PRIESTS, MONKS, NUNS, AND VICAR-GENERAL DEPART.
(AUGUST TO DECEMBER 1535.)
The Reformation protested against the hierarchy. It denied that Christ
had given to the Church or to its heads the power of making laws by the
fulfilment of which Christians would be justified before God. The
Reformation protested against monkery. It denied that a cloistered life
could merit salvation and give a piety superior to what the Word of God
requires of all Christians; it reproached the monastic discipline with
lowering the divine institutions of marriage, government, and labor; and
was an occasion of backsliding and unheard-of scandal.
[Sidenote: THE MONKS ARE DUMB.]
The priests were about to quit Geneva and carry away with them those
abuses; but the council, which always studied to proceed by equitable
ways, would not condemn them without hearing them. The monks of the
different convents, demoralized and trembling like culprits, had, it is
true, fled in great numbers. Still there were some remaining, and they
received an order to appear before the Great Council to defend their
faith. They were very alarmed, but the order was peremptory. On the
morning of the 12th of August those members of the order of St. Dominic,
St. Augustin, St. Francis, and the minors of Ste. Claire who were still
in Geneva arrived at the hôtel-de-ville. They were twelve in number, a
poor remnant of those powerful bodies who for long had possessed such
great power in the city. The twelve, standing with bent heads before the
council, heard a summary of the disputation read, and this added to
their alarm. The premier syndic having asked them if they had anything
to say in favor of the mass and of images, all remained silent. St.
Dominic, St. Francis, and even St. Augustin were dumb before the Reform.
The syndics, desiring at any price to extract a sound from them, ordered
the monks to be called up one after the other. Chapelain, a brother of
St. Dominic, was called first. 'We are simple people,' he said, 'who
cannot answer for want of knowledge. We are accustomed to live as our
fathers lived and to believe as the Church does. Do not ask us about
matters beyond our reach.' The other monks were unanimous in requesting
that they might be permitted not to inquire into such questions. Monkery
fell in Geneva amid universal astonishment and indignation.
But after the monks came the priests. Monseigneur de Bonmont,
vicar-episcopal, had, at the request of the council, assembled the
canons and the secular clergy at his house. The same day (12th August)
in the afternoon, a distinguished deputation of syndics and councillors,
wishing to honor the church, went to the grand-vicar, instead of making
him come to the hôtel-de-ville like the monks. The wise and pious
Savoye, who had been elected spokesman, informed the priests that a
summary of the great disputation having been drawn up, it was about to
be read to them, 'that they might come to a better decision.' The latter
displayed less weakness than the monks. Indignant that laymen should
presume to catechise the priesthood, they replied haughtily: 'We do not
want to hear your debate, and we do not care what Farel said. We wish to
live as we have hitherto done, and beg you will leave us in peace.' As
the priests rejected the opportunity given them of justifying their
doctrines, the representatives of the state interdicted them from
celebrating mass until further orders. Some days later the council
ordered them 'to worship God according to the Gospel,' and forbade them
to perform 'any act of popish idolatry.'[587]
A great and salutary revolution was thus carried out. The Romish
priests, seeing their vast temples now silent, their rich abbeys now
bare, and themselves reduced to silence, determined to quit Geneva. The
fear of being detained made them have recourse to various expedients. In
the evening or early in the morning they stole out of the city, or else,
hiding in some corner during the day, they fled during the night.
Priests, laymen, women holding their children's hands, bade adieu to the
cheerful city, to the shores of the beautiful lake, and to its smiling
hills. They loved Rome and Rome was sufficient for them. On the 13th of
August a cry of alarm was heard in the council: 'Geneva,' it was said,
'by losing a part of its population, will lose its importance.' But it
was the contrary that happened. Confessors of the Gospel compelled to
quit their country in the cause of faith, and especially Frenchmen, were
to fill up the void made by the adherents of the pope.
The exodus continued day and night, but not without difficulty. Jean
Regis, a priest, and two of his colleagues crept one dark night to the
back of St. Victor's convent, entered the stables, and took out three
horses. They were preparing to mount them when they were arrested. The
council assembled at two hours after midnight, and sent to prison the
priests who were running away on stolen horses.[588] The council
prevented the clergy from laying hands upon what did not belong to them,
but not from going wherever they pleased.
