CHAPTER XIX.
RECALL OF CALVIN TO GENEVA.
(August 1540 to March 1541.)
The friends of the Reformers were once more in the majority at Geneva. The very mistakes of their enemies had restored their moral authority and enlarged their influence. It would have been difficult in so short a time to have committed a greater number of mistakes, or mistakes of a graver character. Beza undoubtedly gives utterance to the general feeling when he declares that ‘the city began to claim again its Calvin and its Farel.’
The ministers who were filling their places were not men likely to make their predecessors forgotten. They were not up to their task. In their preaching there was little unity, little understanding of the Scriptures; and people were not wanting at Geneva to make them sensible of their inferiority. It was for them a period of trouble, humiliation, strife, and unhappiness. The wind was changed. These poor pastors in their turn were objects of ill-will; and they complained bitterly of the censures and the insults which they had to undergo. The council did nothing more than send out of the town a poor blind man who had given offence to them, and ordered them to go on peaceably with the duties of their ministry. But the ministers were by this time aware of the mistake which they had made when they consented to take the place of such men as Farel and Calvin. Morand, who was of a susceptible nature, was shocked to find himself exposed to what he called ‘intolerable calumnies and execrable blasphemies.’ He was at the same time indignant that justice was not done on the ‘lies.’ He gave in his resignation to the council, expressing his desire ‘that his good brethren might have better reason to stay with them; otherwise,’ said he, ‘look for nothing but ruin and famine.’ He then went away without further leave. This was on the 10th of August.[[10]]
When Marcourt heard of the departure of his colleague he was upset and indignant. What! leave him alone on the field of battle! and that without giving any warning (the other two pastors went for nothing)! He relieved himself by giving vent to his feeling. ‘Bad man!’ he exclaimed, ‘traitor!’ And he loudly condemned before all the people the pastor who had deserted. They were going on together tolerably well, and they could at least complain to one another. Before the council Marcourt took a high tone. ‘Put a stop to these insults,’ said he, ‘or I too will go away.’ The council merely charged him to invite Viret to come and take the Place of Morand. To have such a colleague would have been an honor to Marcourt; but Viret had no mind to go to Geneva while Calvin was in exile. Marcourt took his resolution and, like Morand, departed abruptly, without leave. It was the 20th of September.
Flight Of Morand And Marcourt.
After the departure of these two ministers, the only ones who had any talent, the council, in their turn, had to say, What is to become of us? Their best pastors having abandoned them, there remained only two incapable men, De la Mare and Bernard. The gentlemen of the council felt themselves greatly straitened. The destitution was extreme, the danger pressing, and the distress great. Then a cry was uttered: a cry not of anguish but of hope. Calvin! they said, Calvin! Calvin alone could now save Geneva. The day after the departure of Marcourt, the friends of the Reformer in the council made bold to name him; and it was decreed ‘that Master A. Marcourt having gone away, commission was given to Seigneur A. Perrin to find means of getting Master Calvin, and to spare no pains for that purpose.’ The Reformer was therefore apprised of the desire which had arisen for his return. When a people have banished their most powerful protector, the most pressing duty is to get him back again. The Genevese had their mournful but profitable reflections.
By the departure of Morand and Marcourt Geneva was left in a state of great dearth, and the friends of Calvin did not shrink from saying so. Porral reproached De la Mare with overthrowing Holy Scripture. The preacher hastened to complain to the council. ‘Gentlemen,’ said he (September 29), ‘Porral alleges that what I preach is poison; but I am ready to maintain on my life that my doctrine is of God.’ Porral, over-zealous, then began to open the catalogue of what he called the heresies of the preacher. ‘He has said that the magistrate ought not always to punish the wicked. He has said that Jesus Christ went to his death more joyfully than ever a man to his nuptials,’ &c. &c. ‘I maintain that these assertions are false,’ added Porral. De la Mare was angry and demanded justice. ‘But other business was pressing and nothing was done in this matter.’[[11]]
Calvin disapproved of these attacks directed against the pastors in office.
‘Beloved brethren,’ he wrote to his friends at Geneva, ‘nothing has grieved me more, next to the troubles which have well-nigh overthrown your church, than to hear of your strifes and debates with the ministers who succeeded us. Not only is your church torn by these dissensions, but more—and this is a matter of the gravest importance—the ministry is exposed to disgrace. Where strife and discord exist, there can hardly be the faintest hope of progress in the best things. Not that I desire to deprive you of the right, which God has given to you as to all his people, of subjecting all pastors to examination for the purpose of distinguishing between the good and the bad,[[12]] and of putting down those who under the mask of pastors display the rapacity of wolves. My wish is only that, when there are men who in a fair degree discharge the duties of the pastor, you should think rather of what you owe to others than of what others owe to you. Do not forget that the call of your ministers was not given without the will of God; for although our banishment must be attributed to the craft of the devil, still it was not the will of God that you should be altogether destitute of a ministry, or that you should fall again under the yoke of Antichrist. Moreover, do not forget another matter, namely your own sins, which assuredly deserve no light punishment.
‘This subject calls for a great deal of discrimination. Assuredly I would not be the man to introduce tyranny into the church.[[13]] I would not consent that good men should be obliged to submit to pastors who do not fulfil their calling. If the respect and deference which the Lord awards to the ministers of his word and to them alone be paid to certain persons who do not deserve them, it is an intolerable indignity. Whosoever does not teach the word of our Lord Jesus Christ, whatever titles and prerogatives he may boast, is unworthy to be regarded as a pastor. But our brethren, your present ministers, do teach you the Gospel; and I do not see why you should be allowed to slight them or to reject them. If you say that there are features in their teaching and their character which do not please you, remember that it is not possible to find a man in whom there is not much room for improvement. If you are incessantly disputing with your ministers, you are trampling underfoot their ministry, in which the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ ought to shine forth.’