A Bold Adventure in the Dark
N October, 1534, soon after Calvin had left Paris, a tragic scene was witnessed, presenting alike the folly of imprudent zeal, the horrible fruits of blind superstition, and the constraining influence of the grace of
Jesus.
The favourers of the Reformation in Paris, encouraged by the good news from Switzerland, sent one of their number, Petre Ferét, to inquire of the Swiss pastors whether they thought it wise for them to continue to meet in private, or whether it would be more to the honour of God to make some bold stand forthe truth. The messenger arrived, and a conference was held at which it was decided to prepare a stirring placard, to have vast numbers of them printed, and to post them up in Paris and in all the towns and cities of France in one night.
The printers were set to work; arrangements were made, and in the night of the 18th or the 24th October, 1484, hundreds of faithful men, after solemn prayer, sallied forth with their bundles of bills. The walls of France were everywhere thoroughly posted and ready as soon as the sun should rise to bear witness against the unscriptural errors of Popery. Farel, in preparing the placard, had allowed his zeal to exceed his judgment, but certainly not to exceed the truth. His warm expressions might inspire the enlightened Genevese with good feeling, but were more calculated to inflame the anger of the bigoted Papists of France than convince them of their wrong.
PETER VIRET.:
THE MORNING AND ITS REVELATION.
The morning soon came, and the sleeping populace arose with a ery and intense confusion something akin to that which prevailed in Egypt when the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on the throne unto the firstborn of the captives that were in the dungeon. The land had been visited in the night, the streets were strewn with handbills, and every wall was calling heaven and earth to witness against the Popish Mass and transubstantiation. The testimony of the Holy Scripture and the Fathers was cited, and common sense was appealed to against the absurdity of playing with a god of dough, like a cat with a mouse, of breaking it in pieces and calling it the Lamb of God.
“By it,’ said the placard, ‘‘the preaching of the Gospelis prevented. The time is occupied with bell ringing, howling, chanting, empty ceremonies, candles, incense, disguises, and all manner of conjurations. And the poor world, looked upon as a lamb or as a sheep, is miserably deceived, cajoled, led astray—-what do I say ?—bitten, gnawed, and devoured as if by ravening wolves.”
‘When Paul preached at Ephesus the whole city was filled with confusion. The makers of shrines saw their craft in danger and they therefore stirred up the people to cry, ‘‘Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” The priests of Rome acted in like manner. They seized the opportunity for spreading numerous false reports, of alarming the people and stirring their indignation to its very depths. Francis, the king, was agitated and enraged, for the dreaded placard had, like the frogs of Egypt, reached even to his bed-chamber. ‘ Let all beseized,” he exclaimed, “ and let Lutheranism be totally exterminated.”
No time was lost in putting this order into execution. Under pretence of making atonement for the offence offered to the wafer god, but really to atone for the wound inflicted upon the pride of the priesthood, many of the sincere followers of Christ were dragged from their homes to the flames.
BARTHOLOMEW MILLON
was one of these poor sufferers, and the interesting account of him given by Dr. Wylie we must not overlook. ‘ Millon was a dwarfed, deformed, miserable looking hunchback. His limbs were withered and their power gone. But Bartholomew had not always been the pitiably mis-shapen object we now behold him. He was formerly one of the most handsome men in all Paris, and with the gifts of person he possessed also those of the mind. But he had led a youth of boisterous dissipation. No gratification which his senses crayed did he deny himself. Gay in disposition and
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impetuous in temper, he was the ringleader of his companions, and was at all times equally ready to deal a blow with his; powerful arm, or let fly a sarcasm with his sharp tongue.
‘But a beneficent Hand, in the guise of disaster, arrested Bartholomew in the midst of his mad career. Falling one day, he broke his ribs, and neglecting the needful remedies, his body shrunk into itself and shrivelled up. The stately form was now bent, the legs became paralyzed,. and on the face of the cripple grim peevishness took the place of manly beauty. He could no longer mingle with the holiday sport or the street brawl. He sat enchained, day after day, in his shop, presenting to all who visited. it the rueful spectacle of a poor deformed paralytic. His powers of mind, however, had escaped the blight which fell upon his body. His wit was as strong as ever, and it may be a little sharper, misfortune having soured his temper. The Protestants were especially the butt of his ridicule.
