CALVIN CONTENDS WITH FOREIGN DOCTORS, AND IS ACCUSED OF ARIANISM.
(MARCH TO JUNE, 1537.)
[Sidenote: ARRIVAL OF FOREIGN DOCTORS.]
[Sidenote: THE SPIRITUALS.]
The peace and satisfaction which were the fruit of the settled order,
and even of the beauty of the places in which these great changes had
been effected, did not long remain undisturbed. Some foreign doctors
came to Geneva, Herman of Liége and Andrew Benoît, the latter also a
native of the Netherlands, both of them belonging to that enthusiastic
sect, some of whose leaders Calvin had previously encountered
in France, and who called themselves the Spirituals.[481] These
sectaries had found their way into western Europe, but Germany and the
Netherlands were, above all, their proper countries. The German mind
has a philosophical and even mystical tendency, which gives rise to a
longing to penetrate deeper than the Bible itself into the knowledge
of divine things. The central position of Geneva, the important
revolution in politics and religion which had just been accomplished
there, excited in those sectaries the hope of establishing themselves
in the city for the purpose of spreading themselves afterwards over
France, Italy, and other countries. These new doctors, from the time of
their arrival, had labored to diffuse their opinions, and had gained
partisans. Among these were some members of the council.[482] Proud of
this first success, they expected to substitute in Geneva their dreams
for the Gospel. The claim set up by these Spirituals, of penetrating
further into the truth than the reformers did, gave them a certain
attractiveness for minds eager for novelties. They boldly announced
that they were willing to dispute with the preachers. As early as March
9 they were called before the council, and were invited to communicate
in writing the articles which they intended to maintain.[483] Herman
and Benoît complied with this request, and delivered their theses to
the council. The council took them into consideration on March 13. In
calling themselves the _Spirituals_, these men meant to assert that the
spirit alone acted in them. Their doctrine was a more or less gross
kind of Pantheism. They did not think, in general, ‘that the soul was
a substance, a creature having essence; it was merely, in their view,
the property which a man has of breathing, of moving, and of performing
other vital actions.[484] They said that in place of our souls it is
God who lives in us, and does in us all the actions pertaining to
life. God became the creature,’ adds Calvin, ‘and the latter was no
longer anything.’[485] An assassination having been committed at Paris,
Quintin, a leader among the Spirituals, replied to some who asked him
who committed it, ’Tis thou, ’tis I, ’tis God, for what thou and I
do, ’tis God that does it.’ They had also peculiar ideas respecting
Jesus Christ. They did not hold that he had been very man, but made
him a kind of phantom, as to his body. They held similar errors about
baptism, excommunication, the magistrate, oaths, and other matters.
We are not in possession of the articles which they presented to the
council, and it is probable that they did not put forward the most
offensive points of their system. But the majority of the council
‘believed that it would be dangerous to discuss those articles in
public, on account of the weakness (_tendrité_) of men’s minds. They
therefore determined to give them a hearing on the following day, March
14, but only in the Council of the Two Hundred.’[486]
The sensation created in the city by the presence of Herman and Benoît,
and the eagerness with which certain citizens were pleased to listen
to them, had not escaped the notice of the reformers. If these doctors
were not refuted, Geneva, withdrawn from the errors of the papacy,
might fall into the dreams of Pantheism. The reformers therefore asked
permission to attend the sitting. Herman and Benoît expounded their
system. The council wished to hush up the affair; but Farel, confident
in the force of truth, requested that it might be publicly discussed.
His entreaties were complied with, and the debate was fixed for the
next day, March 15.[487]
The disputation took place in the grand auditory of Rive, on March
15, 16, and 17, and on each occasion lasted the whole day. No report
of these debates has come down to us. But some notion may be formed
of them from the two tractates which Calvin devoted to the exposition
and refutation of the system.[488] The discussion was very animated.
The reformers so forcibly confuted, by the Word of God alone, the
doctrines advanced by the two Spirituals in the public disputation,
that the whole tribe thenceforth disappeared from that Church.[489]
The Council of the Two Hundred having assembled, March 18, declared
that the assailant was not _sufficient_, that is to say, that
his opinions were erroneous. But they remarked that this disputation
might beget differences, and that the faith might be imperilled. The
reformers were therefore forbidden for the future to engage in such
discussions. Then Herman and Benoît being called in, the syndics said
to them, ‘We have been quite willing to hear you, for we listen to
everybody, but _seeing that you are not able to prove the truth of
your propositions by Holy Scripture_, we have pronounced them to be
_contrary to the truth_. Are you willing to retract, and to return to
God and ask his forgiveness?’ ‘We submit to the will of God,’ they
replied, ‘but we will not by any means retract our words.’
