CHAPTER XXXVI.

FRANCIS PROPOSES A REFORMATION TO THE SORBONNE.

(AUTUMN 1534.)

[Sidenote: FRANCIS CONFESSES HIS ERRORS.]

The disgust inspired by the imposture of the cordeliers of Orleans, and

the jests lavished upon the monks in the Louvre and throughout Paris,

were further encouragements to the king to prosecute his alliances with

protestantism. He had, however, little need of a fresh incentive; the

reform proposed by Melanchthon was in his view acceptable and

advantageous, because it diminished the power of the pope, and corrected

abuses incompatible with the new light, at the same time that it left

untouched that catholicism from which the king had no desire to secede.

In his private conversations with Du Bellay, Francis, laying aside all

reserve, acknowledged frankly that the Romish Church was upon the wrong

track, and said in a confidential tone, that 'Luther was not so far

wrong as people said.' He did not fear to add that it was himself rather

who had been mistaken. The King of France, and the country along with

him, thus appeared to be in a good way for reform.

Francis determined to acquaint the protestant princes with his

sentiments on Melanchthon's memoir. 'My envoy, on his return to Paris,'

he wrote, 'having laid before me the opinions of your doctors on the

course to be pursued, I entertain a hope of seeing the affairs of

religion enter upon a fair way at last.'[655] Du Bellay, well satisfied

on his part with the impression made on his master by the opinions of

the evangelical divines, informed the magistrates of Augsburg, Ulm,

Nuremberg, Meiningen, and other imperial cities, that the King of France

approved of the Lutheran doctrines, and would protect the protestants.

The Melanchthonian reformation was therefore in progress, and already

men were preparing the stones for the edifice of the reformed Catholic

Church. The French government did not confine itself to writing letters;

but, strange to say! the sovereign, the absolute monarch, did not fear

to make an acknowledgment of his errors, and to express his regret: he

sent a thorough palinode into Germany. He who was putting the Lutherans

to death was not far from declaring himself a Lutheran. In October and

November 1534, an agent from Francis I. visited the cities of the

Germanic empire, announcing everywhere that 'the king now saw his

mistake in religious matters,'[656] and that the Germans who followed

Luther _thought correctly as regards the faith that is in Christ_.[657]

The worthy burgomasters and councillors of Germany were amazed at such

language, and looked at one another with an incredulous air; but the

French envoy assured them repeatedly that the King of France desired a

reform even in his own country.... 'The emperor,' he added, 'wishes to

constrain the protestants by force of arms to keep to the old doctrine;

but the King of France will not permit it. He has sent me into Germany

to form an alliance with you to that intent.' Such was the strange news

circulated beyond the Rhine. It reached the ears of the Archbishop of

Lunden, who immediately forwarded it to Charles V.

When Francis I. annulled the pragmatic sanction at the beginning of his

reign, he had reserved the right of appointing bishops, and had thus

made the Church subordinate to the State. The time seemed to have

arrived for taking a second step. It was necessary to put an end to the

popish superstitions and abuses, condemned by the friends of letters,

whose patron he claimed to be, and thus satisfy the protestants; and, by

a wise reform, maintain in Europe the catholicity of the Church, which

the popes were about to destroy by their incredible obstinacy. The king

would thus appear to be a better guardian of European catholicism than

even the pope, and secure for himself that European preponderance which

Charles V. had hitherto possessed.

[Sidenote: FRENCH VERSION OF THE ARTICLES.]

He must set his hand to the work and begin with the clergy. The king,

seeing that it would be unwise to communicate to them unreservedly the

opinions of the reformers, as they had been read at the Louvre, resolved

to have a new edition of them prepared, which should contain the

essential ideas. It would appear that he confided this task to a

numerous commission.[658] William du Bellay and his brother the Bishop

of Paris were doubtless the two chief members. The commissioners set to

work, correcting, suppressing, adding, hitting certain popular

superstitions a little harder even than the reformers, and at length

they prepared a memoir which may be considered as a statement of what

the French government meant by the proposed reformation.[659] The

changes made by the French excited much discontent among the German

protestants, and Melanchthon himself complained of them bitterly.[660]

The king, who carried into every pursuit the courage and fire of which

he had given so many proofs on the field of battle, appeared at first to

attack the papacy with the same resolution that he would have employed

in attacking one of Charles's armies. It must be clearly remembered

that, in his idea, the reform which he was preparing carried with it the

cessation of schism, and that his plan would restore the catholicity

torn to pieces by Roman insolence and imprudence. This remark, if duly

weighed, justifies the king's boldness. He sent the project to Rome, we

are assured, asking the pope to support or to amend it.[661] We may

imagine the alarm of the Vatican on reading this heretical memoir. Then

Du Bellay, taking the Sorbonne in hand, had a conference with the

deputies of that illustrious body, whose whole influence was ever

employed in maintaining the factitious unity that characterises the

papacy. 'Gentlemen,' he said to them, 'by the king's commands I have

endeavoured to prevail upon the German churches to moderate the

doctrines on which they separated from the Roman Church, wishing thus to

lead them back to union. By order, therefore, of my master, I hand you

the present articles, to receive instruction from you as to what I shall

have to say to the German doctors.'[662] The deputies having received

the paper from Du Bellay, forwarded it to the sacred faculty. The latter

delegated to examine it 'eminent men, doctors of experience in such

matters,'[663] who immediately set to work.

[Sidenote: TERROR OF THE SORBONNE.]

The secretary of the Sorbonne began to read the articles: the doctors

listened and soon began to look at each other and ask if they had heard

correctly. The venerable committee was agitated like the surface of the

sea by a sudden squall. They knew Francis; they knew he did not think

there existed in his kingdom any society daring enough to set limits to

his power. He expected that a word from his mouth would be considered as

a decree from God. The doctors came to the conclusion, therefore, that

if the king desired such a reform, nothing in the world could prevent

him from establishing it. They saw the Church laid waste, and Rome in

ruins.... It was the beginning of the end. Their terror and alarm

increased every minute. All the sacred faculty, all the Church must rise

and exclaim: 'Stop, Sire, or we perish!'

The French autocrat, however, took his precautions, and even while

meditating how he could strip the pope of his power, he put on a

pleasant face, and ascribed to others the blows aimed by his orders

against Rome. 'They are _Melanchthonian_ articles,' said his

ministers.[664] True, but behind Melanchthon was Du Bellay, and behind

him was the king. The tactics employed at this moment by Francis I. are

of all times; and if the multitude is sometimes deceived, intelligent

minds have always recognised the thoughts of the supreme mover under the

pen of the humble secretary. The movement of Francis towards

independence is in no respect surprising: the outburst is quite French

if it is not christian. There has always existed in France a spirit of

liberty so far as concerns the Church; and the most pious kings, even

St. Louis, have defended the rights of their people against the holy

see. The Gallican liberties, although they are nothing more than a

dilapidated machine, are still a memorial of something; and what is

dilapidated to-day may be restored to-morrow. It was therefore a truly

French feeling,—it was that hidden chord which vibrates at the bottom of

every generous heart, from the Channel to the Mediterranean Sea, whose

harmonious sound was heard at this important period of the reign of

Francis I.

The venerable company had some difficulty to recover from their alarm.

What! really, not in a dream, not figuratively, heresy is at the gates

of the Church of France, introduced by the king ... who courteously

offers her his hand!... The terrified Sorbonne raised a cry of horror,

and mustered all their forces to prevent the _heretic_ from entering.

They turned over the volumes of the doctors; they opposed the _Summa_ of

St. Thomas to the Epistles of St. Paul; they sought by every means in

their power to defend stoutly the scholastic doctrine in the presence of

Francis. A fireship had been launched by the guilty hand of the king:

did that prince imagine he would see the glorious vessel, which had so

long been mistress of the seas, in a hurry to lower her flag? The crew

were valiant, determined upon a deadly resistance, and ready to blow

themselves into the air with the ship, rather than capitulate. The

struggle between the king and the corporation was about to begin. Alas!

Beda was no longer there to support them, and recourse must be had to

others. 'Master Balue was elected to go to court, carrying the

registers, and Master Jacques Petit was given him as his

associate.'[665] The Sorbonne was poor in resources: the strong men were

in the camp of Luther, Calvin, and Melanchthon.

[Sidenote: THE MINISTERS AND THE SORBONNE.]

What was said at court between Master Balue, Master Petit, and the King

of France, has not been recorded; but we have the memoir sent by the

king to the Sorbonne, and the answer returned by that body to the king.

These documents may enlighten us as to what passed at the conference,

and we shall allow them to speak for themselves, arranging the former

under the name of the king's ministers. William du Bellay, his brother

the Bishop of Paris, and others probably were the persons empowered by

the king to confer with Master Balue and Master Jacques Petit. They were

champions of very different causes—the men who then met, probably at the

Louvre, in the presence of Francis I., and whom we are about to hear.

THE KING'S MINISTERS.

'To establish a real concord in the Church of God, we must all of us

first look at Christ; we must subject ourselves to him, and seek his

glory, not our own.'[666]

SORBONNE.

'We have heard his Majesty's good and holy words, for which we all thank

God, praying him to give the king grace to persevere.'[667]

This was doubtless a mere compliment.

[Sidenote: QUESTIONS DISCUSSED.]

MINISTERS.

'Above all things, let us remember that the doctors of the Word of God

ought not to fight like gladiators, and defend all their opinions

_mordicus_ (tooth and nail);[668] but rather, imitating St. Augustin in

his _Retractations_, they should be willing to give way a little to one

another ... without prejudice to truth.'

SORBONNE.

'Open your eyes, Sire; the Germans desire, in opposition to your

catholic intention, that we should give way to them by retrenching

certain ceremonies and ordinances which the Church has hitherto

observed. They wish to draw us to them, rather than be converted to

us.'[669]

MINISTERS.

'You are mistaken: important concessions have been obtained. The Germans

are of opinion that bishops must hold the chief place among the

ministers of the Churches, and that a pontiff at Rome should hold the

first place among the bishops. But, on the other hand, the pontifical

power must have respect for consciences, consult their wants, and be

ready to concede to them some relaxation.'[670]

SORBONNE.

'It must not be forgotten that the ecclesiastical hierarchy is of divine

institution, and will last until the end of time; that man can neither

establish nor destroy it, and that every christian must submit to

it.'[671]

MINISTERS.

'Having established the catholicity of the Church, let us consider what

reforms must be effected in order to preserve it. First, there are

indifferent matters, such as food, festivals, ecclesiastical vestments,

and other ceremonials, on which we shall easily come to an

understanding. Let us beware of constraining men to fast by commandments

which nobody observes ... and _least of all those who make them_.'[672]

SORBONNE.

'None resist them but men corrupted by depraved passions.'[673]

[Sidenote: SAINTS AND MASS-MONGERS.]

MINISTERS.

