Читать книгу History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Vol. 1-8) - J. H. Merle D'Aubigné - Страница 132

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=THE FISCAL'S COMPLAINTS.=

THE courage of the defenders of catholicism in Geneva was revived by the news they received from without; and the emperor, the pope, and the duke declaring themselves ready to do their duty, the episcopal officers prepared to do theirs also. But one circumstance might paralyse all their efforts: 'God, of his goodness, began at this time,' says a manuscript, 'to implant a knowledge of the truth, of his holy Gospel, and of the Reformation in the hearts of some individuals in Geneva, by the intercourse they had with the people of Berne.'814 These huguenots boldly professed the protestant ideas they had imbibed, and, though possessing no very enlightened faith, felt a pleasure in attacking with sarcasm and ridicule the priests and their followers. Curés and friars waited every day upon the episcopal vicar, and complained bitterly of these Lutherans, as they called them, who, in their own houses, or in the public places, and even in the churches, as they walked up and down the aisles, spoke aloud of the necessity of a reformation.815 On the 22nd of March, the vicar, eager to do his duty in the absence of the bishop, sent for the procurator-fiscal, and consulted with him on the defence of the faith. The procurator appeared before the council. 'Heresy is boldly raising its head,' he said; 'the people eat meat in Lent, according to the practice of the Lutheran sect. Instead of devoutly listening to the mass, they promenade (passagiare) the church during divine service.... If we do not put a stop to this evil, the city will be ruined.... I command you, in behalf of my lord the bishop, to punish these rebels severely.' The Berne manuscript adds, 'He made great complaints, accompanied with reproaches and threats.' The Duke of Savoy supported him by advising the council to take precautions against the Lutheran errors that were making their way into the city. The magistrates were fully inclined to check religious innovation: 'We must compel everybody,' they said, 'to listen to the mass with respect.' The huguenots pointed out the danger of attending in any degree to the duke's wishes, for in that case he would fancy himself the sovereign of Geneva. What was to be done? A man of some wit proposed a singular and hitherto unheard-of penalty for suppressing heresy, which was adopted and published in spite of the opposition of the most determined huguenots: 'Ordered, that whoever eats meat in Lent, or walks about the churches, shall be condemned to build three toises of the wall of St. Gervais.' The city was building this wall as a means of defence against the duke.816

=THE HUGUENOTS SENTENCED.=

This decree raised a storm against the Roman clergy. There have been at all times estimable men among the catholic priests, and even christians who, with great self-sacrifice, have dedicated themselves to the alleviation of human misery. The party spirit that represents a whole class of men as hypocrites, fanatics, and debauchees, is opposed to justice as well as to charity. It must be confessed, however, that there were not at this time in Geneva many of those pious and zealous priests who have been found in the Roman-catholic Church since it was awakened by the Reformation. 'What!' exclaimed the members of council who inclined towards protestantism, and saw their friends condemned, 'the Church forbids us to eat food which God created for our use, and permits priests to gratify an insatiable lewdness, against which God has pronounced a severe condemnation!... Ha! ha! Messieurs du clergé, you wish us to eat nothing but fish, and you live in habitual intercourse with harlots.... Hypocrites! you strain at the gnat and swallow the camel.' At the same time these citizens exposed the irregularities of the priests and monks, pointed out their resorts for debauchery, and described the scandals occasioned by their lusts. This description, which every one knew to be true, made a deep impression. The good catholics who were on the council saw the injury done to religion by the immorality of the clergy; while certain practical men were inclined to consider the great movement then going on in the Church as essentially a reform of morals. 'The Lutheran sect increases and prospers,' said a catholic councillor, 'because of the scandal of the priests, who live openly with women of evil life.'817

