History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume III Part 72

[1125] Etude litteraire sur Calvin, par M. A. Sayous, Geneve, 1839, art. iv. It has been followed by others on Farel, Viret, and Beza.

[Sidenote: PERSECUTIONS AND TERROR.]

While the future reformer of religion and language was thus growing to maturity in the college of La Marche, everything was in commotion around the young and serious scholar, who took no part as yet in the great movements that were agitating society. The flames that consumed the hermit and Pavanne had spread terror through Paris. But the persecutors were not satisfied; a system of terror was set on foot throughout France. The friends of the Reformation no longer dared correspond with one another, for fear their intercepted letters should betray to the vengeance of the tribunals both those who wrote them and those to whom they were addressed.[1126] One man, however, ventured to carry intelligence from Paris and France to the refugees at Basle, by sewing a letter that bore no signature under his doublet. He escaped the squadrons of arquebusiers, the marechaussee of the several districts, the examinations of the provosts and lieutenants, and reached Basle without the mysterious doublet being searched. His tidings filled Toussaint and his friends with alarm. "It is frightful," said Toussaint, "to hear of the great cruelties there inflicted!"[1127] Shortly before this, two Franciscan monks had arrived at Basle, closely pursued by the officers of justice. One of them named John Prevost had preached at Meaux, and had afterwards been thrown into prison at Paris.[1128] All that they told of Paris and Lyons, through which they had pa.s.sed, excited the compa.s.sion of these refugees. "May our Lord send his grace thither," wrote Toussaint to Farel; "I a.s.sure you that I am sometimes in great anxiety and tribulation."

[1126] Il n'y a personne qui ose m'ecrire. Toussaint to Farel, 4th September 1525. Neufchatel MS.

[1127] Ibid.

[1128] Ibid. 21st July 1525.

[Sidenote: HOPE AND LIBERTY.]

These excellent men still kept up their courage; in vain were all the parliaments on the watch; in vain did the spies of the Sorbonne and of the monks creep into churches, colleges, and even private families, to catch up any word of evangelical doctrine that might there be uttered; in vain did the king's soldiers arrest on the highways everything that seemed to bear the stamp of the Reformation: those Frenchmen whom Rome and her satellites were hunting down and treading under foot, had faith in better days to come, and already perceived afar off the end of this Babylonish captivity, as they called it. "The seventieth year, the year of deliverance, will come at last," said they, "and liberty of spirit and of conscience will be given to us."[1129] But the seventy years were destined to last nearly three centuries, and it was only after calamities without a parallel that these hopes were to be realized. It was not in man, however, that the refugees placed any hope. "Those who have begun the dance," said Toussaint, "will not stop on the road." But they believed that the Lord "knew those whom he had chosen, and would deliver his people with a mighty hand."[1130]

[1129] Sane venit annus septuagesimus, et tempus appet.i.t ut tandem vindicemur in libertatem spiritus et conscientiae. Toussaint to Farel, 21st July 1525.

[1130] Sed novit Dominus quos elegerit. Ibid.

The Chevalier d'Esch had in effect been delivered. Escaping from the prison at Pont a Mousson, he had hastened to Strasburg; but he did not remain there long. "For the honour of G.o.d," immediately wrote Toussaint to Farel, "endeavour to prevail on the knight, our worthy master,[1131] to return as speedily as possible; for our brethren have great need of such a leader?" In truth, the French refugees had new cause of alarm. They trembled lest that dispute about the Lord's Supper, which had so much distressed them in Germany, should pa.s.s the Rhine, and cause fresh troubles in France. Francis Lambert, the monk of Avignon, after visiting Zurich and Wittemberg, had been in Metz; but they did not place entire confidence in him; they feared lest he should have imbibed Luther's sentiments, and that by controversies, both useless and "monstrous" (as Toussaint calls them), he might check the progress of the Reformation.[1132] Esch therefore returned to Lorraine; but it was to be again exposed to great dangers, "along with all those who were seeking the glory of Jesus Christ."[1133]

[1131] Si nos magistrum in terris habere deceat (if it becomes us to have any master upon earth) he adds. Ibid. Neufchatel MS.

[1132] Vereor ne aliquid monstri alat. Toussaint to Farel, 27th Sept.

1525.

[1133] Audio etiam equitem peric.l.i.tari, simul et omnes qui illic Christi gloriae favent. Ibid. 27th December 1525.

[Sidenote: TOUSSAINT AT PARIS--IMPRISONED.]

