(NOVEMBER, 1533.)
CALVIN had not quitted Paris. He was at one moment on the boulevards with the merchant De la Forge, at another in the university quarter with Cop; in the dwellings of the poor, and the mansions of the nobles,
‘increasing greatly the work of the Lord,’ says Beza, ‘not only by teaching truth, but also by opposing the heretics.’ fe93 he then retired to his chamber and meditated. He turned his piercing glance upon the future, and fancied he could see, in a time more or less remote and through certain clouds, the triumph of the Gospel. He knew that the cause of God in general advances painfully; that there are rocks in the way; that interest, ignorance, and servility check it at every moment; that it stumbles and falls, and men may think it ruined. But Calvin believed that He who is its Head would help it to overcome all its enemies. ‘Only,’ he said, ‘those who bear its standard must mount to the assault with unflinching courage.’ Calvin, thinking that the time for the assault had come, desired that in the university itself, from that pulpit which all Europe respected, the voice of truth should be heard after centuries of silence. A very natural opportunity occurred.
During the month of October Cop was much occupied with a task that had fallen to him. It was the custom of the university for the rector to deliver an inaugural address in Latin on All Saints’ Day in one of the churches of Paris. Calvin thought that it was his duty to take advantage of this opportunity to proclaim the Gospel boldly in the face of France. The rector replied that he was a physician, and that it was difficult for him to speak like a divine: ‘If, however, you will write the address,’ he said, ‘I will promise to deliver it.’ The two young men were soon agreed; they understood the risk they ran, but were ready to incur it, without presumption however, and with prudence. They agreed to explain the essence or the Gospel before the university, giving it the academic name of
Christian Philosophy. ‘Christ,’ says Calvin, ‘desires us to be like serpents, careful to avoid all that may hurt us; and yet like doves, who fly without fear and without care, and who offer themselves innocently to the fowlers who are laying snares for them.’ fe94
All Saints’ Day, 1533, having arrived, the university assembled with great pomp in the Mathurins’ church; many were impatient to hear Cop, whose conduct in the case of the Queen of Navarre had made him an object of suspicion to the Sorbonne. A great number of monks, and especially of Franciscans, took their places and opened their ears. There were however scattered about the church many steadfast friends of the Gospel, who had come to be present at the assault and perhaps Witness the triumph of their faith. Among them, and on a bench apart, sat a young man of humble appearance, calm, modest, and attentive to all that was said. Nobody suspected that it was he (Calvin) who was about to set the university, and indeed all France, in commotion. The hour having come, all the dignitaries, professors, and students fixed their eager eyes upon Cop as he rose to speak. He pronounced the opening address ‘in a very different fashion,’
says Theodore Beza, ‘from what was usual.’ There was a simplicity and life in his delivery which contrasted strongly with the dryness and exaggeration of the old doctors. The discourse is of importance in the history of the Reformation; we shall give it, therefore, in part, all the more because it has lain unknown until this hour among the manuscripts of the library of Geneva, and is now first presented to the christian public. fe95
‘Christian philosophy is a great thing,’ said the rector; ‘a thing too excellent for any tongue to express and even for any mind to conceive its value. The gift of God to man by Jesus Christ himself, it teaches us to know that true happiness which deceives nobody, making us believe and comprehend that we are truly the sons of God… The brightness of the splendor of this wisdom of God eclipses all the glimmerings of the wisdom of the world. It places its possessors as far above the Common order of men, as that order is itself above the brutes. fe96 The mind of man, opened and enlarged by the divine hand, then understands things infinitely more sublime than all those which are learnt from our feeble humanity. How admirable, how holy must this divine philosophy be, since, in order to bring it to men, God was willing to become man, and, to teach it to us, the Immortal put on mortality! Could God better manifest his love to us than
by the gift of his eternal Word? What stronger and tenderer bond could God establish between himself and us than by becoming a man such as we are? Sirs, let us praise the other sciences, I approve of it; let us admire logic, natural philosophy, and ethics, in consideration of their utility; but who would dare compare them with that other philosophy, which explains what philosophers have long been seeking after and never found… the will of God? And what is the hidden will that is revealed to us here? It is this:
The grace of God alone remits sins. fe97... The holy Ghost, which sanctifies all hearts and gives eternal life, is promised to all christians. fe98 If there is any one among you who does not praise this science above all other sciences, I would ask him, what will he praise? Would you delight the mind of man, give him repose of heart, teach him to live holy and happily f Christian philosophy abundantly supplies him with these admirable blessings; and, at the same time, it subdues, as with a wholesome rein, the impetuous movements of the soul. fe99 Sirs, since the dignity and glory of this Gospel are so great, how I rejoice that the office with which I am invested calls upon me to lay it before you today!’
