Next year (1531), when Maisonneuve was again at Lyons, and dining at the table-d’hôte of the Coupe d’Or, he met with some merchants from the neighboring provinces, and particularly from Auvergne, whose inhabitants, upright and charitable, but ignorant and vindictive, were distinguished at that time by a credulous devotion, as excessive as it was superstitious. The Genevan did not scruple to declare his religious convictions boldly before them, and the bigoted Auvergnats were much surprised to hear him speak ‘after his manner about the Gospel and faith during all the meal.’ ‘Hold your tongue,’ they said, angrily, ‘if you were in our country, you would be burnt.’[[510]]
Who Is Petrus?
A year later (in 1532), also at fair time, De la Maisonneuve, Bournet, a broker to whom he had confided an article of jewellery for sale, Humbert des Oches, and other tradesmen were supping at the table-d’hôte of the Coupe d’Or. It was one of those days on which the Church forbids the eating of meat. Bournet had brought some fish, of which they all partook, and Baudichon among them. This surprised one of the guests, who asked him whether they eat meat at Geneva on fast days. ‘Certainly they do,’ he answered, ‘and if I were in a place where it could be got, I should make no difficulty about it, for God does not forbid it.’—‘The pope and the Church forbid it,’ returned Bournet, sharply. Baudichon declared that he did not acknowledge the pope’s power to forbid what God permits. ‘God said to St. Peter,’ rejoined Bournet, ‘“Whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven” (Matthew xvi. 19). The pope is now in the place of St. Peter; therefore’....—‘The pope and the priests,’ retorted Maisonneuve, ‘are so far from being like St. Peter, that there are many among them who lead evil lives, and require to be set in order and reformed. The Word of God alone brings grace to the sinner.’ He then began to repeat ‘some passages from the Gospels in the French language,’ selecting those which announce Jesus Christ and the complete pardon he gives. Every Christian who proclaims the Gospel might, he declared, be God’s instrument to liberate souls from sin and condemnation; and then, growing bolder, he exclaimed: ‘I am Petrus; you (turning to Bournet) are Petrus. Every man is Peter, provided he is firm in the faith of Jesus Christ.’ All present were much struck with his observations, and the strange man became still blacker in their eyes.[[511]]
At the feast of the Epiphany in the year 1533, the brother of Lyonnel Raynaud, priest of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, and Messire Jean Barbier, of the cathedral of Vienne, arrived at the Coupe d’Or, with a clerk in attendance upon the latter. They sat down to table with the company. Everybody was speaking at once. One of the guests, however,—and he was usually among those who talked the most,—seemed absorbed in thought. De la Maisonneuve (for it was he) fixed his eyes on the priests of Vienne, and, after a few moments, said to them, ‘Can you explain to me why they put a certain cordelier to death at Vienne a few years ago?’ He alluded to Stephen Renier, of whom we have spoken elsewhere.[[512]] ‘He was a heretic,’ said Barbier, ‘and had taught endless errors at Annonay and elsewhere.’ De la Maisonneuve boldly undertook his defence. ‘You did wrong to put him to death,’ he said; ‘he was a truly good man, of sound learning, and one likely to produce great fruits.’ The strife began immediately. Baudichon affirmed that we were not required to keep the commandments of the Church, but only those of God; while the priest tried with all his might to prove that Baudichon was wrong. The Genevan grew more animated, and spoke with great boldness. This new kind of tournament absorbed all attention: the guests left off eating and drinking, fixed their eyes on the two champions, and opened their ears wide. A merchant of Vienne, one Master Simon de Montverban, an acquaintance of Baudichon’s, and whom the latter had often soundly beaten, observed to him: ‘You have found a man at last to answer you.’ But the Genevan replied so forcibly to the arguments of the Viennese, and the contest became so animated, that the three priests, suddenly rising from table, quitted the room hastily, and went into a separate chamber. ‘If this man were at Vienne,’ said Barbier, ‘I would have him sent to prison.’ The prison and the stake which followed it were safer arms than discussion.[[513]]
Hostility To Baudichon.
