The bishop no longer hesitated. When he had asked the general council to recognise his sovereignty, the magistrates had replied by limiting it according to the constitutions of the people. It was necessary therefore to renounce all idea of reigning with mildness, and to govern by force. Pierre de la Baume was not the first bishop excluded from his episcopal city, who had reentered it with thoughts of violence. Tales of unheard-of cruelties had been imprinted on the memory of the people. In the tenth century, the bishop of Cambray having been driven from his city by the burgesses who were exasperated against him, had returned with foreign soldiers; and these mercenaries, the ministers of his revenge, had pursued the citizens even into the churches, killing some, cutting off the hands and feet of others, putting out the eyes of some, and branding many on the forehead with a red-hot iron.[756] About two centuries later, another bishop also returning forcibly into his city, his followers had seized one of the most respected and wealthy citizens, notwithstanding the promise to spare his life, and had fastened him by the feet to the tail of a horse, which they forced into a gallop.[757] The bishop of Geneva did not purpose imitating these episcopal proceedings; manners, though rude, were softened; he meant to content himself with less. He would have the principal supporters of the Reformation and of Geneva seized, and would get rid of them simply by the sword—either in Geneva, as in the case of Berthelier, or in some lonely castle, as in the case of Levrier. Then the prince-bishop would exercise, without control and in his own way, that sovereignty which appeared to him absolutely necessary in order to stifle the protestantism of some and the independence of others.
Freed from the importunate antiquarians who put their trust in dusty charters, the bishop began to prepare for the execution of his designs. He counted his forces and felt sure of victory. In the first place there was the Council, which, being mostly catholic, supported him at heart; then there were the priests and their adherents; then the Friburgers; then the banished mamelukes, and finally a certain class of people, skilful in the use of the arquebuse, 'and who would handle it well,' said the bishop. The total of his partisans being thus reckoned, the bishop enquired who were the huguenot chiefs he ought to get rid of. It is hardly probable that La Baume did this alone or simply aided by one of his secretaries or officers of justice. Weakness was one of the most marked features of his character; he had no energy, although he sometimes pretended the contrary. But those around him made up for it. The proscription that he was about to carry into execution was essentially due to the encouragements and solicitations of the enemies of the Reformation and of independence. 'Finding himself strong and powerful,' says a contemporary, 'both on the part of the Friburgers and of the enemies of God and the city (namely, the mamelukes) who were now within the walls, the bishop desired to exercise his tyranny.'[758] Some of his friends shrank from such severity, and would have desired to divert him from it; but the most violent men prevailed. 'My lord,' they said, 'must exercise his power against certain citizens and burgesses, and by this means extirpate and eradicate the Lutheran sect and heresy.'[759]
=PROSCRIPTIONS.=
The proscribed were selected indifferently from among the evangelicals and huguenots. One of the first pointed at was Chautemps. He was not only a heretic, but his children had been trained up in heresy, and he had kept for a long time in his house Olivetan, the translator of the Bible, who had dared reprimand a dominican preacher in full church. Aimé Levet came next; at his house the religious meetings were most frequently held. Pierre Vandel—youngest son of that Claude, whom twenty years before Bishop John of Savoy had cast into prison[760]—a man of resolute character, readily putting himself in the foreground, was joined with the other two. Ami Perrin did not belong to the evangelicals properly so called, but he had been the chief of the four huguenots whose zeal for controversy had proved so embarrassing to the vicar of the Madeleine, and passed for the boldest of all the band. Others were afterwards pointed out: Jean Pecolat, an ill-sounding name in episcopal ears; Domaine d'Arlod, Jean Veillard, Anthonin Derbey, Henry Doulens, Jacques Fichet, Claude de Genève, and Philibert de Compey, a nobleman in high esteem. Although a Savoyard and of gentle birth, Philibert was huguenot at heart; the count of Genevois took advantage of the opportunity to confiscate all his lands and lordships, 'and the poor pervert was deprived of his property,' says a contemporary. There were still a few more whose arrest was determined on, and among them Pasta and Rozetta.[761] The bishop and his friends, all full of zeal, hoped to catch other citizens after these;[762] but they thought it prudent not to do everything at once. If the first attempt succeeded, they would follow it up by a second, and would lay their hands upon such citizens as they had not thought of at first. 'I have proscribed all those whom I can remember; those whom I have forgotten I will proscribe as they recur to my mind.' This saying of a great master in the art, found its application in Geneva.[763]
The bishop, having ended his first task, began to consider how he could lay hold of the proscribed, which was no easy matter. The most natural way would have been to capture each of them in his own house; but he feared, that if he went to work in that fashion, some would hide themselves, others would escape, and others would be rescued in the streets. The alarm would spread in a moment, and the daring huguenots would entrench themselves in Baudichon de la Maisonneuve's house. Above all, Pierre de la Baume was wanting in frankness; he excelled, whenever he pleased, in appearing amiable to those whom he hated. He resolved to give them an invitation, and to hold out his hand graciously to the men whose death he was plotting. He will invite them to his palace, 'trusting in his faith,' but without keeping it.[764] He will thus take them all by one cast of the net, then he will tie the knot, and the poor wretches shall leave the saloons of the palace only to descend to its dungeons. It was thought an excellent stratagem, and preparations were made for carrying it out.
The next day, July 5th, the bishop's officers called on the citizens entered in the black list, and in his name gave them an invitation, which must have appeared to them either a great honour or a treacherous snare. If any of them raised objections, the messengers assured them, in the prelate's name, that no harm would come to them. Some through candour, others from ignorance, and others also from rashness, proceeded to the episcopal palace. They had put on their finest suits and wore their swords. What could the bishop want with them?... Probably to obtain some concessions, and they were firmly decided not to make any.
Others, who were more clear-sighted or more prudent, took to flight. The clerical riots which had preceded the bishop's coming, the unsatisfactory company by which he was surrounded, and the demands he had made—all combined to give food for thought to minds possessed of any discernment. Women, more keen or more timid, generally see clearer in such cases than men: their conjugal love takes the alarm. It would appear that Claudine Levet and Jaquéma Chautemps felt all the tender solicitude of their sex, and conjured their husbands not to place themselves in the cruel hands of the bishop, and to quit their homes, their children, and their country which they could now serve better abroad. These two excellent christians were among the number of those who escaped. Maisonneuve, against whom the mamelukes were much irritated, set out for Berne, full of indignation against the bishop's tyranny. To this city, next to God, he always looked for deliverance. Several others also quitted Geneva.[765]
=HUGUENOTS ENTRAPPED.=
Meantime Perrin, D'Arlod, Vandel, and their friends proceeded to the palace. The gates opened before them and they entered my lord's antechambers. But they had hardly arrived, reckoning on the gracious audience that had been promised them, when they were seized, heavily fettered, and led away to the episcopal prison.[766] The impetuous Perrin and the courageous Vandel were compelled to yield to force. The bishop's officers took them down into the dungeons, and as if cords, iron doors, and bolts were not enough, their feet were set in the stocks and their hands were manacled.[767]
=CONJUGAL DEVOTION.=