• History of the Reformation in the Time of Calvin Vol. 4
  • Book 7 - Movements of the Reformation in England
    • Ch 1 - Bishop Escapes From Geneva 1533
    • Ch 2 - Two Reformers and a Dominican in Geneva 1533
    • Ch 3 - Farel, Maisonneuve, and Furbity in Geneva 1533-1534
    • Ch 4 - The Tournament 1534
    • Ch 5 - The Plot 1534
    • Ch 6 - Final Effort of Roman Catholicism 1534
    • Ch 7 - Farel Preaches in the Grand Auditory 1534
    • Ch 8 - Bold Protestant at Lyons 1530-1534
    • Ch 9 - Baudichon De La Maissonneuve 1534
    • Ch 10 - The Two Worships in Geneva 1534
    • Ch 11 - Boldness of Two Huguenots in Prison 1534
    • Ch 12 - Sentence of Death 1534
    • Ch 13 - Night of July Thirty-First at Geneva 1534
    • Ch 14 - Heroic Resolution 1534
    • Ch 15 - Suburbs of Geneva Are Demolished 1534-1535
    • Ch 16 - King of France Invites Melancthon to Restore Unity 1534-1535
    • Ch 17 - Attempt to Establish Unity 1535
    • Ch 18 - Gospel in the North of Italy 1519-1536
    • Ch 19 - Gospel in the Center of Italy 1520-1586
    • Ch 20 - Gospel at Naples and Rome 1520-1536

BOOK 7

MOVEMENTS OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND, AT GENEVA IN FRANCE, GERMANY, AND ITALY.

CHAPTER 1

THE BISHOP ESCAPES FROM GENEVA, NEVER TO RETURN

(JULY 1533.)

WE have seen the Reformation advancing in the bosom of a great nation; we shall now see it making progress in one of the smallest. The fall of Wolsey in England and the flight of the bishop-prince from Geneva are two historical dates which bear a certain resemblance. After the disappearance of these two prelates, there was a forward movement in men’s minds, and the Reformation advanced with more decided steps. Those two countries are now, as regards their importance, at the two extreme points in the line of nations; but in the sixteenth century the humble city of the Leman played a more important part in the Church of Christ than the mighty England. Calvin and his school did more than the Tudors, the Stuarts, and their divines, to check the reaction of the papacy and secure the triumph of true Christianity. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have proclaimed Geneva the antagonist of Rome; and, in truth, the petty band which marched under its banner, held their ground for nearly two centuries against the powerful and well-disciplined army of the Roman pontiffs. We have not forgotten Wittemberg, we shall not forget Geneva. The historian is not allowed to pass by the little ones who have had their share in the developments of the human mind. To those who repose beneath the healthful shade of the great Gospel oak, and uder its green boughs, we must relate the story of the acorn from which it sprang. The man who despises humble things cannot understand great things. ‘The Lord,’ says Calvin, ‘purposely made his kingdom to have small and lowly beginnings, in order that his divine power should be better known, when we see a progress that had never been expected.’

On the 1st of July, 1533, the Bishop of Geneva had returned to his city with the aid of the priests, the catholics, the Friburgers, and the ‘mamelukes,’ with the intention of ‘burying that sect,’ as he called the Reformation. Many of the most devoted friends of the Gospel were in exile or in the episcopal prison; hostile bands appeared in the neighborhood of the city, and all expected a victory of the Roman party. The tree was about to be violently uptorn before it had given any shade. But when God has placed a germ of religious, or even of political, life among a people, that life triumphs despite all the opposition of men. There are rocks and mountains which seem as if they would stop the course of the mighty waters, and yet the rivers still run on their way. The exasperated Pierre de la Baume chafed in Geneva, and beat the earth as if to crush reform and liberty beneath his feet; but by so doing he opened a gulf, in which were swallowed up his rights as a prince, his privileges as a bishop, taxes, revenue, priests, monks, mitres, images, altars, and all the religion of the Roman pontiffs.

If the bishop was uneasy, the people were uneasy likewise. It was not only strong men who spoke against the abuses of the papacy, but even women extolled the prerogatives of the evangelical faith. One day (in June or July, 1533) there was a large party at one of their houses, and two gentlemen of the neighboring district, Sire de Simieux and M. de Flacien, ‘besides seven or eight of their varlets,’ were invited. In their presence the wife of Baudichon de la Maisonneuve professed the evangelical truth. De Simieux having reproved the Genevese lady, ‘It is very clear you are a good Papist’ said she. ‘And that you are a good Lutheran,’ retorted De Simieux. ‘Would to God,’ exclaimed the lady, ‘that we were all so, for it is a good thing and a good law!’ ^fk55 The two gentlemen had had enough; they took leave of the ladies, and their eight ‘varlets’ followed them. Another incident will still better show the spirit of the times.

An evangelical named Curtet had just been murdered. Many huguenots thought it strange that, while their adversaries struck down a man, — a real image of God, — they must respect images made of wood, canvas, or stone. There was a deservedly celebrated place in Geneva, formerly occupied by the castle of Gondebaud, King of Burgundy, whence his niece Clotilda one day escaped to marry and convert Clovis. It was a very ancient arcade, only pulled down within these few years, ^fk56 and known as the Porte du Chateau (the castle gate). Near this place stood an image of the Virgin, an object of great veneration. ^fk57 On the 12th of July, 1533, some ‘Lutherans,’ believing it to be blasphemy against God to regard the Virgin as ‘the salvation of the world,’ went to the gate, carried away the image, broke it to pieces, and burnt it.

The. bishop, feeling that such men as these were capable of anything, resolved to put the imprisoned huguenots beyond their reach. A report soon spread abroad that he was secretly preparing boats to convey the prisoners during the night to Friburg or the castle of Chillon, ‘there to do his pleasure on them.’ ^fk58 All the huguenot population was in commotion; each man shouldered his arquebuse and joined his company; Philip, the captain-general, ordered the approaches to the lake to be guarded, so as to prevent the captive citizens from being conveyed elsewhere.

The noble enthusiasm which the Reformation. kindles in the soul uplifts a man; while the philosophic indifference of scholars and priests serves but to degrade him. The Genevans, filled with love for justice and liberty, were ready to risk all that they held most dear in order to prevent innocent citizens from being unjustly condemned, and a prelate sent by the pope from usurping rights which belonged to the magistrates elected by the people. An extraordinary agitation prevailed in men’s minds, and several huguenots proceeded to the shore of the lake. Pierre Verne, taking advantage of the darkness, got into the boats fastened to the bank, and cut the mooring-ropes as well as the cords to which the oars were lashed, so that they were made unserviceable. ^fk59 Numerous patrols traversed the streets, the armed men being accompanied by citizens, both young and old, carrying montres de feu, that is, rods tipped with iron, having several lighted matches or port-fires at the end, which were used at that time to discharge the arquebuses The dreaded hour when the evil use which princes make of their power accelerates their ruin, had arrived at last for the Bishop of Geneva. De la Baume and his partisans, who watched from their windows the passage of these excited bands, were surprised at the number of arquebusiers with which the city was suddenly thronged. ‘They were informed that for each arquebusier there were three or four match-men, which caused great alarm to those in the palace.’ A comet that appeared during the month of July alarmed them still more. ^fk60 As yet the huguenots wanted a man to lead the way; they were to find him in Baudichon de la Maisonneuve.

The Lutheranism of that citizen was of old date. He was a great friend of John Lullin, who possessed, it will be remembered, the hostelry of the Bear, at that time much frequented by German traders, who were, for the most part, Lutherans. Some Nuremburg merchants of the name of Toquer arrived there during the Lent of 1526. ^fk61 De la Maisonneuve, who had much business with Germany, went often to see them, ‘eating and drinking with them,’ Their conversation was very animated, and usually turned upon religion. As early as 1523 the traders of Nuremberg had heard the Gospel from the mouth of Osiander, and they endeavored to propagate it wherever they went. Their words struck De la Maisonneuve all the more ‘because at that time there was no mention of Lutheranism in Geneva, or next to none, at least.’ ^fk62 There was at that time in Lullin’s service a young man of Lyons, named Jean Demai, about twenty-five years of age, and very attached to the Roman Church. While waiting at table, he listened attentively to the conversation between Baudichon and the Germans, and kept it in his memory. The daring Genevese did not restrain himself, and said, sometimes at dinner, sometimes at supper. ^fk63 ‘God did not ordain Lent. It is mere folly to confess to the priests, for they cannot absolve you. It is an abuse to go to mass. All the religious orders, mendicants, and others, are nonsense.’ ‘What, then, will you do with the monks?’ asked one of the party. ‘Set them all to till the earth,’ he replied. ‘If you say such things,’ observed a catholic, ‘the Church will refuse you burial.’ ‘When I die,’ he answered, ‘I will have no preaching at my funeral, and no bells tolled; I will be buried wherever I please.’ ^fk64 Baudichon’s remarks were not kept within the walls of the hostelry of the Bear. Before long they were repeated throughout the city and neighborhood. ‘That man,’ said many, ‘is one of the principal Lutherans and in the front rank of those who set them going.’ ^fk65 That is what he was about to do.

On the 12th of July, 1533, Baudichon had passed the day in the country, making preparations for the harvest. Returning from the fields at night, he was surprised to see an extraordinary guard at the city gate, and on asking what it meant, he was told that the episcopalians were going to convey the prisoners to some place of strength. Immediately he determined to compel the bishop — but solely through fear — to follow the course prescribed by the laws. He desired fifty of the most resolute of his friends to take each an iron-tipped staff and to place five matches at the end. He then concealed them all in a house not far from the palace. Ere long darkness covered the city; there was nobody in the streets except a few patrols. De la Maisonneuve bade the men of his troop light their matches, and put himself at their head. In their left hands they held the staff, and the sword in their right. Entering the palace, and making their way to the prince’s apartment, they appeared before him, surrounded him with their two hundred and fifty lights; and Baudichon, acting as spokesman, called upon him to surrender his prisoners to their lawful judges. The bishop stared with amazement at this band of men with their swords and flaming torches; the night season added to his terror, and he thought that if he did not give way he would be put to death. Baudichon had no such idea; but Pierre de la Baume, imagining his last hour had come, ^fk66 gave the required order. Upon which the troop defiled before him with their port-fires, and quitted the episcopal palace. The huguenot prisoners having been transferred to the syndics, the latter intrusted them to the gaoler of the same prison to keep them securely under pain of death.’ They had passed from the arbitrary power of the bishop to the lawful authority of the councils. Constitutional order was restored. ^fk67

The bishop passed a very agitated night. The huguenots and the torches and the swords with which he had been surrounded would not let him sleep; and, when daylight came, he, as well as his courtiers, was quite unmanned. The 13th of July fell on Sunday, and what a Sunday! ‘I shall leave the city,’ the prelate said to his servants. A rumor of his approaching departure having got abroad, some of the canons hurried to the palace to dissuade him. ‘I will go,’ he repeated. To no effect did his followers represent to him that, if he left, the catholic faith, the episcopate, the authority of the prince, his revenues, would all be lost; nothing could shake him. He was determined to go. A Thomas a Becket would have died on the spot; but Pierre de la Baume, says a contemporary document, ‘was very warm about his own safety, but more than cold for the church.’ ^fk68 One thought, however, disturbed the timid bishop; and the proceedings of the syndics, Du Crest and Coquet, who came to beg him not to desert the city and his flock, served but to increase his distress. If the huguenots knew of his departure, he thought they might possibly stop him and bring him back to the palace. He dreamt of nothing but persecution; he saw nothing but prisons, swords, and corpses. He made up his mind to deceive the syndics, and assured them he would return in six weeks without fall; but he promised himself that Geneva should never see him again. He then asked the magistrates for six score of arquebusiers to protect his departure the next morning.