[Sidenote: EXPULSION OF THE SPIRITUALS.]
Those of the Genevese who had taken them from the time of their coming
for good evangelical Christians had called them _brethren_. But these
foreigners had shown themselves very quarrelsome; and having refused
even to pray with the Christians of Geneva--an offensive sign of their
sectarian spirit--they were no longer called by the name of brethren.
However, no penalty was at that time imposed on them, in the hope
that they might be brought to more Christian sentiments. But that was
indulging in a mere illusion. It was therefore decreed, according
to the custom of the age, that these doctors, and every member of
their sect, should be banished for ever from Geneva, under pain of
death. ‘The most admirable feature of this business,’ said the early
biographers of Calvin, ‘is, that if some churches of Germany have been
delivered from these doctors, they were so by mere rigor of justice;
while at Geneva _the magistrate had no hand in it_.’[490] Certainly,
he did not employ against them either imprisonment or torture; Calvin
endeavored only to convince them by argument. But banishment, under
pain of death, is nevertheless a very palpable act of the magistrate.
On the other hand, it is also a mistake to say that the Registers
knew nothing of Calvin’s victory.[491] On the contrary, the decree of
the council was expressly based on the fact that the doctors had been
unable to prove the truth of their propositions by Holy Scripture.
These were not the only attacks which the reformers had to sustain at
the outset of their career. There were certain restless spirits who saw
with vexation Calvin, Farel, and Viret at the head of the Reformation
in French-speaking lands, and who wished to deprive them of their
position, that they might occupy it themselves. These new troubles,
caused by jealousy and ambition, were of a sharper kind, and lasted
longer.[492] Their originator was that doctor of the Sorbonne, Caroli,
whom we saw arrive from France at Geneva at the time of the great
disputation of 1535.[493] Caroli was a sort of theological adventurer.
He did not at heart care for the sacred end which the Reformation had
in view. An incurable levity, which would not allow him to adhere
to any party, a liking for anything which seemed to him new and
fashionable, a burning thirst for glory and for fortune, a craving for
liberty to satisfy his vicious inclinations, these were the feelings
which actuated him, and threw him into a camp which he soon abandoned
to seek in another the gratification of the same evil desires. Vain,
proud, cringing, and inconsistent, he appeared as an assailant of the
monks when a sort of reformation was in vogue in France. Next, when
the era of persecution had begun, he made his escape to Geneva. The
object of his dreams was to become a sort of bishop, to govern the
reformed churches in French Switzerland; and he proposed to establish
a doctrine which should hold a middle place between the Gospel and the
pope. He had made acquaintance with the principal cities of his future
diocese. From Geneva he had gone to Neuchâtel, and there he had become
pastor, and had married. We have seen him appointed first pastor at
Lausanne. ‘In every place that he visited he left some traces of his
baseness.’[494] He tacked before every breeze. In a little while he
passed from the Romish camp into the Protestant; then, because the
reformers remonstrated with him, he returned to his vomit, according
to the Scripture phrase; quitted the papal hierarchy a second time,
to associate with the evangelicals; and finally ended his roving and
wretched life at Rome. Caroli is one of the most despicable characters
of that epoch--one of those ecclesiastical Don Quixotes who boast of
smiting all their enemies. Besides vainglory, he had another passion
quite as intense--hatred. He detested Farel, who had known him at Paris
and had rebuked him for his vices. He detested Viret, who had once
preached on impurity before him; a sermon which Caroli, convicted by
his own conscience, thought was meant for him. In vain Viret assured
him that he had preached for everybody: Caroli never forgave him. And
lastly, the high esteem in which Calvin was held filled this Parisian
doctor with envy and jealousy. He was hardly settled at Lausanne when,
eager to realize his dreams, he demanded at Berne the oversight of
a certain number of pastors and of churches. The Bernese refused
this, and at the same time begged Viret to aid with his advice a
foreigner who did not perfectly know the country, and decreed that no
innovation should be introduced among the people by any pastor without
a preliminary deliberation of all the brethren.[495]
[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF CAROLI.]
