BERTHELIER AND THE YOUTH OF GENEVA AROUSED BY THE BISHOP’S VIOLENCE.
(1515-1517.)
The bishop, the humble servant of the duke, prepared to act according
to his instructions. Charles had set a trustee over him, who allowed
him only what was absolutely necessary for his bare maintenance.
One day, when an eminent citizen asked him a favour, John of Savoy
exclaimed: ‘I have only my crozier and my mitre, the property belongs
to the duke. He is bishop and abbot.’ ... ‘For,’ adds the chronicler,
‘the duke being very rapacious, John was forced to give the rein to his
Highness’s extortioners.’ They imposed excessive fines; where in the
inferior courts the penalty should not exceed sixty sols, they exacted
fifty livres. No prince ever made such efforts to suppress revolt as
the bastard to foment it. He was almost brave in his devices for losing
his principality, but it was the result of servility. He deprived
the syndics of their judicial functions; he threw men into prison to
avenge private or imaginary offences. The people began to murmur: ‘A
singular shepherd this!’ they said. ‘He is not satisfied with shearing
his flock, but tears and worries them with his dogs.’ The partisans of
Savoy were delighted. By one of these exploits the bastard very nearly
revolutionised Geneva.[85]
Claude Vandel was one of the most respected citizens of Geneva. A
distinguished lawyer, a man of noble character and spotless integrity,
of retiring and respectful manners, but also of great courage, he
protected at his own expense the weak and poor against the violence
of the great. A citizen having been unjustly prosecuted by a bishop’s
officer, Vandel undertook his defence and so enraged the prelate that
he swore to be revenged on him. But how was he to begin? The people
respected Vandel; his ancestors had filled the highest offices in the
State; his wife, Mie du Fresnoir, belonged to a good family allied to
the Chatillons and other Savoyard houses of the best blood. Moreover
Vandel possessed four sons, united by the closest affection, full of
veneration for their father, and all destined one day to be called to
important duties. Robert, the eldest, was a syndic; Thomas, a canon,
procurator-fiscal, and one of the first priests that embraced the
Reformation; of the two youngest, who were still youths, Hugo was
afterwards the representative of the republic in Switzerland, and Peter
captain-general. It was known at the bishop’s palace that Vandel’s sons
would not permit a hand to be laid upon their father; and that even the
people would take up his defence. Nevertheless it was decided to make
the Genevans bend under the yoke of absolute authority. Thomas, who was
then incumbent of Morges, hurried to Geneva on hearing of the design
that threatened his father. He was a man of most decided character,
and ‘handled the sword better than his breviary.’ When they learned
what were the bishop’s intentions, his brothers and he had felt in
their hearts one of those sudden and unlooked-for impulses that proceed
from the noblest of affections, and they swore to make their bodies a
rampart for their father. The bishop and his courtiers had recourse to
stratagem. Vandel was in the country, Robert and Thomas keeping guard
beside him. A rumour was set afloat that the bishop’s bailiffs would
come at nightfall and seize the lawyer. Consequently, ‘before night
came on,’ Robert and Thomas went out to watch for the men who were to
carry off their father. But these, instead of leaving at the appointed
hour, had started earlier and hidden themselves near the house. As soon
as it was dark they left their hiding-place, and while Vandel’s sons
and friends were looking for them in another direction, they seized
the republican Claude, bound him, took him into the city by a secret
postern, and conducted him along a subterranean passage to the bishop’s
prison.[86]
The next morning, Vandel’s sons ran in great distress to their friends
and appealed to the people whom they met. They represented that the
syndics alone had the right of trial in criminal matters, and that by
arresting their father the bishop had trampled the franchises of the
city under foot. The people were excited, the council assembled; the
syndics went to the bishop and called upon him to let Vandel go, or
else hand over to them, his lawful judges, the papers in his case.
‘My council,’ the bishop answered, ‘will examine whether this _arrest_
is contrary to your liberties, in which case I will amend what is to be
amended.’ Even the episcopal council decided for Vandel’s discharge;
but the bastard obstinately refused.
The anger of the people now grew fiercer against the citizens who had
accepted the bishop’s pensions.
