History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume I Part 10

[Footnote 142: In October, 1521. Herminjard, i. 76.]

[Footnote 143: "Vous a.s.seurant que le Roy et Madame ont bien delibere de donner a congnoistre que la verite de Dieu n'est point heresie."

Margaret of Angouleme to Briconnet, Nov., 1521, MSS. National Lib., Herminjard, i. 78; Genin, ii. 273.]

[Footnote 144: "Vos piteulx desirs de la reformacion de l'Eglise, ou plus que jamais le Roy et Madame sont affectionnes." Same to same, Dec, 1521, Ibid., Herminjard, i. 84; Genin, ii. 274. Compare Louise de Savoie's own entry in her journal, in December, 1522, a year later, to which reference has already been made.]

[Footnote 145: See the valuable remarks of M. Herminjard (i. 289, note) respecting the date of the "manifestation of the Gospel" in France.]

[Footnote 146: Luther to Spalatin, Oct. 19, 1516, Herminjard, i. 26.]

[Footnote 147: Herminjard, i. 41, 205, 206.]

[Footnote 148: Lefevre was placed in charge of the _Leproserie_, Aug.

11, 1521, and was appointed vicar-general _au spirituel_, May 1, 1523.

Herminjard, i. 71 and 157.]

[Footnote 149: Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, 277, under date of 1526.]

[Footnote 150: "Moy et autres comme moy, leverons une cruciade de gens, et ferons cha.s.ser le Roy de son Royaume par ses subjectz propres, s'il permet que l'evangile soit presche." Farel au Duc de Lorraine, Herminjard, i. 483.]

[Footnote 151: Pierre de Sebeville au Chevalier Coct, Gren.o.ble, Dec. 28, 1524: "Je te notifie que l'evesque de Meaulx en Brie, pres Paris, c.u.m Jacobo Fabro Stapulensi, depuis trois moys en visitant l'evesche, ont brusle _actu_ tous les imaiges, reserve le crucifix, et sont personellement ajournes a Paris, a ce moys de Mars venant, coram suprema curia, et universitate erucarum parrhissiensium, quare id factum est."

Herminjard, i. 315.]

[Footnote 152: Fontaine, Histoire catholique, _apud_ Merle d'Aubigne, Hist. de la Reform., liv. xii. The earliest Protestant chronicle, by Antoine Froment, of which there is a MS. fragment in the Library of Geneva, gives a slightly different form to Briconnet's caution: "Autrefois, en leur preschant l'evangile, il leur avoit dit, comme Sainct Paul escript au Gallates, que sy luy-mesme ou un Ange du ciel leur preschoit autre doctrine que celle qu'il leur preschoit, qu'ils ne [le] receussent pas." Herminjard, i. 158.]

[Footnote 153: Nisard, Histoire de la litterature francaise, i. 275. The only printed work in favor of which the claim of Lefevre's translation to be the oldest in the French language could be disputed is the "Bible"

of Guyars des Moulins, finished in 1297, and printed by order of Charles VIII. in 1487; but the greater part of this is a free translation, not of the Scriptures themselves, but of a summary--the "Historia scholastica" of Pierre le Mengeur (latinized "Comestor")--and is consequently no bible at all. See M. Charles Read, in Bulletin, i. 76, who remarks that, "everything considered, it may therefore be a.s.serted that the translations of Lefevre d'etaples and of Oliveta.n.u.s are the first versions without embellishment or gloss (non historiees et non glossees), and that thus the first two versions of the Bible into the language of the people are Protestant."]

[Footnote 154: The inventory of the library of the Count of Angouleme, father of Margaret and Francis I., consisting of nearly two hundred volumes, contains the t.i.tle "Les Paraboles de Salomon, les Espistres Saint Jehan, les Espistres Saint Pol et l'Apocalipse, le tout en ung volume, escript en parchemin et _a la main_, et en _francoys_, couvert de velous changeant et a deux fermoeres, l'un aux armes de mon diet Seigneur, et l'autre aux armes de ma dicte dame." Aristotle, Boethius, Boccaccio, and Dante figure in the list, the latter both in Italian and in French. The inventory is printed in an appendix to the edition of the Heptameron of Margaret of Angouleme published by the Soc. dea bibliophiles francais (Paris, 1853), a work enriched with many original doc.u.ments of considerable value.]

[Footnote 155: This important letter of Lefevre to Farel, July 6, 1524, first published in part from the MS. in the Geneva Library, in the Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. franc., xi. (1862), 212, is given in full by Herminjard, i. 220, etc.]

[Footnote 156: "O bone Deus, quanto exulto gaudio, c.u.m percipio hanc pure agnoscendi Christum gratiam, jam bonam partem pervasisse Europae! Et spero Christum tandem nostras Gallias hac benedictione invisurum."]

[Footnote 157: "Provinciam interpretandi populo promiscui s.e.xus, quotidie una hora mane, epistolas Pauli lingua vernacula editas, non concionando, sed per modum lecturae interpretando." Lefevre to Farel, _ubi supra_, i. 222. He gives the names of four such "lectores puriores"--Gadon, Mangin, Neufchasteau, and Mesnil--of whom we know little.]

[Footnote 158: Parliament, however, as late as June 1, 1525, sustained his episcopal authority by prohibiting the monks from preaching in Meaux, whether in the morning or in the evening, when the bishop either himself preached or had preaching before him in that part of the day.

Reg. of Parliament, Preuves des Libertez de l'Eglise Gallicane, iv.