Caroli was not at all inclined to submit to this rule. A fantastic
schoolman, he was fond of putting forward strange paradoxes, and
of raising discussions which irritated men’s minds and gave him an
opportunity of showing off his cleverness. That sort of thing was a
remnant of the Middle Ages; but the age of the Reformation demanded
a different method. Caroli was an anachronism. His rank as doctor
of the Sorbonne ought, in his view, to set him at the top of the
ecclesiastical hierarchy, before which the rude herdsmen of Helvetia
must bend. He meant to make a reformation _sui generis_, to advance
views peculiar to himself, and to set up doctrines to which no one
had before attained. An opportunity soon presented itself. Viret,
his young colleague, having gone to pay a visit to his friends at
Geneva, Caroli took advantage of his absence, and, ascending the
pulpit, read a series of theses tending to prove that prayers ought
to be made for the dead. ‘I have no intention,’ he said as he closed,
‘of taking lessons from a young man,’ thus pointing to Viret. It was
plain, from his gestures, his voice, his words so arrogant and so full
of tartness, that he was over-excited.[496] Viret, being informed by
one of his friends, soon returned, and rebuked him for his freak. But
Caroli, proud of what he impudently called his discovery, replied--‘I
do not believe in purgatory, nor do I suppose that the dead can be
comforted by the prayers of the living; those things are mere fictions.
But I believe that we ought to ask God to hasten his judgment for
the happiness of his saints and of all the members of the Church,
the Virgin, the prophets, and the apostles, who will be the first to
profit thereby.’[497] Caroli thus pitched his tent between Rome and
the Gospel, being neither with the one nor with the other, but being
merely himself. That was his wish. Had he only urged the Church to
say to the Lord, ‘Come quickly,’ he would have spoken in conformity
with Holy Scripture. But his intention was that the prayer should be
offered in favor of the dead, a pretence which finds no justification
in the Bible. Viret replied to him--‘You know that we ought not to
preach any merely private views without having first communicated
them to one another. If you have found in Scripture any instruction
which is unknown to me, I will freely embrace it; but if you preach
some erroneous doctrine, allow me, as your colleague, to make some
observations on it.’[498] That was just what Caroli did not want. He
answered Viret haughtily, and proudly maintained his doctrine.
[Sidenote: CAROLI AT LAUSANNE.]
Many friends of the Gospel looked to Calvin, who enjoyed their entire
confidence, and begged him to go immediately to Lausanne. This he did.
Farel would have liked to accompany him; but the Bernese requested
him to look after his own church and not after theirs. Delegates from
Berne were sent to Lausanne, and a kind of consistory was thus formed,
in which Calvin, it appears, stated the case. But the proud Caroli,
who thought it beneath his dignity to make any defence, refused in the
haughtiest manner to give the least explanation of his conduct. He was
greatly annoyed to find himself accused by Calvin, whose superiority
was so troublesome to him. He immediately formed his plan. He resolved
to turn against the reformer the sword with which the latter had
threatened him, and to plunge it into him up to the hilt. ‘If the
minister of Geneva,’ he exclaimed, ‘has shown so much zeal in bringing
this business before your assembly, it is a shameful conspiracy, the
only object of which is to ruin me completely.’ Viret then spoke, and
so clearly set forth the subterfuges and calumnies of Caroli, that
the assembly condemned him to make a retractation, regardless of his
_amour propre_. Astounded by a sentence so severe, this man, who so
easily passed from one extreme to another, humbled himself, and with
lamentings and tears asked for pardon. Calvin was touched by this
demeanor, and in the abundance of his moderation prayed the assembly to
spare Caroli the act which wounded his pride. Viret did the same. Their
request was granted. The doctor of the Sorbonne had then nothing better
to do than to retire quietly to his own house, with a grateful feeling
towards his two noble adversaries. But their well-meant interposition
had not really softened him; his humility was a mere feint. He was
determined at all cost to reach his end and become the foremost man in
the Church. Jealous of the influence exercised by Calvin, Farel, and
Viret in Switzerland, he said to himself that in order to get firmly
seated in the saddle, the man already riding must first be dismounted.
The ruin of these three doctors was the task which he had to undertake.
He felt sure of the secret support, at least at Geneva, of some of the
leading men; and he flattered himself that he should be able to involve
Calvin in hopeless embarrassment.[499] He resolved therefore to assume
the character of accuser, and to reduce his enemies to play the part of
the guilty and the accused.
People thought that they had done with this man, and the assembly was
on the point of breaking up, when he suddenly rose, with a preoccupied
look, as if he had some burden on his conscience of which he was
anxious to be rid. ‘For the glory of God,’ said he, speaking in a
declamatory tone, ‘for the honor of the lords of Berne, for the purity
of the faith, for the safety of the Church, for the public peace, and
for the relief of my own conscience, I have now to set before you,
my honorable lords, a matter on which I have long kept silence. The
silence must now be broken. I must speak. There are in the city of
Geneva, as well as in your country, many ministers who are tainted with
the Arian heresy.’ Putting himself forward like a second Athanasius, he
named a great number of ministers, good men, whom he declared guilty
of the error of Arius, but without giving any evidence at all.[500]
Calvin was among the first in this catalogue of heretics. To accuse him
of being an Arian required an audacity and a passion carried to the
pitch of madness. It appears that he was even accused, in common with
his friends, of maintaining the errors of the Spaniard Servetus.[501]
The Genevese theologians had very recently encountered and defeated an
Arian at Geneva, Claude of Savoy. There was something more than passion
in this attack; there was absurdity. Calvin leaning towards Deism,
indeed! The Reformation was not a beginning of Deism, with which stupid
enemies have charged it: it was a reëstablishing of Christianity.
