THE REFORMATION IN GENEVA UNDER CALVIN.[42]
§ 1. _Geneva._
Geneva, which was to be the citadel of the Reformed faith in Europe, had
a history which prepared it for the part it was destined to play.
The ancient constitution of the town, solemnly promulgated in 1387,
recognised three different authorities within its walls: the Bishop, who
was the sovereign or "Prince" of the city; the Count, who had possession
of the citadel; and the Free Burghers. The first act of the Bishop on
his nomination was to go to the Church of St. Peter and swear on the
Missal that he would maintain the civic rights. The House of Savoy had
succeeded to the countship of Geneva, and they were represented within
the town by a viceroy, who was called the Count or _Vidomne_. He was the
supreme justiciary. The citizens were democratically organised. They met
once a year in a recognised civic assembly to elect four Syndics to be
their rulers and representatives. It was the Syndics who in their
official capacity heard the oaths of the Bishop and of the Vidomne to
uphold the rights and privileges of the town. They kept order within the
walls from sunrise to sunset.
These three separate authorities were frequently in conflict, and in the
triangular duel the citizens and the Bishop were generally in alliance
against the House of Savoy and its viceroy. The consequence was that few
mediæval cities under ecclesiastical rule were more loyal than Geneva
was to its Bishop, so long as he respected the people's rights and stood
by them against their feudal lords when they attempted oppression.
In the years succeeding 1444 the hereditary loyalty to their bishops had
to stand severe tests. Count Amadeus VIII. of Savoy, one of the most
remarkable men of the fifteenth century,--he ascended the papal throne
and resigned the Pontificate to become a hermit,--used his pontifical
power to possess himself of the bishopric. From that date onwards the
Bishop of Geneva was almost always a member of the House of Savoy, and
the rights of the citizens were for the most part disregarded. The
bishopric became an appanage of Savoy, and boys (one of ten years of
age, another of seventeen) and bastards ruled from the episcopal chair.
After long endurance a party formed itself among the townspeople vowed
to restore the old rights of the city. They called themselves, or were
named by others, the _Eidguenots_ (_Eidgenossen_); while the partisans
of the Bishop and of the House of Savoy were termed _Mamelukes_,
because, it was said, they had forsaken Christianity.
In their difficulties the Genevans turned to the Swiss cantons nearest
them and asked to be allied with Freiburg and Bern. Freiburg consented,
and an alliance was made in 1519; but Bern, an aristocratic republic,
was unwilling to meddle in the struggle of a democracy in a town outside
the Swiss Confederacy. The citizens of Bern, more sympathetic than their
rulers, compelled them to make alliance with Geneva in 1526,--very
half-heartedly on the part of the Bernese Council.
The Swiss cantons, Bern especially, could not in their own interest see
the patriotic party in Geneva wholly crushed, and the "gate of Western
Switzerland" left completely in possession of the House of Savoy.
Therefore, when the Bishop assembled an army for the purpose of
effectually crushing all opposition within the town, Bern and Freiburg
collected their forces and routed the troops of Savoy. But the allies,
instead of using to the full the advantage they had gained, were content
with a compromise by which the Bishop remained the lord of Geneva, while
the rights of the Vidomne were greatly curtailed, and the privileges of
the townsmen were to be respected (Oct. 19th, 1530).
From this date onwards Geneva was governed by what was called _le Petit
Conseil_, and was generally spoken of as the Council; then a _Council of
Two Hundred_, framed on the model of those of Freiburg and Bern; lastly,
by the _Conseil General_, or assembly of the citizens. All important
transactions were first submitted to and deliberated on by the _Petit
Conseil_, which handed them on with their opinion of what ought to be
done to the _Council of the Two Hundred_. No change of situation--for
example, the adoption of the Reformation--was finally adopted until
submitted to the _General Council_ of all the burghers.
It is possible that had there seemed to be any immediate prospects that
Geneva would join the Reformation, Bern would have aided the patriots
more effectually. Bern was the great Protestant Power in Western
Switzerland. Its uniform policy, since 1528, had been to constitute
itself the protector of towns and districts where a majority of the
inhabitants were anxious to take the side of the Reformation and were
hindered by their overlords. It made alliances with the towns in the
territories of the Bishop of Basel, and enabled them to assert their
independence. In May (23rd) 1532 it warned the Duke of Savoy that if he
thought of persecuting the inhabitants of Payerne because of their
religion, it would make their cause its own, and declared that its
alliance with the town was much more ancient than any existing between
Bern and the Duke.[43] But the case of Geneva was different. Signs,
indeed, were not lacking that many of the people were inclined to the
Reformation.[44] It is more than probable that some of the members of
the Councils were longing for a religious reform. But however much in
earnest the reformers might be, they were in a minority, and it was no
part of the policy of Bern to interfere without due call in the internal
administration of the city; still less to see the rise of a strong and
independent Roman Catholic city-republic on its own western border.
Suddenly, in the middle of 1532, Geneva was thrown into a state of
violent religious commotion. Pope Clement VII. had published an
Indulgence within the city on the usual conditions. On the morning of
June 9th, the citizens found posted up on all the doors of the churches
great printed placards, announcing that "plenary pardon would be granted
to every one for all their sins on the one condition of repentance, and
a living faith in the promises of Jesus Christ." The city was moved to
its depths. Priests rushed to tear the placards down. "Lutherans"
interfered. Tumults ensued; and one of the canons of the cathedral,
Pierre Werly, was wounded in the arm.[45]
The Romanists, both inside and outside the town, were inclined to
believe that the affair meant more than it really did. Freiburg had been
very suspicious of the influence of the great Protestant canton of Bern,
perhaps not without reason. In March (7th) 1532, the deputies of Geneva
had been blamed by the inhabitants of Freiburg for being inclined to
Lutheranism, and it is more than likely that the Evangelicals of Geneva
had some private dealings with the Council of Bern, and had been told
that the times were not ripe for any open action on the part of the
Protestant canton. The affair of the placards, witnessing as it did the
increased strength of the Evangelical party, reawakened suspicions and
intensified alarms. A deputy from Freiburg appeared before the Council
of Geneva, complaining of the placards,[46] and of the distribution of
heretical literature in the city of Geneva (June 24th). The Papal Nuncio
wrote from Chambéry (July 8th), asking if it were true, as was publicly
reported, that the Lutheran heresy was openly professed and taught in
the houses, churches, and even in the schools of Geneva.[47] The letter
of the Nuncio was dismissed with a careless answer; but Freiburg had to
be contented. Two extracts from the Register of the Council quoted by
Herminjard show their anxiety to satisfy Freiburg and yet bear evidence
of a very moderate zeal for the Romanist religion. They decided (June
29th) that no schoolmaster was to be allowed to preach in the town
unless specially licensed by the vicar or the Syndics; and (June 30th)
they resolved to request the vicar to see that the Gospel and the
Epistle of the day were read "truthfully without being mixed up with
fables and other inventions of men"; they added that they meant to live
as their fathers, without any innovations.[48]
The excitement had not died down when Farel arrived in the city in the
autumn of 1532. He preached quietly in houses; but his coming was known,
and led to some tumults. He and his companions, Saunier and Olivétan,
were seized and sent out of the city. The Reformation had begun, and, in
spite of many hindrances, was destined to be successful.
