CHAPTER XXXIII.
WURTEMBERG GIVEN TO PROTESTANTISM BY THE KING OF FRANCE.
(Spring 1534.)
THE idea of correcting the errors of the Church without changing its government was not new in France. By the Pragmatic Sanction in 1269, St. Louis had founded the liberties of the Gallican Church; and the great idea of reform had been widely spread since the time of the council of Constance (1414), of Clemengis, and of Gerson. The two Du Bellays, with many priests, scholars, and noblemen, thought it was the only means of calming down the agitations of christendom, and Margaret of Valois had made it the great business of her life.
=INTERVIEW OF DU BELLAY AND BUCER.=
William du Bellay, on his way back from Augsburg, where he had delivered such noble speeches in favour of the protestant dukes of Wurtemberg, had stopped at Strasburg, and had several meetings with the pacific Bucer. His success in Germany, his conversations with the evangelical princes and doctors, who took him for as sound a protestant as themselves, had filled him with hope. In no place could those who desired to take a middle course meet with more sympathy than at Strasburg; there was quite a system of compromises there with the Swiss and with Luther; why not with Rome also? 'Since Luther will not give way in anything,' Bucer had said, 'I will accommodate myself to his terminology; only I will avoid every expression that may indicate a too local and too gross presence of the body of Christ in the bread.'[586] Accordingly Bucer, with his pious and moderate friends Capito, Hedio, and Zell, received the diplomatic mediator with great pleasure. They retired to the reformer's library, where Du Bellay explained his great project with all the seriousness of a man convinced. 'It is a greater work,' he said to Bucer, 'than this union of Zwinglians and Lutherans which has hitherto been your sole and constant occupation. We wish to effect a fusion between catholicism and the Reformation. We shall maintain the unity of the former; we shall uphold the truth of the latter.' Du Bellay's plan was at bottom, we see, the same as Leibnitz endeavoured to get Bossuet and Louis XIV. to accept. Bucer was in ecstasies: it was what he had sought so long; the diplomatist appeared to him as if surrounded with a halo of glory. And hence he often said: 'If the Lord would raise up many men like this hero, the kingdom of Christ would soon come out of the pit.'[587] According to Bucer, Du Bellay was meditating a very perilous but still a great enterprise: it was a labour worthy of Hercules.... The counsellor of the King of France was satisfied to find the great pacificator agreeing with him, and hastened to Paris, flattering himself that he would gain a victory more striking than that of Francis I. at Marignan, or of Charles V. at Pavia.
Everything seemed favourable: Francis, delighted at his conference with the landgrave, had never been better disposed for conciliation. Du Bellay endeavoured to convince him that Germany was quite ready for the great fusion. Melanchthon, whom all Germany venerated, was (in his opinion) the man of the hour, by whose agency the two contrary currents would mingle their waters and form but one stream bearing life to every part. Was it not he who said: 'Preserve all the old ceremonies that you can: every innovation is injurious to the people?' Had he not declared at Augsburg that no doctrine separated him from the Roman Church; that he respected the universal authority of the pope, and desired to remain faithful to Christ and the Church of Rome? Margaret of Navarre also spoke to her brother of this great and good man: 'Melanchthon's mildness,' she said, 'contrasts with the violent temper of Zwingle and Luther.' Other persons observed to the king that what distinguished France from all catholic nations was its attachment to those liberties of the Church, which were on that account denominated Gallican. 'It would thus be a thoroughly French enterprise,' they said, 'to strip the pope of his usurped privileges.'
Francis listened. To be king both in Church and State, to imitate his dear brother of England, who at heart was more catholic than himself,—this was his desire. Du Bellay, noticing this disposition, laboured vehemently (to use his own expression)[588] to introduce the Melanchthonian ideas into France. He spoke of them at court and in the city, sometimes even to the clergy, and met everywhere with almost universal approbation.[589] 'Only make a forward movement,' he was told. The king resumed the reading of the Bible, which he had laid aside after the first days of the Reformation. It was not that he relished the Word of God, but the Bible was a weapon that would help him to gain the victory over the emperor. When conversing with the persons around him, he would quote some phrase of Scripture. He particularly liked the passages where St. Paul speaks of breastplates, shields, helmets, and swords. He found the apostle, indeed, a little too spiritual and mystical; and in his heart he preferred the helmet of a soldier to the helmet of salvation; but he appeared every day better disposed towards the Holy Scriptures.[590] Margaret was transported with joy. 'I agree with the German protestants,' said the king to Du Bellay. 'Yes, I agree with them in all points ... except one!' Du Bellay wrote immediately to Bucer, and added: 'You know what that means.'[591] Francis desired to remain in union with Rome for form's sake, if it were only by a thread. But Rome is not contented with a thread.
=FRANCIS COOPERATES WITH THEM.=
An approaching event seemed destined to decide whether or not a semi-reformation would be established in France. The king and his minister kept their eyes fixed on Germany, and waited impatiently to learn if the enterprise decided upon at Bar-le-Duc for the restoration of the protestant princes to the throne of Wurtemberg would be crowned with success. In their eyes Wurtemberg was the field of battle where the cause of the papacy would triumph or be crushed. Francis hoped that, if the protestants were victorious, they would enter upon a war that would become general. If the empire and the papacy fell beneath the blows of their enemies, new times would begin. Europe would be emancipated from both pope and emperor, and Francis would profit largely, both for himself and France, by this glorious emancipation.
The landgrave prepared everything for the great blow he was about to strike. At once prudent and active, he did not write a word that could compromise him, but sent his confidential counsellors in every direction. He went in person to the Elector of Trèves and the elector-palatine, and promised them that if Wurtemberg was restored to its lawful princes, Charles's brother should be compensated by being recognised King of the Romans. These measures succeeded with Philip, who immediately made known this happy commencement to Francis I.
On Easter Monday (1534) the Louvre displayed all its magnificence; many officers of the court were on foot, for Francis was to give audience to the agent of the Waywode (hospodar) of Wallachia, who had been dispossessed by Austria, like the Duke of Wurtemberg. The king's eyes sparkled with delight: 'The Swabian league is dissolved,' he told the envoy. 'I am sending money into Germany.... I have many friends there.... My allies are already in arms.... We are on the point of carrying our plan into execution.'[592] Francis was so happy that he could not keep his secret.