History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume III Part 70

All the court of Lorraine resounded with the obstinacy and impudence of the minister of St. Hippolyte, and the prince, curious to hear the heretic, desired to be present at his last interrogatory, but in secret however, and concealed from every eye. As the examination took place in Latin, he could not understand a word; but he was struck with the firm countenance of the minister, who seemed neither vanquished nor confounded. Exasperated at such obstinacy, Anthony the Good rose up, and said as he withdrew: "Why do you still dispute? He denies the sacrament of the ma.s.s; let them proceed to execution against him."[1082] Schuch was instantly condemned to be burnt alive. When the sentence was made known to him, he raised his eyes to heaven, saying mildly: "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord."[1083]

[1082] Hist. de Francois I. par Gaillard, iv. 233.

[1083] Psalm cxxii. 1.

On the 19th August 1525 the whole city of Nancy was in motion. The bells were tolling for the death of a heretic. The mournful procession set out. It was necessary to pa.s.s before the convent of the Cordeliers, who, rejoicing and expectant, had a.s.sembled before the gate. At the moment that Schuch appeared, Father Bonaventure, pointing to the carved images over the portals of the convent, exclaimed: "Heretic! pay honour to G.o.d, to his mother, and to the saints."--"Ye hypocrites!" replied Schuch, standing erect before these blocks of wood and stone, "G.o.d will destroy you, and bring your deceits to light!"

[Sidenote: BEDA'S CONTEST WITH CAROLI]

When the martyr reached the place of execution, his books were burnt before his face; he was then called upon to retract; but he refused, saying: "It is thou, O G.o.d, who hast called me, and thou wilt give me strength unto the end."[1084] After this he began to repeat aloud the fifty-first psalm: "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, according to thy loving kindness." Having mounted the pile, he continued to recite the psalm until the smoke and the flames stifled his voice.

[1084] Eum auctorem vocationis suae atque conservatorem, ad extremum usque spiritum recognovit. Acta Mart. p. 202.

Thus the persecutors of France and Lorraine beheld a renewal of their victories; at length men paid attention to their advice. The ashes of a heretic had been scattered to the winds at Nancy; it was a challenge to the capital of France. What! shall Beda and Lecouturier be the last to show their zeal for the pope! Let flames reply to flames, and heresy, swept from the soil of the kingdom, would soon be entirely driven back beyond the Rhine.

But before he could succeed, Beda had to sustain a combat, half serious, half ludicrous, against one of those men with whom the struggle against the Papacy is merely an intellectual pastime and not an earnest purpose of the heart.

[Sidenote: CONTEST WITH CAROLI--PAVANNE'S DEJECTION.]

Among the scholars whom Briconnet had attracted to his diocese, was a doctor of the Sorbonne, named Peter Caroli, a vain and frivolous man, not less quarrelsome and litigious than Beda himself. In the new doctrine Caroli saw the means of vexing Beda, whose ascendency he could not endure. Accordingly, on his return from Meaux to Paris, he made a great sensation by carrying into the pulpit what was called, "the new way of preaching." Then began an indefatigable struggle between the two doctors; it was blow for blow, and trick for trick.

Beda summoned Caroli before the Sorbonne, and Caroli summoned him before the bishop's court by way of reparation. The faculty continued the examination, and Caroli gave notice of an appeal to the parliament. He was provisionally forbidden to enter the pulpit, and he preached in all the churches of Paris. Being positively forbidden to preach at all, he publicly lectured on the Psalms in the College of Cambray. The faculty forbade him to continue his course, and he begged permission to finish the explanation of the 22d Psalm, which he had just begun. Finally, on the refusal of his request, he posted the following placard on the college gates: "_Peter Caroli, desirous of obeying the orders of the sacred faculty, has ceased to lecture; he will resume his lectures (whenever it shall please G.o.d) at the verse where he left off_: THEY HAVE PIERCED MY HANDS AND MY FEET." Thus Beda at last found his match. If Caroli had seriously defended the truth, the burning pile would soon have been his reward; but he was of too profane a spirit to be put to death. How could the judges capitally punish a man who made them lose their gravity. Neither the bishop's court, nor the parliament, nor the council, could ever come to a definite decision in his cause. Two men such as Caroli would have wearied out the activity of Beda himself; but the Reformation did not produce his parallel.[1085]

[1085] Gerdesius, Hist. seculi xvi. renovati, p. 52; D'Argentre, Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus, ii. 21; Gaillard, Hist. de Francois I. iv. 233.

