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

But that epoch was still remote; and just now Paris presented a very different spectacle. It is time to return thither.

368Du Bellay, Mémoires , p. 179.

369Ibid. p. 180.

370Du Bellay, Mémoires , p. 180. Guicciardini, Wars of Italy , ii. bk. xvi. pp. 894-897.

371Guicciardini, ibid.

372'Cæsar arbitratus illud conjugium quasi per simulationem a rege oblatum.'—Pallavicini, Hist. Concil. Trid. lib. iii. cap. ii. p. 274.

373'Adulterinam esse monetam qua rex ipsum commercari studebat.'—Ibid.

374Du Bellay, Mém. p. 180. Pallavicini, ibid. Guicciardini, Wars of Italy , ii. p. 898.

375Guicciardini, ii. p. 898.

376'Quo fortasse magis dubitanter ac pedetentim processisset.'—Pallavicini, Hist. Concil. Trid. i. p. 274.

377'Gallus explorato æmuli consilio, ut ipsum eluderet, eo statim properavit.'—Ibid. Du Bellay, Mémoires . Guicciardini, Wars of Italy .

378Du Bellay, Mém. p. 182.

379Ibid.

380Ibid. Guicciardini. Pallavicini.

381Du Bellay, Mém. p. 182.

382Ibid. pp. 182, 183.

383Du Bellay, Mém. p. 186.

384Du Bellay, Mém. p. 185.

385The protestant sovereigns.

386Du Bellay, Mém. pp. 186, 187.

387Acts xv. 23.

388The Emperor Joseph II.

389Du Bellay, Mém. p. 189.

390Du Bellay, Mém. p. 187.

391Guicciardini. Du Bellay.

392Du Bellay, Mém. p. 189.

393 State Papers , vii. p. 439.

394'The 28th the emperor departed from hens' ( State Papers , viii. p. 438), 'and went to Milan' (p. 447).

395Du Bellay, Mém. p. 189.

396Ibid.

Table of Contents

=UNEASINESS OF THE ULTRAMONTANES.=

THE Romish party would not be comforted under its defeat. Beda, Le Picard, and Mathurin in exile; evangelical sermons freely preached in the great churches of the capital; the new doctrines carried through Paris from house to house; and the Queen of Navarre seated, as it were, upon the throne during her brother's absence, protecting and directing this Lutheran activity—it was too much! The anxiety and alarm of the ultramontanists increased every day: they held numerous conferences; and if the young Alsatian whom we saw at the gate of the Sorbonne, or any other inquisitive person, could have crept into these catholic committees, he would have heard the most violent addresses. 'It is not only the approach of the enemy that alarms us,' they said: 'he is there ... the revolutionary, immoral, impious, atheistic, abominable, execrable monster!' Other epithets were added, to be found only in the popish vocabulary. 'He is making rapid progress; unless we resist him vigorously, it is all over! The world will perhaps see crumbling under his blows those ancient walls of Roman catholicism under which the nations have taken shelter for so many ages.' And hence the Sorbonne was of the same opinion with the priests and the most hot-headed laymen, that, overlooking for the moment secondary persons, it was necessary to strike the most dangerous. In their eyes the Queen of Navarre was the great enemy of the papacy; the monks, in particular, whose disorders she had not feared to expose, were full of fury against her; their clamours were heard in every quarter. 'The queen,' they said, 'is the modern Eve by whom the new revolt is entering into the world.'—'It is the nature of women to be deceived,' said one; and to prove it he quoted St. Jerome. 'Woman is the gate of the devil,' said another, citing the authority of Tertullian. 'The wily serpent,' said the greatest doctors, 'remembers that memorable duel fought in Paradise. Another fight is beginning, and he is again putting in practice the stratagems that succeeded so well before. At the beginning of the world and now, it is always against woman—that tottering wall, that pannel so weak and easy to break down—that he draws up his battery. It is the Queen of Navarre who supports the disciples of Luther in France; she has placed them in schools; she alone watches over them with wonderful care, and saves them from all danger. 397Either the king must punish her, or she must publicly recant her errors.' The ultramontanists did not restrict themselves to words: they entered into a diabolical plot to ruin that pious princess.

