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Chapter 12—Daybreak in France
The Protest of Spires and the Confession at Augsburg were
followed by years of conflict and darkness. Weakened by divisions,
Protestantism seemed destined to be destroyed.
But in the moment of his apparent triumph, the emperor was
smitten with defeat. He was forced at last to grant toleration to the
doctrines which it had been the ambition of his life to destroy. He
saw his armies wasted by battle, his treasuries drained, his many
kingdoms threatened by revolt, while everywhere the faith he had
endeavored to suppress was extending. Charles V had been battling
against omnipotent power. God had said, “Let there be light,” but
the emperor had sought to keep the darkness unbroken. Worn out
with the long struggle, he abdicated the throne and buried himself in
a cloister.
In Switzerland, while many cantons accepted the reformed faith,
others clung to the creed of Rome. Persecution gave rise to civil war.
Zwingli and many who had united in reform fell on the bloody field
of Cappel. Rome was triumphant and in many places seemed about
to recover all that she had lost. But God had not forsaken His cause
or His people. In other lands He raised up laborers to carry forward
the reform.
In France, one of the first to catch the light was Lefevre, a
professor in the University of Paris. In his researches into ancient
literature, his attention was directed to the Bible, and he introduced
its study among his students. He had undertaken to prepare a history
of the saints and martyrs as given in the legends of the church,
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and had already made considerable progress in it, when, thinking
that he might obtain assistance from the Bible, he began its study.
Here indeed he found saints, but not such as figured in the Roman
[Catholic Church] calendar. In disgust he turned away from his
self-appointed task and devoted himself to the Word of God.
In 1512, before either Luther or Zwingli had begun the work
of reform, Lefevre wrote, “It is God who gives us, by faith, that
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