Chapter IV: Increasing Severity.--Louis De Berquin (2)

While the fickle monarch was thus drawn in opposite directions by conflicting political considerations--at one time strengthening the hands of the Protestant princes of Germany, at another, making common cause with the Pope--the same diversity characterized the internal condition of France.

[Sidenote: Execution of Jean de Caturce at Toulouse.]

At Toulouse, the seat of one of most noted parliaments, Jean de Caturce, a lawyer of ability, was put to death by slow fire in the summer of 1532. His unpardonable offence was that he had once made a "Lutheran" exhortation, and that, in the merry-making on the _Fete des Rois_--Epiphany--he had recommended that the prayer, "May Christ reign in our hearts!" be substituted for the senseless cry, "The king drinks!" No more ample ground of accusation was needed in a city where the luckless wight who failed to take off his cap before an image, or fall on his knees when the bell rang out at "Ave Maria," was sure to be set upon as a heretic.[310]

[Sidenote: Le Coq's evangelical sermon.]

In striking contrast with the tragedy enacted in the chief city of the south was the favor openly showed to the reformers by the Queen of Navarre, not only in her own city of Bourges, but in Paris itself. The intercessions she had addressed to her brother for the victims of priestly persecution had long since betrayed her secret leaning; and the translation of her "Hours" into French by the Bishop of Senlis, who, by her direction, suppressed all that most directly countenanced superstitious beliefs, was naturally taken as strong confirmation of the prevalent suspicion. But, when she introduced Berthault, Courault, and her own almoner, Roussel, to the pulpits of the capital, and protected them in their evangelical labors, the case ceased to admit of doubt.[311] She even persuaded the king to listen to a sermon in which Le Coq, curate of St. Eustache, argued with force against the bodily presence of Christ in the eucharist, and maintained that the very words, "_Sursum corda_" in the church service, pointed Him out as to be found at the right hand of God in heaven. Indeed, the eloquent preacher had nearly convinced his royal listener, when the Cardinals of Tournon and Lorraine, by a skilful stratagem, succeeded in destroying the impression he had received, and, it is said, in inducing Le Coq to make a retraction.[312] But the opposition to the public proclamation of the reformed doctrines was too formidable for their advocates to stem. Beda and his colleagues in the Sorbonne left no device untried to silence the preachers; and, although the restless syndic was in the end forced to expiate his seditious words and writings by an _amende honorable_ in front of the church of Notre Dame, and died in prison,[313] Roussel and his fellow-preachers had long before been compelled to exchange their public discourses for private exhortations, and finally to discontinue even these and retreat from Paris.[314]

[Sidenote: Margaret attacked in the College of Navarre.]

Even so, however, the theologians could not contain their indignation at the insult they had received. In the excess of their zeal they went so far as to hold up the king's sister to condemnation and derision, in one of those plays which the students of the College de Navarre were accustomed annually to perform, as a scholastic exercise in public oratory (on the first of October, 1533). A gentle queen was here represented as throwing aside needle and distaff, at the crafty suggestion of a tempting fury, and as receiving in lieu of those feminine implements a copy of the Gospels--when, lo! she was suddenly transformed into a cruel tyrant. It was perhaps hard to detect the exact connection between the acceptance of the holy book and so disastrous a change of character--neither the students of the College de Navarre nor their teachers thought it worth while to trouble themselves about such trifles--but there was no difficulty in recognizing Margaret in the principal actor of the play, or in deciphering the name of Master Gerard Roussel--Magister Gerardus--in _Megaera_, the fury with the flaming torch, that seduced her. On complaint of his sister, Francis, in some indignation, ordered the arrest of the author of the insipid drama, as well as of the youthful performers. The former could not be found, and the latter, thanks to the queen's clemency, escaped with a less rigorous punishment than the insult deserved.[315]

[Sidenote: Her Miroir de l'ame pecheresse.]

An equally audacious act was the insertion of a work published by Margaret, under the title of _Le miroir de l'ame pecheresse_, in a list of prohibited books. When the university, to whom the censorship of the press was entrusted, was called to account by the king, all the faculties promptly repudiated any intention to cast doubt upon the orthodoxy of his sister, and even the originator of the offensive prohibition was forced to plead ignorance of the authorship of the volume in question. The rector of the university terminated the long series of disclaimers by rendering thanks to Francis for his fatherly patience.[316]

[Sidenote: Rector Cop's address to the university.]