[Sidenote: CALVIN ACCUSED OF ARIANISM.]
The reformer was struck with astonishment. ‘It had never entered into
my imagination,’ he wrote, ‘that we had to fear being accused on this
point.’[502] Calvin perceived the scope of the attack which Caroli had
just made. If he were to remain under this charge, his ministry would
be compromised, his zeal suspected, his labors fruitless. Discord would
be thrown into the evangelical camp, and Rome exult to see the most
devoted champions of the Reformation accused of denying the divinity of
the Saviour. The reformer immediately rose; and without any exhibition
of violence, with which his enemies are always ready to reproach him,
he pointed out with much spirit the inconsistency of his opponent.
‘Only a few days ago,’ he said, ‘Caroli invited me to his table. I was
at that time a _very dear brother_. He bade me present his compliments
to Farel; he treated as Christians all those whom he looks on to-day as
heretics, and protested that he wished to maintain for ever a brotherly
union with us. Where, at that time, was the glory of God, where the
purity of the faith and the unity of the Church?’ Then, turning towards
the doctor of the Sorbonne--‘How could you,’ he said, ‘conscientiously
celebrate the holy supper on two occasions with an Arian associate?
From what source have you learnt that I am tainted with that heresy?
Tell me, for I will clear myself of that infamy.’ As Caroli brought
forward no evidence, the reformer appealed to the catechism which he
had recently published. ‘This is the faith,’ said he, ‘which I have but
lately professed. We confess that we believe in the Father, in the Son,
and in the Holy Spirit; and when we name the Father, the Son, and the
Spirit, we do not imagine to ourselves three gods. But we believe that
Scripture and the experience of piety show us the Father, the Son, and
the Spirit in simplest divine unity.’[503]
Caroli was not by any means satisfied. The words in his view essential
were missing. Calvin thought it advisable, in works of a practical and
popular character, to avoid the use of expressions which are not found
in holy Scripture. Therefore he had avoided the use, in the passage
cited, of the terms _Trinity_, _substance_, or _persons_. Luther had
done the same. ‘This term, _Trinity_,’ said he, ‘is nowhere to be
found in holy Scripture; it was invented by men. Moreover the word
is frigid, and it is far better to say _God_ than _Trinity_.’[504]
Calvin, who was full of spirit and life, was afraid that by the use of
these theological terms Christianity should be placed solely in the
understanding of the man and of the child, and not in his conscience,
his heart, his will, and his works. He had employed them the year
before in the first edition of his _Institution_, which was intended
for professed theologians:[505] but he had excluded them both from his
_Confession_, prepared chiefly for the laity, and from his _Catechism_,
composed for children. All this did not pacify Caroli, who, if he was
orthodox, was only orthodox in the head. He alleged that if Calvin
was innocent of Arianism, he was guilty of Sabellianism. ‘You will be
under suspicion on that matter,’ said he, ‘until you have subscribed
the Athanasian creed.’ ‘My practice,’ replied Calvin, ‘is not to
approve of anything as in conformity with the Word of God until after
due consideration.’ Caroli, thinking that the Athanasian creed was
compromised by this reserve, flew into a passion and cried out, ‘that
this avowal was unworthy of a Christian.’[506]
[Sidenote: CONVOCATION OF A SYNOD.]
Up to this moment Calvin had restrained himself; but he felt deeply
the injustice of the doctor’s accusations. When he had received an
unmerited blow, he not seldom replied by striking another himself. The
blow was just, but sometimes rather sharp. ‘You will not find any one,’
he said to Caroli, ‘more earnest than I am in maintaining the divinity
of Jesus Christ. I think that I have given a sufficiently clear account
of my faith. My works are in everybody’s hands, and all the orthodox
churches approve my doctrine. But as for you, what evidence have
you ever given of your faith, except possibly in public-houses and
the haunts of vice? For it is in such places that you have hitherto
practised.’
