History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin. Vol. 3 (of 8)Merle d'Aubigné, J. H. (Jean Henri)
History
History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin. Vol. 3 (of 8)
Merle d'Aubigné, J. H. (Jean Henri)
Reformation
Side by side with these noblemen and servants of the king were found
more lowly men on every road in France. The trades connected with
typography (printers, booksellers, and binders) formed the most numerous
contingent in these bands of fugitives. The Reformation had gained many
followers among the masters and their workmen, and it was sufficient to
have printed, bound, or sold any of Luther's works, to be burnt alive.
Master Simon Dubois, John Nicole, the Balafré (the surname alone has
come down to us)—all of them printers, were in flight. Andrew Vincard,
the bookseller; Cholin and Jerome Denis, master-binders; and one Barbe
d'Orge, furbisher of books to the court, had disappeared. Master
goldsmiths, engravers; John Le Feuvre, a cutter of block-books (he may
perhaps have cut certain designs representing Christ and Antichrist,
which had been distributed along with the placards); a cooper, a
carpenter, a shoemaker; Girard Lenet, a painter; John Pinot, who kept an
inn, called the _Key_, on the Grève, notorious for lodging Lutherans;
the sister of the paralytic Milon, who could not bear to remain in the
city where her brother had been burnt—all these were flying far from
Paris.[243]
Dauphiny was the province of France which had contributed most to the
evangelical brotherhood of Paris. Master Thomas Berberin, Pasqualis,
François, Gaspard Charnel, and a young friar named Loys de Laval, were
all from Dauphiny, and returned hastily to their picturesque home.
[Sidenote: QUALITY OF THE FUGITIVES.]
Several other fugitives were monks: there were brother Gratian and
brother Richard, both Augustines; brother Nicholas Marcel, a Celestine;
the precentor Jehannet, surnamed _the preacher_; and Master John le
Rentif, a secular priest, popularly known as the _prêcheur de
bracque_,[244] so called, probably, because having thrown off his
sacerdotal gown, he preached in breeches. In this fugitive flock there
was one black sheep, the famous doctor of divinity, Peter Caroli. The
Sorbonne had stopped his lectures at the college of Cambray for having
said: 'Nothing keeps us more from the knowledge of God than images; and
it is better to give sixpence to the poor than to a priest for a mass.'
He left for Switzerland, where his presence was not very highly
appreciated. 'At that time also went out Caroli,' says Beza, 'carrying
with him the same spirit of ambition, of contradiction, and of lewdness;
a man whom the spirit of God had not sent, but whom Satan had brought to
hinder the Lord's work.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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