§ 2. _The Reformation in Western Switzerland._
The conversion of Geneva to the Reformed faith was the crown of a work
which had been promoted by the canton of Bern ever since its Council had
decided, in 1528, to adopt the Reformation. Bern itself belonged to
German-speaking Switzerland, but it had extensive possessions in the
French-speaking districts. It was the only State strong enough to
confront the Dukes of Savoy, and was looked upon as a natural protector
against that House and other feudal principalities. Its position may be
seen in its relations to the Pays de Vaud. The Pays de Vaud consisted of
a confederacy of towns and small feudal estates owning fealty to the
House of Savoy. The nobles, the towns, and in some instances the clergy,
sent deputies to a Diet which met at Moudon under the presidency of the
"governor and bailli de Vaud," who represented the Duke of Savoy. A
large portion of the country had broken away from Savoy at different
periods during the fifteenth century. Lausanne and eight other smaller
towns and districts formed the patrimony of the Prince-Bishop of
Lausanne. The cantons of Freiburg and Bern ruled jointly over Orbe,
Grandson, and Morat. Bern had become the sole ruler over what were
called the four commanderies of Aigle, Ormonts, Ollon, and Bex. These
four commanderies were outlying portions of Bern, and were entirely
under the rule of its Council. When Bern had accepted the Reformation,
it naturally wished its dependencies to follow its example; and its
policy was always directed to induce other portions of the Pays de Vaud
to become Protestant also. Farel, the Apostle of French-speaking
Switzerland, might almost be called an agent of the Council of Bern.
Its method of work may be best seen by taking the examples of Aigle and
Lausanne, the one its own possession and the other belonging to the
Prince-Bishop, who was its political ruler.
William Farel, once a member of the "group of Meaux," whom we have
already seen active at the Disputation in Bern in the beginning of 1528,
had settled at Aigle in 1526, probably by the middle of November.[49] He
did so, he says in his memoir to the Council of Bern--
"With the intention of opening a school to instruct the youth in
virtue and learning, and in order to procure for myself the
necessities of life. Received at once with brotherly good-will by
some of the burghers of the place, I was asked by them to preach
the Word of God before the Governor, who was then at Bern, had
returned. I acceded to their request. But as soon as the Governor
returned I asked his permission to keep the school, and by
acquaintances also asked him to permit me to preach. The Governor
acceded to their request, but on condition that I preached nothing
but the pure simple clear Word of God according to the Old and New
Testament, without any addition contrary to the Word, and without
attacking the Holy Sacraments.... I promised to conform myself to
the will of the Governor, and declared myself ready to submit to
any punishment he pleased to inflict upon me if I disobeyed his
orders or acted in any way recognised to be contrary to the Word of
God."[50]
This was the beginning of a work which gradually spread over
French-speaking Switzerland.
The Bishop of Sion, within whose diocese Aigle was situated, published
an order forbidding all wandering preachers who had not his episcopal
licence from preaching within the confines of his diocese; and this
appears to have been used against Farel. Some representation must have
been made to the Council of Bern, who indignantly declared that no one
was permitted to publish citations, excommunications, interdicts, _ne
autres fanfares_ within their territories; but at the same time ordered
Farel to cease preaching, because he had never been ordained a priest
(February 22nd, 1527).[51] The interdict did not last very long; for a
minute of Council (March 8th) says, "Farel is permitted to preach at
Aigle until the Coadjutor sends another capable priest."[52] Troubles
arose from priests and monks, but upon the whole the Council of Bern
supported him; and Haller and others wrote from Bern privately,
beseeching him to persevere.[53] He remained, and the number of those
who accepted the Evangelical faith under his ministry increased
gradually until they appear to have been the majority of the people.[54]
He confessed himself that what hindered him most was his denunciation of
the prevailing immoralities. At the Disputation in Bern, Farel was
recognised to be one of the ablest theologians present, and to have
contributed in no small degree to the success of the conference. The
Council of Bern saw in him the instrument best fitted for the
evangelisation of their French-speaking population. He returned to Aigle
under the protection of the Council, who sent a herald with him to
ensure that he should be treated with all respect, and gave him besides
an "open letter," ordering their officials to render him all assistance
everywhere within their four commanderies.[55] He was recognised to be
the evangelist of the Council of Bern. This did not prevent occasional
disturbances, riots promoted by priests and monks, who set the bells
a-ringing to drown the preacher's voice, and sometimes procured men to
beat drums at the doors of the churches in which he was preaching. His
success, however, was so great, that when the commissioners of Bern
visited their four commanderies they found that three of them were ready
by a majority of votes to adopt the Reformation (March 2nd, 1528). The
adoption of the Reformation was signified by the removal of altars and
images, and by the abolition of the Mass.
In the parishes where a majority of the people declared for the
Reformation, the Council of Bern issued instructions about the order of
public worship and other ecclesiastical rites. Thus we find them
intimating to their Governor at Aigle that they expected the people to
observe the same form of Baptism, of the Table of the Lord, and of the
celebration of marriage, as was in use at Bern (April 25th, 1528).[56]
The Bern Liturgy, obligatory in all the German-speaking districts of the
canton, was not imposed on the Romance Churches until 1552. Then, in
July (1528), the Governor is informed that--
"My Lords have resolved to allow to the preachers Farel and Simon
'pour leur prébende' two hundred florins of Savoy annually, and a
house with a court, and a kitchen garden. But if they prefer to
have the old revenues of the parish cures ... my Lords are willing.
If, on the contrary, they take the two hundred florins, you are to
sell the ecclesiastical goods, and you are to collect the
hundredths and the tithes, and out of all you are to pay the two
hundred florins annually."[57]
The pastors preferred to take the place of the Romanist incumbents, and
there is accordingly another minute sent to the Castellan, syndic, and
parishioners of Aigle, ordering Farel to be placed in possession of the
ecclesiastical possessions of the parish, "seeing that it is reasonable
that the pastor should have his portion of the fruits of the sheep."[58]
The history of Aigle was repeated over and over again in other parts of
western Switzerland. In the bailiwicks which Bern and Freiburg ruled
jointly, Bern insisted on freedom of preaching, and on the right of the
people to choose whether they would remain Romanists or become
Protestants. Commissioners from the two cantons presided when the votes
were given.
Farel was too valuable to be left as pastor of a small district like
Aigle. We find him making wide preaching tours, always protected by Bern
when protection was possible. It was the rooted belief of the
Protestants that a public Disputation on matters of religion in presence
of the people, the speakers using the language understood by the crowd,
always resulted in spreading the Reformation; and Bern continually tried
to get such conferences in towns where the authorities were Romanist.