Yet Toussaint was not of a disposition to send others to the battle without joining in it himself. Deprived of his daily intercourse with colampadius, reduced to a.s.sociate with an ignorant priest, he had sought communion with Christ, and felt his courage augmented. If he could not return to Metz, might he not at least go to Paris? True, the piles of Pavanne and the hermit of Livry were smoking still, and seemed to repel from the capital all those who held the same faith as they did. But if the colleges and the streets of Paris were struck with terror, so that no one dared even name the Gospel and the Reformation, was not that a reason why he should go thither? Toussaint quitted Basle, and entered those walls where fanaticism had taken the place of riot and debauchery. While advancing in christian studies, he endeavoured to form a connexion with those brethren who were in the colleges, and especially in that of the Cardinal Lemoine, where Lefevre and Farel had taught.[1134] But he could not long do so freely. The tyranny of the parliamentary commissioners and of the theologians reigned supreme in the capital, and whoever displeased them was accused of heresy.[1135] A duke and an abbot, whose names are unknown to us, denounced Toussaint as a heretic; and one day the king's sergeants arrested the youth from Lorraine and put him in prison. Separated from all his friends, and treated like a criminal, Toussaint felt his wretchedness the more keenly. "O Lord," exclaimed he, "withdraw not thou thy Spirit from me! for without it I am but flesh and a sink of iniquity." While his body was in chains, he turned in heart to those who were still combating freely for the Gospel.

There was colampadius, his father, and "whose work I am in the Lord," said he.[1136] There was Leclerc, whom he no doubt believed, on account of his age, "unable to bear the weight of the Gospel;"[1137]

Vaugris, who had displayed all the zeal "of the most affectionate brother" to rescue him from the hands of his enemies;[1138] Roussel, "by whom he hoped the Lord would bring great things to pa.s.s;"[1139]

and lastly, Farel, to whom he wrote, "I commend myself to your prayers, for fear that I should fall in this warfare."[1140] How must the names of all these men have softened the bitterness of his imprisonment, for he showed no signs of falling. Death, it is true, seemed hanging over him in this city where the blood of a number of his brethren was to be poured out like water;[1141] the friends of his mother, of his uncle the Dean of Metz, and the Cardinal of Lorraine, made him the most lavish offers.[1142]......"I despise them," answered he; "I know that they are a temptation of the devil. I would rather suffer hunger, I would rather be a slave in the house of the Lord, than dwell with riches in the palaces of the wicked."[1143] At the same time he made a bold confession of his faith. "It is my glory,"

exclaimed he, "to be called a heretic by those whose lives and doctrines are opposed to Jesus Christ."[1144] And this interesting and bold young man subscribed his letters, "Peter Toussaint, unworthy to be called a Christian."

[1134] Fratres qui in collegio Cardinalis Monachi sunt te salutant.

Toussaint to Farel, Neufchatel MS.

[1135] Regnante hic tyrannide commissariorum et theologorum. Ibid.

[1136] Patrem nostrum cujus nos opus sumus in Domino. Toussaint to Farel, Neufchatel MS. This letter is undated, but it would seem to have been written shortly after Toussaint's deliverance, and shows the thoughts that then filled his mind.

[1137] Faber impar est oneri evangelico ferendo. Ibid.

[1138] Fidelissimi fratris officio functum. Ibid.

[1139] Per Rufum magna operabitur Dominus. Touss. to Farel, Neuf. MS.

[1140] Commendo me vestris precibus ne succ.u.mbam in hac militia. Ibid.

[1141] Me peric.l.i.tari de vita. Ibid.

[1142] Offerebantur hic mihi conditiones amplissimae. Ibid.

[1143] Malo esurire et abjectus esse in domo Domini......Ibid.

[1144] Haec, haec gloria mea quod habeor haereticus ab his quorum vitam et doctrinam video pugnare c.u.m Christo. Ibid.

[Sidenote: FIRMNESS AND COURAGE.]

Thus, in the absence of the king, new blows were continually aimed against the Reformation. Berquin, Toussaint, and many others, were in prison; Schuch, Pavanne, and the hermit of Livry, had been put to death; Farel, Lefevre, Roussel, and many other defenders of the holy doctrine, were in exile; the mouths of the mighty ones were dumb. The light of the Gospel day was growing dim; the storm was roaring incessantly, bending and shaking as if it would uproot the young tree that the hand of G.o.d had so recently planted in France.

[Sidenote: PERSECUTION MORE VIGOROUS--DU BLET AND MOULIN.]

Nor was this all. The humble victims who had already fallen were to be succeeded by more ill.u.s.trious martyrs. The enemies of the Reform in France, having failed when they began with persons of rank, had submitted to begin at the bottom, but with the hope of rising gradually until they procured the condemnation and death of the most exalted personages. The inverse progress succeeded with them.

Scarcely had the ashes with which the persecution had covered the Greve and the avenues of Notre-Dame been dispersed by the wind, before fresh attacks were commenced. Messire Anthony Du Blet, that excellent man, the Lyons merchant, sunk under the persecutions of these enemies of the truth, in company with another disciple, Francis Moulin, of whose fate no details have been handed down.[1145] They went further still; they now took a higher aim; there was an ill.u.s.trious person whom they could not reach, but whom they could strike in those who were dear to her. This was the d.u.c.h.ess of Alencon. Michael d'Arande, chaplain to the king's sister, for whose sake Margaret had dismissed her other preachers, and who proclaimed the pure doctrine of the Gospel in her presence, became the object of attack, and was threatened with imprisonment and death.[1146] About the same time Anthony Papillon, for whom the princess had obtained the office of chief master of requests to the Dauphin, died suddenly, and the general report, even among the enemies, was that he had been poisoned.[1147]

[1145] Periit Franciscus Molinus ac Dubletus. Erasm. Epp. p. 1109. In this letter, addressed to Francis I. in July 1526, Erasmus gives the names of all those who, during the king's captivity, had fallen victims to these Roman fanatics.