Just a month after the unlucky dramatic representation of the College de Navarre, the city was furnished with fresh food for scandal. On All Saints' day (the first of November, 1533), the university assembled according to custom in the church of the Mathurins, to listen to an address delivered by the rector. But Nicholas Cop's discourse was not of the usual type. Under guise of a disquisition on "Christian Philosophy," the orator preached an evangelical sermon, with the First Beatitude for his text, and propounded the view that the forgiveness of sin and eternal life are simple gifts of God's grace that cannot be earned by man's good works.[317]

[Sidenote: Its extraordinary character.]

Never had academic harangue contained sentiments savoring so strongly of the tenets of the persecuted reformers. True, the rector had not omitted the ordinary invitation to his hearers to join him in the salutation of the Virgin.[318] But even this mark of orthodox Catholicity could not remove the taint of heresy from an address the whole drift of which was to establish the cardinal doctrine of the theology of Luther and Zwingle. It was a bold step. The doctors of the Sorbonne could not suppress their indignation, and Franciscan monks denounced the rector to the Parliament of Paris. When summoned to appear before the court to answer the charges brought against him, Cop at first endeavored to arouse in the university the traditional jealousy of this invasion of scholastic privileges, claiming that these were violated by his being cited to parliament before he had been in the first instance tried by his peers. And, indeed, after a tumultuous meeting of the university, called at the Mathurins a fortnight after the delivery of Cop's address (the nineteenth of November), the Faculty of Arts came to the same conclusion.[319] But, although the "Four Nations," and apparently the Faculty of Medicine also, promised their support, the Faculties of Theology and Law refused, and Cop did not venture to press his point. Warned of his danger by a friendly tongue, when already on his way to the _Palais de Justice_, in full official costume and accompanied by his beadles, he consulted his safety by a precipitate flight from the city and from the kingdom.[320]

[Sidenote: Calvin the real author.]

The incidents just narrated derive their chief interest from the circumstance that they bring to our notice for the first time a young man, Jean Cauvin, or Calvin, of Noyon, soon to figure among the most important actors in the intellectual and religious history of the modern world; for it was not many days before the authorship of the startling theological doctrines enunciated by the rector was directly traced to his friend and bosom companion, the future reformer of Geneva. In fact, Calvin seems to have supplied Cop with the entire address--a production not altogether unworthy of that clear and vigorous intellect which, within less than two years, conceived the plan of and matured the most orderly and perfect theological treatise of the Reformation--the "Institution Chretienne." Between the sketch of Christian Philosophy in the discourse written for the rector, and the Christian Institutes, there is, nevertheless, a contrast too striking to be overlooked. And if the salutation to the Virgin, in the exordium, was actually penned by Calvin, as is not improbable, the change in his religious convictions would appear to have been as marked and rapid as the development of his intellectual faculties. At any rate, the recent discovery of the complete manuscript of Nicholas Cop's oration ranks among the most opportune and welcome of antiquarian successes in our times.[321]

[Sidenote: He seeks safety in flight.]

Calvin was soon reduced to the necessity of following the rector's example in fleeing from Paris; for the part he had had in preparing the address had become the public talk. The young scholar--he was only in his twenty-fifth year--sought for by the sanguinary _lieutenant-criminel_, Jean Morin, barely made good his escape. Proceeding to Angouleme, he enjoyed, under the friendly roof of Louis de Tillet, a short period of quiet and an opportunity to pursue his favorite studies.[322]

[Sidenote: Francis rejects roughly the intercession of the Bernese.]

