History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, Vol. 6 (of 8)

by J. H. Merle d'Aubigné

THE REGENTS OF THE COLLEGE.

After this second act of discipline, or rather, at the same time, the council undertook a third, of graver character still. In their eyes the college was still a fortress in which Calvinism had entrenched itself, with the intention of resisting the attacks of its adversaries. The magistrate resolved to give the regents an opportunity of declaring themselves, and if they offered resistance, to expel them. To join the ministers who had succeeded Farel and Calvin, to administer the supper with them, to do an act which those great doctors had refused to do,—this was the requirement addressed by the magistrate to Saunier, rector of the college, and to the three regents, Mathurin Cordier, Vautier, and Vindos. It would have been straining a point for them to take the supper; but to be in the number of those who administered it, after all the controversies which had taken place, was not this ‘to be an occasion of stumbling’ for many, and a taking part against those venerated men whose absence they deplored? These four professors therefore stated to the council that their conscience did not allow them to do what was required. The magistrates ought to have considered that this act is not within the province of the regents, and that they ought not to do anything which might, by depriving the college of the able men who directed it, possibly lead to its ruin. But Richardet and his friends were despots who did not intend to allow any resistance to their will. On the day after Christmas, they ordered the rector and the three regents to quit Geneva in the space of three days. Saunier was dismayed. He had a very numerous household. Many boys of good family from Basel, Berne, Zurich, Bienne, and other towns, lived in his house; and he had a young daughter, in delicate health, whom he would be obliged to take with him in the depth of winter. The next day, December 27, he appeared before the Council of the Two Hundred, stated the circumstances which we have just related, reminded them that he was a citizen of the town, and showed them that the resolution which they had adopted might be the ruin of the college, which was indispensable to the youth of Geneva. In fine, he could not possibly make the necessary arrangements in so short a time. This last point was the only one to which the Great Council took any heed. It confirmed the resolution of the Little Council, but granted to the regents fifteen days to act upon it. He must therefore depart. Saunier and his colleagues took the same road as Calvin and Farel had taken. Mathurin Cordier, who had received the knowledge of the Gospel from the celebrated Robert Etienne, had devoted his life to the task ‘of training youth in piety and in good morals, cultivating in them a pure and elegant style, and the love of literature;’ had composed some important works;[766] and was one of those antique souls, it has been said, who always prefer the public good to their own interest. The loss of such a man was irreparable, but it was not final. The council sought for substitutes for these men; but they were forced to acknowledge that to find them was no easy matter. The first candidate who offered himself was rejected because he was a German. The second, Claude Viguier, beat one of his pupils so severely as to draw blood. The republican magistrates of 1538 placed submission to their arbitrary orders before the real interests of the schools and the people.[767] Calvin seemed to regret the course taken by Saunier. He entreated Farel to do everything in his power to prevent division and confusion from extending, and to induce the brethren no longer to refuse the rites adopted by the council.

PERSECUTION OF CALVIN’S FRIENDS.

When this matter was settled, the council undertook another campaign. Among the partisans of Calvin and of the Reformation were several eminent men whose submission was much desired. The severity which had just been displayed towards the learned might induce these citizens to yield to the conquerors. Two former syndics especially, Porral and Pertemps, looking more at the lamentable occurrences which had attended the government appointment of the supper than at the supper itself, had not yet been able to bring themselves to sanction blameworthy proceedings (the banishment of their well-beloved pastors) by taking part in the ceremonies condemned by their friends. They had, it is true, received the letter from Calvin which urged them ‘to have only a zeal for God moderated by his Spirit and ruled by his Word.’ But when Christmas drew near, and the supper was to be given with unleavened bread, they had hesitated as to what they should do; and as they doubted, they had abstained. The council was not inclined to decide this case of conscience in an accommodating way. On January 9, 1539, Porral having appeared and being asked by the council whether he would conform to the ordinances respecting the supper, made answer at first in a rather vague way; and on being requested to answer more distinctly, he said, without entering into the question of the ordinances, ‘If it please God, I am ready to take the supper, after having examined myself.’ Pertemps spoke to the same effect.[768]

The friends of Calvin knew that the reformer was distressed at the disorders which prevailed in Geneva, and which reduced the town to the saddest state. ‘Nothing causes me more sorrow,’ he wrote to his friends, ‘than the quarrels and the debates which you have with the ministers who have succeeded us. There is hardly a hope of amelioration while altercation and discord exist. Turn away, then, your minds and your hearts from men, and cling solely to the Redeemer.’ Calvin did not approve the renunciation of the communion by his friends on the ground of its celebration with unleavened bread, and he gave them a serious admonition not to disturb the peace on this immaterial question.[769]

