Part 18

The accession of Charles III. in 1504 opened for Geneva a period of struggle. Anxious to maintain its freedom against a crafty and malignant prince, and his creature, the base-born bishop, the city split into two parties, the patriotic _Eidguenots_, so called from their relying for assistance on the Swiss Confederation, and the Savoyards, who were nicknamed the Mamelukes (knaves). Something like half the population were Savoyards by birth. Among the patriot party we find the "Children of Geneva," a gay and somewhat noisy band of patriotic enthusiasts, who loved fighting and did not fear death. At the head stood Thilibert the witty hotspur, François Bonivard, Prior of St. Victor, and a noteworthy Geneva chronicler, and Hugues Besançon, a clever statesman, and the father and deliverer of his country. When Charles required the Genevans to do homage they refused, answering sturdily that "Geneva would rather go begging and be free." In 1519, during his sojourn in the city, Charles punished with terrible rigour this bold stand for freedom; all were cowed into submission except Berthelier, who scorned to "bend to a man who was not his master." His head was one of the first to fall. But executions of one kind or another were soon of almost daily occurrence during Charles's stay. Four years later Charles and his beautiful bride, Beatrix entered Geneva with great pomp, and the princess even remained for the birth of her first-born. Charles desired the city to become accustomed to royal splendour, and to feel real sympathy for a native sovereign. But all his plans failed. By his eloquence and patriotism Hugues melted the hearts of the men of Freiburg, and succeeded in persuading them as well as the people of Bern to make an alliance with his own city. This alliance checkmated the plans of Savoy. But the success of the Genevans excited the jealousy of the "Ladle Squires." This curious nickname was given to an extraordinary band of the gentry and nobility living around Geneva. They met at a most frugal supper, and vowed the destruction of the city. A dish of rice was being served by the duke with a large spoon or ladle when one of the guests suddenly brandishing the implement fiercely exclaimed, "With this I shall swallow Geneva!" By an oath the men assembled bound themselves to seek the destruction of the obnoxious city, and hung their ladles round their necks in token of adherence. These "Seigneurs de la Cuiller," though unable to carry out their design, were yet able to work much mischief to Geneva, by cutting it off from the necessaries of life, and by keeping up a desultory but none the less harassing warfare against it. More than this, Bonivard was by order of the duke ousted from his living, and thrown into the castle of Chillon, in 1530.[54] In this same year, however, a new attack on the part of Savoy was checked by Bern and Freiburg, and Charles was forced to sign the treaty of St. Julien, guaranteeing the independence and freedom from molestation of Geneva. It was stipulated that should the treaty be violated by Savoy it should forfeit Vaud to Bern.

About this time Bern ventured on the introduction of the reformed faith into French Switzerland, hoping thereby to deepen her interest in that quarter. She found a suitable instrument in the person of Guillaume Farel, a fiery Frenchman from Dauphiné. The most intrepid and daring of champions of the gospel, he had fled from his native soil to Switzerland to avoid religious persecution, and had been expelled from Basel for his fanaticism. Supported by "Leurs excellences les Messieurs de Berne," as the government of that city was styled, he wandered about as an itinerant reformer, visiting Vaud and Neuchâtel. Through his efforts the latter canton adopted Zwingli's doctrines, in 1530, Vaud obstinately refusing the reformation, except in that portion of the district subject to Bern. Farel's preaching always excited the mob, and his harangues generally ended in a scuffle. He would often stop a priest on the road and fling into the river the host or the relics he carried. He had even been known to burst into a church during mass, and inveigh against Antichrist from the pulpit. Buffetings and prison alike failed to stop his efforts, for rough though his manner of controversy was, he was yet deeply in earnest. Going to Geneva, in 1532, his very name so stirred the Catholics there that he was obliged to flee for his life. The Protestant party in the city were strong and well organised, and they counted on the assistance of Bern, and that important state, anxious to convert the whole west, if possible, threatened Geneva with her displeasure should Farel not be favourably received. Thus Geneva was suddenly called upon to decide between the friendship of Bern, and that of Freiburg, where the Catholic party was dominant. Fear of Savoy decided Geneva in favour of Bern, which certainly was a more powerful ally than Freiburg. Furbity, an eloquent priest, who had been chosen to controvert the reformers' teachings, was to be discharged, and Farel, Fromment (another Frenchman), and Viret, a very able Vaudois, one of Farel's disciples, were established at Geneva, in 1534, by the desire of Bern. The new faith rapidly spread, and fresh attacks on the part of Savoy against Geneva only served to promote its extension. A religious discussion arranged by Bern, and conducted (on the reformed side) by Farel, took place at Geneva, in 1535, and resulted in the full establishment of the Zwinglian doctrine in that city. During the disputations an embassy from the Bernese attended the city council to make known the will of the ruling state, much after the manner of the proud and austere Roman senators of old.

