Chapter XIX: Book XV: Switzerland--Conquests. 1526-1530 (3)

Scarcely had the Reformed learnt this, when some of them running hastily from house to house, knocked at the doors and awoke their friends, who, starting out of bed, seized their muskets and repaired to the Gardeners' Hall, the rendezvous of their party. They soon amounted to three thousand.

[Sidenote: HALF-MEASURES REJECTED.]

Both parties passed the night under arms. At every moment a civil war, and what is worse, "a war of hearths," might break out. It was at last agreed that each party should nominate delegates to treat with the senate on this matter. The Reformed chose thirty men of respectability, courage, faith, and experience, who took up their quarters at the Gardeners' Hall. The partisans of the ancient faith chose also a commission, but less numerous and less respectable: their station was at the Fishmongers' Hall. The council was constantly sitting. All the gates of the city, except two, were closed; strong guards were posted in every quarter. Deputies from Lucerne, Uri, Schaffhausen, Zug, Schwytz, Mulhausen, and Strasburg, arrived successively. The agitation and tumult increased from hour to hour.

It was necessary to put an end to so violent a crisis. The senate, faithful to its ideas of half-measures, decreed that the priest should continue to celebrate the Mass; but that all, priests and ministers, should preach the Word of God, and for this purpose should meet once a-week to confer upon the holy Scriptures. They then called the Lutherans together in the Franciscan church, and the Papists in that belonging to the Dominicans. The senate first repaired to the former church, where they found two thousand five hundred citizens assembled. The secretary had hardly read the ordinance before a great agitation arose. "That shall not be," cried one of the people.[952] "We will not put up with the Mass, not even with a single one!" cried another; and all repeated, "No Mass,--no Mass,--we will die sooner!"[953]

[952] Quidam e plebe clamitabat: Hoc non fiet! (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 255.)

[953] Nos plane ea non feremus, aut moriemur omnes. (Ibid.)

The senate having next visited the Dominican church, all the Romanists, to the number of six hundred, among whom were many foreign servants, cried out: "We are ready to sacrifice our lives for the Mass. We swear it, we swear it!" repeated they with uplifted hands. "If they reject the Mass--to arms! to arms!"[954]

[954] At altera pars minitabat prælia si missam rejicerent (Ibid.)

The senate withdrew more embarrassed than ever.

[Sidenote: REFORMED PROPOSITIONS.]

The two parties were again assembled three days after. Œcolampadius was in the pulpit. "Be meek and tractable," said he; and he preached with such unction that many were ready to burst into tears.[955] The assembly offered up prayers, and then decreed that it would accept a new ordinance, by virtue of which, fifteen days after Pentecost, there should be a public disputation, in which no arguments should be employed but such as were drawn from the Word of God: after this a general vote should take place upon the Mass, that the majority should decide the question, and that in the meanwhile the Mass should be celebrated in three churches only; it being however understood, that nothing should be taught there that was in opposition to the Holy Scriptures.

[955] Ut nemo non commoveretur et profecto fere mihi lacrymas
excussisset. (Zw. Epp. ii. p. 255.)

The Romanist minority rejected these propositions: "Basle," said they, "is not like Berne and Zurich. Its revenues are derived in great measure from countries opposed to the Reformation!" The priests having refused to resort to the weekly conferences, they were suspended; and during a fortnight there was neither sermon nor mass at the cathedral, or in the churches of St. Ulric, St. Peter, and St. Theodore.

Those who remained faithful to Rome resolved upon an intrepid defence. Meltinger placed Sebastian Muller in the pulpit at St. Peter's, from which he had been interdicted, and this hot-headed priest vented such abusive sarcasms against the Reform, that several of the Evangelicals, who were listening to the sermon, were insulted and nearly torn in pieces.

[Sidenote: A NIGHT OF TERROR.]

It was necessary to arouse Basle from this nightmare, and strike a decisive blow. "Let us remember our liberty," said the reformed citizens, "and what we owe to the glory of Christ, to public justice, and to our posterity."[956] They then demanded that the enemies of the Reformation, friends and relations of the priests, who were the cause of all these delays and of all these troubles, should no longer sit in the councils until peace was re-established. This was the 8th February. The council notified that they would return an answer on the morrow.

[956] Cogitans quid gloriæ Christi, quid justitiæ publicæ, quidque
posteritati suæ deberet. (Œcol. Zurich MS.)

At six o'clock in the evening, twelve hundred citizens were assembled in the corn-market. They began to fear that the delay required by the senate concealed some evil design. "We must have a reply this very night," they said. The senate was convoked in great haste.

From that period affairs assumed a more threatening attitude in Basle. Strong guards were posted by the burghers in the halls of the different guilds; armed men patrolled the city, and bivouacked in the public places, to anticipate the machinations of their adversaries;[957] the chains were stretched across the streets; torches were lighted, and resinous trees, whose flickering light scattered the darkness, were placed at intervals through the town; six pieces of artillery were planted before the town hall; and the gates of the city, as well as the arsenal and the ramparts, were occupied. Basle was in a state of siege.

[957] Ne quid forte ab adversariis insidiarum strueretur. (Ibid.)

There was no longer any hope for the Romish party. The burgomaster, Meltinger, an intrepid soldier and one of the heroes of Marignan, where he had led eight hundred men into battle, lost courage. In the darkness he gained the banks of the Rhine with his son-in-law, the councillor Eglof d'Offenburg, embarked unnoticed in a small boat, and rapidly descended the stream amid the fogs of the night.[958] Other members of the council escaped in a similar manner.

[958] Clam conscensa navicula fuga, nescio senatu, elapsus est. (Œcol.
Zurich MS.)

[Sidenote: THE IDOLS BROKEN.]