Their first interference in the ecclesiastical affairs of Lausanne was
of this kind. It seems that some of the priests of Lausanne had accused
Farel of being a heretic; whereupon the Council of Bern demanded that
Farel should be heard before the Bishop of Lausanne's tribunal, in order
to prove that he was no heretic. The claim led to a long correspondence.
The Bishop continually refused; while the Council and citizens seemed
inclined to grant the request. Farel could not get a hearing before the
episcopal tribunal, but he visited the town, and on the second occasion
was permitted by the Council to preach to the people. This occurred
again and again; and the result was that the town became Protestant and
disowned the authority of the Bishop. Bern assisted the inhabitants to
drive the Bishop away, and to become a free municipality and Protestant.
Gradually Farel had become the leader of an organised band of
missioners, who devoted themselves to the evangelisation of western or
French-speaking Switzerland.[59] They had been carefully selected--young
men for the most part well educated, of unbounded courage, willing to
face all the risks of their dangerous work, daunted by no threat or
peril, taking their lives in their hand. They were the forerunners of
the young preachers, teachers, and colporteurs whom Calvin trained later
in Geneva and sent forth by the hundred to evangelise France and the Low
Countries. They were all picked men. No one was admitted to the little
band without being well warned of the hazardous work before him, and
some who were ready to take all the risks were rejected because the
leader was not sure that they had the necessary powers of endurance.[60]
These preachers were under the protection of the canton of Bern, whose
authorities were resolute to maintain the freedom to preach the Word of
God; but they continually went where the Bernese had no power to assist
them; nor could the protection of that powerful canton aid them in
sudden emergencies when bitter Romanist partisans, infuriated by the
invectives with which the preachers lashed the abuses of the Roman
religion, or wrathful at their very presence, stirred up the mob against
them. When their correspondence and that of their opponents--a
correspondence collected and carefully edited by M. Herminjard--is read,
it can be seen that they could always count on a certain amount of
sympathy from the people of the towns and villages where they preached,
but that the authorities were for the most part hostile. If Bern
insisted on their protection, Freiburg was as active in opposing them,
and lost no opportunity of urging the local authorities to harass them
in every way, to silence their preaching, and if possible to expel them
from their territories.
Such men had the defects of their qualities. Their zeal often outran
their discretion. When Farel and Froment, the most daring and devoted of
his band, were preaching at a village in the vale of Villingen, a priest
began to chant the Mass beside them. As the priest elevated the Host,
Froment seized it and, turning towards the people, said, "This is not
the God to adore; He is in the Heaven in the glory of the Father, not in
the hands of the priests as you believe, and as they teach." There was a
riot, of course, but the preachers escaped. Next day, however, as they
were passing a solitary place, they were assailed by a crowd of men and
women, stoned and beaten with clubs, then hurried away to a neighbouring
castle whose chatelaine had instigated the attack. There they were
thrust violently into the chapel, and the crowd tried to make Farel
prostrate himself before an image of the Blessed Virgin. He resisted,
admonishing them to adore the one God in spirit and in truth, not dumb
images without sense or power. The crowd beat him to the effusion of
blood, and the two preachers were dragged to a vault, where they were
imprisoned until rescued by the authorities of Neuchâtel.[61]
These preachers were all Frenchmen or French-Swiss. They had the hot
Celtic blood in their veins, and their hearers were their kith and
kin--prompt to act, impetuous when their passions were stirred. Scenes
occurred at their preaching which we seldom hear of among slower
Germans, who generally waited until their authorities led. In western
Switzerland the audiences were eager to get rid of the idolatries
denounced. At Grandson, the people rushed to the church of the
Cordeliers, and tore down the altars and images, while the crosses,
altars, and images of the parish church were also destroyed.[62]
Similar tumults took place at Orbe; and the authorities at Bern, who
desired to see liberty for both Protestants and Romanists, had occasion
to rebuke the zealous preachers.
But the dangers which the missioners ran were not always of their own
provoking. Sometimes a crowd of women invaded the churches in which they
preached, interrupted the services with shoutings, hustled and beat the
preachers; sometimes when they addressed the people in the market-place
the preachers and their audience were assailed with showers of stones;
sometimes Farel and his companions were laid wait for and
maltreated.[63] M. de Watteville, sent down by the authorities of Bern
to report on disturbances, wrote to the Council of Bern that the faces
of the preachers were so torn that it looked as if they had been
fighting with cats, and that on one occasion the alarm-bell had been
sounded against them, as was the custom for a wolf-hunt.[64]
No dangers daunted the missioners, and soon the whole of the outlying
districts of Bern, Neuchâtel, Soleure, and other French-speaking
portions of Switzerland declared for the Reformation. The cantonal
authorities frequently sent down commissioners to ascertain the wishes
of the people; and when the majority of the inhabitants voted for the
Evangelical religion, the church, parsonage, and stipend were given to a
Protestant pastor. Many of Farel's missioners were temporarily settled
in these village churches; but they were for the most part better fitted
for pioneer work than for a settled pastorate. In January (9-14th) 1532,
a synod of these Protestant pastors was held at Bern to deliberate on
some uniform ways of exercising their ministry to prevent disorders
arising from individual caprice. Two hundred and thirty ministers were
present, and Bucer was brought from Strassburg to give them guidance.
His advice was greatly appreciated and followed by the delegates of the
churches and the Council of Bern. The Synod in the end issued an
elaborate ordinance, which included a lengthy exposition of
doctrine.[65]
§ 3. _Farel in Geneva._
It was after this consolidation of the Reformation in Bern and its
outlying provinces that Farel found himself free to turn his attention
to Geneva. He had evidently been thinking for months about the
possibility of evangelising the town. He had little fear of the people
themselves, and he wrote to Zwingli (Oct. 1st, 1531) that were it not
for the dread of Freiburg, he believed that the Genevese would welcome
the Gospel.[66] The affair of the "placards" seems to have decided him
to begin his mission in the city. When he was driven out he was far from
abandoning the enterprise. He turned to Froment, his most trusted
assistant, and sent him into Geneva.
Antoine Froment, who has the honour along with Farel of being the
Reformer of Geneva, was born at Tries, near Grenoble, about 1510. He was
therefore, like Farel, a native of Dauphiné. Like him, also, he had gone
to Paris for his education, and had become acquainted with Lefèvre, who
seems to have introduced him to Marguerite d'Angoulême, the Queen of
Navarre,[67] as he received from her a prebend in a canonry on one of
her estates. How he came to Switzerland is unknown. Once there and
introduced to Farel, he became his most daring and enthusiastic
disciple, and Farel prized him above all the others. They were Paul and
Timothy. It was natural that Farel should entrust him with the difficult
and dangerous task of preaching the Gospel in Geneva.
Farel's seizure and expulsion made it necessary to proceed with caution.