‘The bishop knows very well,’ they said, ‘that some of them prefer his
money to the liberties of the city. Why should he fear to infringe
our rights, when traitors have sold them to him?’ Thomas Vandel,
the priest, the most ardent of the family, hastened to Berthelier.
‘The irritation is general,’ he said, ‘and yet they hesitate. Nobody
dares bell the cat.’ Berthelier joined Vandel’s sons, and their bold
representations, as well as the murmurs of the people, aroused the
syndics. The day (June 29) was already far advanced; but that mattered
not, and at the unusual hour of eight in the evening the council met,
and ‘all the most eminent in the city to the number of about three
hundred,’ joined the assembly. The people gathered in crowds and filled
the hall.
Berthelier was present. He was still governor of Peney, the bishop’s
gift; and the latter made merry with his courtiers at having put ‘a
bone in his mouth to prevent his barking.’ There were some Genevans
who looked frowningly upon him, as if that great citizen had betrayed
his country. But Berthelier was calm, his countenance determined:
he was prepared to strike the first blow. The syndics described the
illegal act of the bishop; the sons of the prisoner called upon them
to avenge their father; and Berthelier exclaimed: ‘To maintain the
liberties of the city, we must act without fear; let us rescue the
citizen whom traitors have seized.’ John Taccon, captain-general, and
at the same time a pensioner of the bishop’s, stopped him: ‘Gently,’
said he, ‘if we do as you advise, certain inconveniences may follow.’
Berthelier in great excitement exclaimed: ‘Now the pensioners are
showing themselves!’ At these words Taccon could not contain himself:
‘It was you,’ he said, ‘yes, you, who showed me the way to take a
pension.’ On hearing this reproach Berthelier pulled out the bishop’s
letters appointing him governor of Peney, and which he had brought with
him to the council, and tore them in pieces before the meeting, saying:
‘Since I showed you the way to take them, look, I now show you the way
to resign them.’ These words acted like an electric shock. A cry of ‘No
more pensions!’ was raised on all sides. All the pensioners declared
themselves ready to tear up their letters-patent like Berthelier. The
commotion was very great. ‘Toll the bell for the general council,’
cried some. ‘No, no,’ said the more prudent, ‘it would be the signal
for a general outbreak, and the people would right themselves.’[87]
Something however must be done. A portion of the assembly went off to
the bishop’s palace, and began to shout for the prelate: ‘Release the
prisoner!’ But the bishop did not appear; the doors and windows of
the palace remained closely barred. The irritation grew general. ‘As
the bishop will not show himself,’ they said, ‘we must assemble the
people.’ Upon this John Bernard, whose three sons played an important
part in the Reformation, ran off to the tower of St. Pierre to ring
the bell for the general council. But the priests, anticipating what
would happen, had fastened the belfry door. Bernard did not renounce
his purpose: he caught up a huge hammer and was beginning to batter
the door, when some citizens came up and stopped him. They had just
learned that the bastard did not appear because, dreading the fury of
the people, he had left Geneva in great haste. One thought consoled
the bishop in all his terror: ‘Surely here is an argument that will
convince the sacred college: my people are in revolt!’ But the
episcopal council thought differently: Vandel’s arrest was illegal, and
they restored him to liberty. From that hour the bishop’s hatred grew
more deadly against those who would not bend to his tyranny.[88]
The energy displayed by the citizens showed the bastard what he would
have to expect if he laid hands on their independence. His creatures
resolved therefore to set to work in another way: to enervate this
proud and resolute people, and with that view to encourage superstition
and profligacy in Geneva. Superstition would prevent the citizens from
thinking about truth and reform, while profligacy would make them
forget their dignity, their rights, and their dearest liberties.
At the commencement of 1517--the year when the Reformation began in
Germany--a bare-footed friar, named Thomas, came and preached at
Geneva in _Italian_, and the people who did not understand a word
listened to him with admiration. The Virgin Mary, the saints, and the
departed were his ordinary theme. Bonivard shrugged his shoulders,
saying: ‘He is a mere idiot with his cock-and-bull stories!’ The friar
proceeded next to work miracles; sick persons were brought to him
after service; he blessed them right and left, and many returned home
cured. ‘What do you say to that?’ triumphantly asked some bigots of
the sceptical prior. ‘Why, _imaginatio facit casum_, it is the effect
of imagination,’ he replied. ‘The fools believe so firmly that he will
heal them, that the cure follows; but it does not last long, and many
return worse than they came.’ The honourable councillors, befooled like
the rest, sent the friar ‘princely presents.’