This gave rise to new alarms. "Let us beware of their secret manœuvres," said the people. "Perhaps they are going to fetch the Austrians, with whom they have so often threatened us!" The affrighted citizens collected arms from every quarter, and at break of day they had two thousand men on foot. The beams of the rising sun fell on this resolute but calm assembly.

It was midday. The senate had come to no decision: the impatience of the burghers could be restrained no longer. Forty men were detached to visit the posts. As this patrol was passing the cathedral, they entered it, and one of the citizens, urged by curiosity, opened a closet with his halberd, in which some images had been hidden. One of them fell out, and was broken into a thousand pieces against the stone pavement.[959] The sight of these fragments powerfully moved the spectators, who began throwing down one after another all the images that were concealed in this place. None of them offered any resistance: heads, feet, and hands--all were heaped in confusion before the halberdiers. "I am much surprised," said Erasmus, "that they preformed no miracle to save themselves; formerly the saints worked frequent prodigies for much smaller offences!"[960] Some priests ran to the spot, and the patrol withdrew.

[959] Cum halpardis quasi per ludum aperirent armarium idolorum,
unumque idolum educerent. (Ibid.)

[960] Erasm. Opp. p. 291.

A rumour, however, having spread that a disturbance had taken place in this church, three hundred men came to the support of the forty. "Why," said they, "should we spare the idols that light up the flames of discord?" The priests in alarm had closed the gates of the sanctuary, drawn the bolts, raised barricades, and prepared everything for maintaining a siege. But the townspeople, whose patience had been exhausted by the delays of the council, dash against one of the doors of the church: it yields to their blows, and they rush into the cathedral. The hour of madness has arrived. These men are no longer to be recognized, as they brandish their swords, rattle their pikes, and utter formidable cries: are they Goths, or are they fervent worshippers of God, animated by the zeal which in times of yore inflamed the prophets and the kings of Israel? However that might be, these proceedings were disorderly, since public authority alone can interfere in public reforms. Images, altars, pictures--all were thrown down and destroyed. The priests who had fled into the vestry, and there concealed themselves, trembled in every limb at the terrible noise made by the fall of their holy decorations. The work of destruction was completed without one of them venturing to save the objects of his worship, or to make the slightest remonstrance. The people next piled up the fragments in the squares and set fire to them; and during the chilly night the armed burghers stood round and warmed themselves at the crackling flame.[961]

[961] Lignis imaginum usi sunt vigiles, pro arcendo frigore nocturno.
(Zurich MS.)

The senate collected in amazement, and desired to interpose their authority and appease the tumult; but they might as well have striven to command the winds. The enthusiastic citizens replied to their magistrates in these haughty words: "What you have not been able to effect in three years, we will complete in one hour."[962]

[962] De quo vos per triennium deliberastis, nihil efficientes, nos
intra horam omnem absolvemus. (Œcol. Capitoni, Basle MS.)

In truth the anger of the people was no longer confined to the cathedral. They respected all kinds of private property;[963] but they attacked the churches of St. Peter, St. Ulric, St. Alban, and of the Dominicans; and in all these temples "the idols" fell under the blows of these good citizens of Basle, whom an extraordinary zeal inflamed. Already they were making preparations to cross the bridge and enter Little Basle, which was devoted to the cause of Popery, when the alarmed inhabitants begged to be allowed to remove the images themselves, and with heavy hearts they hastily carried them into the upper chambers of the church, whence they hoped to be able after a time to restore them to their old position.

[963] Nulli enim vel obolum abstulerunt. (Ib.)

[Sidenote: THE REFORM LEGALIZED.]

They did not stop at these energetic demonstrations; the most excited talked of going to the town-hall, and of constraining the senate to accede to the wishes of the people; but the good sense of the majority treated these brawlers as they deserved, and checked their guilty thoughts.

The senators now perceived the necessity of giving a legal character to this popular movement, and of thus changing a tumultuous revolution into a durable reformation.[964] Democracy and the Gospel were thus established simultaneously in Basle. The senate, after an hour's deliberation, granted that in future the burghers should participate in the election of the two councils; that from this day the Mass and images should be abolished throughout all the canton, and that in every deliberation which concerned the glory of God or the good of the state the opinion of the guilds should be taken. The people, delighted at having obtained these conditions, which secured their political and religious liberty, returned joyful to their houses. It was now the close of day.[965]

[964] Cedendum plebi. (Œcol. Capitoni, Basle MS.)

[965] His conditionibus plebs læta domum rediit, sub ipsum noctis
crepusculum. (Ibid. Zurich MS.)

[Sidenote: OBJECTIONS.]

On the morrow, Ash-Wednesday, it was intended to distribute the ruins of the altars and other ornaments of the Church among the poor, to serve them for firewood. But these unhappy creatures, in their eagerness for the fragments, having begun to dispute about them, they constructed great piles in the cathedral close and set fire to them. "The idols," said some wags, "are really keeping their Ash-Wednesday to-day!" The friends of Popery, turning away their horror-stricken eyes from this sacrilegious sight, says Œcolampadius, shed tears of blood. "Thus severely did they treat the idols," continues the reformer, "and the Mass died of grief in consequence."[966] On the following Sunday hymns in German were sung at every church; and on the 18th February a general amnesty was published. Everything was changed in Basle. The last had become first, and the first last. While Œcolampadius, who a few years before had entered the city as a stranger, without resources and without power, found himself raised to the first station in the Church, Erasmus, disturbed in the quiet study whence during so long a period he had issued his absolute commands to the world of letters, saw himself compelled to descend into the arena. But this king of the schools had no desire to lay down his sceptre before the sovereign people. For a long time he used to turn aside his head when he met his friend Œcolampadius. Besides he feared by remaining at Basle to compromise himself with his protectors. "The torrent," said he, "which was hidden underground has burst forth with violence, and committed frightful ravages.[967] My life is in danger: Œcolampadius possesses all the churches. People are continually bawling in my ears; I am besieged with letters, caricatures, and pamphlets. It is all over: I am resolved to leave Basle. Only shall I or shall I not depart by stealth? The one is more becoming, the other more secure."