A great number of ecclesiastics and laymen succeeded, however, in
gaining the states of the Duke of Savoy, and wherever they went they
stirred up the anger of the catholics against Geneva. The storm that was
brewing became more threatening. It was not enough for the Genevans to
see their fields laid waste, they learnt from Savoy that the city itself
was going to be destroyed. The citizens thrilled with anger: 'As the
attack is to take place in favor of popery,' they said, 'it is right
that popery should pay for the defence.' The council, therefore, decided
that the church jewels should be devoted to the necessities of the
state. The priests of St. Germain, St. Gervais, and other parishes
brought their reliquaries and vessels; but the proctors of the Madeleine
appeared empty-handed at the hôtel-de-ville, and said: 'By what right do
you demand our treasures?' At the same time the ex-syndic, Jean Balard,
and other catholics, seizing the opportunity, exclaimed: 'Why do you
deprive us of our masses?' But the council was firm, and the priests of
the Madeleine, quite broken-hearted, were obliged to bring their
chalices and other vessels to aid in combating the defenders of their
faith. As the value of these ornaments did not exceed three hundred
crowns, those of St. Pierre were added to them.[589]
[Sidenote: PAUL III. INFORMED.]
It was time for Geneva to be on its guard. At the beginning of September
1535, the ambassador from the duke of Savoy, prince of Piedmont,
informed the pope (on behalf of his master) of what had taken place and
asked for prompt repression. He told the pontiff that 'on the 10th of
August the wretched Lutherans had abolished religion; that they had
entered the churches, had thrown out the relics and the images, had
proclaimed the mass to be an abuse, and had set the ministers
preaching.' Paul III. was thunderstruck; but true to his silent habits,
he only expressed his surprise by signs. He shrugged his shoulders, said
the ambassador, as if a thrill of horror had run through him. Then
bowing his head he sighed gently, and said in a low tone: 'Holy Virgin!
Holy Virgin!' and sank into a deep silence. But if his lips were dumb
and his body motionless, his mind, full of activity, was agitated and
sought some means of conjuring the evil. At last, breaking silence, he
turned to the ambassador: 'Tell the duke that he has behaved like a good
servant of the Church. He has done all in his power to prevent this
disaster. Let him persevere in the same course.'[590] The duke
understood him, and, secure of the support of the pope and of his
brother-in-law the emperor, he continued his preparations against
Geneva.
[Sidenote: FAREL PREACHES TO THE NUNS.]
During this time the houses of the priests who remained in the city, and
the aisles of the almost deserted cloisters, resounded with wailings.
This was particularly the case in the convent of St. Claire.
. . . Penitusque cavæ plangoribus ædes
Femineis ululant.[591]
That convent was the only one worthy of any interest: the reformers
wished to attempt to introduce a little light into it. The Sunday of the
Octave after the Visitation of the Virgin, the syndics, with Farel,
Viret, one of the monks who had embraced the reform, and about a dozen
notables of the city, made their appearance there about ten o'clock.
When the sisters were assembled, Farel took for his text the gospel of
the day: '_Maria abiit cum festinatione in civitatem Judæ_:' 'Mary went
with haste into a city of Juda,'[592] and tried to enlighten the nuns.
'You see,' he said, 'the Virgin Mary did not lead a solitary life; she
was diligent in aiding others, and went to the town where her cousin,
who was older than herself, lived, in order to do her a service. God
said in the days of the Creation: _It is not good that the man should be
alone_. Why then should man contradict this law of God? The Lord is
unwilling that any restraint should be imposed upon the conscience,
since he has given it liberty. The service rendered to God in the
cloisters is therefore a diabolical tyranny.' At these words the
mother-vicar, a violent woman, rose hastily, left her seat, went and put
herself between the sisters and the _heretics_, and said sharply to the
latter: 'Be off, for you will gain nothing here!'—'Return to your
place,' said the syndics; but the mother replied: 'I will do nothing of
the sort.' Consequently they turned her out.