=PLOTS AGAINST MARGARET.=

This was not an easy thing to do. The king loved her, all good men revered her, and all Europe admired her. Yet, as Francis was very jealous of his authority, the priests hoped to take advantage of his extreme susceptibility and set him at variance with a sister who dared to have an opinion of her own. Besides, the Queen of Navarre, like every other eminent person, had powerful enemies at court, 'people of Scythian ingratitude,' who, having been received in her household and raised by her to honours, secretly did all in their power to bring her into discredit with the king and with her husband. 398The most dangerous enemy of all was the grand-master Montmorency, an enterprising, brave, and imperious man, skilful in advancing his own fortune, though unlucky with that of the kingdom; he was besides coarse and uncultivated, despising letters, detesting the Reformation, irritated by the proselytism of the Queen of Navarre, and full of contempt for her books. He had great influence over Francis. The Sorbonne thought that if the grand-master declared against her, it would be impossible for Margaret to retain the king's favour.

An opportunity occurred for beginning the attack, and the Sorbonne caught at it. The Queen of Navarre, sighing after the time when a pure and spiritual religion would displace the barren ceremonial of popery, had published, in 1531, a christian poem entitled: The Mirror of the Sinful Soul, in which she discovers her Faults and Sins, as also the Grace and Blessings bestowed on her by Jesus Christ her Spouse . 399Many persons had read this poem with interest, and admired the queen's genius and piety. Finding that this edition, published in a city which belonged to her, had made no noise, aroused no persecution, and had even gained her a few congratulations, she felt a desire to issue her pious manifesto to a wider circle. Encouraged, moreover, by the position which her brother had just taken up, she made an arrangement with a bookseller rather bolder than the rest, and in 1533 published at Paris a new edition of her book, without the author's name, and without the authorisation of the Sorbonne.

The poem was mild, spiritual, inoffensive, like the queen herself; but it was written by the king's sister, and accordingly made a great sensation. In her verses there were new voices, aspirations towards heaven long unknown; many persons heard them, and here and there certain manifestations showed themselves of a meek and inward piety long since forgotten. The alarmed Sorbonne shouted out—'heresy!' There was, indeed, in the Mirror something more than aspirations. It contained nothing, indeed, against the saints or the Virgin, against the mass or popery, and not a word of controversy; but the essential doctrine of the Reformation was strongly impressed on it, namely, salvation by Jesus Christ alone, and the certain assurance of that redemption.

=BEDA DISCOVERS HERESY IN THE POEMS.=

At the time of which we are writing, Beda had not been banished. At the beginning of 1533 he had been intrusted by the Sorbonne with the examination of all new books. The fiery syndic discovered the Mirror , and with excess of joy he fell upon it to seek matter of accusation against the king's sister. He devoured it; he had never been so charmed by any reading, for at last he had proof that the Queen of Navarre was really a heretic. 400'But understand me well,' he said; 'they are not dumb proofs nor half proofs, but literal, clear, complete proofs.' Beda prepared therefore to attack Margaret. What a contrast between the formal religion of the Church and that of this spiritual poem! St. Thomas and the other chiefs of the schools teach that man may at least possess merits of congruity ; that he may perform supererogatory works, that he must confess his sins in the ear of the priest, and satisfy the justice of God by acts of penance, satisfactio operis . But according to the Mirror , religion is a much simpler thing ... all is summed up in these two terms: man's sin and God's grace. According to the queen, what man needs is to have his sins remitted and wholly pardoned in consequence of the Saviour's death; and when by faith he has found assurance of this pardon, he enjoys peace.... He must consider all his past life as being no longer for him a ground of condemnation before God: these are the glad tidings . Now these tidings scandalised Beda and his friends exceedingly. 'What!' he exclaimed, holding the famous book open before them, 'what! no more auricular confessions, indulgences, penance, and works of charity!... The cause of pardon is the reconciliatory work of Christ, and what helps us to make it our own is not the Church, but faith!' The syndic determined to make the 'frightful' book known to all the venerable company.