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Scanned Using Book Scancenter 5022 60 Jeanne de Jussie The Short Chronicle 6i went to Chambery to make her plea to monseigneur, and the good prince lands of the Catholic Church. If kings and princes had not severely punished benevolently gave her a house and a living in Chambery. people who followed that accursed sect, the souls bought with the precious A wooden cross that stood in front of the convent of Madame Saint blood of Jesus Christ Our Lord would have been in grave danger of eternal Clare was pulled up and thrown into the well by a wretch who had been at damnation. But God, \^ o never forsakes His bride the church, inspired our the destruction of the churches and holy places. He did not remain unpun­ Holy Father. Pope Leo X to declare Luther a disloyal heretic and an enemy of ished, for in the month of November three of those profaners were struck the holy Catholic religion before the consistory and college of messeigneurs with the [ilague.and [47] died in the hospital. Two of them returned to God the cardinals, pronouncing a sentence of excommunication and anathema on and publicly confessed to throwing down the cross and to other crimes, and that disloyal dog Luther and excommunicating and anathematizing all men they asked for forgiveness and ended up as good Christians. The third one and women who believe, defend, maintain, or favor those heresies, no matter never recognized his God and died in his heresy and stubbornness. what their estate, rank, or worth, making no exception for anyone. He sent that bull to all kingdoms and-lands and throughout all of Christendom. [50] Another thing, out of loathing for his vile body they burnt him in ef­ DEATH OF MADAME LOUISE OF SAVOY figy in the Campo di Fiori in Rome as a despicable heretic and corrupter of In the month of August a giant comet was seen in the sky,®^ giant and with a holy Christendom.®'* For because,of him many noble countries, flourishing flaming tail visible in France. It was said to be a sign of the death of madame in piety, turned away from the* true religion and fell into his heresies. The the regent, Lady Louise qf Savoy, who was, through her father, the sister Prince and Duke of Saxony and his whole country followed him and pro­ of Monseigneur the Duke Charles and of the Count of the Genevois the tected him so that he would not be killed and could teach that devilish heresy Duke of Nemours and the mother of King Francis I. She died the following better and so that other princes would not harm him. The town of Basel was twenty-second of September and was buried in a royal tomb at Saint-Denis perverted, and the bishop was run out of town and banished from the town [48] of Strasbourg, from, the city of Bern and all its domains, from Zurich and two other cantons,®^ and from the county of Neuchatel and several other German-speaking cities, towns, and lands whose names I do not know. And BATTLE OF KAPPEL now it is happening again, in the Aown of Geneva in Savoy, even though In the following month of October a great war was waged among those there have always been so many fine people and good Catholics here, and heretics near the city of Zurich.®^ Our Lord granted the Christians such great for this reason many people have left town, and everyone is divided, and courage and force that seven hundred of them miraculously defeated nine the land too, [51 ] as has already been shown above and as I will make even thousand. plainer. Because of those scoundrels, all the sacraments of the holy church have been abolished and all piety and decency. They have also removed and destroyed all the images, whether painted or standing or other, of all the glo­ MARTIN LUTHER AND HIS HERESY rious saints®® and especially of Our'Redeemer and His Virgin Mother, and The prince and grand heresiarch of that damnable sect was an Augustinian they have burned parish churches and monasteries and convents. They have monk named Martin Luther. In the year 1518, filled with wickedness and pillaged all the treasures of those places and stripped them of all their fur­ great self-pride, he set his mind to all sorts of malice and error, and he revived nishings and completely abolished the commandments of the holy church all the heresies and errors that had existed ever since the apostles' death, and and all its fine ceremonies, all the divine service and the worship of Gbd. he had them printed in [49] Basel and carried straightaway through almost all of Christendom, and so his pestiferous venom poisoned all the kingdoms and 94. On whether Luther was burnt in effigy in Rome, see Feld's introduction to the Petite chroniifue, liii-Ix. 92. Halley's comet. See volume editor's introduction, note 35. 