'Certain doctors of the Church, making use of a holy prosopopœia, have

introduced into their discourses the saints whom they were eulogising,

and have prayed for their intercession as if they were present before

them;[674] but they only desired by this means to excite admiration for

these godly persons, rather than to obtain anything by their

intercession.... Let the people, then, be exhorted not to transfer to

the saints the confidence which is due to Jesus Christ alone. It is

Christ's will to be invoked and to answer prayer.'[675]

Here the French mind indulged in a sly hit which would not have occurred

to the German mind; and the king's councillors, determining to strike

hard, continued:

'What abuses and disorders have sprung out of this worship of man!

Observe the words, the songs, the actions of the people on the saints'

days, near their graves or near their images! Mark the eagerness with

which the idle crowd hurries off to banquets, games, dances, and

quarrels. Watch the practices of all those paltry, ignorant, greedy

priests, who think of nothing but putting money in their purses; and

then ... tell us whether we do not in all these things resemble pagans,

and revive their shameful superstitions?'[676]

Not a word of this popular description of saints' days will be found in

Melanchthon's memoir: it is entirely the work of Francis and his

councillors.

SORBONNE.

'Let us beware how we forsake ancient customs. Let us address our

prayers directly to the saints who are our patrons and intercessors

under Jesus Christ. To assert that they have not the prerogative of

healing diseases, is in opposition to your Majesty's personal experience

and the gift you have received from God of curing the king's evil....

Let us also pay our devotions to statues and images, since the seventh

general council commands them to be adored.'[677]

When the Sorbonne, in order to defend the prerogatives of the saints,

cited the miraculous powers of the king, they employed an argument to

which it was dangerous to reply; and, accordingly, we find nothing on

this point in the answers of the opponents of the faculty. The

discussion, getting off this shoal, turned to the act which is the

essence of the Romish doctrine, and priests were once more lashed by the

royal hand, which was even more skilful at this work than in curing the

evil.

MINISTERS.

'There ought to be in the Church a living communion of the members of

Christ.[678] But, alas! what do we find there? A crowd of ignorant and

filthy priests, the plague of society, a burden to the earth, a slothful

race who can do nothing but say mass, and who, while saying it, do not

even utter those five intelligible words, preferable, as St. Paul

thinks, to ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.... We must get rid

of these mercenaries, these mass-mongers, who have brought that holy

ceremony into contempt, and we must supply their place with holy,

learned, and experienced men.[679] Then perhaps the Lord's Supper will

recover the esteem it has lost. Then, instead of an unmeaning babble, we

shall have psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. Then we shall sing to

the Saviour, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the

Lord, to the glory of God the Father.... What false confidence, what

wretched delusion is that which leads so many souls to believe that by

attending mass every day, even when piety is neglected, they are

performing an act useful to themselves and their friends, both for this

life and for that which is to come!'[680]

[Sidenote: THE LORD'S SUPPER.]

The Sorbonne contended for the external mechanism of the sacramental

act, to which their opponents desired to impart a spiritual and living

character, and defended without shame or scruple the material advantages

the clergy derived from it.

SORBONNE.

'The mass is a real sacrifice, of great benefit to the living and the

dead, and its excellence is founded on the passion of Jesus Christ. It

is right, therefore, to bestow temporal gifts on those who celebrate it,

be they good or bad; and the priests who receive them ought not to be

called mass-mongers, even though they are paid.'[681]

The king's ministers now came to the much disputed doctrine of the

presence of Christ in the communion.

MINISTERS.

'Let us put aside the disputes that have divided us so long.[682] Let us

all confess that in the eucharist the Lord truly gives believers his

body to eat and his blood to drink to feed our souls in life

everlasting; and that in this manner Christ remains in us and we in

Christ. Whether this sacrament be called the Lord's Supper, the Lord's

bread and wine, mass, eucharist, love-feast, or sacrifice, is of little

moment. Christians ought not to dispute about names, if they possess the

things; and, as the proverb says, "When we have the bear before us, let

us not look after his track."[683] Communion with Christ is obtained by

faith, and cannot be demonstrated by human arguments. When we treat of

theology, let us not fall into matæology.'[684]

The Sorbonne could not overlook this side-blow aimed at the scholastic

style.

SORBONNE.

'It is very useful, and often very necessary for the extirpation of

heresy, to employ words not to be found in Scripture, such as

_transubstantiation_, &c.[685] Yes, the bread and the wine are truly

changed in substance, preserving only the accidents, and becoming the

body and blood of Christ. It is not true that the _panitas_ or

_corporitas_ of the bread combines with the _corporitas_ of Christ. The

transubstantiation is effected _in instanti_ and not _successivè_; and

it is certain that neither laymen nor women can accomplish this

miraculous act, but priests only.'

The controversy next turned on confession, justification, faith, works,

and free-will; after which they came to practical questions.

MINISTERS.

'Good men do not ask that the monasteries should be destroyed, but be

turned into schools;[686] so that thus the liberality of our brethren

may serve to maintain, not idle people, but men who will instruct youth

in sound learning and morality.'

SORBONNE.

'What! the pope should permit the friars to leave their monasteries

whenever they wish! This clearly shows us that the Germans are aiming at

the overthrow, the ruin of all religion.'[687]

MINISTERS.

'And what prevents our restoring liberty of marriage to the ministers of

the Church? Did not Bishop Paphnucius acknowledge at the Nicene council

that those who forbid it encourage licentiousness? In that great crowd

of priests and monks it is impossible for purity of life to be restored

otherwise than by the divine institution which dates from Eden.'[688]

SORBONNE.

'An article quite as dangerous as the secularisation of monks.'

[Sidenote: AN ASSEMBLY OF LAITY AND CLERGY.]

MINISTERS.

'In this age, when everything is in a ferment,[689] and when so many

sects are raising their heads in various places, the interest of the

christian Church requires that there should be an assembly composed not

only of priests and theologians, but also of laymen and upright,

sensible, courageous magistrates, who have at heart the glory of the

Lord, public morality, and general usefulness.... Ah! it would be easy

to agree if we thought of Christ's glory rather than of our own!'[690]

The doctors of the Sorbonne had no great liking for deliberative

assemblies where they would sit with laymen and even with heretics.

SORBONNE.

'Beware! ... it is to be feared that, under the pretext of uniting with

us, the heretics are conspiring to lead the people astray.... Have we

not seen such assemblies in Germany, called together on a pretence of

concord, produce nothing but divisions, discord, and infinite ruin of

souls?'[691]

But the Sorbonne warned the king in vain. Francis at this time, through

policy no doubt, was opposed to the doctrines maintained by the priests.

He desired to be freed at home from that papal supremacy which presumed

to direct the policy and religion of his kingdom; and abroad he knew

that a league with England and Germany could alone destroy the

overwhelming preponderance of Charles V. And hence the meetings of the

Sorbonne grew more and more agitated; the doctors repeated to one

another all the alarming reports they had heard; there was sorrow and

anger; never, they thought, had Roman-catholicism in France been

threatened with such terrible danger. It was no longer a few obscure

sects; no longer a Brueys, a Henry of Lausanne, a Valdo, Albigenses, or

Waldenses, who attacked the Church: no! powerful states, Germany and

England, were separating from the papacy, and the absolute monarch of

France was endeavouring to introduce revolutionary principles into his

kingdom. The Church, as its Head had once been, was deserted by its

friends. The grandees who were subsequently to form a league around the

Guises, were silent now; the rough and powerful Montmorency himself

seemed dumb; and, accordingly, agitation and alarm prevailed in the

corporation. Certain ultramontane fanatics proposed petitioning the king

to put down heresy by force, and to uphold the Roman dogmas by fire and

sword. More moderate catholics, observing with sorrow the catholicity so

dear to them rent by schism, sought for more rational means of restoring

the unity destroyed by the Reformation. Everybody saw clearly that the

enemy was at the gate, and that no time must be lost in closing it.

[Sidenote: DANGER OF CATHOLICISM.]

Alas! they had to deal with others besides heretics. All reflecting

minds in Europe, and especially in France, were struck with the example

set by the King of England, and the members of the Roman party thought

that Francis was about to adopt the same course in his kingdom. There

was indeed a difference between the systems of these two princes. Henry

desired the doctrine of Rome, but not its bishop; Francis accepted the

bishop, but rejected the doctrine. Nevertheless, as each of these

reforms was a heavy blow aimed at the system of the middle ages, they

were looked upon as identical. The success which Henry's plan had met

with in England was an indication of what Francis's plan would meet with

in France. The two monarchs who reigned on each side of the Channel were

equally absolute.

The Roman doctors, finding that their controversy had not succeeded,

resolved to go to work in a more cunning way, and, without seeming to

reject a union with Germany, to oppose the heretics by putting them out

of court. 'Sire,' they said to Francis, 'your very humble servants and

most obedient subjects of the Faculty of Theology pray you to ask the

Germans whether they confess that the Church militant, whose head (under

Jesus) is Peter and his successors, is infallible in faith and morals?

whether they agree to obey him as his subjects, and are willing to admit

all the books contained in the Bible,[692] as well as the decisions of

the councils, popes, and doctors?'[693] Obedience to the pope and to

tradition, without discussing doctrines, was their summary of the

controversy. It did not succeed.

[Sidenote: SHOULD KINGS FEAR PROTESTANTISM?]

The doctors of the faculty, finding that the king would not aid them,

applied to the papal nuncio. They found him also a prey to fear. They

began to consult together on the best means of keeping France in

communion with the holy see. As Francis was deaf to theological

arguments, the Sorbonne and the nuncio agreed that some other means must

be used. The prelate went to the Louvre, carrying with him a suggestion

which the Sorbonne had prompted. 'Sire,' he said, 'be not deceived. The

protestants will upset all civil as well as religious order.... The

throne is in as much danger as the altar.... The introduction of a new

religion must necessarily introduce a new government.'[694]

That was indeed the best way of treating the affair; the nuncio had

found the joint in the armour, and the king was for a moment staggered;

but the pope's conduct restored his confidence. Rome began to proceed

against Henry VIII. as she had formerly done against kings in the middle

ages. This proceeding, so offensive to the royal dignity, drew Francis

towards the Reformation. If there is danger towards royal power, it

exists on both sides, he thought. He believed even that the danger was

greater on the side of Rome than of Germany, since the protestants of

that country showed their princes the most loyal submission, and the

most religious and profound respect. He had observed, that while the

pope desired to deprive the King of England of his states and release

his subjects from their obedience, the reformation which that prince had

carried out had not prejudiced one of his rights; that there was a talk,

indeed, of insurrections against Henry VIII., but they were got up by

Rome and her agents. Enlightened men suggested to Francis, that while

popery kept the people in slavery, and caused insurrection and rebellion

against the throne, the Reformation would secure order and obedience to

kings, and liberty to the people. He seems to have been convinced ...

for the moment at least. 'England and I,' he said, 'are accustomed to

keep together and to manage our affairs in harmony with each other, and

we shall continue to do so.'[695]

This new movement on the part of Francis emboldened the evangelicals.

