THE PEOPLE OF GENEVA DESIRE TO LIVE ACCORDING TO THE GOSPEL.
(MARCH TO JUNE 1536.)
An entire people is not converted to God in a body. The pagan religions
were identical with the nation; but the Christian Church is distinct
from it. Even the Apostolic Church soon extended beyond the narrow
limits of the tribe of Judah; it was founded at Jerusalem irrespective
of temple, sanhedrim, and Jews, and subsequently was established among
all nations unconnected with the state. A prince cannot decree a
religion by a cabinet minute; a people cannot elect it by a majority of
votes. There is, however, something grand in seeing an assembled nation
declare without constraint that they will take the Gospel as the rule of
their faith and the source of their life. This is what Geneva was about
to do.
[Sidenote: EVANGELIZATION BY ORDER.]
The communities which extended from the foot of the Jura to the Alps of
the Voirons and the Mole, had recognized the councils of Geneva as their
legitimate lords, reserving their own customs and franchises. But, in
the opinion of the Reformers, this territory would only be an
embarrassment, unless a new life were communicated to its inhabitants
and spread over the whole nation. Commerce, manufactures, liberty, and
letters do much for the prosperity of a people, but cannot be their
life. If the Word of God, _if the light of the_ _world_, does not
enlighten them, they fall sooner or later. These opinions were
sufficiently common in Geneva for an unknown poet to say to the united
parishes in this unpolished strain:
Vaut-il pas mieux dire à Dieu nos secrets,
Qu'à un grand tas d'idiots indiscrets?
Vaut-il pas mieux au pauvre et au débile
Donner habit, pain, vin, chandelle et huile,
Qu'aux marmots d'or, d'argent, pierre, et bois,
Rendre l'honneur défendu tant de fois?[739]
'Messieurs,' said Farel to the council on the 13th of March, 'the Word
of God ought to be preached in the parishes subject to this city.' Ten
days later he made a fresh application to that assembly on the same
matter, when he was supported by politicians as well as by men of piety.
To leave the seeds of popery in Geneva and in her rural dependencies was
(they thought) exposing the state to great danger. In order to thread
the shoals and brave the storms which threatened the frail bark, there
must be a cordial understanding between all the crew. Several persons
exclaimed with rather an excess of energy: 'If some go to sermon and
others to mass, the republic will go to the devil.'
The work was begun at once. The reformers preached in Geneva; other
ministers preached in the country; heralds of the council went from
village to village making proclamations by sound of trumpet: 'Let there
be no more disobedience!' they said; 'no more gambling! No more
blasphemy!' Still the council did not wish to exercise any constraint
with regard to religion. The inhabitants of Viuz and other villages in
the _mandement_ of Thiez in Faucigny having prayed that they might be
allowed their own way as to church matters, their request was granted.
But the bishop, who was less tolerant, excommunicated the poor people,
because, although catholics, they recognized heretical magistrates. The
syndics undismayed and very positive as to their episcopal capacity,
wrote to the vicars that they would relieve their parishes from the
excommunication and completely absolve them—which greatly comforted the
worthy peasants. When Easter drew near, however, they began to feel
great distress. 'Alas!' they said to the syndics, 'as we have been
excommunicated, we cannot take the sacrament at Easter.' 'We hold you to
be entirely absolved,' answered the reformed magistrates demurely. Upon
which the simple people received the sacrament with great tranquillity
of mind.[740]
[Sidenote: THE STATE AND THE CHURCH.]
These are strange actions. It has been maintained that the church, in
proportion as political society becomes Christian, ought gradually to be
lost in the state. It has been asserted that, at the epoch of the
Reformation, Christianity had completed its ecclesiastical period, and
had entered into the political period. Lastly, some men have added that
to organize the church was a useless labor, a sheer loss of time, an
absolute impossibility, and that presbyteries and synods were but silly
child's play.[741] Was the fact that we have recorded—episcopal
absolution emanating from the council—the first step in this absorption
of the church by the state; and is it true that the Reformation leads to
it? Quite the contrary. By reviving in the Christian conscience the idea
of the kingdom of God; by awakening to life and action the members of
the evangelical congregation, protestantism awoke the church throughout
Christendom. Geneva, owing to the impulse given it by Calvin, became the
place where it was constituted in the most independent and most
scriptural manner. The church must not be lost in the state, and the
state must not be lost in the church, whatever socialists or priests may
say. How can the state survive the church? The state is temporary, the
church immortal.
