=FAREL'S STRANGE CONGREGATION.=
The catholics, not content with the permission given them to keep away, determined to organise a reception for Farel that should disgust him for ever with preaching. As soon as the minister entered the church the strangest of congregations met his eyes: all the brats (marmaille) of the place were assembled; lying in front of the pulpit and all round it, the children pretended to be asleep, snoring and laughing in their sleeves. Farel observing three persons who appeared to be serious, went into the pulpit and said, pointing to the little ragamuffins: 'How many weapons Satan has provided to hinder our cause! Never mind, we must surmount every obstacle.' Being determined to refute Friar Michael, he began his discourse; but on a sudden the children started to their feet, as sharp-shooters lying flat behind the bushes start up at the approach of the enemy, and salute him with their fire. The young scamps exerted their lungs, howling and shouting with all their might, and at last quitted the church with a horrible uproar. 'Nobody was left but the minister, quite amazed. And this was the first sermon preached in the town of Orbe,' says the grand banneret maliciously.[391]
The next day, Sunday, there was a great procession. Priests, monks, and all the parish, chanting as loud as they could, proceeded according to custom to St. George's, outside the town. Farel profited by the departure of the enemy to seize upon the place, and the last parishioner had hardly crossed the threshold of the church, when he entered it, followed by his friends, went up into the pulpit, and loudly declared the truth. Ten evangelicals, Viret, Hollard, Secretan, Romain, and six of their friends, composed the whole of his congregation. Meanwhile the procession was on its way back. First appeared the children two and two, then the exorcist with the holy water and the sprinkler, then came the priests, magistrates, and people, all singing the litany. The children, seeing the minister in the pulpit, and remembering the lesson they had received, rushed into the church, whistling, howling, and shouting as on the evening before. The priests and people who followed them made threatening motions, and Farel, understanding that the storm was about to burst, showed a moderation he did not always possess, came down from the pulpit and went out.[392]
The clergy exulted: they ascribed Farel's retreat to weakness and fear, and said openly in the city: 'The minister cannot refute the articles of faith established by Juliani.' 'Indeed,' answered the Bernese bailiff, 'you have heard the monk and you now complain that you have not heard the minister.... Very good! you shall hear him. It is the will of the lords of Berne that every father of a family be required to attend his sermon under pain of their displeasure.'
=FAREL ON PENANCE.=
They dared not disobey, and the church was thronged. Filled with joy at the sight of such a congregation, Farel ascended the pulpit: never had he been clearer, more energetic and more eloquent. He passed in review all the subjects of which Juliani had treated; at one time attacking the pardons which the Romish Church sells to credulous souls, at another the doctrine which assigns the keys of heaven to St. Peter. 'The key of the kingdom of heaven,' he said, 'is the Word of God—the Holy Gospel.' One day Farel spoke of the stupid practices imposed upon catholics under the name of penance. 'The penance which God demands,' he said, 'is a change of heart, life, and conversation.'[393] Another day he battled with indulgences: 'The pope's pardons take away money,' he said, 'but they do not take away sin. Let every christian be aware that nobody can escape the anger of God, except through Jesus.'[394] He thundered against auricular confession: 'Confession in the priest's ears which the pope commands,' he said, 'helps him to learn the secrets of kings and aids him in catching countries and kingdoms. But how many souls have been cast into hell by it! how many virgins corrupted! how many widows devoured! how many orphans ruined! how many princes poisoned! how many countries wasted! how many large establishments of men and women given up to debauchery.... O Heaven, unveil these accursed horrors! O Earth, cry out! Creatures of God, weep; and do thou, O Lord, arise!'[395]
Farel, without possessing the iconoclastic ardour which Hollard displayed ere long, was indignant at the worship paid to the images of the saints, and strove against them with the arms of the Word. 'The people,' he said, 'set candles before the saints who are out of this world and have nothing to do with them.... While if those saints were alive and had need of a light to read the Gospel by, instead of giving them candles, you would tear out their eyes!' ... Then scandalised at the disorderly living of the world and the Church, the christian orator exclaimed: 'Farces full of scoffing, filth, and ribaldry: obscene and idle songs, books full of vanity, lewdness, falsehood and blasphemy, wicked and illicit conversations ... all this is suffered openly.... But the New Testament which contains the doctrine and passion of Christ is forbidden, as if it were the Koran of Mahomet, or a book of witchcraft and enchantment.... O Sun, canst thou pour thy light on such countries? O Earth, canst thou give thy fruits to such people? And thou, O Lord God, is thy vengeance so slow against such a great outrage? Arise, O Lord, and let the trumpet of thy holy Gospel be heard unto the ends of the earth.'[396]
Although the catholics were indignant, and not without reason, at the order from Berne, which obliged them to attend the sermons opposed to their faith, the reformer preached without difficulty the first and second day; but on the third, the alarmed priests harangued their flocks and thundered from their pulpits against the heretical discourses; and from that time Farel counted few hearers in the church besides the friends of the Gospel. The bailiff had the good sense not to observe this disobedience.
=FAREL'S CARE FOR THE MINISTRY.=
The surrounding districts compensated Farel for the contempt of Orbe. His reputation having spread into the neighbouring villages, the people eagerly desired to hear him. Receiving message after message, and touched at the sight of these worthy peasants knocking at his door, he wrote to Zwingle: 'Oh! how great is the harvest! No one can describe the ardour the people feel for the Gospel, and the tears I shed when I see the small number of reapers.'[397] Several of the evangelicals of Orbe asked to be sent out to preach, but Farel, thinking them not ripe enough, refused. There were some who took offence at this, but it did not move Farel. 'It is better to offend them,' he said, 'than to offend God.'