De la Maisonneuve gave the necessary orders for placing the people. The assembly, although respectful, was profoundly agitated. In the place where they had met, men of different parties crowded together: the opportunity of hearing the famous Farel, and the object which such meetings were to attain, namely, a change in the religion of Geneva—all stirred their minds deeply. But if there was any unbecoming movement, Maisonneuve, from his elevated place, imposed silence by his hand. At length the reformer appeared. The catholics were astonished when they saw him: ‘What!’ they said, ‘no sacerdotal ornaments! He is dressed like a layman, with a Spanish cloak and brimmed cap.’[[494]] But under that cap and cloak lay hid what was rarely found beneath the robes of priests—an ardent soul, a heart overflowing with love, and such eloquence that the hearers exclaimed, as Calvin did once: ‘Your thunders have caused an indescribable trouble in my soul.’[[495]] Farel began to speak: borrowing his fire from the writings of the prophets and apostles, says one of his biographers, he enlightened and inflamed the heart.[[496]] He excited in many a lively feeling of love for Christ. God, as Calvin says, was at work in his own through the ministry of the reformer. Some began to consider and to relish the grace which they had formerly swallowed without tasting.[[497]] The assembly was charmed and enraptured; the souls of many were inflamed by the ardor of the divine spirit.
Among the Franciscans who listened to Farel was Jacques Bernard, belonging to one of the best families in Geneva. He was lively, intelligent, learned, and defiant, and had long been a sincere worshipper of the Virgin. He had often spoken violently against the reformers, and a few days before, meeting Farel and Viret, he told them with a scowl: ‘In times past there were schismatics enough who forbade men to salute the Virgin and make the sign of the cross.’ Then, without another word, he rudely turned his back on them. But on this occasion no one in the grand auditory was more attentive than Jacques. God gave him new eyes and new ears. It has been said that the convent at Rive was to him as the road to Damascus—that there this new Saul became a new Paul.[[498]] This first preaching of Farel’s contributed at least to Bernard’s conversion, and ere long he maintained courageously the truths he had once so much attacked.
But this light, which had enlightened some, blinded others. The wrath of the men devoted to the papacy knew no bounds; they indulged in terrible bursts of passion, and their followers spread the flames through the city. The conflagration broke out the next day. The Two Hundred were hardly met, when Nicholas du Crest, the three Malbuissons, Girardin, and Philip de la Rive, with several others, appeared before them and said: A minister preached the new law yesterday in the cloister at Rive; we wish to know if it was with your consent. At the same moment the ambassadors of Berne arrived and held very different language: ‘What we have so long asked for,’ they said, ‘has been accomplished by the inspiration of God, without our knowing anything of it. The place which you had refused us has been given by the Lord himself. Yes, God, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, has put it into the hearts of your citizens to have the Gospel preached in the grand auditory. Permit the minister to continue his preaching in that place, and give no annoyance to such as may go to hear him.’
Farel Continues To Preach.
Although, to satisfy the catholics, the Council had at first hinted to the Bernese that as they were returning home, it would be very natural that they should take their ministers with them, Farel continued to preach every day to numerous congregations. His hearers were more convinced than ever of the errors of Rome and of the truth of the evangelical doctrine—things which appeared to them as clear as the day. Many threw aside their supineness; their contrite hearts joyfully received the Saviour’s pardon, and, ‘caring no longer for the frivolous things so esteemed by the papists,’ devoted themselves to works of true innocence and charity. There was great cheerfulness in Geneva. Bands of people paraded the city with songs of joy; groups assembled at the Molard and conversed of the extraordinary things that were taking place. The evangelicals no longer doubted of the victory. A young Savoyard, named Henry Percyn, approaching one of these groups, recognized Baudichon de la Maisonneuve, who, surrounded by several Lutherans, ‘was talking to some catholics who were there.’ The latter defended their Church: ‘Are these three chimney-preachers better than pope, bishop, canons, priests, and monks?’ Maisonneuve replied: ‘I will bet one hundred crowns to fifty, that next Easter not a single mass will be celebrated in Geneva.’ None of the catholics would accept the wager. Baudichon was mistaken, but by a few months only.[[499]]
On Saturday, the 7th of March, the Bernese ambassadors attended the evangelical assembly for the last time. They were leaving Farel, Viret, and Froment without protection in the midst of deadly enemies, and without force to resist them alone. Accordingly, as soon as the service was ended, they rose and said: ‘Farewell, gentlemen of Geneva, we commend our preachers to you.’[[500]]—‘It is not necessary to commend them,’ answered a Genevese, ‘we know the danger they incur in trying to rescue the people from the slavery into which they have fallen.’ As he left the hall, Claude Bernard took the three evangelists home to his house, where they lived henceforward.
De la Maisonneuve departed about the same time as the Bernese, on his way to Frankfort on business. At a date we cannot fix he took Farel and Viret to Lausanne to ‘similarly seduce’ the inhabitants of that city; but the Lausannese, the priests and their friends (for the middle-class was favorable to the Reform), ‘drove the preachers away.’ It is scarcely probable that the two reformers should have chosen to leave Geneva at the important epoch of which we are treating; and yet a contemporary document would lead us to believe so. When De la Maisonneuve reached Frankfort, he conversed with the Lutherans and communicated, as it would seem, according to the ritual of Luther.[[501]]
Shortly after this, Portier was convicted of having conspired with the bishop against the liberty of the city, and condemned to lose his head. The law having punished the guilty, the public conscience was satisfied. It is necessary that justice should reign among nations; when it is trampled under foot and the guilty are held to be innocent, there rises in the breasts of the good a cry of sorrow, we will not say of revenge. But that condemnation was big with important consequences for Geneva; it was, says the chronicler, ‘a terror to the creatures of the bishop.’ As Portier had only carried out the orders of the prince, the condemnation of the servant was that of the master. The episcopal agents began to understand that they must obey the laws and pay respect to lay tribunals. The power of the episcopal faction was broken.[[502]]
Farel’s Progress.
Farel became more energetic, while, on the other hand, the Franciscan preacher did all he could to support the tottering papacy. It was not only in the same country that these two contrary systems were then in conflict: it was in the same city, in the same house,—the monastery at Rive. One day the cordelier taught in the church that ‘the wafer ceases to be bread, and that the mouth receives the body of Jesus Christ;’ while Farel said in the cloister: ‘It is true that the life is enclosed in the body of Christ; but we have no communion with him except by a true faith. Faith is the mouth of the soul to receive the Saviour.’ In the church the cordelier encouraged the purchase of indulgences, the practice of penances and satisfactions; but in the grand auditory Farel exclaimed: ‘All our sins are pardoned freely. How dare the monks, then, set up their satisfactions, which the Word of God has shattered to pieces?’[[503]] Gradually the cordelier lowered his tone: the powerful voice of Farel was reducing him to silence. ‘You must know,’ wrote Madame de la Maisonneuve to her husband, who was at Frankfort, ‘you must know that Master William does his duty bravely in announcing the Word of God.’ She added: ‘We have had no prohibitions: nobody contradicts us. Our business increases greatly.’[[504]]