But the magistrates heroically discharged their episcopal functions to
little purpose; there was great difficulty in maintaining order. The
villages of Vandœuvre and Celigny wished to hear mass and a protestant
sermon every Sunday, while the priests universally demanded the
preservation of the Romish ceremonies. The council felt the necessity of
explaining the posture of affairs, and called together all the
ecclesiastics and proctors of the parishes.[742] On the 3d of April,
1536, the Romanist party was drawn up on one side of the council-room,
and on the other were Farel, with some other ministers, and several
zealous protestants.[743] Claude Savoye, the premier syndic, spoke
against the union of sermons and the mass, which some parishes desired,
and declared that such a medley was by no means agreeable to the
magistracy. He then said to the priests: 'Instead of preventing the
people from living according to the Gospel, why do you not embrace it
yourselves, and give up your mass?' Dom Claude de Puthex, canon of
Satigny, stepped forward and said: 'If our neighbors of Gex change their
mode of life, we will do the same.' This religion of _neighborhood_ was
a surprise to the reformers; and those simple folks reminded them of
sheep who pass where others have gone before, and leap over the hedge as
soon as the foremost of them have shown the way. 'Turn about,
gentlemen,' said Farel, 'instead of continuing your course;' and he
added several 'beautiful remonstrances.' 'Give us a month to study the
Gospel,' answered the canons. After the priests had withdrawn, the
council asked the opinion of Farel and Bonivard. The latter declared
that 'consciences must be enlightened and not forced.' Farel also was of
opinion that the papists ought not to be troubled in their devotions, in
order that they might not be exasperated against the Word; but that they
ought to be brought to the Gospel 'with extreme gentleness.' He
therefore proposed that 'the priests during the required month should
give themselves up exclusively to the inquiry after truth.' When the
ecclesiastics were called in, the syndic informed them that their
request had been granted unanimously; and at the end of the month, they
all declared that they could not prove by the Gospel either the mass,
auricular confession, or other papal ordinances. The brother of Guy
Furbity, who was in the assembly, declared that Farel's exhortation to
the priests was 'sound according to Holy Scripture and to God.'[744] It
is true that this person had a reason for wishing to please the
Genevans.
[Sidenote: GUY FURBITY.]
There remained, however, one thing to be done. They had liberated the
protestant Bonivard, they determined also to set free the Roman-catholic
Furbity, whose release was demanded by his brother William. Guy left his
prison on the 6th of April. He had been condemned (it will be
remembered) to prove his doctrines, or to retract his insulting
language; whereupon he had asked for books, and the council sent him a
Bible. 'A Bible!' he exclaimed, 'they must be laughing at me. How can I
prove my doctrines with the help of a Bible? I should not succeed in a
twelve-month.' He wanted the _Sentences_ of Peter Lombard, the _Summa_
of Thomas Aquinas, and so forth, and they gave him a Bible! 'Magnificent
lords,' he said on the 6th of April, 'I beg your pardon; I said things
that displeased you; I was wrong. I did not know how matters were.
Henceforward I will endeavor to lead a better life, and to preach the
truth better than I have hitherto done.' The council ordered him to be
set at liberty forthwith.[745]
[Sidenote: SEVERITY OF FAREL.]
Farel was more active than ever. He was busy in the city and in the
villages with Roman-catholics and reformed: he was intent on everything
that could elevate the moral and religious condition of the community.