[966] Ita sævitum est in idola, ac missa præ dolore expiravit. (Œcol.
Cap. Zurich MS.)

[967] Basilica torrens quidem, qui sub terra labebatur, subito
erumpens, &c. (Er. Epp. ad Pirkheimer July, 1539.)

Wishing as much as possible to make his honour and his prudence agree, Erasmus desired the boatman with whom he was to descend the Rhine to depart from an unfrequented spot. This was opposed by the senate, and the timid philosopher was compelled to enter the boat as it lay near the great bridge, at that time covered with a crowd of people. He floated down the river, sadly bade adieu to the city he had so much loved, and retired to Friburg in Brisgau with several other learned men.

New professors were invited to fill the vacant chairs in the university, and in particular Oswald Myconius, Phrygio, Sebastian Munster, and Simon Grynæus. At the same time was published an ecclesiastical order and a confession of faith, one of the most precious documents of this epoch.

[Sidenote: PRINCIPLES OF THE REFORMATION.]

Thus had a great transformation been effected without the loss of a single drop of blood. Popery had fallen in Basle in despite of the secular and spiritual power. "The wedge of the Lord," says Œcolampadius, "has split this hard knot."[968]

[968] Malo nodo suus cuneus obvenit. (Œcol. Capit.)

We cannot, however, help acknowledging that the Basle Reformation may afford ground for some objections. Luther had opposed himself to the power of the many. "When the people prick up their ears, do not whistle too loud. It is better to suffer at the hand of one tyrant, that is to say, of a king, than of a thousand tyrants, that is to say, of the people." On this account the German Reformer has been reproached for acknowledging no other policy than servilism.

Perhaps when the Swiss Reformation is canvassed, a contrary objection will be made against it, and the Reform at Basle, in particular, will be looked upon as a revolution.

The Reformation must of necessity bear the stamp of the country in which it was accomplished: it will be monarchical in Germany, republican in Switzerland. Nevertheless, in religion as in politics, there is a great difference between reformation and revolution.

In neither of these spheres does Christianity desire either despotism, servitude, stagnation, retrogression, or death. But while looking for progress, it seeks to accomplish it by reformation and not by revolution.

Reformation works by the power of the Word, of doctrine, cultivation and truth; while revolution, or rather revolt, operates by the power of riot, of the sword, and of the club.

Christianity proceeds by the inner man, and charters themselves, if they stand alone, cannot satisfy it. No doubt constitutions are one of the blessings of our age; but it is not sufficient for these securities to be committed to parchment; they must be written in the heart, and guaranteed by the manners of the people.

Such were the principles of the Swiss Reformers, such were those of the Reform at Basle, and by these it is distinguished from a revolution.

[Sidenote: FAREL'S COMMISSION.]

There were, it is true, some excesses. Never perhaps has a reformation been accomplished among men without some mixture of revolution. But it was doctrines, however, that were in question at Basle: these doctrines had acted powerfully on the moral convictions and on the lives of the people; the movement had taken place within before it showed itself without. But more than this: the Reformation was not satisfied with taking away; it gave more than it took; and, far from confining itself to the work of destruction, it scattered rich blessings over all the people.[969]

[969] Hagenbach, Vorlesungen, ii. pp. 125, 200.

VI. The recoil of the discussion at Berne had overthrown Popery in a considerable part of German Switzerland. It was also felt in many of the churches of French Switzerland, lying at the foot of the Jura, or scattered amid the pine forests of its elevated valleys, and which up to this time had shown the most absolute devotion to the Roman pontiff.

Farel, seeing the Gospel established in the places where the Rhone mingles its sandy waters with the crystal Leman, turned his eyes to another quarter. He was supported by Berne. This state, which possessed jointly with Friburg the bailiwicks of Morat, Orbe, and Granson, and which had alliances with Lausanne, Avenches, Payerne, Neuchatel, and Geneva, saw that both its interest and its duty alike called it to have the Gospel preached to its allies and subjects. Farel was empowered to carry it among them, always with reserve of the consent of the respective governments.

One day, therefore, journeying towards Morat, Farel arrived and preached the Gospel at the foot of those towers and battlements that had been attacked at three different periods by the armies of Conrad the Salic, Rodolph of Hapsburg, and Charles the Bold. Erelong the friends of the Reform amounted to a great number. A general vote having nevertheless declared in favour of the Pope, Farel proceeded to Lausanne.

[Sidenote: FAREL AT MORAT.]

He was at first driven away by the bishop and the clergy, but soon reappeared provided with a letter from the lords of Berne. "We send him to you," said their excellencies to the authorities of the city, "to defend his own cause and ours. Allow him to preach the Word of God, and beware that you touch not a hair of his head."

There was great confusion in the councils. Placed between Berne and the bishop, what could they do? The Council of Twenty four, finding the matter very serious, convoked the Council of Sixty; and this body, excusing itself, they convoked the Council of Two Hundred, on the 14th November 1529. But these in their turn referred the business to the smaller council. No one would have anything to do with it. The inhabitants of Lausanne, it is true, complained loudly of the holy members of their chapters, whose lives (they said) were one long orgy; but when their eyes turned on the austere countenance of Reform, they were still more terrified. Besides, how deprive Lausanne of her bishop, her court, and her dignitaries? What! no more pilgrims in the churches,--no more suitors in the ecclesiastical courts,--no more purchasers in the markets, or boon companions in the taverns! The widowed and desolate Lausanne would no longer behold the noisy throng of people, that were at once her wealth and her glory!--Better far a disorder that enriches, than a Reform that impoverishes! Farel was compelled to depart a second time.

