Читать книгу History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Vol. 1-8) - J. H. Merle D'Aubigné - Страница 81

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THE idea of correcting the errors of the Church without changing its government was not new in France. By the Pragmatic Sanction in 1269, St. Louis had founded the liberties of the Gallican Church; and the great idea of reform had been widely spread since the time of the council of Constance (1414), of Clemengis, and of Gerson. The two Du Bellays, with many priests, scholars, and noblemen, thought it was the only means of calming down the agitations of christendom, and Margaret of Valois had made it the great business of her life.

=INTERVIEW OF DU BELLAY AND BUCER.=

William du Bellay, on his way back from Augsburg, where he had delivered such noble speeches in favour of the protestant dukes of Wurtemberg, had stopped at Strasburg, and had several meetings with the pacific Bucer. His success in Germany, his conversations with the evangelical princes and doctors, who took him for as sound a protestant as themselves, had filled him with hope. In no place could those who desired to take a middle course meet with more sympathy than at Strasburg; there was quite a system of compromises there with the Swiss and with Luther; why not with Rome also? 'Since Luther will not give way in anything,' Bucer had said, 'I will accommodate myself to his terminology; only I will avoid every expression that may indicate a too local and too gross presence of the body of Christ in the bread.'586 Accordingly Bucer, with his pious and moderate friends Capito, Hedio, and Zell, received the diplomatic mediator with great pleasure. They retired to the reformer's library, where Du Bellay explained his great project with all the seriousness of a man convinced. 'It is a greater work,' he said to Bucer, 'than this union of Zwinglians and Lutherans which has hitherto been your sole and constant occupation. We wish to effect a fusion between catholicism and the Reformation. We shall maintain the unity of the former; we shall uphold the truth of the latter.' Du Bellay's plan was at bottom, we see, the same as Leibnitz endeavoured to get Bossuet and Louis XIV. to accept. Bucer was in ecstasies: it was what he had sought so long; the diplomatist appeared to him as if surrounded with a halo of glory. And hence he often said: 'If the Lord would raise up many men like this hero, the kingdom of Christ would soon come out of the pit.'587 According to Bucer, Du Bellay was meditating a very perilous but still a great enterprise: it was a labour worthy of Hercules.... The counsellor of the King of France was satisfied to find the great pacificator agreeing with him, and hastened to Paris, flattering himself that he would gain a victory more striking than that of Francis I. at Marignan, or of Charles V. at Pavia.

Everything seemed favourable: Francis, delighted at his conference with the landgrave, had never been better disposed for conciliation. Du Bellay endeavoured to convince him that Germany was quite ready for the great fusion. Melanchthon, whom all Germany venerated, was (in his opinion) the man of the hour, by whose agency the two contrary currents would mingle their waters and form but one stream bearing life to every part. Was it not he who said: 'Preserve all the old ceremonies that you can: every innovation is injurious to the people?' Had he not declared at Augsburg that no doctrine separated him from the Roman Church; that he respected the universal authority of the pope, and desired to remain faithful to Christ and the Church of Rome? Margaret of Navarre also spoke to her brother of this great and good man: 'Melanchthon's mildness,' she said, 'contrasts with the violent temper of Zwingle and Luther.' Other persons observed to the king that what distinguished France from all catholic nations was its attachment to those liberties of the Church, which were on that account denominated Gallican. 'It would thus be a thoroughly French enterprise,' they said, 'to strip the pope of his usurped privileges.'

Francis listened. To be king both in Church and State, to imitate his dear brother of England, who at heart was more catholic than himself,—this was his desire. Du Bellay, noticing this disposition, laboured vehemently (to use his own expression)588 to introduce the Melanchthonian ideas into France. He spoke of them at court and in the city, sometimes even to the clergy, and met everywhere with almost universal approbation.589 'Only make a forward movement,' he was told. The king resumed the reading of the Bible, which he had laid aside after the first days of the Reformation. It was not that he relished the Word of God, but the Bible was a weapon that would help him to gain the victory over the emperor. When conversing with the persons around him, he would quote some phrase of Scripture. He particularly liked the passages where St. Paul speaks of breastplates, shields, helmets, and swords. He found the apostle, indeed, a little too spiritual and mystical; and in his heart he preferred the helmet of a soldier to the helmet of salvation; but he appeared every day better disposed towards the Holy Scriptures.590 Margaret was transported with joy. 'I agree with the German protestants,' said the king to Du Bellay. 'Yes, I agree with them in all points ... except one!' Du Bellay wrote immediately to Bucer, and added: 'You know what that means.'591 Francis desired to remain in union with Rome for form's sake, if it were only by a thread. But Rome is not contented with a thread.

