Chapter VII

FAREL PREACHES IN THE GRAND AUDITORY OF THE CONVENT AT RIVE.
(MARCH 1 TO APRIL 25, 1534.)

The interview with the father-superior had been useless; the churches remained closed. The evangelicals could wait no longer: the majority of the inhabitants were for the Word of God, but not a church was opened to them. The walls of St. Pierre, St. Gervais, St. Germain, and the Madelaine contained merely the external and barren forms of the Roman worship: life and movement were there no longer; they had passed into the hearts of the resolute men and pious women who gathered round Farel. Neither the hall in Maisonneuve’s house, nor any other sufficed for the _lovers of the Word_. Every day numbers of hearers had to remain in the street. ‘Alas!’ said they, ‘the Gospel can find nothing in Geneva but _secret chambers_, and we can only whisper of the grace of Christ. And yet grace ought to be proclaimed all through the city and spread even to the ends of the world.’ They were about to take measures accordingly.

[Sidenote: Farel In The Grand Auditory.]

On the second Sunday in Lent (1st of March, 1534), after the evangelicals had heard Farel in one of the usual halls, twenty-nine of the most notable huguenots remained behind and began to inquire what ought to be done. ‘The Council,’ reported one of them, ‘told my lords of Berne to take any place they liked for their preacher ... well, suppose we take one. It is God’s will to have the Gospel published. But the pope with his people care no more about it than the priests of Bacchus, Jupiter, and Venus did of old. Without any further petitioning let us do what God commands.’ At these words Maisonneuve and the other huguenots proceeded to the convent at Rive. Father Courtelier was preaching there: he had just finished his sermon and the crowd were leaving the church. The daring Baudichon informed the monks, to their great surprise, that Farel was going to preach there, and also that the bells would be rung, which did not astonish them less. Two or three huguenots, going into the belfry, rang three loud peals at intervals during an hour. Meanwhile De la Maisonneuve took his measures. Instead of taking possession of the church, he selected a part of the convent named the _grand auditory_, or the _cloister_. This part of the monastery was constructed in the shape of a gallery, and had a court in the middle: it was more spacious than the church, and would hold four or five thousand persons.[493]

The sound of the bells at an unusual hour was heard all through the city. Each note, as it rang in the ears of the Genevese, announced to them that the Gospel, with which all Christendom was then agitated, was at last about to be publicly proclaimed within their walls. ‘Master Farel,’ they said, ‘is going to preach in the cloister at Rive,’ and a crowd collected from all sides. People of every sort had assembled to hear him: evangelicals, political huguenots, the indifferent and bigoted. Certain priests gnashed their teeth and even attempted to turn away some of their parishioners; but it was labor in vain: the number increased every minute. Some Franciscan monks, who stared at the sight of such an extraordinary multitude, could not resist the desire of going to the grand auditory and hearing what was said.

De la Maisonneuve gave the necessary orders for placing the people. The assembly, although respectful, was profoundly agitated. In the place where they had met, men of different parties crowded together: the opportunity of hearing the famous Farel, and the object which such meetings were to attain, namely, a change in the religion of Geneva—all stirred their minds deeply. But if there was any unbecoming movement, Maisonneuve, from his elevated place, imposed silence by his hand. At length the reformer appeared. The catholics were astonished when they saw him: ‘What!’ they said, ‘no sacerdotal ornaments! He is dressed like a layman, with a Spanish cloak and brimmed cap.’[494] But under that cap and cloak lay hid what was rarely found beneath the robes of priests—an ardent soul, a heart overflowing with love, and such eloquence that the hearers exclaimed, as Calvin did once: ‘Your thunders have caused an indescribable trouble in my soul.’[495] Farel began to speak: borrowing his fire from the writings of the prophets and apostles, says one of his biographers, he enlightened and inflamed the heart.[496] He excited in many a lively feeling of love for Christ. God, as Calvin says, was at work in his own through the ministry of the reformer. Some began to consider and to relish the grace which they had formerly swallowed without tasting.[497] The assembly was charmed and enraptured; the souls of many were inflamed by the ardor of the divine spirit.

