THE COUNTER-REFORMATION AND CALVINISM
The Counter-Reformation in Spain and Italy--The Theatines--The
Jesuits--Last Session of Council of Trent--The Inquisition--John
Calvin and Geneva--Characteristics of Calvinism.
§ 1. _The Counter-Reformation._
| Spain, the home of the Counter-Reformation.
With the abdication and the death of Charles V., the history of
Europe loses that unity which it received from the comprehensiveness
of his policy, and from his striking personality. None the less,
a central point of interest is afforded us by the movement of
the Counter-Reformation, which affects all Europe and focuses
the political movements for the next thirty years, or more. The
Counter-Reformation found its impulse in that profound sense
of dissatisfaction with the condition of the Church to which
Protestantism itself owed its origin. Like the two orders of the
Dominicans and Franciscans of the thirteenth century, this movement
took its rise in Spain and in Italy. In the days of Alexander VI.,
when the Papacy was immersed in secular interests, and was rapidly
forfeiting the respect of Europe, a thorough reform of the Church
in Spain had been inaugurated by Ferdinand and Isabella and carried
through by the energy and devotion of Cardinal Ximenes. Under these
influences a school of theologians had been formed, who revived the
doctrine of the great Dominican of the thirteenth century, Thomas
Aquinas, and united learning with a life of purity and zeal. The
movement had at first met with little support from the Papacy. The
kings of Spain were determined to maintain their independence in
matters ecclesiastical, and had acted independently and often even
against the papal will. Yet the spirit of reform soon spread to
Italy. Adrian VI. had, while Regent in Spain, been influenced by the
movement, and, as Pope (1522-1523), had vainly attempted to extend
the reform to the Church at large. Under the leadership of Caraffa
(1555-1559), who had before he became Pope spent some years in Spain,
and still more of Loyola, Lainez, and Xavier, the Spanish founders of
the Jesuits, the Counter-Reformation was to become the great support
of papal authority.
| It spreads to Italy.
Italy had never been much attracted by the speculative difficulties of
Luther. No doubt The Oratory of Divine Love, a small band of literary
men, with Contarini at their head, had embraced the Doctrine of the
Justification by Faith, but their party had been a small one, and
did not represent any important section of opinion in Italy. Those
of her children who approached the question of theology at all went
further and deeper; they questioned the truth of Christianity, or
discussed the immortality of the soul. Meanwhile, the majority of
the more earnest-minded, satisfied with the tenets of the Church and
influenced by the spirit of reform which had spread from Spain, aimed,
like Savonarola, at bringing doctrine to bear on life and conduct.
| The Theatines.
With this object many societies were formed in Italy at the beginning
of the sixteenth century, of which the Theatines are the most
interesting. The members of this fraternity, of which Caraffa, the
future Pope Paul IV., was one of the founders (1524), were not monks
but secular clergy. They devoted themselves to preaching, to the
administration of the sacraments, and to the care of the sick; and
took no other vow but that of poverty. Even from the Franciscans, the
most corrupt of the older orders, the reformed order of the Capuchins
arose.
| The Jesuits.
