Chapter VI: [203] Margaret to Anne de Montmorency, Génin, Lettres de Marguerite
[203] Margaret to Anne de Montmorency, Génin, Lettres de Marguerite d'Angoulême, i. 279, and Herminjard, ii. 250.
[204] "Come un cavallo ch' ha un apostema stringendoli il naso non sente il cauterio."
[205] "Una retrattationcella." The letter of the Nuncio to Sanga, secretary of Clement VII., Brussels, December 30, 1531, appeared in H. Laemmer, Monumenta Vaticana (ex Tabulariis Sanctæ Sedis Apostolicæ Secretis), Friburgi Brisgoviæ, 1861. I have called attention to its importance in the Bulletin de la Société de l'hist. du prot. franç., xiv. (1865), 345. M. Herminjard has given a French translation, ii. 386.
[206] This incident has been rejected as apocryphal by Bayle, and, after him, by Tabaraud (in the Biographie universelle), as well as more recently by Haag (France protestante). It has rested until now on the unsupported testimony of Hubert Thomas, secretary of the Elector Palatine, Frederick II., whom he accompanied on a visit to Charles V. in Spain. On his return the Elector fell sick at Paris, where he received frequent visits from the King and Queen of Navarre. It was on one of these occasions that Margaret related to him this story, in the hearing of the secretary. (It is reproduced in Jurieu, Histoire du Calvinisme, etc., Rotterdam, 1683, pt. i. 70.) Bayle objected that it was incredible that the reformers should have failed to allude to so striking and suggestive an occurrence. The objection has been scattered to the winds. With singular good fortune, M. Jules Bonnet has discovered among the hidden treasures of the Geneva Library an original memorandum in Farel's own handwriting, prefixed to a letter he had received from Michel d'Arande, fully confirming the discredited statements. "Jacobus Faber Stapulensis noster laborans morbo quo decessit, per aliquot dies ita perterritus fuit judicio Dei, ut actum de se vociferaret, dicens se æternum periisse, quod veritatem Dei non aperte professus fuerit, idque dies noctesque vociferando querebatur. Et cum a Gerardo Rufo admoneretur ut bono esset animo, Christo quoque fideret, is respondit: 'Nos damnati sumus, veritatem celavimus quam profiteri et testari debebamus.' Horrendum erat tam pium senem ita angi animo et tanto horrore judicii Dei concuti; licet tandem liberatus bene sperare coeperit ac perrexerit de Christo." Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., etc., xi. 215; Herminjard, iii. 400.
[207] "Quo tandem ex hoc profundo limo, in quo non est substantia, eripi queam." Michel d'Arande to Farel (1536 or 1537), Bulletin de la Soc. de l'hist. du prot. franç., ubi supra; Herminjard, iii. 399, etc.
[208] Speaking of Roussel's as yet inedited MS., "Familière exposition du symbole et de l'oraison dominicale," Professor C. Schmidt, than whom no one has better studied the mysticism of the sixteenth century, remarks that the basis of the work is the doctrine of justification by faith, the sole authority invoked is that of the Scriptures, the only head of the church is Jesus Christ, the perfect church is the invisible church, the visible church is recognized by the preaching of the Gospel in its purity, and by the administration of the two sacraments as originally instituted. He adds that the doctrines of the Lord's Supper and of predestination are expounded in a thoroughly Calvinistic manner. See Professor S.'s excellent monograph, "Le mysticisme quiétiste en France au début de la réformation sous François premier," read before the Soc. de l'hist. du prot. fr., Bulletin, vi. 449, etc.
[209] Historia de ortu, progressu et ruina hæreseon hujus sæculi (Col. 1614), lib. vii. c. 3, p. 392.
[210] E. g., Tabaraud, Biographie univ., art. Roussel.
[211] Haag, France protestante, art. Gérard Roussel; Gaillard, Hist. de François premier, vi. 418; Flor. de Ræmond, ubi supra. __________________________________________________________________