The syndics having determined to convene the council, the ushers went round the city and roused the councilors from their beds. Geneva desired to keep her bishop, while the bishop wished to desert her. The council ordered that next morning at daybreak, for fear the prelate should leave early, the syndics should go and point out the necessity for his remaining.

fk69

The syndics had scarcely left him when he fell into fresh terrors. He thought that the mustering of six-score arquebusiers would spread abroad the news of his departure, that the huguenots would rush to arms, that he would find himself between two parties armed with spears and arquebuses... He must make haste and depart alone, by night or at peep of day, without any parade, before the syndics could have time to assemble the council, which, he fancied, could not meet before the morrow. No one slept in the palace that night; all were busy preparing for the departure, and they took care that nothing should betray to the outside the agitation that reigned within. That was a terrible night. Two specters appeared to the bishop and dismayed him the Gospel and liberty. He saw no means of escaping them but flight. But what would the duke and the pope say? To quiet his conscience, he wrote, at the last moment, a letter to the council, in which he enjoined them to oppose the evangelical meetings, and to maintain the Romish religion ‘mordicus, tooth and nail.’

Daylight would soon appear; they were dejected in the palace, but everything was ready for flight. At that moment there was a knocking at the gate... It was the four syndics; the bishop was a few minutes too late... The syndics entered, and conjured Pierre de la Baume in the name of peace, country, and religion. They pointed out to him the consequences of his departure; the monarchical power crumbling away, the republic rising upon its ruins, the Church of Rome disappearing, and that of the innovators taking shape...

But nothing could move the bishop; he remained insensible as a statue. They next entreated him to leave the state affairs in order; to appoint, during his absence, a vicar, an official, a judge of appeal. Pierre de la Banroe refused everything. One only thought filled his mind he wanted to get away. ‘Alas!’ said the moderate catholics, ‘he does not set the state in order, and as for the church over which he is pastor... he abandons his flock.’ ^fk70 When the syndics had withdrawn, he gave the signal for departure. There was not a moment to lose, he thought; it will soon be broad daylight, and who knows but the magistrates, who set so much upon his presence, may give orders to stop him. Let every man do his duty! Let there not be a minute’s delay! The bishop took care not to leave the palace either by the principal entrance or by the ordinary gates of the city. In the vaults of the building was a passage which led to an unfrequented street — the Rue du Boule, now the Rue de la Fontaine. By following this street, the bishop could reach a secret postern in the wall of the city, which Froment calls la fausse porte du sel. Then Pierre de la Baume would be outside of Geneva; then he would be safe. Accordingly the bishop quitted his apartments, descended to the basement of the palace, and made his escape from that edifice (which is now a prison) like a malefactor escaping from his dungeon. His officers were downcast; they would have wished to crush those insolent huguenots, but were obliged to leave them a clear field. The bishop himself, forced to quit his palace and his power, felt great vexation. ^fk71 He looked about him with uneasiness, and trembled lest he should see the huguenots appear at the corner of the street. The encroachments he had made on the liberties of the citizens were not of a nature to tranquilize him, and in his distress he quickened his steps.

The fugitive band reached the secret postern; the prelate had the key; he passed through and stood on the shore of the lake. There was no enemy in sight. He entered a boat which had been got ready for him, and reached the other bank. He sprang immediately upon the horse that was waiting for him, and rode off at a gallop. He felt the weight upon his heart grow lighter the farther he went. Now the fierce huguenots will trouble him no more, and he will ‘make good cheer.’ He retired to the Tower of May, says the chronicle, ‘and never returned again.’ ^fk72

Baudichon de la Maisonneuve had succeeded beyond his expectations. Not only had the prisoners been rescued from the unlawful power of the bishop, but the prelate him. self had disappeared. A few huguenots, waving their montres de feu, had been sufficient to deliver Geneva. Not a drop of blood had been shed. ‘As at the sound of the trumpets of Gideon, and at the sight of his lamps,’ said the evangelists, ‘the Amalekites and the Midianites fled during the night, so did the bishop and his followers flee away at the sound of the arms and at the sight of the fire.’ ^fk73

Early in the morning of the 14th of July, the news of the bishop’s departure circulated through the city. The catholic members of the council, deserted by a perjured prince, felt themselves unable henceforth to oppose the torrent which was advancing with irresistible power. ‘All the catholics,’ says Sister Jeanne, ‘were sorely grieved.’ The pope blamed the bishop for abandoning his church, and reproached him for his cowardice. ^fk74 ‘That miserable city, having lost its prince and pastor,’ said people in Italy, ‘will become the asylum of every villain and the throne of heresy.’ ^fk75 But what caused so much sorrow to the papists was the source of immense joy to the evangelicals. They contended that the prince by running away abdicated his usurped power, and that the citizens resumed their rights. ^fk76 The sun of Geneva was setting, according to the old style (that of the Roman court); but according to the new (that of the Gospel), it was rising; and Geneva, illumined by its rays, was to communicate that divine light to others. The 14th of July, 1533, witnessed in Geneva the fall of that hybrid power ^fk77 which claims to hold two swords in its hand. Since then other bishop-kings have also disappeared, even in the most catholic countries; and the last, that of Rome, totters on his pedestal. The people of Geneva, from the time when they lost sight of that shameless and pitiless prelate, ceased to care about him, and never asked after him. They even invented a by-word, in use to this day; and when they wish to speak of a man for whom they feel a thorough indifference, they say: Je ne m’en soucie pas plus que de Baume (I do not care a straw about him). ^fk78

CHAPTER 2

TWO REFORMERS AND A DOMINICAN IN GENEVA.

(JULY TO DECEMBER 1533.)

THE bishop had fallen from his throne, and with him had expired a despotism which offensively usurped the liberties of the people; the lawful magistrates once more sat in their curule chairs, with liberty and justice at their sides. They investigated the cases of the citizens whom Pierre de la Baume claimed to get rid of without the formality of trial. The only man who could be accused of Wernly’s death was Pierre l’Hoste, and he had taken refuge in the Dominican church, where the bishop had not cared to follow him. The syndics went to the church; the poor wretch, shaking in every limb, clung vainly to the altar, and cried out: ‘I claim the privileges accorded to this sanctuary.’ He was arrested and the inquiry commenced. It proved the innocence of the imprisoned huguenots, and showed that the disturbance in which Wernly fell had been caused by the violence of the canon himself, who was armed from head to foot, and had taunted his adversaries with loud cries. The magistrates, however, thought that the blood of the victim called for the blood of him who had shed it. Pierre l’Hoste, the carman of the city, denied striking the fatal blow, but confessed that he had struck Wernly: he was condemned and beheaded. All the other prisoners were released.

But there was no relief to Claudine Levet’s sorrow; her husband was still confined in Castle Gaillard, and the governor refused to release him. The council entreated the Bernese deputies in Geneva to intercede in behalf of the prisoner, and on the 4th of September, one of them, accompanied by J. Lullin and C. Savoye, having gone out to Ville-la-Grand, about a league from the city, Aim, Levet was surrendered to them. ^fk79

While this pious man lay in the Galliard dungeons, the insults heaped upon him, the harshness of the prison, and the almost certain death which threatened him, had given his faith a new life; so that when the castellan had released him from his bonds, he inwardly vowed that he would make his deliverance accelerate the triumph of the Gospel. He had scarcely reached home, when he wrote to Anthony Froment, the evangelist, whose church had been the market-place, and whose pulpit a fishwife’s stall, and conjured him to return. The latter did not hesitate, and knowing that the struggles which awaited him there were beyond the strength of one man, he invited one of the brethren from Paris, and at that time in the Pays de Vaud to accompany him. This was Alexander Canus, called also Dumoulin. One day, therefore, Aime and Claudine Levet saw the two evangelists arrive. One lodged with them at St. Gervais on the right bank, and the other at Claude Salomon’s, near the Molard, on the left bank; being thus quartered in the two parts into which the city was divided, they could share the labor.

Salomon, who shared with Levet the honor and danger of receiving the evangelists, was as gentle as his friend Maisonneuve was quick and often violent. One day, shortly after the bishop’s flight, the latter saw in front of him in the street two of the bishop’s partisans, whom he suspected to be getting up some conspiracy; his blood boiled at the sight, and he exclaimed: ‘there are so many traitors here... My fingers itch to be at them.’ ^fk80 A sense of duty, however, restrained him, and he did nothing. But Salomon was calm and full of charity and compassion: he felt none of these passing ebullitions, and thought only of visiting the sick and the poor, and sheltering strangers whom the Romish persecutions drove to Geneva. ‘These poor refugees,’ he said, ‘are more destitute than all the rest.’ His wife, ‘neither dainty nor nice,’ ^fk81 lavished her cares on them. They were the Gaius and Dorcas of Scripture.

Froment and Alexander, quartered on both sides of the Rhone, preached the Word in private houses with such power that the new faith extended far and wide, ‘like the layers of a vine;’ ^fk82 the old stocks producing young shoots, which took root and formed other stocks. The priests were alarmed, and exclaimed that if those doctrines continued to be so preached, all the country would soon be infested with the sect. They applied to the bishop, who was at his castle of May — restless, agitated, and reproaching himself with his disgraceful flight. Wishing to redeem that fault, he replied on the 24th of October, forbidding any preaching in Geneva except according to ancient custom. The exulting priests presented these episcopal letters to the council. The bishop’s cowardly behavior had estranged the magistrates. ‘Preach the Gospel,’ answered the council, ‘and say nothing which cannot be proved by Holy Scripture.’ These important words, which gave the victory to the Reformation, may still be read in the official minutes.

Great was the joy among the reformed. They saw in these words a decree which made evangelical Christianity a lawful religion ^fk83 at Geneva (as at Rome in the third and fourth centuries), and authorized them to form a Church which should be free without being dominant. The same fact has reappeared at other times and in other countries. From that day, all who had any leaning towards the Gospel would go to the house of ‘Maisonneuve or of some other huguenot leader, and sit down in the largest room. Presently the preacher would enter, take his place before a table, and usually (as it would seem) under the mantelpiece of the large projecting fireplace. He would then proclaim the Word of God. These evangelists ‘did not fret themselves,’ they did not speak with bitterness like some others, and make a great noise; but invited souls to approach Christ without fear, because he is meek and lowly in heart; and such simple genial preaching attracted all who heard it. The bishop exclaimed that it was only ‘painted language,’ and ‘sham tenderness;’ but the number of hearers became so considerable that the two missionaries were forced to preach in the streets and crossways of the city at the Molard, the foot of Coutance, and other places. As soon as they appeared anywhere a numerous assembly gathered round them, the hearers crowded one upon another, and the living words addressed to them bore more fruit than scholastic or trivial sermons delivered in fine churches to hearers dozing in comfortable seats. ‘These preachings in houses, streets, and crossways,’ said Froment himself Care not without danger to life, but are a great advancement to the Word, and detriment to popery.’ ^fk84

The catholic party became alarmed; their leaders met, and the procurator-fiscal with the bishop’s officers and the priests, who were ‘greatly envenomed against the two reformers,’ ^fk85 resolved to apprehend them. Whenever a meeting was formed, the sergeants came upon it unexpectedly. ‘But as soon as they saw the leveled halberds, the faithful, greatly increased in number, did their duty, surrounded their ministers, and helped them to escape.’ In consequence of this, the episcopal police went more craftily to work: they kept watch upon the ministers, and came upon them when they were alone, ‘aiming at nothing less than their lives.’ ^fk86 But these efforts of the priests increased the respect men felt for the evangelists. ‘Such persecutions,’ said the huguenots, ‘are a sign by which we may know that the ministers are excellent servants of Christ.’ ^fk87

The bishop, vexed at having left his episcopal city, could find rest nowhere. At one time he was at the Tower of May, at another at Lons-le-Saulnier, now at Arbois, now elsewhere. The thought that two reformers had come to take his place in Geneva disturbed him; and when he found that the citizens paid no attention to his strict prohibition of Gospel preaching sent on the 24th of October, his exasperation was at its height. ‘We must apply an heroic remedy to the disease,’ he said, and on the 20th of November he dictated letters patent addressed to the procurator-fiscal.