=FRANCIS COOPERATES WITH THEM.=

An approaching event seemed destined to decide whether or not a semi-reformation would be established in France. The king and his minister kept their eyes fixed on Germany, and waited impatiently to learn if the enterprise decided upon at Bar-le-Duc for the restoration of the protestant princes to the throne of Wurtemberg would be crowned with success. In their eyes Wurtemberg was the field of battle where the cause of the papacy would triumph or be crushed. Francis hoped that, if the protestants were victorious, they would enter upon a war that would become general. If the empire and the papacy fell beneath the blows of their enemies, new times would begin. Europe would be emancipated from both pope and emperor, and Francis would profit largely, both for himself and France, by this glorious emancipation.

The landgrave prepared everything for the great blow he was about to strike. At once prudent and active, he did not write a word that could compromise him, but sent his confidential counsellors in every direction. He went in person to the Elector of Trèves and the elector-palatine, and promised them that if Wurtemberg was restored to its lawful princes, Charles's brother should be compensated by being recognised King of the Romans. These measures succeeded with Philip, who immediately made known this happy commencement to Francis I.

On Easter Monday (1534) the Louvre displayed all its magnificence; many officers of the court were on foot, for Francis was to give audience to the agent of the Waywode (hospodar) of Wallachia, who had been dispossessed by Austria, like the Duke of Wurtemberg. The king's eyes sparkled with delight: 'The Swabian league is dissolved,' he told the envoy. 'I am sending money into Germany.... I have many friends there.... My allies are already in arms.... We are on the point of carrying our plan into execution.'592 Francis was so happy that he could not keep his secret.

=FEARS IN GERMANY.=

All was not, however, so near as he imagined. An old obstacle came up again, and seemed as if it would check the landgrave. The other evangelical princes and doctors did all they could to thwart an enterprise which would, in Philip's opinion, secure their triumph. 'The restoration of the Duke of Wurtemberg,' said the wise Melanchthon, 'will engender great troubles. Even the Church will be endangered by them. You know my forebodings.593 All the kings of Europe will be mixed up in this war. It is a matter full of peril, not only to ourselves, but to the whole world.'594 Astrology interfered in the matter, and spread terror among the people. Lichtenberg, a famous astrologer, published some predictions, to which he added certain 'monstrous pictures,'595 and said: 'The Frenchman (Francis) will again fall into the emperor's hands;596 and all who unite with him in making war will be destroyed. The lion will want help, and will be deceived by the lily.'597 In such terms the German prophecy declared that France (the lily) would deceive Hesse (whose device is a lion): this shows how little confidence Germany had in the French monarch.

Ferdinand of Austria distrusted the prophecy, and thought the landgrave's attack close at hand. Sensible of his own weakness, he turned to the pope and said to him through his envoy Sanchez: 'The landgrave's expedition is a danger which threatens the Church and Italy ... the spirituality and the temporality.' The pope promised everything, but (as was his custom) with the determination to do nothing. A war that might weaken Charles was gratifying to him, even though protestantism should profit by it. Clement, however, convoked the consistory; described to them in very expressive language the danger of the empire and the Church; but of helping them, not a word.... Ferdinand, still more alarmed, became more importunate, and the matter was brought before a congregation: 'Alas!' said Clement to the cardinals, 'it is impossible to conceal from you the dangers that threaten King Ferdinand and the Austrian power. They are attacked by so severe a disease that a simple medicine would be insufficient to effect a cure.... It requires an energetic remedy ... but where can it be found?' The cardinals agreed with their chief; they thought that, as the danger threatened Austria alone, it was for Austria to get out of it as she could. The recollection of the sack of Rome by the imperialists in 1527 was not yet effaced from the hearts of these Roman priests, and they were not sorry to see the emperor punished by an heretical scourge. They resolved that as Rome could not give a subsidy sufficiently large, they would give none at all. 'This expedition,' said Clement VII. to Ferdinand's envoy, with a certain frankness, 'is only a private matter.... But if the landgrave touches the Church, you may reckon then upon my help.' Sanchez, seeing the pontiff's lukewarmness, and moved by sorrow and indignation,598 forcibly replied: 'Be not deceived, holy father.... This matter is not so small as you suppose.... It will cost the Church of Rome dear ... and not the Church only, but the city and all Italy.'

