in 1553, and began to be appended to the catechisms of Geneva. But after this, the use of them was absolutely forbidden by the catholic authorities, and the former prohibitions were renewed and enforced by severe penalties. About this period, Calvin, by the advice, it is said, of Luther, had projected a species of religious song, consisting of portions of the Psalms, intelligibly translated into the vernacular language, and adapted to plain and easy melodies which all could learn, and in which all might join, and which would serve as a substitute for the antiphonal chanting of the Romish services, in the public worship of God. This scheme for the adoption of congregational singing, was forwarded by the publication of Marot's metrical psalms, which Calvin immediately introduced into his congregation at Geneva. Being set to simple, and almost monotonous notes, by Guillaume de Franc, and other celebrated composers, they were soon established among the churches of the reformed, and became a characteristical mark of the Calvinistic profession and worship. They exhilarated their social assemblies, were commonly heard in the streets, and accompanied the labour of the artificer, so that the weavers of Flanders became noted for their skill in the science of psalmody. Bayle says, that 10,000 copies of these psalms, in verse, and set to music, were at that time printed, and very generally dispersed. Florimond de Remond objected to the music of Marot's psalms that the airs of some of them were borrowed from vulgar ballads; to which the Sieur de Pours replied, that what used to belong to profane songs was now separated from them, and was become in a measure sanctified. "In ancient times," he adds, "things that were of common use, even though taken as plunder, when they were with proper rites separated and sequestered for the service of the sanctuary, were counted holy:" and whatever judgment we may form of the mode of adopting popular tunes in public worship, it is certain, that in this instance, the effect was rapid and beneficial, the attention of the multitude was gained to the doctrines of the Reformation, and gave them an extensive circulation and influence. This version being, at length, become obsolete and barbarous, the church of Geneva, which had been the first to adopt it, was the first to abandon it. M. Conrart began the revision, and M. de la Bastide completed it. For some time the reformed churches hesitated to adopt the revised version, but it was afterwards introduced into Geneva, Hesse Cassel, and various other places." 71 The interdiction of singing Marot's metrical version of the Psalms, was a small part of that persecution which raged about that time, against all who dared to differ from the church of Rome, or who attempted to circulate the Holy Scriptures. One or two instances of the severity with which those were treated who sold or dispersed the Sacred Volumes, will exhibit in its true light, the antipathy of superstition to Gospel truth. At Avignon, the bishop of Rieux gave a banquet to the bishop of Aix and other prelates engaged in the violent persecution of the inhabitants of Merindola, to which the most beautiful women were invited. After the banquet, the company amused themselves with dancing, playing at dice, and similar dissipative pleasures; after which the prelates, with each a female leaning on his arm, walked up and down the streets, to pass the time till supper, when seeing a man offering obscene pictures and songs to sale, they purchased the whole of his stock, "as many as a mule could well carry." With these they entertained their female companions, at the expense of all modesty and gravity, and with most indecent levity, explained the (71) Les Pseaumes de David mis en rime françoise, Par Clement Marot et Theodore Beze. Sedan, 1630, 8vo. Nouveau Dictionaire Historique, VI. pp. 44, 45. Gen. Dictionary,―Bayle, art. Marot. notes N. P. pp. 465–469. difficult sentences which occurred in them. In the course of their walk through the city, they also met with a bookseller, who had exhibited for sale certain Latin and French Bibles. The prelates, indignant at his heretical boldness, sternly asked him, "Darest thou be so bold as to set out such merchandise as this to sell, in this town? Dost thou not know that such books are forbidden?" The bookseller answered, "Is not the Holy Bible as good as those goodly pictures which you have bought for these gentlewomen?" Scarcely had he spoken the words, but the bishop of Aix said, "I renounce my part of Paradise, if this fellow be not a Lutheran. Let him be taken and examined." Immediately a company of ruffians, who attended on the prelates, began to cry out, "a Lutheran,— a Lutheran; to the fire with him,-to the fire with him;" whilst one gave him a blow, and another pulled him by his hair, and a third plucked