The duke, who was delighted at these letters of the emperor, began to take such measures as would enable him to profit by them. Since the puissant Charles V. gives Geneva to his son, he will go in quest of the young prince's new states. In the following month (May 1532) everything foreboded that some new attack was preparing against Geneva. There was great commotion in the castles; trumpets were sounding, banners flying, and priests raising loud their voices. It might have been imagined that they were preparing for a crusade like those which had taken place of yore against the Albigenses or the Saracens. The Genevans, who had not a moment's repose, mournfully told one another the news. 'In the states of Savoy there are loud rumours of war,' they said; 'the nobles are enraged against the evangelicals, whom they call Lutherans; and some of the gentry are assembled already, and going to and fro under arms.' The citizens did not give way to dejection; on the contrary, the knowledge of these intrigues and preparations made them long the more earnestly for the emancipation of Geneva. They said that from the day when the pope had deprived the citizens of the choice of their ruler, and had nominated creatures or members of the house of Savoy as bishops at Geneva, there had been in the city nothing but disorders, violence, extortion, imprisonment, confiscations, tortures, and cruel punishments. They asked if it was not time to return to the primitive form of Christianity, to the popular organisation of the Church; they repeated that Geneva would never secure her independence and her liberty, except by trusting to the great principles of the Reformation. 'Zurich,' they said, 'has resumed the rights which Rome had taken away: it is time that Geneva followed her example.'[890]
=NEGATIVE PROTESTANTISM INSUFFICIENT.=
The Reformation was neither a movement of liberty nor a philosophical development, but a christian, a heavenly renewal. It sought after God, and, having found him, restored him to man: that was its work. But, at the same time, wherever it was established, at least under the Calvinistic form, civil liberty followed it. We must acknowledge, however, that the reformers, with the exception of Zwingle, did not trouble themselves much about this. It was grace that filled them with enthusiasm. It was the great idea of a free pardon, and not artillery, which shattered the power of the pope. Every man was then invited to the foot of the cross, to receive immediately from Christ, and through no sacerdotal channel, an inestimable gift. But Christianity, which the priesthood had monopolised, vitiated, and made a trade of during the middle ages, became common property in the sixteenth century. It passed from the pomps of the altar to men of humble and contrite heart, from the gloomy and solitary cloisters to the domestic hearth, from isolated Rome to universal society. Once more launched into the midst of the nations, it everywhere restored to man faith, hope, and morality, light, liberty, and life.
=OLIVÉTAN ARRIVES AT GENEVA.=
At the very time when a beautiful princess was coveting Geneva, an ambitious duke intriguing, and courtiers agitating, and when a puissant monarch was granting his imperial favours, a humble schoolmaster arrived in the city. And while all those pomps and ceremonies were among the number of things worn out and passing away, this teacher brought with him the principles of a new life. Farel, as we have seen, ardently desired that the Word of God should be circulated and even publicly preached at Geneva. He thought that then only would the Reformation be truly established and independence secured. It is probable that the person who arrived in this city, and whom he had long known, was sent by him; but we have no proof that such was the case. However, this man was not, properly speaking, a preacher; he was merely a schoolmaster, and yet he was to perform a work greater than that of the emperor. At that time Geneva passed for protestant; but her protestantism was limited to throwing off despotism and superstition. But it is not sufficient to reject what is false; the truth preached by Christ and the apostles must be believed. Faith is the principle of the Reformation. There was at Geneva, to some extent, that negative protestantism which rejects not only the abuses of popery, but also evangelical truth itself; which can create nothing, and which is little else than a form—and certainly one of the least interesting forms—of philosophy. If Geneva was to be reformed, to become a centre of light and morality, and to maintain her political independence, she must have a positive and living christianity; and it was this that Olivétan, Farel, and Calvin were about to bring her.
=CHARACTER OF CHAUTEMPS.=
In the street of the Croix d'Or, not far from the Place du Molard, lived an enlightened, wealthy, and influential citizen, Jean Chautemps, a member of council. He was a quiet and conscientious man, yielding unhesitatingly to his convictions. Chautemps valued learning highly, and having sons desired to see them well educated. People spoke to him of a Frenchman, born at Noyon, in Picardy, who, after a long residence at Paris, had been compelled to leave France in consequence of one of the attacks so frequently made upon the Lutherans at that time. 'Besides,' added his informant, 'he is a very learned man.' Indeed, without being either a Reuchlin in Hebrew or a Melanchthon in Greek, he had a sound knowledge of both languages; it was his practice to read the Holy Scriptures in the original text, and he was fond of inserting in his writings passages from the Old Testament, where they still appear in beautiful Hebrew characters, in the midst of his antiquated French. His name was Peter Robert Olivétan—the same who, during his residence in Paris, had had the happiness of bringing to a knowledge of evangelical truth one of his cousins and fellow-townsmen, John Calvin. Chautemps, considering it fortunate to have such a master for his children, received him into his house.
Calvin's cousin boldly set to work. He taught his patron's children, and, as it would appear, some others that had been placed with them. He taught with love and clearness, according to 'the right mode' of Mathurin Cordier, whom he had known at Paris. He believed, as Calvin says, that 'roughness and servile austerity excite children to rebellion, and extinguish in them the holy affections of love and reverence,' and he strove 'by moderate and kind treatment to increase in them the will and readiness to obey.'[891]
The schoolmaster, as he is termed in the Registers of the Council of Geneva, did not restrict himself to teaching Latin and Greek. He was simple and modest, and calls himself, in the preface to the book which has immortalised him (the translation of the Bible), 'the humble and lowly translator.' But God had kindled a divine fire in his heart. He believed that the christian ought to carry a lighted lamp in his hand to show others the way of life, and he never failed to do so. He sometimes accompanied Chautemps to the churches, and was observed to be deeply moved by the errors which he heard there; he would leave the temple in agitation, return home, and, seated with his patron, refute by Holy Scripture the opinions of the priests, and faithfully explain the true Christian doctrine. The councillor, who had early sided with those who inclined towards the Reformation, was struck with these conversations, and, far from resisting the truth that was set before him, joyfully yielded himself to it. He presently displayed, according to Froment's testimony, 'if not a perfect knowledge, at least a great desire for learning, with much love and zeal to show himself as a friend of the Reformation.'[892] From that hour the pious councillor always came forward whenever there was a question of upholding the evangelical cause in Geneva. When that great missionary, Farel, arrived, Chautemps was among the first to welcome him. When a dispute occurred with the curate of St. Magdalen's, he was one of those who defended the teaching of the Scriptures.[893] And subsequently he boldly declared, in full council, that he desired to live according to the Gospel and the Word of God.[894]
Olivétan's zeal was not confined to the house in which he lived; he laboured to make the Gospel known to the councillor's friends, and even to everybody whom he found accessible to the Divine Word. He exerted himself, and overcame obstacles; by means of the Scriptures he endeavoured to 'point out with gentleness' to the priests the errors which they taught, and would not allow himself to be hindered by any fear. Such zeal was not without danger, for the priests had still much power in Geneva. Chautemps and his friends accordingly advised Olivétan to be prudent, lest he should come to harm; but the schoolmaster said like his cousin: 'It is God's will that his truth should be proclaimed, happen what may; it must be published, even should the depths of hell pour forth their rage against it.[895] Olivétan once reproved a priest with so much boldness that the latter stirred up all the clergy against him, and he was ordered (without being brought to trial) to leave the city; but this belongs to a later time.