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

=THE MINISTERS AND THE SORBONNE.=

What was said at court between Master Balue, Master Petit, and the King of France, has not been recorded; but we have the memoir sent by the king to the Sorbonne, and the answer returned by that body to the king. These documents may enlighten us as to what passed at the conference, and we shall allow them to speak for themselves, arranging the former under the name of the king's ministers. William du Bellay, his brother the Bishop of Paris, and others probably were the persons empowered by the king to confer with Master Balue and Master Jacques Petit. They were champions of very different causes—the men who then met, probably at the Louvre, in the presence of Francis I., and whom we are about to hear.

'To establish a real concord in the Church of God, we must all of us first look at Christ; we must subject ourselves to him, and seek his glory, not our own.' 666

'We have heard his Majesty's good and holy words, for which we all thank God, praying him to give the king grace to persevere.' 667

This was doubtless a mere compliment.

~QUESTIONS DISCUSSED.~

'Above all things, let us remember that the doctors of the Word of God ought not to fight like gladiators, and defend all their opinions mordicus (tooth and nail); 668but rather, imitating St. Augustin in his Retractations , they should be willing to give way a little to one another ... without prejudice to truth.'

'Open your eyes, Sire; the Germans desire, in opposition to your catholic intention, that we should give way to them by retrenching certain ceremonies and ordinances which the Church has hitherto observed. They wish to draw us to them, rather than be converted to us.' 669

'You are mistaken: important concessions have been obtained. The Germans are of opinion that bishops must hold the chief place among the ministers of the Churches, and that a pontiff at Rome should hold the first place among the bishops. But, on the other hand, the pontifical power must have respect for consciences, consult their wants, and be ready to concede to them some relaxation.' 670

'It must not be forgotten that the ecclesiastical hierarchy is of divine institution, and will last until the end of time; that man can neither establish nor destroy it, and that every christian must submit to it.' 671

'Having established the catholicity of the Church, let us consider what reforms must be effected in order to preserve it. First, there are indifferent matters, such as food, festivals, ecclesiastical vestments, and other ceremonials, on which we shall easily come to an understanding. Let us beware of constraining men to fast by commandments which nobody observes ... and least of all those who make them .' 672

'None resist them but men corrupted by depraved passions.' 673

=SAINTS AND MASS-MONGERS.=

'Certain doctors of the Church, making use of a holy prosopopœia, have introduced into their discourses the saints whom they were eulogising, and have prayed for their intercession as if they were present before them; 674but they only desired by this means to excite admiration for these godly persons, rather than to obtain anything by their intercession.... Let the people, then, be exhorted not to transfer to the saints the confidence which is due to Jesus Christ alone. It is Christ's will to be invoked and to answer prayer.' 675

Here the French mind indulged in a sly hit which would not have occurred to the German mind; and the king's councillors, determining to strike hard, continued:

'What abuses and disorders have sprung out of this worship of man! Observe the words, the songs, the actions of the people on the saints' days, near their graves or near their images! Mark the eagerness with which the idle crowd hurries off to banquets, games, dances, and quarrels. Watch the practices of all those paltry, ignorant, greedy priests, who think of nothing but putting money in their purses; and then ... tell us whether we do not in all these things resemble pagans, and revive their shameful superstitions?' 676

Not a word of this popular description of saints' days will be found in Melanchthon's memoir: it is entirely the work of Francis and his councillors.

'Let us beware how we forsake ancient customs. Let us address our prayers directly to the saints who are our patrons and intercessors under Jesus Christ. To assert that they have not the prerogative of healing diseases, is in opposition to your Majesty's personal experience and the gift you have received from God of curing the king's evil.... Let us also pay our devotions to statues and images, since the seventh general council commands them to be adored.' 677

When the Sorbonne, in order to defend the prerogatives of the saints, cited the miraculous powers of the king, they employed an argument to which it was dangerous to reply; and, accordingly, we find nothing on this point in the answers of the opponents of the faculty. The discussion, getting off this shoal, turned to the act which is the essence of the Romish doctrine, and priests were once more lashed by the royal hand, which was even more skilful at this work than in curing the evil.

'There ought to be in the Church a living communion of the members of Christ. 678But, alas! what do we find there? A crowd of ignorant and filthy priests, the plague of society, a burden to the earth, a slothful race who can do nothing but say mass, and who, while saying it, do not even utter those five intelligible words, preferable, as St. Paul thinks, to ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.... We must get rid of these mercenaries, these mass-mongers, who have brought that holy ceremony into contempt, and we must supply their place with holy, learned, and experienced men. 679Then perhaps the Lord's Supper will recover the esteem it has lost. Then, instead of an unmeaning babble, we shall have psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. Then we shall sing to the Saviour, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.... What false confidence, what wretched delusion is that which leads so many souls to believe that by attending mass every day, even when piety is neglected, they are performing an act useful to themselves and their friends, both for this life and for that which is to come!' 680

=THE LORD'S SUPPER.=

The Sorbonne contended for the external mechanism of the sacramental act, to which their opponents desired to impart a spiritual and living character, and defended without shame or scruple the material advantages the clergy derived from it.

'The mass is a real sacrifice, of great benefit to the living and the dead, and its excellence is founded on the passion of Jesus Christ. It is right, therefore, to bestow temporal gifts on those who celebrate it, be they good or bad; and the priests who receive them ought not to be called mass-mongers, even though they are paid.' 681

The king's ministers now came to the much disputed doctrine of the presence of Christ in the communion.

'Let us put aside the disputes that have divided us so long. 682Let us all confess that in the eucharist the Lord truly gives believers his body to eat and his blood to drink to feed our souls in life everlasting; and that in this manner Christ remains in us and we in Christ. Whether this sacrament be called the Lord's Supper, the Lord's bread and wine, mass, eucharist, love-feast, or sacrifice, is of little moment. Christians ought not to dispute about names, if they possess the things; and, as the proverb says, "When we have the bear before us, let us not look after his track." 683Communion with Christ is obtained by faith, and cannot be demonstrated by human arguments. When we treat of theology, let us not fall into matæology.' 684