Caroli, knowing all that could be told of his abandoned life, and
as cowardly as he was rash, trembled when he found that Calvin was
approaching that subject. In order to break the force of the blow, he
retracted his charge, and declared that the writings of his opponent
were good; that he had always spoken well of the Holy Trinity; and that
no accusation could be drawn up against him, ‘provided that he did not
support the cause of Farel.’ Caroli feared Farel less than Calvin, and
hated him more. Viret then spoke, and compelled the presumptuous doctor
to retract what concerned himself (_Viret_). ‘These retractations are
not sufficient,’ said the two reformers; ‘we mean to defend likewise
the cause of Farel and of our other absent brothers, whom you have
unjustly accused.’ The delegates of Berne, when they saw what an
important character the debate was assuming, declared that it was
necessary to carry it before a general assembly, and undertook to get
one held. The meeting then broke up.[507]
These circumstances occurred in February. Calvin, on his return to
Geneva, fearing that the Bernese delegates might be slow to fulfil
their promise, and perceiving moreover that this affair concerned the
Church rather than the state, persuaded the ministers of Geneva to
write to the ministers of Berne, pressing them to take the matter in
hand.[508] He wrote himself to Megander, the chief among the Bernese
pastors. ‘I cannot find words,’ he said, ‘adequately to express the
imminent peril to which the Church will be exposed if this business
be indefinitely postponed. The influence which your position gives
you lays on you more than any one else the obligation to use all your
efforts to promote an early meeting of the assembly. You cannot imagine
how severely the blow struck by Caroli has shaken the foundation which
we have laid. People are saying, especially, even in country places,
that we ought to begin by agreeing among ourselves before we think of
converting others. Let us not allow the coat of the Gospel, woven in
one piece, to be rent by wicked men. Do all that is possible to secure
the meeting, before Easter, of all the French-speaking ministers who
live under the government of your republic.’[509] Easter fell in that
year on April 1.
As the reformer received no satisfactory reply, he set out for Berne
in the first fortnight in March, and implored the magistrates, the
councillors, and the pastors to convoke the synod immediately. This
was refused him, probably on account of the business which accumulates
during the weeks preceding the feast of Easter; but they promised him
that the assembly should be convoked immediately after Easter.[510]
We see what courage and activity Calvin displayed; this was one of
the signs of his genius. Farel, on the contrary, was worn out by the
distress of mind which this affair had occasioned him. His condition
was afflicting to his friends. ‘I should never have believed,’ said
Calvin to Viret, ‘that with his iron constitution he could have been so
pulled down.’ Farel’s age and his immense labors, however, accounted
for his state. Calvin, alarmed at the prospect of losing so invaluable
a fellow-laborer, wrote to Viret: ‘It is indispensable that you should
return to us, unless we are prepared to see Farel die of grief. If we
allow a breach to be made in the Genevese Church, I am afraid that
schism will tear it to pieces.’[511] Instead of diminishing, the
energy of Calvin appeared to increase, for he felt the justice of his
cause. ‘I am ready,’ he said, ‘to maintain the contest with the utmost
energy. The charges, first of Arianism, and then of Sabellianism, have
not greatly disturbed us; our ears have been long accustomed to such
calumnies, and we are confident that they will all end in smoke.’[512]
The valiant champion therefore awaited fearlessly the convocation of
the synod. The council of Geneva, on receiving the letters from the
lords of Berne respecting this gathering, invited the _preachers_ to
go thither; and on May 11 the treasurer placed in Farel’s hands fifty
florins, to cover the expenses of the journey.[513]
[Sidenote: SYNOD OF LAUSANNE.]
The assembly met at Lausanne. On May 13[514] there were seen entering
the church of St. Francis the banderet Rodolph de Graffenried, Nicholas
Zerkinden, secretary of state, the pastor Grosmann, commonly called
Megander, and another deputy from Berne. From Geneva came Calvin,
Farel, and Courault; about twenty ministers from Neuchâtel, and a
hundred pastors from the Pays de Vaud, among the latter, Viret. Caroli,
it seems, came with a bag such as barristers are accustomed to carry,
containing the brief of his proceedings.[515] Megander was president.
He stated that the assembly had met in consequence of the charge
brought by Caroli against several ministers, of not believing in the
Trinity, nor in the divinity of Jesus Christ. Then addressing Viret, a
subject of Berne, he inquired what was his opinion on that doctrine.
‘When we confess one only God,’ replied the pastor of Lausanne, ‘we
comprehend the Father, with his eternal Word, and his Spirit, in one
single and divine essence. Nevertheless we do not confound the Father
with the Word, nor the Word with the Spirit.’ Caroli rose and said
with bitterness, ‘This profession is too short, too dry, too obscure.
No mention is made in it of the _Trinity_, nor of _substance_, nor
of _person_.’ Then taking a declamatory tone, he began to recite the
Nicene creed, afterwards the Athanasian creed, making undignified
gestures with his hands and arms, and moving his head and his body
about in such an extraordinary way that the grave assembly could not
refrain from laughter. In closing his speech, he said to his adversary,
‘Nothing can clear you from the charge of heresy except your signing
the three œcumenical creeds.’[516]
[Sidenote: CAROLI UNMASKED.]