Froment entered Geneva (Nov. 3rd, 1532), and began his work by
intimating by public advertisement (_placard_) that he was ready to
teach any one who wished to learn to read and write the French language,
and that he would charge no fees if his pupils were not able to profit
by his instructions. Scholars came.[68] He managed to mingle Evangelical
instruction with his lessons,--"every day one or two sermons from the
Holy Scripture," he says,--and soon made many converts, especially among
the wives of influential citizens. Towards the end of 1532, the monks of
one of the convents in Geneva had brought to the city a Dominican,
Christopher Bocquet, to be their Advent preacher. His sermons seem to
have been largely Evangelical, and had the effect of inducing many of
the citizens to attend Froment's discourses in the hall where he kept
his school.[69] This provoked threats on the part of the Romanists, and
strongly worded sermons from the priests and Romanist orators. One
citizen, convicted of having spoken disrespectfully of the Mass, was
banished, and forbidden to return on pain of death. On this the
Evangelicals of the town appealed to Bern. Their letter was promptly
answered by a demand on the part of the Council of that canton that the
Evangelicals must be left in peace, and if attacked publicly must be
allowed to answer in as public a fashion.[70] When their letter was read
in the Council of Geneva, it provoked some protests from the more
ardently Romanist members, and the priests stirred up part of the
population to riotous proceedings, in which the lives of the
Evangelicals were threatened. The Syndics and Council had difficulty in
preventing conflicts in the streets. They published a decree (March
30th, 1533), in which they practically proclaimed liberty of conscience,
but forbade all insulting expressions, all attacks on the Sacraments or
on the ecclesiastical fasts and ceremonies, and again ordered preachers
to say nothing which could not be proved from Holy Scripture.[71]
The numbers of the Evangelicals increased daily; they became bolder, and
on the 10th of April they met in a garden, under the presidency of
Guérin Muète, a hosier, for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. This
became known to the Romanists, and there was a renewal of the threats
against the Evangelicals, which came to a head in the riot of the 5th of
May--a riot which had important consequences.[72] It seems that while
several citizens, known to belong to the Evangelical party, were walking
in the square before the Cathedral of St. Peter, they were attacked by a
band of armed priests, and three of them were severely wounded. The
leader of the band, a turbulent priest named Pierre Werly, who belonged
to an old family of Freiburg, and was a canon in the cathedral, followed
by five or six others, rushed down to the broad street Molard, with loud
shouts. Werly was armed with one of the huge Swiss swords. He and his
companions attacked the Evangelicals; there was a sharp, short fight;
several persons were wounded severely, and Werly, "the captain of the
priests," was slain.[73] The affair made a great noise. The Romanists at
once proclaimed Werly a martyr, and honoured him with a pompous funeral.
Freiburg insisted that all the Evangelicals who happened to be in the
Molard should be arrested; and it was said that preparations were being
made for a massacre of all the followers of the Reformation. In their
extremity they again appealed to Bern, whose authorities again
interfered for their protection.
During these troublesome times the position of the Council of Geneva was
one of great difficulty. The Prince-Bishop of Geneva, Pierre de la
Baume, was still nominally sovereign, secular as well as ecclesiastical
ruler. His secular powers had been greatly curtailed, how much it is
difficult to say, but certainly to the extent that the criminal
administration of the city and the territory subject to it was in the
hands of the Council and Syndics. Freiburg, one of the two protecting
cantons, insisted that all the ecclesiastical authority was still in the
hands of the Bishop, to be administered in his absence by his vicar.[74]
The Councils, although they had passed decrees (June 30th, 1532, and
March 30th, 1533) which had distinctly to do with ecclesiastical
matters, acknowledged for the most part that the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction did not belong to them. But the whole of the inhabitants
were not contented with this diminution of the episcopal authority.
Turbulent priests and the yet more violent canons,[75] the great body of
monks and nuns, wished, and intrigued for the restoration of the rule of
the Bishop and of the House of Savoy. The beginnings of a movement for
Reformation had increased the difficulties of the Council; it brought a
third party into the town. The Evangelicals were all strongly opposed to
the rule of the Bishop and Savoy, and they were fast growing in
strength; a powerful minority of Roman Catholics were no less strongly
in favour of a return to the old condition. The majority of the Roman
Catholic citizens, opposed to the Bishop as a secular ruler, had no
desire for the triumph of the Reformation. As time went on, it was seen
that these moderate Romanists had to choose between a return of the old
disorderly rule of the Bishop, or to acquiesce in the ecclesiastical as
well as the secular superiority of the Council, pressed by the
Protestant canton of Bern. The Savoyard party evidently believed that
their hatred of the Reformation would be stronger than their dislike to
the Savoyard and episcopal rule--a mistaken belief, as events were to
show.
The policy of Bern, wherever its influence prevailed in western
Switzerland, was exerted to secure toleration for all Evangelicals, and
to procure, if possible, a public discussion on matters of religion
between the Romanists and leading Reformers. They pressed this over and
over again on their allies of Geneva. As early as April 1533, they had
insisted that a monk who had offered to refute Farel should be kept to
his word, and that the Council of Geneva should arrange for a Public
Disputation.[76] Towards the close of the year an event occurred which
gave them a pretext for decisive interference.
Guy Furbiti, a renowned Roman Catholic preacher, a learned theologian, a
doctor of the Sorbonne, had been brought to Geneva to be Advent
preacher. He used the occasion to denounce vigorously the doctrines of
the Evangelicals, supporting his statements, as he afterwards confessed,
not from Scripture, but from the Decretals and from the writings of
Thomas Aquinas. He ended his sermon (Dec. 2nd) with the words: "Where
are those fine preachers of the fireside, who say the opposite? If they
showed themselves here one could speak to them. Ha! ha! they are well to
hide themselves in corners to deceive poor women and others who know
nothing."
After the sermon, either in church or in the square before the
cathedral, Froment cried to the crowd, "Hear me! I am ready to give my
life, and my body to be burned, to maintain that what that man has said
is nothing but falsehood and the words of Antichrist." There was a great
commotion. Some shouted, "To the fire with him! to the fire!" and tried
to seize him. The chronicler nun, Jeanne de Jussie, proud of her sex,
relates that "les femmes comme enragées sortirent après, de grande
furie, luy jettant force pierres."[77] He escaped from them. But
Alexandre Canus was banished, and forbidden to return under pain of
death; and Froment was hunted from house to house, until he found a
hiding-place in a hay-loft. Furbiti had permitted himself to attack with
strong invectives the authorities of Bern, and the Evangelicals of
Geneva in their appeal for protection sent extracts from the
sermons.[78] Bern had at last the opportunity for which its Council had
long waited.
They wrote a dignified letter (Dec. 17th, 1533) to the Council of
Geneva, in which they complained that the Genevese, their allies, had
hitherto paid little attention to their requests for a favourable
treatment of the Evangelicals; that they had expelled from the town
"nostre serviteur maistre Guillaume Farel"; not content with that, they
had recently misused their "servants" Froment and Alexandre for
protesting against the sermons of a Jacobin monk (Furbiti) who "preached
only lies, errors, and blasphemies against God, the faith, and
ourselves, wounding our honour, calling us Jews, Turks, and dogs"; that
the banishment of Alexandre and the hunting of Froment touched them (the
Council of Bern), and that they would not suffer it. They demanded the
immediate arrest of the "_caffard_"[79] (Furbiti); and they said they
were about to send an embassy to Geneva to vindicate publicly the honour
of God and their own.[80]
As the Council of Bern meant to enforce a Public Disputation, they sent
Farel to Geneva. He reached the city on the evening of December 20th.