The Great Council met on the 30th of November to hear the letters read. ‘We command,’ said the bishop, ‘that no one in our city of Geneva preach, expound, or cause to be preached or expounded, secretly or publicly, or in any manner whatsoever, the holy page, the holy Gospel, ^fk88 unless he have received our express permission, under pain of perpetual excommunication and a fine of one hundred livres.’ The Two Hundred were astounded, the evangelicals were indignant, and the better catholics hung their heads. A bishop to forbid the preaching of the holy page, of the holy Gospel!... to forbid it too in the very season (Advent) when it was usual to proclaim it! To excommunicate all who preach it! To forbid its being taught in any manner whatsoever! To forbid them to talk of it in courts or gardens, or elsewhere! Not a room, not a cellar, kitchen, or garret was excepted! The Apostle Paul declares, however, that the Gospel of Christ must not be hindered. The emotion of the Two Hundred was so great that all deliberation became impossible; ‘the whole council rose and went out,’ we read in the minutes of the sitting. Such was the mute but energetic reply made by Geneva to its bishop.

In the city the emotion was still greater, and vented itself in murmurs and sighs, and also in ironical jests. ‘Have you heard the news?’ said the huguenots: ‘the bishop is going to issue an order with sound of trumpet, forbidding us to speak either good or evil of God and Christ.’ The silly prohibition was like oil thrown upon the fire: the preachings became more frequent, and even the indifferent began to read the Scriptures. Froment and his friends distributed evangelical books in abundance’: first the New Testament, then various treatises recently composed, such as La Verite cachee, La Confrerie du Saint-Esprit, La Manire du Bapteme, La Cene de Jesus-Christ, and Le Livre des Marchands. ^fk89 De Vingle, the printer, and one of his men, named Grosne, helped them in this work. But the papists sometimes treated the colporteurs roughly; a gentleman of the neighborhood, having caught Grosne on the high road, cut off his ears. ^fk90 This had no effect; the people thirsted for the truth, and all were eager to hear the Word of God.

The leaders of the episcopal party, seeing that nothing could stop these precheurs de cheminees (chimney-preachers) and their hearers, looked about for a preacher whose energetic eloquence might rekindle the expiring Roman fervor, — one of those stout champions who can deal heavy blows in serious contests. For three or four centuries the Dominicans had played, as inquisitors, the chief parts in the papacy; they were skillful, eloquent, shrewd in government, persevering in their designs, inflexible in dogma, prodigal of threats, condemnations, and the stake. There was much talk in Savoy, and even in Geneva, about one of them, a doctor of the Sorbonne, named Guy Furbity, — ‘a great theologian,’ they said, ‘an enthusiastic servant of the pope, a sworn enemy of the Reformation, daring and violent to the last degree.’ ^fk91 Just then he was preaching at Chambery and Montmeillan, charming all hearers. The Genevese Catholics petitioned the Sorbonne for this great preacher. Such a rock, transported to the valley of the Leman, would, they thought, check the devastating torrent of reform. Their prayer was granted, and Furbity flattered himself that he was going to win a fairer crown than all his predecessors. Proud of his order, his reputation, and his Church, he arrived in Geneva with haughty head, glaring eyes, and threatening gestures; one might have imagined that he was going to crush all his adversaries to powder. ‘Ah! those poor Lutherans,’ he said disdainfully, ‘those poor chimney-preachers!’ ‘He was in a passion,’ says Froment. ^fk92 The huguenots said, as they pointed him out, ‘Look at that Atlas, who fancies he carries the tottering Church of the Roman pontiff on his shoulders.’ ^fk93 A plot had been formed, of which Furbity was to be the chief instrument. The syndics, Du Crest, Baud, Malbuisson, and many other good Genevans had been gained over by the priests to the cause of the pope, and by this means the latter held in their hands the council, the treasury, the artillery, and, in one word, the city property, besides the ignorant populace. ^fk94 The Sorbonne doctor had hardly alighted at the convent of his order when a deputation from the canons came and asked him to preach in the cathedral and not in the Dominican church. ‘The sermons delivered at St. Pierre’s, said the monks, ‘will produce a greater sensation.’ ’Very good,’ said Furbity, ‘I promise you that I will cry out pretty loudly against the modern heretics.’ It was objected that it was contrary to the established custom to have such preachings in the cathedral. ‘We will put him there by force of arms,’ answered the churchmen, ‘and he shall say what he pleases.’

On the morning of Sunday, the 30th of November, a certain number of priests and laymen armed themselves; and the zealous Furbity, taking his place in the middle of the band, proceeded to the cathedral. ‘Really,’ said some of the Genevese with astonishment, ‘he is going to preach by main force.’ But he restrained himself that day, and he met with no opposition. The next day, Monday, he went to work in earnest. His sermon was a continued declamation, full of pompous phrases extolling the papacy, and of invectives against the preachers. ‘In the pulpit he behaves like a madman,’ said Froment, who was present; ‘he roars without rhyme or reason.’ But the bigots were in ecstasies. ‘Have you heard Dr. Furbity?’ they said in the city. On Wednesday an immense crowd assembled to hear him. The Dominican went into the pulpit resolved to crush the heretics, as his patron, St. Dominick had done before him.

He imagined that his great business was to lower the Bible and then to exalt the pope, and be set to work accordingly. ‘All who read the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue,’ he said, ‘are gluttons, drunkards, debauchers, blasphemers, thieves, and murderers... Those who support them are as wicked as they, and God will punish them. All who will not obey the pope, or the cardinals, or the bishops, or the curates, or the vicars, or the priests, are the devil’s flock. They are marked by him, worse than Jews, traitors, murderers, and brigands, and ought to be hanged on the gallows. All who eat meat on Friday and Saturday, are worse than Turks and mad dogs... Beware of these heretics, these Germans, as you would of lepers and rottenness. Have no dealings with them in the way of business or otherwise, and do not let them marry your daughters. You had better give them to the dogs.’ ^fk95

Among the evangelicals who listened to this string of abuse was one Janin, a man of small stature, a maker of pikes, halberds, javelins, and arrows, whence he was usually called the collonier, or armorer. His activity was indefatigable; he was present everywhere; he held discussions in private and preached ‘to companies, urging with all his might’ those who listened to him to embrace the faith which Luther had found in the Holy Scriptures. ^fk96 Having gone to St. Pierre’s, he sat down near some good catholics, among others ‘Pierre Pennet, whose brothers were soon to become famous in Geneva for their zeal in behalf of the Romish faith. Janin, unable to put up with such insulting language, became restless, and exclaimed that the preacher did not know what he was saying. The catholics around him, annoyed at being disturbed in their devotions, said: ‘Begone; one preacher is enough here.’ ^fk97 But they had some trouble to make him hold his tongue. A more telling interruption was to disturb the orator before long.

The Dominican saw clearly that abuse alone would not restore the papacy; its fundamental doctrines must be established, and this he undertook to do in other discourses. Continuing to insult the reformers as ‘wretches who, instead of wearing the robe, are dressed like brigands,’ he maintained that priests only, by virtue of the sacramental institution, could bring souls into communion with God. He even used language that must have sounded strange to the worshippers of Mary. ‘A priest who consecrates the elements of the Sacrament,’ he said, ‘is above the Holy Virgin, for she only gave life to Jesus Christ once, whereas the priest creates him every day, as often as he likes. If a priest pronounces the sacramental words over a sack full of bread, or in a cellar full of wine, all the bread, by that very act, is transformed and becomes the precious body of Christ, and all the wine is changed into blood — which is what the Virgin never did... Ah! the priest!... you should not merely salute him, you should kneel and prostrate yourselves before him.’

This was not enough; the Dominican thought it his duty to establish the doctrine of transubstantiation, on which the dignity of the priest is founded. He exclaimed: ‘We must believe that the body of Jesus Christ is in the host in flesh and bone. We must believe that he is there as much as he was in the Blessed Virgin’s womb, or on the wood of the true cross. We must believe it under pain of damnation, for our holy theological faculty of Paris at the Sorbonne, and our mother the holy Church, believe it. Yes; Jesus Christ is in the host, as he was in the Virgin’s womb,... but small... as small as an ant. It is a matter that admits of no further discussion.’

Whereupon the Dominican, satisfied that he had gained a signal victory, indulged in the impetuosity of his clerical haughtiness, and, pouring out a torrent of insults, exclaimed: ‘Where are those wretched Lutherans who preach to the contrary? Where are these heretics, these rascals, these worse than Jews, Turks and heathens?... Where are these fine chimney-preachers? Let them come forward, and they shall be answered... Ha! ha! They will take good care not to show themselves, except at the chimney-corner, for they are only brave in deceiving poor women and such as know nothing.’ ^fk98

Having spoken thus, the monk sat down, proud of his eloquence. A great agitation prevailed in the congregation; the reformers were challenged to the combat; the people wondered whether they would reply to the challenge. There was a momentary pause, when Froment rose, and standing in the middle of the church, motioned them with his hand to he silent. ‘For the love of God,’ he said, ‘listen to what I have to tell you!’ The congregation turned their eyes on the person who uttered these words, and the evangelist, with sonorous voice, exclaimed: Sirs, I offer my life — yea, I am ready to go the stake if I do not show, by Holy Scripture, that what Dr. Furbity has just said is false, and the language of Antichrist.’ He then adduced scriptural authorities against the Dominican’s assertions. ‘It is the truth,’ exclaimed the reformers; and some of them looking towards the monk, called out: ‘Let him answer that.’ Furbity, astonished at hearing himself refuted by such plain passages, dared not rise, but remained fixed to his seat, hiding his head in the pulpit. ‘Let him answer,’ shouted the huguenots on all sides: their shouts were useless.

The canons and their friends, finding their oracle was dumb, ventured upon a controversy which was much more in their line. They drew their swords (priests often wore swords in those times), and approaching Froment, exclaimed: ‘Kill him — kill the Lutheran!... Ah I the wretch! he has dared take our good father to task.’ Nothing but death could expiate the crime of a layman who had ventured to contradict a priest. There was only one point on which these churchmen were not agreed: it was whether they should burn or drown the evangelist. Some shouted: ‘Burn him up burn him!’ and others: ‘To the Rhone with him!’ — ’There was no small commotion,’ writes Froment. Just as the priests were about to carry him off, Baudichon de la Maisonneuve, Ami Pertin, Janin le Collonier, and others rallied round him like a body-guard, wishing to get him out of the church. This did not calm the tumult; the people ran after him, and the magistrates would have arrested him. ‘They crowded upon one another,’ says Fromant, ‘either to see him, or to strike him, or to carry him off.’ The tumultuous crowd made a last effort to lay hold of the evangelist, just as they reached the great doors of the cathedral. Baudichon de la Maisonneuve observing this, halted, drew his sword, and, facing the rioters, cried in a loud voice: ‘I will kill the first man that touches him. Let the law prevail; and if any one has done wrong, let him be punished.’ The catholics, intimidated by Maisonneuve’s look, shrank back; and Froment’s friends, taking advantage of this favorable moment, dragged him away from his enemies. Then, ‘the women, as if they were mad, rushed after him with great fury, throwing many stones at him.’ ^fk99 The huguenot Pertin, more politic than evangelical, alarmed at the tumult, said to Froment: ‘We have spoilt the business; it was going on very well, and now all is lost.’ The other (by which words Froment indicates himself), sure of his cause, answered simply: ‘All is won!’ The future showed that he was right. When Froment arrived at Baudichon’s house, — the usual asylum of the friends of the Gospel, ⎯ Le Collonier took him up to the hayloft and care fully hid him under the hay. De la Maisonneuve and Janin had afterwards to pay dearly for their kind offices. The latter had scarcely quitted the loft when Claude Baud arrived with his officers and his halberds. ‘They searched the house all over, and even thrust their spears into the hay, but finding nobody they withdrew.’ ^fk100 Alexander, who had not spoken in the church, had accompanied his friend as far as the great doors. Seeing Froment led away by Janin, and believing him safe, he halted ‘at the top of the steps in the midst of the people,’ and, not permitting himself to be intimidated by the popular fury, he exclaimed: ‘He very properly took him to task. Doctor Furbity has preached against the holy books; he is a false prophet.’ The syndics, pleased to catch one at least, carried Alexander off to the town-hall, and some demanded that he should be sentenced to death. The sage Balthasar resisted this: ‘It was not this man who caused the uproar,’ he said. ‘Besides, he is a Frenchman; and the King of France may perhaps take some opportunity against our city if we put his subjects to death.’ The two ‘Mahometists’ were banished for life from the city, under pain of death; and, at the same time, it was agreed that the Advent preachers should be told ‘to preach the Gospel only, in order to avoid disturbance.’

