BEZA
'95
BEZA
deaf." Catharine requested him to remain in France on the plea that his presence would tend to maintain tran- quillity, and that his native country had the best title to his services. He consented, and after the promulga- tion of the edict of January, 1562, often preached pub- licly in the suburbs of Paris. He soon after greatly distinguished himself at the Conference of St. Ger- mains, where the queen-mother summoned a number of Romanist and Protestant divines to discuss the sub- ject of images. In a memorial to the queen, he dis- cussed the question with a force and vigor never sur- passed. "In reply to the customary argument that honor is not directed to the image, but to that which the image represents, Beza triumphantly inquired (and the inquiry has never yet been answered) why then is any local superiority admitted? Why is one image considered more holy and more potent than another? Why are pilgrimages made to distant images, when there are others, perhaps of far better workmanship, near at hand? Again, is it tolerable that in a Chris- tian Church an image of the Virgin Mary should be addressed in terms appropriate solely to the Almighty Father, ' omnibus es omnia V If the Virgin were yet alive and on earth, how would the humility and lowli- ness of heart, which she ever so conspicuously evinced, be shocked by the hourly impious appeals to her sup- posed maternal authority over her blessed Son : ' Roga Palrem, jube Natum !' '■Jure Matris imperaP Then, adverting to the reputed miracles performed by im- ages, he contended that, by the evidence of judicial in- quiries, most of them had been indisputably proved impostures ; and even with regard to such as remained undetected, it was detracting honor from God, the sole author of miracles, to attribute any hidden virtue or mystic efficacy to wood or stone. Passing on to a re- view of the long controversy about images maintained in the Greek Church, he concluded 1 y affirming that not less idolatry might be occasioned by crucifixes than by images themselves. The propositions append- ed to this document were that images should be alto- gether abolished ; or, if that incisure were thought too sweeping, that the king would consent to the removal of all representations of the Trinity or its separate Per- sonages ; of all images which were indecorous, as for the most part were those of the Virgin ; of such as were profane, as those of beasts and many others, pro- duced by the fantastic humors of artists; of all public- ly exhibited in the streets, or so placed at altars that they might receive superstitious veneration ; that no offerings or pilgrimages should be made to them ; and finally, that crucifixes also should be removed, so that the only representation of the passion of our Lord might be that lively portrait engraved on our hearts by the word of Holy Scripture.
" Beza had converted the king of Navarre so far as to make him a partisan of Calvinism ; but the royal convert remained as profligate when a Calvinist as he had been when he professed Romanism, and the court soon found means to bring him back once more to the established church. His hostility to Beza was shown at an audience Beza had with the queen-mother, when deputed by the Huguenot ministers to lay their com- plaint before her with reference to the violations which had occurred of the edict of January, to which allusion has been made before. The king of Navarre, sternly regarding Beza, accused the Huguenots of now attend- ing worship with arms. Beza replied that arms, when borne by men of discretion, were the surest guarantee of peace ; and that, since the transactions at Vassy (where a fracas had taken place between the retainers of the duke of Guise and a Huguenot congregation, the duke's people being the aggressors), their adoption had become necessary till the Church should receive surer protection — a protection which he humbly re- quested, in the name of those brethren who had hith- erto placed so great dependence on his majesty. The cardinal of Ferrara here interrupted him by some in-
correct representation of the tumult at St.Medard, but he was silenced by Beza, who spoke of those occurren- ces as an eye-witness, and then reverted to the mena- cing advance of the duke of Guise upon Paris. The king of Navarre declared with warmth that whoever should touch the little finger of ' his brother,' the duke of Guise, might as well presume to touch the whole of his own body. Beza replied with gentleness, but with dignity ; he implored the king of Navarre to listen pa- tiently, reminded him of their long intercourse, and of the special invitation from his majesty in conse- quence of which he had returned to France in the hope of assisting in its pacification. ' Sire,' he concluded in memorable words, ' it belongs, in truth, to the chur<*h of God, in the name of which I address you, to suffer blows, not to strike them. But at the same time let it be your pleasure to remember that the Church is
AN ANVIL WHICH HAS WORN OL'T MANY A HAMMER.'
Well would it have been if Beza and his partisans had always remembered this, and, instead of taking up arms to defend their cause, had maintained it like the primitive Christians by patient suffering. Perhaps they would then have led to the gradual reformation of the Church of France, whereas now the}' took the sword, and perished by the sword. Each party armed. With the leaders of the Protestants Beza acted, and he was kept by the prince of Conde near his person ; but the leaders, for the most part, abstained from en- couraging the cruelties of their followers, although they excited the people to rise up in arms against the government. Beza continued with the insurgents, following the prince of Conde in all his marches, cheering him by his letters when in prison, and reani- mating the Huguenots in their defeats, until his ca- reer as a herald of war was terminated by the battle of Dreux. At that battle, fought on the 19th of De- cember, 1562, in which the Huguenots were defeated, Beza was present ; but he did not engage in the bat- tle, he was merehr at hand to advise his friends.