THE SAONE AND MACON-SEBVILLE AT GRENOBLE. 429

and an evangelist passed through the parrow and irregular streets of Macon. Michael d'Arande himself visited that place in 1524, and, aided by Margaret's name, obtained permission to preach in this city,* which was destined at a later period to be filled with blood, and become for ever memorable for its sauteries. +

After exploring the districts of the Saone, the Christians of Lyons, ever on the watch, extended their incursions in the direction of the Alps. There was at Lyons a Dominican named Maigret, who had been compelled to quit Dauphiny, where he had boldly preached the new doctrine, and who earnestly requested that some one would go and encourage his brethren of Grenoble and Gap. Papillon and Du Blet repaired thither. A violent storm had just broken out there against Sebville and his preachings. The Dominicans had moved heaven and earth; and maddened at seeing so many evangelists escape them (as Farel, Anemond, and Maigret), they would fain have crushed those who remained within their reach. § They therefore called for Sebville's arrest. I

The friends of the Gospel in Grenoble were alarmed; must Sebville also be taken from them!...... Margaret interceded with her brother; many of the most distinguished personages at Grenoble, the king's advocate among others, open or secret

Arandius prêche à Mascon. Coct to Farel, December 1524, Neufchatel MS.

+ After the taking of Macon in 1562, the governor, St. Pont, amused the dissolute women who were invited to his table, by taking several Huguenots from prison and compelling them to leap (sauter) from the bridge over the Saone into the river. It is added that he did not confine his savage cruelty to the Huguenots, but would seize other persons, untainted with heresy, and put them to the same inhuman death.

Il y a eu deux grands personages à Grenoble. Neufchatel MS. The title of Messire, given to Du Blet in Coct's letter, indicates a person of rank. I am inclined to think that the epithet negotiator, elsewhere applied to him, refers to his activity; it is possible, however, that he may have been a great merchant of Lyons.

§ Conjicere potes ut post Macretum et me in Sebvillam exarserint. Anemond to Farel, 7th September 1524. Neufchatel MS.

|| Les Thomistes ont voulu procéder contre moi par inquisition et caption de personne. Letter from Sebville. Ibid.

430

FONDNESS FOR SYMBOLS CONVENTICLES.

friends to the Gospel, exerted themselves in behalf of the evangelical grayfriar, and at length their united efforts rescued him from the fury of his adversaries.*

"

But if Sebville's life was saved, his mouth was stopped. "Remain silent," said they, or you will be led to the scaffold."-" Silence has been imposed on me," he wrote to Anemond de Coct, "under pain of death." These threats. alarmed even those of whom the most favourable hopes had been entertained. The king's advocate and other friends of the Gospel now showed nothing but coldness. Many returned to the Romish worship, pretending to adore God secretly in their hearts, and to give a spiritual signification to the outward observances of Romanism. A melancholy delusion, leading from infidelity to infidelity. There is no hypocrisy that cannot be justified in the same manner. The unbeliever, by means of his systems of myths and allegories, will preach Christ from the christian pulpit; and a philosopher will be able, by a little ingenuity, to find in an abominable superstition among the pagans, the type of a pure and elevated idea. In religion the first thing is truth. Some of the Grenoble Christians, among whom were Amadeus Galbert, and a cousin of Anemond's, still clung fast to their faith. § These pious men would meet secretly with Sebville at each other's houses, and talk together about the Gospel. They repaired to some secluded spot; they visited some brother by night; or met in secret to pray to Christ, as thieves lurking for a guilty purpose. Often would a false alarm disturb the humble assembly. The adversaries consented to wink at these secret conventicles; but they had sworn that the stake should be the lot of any one who ventured to speak of the Word of God in public.

Such was the state of affairs when Du Blet and Papillon arrived at Grenoble. Finding that Sebville had been silenced,

Si ce ne fut certains amis secrets, je estois mis entre les mains des Pharisiens. Letter from Sebville, Neufchatel MS.

+ Ibid.

Non solum tepidi sed frigidi. Neufchatel MS.

§ Tuo cognato, Amedeo Galberto exceptis. Ibid.

Mais de en parler publiquement, il n'y pend que le feu. Ibid.

PREACHING AT LYONS-MAIGRET IMPRISONED.

431 they exhorted him to go and preach the Gospel at Lyons. The Lent of the following year would present a favourable opportunity for proclaiming the Gospel to a numerous crowd. Michael d'Arande, Maigret, and Sebville, proposedto fight at the head of the Gospel army. Everything was thus preparing for a striking manifestation of evangelical truth in the second city of France. The rumour of this evangelical Lent extended as far as Switzerland. "Sebville is free, and will preach the Lent sermons at Saint Paul's in Lyons," wrote Anemond to Farel.* But a great disaster, which threw all France into confusion, intervened and prevented this spiritual combat. It is during peace that the conquests of the Gospel are achieved. The defeat of Pavia, which took place in the month of February, disconcerted the daring project of the reformers.

