Marguerite d’Angoulême, an Influential Reformer
Her most famous work, however, is Miroir de l’âme pécheresse (The Mirror of the Sinful Soul), a 1,434-line poem first published anonymously in 1531. In this, the sinful soul offers to the readers the mirror in which they can see their own souls. Most of this work describes the soul’s astonishment and frustration at the awareness of the depths of her sinful nature and her relief at the discovery of God’s grace.
Marguerite d’Angoulême, also known as Marguerite de Navarre, was one of the most influential figures in sixteenth-century Europe. Today, her memory in Reformed circles seems obscured by that of her more committed daughter, Jeane d’Albret. In reality, while Marguerite never called herself Lutheran or Reformed, she had an enormous impact on the Reformation.
Scholar, Patron, and Benefactor
The only daughter of Charles de Valois, Comte d’Angoulême, and Louise de Savoie, Marguerite was born on 11 April 1492 in Angoulême, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France, but was raised in Cognac, a town in the same region that is today known for its homonymous drink. There, her brother Francis was born two years later.
The Angoulême court was full of scholars, artists, and singers, offering a unique learning environment for the children, particularly fostered by Louise, whose motto was “libris et liberis” (for books and for children). From the start Marguerite displayed a keen intelligence.
When Charles de Valois died unexpectedly in 1496, nineteen-year-old Louise continued to raise her children, hiring respected scholars for their education. Two years later, upon the sudden death of King Charles VIII, four-year-old Francis was declared heir presumptive in the distant case that the next king, Louis XII, died without a male heir. For this reason, Francis, his mother, and his sister were invited to move first to the royal residence in Blois, then to the court in Amboise, and finally to Paris.
In 1509, soon after their last move, Marguerite was given in marriage to another Charles, the Duke of Alençon. This was definitely not her choice, since a courtier reported that she “wept enough to carve out a stone” during the whole wedding ceremony. She then moved to the castle of Alençon, a luxurious place with no books (she had to request them from her previous libraries, together with scholars).
Besides reading, Marguerite became involved in charitable programs, visiting the poor and organizing a program to eliminate the need for begging by building hospitals, hospices, and almhouses, raising funds to maintain them, and supervising them personally. She levied regulations on financial care for poor unmarried mothers before and after they gave birth, and imposed sanctions on monks and nuns who abandoned or killed unwanted children (born of rape or illicit sexual relations – a sad situation described in several medieval texts).
Dangerous Liaisons
In 1514, the distant possibility for Francis to become king became reality because Louis XII died unexpectedly, leaving only two daughters. Marguerite, who had always been close to her brother, was soon named “La mignonne du roi de France” (the Sweetheart to the King of France).
In the meantime, she became familiar with some of the current reformist ideas of Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther, but she was particularly influenced by Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples, one of the most respected professors of philosophy in Paris, who promoted, among other things, the printing and circulation of the Bible in French, together with some commentaries.
Lefèvre introduced Marguerite to Guillaume Briçonnet, bishop of Meaux, who became her faithful correspondent. Firmly committed to their cause, she supported the printing and distribution of evangelical essays and tracts. although both Briçonnet and Lefèvre were ruled as “in error” by the Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris. Highly critical of Reformist ideas, the Faculty investigated and threatened anyone who seemed to deviate from Roman Catholic doctrines.
One of Marguerite’s protégés, Louis de Berquin, raised the Faculty’s suspicions when he omitted supplications to Mary and the saints in a booklet on prayer. Further examination found him guilty of sympathizing with Lutheran teachings. He was burned at the stake in spite of Marguerite’s intercession. He was only one of the many friends of Marguerite who were executed.
At first, King Francis was open to the new ideas and backed Marguerite on her requests for leniency. Soon, however, political pressures became too strong, and he sided with the Roman Catholic authorities. In spite of her dangerous connections, Marguerite was spared from investigations and was able to continue her support of dissenters. These famously included John Calvin, who spent some time at her castle when fleeing from Paris.
