Sadoleto could not conceal from himself the force of the blow which he had received, nor did he venture to reply. The general himself being beaten, the staff dispersed. There was nothing more said about the conference of Lyons, and the Bishop de la Baume was not long before he disappeared from the scenes of this world. At the same time that Calvin replied to Sadoleto, he wrote to Neuchâtel, Lausanne, and Geneva. He called the inhabitants of the latter town to repentance towards God, to patient bearing with the wicked, and to peace with their pastors; and above all he exhorted them to call upon God.[803] Geneva was confirmed in her love for a cause which had been so well defended against the attacks of one of the most distinguished orators of the age, and the gates of the city, lately closed against the reformer, began to open again.
Calvin had at this time to do with another Catholic doctor of much less worth than Sadoleto, Caroli. This man is not worth the trouble of dwelling long on anything that concerns him. As he had not succeeded in gaining the good graces of the pope or of the Cardinal Tournon, he made one more change and turned anew towards the reformers. Farel received him with much kindness, believed in his promises and made peace with him. Caroli came to Strasburg. Bucer, as kind by nature as Farel, nevertheless requested Calvin to make known all the faults of the adventurer. This the reformer declined to do, believing that it would have no good result; but he invited the haughty doctor to confess cordially and sincerely that he had sinned. Instead of this a writing was handed to Calvin in which Caroli said, ‘that he left to the judgment of the Lord the offences which had been committed against himself, and which had induced him to quit the Evangelical Church.’ The reformer was indignant. ‘This stirred my bile so much,’ said he, ‘that I discharged it with bitterness. I declared that I would sooner die than sign such a paper as that.’ He yielded, however, a little to his friends, and said that he would consider the matter with more care before giving a decisive answer. Hardly had he returned to his own house when he was seized with an extraordinary paroxysm. ‘I could find no consolation,’ said he to Farel, ‘but in sighs and tears; and what afflicted me most was the circumstance that you were the cause of all this mischief. You ought not to have received him anew into our communion until he solemnly confessed his offence and declared that he repented of it. But now that you have received him, prevent at least your people from insulting him.’[804] Ere long, however, Calvin’s friends at Strasburg and Farel himself acknowledged that they had been too indulgent. Caroli, finding that the churches of Neuchâtel and Strasburg refused to comply with the requests that he addressed to them, retired to Metz. From that place he wrote to Calvin a letter in which he offered to be reconciled with him if he would get a benefice for him. He seemed to wish to overawe him by reproaches and idle bravado. Calvin asked him how it came to pass that he had made a boast before the adversaries of Christ at Metz that he was prepared to convict of heresy the reformer and his friends. He added that he was not able to procure for him the church which he asked for, in the first place because he had none at his disposal, and further because he could not do so while they were not in agreement about doctrines. ‘Turn you seriously to the Lord,’ he said to him, ‘and then you will be able to return to us with that friendship and brotherly concord which Farel and I are prepared, in that case, to show you.’ Caroli did not adopt this friendly council. He returned to Rome, and died in a hospital there of want and, it is said, of foul diseases.[805]
CHAPTER XVII.
CATHOLICISM AT GENEVA.—MARRIAGE OF CALVIN AT STRASBURG.
(End of 1539–1540.)
RESULTS OF CALVIN’S LETTER.
The results of Calvin’s letter to Cardinal Sadoleto, and perhaps to some extent of his relations with Caroli, were not slow to appear. Henceforward the Catholics had little hope of regaining the ascendency at Geneva. Some of them had previously dreamed of this. ‘At this time,’ says the chronicler Rozet, ‘the priests lifted up the horn, talking about the mass.’[806] It was believed that some priests who had retired to the convents of Savoy had received orders to return into the territory of the republic, for the purpose of re-establishing the Romish worship. It may have been so; but all that appears from the statement of Rozet is that certain priests, who had dwelt either in the town or in the country, began at this time to defy the prohibitions of the council and to say mass. The magistrate resolved to oppose this recrudescence of Catholicism, and it is probable that this was partly in consequence of Calvin’s letter. The priests who were really taking active steps were doubtless few in number; but the council adopted a general measure, and ordered that all the Catholic ecclesiastics who were on their territory should appear before them on December 23 (1539). It was further ordered that all those who alleged that the mass is good, and should not be able to maintain this assertion after conference with the pastors, should be sent away to the place where mass is sung (là où on la chante). ‘The tranquillity and security of the state,’ says an historian, ‘did not permit them to tolerate any other religion than that which had been established by the evangelical Reformation.’[807] Thirty-three priests made their appearance, in great alarm, at the Hôtel de Ville, and they did little honor to their doctrine. The thought that if they declared that the mass was good they would be banished, doubtless contributed to disincline them to it. Each of them was interrogated, and the following are their answers. ‘Thomas Genoud!’ cried the secretary. The priest replied, ‘The mass is wicked.’ Eight of his associates made the same answer pure and simple. Others declared themselves likewise against this act of worship, but added a few words. Ami Messier being called, said, ‘I wish to live and die with Messieurs’ (members of the council); ‘I have not studied, but I believe the mass to be wicked.’ Jean Cottand: ‘It is of no value.’ Guillaume Vellès: ‘I never believed in it.’ Don Propositi (Prevost): ‘It is good if Messieurs think it good; bad if Messieurs think it bad. For the rest I am not a clerk, and finally ... it is wicked.’ Higher respect for the magistrate it was not possible to show. Don Amici and his brother: ‘At the good pleasure of Messieurs.’ The spirit of accommodation could go no further. The priest Ramel: ‘It is wicked; otherwise I should not have married.’ Claude de Lolme: ‘Wicked.’ Jean Hugonier: ‘I should not have married if I believed it good.’ Guillaume Marchand and Maurice de la Rue: ‘The mass is nothing worth, nor those who wish to uphold it.’ Louis Bernard and Th. Collier: ‘Wicked.’ Some of them emphasized their condemnation more strongly. Jacques l’Hoste: ‘The devil take it, for that’s all it’s fit for.’ Jean Louis Nicolas: ‘It is abominable.’ Jean Sorel: ‘It is the abhorrence of all the world, and wicked.’
THE PRIESTS BEFORE THE COUNCIL.