95. Saint Gallen and Schaffhausen. 93. Jussie is referring to the battle near Kappel on October 11, 1531, in which Ulrich Zwingli 96. Once a^ain, Jussie refers explicitly to both male and female saints: tOMS Ics glo rieu h sains et was killed. sainctes. Jeanne de Jussie The Short Chronicle 63 Not satisfied with his own perdition, that pestiferous dragon with the nuns returned to their families and served as servants so that they would venomous tail®^ tried to bring people of every estate down with him. That not have to renounce their estate. Others got married: Garthusians, Augus- is why he pursued and pestered people who had consecrated and dedicated tinians, Cistercians,x^d Franciscans, and [53] even Observant Franciscans themselves to God with a holy vow of chastity and tried to get them to arid Dominicans. ThereVere perversions among all the orders of the world, marry, and he himself and his disciples were married in the ordinary manner. except among the nuns of Madame Saint Clare of the Reformation of the Numerous priests and monks, ungrateful and lacking respect for their holy Blessed Colette, where not a single nun was ever perverted or unfaithful, vocation, followed him.®* except for one'®' who had not entered the convent through the proper door Clerics were not allowed to remain where that heresy was introduced of good intentions, but by feigned and wicked hypocrisy. She was not truly and reigned unless they removed their habits, and they were all hunted down worthy of Our Lord and was easily led astray and. removed from the order and sent away from their lands, so they had no place of their own. They and convent in. Geneva, and it was because of her sister, a member of that suffered greatly. That time could well be called "the time of persecution of sect; she was taken out violently despite the strong resistance that the nuns the holy church. put up for her, and I will show below exactly what happened. It is, indeed, true that prelates and clerics at that time did not respect [52] their vows and estates but used the advantages of>the church immorally for their own pleasure, keeping women and children in wantonness and PERSECUTION OF THE POOR CLARES IN ORBE adultery, and almost the whole world was infected with that loathsome, The order of Madame Saint Clare was greatly bothered by those heresies, abominable sin,- it is piteously to be believed that the sins of the world that especially the convents in Vevey and Orbe and Geneva, which were sur­ abounded in people of all estates provoked God's anger and caused Him to rounded by [54] the evildoers. The time of persecution of the nuns in Orbe, use those false, disloyal agents of the devil, disguised as men, to inflict divine which affected the nuns and the lay brothers in their service, began in the punishm ent.G ood monks and nuns were persecuted and experienced the year 1521,'°^ on the Feast-of the Annunciation of Our Lady, during Lent, secret judgment of God along with the guilty ones. But it is to be believed when their father confessor. Friar Michel Julien, who preached against those that it aided in their salvation and multiplied their merits before God. Many heresies in the convent and-praised virginity, was removed from the pulpit good and pious monasteries were ruined and destroyed, but their inhabi­ and replaced by a wretched Lutheran of the city, Christophe Hollard, whose tants were not perverted by it, but took refuge in the world wherever they brother was a married priest. The women could not bear the injury to God could to continue in their holy vocation. Even in Bern several Dominican but seized that wicked man by his hair and dragged him out of the church in^contefhpt. But the bailiff ordered the father confessor to be put in prison, 97. That is, Martin Luther. to the poor sisters' immense sorrow. They took up ink and paper right away 98. The question'of whether or not clerics should marry was frequently disputed during the and wrote a letter on behalf of the convent and the region expressing the middle ages, until the Second Lateran Council came down firmly against it in 1139. Even then, grief and [55] danger they.were in, begging for aid and comfort and offering however, opinion remained mixed, and by the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, abuses the prayers and merits of the convent, with the good advice and aid of the such as clerical concubinage were common. Reformers, including Martin Luther, to whom Jussie refers here, believed that the prohibition of clerical marriage led to corfuption and that the prelate.
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