Alexander was conducted by the watch out of the city to a place called La Monnaye, where, seeing the crowd following him, he turned towards them and said: ‘I shall not take my rest like a soldier whose time of service is over.’ He then addressed the crowd for two hours, and many were won to the Gospel. De la Maisonneuve having returned home, went in search of Froment in the hayloft; and as soon as it was night, the two friends quitted Geneva secretly took up Alexander at La Monnaye, and then all three set off for Berne.

CHAPTER 3

FAREL, MAISONNEUVE, AND FURBITY IN GENEVA.

(DECEMBER 1533 TO JANUARY 1534.)

DE LA MAISONNEUVE was determined to uphold the liberty of Gospel-preaching. ‘We are called Lutherans,’ said Froment; ‘now, Luther in German means clear, and there is nothing clearer than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lutheran cause is the cause of light.’ And therefore De la Maisonneuve desired to propagate it.

The zealous huguenot did not lose a moment after his arrival at Berne. He told all his friends (of whom he had many) what was going on at Geneva. Froment and Alexander, who stood by his side, supported his complaints and repeated the insults of the Dominican. The Bernese were exasperated by the abuse the monk had heaped upon the protestants, but they were animated by a nobler motive. They had thought that Geneva, so famous for the energetic character of its citizens, would be a great gain for the Reformation; and now people were beginning to say in Savoy, in the Pays de Vaud, at Friburg, and in France, that the reforming movement was crushed in the huguenot city. ‘A great rumor,’ says Farel, ‘spread everywhere touching Geneva, how that Master Furbity had triumphed in his disputations with the Lutherans.’ ^fk101 The Bernese resolved to assist the threatened Reform by despatching to Geneva... not large battalions, but a humble preacher of the Gospel. They sent William Farel as Maisonneuve’s companion.

On Sunday, December 21, the feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury, Furbity, proud at having to eulogize so heroic a saint, was more energetic than ever. ‘All who follow that cursed sect,’ he cried, ‘are lewd and gluttonous livers, wanton, ambitious, murderers, and thieves, who live like beasts, loving their own sensuality, acknowledging neither a God nor a superior.’ These words raised the enthusiasm of the catholics, the chief of whom resolved to go in a body to the bishop’s palace to thank the reverend father. The noble Perceval de Pesmes, capitaine des bons, ‘the captain of the good,’ as the nuns called him, was at their head. ‘Most reverend father,’ said the descendant of the Crusaders, ‘we thank you for preaching such good doctrine, and beg you will fear nothing.’ — ‘Hold fast to the sword, captain; on my side I will use the spirit and the tongue.’ The compact being made, the deputation withdrew.

They had scarcely quitted the episcopal palace, when a strange report circulated through the town. ‘De la Maisonneuve has returned from Berne and brought the notorious William Farel with him!’ Farel having reentered Geneva, was not to leave it again until the work of the Reformation was completed there. ‘What!’ exclaimed the catholics, ‘that wretch, that devil whom we drove out is come back!’ They were so exasperated that De Pesmes, Malbuisson, and others, meeting Farel and Maisonneuve in the street that very day, drew their swords and fell upon them; they were rescued by some huguenots. The episcopalians consulted together, and decided to take up arms to expel the reformer.

Not without reason were the catholics alarmed. Farel was a hero. A work that is beginning requires one of those strong men who, by the energy of their will, surmount all obstacles, and set in motion all the forces of their epoch to carry out the plan they have conceived. Calvin and Luther are the great men of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Calvin defended it against dangerous enemies; he gave to the renovated Church a body of divinity and a simple powerful constitution. The scriptural faith which he has set forth is making, and will make, the circuit of the world. But when he arrived at Geneva, the Reform was already accomplished outwardly. Farel is really the reformer of that city as well as of other places in Switzerland and France. A noble and simple evangelist, his genius was less great, his name less illustrious than his successor’s; but he ceased not to expose his life in fierce combats for the Savior, and, in the order of grace, he was in that beautiful country enclosed between the Alps and the Jura what fire is in the order of nature — the most powerful of God’s agents. He was not, as is sometimes imagined, a hot-headed man, liable to fits of violence and temper. With energy he combined prudence with zeal, impartiality. ‘Would to God. he said, on the occasion of his discussion with Furbity ‘that each man would state each thing without leaning to one side more than to the other. ^fk102 But it must be acknowledged that he had more force than circumspection, and an unparalleled activity was the principal feature of his character. To venture everywhere, to act in all circumstances, to preach in every place, to brave every danger, were his enjoyment and his life. His excessive genius ‘delighted in adventure,’ as was said of a celebrated conqueror, and he was never so truly happy as when he was in the field. Farel began the work, and Calvin completed it.

Another man, a layman, was called to play a part not less important in the Genevan Reformation. It has been remarked ^fk103 that in the great revolutions of nations, God sometimes gives not a counselor to be listened to, but a torrent to be followed. There was indeed in Geneva a mighty torrent rushing towards Reform, and the man who personified that popular force was Baudichon de la Maisonneuve. Noble in heart as in race, at first he had been merely an independent politician and an opponent of the papacy; but, opening his house and his heart to the Gospel, he came to love it more and more every day. Certainly he did not possess all the evangelical graces; he was somewhat of a jester, and might often be found laughing at the superstitions of his times. Occasionally, also, he was violent in his acts and words. But the republican energy that characterized him made him the fittest man to cope with Rome, the Duke, and the Inquisition. Strong, proud, immovable, he was on a small stage, what the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse were on a larger stage, the patron of evangelical doctrine. Although of noble descent, he was in trade, and had an extensive business. Rich and generous, he provided for the wants of the new creed. The magistrates of the cities with which he had dealings showed him much consideration; and not only did the puissant republic of Berne intercede in his favor, but King Francis I. also. De la Maisonneuve had no doubts about the triumph of the Reformation. One day, as a Lausanne dealer was buying one of his horses, the confident Genevan said to him: ‘You shall pay me when no more masses are celebrated at Lausanne.’ Two or three months later, when settling his accounts at Lyons, he said to one of his correspondents: ‘You shall pay me when the priests in this city are what those in Berne are now.’ This made the bigoted catholics exclaim: ‘He is the cause of the perversion of Geneva. Would to God he had died ten years ago!’ ^fk104 De la Maisonneuve had much affinity with Berthelier: the latter began the independence of the city, the former introduced the reform. They were both pioneers; but if Berthelier’s death was the most heroic, Baudichon’s life was the most exemplary.

De la Maisonneuve was able, in case of necessity, to unite prudence with energy. On the 21st December, the Dominican having preached with great eclat in the cathedral, some of the reformed said, boldly: ‘Why should not our minister (Farel) preach in the church as well as a popish doctor?’ and invited the reformers to enter the building, The indignant catholics exclaimed: ‘It shall cost us our lives sooner!’ De la Maisonneuve calmed his friends; he wished to try legal means, and ask the magistrates for a church.

The next day he appeared before the council, and handed in the letter from the chiefs of the mighty Bernese republic. ‘What! ‘they said, ‘you expel from your city our servants, people attached to the Holy Word, whom we commended to you, and at the same time you tolerate men who blaspheme against God. Your preacher has attacked us; we shall prosecute him, and call upon you to arrest him. Moreover, we ask for a place in which Farel may preach the Gospel publicly.’ The larger portion of the council was astounded at these two requests. They were about to deliberate on them when a commotion was heard in the street. A plot had broken out.

It was near midday. Between eight and nine hundred priest’s and laymen were going to the bishop’s palace, where they had ‘appointed a meeting. In the palace everything was astir; the cellars were open, and the servants were running about with bottles in their hands. ‘They supplied wine in profusion, and every man promised to do his duty. They were respectable looking people and well dressed.’ Two hundred men were to stop at St. Pierre’s to attack the heretics in the rear. All the others were to go down to the Molard, ‘burning for the cause of God,’ and attack Baudichon’s house, where Farel was to be found. ^fk105

De la Maisonneuve, understanding what was going on, hastily quitted the Council-chamber, and ran to defend his home. ^fk106 His first care was to hide Farel as well as he could, and then, while preparations were making to storm his house, he took steps for its defense. But the council, learning what was going on, left the hotel de ville, and ordered the bishop’s partisans to lay down their arms. It seemed strange to do so, after so many protestations and so much zeal; yet they obeyed. ‘The wicked build triumphs in the air,’ said the huguenots, ‘and all these reports ended in smoke at last.’ ^fk107

Farel left his hiding-place and resumed his preachings in the houses; but his audience had a singular appearance. In front of the minister might be seen the proud features of the huguenots, with helmets on their heads, swords by their sides, and some were armed with cuirass, arquebuse, ox halberd; for, since the last catholic resort to arms, they feared a surprise. Baudichon watched over the assembly. Wearing an allecret (a sort of light breastplate), and holding a staff in his hand, he ‘set the people in order,’ assigning them their places, and whenever he chanced to hear any conversation, ‘bidding them be silent;’ then Farel would begin to speak and preach the Gospel with boldness? ^fk108

The syndics, placed between the reformers and the catholics, could not tell what to do. If they arrested Furbity, they would exasperate the catholics and Savoyards; if they allowed him to continue his philippics against the reformed, they would offend the huguenots and the Bernese. The Two Hundred therefore, resolved to leave the Dominican ostensibly at large, at the same time treating him in reality as a prisoner. He might go where he pleased, but attended by six guards, who followed him even to the foot of the pulpit. ‘Alas!’ exclaimed his friends, ‘they have placed the reverend father in the keeping of the watch!’ On hearing which the monk observed, haughtily: ‘I am under restraint on account of a set of people who are good for nothing.’

Christmas day arrived: the Dominican had ‘a very numerous audience, particularly of women.’ Incense smoked on the altars; the chants resounded in the choir; the faithful had never shown so much fervor, and the monk preached with such warmth that, ‘within the memory of man, there had never been so fine a service.’ ^fk109 At the same time, Farel, plainly dressed, was preaching in a large room. There was no incense, no tapers, no chanting, but the words of God which stirred men’s consciences. This irritated Furbity still more, and on the last day of the year he exclaimed from the pulpit: ‘All who follow the new law are heretics and the most worthless of men.’ ^fk110 Thus ended the year 1533.

The new year was to make the balance incline to the side of the Reformation; accordingly the clergy, as if terrified at the future, resolved to destroy the tree by the roots, and inaugurated the first day of the year 1534 by an extraordinary proclamation. ‘In the name of Monseigneur of Geneva and of his vicar,’ said the priests from all the pulpits, ‘it is ordered that no one shall preach the Word of God, either in public or in private, and that all the books of Holy Scripture, whether in French or in German, shall be burnt.’ ^fk111 The reformed, who were present in great numbers in the church, were staggered at the new-year’s gift which the bishop presented to his people. The Dominican, who was preaching that day for the last time, outdid the proclamation, and bade farewell of his audience in a paltry epigram: —

Je veux vous donner mes etrennes, Dieu convertisse les lutherens! S’ils ne se retournent a bien, Qu’il leur donne fievres quartaines! Qui vent si, prennent ses mitaines! fk112

Notwithstanding his invocation of the quartan ague, the catholics said, with tears in their eyes, ‘With what devotion he takes leave of us!’ All, however, had not been equally touched: just as the monk was preparing to depart, his guards stopped him, for he had forgotten that he was a prisoner.