The society, however, which was to play by far the greatest part
in the coming movement, and in future history, was to be founded
by a Spaniard. Ignatius Loyola (Don Inigo Lopes Ricalde y Loyola),
cadet of a house of high nobility, who was born in 1491, had in
early days devoted himself to the profession of arms, with all the
fervour of a chivalrous spirit. A serious wound received at the
siege of Pampeluna (1521) crippled him for life, and Loyola, denied
all hopes of a military career, turned, with the enthusiasm of his
romantic and high-strung nature, to the service of the Virgin and
the infant Christ, after experiencing much the same moral crisis
as Luther had undergone. Returning to Spain after a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem (1523), his first attempt at preaching brought him under
suspicion of heresy, and he was ordered to undertake a course of
theology before he resumed his teaching. In 1528, he came to Paris to
pursue his studies. Here he made the acquaintance of three men whom
he profoundly influenced--Peter Faber, son of a Savoyard shepherd,
Francesco Xavier, and Iago Lainez, both countrymen of his own. In
August, 1534, the four friends, of whom Faber at first was the only
one in orders, formed a society. They took the vow of chastity, and
bound themselves, after the conclusion of their studies, to pass
their lives in poverty at Jerusalem, devoted to the care of the
Christians or to the conversion of the infidel; or, if that were
impossible, to offer their labour in any place whither the Pope might
send them. Three years after (1537), the society, now increased to
ten, set out on their pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and were ordained
to that end. The war between Venice and the Turk, however, prevented
their departure; and Loyola and his brethren becoming acquainted with
Caraffa and the Theatines, changed their purpose, and determined to
devote their energies to Christendom. Even then their difficulties
were not over. They were charged with heresy, and, though acquitted,
it was not till 1540 that they obtained with difficulty a confirmation
of their ‘company of Jesus’ from Pope Paul III., and that Ignatius
was elected as the first General. The society was organised in
six classes: the novices, the scholastics, the lay coadjutors who
administered the revenues of the colleges so that the rest of the
society should be free from such cares, the spiritual coadjutors,
and the professed of the three, and of the four vows. Of these, the
spiritual coadjutors were the ordinary active members of the society,
and from their number the rectors of the colleges were chosen. The
professed of three vows were formed of men who, for exceptional
reasons, were admitted into the order without having passed through
the inferior grades, and held a position similar to that of the
spiritual coadjutors. The professed of four vows alone enjoyed all
the privileges of the order. They alone elected the General; from
their number the provincials over each province into which Christendom
was divided were chosen by the General; and they alone, beyond the
three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, took a fourth of
especial obedience to the Pope, although his authority was limited
by the power, exclusively reserved to the General, of sending out,
or recalling, missionaries. To reach this highest grade a man must,
unless he had been admitted to the number of the professed of three
vows, pass through all the others except that of the lay coadjutors--a
probation of thirty-one years--and was not ordained till he became
a spiritual coadjutor. The supreme official of the order was the
General, elected from the professed of four vows by the provincial and
two members from each province. The rules of this remarkable society
were so framed as to reconcile the principle of absolute obedience
with the utmost freedom of action. In imitation of the Theatines,
whose views, however, the Jesuits carried much further, they rejected
the monastic habit, and were relieved from the more onerous and
ascetic practices of religion; they were forbidden to weaken their
bodies with fasts and vigils, and were exempted from the routine of
devotional exercise and daily service. Nor did the professed confine
themselves to any special duties. But if in this way they enjoyed a
freedom denied to the members of other religious orders, that freedom
was controlled by the absolute authority of the society itself. They
were not permitted to hold any ecclesiastical dignity without special
leave of the General; they were to hold no property of their own; they
had to cut themselves off from kith and kin, and to obey implicitly
the orders of the superiors, the provincials, and the General, even
against their reason and their conscience. ‘It is your duty to obey
the call of your superior at once, even if in so doing you have to
leave a letter of the alphabet unfinished.’ ‘If,’ said Ignatius, ‘my
conscience forbids me obey, I should at least submit my judgment to
one or more superiors. Otherwise I am far from perfection.’ Even their
most secret thoughts were not their own. None could write or read a
letter except under the eye of a superior, and it was the duty of
their confessor and of each member to reveal to the General anything
he might wish to know of their acts or thoughts. The General himself,
although absolute within the rules of the society, and with right of
nominating and recalling the provincials and the superiors, could not
alter the constitution of the society without consulting a General
Council. He was under the constant supervision of assistants elected
for that purpose, and of a monitor, and could be deposed by a general
congregation of the professed. Thus all individuality was merged in
the company, and obedience usurped the place of reason, affection,
and impulse. Bound by this iron chain of obedience, which was riveted
by a system of espionage, this marvellous society went forth to guide
and rule mankind. The young they influenced by education, the old by
preaching and by the confessional. Believing that he who gains the
young possesses the future, they founded schools and colleges where
the education, like their other work, was gratuitous; they crept
into the universities and sat in the professors’ chairs. To make the
confessional an efficient instrument for guiding the consciences of
men, they soon developed a system of casuistry, in which the sins of
men were nicely weighed and the principles of moral conduct sapped
by the suggestion, at least, that the end justified the means. The
Jesuits, however, did not confine themselves to educational or
spiritual functions. Not only did they become the confessors of Kings,
they mixed themselves up in society and politics; they were found
in every court of Europe supporting the orthodox, and conspiring to
overthrow those who pleased them not. The growth of the company was as
marvellous as its principles. When Loyola died in 1556, sixteen years
after its foundation, the society numbered two thousand ordinary and
forty-five professed members; there were twelve provinces, and more
than one hundred colleges and houses. Under Lainez, who succeeded
Loyola as General, the organisation was completed, and its growth was
still more rapid, especially in Italy and Spain. Soon not only Europe,
but India and America, received their missionaries. The society, as
one might expect, was met by much hostility at first, on the part
more especially of the older monastic orders and the friars; in later
times, owing to the independent attitude it assumed, it was often
at serious variance with the Papacy. Yet for the time at least the
Papacy had gained an army of devoted soldiers. It now remained for the
Church to define its articles of war, and to provide more efficient
weapons. The Council of Trent was to do the first; the Inquisition to
furnish the last.
