J. H. Merle D'Aubigné - History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Vol. 1-8)

=MARGARET AND CALVIN.=

'A man cannot enter the ministry of God,' says Calvin, 'without having been proved by temptation.' The queen's wit, the court of St. Germain, intercourse with men of genius and of rank, the prospect of exercising an influence that might turn to the glory of God—all these things might tempt him. Would he become Margaret's chaplain, like Roussel? Would he quit the narrow way in which he was treading, to enter upon that where christians tried to walk with the world on their right hand and Rome on their left? The queen's love for the Saviour affected Calvin, and he asked himself whether that was not a door opened by God through which the Gospel would enter the kingdom of France.... He was at that moment on the brink of the abyss. What likelihood was there that a young man, just at the beginning of his career, would not gladly seize the opportunity that presented itself of serving a princess so full of piety and genius—the king's sister? Margaret, who made Roussel a bishop, would also have a diocese for Calvin. 'I should be pleased to have a servant like you,' she told him one day. But the rather mystical piety of the princess, and the vanities with which she was surrounded, were offensive to that simple and upright heart. 'Madame,' he replied, 'I am not fitted to do you any great service; the capacity is wanting, and also you have enough without me.... Those who know me are aware that I never desired to frequent the courts of princes; and I thank the Lord that I have never been tempted, for I have every reason to be satisfied with the good Master who has accepted me and retains me in his household.' 241Calvin had no more longing for the semi-catholic dignities of the queen than for the Roman dignities of the popes. Yet he knew how to take advantage of the opportunity offered him, and nobly conjured Margaret to speak out more frankly in favour of the Gospel. Carried away by an eloquence which, though simple, had great power, she declared herself ready to move forward.

An opportunity soon presented itself of realising the plan she had conceived of renewing the universal Church without destroying its unity; but the means to be employed were not such as Calvin approved of. They were about to have recourse to carnal weapons. 'Now the only foundation of the kingdom of Christ,' he said, 'is the humiliation of man. I know how proud carnal minds are of their vain shows; but the arms of the Lord, with which we fight, will be stronger, and will throw down all their strongholds, by means of which they think themselves invincible.' 242

Luther now appears again on the scene; and on this important point Luther and Calvin are one.

215'Cum facultate retinendi simul archiepiscopatum tolosanum.'— Gallia Christiana.

216'Scis nos episcopum nationis tuæ habere.'—Daniel Calvino, Berne MSS.

217'Ut officialis dignitate aut aliqua alia te ornaret.'—Daniel Calvino, Berne MSS.

218Calvin, Lettres Françaises .

219'Unus de plebe, homuncio mediocri seu potius modica eruditione præditus.'—Calvinus, Præf. de Clementia .

220'Peccavimus omnes ... et usque ad extremum ævi delinquemus.'— De Clementia , lib. i.

221'Ferarum vero, nec generosarum quidem, præmordere et urgere projectos.'— De Clementia , cap. v.

222'Si leones ursique regnarent.'—Ibid. cap. xxvi.

223'Plus pecuniæ exhauserunt.'—Calvinus Danieli, Geneva MSS.

224'Tandem jacta est alea.'—Ibid.

225'Quo favore vel frigore excepti fuerint.'—Ibid.

226'Ut Landrinum inducas in protectionem.'—Calvinus Danieli, Geneva MSS.

227'De Bibliis exhausi mandatum tuum.'—Ibid.

228'Ita se gessit, ut gratiosus esset apud ordinis nostri homines.'—Calvinus Bucero, Strasburg MSS.

229'Cum non posset submittere diutius cervicem isti voluntariæ servituti.'—Calvinus Bucero, Strasburg MSS.

230'Cassait toutes les vitres.'

231'Si quid preces meæ, si quid lacrimæ valent, hujus miseriæ succurras.'—Calvinus Bucero, Berne MSS.

232 Versio et Commentarii , published at Paris in 1531.

233'Academiam parisiensem super monstrum esse fundatam.'—Morrhius Erasmo, March 30, 1532.

