Volume I Part 28 (2/2)
[Footnote 451: Ibid., _ubi supra_, fol. 100; Garnier, Histoire de France, xxvi. 27.]
[Footnote 452: Leber, Collection de pieces rel. a l'hist. de France, xvii. 550.]
[Footnote 453: The Comtat Venaissin was not reincorporated in the French monarchy until 1663. Louis XIV., in revenge for the insult offered him when, on the twentieth of August of the preceding year, his amba.s.sador to the Holy See was shot at by the pontifical troops, and some of his suite killed and wounded, ordered the Parliament of Aix to re-examine the t.i.tle by which the Pope held Avignon and the Comtat. The parliament cited the pontiff, and, when he failed to appear, loyally declared his t.i.tle unsound, and, under the lead of their first president (another Meynier, Baron d'Oppede), proceeded at once to execute sentence by force of arms, and oust the surprised vice-legate. No resistance was attempted. Meynier was the first to render homage to the king for his barony; and the people of Avignon, according to the admission of the devout historian of Provence, celebrated their independence of the Pope and reunion to France by Te Deums and a thousand cries of joy and thanksgiving to Almighty G.o.d. Bouche, Histoire de Provence, ii. (Add.) 1068-1071.]
[Footnote 454: ”Ministri, quos _Barbas_ eorum idiomate id est, _avunculos_, vocabant.” Crespin, fol. 88.]
[Footnote 455: The Histoire ecclesiastique, i. 22, while admitting that the Vaudois ”had never adhered to papal superst.i.tion,” a.s.serts that ”par longue succession de temps, la purete de la doctrine s'estoit grandement ab.a.s.t.a.r.die.” From the letter of Morel and Ma.s.son to colampadius, it appears that, in consequence of their subject condition, they had formed no church organization. Their _Barbes_, who were carefully selected and ordained only after long probation, could not marry. They were sent out two by two, the younger owing implicit obedience to the elder. Every part of the extensive territory over which their communities were scattered was visited at least once a year. Pastors, unless aged, remained no longer than three years in one place. While supported in part by the laity, they were compelled to engage in manual labor to such an extent as to interfere much with their spiritual office and preclude the study that was desirable. The most objectionable feature in their practice was that they did not themselves administer the Lord's Supper, but, while recommending to their flock to discard the superst.i.tions environing the ma.s.s, enjoined upon them the reception of the eucharist at the hands of those whom they themselves regarded as the ”members of Antichrist.” colampadius, while approving their confession of faith and the chief points of their polity, strenuously exhorted them to renounce all hypocritical conformity with the Roman Church, induced by fear of persecution, and strongly urged them to put an end to the celibacy and itinerancy of their clergy, and to discontinue the ”sisterhoods” that had arisen among them. The important letters of the Waldensee delegates and of colampadius are printed in Gerdes., Hist.
Evang. Renov., ii. 402-418. An interesting account of the mission is given by Hagenbach, Johann Oekolampad und Oswald Myconius, 150, 151.]
[Footnote 456: Crespin, fol. 89; Hist. eccles., i. 22; Herminjard, iii.
66.]
[Footnote 457: Printed at Neufchatel, by the famous Pierre de Wringle, _dit_ Pirot Picard; completed, according to the colophon, June 4, 1535.
The Waldenses having determined upon its publication at the Synod of Angrogna, in 1532, collected the sum, enormous for them, of 500 (others say 1,500) gold crowns. Adam (Antoine Saunier) to Farel, Nov. 5, 1532, Herminjard, ii. 452. Monastier, Hist. de l'eglise vaudoise, i. 212. The part taken by the Waldenses in this publication is attested beyond dispute by ten lines of rather indifferent poetry, in the form of an address to the reader, at the close of the volume:
”Lecteur entendz, si Verite addresse, Viens done ouyr instamment sa promesse Et vif parler: lequel en excellence Veult a.s.seurer nostre grelle esperance.
L'esprit Jesus qui visite et ordonne.
Noz tendres meurs, icy sans cry estonne Tout hault raillart esc.u.mant son ordure.
Remercions eternelle nature, Prenons vouloir bienfaire librement, Jesus querons veoir eternellement.”
