Roman-catholicism was falling: Friburg hurried to its support. ‘Alas!’ replied the syndics to the ambassadors, ‘we do not set Farel to preach: it is the people. We could sooner stop a torrent than prevent people going to hear them. So far as we are concerned, we have abolished no ceremony, pulled down no church.’ Thus, at Geneva, as in mighty England, it was the nation rather than its leaders who desired the Reform; and it was the same everywhere. The Friburgers, calm and reserved, then stepped forward in the midst of the assembly of the people, coldly laid their letters of alliance before the premier syndic, and asked for those of Geneva. ‘Keep them! keep them!’ was the cry on all sides; and the citizens rushed towards the deputation, lavishing on them marks of affection and prayers. Messieurs of Friburg, sternly shaking off their embraces, departed, leaving the letters of alliance on the table.
The alarmed Council now resolved to do all in their power to appease the catholics and Friburgers. Every year at Easter a grand procession took place, in which the images and relics of the saints were carried through the city. The Council ordered the usual honors to be paid them. Aimé Levet having declared that he would not forsake the living God for that multitude of petty gods, the syndics served him with a special order through the police. But still the Levets would hang no drapery upon their house, and kept the shop open as on an ordinary day. For this offence Aimé was kept three days in prison on bread and water.
Farel’s Domestic Troubles.
The consideration due to Friburg had led the magistrates to this act of severity; but the evangelical movement was not checked by it. The Christian meetings increased in number after Easter. Farel energetically urged forward the car of Reform, and his voice by turns alarmed like the thunders of Sinai, or consoled like the Beatitudes of the Gospel. Yet, in the midst of these numerous works, he was often observed to pause, overcome with sadness. The persecution continued in France: three hundred Lutherans were in prison at Paris. ‘What restive horses are these!’ he exclaimed. ‘They shrink back instead of advancing! What adversaries are springing up against the Redeemer, who reigns with glory in heaven! But God will not forsake his work.’[[505]] He had still keener sorrows than these: his own brothers, Daniel, Walter, and Claude, had been seized by the enemy from a desire to avenge upon them the evil which the reformer was doing. One of the three, who was younger than himself, had been condemned to imprisonment for life, and his mother, already a widow, was shedding tears of bitterness. ‘Alas!’ said William Farel, ‘her son, who was born after me, has long been in prison, and has greater sorrows to endure than I have.’ The reformer applied to friends in high station to obtain his brother’s release from the king; but the strictness of the prison had only been increased. ‘I know not,’ he said, on the 28th of April, 1534, ‘who has so stirred the fire.... May it please God that the poor prisoner hold firm and declare fearlessly what ought to be said of the good Saviour.’[[506]] Farel possessed that filial affection which is serious and respectful towards the father, tender and gentle towards the mother. It made him exclaim in his anguish: ‘Alas! the poor widow! O my anguish-stricken mother!’ The love he felt for Christ had increased his natural affections.
De la Maisonneuve, having returned to Geneva after Easter, was about to start again for Lyons. Farel, knowing that his friend, De la Forge, the merchant of Paris, would be going also to that city at this season of the year, gave Baudichon a letter for his Paris brethren, at that time so afflicted, directing his letter to the holy vessel elect of God. ‘Jesus,’ he wrote to this little flock in the capital, ‘is the rock of offence against which the world has fought since the beginning of time, and will always fight; but its efforts are vain. No council can withstand God, and if the wicked lift their horns, they shall be broken.’ He then solicited the intercession of the members of the church in behalf of his brother. ‘I pray you,’ he said, ‘speak of my brother in that quarter where you know better than myself that it is expedient to do so. What! a protracted detention, the confiscation of his property, six hundred crowns which the bishop has extracted from him—is not that enough? Oh! that the poor fellow could be set at liberty! All here who fear the Lord entreat you to exert yourselves for him.’[[507]] The evangelicals of Geneva were interested in the fate of their reformer’s brothers. At the same time Farel wrote also to De la Forge, commending his brother to him, and knowing the perils with which the Parisian merchant was threatened, he added: ‘If we have Jesus, that heavenly treasure cannot be taken from us: let us march onwards, though all the world should rise against Him.’
In treating of our reformers, we naturally bestow attention on their labors, struggles, writings, and trials; it is well, however, to enter sometimes into the inner sanctuary of their hearts and of their domestic lives. We are touched and rejoice to find there such abundance of the most legitimate and tenderest of human affections. They were men as well as Christians. This fact is a proof of the sincerity of their piety; it is like a spring of pure water gushing up on a field of battle, refreshing and reviving those whom so many struggles might have wearied.
CHAPTER VIII.
A BOLD PROTESTANT AT LYONS.
(1530 TO 1534.)
Farel, who was so distressed by the long captivity of one of the members of his family, little suspected that a friend, loved by him as a brother, would ere long be in a dungeon. De la Maisonneuve, who traded in all sorts of merchandise, but particularly in silk fabrics, jewellery, and furs, had been in the habit of attending the fairs of Lyons for twenty years, and went there as often as three or four times a year. Of late, the frankness with which he maintained the evangelical doctrines had offended many persons, and thus paved the way for a catastrophe which now seemed inevitable. Courted by the merchants, esteemed by the magistrates, he was, on the other hand, in the bad books of the priests, and the priests were powerful.
The Reliquary.
One day, in the year 1530, when he was at Nuremberg on business, a rich merchant of that city, a sound protestant, who had no love for relics, had given him a valuable reliquary in payment of a debt.[[508]] As Lyons was noted for its devotion, Baudichon, who cared little for the object and looked at it only as an article of merchandise, thought it might fetch a good price in that city, and happening to go there not long after, offered the little box to a money-changer. He would have done better to have refused it at Nuremberg, but Christian wisdom was then only dawning upon him. The money-changer took up the article and examined it devoutly. On the top was an image of St. James in silver, ‘carefully wrought,’ and weighing about four marks. Underneath was the reliquary: a box of silver with a glass allowing the inside to be seen, and some little parchment labels indicating the names of the saints whose relics were contained within. The Lyons money-changer looked with adoration on the precious remains of St. Christopher, St. Syriac, and another. He took off his cap, made a bow to the relics, and kissed them devoutly; and as his wife and children had clustered round him with pious curiosity, he made each of them kiss the sacred remains. Turning to Maisonneuve, he said: ‘Sir Baudichon, I am surprised that you should bring me this relic in such a manner.’ Maisonneuve replied: ‘It is very likely they are the bones of some ordinary body which the priests give the people to kiss to deceive them.’ At these words, an apprentice, of the age of eighteen, a very bigoted youth, left the shop indignant, and sat down on a bench in the street. The changer having paid Baudichon seventy livres tournois for his merchandise, the huguenot departed. But as he was passing in front of the bench, the apprentice, unable to restrain his anger, insulted him. Maisonneuve was content to reply that if he was in Geneva, ‘he would give him relics for nothing.’ This affair began to make Baudichon suspected.[[509]]