They hoped that he would go on to the end, and would not leave the pope

even the little place which he intended to reserve for him. If a prince

like Louis IX. maintained the rights of the Gallican Church in the

thirteenth century; if a king like Charles VII. restored ecclesiastical

liberty in the fifteenth; shall we not see in this universal revival of

the sixteenth century a monarch like Francis I. emancipating France from

the Roman yoke? At a great sacrifice he has just done much for

Wurtemberg, and will he do nothing for his own kingdom? The friends of

the Reformation encouraged one another to entertain the brightest hopes.

'What a noble position!' they said.[696] Whenever they met, whether in

the university, in the country, or in the town, they exchanged

congratulations.[697] In their opinion, old things had passed away.

[Sidenote: UNEASINESS OF THE REFORMERS.]

But there were other evangelicals—men more decided and more

scriptural—who looked with a distrustful eye upon these mysterious

conferences between Francis and the protestants of Germany. Those fine

speeches of Du Bellay, and that remarkable conference at Bar-le-Duc,

were in their eyes policy and diplomacy, but not religion. They felt

uneasy and alarmed; and when they met to pray in their obscure

conventicles, these humble christians said to one another with terror:

'Satan is casting his net to catch those who are not on the watch. Let

us examine the colours in which he is disguised.' Astonished and even

distressed, they asked if it was not strange to assert, as Melanchthon

had done, 'that no good man would protest against the monarchy of the

Roman bishop,[698] and that, in consideration of certain reforms, we

should hasten to recognise him!' No, the Roman episcopate will never be

reformed, they said. Remodel it as you like, it will always betray its

domineering spirit, revive its ancient tricks, and regain its

ascendency, even by fire. We must be on our guard.... Between Rome and

the Reformation it is a matter of mere yes or no: the pope or Jesus

Christ! Unable to conquer the new Church in fair fight, they hope to

strangle it in their embraces. Delilah will lull to sleep in her lap the

prophet whom the strong men have been unable to bind with green withes

and new ropes. Under the pretence of screening the Reform from evil

influences, they desire to set it, like a flower of the field, in some

place without light and air, where, fading and pining away ... it will

perish. Thanks to the protection of the Queen of Navarre, the gallant

and high-spirited charger that loved to sport in the meadows is about to

be taken to the king's stable, where it will be adorned with a

magnificent harness ... but its mouth will be deformed by the bit, its

flanks torn by the spur, and even the plaits of its mane will bear

witness to its degradation.

This future was not reserved for the Reform. While the mild and prudent

voices of Melanchthon and Bucer were soothing it to sleep, innocently

enough no doubt, bolder and freer voices, those of a Farel and a Calvin,

were preparing to arouse it. While the papers of the conciliating

theologians were lying on the velvet cover of the royal table, another

paper, whose lines of fire seemed penned by the thunderbolt, was about

to circulate through the kingdom, and be posted even at the door of the

king's chamber by a too daring hand, which was to arouse in that prince

one of the most terrible bursts of passion ever recorded in history. A

loud peal of thunder would be heard, and the heavy atmosphere which

stifled men's minds would be followed by a pure and reviving air. There

would be furious tempests; but the christians of the scriptural,

practical, and radical Reformation rejoiced at witnessing the failure of

this specious but impossible project, which aimed at reforming the

Church even while preserving Roman-catholicism. The system of the Queen

of Navarre will have to be abandoned; that of Calvin will prevail. To

uphold truth, the evangelicals were about to sacrifice unity. No doubt

furious persecutions would be the consequence, but they said to each

other that it was better to live in the midst of hurricanes that awaken,

than in mephitic vapours which lull men into the sleep of death.

We shall describe hereafter the event which had so notable an influence

on the destinies of the Reformation in France. They were Frenchmen who

caused it; it was a Frenchman who was the principal author; but it was

from Switzerland, as we shall see, that this formidable blow was to

come, and to that country we must now return.

[Footnote 655: 'Dadurch Ich in gute Hoffnung kommen die Sachen sollten

auf gute Wege gerichtet werden.' This German translation of the king's

letter is given in the _Corp. Ref._ ii. pp. 828-835.]

[Footnote 656: 'Rex suus cognoscit nunc errorem suum in religione.'—

Lanz, _Correspondance de l'Empereur Charles-Quint_, ii. p. 144.]

[Footnote 657: 'Quod isti Germani Lutherum sequentes de Christo et de

fide illius recte sentiant.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 658: 'Fuerunt illi (Melanchthonis articuli) a _quamplurimis_

in Gallia excerpti, sed non integri verum mutilati.'—Gerdesius, _Hist.

Evang. renov._ iv. p. 124.]

[Footnote 659: This memoir is printed in the _Corpus Reformatorum_,

ii. pp. 765-775; and while Melanchthon's is entitled _Consilium Gallis

Scriptum_, this is headed _Idem Scriptum a Gallis editum_.]

[Footnote 660: 'Qua de re Melanchthon ipse conqueritur.'—Gerdesius,

iv. p. 124.]

[Footnote 661: 'Eosdem articulos Romam misisse dicitur, quo pontificis

ipsius quoque impetraret vel emendationem vel consensum.'—Gerdesius,

_Hist. Evang. renov._ iv. p. 124.]

[Footnote 662: D'Argentré, _De novis Erroribus_, i. p. 3553. Gerdesius,

iv. App. xiii.]

[Footnote 663: Letter from the Faculty of Theology to Francis I.

D'Argentré, i. p. 3953. Gerdesius, iv. App. xiii.]

[Footnote 664: D'Argentré, i. p. 3953. Gerdesius, iv. App. xiii.]

[Footnote 665: Gerdesius, i. App. xiii. p. 75.]

[Footnote 666: 'Necessarium ut in Christum omnes spectemus.'—Scriptum a

Gallis editum, _Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 765.]

[Footnote 667: _Facultatis Theologiæ Parisiensis Responsum ad Regem

Franciscum_, D'Argentré, i. p. 3953.—Gerdesius, iv. App. p. 75.]

[Footnote 668: 'Nec geramus alterutri gladiatorios animos nostra

mordicus defendendi.'—Scriptum a Gallis editum, _Corp. Ref._ ii. p.

765.]

[Footnote 669: _Facultatis Theol. Paris. Resp. ad Regem._ Gerdesius, iv.

App. p. 75.]

[Footnote 670: 'Ut consulat conscientiis, aliquando concedere

relaxationem.'-Scriptum a Gallis editum, _Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 766.]

[Footnote 671: 'Jure divino institutam, quæ usque ad consummationem

sæculi perduratura est.'—Gerdesius, iv. App. p. 78.]

[Footnote 672: 'Quæ tamen nemo observat, atque hi minime omnium qui

præcipiunt.'—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 767.]

[Footnote 673: D'Argentré, i. p. 397. Gerdesius, iv. App. p. 79.]

[Footnote 674: 'Pia mortuorum facta prosopopœia ... quasi præsentes a

præsentibus orasse.'—Scriptum a Gallis editum, _Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 768.]

[Footnote 675: 'Qui et velit invocari et velit exaudire.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 676: 'Videbimus nos minime abesse a superstitione

Ethnicorum.'—Scriptum a Gallis editum, _Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 768.]

[Footnote 677: 'Statuas et imagines sanctorum quas adorandas sept. œcum.

synodus decernit.'—_Facultatis Theol. Paris. Resp._]

[Footnote 678: 'Viva membrorum Christi communione.'—Scriptum a Gallis

ed. _Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 769.]

[Footnote 679: 'Semotis his missarum conducticiis nundinatoribus.'—

Ibid.]

[Footnote 680: 'Præpostera ejus operis fiducia quæ plerosque sic

seduxit.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 681: 'Vocari non debent nundinatores.'—_Facult. Theol. Paris

Resp._]

[Footnote 682: 'Sublatis quæ inter nos diu viguerunt altercationibus.'—

Script. a Gallis ed., _Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 770.]

[Footnote 683: 'Præsente urso, quod dicitur, vestigia non quæramus.'—

Ibid.]

[Footnote 684: 'Theologiam sic tractemus ut non incidamus in

matæologiam.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 685: 'Utile et necessarium certa verborum forma uti, in sacra

scriptura non expressa.'—_Facult. Theol. Paris. Resp._ p. 82.]

[Footnote 686: 'Non petunt boni ut monasteria deleantur, sed ut sint

scholæ.'—Script. a Gallis ed., _Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 773.]

[Footnote 687: _Facultatis Theologiæ Parisiensis Responsum._ Gerdesius,

_Hist. Evang. renov._ p. 76.]

[Footnote 688: 'In tanta sacerdotum et monachorum turba restitui aliter

vitæ puritas non poterit.'—Scriptum a Gallis editum, _Corpus

Reformatorum_, ii. p. 774.]

[Footnote 689: 'Hoc fermentato sæculo.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 690: 'Perfacile autem coalescere possumus.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 691: _Facultatis Theologiæ Parisiensis Responsum._ Gerdesius,

_Hist. Evang. renov._ p. 77.]

[Footnote 692: Including the apocryphal books.]

[Footnote 693: _Facultatis Theologiæ Parisiensis Responsum._ Gerdesius,

_Hist. Evang. renov._ iv. App. p. 77.]

[Footnote 694: Du Bellay, _Mémoires_, ed. Petitot, Introd. p. 123.

Schmidt, _Hist. Theol._ p. 36 (ed. 1850).]

[Footnote 695: 'England und Ich pflegen zusammen zu halten und sämmtlich

unsere Sachen vornehmen.'—Rex Galliæ ad principes protest. _Corp. Ref._

ii. p. 830.]

[Footnote 696: 'Quam pulchre staremus.'—Sturm to Melanchthon, MS.]

[Footnote 697: Ibid.]

[Footnote 698: 'Neque bonus ullus erit, qui reclamet in pontificis

monarchiam.—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 762.]

BOOK III.

FALL OF A BISHOP-PRINCE, AND FIRST EVANGELICAL

BEGINNINGS IN GENEVA.

CHAPTER I.

THE RENAISSANCE, THE REFORMATION, THE MIDDLE AGES.

(1526.)

The Reformation was necessary to christian society. The Renaissance,

daughter alike of ancient and of modern Rome, was a movement of revival,

and yet it carried with it a principle of death, so that wherever it was

not transformed by heavenly forces, it fell away and became corrupted.

The influence of the humanists—of such men as Erasmus, Sir Thomas More,

and afterwards of Montaigne—was a balmy gale that shed its odours on the

upper classes, but exerted no power over the lower ranks of the people.

In the elegant compositions of the men of letters, there was nothing for

the conscience, that divinely appointed force of the human race. The

work of the Renaissance, had it stood alone, must of necessity,

therefore, have ended in failure and death. There are persons in these

days who think otherwise: they believe that a new state of society would

have arisen without the Reformation, and that political liberty would

have renewed the world better than the Gospel. This is assuredly a great

error. At that time liberty had scarcely any existence in Europe, and

even had it existed, and the dominion of conscience not reappeared along

with it, it is certain that, though powerful enough, perhaps, to destroy

the old elements of order prevailing in society, it would have been

unable to substitute any better elements in their place. If, even in the

nineteenth century, we tremble sometimes when we hear the distant

explosions of liberty, what must have been the feeling in the sixteenth?

