The Pocket Bible or Christian the Printer Part 35

"I forgot to make you take off your spurs. Remove them while I go and pay the inn-keeper. Wait for me outside at the cross road."

"Uncle, may I put into my wallet a few little presents that I bring from Italy for the family?"

"Do about that as you please," answered the Franc-Taupin.

While Odelin walked into the stable to remove his spurs and take out of his valise the articles which he wished to take with him, Josephin went to settle his score with the inn-keeper. The latter, who hugged his taproom, did not see young Odelin come down in his Capuchin vestments.

To the Franc-Taupin he said: "You leave us early, my reverend. I hoped you would pay us a longer visit. But I can understand that you are in a hurry to reach Paris to witness the great ceremony."

"What ceremony have you in mind, my good man?"

"A traveler informed us that the bells and the chimes have been ringing in Paris with might and main since morning. All the houses along the road that the superb procession is to traverse were decorated with tapestry by orders of the Criminal Lieutenant, who also ordered that a lighted wax candle be held at every window. He also told us that the King, the Queen and all the Princes, as well as a crowd of great seigneurs and high dignitaries were to a.s.sist at the ceremony--the most magnificent that will yet have been seen--"

"Good evening, my host," said Josephin, anxious to put an end to the conversation and join his nephew who waited for him outside. To himself he was saying:

"What can the ceremony be that the inn-keeper has been informed about?

After all, the event can only be favorable to us. The crowds that the streets will be filled with will facilitate our pa.s.sage, and help us to reach unperceived the retreat designated by Monsieur Estienne."

The Franc-Taupin and his nephew walked rapidly towards Paris where they arrived as the sun was dipping the western horizon.

CHAPTER XX.

JANUARY 21, 1535.

January 21, 1535! Alas, that date must remain inscribed in characters of blood in our plebeian annals, O, sons of Joel! If there is justice on earth or in heaven--and I, Christian Lebrenn, who trace these lines, believe in an avenging, an expiatory justice--some day, on that distant day predicted by Victoria the Great, the 21st of January may be also a day fatal to the race of crowned executioners, the princes, the n.o.bles, and the infamous Romish priests.

You are about to contemplate, O, sons of Joel--you are about to contemplate the pious work of that King Francis I, that chivalrous King, that Very Christian King, as the court popinjays love to style him. A chivalrous King--he is false to his troth! A knightly King--he sells under the auctioneer's hammer the seats on the courts of justice and in the tribunals of religion! A very Christian King--he wallows in the filthiest of debauches! In order to impart a flavor of incest to adultery, he shares with one of his own sons, the husband of Catherine De Medici, the bed of the d.u.c.h.ess of Etampes. Finally, he expires tainted with a loathsome disease after ten years of frightful sufferings! At this season, however, the miscreant is still in full health, and is engaged in honoring G.o.d, his saints and his Church with a human holocaust. Hypocrisy and ferocity!

A magnificent solemnity was that day to be the object of edification to all the good Catholics of Paris, as the inn-keeper announced to the Franc-Taupin. Read, O sons of Joel, the ordinance posted in Paris by order of the Very Christian King Francis I:

On Thursday the 21st day of January, 1535, a solemn procession will take place in the honor of G.o.d our Creater, of the glorious Virgin Mary, and of all the blessed Saints in Paradise. Our Seigneur, King Francis I, has been informed of the errors that are rife in these days, and of the placards and heretical books that are posted or scattered around the streets and thoroughfares of Paris by the vicious sectarians of Luther, and other blasphemers of the sacred Sacrament of the altar, the which accursed sc.u.m of society aims at the destruction of our Catholic faith and of the const.i.tutions of our mother, the Holy Church of G.o.d.

Therefore, our said Seigneur Francis I has held a Council, and, in order to repair the injury done to G.o.d, has decided to order a general procession, the same to close with the torture and execution of several heretics. At the head of the procession shall be carried the sacred Eucharist and the most precious relics of the city of Paris.

First, on the 17th day of the said month of January, proclamation shall be made to the sound of trumpets, throughout the thoroughfares of Paris, ordering that the streets through which the said procession is to pa.s.s shall be swept clean, and all the houses ornamented with beautiful tapestry. The owners of the said houses shall stand before their doors, bare-headed and holding a lighted taper in their hands.--_Item_, on the Wednesday following, the 20th of the said month, the princ.i.p.als of all the Universities of Paris shall meet and orders shall be issued to them to cause the students of the said Colleges to be locked up, with the express injunction that the same shall not be allowed outside until the procession shall have pa.s.sed, in order to obviate confusion and tumult.

Furthermore the students shall fast on the eve and the day of the procession.--_Item_, provosts of the merchant guilds and the aldermen of the city of Paris shall cause barriers to be raised at the crossing of the streets through which the said procession is to pa.s.s, in order to prevent the people from crossing the lines of the marchers. Two soldiers and two archers shall be placed in charge of each one of the said barriers.--_Item._ halting places shall be erected in the middle of St. Denis and St. Honore Streets, at the Cross-of-Trahoir, and at the further end of the Notre Dame Bridge, the latter of which shall be decorated with a gilded lanthorn, historical paintings of the holy Sacrament, and a dais of evergreen from which shall hang a number of crowns, and bannerets bearing the following sacred device: IPSI PERIBUNT, TU AUTEM PERMANEBIS (_They shall perish, but you, Holy Mother Church, shall remain forever_).

The same device shall be inscribed on the cards attached to the swarm of little birds that are to be set free along the pa.s.sage of the said procession.[39]

The program of the ceremony was followed out point by point. The Franc-Taupin and Odelin entered Paris by the Gate of the Bastille of St.