102.]

[Footnote 159: Gaillard, vi. 409.]

[Footnote 160: "L'estat par la froideur duquel tous les aultres sont gellez." Briconnet to Margaret of Angouleme, Dec. 22, 1521, Herminjard, i. 86.]

[Footnote 161: "Celluy qui tous ruyne." Same to same, Jan. 31, 1524, ibid., i. 186.]

[Footnote 162: "L'etat qui contient tous les autres dans le devoir," as translated by Herminjard, i. 154.]

[Footnote 163: See both doc.u.ments in Herminjard, i. 153 and 156.]

[Footnote 164: Instead of October 15, 1523, it is probable that these doc.u.ments ought to be placed nearly, if not quite, two years later. See M. Herminjard's remarks on this difficult point, Correspondance des reformateurs, i. 158, note. The same uncertainty affects Briconnet's subsequent pastoral, revoking the powers accorded to "Lutheran preachers," attributed to December 13, 1523, ibid., i. 171.]

[Footnote 165: Maimbourg, Histoire du Calvinisme (Paris, 1682), liv. i.

11-14; Daniel, Histoire de France (Paris, 1755), x. 23.]

[Footnote 166: Registres du parlement, Oct. 3, 1525, Preuves des Libertez de l'eglise gallicane, iv. 102.]

[Footnote 167: "Et supplie la Cour qu'il soit interroge en pleine cour, et non par Commissaires." Registres du parlement, Oct. 20, 1525, ibid., iv. 103.]

[Footnote 168: Registres du parlement, Nov. 29, 1525, where the Bishop of Meaux is ordered to pay 200 _livres parisis_ for the trial of the heretics, prisoners from Meaux (Preuves des Libertez, iii. 166), and the receipt for the same (Ibid., _ubi supra_). This was, however, merely an application of the general prescription of Nov. 24, 1525, requiring all prelates to defray the expenses of the trial of any heretics discovered in their dioceses, with the right to indemnify themselves from the property of the convicted heretics (Ibid., iii. 165). So the Archbishop of Tours contributed to the expenses incurred in the trial of Jean Papillon, Feb. 5, 1526 (Ibid., iii. 167).]

[Footnote 169: Daniel, x. 23, 24; Gaillard, vi. 409-411.]

[Footnote 170: Neither the reason nor the precise time of his departure is known. It was apparently as early as 1523.]

[Footnote 171: See Haag, La France protestante, art. Farel; Dr. E.

Schmidt, Wilhelm Farel, in Hagenbach, Leben d. Vater und Begrunder der Reformirten Kirche, vii. 3, etc. A brief but very accurate sketch in Herminjard, i. 178, etc.]

[Footnote 172: MS. Seminary of Meaux, January 11, 1524/5, Bulletin, x.

220.]

[Footnote 173: "Plusieurs peigneurs, cardeurs et autres gens de meme trempe, non lettres."]

[Footnote 174: MS. Seminary of Meaux, February 6, 1524/5, Bulletin, x.

220.]

[Footnote 175: Compare for the date, Herminjard, i. 378, 389, 401.

Gerard Roussel was ordered by parliament to be seized wherever found, _etiam in loco sacro_. So, too, were Caroli and Prevost. Jacques Lefevre was cited to appear. Registres du parlement, Oct. 3, 1525, Preuves des Libertez de l'egl. gall., iii. 102, 103.]

[Footnote 176: Farel to Pellican, 1556, Herminjard, i. 481.]

[Footnote 177: "Ita invigilent Verbo ecclesiarum ministri, ut, nulla pene hora diei, suum desit pabulum et quidem _syncerum, ut nulla subsit palea aut fermenti pharisaici commissura_."]

[Footnote 178: Roussel to Briconnet, Strasbourg, Dec, 1525, Herminjard, i. 406, 407.]

[Footnote 179: Roussel to Farel, Meaux, Aug. 24, 1524, Herminjard, i.

271--a doc.u.ment that throws a flood of light upon the motives of the conduct of both Roussel and Lefevre. A letter of the same date to colampadius is, in some respects, even more instructive. Notice the pitiful weakness revealed in these sentences: "Reclamabunt episcopi, reclamabunt doctores, reclamabunt scholae, a.s.sentiente populo, occurret Senatus (parliament). _Quid faciet homuncio adversus tot leones?_"

Herminjard, i. 278. A reference to the book of Daniel might have enabled the Canon of Meaux to answer his own question.]

[Footnote 180: Pierre Toussain to colampadius, Malesherbes, July 26, 1526, Herminjard, i. 447.]

[Footnote 181: Mandement de Guillaume Briconnet an clerge de son diocese, le 21 janvier, 1525, Herminjard, i. 320, etc.]

[Footnote 182: It may seem surprising that Jean Leclerc escaped the stake in punishment of his temerity. But the reason is found in the circ.u.mstance that he was tried, not for _heresy_, but for _irreverence_.

This appears from the Registres du parlement for March 20, 1524/5. The interesting discussions of that session, printed in the Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. francais, iii. (1854) 23, etc., establish the fact that the reformed doctrines were already making formidable headway in Paris and the adjoining towns. A brother of Bishop Briconnet took a prominent part in the debate, and gave a deplorable view of the prevalence of impiety and heresy in the higher circles of society.]

[Footnote 183: For a description of the punishment, see b.a.s.t.a.r.d d'Estang, Les parlements de France.]