[54] The Emperor, in 1544, had undertaken a disastrous expedition against the town of Argiers. The military movements which were then going forward in Italy, were intended to cover his real projects of attack against the Protestant princes of Germany.
[55] See the following letter.
[56] The Ecclesiastical Ordinances, digested by Calvin and adopted by the councils of the republic, daily encountered the keenest opposition in the heart of a party which reckoned at its head men belonging to the most distinguished families among the Genevese. The Consistory and Councils together took care that the laws were rigidly enforced, and checked improprieties without respect of persons. The Captain-General, Amy Perrin, the Syndic Corna, and several other persons, having, contrary to the prohibitions, danced in a private house, "It is ordained," as is contained in the Registers of 12th April 1546, "that they all be imprisoned;" and with regard to the wife of Amy Perrin, who spoke insolently to the Consistory, that she also be imprisoned, and be required to find security. Perrin, to avoid undergoing the punishment pronounced against him, had recourse to the pretext of a journey to Lyons; but he was incarcerated on his return. The Syndic Corna acknowledged his fault, and, after a deposition of some days, he was reinstated in his office. The minister, Henry de la Mare, was deposed, for having been present at the ball, and taken the side of the dance and dancers against the Consistory. See Registers of Council, April 1546.
[57] At the head of the opposition to the ministers were observed the different members of the family of Francis Favre, a dissolute old man, and father-in-law of Amy Perrin. Francisca, his daughter, wife of the latter, made herself remarkable by the violence of her invectives against the Consistory. "They remonstrated with her, and made no more account of herself and her father than of the lowest in the city. Being again interrogated whether she would name the dancers, twice replied, that she would rather submit to punishment, and be dragged before all the justices, than appear before the Consistory."—Notes Extracted from the Registers of the Consistory of Geneva, by the late Syndic Cramer, 4te, 1853.
[58] "That the father-in-law of Amy Perrin, who has committed adultery, be also imprisoned, and put upon his trial."—Registers of Council. Ibid.
[59] See the whole of this narrative in the Histoire des Martyrs, from the tract of Claude de Senarclens: Vera Historia de Morte Joannis Diazii Hispani. 1546.
[60] Letter without date, of which the original French is lost. It is here reproduced from the Latin translation inserted in the collection of the published Latin letters of Calvin, with restoration of date, April 1546.
Amy Perrin, one of the earliest hearers of Farel and Froment at Geneva, contributed powerfully to the disenthralment and reformation of his native country. At one with the Reformers in the abolition of the ancient worship and in the proclamation of the new, which he regarded as the security for the independence of Geneva, he broke with them the moment they undertook to correct manners, after having reformed beliefs. He then became the head of that party of undisciplined children of Geneva, "who wished to live according to their own inclination, without suffering themselves to be restrained by the words of the preachers," and whose triumph led to the banishment of the ministers, (1538.) Commissioned, two years afterwards, to negotiate their recall, he appeared to be reconciled to Calvin, and to submit to the institutions of the Calvinistic discipline; but the submission could not be lasting, and we again find him, in 1545, along with Pierre Vandel and the two Bertheliers, at the head of the party that must needs continue to strive with the ministers, until their total defeat, (May 1555.) Of an irascible temperament, of easy and frivolous manners, Amy took pleasure in fêtes, and in appearing in public magnificently dressed. Being accused (see the preceding letter) of having taken part in unlawful dances, he refused to compear before the Consistory, incurred, with his wife, the just rigours of the Seigneury, and became the implacable enemy of Calvin, who, in a letter at once moderate and powerful, essayed in vain to bring him back to the path of obedience and duty.
[61] Menaced by a common peril, and having equally to resist the pretensions of Charles V. to universal rule, the King of France and the Protestant Princes of Germany had resumed negotiations, that must seemingly issue in a lasting treaty. This treaty of alliance was for long the object of the prayers and the hopes of Calvin, who reckoned upon extracting from it advantageous results to the French Protestants, and an implicit toleration for churches until then subjected to the most violent persecutions. He pressed Farel and Viret, one or other, to repair to Germany, to hasten the progress of negotiations and determine the conditions of the alliance.
[62] Is this Uzés a small town of Languedoc, now comprised in the department of Gard? Beza and the historian of the martyrs furnish us with no information on this point.