This appeared a strange exordium to a great number of hearers: What! not a word about the saints whom all catholics glorify on this day?… Let us wait, however, and see.
The rector then announced that according to custom he would explain the Gospel of the day, that is, the beatitudes pronounced by Jesus on the mountain. ‘But first of all,’ he said, ‘unite with me in earnest prayer to Christ, who is the true and only intercessor with the Father, in order that by his fertilizing Spirit he may enlighten our understandings, and that our discourse may praise him, savor of him, be full of him, and reflect his image, so that this divine Savior, penetrating our souls, may water them with the dew of his heavenly grace!’ fe100
Then the rector explained the happiness of those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
The university had never heard the like. An admirable proportion was observed throughout the address; it was academical and yet evangelical — a thing not often seen. Calvin had discovered that tongue of the wise which useth knowledge aright. But the enemies of the Gospel were not deceived.
Through the thin veil with which he had covered the grandeur of divine
love, they discovered those heights and depths of grace which are a source of joy to the true christian, but an object of abhorrence to the adversary.
There was an indescribable uneasiness among the auditory. Certain of the hearers exchanged glances, in this way indicating to one another the passages which seemed to them the most reprehensible. University
professors, priests, monks, and students — all listened with astonishment to such unusual language. Here and there in the congregation signs of approbation might be observed, but far more numerous signs of anger.
Two Franciscans, in particular, were so excited that they could scarcely keep their seats; and when the assembly broke up they were heard expressing their indignation in loud terms: ‘Grace… God’s pardon… the Holy Ghost… there is abundance of all that in the rector’s discourse; but of penance, indulgences, and meritorious works… not a word!’ It was pointed out to them that the rector, according to custom, had ended his exordium with the salutation which the angel had addressed to Mary; but that, in the opinion of the monks, was a mere form. The words being in Scripture, how could the rector refuse to pronounce them? Had he not besides begun by saying that Christ is the only true intercessor, verus et unus opud Patrem intercessor?… What is left then to Mary, except that she is the mother of the Savior? The Sorbonne was filled with anger and alarm... To select the day of the festival of All Saints, in order to proclaim that there is only one intercessor! Such a crime must not remain
unpunished. If Cop wished to produce a sensation, the monks will produce one also! The two Franciscans having consulted with their friends, their opinion was that the university was not to be trusted.
Consequently they hastened to the parliament and laid the rector’s heretical propositions before it.
Cop and Calvin had each retired separately, and been visited in their respective apartments by many of their friends. Some of them did not approve of these great manifestations; they would have wished the evangelicals to be content with a few small conventicles here and there in retired places. Calvin did not agree with them. In his opinion there was one single universal christian Church, which had existed since the time of the apostles, and would exist always. The errors and abuses abounding in christendom, profane priests, hypocrites, scandalous sinners, do not prevent the Church from existing. True, it is often reduced to little more
than a small humble flock; but the flock exists, and it must, whenever it has the opportunity, manifest itself in opposition to a fallen catholicism.
