CHAPTER III.
EXTENSION OF THE REFORM IN THE PAYS DE VAUD.
(End of 1536.)
The assembly of Lausanne was a great event for the Vaudois; it was talked of in every village. Berne, by her ordinance, ‘that all priests, monks, and other people of the Church, whatever they might be, should appear,’ had awakened universal attention. While there was one great disputation at Lausanne, there were many little ones in the towns and villages. They discussed the pros and the cons, and they wondered whether the priests on their return would be converted to the new faith or not. At Lausanne itself, hardly had a session closed, and the crowd passed out of the doors of the beautiful cathedral, than the debates were renewed in the streets and in private houses.
RESULTS OF THE CONFERENCE.
The results of the conference were not long in showing themselves. Some, like the Cordelier Tandy, owned themselves convinced, took the side of the Reformation, and became in their turn its missionaries. Ministers and laymen were seen traversing all the land, reporting the discussions, showing that the evangelical religion is indeed the true, and intensifying the universal excitement. The two deputies sent by the parish of Villette, Sordet and Clavel, were so much impressed by the truths expounded by Farel and his friends, that they took Viret back with them to Cully, that he might preach there. The whole country, indeed, was not converted, but the light was penetrating from place to place, even into the remotest corners. Not only was there the bright flame in those fair regions, but there was also the warmth, which was further diffused than the light, quickening and transforming hearts.
At Lausanne itself the first effect of the disputation was remarkable, and showed clearly that morals were quite as much as doctrine the business of the Reformation, and that they were possibly its most distinctive characteristic. Only two days after the close of the disputation, on October 10, the council, very much engrossed by the great event which had just taken place, resolved ‘to destroy once for all the houses of ill-fame which existed in the town,’ to drive away the foul women who lived in them, as well as all others who were known to be leading an evil life. On Thursday, October 12, the order given to those ‘unfortunates’ to quit the city and the bailiwick was published with sound of trumpet in all the streets.[414] It has been said that morals are the science of man.[415] The Lausannese edileship thought that they were especially the science of the magistrate. Those discussions, in which justification by faith had been the chief subject in question, had for their first consequence works of Christian morality. This proceeding of the magistrates gave great joy to those who had taken part in the disputation. They saw in it the apology for their doctrine. ‘When justification by faith is spoken of,’ remarks one of them,[416] ‘the mind of man takes the matter the wrong way, and is shocked, like a ship which, instead of keeping to the right course marked out for it, drives on to strike first on one rock then on another. The death of Christ is efficacious for extinguishing the evil of our flesh, and his resurrection for originating in us a new condition of better nature.’
The people drew from the disputation another consequence. The most ardent even of the reformers had, while the debates lasted, tolerated the images in the cathedral. Viret had shown that God prohibited them, and that they turn men away from the true service of God. ‘The priests,’ he had said, ‘for their convenience set in their own place preachers of wood and of stone, the images, arraying them in rich garments at the cost of the poor. And as for themselves, they sleep, they make good cheer, and are free from care. These images are their vicars, they do their work, and they cost nothing to feed. And the poor people are stupefied and kiss the wood and the stone.’[417] No one had answered Viret. It was in vain that the defenders of images had been invited to come forward; not one appeared. For the reformed it seemed therefore a legitimate course to remove them from the cathedral. A sinister rumor of this project alarmed the canons, and they resolved to do their utmost to resist the impious proceeding. They took the keys of the cathedral and, running to the sacred edifice, closed the doors that no one might be able to carry off the objects of their veneration. In spite of all their precautions one of the images was removed. The fact was immediately noised over the town. The most grievous blow had just fallen on our great Lady of Lausanne! The reformed honored the mother of the Saviour as a blessed woman, but they refused to make a goddess of her. The clamor and threats of the priests recalled to mind the cries of the worshippers of Diana at Ephesus, spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles, who said, ‘The temple of the great goddess Diana is in danger of being despised and her magnificence of being destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.’[418] The canons not feeling themselves strong enough for the occasion, betook themselves to the council, gave up to them the keys of the cathedral, and implored them to protect the building and what it contained.[419] But the reformed, who earnestly longed to see worship given to God alone, turned their back on those figures of wood and stone:
Dès maintenant, trompeuse idole,
D’un culte honteux et frivole,
Nous n’entourons plus tes autels.
BERNESE ORDINANCES.