This appeared a strange exordium to a great number of hearers: What! not a word about the saints whom all catholics glorify on this day?... Let us wait, however, and see.
The rector then announced that according to custom he would explain the Gospel of the day, that is, the beatitudes pronounced by Jesus on the mountain. 'But first of all,' he said, 'unite with me in earnest prayer to Christ, who is the true and only intercessor with the Father, in order that by his fertilising Spirit he may enlighten our understandings, and that our discourse may praise him, savour of him, be full of him, and reflect his image, so that this divine Saviour, penetrating our souls, may water them with the dew of his heavenly grace!'[490]
Then the rector explained the happiness of those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
=THE DISCOURSE CAUSES A SENSATION.=
The university had never heard the like. An admirable proportion was observed throughout the address; it was academical and yet evangelical—a thing not often seen. Calvin had discovered that tongue of the wise which useth knowledge aright. But the enemies of the Gospel were not deceived. Through the thin veil with which he had covered the grandeur of divine love, they discovered those heights and depths of grace which are a source of joy to the true christian, but an object of abhorrence to the adversary. There was an indescribable uneasiness among the auditory. Certain of the hearers exchanged glances, in this way indicating to one another the passages which seemed to them the most reprehensible. University professors, priests, monks, and students—all listened with astonishment to such unusual language. Here and there in the congregation signs of approbation might be observed, but far more numerous signs of anger. Two Franciscans, in particular, were so excited that they could scarcely keep their seats; and when the assembly broke up they were heard expressing their indignation in loud terms: 'Grace ... God's pardon ... the Holy Ghost ... there is abundance of all that in the rector's discourse; but of penance, indulgences, and meritorious works ... not a word!' It was pointed out to them that the rector, according to custom, had ended his exordium with the salutation which the angel had addressed to Mary; but that, in the opinion of the monks, was a mere form. The words being in Scripture, how could the rector refuse to pronounce them? Had he not besides begun by saying that Christ is the only true intercessor, verus et unus apud Patrem intercessor?... What is left then to Mary, except that she is the mother of the Saviour? The Sorbonne was filled with anger and alarm.... To select the day of the festival of All Saints, in order to proclaim that there is only one intercessor! Such a crime must not remain unpunished. If Cop wished to produce a sensation, the monks will produce one also! The two Franciscans having consulted with their friends, their opinion was that the university was not to be trusted. Consequently they hastened to the parliament and laid the rector's heretical propositions before it.
Cop and Calvin had each retired separately, and been visited in their respective apartments by many of their friends. Some of them did not approve of these great manifestations; they would have wished the evangelicals to be content with a few small conventicles here and there in retired places. Calvin did not agree with them. In his opinion there was one single universal christian Church, which had existed since the time of the apostles, and would exist always. The errors and abuses abounding in christendom, profane priests, hypocrites, scandalous sinners, do not prevent the Church from existing. True, it is often reduced to little more than a small humble flock; but the flock exists, and it must, whenever it has the opportunity, manifest itself in opposition to a fallen catholicism. The reformers themselves, though it is frequently forgotten, maintained the doctrine of a universal Church; but while Rome counts among the number of signs which characterise it 'a certain pomp and temporal possessions,'[491] the evangelical doctors, on the contrary, reckon persecution and the cross as a mark of the true Church. Cop and Calvin were to make the experiment in their own persons.
=DEBATES IN THE UNIVERSITY.=
The rector was not inclined to give way to the monks: he resolved to join battle on a question of form, which would dispose his colleagues in his favour, and perhaps in favour of truth. It was a maxim received in the university, that all its members, and a fortiori its head, must be tried first by the corporation, and that it was not permissible to pass over any degree of jurisdiction.[492] Accordingly, on the 19th of November, the rector convoked the four faculties, and, having undertaken the defence of his address, complained bitterly that certain persons had dared to carry the matter before a foreign body. The privileges of the university had thus been attacked. 'It has been insulted by this denunciation of its chief to the parliament,' said Cop; 'and these impudent informers must give satisfaction for the insult.'
These words excited a great commotion in the assembly. The theologians, who had hung down their heads in the case of the Queen of Navarre,
... N'osant approfondir