Stop The Presses!

Stop The Presses!

Enough is enough!

KING FRANCIS I had been very tolerant of those “Lutherans,” as the Protestants in France were called in the early 1520s. Known as the “Father of Letters,” Francis wished to be seen as a supporter of the Renaissance, encouraging Italian artists and new writers and building beautiful palaces.

He had been patient and sometimes even agreed with his sister, Marguerite of Angoulême, who was sympathetic to the Protestant cause and often pleaded its case. Francis resisted the increasing pressure from the center of scholarship, the Sorbonne, to censure the Protestant scholars and preachers. At first when the Parliament of Paris, the highest civil tribunal, joined the Sorbonne in the search for heresy, the king repeatedly rescued those who were targeted. However, when it became obvious that public peace was threatened, he changed his mind.

Francis became increasingly less tolerant of those Lutherans who were militant and pushy. He felt they were a threat to the lifestyle and politics of his kingdom. At the end of the 1520s and in the early 1530s, Protestants were walking a tightrope. Catholics and Protestants alike were becoming more rigid and insistent on the rightness of their respective causes.

Putting up large posters in public places had long been a part of Parisian life. However, an incident referred to as the “Affair of the Placards” angered Francis I so much that it became a watershed for Protestants. A poster entitled “True Articles Respecting the Horrible, Great and Insupportable Abuses of the Papal Mass” was written by Antoine Marcourt, a French refugee who had fled to Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The plastering of this scandalous document all over the streets of Paris on October 8, 1534, was bad enough, but the impertinence of placing one on the king’s bedroom door in his castle at Amboise so infuriated Francis that from then on the king was fiercely intolerant of the Lutherans.

Protestant literature was everywhere in France and was winning many converts. Finally Francis I felt it was time to stop the nonsense once and for all, and on January 13, 1535, he sent an edict to the Parliament of Paris forbidding the printing of books of any kind. This was a move that the theologians of the Sorbonne had advised the king to make a year and a half earlier because of their alarm over the number of “heretical” books being printed.

After six weeks the king, perhaps remembering he was the “Father of Letters,” had second thoughts about outlawing printing and opted for censorship instead. He set up a board of twelve censors that had to approve all books printed. In addition, books could be printed only in Paris.

Things went downhill from there for followers of the Reformation in France. In January 1535 six Protestants were burned to death, beginning the persecution of the Lutherans, later known as Huguenots. In June 1540 the Edict of Fontainebleau gave parliament control of determining what heresy was. In 1542 the Faculty of Theology of Paris issued an Index of Prohibited Books.

In spite of the king’s opposition to the propagation of “heretical books,” the publication of Christian literature and Bibles marched on, moving outside of Paris to Lyon, to Monbéliard, and also to Switzerland. Bibles were distributed throughout the countryside of France, providing the people with eye-opening access to Scripture until at one point France had become half Protestant.

Reflection

What is your reaction to the decision of King Francis I to outlaw the printing of books in an attempt to stem the tide of the Reformation? Why do people restrict the religious activities of those who believe differently than they do? Throughout history, religious freedom has been the most important of all civil rights.

The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say, “Let my people go, so they can worship me in the wilderness.”

Exodus 7:16