DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0159
THE MYSTICS OF MEAUX
121
in love ” (so she tells us) with her niece, Margaret, who plied
her with tracts and pious conversation. When the aunt
was inconsolable at the thought of departing for Savoy, the
niece begged Michel d’Arande to go and calm her with
spiritual ministrations. She remained, like many others,
under Margaret’s spell, and a kind of Protestant mysticism
became the fashion at Court.
It was greatly helped by the rise of a little group of
men, eager for Reform, to whom Michel d’Arande belonged.
These were the Mystics of Meaux, earnest thinkers and
students, dwelling chiefly in that city and centering round
its fashionable Archbishop, Briconnet, Margaret’s Director
and correspondent. She was only second to him in import-
ance amidst this band of Reformers, and all the best and
least fanatical spirits gathered round them. Here was Lefebre
d’Etaples, translator of the New Testament and tutor to
the King’s son; Roussel, “ the Red-haired,” Margaret’s
preacher, who travelled in Germany, heard Luther, and
shaped a creed of his own—neither that of Luther nor of
Calvin; Berquin, a noble by birth, a soul of fire, doomed
to perish for his faith; Farel, also an aristocrat, very small
and fierce; Leclerc, a democrat and a weaver of Meaux,
who supplied the popular image-breaking element and was
born to be a martyr; Mazurier, who, with Lefebre, defended
Reuchlin against the Cologne Dominicans; and a few others
no less fervent, if not as effectual as their fellows. They
had, too, one or two outside associates: Duchatel, the
King’s Reader, and Guillaume Petit, his Confessor. But
these men, now their admirers, afterwards took fright and
turned against them.
121
in love ” (so she tells us) with her niece, Margaret, who plied
her with tracts and pious conversation. When the aunt
was inconsolable at the thought of departing for Savoy, the
niece begged Michel d’Arande to go and calm her with
spiritual ministrations. She remained, like many others,
under Margaret’s spell, and a kind of Protestant mysticism
became the fashion at Court.
It was greatly helped by the rise of a little group of
men, eager for Reform, to whom Michel d’Arande belonged.
These were the Mystics of Meaux, earnest thinkers and
students, dwelling chiefly in that city and centering round
its fashionable Archbishop, Briconnet, Margaret’s Director
and correspondent. She was only second to him in import-
ance amidst this band of Reformers, and all the best and
least fanatical spirits gathered round them. Here was Lefebre
d’Etaples, translator of the New Testament and tutor to
the King’s son; Roussel, “ the Red-haired,” Margaret’s
preacher, who travelled in Germany, heard Luther, and
shaped a creed of his own—neither that of Luther nor of
Calvin; Berquin, a noble by birth, a soul of fire, doomed
to perish for his faith; Farel, also an aristocrat, very small
and fierce; Leclerc, a democrat and a weaver of Meaux,
who supplied the popular image-breaking element and was
born to be a martyr; Mazurier, who, with Lefebre, defended
Reuchlin against the Cologne Dominicans; and a few others
no less fervent, if not as effectual as their fellows. They
had, too, one or two outside associates: Duchatel, the
King’s Reader, and Guillaume Petit, his Confessor. But
these men, now their admirers, afterwards took fright and
turned against them.