The journal of Montaigne's travels in Italy by way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581, Volume 1 (of 3)Montaigne, Michel de
Philosophy
The journal of Montaigne's travels in Italy by way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581, Volume 1 (of 3)
Montaigne, Michel de
Germany -- Description and travel; Italy -- Description and travel; Switzerland -- Description and travel
Here a mishap befell our baggage mule, which injured itself, and
compelled us in consequence to halt and to hire a cart for the next
day at three crowns per diem, the driver, who had four horses, keeping
himself in victual for this sum. Vanguen is a small imperial town which
has always refused to harbour a congregation of any form of religion
other than the Catholic. They make here scythes so famous that they
are sent for sale as far as Lorrenne. M. de Montaigne left it on the
morrow, to wit, on the morning of Wednesday, October 12th, and set out
for Trent by the shortest route. We halted to dine at Isne,[58] two
leagues on our road, a small imperial town very pleasantly situated;
and M. de Montaigne, according to his wont, went straightway to call
upon a doctor of theology for the sake of discourse, and this doctor
he brought in to dine with us. He found that all the people were
Lutherans, and he went to visit the Lutheran church which, as with
all the churches they occupy in the imperial cities, had been taken
from the Catholic. While they were holding divers arguments concerning
the Sacrament, M. de Montaigne bethought him how, during the journey,
certain Calvinists had informed him that the Lutherans now intermix
with the original tenets of Martin divers new errors, such as the
“Ubi-quis me,” and maintain that the body of Christ is everywhere as
well as in the Host; wherefore they fall into the same difficulty as do
the Zwinglians, though by a different road, the one by limiting too
much the bodily presence, and the other by a too lavish application of
the words (for by their reasoning the Sacrament would be no privilege
to the body of the Church or to those two or three just men gathered
together). Moreover, the principal Lutheran arguments were that the
divinity was inseparable from the body, wherefore the divinity being
omnipresent the body must be omnipresent also. They declare, in the
second place, that Jesus Christ, being bound to be always at the right
hand of His Father, is omnipresent, seeing that the right hand of God,
to wit, His power, is in all places. The doctor aforesaid gave strong
denial to this imputation, and set up a defence against the same as
against a calumny; but, indeed, M. de Montaigne gathered the impression
that his defence was somewhat weak.
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