As soon as this unseasonable contest was ended, Beda applied to more serious matters. Happily for the syndic of the Sorbonne, there were men who gave persecution a better hold of them than Caroli. Briconnet, Erasmus, Lefevre, and Farel had escaped him; but since he cannot reach these distinguished individuals, he will content himself with meaner persons. The poor youth, James Pavanne, after his abjuration at Christmas 1524, had done nothing but weep and sigh. He might be seen with a melancholy air, his eyes fixed on the earth, groaning inwardly, and severely reproaching himself for having denied his Saviour and his G.o.d.[1086]

[1086] Animi factum suum destestantis dolorem, saepe declaraverit. Acta Mart. p. 203.

[Sidenote: HIS JOY AND MARTYRDOM--THE HERMIT.]

Pavanne was undoubtedly the most diffident and inoffensive of men: but what mattered that! he had been at Meaux, and in those days that was sufficient. "Pavanne has relapsed," was the cry; "_the dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the_ _mire_." He was immediately arrested, thrown into prison, and taken before his judges. This was all that the youthful James required. He felt comforted as soon as he was in chains, and found strength sufficient to confess Jesus Christ with boldness.[1087] The cruel persecutors smiled as they saw that, this time at least, nothing could save their victim; there was no recantation, no flight, no powerful patronage. The young man's mildness, his candour and courage, failed to soften his adversaries. He regarded them with love; for by casting him into prison, they had restored him to tranquillity and joy; but his tender looks only served to harden their hearts. His trial was soon concluded: a pile was erected on the Greve, where Pavanne died rejoicing, strengthening by his example all those who in that large city believed openly or secretly in the Gospel of Christ.

[1087] Puram religionis Christianae confessionem addit. Acta Mart. p.

203.

This was not enough for the Sorbonne. If they are compelled to sacrifice the little ones of the world, their number must at least make amends for their quality. The flames of the Greve struck terror into Paris and the whole of France; but a new pile, kindled on another spot, will redouble that terror. It will be talked of at court, in the colleges, and in the workshops of the people; and such proofs will show more clearly than any edicts, that Louisa of Savoy, the Sorbonne, and the parliament, are resolved to sacrifice the very last heretic to the anathemas of Rome.

[Sidenote: THE HERMIT OF LIVRY.]

In the forest of Livry, three leagues from Paris, and not far from the spot where once stood the ancient abbey of the Augustines, dwelt a hermit, who in his excursions having met with some men of Meaux, had received the evangelical doctrine in his heart.[1088] The poor hermit had felt himself rich in his retreat, when one day, returning with the scanty food that public charity bestowed on him, he carried back Jesus Christ and his grace. From that time he found that it was better to give than to receive. He went from house to house in the surrounding villages, and as soon as he had opened the doors of the poor peasants whom he visited in their humble huts, he spoke to them of the Gospel, of the perfect pardon that it offers to the burdened soul, and which is far better than absolutions.[1089] Erelong the good hermit of Livry was known in the environs of Paris; people went to visit him in his lowly cell, and he became a mild and fervent missionary for the simple souls of that district.

[1088] Cette s.e.m.e.nce de Faber et de ses disciples, prise au grenier de Luther, germa dans le sot esprit d'un ermite, qui se tenait pres la ville de Paris. Hist. cath. de notre temps, par S. Fontaine, Paris, 1562.