The incessant representations made to the king respecting the rapid progress of "Lutheran" doctrines in France, and perhaps also the occurrence of such incidents as that just mentioned, seem to have been the cause of the adoption of new measures against the Reformation and its professors. Already, in October, Francis had written a rough answer to the Council of the Canton of Berne, expressing extreme surprise that they had ventured to intercede for the relatives of Guillaume Farel, accused of heresy, and to beg him to give no credit in this matter either to the royal officers or to the inquisitors of the faith.[323] And he had used these significant words: "Desiring the preservation of the name of _very Christian king_, acquired for us by our predecessors, _we have nothing in the world more at heart than the entire extirpation of heresies, and nothing could induce us to suffer them to take root in our kingdom_. Of this you may rest well assured, and leave us to proceed against them, without your giving yourselves any solicitude. _For neither your prayers, nor those of any one else whomsoever, could be of any avail in this matter with us._"[324]

[Sidenote: Royal letter to the Bishop of Paris.]

On his return from the marriage of his son Henry to Catharine de' Medici, celebrated only four days before Cop's university harangue, Francis was induced to make new provisions for the detection and punishment of dissent. Alarmed by the progress of "Lutheran" sentiments in his very capital, as reported to him by parliament, he not only urged that body to renewed diligence, but directed the Bishop of Paris, the tolerant Jean du Bellay, who may have been suspected of too much supineness in the matter,[325] to confer upon two counsellors of parliament all the authority necessary to act for him, without prejudice to his jurisdiction in other cases.[326] Both parliament and bishop were at the same time notified of the receipt of two fresh bulls, kindly furnished by Pope Clement, at Francis's request, to help in the good work of extirpating "that accursed Lutheran sect."[327]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Elegies on Louis de Berquin.]

The number of extant poems on the death of Louis de Berquin attests
very clearly the estimate placed upon him by the Roman Catholics as
the most dangerous heretic--in fact, the _heresiarch_ of the day. A
stanza of eight lines, which seems to have been popular (for it has
been discovered in MS. both in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Genin,
i. 219, and in the library of Soissons, Bulletin de la Soc. de
l'hist. du prot. franc., xi. 131), represents the four elements as
conspiring, at God's bidding, to take vengeance upon him:

"Du faux Berquin et de ses documens
Dieu s'est venge par les quatre elemens:
_Terre_ luy a desnie sepulture;
_Feu_ l'a destruit et sa fausse escripture;
Tisons par _eau_ pluviale arrosez
Se sont plus fort esmeus et embrasez.
Dont (pour la fin du malheureux comprendre)
L'_air_ par les vents en a receu la cendre."

I have been so fortunate as to discover two other poems on the same
subject, in a little collection in my possession entitled _Martini
Theodorici Bellovaci Epigrammata_ (Parisiis, 1539), which seems to
be of such rarity that these pieces may almost be viewed in the
light of inedited documents. They are of special interest because
of the singular circumstance that this collection of extremely
"Catholic" effusions is dedicated to _Odet de Coligny_, Cardinal of
Chatillon, Archbishop of Toulouse, Bishop and Count of Beauvais,
elder brother of the more famous _Admiral_ massacred on St.
Bartholomew's day. Cardinal Chatillon, created such when only
thirteen years old, was, at the time of the publication of this
book, a youth of scarcely more than twenty-two, and a devout Roman
Catholic, but subsequently, as elsewhere stated, became an avowed
Protestant and a prominent Huguenot leader.

In the first of these poems, under the heading of _Elegia Ludovici
Berquuyni_, the writer would almost seem to have had in mind the
description by the ancient dramatists of the impious warfare of
Capaneus breathing out boastful threats against Jove himself
(Septem con. Theb., 416, etc.), or the Titans in conflict with the
Gods.

"Occultum patuit quod non celarier ultra
Debuit. Excellens Jupiter egit opus.
Sublimi elatum dejecit sede potentem,
Qui modo regnabat, qui modo jura dabat,
Quique superbifico regalia limina gressu
Tantum incedebat, pastus honore levi,
Et cedrina petens famae monimenta perennis.
Insigni optabat sanctior esse Numa.
Lector, Ave, et causam properes dignoscere: casus
Haereseos foeda labe volutus erat.
Hoc impune nefas solida an ratione stetisset,
Et Petri hausissent aequora vasta ratim,
Inviolata fides aeterno permanet aevo.
Percutit injustos ira molesta Dei;
Quem neque praemeditans latuit Nero, funera cujus
Distulit adversa in tempora longa vice.
Occidit ergo miser, Divumque hominumque favore,
Traduxitque illuc sors malesuada virum.
Nil gravius pugnare Deo, pugnare feroci
Fortunae. Vinci magnus uterque nequit."

