As sovereignty in matters of state belongs to the assembly of all the citizens, it was supposed with still further reason, that to the same body, convened according to the ancient customs, belonged the right of proclaiming the evangelical doctrine. On Friday, the 19th of May, Farel, accompanied by Antoine Saunier, his old travelling companion in the valleys, and by the pastor Henri de la Mare, appeared before the council. 'Most honored lords,' he said, 'it is of great importance for all the people to live in strict union. To get rid of the quarrels, jeers, reproaches, and dissensions, which the fretful disposition of our nation may occasion every day, we must employ mildness; and, further still, we must manifest our concord. Seeing that there is one only truth of God, all the people should declare their intention to adhere to it with one and the same heart.' The council approved of the proposition, and resolved to call together the council-general for a confession of faith, on Sunday, the 21st of May. At Augsburg it was the priests and doctors who had confessed the doctrine; at Geneva, it was to be the whole nation.[747] The difference between the two reforms is natural. Democracy ruled in Geneva, and it had become all the dearer to the citizens from their conviction that if the liberties of nations had been taken away, the crime lay at the door of the papacy. Calvin has repeated this more than once. It has been said that the communes, the liberties of the Middle Ages, issued from the furrow and the shop.[748] From the shop came specially the liberty of Geneva. The Burgundians who settled there were traders, and willingly exchanged their arms for merchandise. Some of the heroes of Geneva, whose devotedness reminds us of ancient times, sprang from the counter or the factory.

=ROMAN-CATHOLICS IN GENEVA.=

Still an appeal to the people was a bold measure, for there yet existed among the citizens, and even in the council, many decided adversaries of reform, and some of them were among the most eminent men. Might not such an appeal stir up an opposition which would overthrow all that had been done? The position of the Roman-catholics was most serious. They were required to conform to the Gospel. Could they do so? Their consciences forbade them. Were they to refuse, they would disturb the unanimity and harmony so necessary to the people at that juncture. Pierre Lullin, almost a septuagenarian, uncle of the haughty huguenot Jean Lullin, was one of the most fervent catholics in Geneva. Unable to do without the mass, he had asked, in September 1535, to be allowed to have it performed by a priest in a chapel of St. Gervais, which was his private property. Another eminent man, Syndic Balard, had ceased indeed to be a partisan of the bishop, but he had taken refuge in a catholicism more spiritual than Lullin's, and yet quite as marked. According to his views, the Holy Ghost governed the Roman-catholic church, which church, communicating that spirit to its members, imposed on them the obligation of finding its doctrines in Scripture. Lullin, Balard, and some others, had frequent conferences together. The sincere catholics were not the only persons to be feared; they were supported by Genevans of scant faith, who cried out against the Reformation, principally because of its rigid morality. The reformers themselves were not without fear with regard to many of those who at that time walked with them. There were men who heard the preachers, but went no farther; they burnt the idols, but did not reform their lives. 'For faith to be secure, it must be governed by conscience,' said the theologians, 'otherwise there is danger that it will be swamped, and that the ship will founder in a stormy sea.' Were they about to witness a renewal of those tumults which had so often disturbed the General Councils?[749]

At length the 21st of May arrived—that day at once so longed for and so feared. The bells rang out cheerfully; Clémence wafted through the air the words carved on her surface: 'I summon the people. Jesus, Saviour of men, Son of Mary, salvation of the world! be merciful and propitious to us!' The good citizens congratulated each other, as they obeyed the summons, that this day would put an end to innumerable struggles, and that the city, so long wasted by briers and thorns, would now be covered by the hand of God with flowers and laurels. The emotion was universal.

=THE QUESTION AND THE ANSWER.=

Besides the mass of the people, the ambassadors of Berne were present in the church, and among them the chief of the liberating army, Nägueli. One of the most heroic Genevans and most sincere Christians, the intrepid Claude Savoye, was president. When he arose to speak, he reminded them of the flight of the bishop, the arrival of the Gospel in Geneva, the glorious deliverance granted to the city; and then he added, in a voice that was heard all down the nave, 'Citizens, do you desire to live according to the Gospel and the Word of God, as it is preached to us every day? Do you declare that you will have no more masses, images, idols, and other papal abuses whatsoever? If any one knows and wishes to say anything against the doctrine that is preached to us, let him do so.'

There was a deep silence: all were in expectation. Will not some voice, friendly to Rome or to the world, protest against reform? The aged and devout Pierre Lullin, the spiritual catholic Jean Balard, the frivolous Jean Philippe, the episcopal Malbuisson, Richardet, Ramel, De la Rive, and others, known for their attachment to Rome, are going, doubtless, to take up the premier syndic's challenge. The hour is striking; Geneva is about to decide its future. If it is true that the pope is Christ's vicar, and as God upon earth, let them say so! Now or never. They wait: they wait still; not a word disturbs the solemn silence of the people. No one made opposition. The fact was duly recorded. Then other accents than those which had been anticipated resounded through the aisles of the cathedral. Was it the voice of pious syndic Levet, or of one of the Two Hundred, or of some one in the body of the meeting? The council registers do not inform us. That voice, speaking in the name of the united nation, proclaimed: 'We all, with one accord, desire, with God's help, to live under that holy evangelical law, and according to God's Word as it is preached to us. We desire to renounce all masses, images, idols, and other papal ceremonies and abuses, and to live in union with one another, in obedience to justice.' When the voice ceased, all the people held up their hands and repeating a unanimous oath, exclaimed: 'We swear it.... We will do so with God's help.... We will!'[750]

The assembly broke up, and the citizens departed, congratulating each other that the innumerable tyrannies of 'Pharaoh' and the darkness of the 'sorcerers' were to be succeeded by the mild light of Jesus Christ and the life-giving breath of liberty. Even such huguenots as had struggled especially for political enfranchisement, raised no discordant voice. They knew well that if this petty people remained catholic, it would lose its independence, and infallibly become Savoyard. But others held higher views: Geneva appeared to them as a fortress which God had built to save the Gospel. 'God,' said Froment, the oldest of the Genevese reformers, 'God has selected this strong territory, so difficult of access, to form a rampart as it were against the pope and his followers. It is in these rude countries, guarded on the south by the Savoy mountains and their eternal snows; on the north by the difficult gorges of the Jura; and on the east by the narrow passes of the St. Bernard and the Simplon, where our friends, the Valaisans, with half a score of men can stop an army; it is in this blessed corner of the earth that God planted His Gospel, surrounding his word with those gigantic fortresses, in order that the enemy may neither reach it nor stifle it.' While the citizens thronged the open square, the ministers went into the pulpit. 'A mighty captain hath led us,' they said; 'let us put our trust in him alone. He has more power than all the kings of the earth, and alone he has preserved us from our enemies. The captain is Jesus Christ, our Saviour, our Redeemer, and our strong tower.'[751]

=MEMORIAL INSCRIPTION.=

Farel and several Genevans asked that some monument should be erected to recall to future ages the memory of their great deliverance. Did not Joshua set up twelve stones after he had crossed the Jordan? Farel composed a Latin inscription, which was carved in letters of gold on stone and steel. The council and people fixed it over one of the principal gates of the city and afterwards over the entrance to the Hôtel-de-Ville, so that every one might read this testimony of a grateful city.