Calvin listened to him without interrupting him; but he could no longer
keep silence. A justification on his part was almost superfluous. He
had fully professed the doctrine in his popular writings; he had even,
as we have seen, employed the terms of the school in his theological
_Institution_. But the point of importance for the safety of the Church
was to make his adversary known, to tear the mask from his face. That
man, of dissolute life, destitute of convictions, destitute of faith,
whose only thought was how to get possession of the highest place,
and who was endeavoring to conceal the licentiousness of his evil life
under the pretence of religion, dared to accuse, with hypocritical
lips, the faithful servants of God. A course so revolting roused
Calvin’s indignation; and from his lips fell such earnest words as
were inspired by the fraud, the vices, and the shamelessness of his
adversary. He completely stripped the man. ‘What wickedness this is,’
said he, ‘without any cause but mere lawless passions, to disturb the
Church and to check the progress of the Gospel by bringing atrocious
accusations against persons entirely innocent, who have rendered the
most conspicuous services to the truth! Caroli sets up a quarrel with
us about the distinction of the persons in God. I am going to examine
him in turn, but I take up the subject at a higher point, and I ask
him if only he believes in God. I declare before God and before men,
that he has no more faith in the divine Word than the dog and the swine
that trample under foot holy things.’ Some will perhaps exclaim against
this language, but it must be remembered that Calvin took these two
words from holy Scripture, where they are used to mark two different
characters, of both of which we must equally beware.[517] ‘Give not
that which is holy unto the dogs,’ said Jesus, ‘neither cast ye your
pearls before swine.’ The swine represent men defiled by debauchery,
and the dog is the beast that barks, pursues, and bites. These two
kinds of excess precisely characterized Caroli.
But Calvin did not stop there. He did not mean that people should be
able to say that the ministers were not cleared of the charges brought
against them. He therefore made a confession which had been beforehand
approved by his colleagues. ‘When we distinguish the Father, his
eternal Word, and his Spirit,’ said he, ‘we believe, in common with
ecclesiastical writers, that in the simple unity of God there are
three hypostases or substances, which, although they be one sole and
identical essence, are nevertheless not confounded with each other.
With respect to Jesus Christ,’ he added, ‘before taking on himself our
flesh, he was the eternal Word, begotten of the Father before time was,
very God, of one same essence, power, and majesty with the Father,
Jehovah himself, who has ever existed of himself, and gives to others
the property of existing.’[518]
[Sidenote: CALVIN AND THE EARLY CREEDS.]
This declaration baffled Caroli; and now, after having very strongly
asserted that Calvin was not orthodox enough, he began to cry out that
he was too much so. ‘What,’ said he, ‘you attribute to Jesus Christ
the name and the nature of Jehovah; you say that he has of himself
the divine essence!’ Calvin replied, ‘If we attentively consider
the difference between the Father and the Word, we must acknowledge
that the Word proceeds from the Father. But if we concern ourselves
with the essence itself of the Word, so far as the Word is God with
the Father, all that is said of the one must likewise be said of the
other.’[519] Caroli, giving up the matter, took refuge in the words.
‘In your confession,’ said he, ‘there is not the word _Trinity_, there
is not the word _person_.’ Then, wishing to compel Calvin and the other
ministers to adopt the confessions made by men,--‘I demand,’ said he,
‘that you sign the three ancient creeds.’ Calvin and the ministers
who were with him would have given their signature under other
circumstances, but they now refused it for very wise reasons. ‘Caroli,’
they said, ‘by compelling us to sign, wishes to throw suspicion on our
faith. We do not consider it fitting to show him so much deference.
Moreover, we will not, by our example, promote the introduction into
the Church of a _tyranny_ which would brand every man as a heretic who
will not express himself in terms dictated by another.’[520] Herein
Calvin gave proof at the same time of a magnanimity and a fidelity
which do him honor. Every Church, in his opinion, ought to confess its
doctrine, but he would rather that the confession should be the product
of the life and the faith of those who make it; and not a mere return
to ten or twelve centuries back, in order to seek the truth in the
antiquated phrases of another age. He professed with all his heart the
doctrine enunciated in the early creeds, the Nicene and the so-called
Athanasian, which set forth, perhaps with superfluity of words, but
nevertheless with much force, a faith which is dear to Christian men.
But he felt that these writings were wanting in evangelical simplicity.