Among the Franciscans who listened to Farel was Jacques Bernard, belonging to one of the best families in Geneva. He was lively, intelligent, learned, and defiant, and had long been a sincere worshipper of the Virgin. He had often spoken violently against the reformers, and a few days before, meeting Farel and Viret, he told them with a scowl: ‘In times past there were schismatics enough who forbade men to salute the Virgin and make the sign of the cross.’ Then, without another word, he rudely turned his back on them. But on this occasion no one in the grand auditory was more attentive than Jacques. God gave him _new eyes_ and _new ears_. It has been said that the convent at Rive was to him as the road to Damascus—that there this new Saul became a new Paul.[498] This first preaching of Farel’s contributed at least to Bernard’s conversion, and ere long he maintained courageously the truths he had once so much attacked.

But this light, which had enlightened some, blinded others. The wrath of the men devoted to the papacy knew no bounds; they indulged in terrible bursts of passion, and their followers spread the flames through the city. The conflagration broke out the next day. The Two Hundred were hardly met, when Nicholas du Crest, the three Malbuissons, Girardin, and Philip de la Rive, with several others, appeared before them and said: A minister preached the new law yesterday in the cloister at Rive; we wish to know if it was with your consent. At the same moment the ambassadors of Berne arrived and held very different language: ‘What we have so long asked for,’ they said, ‘has been accomplished _by the inspiration of God_, without our knowing anything of it. The place which you had refused us has been given by the Lord himself. Yes, God, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, has put it into the hearts of your citizens to have the Gospel preached in the grand auditory. Permit the minister to continue his preaching in that place, and give no annoyance to such as may go to hear him.’

[Sidenote: Farel Continues To Preach.]

Although, to satisfy the catholics, the Council had at first hinted to the Bernese that as they were returning home, it would be very natural that they should take their ministers with them, Farel continued to preach every day to numerous congregations. His hearers were more convinced than ever of the errors of Rome and of the truth of the evangelical doctrine—things which appeared to them as clear as the day. Many threw aside their supineness; their contrite hearts joyfully received the Saviour’s pardon, and, ‘caring no longer for the frivolous things so esteemed by the papists,’ devoted themselves to works of true innocence and charity. There was great cheerfulness in Geneva. Bands of people paraded the city with songs of joy; groups assembled at the Molard and conversed of the extraordinary things that were taking place. The evangelicals no longer doubted of the victory. A young Savoyard, named Henry Percyn, approaching one of these groups, recognized Baudichon de la Maisonneuve, who, surrounded by several Lutherans, ‘was talking to some catholics who were there.’ The latter defended their Church: ‘Are these three chimney-preachers better than pope, bishop, canons, priests, and monks?’ Maisonneuve replied: ‘I will bet one hundred crowns to fifty, that next Easter not a single mass will be celebrated in Geneva.’ None of the catholics would accept the wager. Baudichon was mistaken, but by a few months only.[499]

On Saturday, the 7th of March, the Bernese ambassadors attended the evangelical assembly for the last time. They were leaving Farel, Viret, and Froment without protection in the midst of deadly enemies, and without force to resist them alone. Accordingly, as soon as the service was ended, they rose and said: ‘Farewell, gentlemen of Geneva, we commend our preachers to you.’[500]—‘It is not necessary to commend them,’ answered a Genevese, ‘we know the danger they incur in trying to rescue the people from the slavery into which they have fallen.’ As he left the hall, Claude Bernard took the three evangelists home to his house, where they lived henceforward.

De la Maisonneuve departed about the same time as the Bernese, on his way to Frankfort on business. At a date we cannot fix he took Farel and Viret to Lausanne to ‘similarly seduce’ the inhabitants of that city; but the Lausannese, the priests and their friends (for the middle-class was favorable to the Reform), ‘drove the preachers away.’ It is scarcely probable that the two reformers should have chosen to leave Geneva at the important epoch of which we are treating; and yet a contemporary document would lead us to believe so. When De la Maisonneuve reached Frankfort, he conversed with the Lutherans and communicated, as it would seem, according to the ritual of Luther.[501]

Shortly after this, Portier was convicted of having conspired with the bishop against the liberty of the city, and condemned to lose his head. The law having punished the guilty, the public conscience was satisfied. It is necessary that justice should reign among nations; when it is trampled under foot and the guilty are held to be innocent, there rises in the breasts of the good a cry of sorrow, we will not say of revenge. But that condemnation was big with important consequences for Geneva; it was, says the chronicler, ‘a terror to the creatures of the bishop.’ As Portier had only carried out the orders of the prince, the condemnation of the servant was that of the master. The episcopal agents began to understand that they must obey the laws and pay respect to lay tribunals. The power of the episcopal faction was broken.[502]

[Sidenote: Farel’s Progress.]