[1089] Lequel par les villages qu'il frequentait, sous couleur de faire ses quetes, tenait propos heretiques. Hist. cath. de notre temps, par S. Fontaine, Paris, 1562.

The rumour of the doings of this new evangelist did not fail to reach the ears of the Sorbonne and of the magistrates of Paris. The hermit was seized, dragged from his hermitage, from his forest, from those fields through which he used to wander daily, thrown into a prison in that great city which he had ever shunned, and condemned "to suffer the exemplary punishment of the slow fire."[1090]

[1090] Ibid.

[Sidenote: HIS MARTYRDOM.]

In order to render the example more striking, it was determined that he should be burnt alive in the front of Notre-Dame, before that splendid cathedral, that majestic symbol of Roman-catholicism. All the clergy were convoked, and as much pomp was displayed as on the most solemn festivals.[1091] They would, if possible, have attracted all Paris round the stake, "the great bell of the church of Notre-Dame (says an historian) tolling solemnly to arouse the citizens."[1092]

The people flocked in crowds through all the streets that led into the square. The deep tones of the bell drew the workman from his toil, the scholar from his books, the merchant from his traffic, the soldier from his idleness, and already the wide s.p.a.ce was covered by an immense crowd which still kept increasing. The hermit, clad in the garments a.s.signed to obstinate heretics, with head and feet bare, had been led before the gates of the cathedral. Calm, firm, and collected, he made no reply to the exhortations of the confessors who presented him a crucifix, save by declaring that his sole hope was in the pardon of G.o.d. The doctors of the Sorbonne, in the front ranks of the spectators, seeing his constancy, and the effect it was producing on the people, cried aloud: "He is d.a.m.ned: they are leading him to h.e.l.l-fire!"[1093] The great bell still continued tolling, and its loud notes, by stunning the ears of the crowd, increased the solemnity of this mournful spectacle. At length the bell was silent, and the martyr having replied to the last questions of his enemies, that he was resolved to die in the faith of his Lord Jesus Christ, was burnt by a slow fire, according to the tenor of his sentence. And thus, in front of Notre-Dame, amid the shouts and emotion of a whole people, under the shadow of the towers raised by the piety of Louis the younger, peacefully died a man, whose name history has not transmitted to us, except as the "Hermit of Livry."

[1091] Avec une grande ceremonie. Hist, des Egl. Ref. par Theod. de Beze, i. 4.

[1092] Ibid.

[1093] Beza, Histoire des eglises Ref. i. 4.

CHAPTER XV.

A Student of Noyon--Character of young Calvin--Early Education--Consecrated to Theology--The Bishop gives him the Tonsure--He leaves Noyon on Account of the Plague--The two Calvins--Slanders--The Reformation creates new Languages--Persecution and Terror--Toussaint put in Prison--The Persecution more furious--Death of Du Blet, Moulin, and Papillon--G.o.d saves the Church--Margaret's Project--Her Departure for Spain.

[Sidenote: A SCHOLAR OF NOYON.]

While men were thus putting to death the first confessors of Jesus Christ in France, G.o.d was preparing mightier ones to fill their places. Beda hurried to the stake an una.s.suming scholar, an humble hermit, and thought he was dragging almost the whole of the Reform along with them. But Providence has resources that are unknown to the world. The Gospel, like the fabulous phnix, contains a principle of life within itself, which the flames cannot consume, and it springs up again from its own ashes. It is often at the moment when the storm is at its height, when the thunderbolt seems to have struck down the truth, and when thick darkness hides it from our view, that a sudden glimmering appears, the forerunner of a great deliverance. At this time, when all human powers in France were arming against the Gospel for the complete destruction of the Reformation, G.o.d was preparing an instrument, weak to all appearance, one day to support His rights and to defend His cause with more than mortal intrepidity. In the midst of the persecutions and blazing piles that followed each other in close succession after Francis became Charles's prisoner, let us fix our eyes on a youth, one day to be called to the head of a great army in the holy warfare of Israel.

[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF YOUNG CALVIN.]