=PRIESTS SENTENCED.=

The council sent for the vicar-general: 'We have a great complaint to make,' they told him. 'No remedy has been applied to the depravity and scandalous conduct of the ecclesiastics, who are the cause of all kinds of irregularity. Exert your authority without waiting until the secular power is compelled to interfere.' It would appear that, as the vicar held out no great hopes of amendment, the council were of opinion that, after condemning the laymen who walked about in the churches, they ought also to condemn the priests who were caught in disorderly houses. One councillor imagined it would be but fair to yoke, so to say, these two different kinds of delinquents to the same car. A second resolution was therefore adopted by the council, which, never losing sight of the necessity of protecting the city against Savoy, ordered 'that the priests should forthwith forsake their evil ways under penalty of building three toises of the wall of St. Gervais, in company with the others.'818 Thus the forerunners of protestantism and the profligate priests were ordered to labour together at the same task in the fosses of St. Gervais. The latter were indignant at being placed in the same rank with the former, and thought their dignity compromised by the singular decree which forced them to supply the heretics with mortar. It would appear, however, that the two orders were not very strictly observed, that wicked ecclesiastics continued to gratify their appetites, and that the wall advanced but slowly. 'The canons, priests, and friars are incorrigible,' said the people; 'they are jovial fellows, fond of drinking, and rear their bastard children openly. How can the Church be scandalised at such a course of life, when even the popes set the example?'819

Although this decree of the council showed great impartiality and a certain amount of good sense, we cannot put in the same rank the two classes whom it affected. The huguenots, seeing that the Holy Scriptures call that a doctrine of devils which commands men 'to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving,'820 did what the Word of God directs, while the evil priests indulged in the most scandalous disorders. Negative protestantism, however, is not true piety; and hence it was that the evangelical christians of Zurich and Berne, taking advantage of the frequent journeys the Genevans made to these two cities on public or private business, were constantly urging them to receive the true essence of the Gospel. In the visits they made to each other, in their friendly walks on the shore of the lake of Zurich or on the hills which overlook the Aar, these pious reformers of German Switzerland said to the huguenots: 'The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.821 Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, but born as a man, has become our Redeemer by his death and by his resurrection. He alone satisfies completely the religious wants of mankind. Unite yourselves to Him by faith, and you will experience in yourselves that the pure religion of the Gospel is not only the first among all religions professed by men, but, as coming from God, is perfect.'

=PLAN FOR PREACHING AT ST. VICTOR.=

The four Vandels, without entirely breaking with Rome, had been for more than three years among the most decided of the so-called Lutheran party. Hugues Vandel was sent into Switzerland as ambassador (this is the name usually given to the envoys in the official documents of the period). At Zurich, 'the Zwinglians gave him a hearty welcome;' the friends of Haller did the same at Berne, where he happened to be in June 1530. All of the evangelicals in these two cities were earnest in their wishes to see a vital christianity displace the few negative reforms in Geneva. 'The majority in the city of Geneva would like to be evangelical,' answered Vandel; 'but they want to be shown the way, and no one would dare preach the Gospel in the churches for fear of Friburg.' What is to be done? thought he. Day and night he tried to find the means of having the Gospel preached to his fellow-citizens; at last a bright idea suddenly occurred to him; he spoke about it to the Zwinglians at Zurich, and to Berthold Haller at Berne; he wrote about it to Farel, to Christopher Fabry, and also to his brother Robert at Geneva. His idea was this: It will be remembered that St. Victor was a little independent principality at the gates of the city. 'Suppose it were made over to my lords of Berne,' said Vandel; 'they would like to have a bailiff there and a preacher who would be our great comfort.' It is true that the church of St. Victor was old, and would probably 'tumble down' erelong, but Berne would be able to rebuild it. All the evangelicals of Geneva, forsaking the mass in the city churches, and crossing St. Antoine, would go in crowds to hear Christ preached in the church of Bonivard.... Thus that Renaissance of which the prior was the representative, would be truly for Geneva the gate of the Reformation. An event which had just taken place may have suggested this idea to Vandel. It was a scheme suggested by the pope, and carried out by the duke.822