Farel continued: 'What is this monastic life that is substituted for
holy matrimony and liberty? It is a life full of great abuses, monstrous
errors, and carnal corruption.' At these words the sisters began to cry
out, 'It is a falsehood,' and spat at the reformer in their wrath.[593]
But Farel, who had suffered worse things than this, said to the
confessor: 'We know that many of these poor young women would willingly
come to the truth and liberty, if you and the old ones did not keep them
so close.' While saying these words he was stopped by loud blows which
prevented his being heard. It was the mother-vicar, who had been
listening to him; she struck against the partition with her fists, and
cried out: 'Hah! you wretched, cursed man! You are wasting your coaxing
words. Bah! you will make nothing of them!' She then backed up her words
by a terrible drumming upon the panels.[594] Some of the sisters stopped
their ears with wax, so as not to hear Farel's sermon. The latter,
calling to mind the saying, _Give not that which is holy unto the dogs_,
retired, and the deputation went down the staircase. The monk who had
embraced the Reform was the last of the file; one of the sisters walked
behind him, thumping him on the shoulders with her fists, and saying:
'Wretched apostate, out of my sight!' 'But this fine fellow did not seem
to notice them,' says Jeanne, who was present; 'he said not a word, his
tongue was palsied.'[595] The same could not be said of the
mother-vicar, and some others, who kept on vociferating and thumping.
Farel returned no more to the convent.
One nun, however, had opened her heart to the Gospel. Claudine Levet,
who had a sister named Blaisine Varembert, in the cloister, had often
visited her, had given her a New Testament, and prayed night and day to
God that Blaisine might be enlightened. The latter was touched with the
love of the Saviour, of which Claudine had spoken to her; and on the
festival of Corpus Christi she refused to adore the holy sacrament.
Three of the sisters fell upon her, 'and bruised her all over.' They put
her in prison, and tied her hands and feet. 'Ah!' said Blaisine, 'you
keep me in prison, because I reproach you for making good cheer and
living in strife with one another day and night.'[596]
Claudine Levet and some other Genevan ladies, with Baudichon de la
Maisonneuve and Pierre Vandel, went to the convent with the intention of
liberating the poor girl. The mother-vicar 'stood upright on her feet,'
and said: 'Gentlemen, consider well what you are about to do, for if any
man comes near, either he or I shall die upon the spot.'[597] Upon this,
the men remaining in the background, two or three ladies approached the
prisoner. The latter, standing by the side of her sister, declared that
she desired to serve God purely, according to Holy Scripture, and added
that she was detained in the convent against her will. 'In that case you
are free,' said De la Maisonneuve. To no purpose did the mother-vicar
rush impetuously forward, wishing to detain her by force, and several
nuns did the same; Blaisine left the convent without saying a word,
entered a neighboring house, took off her religious dress, and went in
plain garments to her sister's.[598]
Claudine and Blaisine could not, however, make up their minds to abandon
the poor recluses. Possessing the Word of God, and the salvation that it
announces, they desired to share their good things with them. The
Genevese ladies, attached to the Gospel, had much faith and activity.
The two sisters, therefore, returned to the convent on Saturday, 28th,
and Sunday, 29th August, and Dame Claude began to speak; but the nuns
tossed their heads, and called out: 'Oh the great story-teller! Oh the
devil incarnate!' And the mother-vicar, turning towards a syndic who had
accompanied Claudine, along with other 'respectable persons,' said:
'Take that witch away from here.' 'Beware how you abuse her,' answered
the magistrate, 'for she is a holy creature, enlightened by the true
God, and produces great fruits by her divine doctrines, converting the
poor ignorant people, and continually taking great pains for the
salvation of souls.' '_Convert_,' exclaimed the superior, 'you should
rather say _pervert_.' At the same time the sisters spat in her face,
according to the report of one of their number.[599]
[Sidenote: DEPARTURE OF THE NUNS.]
When the syndic saw this, he lost all hope. The duke of Savoy invited
the sisters to take refuge in his states, making them fine promises.