He returned to Morat, and soon the Word gained over the hearts of the people. On feast-days, the roads from Payerne and Avenches were covered with merry bands, who laughingly said to one another, "Let us go to Morat and hear the preachers!" and exhorted each other slily, as they went along the road, "not to fall into the nets of the heretics." But at night, all was changed. Grasped by the strong hand of truth, these very people returned,--some in deep thought, others discussing with animation the doctrines they had heard. The fire was sparkling throughout all this district, and spreading in every direction its long rays of light. This was enough for Farel: he required new conquests.

[Sidenote: NEUCHATEL.]

At a short distance from Morat lay one of the strongholds of Popery--the Earldom of Neuchatel. Joan of Hochberg, who had inherited this principality from her ancestors, had married, in 1504, Louis of Orleans, Duke of Longueville. This French nobleman having supported the King of France in 1512, in a war against the Swiss, the cantons had taken possession of Neuchatel, but had restored it to his widow in 1529.

Few countries could have presented greater difficulties to the daring reformer. The princess of Longueville, residing in France in the suite of Francis I., a woman of courtly habits, vain, extravagant, always in debt, and thinking of Neuchatel only as a farm that should bring her in a large revenue, was devoted to the Pope and Popery. Twelve canons with several priests and chaplains formed a powerful clergy, at whose head was the provost Oliver of Hochberg, natural brother to the princess. Auxiliaries full of zeal flanked this main army. On the one side there was the abbey of the Premonstrantes of Fontaine-André, three quarters of a league beyond the town, the monks of which, after having in the twelfth century cleared the ground with their own hands,[970] had gradually become powerful lords; and, on the other side, the Benedictines of the Island of St. John, whose abbot, having been deposed by the Bernese, had taken refuge, burning with hatred and vengeance, in his priory at Corcelles.

[970] Propriis manibus. (Hist. of Neuchatel, by F. de Chambrier, p.
13.)

[Sidenote: FAREL'S LABOURS.]

The people of Neuchatel had a great respect for ancient rights, and it was easy to take advantage of this state of feeling, considering the general ignorance, to maintain the innovations of Popery. The canons improved the opportunity. For the instructions of the Gospel they substituted pomps and shows. The church, situated on a steep rock, was filled with altars, chapels, and images of saints; and religion, descending from this sanctuary, ran up and down the streets, and was travestied in dramas and mysteries, mingled with indulgences, miracles, and debauchery.[971]

[971] Mémoires sur l'Eglise collegiale de Neuchatel, p. 240.

The soldiers of Neuchatel, however, who had made the campaign of 1529 with the Bernese army, brought back to their homes the liveliest enthusiasm for the Evangelical cause. It was at this period that a frail boat, quitting the southern bank of the lake, on the side opposite Morat, and carrying a Frenchman of mean appearance, steered towards the Neuchatel shore. Farel, for it was he, had learnt that the village of Serrière, situated at the gates of Neuchatel, depended in spiritualities on the evangelical city of Bienne, and that Emer Beynon, the priest of the place, "had some liking for the Gospel." The plan of his campaign was immediately drawn up. He appeared before parson Emer, who received him with joy; but what could be done? for Farel had been interdicted from preaching in any church whatever in the earldom. The poor priest thought to reconcile everything by permitting Farel to mount on a stone in the cemetery, and thus preach to the people, turning his back upon the church.[972]

[972] M. de Perrot, ex-pastor of Serrière, and author of a work
entitled "L'Eglise et la Réformation," has shown me the stone on which
Farel stood.

A great disturbance arose in Neuchatel. On one side the government, the canons, and the priests, cried "Heresy!" but, on the other, "some inhabitants of Neuchatel, to whom God had given a knowledge of the truth,"[973] flocked to Serrière. In a short time these last could not contain themselves: "Come," said they to Farel, "and preach to us in the town."

[973] "Aucuns de Neuchatel, auxquels Dieu avaient donné connoissance
de la vérité," &c. (Choupart MS.)

[Sidenote: FAREL'S PREACHING.]

This was at the beginning of December. They entered by the gate of the castle, and leaving the church on the hill to the left, they passed in front of the canons' houses, and descended through the narrow streets inhabited by the citizens. On reaching the market-cross, Farel ascended a platform and addressed the crowd, which gathered together from all the neighbourhood,--weavers, vine-dressers, husbandmen, a worthy race, possessing more feeling than imagination. The preacher's exterior was grave, his discourse energetic, his voice like thunder: his eyes, his features, his gestures, all showed him a man of intrepidity. The citizens, accustomed to run about the streets after the mountebanks, were touched by his powerful language. "Farel preached a sermon of such great efficacy," says a manuscript, "that he gained over much people."[974]

[974] Quoted in the Choupart MS.

Some monks, however, with shaven crowns,[975] glided among his hearers, seeking to excite them against the heretical minister. "Let us beat out his brains," said some. "Duck him, duck him!" cried others, advancing to throw Farel into a fountain, which may still be seen near the spot where he preached. But the reformer stood firm.

[975] Rasorum remoramenta. (Farellus Molano, Neuchatel MS.)

[Sidenote: POPERY IN NEUCHATEL.]

This first preaching was succeeded by others. To this Gospel missionary every place was a church; every stone, every bench, every platform was a pulpit. Already the cutting winds and the snows of December should have kept the Neuchatelans around their firesides; "the canons made a vigorous defence;"[976] and in every quarter "the shorn crowns" were in agitation, supplicating, menacing, howling, and threatening,--but all was useless. No sooner did this man of small stature rise up in any place, with his pale yet sunburnt complexion, with red and unkempt beard, with sparkling eye and expressive mouth, than the monks' labour was lost: the people collected around, for it was the Word of God that fell from his lips.[977] All eyes were fixed on him: with open mouth and attentive ears they hung upon his words.[978] And scarcely does he begin to speak, when--Oh! wonderful work of God! he himself exclaims--this multitude believes as if it had but one soul.