Bonivard, deprived of his benefice at the time of Berthelier's death, had recovered his priory but not his revenue. Endowed, as he was, with resolution and invention rather than perseverance, holding that the detention of his property by the duke was an injustice, desiring to be restored to full possession of his little principality, and not a little ashamed of having to tell his servant that he had nothing in his purse when the latter came and asked for money to purchase the necessaries of life—Bonivard had girded on his sword, taken a musquetoon, mounted his horse, and, thus equipped and accompanied by a few men-at-arms, had made several raids into the duke's territory to levy his rents. But he had to deal both with the duke and the pope. He had been replaced in his priory by the bishop and the council, but without the consent of the courts of Rome and Turin, which had illegally despoiled him of it. Consequently a pontifical proctor, attended by an escort, made his appearance to prevent the prior from recovering his property. Bonivard, who was naturally impetuous, looked upon this man as a robber come to plunder him; he therefore rushed forward, caught up his arms, and discharged his musquetoon at the Roman official. The latter, who was terrified, rode off as fast as he could; for Bonivard with his firelock had wounded the horse.823 Both pope and duke were loud in their complaints, and Clement even issued a brief against him. In consequence of this, the council of Geneva forbade Bonivard to indulge in these military freaks; and as he had no means of living, the magistrates granted him four crowns and a half a month, to pay his expenses and those of his servant, until he was in a better position. 'Alas!' said the prior, 'four crowns a month! ... it is so little, that I can hardly keep myself and my page.' However, he remained patient, but he was not left in peace.

The Roman proctor, taking up the matter again, claimed the priory, in the name of Clement, on behalf of the priest who had been invested with it after the death of the traitor Montheron. Bonivard, desiring to place his benefice beyond the reach of fresh attacks, annexed it to the hospital of Geneva, which was to receive the revenues for him as prior. But the duke had other views. More than four hundred persons, carrying arms, and assembling by night before the hôtel-de-ville, had demanded justice on certain monks of St. Victor, who were accused of plotting to betray the convent to the partisans of Savoy. Besançon Hugues and Thomas Vandel, the procurator-fiscal, were the bearers of this request, and Bonivard had the monks shut up in prison. When the duke was informed of the annexation of the priory to the hospital of Geneva, his anger was increased, for he had a great desire to possess St. Victor's, which would give him a footing close to the gates of the city. His agents therefore solicited the prior 'daily' to revoke this act, and promised him 'seas and mountains' if he would consent; but Bonivard shook his head, saying: 'I do not trust him!' Charles now determined to get rid of a man who was an obstacle in his path in all his enterprises against Geneva.824

=BONIVARD'S FILIAL AFFECTION.=

The prior, usually so cheerful, had been for some time dejected and thoughtful. It was not only his priory, his poverty, and his enemies that threw a shade over his countenance, formerly so animated: his mother was seriously ill. To Bonivard filial piety was the most natural of obligations, the first and sweetest form of gratitude. He thought: 'How correctly Plato writes that there are no Penates more sacred, there is no worship more acceptable to the gods, than that of a father or mother bending under the weight of years.' His Genevese friends, who went daily to St. Victor's, observed his sadness, and asked him the reason. 'Alas!' he said, 'I should like to see my aged mother once more before she dies. I have not seen her these five years, and she is on the brink of the grave.' To one of them who inquired where she was, he replied: 'At Seyssel, in our ancestral house.' Seyssel was in the states of Savoy, and Charles would not fail to have the prior seized if he ventured to appear there.

Bonivard fancied, however, he could see the means of gratifying his dearest wishes. He determined to take advantage of the solicitations addressed to him by Charles to ask for a safe-conduct. 'I will go and see my mother and brother at Seyssel,' he said, 'and ask their advice. We will consult together on this business.' The duke sent Bonivard the required passport, stipulating, however, that it should be available for the month of April only. Charles, delighted at seeing Bonivard quit the neighbourhood of Geneva and venture into the middle of his territories, determined that if this journey did not give him the priory, it should at least give him the prior.... Bonivard's friends, whose judgment was not influenced by filial affection, were justly alarmed when they heard of his approaching departure, and tried to detain him; he could think of nothing, however, but seeing his mother before she died. He accordingly departed, passed the Fort de l'Ecluse, the Perte du Rhone, and reached the little town where the 'ancient dame,' as he called her, resided. The mother, who loved the name, the talents, the glory, and the person of her son, clasped him in her arms with fond affection; but her joy soon gave way to fear, for she knew Charles's perfidy, she remembered Lévrier's story ... and trembled for her child.825