| Third session of Council of Trent. Jan. 1562 to Dec. 1563.
The second session of the Council of Trent had been dispersed in
1552, in the confusion caused by the advance of Maurice of Saxony
on Innsbruck (p. 242). In January, 1562, Pius IV. opened its third
and last session. There was no longer any question of the admission
of representatives of the Protestants; yet its work, if limited
to Catholic nations, was neither unimportant nor easy. It had to
determine the relation between the Pope and the Church; to settle the
articles of faith which still remained in dispute, and to undertake
those internal reforms the necessity of which all admitted. As might
have been anticipated, these questions led to grave dispute. The
Emperor Ferdinand, and the French king Charles IX. desired such a
reform of the Church as might possibly lead to a reconciliation, or at
least to a compromise with the Protestants. They demanded, therefore,
that the marriage of the clergy should be allowed; that communion
in both kinds should be granted to the laity; that the services of
their Churches should be in the vernacular. The French, led by the
Cardinal of Lorraine, went further, and raised the claim advanced
at the Councils of Constance (1414-1418), and of Basle (1431-1443),
of the superiority of a General Council over a Pope. The Spaniards,
while they opposed many of the demands of the Germans and of the
French, and were anxious to prevent any change in doctrine, objected
to the extreme pretensions of the Papacy, and wished that the bishops
should be recognised as holding their spiritual authority by divine
institution and not as the mere delegates of the Pope. The papal
party, on the contrary, were eager to affirm the supremacy of the
Pope, and then dismiss the Council as soon as might be. Had their
opponents been united, and had the German and French representatives
been more numerous, something might have been done, for all were
determined to assert the independence of the Council from papal
control; they also wished to limit the authority of the Pope and to
reform many of the abuses, more especially the financial extortions,
of the Roman Curia. Unfortunately, their divisions gave the Pope
an opportunity which he eagerly seized, and which was turned to
good account by Cardinal Morone, who was appointed president in
1563. Quarrels for precedence between the representatives of France
and Spain were studiously fostered. Separate negotiations were opened
with Ferdinand and Charles; they were warned of the danger which
might arise from too powerful an episcopate, and reminded that these
continued quarrels among the Catholics would only favour heresy; they
were urged to look to the Pope rather than to the Council for the
reforms they needed. Since the Council had declared that the question
of granting the Cup to the laity was to be left to the decision of the
Pope, Ferdinand was promised that it should be conceded as soon as the
Council closed; the election of Maximilian, his son, as King of the
Romans, should also be confirmed. The Cardinal of Lorraine, the chief
representative of the French Church at the Council, was promised the
legation in France, and even the reversion of the pontifical throne;
and in accordance with the policy of his family, the Guises, he joined
the papal party, and influenced the attitude of the French court. To
conciliate further the sovereigns of Europe, some articles which had
been passed, and which touched unduly on the temporal power, were
rescinded. The opposition of France and of the Emperor having been
thus in part removed, the triumph of the papal policy was secured. The
Italians, who outnumbered the rest, were almost unanimously on the
papal side, which was also supported by the powerful advocacy of
the Jesuit Lainez, and of Carlo Borromeo, the saintly Archbishop of
Milan. Aided by the Spanish representatives, who were in agreement
with them so far, the Italians succeeded in defining some of the
more important doctrines in accordance with their own views, and in
resisting all except some minor internal reforms.
| The Council closed. Its results.