The reformers themselves, though it is frequently forgotten, maintained the doctrine of a universal Church; but while Rome counts among the number of signs which characterize it, ‘a certain pomp and temporal possessions,’ fe101 the evangelical doctors, on the contrary, reckon persecution and the cross as a mark of the true Church. Cop and Calvin were to make the experiment in their own persons.
The rector was not inclined to give way to the monks: he resolved to join battle on a question of form, which would dispose his colleagues in his favor, and perhaps in favor of truth. It was a maxim received in the university, that all its members, and a fortiori its head, must be tried first by the corporation, and that it was not permissible to pass over any degree of jurisdiction. fe102 Accordingly, on the 19th of November, the rector convoked the four faculties, and having undertaken the defense of his address, complained bitterly that certain persons had dared to carry the matter before a foreign body. The privileges of the university had thus been attacked. ‘It has been insulted by this denunciation of its chief to the parliament,’ said Cop; ‘and these impudent informers must give
satisfaction for the insult.’
These words excited a great commotion in the assembly. The theologians, who had hung down their heads in the cue of the Queen of Navarre,
… N’osant approfondir De ces hautes puissances Les moins pardonnables offenses,
resolved to compensate themselves by falling with whole strength upon a plain doctor, who was besides by birth a Swiss. Every one of them raised a cry against him. The university was divided into two distinct parties, and the meeting reechoed with the most contradictory appeals. The theologians shouted loudest: ‘Time presses,’ they Said; ‘the crisis has arrived. If we yield, the Romish doctrine, vanquished and expelled from the university, will give place to the new errors. Heresy is at our gates; we must crush it by a single blow!’ — ’ The Gospel, philosophy, and
liberty!’ said one party. — ‘Popery, tradition, and submission!’ said the other. The noise and disturbance became such that nothing could be heard.
At last the question was put to the vote: two faculties, those of letters and medicine, were for Cop’s proposition; and two, namely, law and divinity, were against it. The rector, to show his moderation, refused to vote, being unwilling to give the victory to himself. fe103 The meeting broke up in the greatest confusion.
The rector’s address, and the discussions to which it gave rise, made a great noise at the court as well as in the city; but no one took more interest in it than the Queen of Navarre. The question of her poetry had been the first act; Calvin’s address was the second. Margaret knew that he was the real author of the discourse. She always granted her special patronage to the students trained in any of her schools. She watched the young scholars with the most affectionate interest, and rejoiced in their successes. There was not one of them that could be compared with Calvin, who had studied at Bourges, Margaret’s university. The purity of his doctrine, the boldness of his profession, the majesty of his language, astonished everybody, and had particularly struck the queen. Calvin was one of her students for whom she anticipated the highest destinies. That princess was not indeed formed for resistance; the mildness of her character inclined her to yield;
and of this she was well aware. About this time, being commissioned by the king to transact certain business with one of her relations, a very headstrong woman, she wrote to Montmorency, ‘Employ a head better steeled than mine, or you will not succeed. She is a Norman woman, and smells of the sea; I am an Anjoumoise, sprinkled with the soft waters of the Charente.’ fe104 But mild as she was, she took this matter of Cop and Calvin seriously to heart. When the friends of the Gospel placed the candle boldly on the candlestick to give light to all France, should a violent wind come and extinguish it?
The Queen of Navarre summoned Calvin to the court, Beza informs us.