=THE POPE AND AUSTRIA.=

Sanchez thought, like Francis and the politicians, that the protestants, victorious in Wurtemberg, would not stop in so glorious a career; that they would raise a large army; and that, aided by France, they would cross the Alps and go to Rome to dethrone the successor of St. Peter, and put an end to what they regarded as the power of antichrist. This suggestion exasperated Clement: he felt the tiara shaking on his head, and angrily exclaimed: 'And where is the emperor? What is he doing? Why does he not watch over his brother's states and the peace of Germany?' Charles V., quite unconcerned about a project which might, however, insure his rival's triumph, was calmly enjoying his repose beneath the smiling sky of Spain, reclining on the banks of its beautiful rivers, under the shade of its orange and citron trees and of its gigantic laurels. The pope took courage from his example to do the same. If he did nothing to stop the protestant army, the papacy might suffer; but if he did anything, he might turn aside from the house of Austria the terrible blow about to fall on it, and save from a reverse that imperial power which he detested. The pontiff sank back into his apostolic chair, and prepared for a luxurious slumber, thinking it would be time enough to wake up ... when danger was at his own door. 'Alas!' said sincere catholics, 'why are the successors of St. Peter, the fisherman and apostle, clothed in soft raiment, which is for those who are in kings' houses? Why do they covet these courtly pomps and effeminacies? Why do they imitate the princes of the Gentiles who exercise dominion over them? Christ bore the cross.' The political passions of Clement VII. extinguished his ecclesiastical zeal. The temporal power of the popes has never been other than a clog upon their spiritual power, preventing it from working freely. The judgments of God were about to be executed.

At the beginning of May everything was astir in Hesse, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Brunswick, Westphalia, and on the banks of the Rhine; the landgrave was preparing to march against Austria. Omens threatened, indeed, to detain him. At Cassel, the chief town of Hesse, a monster was seen walking mysteriously and silently upon the water during the night.599 'It is a sure warning,' said the old crones and a few citizens, 'that the prince ought to stop.' But Philip replied coldly: 'These visions are not worthy of belief.' Without heeding the monster, Philip, mounted on horseback and carrying a lance in his hand, reviewed his army on Wednesday, the 6th of May, after midnight, and then gave the order to march. Almost all the officers and a great many of the soldiers belonged to the evangelical confession. It was, alas! the first politico-religious army of the sixteenth century, and this campaign was the first Germanico-European opposition to the house of Austria.600 History shrouds herself beneath a veil of mourning as she points to this epoch; for the employment of human force in the interests of religion, the armed struggle between the new and the old times, began then.

=PHILIP DEFEATS THE AUSTRIAN.=

The Austrian government, deserted by the pope, saw that it must help itself, and had made great exertions on its part. All the convents, chapters, and towns of Wurtemberg had been forced to contribute large sums of money, and the most experienced generals of the Italian wars had been placed at the head of the imperial army. The soldiers of Austria marched to Laufen on the Neckar, and there waited for the enemy. The landgrave's army, full of hope and courage, uttered loud shouts of joy when they heard of it.

It was not so at Wittemberg. Melanchthon was more grieved than ever, and many persons sympathised with him. On the one hand, the theologians of the Reformation detested war; but on the other, they said to themselves at certain moments: 'Still ... if Philip takes up arms it is to restore legitimate princes to the throne of their fathers, and secure a free course to the Word of God!'—'Oh, what cruelties in the Roman Church,' added Melanchthon, 'what idolatries, and what obstinacy in defending them! Who knows but God desires to punish their defenders, if not utterly to destroy such notorious evils for ever?601 Oh that the issue of this war may be beneficial to the Church of Christ!' Some time after, when Melanchthon was told of the advance of the army of Philip of Hesse, that peaceful christian gave way once more to his anguish: 'These movements are quite against our advice,' he said, and then shutting himself up in his closet, he exclaimed: 'In the midst of the dangers and sorrows to which God exposes us, we have nothing else to do but to call upon Christ and to feel his presence.'602 He then fell upon his knees before God; and God, who saw him in secret, rewarded him openly. But while the christians were weeping and praying, the politicians were rejoicing and acting. Du Bellay, in particular, did not doubt that an early victory would cement the union of France with German protestantism; and perceiving the consequences that would follow from the enfranchisement of his country, he gave utterance to his joy.

