Dame Claudine, although yielding to her sister's entreaties, resolved to protect herself thoroughly. She armed herself carefully with all the antidotes provided in such cases; she fastened fresh-gathered rosemary leaves to her temples, rubbed her bosom with virgin wax,[582] hung relics, crosses, and rosaries round her neck, and shielded by these amulets, she accompanied Paula to the Croix d'Or. 'I am going to see an enchanter,' she said, so deceived[583] was she. She promised herself to lead back the Demoiselle de Bourdigny into the fold.
Claudine entered the hall and sat down in front of the magician in mockery and derision, says the chronicle. Froment appeared, having a book in his hand. He mounted on a round table, as was his custom, in order to be better heard, and opening the New Testament, read a few words, and then began to apply them. Claudine, without caring the least for the assembly, and wishing to make her catholicism known, crossed herself several times on the breast, at the same time repeating certain prayers. Froment continued his discourse and unfolded the treasures of the Gospel. Claudine raised her eyes at last, astonished at what she heard, and looked at the minister. She listened, and ere long there was not a more attentive hearer in all the congregation. Froment's voice alone would have been 'wasted,' but it entered into the woman's understanding, as if borne by the Spirit of God. She drank in the reformer's words; and yet a keen struggle was going on within her. Can this doctrine be true, seeing that the church says nothing about it? she asked herself. Her eyes often fell on the schoolmaster's book. It was not a missal or a breviary.... It seemed to her full of life.
=CLAUDINE ALONE WITH THE BIBLE.=
Froment having completed his sermon, the children and adults rose and prepared to go out. Claudine remained in her place: she looked at the teacher, and at last exclaimed aloud: 'Is it true what you say?'—'Yes,' answered the reformer. 'Is it all proved by the Gospel?'—'Yes.'—'Is not the mass mentioned in it?'—'No!'—'And is the book from which you preached a genuine New Testament?'—'Yes.' Madame Levet eagerly desired to have it: taking courage, she said: 'Then lend it me.' Froment gave it to her, and Claudine placing it carefully under her cloak, among her relics and beads, went out with her sister-in-law, who was beginning to see all her wishes accomplished. As Claudine returned home she did not talk much with Paula: hers was one of those deep natures that speak little with man but much with God. Entering her house, she went straight to her room and shut herself in, taking nothing but the book with her, and being determined not to come out again until she had found the solution of the grand problem with which her conscience was occupied. On which side is truth? At Rome or at Wittemberg? Having made arrangements that they should not wait meals for her, or knock at her door, 'she remained apart,' says Froment, 'for three days and three nights without eating or drinking, but with prayers, fasting, and supplication.' The book lay open on the table before her. She read it constantly, and falling on her knees, asked for the divine light to be shed abroad in her heart. Claudine probably did not possess an understanding of the highest range, but she had a tender conscience. With her the first duty was to submit to God, the first want to resemble Him, the first desire to find everlasting happiness in Him. She did not reach Christ through the understanding; conscience was the path that led her to Him. An awakening conscience is the first symptom of conversion and consequently of reformation. Sometimes Claudine heard in her heart a voice pressing her to come to Jesus; then her superstitious ideas would suddenly return, and she rejected the Lord's invitation. But she soon discovered that the practices to which she had abandoned herself were dried-up wells where there had never been any water. Determined to go astray no longer, she desired to go straight to Christ. It was then she redoubled those 'prayers and supplications' of which Froment speaks, and read the Holy Scriptures with eagerness. At last she understood that divine Word which spake: 'Daughter, thy sins are forgiven thee.' Oh, wonderful, she is saved! This salvation did not puff her up: she discovered that 'the grace of God trickled slowly into her;' but the least drop coming from the Holy Spirit seemed a well that never dried. Three days were thus spent: for the same space of time Paul remained in prayer at Damascus.[584]
=HER CONVERSION.=
Madame Levet having read the Gospel again and again desired to see the man who had first led her to know it. She sent for him. Froment crossed the Rhone, for she lived at the foot of the bridge, on the side of St. Gervais. He entered, and when she saw him Claudine rose in emotion, approached him, and being unable to speak burst into tears. 'Her tears,' says the evangelist, 'fell on the floor,' she had no other language. When she recovered, Madame Levet courteously begged Froment to sit down, and told him how God had opened to her the door of heaven. At the same time she showed herself determined to profess without fear before men the faith that caused her happiness. 'Ah!' she said, 'can I ever thank God sufficiently for having enlightened me?' Froment had come to strengthen this lady and he was himself strengthened. He was in great admiration at 'hearing her speak as she did.'[585] A conversion so spiritual and so serious must needs have a great signification for the Reformation of Geneva, and as Calvin says in other circumstances where also only one woman seems to have been converted: 'From this tiny shoot an excellent church was to spring.'[586]
[561] 'Obscuritatem nominis præsidio futuram, Deum itineri ducem et cœpto patronum.'—Spanheim, Geneva restituta, p. 47.
[562] Froment, Gestes de Genève, p. 12.
[563] Badollet MS. in Berne library, Hist. Helv.
[564] Froment, Gestes de Genève, p. 13.