Having now gained all that could be hoped for, the Pope was eager to
close the Council. To this the Spaniards alone objected. Philip was
anxious that it should continue its sessions until every disputed
doctrine had been settled, and a thorough reform of the Church
and the papal Curia had been effected. Here again the papal party
triumphed. A report of the serious illness of the Pope finally
overcame the opposition of Philip; for a vacancy while the Council
was still sitting would lead to serious difficulties. Accordingly, on
December 3, 1563, the Council was finally closed. Although some points
of doctrine were left undecided, those with respect to indulgences,
purgatory, the sacraments, and the invocation of saints, were
reaffirmed with new precision. Controverted questions were replaced by
dogmas, doubtful traditions by definite doctrines, and an uniformity
established in matters of faith hitherto unknown. If, in the matter
of reform, a stricter discipline was enforced upon the inferior
clergy, and the abuse of pluralities was checked, nothing was done to
touch the prerogatives of the Pope, or of the cardinals. The Council
of Trent may be said therefore to have defined the articles of the
Counter-Reformation. The Catholic Church of the West was henceforth to
be divided, and the Church of Rome may be said to have begun.
The decisions of the Council of Trent were accepted without reserve
by the chief states of Italy, by Portugal, and by Poland. In Germany
they were ratified by the Catholic princes at the Diet of Augsburg,
1566. Philip also confirmed them, ‘saving the prerogatives of the
crown.’ In France a distinction was made; the decrees which referred
to dogma were acknowledged, and, indeed, subsequently declared to need
no confirmation by the temporal power; those, however, which referred
to discipline, and which interfered with the Gallican Church, were
opposed by the ‘Parlements,’ and by some of the lower clergy. Although
gradually accepted in practice, and even acknowledged by the clergy at
the States-General of 1615, they were never formally ratified by the
crown.
| The Inquisition.
To enforce the principles of this newly organised Church an instrument
already existed. On July 21, 1542, Pope Paul III. had, on the advice
of Cardinal Caraffa, authorised by Bull the erection of a ‘Supreme
Tribunal of the Inquisition.’ Its organisation was based on the court
instituted in Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1483. Six cardinals
were appointed universal Inquisitors on either side the Alps, with
powers of delegating their authority to other ecclesiastics. All
from highest to lowest were declared subject to their jurisdiction;
no book could be printed without their leave; they could punish
with imprisonment, confiscation of goods, and death; and from
their judgment there was no appeal save to the Pope. How far these
tremendous powers could be exercised in the various countries of
Europe depended, no doubt, on the attitude of the temporal sovereigns,
but in Italy there was little difficulty. The Spanish Inquisition
willingly co-operated, and the tenets of the Council were enforced
with merciless rigour.
| The Popes of the Counter-Reformation.
The influence of the Counter-Reformation is seen in the revival of
apostolic piety and missionary zeal by such men as Carlo Borromeo,
nephew of Pius IV., Archbishop of Milan (1538-1584), and also in
the altered character of the Popes. Of these Paul IV. (1555-1559),
Pius V. (1566-1572), Sixtus V. (1585-1590), are true representatives
of the time; while the others, Pius IV. (1559-1565) and Gregory
XIII. (1572-1585), although not men of remarkable zeal, could not
resist the tendency of the age. The policy of all these Popes was much
the same. They abandoned the pernicious system of nepotism--Pius V.
finally forbidding all alienation of Church property; they reformed
the Court of Rome; they enforced better discipline in the Church, and
improved its services; they kept the cardinals in order, insisted
on bishops residing in their dioceses, and, for the rest, gave to
the Papal States an organised system of government and finance
in which they had been hitherto wanting. Abandoning the idea of
aggrandising themselves in Italy, they no longer struggled against
the Spanish rule. Although they had their difficulties with the
temporal sovereigns of Europe, they none the less supported the cause
of authority and orthodoxy. They allied themselves with the orthodox
Kings and Princes, whose younger sons they invested with episcopal
sees, and granted them taxes from ecclesiastical revenues. Thus the
Church of Rome had defined its faith, reformed some of its most
flagrant abuses, organised within itself a force of devoted servants,
and armed itself with the terrors of the Inquisition. Strengthened in
this way, and by the revived associations and enthusiasms of the past,
the Church, allied with the monarchs of Europe, went forth to stay the
advance of heresy, and to win back, if possible, the ground she had
lost by her _lâches_.
Of the Counter-Reformation, the two great exponents in the field of
temporal politics are Philip of Spain, and the family of the Guises in
France. It was ever the aim of Philip to carry out his father’s
schemes with such modifications as the altered circumstances demanded.
