444 ANEMOND'S DEATH—STRASBURG. After this affair of the bridge, which is a characteristic feature in Farel's history, the reformer was obliged to hide himself, and he quitted the town soon after. He took refuge at Basle with Ecolampadius; but ever preserved that attachment for Montbeliard which a servant of God never ceases to entertain for the first fruits of his ministry.* Sad tidings awaited Farel at Basle. If he was a fugitive, his friend Anemond de Coct was seriously ill. Farel immediately sent him four gold crowns; but a letter written by Oswald Myconius on the 25th of March, announced the death of the chevalier. "Let us so live," said Oswald, “that we may enter into that rest into which we hope the soul of Anemond has already entered."+ Thus did Anemond descend to a premature grave; still young, full of activity and strength, willing to undertake every labour to evangelize France, and who was in himself a host. God's ways are not our ways. Not long before, and in the neighbourhood of Zurich, another chevalier, Ulrich Hütten, had breathed his last. There is some similarity in the characters of the German and French knights, but the piety and christian virtues of the Dauphinese place him far above the witty and intrepid enemy of the pope and of the monks. Shortly after Anemond's death, Farel, unable to remain in Basle, whence he had been once banished, joined his friends Capito and Bucer at Strasburg. Strasburg, an imperial city, at whose head was Sturm, one of the most distinguished men in Germany, and which contained many celebrated doctors within its walls, was as it were an advanced post of the Reformation, thrown beyond the Rhine, and in which the persecuted Christians of France and Lorraine took refuge, and from whence they hoped to win these countries to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Lambert's pious ambition was to become for France what Luther was for Germany, and accordingly he had no sooner reached Strasburg after quitting Metz, than he made bis preparations, ⚫ Ingens affectus, qui me cogit Mumpelgardum amare. + Quo Anemundi spiritum jam pervenisse speramus. Farel, Neufchatel MS. Farelli Epp. Myconius to LAMBERT TO FRANCIS I. 446 waiting for the moment when he should be enabled to carry the sword of the Gospel into the very heart of that country which he loved so tenderly.* He first appealed to Francis I. "The pope," said he, "if he had his way, would change every king into a beggar. Lend your ear to the truth, most excellent prince, and God will make you great among the princes of the earth. Woe be to all the nations whose master is the pope. Oh, Avignon, city of my birth, art thou not the wretched daughter of Babylon? Given over to a legate, not of holiness, but of impiety and heresy; thou seest lewd sports, immodest dances, and adul→ tery multiply within thy walls, and all around thy fields are laid waste by daily hunting parties, and thy poor labourers oppressed. "O most christian king, thy people thirst for the Word of God." At the same time addressing the pope, he said, "Erelong that powerful France which thou are wont to call thy arm will separate from thee." Such were Lambert's illusions! Finding that his epistle had produced no effect, he wrote a second in a still more earnest tone. "What!" said he, "the Arabians, Chaldeans, Greeks, and Jews possess the Word of God in their own language, and the French, Germans, Italians, and Spaniards cannot have it in theirs! Let God but speak to the nations in the language of the people, and the empire of pride will crumble into dust."§ These anticipations were not realised. At Montbeliard and Basle, as at Lyons, the ranks of the reformers had suffered. Some of the most devoted combatants had been taken off by death, others by persecution and exile. In vain did the warriors of the Gospel mount everywhere to the assault; everywhere they were beaten back. But if the forces they had concentrated, first at Meaux, then at Lyons, and after * Hic operior donec ad ipsos Metenses aut in aliquam urbem Galliæ revoces. Ad Franc. Reg. Comment. in Cantic. + Ab hæresis et impietatis latere legatum. Epistola ad Franciscum G. R. præf. Comm. de Sacra conjugis. Est autem in proximo ut aliena fiat a te potens Gallia quam brachium tuum appellare solebas. De Causis Excusationis, p. 76. Epist. ad Franc. R. Præf. Comment. in Cantic. Cantic. 446 SUCCESSIVE DEFEATS-PAVIA. wards at Basle, were dispersed in succession, there still remained combatants here and there, who in Lorraine, at Meaux, and even in Paris, struggled more or less openly to uphold the Word of God in France. Though the Reformation saw its columns broken, it still had its isolated champions. Against these the Sorbonne and the parliament were about to turn their anger. They would not have remaining on the soil of France, a single one of these noble minded men who had undertaken to plant in it the standard of Jesus Christ; and unheard of misfortunes seemed now to be conspiring with the enemies of the Reformation, and to aid them in the accomplishment of their task. CHAPTER XIV. Francis made Prisoner at Pavia-Reaction against the ReformationMargaret's Anxiety for her Brother-Louisa consults the Sorbonne Commission against the Heretics - Briçonnet brought to Trial-Appeal to the