Emotion At Geneva.
All this time Geneva was greatly agitated: the news of Baudichon’s arrest had caused uneasiness among his friends. Men spoke about it ‘in the city and in the fields,’ everywhere, in short. When friends met one another, they asked: ‘Have you heard that Baudichon has been brought before the archiepiscopal court of Lyons for being a Lutheran?’ The devout (if we may use the words of the manuscript) ‘consigned him to Satan, as being the principal cause of heresy in Geneva;’[[528]] while the huguenots, agitated and alarmed at the dangers that threatened their friend, considered what was to be done. They determined to act immediately and simultaneously at Lyons, Berne, and even at Paris, if they could. Thomas, Baudichon’s brother, started for Lyons at once, and asked for an audience with Monseigneur du Peyrat, the king’s Lieutenant-general. ‘For what reason,’ he said, ‘and by what authority has my brother, Baudichon de la Maisonneuve, been sent to prison?’—‘I do not detain him,’ answered du Peyrat; ‘apply to the vicars general.’ Thomas, learning that his brother was in the hands of the priests, and his danger therefore greater, resolved to make every effort to save him.
Thomas and the Genevans were not the only persons interested in this matter. Baudichon’s imprisonment was an attack upon the rights of the foreign merchants, and compromised the fairs at Lyons. What German Lutheran would come there in future? The inhabitants, especially the innkeepers, tradespeople, and merchants, foresaw great pecuniary loss, and the princes of commerce felt the injury done to one of their number. There was, consequently, a great commotion in the city, and many merchants, ‘as well of the city as foreigners,’ determining to complain of it, proceeded to the consulate (or town-council), to whom they represented, ‘with much grief,’[[529]] that the imprisonment of Baudichon de la Maisonneuve was an infringement of the privileges of the fairs; and that many merchants had to receive from him certain sums which it was impossible for him to pay now, because he could not collect the money which other merchants owed him. ‘We pray you, therefore,’ they said, in conclusion, ‘not to suffer our privileges to be violated.’—‘Release my brother, à pur et à plein, without reserve,’ added Thomas de la Maisonneuve. Four of the consuls seconded the remonstrance.[[530]] The municipality resolved that Jean de la Bessie, procurator-general of Lyons, and one councillor should demand Baudichon’s liberation of the inquisitional court. ‘My brother,’ said Thomas, ‘is a burgess of Berne and of Friburg, and by virtue of the treaties between the king and the lords of the League, he cannot be made a prisoner in this kingdom.’[[531]] The priests were determined to pay no regard to the request of the magistrates: a serious incident roused them from their listlessness.
Bernese Intervention.
A despatch had just arrived, addressed to Monseigneur the king’s lieutenant-general: it was from the lords of Berne. The lieutenant-general knew well the value of Swiss intervention. Had not four hundred of them, at the battle of Sesia, after Bayard’s death, checked, by their impetuosity and the sacrifice of their lives, the army of the allies? Monseigneur du Peyrat determined, therefore, to support the prayer of the Bernese, and gave the city secretary the necessary instructions. The effect of the despatch was still greater upon Thomas de la Maisonneuve. Now there could be no more delays! Impatient to see his brother at liberty, imagining that he would succeed better by hurrying the affair, he would not wait a day or an hour. He should have considered that haste increases the chances of failure, and that the impatient man compromises both his character and his cause; but he could see nothing but Baudichon’s sufferings and the injury done to the Genevese reformation by his captivity. He was no longer master of himself: he wanted that very instant to deliver his brother from the jaws of the lion. ‘Set him free immediately,’ he said, ‘so that we may be able to answer the lords of Berne by the courier who is ready to return.’ The vicars-general answered curtly: ‘We are in course to order it, as is right.’[[532]] This cold formula appeared of evil omen to Thomas, and from that hour his fears increased.
On the other hand, Baudichon, informed of what was going on, took courage; and the judges, fully aware that it would not do to condemn on suspicious evidence a man who had such powerful supporters, determined to entice Maisonneuve craftily into some heretical declaration.