But neither the ousted Catholics nor Savoy was inclined to submit tamely to this state of things. Geneva was a perfect hotbed of dissension. Duke Charles laid siege to the city, both by land and by water. A sudden change in French politics prompted Bern to show more active energy than it had lately shown. Two claimants for the Duchy of Milan appeared, Francis I. and the Emperor Charles V. To facilitate its conquest the former also planned the annexation of Savoy, intending to include Geneva as the key to Rhone valley. Bern thus seeing threatened the safety of a city which it was itself coveting, declared war on Savoy, and marched six thousand men into the Vaud country. The pretext set up by Bern was that Savoy had violated the treaty of St. Julien. Vaud was seized without striking a blow, and portions of Savoy, Gex, and Chablais, were annexed. In great triumph the Bernese army entered Geneva, but fear of France, and the proud and noble bearing of the Genevese, prevented the Bernese from attempting to put into execution any plans they might have had for annexing the republic. It was in this campaign that Bonivard was rescued.

Great was the disappointment of Vaud to find that it had only changed masters; had been rescued from the grasp of Savoy to fall beneath the sway of Bern, though the latter master was certainly in every way superior to the former. It will be well understood that this treatment on the part of Bern would later on give rise to serious troubles. Indeed to this day Vaud bears a grudge against her former master. However the powerful canton set up order and discipline in the disorganized district of Vaud, and gave it the _cachet_ of its exemplary administration. It was divided into governmental districts and managed by eight Bernese landvögte. It agrees with the laws of Bern though its local administration was left it. Every effort was made to establish the reformed faith, and a disputation was held at Lausanne. In this Calvin took a part, but not a prominent one. The result was, however, the downfall of Catholicism in the district, deeply-rooted though it had been. Schools were established, and the Academy was founded by Bern. In this way the French position of the country was cemented to the eastern half. It was not till the Great Revolution that the prerogatives of the governing cantons were shaken, the immense wealth of the cathedral of Lausanne went to fill the state coffers of Bern, and the funds of the various churches were left to provide schools.

FOOTNOTES:

[54] For a fuller account of Bonivard the reader is referred to Marc-Monnier's "Genève et ses poètes." It is of course well known that though Bonivard's adventures suggested the idea of Byron's beautiful "Prisoner of Chillon," the story in the poem is almost entirely fictitious. In truth, Bonivard was liberated by Bern in 1536, and set himself to write the annals of his city of Geneva. He was married no fewer than four times. He seems to have been frequently cited before the Consistory for gambling and other like offences.

XXIV.

GENEVA AND CALVIN.

(1536-1564.)

Political and religious changes had brought about in Geneva a confusion which Farel felt himself incapable of lessening. By vehement intreaties, therefore, and even by threats, he induced Calvin to join him in his missionary work, Calvin being already known to the world as the author of "Institutio Christianæ Religionis," a work that fell on men like a revelation. John Calvin, or Cauvin, was born at Noyon, in Picardy, in 1509, and was a northern Frenchman of superior intelligence and learning, but of a gloomy, austere disposition, with a large admixture of fatalism in his views. Destined for the Church, he studied in Paris at the early age of thirteen, but by his father's wish he changed his intention, and applied himself to the study of law, at Orleans and Bourges. To these latter studies he owed that wonderful facility in systematic reasoning which is so noticeable in his writings. But the death of his parent in 1531 brought Calvin once more to Paris, where he speedily found himself drawn into the new religious movement which was winning its way in France. Profound theological researches and severe inward struggles caused his conversion to the reformed faith, in the following year. In 1535 we find him at Basel, whither he had retired to escape further persecution on account of his extreme views. Here he published his "Christianæ Religionis Institutio," which is his most celebrated work, and which has shed undying lustre on his name. Fascinating by its profound learning, its unflinching logic, and its wonderful fervour, the book became at once a general favourite, and was translated into all the civilized tongues. It is not necessary to do more than place before the reader one or two essential features of this great work. It is of mathematical exactness, and is the very base and foundation of his remarkable religious system, while it likewise maps out his scheme of reformation. This scheme was based on the doctrine of predestination, a doctrine Calvin had embraced with eagerness. Predestination was indeed with him a religious axiom, a self-evident truth which neither needed proof nor admitted of dispute, and he made it the corner-stone of his new religious system. His theory was that, of men all equally guilty _a priori_, some had from the beginning of the world been destined by God for eternal happiness, others for eternal perdition. Who were the elect and who the rejected was left an open question. However incompatible with humane feeling, however irreconcilable with the doctrine of the redemption, this belief might be thought by many, it yet sufficed for the eager minds of the sixteenth century, earnestly seeking as they were some practicable and, as it were, palpable, faith. Whatever the objections to the doctrine, it was on this that the Calvinistic Church was built, and by its spirit that that Church was swayed.