Parliament-Fall-Recantation-Lefevre accused-Condemna tion and Flight-Lefevre at Strasburg-Louis Berquin imprisonedErasmus attacked-Schuch at Nancy-His Martyrdom-Struggle with Caroli-Sorrow of Pavanne-His Martyrdom-A Christian HermitConcourse at Notre Dame. DURING the latter period of Farel's sojourn at Montbeliard, great events were passing on the theatre of the world. Lannoy and Pescara, Charles's generals, having quitted France on the approach of Francis I., this prince had crossed the Alps, and blockaded Pavia. On the 24th of February 1525, he was attacked by Pescara. Bonnivet, La Trémouille, Palisse, and Lescure died fighting round their sovereign. The Duke of Alençon, Margaret's husband, the first prince of the blood, had fled with the rear-guard, and gone to die of shame and grief at Lyons; and Francis, thrown from his horse, had surrendered his sword to Charles Lannoy, viceroy of Naples, who received it kneeling. The King of France was prisoner to the emperor. His captivity seemed the greatest of misfortunes. "Nothing is left me but honour MARGARET'S ANXIETY FOR FRANCIS I. 447 and life," wrote the king to his mother. But no one felt a keener sorrow than Margaret. The glory of her country tarnished, France without a monarch and exposed to the greatest dangers, her beloved brother the captive of his haughty enemy, her husband dishonoured and dead...... What bitter thoughts were these ...... But she had a comforter; and while her brother to console himself repeated: "Tout est perdu, fors l'honneur, all is lost save honour!" she was able to say: Fors Jésus seul, mon frère, fils de Dien !❤ Margaret thought that in the hour of trial Francis might receive the Word of God. A few months before, the king had already betrayed religious sentiments on the death of his daughter the Princess Charlotte. The Duchess of Alençon, having concealed the child's sickness from him, Francis, who no doubt suspected something, dreamed three several times that his daughter said to him: "Farewell, my king, I am going to paradise." He guessed that she was dead, and gave way to "extreme grief," but wrote to his sister that "he would rather die than desire to have her in this world contrary to the will of God, whose name be blessed." + Margaret thought that the terrible disaster of Pavia would complete what the first trial had begun; and most earnestly desiring that the Word of God might be with Francis in his prison, she wrote a very touching letter, which deserves to be preserved, to Marshal Montmorency, who had been taken prisoner along with the king. It is very probable that she speaks of herself and Bishop Briçonnet in the graceful allegory which serves as an introduction to her request :— "Dear cousin, there is a certain very devout hermit who for these three years past has been constantly urging a man whom I know to pray to God for the king, which he has done; and he is assured that if it pleases the king by way of devotion, daily, when in his closet, to read the epistles of St. Paul, he will be delivered to the glory of God; for He * Les Marguerites de la Marguerite, i. 29. 448 REACTION AGAINST THE REFORM. promises in His Gospel, that whosoever loveth the truth, the truth shall make him free. And forasmuch as I think he has them not, I send you mine, begging you to entreat him on my part that he will read them, and I firmly believe that the Holy Ghost, which abideth in the letter, will do by him. as great things as he has done by those who wrote them; for God is not less powerful or good than He has been, and his promises never deceive. He has humbled you by captivity, but he has not forsaken you, giving you patience and hope in his goodness, which is always accompanied by consolation and a more perfect knowledge of Him, which I am sure is better than the king ever knows, having his mind less at liberty, on account of the imprisonment of the body. "Your good Cousin, MARGARET." In such language did Margaret of Valois, full of anxiety for the salvation of her brother's soul, address the king after the battle of Pavia. It is unfortunate that her letter and the Epistles of St. Paul were not sent direct to Francis; she could not have selected a worse medium than Montmorency. The letters which the king wrote from the Castle of Pizzighitone, where he was confined, afforded his sister some little consolation. At the beginning of April she wrote to him: แ After the sorrow of the Passion this has been a Holy Ghost (i. e. a Pentecost), seeing the grace that our Lord has shown you." But unhappily the prisoner did not find in the Word of God that truth which maketh free, and which, Margaret so earnestly desired he might possess. All France, princes, parliament, and people, was overwhelmed with consternation. Erelong, as in the first three ages of the Church, the calamity that had befallen the country was imputed to the Christians; and fanatical cries were heard on every side calling for blood, as a means of averting still greater disasters. The moment, therefore, was favourable; it was not enough to have dislodged the evangelical Christians from the three strong positions they had taken; it was necessary to take advantage of the general panic, to strike while the iron was hot, and sweep the whole kingLettres de la reine de Navarre à François, i. p. 27 |