page.' However, he remained patient, but he was not left in peace.

The Roman proctor, taking up the matter again, claimed the priory, in
the name of Clement, on behalf of the priest who had been invested with
it after the death of the traitor Montheron. Bonivard, desiring to place
his benefice beyond the reach of fresh attacks, annexed it to the
hospital of Geneva, which was to receive the revenues for him as prior.
But the duke had other views. More than four hundred persons, carrying
arms, and assembling by night before the hôtel-de-ville, had demanded
justice on certain monks of St. Victor, who were accused of plotting to
betray the convent to the partisans of Savoy. Besançon Hugues and Thomas
Vandel, the procurator-fiscal, were the bearers of this request, and
Bonivard had the monks shut up in prison. When the duke was informed of
the annexation of the priory to the hospital of Geneva, his anger was
increased, for he had a great desire to possess St. Victor's, which
would give him a footing close to the gates of the city. His agents
therefore solicited the prior 'daily' to revoke this act, and promised
him 'seas and mountains' if he would consent; but Bonivard shook his
head, saying: 'I do not trust him!' Charles now determined to get rid of
a man who was an obstacle in his path in all his enterprises against
Geneva.[824]

[Sidenote: BONIVARD'S FILIAL AFFECTION.]

The prior, usually so cheerful, had been for some time dejected and
thoughtful. It was not only his priory, his poverty, and his enemies
that threw a shade over his countenance, formerly so animated: his
mother was seriously ill. To Bonivard filial piety was the most natural
of obligations, the first and sweetest form of gratitude. He thought:
'How correctly Plato writes that there are no Penates more sacred, there
is no worship more acceptable to the gods, than that of a father or
mother bending under the weight of years.' His Genevese friends, who
went daily to St. Victor's, observed his sadness, and asked him the
reason. 'Alas!' he said, 'I should like to see my aged mother once more
before she dies. I have not seen her these five years, and she is on the
brink of the grave.' To one of them who inquired where she was, he
replied: 'At Seyssel, in our ancestral house.' Seyssel was in the states
of Savoy, and Charles would not fail to have the prior seized if he
ventured to appear there.

Bonivard fancied, however, he could see the means of gratifying his
dearest wishes. He determined to take advantage of the solicitations
addressed to him by Charles to ask for a safe-conduct. 'I will go and
see my mother and brother at Seyssel,' he said, 'and ask their advice.
We will consult together on this business.' The duke sent Bonivard the
required passport, stipulating, however, that it should be available for
the month of April only. Charles, delighted at seeing Bonivard quit the
neighbourhood of Geneva and venture into the middle of his territories,
determined that if this journey did not give him the priory, it should
at least give him the prior.... Bonivard's friends, whose judgment was
not influenced by filial affection, were justly alarmed when they heard
of his approaching departure, and tried to detain him; he could think of
nothing, however, but seeing his mother before she died. He accordingly
departed, passed the Fort de l'Ecluse, the Perte du Rhone, and reached
the little town where the 'ancient dame,' as he called her, resided. The
mother, who loved the name, the talents, the glory, and the person of
her son, clasped him in her arms with fond affection; but her joy soon
gave way to fear, for she knew Charles's perfidy, she remembered
Lévrier's story ... and trembled for her child.[825]

[Sidenote: BONIVARD'S VISIT TO HIS MOTHER.]

Meanwhile Bonivard's enemies in Geneva had not delayed to take advantage
of his departure. Some of them were mamelukes. To embroil him with the
huguenots seemed likely to be of service to their cause; and they
therefore began to report in the city that he had gone to surrender St.
Victor's to the duke, and that he was betraying the people and revealing
their secrets. The intimate friends of the prior indignantly
contradicted the calumny; but his enemies continued repeating it, and,
as the most ardent men are often the most credulous, a few huguenots
gave credit to these assertions. Bonivard wrote to the council of
Geneva, complaining of the injury done him, and reminded them that there
was not a man in the city more devoted to its independence than himself.

What should he do? He was exceedingly embarrassed. Should he return to
Geneva? He feared the anger of those among the huguenots in whose eyes
it was a crime to go to Savoy. Should he remain at Seyssel? As soon as
the month of April was ended, he would be seized by the duke. His mother
conjured him to put himself out of the reach of his enemies, both duke
and Genevans....

  'Et qui refuserait une mère qui prie?...