It was in 1536 that Calvin settled in Geneva. With Farel he undertook the reorganization of the Church on the lines marked out in his "Institutes," entirely sweeping away previous reforms. A "confession of faith" was drawn up and subscribed to by the people, and a new Church constitution was adopted which involved the establishment of a Church censorship, or rather a Church police. The rigorous discipline enforced, however, clashed with the Genevans' notions of present freedom, and the civil magistrates stoutly contested the right of the pulpit to find fault with the secular government, or interfere in the public administration. For the Genevese were a gay and pleasure-loving people, and they were moreover boisterous, undisciplined, and fond of disputation. A bold stand was made against the "Popery on Leman Lake," by the national party. The spirit of opposition was quickened by the disappointment of Bern at the overthrow of her reformation movement and ritual,[55] and the immigration of French refugees who strengthened Calvin's party. Bickerings, disorderly scenes, riots, both inside and outside the churches, followed, and the direct disobedience of Calvin and Farel to a civil decree of suspension prompted the government to pass sentence of banishment against them in 1538. Amidst the revilings and hootings of the mob they quitted Geneva, Farel going to Neuchâtel, where he remained till his death in 1565, and Calvin to Strasburg.

In this more tolerant German city he came into daily contact with the workings of the Lutheran and Zwinglian professions. He attempted to mediate between them with the view of reconciling their opposing views on the Eucharist, but failed. He admired Melanchthon, but considered that his temporizing measures resulted in laxity of discipline. He was grieved, too, by the little regard shown to the clergy, and by their dependence on the courts, and the contemplation of all this served to confirm him in his own views. He never lost sight of the aim of his life--to make the Genevan Church, which he loved as his own soul, the rallying point for his persecuted countrymen. His plans were greatly favoured by several circumstances: the quarrels convulsing Geneva during his exile, and the incapacity of the new ministry there; above all, the well-founded dread of Bern's supremacy. This fear brought into existence the party nicknamed the Guillermins, from Guillaume Farel, which literally drove the Genevans into the fold of Calvinism. Yet Calvin at first hesitated to return. "Why should I replunge into that yawning gulf," he writes to Farel, "seeing that I dislike the temper of the Genevese, and that they cannot get used to me?" But believing himself called by God, he yielded, and, amidst acclamations and rejoicings, he was welcomed back to the city in 1541.

Speaking roughly Calvin began his reforms where Luther and Zwingli had stopped; they had broken the ice for him, and shown him the way. He demanded implicit and unquestioning obedience to the Divine Word, for human reason, he said, was "as smoke in the sight of God." His aim was to found a kingdom of God in the spirit of the ancient prophets, and ruled by equally rigorous laws. Excluding the people from direct control in church matters, he lodged the chief authority in the clergy, a class which was also to have the preponderance in the state. By skilful organization he established a theocracy with strong aristocratic leanings, the democratic element being almost entirely excluded. Geneva became indeed "the city of the spirit of stoicism, built on the rock of predestination." But the most curious institution of the Calvinistic Church was the _Consistoire_, a body of twelve chosen from the oldest councillors and the city clergy, Calvin himself being usually at the head. This tribunal was 01 authority in spiritual and moral, and in public and private, matters alike. Calvin's intention was to change the sinful city into a sanctified city--a "city of God." The members of the Consistoire had power to enter private houses, and to regulate even the smallest concerns of life, and they admonished or punished offenders as they thought fit. Even the most trivial matters came within its ken; it prescribed the fashions, even down to the colour of a dress, and fixed the _menus_ of the table, not less than it enforced attendance at religious worship. The table was by no means profusely supplied either, only one dish of meat and one of vegetables being allowed, and no pastry, and only native wine. We find girls cited before the Consistoire for skating, a man for sniffing in church, two others for talking business when leaving church. Every now and then Bonivard was brought up for card playing, and other disorderly deeds. A hairdresser adorning a lady's hair, together with the friends present, was sent to gaol. To the Genevans theatre-going was the chief occupation in life, but nevertheless theatrical performances were suspended, and remained so till shortly before the advent of Voltaire, who, indeed, gloried in leading back the strait-laced Genevans to worldliness and pleasure. But not only was the theatre forbidden, but likewise dancing, games, and music, except psalm-singing. No wonder the Muses left Geneva! Objects of art, and even those of home comfort, were objected to by iconoclasts like Calvin. The once gay Geneva sank into a dull, narrow-minded city of the true Puritan type. Indeed, as is well known, she furnished the pattern for later Puritanism. The Consistoire reserved to itself the right of excommunication, that is, of exclusion from the Communion, though secular or physical punishments were left to the Council.

