Is this a story invented in the idle talk of a cloister? I think not. Some of the details, particularly the language of the canon, render it probable. It was also by the promise of a 'good appointment' that Francis de Sales endeavoured to win over Theodore Beza. Simony is a sin so innocent that three priests, a canon, an abbot, and a doctor of the Sorbonne, combine to relate this peccadillo. If the language of the canon is in conformity with his character, Calvin's answer, 'I will go through with it to the last,' is also in his manner. Although we may have some trouble to picture the young reformer disguised as a peasant, with his wallet and hoe, we thought it our duty to relate an incident transmitted to us by his enemies. The circumstance is really not singular. Calvin was then beginning an exodus which has gone on unceasingly for nearly three centuries. The disciples of the Gospel in France, summoned to abjure Christ, have fled from their executioners by thousands, and under various disguises. And if the gravity of history permitted the author to revert to the stories that charmed his childhood, he could tell how many a time, seated at the feet of his grandmother and listening with attentive ear, he has heard her describe how her mother, a little girl at the time of the Revocation in 1685, escaped from France, concealed in a basket which her father, a pious huguenot, disguised as a peasant, carried carefully on his back.
Calvin, having escaped his enemies, hurried away from the capital, from his cherished studies and his brethren, and wandered up and down, avoiding the places where he might be recognised. He thought over all that had happened, and his meditative mind drew wholesome lessons from it. He learnt from his own experience by what token to recognise the true Church of Christ. 'We should lose our labour,' he said in later days, thinking perhaps of this circumstance, 'if we wished to separate Christ from his cross; it is a natural thing for the world to hate Christ, even in his members. There will always be wicked men to prick us like thorns. If they do not draw the sword, they spit out their venom, and either gnash their teeth or excite some great disturbance.' The sword was already 'drawn' against him: acting, therefore, with prudence, he followed the least frequented roads, sleeping in the cottages or the mansions of his friends. It is asserted that being known by the Sieur de Hasseville, whose château was situated beyond Versailles, he remained there some time in hiding.[517]
The king's first movement, when he heard of Cop's business and the flight of Calvin, was one of anger and persecution. Duprat, formerly first president of parliament, was much exasperated at the affront offered to that body. Francis commanded every measure to be taken to discover the person who had warned Cop of his danger; he would have had him punished severely as a favourer of heresy.[518] At the same time, he ordered the prosecution of those persons whom the papers seized in Calvin's room pointed out as partisans of the new doctrine.
=MANY EVANGELICALS QUIT PARIS.=
There was a general alarm among the evangelicals, and many left Paris. A Dominican friar, brother of De la Croix, feeling a growing thirst for knowledge, deliberated in his convent whether he ought not to remove to a country where the Gospel was preached freely.[519] He was one of those compromised by Calvin's papers. He therefore made his escape, reached Neufchatel, and thence proceeded to Geneva, where we shall meet him again.
The greater part of the friends of the Gospel, however, remained in France: Margaret exerted all her influence with her brother to ward off the impending blow, and succeeded in appeasing the storm.[520] Francis was always between two contrary currents, one coming from Duprat, the other from his sister; and once more he followed the better.
The Queen of Navarre, exhausted by all these shocks, disgusted with the dissipations of the court, distressed by the hatred of which the Gospel was the object among all around her, turned her face towards the Pyrenees. Paris, St. Germain, Fontainebleau, had no more charms for her; besides, her health was not strong, and she desired to pass the winter at Pau. But, above all, she sighed for solitude, liberty, and meditation; she had need of Christ. She therefore bade farewell to the brilliant court of France, and departed for the quiet Béarn.
Adieu! pomps, pleasures, now adieu!
No longer will I sort with you!
Other pleasure seek I none