'Fair ladies,' said the magistrate, 'name the day you wish to
depart.'—'To-morrow,' said the mother-superior, 'to-morrow, at
daybreak.'—'Fair ladies,' resumed the syndic, 'pack up your goods.'[600]
Early next morning the syndics arrived, when the sisters, after singing
a _De Profundis_, put their breviaries under their arm, and drew up in
two ranks. The mother-vicar placed the young sisters, who might have any
longing to quit the veil, by the side of some sturdy nuns who could
detain them. A great crowd had assembled before the convent and in the
streets. Seeing this, many of the nuns 'shrank back with fear,' but the
courageous superior said, with animation: 'Cheer up, my sisters, make
the sign of the cross, and keep our Lord in your hearts.' They stepped
forward. This procession of veiled and silent women represented
Roman-catholicism leaving Geneva. Sobs were heard here and there. Three
hundred archers marched in front, behind, and at the side of the nuns,
to protect them. 'If any one moves,' said the syndic to the spectators,
'he shall lose his head.' The crowd looked on silently as the sisters
passed along.[601]
When the procession arrived at the Arve bridge, where the territory of
the city ceased, the nuns, who had imagined they would find the duke and
his court waiting at the frontiers of his states to receive them with
great honor, could see nobody. A poor monk alone appeared, bringing a
wretched wagon, in order to carry the old and sick.[602]
The rain and the muddy roads delayed their progress. The poor nuns, who
knew nothing but their convent, were startled at everything. Seeing a
few sheep grazing in a meadow, they screamed aloud, taking them (says
one of the sisters) for _ravening wolves_. A little farther on, some
cows which were in the fields, attracted by this troop passing along,
stretched out their heads towards the road, and lowed. The nuns imagined
they were _hungry bears_, and had not even strength to run away. At
nightfall they reached St. Julien, having taken fifteen hours to go a
short league. The next day they entered Annecy, where the duke gave them
the monastery of the Holy Cross. All the bells of the city rang at their
arrival. Here the poor nuns found some repose; but they did not forget
the judgment of God that had banished them from Geneva, and did not hide
the cause of their misfortunes. 'Ah!' said Sister Jeanne de Jussie, 'the
prelates and churchmen did not observe their vows at this time, but
squandered dissolutely the ecclesiastical property, keeping women in
adultery and lubricity, and _awakening the anger of God_, which brought
divine punishment on them.'[603]
If the truth extorted such a confession from a nun, an honest but
fanatical disciple of popery, we may understand what the reformed
thought and said. A cry came from their hearts against the immorality
and hypocrisy of those who ought to have been their guides. Hence there
was great agitation among the priests; they came running in a distracted
manner to Monseigneur de Bonmont, and asking him: 'What is to be done?
must we stay or go?'
[Sidenote: FLIGHT OF THE GRAND-VICAR.]
The grand-vicar thought it was necessary to go. Public opinion declared
unequivocally against him: he was one of those priests who called forth
Sister Jeanne's reproof. 'Monseigneur keeps in his house several
mistresses and agents of debauchery,' people said. 'Gaming, _mots de
gueule_, dances, banquets, impudicity, and every kind of dissolute
living, are his delight. He generally has five vile prostitutes at his
table, seated according to their degree, two at his right and two at his
left, while the oldest waits upon the others. He smiles when he talks of
impudicity, and says, "It is a mere backsliding, and does not count."'
Seeing the storm grow darker, the wretched priest was terrified in his
conscience, and resolved to act like his bishop, and quit a city where
he could no longer live as he had always lived. The Reformation was the
re-establishment of morality as well as of faith. Monseigneur fled to
the mountain, to solitude in the abbey of Bonmont, near Nyon, on a spur
of the Jura, which overlooks Lake Leman and its rich valley. Another
terror was soon to drive him thence.[604]
The anger of God (spoken of by Jeanne) continued to work out his
judgments: opprobrium accumulated on those priests who had thought
themselves the kings of the earth. On the 18th of September, some of the
citizens having caught one of them in an act of impurity, they set him
on a donkey, and paraded him thus through the city, making his mistress,
disguised as a lackey, walk behind him. Serious men disapproved of such
buffoonery. 'Ah!' they said, 'disease, the consequence of their
disorders, has so punished them, that as we see them pass along in their
processions we might imagine them to be soldiers returning from the war,
they are so covered with scars—true martyrs of the pope!'[605] The
magistrates would have liked not to punish them, not to banish them, but
to reform them. 'Give up,' they said, 'your dances, gluttony, and
dissolute living, and dwell in our city according to God's law, like
citizens and good friends.' But that seemed too difficult for the
priests: they preferred to leave Geneva.
