186
The Great Controversy
magistrate, in his own lodgings, and sometimes in a public garden,
Calvin opened the words of eternal life to those who desired to listen.
After a time, as the number of hearers increased, it was thought safer
to assemble outside the city. A cave in the side of a deep and narrow
gorge, where trees and overhanging rocks made the seclusion still
more complete, was chosen as the place of meeting. Little companies,
leaving the city by different routes, found their way hither. In this
retired spot the Bible was read aloud and explained. Here the Lord’s
Supper was celebrated for the first time by the Protestants of France.
From this little church several faithful evangelists were sent out.
Once more Calvin returned to Paris. He could not even yet relin-
quish the hope that France as a nation would accept the Reformation.
But he found almost every door of labor closed. To teach the gospel
was to take the direct road to the stake, and he at last determined to
depart to Germany. Scarcely had he left France when a storm burst
over the Protestants, that, had he remained, must surely have involved
him in the general ruin.
The French Reformers, eager to see their country keeping pace
with Germany and Switzerland, determined to strike a bold blow
against the superstitions of Rome, that should arouse the whole nation.
Accordingly placards attacking the mass were in one night posted
[225]
all over France. Instead of advancing the reform, this zealous but
ill-judged movement brought ruin, not only upon its propagators, but
upon the friends of the reformed faith throughout France. It gave the
Romanists what they had long desired—a pretext for demanding the
utter destruction of the heretics as agitators dangerous to the stability
of the throne and the peace of the nation.
By some secret hand—whether of indiscreet friend or wily foe
was never known—one of the placards was attached to the door of
the king’s private chamber. The monarch was filled with horror. In
this paper, superstitions that had received the veneration of ages were
attacked with an unsparing hand. And the unexampled boldness of
obtruding these plain and startling utterances into the royal presence
aroused the wrath of the king. In his amazement he stood for a little
time trembling and speechless. Then his rage found utterance in the
terrible words: “Let all be seized without distinction who are suspected
of Lutheresy. I will exterminate them all.—Ibid., b. 4, ch. 10. The die