Worse still, at least in the opinion of the catholics, happened ere long. One of the ecclesiastics of the place was George Grivay, surnamed Calley, an excellent musician who had been appointed precentor. He had been trained by a fervent catholic mother, and had received a good education in the church.[417] In order to receive further instruction his parents had sent him to Lausanne, where he had been made chorister and had particularly improved in the knowledge of music. On his return to Orbe the nobles and priests had given him a flattering reception; and he deserved it, for he enchanted the people by his singing or electrified them by his discourses. But on the 10th May 1531, the same month in which Viret delivered his first sermon, Grivat had gone up into the pulpit and astonished his hearers by preaching the evangelical doctrine in the clearest manner. This was too much; his father and his brothers were in despair; nobles and friends who had received him so well exclaimed in great irritation: 'Have we not given him good wages; has not the Church fed and taught him? and now he wants to imitate the cuckoo that eats the mother who reared it.'[418]
=LORD'S SUPPER AT ORBE.=
As these successive conversions gave the evangelicals more courage, they took an important step. Feeling the necessity of being strengthened in the faith by the celebration of the Lord's Supper, they asked for it, and Farel, who was then at Morat, immediately returned to Orbe. On Whitsunday (28th May) at six in the morning—an hour selected to insure tranquillity for the act they were about to perform—he announced to a numerous assembly collected in the church the remission of all sins by the breaking of Christ's body on the cross; and as soon as the sermon was ended, eight disciples came forward to break bread. They were Hugonin of Arnex and his wife, C. Hollard and his aged mother, Cordey and his wife, William Viret, Peter's father, and George Grivat, afterwards pastor at Avenches; many of the evangelicals did not think themselves sufficiently advanced in the faith to take part in this act, and doubtless Peter Viret was absent. Two of the eight disciples modestly spread a white cloth over a bench, on which they placed the bread and wine. Farel sank on his knees and prayed, all following his prayer in their hearts. When the minister rose up he asked: 'Do you each forgive one another?'... and the believers answered Yes. Next Farel broke off a morsel of bread for each, saying he gave it them in memory of Christ's passion, and after that he handed them the cup. The minister and these true disciples possessed by faith the real presence of Jesus in their hearts. They had hardly finished when the exasperated priests entered the church hastily and sang the mass as loud as they could. The next day, Whitmonday, there was a fresh scandal: the evangelicals were at work. 'Ha!' said many indignantly; 'they keep no holiday, except the Sunday!'[419]
If the evangelisation had continued in a peaceful course of christian edification, the city would in all probability have been entirely gained over; but the Reformation had its 'enfants terribles.' Calvin said in vain: 'Those who are wise according to God are modest, peaceable, and gentle. They do not conceal vices; they endeavour rather to correct them, but provided it be in peace, that is to say, with so much moderation that unity remains unbroken. Peaceable and loving representations ought not to be laid aside, and those who desire to be physicians must not be executioners.'[420]
A fine stone crucifix in St. Germain's cemetery had been thrown down, and another, which stood at a cross road near the city, had been destroyed: but this had been done at night and it was not known by whom. Ere long the ardent reformers grew bolder, and especially Christopher Hollard, a true iconoclast of the Reform, who thought more of pulling down than of building up. One day, as Farel was preaching before the deputies of Berne and Friburg, Hollard flew at an image of the Virgin and dashed it to pieces. Another day he threw down the great altar of the church of Our Lady. This was not enough.
According to Hollard, whose mind was upright, and even pious, but ardent, extreme, and rather deficient in judgment, the Reformation, that is to say, the destruction of images and altars, did not go on fast enough, and he therefore resolved to carry it out on a grand scale. He took twelve companions with him; and these agents of the judgments of God (as they thought themselves), going from street to street and from church to church, 'pulled down all the altars' in the seven churches of the city; twenty-six heaps of rubbish bore witness to their triumph. They could say, no doubt, that all worship paid to an image is a relic of paganism; but their fault was to suppose that catholics ought to adore God, not according to their catholic conscience, but according to that of the reformed protestants. The people looked at each other with alarm, but said nothing. 'I was greatly astonished,' says De Pierrefleur, 'at the patience of the populace.' 'Sir banneret,' observed some catholics, 'if we did not feel great loyalty towards our lords of Berne, the body of Christopher Hollard would not have touched earth;' that is to say, they would have hanged him. These combatants were pretty well matched for gentleness. The catholics set up tables in the place of the altars, upon which they celebrated mass 'rather meanly.'[421]
=ARREST OF THE PRIESTS.=
The intolerance of Christopher Hollard and of one of his friends, named Tavel, threatened to substitute a new tyranny for the ancient tyranny of popery. Alas! the protestant clergy have sometimes been known to oppose the disciples and doctrines of the gospel, just as the Romish clergy would have done. Intolerance is a vice of human nature which even piety does not always cure. The priests saying mass at their little tables offended Hollard and Tavel. Agasse was no longer governor; he had been removed by the influence of Berne, and Anthony Secretan, one of the reformed, put in his place. The two fiery Lutherans laid a complaint before him against all priests as being murderers (of souls); and according to the custom of the age, surrendered themselves prisoners. The governor ordered the Roman ecclesiastics to be arrested, which was no easy matter, for there were some sturdy fellows among them. Three sergeants having attempted to seize Messire Pierre Bovey in the street, the stout priest 'dragged them into the passage of a house,' and there beat them so that they were glad to escape out of his hands. Having thus defended himself like a lion, he remained free; but it was not so with Blaise Foret, the curé, who 'went like a sheep straight to prison.' The officers put him along with the rest, who were 'well treated at bed and board, with permission to go all over the castle.'[422] Some bold priests (for they were not all shut up) chanted mass at five o'clock in the morning, notwithstanding the prohibition. The catholics attended 'armed with pikes, halberds, and clubs; and rang the bells as if the city were on fire'. Before long the intolerant protestants received a severe and well merited lesson.
=RELEASE OF THE PRIESTS.=