The men who were about to appear on the theatre of the world were still

immersed in disorder and barbarism. Everything betokened great virtues

in the new generation, but also tumultuous passions; a divine heroism,

but also gigantic crimes; a mighty energy, but at its side a languishing

insensibility. A renewed society could not be constituted out of such

elements. It wanted the divine breath to inspire high thoughts, and the

hand of God to establish everywhere the providential order.

At the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century,

society was in a state of excitement. The world was in suspense, as when

the statuary is about to create a work that shall be the object of

universal admiration. The metal is melted, the mass flows from the

furnace like glowing brass; but the approaching lava alarms, and not

without reason, the anxious spectators. At this period we witness

struggles, insurrections, and reaction. The perfumed spirit of the

Renaissance was unable to check the evil and to establish order and

liberty. Society had appeared to grow young again under the breath of

antiquity; but wherever a knowledge of the Gospel was not combined with

the cultivation of letters, that purity, boldness, and elevation of

youth, which at first had charmed contemporaries, disappeared. The

melting was checked, the metal grew cold, and instead of the masterpiece

that had been expected, there appeared the repulsive forms of servility,

immorality, and superstition.

[Sidenote: CRISIS AND MEANS OF SALVATION.]

Was there any means of preventing so fatal a future? How, in the midst

of the old society, which was crumbling to pieces, could a new one be

formed, with any certain prospect of vitality? In religion only the

coming age was to find its living force. If the conscience of man was

awakened and sanctified by christianity, then and then only the world

would stand.

Was it possible to look for this regenerating element in the society

which was expiring? That would be to search among the dead for the

principle of life. It was necessary to have recourse to the primitive

sources of faith. The Gospel, more human than literature, more divine

than philosophy, exerts an influence over man that these two things

cannot possess. It goes down into the depths—that is, into the

people—which the Renaissance had not done; it rises towards the high

places—that is, towards heaven—which philosophy cannot do. When the

Gospel lifted up its voice in the days of the Reformation, the people

listened. It spoke to them of God, sin, condemnation, pardon,

everlasting life—in a word, of Christ. The human soul discovered that

this was what it wanted; and was touched, captivated, and finally

renewed. The movement was all the more powerful because the doctrine

preached to the people had nothing to do with animosities, traditions,

interests of race, dynasties, or courts. True, it got mixed up with

these things afterwards; but in the beginning it was simply the voice of

God upon earth. It circulated a purifying fire through corrupted

society, and the new world was formed.

The old society, whose place was about to be occupied, did all in its

power to resist the light. A terrible voice issued from the Vatican; a

hand of iron executed its behests in many a country, and strangled the

new life in its cradle. Spain, Italy, Austria, and France were the chief

theatres of the deplorable tragedies, whose heroes were Philip II. and

the Guises. But there were souls, we may even say nations, protected by

the hand of God, who have been ever since like trees whose leaves never

wither.[699] Intelligent men, struck by their greatness, have been

alarmed for the nations that are not watered by the same rivers. Against

such a danger there is, however, a sure remedy; it is that all people

should come and drink at those fountains of life which have given

protestant nations 'all the attributes of civilisation and power.'[700]

Or do they perchance imagine that by shutting their windows against the

sun, the light will spread more widely?... A new era is beginning, and

all lingering nations are now invited to the great renovation of which

the Gospel is the divine and mighty organ.

[Sidenote: NEW SITUATION OF GENEVA.]

In 1526 Geneva was in a position which permitted it to receive the new

seed of the new society. The alliance with the cantons, by drawing that

city nearer to Switzerland, facilitated the arrival of the intrepid

husbandmen who brought with them the seeds of life. At Wittemberg, at

Zurich, and even in the upper extremities of Lake Leman, in those

beautiful valleys of the Rhone and the Alps which Farel had evangelised,

the divine sun had poured down his first rays. When the Genevans made

their alliance with the Swiss, they had only thought of finding a

support to their national existence; but they had effected more: they

had opened the gates of day, and were about to receive a light which,

while securing their liberties, would guide their souls along the path

of eternal life. The city was thus to acquire an influence of which none

of its children had ever dreamt, and by the instrumentality of Calvin,

one of the noblest spirits that ever lived, 'she was about to become the

rival of Rome,' as an historian says (perhaps with a little

exaggeration), 'and wrest from her the dominion of half the christian

world.'[701]

If the alliance with the cantons opened Geneva on the side of

Switzerland, it raised a wall of separation between that city and

Savoy—which was not less necessary for the part she was called upon to

play in the sixteenth century. The valley of the Leman was at that time

dotted with châteaux, whose ruins may still be seen here and there. As

invasion, pillage, and murder formed part of social life in the middle

ages, the nobles surrounded their houses with walls, and some even built

their dwelling-places on the mountains. From Geneva might be descried

the castle of Monnetier standing on immense perpendicular rocks on Mont

Salève....

J'aimais tes murs croulants, vieux moutier ruiné!

_Naître, souffrir, mourir!_ devise triste et forte . . .

Quel châtelain pensif te grava sur la porte?[702]

Further on, and near Thonon, on an isolated hill, shaded by luxuriant

chestnut trees, stood the vast castle of Allinges, which is still a

noble ruin. The lords of these places, energetic, rude, freebooting, and

often cruel men, growing weary of their isolation and their idleness,

would collect their followers, lower their drawbridges, rush into the

high roads in search of adventures, and indulge in a life of raids and

plunder, violence and murder.

The towns, with their traders and travellers, were especially the

abhorrence of these gentlemen robbers. From the tenth century the

Genevan travellers and foreign merchants, passing through Geneva with

their goods, often fell a prey to the plundering vagabondage of the

neighbouring lords. This was not without important consequences for

civilisation and liberty. Seeing the nobles perpetually in insurrection

against social order, the burghers learnt to revolt against despotism,

murder, and robbery. Geneva received one of these lessons, and profited

by it better than others.[703]

[Sidenote: PONTVERRE AND THE SAVOYARD NOBLES.]

In all the castles of Genevois, Chablais, and the Pays de Vaud, it was

said, in 1526, that the alliance of Geneva with the free Swiss cantons

menaced the rights of Savoy, the temporal (and even the spiritual) power

of the bishop, and Roman-catholicism. And hence the irritated nobles

ruminated in their strongholds upon the means of destroying the union,

or at least of neutralising its effects. François de Ternier, seigneur

of Pontverre, whose domains were situated between Mont Salève and the

Rhone, about a league from Geneva, thought of nothing else night or day.

A noble, upright, but violent man; a fanatical enemy of the burgher

class, of liberty, and of the Reformation; and a representative of the

middle ages, he swore to combat the Swiss alliance unto death, and he

kept his oath. Owing to the energy of his character and the nobility of

his house, François possessed great influence among his neighbours. One

day, after long meditation over his plans, he left his residence,

attended by a few horsemen, and visited the neighbouring castles. While

seated at table with the knights, he made his apprehensions known to

them, and conjured them to oppose the accursed alliance. He asked them

whether it was for nothing that the privilege of bearing arms had been

given to the nobles. 'Let us make haste,' he said, 'and crush a new and

daring power that threatens to destroy our castles and our churches.' He

sounded the alarm everywhere; he reminded the nobles that they had a

right to make war whenever they pleased;[704] and forthwith many lords

responded to his energetic appeals. They armed themselves, and, issuing

from their strongholds, covered the district around Geneva like a cloud

of locusts. Caring little for the political or religious ideas with

which Pontverre was animated, they sought amusement, plunder, and the

gratification of their hatred against the citizens. They were observed

at a distance, with their mounted followers, on the high roads, and they

were not idle. They allowed nobody to enter the city, and carried off

property, provisions, and cattle. The peasants and the Genevan

merchants, so disgracefully plundered, asked each other if the tottering

episcopal throne was to be upheld by _banditti_.... 'If you return,'

said these noble highwaymen, 'we will _hang you up by the neck_.' Nor

was that all: several nobles, whose castles were near the water,

resorted to piracy on the lake: they pillaged the country-houses near

the shore, imprisoned the men, insulted the women, and cut off all

communication with Switzerland.

[Sidenote: NOBLES TURN HIGHWAYMEN.]

One difficulty, however, occurred to these noble robbers: they chanced

to maltreat, without their knowing it, some of their own party, who were

coming from German Switzerland. Having been much reproached for this,

they took counsel on the road: 'What must we do,' they asked, 'to

distinguish the Genevans?' They hit upon a curious shibboleth. As soon

as they caught sight of any travellers in the distance, they spurred

their horses, galloped up, and put some ordinary question to the

strangers, 'examining in this way all who passed to and fro.' If the

travellers replied in French, the language of Geneva, the knightly

highwaymen declared they were _huguenots_, and immediately carried them

off, goods and all. If the victims complained, they were not listened

to; and even when they came from the banks of the Loire and the Seine,

they were taken and shut up in the nearest castle. Many messengers from

France to the Swiss cantons, who spoke like the Genevans, were arrested

in this way.

France, Berne, and Geneva complained bitterly; but the lords (for the

most part Savoyards) took no notice of it. By chastising these burghers,

they believed they were gaining heaven. They laughed among themselves at

the universal complaints, and added sarcasm to cruelty. One day a

Genevan deputy having appeared before Pontverre, to protest against such

brigandage, the haughty noble replied coldly: 'Tell those who sent you,

that in a fortnight I will come and set fire to the four corners of your

city.' Another day, De la Fontaine, a retired syndic and mameluke, as he

was riding along the high road, met a huguenot, and said to him: 'Go and

tell your friends that we are coming to Geneva shortly, and will throw

all the citizens into the Rhone.' As the Genevan walked away, the

mameluke called him back: 'Wait a moment,' he said, and then continued

maliciously: 'No, I think it will be better to cut off their heads, in

order to multiply the relics.' This was an allusion to Berthelier's

head, which had been solemnly buried. In the noisy banquets which these

nobles gave each other in their châteaux, they related their feats of

arms: anecdotes akin to those just quoted followed each other amid roars

of laughter: the subject was inexhaustible. The politicians, although

more moderate in appearance, were not less decided. They meditated over

the matter in cold blood. 'I will enter Geneva sword in hand,' said the

Count of Genevois, the duke's brother, 'and will take away six score of

the most rebellious patriots.'[705]

Thus the middle ages seemed to be rising in defence of their rights. The

temporal and spiritual authority of the bishop-prince was protected by

bands of highwaymen. But while these powers, which pretended to be

legitimate, employed robbery, violence, and murder, the friends of

liberty prepared to defend themselves lawfully and to fight honourably,

like regular troops. Besançon Hugues, reelected captain-general three

days after the alliance with the Swiss, gave the signal. Instantly the

citizens began to practise the use of arms in the city; and in the

country, where they were placed as outposts, they kept strict watch over

all the movements of the gentlemen robbers. Fearing that the latter, to

crown their brigandage, would march against Geneva, the syndics had iron

gratings put to all the windows in the city walls, built up three of the

gates, placed a guard at the others, and stretched chains across every

street. At the same time they brought into the harbour all the boats

that had escaped the piratical incursions of the nobles, placed a sentry

on the belfry of St. Pierre, and ordered that the city should be lighted

all the night long. This little people rose like one man, and all were

ready to give their lives to protect their goods and trade, their wives

and children, and to save their old liberties and their new

aspirations.[706]

[Sidenote: GENEVAN DEPUTATION TO BERNE.]