[976] Contra tyrannica præcepta. (Far. Mol. Neuchatel MS.)

[977] Ad verbum festinarent. (Ibid.)

[978] Avide audientes. (Ibid.)

The Word of God carried the town, as it were, at the first assault; and throwing down the devices Rome had taken ages to compose, established itself in triumph on the ruins of human traditions. Farel saw in imagination Jesus Christ himself walking in spirit through the midst of this crowd, opening the eyes of the blind, softening the hard heart, and working miracles,[979]......so that scarcely had he returned to his humble residence before he wrote to his friends with a heart full of emotion: "Render thanks with me to the Father of mercies, in that he has shown his favour to those bowed down by a weighty tyranny;" and falling on his knees, he worshipped God.[980]

[979] Quid Christus in suis egerit. (Ibid.)

[980] Gratias ergo, Fratres, mecum agite Patri misericordiarum, quod
sit propitius gravi pressis tirannide. (Ibid.)

But during this time what were the adherents of the Pope doing in Neuchatel?

The canons, members of the General Audiences, of which they formed the first estate, treated both priests and laymen with intolerable haughtiness. Laying the burden of their offices on poor curates, they publicly kept dissolute women, clothed them sumptuously, endowed their children by public acts, fought in the church, haunted the streets by night, or went into a foreign country to enjoy in secret the produce of their avarice and of their intrigues. Some poor lepers placed in a house near the city were maintained by the produce of certain offerings. The rich canons, in the midst of their banquets, dared take away the bread of charity from these unhappy wretches.

[Sidenote: RESISTANCE OF THE MONKS.]

The abbey of Fontaine-André was at a little distance from the town. Now the canons of Neuchatel and the monks of Fontaine were at open war. These hostile powers, encamped on their two hills, disputed each other's property, wrested away each other's privileges, launched at one another the coarsest insults, and even came to blows. "Debaucher of women!" said the canons to the abbot of Fontaine-André, who returned the compliment in the same coin. It is the Reformation which, through faith, has re-established the moral law in Christendom,--a law that Popery had trodden under foot.

For a long time these conventual wars had disturbed the country. On a sudden they cease. A strange event is passing in Neuchatel,--the Word of God is preached there. The canons, seized with affright in the midst of their disorders, look down from their lofty dwellings on this new movement. The report reaches Fontaine-André. The monks and priests suspend their orgies and their quarrels. The heathen sensualism that had invaded the Church is put to the rout; Christian spiritualism has reappeared.

Immediately the monks and canons, so long at war, embrace and unite against the Reformer. "We must save religion," said they, meaning their tithes, banquets, scandals, and privileges. Not one of them could oppose a doctrine to the doctrine preached by Farel: to insult him was their sole weapon. At Corcelles, however, they went farther. As the minister was proclaiming the Gospel near the priory, the monks fell upon him; in the midst of them was the prior Rodolph de Benoit, storming, exciting, and striving to augment the tempest. He even had a dagger in his hand, according to one writer.[981] Farel escaped with difficulty.

[981] Rosselet in Annotat. Farel Leben von Kirchofer.

[Sidenote: FAREL'S LABOURS.]

This was not enough. Popery, as it always does, had recourse to the civil power. The canons, the abbot, and the prior, solicited the governor George de Rive at the same time. Farel stood firm. "The glory of Jesus Christ," said he, "and the lively affection his sheep bear to his Word, constrain me to endure sufferings greater than tongue can describe."[982] Erelong, however, he was compelled to yield. Farel again crossed the lake; but this passage was very different from the former. The fire was kindled!--On the 22d December he was at Morat; and shortly after at Aigle.

[982] At levia facit omnia Christus, added he. Farel to Dumoulin, 15th
December. (Neuchatel MS.)

He was recalled hence. On the 7th January, religion was put to the vote at Morat, and the majority was in favour of the Gospel. But the Romish minority, supported by Friburg, immediately undertook to recover its ancient position by insults and bad treatment. "Farel! Farel!" cried the reformed party.[983]

[983] Choupart MS. (Chambrier, Hist. de Neuchatel, p. 293.)

A few days after this, Farel, accompanied by a Bernese messenger, scaled that magnificent amphitheatre of mountains above Vevay, whence the eye plunges into the waters of the Leman; and soon he crossed the estates of Count John of Gruyère, who was in the habit of saying, "We must burn this French Luther!"[984] Scarcely had Farel reached the heights of St. Martin de Vaud,[985] when he saw the vicar of the place with two priests running to meet him. "Heretic! devil!" cried they. But the knight, through fear of Berne, remained behind his walls, and Farel passed on.

[984] Missive of Berne to the Count of Gruyère, 5th and 16th January
1530.

[985] To the left of the modern road from Vevay to Friburg.

[Sidenote: FAREL IN NEUCHATEL.]

The Reformer, not allowing himself to be stopped by the necessity of defending himself in Morat, or by the inclemency of the season, immediately carried the Gospel to those beautiful hills that soar between the smiling waters of lakes Morat and Neuchatel into the villages of the Vully. This manœuvre was crowned with the most complete success. On the 15th February four deputies from the Vully came to Morat to demand permission to embrace the Reform, which was immediately granted to them. "Let our ministers preach the Gospel," said their excellencies of Berne to the Friburgers, "and we will let your priests play their monkey tricks. We desire to force no man."[986] The Reform restored freedom of will to the Christian people. It was about this time that Farel wrote his beautiful letter "To all lords, people, and pastors," which we have so often quoted.[987]

[986] Missive of Berne, Choupart MS.

[987] A tous seigneurs, peuples, et pasteurs. See above, Vol. III.
book xii.