Wife, Sister, Mother, and Aunt
In 1525, Marguerite’s husband Charles returned mortally wounded from the disastrous battle of Pavia, where Francis was captured and held for ransom.
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The Cross’s Double Cure
When the Lord Jesus Christ does a saving work in the life of a sinner, he or she is not only concerned with being free of guilt in the presence of God; but also being holy in the presence of God. The power of sin is broken and one is able to be well….The power of sin is broken and we are able to look to Christ and say, “Be of sin the double cure; save from wrath and make me pure!”
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.Romans 8:4
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,Let me hide myself in Thee;Let the water and the blood,From Thy wounded side which flowed,Be of sin the double cure,Save from wrath and make me pure….
As Christ’s secured salvation for sinners, he freed us from the wrath of God; freed us from sin and death; condemned sin; and after the Spirit, fulfilled the righteousness of the law in us. What does Romans 8:4 mean by fulfilled in us? Thomas Manton in his exposition of Romans 8 raises the question concerning the words, “in us.” He asks, “How is this to be understood? Of justification or of sanctification?” (Manton’s Works, 11.430.)
Through the grammar of “for” versus “in,” Manton begins with demonstrating that the words are unable to be understood as related to justification. He says, “The words will not bear it [as justification], for the apostle does not say that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled for, but fulfilled in us.” (Ibid.) This is a very important distinction as Manton considers what this fulfillment looks like in the life of the Christian. Surely, the Apostle Paul, according to Manton, meant that Christ’s work was not only a justifying work, but a sanctifying work: “Christ came not only to redeem us from wrath, but to renew and sanctify us.” (Ibid, 11.431.)
Before giving his readers four biblical reasons for this qualification, Manton tells them that the sanctification of the Christian is the “constant drift and tenor of the Scriptures.” Manton, like a skilled roper, strings together several texts from the Scripture to show that this was always God’s intentions in the life of the Christian: “And you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21.) “…God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.” (Acts 3:26.) “Him God has exalted to His right hand…to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5:31.) “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.” (I John 3:5.) Each of these show that the constant drift and tenor of the Word of God is that Jesus would provide the double cure of saving from wrath and making pure.
From the tenor and drift, Manton then turned his attention to the fact that from the Scriptures, this fulfillment of the law in us has to be sanctification. He says, “It must needs be so.” (Manton’s Works, 11.432.) Manton gave four reasons for this.
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For the Kids Nobody Wants: Imagine There’s No Children
If the problem in our country is the fact that children are portrayed as inconvenient and are justifiably purged when “unwanted,” we need more than a campaign that says, “Don’t do that.” We need to do more than shout down the wickedness of abortion. We need to rehabilitate an entire view of the world. That is to say, we need to go back to the God who has made us in his image and see what he says.
Past the grove of cypress trees Walter—he had been playing king of the mountain—saw the white truck, and he knew it for what it was. He thought, That’s the abortion truck. Come to take some kid in for a postpartum down at the abortion place.
And he thought, Maybe my folks called it. For me.
He ran and hid among the blackberries, feeling the scratching of the thorns but thinking, It’s better than having the air sucked out of your lungs. That’s how they do it; they perform all the P. P.s [post-partum abortions] on all the kids there at the same time. They have a big room for it. For the kids that nobody wants.[1]
In 1973, the Roe v Wade decision inspired Philip K. Dick to envision a world where children were unwanted and adults were free to alleviate their unwanted burdens with the help of the “County Facility.” In his short story, “The Pre-Persons,” Dick tells the story of Walter, the twelve-year-old boy who is traumatized by the thought that his parents did not want him. All around him, he knows children by name who have been taken, kicking and screaming, by the van. Fully legal, these children have the life sucked out of them, all because the parents did not want them.
Through the use of dystopian satire, Dick shows what happens when children are unwanted.