While thus resolute against their enemies in arms, the citizens showed

moderation towards their disarmed foes. Some of those who were most

exasperated, wishing to take their revenge, asked permission to

_forage_, that is, to seize the property of the disloyal and fugitive

mamelukes. 'It is perfectly fair,' they said, 'for their treason and

brigandage have reduced Geneva to extreme misery: we shall only get back

what they have taken from us.' But Hugues, the friend of order as well

as of liberty, made answer: 'Let us commence proceedings against the

accused; let us condemn them in penalties more or less severe; but let

us refrain from violence, even though we have the appearance of right in

our favour.'—'The ducal faction,' replied these hot-headed men, 'not

only plundered us, but conspired against the city, and took part in the

tortures and murders inflicted upon the citizens.' The syndics were not

convinced, and the property of the offenders was respected; but after a

rigorous investigation, they were deprived of the rights of

citizenship.[707]

The Swiss cantons, discontented because the Genevans, who were in great

straits, had not repaid the expenses incurred on their behalf, asked

more for the mamelukes than the council granted: they demanded that they

should all be allowed to return to the city. But to receive those who

were making war against them, seemed impossible to the Genevans. They

sent two good huguenots to Berne, François Favre and Baudichon de la

Maison-Neuve, to make representations in this matter. The deputies were

admitted to the great council on the 5th of June, 1526. De Lullins, the

Savoyard governor, was also received on the same day, and in the duke's

name he made great complaints against Geneva. Favre, a quick, impatient,

passionate man, replied in _coarse terms_. The Bernese firmly adhered to

their resolution, and reprimanded the Genevan deputy, who candidly

acknowledged his fault: 'Yes,' he said, 'I am _too warm_; but I answered

rather as a private individual than as an ambassador.' On returning to

his inn, he thought that the payment of the sum claimed by the Bernese

would settle everything, and the same day he wrote to the council of

Geneva: 'Your humble servant begs to inform you that you must send the

money promised to my lords of Berne. Otherwise, let him fly from the

city who can! Do you think you can promise and not be bound to keep your

word? Find the money, or you are lost. I pray you warn my wife, that she

may come to Lausanne. I am serving at my own expense, and yet I must pay

for others also. Do not ruin a noble cause for such a trifle. If Berne

is satisfied, we shall be all right with the mamelukes.'[708]

[Sidenote: CARTELIER'S CONDEMNATION.]

Robber nobles were not the only supporters of the middle ages. That

epoch has had its great men, but at the time of its fall it had but

sorry representatives. The knights of the highway had their companions

in the intriguers of the city. Among the latter we may include

Cartelier, who had played his part in the plots got up to deliver Geneva

to Savoy.[709] This man, who hated independence and the Reformation even

more than Pontverre did, was, through the anger of the citizens and the

avarice of the bishop, to suffer for the crimes of which his party was

guilty. Being utterly devoid of shame, he went up and down the city as

if he had nothing to fear, and when he chanced to meet the indignant

glance of a huguenot, he braved the anger with which he was threatened

by assuming an air of contempt and defiance. Rich, clever, but of low

character, he had contrived to be made a citizen in order to indulge in

the most perfidious intrigues. One day he was apprehended,

notwithstanding his insolent airs, and put into prison. A thrill ran

through all the city, as if the hand of God had been seen striking that

great criminal. Amblarde, Berthelier's widow, and his two children;

John, Lévrier's brother; and a hundred citizens who had all just cause

of complaint against the wretch, appeared before the council, and called

for justice with cries and tears: 'He has spilt the blood of our

fathers, our brothers, and our husbands,' said the excited crowd. 'He

wished to destroy our independence and subject us to the duke.'

Convicted of conspiring against the State, the wretch was condemned to

death. The executioner, putting a rope round his neck, led him through

the city, followed by an immense crowd. The indignant people were

delighted when they saw the rich and powerful stranger reduced to such

humiliation. Proud and pitiless, he had plotted to ruin the city, and

now he was expiating his crimes. Things did not stop here: while

moderate men desired to remain in the paths of justice, the more

hot-headed of the party of independence _derided_ him, says a

chronicler, and some mischievous boys pelted him with mud. The unhappy

man, whose fall had been so great, thus arrived at the place of

execution, and the hangman prepared to perform his duty.

Cartelier had but a few minutes more to live, when the bishop's steward

was seen hurrying forward with letters of grace, commuting the capital

punishment into a fine of six thousand golden crowns payable to the

prelate and to the city. To spare the life of the wretched man might

have been an act of mercy and equity, especially as his crimes were

political; but the angry youths who surrounded the criminal ascribed the

bishop's clemency to his covetousness and to the hatred he bore the

cause of independence. They desired the execution of the condemned man.

Twice the hangman removed the rope, and twice these exasperated young

men replaced it round Cartelier's neck. They yielded at last, however,

and were satisfied with having made the conspirator feel all the anguish

of death. Cartelier was set at liberty. When the bishop was informed of

what had happened, he became afraid, imagining his authority compromised

and his power endangered. 'It was for good reasons,' he wrote to the

syndics, 'that I pardoned Cartelier; however, write and tell me if the

people are inclined to revolt on account of this pardon.'[710] The

people did not revolt, and the rich culprit, having paid the fine,

retired quietly to Bourg in Bresse, whence he had come.

[Sidenote: THE BISHOP'S HESITATION.]

The bishop, who had first sentenced, then pardoned, and then repented of

his pardon, was continually hesitating, and did not know what party to

side with. He was not devoted body and soul to the duke, like his

predecessor. Placed between the Savoyards and the huguenots, he was at

heart, equally afraid of both, and by turns flung himself into the arms

of opposite parties. He was like a stag between two packs of hounds,

always afraid and panting. 'I write _angrily_,' he says in his letters:

he was, indeed, always angry with one party or the other. Even the

canons, his natural friends, and the members of his council aroused his

fears, and not without cause; for these reverend persons had no

confidence either in the bishop's character or in the brigandage of the

gentry of the neighbourhood. Messieurs De Lutry, De Montrotier, De

Lucinge, De St. Martin, and other canons said that the temporal

authority of the prelate was too weak to maintain order; that the sword

of a secular prince was wanted, and at the bottom of their hearts they

called for the duke. 'Ah!' said La Baume to Hugues, 'the chapter is a

_poisoned_ body;' he called the canons thieves and robbers: _Ille fur et

latro est_, he said of one of them. The episcopal office appeared a

heavy burden to him; but it put him in a position to give good dinners

to his friends, and that was one of the most important duties of his

life. 'I have wine for the winter,' he wrote in a postscript to the

letter in which he made these complaints, 'and plenty to entertain you

with.'[711] Such were his episcopal consolations.

[Footnote 699: Psalm i.]

[Footnote 700: M. Michel Chevalier, on the Prosperity of Protestant

Nations.]

[Footnote 701: Galiffe, _Matériaux pour l'Histoire de Genève_, ii. p.

xxviii.]

[Footnote 702: Galloix, _Salève_. The author remembers reading, since

the time of his boyhood, these three words on the ruins that have been

since restored, _Nasci, pati, mori_.]

[Footnote 703: Spon, _Hist. de Genève_. Gautier MS. Guizot,

_Civilisation en France et en Europe_. Froment.]

[Footnote 704: Ordonnance de Louis Hutin. Guizot, _Civilisation en

France_, v. p. 138.]

[Footnote 705: Registres du Conseil du 3 décembre. Lettres de Messieurs

de Berne. Galiffe fils, _Besançon Hugues, Pièces Justificatives_, p.

487.]

[Footnote 706: Registres du Conseil des 15, 16, 23, 24, 28 mars.]

[Footnote 707: Roset, _Chron._ MS. liv. ii. ch. ii. Registres du Conseil

du 7 septembre 1526. Spon, _Histoire de Genève_, ii. p. 396. Bonivard,

_Chroniq._ ii. pp. 446, 447. Gautier MS.]

[Footnote 708: This letter will be found in Galiffe, _Matériaux pour

l'Histoire de Genève_, ii. p. 489.]

[Footnote 709: See above, vol. i. p. 228.]

[Footnote 710: Archives de Genève. Lettre de Pierre de la Baume aux

syndics, du 24 janvier 1527.]

[Footnote 711: Registres du Conseil de décembre 1526, de janvier et

avril 1527. Roset MS. bk. ii. ch. v. Galiffe, _Matériaux pour l'Histoire

de Genève_, ii. pp. 264, 437, 439, 440. Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. pp.

452-454. _Mém. d'Archéologie_, ii. p. 11. La Sœur de Jussie, _Le Levain

du Calvinisme_.]

CHAPTER II.

THE GOSPEL AT GENEVA, AND THE SACK OF ROME.

(JANUARY TO JUNE 1527.)

The bishop was about to have enemies more formidable than the duke and

the League. The Reformation was approaching. There is a characteristic

trait in the history of Geneva; the several surrounding countries were

by turns to scatter the seeds of life in that city; in it was to be

heard a concert of voices from France, Italy, and German Switzerland. It

was the last of these that began.

[Sidenote: LAYMEN AND CLERGY.]

At the time when treason was expelled from the city in the person of

Cartelier, the Gospel entered it in that of an honest Helvetian, one of

the Bernese and Friburg deputies who went there in 1527 about the

affairs of the alliance concluded in 1526. Friburg would not have

permitted a heretic preacher to accompany the deputation; even Berne

would not have desired it just yet; but one of the Bernese ambassadors,

a pious layman, who was coming to give a valuable support to national

independence, was to call the Genevese to spiritual liberty. The lay

members of the Church occupied in the time of the apostles, as is well

known, a marked station in the religious community;[712] but by degrees

the dominion of the clergy had been substituted for evangelical liberty.

One of the principal causes of this revolution was the inferiority of

the laity; for many centuries ecclesiastics were the only educated men.

But if this state of things should change, if the laity should attain to

more knowledge and more energy than the clergy, a new revolution would

be effected in an opposite direction. And this is really what happened

in the sixteenth century. The christian layman who then arrived at

Geneva was Thomas ab Hofen, a friend of Zwingle, whom we have already

mentioned.[713] In the year 1524 he had declared at Berne in favour of

the Reformation. The Zurich doctor, hearing of his departure for the

shores of Lake Leman, was rejoiced, for the piercing eye of his faith

had fancied it could perceive a ray of evangelical light breaking over

those distant hills. He desired that the Genevans, now united to

Switzerland, should find in her not only liberty but truth.

