HUGUENOTS
528
HUGUENOTS
cult of pagan antiquity, to naturalism, and in some
cases to unbelief. Other minds, it is true, were led
by the Renaissance itself to the study of Christian
antiquity, but, under the influence of the mysticism
which had shortly before this become current as a
reaction from the system of the schools and the philos-
ophy of the literati, they ended by exaggerating the
power of faith and the authority of Holy Scripture
It was this class of thinkers, affected at once by human-
ism and mysticism, that took the initiative, more or
less consciously, in the reform for which public opinion
clamoured.
Their first leader was Lefevre d'Etaples (q. v.), who, after devoting his early hfe to the teaching of philosophy and mathematics, became when nearly sixty years old an exegete and the editor of French translations of the Bible. In the preface to his "Quincuplex Psalterium", published in 1509, and in that to his commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul, published in 1512, he ascribes to Scripture an almost exclusive authority in matters of reUgion, and preaches justification by faith even to the point of counting good works as naught. Furthermore, he sees in the Mass only a commemoration of the one Sacrifice of the Cross. In 1522 he published a Latin commentary on the Gospels, the preface to which may be regarded as the first manifesto of the Reformation in France. Chlitoue, Farel, Gerard Roussel, Cop, Etienne Poncher, Michel d'Arande rallied around him as his disciples. Bri(;onnet, Bishop of Meaux, constituted himself their protector against the Sorlsonne, and called them to preach in his diocese. None of these men, however, intended to carry their innovations to the point of breaking with the Church; they meant to remain within it; they accepted and they sought its dignities. Lefevre Ijecame Vicar-General to Bri^onnet; Gerard Roussel was made a canon of Meaux, then by papal appointment Abliot of Clairac, and eventually Bishop of Oloron; Michel d'Arande became Bishop of Saint- Paul-Trois-Chateaux {TrKcastrinensis). Their aim, for the time being, was only to "preach the pure gospel", and thereby lead the people back to the genuine religion of Christ, which, as they said, had been corrupted by the superstitions of Rome. They were powerfully aided in their undertaking by Margaret, Queen of Navarre, who favoured both them and their ideas; she was their advocate with her brother Francis I, and, when necessary, their pro- tectress against the Sorbonne.
This learned body soon began to feel concern at the progress of the new ideas. Its syndic, B^da, was a man of narrow mind, of violent and sometimes ill- timed zeal, but of profound convictions, clear insight, and undeniably disinterested aims. Cinder his guid- ance the Sorbonne, aided only by the Parliament, took the lead in the struggle with heresy, while the king hesitated between the parties or changed his attitude according to his political interests. Since 1520 the writings of Luther had been spreading in France, at least among the educated, and his books were selling in Paris by hundreds. On 15 .\pril, 1521, the faculty of theology formally condemned Luther's doctrines. Stimulated by this" faculty and armed by the pope with special powers for the suppression of heresy, the Parliament of Paris was preparing vigorous measures against Lefevre d'Etaples, but the king interfered. When Francis I was imprisoned at Madriil, the Parlia- ment, on which the queen-regent placed no restraint, inaugurated in 152.'5 sanguinary measures of repres- sion ; not a year passed but some heretic was arrested and scourged or burned. The most famous of the victims in these early times was Louis de Berquin, a nobleman of .\rtois and a friend and councillor of the king; several Lutheran writings were found in his possession. .\t this energetic action of the Parlia- ment the Meaux group took fright and scattered. Brigonnet retracted and wrote pastorals against
Luther. Lefevre and Roussel escaped to Strasburg
or to the dominions of the Queen of Navarre. Chli-
toue wrote against Luther, Farel rejoined Zwingli in
Switzerland. But all this time Lutheranism con-
tinued to spread in France, disseminated chiefly by
the students and professors from Germany. Again
and again the king complained in his edicts of the
spread of heresy in his kingdom. Since 1530 there
had existed at Paris a vigorous group of heretics,
recruited principally from the literary men and the
lower classes, and numbering from 800 to 400 per-
sons. Some others were to be found in the I'niver-
sities of Orleans and Bourges; in the Duchy of Alen-
Qon, where Margaret of Navarre, the suzerain, gave
them licence to preach, and whence the heresy
spread in Normandy; at Lyons, where the Reforma-
tion made an early appearance owing to the advent
of foreigners from Switzerland and Ciermany; and at
Toulouse, where the Parliament caused the arrest of
several suspects and the burning of John of Cahors,
a professor in the faculty of law.
After condemning the works of Margaret of Na- varre, who was inspired with the new ideas, the Sor- bonne witnessed the banishment of Beda and the appointment of Cop to the rectorship of the Univer- sity of Paris, although he was alreadj' suspected of s-VTnpathizing with Lutheranism. At the opening of the academic year, 1 November, 1533, he delivered an address filled with the new ideas. This address had been prepared for him by a young student then scarcely known, whose influence however upon the French Reformation was to be considerable ; this was John Calvin (q. v.). Born in 1509 at Noyon in Picardy, where his father was secretarj- of the bish- opric and promotcur to the chapter (an ecclesiastical office analogous to the civil office of public prosecutor), he obtained his first ecclesiastical benefice there in 1521. Two years later he went to study at Paris, then to Orleans (1528) and to Bourges for the study of law. At Bourges he became acquainted with sev- eral Lutherans — among others his future friend Mel- chior Wolmar, professor of Greek. His cousin Oliv^-- tan had already initiated him into their ideas; some of the.se he had adopted, and he introduced them into Cop's rectorial discourse. This address called forth repressive measures against the two friends. Cop fled to Switzerland, Calvin to Saintonge. The latter soon Ijroke with Catholicism, surrendered his benefices, for which he received compensation, and towards the end of 1534 betook himself to Basle in consequence of the affair of the "placards" — i. e. the violent mani- festos against the Mass which, by the contrivance of the Lutherans, had been placarded in Paris (IS Oc- tober, 1.534), in the provinces, and even on the door of the king's apartments. Francis I, who until then had been divided between his will to meet the wi.-ihes of the pope and the expediency of winning to himself the support of the Lutheran princes of Germany against Charles V, made up his mind to defer on this occasion to the demands of the exasperated Cath- olics. In the January following he took part in a solemn procession during the course of which six heretics were burned; he let the Parliament arrest seventy-four of them at Meaux, of whom eighteen were also burncil; he himself ordered l)y edict the extermination of the heretics and of those who should harbour them, and promised rewards to those who should inform against them. But before the end of the year the king reversed his policy and thought of inviting Melanchthon to Paris. It was at this junc- ture that Calvin entered upon his great role of leader of French Protestantism by writing his "Institutio Christ ian.-e Religionis" (Institutes of the Christian Religion), the preface to which, dated 23 August, 1535, took the form of a letter addressed to Francis I. It was published in Latin (March, 1536). and was at once an apology, a confession of faith, and a rallying signal
