History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, Vol. 5 (of 8)Merle d'Aubigné, J. H. (Jean Henri)
History
History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, Vol. 5 (of 8)
Merle d'Aubigné, J. H. (Jean Henri)
Reformation
[561] Calvin.
[562] Registres du Conseil du 8 Août 1535.—Froment, _Gestes de Genève_,
pp. 142, 144.
CHAPTER VI.
IMAGES AND THE MASS ABOLISHED.
(8TH TO 11TH AUGUST 1535.)
The Reformation protested against a ritualistic and meritorious worship;
against the multiplicity of feasts, consecrations, ecclesiastical usages
and customs; against any adoration whatever rendered to creatures,
images, and relics; against the invocation of mediators who usurped the
function of the Son of God; lastly, and chiefly, against a pretended
expiatory sacrifice, effected by the priests, which was substituted for
the only sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ.
[Sidenote: CHANTS OF THE PRIESTS.]
All these human vanities were about to disappear. Farel and his friends
waited for the reformatory ordinance; but the ardent huguenots, among
whom Ami Perrin was the most active, became impatient at the perpetual
hesitations of the council. A chance event called forth an energetic
demonstration on their part. The same Sunday (8th August) in the
afternoon at vespers, the canons, assembling again in their church,
chanted the Psalm _In exitu Israël_, 'When Israel went out of
Egypt,'[563] and, with the utmost simplicity, repeated in Latin what
Farel had said in the morning in French:
Simulacra gentium argentum et aurum,
Opera manuum hominum.
Os habent et non loquentur.
Oculos habent et non videbunt.
Similes illis fiant qui faciunt ea
Et omnes qui confidunt in illis.[564]
The canons could not have chosen a fitter text. Some huguenots, who knew
Latin better perhaps than they did, smiled and called out: 'Ho there,
you priests, you curse in your chants those who made the images and
trusted in them, and yet you allow them to remain.' They restrained
themselves, however, for the moment. The magistrates continued
repeating, 'There is no need to abolish the mass and images; else very
formidable princes will be to you like ravening wolves rushing upon
sheep.'[565]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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