(April 15 to 20, 1538.)
RESISTANCE OF CALVIN.
The very circumstances which inspired the confidence of Berne were exactly those which roused the resistance of Calvin. Those powerful and magnificent lords could not believe that so dignified an intervention would fail to secure submission; and Calvin could not consent that the interests of the Church of Christ should be regulated by the magistrate, like those of the highways and the soldiery. Besides, in the present case, the question was about foreign magistrates. To their intervention the citizen and the Christian could not but be equally opposed. Calvin wished to maintain the principle of religious liberty, and he requested that time should be allowed him to come to an understanding with the other Churches. However, if the letter to the ministers was unsuccessful, that sent to the council had a success so abundant that it not only surpassed the hopes of the Bernese, but crossed their desires and threw an obstacle in the way of their projects. The syndics who had been named in a spirit hostile to the reformers, and all the citizens who had placed them in office, were delighted to see variance between Berne and Calvin and Farel. For them it was a piece of real good fortune, although for the ministers it was a grievous event. The two states, Berne and Geneva, acting in unison, would soon get the better of two poor ministers. Further, the council was at this time in a bad humor. The third preacher, the aged and energetic Courault, who had remained at Geneva, had blamed the syndics in one of his sermons, and it was resolved to reprimand him. It is safe to rely, in this matter, on what the Registers state. It is not right to receive, as some have done, the burlesque and lying imputations of the notorious slanderer Bolsec, who, ‘after the example of Herostratos, chose to pass down to posterity branded with infamy.’[597] The council forbade Courault to preach. This was the state of things when the letters from Berne arrived. The council immediately gave orders that Calvin and Farel should appear before them on Friday, April 19. It was the Holy week, and that day was the day of the Passion. This consideration caused no hesitation on the part of the enemies of the Reformation. As the holy supper was to be celebrated two days later on Easter Sunday, they were anxious to hurry forward the business. The ministers then found themselves between the anvil and the hammer; they must submit or fall, and do which they would, they would be weakened and lowered. The secretary having read the letter from Berne, the first syndic declared to the reformers that the council was determined to accede to the demand of that city, and to conform to the usages there established with respect to ceremonies. Then he asked them if they would themselves observe them, and requested them to answer Yes or No. Calvin and Farel demanded the time necessary, not merely, as has been asserted, for reflection on the subject, but also and especially, that the question might be settled by the competent authorities, the Swiss synod, which in ten days (April 29) was to be held at Zurich. Meanwhile they begged that no innovation should be made until the next supper. In making this request Calvin pledged himself to accept whatever should be decreed by that legitimate authority. This was on his part a large concession. To his Scriptural and just judgment it did not appear consistent, after separating from Roman Catholicism, still to retain any part of the system, even were it only a trifle, such as unleavened bread, baptisteries, and festivals. To one of the latter, especially, he felt great objection. He knew that small concessions lead on to large ones, and he feared that Rome would act according to the proverb, and if you gave an inch would take an ell. It is needless to repeat how decided and firm Calvin was, and yet, out of love for peace and for unity, he conceded to his adversaries what he might justly have refused them. All he asked was that they would wait for ten days the decision of the synodal authority. This, assuredly, was not saying No in an absolute manner.[598] It was quite the reverse; and the adversaries of Calvin ought rather to have wondered at his compliance than have blamed him for his inflexible obstinacy. His request was fair, and it ought to have been granted. But they would not listen to it. It was ordered that the supper should be celebrated conformably to the Bernese usage; and the council appointed the magistrates who were to take care that it was thus celebrated in the churches of St. Peter, St. Gervais, and Rive. It may be asked how it was that men who were by no means remarkable for their attachment to traditional observances should be so obstinate in sacrificing the ritual of Geneva to the ritual of Berne. Impartial judges have said, ‘The Council had taken this resolution in order to win over the Bernese and to implicate them in the opposition to the reformers.’[599] We confess that this explanation appears to us very probable.
DISTURBANCES AT GENEVA.
This decision was despotic, and in that very quality was in accordance with the order which the councils intended to establish at Geneva, that of Césaropapia, in which the prince and the magistrate, taking the place of the pope, settle everything in the Church. The inflexibility of the council on the one side and the firmness of the reformers on the other came into collision, and the result was a shock to the people which troubled their everyday life and could not, but lead to a conflict. Those who formed the lowest section of the opposition, excited and agitated, began to cry out against the resistance of the ministers, and they thought that if the latter would not obey with a good grace, they must be compelled to yield by terror and by force. If the people were to express their will with energy, if they took up arms, and filled the streets and massed themselves like roaring waves in front of the houses of Farel, Calvin, and Courault, those men, no matter what their strength might be, would have no choice but to give way before that impetuous torrent. ‘Thereupon,’ says the chronicler Rozet, ‘great excesses and blasphemies were committed. Dissolute men went about the town by night in dozens, armed with arquebuses, which they discharged in front of the ministers’ houses. They shouted, The Word of God! and after that, The word of Andrew! They threatened to throw them into the Rhone if they did not come to some agreement with the magistrates respecting the ceremonies in question; and these proceedings, all open and notorious, went unpunished.’[600] It is not easy to ascertain what the cry, The word of Andrew, meant.[601] The cry, To the Rhone! was invariably heard at Geneva when popular risings took place. Froment was greeted with it when he began to preach the Gospel there; and some women would have thrown him over the bridge (du pont en bas) if a party of men had not rescued him. They did not, indeed, fling every one into the Rhone whom they threatened; but these cries could not but seem to Farel and Calvin a mournful return for their great and severe labors.
INDIGNATION OF COURAULT.
These disorderly deeds had lamentable consequences. Neither Farel nor Calvin complained of them. They had now at heart interests more important than their own, more precious even than their lives. They did not return evil for evil. But the former preacher to the Queen of Navarre, the blind and aged Courault, was not so forbearing. He likewise had heard these insults. A man of integrity and devoted to duty, he had at the same time a heart easily wounded, and he knew how to speak hard words. The night between Friday and Saturday, during which these cries had resounded in the city, was not a pleasant or a peaceful one for him. He was more irritated, perhaps, on account of the indignities which were heaped upon Calvin and Farel than for what concerned himself. Chagrin, disquietude, and anger kept him sleepless. His blood was heated, his heart was incensed, his imagination inflamed.
‘Je me tourne et m’agite et ne peux nulle part
Trouver que l’insomnie, amère, impatiente,
Qu’un malaise inquiet et qu’une fièvre ardente.’[602]