The other elegy is shorter and less striking in conception, but
gives a similar impression of the importance assigned to Louis de
Berquin's activity and influence:

"Francia dum hymnidico resonet paeane juventus,
Parisia extincto gaudeat hoste phalanx.
Hic dudum, et nuper morbo scabiosus edaci,
Francorum reliquas inficiebat oves.
Cognitus haud potuit mundari errore nefando,
Quin purgaretur lucidiore foco.
Nam quamvis concessa esset clementia, durus
Obstitit, et rapido malluit igne mori."

The library of Soissons contains a MS. lament from a Protestant
source over the death of De Berquin, which is at once simple and
touching. It is printed in the Bulletin, xi. 129-131.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 256: Registres du parlement, Feb. 26, 1417/8, Preuves des Libertez, i. 124, etc.]

[Footnote 257: Yet the trial of Aime Maigret had been specially committed by Louise to the Sorbonne, as early as January, 1525 (Letter of the Council of the Archbishop of Lyons to Beda, Jan. 23, 1525, Herminjard, i. 326); and Zwingle knew, in March, of a more or less successful effort to convince the regent that the evangelical doctrines were subversive of peace--the proof alleged being drawn from Germany, where "everything was turned upside down." Dedication to Francis I., prefixed to De vera et falsa religione commentarius, Herminjard, i. 351.]

[Footnote 258: See Mezeray's unfavorable portrait of the unscrupulous Duprat, Abrege chron., iv. 584.]

[Footnote 259: The four were Philippe Pot, President in the _chambre des enquetes_, and Andre Verjus, a counsellor, from parliament, and Guillaume Du Chesne and Nicholas Le Clerc, doctors of theology. For the first on the list, Jacques de la Barde was soon after substituted. Registres du parlement, March 20, 1524/5, Preuves des Libertez, i. 164.]

[Footnote 260: Registres du parlement, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 261: Soldan, Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 102.]

[Footnote 262: Registres du parlement, July 29, 1458, Preuves des Libertez, i. 138.]

[Footnote 263: "Un inquisiteur de la foi n'a capture ou arret en ce royaume, sinon par l'aide et autorite du bras seculier." Pithou, Essaie, art. 37.]

[Footnote 264: "Nonobstant oppositions ou appellations quelconques, _semota executione a definitiva_, si en est appelle." Registres du parlement, Preuves des Libertez, iii. 164.]

[Footnote 265: "Nos quoque comprobavimus ... sicut per alias nostras _sub plumbo_ literas poteritis cognoscere." Registres du parlement, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 266: Recueil des anc. lois francaises, par Jourdan, Decrusy et Isambert, xii. 232-237.]

[Footnote 267: Isambert, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 268: The author of the anonymous Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, 383, 384. His description, written in 1528, is interesting: "Ledict Barquin avoit environ 50 ans, et portoit ordinairement robbe de veloux, satin et damas, et choses (chausses) d'or, et _estoit de noble lignee et moult grand clerc_, expert en science et subtil, mais neantmoins il faillit en son sens." Erasmus makes him some seven years younger, Letter to Utenhoven, July 1, 1529, Opera, ii. 1206, _seq._; and Herminjard, Correspondance des reformateurs, ii. 183, _seq._]

[Footnote 269: His account is important, but too full for insertion here. See the letter above quoted.]

[Footnote 270: Arret du parlement, Aug. 5, 1523, Haag, France prot. s. v. _Berquin_.]

[Footnote 271: Felibien, Hist. de la ville de Paris, ii. 948; Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, 169, 170; Haag, s. v.; Erasmus, Opera, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 272: "Etiam in loco sacro." Registres du parlement, January 8, 1526, Preuves des Libertez, iii., 166.]