To date, white vans are not circling cul-de-sacs looking to pick up “the kids nobody wants,” but that doesn’t mean children are any more safe. Planned Parenthood “targets minority neighborhoods” to offer up their unwanted children. Walgreens and CVS just decided to stock its pharmacies with the abortion-inducing pill, mifepristone, so that unwanted pregnancies can end by a pill in the privacy of one’s own home. The Supreme Court of South Carolina just defended abortion by ruling that abortion is protected by the right to privacy. And in 2021, Senate Democrats blocked the passage of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, while this year 210 voted against a similar bill, which would protect children who have already been born.
Is our world much different than Walter’s for unwanted children? It doesn’t appear to be. And yet, it’s not just these direct assaults that endanger children, it is the social imaginary behind them.[2] A social imaginary is like a worldview, only with less thought and more feeling. And today, a predominant social imaginary is one that envisions a world unencumbered by children. That is to say, our culture’s images of human flourishing are those without kids. To give one example where childlessness is presented as a blessing, consider the ad campaign by Hilton’s Home 2 Suites.
On their Twitter feed, Home 2 Suites, has sold their brand by centering it around pets. Scroll through their timeline and you will find countless dogs and zero kids. And lest we think this is accidental, here’s their pet-centric mission statement: “From stylish suites w[ith] kitchens to free breakfast and amenities that focus on sustainability, Home2 Suites is perfect for guests and their pets.” Whereas families may have been the primary focus of hotels in another era, today Home 2 Suites envisions a different world. In fact, what alerted me to this branding was the picture I saw recently in a hotel elevator. In it, this same man, woman, and dog pictured above are found under the caption: “Bring your whole family.”
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Reasons for Thanksgiving
Written by Grover E. Gunn |
Thursday, November 25, 2021
As we grow in spiritual strength, we increasingly find our real inner satisfaction not in the things of this world but in God. The irony is that when we do that, we begin to enjoy the things of this life in a new way. When we make idols out of the things of this life, whether it be possessions or family or pleasure, we put a burden on them which they cannot bear… It is only when we get our deep and lasting pleasure from our relationship with God that we are freed to enjoy the things of this life as they were meant to be enjoyed.Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday where we take off from work and school, we eat turkey and dressing, we watch parades, and bowl games on television. But we need to remember that Thanksgiving is more than a day off and a special meal and seasonal TV programs. Thanksgiving is first and foremost a day which our culture sets aside to count our blessings and to give God thanks. The Christian, of all people, should be thankful, and here are a few reasons.
First, the Christian should be thankful because he knows that his present life is but the prelude to a better life. He experiences both pain and pleasure, both poverty and prosperity, both affliction and advantage. Yet the Christian knows that the misery of this life is temporary, a transient experience which will soon pass away. The Christian also knows that the good things of this life, the true pleasures of this life, are but crumbs on the floor from the heavenly feast which he will one day enjoy. The joys of this life are but a foretaste of greater and better things to come.
For the wicked, the situation is just the opposite. The pleasures of this life are like a last meal on death row. The last meal is a temporary kindness from the judge before the final punishment. Even if a last meal is a true gourmet’s delight, how difficult it would be to truly savor it, to truly enjoy it, knowing that it is indeed a last meal and a prelude to punishment. For the wicked, the miseries of this life and not the pleasures are a foretaste of what is to come. In their heart of hearts, they know this.
When you think about this contrast, you can see why the Christian is the one who should be thankful. It is natural for a person to be thankful for something when he knows that even better things are coming, and when he knows that the current difficulties and problems which accompany even the good things of this life are temporary.
This also explains why there are people with much material wealth and many creature comforts and other apparent advantages, who nevertheless are neither happy nor thankful. In their heart of hearts, they know that their grasp on these good things is temporary and that their future beyond this life holds no promise for anything better.
