Thus did liberty triumph. The Genevese people had restored their franchises, dismissed the mamelukes, rejected the cruel protectorate of Charles III., sought the alliance of Switzerland; and after all that, they gave God the glory.[399]
As the cause of Savoy was lost, the bishop, so long wavering, made a show of placing himself on the side of the free and the bold. He sent Pierre Bertholo to carry this important news to Jean Philippe and all those exiles of whom he was so afraid. The latter had not lost their time; they endeavoured to enlighten the Swiss, and Hugues continually argued and repeated that Geneva was not under subjection to the duke. At this time Bertholo arrived. ‘The ordinances of Savoy are repealed,’ he told the refugees; ‘patriots replace the serviles everywhere, and one of you has been elected syndic—Jean Philippe!’ They could hardly believe this news. What! one of these wretched fugitives, of these mendicants (as their enemies called them), raised by the people of Geneva to the head of the State!... What a refutation of the ducal calumnies! But the ‘foreigners’ did not forget themselves in the joy which this message caused them. Taking Bertholo with them, they proceeded to the Bernese council, and reported the unexpected intelligence brought by the messenger. ‘Up to the present time,’ said the avoyer, ‘I have invited Besançon Hugues alone, as your chief, to sit down at my side; now, Messire Jean Philippe, take your seat above Besançon, as syndic of Geneva.’ The alliance would no longer meet with obstacles. ‘We accept you as fellow-freemen,’ continued the avoyer, ‘without heed to those growlers and their threats, which do not last long now-a-days.’[400]
The people of Geneva were about to rise, if we may so speak, from the grave. They had acted with decision, with energy, with unwavering firmness. They desired to have for their magistrates none but men able to maintain their laws and independence, and had boldly erased from the code of the republic all ordinances contrary to the liberties of Geneva. Accordingly, ‘a person of mark,’ who lived at the beginning of the seventeenth century, exclaimed, after studying these facts: ‘This history is a marvellous one, and calls to my mind a tract in the Philetes of Plato, touching the moral good comprised in the three ideas: Reality, Proportion, and Truth. It is full of the special marks of the wise and merciful providence of God, who has guided, up to this present hour, this ship of his miracles through an infinity of shoals. The more thoroughly we contemplate human action, so much the deeper appear the counsels of God.’[401] What we are about to see appears to confirm these words.
CHAPTER XXVII.
GENEVA AND THE SWISS ALLIED. THE BISHOP, THE DUCALS, AND THE CANONS ESCAPE. JOY OF THE PEOPLE.
(February To August 1526.)
Then a step was taken without which the Reformation would never have been established in Geneva. In the morning of the 20th of February the representatives of Berne, Friburg, and Geneva resolved to conclude solemnly the alliance between the three cities, for which the people had sighed during so many years. They met, they gave their hands, affection and confidence were in every feature. ‘In the name of the most holy and most high Trinity,’ said the three free states, ‘in the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we reciprocally promise mutual friendship and intercourse in order that we may be able to preserve the good that God has given us in justice, repose, and true peace.... And if hereafter one or many should wish to molest the syndics, councils, or freemen of the city of Geneva in their persons, honour, goods, or estate, we, the avoyers, councils, and freemen of the cities of Berne and Friburg—by virtue of our oath made and sworn—are bound to give the said city favour, aid, and succour, and to march out our armies ... at their charge, however.’[402] The required formalities having been fulfilled: ‘Gentlemen,’ said Jean Philippe, ‘we will depart and carry this good news ourselves to our country.’ The councils of Berne and Friburg ordered that a number of deputies from each canton equal to that of the fugitives should accompany them, with power to seal the alliance at Geneva. All the exiles left on the same day; but how different was the return from that breathless flight which had not long ago brought them to Friburg! ‘They went, not in fear and dread as they had come, but taking the high road through the Pays de Vaud, where all strove to do them honour; for,’ says Bonivard, ‘they still smelt the reek of the roast meat of Morat.’