Meanwhile the episcopal mandate was causing disturbance in the city. ‘Forbid the preaching of the Gospel,’ said some; ‘burn the holy books! What a horrible notion! The Mahometans never did anything like it with regard to the Koran, or the Ghebers with the books of Zoroaster. Those who are charged to preach the Word of God are the very men to condemn it to the flames! ‘Thus catholics and evangelicals took up arms — the former to destroy the Bible, the others to defend it.

They remained under arms not only during the night of the first of January, but also during the second, the third, and a part of the fourth, bivouacking in the squares, and kindling great fires. The citizens of Geneva had often taken up arms from other motives. If any one had now gone to the catholics and asked them: ‘Why are you doing this?’ they would have answered: ‘Because we desire to drive out the Bible:’ and if the same question had been put to the reformed, they would have answered: ‘Because we desire to keep it.’ These poor folks had often nothing to eat or drink; and when any party sent to a house to procure provisions, the other party often seized the spoil. They were obliged to give the purveyors a strong escort. ^fk113

It was a strange sight, no doubt, to see a town filled with armed men because of the Word of peace. It was in this way that great emotions displayed themselves at that epoch, and it would be ridiculous to exhibit the men of the sixteenth century with the manners of the nineteenth. The evangelical Christians believed that, if the Bible were taken from them, Jesus would also be lost to them; it seemed that if there were no more Scripture, there would be no more Christ, no more salvation. The political huguenots, not troubling themselves about that matter, thought that the Bible was the best means of getting rid of the bishop. Consequently all alike passed the days and nights under arms around the watchfires, being unwilling to have the Scriptures taken away from them. The reformed, desiring to appear pacific, thought it their duty to yield a little, and prevailed upon Alexander to withdraw, as he had been lawfully banished. He turned his steps in the direction of France, where he soon after found a martyr’s death. But the evangelical cause in Geneva lost nothing, for, as Alexander left on one side, Froment returned on the other; and almost at the same moment an embassy from Berne, headed by Sebastian of Diesbach, appeared at the city gates. These worthy deputies, seeing what was going on, the bivouacs, the soldiers, the spears, and arquebuses, — stopped their horses, examined the groups with an air of astonishment, asked what it all meant, and finally exhorted the rival parties to withdraw. The Genevese began to understand the strangeness of their position: the huguenots felt that it was a different power from that of their arquebuses which should defend the Bible; the men of both parties, therefore, yielded to the wise remonstrances of the Bernese, and every man retired to his own house. ^fk114

Diesbach and his colleagues came with the intent of prosecuting the Dominican; but while shutting the door against the monk, they desired to throw it wide open to the Reformation. Farel had been at Geneva some time; Froment had just arrived; but that was not all. A man of modest appearance, who formed part of the Bernese retinue, was to be more formidable to Roman-catholicism than the illustrious ambassadors themselves. They had with them the young and gentle Viret. Weak and faint, he was still suffering from a wound inflicted by a priest of Payerne, but the deputies of Berne had insisted on his accompanying them. Thus Farel, Viret, and Froment — three men of lively faith and indefatigable zeal were going to work together in Geneva. Everything seemed to indicate that the reformed bands of Switzerland were unmasking their batteries and preparing to dismantle those of the pope. They were about to open a sharp fire, which would beat down the thick walls that for so long had sheltered the oracles and exactions of the papacy.

Viret immediately asked after his friends Farel and Froment, who had been forced to hide themselves during the armed crisis; some huguenots went in search of them and brought them to the Tete-noire, where the embassy was quartered. ‘You shall stay with us,’ said the Bernese; ‘we will protect your liberty, and you shall announce the Gospel.’ The three reformers immediately began to preach in private houses, ^fk115 proclaiming the authority and the doctrines of those Holy Scriptures which the clergy had condemned. What a strange contradiction I The bishop had just interdicted the Bible, and the three most powerful preachers in the French tongue were now publicly teaching its divine lessons... So many and such good workmen had never before been seen in Geneva. ‘And the papists dared do nothing against them.’ ^fk116

But the Bernese wanted more: ‘You protect that Dominican who slanders our good reputation,’ they said to the council; ‘you despise our mode of living, you condemn the holy Gospel of God, you maltreat those who desire to understand it, and banish those who preach it: is that conducting yourselves in conformity with the treaty of alliance? Let the monk defend what he has taught: we have brought preachers who will show him the falseness of his doctrine. If you refuse these requests, Berne will find other means of vindicating her honor.’ The syndics replied to the Bernese: ‘It is dot our business to know what concerns priests; apply to the prince-bishop.’ ⎯ ‘That is a mere evasion,’ answered Berne. ‘We give you back our letters of alliance.’ At these words the premier syndic, becoming alarmed, offered to let the Dominican appear before them. The Bernese accepted, but ‘on condition that the monk should be obliged to answer the ministers before all the people.’ ^fk117 That was the essential point.

CHAPTER 4

THE TOURNAMENT.

(JANUARY TO FEBRUARY 1534.)

THE 9th of January was an important date in the history of the Reformation of Geneva, and perhaps (we might add) in that of Europe. The laity were about to resume their lights: a priest was to appear before the Genevese laymen and the Bernese magistrates. As soon as the Council of Two Hundred had assembled, the ambassadors entered, followed by three persons who attracted the special attention of all present. The eyes full of fire, the bold bravery, the indomitable features of one of them marked him to be Farel. The second, less known, had, although young, the prudence of a man in years and the sweetness of a St. John; this was Viret. The third, short in stature and of mean appearance, decided in his gait, lively, and talkative; this was Froment. They all took their seats at the right of the premier syndic. The friar of the order of St. Dominic, entering in his turn, sat on the left on a raised bench. They had met to attack and defend the papacy. The tournament, at which a great crowd of gentlemen and citizens was present, resembled one of those ‘solemn judgments’ to which man had had recourse for ages to terminate certain controversies. The subject of the dispute was more important than usual. Truth and tradition, the middle ages and modern times, independence and slavery, were in the balance. All, therefore, who were interested in divine and human things, waited with impatience. Their expectations were disappointed.

Just as the struggle was about to begin, one of the combatants hung back. The Dominican rose and said: ‘Messieurs, I am a monk and doctor of Paris; I cannot appear before laymen without the license of my prelate.’ He sat down. ‘You offered before all the people,’ said Sebastian of Diesbach, ‘to defend your position by the Holy Scriptures, and now you want a licence.’ Farel rose and observed, that the monk and the great apostle were of contrary opinions; ‘St. Paul refused, in such a case, to appear before the priests at Jerusalem, and appealed to Caesar. Now Caesar was certainly a layman, and what is more a heathen.’ The monk forbore to reply to this invincible argument; but looking with pity on the individual who had dared speak to him, said, with a gesture of contempt, ‘that he had nothing to do with that mall.’ Then, remembering how the strappatio and the stake brought such cavillers to their senses in Paris, he added: ‘Let him go and speak like that in France!’ ‘Good father,’ said the premier syndic, since you will not answer when our lords of Berne accuse you, leave that place and sit on the bench yonder, where you shall hear the rest.’ The monk of St. Dominic had to quit his place of honor and go to the bar; but notwithstanding this humiliation, he again refused to speak. The syndics then sent to ask the grand-vicar to give him leave to answer; but this dignitary replied: ‘I am ill.’ The deputies made the same request to the official, M. de Veigy, who answered: ‘The bishop has forbidden me to do so.’ Shameful! ‘exclaimed many; ‘all these priests refuse to have an account of their faith.’ The Dominican said to the council: ‘Let my lords the ambassadors select as judges two doctors from Germany; and we will select two from Paris; then I will reply not only to Farel, Viret, and Froment, but to a hundred or two hundred of such preachers... Alone I will meet them all!’ The Bernese declared they would trust the matter to those only who were lawfully authorized. They wanted more. The refusal of the Dominican served but to increase their desire to see the Reformation freely preached in Geneva. Not contenting themselves with a theological discussion, they said to the syndics: ‘The way to pacify the city and to be just towards all, is to pick out one of the parish churches and appoint a preacher of the Gospel to it. Those who wish to go to the sermon, will go-to the sermon; those who wish to go to mass, will go to mass; every man is to remain free in his conscience; no one shall be constrained, and all will be satisfied.’ ‘We are only laymen,’ answered the astonished syndics; ‘it is not our business to choose preachers and assign them churches.’ The council sent a deputation to Berne to soften the rigor of the chiefs of the state; but it was useless. The greater the suppleness (to use the language of a manuscript) shown by the Genevans, the greater the inflexibility displayed by the Bernese. It was a struggle between the pliant and the rigid; and the pliant, as usual, were compelled to give way. ^fk118 The Bernese ambassadors pursued their plans with vigor, and demanded reparation for the insults of the Dominican, and a church for the preachers of the Gospel. ‘If you refuse,’ added Diesbach, ‘we shall return you the seals of our alliance; we shall take back ours; we shall prosecute the monk... and whomsoever we think fit.’ The Two Hundred were astounded, involuntary tears escaped from the eyes of some, and even the people outside were much disturbed (says the Council minute). Joining deeds to words, Sebastian of Diesbach placed the letters of alliance on the table. The whole assembly immediately rose up with indescribable emotion, and with tears begged the ambassadors to take back their letters. ‘We will do our best to satisfy you!’ exclaimed the premier-syndic, stout Catholic as he was. The stern Bernese noble was touched. ‘We take them back,’ he said at last; ‘but we protest that we shall return them if you do not satisfy our demands.’ ^fk119 Everything was then prepared for the trial. Geneva undertook to bear the axe into the wilderness of church abuses: a priest, accused by laymen, was about to be tried by laymen. This in itself was a revolution.

On the 27th January, the Two Hundred sitting as a court of justice, Furbity was brought before them. He had taken courage; his erect head and confident look showed that he believed himself, sure of victory. He called upon the Bernese to set forth their grievances, but protested against the inquiry on account of the sacerdotal character with which he was invested. Then the following colloquy took place: —

AMBASSADOR. — You preached publicly that four kinds of executioners

divided the robe of our Savior Jesus Christ at the foot of the cross, and

that the first were Germans. That word concerns us.

MONK. — I never used such words; and I do not know to what country the executioners belonged.

AMBAS. — We will prove this charge presently. You said that those who

eat meat on Friday and Saturday are worse than Jews, Turks, and mad

dogs.

MONK. I did not mean thereby to offend their Excellencies of Berne; I was preaching only to the people of this city.

AMBAS. You said that all who read the Holy Scriptures in the vulgar tongue are no better than lewd livers, gluttons, drunkards, blasphemers, murderers, and robbers.

MONK. I affirm that I have not abused my lords of Berne.

AMBAS. You spoke in a general manner, and consequently included them in

your accusation.

MONK. — I was speaking to the Genevese only.

AMBAS. — You said: ‘Avoid these wicked modern heretics, these

Germans, as you would lepers and unclean persons. Do not let them marry your daughters, you had better give them to the dogs.’

MONK. I deny having preached that article.

AMBAS. You said: ‘That the modern heretics, who will not obey the pope or the cardinals, bishops, and curates, are on that account the devil’s flock and worse than mad dogs... and ought to be hanged on the gallows.’

MONK — That is an article of faith, and I have not to answer for it before you.

PREMIER-SYNDIC. — You are commanded to answer.