[Footnote 273: Margaret's gratitude to Montmorency for his kind offices is very fully attested by a passage in an extant letter (Genin, Lettres de Marg. d'Ang., 1ere Coll., No. 54): "Vous merciant du plaisir que m'aves fait pour le pauvre Berquin, que j'estime aultant que si c'estoit moy mesmes, et par cela pouves vous dire que vous m'aves tiree de prison, etc." To Francis she expressed the assurance "que Celuy pour qui je croy qu'il a souffert aura agreable la misericorde que pour son honneur avez fait a son serviteur et au vostre." Ibid., 2de Coll., No. 35.]

[Footnote 274: The chief authorities for the first two imprisonments of De Berquin are the long and important letter of Erasmus, to which I shall have occasion again to refer (Opera, ii. 1206, _seq._), Felibien, Hist. de la ville de Paris, ii. 948, 984, 985; Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, 169, 170, 277, 278; Haag, s. v.]

[Footnote 275: It is somewhat amusing, in the light of subsequent events, to read such outbursts of sisterly enthusiasm as this: "O que bien-heureuse sera vostre brefve prison, par qui Dieu tant d'ames deslivrera de celle d'infidelite et esternelle damnacion." Lettres de Marg. d'Ang., 2de Coll., No. 5, Lyons, May 1525. See, too, 1ere Coll., No. 26, addressed to Montmorency.]

[Footnote 276: Margaret's letters to Count Hohenlohe were translated into Latin and published by himself. M. Genin has rendered them into French, and inserted them in his Lettres de Marg. d'Angouleme, 1ere Coll., Nos. 48-51. The letter of July 5, 1526, is the most important.]

[Footnote 277: This precious bit of special pleading deserves notice. In the instructions of the king to the Archbishop of Lyons, to be read at the council in that city, Francis thus expressed himself: "Et combien que pour ung tel et si bon oeuvre que celluy qui se offre de present, _le dict sire fut conseille_, que juridiquement et par tous droicts divins et humains, _il pouvoit et debvoit raisonnablement mettre, subimposer et faire contribuer toutes manieres de gens_, de quelque qualite, auctorite, condition qu'ils fuissent, soient d'eglise, nobles, ou du tiers et commun estat, au paiement de la ditte rancon, etc." Labbei Concilia, xix. fol. 1137.]

[Footnote 278: The reason assigned for not convoking the States General in proper form, viz., that time did not permit the necessary delay, must be considered scarcely sufficient to explain the irregularity. Ibid., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 279: "Fist un discours farci de latin et de citations de l'Ecriture, dans lequel il conclut que le traite de Madrid estoit nul." Isambert, xii. 299.]

[Footnote 280: The declaration is significant and noteworthy as the first of many similar assurances. Among the documents in Isambert, Recueil des anc. lois francaises, is a full account of the proceedings of the notables, xii. 292-301.]

[Footnote 281: If Francis was sanguine of success in suppressing the Reformation in his kingdom, there were others who went farther still. Barthelemi de Chassanee this very year (1527) chronicles the destruction of "Lutheranism" in France as _an accomplished fact_! The passage is not unworthy of notice. After explaining the significance of the _fleurs-de-lis_ on the royal escutcheon by the wonderful efficacy of the lily as the antidote of the serpent's poison, and remarking that the kings of France had thrice extracted the mortal virus from the bite of Mohammed, "serpentis venenosi," the writer adds: "Et, his temporibus, videmus nostram fidem et religionem Christianam _sanatam esse a morsu pestiferi serpentis Lutheri_, qui infinitas haereses in fide Christiana seminavit, _quae fuerunt extirpatae a Rege nostro Francisco Christianissimo_, qui non cessat insudare, ut Clemens summus Pontifex a sua Sede ejectus restituatur, quem Carolus Borbonius dux exercitus Caroli Austriaci electi in Imperatorem, in urbe obsederat _hoc anno Domini_ 1527 die 6 Maii." Catalogus Gloriae Mundi, fol. 143.]

[Footnote 282: Labbei Concilia, xix. fol. 1160.]

[Footnote 283: The reader may, if his patience will hold out, wade through the prolix decrees of the Council of Sens as published by Cardinal Duprat in 1529, and printed in Labbei Concilia (Venice, 1732), xix. 1149-1202. It is worthy of remark that the confiscation of the property of condemned heretics, if laymen, to the state, is ordered, "_tanquam reorum laesae majestatis_." Fol. 1159.]