The phrases ‘God of God, Light of Light’ (Θεὸς ἐκ Θεοῦ, Φῶς ἐκ Φωτὸς),
used in the Nicene creed, appeared to him less apostolic than Oriental
in their character. It shocked him that the _Quicunque_, better known
under the name of the Athanasian creed, just at the time when it is
going to make subtle distinctions, such as the faith of a simple
Christian man cannot comprehend, should begin by asserting--‘Whosoever
will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the
Catholic faith (that of the creed). Which faith, except every one do
keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.’
Caroli’s ignorance as to this profession of faith was so great that
he believed it was drawn up at Nicæa in A.D. 325, and by
Athanasius. This was startling to Calvin. The creed appears, in
fact, to have been formed gradually in the African church, some of
its formulæ being met with towards the close of the seventh century;
but it did not exist as a whole until the age of Charlemagne, nearly
five centuries after the council of Nicæa. That was an age in which,
if the doctrine of the divine nature was truly stated, the doctrines
of justification by grace and of the new birth by the Spirit were
obscured. Semi-Pelagianism was more and more invading the Church;
literary and scientific culture, decried by the monks as belonging to
paganism, was becoming rare; the state, not content with deciding on
the exterior relations of the Church, published edicts on the articles
of faith or of doctrine; miracles were alleged to be wrought by relics;
the bishops of Rome assumed the title of universal bishop, a title
branded by Gregory the Great as antichristian; the controversy about
images was especially agitating men’s minds; both the Church and the
state were in the utmost confusion; the bishops took up arms against
the lords; the clergy, both regular and secular, were without culture
and without discipline; and, in one word, Christianity had lost the
life which was peculiarly its own. It was, doubtless, the existence
of this melancholy condition of society at the period in which the
_Quicunque_ was formed that induced Calvin to make reservations, and to
declare that it was to the belief in one only God that he made oath,
and not to the belief of Athanasius, whose creed no genuine Church
would have accepted.[521]
[Sidenote: SYNOD OF BERNE.]
The synod, having heard both parties and maturely considered the
matter, acknowledged the confession of the Genevese ministers to
be good and orthodox; and they condemned Caroli, and declared him
henceforth unworthy to fulfil the functions of the ministry. ‘We
have, by our refutation,’ said Calvin, ‘exhausted all that bag of
Caroli’s;[522] with regard to ourselves there now remains not the
slightest suspicion.’ Caroli appealed from the sentence of the synod
to the lords of Berne. Who was right? Who was wrong? Calvin or
Caroli? Judgments have differed on the point. Some have said, ‘The
denunciation by Caroli was not altogether unfounded; it is no wonder
that he declared himself dissatisfied and maintained his charge.’
Others have added that Calvin fell on his adversary with a violence
which made the assembly tremble, and which afforded the first instance
of that fearful anger with which so often afterwards he struck down
those who were against him.[523] This is not our opinion. As to his
expressions, Calvin’s defence is not so terrible, so passionate, if we
call to mind the sort of man with whom he had to deal; and as for the
hardest words of the reformer, they are, as we have seen, two which he
adopted from the Saviour himself. As to the substance of the defence,
he would not bring forward, as Roman Catholics do, human authorities;
he preferred to hold fast to the Word of God. That is his chief glory,
and therein does he show himself a genuine reformer, as Luther did. His
adversary was an immoral character, and the Reformation would make no
covenant with immorality. Who would blame him for that? Calvin could
not consent that a dissolute man, whose hand was stained with the
blood of the saints, should pass for an Athanasius, one of the noblest
of the ancient doctors of the Church. He was, above all, profoundly
afflicted by the thought that the blow struck by that man was shaking
the foundations of the spiritual building which was being erected to
the glory of God.
These debates made a great noise in other lands. All kinds of rumors
were current at a distance, and evil reports were circulated about the
Genevese reformers. People were asking one another what this contest
between Caroli and Calvin was about, and they waited impatiently for
the issue of it. French vivacity had been offensive to some theologians
of German Switzerland. Megander himself complained to Bullinger of the
annoyance which those turbulent Frenchmen had caused him.[524] People,
however, were as easily agitated in German Switzerland, and even in
the land of Luther. Some Catholics began to attach importance to these
struggles, and to take advantage of them. Letters were exchanged on
the subject. Bucer and Capito wrote from Strasburg, the former to
Melanchthon, the latter to Farel; and Myconius wrote from Basel to
the assembly itself. This must needs invest with more solemnity the
judgment on the appeal which was about to be heard at Berne.