The loss of the Empire and of Germany forced him to lean more
exclusively on Spain; the triumph of the Protestants in Germany and
England destroyed all hopes of bringing them again within the fold,
except by force, and this was not at first possible. But Philip never
relinquished the hope of re-establishing the authority of the Catholic
Church, backed up by a strong and wide-embracing monarchy under his
own control. The political ambition of the Guises, and their attempt
to place Mary Queen of Scots upon the throne of England excited the
apprehensions of Philip, who hoped to secure that country for himself,
and at first prevented his cordial co-operation with their attempt to
master France. But in time these apprehensions were removed, and
finally these two representatives of the Catholic reaction formed the
‘League,’ and united to enforce their rule on Europe. It is this which
forms the connecting link between the revolt of the Netherlands and
the civil wars in France, and gives a unity to the history until the
end of our period.
§ 2. _Calvin and Geneva._
While the Church of Rome was thus marshalling her forces, that form
of Protestantism which was henceforth to be her most deadly foe was
receiving its organisation at the hands of John Calvin.
| Causes of failure of Lutheranism.
It is a remarkable fact that Lutheranism has never made any permanent
conquests outside Germany and the Scandinavian kingdoms, and that even
in Germany the numbers of its adherents decreased after the middle of
the sixteenth century. For this, three reasons may be suggested:--
(1) Many of the doctrines of Luther, notably those on Justification,
and on the Eucharist, were compromises of too subtle a nature to
appeal to ordinary minds, even among the Germans themselves, and led
to arid controversies and ignoble divisions.
(2) Moreover, by force of circumstances arising out of the political
conditions of Germany, the movement had allied itself with the
interests of the Princes, and with authority too closely to appeal
to democratic impulses. The failure of Lutheranism to command the
adhesion of the lower classes was illustrated even in Germany
itself by the revolt of the peasants, the rise of the Anabaptists,
and by the temporary success of the reform of Zwingle. From their
extravagances Luther had drawn back with horror, and, becoming daily
more conservative, had to a great extent lost the support of the more
enthusiastic and thorough-going.
(3) Lastly, Luther had serious scruples on the question of employing
force, and although he had finally sanctioned the appeal to arms, the
war was to be a defensive one, waged by those in authority, and not
in alliance with rebels. Luther had no idea of leading a religious
and political crusade, or of promoting missionary enterprise outside
Germany. For this the world had to look elsewhere.
The French have always been the most successful interpreters of new
ideas to Europe. Their logical acuteness, their mastery of method,
their gifts of organisation, as well as their language, with its
matchless clearness and elasticity, have well fitted them for this
office; and these gifts were now to be illustrated in a pre-eminent
degree by their great countryman John Calvin.
| John Calvin.
| Condition of Geneva.
This son of the notary in the episcopal court of Noyon in Picardy, was
born in the year 1509. At the age of twelve he had been appointed to
a chaplaincy in the cathedral, and received the tonsure. But, though
he subsequently became a curé, he never proceeded any further in
clerical orders; for his father, thinking that the legal profession
offered more promise, sent him to Orleans, and then to Bourges
to study law, 1529-1531. It was during these years that Calvin
fell under the influence of Lutheran teachers, notably of Jacques
Lefèvre, a man of Picardy like himself, and one of the fathers of
French Protestantism. In the year 1534, Calvin was driven from his
country by the persecutions instituted by Francis I., and retired to
Basle. Here at the age of twenty-five he published the first edition
of his great work, _The Institutes_, a manual of Christian religion,
which, although subsequently enlarged, contains a complete outline
of his theological system, and which probably has exercised a more
profound influence than any other book written by so young a man. In
the year 1536, as he passed through Geneva, he was induced by the
solemn adjurations of William Farel of Dauphiné, a French exile
himself, to abandon the studies he so dearly loved, and devote himself
to missionary effort. The imperial city of Geneva was of importance
because it commanded the valley of the Rhone, and the commercial
routes which united there; it enjoyed municipal self-government,
but was under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of its bishop and was
threatened by the Duke of Savoy, who held the surrounding country
and possessed certain judicial powers within the town itself. To
emancipate themselves more completely from this double yoke of
ecclesiastical and temporal authority was the constant aim of the
patriots of Geneva, and with that view they had made an alliance
with the canton of Freibourg in 1519, and that of Bern in 1526. An
intermittent struggle had ensued, which was embittered by the adoption
of the Lutheran Doctrine by the city in 1535, at the instigation of
Farel. In 1536, war had broken out between the Duke and the canton of
Bern, when the Swiss succeeded in conquering the whole of the country
of Vaud, and thus relieved Geneva of all immediate danger from the
Duke.
| Calvin at Geneva, 1536-1538, 1541-1564.