The indefatigable reformer now went forward to new conquests. A chain of rocks separates the Juran valley of Erguel, already evangelized by Farel, from the country of the ancient Rauraci, and a passage cut through the rock serves as a communication between the two districts. It was the end of April when Farel, passing through the _Pierre-Pertuis_,[988] descended to the village of Tavannes, and entered the church just as the priest was saying Mass. Farel went into the pulpit: the astonished priest stopped,--the minister filled his hearers with emotion, and seemed to them an angel come down from heaven. Immediately the images and the altars fell, and "the poor priest who was chanting the Mass could not finish it."[989] To put down Popery had required less time than the priest had spent at the altar.

[988] Petra Pertusa.

[989] Donc le pauvre prêtre qui chantoit sa messe ne la peut pas
achever. (Old MS. quoted in the Choupart MS.)

A great part of the bishopric of Basle was in a few weeks gained over to the Reformation.

During this time the Gospel was fermenting in Neuchatel. The young men who had marched with Berne to deliver Geneva from the attacks of Savoy, recounted in their jovial meetings the exploits of the campaign, and related how the soldiers of Berne, feeling cold, had taken the images from the Dominican church at Geneva, saying: "Idols of wood are of no use but to make a fire with in winter."

[Sidenote: THE HOSPITAL CHAPEL.]

Farel re-appeared in Neuchatel.[990] Being master of the lower part of the town, he raised his eyes to the lofty rocks on which soared the cathedral and the castle. The best plan, thought he, is to bring these proud priests down to us. One morning his young friends spread themselves in the streets, and posted up large placards bearing these words: "_All_ _those who say Mass are robbers, murderers, and seducers of the people_."[991] Great was the uproar in Neuchatel. The canons summoned their people, called together their clerks, and marching at the head of a large troop, armed with swords and clubs, descended into the town, tore down the sacrilegious placards, and cited Farel before the tribunal as a slanderer, demanding ten thousand crowns damages.

[990] Farellus suo more magna fortitudine jam jam agit. Megander to
Zwingle, 6th Aug. 1530.

[991] De Chambrier, Hist. de Neuchatel, i. p. 293

The two parties appeared in court, and this was all that Farel desired. "I confess the fact," said he, "but I am justified in what I have done. Where are there to be found more horrible murderers, than these seducers who sell paradise, and thus nullify the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ? I will prove my assertion by the Gospel." And he prepared to open it, when the canons, flushed with anger, cried out: "The common law of Neuchatel, and not the Gospel, is in question here! Where are the witnesses?" But Farel, always returning to that fearful assertion, proved by the Word of God that the canons were really guilty of murder and robbery. To plead such a cause was to ruin Popery. The court of Neuchatel, that had never heard a similar case, resolved according to ancient custom to lay it before the Council of Besançon,[992] which not daring to pronounce the first estate of the General Audiences guilty of murder and robbery, referred the matter to the Emperor and to a general council. Bad causes gain nothing by making a disturbance.

[992] Prendre les _entraives_.

[Sidenote: CIVIL POWER INVOKED.]

At every step they wished to drive him back, Farel made one in advance. The streets and the houses were still his temple. One day when the people of Neuchatel were around him, "Why," cried they, "should not the Word of God be proclaimed in a church?" They then hurried Farel along with them, opened the doors of the Hospital Chapel, set the minister in the pulpit, and a numerous crowd stood silent before him. "In like manner as Jesus Christ, appearing in a state of poverty and humility, was born in a stable at Bethlehem," said the Reformer; "so this hospital, this abode of the sick and of the poor, is to-day become his birthplace in the town of Neuchatel." Then feeling ill at ease in the presence of the painted and carved figures that decorated the chapel, he laid his hands on these objects of idolatry, removed them, and broke them in pieces.[993]

[993] Choupart MS.

Popery, which anger had blinded, now took a step that it undoubtedly had a right to take, but which destroyed it: it had recourse to the secular arm, and the governor sent a deputation to the Bernese council, praying the removal of Farel and his companions.

But almost at the same time deputies from the townspeople arrived at Berne. "Did not these hands bear arms at Interlaken and at Bremgarten to support your Reformation? and will you abandon us in ours?"

Berne hesitated. A public calamity was at that time filling the whole city with mourning. One of the most illustrious citizens of the republic, the Banneret of Weingarten, attacked by the plague, was expiring amid the tears of his sons and of his fellow-citizens. Being informed of the arrival of the Neuchatelans, he rallied his waning strength: "Go," said he, "and beg the senate in my name to ask for a general assembly of the people of Neuchatel for Sunday next."[994] This message of the dying banneret decided the council.

[994] Wingarterus iste infectus peste apud senatum nostrum, pia
legatione. (Megander to Zwingle.)

The deputies from Berne arrived in Neuchatel on the 7th August. Farel thought that during the debates he had time to make a new conquest, and quitted the city. His zeal can be compared only to St. Paul's. His body was small and feeble, but his activity was wholly apostolic: danger and bad treatment wasted him every day, but he had within him a divine power that rendered him victorious.

[Sidenote: THE FEAST OF ASSUMPTION.]

VII. At the distance of a league from Neuchatel, beyond the mountain, extends the Val de Ruz, and near its entrance, in a precipitous situation, where roars an impetuous torrent surrounded by steep crags, stands the town of Valangin. An old castle, built on a rock, raises its vast walls into the air, overlooking the humble dwellings of the townspeople, and extending its jurisdiction over five valleys of these lofty and severe mountains at that time covered with forests of pine, but now peopled by the most active industry.[995]

[995] Here are situated Chaux de Fonds, Locle, &c.

