Font plus que force ni que rage.
The Protestant Sects.
This patience was not idleness. Various sects, banished from the Netherlands and other districts of Germany, had taken refuge in Friesland, where they found freedom. The Brussels government called upon the countess to expel them. The princess and her advisers were quite inclined to do so without further inquiry, but Alasco opposed this. He conceived an excellent plan of action, but one very difficult to execute. He would have liked to unite the different Protestant parties in a single body, comprehending therein even the smallest sects. ‘You have permitted,’ said he, ‘these strangers to settle among your people, and we can not now, just to please those who pursue them, drive them away without any form of trial. Let us examine first what they are. An error of the understanding does not render a man liable to punishment; but guilty intentions alone.’ The countess requested him to make such an examination as he suggested. Alasco then, actuated by a generous longing for unity and freedom, applied himself to the task; but he soon found himself involved in a conflict with a great number of differing opinions, often irreconcilable, and had to maintain a sad struggle with grave errors. One man among them all appeared to him to be sincerely pious, and to set before himself a really praiseworthy object. This was Menno. Alasco invited him to a religious conference which turned upon the subjects of the ministry, the baptism of children, and the incarnation of the Son of God. It was chiefly this last point with which he concerned himself. Menno taught a fantastical doctrine. He believed that the birth of Jesus had been only in appearance, that He had not received from the Virgin Mary his flesh and blood, but had brought them from heaven. Alasco did not confine himself to a vivâ voce opposition to this Gnostic dogma; but wrote a treatise[[695]] on the subject. Menno having put forward several other opinions which were peculiar to himself, Alasco admitted that it was impossible to attach him to the great evangelical body; but at the same time he did not ask for his expulsion.[[696]]
Another divine, a far less estimable man than Menno, not only holding fantastic notions, but also leading an immoral life, next appeared before him. His name was David Joris (or George); and he was a native of Delft in Holland. His father was a conjuror who, as well as his wife, used to play off juggling tricks at fairs and markets. The young David, endowed with an original and even profound intellect, remarkably clever and of lively imagination, was at the same time filled with ambition and vanity. He learnt the business of painting on glass; but on Sundays and festival days he used to join his parents and amuse the spectators with his legerdemain. This doubtless had a bad effect on him. He afterwards heard the evangelical doctrine preached, and fastened upon it, but not without admixture. He saw in it, not a means of salvation in heaven, but a means of being great here below; and discontented with his modest calling he aspired to become head of a sect. Joris composed treatises and hymns, preached, gained adherents and baptized them. He was prosecuted in several towns of Holland, wandered to and fro under various disguises, and at last arrived in East Friesland. Here his ardor obtained him some disciples. ‘The doctrine announced by the prophets,’ said he, ‘and even by Jesus Christ, is not perfection. The Pentecostal spirit led man forward indeed, but only brought him to the age of youth. Another spirit was needed for the development of a grown man, and this spirit is in the Christ David (Joris). I am the first-born of the regenerate, the new man of God, the Christ according to the Spirit. It is necessary to believe unreservedly in me. This faith will bring the man who possesses it to perfect freedom, and he will find himself above all law, all sin, and all compulsion.’ Alasco, when he heard these strange pretensions, said to him, ‘Prove to us by the testimony of the Word of God that this vocation belongs to you. Many churches have been troubled by men who, like you, arrogated for themselves a divine mission; and it is to pretensions of this sort that we owe the tyranny of the pope and of Mohammed.’[[697]]
David replied in the style of an infallible doctor. He told Alasco that he would communicate to him his Book of Miracle,[[698]] that this book would show him how he, David, surpassed him in the knowledge of the truth, and that he would give himself up to be led by it to the highest knowledge of God. Alasco replied that it was impossible for him to admit his infallibility.[[699]] ‘In spiritual things,’ he added, ‘the Word of God alone has any worth for me. I shut my eyes to all besides. May the Lord govern me and keep me for his glory by the true sceptre of his royalty.’
Joris quitted Friesland and betook himself to Basel. There he assumed fictitious names, continued to direct his partisans in the north, who sent him a good deal of money, and fared well and lived licentiously. It was discovered after his death that this wretched man had several illegitimate children. The men of Basel, alarmed at having had such a man among them, testified their abhorrence of his memory in the most energetic manner.[[700]]
Church Government.
Alasco, in the midst of these struggles, was diligent in the work of the ministry. He explained the Holy Scriptures from the pulpit; but, while he usually conformed to received customs, he allowed much freedom in the outward arrangements of the service, because he feared that uniformity would lull men’s minds to sleep, and that from too rigorous adherence to this mode, or that rite, or such a vestment, there would soon arise a new papacy. He therefore considered it desirable that from time to time there should be some variety and change. The main point, in his view, was the preaching of the Word of God. ‘Let us beware,’ he said, ‘of letting our attention be distracted by a multitude of ceremonies.’ There was, however, one matter to which he attached higher importance. He desired that the life of Christians should be conformed to their profession. ‘What,’ said he, ‘are we to contend against errors without, and at the same time allow license to be established in our own houses, and while we are severe towards others are we to be indulgent to our own irregularities?‘[[701]] He therefore appointed in the church at Embden four elders, grave and pious men, who in the name of the whole church were to watch over good morals. Finally, not wishing the government of the Church to be in the hands of a prince or a magistrate, or even of national consistories established in various places, he entrusted this office to what he called the Cœtus, the assembly of the pastors. His error was the non-admission to it of the elders. This institution, however, contributed to promote unity in sound doctrine, harmony of life and faith, and a good theological culture. Brotherly conferences were held in which were made mutual exhortations to sanctification. The necessities of the flock were investigated and the means of providing for them. The life of candidates, both inward and outward, engaged their attention; and many of the members of the Cœtus said that they had learnt more in it than at the university.[[702]]
Alasco, who with regard to literature was a follower of Erasmus, with regard to worship a follower of Zwinglius, and with regard to discipline, the constitution of the Church, and the sacraments, a follower of Calvin, was, with regard to the doctrine of grace, rather a follower of Melanchthon. In 1544 he wrote an Epitome of the doctrine of the churches of East Friesland. He sent this to Hardenberg, requesting him to communicate it to Bucer at Strasburg and to Bullinger at Zurich.[[703]] He firmly believed that an eternal counsel of God controls all history; that Christ is the central point of Christianity, and that apart from him there is no salvation. ‘But God,’ he said, ‘so far as it rests with him, shuts out no one from his mercy. Christ, by his holy death, has expiated the sins of the whole world. If a man be lost, it is not because God created him for the purpose of suffering everlasting punishment, but because he has voluntarily despised the grace of God in Jesus Christ.... God is the Saviour of us all, the most loving Father of all, most merciful to all, most pitiful for all. Let us then implore his mercy through Him to whom nothing can be refused, to wit, Jesus Christ.’[[704]] Some persons, bound to system, having accused Alasco to Calvin on account of this doctrine, the latter would not listen to these denunciations; and the brotherly affection of the two reformers was not in the least interrupted.
It was not so in Friesland. Alasco encountered a sharp opposition on the part of some of his colleagues and some of the magistrates. At the same time, disorders prevailed and fatal opinions were spreading in the country. Once more Alasco appealed to the princess. ‘The monks and their idolatry still hold their ground, ecclesiastical discipline is destroyed, and so much indulgence is shown for licentiousness, that if any man lead a sober life, he might on this ground be called a sectary. Nor is this all. The country is again the receptacle of the strangest doctrines, and, after having waged war on the gnats, we are now giving food to wasps and hornets, and are allowing ravens to croak at their leisure.’[[705]]