MONK. ⎯ I shall not answer.

PREMIER-SYNDIC.-The charge is confessed.

AMBAS. — ‘Most honored lords, we belong to those who read Scripture in the vulgar tongue. We belong to those who hold our Lord as sole head of the Church, as its everlasting and sovereign pastor; and, moreover, we are Germans; and for this reason we believe the said articles have been uttered against us. If we were what these articles say, we should deserve corporal punishment; and therefore we demand, in terms of the lex talionis, that the said preacher be visited with a punishment similar to that which we should have incurred.’

The reasoning of the ambassador was not irrefutable. Envoys from Zurich, Basle, and other Evangelical cantons, even ‘from the landgrave of Hesse or the elector of Saxony might just as well accuse the monk of having insulted them. But it is precisely this which explains the conduct of the Bernese deputies. Protestantism had been abused, its fundamental principles trampled under foot. The Bernese did not prosecute the monk in order to avenge a personal affront; what they wanted was to see the Word of God set in the place of the word of the pope, and the Reformation established in Geneva. The Gospel was on trial and not my lords of Berne; but the latter considered themselves the champions of the Reformation in Switzerland, and when enemies attacked it, they thought it their duty to defend it. To have kept out of the lists would have been disobedience to the supreme judge of the combat. The ambassadors brought up fourteen witnesses ready to swear that the monk had said what was ascribed to

_him. fk120

Furbity seeing no other means of escape, determined to fight for Rome. On Thursday, 29th January, a rumor spread through the city that the monk would hold a discussion with the reformers. The Two Hundred, and a certain number of other citizens, met in the Hotel de Ville to be present at this important struggle.

One of the tourneys of the Reformation at Geneva was about to begin; the two combatants were in the lists. On one side the Dominican, the champion of Rome, came forward with scholastic learning that was not to be despised, a front of adamant, lungs strong enough to reduce all his rivals to silence, and a tongue furnished with an inexhaustible flow of words. ^fk121 At once violent and skillful, he made use of every weapon, and possessed a particular art of glazing over his errors and rendering them less apparent. ^fk122 On the other side was Farel, less experienced than his rival in the tricks of dialectics, but full of love for the truth, firm as a warrior advancing to defend it, and ready to confound the monk’s scholastic arguments by the invincible demonstrations of the Scriptures of God. Possessing a manly eloquence and sonorous voice, his clear, energetic, and at times ironical language, did prompt justice upon the sophisms of his adversaries. ^fk123

The reformer rose first and said: ‘This is a serious business; let us therefore speak with all mildness. Let not one strive to get the better of the other. We can have no nobler triumph than to see the truth prevail. So that it be acknowledged by all, I willingly consent to forfeit my life.’ Touched by his words, the assembly exclaimed: ‘Yes, yes! that is what we desire.’

Furbity began by asserting the authority of the pope. He maintained that the heads of the Church may ordain things that are not in Scripture, and to prove it, he quoted ^<051708> Deuteronomy 17:8-10:

‘If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, thou shalt come unto the priests, and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee.’

Farel, on the contrary, maintained the authority of the Holy Scriptures, and declared that all doctrine must be founded on them alone. He called to mind that God, in this very book of Moses, had said:

‘Ye shall not add unto the Word which I command you, neither shall you diminish aught from it. ( ^<050402> Deuteronomy 4:2)

‘What is said of the Levitical priest in the Old Testament (he added)ought to be applied, not to the Romish priests, but to Jesus Christ, who is the everlasting high-priest. To him, therefore, we must go, him we must obey, and not the priest.’ ^fk126 ‘Christ,’ exclaimed Furbity, ‘gave to St. Peter the key of the kingdom of heaven, and St. Peter transmitted it to the priests, his successors.’ ‘The key of the heavenly kingdom,’ answered Farel, ‘is the Word of God. If any one believes in the promises of grace with all his heart, heaven opens for him. If any one rejects them, heaven is closed against him.’

As it was growing late, the discussion was adjourned to the next day, and Furbity said haughtily that he was ready. A voice from the midst of the crowd called out: ‘Endeavor to hold more to the Word of God and less to the teaching of the Sorbonne.’ ‘I shall behave like a man,’ he answered. ‘If the strength of a man consists in his want of sense, then you are a true man,’ rudely returned the speaker.

The next day the discussion entered upon a new phase.

Farel maintained throughout the right and duty of the Christian people to read the Scriptures, to understand them, and to submit to them alone. Furbity, on the contrary, asserted that the Scriptures should be read by the clergy only, and understood conformably with the interpretation of the councils. He proved his point by reasons which might have some force in the eyes of his friends, but they had none for Farel, who maintained the necessity of the immediate contact of each Christian soul with the Scriptures of God. It was not from councils (he contended) nor from popes, but from the Word of God itself that every Christian must receive by faith the truth which saves. The first assembly at Jerusalem (ordinarily termed the first council), was it not, according to the account in the Acts, composed of apostles, elders, and of the whole church, and did it not begin its letter with: ‘The apostles and elders and brethren’? Defending, therefore, the rights of the lay members of the flock, he declaimed energetically against the institution of all those dignitaries who, in the Romish Church, are lords over God’s befitage: ‘You invent all sorts of things,’ he said to the Dominican, ^fk127 ‘you introduce diversities of orders, a countless number of eminences, bishops, prelates, archbishops, primates, cardinals, popes, and other superiorities of which Scripture makes no mention. You do everything to your own fancy, without any regard to God or the right. The apostles took counsel with the whole assembly of the believers, but you... you do everything, you are everything!... you cut and shape as you please. The Christian people are no more called by you into council than dogs and brutes. Your ordinances must be adored, and those of God’ be trodden under foot. Your papal monarchy surpasses all others in pride, pomp, and feasting. You want those who are to teach the people to be princes with lordships, estates, law-courts, and governments You want to have a rich triumphant Jesus, who shall put to death all who contradict him... Ah! sirs, the Savior was not such here below: he was poor, humble, put to death, and his disciples were banished, imprisoned, stoned, and killed... What similarity is there between the Apostolic Church and yours? The supreme argument in yours is the executioner... The apostles did not, like you, fulminate fierce excommunications; they did not, like you, imprison and condemn... No! Jesus is not in the midst of you. He is in the midst of those who are expelled, beaten, burnt for the Gospel, as the martyrs were in the time of the primitive Church.’

The reformer’s energetic words sounded like a peal of thunder to his antagonist. Furbity was confounded and bewildered; his ideas became confused; he lost his presence of mind, and, wishing to establish the doctrine of the episcopate as it is understood at Rome, he quoted the verse in which it is said that a bishop ought to be the husband of one wife, which greatly amused the assembly. He did more: desiring to prove that there had been bishops of the Roman model in the apostolic times, he mentioned Judas Iscariot. ‘It is written of Judas,’ he said, ‘his bishopric let another take: Episcopatum suum accipiat alter. As Judas had a bishopric, he must of necessity have been a bishop;’ and he concluded there was no salvation out of the Roman episcopate. The doctor had not kept his promise to behave like a man. Farel smiled at the strange argument, and began to lash the Dominican with the scourge of irony. ‘As you have quoted that good bishop, Judas,’ he said, ‘Judas, who sold the Savior of the world; as you have asserted that he had a diocese, pray tell me in what part of the Roman empire it lay, and how much it was worth, according to the customary language of Rome. That bishop, whose name you use, is very like certain prelates who, instead of preaching the Word of God, carry the bag, ^fk128 and instead of glorifying Jesus Christ, sell him by selling his members, whose souls they hand over to the devil, receiving money from him in exchange.’ ^fk129

The monk, astonished at such boldness, again exclaimed in a threatening manner: ‘Go and repeat what you say at Paris, or any other city of France.’ So sure was he that the evangelist would be sent to the stake there that he could not refrain from repeating such a peremptory argument. It was all that Farel would have desired: ‘Would to God that I were allowed to explain my faith publicly,’ he said; ‘I should prove it by Holy Scripture, and if I did not, I would consent to be put to death.’

As the discussion went on, the feelings grew inflamed on both sides — some defending Furbity, others supporting Farel.

No one was more assiduous at this verbal tournament than Baudichon de la Maisonneuve; he accompanied the evangelical champion, both as he went to the meeting and returned from it, being unwilling to leave to others the care of protecting his person. The catholics did not fail to notice the constant goings and comings of the great citizen; it quite shocked them: his intimacy with the detested heretic seemed to them most disgraceful. A young man of five-and-twenty, named Delorme, who was born at Fontenay, a league and a half from the city, and who for upwards of a year had been following his business with a relative in Geneva, specially watched Baudichon, and was surprised to see so great a gentleman pay such frequent visits to the poor preacher, Farel. ^fk130 He made a note of it, which, on a future day he made use of.

The disputation went on all through Friday. The market on Saturday, the services on Sunday, and the Feast of the Purification which fell on Monday, interrupted it for three days. The three ministers took advantage of the leisure given them to preach to the people with fervor. Each day they proclaimed the Gospel in the large hall of their friend’s house, and Baudichon watched to see that everything went on in an orderly manner

— which was very necessary, for the sensation excited by the discussion attracted large crowds. In the evening the evangelicals met in different houses and conversed together until far into the night. During the daytime they endeavored to attract to their assemblies such as still hesitated between popery and the Reformation. ‘Ah,’ exclaimed young Delorme with vexation, ‘see what efforts they are making to increase their party.’ ^fk131 All Geneva was in a ferment.

But the sensation was not confined to that city: the anger excited by the discussions manifested itself in violent speeches in the surrounding districts. The idle, the curious, and the devout would stop and question travelers ‘to learn the great news from Geneva which they so desired to know.’ ^fk132 Many priests and monks preached in the villages round the city against heretics and heresy; and in Geneva, as well as in other places through which Farel had passed, there was always some friar or old woman to tell strange stories about the reformer. ‘He has no whites to his eyes,’ they would say; ‘his beard is red and stiff, and there is a devil in every hair of it. He has horns on his head, and his feet are cloven like a bullock’s... Lastly — and this seemed more horrible than all the rest ⎯ he is the son of a Jew of Carpentras.’ ^fk133

All these stories, flying about the city, reached the Tete-Noire inn, where the Bernese and the three reformers lodged. The domestic life of this hostelry was not edifying. The landlord (according to the chronicle) had two wives: his lawful spouse and a servant who acted as the mistress. The former, an upright person, behaved becomingly to the preachers of the Gospel, though she did not like them; but the other woman detested them, and every time they entered the house, both master and servant scowled at them. They restrained themselves however before the illustrious lords of Berne, greeting them with forced smiles; but made up for it when they were alone with the preachers. The latter usually dined together; and the landlord and servant, while waiting on them, heard language from the lips of the evangelists which greatly provoked them. Instead of the idle stories and jests so common at the dinner-table, the three ministers would exchange words of truth with one another; and this conversation, so new to the two listeners, caused them to make wry faces (as Froment records, who saw them). The three guests had scarcely quitted the room when the servant, who had restrained herself, .would cry out after them: ‘Heretics! traitors! brigands! huguenots! Germans!’... ‘I had rather,’ said the landlord, ‘that they went away without paying (that was saying a great deal), provided it was a long way off... so long that we should never see them again.’ These two wretched people felt that the doctrine of the Bible condemned their disorderly lives, and the hatred they felt towards the holiness of God’s Word was vented on those who proclaimed it.