234'Res delata est ad inquisitores fidei.'—Ibid.

235'Quod ex Stephano a Fabrica ( De la Forge ) intellexi, istos potius ob maleficia ... egressos esse.'— Adv. Libertinos.

236Ibid.

237'Calvinus strictiorem vivendi disciplinam secutus est.'—Flor. Rémond, Hist. de l'Hérésie , ii. p. 247.

238'Cibi ac potus abstinentissimus.'—Ibid.

239'Illum incomparabilem, quem certatim sibi vindicant, hinc Gallia, hinc Germania.'—Erasmi Epp. p. 15.

240 Calvin's Letters , i. p. 342. Philadelphia, ed. J. Bonnet.

241 Lettres Françaises de Calvin. A la Reine de Navarre , i. p. 114, ed. J. Bonnet.

242Calvin, in 2ᵃᵐ Epist. ad Corinth. ch. x.

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=DU BELLAY'S PROJECTS.=

FRANCE, or at least the king and the influential men, appeared at this time to be veering towards a moderate Reform. Francis I. seemed to have some liking for his sister's religion; but there were other motives inclining him to entertain these ideas. Finding himself without allies in Europe, he endeavoured to gain the friendship of the protestants, hoping that with their help he would be in a condition to oppose the emperor and restore the French preponderance in Italy. One man in particular set himself the task of directing his country into a new path; this was William du Bellay, brother to the Bishop of Paris, and 'one of the greatest men France ever had,' says a catholic historian. 243A skilful, active, and prudent diplomatist, Du Bellay called to mind the memorable struggles that had formerly taken place between the popes and the kings of France; he believed that christendom was in a state of transition, and desired, as the Chancellor de l'Hôpital did in later years, that the new times should be marked with more liberty, and not with more servitude, as the Guises, the Valois, and the Bourbons would have wished. He went even farther: he thought that the sixteenth century would substitute for the papacy of the middle ages a form of christianity, catholic of course, but more in conformity with the ancient Scriptures and the modern requirements. From that hour his dominant idea, his chief business, was to unite catholic France to protestant Germany.

Having received the instructions of Francis I., Du Bellay left Honfleur, where the king was staying, 244on the 11th of March, 1532, and crossed the Rhine about the middle of April. At Schweinfurth-on-the-Maine, between Wurtzburg and Bamberg, he found an assembly composed of a few protestant princes on one side, and a few mediators on the other, among whom was the elector-archbishop of Mayence. As this brings us into Germany, it is necessary that we should take a glance at what had happened there since the great diet of Augsburg in 1530. 245

The catholics and protestants had made up their minds at that time for a contest, and everything foreboded the bursting of the storm in the next spring (1531). There were, so to say, two contrary currents among the friends of the Reformation in Germany. One party (the men of prudence) wished that the evangelical states should seek powerful alliances and prepare to resist the emperor by force of arms; the other (the men of piety) called to mind that the Reformation had triumphed at Augsburg by faith, and added that from faith all its future triumphs were to be expected. These two parties had frequent meetings at Wittemberg, Torgau, and elsewhere. One man especially, with open countenance and firm look, whose lips seemed always ready to speak, made his clear and sonorous voice heard: this was Luther. 'To God alone,' he told the elector, 'belongs the government of the future; your Highness must therefore persevere in that faith and confidence in God which you have just displayed so gloriously at Augsburg.' 246But the jurists of Torgau were not entirely of that opinion, and they endeavoured to prove that their rights in the empire authorised the protestants to repel force by force. Luther was not to be shaken. 'If war breaks out,' he replied, 'I call God and the world to witness, that the Lutherans have in no wise provoked it; that they have never drawn the sword, never thrown men into prison, never burnt, killed, and pillaged, as their adversaries have done; and, in a word, that they have never sought anything but peace and quietness.' 247The politicians smiled at such enthusiasm, and said that in real life things must go on very differently. A conference was appointed for the consideration of what was to be done, and in the meanwhile great efforts were made to win over new allies to the protestant cause.