fe105… The news circulated immediately among the evangelical christians, who entertained great hopes from it. ‘The Queen of Navarre,’ they said,
‘the king’s only sister, is favorable to true religion. Perhaps the Lord, by the intervention of that admirable woman, will disperse the impending storm.’ fe106 Calvin accordingly went to court. The ladles-in-waiting having introduced him into the queen’s apartment, she rose to meet him, and made him sit down by her side, ‘receiving him with great honor,’ says Beza, ‘and hearing him with much pleasure.’ fe107 The two finest geniuses
which France then possessed were thus brought face to face — the man of the people and the queen, so different in outward appearance and even as to the point of view from which they regarded the Reform, but yet both animated with an ardent desire to see the triumph of the Gospel. They communicated their thoughts to each other. Calvin, notwithstanding the persecution, was full of courage. He knew that the Church of Christ is exposed to changes and error, like all human things, and the state of
christendom, in his opinion, showed this full clearly; but he believed that it possessed an incorruptible power of life, and that, at the very moment when it seemed entirely fallen and ruined, it had by the Holy Spirit the ability to rise again and be renewed. The hour of this renewal had arrived, and it was as impossible for men to retard it as to prevent the springtime from budding and covering the earth with leaves, blossoms, and fruit. Yet Calvin was under no delusion as to the dangers which threatened
evangelical christianity. ‘When the peril is imminent, he said, ‘it is not the time to indulge ourselves like silly, careless people; the fear of danger, serving as an incentive, should lead us to ask for God’s help, and to put on our armor without trembling.’ The queen pro-raised to use all her influence to calm the storm. Calvin was conducted out of the palace with the same attentions that had been paid him when he entered it. He afterwards spoke about this interview to Theodore Beza, who has handed it down to us. fe108 Still the sky became more threatening. The parliament, paying no respect to the privileges of the university, had entertained the complaint of the monks; the rector, therefore, received a message from this sovereign court summoning him to appear before it. Calvin knew quite well that a similar process would soon reach him; but he never shrank back either from before the despotism of an unjust power, or from the popular fury. ‘We are not in the school of a Plato,’ he said, ‘where, sitting in the shade, we can indulge in idle discussions. Christ nobly maintained his doctrines before Pilate, and can we be so cowardly as to forsake him?’ fe109 Cop,
strengthened by his friend, determined to appear to the summons of the parliament. That body had great power, no doubt; but the rector said to himself that the university possessed incontestable privileges, and that all learned Europe had been for many centuries almost at its feet. He resolved to support its rights, to accuse his accusers, and to reprimand the
parliament for stepping out of the lawful course. Cop, therefore, got
himself ready to appear, as became the head of the first university of the christian world. He put on his academical robes, and preceded by beadles and apparitors, with their maces and gold-headed staves, fe110 set out with great ceremony for the Palace of Justice.
He was going to his death. The parliament, as well as Calvin, had
understood the position, but had arrived at very different conclusions. It saw that the hour was come to strike the blow that would crush the Reformation, and had resolved to arrest the rector even in the court. The absence of the king was an opportunity of which they must hasten to take advantage. A signal vengeance, inflicted in full parliament, was to expiate a crime not less signal, committed in the presence of the whole university. A member of the court, converted to the Gospel, determined to save the unfortunate Cop, and sent a trusty man to warn him of the impending danger. As he quitted the great hall, the messenger caught sight of the archers who had been sent for to arrest the rector: might it not be too late to save him? Cop was already on the road and approaching the palace, accompanied by a crowd of students, and common people, some full of good wishes, others curious to learn the issue of this singular duel between the parliament and the university. The man sent to forewarn the rector arrived just as the university procession was passing through a narrow street. Taking advantage of a momentary confusion occasioned by the crowd, he approached Cop, and whispered in his ear: ‘Beware of the enemy; fe111 they intend shutting you up in the Conciergerie; Berquin’s fate awaits you; I have seen the officers authorized to seize you; if you go farther you are a dead man.’… What was to be done?… If it had been Calvin instead of Cop, he would perhaps have gone on. I cannot tell; for the peril was imminent, and it appeared doubtful if anything would be gained by braving it. However that may be, Cop was only Calvin’s double;
it was his friend’s faith that urged him forward more perhaps than his own. To stand firm in the day of tempest, man must cling to the rock without human help; Cop, overtaken by this news of death at the very moment he fancied he was marching to victory, lost his presence of mind, stopped the procession, was suddenly surrounded by several friends, and, the disorder being thus augmented, he escaped and hastily returned home.
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