PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL—LYONS.
Farel's labours were not unfruitful. "On every side," wrote he to a fellow-countryman, "men are springing up who devote all their powers and their lives to extend Christ's kingdom as widely as possible."[972] The friends of the Gospel gave thanks to God that his blessed Word shone brighter every day in all parts of France.[973] The adversaries were astounded. "The faction," wrote Erasmus to the Bishop of Rochester, "is spreading daily, and is penetrating Savoy, Lorraine, and France."[974]
For some time Lyons appeared to be the centre of evangelical action within the kingdom, as Basle was without. Francis I., marching towards the south on an expedition against Charles V., had arrived in this city with his mother, his sister, and the court. Margaret brought with her many gentlemen devoted to the Gospel. "All other people she had removed from about her person," says a letter written at this time.[975] While Francis I. was hurrying through Lyons an army composed of 14,000 Swiss, 6000 French, and 1500 lances of the nobility, to repel the invasion of the imperialists into Provence; while this great city re-echoed with the noise of arms, the tramp of horses, and the sound of the trumpet, the friends of the Gospel were marching to more peaceful conquests. They desired to attempt in Lyons what they had been unable to do in Paris. Perhaps, at a distance from the Sorbonne and from the parliament, the Word of God might have freer course? Perhaps the second city in the kingdom was destined to become the first for the Gospel. Was it not there that about four centuries previously the excellent Peter Waldo had begun to proclaim the Divine Word? Even then he had shaken all France. And now that God had prepared everything for the emancipation of his Church, might there not be hopes of more extended and more decisive success? Thus the people of Lyons, who were not generally, indeed, "poor men," as in the twelfth century, were beginning more courageously to handle "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."
ARANDE, PAPILLON, VAUGRIS, DU BLET.
Among those who surrounded Margaret was her almoner, Michael d'Arande. The duchess caused the Gospel to be publicly preached at Lyons; and Master Michael proclaimed the Word of God with courage and purity before a great number of hearers, attracted partly by the charm that attends the glad tidings wherever they are published, and partly also by the favour in which the preaching and the preacher were held by the king's beloved sister.[976]
Anthony Papillon, a man of highly cultivated mind, an elegant Latin scholar, a friend of Erasmus, "the first in France for knowledge of the Gospel,"[977] accompanied the princess also. At Margaret's request he had translated Luther's work on monastic vows, "in consequence of which he had much ado with those Parisian vermin," says Sebville;[978] but Margaret had protected him against the attacks of the Sorbonne, and procured him the appointment of headmaster of requests to the dauphin, with a seat in the Great Council.[979] He was not less useful to the Gospel by his devotedness than by his prudence. A merchant, named Vaugris, and especially a gentleman named Anthony du Blet, a friend of Farel's, took the lead in the Reformation at Lyons. The latter person, a man of great activity, served as a bond of union between the Christians scattered throughout those countries, and placed them in communication with Basle. While the armed hosts of Francis I. had merely passed through Lyons, the spiritual soldiers of Jesus Christ halted there with Margaret; and leaving the former to carry the war into Provence and the plains of Italy, they began the fight of the Gospel in Lyons itself.
THE SAONE AND MACON—SEBVILLE AT GRENOBLE.
But they did not confine their efforts to the city. They looked all around them; the campaign was opened on several points at the same time; and the Christians of Lyons encouraged by their exertions and their labours all those who confessed Christ in the surrounding provinces. They did more: they went and proclaimed it in places where it was as yet unknown. The new doctrine ascended the Saone, and an evangelist passed through the narrow and irregular streets of Macon. Michael d'Arande himself visited that place in 1524, and, aided by Margaret's name, obtained permission to preach in this city,[980] which was destined at a later period to be filled with blood, and become for ever memorable for its sauteries.[981]
After exploring the districts of the Saone, the Christians of Lyons, ever on the watch, extended their incursions in the direction of the Alps. There was at Lyons a Dominican named Maigret, who had been compelled to quit Dauphiny, where he had boldly preached the new doctrine, and who earnestly requested that some one would go and encourage his brethren of Grenoble and Gap. Papillon and Du Blet repaired thither.[982] A violent storm had just broken out there against Sebville and his preachings. The Dominicans had moved heaven and earth; and maddened at seeing so many evangelists escape them (as Farel, Anemond, and Maigret), they would fain have crushed those who remained within their reach.[983] They therefore called for Sebville's arrest.[984]
FONDNESS FOR SYMBOLS—CONVENTICLES.