The impetuous landgrave, taking a spring, cleared, as at one bound, the country which separated him from the Neckar, arrived unexpectedly on the banks of that river near Laufen, where the imperial army was posted, and attacked it with spirit. At first the Austrians courageously sustained the fight; but the count palatine, their commander, having been wounded by a cannon-shot, they retired precipitately. Early the next morning, the landgrave, putting himself at the head of his cavalry and artillery, fell upon them as they were beginning to retreat, and drove part of them into the Neckar.603

Wurtemberg was gained, and Duke Ulrich, accompanied by Prince Christopher, reappeared in the country of his fathers. The people, excited at the thought of seeing their national princes once more after so many years, assembled in the open country near Stuttgard, and received them with immense acclamation. The landgrave, not allowing himself to be retarded by the warm reception of the people whom he had restored to independence, followed up his plan, and on the 18th of June reached the Austrian frontier. Everybody thought that he would march on Vienna, and overthrow that insolent dynasty which desired to be the master of the world.

=ALARM AT THE VATICAN.=

Great was the consternation in all the catholic world, but particularly in the Vatican. On the 10th of June, 1534, Clement, who was sick, went sorrowful, downcast, and tottering, to the college of cardinals, and laid before them the pitiful letters he had received from King Ferdinand.604 The cardinals, as they read them, were struck with terror. Would Vienna, that had resisted the Turks, fall under the assault of the protestants? Would a victorious army, crossing the Alps, come and perpetrate a second sack of Rome which, as the work of heretics, might not be more compassionate than that of the catholic Charles V.? The cardinals saw no other remedy than that to which Rome had recourse when her ducats and arquebuses were gone. 'A general council,' they exclaimed, 'is the only remedy that can save us from heresy and all the calamities by which christendom is distressed.'

While there was mourning at Rome, there were great rejoicings at the Louvre. It was a long time since the emperor had received such a check. About the end of June a courier from Germany brought Francis the despatches announcing the arrival of Philip of Hesse on the Austrian frontier. He could not repress the outburst of his joy. He spoke to himself, to his councillors, to his courtiers.... 'My friends,' he exclaimed, 'my friends have conquered Wurtemberg.' Then, as if the landgrave and his victorious army were before him, he exclaimed in a tone of command: 'Forward! forward!' His dream was about to be realised; the war would become general; he already saw the landgrave at Vienna; and, what was better still, he saw himself at Genoa, Urbino, Montferrat, and Milan. All his life through he forgot France for Italy, which he never possessed. But he was mistaken as to the landgrave's intentions. Much as Francis desired to see the war become general, Philip of Hesse laboured to keep it local. Satisfied with having restored Wurtemberg to its princes, he meant to respect the empire. The kings of France and England were seriously vexed: 'The Duke of Wurtemberg, restored by my help and yours,' said Henry VIII. to Francis I., 'is only seeking how to make peace with the emperor.'605 It would appear by the evidence derived from the State Papers, that the gold of England as well as of France had contributed to despoil Austria of Wurtemberg. Henry, more perhaps than Francis I., had hoped that the blow struck upon the banks of the Neckar would be, to emperor as well as to pope, the commencement of sorrows; but they were both mistaken. The temptation, no doubt, was great for a prince of thirty, full of decision and energy, who believed that nothing would make the triumph of protestantism so secure as the humiliation of Austria; but Philip's loyalty resisted the temptation.

=WURTEMBERG RESTORED.=

On the 27th of June the peace of Cadan put an end to all differences, and restored Wurtemberg to its national princes, with a voice in the council of the empire. If there had never been a war more energetically conducted, there had never been a peace so promptly concluded. The landgrave had displayed a spirit and talents which, men thought, might in future prove troublesome to the puissant Charles.606

The emperor having received his lesson, the pope's turn came next. As the state of Wurtemberg had been wrested from the hands of Austria, the Church was to be saved from the clutches of the papacy. At the diet of Augsburg, in 1530, Duke Christopher had seen the landgrave, his relation and friend, come forward as the most intrepid champion of the Reformation. His generous heart had been won to a cause which included such a noble defender, and his desire was to see it triumph in Wurtemberg. On the other hand, King Ferdinand, when renouncing his authority over the duchy, desired at least to maintain that of the pope; and he therefore proposed to insert in the treaty of peace an article forbidding any change in religious matters. But the dukes, the landgrave, and the Elector of Saxony unanimously declared that the Gospel ought to have free course in the duchy, and the electoral chancellor wrote this word on the margin, by the side of the article proposed by the King of the Romans: Rejected.607 'You are in no respect bound as to the faith,' said the evangelical princes to Ulrich; while the papal nuncio Vergerio entreated King Ferdinand not to give way to the Lutherans. All the efforts of the Romish party were useless. The important victory of the landgrave (and of Francis I.) was about to open the gates of Wurtemberg to the Reformation, and consequently those of other Roman-catholic countries.