“One day a Lutheran happening to pass before his shop, the bile of Millon was excited, and he forthwith let fly at him a volley of insults and scoffs. Turning round to see whence the abuse proceeded, the eye of the passer-by lighted on the pitiful object who had assailed him. Touched with compassion, he went up to him and said, ‘Poor man, don’t you see that God has bent your body in this way in order to straighten your soul? and giving him a New Testament he bade him read it, and tell him at an after day what he thought ofit. The wor ds of the stranger touched the heart of the paralytic.
“‘ Millon opened the book and began to read. Arrested by its beauty and majesty, ‘he continued at it,’ says Crespin, ‘night and day.’ He now saw that his soul was even more deformed than his body. But the Bible had revealed to him a great Physician, and believing in His power to heal, the man whose limbs were withered, but whose heart was now smitten, cast himself down before that gracious One.
“The Saviour had pity on him. His soul was
‘straightened.’ The malignity and spite which had blackened and deformed it were cast out. ‘ The wolf had become a lamb.’ He turned his shop into a conventicle, and was never weary of commending to others that Saviour who had pardoned sins so great and healed diseases so inveterate as his. The gibe and the scoff were forgotten; only words of lovingkindness now fell from him. Still chained to his seat he gathered around him the young and taught them to read, He exerted his skill in artto minister to the poor; and his powers of persuasion he employed day after day to the reclaiming of those whom his former conduct had corrupted, and the edification of such as he had scoffed at aforetime. He had a fine voice, and many came from all parts of Paris to hear him sing Marot’s Psalms. ‘In short,’ says Orespin, ‘his room was a true school of piety, day and night re-echoing with the glory of the Lord.’”
Such was the change effected by the Spirit of God in Bartholomew Millon by means of the New Testament. His martyrdom took place on November 10th. Words of peace and kindness only escaped his lips in the flames. Deformed in body he was straight in soul, and now he walks in the uprightness of Jesus.
SUPERSTITION, POMP, AND BARBARITY.
In order to cleanse the city from the defilement it had suffered, the king ordered a solemn purification. This of course must be of a ceremonial nature, and so arranged as to excite the admiration of the superstitious populace. A procession was arranged in which all the relics that could be brought together were borne through the streets to do honour to departed saints. Among these, as the poor deluded creatures believed, there were ‘‘a bit of the true cross, the real crown of thorns, one of the nails, the swaddling clothes in which Christ lay, the purple robe in which He was attired, the towel with which He girded Himself at the last supper, and the spear-head that pierced His side. Many saints of former times had sent each a bit of himself to grace the procession.”
“The image of the patron saint of Paris was carried through the streets; the wafer god was carried with pomp by the bishop; the king followed on foot, bareheaded, carrying a white taper. After him came princes, the great officers of state, cardinals, bishops, and ambassadors and others, walking two abreast in profound silence with lighted flambeaux. The monks and clergy of Paris, the council, the parliament in their red robes, and public officers according to their degrees, swelled the ranks of
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the procession, whose course was from the Louvre to Notre Dame, where solemn mass was performed.” *
A VIEW IN BASLE.
This pomp and superstitious show, with the offering of the wafer christ, shows the absurdity, idolatry, and
* Por a fuller account see Dr. Wylie’s “ History of Protestantism,” vol, ii., p. 214.
IIS LIFE AND TIMES, 57
pride of Popery, but the solemn scene of the evening reveals its true spirit. Six poor convicted Lutherans were burnt in a slow fire. ‘‘ They were suspended by a rope to a machine, by which they were several times let down into the flames and again drawn up, till at length the executioner cut the rope and precipitated them into the fire.” Oh, how vastly different from. this superstitious pomp and barbarity is the religion of Jesus!
Before the storm of persecution broke out, as we have said, Calvin left Paris, and in company with his friend Du Tillet, set out for Basle. When near Metz, one of their servants being mounted on the best horse, suddenly fled with all their money, and with such speed that it was not possible to overtake him. The other, however, av Providence would have it, had ten crowns which he lent to his masters, and thus with difficulty they arrived at Strasburg, and after a short stay went on to Basle.