The criminal history of the Genevan Republic reflects the temper of the time, and the spirit of the ecclesiastical leaders. Vice was mercilessly punished, and drunkenness, blasphemy, and unbelief were put in the same category with murder. One reads with dismay of the state of terrorism prevailing during the plague raging about the middle of the century. Superstition was rife and increasing, and every kind of torture was used to extort confessions from accused persons. Whilst the plague was at its worst the sword, the gallows, the stake were equally busy. The jailor asserted that his prisons were filled to excess, and the executioner complained that his arms were tired. Within a period of three years there were passed fifty-eight sentences of death, seventy-six of banishment, and eight to nine thousand of imprisonment, on those whose crime was infringement of the Church statutes. Offences against himself personally Calvin treated as blasphemy, as he identified himself with the prophets of old. Strange as this assertion is, it can be supported. A single instance will suffice. One Pierre Amieaux, a councillor, had once in company spoken of Calvin as a bad man. This the reformer declared to be blasphemy, and refused to preach again till satisfaction was done to him.[56]

In such manner was Geneva forced into obedience. However, there was one powerful check on Calvin's progress, viz., the efforts of the national party, the "Children of Geneva," as they called themselves, or the "Libertines," as their opponents nicknamed them.[57] An excellent way of neutralizing the influence of these, Calvin tells his friend Bullinger, at Zurich, was to expel the natives and admit French _emigrés_ to the Genevan citizenship. "The dogs are barking at me on all sides," he complains to the same friend, and now and then he made a clean sweep of his adversaries. The Genevans naturally looked with disfavour on Calvin's policy, objecting to the French refugees not so much from ill will as from a natural dislike to leaving a city to which they were so devotedly attached, and seeing the positions of honour and influence taken up by the strangers. At last, exasperated beyond measure by the admission of a fresh batch of refugees, the Libertines attempted a _coup de main_ on the Calvin government, May, 1555. The attempt miscarried, and the ringleaders were put to death or imprisoned, and most of the rank and file expelled from the city. To fill the great gaps thus caused, three hundred and fifty-nine French families were admitted gradually to the citizenship, and in this way within a few years the population increased from thirteen thousand to twenty thousand. Such high-handed proceedings--wholesale proscriptions one might call them--caused the wheels to run smoothly enough, and Calvin was now completely master of the situation. The imprisonment and burning of Servetus for denying the doctrine of the Trinity once more ruffled the smooth surface of affairs, yet helped if possible to increase Calvin's prestige and influence. Every one knows of the endless discussions that have since taken place as to Calvin's part in putting to death the learned and unfortunate Spaniard. But Calvin's own defence would seem to show that it was he who was chiefly the leader in the matter.[58]

His pre-eminence now fully established and acknowledged, Calvin founded the Academy, in 1559, in order to provide ministers for the reformed churches generally. Learned French _emigrés_ were appointed to the professorships, and Theodore de Bèze (Beza) was made rector, and the institution became the glory of the city. From all parts sympathizers flocked to Geneva--Italians, English,[59] Spanish, Germans, mostly French and Italians, however--and churches to suit the different nationalities sprang up. On Leman Lake they found another Rome, and another inspired and infallible Pope, albeit a Protestant Pope. At the first view of the sacred city they sank on their knees and sang songs of joy and praise, as if they had sighted a new Jerusalem. Wittenberg had witnessed similar scenes. No fewer than thirteen hundred French and three hundred Italian families had made Geneva their second home, and men of the greatest mark had settled there temporarily or for good. Missionaries went to France to rally and strengthen the Huguenots, and some two thousand communes were converted to the new faith. Religious champions, like the intrepid John Knox, Peter Martyr, Marnix (de St. Aldegonde), went to Scotland, England, or the Netherlands, to advance the cause of Calvinism. To Geneva as their mother church may look Puritans and Presbyterians.

Calvinism but little affected Switzerland at large during the lifetime of its founder. Its absolutism and narrowness clashed with the milder and more advanced, and, if one may say so, more ideal views of the Zwinglian system. It was due to the conciliatory spirit of Bullinger and to his noble efforts that the Churches of Zurich and Geneva--while other countries were distracted with religious differences--drew together as friends, and that their doctrines were blended in official "confessions" of faith. Viret's attempts to plant Calvinism in Vaud failed, as did those of Farel in Neuchâtel.

And if Geneva did not regard her great master with affection, she bowed before him in profound veneration. Without him the ancient, frivolous, and quarrelsome city could hardly have kept at bay her many foes. But trained in the school of Calvinism she gathered moral strength, and became the "abode of an intellectual light that has shone for three centuries, and that, though growing pale, is not yet extinguished."