[1146] Peric.l.i.tatus est Michael Arantius. Ibid.

[1147] Periit Papilio non sine gravi suspicione veneni. Ibid.

[Sidenote: TERROR AND MOURNING.]

Thus the persecution spread over the kingdom, and daily drew nearer to the person of Margaret. After the forces of the Reform, concentrated at Meaux, at Lyons, and at Basle, had been dispersed, they brought down one after another those isolated combatants who here and there stood up for it. Yet a few more efforts, and the soil of France will be free from heresy. Underhanded contrivances and secret practices took the place of clamour and the stake. They will make war in open day, but they will also carry it on in darkness. If fanaticism employs the tribunal and the scaffold for the meaner sort, poison and the dagger are in reserve for the great. The doctors of a celebrated society have made too good a use of these means, and even kings have fallen under the dagger of the a.s.sa.s.sins. But justice demands that we should remember if Rome has had in every age its fanatical a.s.sa.s.sins, it has also had men like Vincent de Paul and Fenelon. These blows struck in darkness and silence were well adapted to spread terror on every side.

To this perfidious policy and fanatical persecution from within, were added the fatal reverses from without. A veil of mourning hung over the whole nation. There was not a family, particularly among the n.o.bles, whose tears did not flow for the loss of a father, a husband, or a son left on the fields of Italy,[1148] or whose hearts did not tremble for the liberty and even the life of one of its members. The great reverses that had fallen upon the nation diffused a leaven of hatred against the heretics. People and parliament, church and throne, joined hand in hand.

[1148] Gaillard, Francois I. vol. ii. 255.

Was it not enough for the d.u.c.h.ess of Alencon that the defeat of Pavia should have deprived her of a husband, and made her brother a prisoner? Must the torch of the Gospel, in whose mild light she so rejoiced, be extinguished perhaps for ever? In May 1525, she had felt increase of sorrow. Charles of Lannoy had received orders to take his prisoner into Spain. Margaret had recourse to the consolations of faith, and having found them, immediately communicated them to her brother. "My lord," she wrote, "the farther you are removed from us, the stronger is my hope of your deliverance: for when the reason of man is troubled and fails, then the Lord performs his mighty works.--And now, if he makes you partaker of the pains he has borne for you, I beseech you, my lord, to believe that it is only to try how much you love him, and to afford you s.p.a.ce to learn how he loves you; for he will have your whole heart, as he through love hath given his own. After having united you to himself by tribulation, he will deliver you to his glory and your consolation, by the merits of his victorious resurrection, in order that by you his name may be known and sanctified, not only in your kingdom, but in all Christendom, until the conversion of the unbelievers. Oh! how blessed will be your brief captivity, by which G.o.d will deliver so many souls from unbelief and eternal condemnation!"[1149] Francis I. deceived the hopes of his pious sister.

[1149] Letters de la Reine de Navarre a Francois I. p. 32.

[Sidenote: G.o.d PRESERVES THE CHURCH.]

The news from Spain soon increased the general sorrow. Mortification and illness endangered the life of the haughty Francis. If the king remains a prisoner, if he dies, if his mother's regency is prolonged for many years, will not the Reformation be crushed for ever? "But when all seems lost," said the young scholar of Noyon at a later period, "G.o.d saves his Church in a marvellous way."[1150] The Church of France, which was as if in the travail of birth, was to have an interval of ease before her pains returned; and to this end G.o.d made use of a weak woman, who never openly declared in favour of the Reformation. At that time she thought more of saving the king and the kingdom, than of delivering obscure Christians, who nevertheless rested great hopes in her.[1151] But under the splendour of worldly affairs G.o.d often conceals the mysterious ways by which he governs his people. A n.o.ble project arose in the mind of the d.u.c.h.ess of Alencon.

To cross the sea or the Pyrenees, and rescue Francis from the power of Charles V., was now the object of her life.

[1150] Nam habet Deus modum, quo electos suos mirabiliter custodiat, ubi omnia perdita videntur. Calvin, in Epp. ad Rom. xi. 2.

[1151] Beneficio ill.u.s.trissimae Ducis Alanconiae. Toussaint to Farel.

[Sidenote: MARGARET'S PROJECT.]

Margaret of Valois announced her intention, which was suggested by her mother, and all France hailed it with shouts of grat.i.tude. Her great genius, the reputation she had acquired, the love she felt for her brother, and that of Francis towards her, were a great counterpoise in the eyes of Louisa and Duprat to her attachment to the new doctrine.

All eyes were turned upon her, as the only person capable of extricating the kingdom from its perilous position. Let Margaret visit Spain, let her speak to the powerful emperor and to his ministers, and let her employ that admirable genius which Providence has bestowed on her, for the deliverance of her brother and her king!