On the 23rd of February the news of the speedy arrival of the exiles and delegates of the cantons spread through Geneva; citizen told it to citizen, great was the joy, and arrangements were made for their reception. The syndics on horseback, carrying their batons, followed by all who had horses, went out to meet them, and the people collected near the Swiss gate to receive them. A salute of guns announced their approach. They walked three abreast: in the middle was a Genevan fugitive, on his right and left a deputy of Berne and of Friburg: this order, continued through the whole line, announced more clearly than all the rest the close union of the three cities. Geneva, allied to the Swiss, might be able to preserve its independence; Geneva was saved. A conversion had been wrought in its people. Hitherto they had turned to the south; now they turned towards the north: they began to cast off Rome and to catch a glimpse of Wittemberg. There are certain movements in nations that transform their destinies. The citizens could not take their eyes off those unhappy men who had had such difficulty in escaping the archers of Savoy, and who, strange to say, were returning holding Berne and Friburg by the hand. They had gone away, still disposed to appeal to Rome; but having heard much talk in Switzerland of the Reformation, they were to be the first to welcome Farel and the Gospel to Geneva.... Relations and friends pressed in their arms these fugitives, whom they had thought they should never see again. ‘They were sumptuously entertained at the hôtel-de-ville. A morality on the said alliance was performed, and a bonfire was lighted on the Place Molard.’[403] The Council of Two Hundred was convened.
This important council assembled, but instead of two hundred citizens, three hundred and twenty met together. This sitting was to be a festival; everybody desired to be present. It was known that Hugues would speak: the respect they felt for the great citizen and his companions in misfortune, the adventures he had to relate, mixed up (it was reported) with strange facts, excited interest and curiosity. Hugues rose to speak: there was deep silence: ‘You know, sirs,’ he began, ‘that five or six months ago, on the morrow of Holy Cross (September 15, 1525), we left here in great haste by different roads; without communicating with one another, not knowing where to go to escape the rage of the most illustrious duke, Monseigneur of Savoy. We were warned by friends that, on the demand of certain persons in this city, the prince was resolved to take us and put us ignominiously to death, because we had resisted innovations opposed to our liberties. Ah! sirs, that was no child’s play, believe me. The archers and agents of my lord of Savoy pursued us as far as St. Claude, from St. Claude to Besançon, and beyond.... We had to travel day and night in the woods, through wind and rain, not knowing where to go in quest of safety.... At last we considered that we had friends at Friburg, and thither we went.’
The citizens, riveting their eyes on Hugues, did not lose a word of his narrative and of the details which he added. They seemed to bear him company through those woods and mountains, among the ravines and snow; they fancied they heard behind them the tramp of the armed men in pursuit of them.... What struck them was not only the epic element in the flight and return of these free men, of which ancient Greece would doubtless have made one of the finest myths in her history; it was in an especial manner the sovereign importance which these acts had for them. During those sacred days, Geneva and her destinies had turned on their axis; her gates were opened on the side of light and liberty; the flight, the residence at Berne and Friburg, and the return of Hugues and his companions, are one of the most important pages in the annals of the city.
Hugues continued: he told them how Friburg and Berne had seen no other means of securing their liberties than by receiving them into their alliance.... ‘Here are the letters duly sealed with their great seals,’ said the noble orator, presenting a parchment. ‘They are written in German; but I will tell you their substance, article by article, without deceiving you in any—on my life.’ He read the act of alliance, and added: ‘Sirs, my comrades and I here present promise you, on our lives and goods, that the said citizenship is such. Consider, sirs, if you will ratify and accept it.’ The assembly testified its approbation with thanks to God, and resolved to convoke a general council for the next day.[404]
The catholic party and the ducal party were aroused. The Swiss alliance, an immense innovation, threatened all the conquests they had made with so much trouble in Geneva during so many generations. The bishop, full of uneasiness, consulted with the canons and some others on whom he thought he could rely. All told him that if Berne had its way in Geneva, there would be no more bishop, no more prince. To work then! All the powers of feudalism and the papacy conspired against an alliance which first gave Geneva liberty and afterwards the Gospel. At first they wished to prevent the general council from meeting. It was customary to summon it by tolling the great bell; now Canon Lutry had the key of the tower where this bell hung. In the evening the reverend father, followed by some armed men, climbed step by step up the narrow stairs which led to the bell-loft, and placed the men in garrison there. ‘You are here,’ he said, ‘to defend the bell and not to give it up;’ he then went down, double-locked the door, and carried away the key. In the morning the door was found to be locked, and Lutry refused to open it. ‘The canons,’ it was said in the city, ‘are opposed to the assembling of the people.’ The irritated citizens ran together. ‘Whereupon there was a great uproar and alarm in the church of St. Pierre, so that De Lutry was constrained to open the door and give up the bell.’[405]