'Undoubtedly,' wrote Zwingle to the excellent Bernese, 'undoubtedly this

mission may be of extraordinary advantage to the citizens of Geneva, who

have been so recently received into alliance with the cantons.'[714]

Ab Hofen did not go to Geneva with the intention of reforming it; his

mission was diplomatic; but he was one of that 'chosen generation' of

whom St. Peter speaks—one of those christians who are always ready to

'show forth the praises of Him who has called them to his marvellous

light.'[715] As he entered the city, he said to himself that he would do

with earnestness whatever work God might set before him, as his Zurich

friend had prayed him. Simple-minded, moderate, and sensitive, Ab Hofen

placed the kingdom of heaven above the things of the earth; but he was

subject to fits of melancholy, which occasionally made him

faint-hearted. When he arrived at Geneva, he visited many citizens,

attended the churches and the meetings of the people, and, having

reflected upon everything, he thought to himself that there was much

patriotism in the city, but unfortunately little christianity, and that

religion was the weak side of Genevan emancipation. He was distressed,

for he had expected better things. With a heart overflowing with sorrow

he returned to his inn (17th of January, 1527), and feeling the

necessity of unburdening himself on the bosom of a friend, he sat down

and wrote to the great reformer of Zurich: 'The number of those who

confess the doctrine of the Gospel must be increased.'[716] There were,

therefore, at this time in Geneva christians who confessed salvation by

Jesus Christ, and not by the ceremonies of the Church; but their number

was not large.

[Sidenote: AB HOFEN'S CHRISTIAN CONVERSATION.]

Ab Hofen determined to do his best to remedy this evil. He had a loving

heart and practical mind, and with indefatigable zeal took advantage of

every moment of leisure spared him by his official duties. As soon,

therefore, as a conference with the Genevan magistrates was ended, or a

despatch to the Bernese government finished, he laid aside his

diplomatic character and began to visit the citizens, conversing with

them, and telling them of what was going on at Zurich and preparing at

Berne. Being received into the families of some of the principal

huguenots, and seated with them round the hearth, at the severest

portion of the year (January 1527), he spoke to them of the Word of God,

of its authority, superior (he said) to the pope's, and of the salvation

which it proclaimed. He taught them that in the Gospel God gives man

full remission of his sins. These doctrines, unknown for so many ages,

and subversive of the legal and ceremonial religion of Rome, were heard

at Geneva with astonishment and pleasure.

At first the priests received the evangelist magistrate rather

favourably. The rank which he bore made him honourable in their eyes;

and he, far from being rude towards them, like certain huguenots, was

amiable and sympathising. Some ecclesiastics, believing him to belong to

their coterie, because he spoke of religion, did not conceal their

uneasiness from him, and described to him, very innocently, the fine

times when presents of bread, wine, oil, game, and tapers were plentiful

in their kitchen, and when they used to say, with a gracious tone, to

the believers who brought these donations in white napkins: _Centuplum

accipietis et vitam æternam possidebitis_.[717] Then they added, with

loud complaints: 'Alas! the faithful bring us no more offerings, and

people do not run so ardently after indulgences as they used to do.'[718]

The Bernese envoy, inwardly delighted at these candid avowals, which he

did not fail to transmit to Zwingle, apparently avoided all controversy,

and continued to announce the simple Gospel. The citizens listened to

him; they sought his company, and invited him to take a seat in their

family circle, or in some huguenot assembly, and to speak of the noble

things that were doing at Zurich. These successes encouraged him: his

eyes sparkled, he accosted the citizens freely, and his words flowed

copiously from his lips. 'I will not cease proclaiming the Gospel,' he

wrote to Zwingle; 'all my strength shall be devoted to it.'[719] Erelong

the well-disposed men who had gathered round him were joined by other

citizens, exclusively friends of liberty; they listened to him with

interest; but when he began to blame certain excesses, and to require

certain moral reforms, he met with coldness and even determined

opposition from them, and they turned their backs on him. Ab Hofen,

although a man of zeal and piety, did not possess the faith which moves

mountains; he returned dispirited to his inn, shut himself up in his

room, and, heaving deep sighs, wrote all his trouble to Zwingle. The

latter, who possessed a sure glance, saw that the opportunity was

unique. To establish the Reformation at the two extremities of

Switzerland, at Zurich and Geneva, appeared to him a most important

work. Would not these two arms, as they drew together, drag all

Switzerland with them, especially if the powerful Berne lent its support

in the centre? But he knew Ab Hofen, and fearing his dejection, he wrote

to him: 'Take care that the work so well begun is not stopped. While

transacting the business of the republic, do not neglect the business of

Jesus Christ.[720] You will deserve well of the citizens of Geneva if

you put in order not only their laws and their rights, but their souls

also.[721] Now what can put the soul in order except it be the Word and

the teaching of Him who created the soul?'[722]

[Sidenote: ZWINGLE ENCOURAGES AB HOFEN.]

Zwingle went further than this, and, in order to revive Ab Hofen's

fainting heart, made use of an argument to which the politician could

not be insensible. The reformer of Zurich was the friend of liberty as

well as of the Gospel, and he believed that a people could be governed

in only one of two ways: either by the Bible or by the sword, by the

fear of God or by the fear of man. In his opinion Geneva could protect

her independence against the attacks of Savoy, France, and all foreign

powers, only by submitting to the King of heaven. 'O my dear Thomas,' he

wrote to his friend, 'there is nothing I desire so much as to see the

doctrine of the Gospel flourishing in that republic (Geneva). Wherever

that doctrine triumphs, the boldness of tyrants is restrained.'[723] At

the same time, not wishing to offend the Bernese deputy, Zwingle added:

'If I write these things, it is not to awaken one who sleeps, but to

encourage one who runs.'[724] He ended his letter with a fraternal

salutation to the evangelical christians of Geneva: 'Salute them all in

my name,' he said.

Ab Hofen was not insensible to this appeal; if he was easily cast down,

he was as easily lifted up. He therefore redoubled his zeal, and pressed

Geneva to imitate Zurich and Berne; but he perceived that his

evangelical exertions were appreciated by a very small number only, and

regarded with coldness, and even with displeasure and contempt, by the

majority of politicians. Citizens, who had at first given him the

warmest welcome, scarcely saluted him when he met them, and if he went

to any meeting his presence put a restraint upon the whole assembly. He

soon encountered opposition of a more hostile nature; the priests eyed

him angrily, and the confidence which some ecclesiastics had placed in

him was succeeded by a violent hatred. The clergy proclaimed a general

crusade against heresy; the canons put themselves at the head of the

opposition; priests and monks filled the streets, going from house to

house, and bade the citizens be on their guard against the evangelical

addresses of the Bernese envoy. They cried down, abused, and

anathematised the doctrines he taught, and made war against the New

Testament wherever they found it. They encouraged one another, and

frightened the women especially. According to their representations, the

city would be ruined if it listened to the heretical diplomatist.

[Sidenote: AB HOFEN'S INFLUENCE AND DEATH.]

Ab Hofen now fell into a state of discouragement more serious than the

former. 'All my efforts are vain,' he wrote to Zwingle; 'there are about

_seven hundred_ clergymen in Geneva who do their utmost to prevent the

Gospel from flourishing here.[725] What can I do against such numbers?

And yet a wide door is opened to the Word of God.... The priests do not

preach; and as they are unable to do so, they are satisfied with saying

mass in Latin.... Miserable nourishment for the poor people!... If any

preachers were to come here, proclaiming Christ with boldness, the

doctrine of the pope would, I am sure, be soon overthrown.'[726]

But such preachers did not appear. Convinced of his insufficiency, and

continually repeating that true ministers, like Zwingle and Farel, were

wanted in that city; finding that many of the Genevans desired to be

liberated not only from the vexations of Savoy, the shuffling of the

bishop, and the doctrines of the pope, but also from the laws of

morality; struck with the evils he saw ready to burst upon Geneva, and

which the Gospel alone could avert,—this simple-minded, pious, and

sensitive man returned heartbroken to Berne. Had this disappointment any

effect upon his health? We cannot say; but he died not long after, in

the month of November, 'as a christian ought to die,' it was said. It

was found after his departure that his exertions had not been useless,

and that some Genevans at least had profited by his teaching: among

their number were counted Besançon Hugues and Baudichon de la

Maison-Neuve. Some astonishment may be felt at seeing these two names

together, for they are those of the chiefs of two opposite parties; but

there is nothing improbable about it, for Hugues must have been

frequently brought into contact with Ab Hofen, and it is not impossible

that he listened to his religious conversation. Hugues was a serious

man; he was, moreover, a statesman, and must have desired to know

something about the religious opinions which seemed at that time likely

to be adopted by the whole confederation; but his policy consisted in

maintaining the rights of the bishop-prince on one side, and those of

the citizens on the other; as for his religion, he was a catholic, and

we do not see that he changed in either of those relations. What he

might have been, if he had been living at the time when the Reformation

was carried through, no one can say. De la Maison-Neuve, on the

contrary, was a decided huguenot, and certainly needed the Gospel to

moderate the ardour of his character. William de la Mouille, the

bishop's chamberlain and confidant, appears to have been the person who

profited most by the teaching of the layman of Berne.

[Sidenote: SACK OF ROME.]

While the Gospel was entering Geneva, desolation was entering Rome. It

is a singular circumstance, the meeting of these two cities in history:

one so powerful and glorious, the other so small and obscure. That,

however, is capable of explanation: the great things of the world have

always come from great cities and great nations; but the great things of

God have usually small beginnings. Conquerors must have treasures and

armies; but evangelical christianity, which undertakes to change man,

nations, and the whole human race, has need of the strength of God, and

God affects little things. In the first century, he chose Jerusalem; in

the middle ages, the Waldensian valleys; in the sixteenth century,

Wittemberg and Geneva. 'God hath chosen the weak things of the world to

confound the things which are mighty.'[727]

In the month of May (1527) a rumour of startling importance suddenly

spread through the world: 'Rome has just been destroyed,' said the

people, 'and there is no more pope.' The troops of Charles V. had taken

and sacked the pontifical city, and if the pope was still alive, he was

in concealment and almost in prison. The servants of the Church, who

were terrified at first, soon recovered their breath, and directly their

alarm was dissipated, avarice and covetousness took its place. In the

presence of the ruins of that ancient city, its friends thought only of

dividing its spoils. The Bishop of Geneva, in particular, found himself

surrounded by petitioners, who sought to be collated to the benefices

hitherto held by clergymen resident in Rome. 'They have all perished,'

he was told; 'their benefices are vacant: give them to us.' The bishop

granted everything; and he even conferred on himself (Bonivard tells us)

the priory of St. Jean-lez-Genève, which belonged to a cardinal. Seldom

had so many deaths made so many people happy.[728]

The sack of Rome had more important results for Geneva and the

protestant nations. When they saw the ruin of that city, it appeared to

them that the papacy had fallen with it. The huguenots never grew tired

of listening to the wonderful news and of commenting upon it. Struck

with the example set them by Charles V., they thought to themselves that

'if the emperor had set aside the bishop and prince of Rome, they might

well abandon the prince and bishop of Geneva.' Their right to do so was

far clearer. The pope-king had at least been elected at Rome, and in

conformity with ancient custom; while the bishop-prince had not been

elected at Geneva and by Genevans, in accordance with the ancient

constitutions, but by a foreign and unlawful jurisdiction. The huguenots

promised even to be more moderate than his catholic majesty. Finally,

the acts which impelled them to turn Pierre de la Baume out of the city,

were far more vexatious in their eyes than those which had induced

Charles to expel Clement VII. from Rome. 'Are we not much more oppressed

by ecclesiastical tyranny,' they said, 'than by secular tyranny? Are we

not forced to pay, always to pay, and is it not our money that makes the

bishop's pot boil?'[729] Further, the shameful conduct of many of the

ecclesiastics seemed to them a sufficient motive for putting an end to

their rule.