He determined to go to Friburg. The council of Geneva had indeed told
him not to disquiet himself about the foolish stories of his enemies,
and added: 'Let him come, if he pleases, and he will be treated
well.'[826] This was not a very pressing invitation, and Besançon
Hugues, the most influential man in the city, was against him. Hugues, a
catholic and episcopalian, might very well have no great liking for the
prior of a monastery who was coming round entirely to the new ideas. It
seems, however, that these catholic prejudices were mixed up with some
human weaknesses. 'Bonivard,' says a manuscript, 'often had disputes
with Besançon Hugues, who hoped to obtain for his son the investiture of
the priory of St. Victor.'[827] The prior was not ignorant of this
hostile disposition. 'Alas!' he said, 'a councillor, and he not one of
the least, is exciting the council and the people against me.' On the
other hand, he could not make up his mind to turn thoroughly to the side
of the Reformation; he still remained in the neutral ground of Erasmus,
and indulged in jests against the huguenots, which indisposed them
towards him. He belonged neither to one party nor to the other, and
offended both. He was not anxious, therefore, to return to Geneva just
now, fearing that his enemies would be stronger than his friends. The
month of April being ended, he begged the duke to prolong his
safe-conduct during the month of May, and it was granted. Bonivard now
took leave of his aged mother, whom he left full of anguish about the
fate of her son. She never saw him again.

The Count of Chalans, president of the council of Savoy, and friend of
the Bishop of Aosta, was, though a layman, as bigoted to
Roman-catholicism as Gazzini was, as a priest. At that time he was
holding a _journée_ or diet at Romont, between Lausanne and Friburg. The
avoyer of Friburg, who was Bonivard's friend, happening to be at Romont,
Bonivard repaired thither; and, related as he was to the nobility of
Savoy, he presented his homage to the count, who received him kindly.
Bonivard skilfully sounded De Chalans on what he might have to fear; for
once already, and not far from that place, he had been seized and thrown
into a ducal prison. The count pledged his honour, both verbally and in
writing, that he would run no danger in the duke's territories during
the month of May, and, he added, even during the month of June.
Bonivard, thus set at ease, began to reflect on his position. It was a
strange thing for a man, so enlightened as he was on the abuses of
popery and monasticism, to be at the head of a monastic body. Moreover,
in addition to the pope and the duke, he had a new adversary against
him. 'I fear the duke on the one hand,' he said, 'and on the other the
madness of the people of Geneva, to whom I dare not return without the
strongest pledges.'

[Sidenote: DETERMINES TO GIVE UP THE PRIORY.]

Bonivard, having weighed everything, determined upon a great sacrifice.
He started for Lausanne, and proposed to the Bishop of Montfaucon to
resign to him the priory of St. Victor, on condition of receiving a
pension of four hundred crowns. The bishop accepted the proposal,
provided Geneva and Savoy would consent. Bonivard thought this an easy
matter, and as René de Chalans was then holding another _journée_ at
Moudon, he determined to go thither to arrange the great affair. He
arrived on the 25th of May. The count received him courteously, and
appeared to enter into his ideas; but at the same time this lord and
certain officers of Savoy held several private conferences, the result
of which was that they sent a messenger to Lausanne. Bonivard was
invited to sup with the president, who gave him the seat of honour.
There was a large party, the repast was very animated, and the prior,
whose gaiety was easily revived, amused all the company by his wit.
There was, however, one officer at his highness's table who annoyed him
considerably: it was the Sire de Bellegarde, Lévrier's murderer. This
wretch, as if he desired to efface that disagreeable impression, was
most obliging and attentive. At last they left the table. There were so
many gentlemen assembled in the little town of Moudon, that all the
bed-rooms were occupied—so at least it was stated. Upon this,
Bellegarde, in a jovial tone, said to Bonivard: 'Well, then, my friend,
I will share my room with you.' Bonivard accepted the offer, but not
without some uneasiness. The next morning he prepared to set out for
Lausanne in order to arrange his business with the bishop. 'I am afraid
that you will lose your way, and that something may happen to you,' said
Bellegarde. 'I will send a servant on horseback along with you.' The
confiding Bonivard departed with the sergeant of his highness's steward.

Bellegarde varied his treachery. He had kidnapped Lévrier as he was
leaving the cathedral, and had conveyed him in person to the castle
where he was to meet his death. This time he preferred to keep out of
sight, and for that reason a message had been despatched to Lausanne.
After watching over Bonivard during the night, lest he should escape, as
Hugues had escaped from Châtelaine, Bellegarde took leave of him, giving
him a very courteous embrace, and strongly recommending him to the care
of the sergeant. The road from Moudon to Lausanne runs for about five
leagues through the Jorat hills, which at that period were wild and
lonely. Gloomy thoughts sprang up from time to time to disturb Bonivard.
He remembered how Lévrier had been seized by Bellegarde at the gates of
St. Pierre.... If a similar fate awaited him!... His confidence soon
revived, and he went on.