[Footnote 284: Labbei Concilia, xix. fol. 1139.]

[Footnote 285: The words of the decree are sufficiently distinct: "Illam plurimum gravem et onerosam ecclesiis, laicis vero contemtibilem, sacerdotum multitudinem, qui solent plerumque _illiterati, moribus inculti, servilibus operibus addicti, imberbes, inopes, fictitiis titulis_ ad sacros ordines obrepere, non sine magno status clericalis opprobrio." Ibid., xix. fol. 1128. The decrees of the councils of Bourges and Lyons are given in Labbei Concilia, xix. 1041-1048, and 1095 etc.]

[Footnote 286: The image was affixed to the house of the Sieur de Beaumont, at the corner of the Rue des Hosiers and the Rue des Juifs. Felibien, Hist. de Paris, iv. 676.]

[Footnote 287: The strong language of the author of the "Cronique du Roi Francoys I^er" (edited by G. Guiffrey, Paris, 1860) may serve as an index of the popular feeling: "La nuict du dimenche, dernier jour de may, ... _par quelque ung pire que ung chien mauldict de Dieu_, fut rompue et couppee la teste a une ymaige de la vierge Marie ... qui fut _une grosse horreur a la crestiente_." Page 66.]

[Footnote 288: The silver image, though protected by an iron grating, fared no better than its predecessor. Stolen before the death of Francis, it was succeeded by a wooden statue, and, when this was destroyed by "heretics," by one of marble! The detailed accounts of the expiatory processions in Felibien, ii. 982, 983, in the Registres du parlement, ibid., iv. 677-679, in G. Guiffrey, appendix to "Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er," 446-459, from MSS. Nat. Lib., in Gaillard, vi. 434, 435, and in the Journal d'un bourgeois, 348-351, give a vivid view of the picturesque ceremonial of the times. It must have been a very substantial compensation for the trouble to which the unknown author of the outrage of the _Rue des Rosiers_ put the clergy, that the mutilated statue of the Virgin, having been placed above the altar in the church of St. Gervais, was said to have wrought notable miracles, and even to have raised two children from the dead! Journal d'un bourgeois, _ubi supra_. See also "Cronique du Roy Francoys I^er," 67, and especially the poem (Ibid., appendix, 459-464), in twenty-five stanzas of eight lines each, which, I fear, has nothing to recommend it, unless it be _length_!]

[Footnote 289: May, 1530. Felibien, ii 988, 989; Journal d'un bourgeois, 410.]

[Footnote 290: "Quaeris, quid profecerim? Tot modis deterrens, addidi animum."]

[Footnote 291: Erasmus to Utenhoven, _ubi supra_; also his letter to Vergara, Sept. 2, 1527, and Beda's Apology, Herminjard, ii. 38, 39, 40.]

[Footnote 292: Erasmus to Utenhoven, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 293: It was one of the great merits of Francis I., in the eyes of De Thou, the historian, that he had drawn Bude from comparative obscurity, and, following his wise counsels, founded the College Royale. Erasmus styled him "The Wonder of France" (De Thou, liv. iii., i. 233), and Scaevole de Ste. Marthe, "omnium, qui hoc patrumque saeculo vixere, sine controversia doctissimus" (Elog. 3). He was at this time one of the _maitres de requetes_. Crespin, fol. 58.]

[Footnote 294: Journal d'un bourgeois, 378.]

[Footnote 295: The series of letters ends with a prayer which it would have been difficult, we must suppose, for a brother to resist: "Il vous plera (plaira), Monseigneur, faire en sorte que l'on ne die (dise) point que l'eslongnement vous ait fait oblier vostre tres-humble et tres-obeissante subjette et seur MARGUERITE." Genin, 2de Coll., No. 52.]

[Footnote 296: A MS. of the Bibliotheque Nationale, printed by M. Genin (i. 218, etc.), and G. Guiffrey, Cronique, etc., 76, note, gives these and other interesting details, which are in part confirmed by Erasmus.]

[Footnote 297: Ibid., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 298: It was a slight suggestion of mercy that prompted the judges to permit him to be strangled before his body was consigned to the flames.]

