The man who inspired the movement and defined its aims--"to preach
Christ from the sources"--was Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples
(Stapulensis).[169] He had been a distinguished Humanist, and in 1507
had resolved to consecrate his learning to a study of the Holy
Scriptures. The first fruit of this resolve was a new Latin translation
of the Epistles of St. Paul (1512), in which a revised version of the
Vulgate was published along with the traditional text. In his notes he
anticipated two of Luther's ideas--that works have no merit apart from
the grace of God, and that while there is a Real Presence of Christ in
the Sacrament of the Supper, there is no transubstantiation. The
Reformers of Meaux believed that the Holy Scriptures should be in the
hands of the Christian people, and Lefèvre took Jean de Rély's version
of the Bible,--itself a revision of an old thirteenth century French
translation,--revised it, published the Gospels in June 1523, and the
whole of the New Testament before the end of the year. The Old Testament
followed in 1525. The book was eagerly welcomed by Marguerite, and
became widely known and read throughout France. The Princess was able to
write to Briçonnet that her brother and mother were interested in the
spread of the Holy Scriptures, and in the hope of a reform of the
Church.[170]
Neither Lefèvre nor Briçonnet was the man to lead a Reformation. The
Bishop was timid, and feared the "tumult"; and Lefèvre, like Marguerite,
was a Christian mystic,[171] with all the mystic's dislike to change in
outward and fixed institutions. More radical ideas were entering France
from without. The name of Luther was known as early as 1518, and by
1520, contemporary letters tell us that his books were selling by the
hundred, and that all thinking men were studying his opinions.[172] The
ideas of Zwingli were also known, and appeared more acceptable to the
advanced thinkers in France. Some members of the group of Meaux began to
reconsider their position. The Pope's Bull excommunicating Luther in
1520, the result of the Diet of Worms in 1521, and the declaration of
the Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris (the Sorbonne)
against the opinions of Luther, and their vindication of the authority
of Aristotle and Scholastic Theology made it apparent that even modest
reforms would not be tolerated by the Church as it then existed. The
_Parlement_ of Paris (August 1521) ordered Luther's books to be given
up.[173]
Lefèvre did not falter. He remained what he had been--a man on the
threshold of a new era who refused to enter it. One of his
fellow-preachers retracted his opinions, and began to write against his
leader. The young and fiery Guillaume Farel boldly adopted the views of
the Swiss Reformers. Briçonnet temporised. He forbade the preaching of
Lutheran doctrine within his diocese, and the circulation of the
Reformer's writings; but he continued to protect Lefèvre, and remained
true to his teaching.[174]
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