Calvin, induced to stay in Geneva at this moment, commenced forthwith
to found a Christian church after the model of the _Institutes_; but
the severity of his system led to a reaction, and caused his exile,
and that of Farel, in 1538. Three years afterwards (September 1541),
the city, torn by internal discord, and afraid of being conquered
either by the Duke, who was supported by the Catholics within the
walls, or by Bern, which courted the Protestants, recalled the
Reformer, and accepted his system of church-government. Leaving the
municipal government of the city intact, he set up by its side an
ecclesiastical consistory, consisting of the pastors, and twelve
elders elected from the two councils of the town on the nomination
of the clergy. The jurisdiction of this consistory was nominally
confined to morals, and the regulation of Church matters. It could
only punish by penance, and by exclusion from the Sacrament, but as
it was the duty of the secular authority to enforce its decisions,
every sin became a crime, punished with the utmost severity. All
were forced by law to attend public worship, and partake of the
Lord’s Supper. To wear clothes of a forbidden stuff, to dance at a
wedding, to laugh at Calvin’s sermons, became an offence punishable
at law. Banishment, imprisonment, sometimes death, were the penalties
inflicted on unchastity, and a child was beheaded for having struck
his parents. When offences such as these were so severely visited, we
cannot wonder that heresy did not escape. In 1547, Gruet was executed,
and in 1553, Servetus was burnt. This remorseless tyranny, which
reminds one forcibly of the rule of Savonarola, was not established
without opposition. A party termed the Libertines was formed, who
endeavoured to relax the severity of the discipline, and to vindicate
the independence of the secular authority. Nevertheless Calvin, aided
by the French exiles who crowded into Geneva and obtained the freedom
of the city and a share in the government, successfully maintained his
supremacy until his death in 1564, when he was succeeded by his pupil,
Théodore Beza.
Geneva had been relieved from fear of attack from the Duke of Savoy
by the French conquest of his country in 1543, and although, in the
October of the year in which Calvin died, the Duke obtained from
Bern a restoration of all the country south of the Lake of Geneva
which it had seized in 1536, he did not make any attempt on the city
itself. Geneva continued to be an independent republic, forming from
time to time alliances with some of the Swiss cantons, till 1815, when
she finally became a member of the Swiss Confederation.
| Characteristics of Calvinism.
The predominant characteristic of the teaching of Calvin lies
in its eclecticism. In his doctrinal views: in his tenets as to
Predestination, the Eucharist, and the unquestioned authority of
Scripture to the exclusion of tradition, he approached the views of
Zwingle rather than those of Luther. But if in so doing he represents
the most uncompromising and pronounced antagonism to the teaching
of Rome, yet in his conviction that outside the Church there is no
salvation, and in the overwhelming authority he ascribes to her, he
reasserts the most extravagant tenets of Catholicism, and revives the
spirit of Hebraism. That the religion he established, if not exactly
ascetic, was gloomy beyond measure; that it has inspired no art
except, perhaps, certain forms of literature; that his principles of
church-government, though founded on a democratic basis, in practice
destroyed all individual liberty; that, so far from advancing the
spirit of toleration, they necessarily involved persecution--all this
must be admitted. His strong predestinarian views, if logically acted
up to, ought to have led to a fatalistic spirit most dangerous to
morals, and paralysed action, as perhaps they have in a few cases. But
few sane men have ever believed themselves to be eternally reprobate,
or acted as if they disbelieved in free-will. The practical results
of Calvinism have therefore been to produce a type of men like the
founder himself, John Knox, and Théodore Beza, men of remarkable
strength of will, extraordinary devotion, and indomitable energy, and
to furnish a creed for the most uncompromising opponents of Rome.
Henceforth Geneva was to become the citadel of the Reformers; the
refuge of those who had to fly from other lands; the home of the
printing-press whence innumerable pamphlets were despatched; the
school whence missionaries went forth to preach; the representative
of the most militant form of Protestantism on a republican basis; the
natural and inevitable enemy of the Counter-Reformation which was the
ally of the Jesuits, and of the monarchical forces of Catholic Europe,
headed by Spain.