The anarchy and corruption that prevailed in Geneva upon Calvin's
arrival have been exaggerated. The energetic language of the sixteenth
century, interpreted by the delicate critics of our times, has perhaps
contributed to this mistake. Before the Reformation there was beyond all
doubt great corruption among the clergy, and particularly among the
monks. That dissoluteness had also infected individuals and even
families among the citizens; but one feature had distinguished this
people, and especially the councils, during the struggles for political
emancipation, namely, the close union of liberty with legality, that is
to say, with order. The Genevese were always found ready for the
greatest sacrifices—for the sacrifice of their goods, their ease, their
homes, and their lives sooner than lose their independence: now these
are not the manners of an epicurean people. Admiration of the
Reformation period ought not to make us unjust towards the period of
political emancipation. It is true that the reformers, and Calvin
especially, had a hard task with this energetic and restless people, and
that the struggles often proceeded from a want of faith and morality,
which these austere men had remarked in certain citizens. But the
struggles were aggravated by the intervention of the state, to which the
ministers were not averse, and by the temporal punishments inflicted on
those who infringed religious discipline. Perhaps no one in the
sixteenth century perceived more clearly than Calvin the distinction
between the spiritual and the temporal; and yet neither he nor Farel
understood it, and above all did not realize it, to its full extent. 'If
there should be men so insolent and given up to all perversity,' said
Farel to the syndics, 'as only to laugh at being excommunicated, it will
be your business to see whether you will allow such contempt to remain
unpunished.'[746] The haughty republicans who had sacrificed everything
to break down the despotism of the bishop and the duke, were irritated
when they saw another yoke imposed upon them in religious matters. They
had the true sentiment that their consciences ought to be free, and if
attempts had been made to convince them and not to constrain them, the
end proposed would have been more easily attained. For many an age Rome
had forgotten that the weapons of the evangelical warfare _are not
carnal_. Unhappily magistrates and reformers sometimes forgot it also.
It was an error, and the error led to the commission of many faults.
Nevertheless discipline was not the essential characteristic of Farel,
Calvin, and their friends: they were in a special degree men of faith
and of a living faith. In their eyes faith was the one thing needful—the
good thing above all others. They desired that man should be holy and do
good works; but for that, he must believe in the love which God had
shown him in Christ. Faith, according to the reformers, is the presiding
principle of morality. If a man has faith, he is a child of God; if he
has not, he is under the dominion of sin. Moreover Farel did not want a
purely negative reform, which should consist in merely rejecting the
pope; he wanted it to be positive, and to that end it was necessary that
the people should believe in Jesus Christ. Lastly, Farel saw disunion
and disputes in Geneva. In order that the community, the new Church,
should be strong, it ought not to be composed (he thought) of scattered
members, opposed perhaps to one another; it must form a single body, and
glorify God with one voice and one heart. He desired, therefore, that a
public profession of faith in the Gospel should be made at Geneva.
As sovereignty in matters of state belongs to the assembly of all the
citizens, it was supposed with still further reason, that to the same
body, convened according to the ancient customs, belonged the right of
proclaiming the evangelical doctrine. On Friday, the 19th of May, Farel,
accompanied by Antoine Saunier, his old travelling companion in the
valleys, and by the pastor Henri de la Mare, appeared before the
council. 'Most honored lords,' he said, 'it is of great importance for
all the people to live in strict union. To get rid of the quarrels,
jeers, reproaches, and dissensions, which the fretful disposition of our
nation may occasion every day, we must employ mildness; and, further
still, we must manifest our concord. Seeing that there is one only truth
of God, all the people should declare their intention to adhere to it
with one and the same heart.' The council approved of the proposition,
and resolved to call together the council-general for a confession of
faith, on Sunday, the 21st of May. At Augsburg it was the priests and
doctors who had confessed the doctrine; at Geneva, it was to be the
whole nation.[747] The difference between the two reforms is natural.
Democracy ruled in Geneva, and it had become all the dearer to the
citizens from their conviction that if the liberties of nations had been
taken away, the crime lay at the door of the papacy. Calvin has repeated
this more than once. It has been said that the communes, the liberties
of the Middle Ages, issued from the furrow and the shop.[748] From the
_shop_ came specially the liberty of Geneva. The Burgundians who settled
there were traders, and willingly exchanged their arms for merchandise.
Some of the heroes of Geneva, whose devotedness reminds us of ancient
times, sprang from the counter or the factory.
[Sidenote: ROMAN-CATHOLICS IN GENEVA.]