A scandal which occurred just at this time increased the desire felt by

certain huguenots to withdraw themselves from the government of the

monks and priests. On the 10th of May, certain inhabitants of St. Leger

appeared before the council. For some time past their sleep had been

disturbed by noises and shouting, in which the cordeliers, jacobins, and

other friars were concerned; and they desired to put an end to it. 'Some

disorderly women have settled in our quarter,' they told the council,

'and certain monks frequent their houses.'[730]... 'If you observe the

monks going there at night-time,' replied the council, 'give information

to the syndics and the captain-general. The watch will immediately go

and take them.' The citizens withdrew half satisfied with the answer,

but fully determined to call the watch as soon as the disorder was

renewed.

[Sidenote: UNION OF FAITH AND MORALITY.]

These scandals—an acknowledged thing at Rome—greatly exasperated the

citizens of Geneva, and made the better disposed long for a reformation

of faith and morals. They said that soldiers use their arms as their

officers command them: that the monks and priests (they should have said

all christians) ought also to use their lives as their chief orders

them; and that if they make a contrary use of them, they enlist under

the standard of vice and avow themselves its soldiers. The worthy

citizens of Geneva could not make that separation between religion and

morality, of which the greater part of the clergy set the example. In

proportion as the Reformation made progress in the world, the opposition

increased against a piety which consisted only in certain formulas,

ceremonies, and practices, but was deprived of its true substance—living

faith, sanctification, morality, and christian works. Christianity, by

the separation which Rome had made between doctrines and morals, had

become like one of those spoilt and useless tools that are thrown aside

because they can no longer serve in the operations for which they were

made. The reformers, by calling for a living, holy, active faith, were

again to make christianity in modern times a powerful engine of light

and morality, of liberty and life.

[Footnote 712: Acts i. 15; vi. 5; xv.]

[Footnote 713: See above, vol. i. p. 371.]

[Footnote 714: 'Nunc vero cum te Gebennæ reipublicæ gratia abesse

constat ... reficiemur. Utilitatem autem non vulgarem recens factis

civibus per te comparari.'—Zwingle to Thomas ab Hofen, 4 Jan. 1527.

_Epp._ ii. p. 9.]

[Footnote 715: 1 Peter ii. 9.]

[Footnote 716: 'Hic Genevæ numerus Evangelii doctrinam confitentium

augeri incipiat.'—Ab Hofen to Zwingle, January 17, 1527. Zwinglii _Epp._

ii. p. 15.]

[Footnote 717: 'You shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess

everlasting life.']

[Footnote 718: 'Clerici queruntur homines neque amplius sacra dona

præbere velle, neque tam vehementer ad indulgentias currere.'—Ab Hofen

to Zwingle. Zwinglii _Epp._ ii. p. 16.]

[Footnote 719: 'Quousque meæ vires valeant, in ea re nequaquam me

defecturum esse.'—Ab Hofen to Zwingle. Zwinglii _Epp._ ii. p. 15.]

[Footnote 720: 'In mediis reipublicæ negotiis, Christi negotiorum minime

sis negligens.'—Zwinglii _Epp._ ii. p. 9.]

[Footnote 721: 'Optime de Gebennæ civibus merebere, si non tantum leges

eorum ac jura, quantum animos componas.'—Ibid. p. 10.]

[Footnote 722: 'Animos autem quid melius componet, quam ejus sermo atque

doctrina qui animos ipse formavit?'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 723: 'Hæ enim ubi crescunt, tyrannorum audacia coerceretur.'—

Ibid.]

[Footnote 724: 'Non quasi torpentem sim expergefacturus; sed currentem

adhortor.'—Zwinglii _Epp._ ii. p. 10.]

[Footnote 725: 'In hac urbe clerici sunt ad 700, qui manibus pedibusque

impediunt, quominus Evangelii doctrina efflorescat.'—Zwinglii _Epp._ ii.

p. 10.]

[Footnote 726: 'Si prædicatores haberent, fore puto ut pontificia

doctrina labefactetur.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 727: 1 Cor. i. 27.]

[Footnote 728: Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. p. 461.]

[Footnote 729: 'Ne sont-ce pas nos écus qui font bouillir le pot de

l'évêque?']

[Footnote 730: 'Querelaverunt de putanis et certis religiosis qui ibidem

affluunt.'—Registres du Conseil du 10 mai 1527.]

CHAPTER III.

THE BISHOP CLINGS TO GENEVA, BUT THE CANONS DEPART.

(SUMMER 1527.)

[Sidenote: THE BISHOP'S NEW SCHEMES.]

The sack of Rome had made a great sensation in catholic countries.

Pierre de la Baume almost believed that the reign of popery had come to

an end, and was much alarmed for himself. If a prince so powerful as the

pope had succumbed, what would become of the Bishop of Geneva? The

alliance with the cantons, and the Gospel which a Swiss magistrate had

just been preaching, seemed to him the forerunners of his ruin. He had

no lansquenets before him, like those who had compelled Clement VII. to

flee, but he had huguenots, who, in his eyes, were more formidable

still. Liberty seemed to be coming forth, like the sun, from the night

of the middle ages; and the bishop thought the safest course would be to

turn towards the rising orb, and to throw himself into the arms of the

liberals. He had a strong preference for the Savoyard despotism; but, if

his interests required it, he was ready to pay court to liberty. Other

instances of this have been seen. The bishop, therefore, sanctioned the

sequestration of the property of the mamelukes, and made Besançon Hugues

a magnificent present. He conferred on him the perpetual fief of the

fishery of the lake, the Rhone, and the Arve, reserving to himself

(which showed the value of the gift) the right of redemption for two

thousand great ducats of gold.[731] All this was but a step towards the

accomplishment of a strange design.

The bishop had taken it into his head that he would form an alliance

with the Swiss, feeling convinced that they alone could protect him

against the impetuosity of the huguenots and the tyranny of the Duke of

Savoy. He therefore sent Robert Vandel to Friburg and Basle, to entreat

these states to admit him into their citizenship. This move caused the

greatest surprise among the Genevans. 'What!' said they, 'is Monseigneur

turning huguenot?' The Swiss rudely rejected the Romish prelate's

request. 'We will not have the bishop for our fellow-citizen,' they made

answer, 'and that for four reasons: first, he is fickle and changeable;

second, he is not beloved in Geneva; third, he is imperialist and

Burgundian; and fourth, he is a _priest_!' The cantons did not mention

the strongest reason. Friburg and Berne, allies of the city, could not

be at the same time the allies of the bishop, for how could they have

supported the rights of the Genevans against him?[732]

The bishop was not discouraged. At one time he felt his throne shaking

beneath him, and, fearing that it would fall, he clung to liberty with

all his might; at another, he fancied he could see the phantom of heresy

approaching with slow but sure step, and erelong taking its seat on his

throne ... and the sight increased his fear. He therefore sent Besançon

Hugues to Berne—a more influential diplomatist than Vandel—who was

received with consideration in the aristocratic circles, but had to bear

all kinds of reproach. The proud Bernese were indignant at his becoming

the advocate of a person so little esteemed as the bishop. One day, in

the presence of these energetic men who had witnessed so many struggles,

as Hugues was warmly pleading the prelate's cause, his listener suddenly

turned away with horror, and, as if he had been waving aside with his

hand some satanic vision, he said: 'The name of the bishop is more

hateful among us than that of the devil himself.' This was enough for

Hugues, who returned to Geneva greatly disheartened. Pierre de la Baume,

a vain and frivolous priest, soon consoled himself for this

discomfiture, laughing at the reproaches uttered against him. He amused

himself with the objections of the Swiss, and was continually repeating

to those about him: 'What would you have?... How could the Helvetians

receive me into their alliance? I am a priest and Burgundian!'... Thus,

at one time trembling, at another laughing, the Bishop of Geneva was

moving towards his ruin.[733]

[Sidenote: THE DUKE PLOTS AGAINST THE BISHOP.]

For some time Charles III., Duke of Savoy, had been watching the

prelate, and noting with vexation the interested and (in his opinion)

culpable overtures he was making to the Genevans and the confederates.

The news that the bishop had sent two envoys in succession to the Swiss

put a climax to the prince's anger. It is not sufficient for the

citizens to desire to emancipate themselves; even the bishops, whom the

dukes have always regarded as their agents, presume to tread in their

footsteps. This deserves a terrible punishment. The duke conferred with

his advisers on the nature of the lesson to be given the prelate. One of

the most decided of Charles's ministers proposed that he should be

kidnapped; the motion was supported, and the resolution taken. In order

to carry it into execution, it was necessary to gain some of the clergy

about him. The canons were sounded, and many of them, already sold to

the duke, promised their good offices. 'The bishop is a great devotee of

the Virgin,' they said; 'on Saturday, the day dedicated to St. Mary, he

generally goes to hear mass at Our Lady of Grace, outside the city. He

rides on a mule in company with other members of the cloth. Now, as this

church is separated from Savoy only by a bridge, the captain of his

highness's archers has simply to lie in ambush near the river to snap up

(_happer_) Monseigneur. The priests and officers about him, being bribed

or men of no courage, will run away. Let him be dragged hastily to the

other side of the Arve, and, once in the territory of Savoy, he can be

put to death as a traitor.' Everything was arranged by good catholics,

and the Archbishop of Turin probably had a share in it. The reformers

never went to work in so off-hand a manner as regards bishops.

[Sidenote: THE DUKE'S AMBUSCADE.]

Thus war broke out between the two great enemies of Geneva. The Genevans

knew not how to get rid of the prelate, and here was Charles, like

another Alexander, cutting the Gordian knot. The bishop once carried

off, one of the most formidable obstacles to independence, morality,

religion, and civilisation will be removed. So long as he is there,

nothing that is good can be done in Geneva; and when he is no longer

there, the city will become free. This, however, was not his highness's

plan: having 'snapped up' the duke, he expected to 'snap up' the city

also. This was his scheme for taking Geneva. 'As soon as the Savoyard

archers have kidnapped the bishop, certain of his highness's creatures

will go to the belfry of Notre Dame and ring the great bell. All the

bells of the adjoining villages will answer the signal; the nobles will

rush sword in hand from their castles, the country-people will take up

their scythes or other weapons, and all will march to Geneva. The

Genevans are hot and hasty: when they learn that the Savoyards have

crossed the Arve and violated their territory, they will take up arms

and march into the domains of Savoy to avenge the offence; but they will

find Pontverre and all his friends there ready to meet them. In the

midst of this agitation the duke will have a capital excuse for entering

the city and taking possession of it. And when he is established there,

he will cut off the heads of Hugues, the syndics, the councillors, M. de

Bonmont, and many others. Finally, Geneva shall have a bishop who will

occupy himself with refuting the heretics, and his highness will

undertake to make the hot-headed republicans bow beneath the sword of

the temporal power, and expel for ever from the city both reformers and

Reformation.'[734] The duke, charmed with this plan, made immediate

preparations for its execution. To prevent Pierre de la Baume from

escaping into Burgundy, he posted soldiers in all the passes of the

Jura, whilst his best captains were stationed round the city to carry

out the ambuscade.