De la Maisonneuve, having returned to Lyons for the fairs of Easter and of August, met a considerable number of merchants at the Coupe d’Or, and immediately undertook to enlighten them, feeling that language was given for such purposes; but, as he feared also that his scattered remarks, if not followed up, would be insufficient to correct the tardiness of certain men, he determined to make use of various stimulants. Accordingly, he spared neither toil nor weariness. Simon de Montverban, who was there again, was struck with his zeal, and complained of it. ‘Whenever the merchants take their meals,’ he said, ‘whenever he meets them in the common hall, when they come in or go out, everywhere and always, Baudichon gets talking and disputing about the Gospel.’ No longer confining himself to questions of fasting or images, he went straight to what was essential: he put forward Scripture as the fountain of truth, and declared that every sinner, even the greatest, was saved through uniting himself by faith to Jesus Christ. People censured him in vain. In vain did two merchants, one named Arcon and the other Hugues, repeat to every body and to Baudichon himself that, if he was in their country, he would be burnt; the latter, who did not doubt them, continued his arguments. Lyons was a free city during the fair, and he took advantage of it to make the pure Gospel known. Simon de Montverban complained to the Genevan huguenot’s brother-in-law, an ardent papist, who made answer: ‘I wish that Baudichon had died ten years ago; he is the cause of all the troubles at Geneva.’[[514]]
De la Maisonneuve was again at Lyons at the feasts of All Saints (November, 1533) and Epiphany (1534). One evening, when a numerous company was supping at the inn, the conversation turned on the religious circumstances of the times. After listening a while, he exclaimed: ‘It is nonsense to pray to the saints, to hear mass, and confess to the priests!’ and proceeded to quote the Gospels and the Apostles to prove what he said. ‘In our country,’ again asserted some who heard him, ‘at Avignon, at Clermont you would be sent to the stake!’ It was the burden of the old song, and they were only surprised that he was not burnt at Lyons. De la Maisonneuve, knowing well that it was out of their Roman piety that they wished to burn him, was content to smile. But his calmness excited the wrath of his fellow-guests. The merchants of Auvergne rose from the table in a fit of anger, and, addressing the hostess, desired she would not receive Maisonneuve in future. ‘If we find him here when we come again,’ they said, ‘we shall go and lodge elsewhere.’ The landlady promised the Auvergnats not to receive him in future.[[515]]
The Easter fair of 1534 was drawing near, and as it was the most considerable in the year, Maisonneuve did not want to miss it. But circumstances had become more threatening and rendered the journey dangerous. There were, as we have seen, in the castle of Peney on the Lyons road, and other strong places, traitors who had fled from Geneva, and carried off all the Genevans they could lay hands on. Baudichon’s friends wished him to put off this journey. ‘The fair is free (franche) to every one,’ he answered. ‘Ay!’ said Froment, ‘under the papacy there are many franchises for thieves, robbers, and murderers; but for the evangelicals all the liberties, franchises, and promises of princes are broken.’[[516]] Maisonneuve knew this well, yet he was not a man to be frightened. The report of his intentions having gone abroad, certain traitors (as Froment terms the fanatical partisans of the bishop and pope) hastened to give their Lyons friends notice of Baudichon’s approaching arrival, conjuring them to get him put to death. ‘He was spied and recommended to their care.’[[517]]
De la Maisonneuve, bearing Farel’s letters, started from Geneva in the morning of the 25th of April, and arrived at Lyons on the 26th, having no suspicion that his enemies were waiting for him and preparing his scaffold. He had with him Janin the armorer, his aide-de-camp in religious matters, who had supplied himself with evangelical books printed at Neufchatel to circulate them in Lyons. Baudichon, as usual, had alighted at the Coupe d’Or near St. Pierre-les-Nonnains, and was cordially received by the landlady notwithstanding the promise she had made the Auvergnats some months before. Janin stopped there also, and stored his evangelical books away in the room that had been assigned him.
The next day there was a great disturbance at the inn. The merchants had arrived from Auvergne, and one of the first persons they saw was the famous heretic!... The color rushed to their cheeks, and they had words with the hostess because she did not keep her promise. That they did not content themselves with mere words, is clear from events which followed. The bigots of France wished to share with the bigots of Geneva the honor of putting to death the captain of the Lutherans.[[518]]