The most active, however, remained. Dupan and some of his colleagues
went from house to house, strengthening the weak. They might be seen
passing along the streets, wearing their sacerdotal vestments. If a
child was born, they hastened to christen it according to the Roman
ritual; if fervent Catholics desired the sacrament, they met secretly in
some chamber, knelt down before a hastily constructed altar, crossed
themselves, and said mass. They even carried their zeal so far as to
visit certain of the reformed, in order to bring them back to the fold
of the Church. At the very moment when the edifice was giving way on all
sides, their natural inflexibility and enthusiasm for the papacy made
them remain, as if their feeble hands were sufficient to support it.
Such courage claims our admiration, but the reformed considered it
rather as a matter for serious anxiety. They felt the necessity of
concord and unity at this critical moment. 'See what your condescension
exposes us to,' they said to the magistrates. 'Just as the enemy is
marching against the city, these priests are going to stir up a civil
war within our gates.'[606]
[Sidenote: HOSPITAL AND SCHOOL FOUNDED.]
The syndics who knew the danger and the necessities of the city, thought
that the best means of securing to Geneva her independence and her
faith, would be to set everything in good order. The Reformation is a
good tree; let it therefore bear its fruit! Christians ought to take
care of their sick and of their poor. Accordingly, a general hospital
was founded at Ste. Claire, and endowed with the revenues of the old
hospitals and the property become ownerless through the departure of the
ecclesiastics. Claude Salomon, one of the most fervent evangelicals,
dedicated himself, his wife, and his fortune to its service.
Christians ought to take care of their children. It is true that in
1429, F. de Versonex, the syndic, had founded a school where grammar,
logic, and the liberal arts were taught; but the director of that
institution having left the city, the school had been shut. It must be
restored and improved. Farel and his friends required that the
instruction should be universal—for all children. The school was
established in the place which is still named Rue du Vieux Collège, and
its direction intrusted to Saunier, a capable man.[607]
After the extirpation of ignorance came the suppression of mendicity. An
order was published by sound of trumpet on the 29th of October, 'that no
person should beg, but seek shelter in the poor-house.'[608]
Subsequently these institutions received important developments. It was
not until the period when the college and academy were founded by Calvin
that instruction took a start in Geneva, which carried intellectual
culture to such a height in that city. But the starting-point was
Saunier's college, where primary instruction was mixed up with religion.
The Reformation launched Geneva like a ship, which at first coasts along
the nearest shores, but reaches at last the remotest seas. It was not
simply a matter of theological dogma, as some believe; it developed the
conscience, the understanding, and the heart, and regulated the will. It
did not form merely a few Christian men; it gave to that city a new
people, school, church, literature, science, and charity; it gave new
value to the great interests of man, and called into existence a
well-spring of useful research and elevated thoughts. The Reformation
was able to say:
Humani nihil a me alienum puto.[609]
[Sidenote: ROMANISM ENDS IN GENEVA.]
While the council was carrying out these beneficent measures, a certain
number of agitated and restless priests kept going from house to house,
consulting together and professing opinions that tended to rebellion.
Instead of taking harsh measures against them, the magistrates loyally
determined to give them a fresh opportunity of defending their faith. On
the 29th of November thirty priests, headed by Dupan, appeared before
the council. There were still thirty priests in Geneva and only three
ministers! It was not, therefore, by numbers and by the might of man,
that the Reformation was established, but by the power of God. The
premier syndic asked them to undertake the defence of popery. 'We have
neither the ability nor the learning,' answered Dupan; and he added:
'Sooner than expose our religion to a new discussion, we will give up
all pastoral functions.' The priesthood abdicated. On the 6th of
December the council again called the priests before them, and gave them
this option: 'If your doctrine is good, defend it; if bad, renounce it.'