Still an appeal to the people was a bold measure, for there yet existed
among the citizens, and even in the council, many decided adversaries of
reform, and some of them were among the most eminent men. Might not such
an appeal stir up an opposition which would overthrow all that had been
done? The position of the Roman-catholics was most serious. They were
required to conform to the Gospel. Could they do so? Their consciences
forbade them. Were they to refuse, they would disturb the unanimity and
harmony so necessary to the people at that juncture. Pierre Lullin,
almost a septuagenarian, uncle of the haughty huguenot Jean Lullin, was
one of the most fervent catholics in Geneva. Unable to do without the
mass, he had asked, in September 1535, to be allowed to have it
performed by a priest in a chapel of St. Gervais, which was his private
property. Another eminent man, Syndic Balard, had ceased indeed to be a
partisan of the bishop, but he had taken refuge in a catholicism more
spiritual than Lullin's, and yet quite as marked. According to his
views, the Holy Ghost governed the Roman-catholic church, which church,
communicating that spirit to its members, imposed on them the obligation
of finding its doctrines in Scripture. Lullin, Balard, and some others,
had frequent conferences together. The sincere catholics were not the
only persons to be feared; they were supported by Genevans of scant
faith, who cried out against the Reformation, principally because of its
rigid morality. The reformers themselves were not without fear with
regard to many of those who at that time walked with them. There were
men who heard the preachers, but went no farther; they burnt the idols,
but did not reform their lives. 'For faith to be secure, it must be
governed by conscience,' said the theologians, 'otherwise there is
danger that it will be swamped, and that the ship will founder in a
stormy sea.' Were they about to witness a renewal of those tumults which
had so often disturbed the General Councils?[749]
At length the 21st of May arrived—that day at once so longed for and so
feared. The bells rang out cheerfully; Clémence wafted through the air
the words carved on her surface: 'I summon the people. Jesus, Saviour of
men, Son of Mary, salvation of the world! be merciful and propitious to
us!' The good citizens congratulated each other, as they obeyed the
summons, that this day would put an end to innumerable struggles, and
that the city, so long wasted by briers and thorns, would now be covered
by the hand of God with flowers and laurels. The emotion was universal.
[Sidenote: THE QUESTION AND THE ANSWER.]
Besides the mass of the people, the ambassadors of Berne were present in
the church, and among them the chief of the liberating army, Nägueli.
One of the most heroic Genevans and most sincere Christians, the
intrepid Claude Savoye, was president. When he arose to speak, he
reminded them of the flight of the bishop, the arrival of the Gospel in
Geneva, the glorious deliverance granted to the city; and then he added,
in a voice that was heard all down the nave, 'Citizens, do you desire to
live according to the Gospel and the Word of God, as it is preached to
us every day? Do you declare that you will have no more masses, images,
idols, and other papal abuses whatsoever? If any one knows and wishes to
say anything against the doctrine that is preached to us, let him do
so.'
There was a deep silence: all were in expectation. Will not some voice,
friendly to Rome or to the world, protest against reform? The aged and
devout Pierre Lullin, the spiritual catholic Jean Balard, the frivolous
Jean Philippe, the episcopal Malbuisson, Richardet, Ramel, De la Rive,
and others, known for their attachment to Rome, are going, doubtless, to
take up the premier syndic's challenge. The hour is striking; Geneva is
about to decide its future. If it is true that the pope is Christ's
vicar, and as God upon earth, let them say so! Now or never. They wait:
they wait still; not a word disturbs the solemn silence of the people.