Taking the first letter of each successive word, we obtain the lines:
”_Les Vaudois, peuple evangelique Ont mis ce thresor en publique_.”
See L. Vulliemin, Le Chroniqueur, Recueil historique (Lausanne, 1836), 103, etc. Bulletin de l'hist. du prot. francais, i. 82.]
[Footnote 458: ”D'un commun accord,” says an able critic, ”on a mis Calvin a la tete de tous nos ecrivains en prose; personne n'a songe a meconnaitre les obligations que lui a notre langue. D'ou vient qu'on a ete moins juste envers Robert Olivetan, tandis qu'a y regarder de pres, il y a tout lieu de croire que sa part a ete au moins egale a celle de Calvin dans la reformation de la langue? L'_Inst.i.tution_ de Calvin a eu un tres-grand nombre de lecteurs; mais il n'est pas probable qu'elle ait ete lue et relue comme la _Bible_ d'Olivetan.” Le Semeur, iv. (1835), 167. By successive revisions this Bible became that of Martin, of Osterwald, etc.]
[Footnote 459: Sleidan (Fr. trans. of Courrayer), ii. 251, who remarks of this charge of rebellion, ”C'est l'accusation qu'on intente maintenant le plus communement, et qui a quelque chose de plus odieux que veritable.”]
[Footnote 460: Professor Jean Montaigne, writing from Avignon, as early as May 6, 1533, said: ”Valdenses, qui Lutheri sectam jamdiu sequuntur istic male tractantur. _Plures jam vivi combusti fuerunt, et quotidie capiuntur aliqui_; sunt enim, ut fertur, illius sectae plus quam _s.e.x millia_ hominum. Impingitur eis quod non credant _purgatorium_ esse, quod non orent _Sanctos_, imo dicant non esse orandos, teneant _decimas_ non esse solvendas presbyteris, et alia quaedam id genus. _Propter quae sola vivos comburunt, bona publicant._” Basle MS., Herminjard, iii. 45.]
[Footnote 461: Crespin and the Hist. eccles. place De Roma's exploits _before_, De Thou relates them _after_ the ma.s.sacre. As to the surpa.s.sing and shameless immorality of the ecclesiastics of Avignon, it is quite sufficient to refer to Crespin, ubi supra, fol. 97, etc., and to the autobiography of Francois Lambert, who is a good witness, as he had himself been an inmate of a monastery in that city.]
[Footnote 462: Crespin, fol. 103, b.]
[Footnote 463: The Parliament of Provence, with its seat at Aix, was inst.i.tuted in 1501, and was consequently posterior in date and inferior in dignity to the parliaments of Paris, Toulouse, Gren.o.ble, Bordeaux, Dijon, and Rouen.]
[Footnote 464: By royal letters of July 16, 1535, and May 31, 1536.
Histoire eccles., i. 23.]
[Footnote 465: There is even greater discrepancy than usual between the different authorities respecting the number of Waldenses cited and subsequently condemned to the stake. Crespin, fol. 90, gives the _names_ of _ten_, the royal letters of 1549 state the number as _fourteen_ or _fifteen_, the Histoire ecclesiastique as _fifteen_ or _sixteen_. M.
Nicola (Leber, Coll. de pieces rel. a l'hist. de France, viii. 552) raises it to nineteen, which seems to be correct.]
[Footnote 466: Histoire eccles., i. 23; Crespin, Actiones et Monimenta, fol. 90; De Thou, i. 536; Nicola, _ubi supra_; Recueil des anc. lois francaises, xii. 698. See the _arret_ in Bouche, Hist. de Provence, _ubi supra_. The last-mentioned author, while admitting the proceedings of the Parliament of Aix to be apparently ”somewhat too violent,” excuses them on the ground that the Waldenses deserved this punishment, ”non tant par leurs insolences et impietez cy-devant commises, mais _pour leur obstination a ne vouloir changer de religion_;” and cites, in exculpation of the parliament, the ”b.l.o.o.d.y order of Gastaldo,” in consequence of which, in 1655, fire, sword, and rapine were carried into the peaceful valley of Luserna (ibid., 615, 623)! The ma.s.sacre of the unhappy Italian Waldenses thus becomes a capital vindication of the barbarities inflicted a century before upon their French brethren.]
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