The letter was read to the Council of Geneva upon Dec. 21st, and they at
once gave orders to the vicar to prevent Furbiti leaving the town. But
the vicar, who had resolved to try his strength against Bern, refused,
and actually published two mandates (Dec. 31st, 1533, and Jan. 1st,
1534) denouncing the Genevese Syndics, forbidding any of the citizens to
read the Holy Scriptures, and ordering all copies of translations of the
Bible, whether in German or in French, to be seized and burnt.[81] The
dispute between Syndics and vicar was signalised by riots promoted by
the extreme Romanist party. The Council, anxious not to proceed to
extremities, contented themselves with placing a guard to watch Furbiti;
and the monk was attended continually, even when he went to and from the
church, by a guard of three halberdiers.
The Bernese embassy arrived on the 4th of January, and had prolonged
audience of the Council of Geneva on the 5th and 7th. They insisted on a
fair treatment for the Evangelical party, which meant freedom of
conscience and the right of public worship, and they demanded that
Furbiti should be compelled to justify his charges against the
Evangelicals in the presence of learned men who could speak for the
Council of Bern. The Genevan authorities had no wish to break
irrevocably with their Bishop, nor to coerce the ecclesiastical
authorities; they pleaded that Furbiti was not under their jurisdiction,
and they referred the Bernese deputies to the Bishop or his vicar. "We
have been ordered to apply to you," said the deputies from Bern. "Your
answer makes us see that you seek delay, and that you are not treating
us fairly; that you think little of the honour of the Council of Bern.
Here is the treaty of alliance (they produced the document), and we are
about to tear off the seals." This was the formal way among the Swiss of
cancelling a treaty. The Councillors of Geneva then proposed that they
should compel the monk to appear before them and the deputies of Bern,
when explanations might be demanded from him. The deputies accepted the
offer, but on condition that there should be a conference between the
monk (Furbiti) and theologians sent from Bern (Farel and Viret). Next
day Furbiti was taken from the episcopal palace and placed in the town's
prison (Jan. 8th), and on the morrow (Jan. 9th) he was brought before
the Council. There he refused to plead before secular judges. The
Council of Geneva tried in vain to induce the vicar to nominate an
ecclesiastical delegate who was to sit in the Council and be present at
the conference. Their negotiations with the vicar, carried on for some
days, were in vain. Then they attempted to induce the Bernese to depart
from their conditions. The Council of Bern was immovable. It insisted on
the immediate payment by the Genevese of the debt due to Bern for the
war of deliverance and for the punishment of Furbiti (Jan. 25th, 1534).
Driven to the wall, the Council of Geneva resolved to override the
ecclesiastical authority of the Bishop and his vicar. Furbiti was
compelled to appear before the Council and the deputies of Bern, and to
answer to Farel and Viret on Jan. 27th and Feb. 3rd (1534). On the
afternoon of the latter day the partisans of the Bishop got up another
riot, in which one of them poniarded an Evangelical, Nicolas Bergier.
This riot seems to have exhausted the patience of the peaceable citizens
of Geneva, whether Romanists or Evangelicals. A band of about five
hundred assembled armed before the Town Hall, informed the Council that
they would no longer tolerate riots caused by turbulent priests, and
that they were ready to support civic authority and put down lawlessness
with a strong hand. The Council thereupon acted energetically. That
night the murderer, Claude Pennet, who had hid himself in the belfry of
the cathedral, was dragged from his place of concealment, tried next
day, and hanged on the day following (Feb. 5th). The houses of the
principal rioters were searched, and letters discovered proving a plot
to seize the town and deliver it into the hands of the Bishop. Pierre de
la Baume had gone the length of nominating a member of the Council of
Freiburg, M. Pavillard, to act as his deputy in secular affairs, and
ordering him to massacre the Evangelicals within the city.
When the excitement had somewhat died down, the deputies of Bern pressed
for a renewal of the proceedings against Furbiti. The monk was again
brought before the Council, and confronted by Farel and Viret. He was
forced to confess that he could not prove his assertions from the Holy
Scriptures, but had based them on the Decretals and the writings of
Thomas Aquinas, admitting that he had transgressed the regulations of
the Council of Geneva. He promised that, if allowed to preach on the
following Sunday (Feb. 15th), he would make public reparation to the
Council of Bern. When Sunday came he refused to keep his promise, and
was sent back to prison.[82]
Meanwhile the Evangelical community in Geneva was growing, and taking
organised form. One of the most prominent of the Genevan Evangelicals,
Jean Baudichon de la Maisonneuve, prepared a hall by removing a
partition between two rooms in his magnificent house, situated in that
part of the city which was the cradle of the Reformation in Geneva.
There Farel, Viret, and Froment preached to three or four hundred
persons; and there the first baptism according to the Reformed rite was
celebrated in Geneva (Feb. 22nd, 1533). The audiences soon increased
beyond the capacity of the hall, and the Evangelicals, protected by the
presence of the Bernese deputies, took possession of the large audience
hall or church of the Convent of the Cordeliers in the same street
(March 1st). The deputies from Bern frequently asked the Council of
Geneva to grant the use of one of the churches of the town for the
Evangelicals, but were continually answered that the Council had not the
power, but that they would not object if the Evangelicals found a
suitable place. This indirect authorisation enabled them to meet in the
convent church, which held between four and five thousand people, and
which was frequently filled. Thus the little band increased. Farel
preached for the first time in St. Peter's on the 8th of August 1535.
Services were held in other houses also.[83]
The Bishop of Geneva, foiled in his attempt to regain possession of the
town by well-planned riots, united himself with the Duke of Savoy to
conquer the city by force of arms. Their combined forces advanced
against Geneva; they overran the country, seized and pillaged the
country houses of the citizens, and subjected the town itself to a
close investment. The war was a grievous matter for the city, but it
furthered the Reformation. The Bishop had leagued himself with the old
enemy of Geneva; the priests, the monks, the nuns were eager for his
success; he compelled patriotic Roman Catholics to choose between their
religion and their country. It was also a means of displaying the
heroism of the Protestant pastors. Farel and Froment were high-spirited
Frenchmen, who scoffed at any danger lying in the path of duty. They had
braved a thousand perils in their missionary work. Viret was not less
courageous. The three worked on the fortifications with the citizens;
they shared the watches of the defenders; they encouraged the citizens
by word and deed. The Genevese were prepared for any sacrifices to
preserve their liberties. Four faubourgs, which formed a second town
almost as large as the first, were ordered to be demolished to
strengthen the defence. The city was reduced to great straits, and the
citizens of Bern seemed to be deaf to their cries for help.