As superstition did not suffice, entertainments and debauchery were
added. Duke Philibert the Fair, who visited Geneva in 1498 with his
bastard brother René, had already employed this means of subduing the
Genevans. ‘Go,’ said he to his noblest lords, ‘and win over all these
shopkeepers and mechanics by being on the most familiar footing with
them.’ The Savoyard nobles, affably accosting the Genevans, used to
sit down with them in the taverns, drink, laugh, and sing with them,
bewildering the simple by their high-flown language and ‘grand airs.’
They concealed their subtle treachery under fine phrases; and throwing
off all shame, they even permitted looks and gestures of abominable
lewdness, infecting the hearts with impurity, and corrupting the young.
The priests, far from opposing this depravity, were the first to give
way to it. A shameful wantonness engendered criminal excesses which
would have brought ruin on those who indulged in them and on the city
itself. Effrontery stalked in the streets. The strangers who stopped in
Geneva exclaimed:--‘It is indeed a city sunk to the eyes in pleasure.
Church, nobles, and people are devoted to every kind of excess. You
see nothing but sports, dances, masquerades, feasts, lewdness, and
consequently, strife and contention. Abundance has generated insolence,
and assuredly Geneva deserves to be visited with the scourge of
God.’[89]
Philip Berthelier, a man of indomitable courage, untiring activity,
enthusiastic for independence and the ancient rights of liberty, but
infected with the general disease, now put the plan he had conceived
into execution, and resolved to turn against Savoy the dissolute habits
with which she had endowed his country. He took part in all their
feasts, banquets, and debaucheries; drank, laughed, and sang with the
youth of Geneva. There was not an entertainment at which he was not
present: ‘_Bonus civis, malus homo_, a good citizen, but a bad man,’
they said of him. ‘Yes, _malus homo_,’ he replied; ‘but since good
citizens will not risk their comforts in an enterprise of which they
despair, I must save liberty by means of madmen.’ He employed his
practical understanding and profound sagacity in winning men over,[90]
and he attained the end he had set before him. The assemblies of the
Genevan youth immediately changed in character. Philibert the Fair
had made them a school of slavery; Philibert Berthelier made them a
school of liberty. Those who opposed the usurpations of the Savoyard
princes, boldly held their meetings at these joyous and noisy feasts.
The great citizen, as if he had been invested with some magic charm,
had entirely changed the Genevan mind, and, holding it in his hand,
made it do whatever he pleased. Sarcasms were heaped upon the bishop
and the duke’s partisans, and every jest was greeted with loud bursts
of laughter and applause. If any episcopal officer committed an
illegality, information was given to these strange parliaments, and
these redressors of wrong undertook to see the victim righted. When the
Savoyard party put themselves without the law, the Genevan party did
the same, and the war began.
Had Berthelier taken the right course? Could the independence of Geneva
be established on such a foundation? Certainly not; true liberty
cannot exist without justice, and consequently without a moral change
that comes from God. So long as ‘young Geneva’ loved diversion above
everything, the bishop and the duke might yet lay hands upon her. Such
was the love of pleasure in the majority of these youths, that they
would seize the bait with eager impetuosity if it were only dropped
with sufficient skill. ‘They felt that the hook was killing them,’ said
a writer of the sixteenth century; but they had not strength to pull
it out. This strength was to come from on high. The human mind, so
inconstant and so weak, found in God’s Word the power it needed, and
which the light of the fifteenth century could never have given them.
The Reformation was necessary to liberty, because it was necessary to
morality. When the protestant idea declined in some countries, as in
France for instance, the human mind lost its energy also, profligacy
once more overran society; and that highly endowed nation, after having
caught a glimpse of a magnificent dawn, fell back into the thick night
of the traditional power of Rome and the despotism of the Valois and
Bourbons. Liberty has never been firmly established except among a
people where the Word of God reigns.[91]