[481] 'S. M. Christᵐᵃ dimando che da sua Santᵃ li fussino osservate le promesse.'—Soriano, Ranke, Päpste, i. p. 127.
[482] Guicciardini, Guerres d'Italie, i. liv. xx. p. 902.
CHAPTER XXX.
ADDRESS OF THE RECTOR TO THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS.
(November 1533.)
CALVIN had not quitted Paris. He was at one moment on the boulevards with the merchant De la Forge, at another in the university quarter with Cop; in the dwellings of the poor, and the mansions of the nobles, 'increasing greatly the work of the Lord,' says Beza, 'not only by teaching truth, but also by opposing the heretics.'[483] He then retired to his chamber and meditated. He turned his piercing glance upon the future, and fancied he could see, in a time more or less remote and through certain clouds, the triumph of the Gospel. He knew that the cause of God in general advances painfully; that there are rocks in the way; that interest, ignorance, and servility check it at every moment; that it stumbles and falls, and men may think it ruined. But Calvin believed that He who is its Head would help it to overcome all its enemies. 'Only,' he said, 'those who bear its standard must mount to the assault with unflinching courage.' Calvin, thinking that the time for the assault had come, desired that in the university itself, from that pulpit which all Europe respected, the voice of truth should be heard after centuries of silence. A very natural opportunity occurred.
=THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY.=
During the month of October Cop was much occupied with a task that had fallen to him. It was the custom of the university for the rector to deliver an inaugural address in Latin on All Saints' Day in one of the churches of Paris. Calvin thought that it was his duty to take advantage of this opportunity to proclaim the Gospel boldly in the face of France. The rector replied that he was a physician, and that it was difficult for him to speak like a divine: 'If, however, you will write the address,' he said, 'I will promise to deliver it.' The two young men were soon agreed; they understood the risk they ran, but were ready to incur it, without presumption however, and with prudence. They agreed to explain the essence of the Gospel before the university, giving it the academic name of Christian Philosophy. 'Christ,' says Calvin, 'desires us to be like serpents, careful to avoid all that may hurt us; and yet like doves, who fly without fear and without care, and who offer themselves innocently to the fowlers who are laying snares for them.'[484]
All Saints' Day, 1533, having arrived, the university assembled with great pomp in the Mathurins' church; many were impatient to hear Cop, whose conduct in the case of the Queen of Navarre had made him an object of suspicion to the Sorbonne. A great number of monks, and especially of Franciscans, took their places and opened their ears. There were however scattered about the church many steadfast friends of the Gospel, who had come to be present at the assault and perhaps witness the triumph of their faith. Among them, and on a bench apart, sat a young man of humble appearance, calm, modest, and attentive to all that was said. Nobody suspected that it was he (Calvin) who was about to set the university, and indeed all France, in commotion. The hour having come, all the dignitaries, professors, and students fixed their eager eyes upon Cop as he rose to speak. He pronounced the opening address 'in a very different fashion,' says Theodore Beza, 'from what was usual.' There was a simplicity and life in his delivery which contrasted strongly with the dryness and exaggeration of the old doctors. The discourse is of importance in the history of the Reformation; we shall give it, therefore, in part, all the more because it has lain unknown until this hour among the manuscripts of the library of Geneva, and is now first presented to the christian public.[485]
=COP'S INAUGURAL DISCOURSE.=
'Christian philosophy is a great thing,' said the rector; 'a thing too excellent for any tongue to express and even for any mind to conceive its value. The gift of God to man by Jesus Christ himself, it teaches us to know that true happiness which deceives nobody, making us believe and comprehend that we are truly the sons of God.... The brightness of the splendour of this wisdom of God eclipses all the glimmerings of the wisdom of the world. It places its possessors as far above the common order of men, as that order is itself above the brutes.[486] The mind of man, opened and enlarged by the divine hand, then understands things infinitely more sublime than all those which are learnt from our feeble humanity. How admirable, how holy must this divine philosophy be, since, in order to bring it to men, God was willing to become man, and, to teach it to us, the Immortal put on mortality! Could God better manifest his love to us than by the gift of his eternal Word? What stronger and tenderer bond could God establish between himself and us than by becoming a man such as we are? Sirs, let us praise the other sciences, I approve of it; let us admire logic, natural philosophy, and ethics, in consideration of their utility; but who would dare compare them with that other philosophy, which explains what philosophers have long been seeking after and never found ... the will of God? And what is the hidden will that is revealed to us here? It is this: The grace of God alone remits sins.[487] ... The Holy Ghost, which sanctifies all hearts and gives eternal life, is promised to all christians.[488] If there is any one among you who does not praise this science above all other sciences, I would ask him, what will he praise? Would you delight the mind of man, give him repose of heart, teach him to live holy and happily? Christian philosophy abundantly supplies him with these admirable blessings; and, at the same time, it subdues, as with a wholesome rein, the impetuous movements of the soul.[489] Sirs, since the dignity and glory of this Gospel are so great, how I rejoice that the office with which I am invested calls upon me to lay it before you to-day!'