Among the inhabitants of the city and colleges of Paris who heard the sound of the great bell was a young scholar of sixteen, a native of Noyon in Picardy, of middle stature, sallow features, and whose piercing eye and animated looks announced a mind of no common sagacity.[1094] His dress, extremely neat but of perfect simplicity, betokened order and moderation.[1095] This young man, by name John Cauvin or Calvin, was then studying at the college of La Marche, under Mathurin Cordier, a rector celebrated for his probity, erudition, and peculiar fitness for the instruction of youth. Brought up in all the superst.i.tions of popery, the scholar of Noyon was blindly submissive to the Church, cheerfully complying with all her observances,[1096]

and persuaded that the heretics had richly deserved their fate. The blood which was then flowing in Paris aggravated the crime of heresy in his eyes. But although naturally of a timid and fearful disposition, and which he himself has styled soft and pusillanimous,[1097]

he possessed that uprightness and generosity of heart which lead a man to sacrifice everything to his convictions. Accordingly, in vain had his youth been appalled by those frightful spectacles, in vain had murderous flames consumed the faithful disciples of the Gospel on the Greve and in front of Notre-Dame; the recollection of these horrors could not prevent him from one day entering on the new path, which seemed to lead only to the prison or the stake. Moreover, there were already perceptible in the character of young Calvin certain traits that announced what he would become. Strictness of morals in him led the way to strictness of doctrine, and the scholar of sixteen already gave promise of a man who would deal seriously with every principle he embraced, and who would firmly require in others what he himself found it so easy to perform. Quiet and serious during his lessons, never sharing in the amus.e.m.e.nts or follies of his schoolfellows during the hours of recreation, holding himself aloof,[1098] and filled with horror at sin, he would often reprimand their disorders with severity and even bitterness.[1099] And hence, as a canon of Noyon informs us, his fellow-students nicknamed him the _accusative case_.[1100] Among them he was the representative of conscience and of duty, so far was he from being as some of his calumniators have depicted him. The pale features and the piercing eyes of the scholar of sixteen had already inspired his comrades with more respect than the black gowns of their masters; and this Picard youth, of a timid air, who daily took his seat on the benches in the college of La Marche, was even then, by the seriousness of his conversation and life, an unconscious minister and reformer.

[1094] Statura fuit mediocri, colore subpallido et nigricante, oculis ad mortem usque limpidis, quique ingenii sagacitatem testarentur. Bezae Vita Calvini.

[1095] Cultu corporis neque culto neque sordido sed qui singularem modestiam deceret. Ibid.

[1096] Primo quidem quum superst.i.tionibus Papatus magis pertinaciter addictus essem. Calv. Praef. ad Psalm.

[1097] Ego qui natura timido, molli et pusillo animo me esse fateor.

Ibid.

[1098] Summam in moribus affectabat gravitatem et paucorum hominum consuetudine utebatur. Raemundi Hist. Haeres. vii. 10.

[1099] Severus omnium in suis sodalibus censor. Bezae Vita Calv.

[1100] Annales de l'Eglise de Noyon, par Leva.s.seur, chanoine, p. 1158.

It was not in these particulars alone that the youth of Noyon was already far above his schoolfellows. His great timidity sometimes prevented him from manifesting all the horror he felt at vanity and vice; but he already consecrated to study the whole force of his genius and of his will, and to look at him one might see he was a man who would spend his life in toil. He comprehended everything with inconceivable facility; he ran in his studies while his companions were lazily creeping along, and he impressed deeply on his profound genius what others spend much time in learning superficially.

Accordingly, his master was compelled to take him out of the cla.s.ses, and introduce him singly to fresh studies.[1101]

[1101] Exculto ipsius ingenio quod ei jam tum erat acerrimum, ita profecit ut caeteris sodalibus in grammatices curriculo relictis, ad dialecticos et aliarum quas vocant artium studium promoveretur. Beza.

[Sidenote: CALVIN'S FATHER--THE MOMMORS]