[547] 'Es haben sich zwischen dem Könige und uns Reden zugetragen ... daran E. L. gut gefallen haben werden.'—Ibid.
[548] 'Der König und die grossen Herrn und jedermann wolten uns mit Gewald uberreden, wir hätten Philippum bey uns.'—The Landgrave to the Elector, Rommel's Urkundenbuch, p. 53.
[549] Rommel's Urkundenbuch, p. 53.
[550] State Papers, vii. p. 568.
CHAPTER XXXII.
TRIUMPH AND MARTYRDOM.
(Winter 1533-34.)
=THE GOSPEL IN THE PARIS CHURCHES.=
THE consequences of the meeting at Marseilles were to be felt at Paris. After Calvin's flight, the Queen of Navarre, as we have seen, had succeeded in calming the storm; and yet the evangelical cause had never been nearer a violent persecution. The prisons were soon to be filled; the fires of martyrdom were soon to be kindled. During the year 1533 Lutheran discourses had greatly multiplied in the churches. 'Many notable persons,' says the chronicler, 'were at that time preaching in the city of Paris.'[551] The simplicity, wisdom, and animation of their language had moved all who heard them. The churches were filled, not with formal auditors, but with men who received the glad-tidings with great joy. 'Drunkards had become sober; libertines had become chaste; the fruits which proceeded from the preaching of the Gospel had astonished the enemies of light and truth.'
The doctors of the Sorbonne did not wait for the king's orders to attack the evangelicals; his interview with the pope, and the news of the bull brought from Rome, had filled the catholic camp with joy. 'What!' they exclaimed, 'the king is uniting with the pope at Marseilles, and in Paris the churches are opened to heresy! ... let us make haste and close them.'
In the meanwhile Du Bellay, the Bishop of Paris, who had made such a fine Latin speech to Clement VII., and who went at heart half-way with his brother, arrived in the capital. The leaders of the Roman party immediately surrounded him, urged him, and demanded the realisation of all the hopes which they had entertained from the interview at Marseilles. The bishop was embarrassed, for he knew that his brother and the king were just then occupied with a very different matter. Yet it was the desire of Francis that, for the moment, they should act in conformity with his apparent and not with his real action. The bishop gave way. The pious Roussel, the energetic Courault, the temporising Berthaud, and others besides, were forbidden to preach, and one morning the worshippers found the church doors shut.[552]