The state of poor old Courault seems to be described in these lines. To him these disorders were intolerable, and he said that if men should hold their peace the very stones would cry aloud. He would cry out, and cry out in the pulpit. True, that was forbidden him; but no matter, in spite of the prohibition of men he would preach. He rose very early and went to St. Peter’s church to perform the service of six o’clock A.M., with no other preparation, alas! than the distress and bitterness which had preyed on his mind through the night. The character of his preaching was not such as was wanted for a people so sensitive as the Genevese. His eloquence somewhat resembled that of the monks to whose order he had belonged, which consisted, for the most part, in making a noise and in shouting.[603] His mind was not cultivated, but he had a glowing imagination, which animated his discourse and enabled him to hit hard blows. Although he was of a more serious turn, he shared, to some extent, the faults of the most illustrious orators of the preceding period, Barletta, Maillard, and Menot; and he sometimes attacked, as they did, the vices of his hearers by satire occasionally delicate and occasionally coarse, but always prompted by a good and grave intention. He would now discharge his conscience. Let them put him in prison, banish him, or beat him soundly; his soul, wearied with grief, must burst its bonds. He uttered, doubtless, some excellent things, some true and pious words; but, agitated as he was, he allowed himself to indulge in that intemperate mode of speech which was then so common. With his spirit still disturbed by those noisy and tumultuous crowds collected under the windows of the reformers, from the midst of which came redoubled shouts, jesting songs, insults, accusations, and menaces, he likened them to the ‘kingdom of the frogs,’ that from the bosom of the marshes croak and make a loud noise. Then recalling a vulgar phrase, the old Frenchman, hardly escaped from the rough life of persecution, inquired of the Genevese what they complained of,—they who were ‘like rats in straw,’ that is to say, were folk greatly at their ease, possessing everything they could wish and in want of nothing.[604] In another passage, rising to a higher strain, and recalling the image of Nebuchadnezzar, with its head of gold and its feet part of iron and part of clay, fragile and broken by a little stone, he predicted to the syndics and councils that as intrigue had placed them in office they would not long retain their power. ‘You, gentlemen of the government,’ said he, ‘you have feet of wax.’ These feet, in his opinion, would soon melt in the sunshine of their victory and prosperity. This comparison, imitative of Biblical style, was not unbefitting to a preacher, and the prophecy which it contained did not fail of accomplishment. At the news of this minister preaching in defiance of the prohibition, and at the report of his sayings, which were most likely misrepresented, the government felt that they were insulted, and determined to act rigorously. Officers of state went to the old man’s house, arrested and took him to prison. It was the eve of Easter Day. It was customary to make presents at that period; and this was the present which was bestowed on the aged, noble, but free-spoken minister and confessor of Christ, who had already experienced treatment too rough at the hands of the adherents of the pope in the kingdom of France.[605]
PROTEST AGAINST HIS IMPRISONMENT.
The news of the imprisonment of Courault rapidly spread through Geneva, and deeply affected the friends of the Reformation. A pastor in prison! Yes, and justly, if he were guilty of any common offence. But he had done what he believed to be his duty. From the Christian pulpit he had rebuked scandalous excesses, and on that account he was committed to prison, while those who were really guilty of them were let alone and went unpunished.[606] It appears from the protocol of the 19th, that two men, forming part of the band which had gone about singing by night and had made disturbances at Rive, had been themselves placed in confinement. But the place and the date of that affair prove that it was on a quite different charge. The incarceration of Courault filled Calvin and Farel with sorrow, for they esteemed their old and venerable colleague, and they knew how much he had already suffered for the truth’s sake. Some of the councillors and citizens friendly to the Reformation resolved to protest against the imprisonment of their pastor. Claude Savoye, Michel Sept, Lambert, Chautemps, Domaine d’Arlod, Claude and Louis Bernard, Deserts, Claude Pertemps, and many others joined Calvin and Farel, and they all went together in a long procession to the Hôtel de Ville. They entered the hall of the council, and found there two out of the four syndics, and these the men who were most against them, Richardet and de Chapeaurouge.
