Geneva was not exclusively occupied by its republican efforts to obtain national independence, but from the very commencement of the fifteenth century was influenced by the revival of literature which then took place, and the prevailing taste for classical studies. In the year 1428, François de Versonnay, a citizen of Geneva, founded a college there, in the following words: 'I look upon instruction as a useful work; it dispels ignorance, disposes the mind to wisdom, forms the manners, instils virtues, and is favourable to the good administration of public affairs. Nevertheless, up to the present time, Geneva has been entirely deprived of this benefit for want of a public building, conveniently situated, and able to hold all the pupils. To remedy this defect I have set aside part of the worldly goods which Providence has granted me.' And the college was thereupon founded. Grammar and Aristotle's Logic were taught in it, and the liberal arts, that is poetry and a knowledge of the works of ancient authors. It prospered for several years; but towards the end of the fifteenth century, and during the commencement of the sixteenth, civil discord, danger from without, and want of means caused it to fall into decay. Several attempts to restore it were fruitless; and on the 3d of January, 1531, at the height of the troubles of the Reformation, 'the Rector having left the city, and no application being made for an appointment which on account of the small number of pupils was not at all profitable, the Council decided upon closing the school until fresh orders were given concerning it, as the children were very destructive.' [Footnote 134]
[Footnote 134: Gaberel, i. 493-498.]
With the exception of a few attempts made by Farel towards the re-establishment of the College, this was the condition of public education in Geneva, when Calvin returned from Strasburg and took up his abode there in 1541. In the following year, 1542, he proposed to the Council: 'In the first place to extend and improve the College, and also to establish an academy in which the citizens and strangers might pursue more advanced and important studies.' He thus from the first disclosed his whole plan; which was that the College should consist of an elementary and a classical school, and that there should be an academy or university above it. But the times were stormy; political and theological contests were all-absorbing; there was a lack both of men and means, and sixteen years passed before any step was taken beyond the purchase of a house for the projected university. At length in 1558 the theological disputes were terminated, and the Libertines, who were completely defeated, had withdrawn from the contest. Calvin again submitted his proposition to the Council, asking them to take measures for procuring the necessary funds, and offering to assist in obtaining them. The Council summoned the notaries, 'in order to give them express commands that for the future, in drawing up wills, they should exhort their clients to leave a legacy for the support of the College.' They also set apart for this purpose a portion of the fines inflicted in the courts of justice. Calvin himself made a house-to-house collection, explaining fully the nature of the two establishments for which he was soliciting contributions. At the end of six months he presented the sum of ten thousand and twenty-four florins to the Council. [Footnote 135]
[Footnote 135: From 1,200l. to 1,600l.—some 30,000 or 40,000 francs.]
The work was immediately commenced, and the buildings were planned and laid out. Calvin had only just recovered from a very serious illness, but he insisted on being carried to the building, where he exhorted the workmen, and watched their progress from day to day; as active and influential in the public streets as in the Council chamber. The old college building was prepared for the reception of pupils. An unforeseen event was the means of providing Geneva with professors for the academy or university. The Government of Berne quarrelled with the majority of the pastors and professors of Lausanne on the subject of the right of excommunication. Many of the most eminent among them—Beza, Viret, Chevalier, Tagaut, and Berault—left Lausanne, and asked hospitality from Geneva. Calvin received them all gladly, and those who would be of use to the new university, with special warmth. Beza, who was already celebrated, was appointed rector of the university and professor of theology; Chevalier was named Professor of Hebrew, Tagaut of philosophy, and Berault of Greek. When all was thus completed, professors and material means provided, a solemn festival on the inauguration of the new institution was fixed for the 5th of June, 1559. Laymen and ecclesiastics, pastors, professors and students, magistrates and burgesses, assembled in St. Peter's church; Calvin was there, weak and exhausted by the sufferings which he had undergone for many months, and from which he was only beginning to recover. After an address, in which the magistrates congratulated their city on becoming 'at the same time the mother of science and of piety,' Beza spoke first, and as rector, addressed himself especially to the students: 'I implore you, in the name of God,' he said, 'not to be unfaithful to yourselves. There is a celebrated saying of Plato's that knowledge, if separated from justice and virtue, is only skill and not truth. Nothing is more natural than that pagan philosophers should have been unable to conform fully to all that this maxim implies. But you—how can you excuse yourselves if you fall short of it?—you who have sucked in the pure knowledge of God and of his truth with your mother's milk. You are assembled here, not like the Greeks, to take part in the exercise of intellectual dexterity or to behold the display of noble physical powers, but to undertake the earnest study of the highest truths and the most excellent sciences, to fit yourselves for glorifying the name of God, for becoming the blessing and ornament of your country: you have come here that at the last day you may, with all confidence, give an account to the Lord of the holy combat to which he has called you.' Calvin rose, added a few words, 'brief, clear and weighty, according to his custom;' he thanked God for the success of the work, expressed his gratitude to all who had given help, and closed the meeting by a prayer, in which he invoked the protection of God on the institution.
Calvin's prayers were answered from the very first by the success of the academy. 'There was a hall in the cloisters of St. Peter's church, in which classes were held, and the number of pupils attending them was so great, that the Council set apart the chapel of Notre Dame la Neuve, which was, after that, called the auditorium. A hundred and nine students received instruction from the new professors, and more than eight hundred theological students, consecrated to the propagation of the Gospel in France or Germany, gathered around Calvin.' [Footnote 136]
[Footnote 136: Gaberel, i. 507.]
This brilliant beginning was followed by permanent success; Calvin's system of public education has existed and prospered in Geneva for more than three centuries. He was not able at first to give it so large a development as he desired. He wished to establish schools of law and medicine in the University, and also of all the higher studies, but he could find neither the necessary professors nor the funds. At a later period, however, the University of Geneva was honoured by the presence of many men, illustrious in the world of science; Isaac Casaubon, Joseph Scaliger, and Hottoman were there, as professors of Greek, of philosophy, and of law. In our own day, Bonnet, De Saussure, Pictet, and De Candolle have shed upon Geneva the light and fame of their studies in natural science. The educational establishments of Geneva were so vigorous, and so firmly rooted in their native soil, that they withstood the effect of revolutions which changed the face of the country. My mother, guided by her great intelligence and entire devotion to my education, took me to Geneva in 1799, in order that I might obtain a classical and complete education, for which there was not at that time any facility in France. Geneva had then become a French Department; but the college, the university, the lecture-halls for literature and philosophy, had survived the fall of its national existence. The republic of Geneva had disappeared, but the religious reformation and the system of public education established by Calvin, the theological and scientific professorships which he had founded, were still in existence, and doing good work. Internal revolutions have again changed the face of Geneva, but Calvin's work goes on; his anniversary is still celebrated, and a new building has been recently dedicated to the cause which he promoted, and to the honour of his name.