In this castle dwelt Guillemette de Vergy, dowager-countess of Valangin, strongly attached to the Romish religion and full of respect for the memory of her husband. A hundred priests had chanted high mass at the count's burial; many penitent young women had been married, and large alms distributed; the curate of Locle had been sent to Jerusalem, and Guillemette herself had made a pilgrimage for the repose for the soul of her departed lord.

Sometimes, however, the Countess of Gruyère and other ladies would come and visit the widow of Vergy, who assembled in the castle a number of young lords. The fife and tambourine re-echoed under its vaulted roofs, chattering groups collected in the immense embrasures of its Gothic windows, and merry dances followed hard upon a long silence and gloomy devotion.[996] There was but one sentiment that never left Guillemette--this was her hatred against the Reformation.

[996] Chambrier, Hist. de Neuchatel, p. 276.

[Sidenote: THE MASS INTERRUPTED.]

Guillemette and the priests had in fact reason to tremble. The 15th August was a great Romish festival--Our Lady of August, or the Assumption. All the faithful of the Val de Ruz were preparing to keep it. This was the very day Farel selected. Animated by the fire and courage of Elijah, he set out for Valangin, and a young man, his fellow-countryman, and, as it would appear, a distant relation, Anthony Boyve, an ardent Christian and a man of decided character, went along with him.[997] The two missionaries climbed the mountain, plunged into the pine forest, and then descending again into the valley, they traversed Valangin, where the vicinity of the castle did not give them much encouragement to pause, and arrived at a village, probably Boudevilliers, proposing to preach the Gospel there.[998]

[997] Annals of Boyve and a family MS.--This family has since given
several pastors to the church of Neuchatel.

[998] There are two original manuscripts (both quoted in the Choupart
MS.) which give an account of this transaction. One says that Farel
preached at Valangin, the other indicates a village near Valangin.
Ruchat has adopted the former version; I think the latter preferable.
The second MS. appears to me older and more correct than the first.

Already on all sides the people were thronging to the church; Farel and his companion entered also with a small number of the inhabitants who had heard him at Neuchatel. The reformer immediately ascended the pulpit, and the priest prepared to celebrate the Mass. The combat begins. While the voice of Farel is preaching Jesus Christ and his promises, the voices of the priests and of the choir are chanting the missal. The solemn moment approaches: the ineffable transubstantiation is about to take place: the priest pronounces the sacred words over the elements. At this instant the people hesitate no longer; ancient habits, an irresistible influence, draw them towards the altar; the preacher is deserted; the kneeling crowd has recovered its old worship; Rome is triumphant.......Suddenly a young man springs from the crowd,--traverses the choir,--rushes to the altar,--snatches the host from the hands of the priest, and cries, as he turns towards the people: "This is not the God whom you should worship. He is above,--in heaven,--in the majesty of the Father, and not, as you believe, in the hands of a priest."[999] This man was Anthony Boyve.

[999] Choupart MS.

[Sidenote: FAREL'S DANGER.]

Such a daring act at first produced the desired effect. The Mass was interrupted, the chantings ceased, and the crowd, as if struck by a supernatural intervention, remained silent and noiseless. Farel, who was still in the pulpit, immediately took advantage of this calm, and proclaimed that Christ "whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things."[1000] Then the priests and choristers with their adherents rushed to the towers, ran up into the belfry, and sounded the tocsin.

[1000] Acts iii. 21.

These means succeeded: a crowd was collected, and if Farel had not retired, his death and Boyve's would have been inevitable. "But God," says the chronicle, "delivered them." They crossed the interval that separates Boudevilliers from Valangin, and drew near the steep gorges of the torrent of the Seyon. But how traverse that town, which the tocsin had already alarmed?

Leaving Chaumont and its dark forests to the left, these two heralds of the Gospel took a narrow path that wound beneath the castle: they were stealing cautiously along, when suddenly a shower of stones assailed them, and at the same time a score of individuals,--priests, men, and women,--armed with clubs, fell furiously upon them. "The priests had not the gout either in their feet or arms," says a chronicler; "the ministers were so beaten that they nearly lost their lives."[1001]

[1001] Les prêtres n'avoient pas la goutte aux pieds et aux bras, et
ils les battirent tellement que peu s'en fallut qu'ils ne perdissent
la vie. (Choupart MS.)

Madame de Vergy, who descended to the terrace, far from moderating the anger of the priests, cried out: "Drown them!--drown them! throw them into the Seyon--these Lutheran dogs, who have despised the Host!"[1002] In fact, the priests were beginning to drag the two heretics towards the bridge. Never was Farel nearer death.

[1002] A l'eau! à l'eau! jettez les dans le Seyon ces chiens de
Luthériens qui ont méprisé le bon Dieu! (Choupart MS.)

[Sidenote: ILL-TREATMENT OF FAREL.]

On a sudden, from behind the last rock that hides Valangin in the direction of the mountain, there appeared "certain good persons of the Val de Ruz coming from Neuchatel"[1003] and descending into the valley. "What are you doing?" asked they of the priests, with the intention no doubt of saving Farel; "put them rather in a place of safety, that they may answer for their proceedings? Would you deprive yourselves of the only means in your power of discovering those infected by the poison of heresy?"

[1003] Choupart MS.

The priests left off at these words, and conducted the prisoners to the castle. As they were passing before a little chapel, containing an image of the Virgin, "Kneel down," said they to Farel and Boyve, showing them the statue; "prostrate yourselves before Our Lady!" Farel began to admonish them; "Worship one God alone in spirit and in truth," said he to them, "and not dumb images without life or power." But they, continues the chronicle, "greatly vexed at his words and his firmness, inflicted on him so many blows, that he was covered with blood, which even spirted on the walls of the chapel. For a long time after the traces of it might still be seen."[1004]

[1004] Choupart MS. Mais eux rudement fachés de ses propos et
constance, lui donnèrent tant de coups, qu'ils le mirent tout en sang,
jusques là que son sang jailissoit sur les murailles de la chapelle.
On en voyoit long temps après encore les marques.