No one made opposition. The fact was duly recorded. Then other accents
than those which had been anticipated resounded through the aisles of
the cathedral. Was it the voice of pious syndic Levet, or of one of the
Two Hundred, or of some one in the body of the meeting? The council
registers do not inform us. That voice, speaking in the name of the
united nation, proclaimed: 'We all, with one accord, desire, with God's
help, to live under that holy evangelical law, and according to God's
Word as it is preached to us. We desire to renounce all masses, images,
idols, and other papal ceremonies and abuses, and to live in union with
one another, in obedience to justice.' When the voice ceased, all the
people held up their hands and repeating a unanimous oath, exclaimed:
'We swear it.... We will do so with God's help.... We will!'[750]
The assembly broke up, and the citizens departed, congratulating each
other that the innumerable tyrannies of '_Pharaoh_' and the darkness of
the '_sorcerers_' were to be succeeded by the mild light of Jesus Christ
and the life-giving breath of liberty. Even such huguenots as had
struggled especially for political enfranchisement, raised no discordant
voice. They knew well that if this petty people remained catholic, it
would lose its independence, and infallibly become Savoyard. But others
held higher views: Geneva appeared to them as a fortress which God had
built to save the Gospel. 'God,' said Froment, the oldest of the
Genevese reformers, 'God has selected this strong territory, so
difficult of access, to form a rampart as it were against the pope and
his followers. It is in these rude countries, guarded on the south by
the Savoy mountains and their eternal snows; on the north by the
difficult gorges of the Jura; and on the east by the narrow passes of
the St. Bernard and the Simplon, where our friends, the Valaisans, with
half a score of men can stop an army; it is in this blessed corner of
the earth that God planted His Gospel, surrounding his word with those
gigantic fortresses, in order that the enemy may neither reach it nor
stifle it.' While the citizens thronged the open square, the ministers
went into the pulpit. 'A mighty captain hath led us,' they said; 'let us
put our trust in him alone. He has more power than all the kings of the
earth, and alone he has preserved us from our enemies. The captain is
Jesus Christ, our Saviour, our Redeemer, and our strong tower.'[751]
[Sidenote: MEMORIAL INSCRIPTION.]
Farel and several Genevans asked that some monument should be erected to
recall to future ages the memory of their great deliverance. Did not
Joshua set up twelve stones after he had crossed the Jordan? Farel
composed a Latin inscription, which was carved in letters of gold on
stone and steel. The council and people fixed it over one of the
principal gates of the city and afterwards over the entrance to the
Hôtel-de-Ville, so that every one might read this testimony of a
grateful city.
QUUM ANNO 1535
PROFLIGATA ROMANI ANTICHRISTI TYRANNIDE
ABROGATISQUE EJUS SUPERSTITIONIBUS
SACRO-SANCTA CHRISTI RELIGIO
HIC IN SUAM PURITATEM
ECCLESIA IN MELIOREM ORDINEM
SINGULARI DEI BENEFICIO REPOSITA
ET SIMUL PULSATIS FUGATISQUE HOSTIBUS
URBS IPSA IN SUAM LIBERTATEM
NON SINE INSIGNI MIRACULO RESTITUTA FUERIT
SENATUS POPULUSQUE GENEVENSIS
MONUMENTUM HOC PERPETUÆ CAUSA FIERI
ATQUE HOC LOCO ERIGI CURAVIT
QUO SUAM ERGA DEUM GRATITUDINEM
AD POSTEROS TESTATAM FACERET.[752]
The citizens who had left their homes to embrace the faction of the
bishop and the duke, and to fight against the Reformation, were struck
with the surprising deliverance accorded to Geneva. They became friends
again, and many of them asked permission to return to their country.
Evangelical Geneva was pleased to see those prodigal sons once more
knocking at the door of their father's house, and welcomed them on their
pledging themselves to obey the laws and contribute to the taxes in a
manner proportionate to their means. Some of them, however, were
forbidden to carry either sword or knife, 'except for the purpose of
cutting bread.'—'Let us put an end to all enmities and disorders,' said
the citizens, 'and live together like good friends.'[753] The priests
and monks who had embraced the Reform, were compensated for the stipends
of which they had been deprived. The state desiring to show its
gratitude to Bonivard, paid his debts, made him free of the city, and
gave him the house of the vicar-episcopal, the dignity of a member of
the Two Hundred, and a pension of two hundred and fifty crowns. The
ex-prior of St. Victor married, thus substituting a Christian union for
the ignoble life of a monk.