[Sidenote: THE DUKE'S PLOT FAILS.]

These various measures could not be taken without something creeping

out. Geneva had friends in the villages, where an unusual agitation

indicated the approaching execution of some act of treachery. On

Thursday, the 11th of July, a man, making his way along by-paths,

arrived from Savoy, and said to the people of Geneva: 'Be on your

guard!' Two days later, Saturday the 13th, which was the day appointed

for action, another man, crossing the bridge of Arve, came and told one

of the syndics, between eight and nine in the morning, that some horse

and foot soldiers had been secretly posted at Lancy, only half a league

from the city. The syndics did not trouble themselves much about it; and

the bishop, who was naturally a timid man, but whom these warnings had

not reached, mounted his mule—it was the day when he went to make

adoration to the Virgin—rode out to Our Lady's, took his usual place,

and the mass began. Charles's soldiers were already advancing in the

direction of the bridge, in order to seize the prelate directly he left

the church. Some devout persons had pity on him, and just as the priest

had celebrated the mystery, a man, with troubled look, entered the

building (whether he came from Geneva or Savoy is unknown), walked

noiselessly to the place where the bishop was sitting, and whispered in

his ear: 'Monseigneur, the archers of Savoy are preparing to clutch you

(_gripper_).' At these words the startled La Baume turned pale and

trembled. He did not wait for the benediction; fear gave him wings; he

got up, rushed hastily out of the church, and leaped upon his mule

'without putting his foot in the stirrup, for he was a very nimble

person,' says Bonivard; then, using his heels for spurs, he struck the

animal's flanks, and galloped off full speed, shouting, at the top of

his voice, to the guards as he passed: 'Shut the gates!' The prelate

reached the city out of breath and all of a tremble.[735]

The city was soon in commotion. Besançon Hugues, the captain-general,

who was sincerely attached to La Baume, and strongly opposed to the

usurpations of Savoy, had divined the duke's plot, and, with his usual

energy, began to pass through the streets, saying: 'Close your shops,

put up the chains, bolt the city gates, beat the drum, sound an alarm,

and let every man take his arquebuse.' Then, leaving the streets, Hugues

went to St. Pierre's, and, notwithstanding the opposition of the canons,

accomplices in the conspiracy, he ordered the great bell to be rung. A

rumour had already spread on the other side of the Arve that the plot

had failed, and that the bishop had escaped on his mule. The men-at-arms

of Savoy were disconcerted; the village bells were not rung, the nobles

remained in their castles, the peasants in their fields. 'Our scheme has

got wind,' said the Savoyard captains; 'all the city is under arms; and

we must wait for a better opportunity.'

The canons, though siding with the duke, had concealed their game, and

employed certain creatures of Savoy to carry out the plot. These people

were known; they became alarmed, and saw no other means of escaping

death than by leaving the city. But all the gates were shut!... What of

that: despair gave them courage. At the very moment when the armed men

of Savoy were retiring, several persons were seen to run along the

streets, jump into the ditches of St. Gervais, scale the palisades, and

scamper away as fast as their legs could carry them. They were the

traitors who had corresponded with the enemy outside.

As for La Baume, he had lost his presence of mind. Rejected by the

Swiss, despised by the Genevans, persecuted by the duke, what should he

do? If he could but escape to his benefices in Burgundy, where the

people are so quiet and the wine is so good!—but, alas! all the passes

of the Jura are occupied by Savoyard soldiers. He was in great distress.

Not thinking himself safe in his palace, he had taken refuge in the

house of one of his partisans when he returned on his mule from his

visit to Our Lady's. He expected that the duke would follow up his plan,

would enter Geneva, and seek him throughout the city. Accordingly, he

remained quiet in the most secret hiding-place of the house which had

sheltered him. It was only when he was told that the Savoyard soldiers

had really retired, that all was tranquil outside the city, and that

even the huguenots did not think of laying hands on him, that he took

courage, came out of his hiding-place, and returned to the palace.

Nevertheless, he looked stealthily out of the window to see if the

huguenots or the ducal soldiers were not coming to seize him even in his

own house. The Genevans smiled at his terror; but everybody, the

creatures of Charles excepted, was pleased at the failure of the duke's

treachery. Religious men saw the hand of Heaven in this deliverance.

'They gave God thanks,' says Balard.[736]

This attack, abortive as it was, had one important consequence; it

delivered the city from the canons, and thus paved the way for the

Reformation. These men were in Geneva the representatives and supporters

of all kinds of religious and political tyranny. To save catholicism, it

would have been necessary for the clergy, and particularly for the

canons, who were their leaders, to unite with the laity, and, while

maintaining the Roman ceremonial, to demand the suppression of certain

episcopal privileges and ecclesiastical abuses. Some of the huguenot

chiefs—those who, like Hugues, loved the bishop, and those also who

subsequently opposed Calvin's reformation—would probably have entered

with joy into this order of things. For the execution of such a plan,

however, the priests ought to have been upright and free. But the

absolute authority of the Church, which had enfeebled the vigour of the

human mind, had specially degraded the priests. The clergy of Geneva had

fallen too low to effect a transformation of catholicism. Many of the

canons and even of the curés could see nothing but the act of a

revolutionist or even of a madman in the bishop's desire to ally himself

with the Swiss, and had consequently entered into Charles's scheme,

which was so hateful to the Genevans.

[Sidenote: THE BISHOP IMPRISONS THE CANONS.]

The huguenots hastened to take advantage of it. If the ducal plot had

not delivered them from the bishop, it must at least free them from the

canons. These ecclesiastical dignitaries never quitted Geneva, while the

bishop often absented himself to intrigue in Italy or to amuse himself

in Burgundy. They were besides more bigoted and fanatical than the

worldly prelate, and therefore all the more dangerous. And then, if they

desired to get rid of the bishop, was it not the wisest plan to begin

with his council? Shortly after the famous alert, some Genevan liberal

went to the palace and said to La Baume: 'The canons, my lord, are the

duke's spies: so long as they remain in Geneva, Savoy will have one foot

in the city.' The poor bishop was too exasperated against the canons not

to lend an ear to these words, and after ruining himself with the duke,

he took steps to ruin himself with the clergy, and to throw overboard

the most devoted friends of the Roman institutions. 'Yes,' said he,

'they intrigue (_grabugent_) against the Church!... Let them be

arrested.... It is they who wished to see me kidnapped.... Let them be

put in prison!' The next morning the procurator-fiscal, with his

sergeants, knocked at the doors of the most influential of the canons,

Messieurs De la Madeleine, De Montrotier, De Salery, De Veigy, and

others, arrested them, and, to the indescribable astonishment of the

servants and neighbours of these reverend gentlemen, carried them off to

prison.[737]

As soon as the gates were shut upon the canons, the bishop began to

reflect on the daring act he had just achieved. Still flushed with

anger, he did not repent, but he was uneasy, distressed, and amazed at

his own courage. If the duke sought to kidnap him but the other day,

what will this terrible prince do, now that he, La Baume, has boldly

thrown his most devoted partisans into prison?... All Savoy will march

against him. He sent for the captain-general, imparted to him all his

fears; and Besançon Hugues, his most faithful friend, wishing to

dissipate his alarm, placed watchmen on the tower of St. Pierre, on the

walls, and at every gate. They had instructions to inform the

commander-in-chief if a single horseman appeared on the horizon in the

direction of Savoy.

[Sidenote: HE DESIRES TO BE MADE FREE OF THE CITY.]

La Baume began to breathe again; yet he was not entirely at his ease. He

smiled to himself at the _watch_ of Besançon Hugues. What can these few

armed citizens do against the soldiers of the nephew of Francis I. and

brother-in-law of Charles V.? The Duke of Savoy was prowling round him

like a wild beast eager to devour him; the bishop thought that the bear

of Berne alone could defend him. But alas! Berne would have nothing to

do with him, because he was a _priest_ and a _Burgundian_!... He turned

all this over in his mind. He, so wary a politician, he whom the emperor

employed in his negotiations—shall not he find some outlet, when it is a

question of saving himself? On a sudden he hit upon a scheme for

becoming an ally of Berne, in spite of Berne. He will get himself made a

_citizen of Geneva_, and, by virtue of the general co-citizenship, he

will thus become the ally of the cantons. Delighted at this bright idea,

he communicated it to his intimate friends, and, unwilling to lose a

day, ordered the council-general to be convened for the morrow.[738]

On the next morning (15th of July) the bells of the cathedral rang out;

the burgesses, girding on their swords, left their houses to attend the

general council, and the bishop-prince, accompanied by his councillors

and officers, appeared in the midst of the people, and sat down on the

highest seat. Entirely absorbed by the strange ambition of becoming a

plain burgess of the city in which he was prince, he was profuse in

salutations; and to the huguenots he was particularly gracious. 'I

recall,' he said, 'my protest against the alliance with the Swiss. I

know how you cling to it; well! ... I now approve of it; I am willing to

give my adhesion to it; and, the more clearly to show my approval, I

desire that I may be made a freeman of the city.' Great was the

astonishment of the people. A bishop made a citizen of Geneva! Such a

thing had never been heard of. All the friends of independence, however,

were favourable to the scheme. Some wished to gratify the bishop; others

were pleased at anything that could separate him more completely from

the duke; all agreed that if the bishop were made a citizen of Geneva,

and united with their friends the confederates, great advantage would

result to the city. If he begins with turning Swiss, who knows if he

will not turn protestant? The general council therefore granted his

request.

[Sidenote: HE CONCEDES THE CIVIL JURISDICTION.]

Wishing to make him pay for his freedom, and not to lose an opportunity

of recovering their liberties, the syndics begged him to transfer all

civil suits to lay jurisdiction. Laymen judges in an ecclesiastical

principality!... It was a great revolution, and three centuries and more

were to pass away before a similar victory was gained in other states of

that class. The bishop understood the great importance of such a

request; he fancied he could already hear the endless appeals of the

clergy who found themselves deprived of their honours and their profits;

but at this time he was acting the part of a liberal pope, while the

canons were playing the incorrigible cardinals. He said Yes. It was an

immense gain to the community, for interminable delays and crying abuses

characterised the ecclesiastical tribunals at Geneva as well as at Rome.