=BONIVARD'S VISIT TO HIS MOTHER.=

Meanwhile Bonivard's enemies in Geneva had not delayed to take advantage of his departure. Some of them were mamelukes. To embroil him with the huguenots seemed likely to be of service to their cause; and they therefore began to report in the city that he had gone to surrender St. Victor's to the duke, and that he was betraying the people and revealing their secrets. The intimate friends of the prior indignantly contradicted the calumny; but his enemies continued repeating it, and, as the most ardent men are often the most credulous, a few huguenots gave credit to these assertions. Bonivard wrote to the council of Geneva, complaining of the injury done him, and reminded them that there was not a man in the city more devoted to its independence than himself.

What should he do? He was exceedingly embarrassed. Should he return to Geneva? He feared the anger of those among the huguenots in whose eyes it was a crime to go to Savoy. Should he remain at Seyssel? As soon as the month of April was ended, he would be seized by the duke. His mother conjured him to put himself out of the reach of his enemies, both duke and Genevans....

'Et qui refuserait une mère qui prie?...

He determined to go to Friburg. The council of Geneva had indeed told him not to disquiet himself about the foolish stories of his enemies, and added: 'Let him come, if he pleases, and he will be treated well.'826 This was not a very pressing invitation, and Besançon Hugues, the most influential man in the city, was against him. Hugues, a catholic and episcopalian, might very well have no great liking for the prior of a monastery who was coming round entirely to the new ideas. It seems, however, that these catholic prejudices were mixed up with some human weaknesses. 'Bonivard,' says a manuscript, 'often had disputes with Besançon Hugues, who hoped to obtain for his son the investiture of the priory of St. Victor.'827 The prior was not ignorant of this hostile disposition. 'Alas!' he said, 'a councillor, and he not one of the least, is exciting the council and the people against me.' On the other hand, he could not make up his mind to turn thoroughly to the side of the Reformation; he still remained in the neutral ground of Erasmus, and indulged in jests against the huguenots, which indisposed them towards him. He belonged neither to one party nor to the other, and offended both. He was not anxious, therefore, to return to Geneva just now, fearing that his enemies would be stronger than his friends. The month of April being ended, he begged the duke to prolong his safe-conduct during the month of May, and it was granted. Bonivard now took leave of his aged mother, whom he left full of anguish about the fate of her son. She never saw him again.

The Count of Chalans, president of the council of Savoy, and friend of the Bishop of Aosta, was, though a layman, as bigoted to Roman-catholicism as Gazzini was, as a priest. At that time he was holding a journée or diet at Romont, between Lausanne and Friburg. The avoyer of Friburg, who was Bonivard's friend, happening to be at Romont, Bonivard repaired thither; and, related as he was to the nobility of Savoy, he presented his homage to the count, who received him kindly. Bonivard skilfully sounded De Chalans on what he might have to fear; for once already, and not far from that place, he had been seized and thrown into a ducal prison. The count pledged his honour, both verbally and in writing, that he would run no danger in the duke's territories during the month of May, and, he added, even during the month of June. Bonivard, thus set at ease, began to reflect on his position. It was a strange thing for a man, so enlightened as he was on the abuses of popery and monasticism, to be at the head of a monastic body. Moreover, in addition to the pope and the duke, he had a new adversary against him. 'I fear the duke on the one hand,' he said, 'and on the other the madness of the people of Geneva, to whom I dare not return without the strongest pledges.'