Evangelical Geneva furnished an example of the feelings engendered by
help from heaven; patience and meekness were displayed towards
everybody. The Genevans had read in Scripture, that 'Charity beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things;'
and in this spirit they acted. 'Most honored lords, I cannot go to hear
the sermon,' said the timid Malbuisson, 'because I suffer from the
gout.' This excuse could only be met by a smile, for the gout did not
prevent him from attending the Council; but no one desired to constrain
him. If even the most zealous sought to lead recalcitrants to the
Gospel, they did not insist. They wanted Balard to go to sermon, but he
did not; they wanted him to leave the city, but he remained; they wanted
him to close his warehouse (he was a large ironmonger), and it was no
sooner shut than he reopened it.[754] He continued to be a member of the
Council and discharged all its functions. Girardet de la Rive took his
child a league from the city to have it christened by a priest; and yet
he was re-elected syndic in 1539 and 1543, and in Calvin's time, in
1547, was appointed one of the six commissioners for drawing up the
ordinances of justice. Those terrible huguenots were kindly people at
heart. They desired to give their fellow-citizens time to compare the
old life with the new, the doctrine of the Bible with that of the pope.
The Roman-catholics kept holiday the feast days of the Romish church,
and saw their priests in secret; but gradually their convictions were
modified. As constraint was not applied outwardly, truth acted all the
more inwardly. Those upright men read the Holy Scriptures, and Scripture
shedding a light into their hearts, drew them day by day nearer to the
truth. At last they went to hear sermons like the rest. In the sixteenth
century Geneva was more liberal than people of our day suppose.[755]
[Sidenote: TRANSFORMATION.]
What a transformation had come over the city! The Genevese, those
veteran athletes, laid down their arms at the feet of the Prince of
Peace. The tumultuous city, continually exposed to the brigandage of the
knights, to the nocturnal attacks of the Savoyards, and to internal
dissension, was transformed into a centre of civilization. 'Let us
profit by our liberty,' said Bonivard. 'Let us make good laws and set up
a good government, for, according to the sentiment of the emperor Marcus
Aurelius, empires and great lordships are acquired by brave and valiant
captains, but are kept up by just judges. Messieurs of Geneva, you are
indebted to God for two blessings: one, that your republic has given
birth to liberty; the other, that, on leaving its mother's womb, it
found nurses ready to supply it with such nourishment that if you take
advantage of it your republic will be, if not immortal, which is
impossible, yet it will be of long and vigorous duration.' In fact,
Geneva became at once a free city, a learned city, and an evangelical
city.[756]
Easter Sunday 1536 was one of the high festivals of the renovation of
this little people. Farel, stationed at a humble table, which had
replaced the pompous altar, broke the bread and blessed the cup, while a
calm and solemn crowd drew near the symbols of the body and blood of the
Saviour. 'What a sacrament we had,' he said, 'and what great things the
Lord hath done for us.'[757]
[Sidenote: MINISTERS WANTED.]
But he longed for still greater things. 'I pray that He who hath
increased this little flock beyond all our expectations, may increase it
still more by augmenting our faith.'[758] The reformer was then almost
alone in Geneva. Froment had been summoned to Aigle, and Viret had gone
to Neuchâtel. Farel was sinking under his labors and called loudly for
help. In his opinion the Genevans wanted a new man, some one in his
place. His incessant energy, his somewhat coarse manner, and even the
victories he had gained, had inspired such as were wanting in religion
with prejudices that might injure the cause of the Gospel. Farel was
rather one of those who found societies than of those who organize them;
he was sensible of this, and desired to place in other hands the
definitive establishment of the church in Geneva, in order that he might
go to new scenes where he might gain new victories. He was like one of
those noble war-horses that neigh for the battle.
Where could the man of God be found to complete the work? He was sought
among the ministers, but to no effect. The Reform was liable to perish,
not from want of work, but from want of workmen. 'Alas!' cried Farel,
'where shall we find the preachers we require? I cannot tell.'[759] It
is true that ex-priests and monks frequently offered themselves, but
what workmen they were! One day it was a simpleton without any capacity;
at another, a coward who did not care to undertake a task so full of
peril; one man was immoral; another self-sufficient; a third was
worldly; a fourth altogether monkish. Farel was dismayed. 'You speak to
me of Dennis,' he said, 'but Dennis is a monk from head to foot.'[760]
The reformer had as much trouble in putting these sham fellow-helpers
aside, as in contending with desperate enemies. 'Beware of the tonsure,'
he said to his friends, 'of the tonsure and the tonsured.'[761] 'We want
none of those skimmers[762] of Scripture,' he said, 'who turn to every
wind like weathercocks on the steeples; none of those flatterers of
princes and magistrates, who wish to please them for their bellies'
sake, or through fear of being banished: none of those dissolute monks,
who seek only to please master or mistress. No, no; none of these
mercenaries; for it is to be feared that if we take them to lead the
flocks, we shall enter into a more inextricable labyrinth than that
through which we have passed.'