[Sidenote: BONIVARD TREACHEROUSLY KIDNAPPED.]

It was a fine day in May, this Thursday, the 26th. Early in the morning
Messire de Beaufort, captain of Chillon, and the Sire du Rosey, bailli
of Thonon, having received their instructions from Moudon, had quitted
Lausanne, followed by twelve to fifteen well-armed horsemen. On reaching
the heights of the Jorat, near the convent of St. Catherine, they hid
themselves in a wood of black pines, which still remains;[828] and there
both leaders and soldiers waited silently for the unfortunate Bonivard.
He was provided, indeed, with a safe-conduct from the duke; but John
Huss's had been violated, and why should they observe that of the prior
of St. Victor? 'No faith ought to be kept with heretics,' had been said
at Constance, and was repeated now at Moudon. Erelong De Beaufort and Du
Rosey heard the tramp of two horses; they gave a signal to their
followers to be ready, and peered out from among the trees where they
lay hid to see if their victim was really coming. At last the guide on
horseback appeared, then came Bonivard on his mule; De Bellegarde's
servant led him straight to the appointed place. Just as the unlucky
prior, wavering between confidence and fear, was passing the spot where
Beaufort, Du Rosey, and their fifteen companions were posted, the latter
rushed from the wood and sprang upon Bonivard. He put his hand to his
sword, and clapped spurs to his mule in order to escape, calling out to
his guide: 'Spur! spur!' But, instead of galloping forwards, the
sergeant turned suddenly upon the man he should have protected, caught
hold of him, and 'with a knife which he had ready' cut Bonivard's
sword-belt. All this took place in the twinkling of an eye. 'Whereupon
these honest people fell upon me,' said the prior when he told the story
in after years, 'and made me prisoner in the name of Monseigneur.' He
made all the resistance he could; produced his papers, and showed that
they were all in order; but his safe-conduct was of no avail with the
agents of Bellegarde and De Chalans. Taking some cord from a bag they
had brought with them, they tied Bonivard's arms, and bound him to his
mule, as they had once bound Lévrier, and in this way passing through
Lausanne, near which the outrage had been committed, they turned to the
left. The prior crossed Vaux, Vevey, Clarens, and Montreux; but these
districts, which are among the most beautiful in Switzerland, could not
for an instant rouse him from his deep dejection. 'They took me, bound
and pinioned, to Chillon,' he says in his _Chronicles_, 'and there I
remained six long years.... It was my second passion.'[829]

[Sidenote: THE PRISONER OF CHILLON.]

Nine years before, almost day for day (May 1521), Luther had also been
seized in a wood for the purpose of being taken to a castle; but he had
been carried off by friends, while _the prisoner of Chillon_ was
perfidiously taken by enemies. Bonivard, a reformer of a negative and
rather philosophical character, was much inferior to Luther, the
positive and evangelical reformer; but Bonivard's imprisonment far
exceeded in severity that of the Saxon doctor. At first, indeed, the
prior of St. Victor was confined in a room and treated respectfully; but
Charles the Good, after visiting him and holding some conversation with
him, ordered, as he left the castle, that the prisoner should be treated
harshly. He was transferred to one of those damp and gloomy dungeons cut
out of the rock, which lie below the level of the lake. It is probable
that the duke gave this cruel order because the prisoner, true to light
and liberty, had refused to bend before him. Bonivard's seizure was a
severe blow to his mother, to his friends, and even to the magistrates
of Geneva, who, on hearing of it, saw all the duke's perfidy and the
prior's innocence, and restored to him their affection and esteem. For
some time it was uncertain whether Bonivard was alive or dead; all that
people knew was that he had been seized, in defiance of the
safe-conduct, on the hills above Lausanne. However, John Lullin and the
other envoys of Geneva present at the _journée_ held at Payerne at
Christmas 1530, being better informed, did all in their power to obtain
the liberation of a man who had done such good service to liberty; but
the agents of Savoy pretended ignorance of the place of his imprisonment.

A brilliant existence was thus suddenly interrupted. What humour, what
originality, what striking language, what invention, what witty
conversations were abruptly cut short! Bonivard never recovered from
these six years of the strictest captivity. When he came out of Chillon
he was a different man from what he was when he entered it. He was like
a bird which, while giving utterance to the sweetest song, is caught by
a gust of wind and beaten to the ground; ever after it miserably drags
its wings, and utters none but harsh unpleasing sounds. St. Victor
wanted the _one thing needful_; he was not one of those of whom it is
said: _their youth is renewed like the eagle's_. The brightness of the
Reformation eclipsed him. The latter part of his life was as sad as his
early part had been brilliant. It would have been better for his fame
had he been put to death in the castle-yard of Chillon, as Lévrier had
been in that of Bonne.

