§ 75. PERSECUTION OF THE PROTESTANTS IN PARIS. 319
The Sorbonne and the Parliament regarded this academic oration as a manifesto of war upon the Catholic Church, and condemned it to the flames. Cop was warned and fled to his relatives in Basel. ^ Calvin, the real author of the mischief, is said to have descended from a window by means of sheets, and escaped from Paris in the garb of a vine-dresser with a hoe upon his shoulder. His rooms were searched and his books and papers were seized by the police.^
§ 75. Persecution of the Protestants in Paris. 1534.
Beza in Vita Calv., vol. XXI. 124. — Jean Crespin: Livi-e des Martyrs, Geneve, 1570. — The report of the Bourgeois de Paris. — Gerdesius, IV. Mon. 11. — Henry, I. 74; II. 333. — Dyer, I. 29. — Polenz, I. 282. — Kampschdlte, I. 243. — "Bulletin de la Soc. de I'hist. du Prot. fran9.," X. 34; XI. 253.
This storm might have blown over without doing much harm. But in the following year the reaction was greatly strengthened by the famous placards, which gave it the name of " the year of placards." An over-zealous, fanatical Protestant by the name of Feret, a servant of the king's apothecary, placarded a tract " on the horrible, great, intolerable abuses of the popish mass," throughout Paris and even at the door of the royal chamber at Fontainebleau, where the king was then residing, in the night of Oct. 18, 1534. In this placard the mass is described as a blasphemous denial of the one and all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ; while the pope, with all his brood (toute sa vermine^ of cardinals, bishops, priests, and
X. Pars II. 30-36 (and the shorter draft, IX. 873-876). Comp. Herminjard, III. 117, note, and 418 sqq.
1 Three hundred crowns were offered for his capture dead or alive. So Bucer wrote to Blaurer, Jan. 13, 1534, in Herminjard, III. 130. Cop informed Bucer, April 5, 1534, that a German was burned in Paris, for denying transubstantiation. Ibid. III. 159.
' According to Beza (XXI. 123), Queen Marguerite protected Calvin and honorably received him at the court ; but he certainly left Paris very soon. CoUadon says nothing of an interference of Marguerite. The story of the escape of Calvin is told by Papyrius Masson, and Desmay. See M'Crie, p. 100, note 59. It has been compared to Paul's escape at Damascus, Acts 9:25.
320 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
monks, are denounced as hypocrites and servants of Antichrist.i
All moderate Protestants deplored this untimely outburst of radicalism. It retarded and almost ruined the prospects of the Reformation in France. The best cause may be undone by being overdone.
The king was highly and justly incensed, and ordered the imprisonment of all suspected persons. The prisons were soon filled. To purge the city from the defilement caused by this insult to the holy mass and the hierarchy, a most imposing procession was held from the Louvre to Notre Dame, on Jan. 29, 1535. The image of St. Genevieve, the patroness of Paris, was carried through the streets : the archbishop, with the host under a magnificent dais, and the king with his three sons, bare-headed, on foot, a burning taper in their hands, headed the procession, and were followed by the princes, cardinals, bishops, priests, ambassadors, and the great officers of the State and of the University, walking two and two abreast, in profound silence, with lighted torches. Solemn mass was performed in the cathedral. Then the king dined with the prelates and dignitaries, and declared that he would not hesitate to behead any one of his own children if found guilty of these new, accursed heresies, and to offer them as a sacrifice to divine justice.
The gorgeous solemnities of the day wound up with a horrible autodafe of six Protestants : they were suspended by a rope to a machine, let down into burning flames, again drawn up, and at last precipitated into the fire. Thej'^ died like
1 They are indiscriminately called "faux prophetes, damnables trompeurs, apostats, loups,faux pasteurs, menteurs, blasphe'mateurs, meurtriers des arnes, renonceurs de Jesus Chi-ist, ravisseurs de I'honneur de Dieu, et plus de'testables que les diables." Farel, then in Switzerland, was suspected of having some share in this incendiary publication, but witliout any evidence. Courault, who was then in confinement, advised not to publish the paper, "as it would excite great commotion in the minds of the people, and bring odium on the whole body of the faithful." Hist. Martyr., fol. 64, quoted by M'Crie, p. 102.