Not only Geneva but Western Europe required 'a God-fearing pastor,' as
Farel said; a doctor who could explain with learning the teachings of
Holy Scripture; an evangelist who, with eloquence full of life, should
convert souls to Christ; a champion who should fight valiantly against
the doctors of Rome and lead them captive to the truth; and a man of
administrative capacity who could establish order in the churches of
God. The earth had shaken, old buildings had been thrown down. It was
requisite to erect in their place an edifice more conformable with the
original design—one with more air, more light, more warmth. Where could
the man be found who, gifted with wisdom from God like Solomon, should
raise a temple to Him which should manifest his glory? He was sought for
everywhere, perseveringly yet ineffectually. And yet the man whom God
had elected was soon to appear.
[739] The author is unknown, but the poem was in Bonivard's
possession.—See the Mémoires d'Archéologie, iv. p. 271.
[740] Chron. MS. de Roset, liv. iii. ch. 63 to 67.—Registres du Conseil.
[741] 'Vergebene Arbeit, unnütze Zeitverschwendung, elendes
Kinderspiel.'—Rothe, professor at Heidelberg, _Theologische Ethik_, iii.
p. 1017.—Rothe, who has not long been dead, is considered an eminent
theologian in Germany.
[742] Registres du Conseil des 10, 13, 24 et 31 Mars 1536.—MS. de Roset,
liv. iii. ch. 63.
[743] Registres du Conseil du 3 Avril 1536.
[744] Registres du Conseil du 3 Avril 1536.—MS. de Roset, liv. iii.
ch. 63.
[745] Registres du Conseil du 6 Avril 1536.
[746] Mémoire du 16 Janvier 1537.
[747] Registres du Conseil du 19 Mai.
[748] Guizot.
[749] Registres du Conseil des 24 Juillet, 15 Août, 17 Septembre
1536.—Dernier Discours et Œuvres de Calvin.
[750] Registres du Conseil du 21 Mai 1536.—MS. de Roset, liv. iii.
ch. 68.
[751] Froment, _Gestes de Genève_, pp. 166-168, 224.
[752]
The tyranny of the Roman Antichrist
Having been overthrown,
And its superstitions abolished
In the year 1535,
The most holy religion of Christ
Having been restored,
In its truth and purity,
And the Church set in good order,
By a signal favor of God;
The enemy having been repelled
And put to flight,
And the city by a striking miracle
Restored to liberty;
The senate and people of Geneva have erected
And set up this monument,
In this place,
As a perpetual memorial,
To attest to future ages
Their gratitude to God.
MS. de Roset, liv. iii. ch. 62.
[753] Registres du Conseil des 11 Avril; 2, 20, 21 Juin 1536; 29 Janvier
1537.—MS. de Roset, liv. iii. ch. 68.
[754] Mémoires de la Société d'Archéologie de Genève, vol. x. p. lxvii.
[755] Mémoires de la Société d'Archéologie de Genève, vol. x.
p. lxvii.—Registres du 4 Septembre 1536.—_La Réforme à Genève_, by the
Abbé Magnin, p. 233.
[756] Froment, _Gestes merveilleux de Genève_, p. 239.—Bonivard,
_Mémoires d'Archéologie_, iv. pp. 285-289.
[757] Farel's _Letters_.
[758] _Ibid._
[759] 'Jubeor evocare undique ministros. Sed unde? Plane ignoro.'—
Farel's _Letters_.
[760] 'Dyonisius totus monachus.'—_Ibid._
[761] 'Rasis sedulo curabis.'—_Ibid._
[762] 'Fleureteurs' (ceux qui effleurent).—Froment, _Gestes merveilleux
de Genève_, p. 237.