him by the beard, so that the poor man was covered with blood, before he reached the prison to which they were dragging him. The next day he was brought before the judges, and examined in the presence of the bishops. Being asked, "hast not thou set forth to sale the Bible and the New Testament in French;" he honestly acknowledged that "he had done so." It was then demanded of him, "whether he did not know and understand, that it was forbidden throughout all Christendom, to print or sell the Bible in any language except Latin?" To which he replied, "that he knew the contrary to be true; and that he had sold many Bibles in the French tongue, with the emperor's privilege in them, and many others printed at Lyons, and also New Testaments printed by the king's privilege;" and added, that "he knew no nation throughout all Christendom, which had not the Holy Scriptures in their vulgar tongue." He then courageously addressed them in the following terms: "O ye inhabitants of Avignon, are you alone in all Christendom, the men who despise and abhor the Testament of the Heavenly Father? Will ye forbid and hide that which Jesus Christ hath commanded to be revealed and published? Do you not know that our Lord Jesus Christ gave power to his apostles to speak all manner of tongues, to the end that his holy Gospel might be taught to all creatures, in every language? And why do you not forbid those books and pictures, which are full of filthiness and abomination, and which stir up the people to whoredom and uncleanness, and provoke God's vengeance and great indignation against you? What greater blasphemy can there be, than to forbid God's most holy books which he ordained to instruct the ignorant, and to reduce and bring again into the way such as have gone astray? What cruelty is this, to take away from the poor simple souls, their nourishment and sustenance! But, my lords, you shall give a heavy account, who call sweet sour, and sour sweet, and who countenance abominable and detestable books and pictures, but reject that which is holy." The bishops, enraged by these words, violently exclaimed, "What need have you of any more examination? Let him be sent straight to the fire, without any more words." But Liberius, the judge, and some others, who conceived that the prisoner had done nothing worthy of death, proposed the adoption of a milder sentence, wishing only to have him fined, and to acknowledge that the bishop of Aix and his companions were the true pastors of the church. This the pious and intrepid bookseller refused, saying, that "he could not do it with a good conscience, since he had an instance before his eyes, that these bishops countenanced filthy books and abominable pictures, rejecting and refusing the holy books of God, and he therefore judged them rather to be priests of Bacchus and Venus, than the true pastors of the church of Christ." On this refusal, the bookseller was immediately condemned to be burnt; and the dreadfnl sentence was executed the very same day. As a token of the cause of his condemnation, two Bibles were hung about his neck, one of them before, and the other behind, and he was thus led to the place of execution. Such, however, was the firmness of his mind, and the Divine support that he experienced, that with undaunted earnestness he continued to exhort the multitude, as he passed on the way to execution, to read the Holy Scriptures; and with such effect, that several became inquirers after truth. The death of the pious bookseller created considerable emotion among the inhabitants of the city, who not only murmured at the execution of the excellent man who had suffered, but were indignant at the contempt which the prelates had shown for the Scriptures. The bishops, therefore, in order to silence the people, caused a proclamation to be made by sound of trumpet, throughout the whole city and country, "that all those who had any books, in the French tongue, treating upon the Holy Scriptures, should bring them forth, and deliver them into the hands of the commissioners appointed for that purpose, under pain of death if any such books should be afterwards found about them." Another who suffered for the sake of the Gospel was Peter Chapot, corrector of the press to a printer at Paris. Having been at Geneva, he returned into France, with a number of copies of the Scriptures. These he dispersed among those of his own persuasion. But his zeal cost him his life; for being apprehended, on the information of John Andre, a bookseller, he was condemned, and afterwards strangled and burnt. This was at Paris, in 1546.7 The dreadful cruelties thus exercised on the advocates of truth and the friends of the Bible, did not entirely suppress all efforts to give publicity to the unadulterated (72) Fox's Actes and Monumentes, II. pp, 190, 191. (73) Ibid, II. p. 133. |