A second reason the Christian should be thankful is because the Christian realizes that every good thing that he receives is a gift of mercy which he does not deserve. Sin is a rebellion against creatureliness which demands prerogatives and rights and privileges which really belong only to God. When the spirit of sinful rebellion dominates in a person’s heart and he receives something good in this life, that person always has a mistaken sense that he really deserves something better. The sinful spirit can never be satisfied, much less truly thankful.
In contrast, the Christian realizes that not only is he a creature, but he is also a member of a sinful race which has rebelled against God. Because of this, all that he truly deserves is the misery of punishment. The Christian has accepted this reality. The Christian also appreciates the price which God had to pay in order to be merciful to him and to give him blessings which he does not deserve. The price: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Jesus had to suffer on the cross to atone for the Christian’s sins, and the Christian knows it. Because Jesus died for the Christian’s sins, God is able to treat the Christian with the kindness of mercy instead of with the harshness of justice.
Two men receive something good in this life. One of them is dominated by a sinful spirit, and he says in his heart of hearts, “I really deserve something better than this and more of it.” He is not really thankful. The other man has a faith relationship with Jesus, and he says in his heart of hearts, “I deserve the wrath of God, but Jesus died upon the cross that God might instead be merciful to me and give me this blessing.” He is truly grateful.
A third reason the Christian should be thankful is because the Christian knows that God is working all things to the good of those who love Him. The Christian is like a grateful young child with a kind and benevolent father. The young child may not understand why his father makes him eat his vegetables or sometimes takes him to a doctor to get a painful shot or makes him go to school. Yet the child knows that his father loves him and that his father knows best. And so the child is grateful even though his experiences are not all pleasant and even though he doesn’t fully understand their purpose. In like manner, the Christian can be grateful, even in painful situations, because he trusts God’s love, God’s wisdom and God’s power.
As our spiritual strength grows through Christ Jesus, we develop a more confident faith in God’s love, wisdom and power. And we come to realize that any discontentment with our God given circumstances means that we are doubting one of these three. We know that God loves us because He sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins. We know that God is wiser than we are. We don’t begin to understand our situation in life the way that God understands it. And we know that God is all powerful. If He chose to change our circumstances, He certainly could. If we have this confidence in God’s love, wisdom and power, then we must also believe that those elements of our circumstances which we cannot change must be for our best. And any illusion we might have that we would be better off in different circumstances must be a mistaken fantasy. God knows what He is about.
A fourth reason the Christian should be thankful is that the Christian has found in God the satisfaction that this world cannot provide. The materially rich have a greater temptation to seek satisfaction in the things of this earth. That is why Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. There are examples of such discontent in the midst of prosperity in redemptive history. For example, Ahab was King of the northern kingdom of Israel, and yet he could not be content because he did not possess the little vineyard which belonged to Naboth. In the book of Esther, Haman was second only to the king of Persia, but he could not be content because Mordecai the Jew would not bow down before him. Apart from the grace of God, power and possessions only whet our appetite for more and no more satisfy our true inner desires than salt water can quench our thirst.
As we grow spiritually strong, we increasingly find our deepest satisfaction fulfilled in God. God made us for Himself, and nothing but fellowship with God can satisfy our deepest needs and yearnings. C.S. Lewis put it this way:
“God cannot give us peace and happiness apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”
Psalm 63:1-5 puts it this way:God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.
So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory.
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You.
Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.As we grow in spiritual strength, we increasingly find our real inner satisfaction not in the things of this world but in God. The irony is that when we do that, we begin to enjoy the things of this life in a new way. When we make idols out of the things of this life, whether it be possessions or family or pleasure, we put a burden on them which they cannot bear. We become desperate to derive from them pleasure that is both deep and lasting, and we are always disappointed. It is only when we get our deep and lasting pleasure from our relationship with God that we are freed to enjoy the things of this life as they were meant to be enjoyed.
With these thoughts in mind, let us take time this thanksgiving season to be thankful and to give thanks to God.
Dr. Grover Gunn is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is pastor of MacDonald PCA in Collins, MS.
