Alasco’s Resignation.
Alasco, perhaps, aspired to a perfection which is not attainable in this world. Struck with the divine element, he did not sufficiently apprehend the influence of the human element in the things of this life. Finding that his endeavors to purify the Church were useless, he could not endure the responsibility imposed on him by his episcopal office. He thought it burden enough to be responsible for his own errors, without being also responsible for the faults of others. He therefore resigned his office of superintendent, while retaining that of preacher. This failure to achieve complete success did not, however, at all abate the energy of his zeal. Faith had created within him a moral force which could not decay. The princess having entreated him to resume his office, he laid down certain conditions. He would be amenable only to God and his Word. He could not endure that men of the world should come and intrude themselves in his path. He required to be guaranteed against interference of the magistrates in the internal affairs of the Church, and against disturbance by pastors who would interrupt its unity.[[706]]
This was conceded; and he now resumed his work courageously. But the old trials were followed by fresh ones. Count John and most of the courtiers could not endure the seriousness of his character and his desire to see the prevalence of order in the Church. His enemies reproached him for protecting dangerous sectaries, perhaps because he contended against them only by the word, and had no wish to proceed against them by imprisonment or banishment. Other trials fell upon him. He was again afflicted with fever and even threatened with loss of sight. One of his children, little Paul, was taken from him. His heart was broken by this loss. ‘Every thing makes me feel,’ he said, ‘that this earthly dwelling is about to be destroyed, and that soon (so I hope) we shall be in the Father’s house, with Christ. Our dear little one has gone before us, and we shall soon follow him.’[[707]]
His Country Home.
These mournful events made him feel a longing for a more quiet life. He sighed for some retreat in which he might pray at peace, while applying himself diligently to the work of his ministry. He bought a house in the country, with land adjoining, and in it he invested almost all his property. In this situation he had some rural occupations. He was busied about his house, and also a little about his fields; and it was a joy to him to be in the midst of the works of God. He was a good father and, according to the injunction addressed to bishops by St. Paul, he endeavored to bring up his children in all purity and modesty. His wife managed the house affairs, milked the cows, and made the butter. But Alasco did not forget the main point. In his view the most indispensable condition for the prosperity of his own personal piety and for the success in his pastoral functions was the diligent study of the Holy Scriptures. He carried on correspondence with Melanchthon, Bucer, Bullinger, and others. He studied the works of Calvin, whom he highly esteemed, although there was some difference in their opinions. He was a large-hearted man. We do not find, however, that he wrote to Calvin before the year 1548.[[708]]
His residence in the country by no means lessened his active exertions; it appears, on the contrary, to have extended them. We find his influence operative in West Friesland, where it was diffused both by the ministry of the pastors of those districts who had taken refuge at Embden, and by himself personally. He appears to have visited Franeker and other towns. Far from narrowing his sphere of action, he enlarged it. He devoted attention to every thing steadfastly and prudently. In his case was demonstrated the truth that he who has an acquaintance with the common life of men and practice in conducting worldly business is so much the more qualified for guiding the Church of God.
Viglius Of Zuychem.
It is possible that Alasco may have found in West Friesland some unexpectedly favorable conditions. If credit is to be given to authentic documents, a man who has always passed for a persecutor, and who held an important position in the government of the Netherlands, at this time secretly favored the Reformation of Friesland. This was the celebrated Viglius of Zuychem, a man endowed with great talents and a distinguished jurisconsult, who had studied first at Franeker, and afterwards in the universities of the Netherlands, France, and Italy. Viglius is so famous, so well known for the ability which he displayed in opposition to the Reformation that we can not refrain from lifting the veil for the purpose of disclosing one side of his history which is very little known. He is a striking example of a class of men too numerous in the sixteenth century. His mind was not devoid of liberal tendencies, and in his heart was some leaning to the religion of the Gospel. But he saw that under Charles the Fifth he could secure his position and retain the high honors with which he was loaded only by siding with those who opposed the light and the Gospel. This, therefore, he did. Like Alasco, he was indebted to Erasmus for his first impressions. While still a young boy, he was an enthusiastic admirer of the learned Dutchman, his fellow-countryman. ‘From my childhood,’ he wrote to Erasmus in March, 1529, ‘my feelings toward you have been of such a nature that in my studies I had never felt a more powerful stimulus than the thought of making such progress as would warrant the hope of my winning your kindly regard.’[[709]] Afterwards, even before he made the personal acquaintance of Erasmus, he took his part against those who assailed him. ‘I am desirous,’ he wrote, ‘that you should know the great love I cherish for you, and that I am ready vigorously to repel the rage of shameless and perverse men who assailed you, and thus to protect a peaceful leisure which you employ in the most useful studies.’ Erasmus, on his part, was charmed with what he called the easy and amiable disposition of Viglius; and he added that he had found in his letters powerful enchantments which had completely won his heart. With respect to the attacks of which the young man had spoken, he said, ‘Alas! it is my destiny to be engaged in a perpetual conflict with the whole phalanx of sham monks and sham theologians, monsters so frightful and so dangerous that it was certainly easier for Hercules to contend with Cacus, Cerberus, the Nemean lion, and the hydra of Lernæ. As for you, my dear young friend,’ he added, ‘consider by what means it may be possible for you to obtain praise without hatred.’[[710]] Unfortunately Viglius followed his advice too well, or at least allowed himself in following it to be led into acts of culpable cowardice.
While still imbued with elevated sentiments, the young Frisian at first avoided making any engagement with Charles the Fifth, with whose cruel policy he was too well acquainted. He refused several offers of this prince, and particularly an invitation to take charge of the education of his son Philip; but ambition ultimately gained the ascendency. As an eminent jurisconsult, Viglius entered in 1542 into the great council of Mechlin, of which in the following year he was named president. The emperor next made him president of the privy council at Brussels and head of the order of the Golden Fleece. From the time that he accepted these offices, the enthusiastic disciple of Erasmus saw the beginning of a conflict in his inner life which seems to have ended only with his death. On the one side, he declared boldly against freedom of conscience and against heresy, things which he regarded as the ruin of nations. He even went so far as to call those atheists who desired to be free in their faith. But if he thus satisfied Charles the Fifth and his ministers, he was unable entirely to stifle the best aspirations of his youth; and he secretly showed for the Protestants a tolerance which was quite contrary to his principles. He was accused; and the government of the Netherlands, having received orders to get precise information about him, requested, with the utmost secrecy and under the seal of an oath, a churchman and a man of letters, whose names have not been divulged, to state what they knew respecting him.[[711]] The report made by these priests presents a strange contrast to the judgment of history on this man. ‘Viglius is accused,’ said these two anonymous reporters, ‘of having been from his youth greatly suspected of heresy, and chiefly of the heresy of Luther; of having been and of still being reputed a heretic, not only in the Netherlands, but in France, Italy, and Germany; of having associated only with heretics, as, for example, those of Augsburg, Basel, and Würtemberg; of having given promotion, since his elevation to the post which he fills, only to men of the same character; of having caused the nomination, as councillor to the Imperial chamber, of Albada, who had resigned his office of councillor in Friesland because he would not consent to the punishment of Anabaptists, Calvinists, and other sectaries; of having introduced into the university of Douai, for the purpose of exercising jurisdiction over churchmen, lay and married rectors; of having lavishly conferred offices upon his brothers, kinsmen, and friends in Friesland, all of them tainted and infected with heresy; and of many other things of the like kind.’[[712]]
In quoting this passage, we do not profess to reform the judgment of history; but only to show what sometimes lay hidden under the rude and menacing manners of the councillors of Charles the Fifth.