=THE INTERDICT OF THE COUNCIL.=
On the 24th of June, Councillor Laurent Brandebourg arrived at Geneva, and having been introduced to the council, he complained, in the name of the catholic canton, of what had taken place, and particularly of the books and placards which led men to 'the new law,' and threw contempt on the authority of the bishop and the pope. 'Everybody assures us,' he said, 'that you belong to the Lutheran party. If it be so, gentlemen, we shall tear up the act of alliance and throw the pieces at your feet.' These words, accompanied by a corresponding gesture, alarmed the council. 'The Friburg alliance has never been more necessary than now,' they whispered to one another. There were still among the Genevans many zealous Roman-catholics; the evangelicals were the rare exceptions; a great number, as we have said, held to a certain negative middle way. The threats of Friburg disturbed the magistrates. 'We are not Lutherans,' answered the premier syndic. 'Well, then,' resumed the catholic Brandebourg, 'summon Goulaz before the ecclesiastical court.' The council replied that the general pardons had been stuck up without their knowledge, that they disapproved of such excesses, that Goulaz had only struck the canon in self-defence, after having received a blow and seen him draw his sword, and that, nevertheless, he had been fined. The council added that they would go further to satisfy Friburg. Immediately they forbade, by sound of trumpet, any papers to be posted up without their permission; and then, as the priests cried out louder against Olivétan than against Goulaz, the syndics ordered that, 'for the present, the schoolmaster should discontinue preaching the Gospel.'[907] They fancied they had thus completely rooted out the evil. The ultramontane party, delighted at this triumph, thought the moment had arrived for effecting a thorough reaction. The priests began to search after the Holy Scriptures, visiting every family, and demanding the surrender of their New Testaments.
The people began to murmur. 'The priests want to rob us of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,' said the huguenots, 'and in its place they will give us ... what?... Romish fables.... We must begin again to read the stories in the Golden Legend. Really it is quite enough to hear them at church.' Baudichon de la Maison-Neuve and his friends urged the council to show themselves christians. They represented that it was shameful to see priests and monks set so little store by the gospels and epistles, and fill the ears of their congregations with human inventions. Olivétan had often told them that there was no intention of introducing a new religion, but of reestablishing an old one—that of the apostles. This idea, so simple and so true, was easily understood. The triumph of which the priests had dreamt was changed into a triumph for the Gospel. 'The party of the Lutherans,' says an ancient manuscript, 'or, as they called themselves, of the evangelicals, became more numerous and stronger every day among the magistrates and people.'[908] The friends of the Reformation who were on the council began to speak out boldly of the rights of the Word of God. Others who were not Lutherans were generally honest men, and they thought it very christian-like, and even quite catholic, to preach the Gospel, and not mere fables. They were unwilling that it should be said of the Church to which they belonged, that it was supported by visions and sham miracles. The council therefore ordered (unanimously, as it would appear) the grand vicar, De Gingins of Bonmont, 'to take measures that in every parish and convent the Gospel should be preached according to the truth, without any mixture of fables or other human inventions.'[909] The evangelicals, in their turn, were delighted at this order. They knew that the magistrates did not intend abolishing the Roman worship; yet it was the first official act in Geneva in a direction favourable to the Reformation. They accordingly showed great respect for the syndics under whom this decree was passed: they were Guillaume Hugues, Besançon's brother; Claude Savoie, a man of great energy; Claude du Molard, and Ami Porral, a clever, intelligent man, already gained to the Gospel.
=NUNCIO AND ARCHBISHOP AT CHAMBÉRY.=
Without the city, men's opinions were very different. The preachings 'in the houses of Geneva, the abominable Lutheran heresy that was taught even in the schools,'[910] had caused a lively emotion in the catholic provinces adjoining the city, which was increased by the general pardon of Jesus Christ. At Chambéry people's minds were greatly agitated. Some, losing all self-control, would have liked to see the thunderbolts of heaven hurled against Geneva; others, more merciful and perhaps more prudent, would have entreated the Genevese, even with tears, to remain faithful to the papacy. There happened at this time to be a great crowd of priests at the palace of the Bishop of Chambéry; a papal nuncio was passing through that city, and the archbishop, the nuncio, and his attendants had some conversation about Geneva, loudly deploring its apostasy. The nuncio, a violent Romanist, would immediately have brought the facts to the knowledge of the pope, in order that the court of Rome should take proceedings in conformity with the severity of the ecclesiastical laws. The archbishop checked him; he preferred making a prior application to the council. Accordingly he wrote a letter to the syndics, in which, after mentioning the various charges against the Genevese, he added: 'Can it be true that such things are taking place in a city so long renowned for its faith?... This would be so serious a matter that we should be compelled to report it immediately to Rome.... Put it in our power to tell the holy father that you will preserve a perpetual confidence in the holy apostolic see.'[911]
The syndics, who had no desire to declare either in favour of Rome or of Wittemberg, were greatly embarrassed. One of them, however, found a way of getting out of the difficulty. 'Let us make no reply,' he said. When the archbishop's messenger came for their answer, the syndics called him before them, and gave him this verbal message: 'Tell Monseigneur that we desire to live in a christian manner, and in accordance with the law of Christ.' The archbishop, the nuncio, and the pope might understand that as they pleased. It was soon seen that Rome and Savoy had no intention of permitting Geneva to live according to that law of Christ which the city had invoked.
But if the papacy was uneasy, evangelical christians rejoiced. They believed that an important position had been gained by the Reformation, and, supposing the Genevese to be more advanced in the faith than they really were, rejoiced in anticipation over the victories which these new members of the evangelical body would win for their common standard. 'The Genevans,' said one of them, 'are true christian knights, who, having no respect for men who will soon pass away, do not fear to offend their superiors, the enemies of truth.'—'The Genevans,' said another, 'are energetic men: if they embrace the Gospel, they will know how to propagate it elsewhere.'[912]
The old evangelicals went further than this: they felt full of love for the new brethren. They desired to give them a welcome, to stretch out the hand of brotherhood to them, to receive them, with the charity of Christ, into that small and humble Church which was to increase from year to year and from age to age. They were not too sanguine, however: they knew the moral state of the Genevans; they knew that the little flock was still weak, and but just beginning to pronounce the name of Christ and to walk in his way. These old christians desired, therefore, to approach it as a father approaches his child, to take it by the hand, to point out the dangers by which it was surrounded, and to conjure it to remain firm, and to increase in that faith which it was beginning to confess boldly.
=LETTER FROM THE BRETHREN AT PAYERNE.=