Then the break-up began. 'For a long time,' said Delorme, 'I have been
saying mass unwillingly,' and he passed over, with others, to the side
of the Reform. Some left the city; and the council required that those
who remained 'should wear other hats,' and live like the rest of the
citizens. Lastly, wishing to make it evident that there was no longer in
Geneva either bishop or prince, the council voted that the episcopal
palace should be converted into a prison.[610] This was no change in its
destination, according to certain sarcastic huguenots, since the bishop
and his see had never been of any use but to keep liberty captive. Thus
ended the existence of the Romish priesthood in Geneva. The magistrates,
far from persecuting catholicism, had on several occasions put the
priests in a position to defend it: it was the religion of the popes
that fled and made way for the religion of the Holy Scriptures. Complete
religions liberty, the conquest of modern times, did not certainly
preside at that day in the councils of the republic; but as an historian
of Geneva, who is not a protestant, has said, 'We must not demand of an
age ideas, theories, and acts which could not exist until after events
and revolutions still to come.'[611]
Seeing that the priests were departing, that their chants no longer
re-echoed through the lofty Gothic aisles, that the tapers no longer
burnt upon the gorgeous altars and the varied ceremonial had
disappeared, Farel, Viret, and Froment came forward and said: 'We are
ready to preach without sparing ourselves either weariness or labor, and
to employ all the power of the Word to lead the flock into the straight
road with wisdom and gentleness.' And in fact from that hour the Word
which awakeneth and teacheth was heard daily in the churches, and
particularly at St. Pierre and St. Gervais. The hearers said that these
true ministers of the Gospel 'did not behave like old-clothes men
(_revendeurs_), who are accustomed to polish up their wares and put a
gloss upon their old rags, in order to get more money for them; but they
offered the pure and simple doctrine of Jesus Christ.' Many felt that
the Word of God was a sword which pierces to the heart and kills the old
man in such a manner that a new man takes the place of him that was
slain.
Farel assembled the people in the cathedral in order that they should
all pray for peace to God who giveth it.[612] These prayers ascended to
heaven. Geneva was to have peace, but after new trials.
[587] Registres du Conseil du 12 Août.—Chronique MSC. de Roset.
[588] Registres du Conseil du 12 Août.
[589] Registres du Conseil des 16 et 17 Août 1535.
[590] Archives de Turin. Mémoire sur les droits de la maison de Savoye.
[591] Virgil, _Æneid_, ii. 487. 'Shrieks of women rend the vaulted
skies.'—_Dryden._
[592] Luke, i. 39.
[593] Jeanne de Jussie, _Commencement de l'Hérésie dans Genève_, p. 131.
[594] _Ibid._
[595] 'Ce brave homme n'en faisait aucun semblant, ni oncques dit mot;
il avait la langue amortie.'
[596] 'Vous faites bonne chère et vivez en noise.'—Jeanne de Jussie,
_Commencement de l'Hérésie dans Genève_, pp. 170-173.
[597] _Ibid._ pp. 141-148.
[598] Jeanne de Jussie, _Commencement de l'Hérésie dans Genève_, pp.
150-152. Registres du Conseil du 25 Août 1535.
[599] 'Décrachaient.'—Jeanne de Jussie.
[600] Jeanne de Jussie, _Commencement de l'Hérésie dans Genève_, pp.
175, 189, 197.
[601] Jeanne de Jussie, _Commencement de l'Hérésie dans Genève_, pp.
192, 197.
[602] _Ibid._ pp. 199-201.
[603] Jeanne de Jussie, _Commencement de l'Hérésie dans Genève_, pp. 34,
201-223.
[604] Jeanne de Jussie, _Commencement de l'Hérésie dans Genève_,
p. 34.—Froment, _Gestes de Genève_, p. 157.
[605] Jeanne de Jussie, _Commencement de l'Hérésie dans Genève_, pp.
154-160.—Roset, Chron. MSC. liv. iii. ch. xxxvii.
[606] Registres des Conseils des 15 Octobre, 12 et 29 Novembre 1535.
[607] He was probably the writer of a treatise entitled _Ordre et
manière d'enseigner en la ville de Genève, au collège_, recently
reprinted by Professor Bétant.
[608] Registres du Conseil des 27 Août, 7 et 17 Septembre, 29 Octobre,
12, 14 et 15 Novembre 1535.—Des Hôpitaux de Genève.—_Mémoires
d'Archéologie_, iii. pp. 155-366.
[609] 'Nothing that concerns mankind is indifferent to me.'
[610] Registres du Conseil des 12, 23, 24 et 29 Novembre, 6 Décembre
1535.
[611] Thourel, _Histoire de Genève_, ii. p. 163.
[612] Kirchhofer, _Farel_, p. 193.