These pilgrimages to St. Benedict's caves were soon observed; ill-disposed persons might follow the little groups on their way to the meeting, and surprise the assembly. Calvin's friends resolved to change their place of meeting frequently, sometimes going to a village, at others to an isolated country-house.[109] The inhabitants of the neighbourhood would join the little flock, and the preacher would bring forward that christian truth which enlightens the world and man. When they separated, he gave books to every one, 'and even prayers written with his own hand.'
=CALVIN ON THE MASS.=
Calvin's opposition to the mass gave greater offence every day; the catholics charged him with the crime of daring to deny that the priest offered Christ himself in sacrifice, as an expiatory victim for the sins of the people. He was moved by these observations, but not shaken. One day when he and his friends were assembled in the cavern, he extolled the sacrifice of the cross offered once, according to Scripture, and then spoke so forcibly against the mass, that it was not possible, said earnest catholics, to hear him without shuddering. It is true that Calvin did not spare this Romish ceremony. He sometimes called it a 'mere monkey-trick and burlesque.' 'I call it a monkey-trick,' he said, 'because they mock the supper of the Lord, just as a monkey imitates clumsily whatever he sees others do.[110] I call it a burlesque, because the nonsense and gestures they introduce are better adapted to a stage-play than to so holy a mystery.'[111] There were in the cave some who believed sincerely in transubstantiation, and who habitually attended mass with pious sentiments. Calvin's words—although they may not have been literally those we have copied—wounded and vexed them, and Le Sage, abruptly interrupting him, exclaimed: 'Our Lord, very God and very man, is really and substantially under the appearance of the bread and the wine.... In all ages, wherever men have known Christ, the sacrifice of the mass has been offered up.' Surprised at this bold outbreak, Calvin asked himself if he had committed a crime in setting the Word of God above the traditions of Rome. He kept silence for a few moments, and then lifting his hand and putting it on the Bible that lay open before him, he exclaimed earnestly: 'This is my mass!'[112] Then uncovering his head and placing his fur cap on the table, he lifted his eyes to heaven, and said with emotion: 'O Lord, if in the day of judgment Thou desirest to punish me because I have deserted the mass, I will say to Thee: O God, Thou hast not commanded me to celebrate it. Behold Thy Law.... Behold Thy Holy Scripture.[113]... Thou didst give it us to be our guide, and I can find no other sacrifice in it than that which was accomplished on the altar of the cross.' The hearers separated in great excitement, touched with the reformer's faith at once so simple and so strong, and it was with new convictions that some of them retraced the solitary paths that conducted them to Poitiers.
From that time many persons manifested a desire to receive the Supper according to the Lord's institution. The various ceremonies, the incense, the choral chants satisfied them no longer; they wished to have a simple and real communion with the Saviour. A day was therefore appointed, and they assembled in one of the caves of St. Benedict.[114] The minister read the Word of God, and called upon the Lord to pour out His Spirit on the little flock. He broke the bread and handed round the cup; and then invited the worshippers to communicate mutually such reflections and experiences as might be useful to the faith.[115] These simple exhortations after the Supper were continued for some time in the reformed Church.
[89] Lettres françaises de Calvin, i. p. 119.
[90] 'Tilius haustis animo Calvini opinionibus.'—Flor. Rémond, Hist. Hérés. ii.
[91] 'Miro desiderio eos videndi incensus, qui catholicæ ecclesiæ bellum indixerant.'—Ibid.
[92] See M. Cousin's excellent edition.
[93] Varillas, Hist. des Rév. rel., ii. p. 473.
[94] 'Riotes et cavillations ... arguments cornus et surprises subtiles ... comme s'il était un bailleur de sornettes ordinaires ... au lieu de s'entortiller dans des contestations superflues ... il mettait en avant ce qui est ferme.'