Bern was doing its best by embassies to assist them; but it dared not
attack the Pays de Vaud when Freiburg, angry at the process of the
Reformation, threatened a counter attack. After the siege was raised,
the strongholds in the surrounding country remained in the possession of
the enemy, and the people belonging to Geneva were liable to be pillaged
and maltreated.
Within the city the number of Evangelicals increased week by week. Then
came a sensational event which brought about the ruin of the Roman
Catholic party. A woman, Antonia Vax, cook in the house of Claude
Bernard, with whom the three pastors dwelt, attempted to poison Viret,
Farel, and Froment.[84] The confession of the prisoner, combined with
other circumstances, created the impression among the members of Council
and the people of Geneva that the priests of the town had instigated the
attempt, and a strong feeling in favour of the Protestant pastors swept
over the city. The Council at once provided lodging for Viret and Farel
in the Convent of the Cordeliers. When the guardian of that convent
asked leave to hold public discussions on religious questions in the
great church belonging to the convent, it was at once granted.
The Council itself made arrangements for the public Disputation. Five
_Thèses évangéliques_ were drafted by the Protestant pastors, and the
Council invited discussion upon them from all and sundry.[85]
Invitations were sent to the canons of the cathedral, and to all the
priests and monks of Geneva; safe-conducts were promised to all foreign
theologians who desired to take part;[86] a special attempt was made to
induce a renowned Paris Roman Catholic champion, Pierre Cornu, a
theologian trained at the Sorbonne, who happened to be at Grenoble, to
defend the Romanist position by attacking the _Theses_. The _Theses_
themselves were posted up in Geneva as early as the 1st of May (1535),
and copies were sent to all the priests and convents within the
territories of the Genevans.[87]
The Disputation was fixed to open on the 30th of May. The Council
nominated eight commissioners, half of whom were Roman Catholics, to
maintain order, and four secretaries to keep minutes of the
proceedings.[88] Efforts were made to induce Roman Catholic theologians
of repute for their learning to attend and attack the _Theses_. But the
Bishop of Geneva had forbidden the Disputation, and the Council were
unable to prevail on any stranger to appear. When the opening day
arrived, and the Council, commissioners, and secretaries were solemnly
seated in their places in the great hall of the convent, no Romanist
defender of the faith appeared to impugn the Evangelical _Theses_. Farel
and Viret nevertheless expounded and defended. The Disputation continued
at intervals during four weeks, till the 24th of June, Romanist
champions accepted the Reformers' challenge--Jean Chapuis, prior of the
Dominican convent at Plainpalais, near Geneva, and Jean Cachi, confessor
to the Sisters of St. Clara in the city. But they were no match for men
like Farel. Chapuis himself apologised for the absence of the Genevan
priests and monks, by saying that even in his convent there was a lack
of learned men. The weakness of the Romanist defence made a great
impression on the people of Geneva. They went about saying to each
other, "If all Christian princes permitted a free discussion like our
MM. of Geneva, the affair would soon be settled without burnings, or
slaughter, or murders; but the Pope and his followers, the cardinals and
the bishops and the priests, know well that if free discussion is
permitted all is lost for them. So all these powers forbid any
discussion or conversation save by fire and by sword." They knew that
all throughout Romance Switzerland the Reformers, whether in a minority
or in a majority, were eager for a public discussion.
When the Disputation was ended, Farel urged the Council to declare
themselves on the side of the Reformation; but they hesitated until
popular tumults forced their hand. On July 23rd, Farel preached in the
Church of the Madeleine. The Council made mild remonstrances. Then he
preached in the Church of St. Gervais. Lastly, on the 8th of August, the
people forced him to preach in the Cathedral, St. Peter's (Aug. 8th). In
the afternoon the priests were at vespers as usual. As they chanted the
Psalm--
"Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of men's hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not:
Eyes have they, but they see not;
They have ears, but they hear not;
Noses have they, but they smell not;
They have hands, but they handle not;
Feet have they, but they walk not;
Neither speak they through their throat,"
someone in the throng shouted, "You curse, as you chant, all who make
graven images and trust in them. Why do you let them remain here?" It
was the signal for a tumult. The crowd rushed to throw to the ground and
break in pieces the statues of the saints; and the children pushing
among the crowd picked up the fragments, and rushing to the doors, said,
"We have the gods of the priests, would you like some?"[89] Next day the
riots were renewed in the parish and convent churches, and the images of
the saints were defaced or destroyed.
The Council met on the 9th, and summoned Farel before them. The minutes
state that he made an _oratio magna_, ending with the declaration that
he and his fellow-preachers were willing to submit to death if it could
be shown that they taught anything contrary to the Holy Scriptures.
Then, falling on his knees, he poured forth one of those wonderful
prayers which more than anything else exhibited the exalted enthusiasm
of the great missionary. The religious question was discussed next day
in the _Council of the Two Hundred_, when it was resolved to abolish the
Mass provisionally, to summon the monks before the Council, and to ask
them to give their reasons for maintaining the Mass and the worship of
the saints. The two Councils resolved to inform the people of Bern about
what they had done.[90]
It is evident that the two Councils had been hurried by the iconoclastic
zeal of the people along a path they had meant to tread in a much more
leisurely fashion. The political position was full of uncertainties.
Their enemies were still in the field against them. Bern seemed to be
unable to assist them. They were ready to welcome the intervention of
France. It was the fear of increasing their external troubles rather
than any zeal for the Roman Catholic faith that had prevented the
Council from espousing the Reformation immediately after the public
Disputation. "If we abolish the Mass, image worship, and everything
popish, for one enemy we have now we are sure to have an hundred," was
their thought.[91]
The official representatives of the Roman Catholic religion did not
appear to advantage at this crisis of their fate. They were in no haste
to defend their worship before the Council. When they at last appeared
(Nov. 29th, 1535), the monks in the forenoon and the secular clergy in
the afternoon, there was a careless indifference in their answers. The
Council seem to have referred them to Farel's summary of the matters
discussed in the public Disputation which began on the 30th of May, and
to have asked them what they had to say against its conclusions and in
favour of the Mass and of the adoration of the saints.[92] The monks one
after another (twelve of them appeared before the Council) answered
monotonously that they were unlearned people, who lived as they had been
taught by their fathers, and did not inquire further. The secular
clergy, by their spokesman Roletus de Pane, said that they had nothing
to do with the Disputation and what had been said there; that they had
no desire to listen to more addresses from Farel; and that they meant to
live as their predecessors.[93] This was the end. The two deputations
of monks and seculars were informed by the Council that they must cease
saying Mass until further orders were given. The Reformation was legally
established in Geneva, and the city stood forth with Bern as altogether
Protestant.[94]
The dark clouds on the political horizon were rising. France seemed
about to interfere in favour of Geneva, and the fear of France in
possession of the "gate of western Switzerland" was stronger than
reluctance to permit Geneva to become a Protestant city. The Council of
Freiburg promised to allow the Bernese army to march through their
territory. Bern renounced its alliance with Savoy on November 29th,
1535. War was declared on January 16th. The army of Bern left its
territories, gathering reinforcements as it went; for towns like
Neuville, Neuchâtel, Lausanne, Payerne--oppressed Protestant communities
in Romance Switzerland--felt that the hour of their liberation was at
hand, and their armed burghers were eager to strike one good stroke at
their oppressors under the leadership of the proud republic. There was
little fighting. The greater part of the Pays de Vaud was conquered
without striking a blow, and the army of the Duke of Savoy and the
Bishop of Geneva was dispersed without a battle. A few sieges were
needed to complete the victory. The great republic, after its fashion,
had waited till the opportune moment, and then struck once and for all.