[Footnote 299: "Ce qui fut faict et expedie ce mesme jour _en grande diligence, affin qu'il ne fut recourru du Roy ne de madame la Regente_, qui estoit lors a Bloys, etc." Journal d'un bourgeois, 383.]

[Footnote 300: For De Berquin's history, see Erasmus, _ubi supra_; Journal d'un bourgeois, 378, etc.; Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta (ed. of 1560), fol. 57-59; Histoire eccles., i. 5; Felibien, ii. 985; Haag, s. v.]

[Footnote 301: Journal d'un bourgeois, and Hist. eccles., _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 302: So he is styled by Martin of Beauvais, writing some few months later, in a sufficiently bold plea for the use of fire and fagot: "Si vero _haeresiarchae Berquini_, et suorum sequacium pervicacia delibutus (haereticus) incorrigibilis videatur, ne fortassis plusquam vipereum venenum latenter surrepat, et sanos inficere possit, subito auferte eum de medio vestrum, execrantes atque aversantes illius perversitatem, et abscisum velut palmitem aridum (juxta Joannis sententiam) _subjectis ignibus torrere facite_." Paraclesis catholica Franciae ad Francos, ut fortes in Fide et Vocatione qua vocati sunt, permaneant, authore Martino Theodorico Bellovaco, Juris Caesarei Professore (Parisiis, 1539), p. 14.--See note at the end of this chapter.]

[Footnote 303: F. W. Barthold, Deutschland und die Hugenoten, i. 15; Soldan, Gesch. des Prot. in Frankreich, i. 115-120.]

[Footnote 304: Mezeray, Abrege chronologique, iv. 577.]

[Footnote 305: Soldan, i. 121.]

[Footnote 306: October 28, 1533.]

[Footnote 307: "Con mala sodisfazione di tutta la Francia, perche pare ad ogniuno che Clemente pontefice _abbia gabbato_ questo re cristianissimo." Marino Giustiniano (1535), Relaz. Ven., Alberi, i. 191.]

[Footnote 308: Catharine de' Medici was born April 13, 1519.]

[Footnote 309: These interesting particulars are contained in a MS. letter in the Zurich Archives (probably written by Oswald Myconius to Joachim Vadian). The writer had them directly from the mouth of Guillaume du Bellay, the French ambassador, who was with the king at the interview of Marseilles. Du Bellay also gave some details of his own conversations with Clement. The latter freely admitted that there were some things that displeased him in the mass, but naturally wanted so profitable an institution to be treated tenderly and cautiously. Correspond. des reformateurs, iii. 183-186.]

[Footnote 310: The truth respecting Toulouse probably lies about midway between the censures of the Huguenot and the eulogy of the Roman Catholic historian. According to the author of the _Histoire ecclesiastique_, the parliament was the most sanguinary in France, the university careless of letters, the population jealous of any proficiency in liberal studies. According to Florimond de Raemond, writing somewhat later, Toulouse was worthy of eternal praise, because, notwithstanding a marvellous confluence of strangers from all parts, and in spite of being completely surrounded by regions infected with heresy, it had so persisted in the faith as to contain within its walls not a single family that did not live in conformity with the prescriptions of the church! Historia de ortu, progressu et ruina haereseon hujus saeculi, ii. 486.]

[Footnote 311: Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta, fol. 64.]

[Footnote 312: Florimond de Raemond, ii. 394, 395.]

[Footnote 313: March 6, 1535. Journal d'un bourgeois, 453.]

[Footnote 314: Hist. eccles., i. 9; Crespin, _ubi supra_.]

[Footnote 315: John Calvin gives a contemporary's account in a letter to Francois Daniel from Paris, October, 1533. Herminjard, Correspond. des reformateurs, iii. 106, etc.; and translated in Bonnet, Calvin's Letters, i. 36, etc. See also Jean Sturm's letter of about the same date, Herminjard, iii. 93.]

[Footnote 316: Calvin's letter above quoted, one of the oldest of his MS. autographs. Dr. Paul Henry, in his valuable Life and Times of John Calvin (Eng. trans., i. 37) inadvertently makes Cop rector of the _Sorbonne_, an office that never existed.]

