Nomos
Puritan Board Freshman
Hello,
I have been working my way through Bruce Gordon's biography on Calvin where he references the persecution in France and in particular Paris in 1541 where a Claude Le Painctre was martyred. Here is the relevant portion from Gordon:
Would anyone happen to have a source for additional information for Claude Le Painctre?
Much appreciated,
Ryan
I have been working my way through Bruce Gordon's biography on Calvin where he references the persecution in France and in particular Paris in 1541 where a Claude Le Painctre was martyred. Here is the relevant portion from Gordon:
"Claude Le Painctre was in many ways the typical evangelical. A young man from an urban environment with a skilled, advanced trade, he had fled Paris in 1538 for Geneva, where ‘the streams of the Gospel had been started and preached and spread to the land of France’, before returning in 1541 to engage in missionary work. His opposition to Catholicism was not particularly theo- logical, but was based on the rejection of outward acts such as the veneration of saints and the Virgin Mary.2 Betrayed by fellow workers, he was detained and condemned to the fire, but not before he had had his tongue cut out."
"The first was a very young man, not yet with a beard . . . he was the son of a cobbler. He was brought in front of the judges and condemned to have his tongue cut out and burned straight afterward. Without changing the expression of his face, the young man presented his tongue to the executioner’s knife, sticking it out as far as he could. The executioner pulled it out even further with pincers, cut it off, and hit the sufferer several times on the tongue and threw it in the young man’s face. Then he was put into a tipcart, which was driven to the place of execution, but, to see him, one would think that he was going to a feast."
As a biographer, Gordon does a pretty decent job, but he rarely supports the his work with applicable references in his footnotes. It's a pretty glaring omission really. With the above quote, Gordon's footnote references David Watson's dissertation, which I have, and which does not ever mention the name of Le Painctre. I have numerous works from this period and none include this name. Neither am I able to find additional information online. "The first was a very young man, not yet with a beard . . . he was the son of a cobbler. He was brought in front of the judges and condemned to have his tongue cut out and burned straight afterward. Without changing the expression of his face, the young man presented his tongue to the executioner’s knife, sticking it out as far as he could. The executioner pulled it out even further with pincers, cut it off, and hit the sufferer several times on the tongue and threw it in the young man’s face. Then he was put into a tipcart, which was driven to the place of execution, but, to see him, one would think that he was going to a feast."
Would anyone happen to have a source for additional information for Claude Le Painctre?
Much appreciated,
Ryan