‘On May 24, Guillaume Farel requested of the council of Geneva to send
to that city Master Cauvin (Calvin) for any battle (_journée_) there
was to be, to take part in the disputation. Upon which it was resolved
that he should go.’[525] Berne had shown a certain favor towards
Caroli. It might therefore be feared that the judgment pronounced at
Lausanne would not be confirmed. We cannot tell what the sentence would
have been if it had been pronounced by the state authorities. But the
council, finding that it was a question of doctrine, had convoked at
Berne the synod of the Bernese Church for the end of May. The debate
was opened in the presence of the great council, which doubtless took
part so far in the cause. The would-be Athanasius supported his charge
with confidence and a haughty spirit, assuming to play in the sixteenth
century the part which the great bishop of Alexandria had played in the
fourth. Calvin completely justified both himself and his colleagues.
Consequently the reformer was once more entirely acquitted, and
declared free not only from all fault but also from all suspicion. As
for Caroli, he was pronounced a slanderer, and as such condemned.
[Sidenote: CONDEMNATION OF CAROLI.]
When that was over, the lords of Berne inquired of Calvin, Farel, and
Viret whether Caroli was, so far as they knew, guilty in any respect,
either in his private life or especially in his ministry. As soon as
he heard these words, the doctor of the Sorbonne, seeing that his own
turn was come, was terror-struck, and vehemently opposed the inquiry.
‘Those whom I have just accused of great crimes,’ said he, ‘cannot be
allowed to bring formal charges against me.’ ‘You have indeed accused
them,’ replied the Bernese, ‘and without being able to substantiate
your charges. Why then should they not be allowed to accuse you?’ And
the doctors were enjoined to communicate anything they knew with regard
to him. Thereupon this man, who had no heart, no moral sentiment,
was disconcerted; and as he dreaded above all the revelations of his
adversaries, he fancied that the best way to avert them was to accuse
himself. He began therefore to confess the faults with which he knew
that Farel and his friends were well acquainted--the debaucheries to
which he had addicted himself in France, the meanness with which he had
dissembled his sentiments in matters of religion, and the cruel perfidy
which had prompted him to deliver to death two young Christians whose
way of thinking he himself approved. It was a strange sight! Here was a
singular penitent, without repentance and without scruple, assuming a
contrite air and confessing his faults solely because he hoped in that
way to secure exemption from punishment. ‘A devil’s penitent!’ said
Tertullian in such cases.
Farel had let him speak; nevertheless he did not think that he was
thereby discharged from the injunction which had been given him. He
was acquainted with certain traits of Caroli’s life which might give
the lords of Berne the intelligence of which they were in need. He
narrated the shameful licentiousness of the man, who had lived at Paris
with women of the vilest reputation, and had actually been accused of
keeping five or six at a time. He showed how two young men, carried
away by their zeal against images, had taken it into their heads to
hang some of them; and how that same Caroli, who at that time professed
that the worship of images diverts men from the knowledge of the true
God, had caused these youths to be kept in the prison into which they
had been cast until two judges arrived, who had them delivered over to
the executioners. Viret related the discussion which he had held with
Caroli on the subject of prayers for the dead; and, at the request of
the Bernese, reported various details of his conduct, among others his
drunkenness, which had more than once exposed him to the derision of
the public.
[Sidenote: BERNE PROMOTES THE REFORMATION.]
In consequence of these debates, Caroli was deprived of his functions
by the synod. The great council of Berne confirmed this sentence;
pronounced Farel, Calvin, and Viret innocent of the charges brought
against them; condemned Caroli to banishment as guilty of slander
and other excesses; and remitted the cause to the consistory to be
formally terminated. As the presumptuous doctor was unwilling to
submit to that authority, the parties were summoned before the civil
magistrates (_avoyers_) and the councils. Calvin, Farel, and Viret
accordingly presented themselves, June 6, but Caroli did not appear.
An usher, sent by the lords of Berne to seek him, brought word that he
had disappeared.[526] He had in fact fled early in the morning, and had
taken the road to Soleure. From that place he withdrew into France, to
the cardinal of Tournon, the great enemy of the Reformation. The latter
obtained absolution for Caroli from the pope. The wretched man had
hoped that, by returning into the Roman Church, he should get a good
benefice; but he found that he was held in equal contempt by Catholics
and Protestants. To close the affair, it was agreed to approve the
terms Trinity, substance, and persons (Calvin himself had made use of
them); but at the same time that if any pious man declined to employ
them, ‘he should not be cast out of the Church, nor should be looked on
as one who thought wrongly as to the faith.’[527]
This episode in Calvin’s life shows us not only his firm attachment
to the truth, which everyone acknowledges, but likewise a spirit of
freedom which is ordinarily denied to him. It is clear that with
him the Word of God stood before all, and that the faith, the life,
and essence of Christianity had more value in his eyes than mere
traditional terms, which are not to be found in the Scriptures.