‘The adulterous servant, unable to serve the preachers as Herodias served John the Baptist,’ says Froment, ‘avenged herself in another manner.’ Addressing one of those women who prate at random about everything: ‘Only imagine what I have been,’ said she; ‘one night as the preachers were going to bed, I stole up softly after them, and, approaching the door, I peeped through a hole... What did I see? They were feeding devils!’ The neighbor’s dismay did not hinder the servant from continuing: ‘These devils were like black cats... their eyes flashed fire, their claws were crooked and pointed... they were under the table... moving backwards and forwards... Yes; I saw them through the hole.’ In a short time all the gossips of the quarter knew it; ‘at which there was a great stir in the neighborhood.’ ^fk134

To this story of the servant, the priests added theirs, and said: ‘There are three devils in Geneva in the form of men ⎯ Farel, Viret, Froment; and many demoniacs. If ever you listen to those three goblins, they Will spring upon you, enter into your body, and you are done for.’ ^fk135 Not satisfied merely with repeating such absurdities in their conversation, the priests began to preach to the people upon ‘the three devils.’ Next a song was written on them; and ere long the catholic mob went up and down the streets singing these rude rhymes: —

Farel farera, Viret virera, Froment on moudra, Dieu nous aidera Et le diable les emportera. fk136

The popular epigram was mistaken. At the very moment when the catholics were singing it about the city, tragic events were coming that were to change everything in Geneva. It was the Roman Church that was about to veer and popery to depart.

CHAPTER 5

THE PLOT.

(JANUARY AND FEBRUARY 1534.)

IN the sixteenth century a consciousness of justice, truth, and liberty was awakening throughout Christendom, and men were beginning to protest everywhere, particularly in Geneva, at the lamentable perversions of social and religious life imposed by popery in times gone by. But the expiring Middle Ages rose energetically against this awakening which was to condemn them to be reckoned among the dead. The object of the struggle going on was to secure the triumph of the Reformation — or, as others expressed it, the triumph of progress and civilization. This struggle is the supreme interest of history. The intrigues of courts, and even the battles of armies, which are more pleasing to certain minds, are trifles in comparison with these mighty movements of humanity. Nevertheless, if they had their grandeur and their necessity, they had their danger also. To preserve the ship, launched into the open sea, from striking upon the treacherous shoals of disorder and libertinage, it was necessary that the Lord should command it. At the time when mankind were breaking the secular chains of popery and the fantastic institutions of feudalism, it was necessary they should cleave to the sovereign Master, who alone gives the breath of life to individuals and to nations. If England has so long enjoyed the precious fruits of liberty, and if France has not yet been able to secure them, it is because the former welcomed the Reformation and the latter rejected it. One of the great evils springing out of popery was the blunting of the moral sense; and the revival of the sixteenth century was a moral revival. In catholicism there were sincere men; but everything was good in their eyes, provided they attained an end which they believed to be glorious. And hence, strange to say, pretended preservers of order easily became assassins.

The Bishop of Geneva watched attentively from his silent priory all that was passing in his diocese, at that time so strangely agitated, tie desired to re-ascend his double throne, and still hoped to reestablish the authority of the prince and the pope in the city. Many catholics, especially at the courts of the bishop and the duke, could really see nothing in this reformation of doctrine but ‘a popular tumult, which would be of short duration.’ ‘The aspect of affairs will soon change,’ they said. ^fk138 Perhaps if Calvin had not come, this prophecy might have been fulfilled; but others saw things in darker colors. The tempest of Luther would, in their opinion, upset everything; the same wave that now threatened the power of the pontiff would ere long sweep away the power of kings. Men did not know how to act that they might prevent such a misfortune; and the most decided said plainly, that the only means of saving Geneva was to set up one supreme magistrate. Did not the Romans create dictators in the hour of extreme peril? All these councils of Twenty-five, of Sixty, of Two Hundred, and, above all, the General Council of the people were (the Episcopals thought) both useless and pernicious. The administration ought to be placed in the hands of one man, and be given preferably to one of the lords of Friburg. The fervent catholicism of that canton and its resentment at Wernli’s death guaranteed the fidelity with which the mission would be fulfilled. It does not appear that anything was decided about the selection; but the bishop made up his mind to attempt a bold stroke of policy. Having come to an understanding with the Duke of Savoy, ^fk138 he signed at Arbois the instruments which set up in Geneva a Lieutenant of the prince in temporal matters with full powers of punishing criminals. The document was immediately forwarded to Portier, the episcopal secretary, the bishop’s confidential man, who was to determine, in accordance with the heads of the party, the favorable moment and the best means of carrying it into execution. On his side the duke did not keep them waiting for assistance, Portier received blank warrants, sealed with the ducal arms, with authority to use them as he pleased, so as to bring the matter to a happy issue. The plot was skillfully devised. The court of Turin, the lords of Friburg, and the mamelukes were all to assist the bishop; but, according to the received formula, ‘God was there and the republic of Berne.’ ^fk139

Indeed, it seemed at first that the instrument was destined to remain mere waste paper. The episcopal plot existed; the deed had been signed by the prince-bishop on the 12th of January, but on the first of February it was still a dead letter. Portieri aware of the spirit with which the citizens were animated, feared to make the episcopal ordinance known, either to magistrates or people. Privately, however, he discussed with some of his confidants the means of putting it into execution; among them were two brothers named Pennet, one of whom was the episcopal jailer. The bishop’s partisans at Geneva, as well as at Arbois and Turin, thought that logical discussions only did harm: that they should have recourse to more vigorous measures; that force only would constrain the Genevese to bend their necks to the yoke; and, finally, that a riot which disturbed the public peace would be, even if it failed, the best means of justifying the nomination of a lieutenant invested with absolute power. Some hot-headed episcopals, and particularly the two Pennets, the seides of the party, resolved to act immediately: ‘They undertook, with several others, to spill much blood,’ says a document written a few days after the affair. ^fk140

On Tuesday, 3d February, the most excitable of the episcopal party met at the palace: Pennet, the jailer, his brother Claude, Jacques Desel, and several others. It was after dinner. Inflamed by the desire of saving the authority of the prince and the pope, excited by the ordinance which they had hitherto kept by them, and irritated at seeing Furbity, the Dominican, contradicted by Farel and prosecuted by the Bernese, perhaps also (as some have believed) acting under positive orders emanating from the bishop, these men armed themselves and issued from the palace, ‘proposing to strike and kill the others,’ says the document which we have just quoted. These fanatics we believe them to have been sincere, but unhappily of opinion that to stab a heretic was one of the most meritorious works to win heaven — these fanatics entered the court of St. Pierre’s. Just as they came in font of the steps, and the large platform on which the white marble portal of the cathedral opens, they met two huguenots, Nicholas Portal, the notary, and Stephen d’Adda. ^fk141 Their blood boiled at the sight of the two heretics: Pennet the jailer drew his sword, sprung at Porral, struck him; and, seeing him fall, impudently continued his way, with his band, by the Rue du Perron to the Molard, the rallying ground of all rioters. D’Adda, and some other huguenots who had come up, surrounded the wounded Portal, lifted him up, and, wishing to stop the commencing riot as soon as possible, carried him to the hotel-deville, and laid him, all pale and bleeding, before the syndics and the council.

The magistrates were moved at the sight as of old if we may compare the great things of antiquity with the little things that inaugurated modern times as of old the corpse of Caesar, gashed with wounds and carried through the Forum, excited the indignation and cries of the startled people. D’Adda informed the syndics of Pennet’s violent attack, and called for the punishment of the assassin. But he had scarcely ceased speaking when a great noise was heard from without: the court-yard of the hotel-de-ville was filled with agitated citizens; tumultuous shouts were raised, the gates of the hall were dashed open and ‘incontinent (says the Register) many people rushed in furiously crying out: Justice! justice!’ An estimable man, a worthy tradesman and zealous huguenot, Nicholas Berger by name, who lived in the Rue du Perron, happened to be in his shop just as the band, which had wounded Portal, was passing by. Attracted by the noise, he had probably moved towards the door: Claude Pennet observing him, stopped, and, as if jealous of his brother’s exploit, sprung at the unarmed citizen, and with one blow of his dagger, laid him dead at his feet. ‘All good men,’ added the citizens, ‘are filled with horror, and demand that the criminal be punished according to law.’

This event was not without importance. It was a new act in that obstinate struggle which, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, took place in a permanent manner in a little city on the shore of the Leman lake, and was repeated in other shapes in other countries. Combatants do not cross a frontier without marking their path by their blood. Those who were then fighting the last battles of what may be called the iron age, believed they were serving the cause of justice. Impartial history shrinks from tracing too hideous a picture of these insolent champions of Rome and feudalism. Even at Geneva, where they were perhaps more violent than elsewhere, they were not all devoid of generous sentiments. Undoubtedly many were animated by party-spirit; but there were some also who desired the good of their country. In their eyes, both religion mid order were compromised by the alliance between Switzerland and the Reformation, and that sacred cause could only be upheld, they thought, by the energetic intervention of the episcopal party. They were mistaken; but their error did not lie essentially in that. The great evil consisted in the corruption of their moral sense by the principles of a fanatical bigotry, so that all means appeared good to attain their end; all — even the dagger.

While the people were demanding justice for a double murder, there was a great uproar in the city: the drums beat, and everybody ran to arms. The citizens, who wanted independence and reform, exclaimed that the bishop’s followers, unable to vanquish them by words, desired to triumph over them by the mandosse (a sort of Spanish sword). ‘It is the fifth riot the priests have got up to save the mass,’ they said, as they took up their arms, not to attack but to support the established authorities.

The council was astounded at the news of Berger’s death. All its members were opposed to such crimes; but three of the four syndics were catholics: Du Crest, Claude Baud, and Malbuisson, and the councilors were usually divided in the same proportion as the syndics. Besides which, Portier, who headed the band, was the accredited agent of the prince-bishop, whose authority the council desired to maintain. The syndics were discussing what was to be done, when the ambassadors of Berne demanded to speak with the council. The noble lords, who usually maintained such a cold attitude, were much excited: ‘As we were coming up to the hotel-de-ville,’ they said, ‘all the persons we met were running to arms. It is to be feared that there will be a great butchery (tuerie); we conjure you to look to it, and offer our services to appease the disturbance.’ The premier syndic prayed them to do so; and, when the Bernese had left, the council continued its deliberations.

Meanwhile, the principle huguenots had met in consultation. Two of their friends had just fallen beneath the blows of their adversaries: one of them was dead; their party had taken up arms; Portier and the Pennets had fled in alarm; the catholic faction was discouraged. In this state of things it would have been easy for them to fall upon their adversaries and gain a decisive victory; but sentiments of order and legality prevailed among them. They had no desire to infringe the law but to appeal to it; there were judges in Geneva. Blood must be avenged, not by violence but by justice. ‘No disorder,’ said the huguenot chiefs, ‘no revenge, no attack, no fighting!... but let us help the magistrates that they may be able to do their duty.’ Five hundred armed citizens, the most valiant men in Geneva, arrived in good order and drew up in front of the hotel-de-ville, while their chiefs — Maisonneuve, Salomon, Perrin, and Aime Levet — went into the council-room. Honored lords,’ they said, ‘we have assembled for no other reason than to preserve order. We fear lest the priests have prepared a fourth or fifth emeute; and hence we are here in a body to avoid their fury and lend assistance to the syndics. We pray that the murderers and those who counseled the riot may be punished.’ ^fk142 There was not a moment’s hesitation: all, catholics and protestants alike, desired the guilty to be punished, and search was made for them.

It was thought that they were hiding in the bishop’s palace: it was probable, indeed, that secretary Portier, who lived there, had gone thither and given a refuge to his accomplices, as being the safest place in all Geneva. ‘We will go and take them there,’ said Syndic Du Crest, a catholic but loyal man. The other syndics rose, and all quitted the hotel-de-ville followed by their officers. At the imposing sight of the chief magistrates of the city, demanding an entrance into the palace, the bishop’s servants opened the doors, and a strict search began immediately. Not a chamber or a cellar or a garret escaped the inquisitive eyes of the magistrates and their sergeants; ‘but for all the pains they took,’ says the ‘Council Register,’ ‘none of the culprits were found.’ Many believed they had escaped; Perronnette alone, the episcopal secretary’s wife, seeing the vigor with which the assassins were hunted after, felt her anguish doubled as to the fate of her husband. The syndics, wishing to prevent new intrigues, resolved to leave a few of their officers in the episcopal mansion, with orders to keep guard during the night. The men stationed themselves in the vestibule to wait for the morning; but no one in the city knew they were there.