Farel spoke first. He complained that they had acted ‘ill, wickedly, and unjustly in putting Courault in prison,’ and demanded that the Council of the Two Hundred should be assembled. The laymen thought it strange that their adversaries should not be satisfied with announcing, like Richardet, that they would not go to the preaching, but should seem to intend also to deprive their fellow-citizens of it by committing the preachers to prison. The notion that a syndic should presume to hinder him from hearing the Word of God especially irritated Michel Sept. ‘They shall preach!’ he said, vehemently. Farel, remembering all that he had done and borne through long years for this city of Geneva, to the emancipation of which he had probably contributed more than any other man by his teaching, his courage, his prayers, and his deeds, said to the magistrates, ‘Without me you would not be what you are.’
The syndics replied that, as the pulpit had been interdicted to Courault, and he had nevertheless preached that very morning, and had announced that he should continue to do so, they would not set him at liberty. The magistrates wished to see if this incident would furnish them with an opportunity of attaining the end which they had set before them. ‘Will you,’ they said to Farel and Calvin, ‘submit to the letters and ordinances of the lords of Berne? In that case we might restore to you your colleague.’ This bargain, which consisted in the release to them of an innocent prisoner if they on their part would do what they held to be wrong, appeared to the ministers a piece of shameful trafficking. ‘We will do, in such matters, what God commands,’ they replied. However, they were not willing to abandon their colleague. They offered to give bail, that he might under that guarantee be set at liberty. This proposition was a usual one in such cases, but the magistrates declined to accept it, and the reason which they gave for their refusal aggravated the harshness of the act. ‘Courault,’ they said, ‘is not a citizen of Geneva, and he is imprisoned for contempt of justice.’ The members of the council were thoroughly bent on getting rid of Courault, who was less prudent than his colleagues. It appears from authentic documents, that they even offered Calvin to wait, as to the question of ritual, for the decision of the synod of Zurich, if he would consent that Courault should be deprived of his office of preacher. This Calvin refused.[607] The petitioners withdrew, much pained by the severity of the council towards their friend, and some of the laymen, especially Lambert, complained aloud as they quitted the Hôtel de Ville. They spoke of ‘false witnesses who had been examined; of traitors in the general council; and it is well known,’ they said, ‘who they are.’[608]
FAILURE OF THE INTERVENTION.
The council met after the departure of the reformers and their friends, and again decided that the Lord’s supper should be celebrated the next day, Easter Sunday, according to the rites established at Berne, and not according to those of Geneva; and it decreed that, if the ministers still refused to celebrate it, they should be forbidden to preach. One cannot but be astonished at this decision, and at the mean spirit which it displays on the part of the council. Simple and evangelical usages had been established in Geneva: the citizens had been called upon to take an oath in St. Peter’s church to a confession of faith which in its spirit is entirely in agreement with those practices; and now, in a matter which but little concerns it, in order to gratify the lords of Berne, whom it could easily resist when it chose to do so, the council determined to compel the ministers to observe a ceremony essentially Judaic,[609] even at the risk of seeing worship suspended and the Church overthrown. This looks very much like a pretext, good or bad, which they laid hold of for the purpose of getting rid of the reformers. The chief-usher went in the afternoon to the pastors to communicate the decree to them. He did not find Farel, but Calvin, learning from the officer that the civil magistrate, without waiting for the resolution of the synod of Zurich, was himself deciding this ecclesiastical question, just as if it were an affair of military orders to give to an officer, refused to accept the order. Thereupon the chief-usher, in the name of the council, prohibited his preaching.[610]
What to do? This was the question which Calvin put to himself. He longed for unity and peace in Geneva. He appealed afterwards to the Genevese themselves. ‘We take God to witness,’ said he, ‘and your own consciences, in the light of his countenance, that while we have been among you all our exertions have been directed towards preserving you in happy union and pleasing concord. But those who had a mind to form a party by themselves have separated from us, and have introduced division in your Church and in your city.’[611] Lambert’s exclamation, when he spoke aloud of traitors and false witnesses, is sufficient to show us what was the state of Geneva at that time. Concord was nothing more than a lovely dream. The most violent passions were called into play. One would have said that God was giving up the inhabitants of the city to the unruly motions of their own hearts; and that is the most terrible chastisement which he ever employs in the punishment of men. Not, indeed, that these motions showed themselves violent alike in all. The lower classes were agitated, like their lake when the north wind, blowing impetuously, lifts up the waves and dashes them furiously on the rocks, the walls, and the banks. But among other classes appearances were better kept up. Nevertheless, if any reason were still left, it was too often only passion that made use of it for its own ends.
CONFUSION.