'This cross, erected in 1541, in memory of Calvin's flight, restored in 1741 by faithful believers, was renewed and ornamented in 1841 by the piety of the citizens.'
The cross of Aosta and its inscription are not the only monuments of Calvin's visit to Piedmont; local tradition has preserved many other memorials: Calvin's farm and Calvin's bridge are still shown in the valley of Aosta; and the pass of Duranda, one of the lofty passes on the borders of Valais which he ascended when he fled from Piedmont, is still known as Calvin's window.
Driven out of Italy, he returned to France; not, however, that he desired to remain there, or would have been able to do so, for there was no more safety for him in France than in Italy; his intention was to establish himself at Basle or Strasburg; but either attracted by recollections of home, or influenced by other motives of which we are ignorant, he desired once again to see the place of his birth, and those members of his family who were still living. He reached Noyon, and spent some time there, apparently meeting with no opposition; at Noyon also he preached the Reformation and made proselytes. Among others he induced one of his sisters, Mary, and his only remaining brother, Anthony, to share his belief and follow him to a new country; accompanied by them, he set out for Basle; but as hostilities had again broken out between Francis I. and Charles V. he did not go by way of Lorraine, where the war was being carried on, but by Geneva. He arrived there towards the end of August 1536, not intending, so he says, to stay more than a single night. It was at Geneva, however, after many severe trials, that he was to be established and to find the great work of his life.
Great ideas, great men, and great events cannot be measured by the magnitude of their cradles. Geneva at that time seems not to have had more than from 12,000 to 15,000 inhabitants, and it was not then a place of renown; but within its narrow limits it was the scene of every crisis and every problem, great or small, which can agitate human society. It had only just obtained the national independence which it was still struggling to defend, and which it had wrested from its former masters, the dukes of Savoy, and from the hands of its own bishops. Its form of government as an independent state was still imperfect and unsettled, and was undergoing many experiments. Religious reform had been inaugurated at the same time as political freedom, but as yet it had not been condensed and embodied either in doctrine or in ecclesiastical organization and discipline. There was an urgent need of moral reform, for the ancient creeds and authorities had strangely tolerated the decay of public morality; and their downfall had been followed by an increase of licence and profligacy. Religious reform made moral reform all the more necessary, but did not succeed in accomplishing it. In fact, Geneva presented the spectacle of a tottering republic, a wavering faith, a nascent church; State and Church were sometimes confused together, at others entirely separated, and there were no definite rules recognised by both Church and State in their mutual relation; whilst to all these public difficulties must be added the frightful immorality of private individuals. What was the meaning of these numerous indications? What would be the result of a complication in which everything as yet seemed dark and uncertain? Was it life-giving power that was at work, or unfruitful anarchy? Such were the questions suggested in the sixteenth century, in Geneva as well as in several of the great European States; but in Geneva they were put forward more distinctly, emphatically, and urgently than elsewhere.
Geneva became a celebrated city, because she was able to answer these questions in a manner that for three centuries has been satisfactory, whilst it is to Calvin that the answers are due.
Chapter IX.
William Farel.
Calvin In Geneva.
When Calvin reached Geneva towards the end of August 1536, with the intention of resuming his journey on the following day, another reformer, a man who was earnest, eloquent, and fearless, was living there. This was William Farel, also a Frenchman, and one who, like Calvin, after having tried to propagate reform in France, had left it, as he had done, and travelled in Switzerland, to Basle, Berne, and Neufchatel, teaching and preaching with great fervour. Farel had now lived for some time at Geneva, where he was working with his whole soul to ensure the triumph of reform over all its adversaries, whether Genevese or strangers, whilst they opposed him with equal zeal. After more than two years of alternate success and reverses, of public discussion and civil war, Farel succeeded in getting the whole question stated in the following terms to the inhabitants of Geneva, who were assembled in the church of St. Peter:—'By a decree of the Council of Two Hundred you are assembled here, that it may be known if there are any among you who have anything to say against the Word of God, and the doctrine which is preached to us in this city. … If so, let them speak, so that we may know if there are any who are not willing to live according to the Gospel which has been proclaimed to us since the abolition of the mass and of the papal sacrifice.' 'Upon which,' says the Register, 'without one single opposing voice, it was unanimously agreed to, and carried by the holding up of hands; and a promise, and an oath taken to God that all the people would live according to this holy evangelical law and the Word of God which has been made known to them, forsaking all masses and other papal ceremonies and frauds, images and idols, and living together in unity and in obedience to the law.'
The latest and most accurate historian of the Church of Geneva, says: 'That day, the 21st of May, 1536, is the true date of the Reformation at Geneva. From that time the citizens, pressing to their hearts a faith which was sanctified by misfortune, prepared themselves for the sacrifices and glory of the future, and, like the Hebrews on the frontiers of Canaan, they repeated Joshua's oath, "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord."' [Footnote 70]
[Footnote 70: Gaberel, ancien Pasteur. Histoire de l'Église de Genève, vol. i. p. 261.]