They resumed their march--they entered the town--they climbed the steep road that led to the esplanade where Guillemette de Vergy and her attendants waited for the "Lutherans;" so that, continues the chronicle, "from beating them thus continually, they conducted them all covered with filth and blood to the prisons, and let them down almost lifeless into the dungeon (_croton_) of the castle of Valangin." Thus had Paul at Lystra been stoned by the Jews, drawn out of the city, and left for dead.[1005] The Apostles and the Reformers preached the same doctrine and suffered the same treatment.

[1005] Acts xiv. 19.

[Sidenote: FAREL AT NEUCHATEL.]

It may perhaps be said, that Farel and Boyve were too violent in their attack; but the Church of the Middle Ages, which had fallen back into the legal spirit of Judaism, and into all the corruptions that flow from it, needed an energetic opposition to lead it again to the principle of grace. Augustin and St. Paul reappeared in the Church of the sixteenth century; and when we read of Boyve rushing in great emotion on those who were about to worship the bread of the Mass, may we not recall to mind the action of St Paul, rending his clothes, and running in among the people, who were desirous of worshipping "men of like passions with themselves?"[1006]

[1006] Acts xiv. 14.

Farel and Boyve, thrust into the dungeons of the castle, could, like Paul and Silas in the prison at Philippi, "sing praises unto God." Messire de Bellegarde, ever ready to persecute the Gospel, was preparing for them a cruel end, when some townsmen of Neuchatel arrived to claim them. Madame de Valangin dared not refuse, and at the demand of the Bernese even instituted an inquiry, "to put a good face on the matter," says a manuscript. "Nevertheless that priest who had beaten Farel most, never after failed to eat daily at the lady's table, by way of recompense."[1007] But this was of little consequence: the seed of truth had been sown in the Val de Ruz.

[1007] Choupart MS.

At Neuchatel the Bernese supported the Evangelical citizens. The governor, whose resources were exhausted, sent ambassadors to the princess, "begging her to cross the mountains, to appease her people, who were in terrible trouble in consequence of this Lutheran religion."[1008]

[1008] Letter from the Governor to the Princess.

Meantime the ferment increased. The townspeople prayed the canons to give up the Mass: they refused; whereupon the citizens presented them their reasons in writing, and begged them to discuss the question with Farel. Still the same refusal!--"But, for goodness' sake, speak either for or against!" It was all of no use!

[Sidenote: FAREL IN THE CATHEDRAL.]

On Sunday, the 23d of October, Farel, who had returned to Neuchatel, was preaching at the hospital. He knew that the magistrates of the city had deliberated on the expediency of consecrating the cathedral itself to the Evangelical worship. "What then," said he, "will you not pay as much honour to the Gospel as the other party does to the Mass?......And if this superstitious act is celebrated in the high church, shall not the Gospel be proclaimed there also?" At these words all his hearers arose. "To the church!" cried they; "to the church!" Impetuous men are desirous of putting their heads to work, to accomplish what the prudence of the burgesses had proposed.[1009] They leave the hospital, and take Farel with them. They climb the steep street of the castle: in vain would the canons and their frightened followers stop the crowd: they force a passage. Convinced that they are advancing for God's glory, nothing can check them. Insults and shouts assail them from every side, but in the name of the Truth they are defending, they proceed: they open the gates of the Church of our Lady; they enter, and here a fresh struggle begins. The canons and their friends assembled around the pulpit endeavour to stop Farel; but all is useless. They have not to deal with a band of rioters. God has pronounced in his Word, and the magistrates themselves have passed a definitive resolution. The townspeople advance, therefore, against the sacerdotal coterie; they form a close battalion, in the centre of which they place the reformer. They succeed in making their way through the opposing crowd, and at last place the minister in the pulpit without any harm befalling him.[1010]

[1009] This is the conclusion I draw from various papers, and in
particular from the report of the meeting held at Neuchatel by the
Bernese deputies, in which the heads of the burgesses declare, _that
it appeared to them a very good matter to take down the altars_, &c.
Hitherto only one phasis of this action has been seen,--the popular
movement; and the other, namely, the legal resolution of the
magistrates of the city, seems to have been overlooked.

[1010] Choupart MS.

Immediately all is calm within the church and without; even the adversaries are silent, and Farel delivers "one of the most effective sermons he had hitherto preached." Their eyes are opened; their emotion increases; their hearts are melted; the most obstinate appear converted; and from every part of the old church these cries resound: "We will follow the Evangelical religion, both we and our children, and in it will we live and die."[1011]

[1011] Ibid.

[Sidenote: THE IDOLS DESTROYED.]

Suddenly a whirlwind, as it were, sweeps over this multitude, and stirs it up like a vast sea. Farel's hearers desire to imitate the pious King Josiah.[1012] "If we take away these idols from before our eyes, will it not be aiding us," said they, "in taking them from our own hearts? Once these idols broken, how many souls among our fellow-citizens, now disturbed and hesitating, will be decided by this striking manifestation of the truth! We must save them as it were by fire."[1013]

[1012] 2 Chron. xxxiv. 7.

[1013] Choupart MS.

This latter motive decides them, and then begins a scene that fills the Romanists with horror, and which must, according to them, bring down the terrible judgment of God on the city.

The very spot where this takes place would seem to add to its solemnity. To the north the castle-walls rise above the pointed crags of the gloomy but picturesque valley of the Seyon, and the mountain in front of the castle presents to the eye little more than bare rocks, vines, and black firs. But to the south, beneath the terrace on which this tumultuous scene is passing, extend the wide and tranquil waters of the lake with its fertile and picturesque shores; and in the distance the continuous summits of the higher Alps with their dazzling snows, their immense glaciers, and gigantic peaks, lie before the enraptured eye.