Ulrich and Christopher, being quite as desirous of bringing souls to the knowledge of the Word of God as of replacing their subjects under the sceptre of the ancient house of Emeric,608 set to work immediately. They invited to their states Ambrose Blaarer, the friend of Zwingle and Bucer, and Ehrard Schnepf, the friend of Luther, converted by his means at Heidelberg at the beginning of the Reformation.609 Their labours and those of other servants of God spread the evangelical light over the country.610 Nor was that all: if the defeat at Cappel had restored many cities to the Romish creed,611 the victory of Laufen allowed many to come to the evangelical faith. Baden, Hanau, Augsburg, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, and other places began, advanced, or completed their reformation about this time. French money had never before returned such good interest.

=A KINGLY PROJECT.=

France was now about to undertake a still greater task. We have seen that there were at that time two systems of reform: Margaret's system and Calvin's. It was in the order of things that the one which remained nearest to catholicism should be tried first. If the most eminent persons of the age, who sought in this middle course the last and supreme resource of christendom, did not see their efforts crowned with success, it would be necessary to undertake, or rather to continue spiritedly, a more simple, more scriptural, more practical, and more radical reform. When Margaret failed, there remained Calvin. The realisation of this specious but illusory system, recommended in after years to Louis XIV. by a great protestant philosopher of Germany, was about to be tried by Francis I. The narrative of this experiment ought to occupy a remarkable place in the religious history of the sixteenth century.

586 Rœhrich, Reform in Elsass, ii. p. 274.

587 'Dominus excitet multos isti heroï similes.'—Bucer to Chelius.

588 'Adhuc vehementer laboratur.'—Du Bellay to Bucer.

589 'Omnes enim bene sperare jubent.'—Du Bellay to Bucer.

590 'Etiam rex ipse, cujus animus erga meliores litteras magis ac magis augetur.'—Ibid.

591 'Una tamen in re vehementer a Germanis abhorret.'—Ibid.

592 Béthune MSS. 8493. Ranke, iii. p. 456.

593 'Restitutio ducis Wurtembergensis brevi magnos motus pariet. Divinationes meas nosti.'—Corp. Ref. ii. p. 706.

594 'Magna et periculosa res universo orbi terrarum ac præcipue nobis.'—Ibid. p. 728.

595 'Mit monstrosen Figuren.'—Seckendorf, p. 833.

596 'Gallum iterum venturum in potestatem imperatoris Caroli.'—Ibid.

597 'Leo carebit auxilio et decipietur a lolio.'—Ibid. The correct reading is evidently lilium (lily) and not lolium (tares). The preposition a indicates that the word is taken in a symbolical sense.

598 'Dolore et indignatione accensus replicui.'—Sanchez' report to Ferdinand: Bucholz. Ranke.

599 'Cassellæ nescio quid memorant noctu, super aquis monstri visum esse.'—Corp. Ref. ii. p. 729.

600 Ranke, Deutsche Geschichte, iii. p. 459.

601 'Quid si Deus illa publica vitia tum punire, tum aliqua ex parte tollere decrevit?'—Corp. Ref. ii. p. 729.

602 'Ut Christum invocare et præsentiam ejus experiri discamus.'—Corp. Ref. ii. p. 730.

603 Sleidan, i. liv. ix p. 365. Ranke, iii. p. 461. Rommel, ii. p. 319.

604 'In senatum pontifex venit, lectæque ibi sunt litteræ fratris Caroli.'—Pallavicini, Conc. Trid. i. p. 294.

605 'The Duke of Wyttemberg lately restored by his and his good brother's meanes.'—State Papers, vii. p. 568.

606 Sleidan, i. pp. 366-368. Ranke, iii. pp. 465-468.

607 'Soll aussen bleiben.'—Sattler, iii. p. 129. Sleidan, iii. p. 369. Ranke, iii. p. 481.

608 The house of Wurtemberg boasts its descent from Emeric, mayor of the palace under Clovis.

609 Hist. of the Ref. of the Sixteenth Century, vol. i. bk. iii. ch. ii.

610 'Snepfius Stuttgardiæ pastor ecclesias in illo ducatu reformavit.'—Melch. Adami Vitæ Germanorum Theologorum, p. 322.

611 Hist. of the Ref. of the Sixteenth Century, vol. iv. bk. xvi. ch. x.