Its decisive victory brought deliverance not only to Geneva, but to
Lausanne and many other Protestant municipalities in Romance Switzerland
(Aug. 7th, 1536). The democracy of Geneva was served heir to the
seignorial rights of the Bishop, and to the sovereign rights of the Duke
of Savoy over city and lands. Geneva became an independent republic
under the protectorate of Bern, and to some extent dependent on that
canton.
In the month of December 1535, the Syndics and Council of Geneva had
adopted the legend on the coat of arms of the town, _Post tenebras
lux_--a device which became very famous, and appeared on its coinage.
The resolution of the Council of the Two Hundred to abolish the Mass and
saint worship was officially confirmed by the citizens assembled, "as
was the custom, by sound of bell and of trumpet" (May 21st, 1536).
Geneva had gained much. It had won political independence, for which it
had been fighting for thirty years, modified by its relations to
Bern,[95] but greater than it had ever before enjoyed. The Reformed
religion had been established, although the fact remained that the
Romanist partisans had still a good deal of hidden strength. But much
was still to be done to make the town the citadel of the Reformation
which it was to become. Its past history had demoralised its people. The
rule of dissolute bishops and the example of a turbulent and immoral
clergy had poisoned the morals of the city.[96] The liberty won might
easily degenerate into licence, and ominous signs were not lacking that
this was about to take place. "It is impossible to deny," says
Kampschulte, the Roman Catholic biographer of Calvin, "that disorder and
demoralisation had become threatening in Geneva; it would have been
almost a miracle had it not been so." Farel did what he could. He
founded schools. He organised the hospitals. He strove to kindle moral
life in the people of his adopted city. But his talents and his
character fitted him much more for pioneer work than for the task which
now lay before him.
Farel was a chivalrous Frenchman, born among the mountains of Dauphiné,
whose courage, amounting to reckless daring, won for him the passionate
admiration of soldiers like Wildermuth,[97] and made him volunteer to
lead any forlorn hope however desperate. He was sympathetic to
soft-heartedness, yet utterly unable to restrain his tongue; in danger
of his life one week because of his violent language, and the next
almost adored, by those who would have slain him, for the reckless way
in which he nursed the sick and dying during a visitation of the plague.
He was the brilliant partisan leader, seeing only what lay before his
eyes; incapable of self-restraint; a learned theologian, yet careless in
his expression of doctrine, and continually liable to misapprehension.
No one was better fitted to attack the enemy's strongholds, few less
able to hold them when once possessed. He saw, without the faintest
trace of jealousy--the man was too noble--others building on the
foundations he had laid. It is almost pathetic to see that none of the
Romance Swiss churches whose Apostle he had been, cared to retain him as
their permanent leader. In the closing years of his life he went back to
his beloved France, and ended as he had begun, a pioneer evangelist in
Lyons, Metz, and elsewhere,--a leader of forlorn hopes, carrying within
him a perpetual spring and the effervescing recklessness of youth. He
had early seen that the pioneer life which he led was best lived without
wife or children, and he remained unmarried until his sixty-ninth year.
Then he met with a poor widow who had lost husband and property for
religion's sake in Rouen, and had barely escaped with life. He married
her because in no other way could he find for her a home and protection.
Geneva needed a man of altogether different mould of character to do the
work that was now necessary. When Farel's anxieties and vexations were
at their height, he learned almost by accident that a distinguished
young French scholar, journeying from Ferrara to Basel, driven out of
his direct course by war, had arrived in Geneva, and was staying for a
night in the town. This was Calvin.
§ 4. _Calvin: Youth and Education._
Jean Cauvin (latinised into Calvinus) was born at Noyon in Picardy on
the 10th of July 1509. He was the second son in a family of four sons
and two daughters. His father, Gerard Cauvin, was a highly esteemed
lawyer, the confidential legal adviser of the nobility and higher clergy
of the district. His mother, Jeanne La France, a very beautiful woman,
was noted for her devout piety and her motherly affection. Calvin, who
says little about his childhood, relates how he was once taken by his
mother on the festival of St. Anna to see a relic of the saint preserved
in the Abbey of Ourscamp, near Noyon, and that he remembers kissing
"part of the body of St. Anna, the mother of the Virgin Mary."[98]
The Cauvins belonged to what we should call the upper middle class in
social standing, and the young Jean entered the house of the noble
family of de Montmor to share the education of the children, his father
paying for all his expenses. The young de Montmors were sent to College
in Paris, and Jean Cauvin, then fourteen years of age, went with them.
This early social training never left Calvin, who was always the
reserved, polished French gentleman--a striking contrast to his great
predecessor Luther.
Calvin was a Picard, and the characteristics of the province were seen
in its greatest son. The Picards were always independent, frequently
strongly anti-clerical, combining in a singular way fervent enthusiasm
and a cold tenacity of purpose. No province in France had produced so
many sympathisers with Wiclif and Hus, and "Picards" was a term met with
as frequently on the books of Inquisitors as "Wiclifites," "Hussites,"
or "Waldenses"--all the names denoting dissenters from the mediæval
Church who accepted all the articles of the Apostles' Creed but were
strongly anti-clerical. These "brethren" lingered in all the countries
of Western Europe until the sixteenth century, and their influence made
itself felt in the beginnings of the stirrings for reform.
Gerard Cauvin had early seen that his second son, Jean, was _de bon
esprit, d'une prompte naturelle à concevoir, et inventif en l'estude des
lettres humaines_,[99] and this induced him to give the boy as good an
education as he could, and to destine him for the study of theology. His
legal connection with the higher clergy of Noyon enabled him, in the
fashion of the day, to procure for his son more than one benefice. The
boy was tonsured, a portion of the revenue was used to pay for a curate
who did the work, and the rest went to provide for the lad's education.
Young Calvin went with the three sons of the de Montmor family to the
College de la Marche in Paris. It was not a famous one, but when Calvin
studied there in the lowest class he had as his professor Mathurin
Cordier, the ablest teacher of his generation.[100] His aim was to give
his pupils a thorough knowledge of the French and Latin languages--a
foundation on which they might afterwards build for themselves. He had a
singularly sweet disposition, and a very open mind. He was brought to
know the Gospel by Robert Estienne, and in 1536 his name was inscribed,
along with those of Courat and Clement Marot, on the list of the
principal heretics in Paris. Calvin was not permitted to remain long
under this esteemed teacher. The atmosphere was probably judged to be
too liberal for one who was destined to study theology. He was
transferred to the more celebrated College de Montaigu. Calvin was again
fortunate in his principal teachers. He became the pupil of Noël Béda
and of Pierre Tempête, who taught him the art of formal disputation.