[Footnote 317: A single sentence may serve to indicate the distinctness with which this is asserted: "Evangelium remissionem peccatorum et justificationem gratis pollicetur; neque enim accepti sumus Deo quod legi satisfaciamus, sed ex sola Christi promissione, de qua qui dubitat pie vivere non potest, et gehennae incendium sibi parat." Opera Calvini, Baum, Cunitz, et Reuss, x. 34.]

[Footnote 318: Some officious pen has indeed stricken out from the MS. the sentence, "Quod nos consecuturos spero, si beatissimam Virginem solenni illo praeconio longe omnium pulcherrimo salutaverimus: _Ave gratia plena!_" But on the margin the sensible Nicholas Colladon, a colleague of Beza and an early biographer of Calvin, has written the words: "Haec, quia illis temporibus danda sunt, ne supprimenda quidem putavimus."]

[Footnote 319: "AEgre fert Facultas _injuriam toti unversitati illatam_, quod tractus fuerit ad superiorem Judicem ... summus suus magistratus, et, eam ob rem, censet Facultas ut ejus accusatores et qui supplicationem superiori Judici porrexerunt, citentur in facie universitatis, causas rei allaturi." Bullaeus, vi. 238, _apud_ Herminjard, iii. 117, note. See many interesting particulars respecting the privileges claimed by the university, in Pasquier, Recherches de la France, liv. iii. ch. 29.]

[Footnote 320: He was to have been thrown into the _Conciergerie_. See Beza's preface to Calvin's Com. on Joshua, 1565, _apud_ Herminjard, iii. 118, note. Parliament complained to Francis, and the latter in his reply, Lyons, Dec. 10, 1533, ordered proceedings to be instituted for the capture of Cop and the punishment of the person who had facilitated his flight by giving him warning. Francis to parliament, Herminjard, iii. 118. A reward of 300 crowns was accordingly offered for the apprehension of the fugitive rector, dead or alive. Martin Bucer to Amb. Blaurer, January, 1534, Herminjard, iii. 130.]

[Footnote 321: A fragment of Cop's address--about the first third--was discovered by M. Jules Bonnet in the MSS. of the Library of Geneva, bearing on the margin the note: "Haec Joannes Calvinus propria manu descripsit, et est auctor." This portion is printed in Herminjard, Corresp. des reformateurs, iii. 418-420, and Calv. Opera, Baum, Cunitz, et Reuss, ix. 873-876. Merle d'Aubigne used it in his Hist. of the Ref. in the time of Calvin, ii. 198, etc. Still more fortunate than M. Bonnet, Messrs. Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss very recently found a complete copy of the same address in the archives of one of the churches of Strasbourg. The newly found portion is of great interest. Calvini Op., x. (1872), 30-36.]

[Footnote 322: Calvin to Fr. Daniel (1534), Bonnet, i. 41; Histoire eccles., i. 9.]

[Footnote 323: Francis I. to Council of Berne, Marseilles, Oct. 20, 1533, MS. Berne Archives, Herminjard, iii. 95, 96.]

[Footnote 324: Berne was accustomed to give and take hard blows. So, although the chancellor of the canton endorsed on the king's missive the words, "_Rude lettre du Roi_, ... relative aux Farel," the council was not discouraged; but, when sending two envoys, about a month later, to the French court, instructed them, among other things, again to intercede for a brother of Farel. Herminjard, iii. 96, note.]

[Footnote 325: Du Bellay was himself believed, not without reason, to have sympathy for the reformed doctrine, and it was under his auspices, as well as those of the King and Queen of Navarre, that the evangelical preachers had lately held forth in the pulpits of the capital. See, for instance, Bucer to Blaurer, Jan., 1534, Herminjard, Corresp. des reformateurs, iii. 130.]

[Footnote 326: Francis I.'s letter to Du Bellay, Lyons, Dec. 10, 1533, MS. Dupuy Coll., Bibl. nat., Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franc., i. 437. His orders to parliament of same date, Herminjard, Corresp. des reformateurs, iii. 114, etc.]

[Footnote 327: Francis to parliament, _ubi supra_, iii. 116.]