Farel became more energetic, while, on the other hand, the Franciscan preacher did all he could to support the tottering papacy. It was not only in the same country that these two contrary systems were then in conflict: it was in the same city, in the same house,—the monastery at Rive. One day the cordelier taught in the church that ‘the wafer ceases to be bread, and that the _mouth_ receives the body of Jesus Christ;’ while Farel said in the cloister: ‘It is true that the life is _enclosed_ in the body of Christ; but we have no communion with him except by a true faith. Faith is the mouth of the soul to receive the Saviour.’ In the church the cordelier encouraged the purchase of indulgences, the practice of penances and satisfactions; but in the grand auditory Farel exclaimed: ‘All our sins are pardoned _freely_. How dare the monks, then, set up their satisfactions, which the Word of God has shattered to pieces?’[503] Gradually the cordelier lowered his tone: the powerful voice of Farel was reducing him to silence. ‘You must know,’ wrote Madame de la Maisonneuve to her husband, who was at Frankfort, ‘you must know that Master William does his duty bravely in announcing the Word of God.’ She added: ‘We have had no prohibitions: nobody contradicts us. Our business increases greatly.’[504]

Roman-catholicism was falling: Friburg hurried to its support. ‘Alas!’ replied the syndics to the ambassadors, ‘we do not set Farel to preach: it is the people. We could sooner stop a torrent than prevent people going to hear them. So far as we are concerned, we have abolished no ceremony, pulled down no church.’ Thus, at Geneva, as in mighty England, it was the nation rather than its leaders who desired the Reform; and it was the same everywhere. The Friburgers, calm and reserved, then stepped forward in the midst of the assembly of the people, coldly laid their letters of alliance before the premier syndic, and asked for those of Geneva. ‘Keep them! keep them!’ was the cry on all sides; and the citizens rushed towards the deputation, lavishing on them marks of affection and prayers. Messieurs of Friburg, sternly shaking off their embraces, departed, leaving the letters of alliance on the table.

The alarmed Council now resolved to do all in their power to appease the catholics and Friburgers. Every year at Easter a grand procession took place, in which the images and relics of the saints were carried through the city. The Council ordered the usual honors to be paid them. Aimé Levet having declared that he would not forsake the living God for that multitude of _petty gods_, the syndics served him with a special order through the police. But still the Levets would hang no drapery upon their house, and kept the shop open as on an ordinary day. For this offence Aimé was kept three days in prison on bread and water.

[Sidenote: Farel’s Domestic Troubles.]

The consideration due to Friburg had led the magistrates to this act of severity; but the evangelical movement was not checked by it. The Christian meetings increased in number after Easter. Farel energetically urged forward the car of Reform, and his voice by turns alarmed like the thunders of Sinai, or consoled like the Beatitudes of the Gospel. Yet, in the midst of these numerous works, he was often observed to pause, overcome with sadness. The persecution continued in France: three hundred Lutherans were in prison at Paris. ‘What restive horses are these!’ he exclaimed. ‘They shrink back instead of advancing! What adversaries are springing up against the Redeemer, who reigns with glory in heaven! But God will not forsake his work.’[505] He had still keener sorrows than these: his own brothers, Daniel, Walter, and Claude, had been seized by the enemy from a desire to avenge upon them the _evil_ which the reformer was doing. One of the three, who was younger than himself, had been condemned to imprisonment for life, and his mother, already a widow, was shedding tears of bitterness. ‘Alas!’ said William Farel, ‘her son, who was born after me, has long been in prison, and has greater sorrows to endure than I have.’ The reformer applied to friends in high station to obtain his brother’s release from the king; but the strictness of the prison had only been increased. ‘I know not,’ he said, on the 28th of April, 1534, ‘who has so stirred the fire.... May it please God that the poor prisoner hold firm and declare fearlessly what ought to be said of the good Saviour.’[506] Farel possessed that filial affection which is serious and respectful towards the father, tender and gentle towards the mother. It made him exclaim in his anguish: ‘Alas! the poor widow! O my anguish-stricken mother!’ The love he felt for Christ had increased his natural affections.