Antoine. They were wrapped in their Capuchin hoods, and took the route of St. Honore Street. That thoroughfare was lighted by the tapers which, obedient to the royal decree, the householders held at the doors of their dwellings. Lavish tapestries, hangings and rich cloths ornamented with greens carpeted the walls of the houses from top to bottom. Men, women and children crowded the windows. A lively stream of people moved about gaily, loudly admiring the splendors of the feast. Arrived near the Arcade of Eschappes, which ran into St. Honore Street, the Franc-Taupin and Odelin were forced to halt until the procession had pa.s.sed before they could cross the street. All the crossings were closed with barriers and guarded by soldiers and archers.

Thanks to the respect that their monastic garb inspired, Josephin and his nephew were allowed to clear the barrier which separated them from the first ranks of the procession, and finally to fall in line with the same.

Romish idolatry and royal pride exhibited themselves in the midst of the pomp and circ.u.mstance of the occasion. King, Queen, Princes, Princesses, Cardinals, Archbishops, Marshals, courtiers, ladies in waiting, high dignitaries of the courts of justice, magistrates, consuls, bourgeois, guilds of artisans--all were about to batten upon the torture and death of the heretics, whose only crime consisted in the practice of the Evangelical doctrine in its pristine purity.

Read, O, sons of Joel, the narrative of this execrable ceremony, transmitted by a spectator, an ardent Catholic and fervent royalist, Dom Felibien. Preserve the pages in our family annals, they are the irrefutable witnesses of the religious fanaticism of those days of ignorance, under clerical domination and monarchic despotism. Dom Felibien says:

"At the head of the procession marched the Swiss of the King's guard. They preceded the Queen, who was richly attired in a robe of black velvet lined with lynx skin. She rode a white palfrey with housings of frizzled gold cloth, and was accompanied by mesdames the King's daughters, likewise richly accoutred in robes of crimson satin embroidered with gold thread, and riding beautiful and splendidly caparisoned palfreys. Many other dames and princesses, besides a troop of knights, seneschals and palace dignitaries on horseback, pages, lackeys and Swiss Guards on foot marched beside the Queen.

"After her came the Cordelier monks in large numbers, carrying many relics, each holding a little lighted taper with profound devotion.

"After these came the preaching Jacobin friars, also carrying many relics. Each bore a chaplet of Notre Dame, and all were devoutly engaged in prayer to G.o.d.

"After these, the Augustinian monks, marching in similar order, and also carrying many relics.

"After these, the Carmelites, in the same order, and, in their wake all the parish priests of the city of Paris, each with his cross, robed in their capes, and carrying relics surrounded with numerous tapers.

"After these, the collegiates of the churches, carrying many relics and holy bodies, the latter surrounded by many tapers.

"After these, the Mathurins, dressed all in white. They marched devoutly wrapped in prayer and holding tapers.

"After these, the friars of St. Magloire carrying the shrine of Monsieur St. Magloire.

"After these, the friars of St. Germain-des-Prez, carrying the shrine of Monsieur St. Germain-le-Vieil, who, as far back as man's memory went, had never before been known to leave the precincts of St. Germain. To the right of the holy body, the said friars, each with a lighted white wax candle; to the left, the friars of St.

Martin-of-the-Fields, carrying the shrine of St. Paxant, a martyr.

The two shrines abreast and beside each other.

"After these the relics of Monsieur St. Eloi in the shrine of the said Saint, carried by locksmiths, each wearing a hat of flowers.

"After these, Monsieur St. Benoit, with other shrines containing the bodies of Saints belonging to the said city.

"After that, a huge relic of solid gold and inestimable value, studded with precious stones and enclosing the bones of several Saints, the whole carried on the shoulders of sixteen bourgeois of the city of Paris. Beside this relic was to be seen that of the great St. Philip, an exquisite coffer from Notre Dame of Paris.

"After these, came in beautiful order the shrines of Madam St.

Genevieve, carried by eighteen men, naked (except for their s.h.i.+rts), with hats of flowers on their heads, and by four monks, also in their s.h.i.+rts, with bare legs and feet. Then the shrine of Monsieur St. Martel, reverently carried by the goldsmiths, dressed in dress of state. That shrine also had not in the memory of man been carried beyond the bridge of Notre Dame. In order to secure the safe and orderly carriage of these shrines through the large concourse of people, all of whom were curious to see and draw near them, a number of archers and other officers were detailed to escort the same.

"After these, the monks of St. Genevieve and St. Victor, barefooted, each holding a lighted taper and praying to G.o.d with great devotion.

"After these, the canons and priests of St. Germain-of-Auxerre, chanting canticles of praise put to music.

"After these, the secular doctors and regulars of the four faculties of the University of Paris. The rector and his beadles, the latter carrying before him their maces of gold and silver.

"After these, the doctors of theology and medicine in large numbers dressed in their sacerdotal and other garbs, each holding a lighted wax candle.

"After these came, marching in beautiful order on both sides of the street, the Swiss Guards of the King, dressed in the velvet of his livery, each armed with his halberd. The fifers and war drummers marched two by two at the head of the said Swiss Guards, beating upon their drums and blowing their fifes in funeral notes.

"After these, the hautboys, trumpets, cornet and clarion players, all in the King's livery, and melodiously intoning the beautiful hymn _Pange, lingua, gloriosi corporis mysterium_, etc., which is the hymn of the holy Sacrament, and which moved all the bystanders to tears, such was its power.

"After these, Monsieur Savigny, one of the captains of the King's guards, establis.h.i.+ng order and preventing tumult during the procession.

"After him, came the King's heralds-at-arms, clad in their jackets of silver cloth.

"After them, the choristers of the same Seigneur, those attached to the domestic service as well as those attached to the holy chapel of the palace. They marched together, singing: _O salutaris Hostia_, and other beautiful anthems.