To whom th' eternal Father grants whate'er we ask—
The only name in heaven by which the world,
This wicked world, salvation can attain.
But the king was far from pardoning. Four days after this publication (29th January) he issued an edict, 'for the extirpation of the Lutheran sect which has swarmed and is still swarming in the realm, with orders to denounce its followers.'[274] At the same time he addressed a circular letter to all the parliaments, enjoining them to give 'aid and prisons' in order that the heresy should be promptly extirpated.[275] Lastly, the 'father of letters' issued an ordinance declaring the abolition of printing all over France under pain of the gallows.[276] This savage edict was not carried out: it is, however, an index of the spirit by which the enemies of the Reformation were animated.
=PROCLAMATIONS AND PUNISHMENTS.=
Francis I., after having thus made some excursions into the sphere of Charles V.—the proclamations, returned into his own—the punishments. Du Bellay interceded for the German protestants, and the king sent them back to their own country; but, feeling his hands free as regarded his own subjects, he sent fresh victims to the stake. On the 16th February, Calvin's friend, the rich and pious trader, La Forge, about sixty years of age, was dragged in a tumbril to the cemetery of St. John. 'He is a rich man,' said some compassionate spectators; 'a good man that has given away much in alms.' It did not matter: they burnt him alive. Three days later a goldsmith and a painter were mercifully (for Francis wished to see the arts flourish) stripped and flogged, deprived of their goods, and banished. Many Lutheran women were banished also. On the 26th February, a young Italian, named Loys de Medicis, perished in the flames at the end of St. Michael's bridge; and his wife 'died in her bed of grief at such infamy.' Shortly afterwards it was the turn of a scholar, a native of Grenoble, who had posted up some of the placards in the night. On the 13th March, it was that of the chorister of the royal chapel who in his rash zeal had fastened the protest to his Majesty's door; he was burnt near the Louvre. On the 5th May, a procureur and a tailor were dragged on a hurdle to the porch of Notre Dame, whence they were taken in a tumbril to the pig-market 'and there hanged in chains,' which were not consumed so soon as ropes. The same day, a shoemaker of Tournay, banished from that city because he belonged to the sect of Luther, died in a similar way, 'without repenting.'
About the same time two journeymen, natives of Tours, and ribbon weavers, arrived in Paris 'from Almayne,' bringing with them a Lutheran book. 'Landlord,' said one of them imprudently, 'take care of this book while we go into town, and do not show it to anybody.' The innkeeper whose curiosity was thus aroused, turned the book round and round, tried to read it, and at last, unable to hold out any longer, went and showed it to a priest. The latter having opened it, exclaimed: 'It is a damnable book!' The landlord informed against the travellers; Morin had the two friends arrested ... their tongues were cut out, and they were burnt 'alive and contumacious.'[277]
=LA GABORITE.=
Paris did not enjoy alone these cruel spectacles: piles were kindled in many cities of France. A poor girl, Mary Becaudelle, surnamed the Gaborite, had just returned to Essarts in Vendée, her native place, after being in service at Rochelle with a master who had taught her the Gospel. A grey-friar happened to be preaching in her little town and she went to hear him. After the sermon, she said to him: 'Father, you do not preach the Word of God,' and pointed it out to him. Ashamed at being taken to task by a woman, the friar, who was alone, resolved to get himself reprimanded a second time, but before witnesses. The plot was arranged. The friar having insulted the doctrine of grace, the terrified Gaborite exclaimed: 'If you insult the Gospel, the wrath of God will be against you.' She was condemned to the stake shortly after, and endured her punishment with such patience as to cause great admiration.'[278]
About the same time two or three men were keeping watch, during the night, in the chapel of the Holy Candle, at Arras in Artois. There was a candle there, to which the devout used to sing hymns, because the priests told them that it had been sent from heaven and was never consumed. 'That is what we will see,' said these evangelicals: Nicholas, surnamed the Penman, 'a man of good sense and well taught in holy learning,' Jean de Pois and Stephen Bourlet, 'who had both received much instruction from Nicholas.' One day they took their station round the candle, determined not to fall asleep. The substitution generally effected by the adepts at night, while the doors were closed, not having been made, on account of these inquisitive men, the perpetual candle came to an end and went out, like any other candle. Then Nicholas and his friends calling in 'the poor idolaters,' showed them that there was nothing left of their heaven-descended relic but the end of a burnt-out wick. 'As the reward of their discovery these three Christians received the crown of martyrdom together.'[279]