Calvin had come to Paris in his fourteenth year, and left it when he was
nineteen--the years when a lad becomes a man, and his character is
definitely formed. If we are to judge by his own future references, no
one had more formative influence over him than Mathurin Cordier--short
as had been the period of their familiar intercourse. Calvin had shown a
singularly acute mind, and proved himself to be a scholar who invariably
surpassed his fellow students. He was always surrounded by attached
friends--the three brothers de Montmor, the younger members of the
famous family of Cop, and many others. These student friends were
devoted to him all his life. Many of them settled with him at Geneva.
Calvin left the College de Montaigu in 1528. Sometime during the same
year another celebrated pupil entered it. This was Ignatius Loyola.
Whether the two great leaders attended College together, whether they
ever met, it is impossible to say--the dates are not precise enough.
"Perhaps they crossed each other in some street of Mount
Sainte-Geneviève: the young Frenchman of eighteen on horseback as
usual, and the Spaniard of six and thirty on foot, his purse
furnished with some pieces of gold he owed to charity, shoving
before him an ass burdened with his books, and carrying in his
pocket a manuscript, entitled _Exercitia Spiritualia_."[101]
Calvin left Paris because his father had now resolved that his son
should be a lawyer and not a theologian. Gerard Cauvin had quarrelled
with the ecclesiastics of Noyon, and had even been excommunicated. He
refused to render his accounts in two executry cases, and had remained
obstinate. Why he was so, it is impossible to say. His children had no
difficulty in arranging matters after his death. The quarrel ended the
hopes of the father to provide well for his son in the Church, and he
ordered him to quit Paris for the great law school at Orleans. It is by
no means improbable that the father's decision was very welcome to the
son. Bèze tells us that Calvin had already got some idea of the true
religion, had begun to study the Holy Scriptures, and to separate
himself from the ceremonies of the Church;[102]--perhaps his friendship
with Pierre Robert Olivétan, a relation, a native of Noyon, and the
translator of the Bible into French, had brought this about. The young
man went to Orleans in the early part of 1528 and remained there for a
year, then went on to Bourges, in order to attend the lectures of the
famous publicist, André Alciat, who was destined to be as great a
reformer of the study of law as Calvin was of the study of theology. In
Orleans with its Humanism, and in Bourges with its incipient
Protestantism, Calvin was placed in a position favourable for the growth
of ideas which had already taken root in his mind. At Bourges he studied
Greek under Wolmar, a Lutheran in all but the name, and dedicated to him
long afterwards his _Commentary on the Second Epistle to the
Corinthians_. He seems to have lived in the house of Wolmar; another
inmate was Théodore de Bèze, the future leader of the Protestants of
France, then a boy of twelve.
The death of his father (May 26th, 1531) left Calvin his own master. He
had obeyed the paternal wishes when he studied for the Church in Paris;
he had obediently transferred himself to the study of law; he now
resolved to follow the bent of his own mind, and, dedicating himself to
study, to become a man of letters. He returned to Paris and entered the
College Fortet, meaning to attend the lectures of the Humanist
professors whom Francis I., under the guidance of Budé and Cop, was
attracting to his capital. These "royal lecturers" and their courses of
instruction were looked on with great suspicion by the Sorbonne, and
Calvin's conduct in placing himself under their instruction showed that
he had already emancipated himself from that strict devotion to the
"superstitions of the Papacy" to which he tells us that he was
obstinately attached in his boyhood. He soon became more than the pupil
of Budé, Cop, and other Humanists. He was a friend, admitted within the
family circle. He studied Greek with Pierre Danès and Hebrew under
Vatable. In due time (April 1532), when barely twenty-three years of
age, he published at his own expense his first book, a learned
commentary on the two books of Seneca's _De Clementia_.
The book is usually referred to as an example of precocious erudition.
The author shows that he knew as minutely as extensively the whole round
of classical literature accessible to his times. He quotes, and that
aptly, from fifty-five separate Latin authors--from thirty-three
separate works of Cicero, from all the works of Horace and Ovid, from
five comedies of Terence, and from all the works of Virgil. He quotes
from twenty-two separate Greek authors--from five or six of the
principal writings of Aristotle, and from four of the writings of Plato
and of Plutarch. Calvin does not quote Plautus, but his use of the
phrase _remoram facere_ makes it likely that he was well acquainted with
that writer also.[103] The future theologian was also acquainted with
many of the Fathers--with Augustine, Lactantius, Jerome, Synesius, and
Cyprian. Erasmus had published an edition of Seneca, and had advised
scholars to write commentaries, and young Calvin followed the advice of
the Prince of Humanists. Did he imitate him in more? Did Calvin also
disdain to use the New Learning merely to display scholarship, did he
mean to put it to modern uses? Francis I. was busy with one of his
sporadic persecutions of the Huguenots when the book was published, and
learned conjectures have been made whether the two facts had any
designed connection--An exhortation addressed to an emperor to exercise
clemency, and a king engaging in persecuting his subjects. Two things
seem to show that Calvin meant his book to be a protest against the
persecution of the French Protestants. His preface is a daring attack on
the abuses which were connected with the administration of justice in
the public courts, and he says distinctly that he hopes the Commentary
will be of service to the public.[104]
It seems evident from Calvin's correspondence that he had joined the
small band of Protestants in Paris, and that he was intimate with Gerard
Roussel, the Evangelical preacher,[105] the friend of Marguerite of
Navarre, of Lefèvre, of Farel, and a member of the "group of Meaux." The
question occurs, When did his conversion take place? This has been
keenly debated;[106] but the arguments concern words more than facts,
and arise from the various meanings attached to the word "conversion"
rather than from the difficulty of determining the time. Calvin, who
very rarely reveals the secrets of his own soul, tells in his preface to
his _Commentary on the Psalms_, that God drew him from his obstinate
attachment to the superstitions of the Papacy by a "sudden conversion,"
and that this took place after he had devoted himself to the study of
law in obedience to the wishes of his father. It does not appear to have
been such a sudden and complete vision of divine graciousness as Luther
received in the convent at Erfurt. But it was a beginning. He received
then some taste of true piety (_aliquo veræ pietatis gusto_). He was
abashed to find, he goes on to relate, that barely a year afterwards,
those who had a desire to learn what pure doctrine was gradually ranged
themselves around him to learn from him who knew so little (_me novitium
adhuc et tironem_). This was perhaps at Orleans, but it may have been at
Bourges. When he returned to Paris to betake himself to Humanist
studies, he was a Protestant, convinced intellectually as well as drawn
by the pleadings of the heart. He joined the little band who had
gathered round Estienne de la Forge, who met secretly in the house of
that pious merchant, and listened to the addresses of Gerard Roussel. He
was frequently called upon to expound the Scriptures in the little
society; and a tradition, which there is no reason to doubt, declares
that he invariably concluded his discourse with the words, "If God be
for us, who can be against us?"