These brave men were talking of what was going on in Geneva, when a little before eight o’clock at night (it had been dark for some time, as it was the beginning of February), a low, smothered voice was heard in the street, as if some one was speaking through the key-hole. The guards listened. The voice was heard again and pronounced several times in a distinct manner the name of the portress. ‘It was a priest softly calling to the servant,’ says the ‘Council Register.’ The huguenots, understanding instantly the advantage they could derive from this unexpected circumstance, desired a young man who was with them to imitate a woman’s voice and answer. Disguising his tones, he said: ‘What do you want? ‘The priest having no doubts about the sex and functions of the speaker, said (still in a low voice) that he wanted certain keys for Mr. Secretary Portier and Claude Pennet. It is probable they wished to use them to hide in some safer place, and perhaps leave the city by a secret gate. The young man, again assuming a female voice, said: ‘What will you do with them?’ ‘I shall take them to St. Pierre’s church, where they are hidden,’ answered the priest. It was just what the guard wanted to know. One of them got up, opened the gate, and the priest, seeing an armed man instead of a woman, fled in affright. The guard, without stopping to pursue him, ran to the hotel-de-ville, where the council was sitting en permanence, and told the whole story to the syndics. The murderers whom they were looking for were hidden in the cathedral. The magistrates determined to go there immediately.

It was no slight task to seek the assassins in the vast cathedral, all filled with chapels, altars, and other places where men could hide. The syndics entered between eight and nine o’clock at night with a certain number of officers carrying fiambeaux. The doors were shut immediately, so that no one could get out, and a dead silence prevailed in the nave. Under the flickering light of the torches, this pile, one of the finest monuments of the twelfth century, displayed all its august majesty. But that splendor of byzantine and gothic architecture, those graceful proportions, that admirable unity so well calculated to produce a deep impression of grandeur and harmony, did not strike My Lords of Geneva, who were thinking of other matters. Du Crest and his colleagues were not occupied with architectural decorations and holy images... They were hunting for murderers.

The search began: the magistrates and their officers went over the chapels of the Holy Cross, the Virgin, St. Martin, St. Maurice, St. Anthony, and nine others in the interior; they examined carefully the eighteen altars, so richly adorned with all that the catholic worship requires. The sergeants took their flambeaux into every corner, they lifted up the carpets, they stooped to search for the culprits. The apse, the transept, the sanctuary, they searched them all; they examined the vestry, the stalls, the aisles, the galleries, the stairs they found nothing. They next went into the chapel of the Maccabees, adjoining the cathedral, and which the cardinal-bishop, Jean de Brogny, had built a century before, adorning it with magnificent carvings, gorgeous paintings, and mouldings enriched with beads of gold. They passed by those tables where might still be seen a young man keeping swine under an oak, the cardinal desiring in this manner to recall the humble recollections of his early life; but neither Portier, nor Pennet, nor any of their accomplices could be found. The search had lasted nearly three hours, and the magistrates and their officers were beginning to lose all hope, when the idea occurred to one of them that possibly the murderers they were looking after might be hidden in one of the three towers. The syndics and their suite resolved to examine them, beginning with the south tower, one hundred and fifty feet high. As they climbed the numerous steps, they thought that, if the evidence of the priest was true, the criminals must be there, and they might perhaps find not only Portier and the Pennets, but a band of their friends well armed. The stairs being very narrow, it would have been easy for the episcopals to close the passage and even to kill some of those who were looking after them. The men who executed the syndic’s orders ascended slowly and steadily, and approached the great steeple with its four gothic windows surmounted by semicircular arches. The steps of this numerous party reechoed through the winding staircase. The officer of the Council, who marched at the head of the band, having reached the top of the tower, carefully put forward his torch and saw arms glittering and eyes sparkling in one corner. He drew near, followed by his friends, and discovered the crafty Portier and the violent Pennet, crouching down, ‘armed,’ says the Register, ‘with swords, iron pikes, axes, and daggers, and covered with coats of mail.’ The two malefactors, although armed to the teeth, did not think of defending themselves: they were more dead than alive. The officers of the State seized them and shut them up in the prison of the hotel-de-ville. ^fk143

While these things were going on at St. Pierre’s, the guard which the syndics had left at the palace, encouraged by the success of their stratagem, had resolved to take advantage of the opportunity to get at the secrets of the house; and, assuming a simple, good-natured air, they entered into conversation with the servants, questioning them so skillfully that they soon knew all they wanted. ‘The bishop’s secretary, alone and without support, is too weak,’ they said, ‘to withstand the will of the council and people.’ ‘But he is not so alone as you think,’ answered one; ‘he has with him my lord the bishop, his highness the Duke of Savoy;’ and then he continued proudly, ‘he has even received letters from them!’ The independent citizens, affecting incredulity, exclaimed! ‘What! Pertier receive secret messages from such great personages!’... One of the episcopals, piqued by the disdainful sneer, declared aloud, ‘that the letters were in existence, in buffeto (says the Council Register, in its classic Latin), in the secretary’s buffet.’ At these words the sly huguenots started up suddenly, and, hurrying in great glee to Portier’s room, broke open the cupboard, took out the papers lying there, mid carried them to the syndics. This discovery was still more important than the other.

The magistrates hastened to open the packet, and found a bundle of papers, all having reference to the plot which the bishop had contrived for the subjugation of Geneva. They examined the contents and were alarmed. ‘Here is an act signed by the bishop on the 12th of January last, only twenty days ago, appointing a governor for the temporalities, with power to punish rebels. The prince, of his mere caprice, establishes an unconstitutional agent, who is to have no other law than his own will. Here are blank warrants sealed with the arms of the Dukes of Savoy. It is a downright conspiracy, a crime of high-treason.’ The date of the act made it sufficiently clear that Pierre de la Baume was the instigator of the troubles which had been on the point of throwing the city into confusion. It was determined that Portier, the recognized agent of this revolutionary intrigue, should be tried before the syndics; and a public prosecutor, Jean Lambert, a sound huguenot, was elected to conduct the proceedings. ^fk144

However, before commencing this trial, that of Pennet, less complicated than the other, was to be concluded. The case was clear, provided for by the law, and not pardonable. Claude Pennet stood forward boldly, like a man enduring persecution for the Christian religion. He was convicted of having murdered Nicholas Berger in his shop at the Perron, and Syndic du Crest, a catholic but a wise man, pronounced the sentence of death. This made no change in Pennet’s manner. He did not repent the deed he had done: fanaticism stifled the voice of conscience in him. It was the same with all his friends, zealots of the Roman party. In them passion took the place of reason, and they boasted of the murder as an honorable, holy, and heroic act. Pennet asked to see Furbity, the Dominican, who was detained in prison for having insulted the adversaries of Rome. The monk of the order of the Inquisition was conducted to the murderer’s cell, ‘and when they saw each other they could not forbear from weeping,’ says the nun of St. Claire. ^fk145 Pennet wished to die piously: ‘therefore this good catholic made his confession.’... ‘I am condemned to the scaffold for the love of Jesus Christ,’ he said to the Dominican, ‘and I entreat your holy prayers.’ The reverend father, moved to tears by the piety and wretched fate of this precious son of the Church, kissed him, and said: ‘Sire Claude, go cheerfully and rejoice in your martyrdom, nothing doubting; for the kingdom of heaven is open and the angels are waiting for you.’ ^fk146

The murder of which Pennet was guilty was, in the Dominican’s eyes, the work of a saint. Most of the episcopals thought the same; and it was feared that their party, which had the populace with them, would oppose the execution of the sentence. De la Maisonneuve, determining to support the law by force, collected a certain number of armed men in his house. ^fk147 But their intervention was not necessary. Nothing disturbed the course of justice, and the executioner cut off the murderer’s head, and hung his body on a gibbet. Before long, the populace was in commotion. ‘Have you heard the news?’ people said. ‘Miracles are worked at the place where Pennet’s body hangs. His face is as ruddy and his lips as fresh as if he was alive, and the white dove is continually hovering over his head.’ The devout made pilgrimages to the place of execution.

The other Pennet, the jailer who had wounded Porral, and who, says Sister Jeanne, ‘was not less ardent than his brother in upholding the holy catholic religion,’ was all this time lying hid in the house of a poor beggar-woman, where the nuns of St. Claire, who alone were in the secret, stealthily carried him food. The execution of his brother alarmed him; so one night, when it froze hard, he left his hiding-place barefoot, and arrived stealthily at the convent of St. Claire, where the nuns provided him with a disguise, in which he escaped to Savoy.

The third delinquent, the State criminal, Portier, — remained. The matter appeared so serious to the procurator-general that he desired it should be communicated to the people. The Council General having met on the 8th February, Lambert ordered the letters found at the palace, as well as the duke’s blank warrants, to be read to the assembly. ‘What! a governor of Geneva invested with the temporalities of the sovereign power, with authority to punish citizens who maintain their political and religious rights; the constitution of the State trampled under foot by the prince-bishop; and the Duke of Savoy, that eternal enemy of Genevan independence, forcibly aiding this usurpation and violence!’ All this constituted a guilty plot, even in the eyes of right-minded catholics. The voice of the people and the voice of justice were in harmony. The procurator-general demanded that Perrier should be brought before his judges. The trial was much slower than that of the two Pennets had been, for the Roman-catholics made every effort to save him, and even offered large sums of money. But the procurator-general and the huguenots represented continually that ‘there was a conspiracy against the liberties of the city;’ it was not possible to save the episcopal secretary.

Yet Pertier and his agents had merely begun to carry out the orders they had received; the bishop was the real criminal. His quality of prince covered his person, so that, even had he been in Geneva, not a hair of his head would have fallen. But Pierre de la Baume was to receive the punishment, which, by the Will of God, falls upon unjust princes. He had desired to employ his power for the purpose of oppression, and God shattered that power. When the sealed letters of the bishop which gave Geneva a dictator were read in the assembly of the people, the citizens were shocked; a sullen silence betrayed their indignation; they seemed to hear the funeral knell of an ancient dynasty that had departed. The Genevese determined to break with the episcopal traditions, and to raise to the government none but men known by their attachment to the union of Geneva with Switzerland and to the cause of the Reformation. While, among the syndics retiring from office, there was only one who belonged to this category, four friends of independence were called by the people to the first position in the State. They were Michael Sept, one of the huguenots who, in 1526, had fled to Berne, and had brought back the Swiss alliance; Ami de Chapeaurouge, Aime Curtet, and J. Duvillard. The executive council thus became a huguenot majority. It was the episcopal conspiracy that struck the decisive blow, that threw wide open the hitherto half-open door, and permitted the victorious Reformation to enter the city. ^fk148

CHAPTER 6

A FINAL EFFORT OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM.

(FEBRUARY 10 TO MARCH 1, 1534.)

UNEQUIVOCAL tokens soon made known the change that had taken place. Every one knew that the critical moment had arrived; but that it should be salutary, it was necessary to enlighten the people and set distinctly before them the end which it was proposed to attain. In all that concerns religious questions, the first point is to understand them thoroughly; vagueness always does injury to true religion. The magistrates determined to make clear the points on which the discussion turned, and accordingly the new syndics ordered Furbity to appear before the Council. This body, which had called to their aid the deputies of Berne and the three reformers, invited the monk to prove by the Holy Scriptures, as he had promised, the doctrines he advanced. ‘In the first place,’ they said, ‘you have accused those who eat meat,

which God hath created to be received, ( ^<540403> 1 Timothy 4:3)

of being worse than Turks.’ — ‘Sirs,’ answered the monk, ‘I