'Civium munificentia renovavit et adornavit.
Anno mdcccxli.'
[837] Godefridus Lopinus, Calvino. MS. preserved in the public Library at Geneva.
[838] Beza, Vita Calvini.
[839] 'Divinitus perductus.'—Beza, Vita Calvini.
[840] Lettres françaises de Calvin, i. p. 22.
CHAPTER XVII.
CALVIN'S ARRIVAL AT GENEVA.
(Summer, 1536.)
=CALVIN ARRIVES AT GENEVA.=
One evening in the month of July, 1536, a carriage from France arrived at Geneva. A man, still young, alighted from it. He was short, thin, and pale; his beard was black and pointed, his organization weak, and his frame somewhat worn by study; but in his high forehead, lively and severe eyes, regular and expressive features, there were indications of a profound spirit, an elevated soul, and an indomitable character. His intention was to 'pass through Geneva hastily, without stopping more than one night in the city.'[841] He was accompanied by a man and woman of about the same age. The three travellers belonged to the same family—two brothers and a sister. The foremost of them, long accustomed to keep himself in the background, desired to pass through Geneva unobserved. He inquired for an inn where he could spend the night: his voice was mild, and his manner attractive. Scarcely a carriage arrived from France without being surrounded by some of the Genevans, or at least by French refugees; for it might bring new fugitives, obliged to seek a country in which they were free to profess the doctrine of Christ. A young Frenchman, at that time the friend and disciple of the traveller, who had gone to the place where the carriage from France put up, in order to see if it brought anybody whom he knew, recognized the man with the intelligent face, and conducted him to an hotel. The traveller was John Calvin, and his friend was Louis Du Tillet, ex-canon of Angoulême, Calvin's travelling companion during his Italian journey. From Strasburg, whither he had gone to meet Calvin, he had returned to Geneva, no doubt because he thought that the war between Francis I. and Charles V. would compel his friend to make a bend and pass through Bresse and the valley of the Leman. This was actually what happened.
Calvin, who had come to Geneva without a plan and even against his will, having sat down with Du Tillet in his room at the hotel, their conversation naturally turned on the city in which they were, and of which the reformer know but little. He learnt, either from his friend or from others subsequently, what he probably knew something about already; namely, that popery had been driven out of it shortly before; that the zeal, struggles, trials, and evangelical labors of William Farel were incessant; but that affairs were not yet 'put in order in the city;' that there were dangerous divisions, and that Farel was contending almost alone for the triumph of the Gospel. Calvin had long respected Farel as the most zealous of evangelists; but it does not appear that they had ever met. Du Tillet could not keep to himself the news of his friend's arrival, and after leaving Calvin, he called on Master William. 'After discovering me, he made my coming known to others,' says Calvin.[842]