Meantime, without waiting for Sebville, Maigret had begun early in the winter to preach salvation by Jesus Christ alone, in despite of the strenuous opposition of the priests and monks of Lyons. In these sermons there was not a word of the worship of the creature, of saints, of the virgin, of the power of the priesthood. The great mystery of godliness, "God manifest in the flesh," was alone proclaimed. The old heresies of the poor men of Lyons are reappearing, it was said, and in a more dangerous form than ever! But notwithstanding this opposition, Maigret continued his ministry; the faith that animated his soul found utterance in words of power: it is in the nature of truth to embolden the hearts of those who have received it. Yet Rome was destined to prevail at Lyons as at Grenoble. Maigret was arrested, notwithstanding Margaret's protection, dragged through the streets, and cast into prison. The merchant Vaugris, who then quitted the city on his road to Switzerland, spread the news everywhere on his passage. All were astonished and depressed. One thought, however, gave confidence to the friends of the Reformation: "Mai

* Le samedi des Quatre-Temps. Dec. 1524. Neufchatel MS.

+ Pour vray Maigret a prêché à Lion, maulgré les pr tres et moines.

432

MARGARET INTIMIDATED.

gret is taken," said they, "but Madame d'Alençon is there; praised be God!"*

It was not long before they were compelled to renounce even this hope. The Sorbonne had condemned several of this faithful minister's propositions.+ Margaret, whose position became daily more difficult, found the boldness of the partisans of the Reformation and the hatred of the powerful increasing side by side. Francis I. began to grow impatient at the zeal of these evangelists: he looked upon them as mere fanatics whom it was good policy to repress. Margaret, thus fluctuating between desire to serve her brethren and her inability to protect them, sent them word to avoid running into fresh dangers, as she could no longer intercede with the king in their favour. The friends of the Gospel believed that this determination was not irrevocable. "God has given her grace," said they, "to say and write only what is necessary to poor souls." But if this human support is taken away, Christ still remains. It is well that the soul should be stripped of all other protection, that it may rely upon God alone.

CHAPTER XII.

The French at Basle-Encouragement of the Swiss-Fears of DiscordTranslating and Printing at Basle-Bibles and Tracts disseminated in France.

THE exertions of the friends of the Gospel in France were paralyzed. The men in power were beginning to show their hostility to Christianity; Margaret was growing alarmed; terrible news would soon be coming across the Alps and plunging the nation into mourning, filling it with one thought only-of saving the king, of saving France. But if the Christians of Lyons were checked in their labours, were there not soldiers

Neufchatel MS. + Histoire de François I. par Gaillard, iv. 233. Peter Toussaint to Farel, Basle, 17th December 1524. Neufchatel MS.

THE FRENCH AT BASLE-ENCOURAGED BY THE SWISS. 433

at Basle who had escaped from the battle and who were ready to begin the fight again. The exiles from France have never forgotten her. Driven from their country for nearly three centuries by the farraticism of Rome, their latest descendants have been seen carrying to the cities and fields of their ancestors those treasures of which the pope still deprives them.* At the very moment when the soldiers of Christ in France were mournfully laying down their arms, the refugees at Basle were preparing for the combat. As they saw the monarchy of Saint Louis and of Charlemagne falling from the hands of Francis I., shall they not feel urged to lay hold of a kingdom which cannot be moved.†

Farel, Anemond, Esch, Toussaint, and their friends formed an evangelical society in Switzerland with the view of rescuing their country from its spiritual darkness. Intelligence reached them from every quarter, that there was an increasing thirst for God's Word in France; it was desirable to take advantage of this, and to water and sow while it was yet seedtime. Ecolampadius, Zwingle, and Oswald Myconius, were continually exhorting them to do this, giving the right hand of fellowship, and communicating to them a portion of their own faith. In January 1525, the Swiss schoolmaster wrote to the French chevalier: "Banished as you are from your country by the tyranny of Antichrist, even your presence among us proves that you have acted boldly in the cause of the Gospel. The tyranny of christian bishops will at length induce the people to look upon them as deceivers. Stand firm; the time is not far distant when we shall enter the haven of repose, whether we be struck down by our tyrants, or they themselves be struck down ;§ all then will be well for us, provided we have been faithful to Christ Jesus."

The General Committee of the Evangelical Society of Geneva, which sends a hundred missionaries and colporteurs into France, is composed almost entirely of the descendants of French refugees.

Hebrews xii. 28.

Gallis verborum Dei sitientibus. Coct to Farel, 2d Sept. 1524, Neufchatel MS.

§ Non longe abest enim, quo in portum tranquillum perveniamus, &c. Osw. Myc. to Coct. Ibid.

VOL. III.

T