THE PROVENANCE OF JOHN CALVIN'S EMPHASIS ON THE ...

humanist," 299 who, with his coterie, 300 had retreated to Meaux in 1521, into the refuge of
Bishop Guillaume Briçonnet and, ultimately, the king's sister, Marguerite d'
Angoulême. 301 Within a month, Beda informed the Faculty that the king had removed
Lefèvre's case from the Parlement's jurisdiction, and thus their own, reserving it to his
Grand Conseil. Such a move was "tantamount to dismissing the case." 302 On three
separate occasions that summer, the Faculty pressed its case against Lefèvre with the
Grand Conseil, the king, the queen mother, and the chancellor. As James Farge puts it,
"This continuing remonstration was to show that circulation of the commentaries and
translations of Lefèvre and Louis de Berquin in the name of the faith and under the
protection of the king was 'seriously pernicious' to the kingdom, since these were
'clearly favorable to the condemned heresies of Martin Luther.'" 303 Louis de Berquin—
who by 1523 had translated works by Luther, Melanchthon, and Karlstadt, and
composed several of his own in the reformist vein—was indeed another of the Faculty's
principal targets in its campaign against "the Lutheran party." In June and July 1523, the
299 Farge, Orthodoxy and Reform, 170. See also Gordon, Calvin, 13.
300 According to Ganoczy, this circle included Guillaume Briçonnet, Guillaume Farel, Gérard
Roussel, Michel d'Arnade, Martial Mazurier, Pierre Caroli, François Vatable, and Josse Clichtove.
According to Ganoczy, "All were zealous priests who desired reform" (Ganoczy, Young Calvin, 51). For
more about Meaux, see also Gordon, Calvin, 14ff.
301 "Lefèvre and the circle of Meaux enjoyed in the person of the King's sister, Marguerite
d'Angoulême, Duchess of Alençon, a protector who was faithful as well as highly positioned. A
cultivated woman with a mystical soul, the princess intervened on many occasions before her brother,
Francis I, to block the denunciations made by the Sorbonne. She subsidized the publications of Lefèvre
and his friends, secured prohibited books for them, and until 1521 was in constant correspondence with
Briçonnet. And later, when pressured from the conservative traditionalists became more and more
serious, she opened her home to the persecuted reformers" (Ganoczy, Young Calvin, 52). See also Farge,
Orthodoxy and Reform, throughout.
302 Farge, Orthodoxy and Reform, 172.
303 Farge, Orthodoxy and Reform, 172.
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