He had at first studied the profane authors; his piety finding no food there, he began to meditate on the lives of the saints; infatuated as he was before, these legends only made him still more so.[711] He then attached himself to several doctors of the age; but as he had gone to them in wretchedness, he left them more wretched still. At last he began to study the ancient philosophers, and expected to learn from Aristotle how to be a Christian; again his hopes were disappointed. Books, images, relics, Aristotle, Mary, and the saints--all proved unavailing. His ardent soul wandered from one human wisdom to another, without finding the means of allaying its burning thirst.

[711] Quae de sanctis conscripta offendebam, verum ex stulto insanum faciebant. Farellus Galeoto, MS. Letters at Neufchatel.

Meantime the pope, allowing the writings of the Old and New Testaments to be called _The Holy Bible_, Farel began to read them, as Luther had done in the cloister at Erfurth; he was amazed[712] at seeing that everything upon earth was different from what is taught in the Scriptures. Perhaps he was on the point of reaching the truth, but on a sudden a thicker darkness plunged him into another abyss. "Satan came suddenly upon me," said he, "that he might not lose his prize, and dealt with me according to his custom."[713] A terrible struggle between the Word of G.o.d and the word of the Church then took place in his heart. If he met with any pa.s.sages of Scripture opposed to the Romish practices, he cast down his eyes, blushed, and dared not believe what he read.[714] "Alas!" said he, fearing to keep his looks fixed on the Bible, "I do not well understand these things; I must give a very different meaning to the Scriptures from that which they seem to have. I must keep to the interpretation of the Church, and indeed of the pope."

[712] Farel. A tous seigneurs, &c.

[713] Ibid.

[714] Oculos demittens, visis non credebam. Farellus Natali Galeoto.

[Sidenote: THE PANTHEON--LEFEVRE'S PROPHECY.]

One day, as he was reading the Bible, a doctor who happened to come in rebuked him sharply. "No man," said he, "ought to read the Holy Scriptures before he has learnt philosophy and taken his degree in arts." This was a preparation the apostles had not required; but Farel believed him. "I was," says he, "the most wretched of men, shutting my eyes lest I should see."[715]

[715] Oculos a luce avertebam. Farellus Natali Galeoto.

From that time the young Dauphinese had a return to his Romish fervour. The legends of the saints inflamed his imagination. The greater the severity of the monastic rules, the greater was the attraction he felt towards them. In the midst of the woods near Paris, some Carthusians inhabited a group of gloomy cells; he visited them with reverence, and shared in their austerities. "I was wholly employed, day and night, in serving the devil," said he, "after the fashion of that man of sin, the pope. I had my Pantheon in my heart, and such a troop of mediators, saviours, and G.o.ds, that I might well have pa.s.sed for a papal register."

The darkness could not grow deeper; the morning star was soon to arise, and it was destined to appear at Lefevre's voice. There were already some gleams of light in the doctor of Etaples; an inward conviction told him that the Church could not long remain in its actual position; and often, at the very moment of his return from saying ma.s.s, or of rising from before some image, the old man would turn towards his youthful disciple, and grasping him by the hand would say in a serious tone of voice: "My dear William, G.o.d will renew the world, and you will see it!"[716] Farel did not thoroughly understand these words. Yet Lefevre did not confine himself to this mysterious language; a great change which was then wrought in him, was destined to produce a similar effect on his disciple.

[716] A tous seigneurs.--See also his letter to Pellican. Ante annos plus minus quadraginta, me manu apprehensum ita alloquebatur: "Gulielme, oportet orbem immutari et tu videbis!"

[Sidenote: THE LEGENDS AND THE WORD OF G.o.d.]

The old doctor was engaged in a laborious task; he was carefully collecting the legends of the saints and martyrs, and arranging them according to the order in which their names are found in the calendar. Two months had already been printed, when one of those beams of light which come from heaven, suddenly illuminated his soul. He could not resist the disgust which such puerile superst.i.tions must ever cause in the heart of a Christian. The sublimity of the Word of G.o.d made him perceive the paltry nature of these fables. They now appeared to him no better than "brimstone fit to kindle the fire of idolatry."[717] He abandoned his work, and throwing these legends aside, turned ardently towards the Holy Scriptures. At the moment when Lefevre, quitting the wondrous tales of the saints, laid his hand on the Word of G.o.d, a new era began in France, and is the commencement of the Reformation.

[717] A tous seigneurs, peuples et pasteurs.

In effect, Lefevre, weaned from the fables of the Breviary, began to study the Epistles of St. Paul; the light increased rapidly in his heart, and he immediately imparted to his disciples that knowledge of the truth which we find in his commentaries.[718] Strange doctrines were those for the school and for the age, which were then first heard in Paris, and disseminated by the press throughout the christian world. We may easily understand that the young disciples who listened to them were aroused, impressed, and changed by them; and that thus, prior to the year 1512, the dawn of a brighter day was preparing for France.