The council did not stop here. There were still some principal citizens of whom they had a wish to be rid. Claude Savoye, formerly first syndic, who had shown so much love for Geneva and even so much heroism, was a friend of the reformers and had censured the council. He was put in prison, September 6, 1538, on merely frivolous charges. He refused to answer magistrates whom he regarded as his personal enemies. The council deliberated whether it should not cause torture to be applied to this great citizen. But honorable men revolted against this notion; and the council, having nothing against him but presumptions without any foundation, contented themselves with taking from him all his offices, depriving him of all his rights, and making the town his prison. Savoye escaped, went to Berne, and from that city announced to the syndics that he resigned the citizenship of Geneva. Jean Goulaz, who in 1532 had posted on the walls of the town the great pardon of Jesus Christ in opposition to the indulgences of the pope,[770] informed the council that he likewise renounced the citizenship, requested them to release him from his oath, and withdrew. While the council were deliberating on his request, he felt it prudent to quit the territory. The council, receiving information of this, ordered pursuit to be made. He was overtaken on the bridge of Arve and was sent to prison. Michel Rozet says with reference to these various prosecutions, ‘Those, in a word, who had banished the ministers, omitted no occasion of entirely dislodging their adherents.’[771]

SUPPRESSION OF DISORDERS.

An improvement, however, had just been made in the government. On February 9, 1539, the general assembly of the people having to elect the syndics of the year, not one of the citizens who had played a part in the expulsion of Calvin and his friends was chosen. The new magistrates were taken from the moderate party, and one of them, Antoine Chiccand, was attached to the reformer. The less respectable class of the people did not seem to be aware of the change, and they celebrated the accession of the new magistrates after a strange fashion. It was the time of Carnival, Easter falling that year on April 6; and although Geneva had no longer any wish for the religion of the papacy, this class of the inhabitants still kept up its festivals and its amusements. Their pastimes were numerous, burlesque, and even indecent. ‘There were mummeries, lewdness, indecent songs, dances, and blasphemies. Some went naked about the town with timbrels and pipes,’ says a contemporary.[772] Did these disorderly doings form part of the Roman Catholic reaction that was then attracting attention? We do not assert this. However it might be, the pastors complained to the council, and the latter ordered an inquiry, especially against those who went about the streets at night without their clothes. It appeared from the inquiry that ‘those who had done so were all young, and had intended nothing more than a freak of youthful folly.’ The council ‘remonstrated’ with the delinquents; and some women who had ‘danced to the songs’ were put in prison for a day, and afterwards were severely censured by the syndic. Three days later the council issued a decree which enjoined the people ‘devoutly to listen to the Word of God on Sundays, and to govern themselves according to it; not to swear nor blaspheme, nor play for gold or silver;’ and forbade them ‘to go about the town after nine o’clock without candles, to dance at any dances except at weddings, to sing any indecent songs, to disguise themselves, or to indulge in masks or mummeries.’

At the time when magistrates who were better disposed towards Calvin were called to the government of the republic, a door was opened on another side which revealed to the reformer a new world, Germany with her doctors and her princes. Calvin was living on the banks of the Rhine at the period when the emperor was convoking frequent and important assemblies, which were attended by the princes either in person or by their delegates, and in which they discussed the deepest questions of theology with as much eagerness as diplomatists in congress discuss the interests of their respective governments. From the year 1535 to 1539 Protestantism had been gaining in strength; it had made many conquests in North Germany, and appeared to be on the point of winning the decisive victory. The Catholics were beginning to lose heart, and the successive congresses at which they required the Protestants to come to terms with them might well lead one to call them a weakened army which desired only favorable conditions for lowering its flag. Calvin watched with his keen eye this astonishing process. He continually asserted in his letters that it was not the existence of one Church (that of Geneva), but of all Churches, that was at stake. There were moments when he thought that he had a glimpse of the triumph of the Gospel in Europe; at other times he was seized with great despondency. There was a conflict within him. His natural timidity led him to shrink from appearing in the Germanic assemblies; but his faith and his zeal for the kingdom of God made him long to take part in them.

CONFERENCE AT FRANKFORT.