On the 5th of May the sergeants once more brought in their prisoner. ‘What are your opinions in regard to faith?’ asked the court. De la Maisonneuve answered: ‘I am a good Christian; if you do not think so, deliver me over to my superiors (the magistrates of Geneva) to examine me.’ But instead of doing so, the vicars-general tried to induce him to explain his ideas on the subject of transubstantiation, feeling sure of catching him in an error. The prisoner only replied: ‘I am not bound to answer you.’ The court tried in vain to induce him to speak: ‘I will not make any reply,’ he repeated. They read to him Janin’s answer on the sacrament, which was (it would appear) very shocking to Roman ears, and asked him what he thought of it; but Baudichon did not fall into the snare. ‘I am no judge,’ he said, ‘and it is not my business to decide whether the answer is good or bad.’[[533]] Then taking the offensive, he added: ‘If Frenchmen were imprisoned at Geneva for cases analogous to mine, would you be pleased?’—‘You have Pharellus and other Frenchmen there,’ answered the judges, ‘and have not surrendered them to the king.’ The officials of Lyons complained to the man whom they kept in prison because people were left at liberty in Geneva. Baudichon retorted proudly: ‘Ours is a free city,’ and withdrew.[[534]] ‘They set their traps in vain,’ said a reformer, speaking of the attacks of the papacy. ‘God has victories abundantly in his hands to triumph over them and their chief.’[[535]]
The judges were greatly embarrassed: they desired, not to release Maisonneuve, but (as he had often been told) to burn him; and yet, as it was impossible for them not to reply, at least by some formalities, to such high and mighty lords as Messieurs of Berne, they gave a certain solemnity to their answer. On Wednesday, the 6th of May, the officials, vicars-episcopal, inquisitors, and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, took their seats in front of the main door of the archiepiscopal palace. In public and in the open air they were about to hear the demand of the Swiss, supported by the lieutenant-general of the king. The city clerk, delegated by the councillors of Lyons, set forth the contents of the letters from Berne, and at the same time Thomas de la Maisonneuve presented two substantial merchants of the city as bail for his brother.[[536]] The cause of the Genevese prisoner was growing in importance: a sovereign state, which the king had every reason to treat courteously, had taken up his defence; the trial was becoming an international matter. The court knew that Francis I. was susceptible, and that it was dangerous to thwart him, as he had shown in the case of Beda. After full examination, therefore, they decreed that they ‘would amply inform the king our sire, in order that he may make known his good pleasure, and until his answer arrives, the said Baudichon shall not be liberated; at the same time, he shall be permitted, on account of his business, to speak with those who have dealings with him, in the presence of the jailers of the archiepiscopal prison, who are enjoined to treat him well and discreetly, according to his station.’[[537]]
Baudichon.
Two points were gained; Baudichon was to be treated like a prisoner of mark, and his case was to be laid before the king. The memory of the estrapades of Paris was too recent for the evangelicals to entertain very lively hopes: it was, however, a gleam of light. The judges themselves, feeling that the matter was becoming difficult and success doubtful, undertook to obtain a recantation from Baudichon, which would, besides, be more glorious for Rome (they thought) than a sentence of death. On the 21st of May, therefore, the court having called to their aid two inquisitors skilful in controversy, Nicholas Morini and Jean Rapinati, summoned Maisonneuve before them; when Father Morini endeavored to prove to him out of Scripture the material presence of Christ in the Sacrament. Baudichon understood the passages quoted differently from the doctors. Refusing to stop at the material substance, the flesh (as they did, and also the people of Capernaum who are blamed in the Gospel), he held to our Saviour’s words: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.[[538]]—‘I understand these words as well as you, and better, but I will not enter into any discussion. I am not bound to answer inquisitors.’[[539]] The court, provoked by these refusals, resolved to put the grand question to him: ‘Do you yield obedience to our holy father the pope of Rome?’ To the great disappointment of the vicars-general and inquisitors, he simply replied: ‘I am not bound to answer.’—‘We are your judges in this matter,’ they exclaimed with irritation; ‘we order and summon you to answer.’[[540]] But he would not; and then, recovering from their emotion, they tried to surprise him by an insidious question.