=DETERMINES TO GIVE UP THE PRIORY.=

Bonivard, having weighed everything, determined upon a great sacrifice. He started for Lausanne, and proposed to the Bishop of Montfaucon to resign to him the priory of St. Victor, on condition of receiving a pension of four hundred crowns. The bishop accepted the proposal, provided Geneva and Savoy would consent. Bonivard thought this an easy matter, and as René de Chalans was then holding another journée at Moudon, he determined to go thither to arrange the great affair. He arrived on the 25th of May. The count received him courteously, and appeared to enter into his ideas; but at the same time this lord and certain officers of Savoy held several private conferences, the result of which was that they sent a messenger to Lausanne. Bonivard was invited to sup with the president, who gave him the seat of honour. There was a large party, the repast was very animated, and the prior, whose gaiety was easily revived, amused all the company by his wit. There was, however, one officer at his highness's table who annoyed him considerably: it was the Sire de Bellegarde, Lévrier's murderer. This wretch, as if he desired to efface that disagreeable impression, was most obliging and attentive. At last they left the table. There were so many gentlemen assembled in the little town of Moudon, that all the bed-rooms were occupied—so at least it was stated. Upon this, Bellegarde, in a jovial tone, said to Bonivard: 'Well, then, my friend, I will share my room with you.' Bonivard accepted the offer, but not without some uneasiness. The next morning he prepared to set out for Lausanne in order to arrange his business with the bishop. 'I am afraid that you will lose your way, and that something may happen to you,' said Bellegarde. 'I will send a servant on horseback along with you.' The confiding Bonivard departed with the sergeant of his highness's steward.

Bellegarde varied his treachery. He had kidnapped Lévrier as he was leaving the cathedral, and had conveyed him in person to the castle where he was to meet his death. This time he preferred to keep out of sight, and for that reason a message had been despatched to Lausanne. After watching over Bonivard during the night, lest he should escape, as Hugues had escaped from Châtelaine, Bellegarde took leave of him, giving him a very courteous embrace, and strongly recommending him to the care of the sergeant. The road from Moudon to Lausanne runs for about five leagues through the Jorat hills, which at that period were wild and lonely. Gloomy thoughts sprang up from time to time to disturb Bonivard. He remembered how Lévrier had been seized by Bellegarde at the gates of St. Pierre.... If a similar fate awaited him!... His confidence soon revived, and he went on.

=BONIVARD TREACHEROUSLY KIDNAPPED.=

It was a fine day in May, this Thursday, the 26th. Early in the morning Messire de Beaufort, captain of Chillon, and the Sire du Rosey, bailli of Thonon, having received their instructions from Moudon, had quitted Lausanne, followed by twelve to fifteen well-armed horsemen. On reaching the heights of the Jorat, near the convent of St. Catherine, they hid themselves in a wood of black pines, which still remains;828 and there both leaders and soldiers waited silently for the unfortunate Bonivard. He was provided, indeed, with a safe-conduct from the duke; but John Huss's had been violated, and why should they observe that of the prior of St. Victor? 'No faith ought to be kept with heretics,' had been said at Constance, and was repeated now at Moudon. Erelong De Beaufort and Du Rosey heard the tramp of two horses; they gave a signal to their followers to be ready, and peered out from among the trees where they lay hid to see if their victim was really coming. At last the guide on horseback appeared, then came Bonivard on his mule; De Bellegarde's servant led him straight to the appointed place. Just as the unlucky prior, wavering between confidence and fear, was passing the spot where Beaufort, Du Rosey, and their fifteen companions were posted, the latter rushed from the wood and sprang upon Bonivard. He put his hand to his sword, and clapped spurs to his mule in order to escape, calling out to his guide: 'Spur! spur!' But, instead of galloping forwards, the sergeant turned suddenly upon the man he should have protected, caught hold of him, and 'with a knife which he had ready' cut Bonivard's sword-belt. All this took place in the twinkling of an eye. 'Whereupon these honest people fell upon me,' said the prior when he told the story in after years, 'and made me prisoner in the name of Monseigneur.' He made all the resistance he could; produced his papers, and showed that they were all in order; but his safe-conduct was of no avail with the agents of Bellegarde and De Chalans. Taking some cord from a bag they had brought with them, they tied Bonivard's arms, and bound him to his mule, as they had once bound Lévrier, and in this way passing through Lausanne, near which the outrage had been committed, they turned to the left. The prior crossed Vaux, Vevey, Clarens, and Montreux; but these districts, which are among the most beautiful in Switzerland, could not for an instant rouse him from his deep dejection. 'They took me, bound and pinioned, to Chillon,' he says in his Chronicles, 'and there I remained six long years.... It was my second passion.'829