De la Maisonneuve, having returned to Geneva after Easter, was about to start again for Lyons. Farel, knowing that his friend, De la Forge, the merchant of Paris, would be going also to that city at this season of the year, gave Baudichon a letter for his Paris brethren, at that time so afflicted, directing his letter _to the holy vessel elect of God_. ‘Jesus,’ he wrote to this little flock in the capital, ‘is the rock of offence against which the world has fought since the beginning of time, and will always fight; but its efforts are vain. No council can withstand God, and if the wicked lift their horns, they shall be broken.’ He then solicited the intercession of the members of the church in behalf of his brother. ‘I pray you,’ he said, ‘speak of my brother in that quarter where you know better than myself that it is expedient to do so. What! a protracted detention, the confiscation of his property, six hundred crowns which the bishop has extracted from him—is not that enough? Oh! that the poor fellow could be set at liberty! All here who fear the Lord entreat you to exert yourselves for him.’[507] The evangelicals of Geneva were interested in the fate of their reformer’s brothers. At the same time Farel wrote also to De la Forge, commending his brother to him, and knowing the perils with which the Parisian merchant was threatened, he added: ‘If we have Jesus, that heavenly treasure cannot be taken from us: let us march onwards, though all the world should rise against Him.’

In treating of our reformers, we naturally bestow attention on their labors, struggles, writings, and trials; it is well, however, to enter sometimes into the inner sanctuary of their hearts and of their domestic lives. We are touched and rejoice to find there such abundance of the most legitimate and tenderest of human affections. They were men as well as Christians. This fact is a proof of the sincerity of their piety; it is like a spring of pure water gushing up on a field of battle, refreshing and reviving those whom so many struggles might have wearied.

Footnote 493:

Froment, an eye-witness, says (_Gestes de Genève_, p. 82) that Farel
preached ‘in the grand auditory of the convent of Rive, without
entering the church.’ Father Courtelier, in his evidence at Lyons
(_Procès inquisitionnel_, p. 322), says that Farel preached ‘in the
same church and pulpit as himself.’ But Froment’s evidence is
corroborated by the Register of the Council of Geneva, which says,
that the meeting was held in the cloister or auditory. Courtelier, no
doubt only meant to say that Farel preached in the same edifice as
himself, without strictly designating the place.

Footnote 494:

MS. du Procès inquisitionnel de Lyon, p. 323.

Footnote 495:

Sane me, tam vehementer conturbarunt tua illa fulgura.’—Calvini _Epp._

Footnote 496:

Ancillon, _Vie de Farel_.

Footnote 497:

‘Savourer la grâce ... avalée sans la goûter.’

Footnote 498:

M. Archinard: _Edifices religieux de l’ancienne Genève_, p. 108.

Footnote 499:

MS. du Procès inquisitionnel de Lyon, pp. 226-227.

Footnote 500:

Registre du Conseil du 6 Mars, 1534. Froment, _Gestes de Genève_, p.
91. MS. de Gautier.

Footnote 501:

MS. du Procès inquisitionnel de Lyon, pp. 199, 200, 204.

Footnote 502:

Registre du Conseil du 10 Mars, 1534.

Footnote 503:

MS. de Gautier. Registre du Conseil du 18 Mars, 1534.

Footnote 504:

She dated her letter, _De Genève, trois semaines avant Pâques_, and
signed it: _La toute votre femme chérie, Baudichone_.—MS. du Procès
inquisitionnel, pp. 23-24.

Footnote 505:

MS. du Procès inquisitionnel de Lyon, pp. 11-12.

Footnote 506:

‘Puisse à Dieu seulement que le pauvre prisonnier pousse outre et
déclare sans crainte ce qui doit être dit du bon Sauveur.’—Lettre aux
fidèles de Paris. (MS. du Procès inquisitionnel de Lyon.)

Footnote 507:

Geneva, April 25, 1534. MS. du Procès inquisitionnel de Lyon.