[718] The first edition of his Commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul is, if I mistake not, that of 1512. A copy is extant in the Bibliotheque Royale of Paris. The second edition is that from which I quote. The learned Simon says (Observations on the New Testament), that "James Lefevre deserves to be ranked among the most skilful commentators of the age." We should give him greater praise than this.

[Sidenote: JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH--OBJECTIONS.]

The doctrine of justification by faith, which overthrew by a single blow the subtleties of the schoolmen and the observances of popery, was boldly proclaimed in the bosom of the Sorbonne. "It is G.o.d alone,"

said the doctor, and the vaulted roofs of the university must have been astonished as they re-echoed such strange sounds, "it is G.o.d alone, who by his grace, through faith, justifies unto everlasting life.[719] There is a righteousness of works, there is a righteousness of grace; the one cometh from man, the other from G.o.d; one is earthly and pa.s.seth away, the other is heavenly and eternal; one is the shadow and the sign, the other the light and the truth; one makes sin known to us that we may escape death, the other reveals grace that we may obtain life."[720]

[719] Solus enim Deus est qui hanc just.i.tiam per fidem tradit, qui sola gratia ad vitam justificat aeternam. Fabri Comm. in Epp. Pauli, p.

70.

[720] Illa umbratile vestigium atque signum, haec lux et veritas est.

Fabri Comm. in Epp. Pauli, p. 70.

"What then!" asked his hearers, as they listened to this teaching, which contradicted that of four centuries; "has any one man been ever justified without works?" "One!" answered Lefevre, "they are innumerable. How many people of disorderly lives, who have ardently prayed for the grace of baptism, possessing faith alone in Christ, and who, if they died the moment after, have entered into the life of the blessed without works!"--"If, therefore, we are not justified by works, it is in vain that we perform them," replied some. The Paris doctor answered, and the other reformers would not perhaps have altogether approved of this reply: "Certainly not! they are not in vain. If I hold a mirror to the sun, its image is reflected; the more I polish and clear it, the brighter is the reflection; but if we allow it to become tarnished, the splendour of the sun is dimmed. It is the same with justification in those who lead an impure life." In this pa.s.sage, Lefevre, like Augustine in many, does not perhaps make a sufficient distinction between sanctification and justification. The doctor of Etaples reminds us strongly of the Bishop of Hippona. Those who lead an unholy life have never received justification, and therefore cannot lose it. But Lefevre may have intended to say that the Christian, when he has fallen into any sin, loses the a.s.surance of salvation, and not salvation itself. If so, there is no objection to be made against his doctrine.

[Sidenote: DISORDERS IN THE COLLEGES--UPROAR.]

Thus a new life and a new teaching had penetrated into the university of Paris. The doctrine of faith, formerly preached in Gaul by Pothinus and Irenaeus, was heard there again. From this time there were two parties, two people in this great school of Christendom. Lefevre's lessons and the zeal of his disciples formed the most striking contrast to the scholastic teaching of the majority of the doctors, and the irregular and frivolous lives of most of the students. In the colleges, they were far more busily engaged in learning their parts in comedies, in masquerading, and in mountebank farces, than in studying the oracles of G.o.d. In these plays the honour of the great, of the princes, of the king himself, was frequently attacked. The parliament interfered about this period; and summoning the princ.i.p.als of several colleges before them, forbade those indulgent masters to permit such dramas to be represented in their houses.[721]

[721] Crevier, Hist. de l'Universite, v. 95.

But a more powerful diversion than the decrees of parliament suddenly came to correct these disorders. Jesus Christ was preached. Great was the uproar on the benches of the university, and the students began to occupy themselves almost as much with the evangelical doctrines as with the quibbles of the school or with comedies. Many of those whose lives were the least irreproachable, adhered however to the doctrine of works; and feeling that the doctrine of faith condemned their way of living, they pretended that St. James was opposed to St. Paul.

Lefevre, resolving to defend the treasure he had discovered, showed the agreement of these two apostles: "Does not St. James in his first chapter declare that every good and perfect gift cometh down _from above_? Now, who will deny that justification is the good and perfect gift?......If we see a man moving, the respiration that we perceive is to us a sign of life. Thus works are necessary, but only as signs of a living faith, which is accompanied by justification.[722] Do eye-salves or lotions give light to the eye?......No! it is the influence of the sun. Well, then, these lotions and these eye-salves are our works. The ray that the sun darts from above is justification itself."[723]

[722] Opera signa vivae fidei, quam justificatio sequitur. Fabri Comm.

in Epp. Pauli, p. 73.