=THE PRISONER OF CHILLON.=

Nine years before, almost day for day (May 1521), Luther had also been seized in a wood for the purpose of being taken to a castle; but he had been carried off by friends, while the prisoner of Chillon was perfidiously taken by enemies. Bonivard, a reformer of a negative and rather philosophical character, was much inferior to Luther, the positive and evangelical reformer; but Bonivard's imprisonment far exceeded in severity that of the Saxon doctor. At first, indeed, the prior of St. Victor was confined in a room and treated respectfully; but Charles the Good, after visiting him and holding some conversation with him, ordered, as he left the castle, that the prisoner should be treated harshly. He was transferred to one of those damp and gloomy dungeons cut out of the rock, which lie below the level of the lake. It is probable that the duke gave this cruel order because the prisoner, true to light and liberty, had refused to bend before him. Bonivard's seizure was a severe blow to his mother, to his friends, and even to the magistrates of Geneva, who, on hearing of it, saw all the duke's perfidy and the prior's innocence, and restored to him their affection and esteem. For some time it was uncertain whether Bonivard was alive or dead; all that people knew was that he had been seized, in defiance of the safe-conduct, on the hills above Lausanne. However, John Lullin and the other envoys of Geneva present at the journée held at Payerne at Christmas 1530, being better informed, did all in their power to obtain the liberation of a man who had done such good service to liberty; but the agents of Savoy pretended ignorance of the place of his imprisonment.

A brilliant existence was thus suddenly interrupted. What humour, what originality, what striking language, what invention, what witty conversations were abruptly cut short! Bonivard never recovered from these six years of the strictest captivity. When he came out of Chillon he was a different man from what he was when he entered it. He was like a bird which, while giving utterance to the sweetest song, is caught by a gust of wind and beaten to the ground; ever after it miserably drags its wings, and utters none but harsh unpleasing sounds. St. Victor wanted the one thing needful; he was not one of those of whom it is said: their youth is renewed like the eagle's. The brightness of the Reformation eclipsed him. The latter part of his life was as sad as his early part had been brilliant. It would have been better for his fame had he been put to death in the castle-yard of Chillon, as Lévrier had been in that of Bonne.

814 Berne MS. Hist. Helvet. v. p. 12.

815 Michel Roset, Chroniq. MS. liv. ii. ch. xiv.

816 Registres du Conseil des 22 et 29 mars. Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 551. Berne MS. Hist. Helvet. v. p. 12.

817 Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 551.

818 'Quod presbyteri ab inde debeant relinquere eorum lupanaria, lubricitates et meretrices, sub simili pœna (facere in muris Sancti Gervasii tres teysias muri.)'—Registres du Conseil du 1ᵉʳ avril.

819 Galiffe, Matériaux pour l'Histoire de Genève, ii. p. vii. The note contains a long list of the illegitimate children of popes, archbishops, inquisitors, and other churchmen.

820 1 Timothy iv. 1-3.

821 Romans xiv. 17.

822 Lettre de Vandel du 23 juin 1530. Galiffe fils, Besançon Hugues, note to page 395.

823 'Procuratorem prosequentem scopettis invasisse, et equum super quo fugiebat vulnerasse.'—Brief of Clement VII., dated January 24, 1528.

824 Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. pp. 485, 547, 572. Mém. d'Archéologie, tom. v. p. 162.

825 Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. pp. 572,573. Mém. d'Archéologie, iv. p. 171.

826 'Fuit lecta missiva Domini Sancti Victoris. Rescribatur ei ut veniat, si velit, et illum bene tractabimus.'—Council Register, May 2, 1530.

827 Gautier MS. Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 573.

828 The convent of St. Catherine occupied the site of the Chalet à Gobet, an inn situated on the road from Lausanne to Berne.

829 'Ce fut ma seconde passion.'—Bonivard, Chroniq.