[Footnote 814: Berne MS. _Hist. Helvet._ v. p. 12.]

[Footnote 815: Michel Roset, _Chroniq._ MS. liv. ii. ch. xiv.]

[Footnote 816: Registres du Conseil des 22 et 29 mars. Bonivard,
_Chroniq._ ii. p. 551. Berne MS. _Hist. Helvet._ v. p. 12.]

[Footnote 817: Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. p. 551.]

[Footnote 818: 'Quod presbyteri ab inde debeant relinquere eorum
lupanaria, lubricitates et meretrices, sub simili pœna (facere in muris
Sancti Gervasii tres teysias muri.)'—Registres du Conseil du 1ᵉʳ avril.]

[Footnote 819: Galiffe, _Matériaux pour l'Histoire de Genève_, ii. p.
vii. The note contains a long list of the illegitimate children of
popes, archbishops, inquisitors, and other churchmen.]

[Footnote 820: 1 Timothy iv. 1-3.]

[Footnote 821: Romans xiv. 17.]

[Footnote 822: Lettre de Vandel du 23 juin 1530. Galiffe fils, _Besançon
Hugues_, note to page 395.]

[Footnote 823: 'Procuratorem prosequentem scopettis invasisse, et equum
super quo fugiebat vulnerasse.'—Brief of Clement VII., dated January 24,
1528.]

[Footnote 824: Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. pp. 485, 547, 572. _Mém.
d'Archéologie_, tom. v. p. 162.]

[Footnote 825: Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. pp. 572,573. _Mém.
d'Archéologie_, iv. p. 171.]

[Footnote 826: 'Fuit lecta missiva Domini Sancti Victoris. Rescribatur
ei ut veniat, si velit, et illum bene tractabimus.'—Council Register,
May 2, 1530.]

[Footnote 827: Gautier MS. Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. p. 573.]

[Footnote 828: The convent of St. Catherine occupied the site of the
_Chalet à Gobet_, an inn situated on the road from Lausanne to Berne.]

[Footnote 829: 'Ce fut ma seconde passion.'—Bonivard, _Chroniq._]

 CHAPTER XI.
 THE ATTACK OF 1530.
 (AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, AND OCTOBER.)

[Sidenote: ARREST OF THE FISCAL MANDOLLA.]

Bonivard's arrest was not an isolated act, but the first skirmish of a
general engagement. The duke and the bishop were reconciled, and their
only thought was how they could reduce Geneva by force of arms. A
singular resolution for a pastor! Fortunately for him, the Genevans gave
him a pretext calculated in some measure to justify his warlike cure of
souls.

The iniquitous conduct of the Duke of Savoy towards Bonivard refuted the
unjust accusations brought against him, and the Genevans at once
manifested their sympathy with the unhappy prisoner of Chillon. They
were indignant at the duke's violation of the safe-conduct that he
himself had given. 'You see his bad faith,' they said. Thinking that
when the innocent were put in prison, it was time to punish the guilty,
they determined to have their revenge.

There was at Geneva a man named Mandolla, a procurator-fiscal and
thorough-going partisan of the duke and the bishop. 'He was a bastard
priest of evil name and fame,' say the chronicles of the times, 'who
indulged in exactions, and in plundering and arbitrarily imprisoning
those who displeased him.' The vicar-general, Messire de Gingins, abbot
of Bonmont, an upright and benevolent man, often remonstrated with him,
but Mandolla answered him with insolence. Nor was this all; for, having
the temporal authority under his jurisdiction, he was continually
intriguing to deliver up Geneva to the duke. The citizens, irritated at
these encroachments on their rights, addressed several strong
remonstrances to the abbot of Bonmont against the foreign priest who was
trying to rob them of their independence. It was a serious accusation:
Mandolla's conscience told him it was just; he took the alarm, and,
wishing to escape justice, hastily quitted Geneva, and fled for refuge
to the castle of Peney.

The Genevans now complained louder than ever. 'Remove this thorn from
the city,' said they to the vicar-general. The abbot acknowledged the
justice of their demand, and the council, the guardians of the rights of
the city, came to his assistance; for they recollected how, at the
election of the syndics in 1526, that man had intrigued to carry the
list which contained the name of the infamous Cartelier. Some armed men
were sent to the castle of Peney, where they seized Mandolla, bound him
to a horse, as Lévrier and Bonivard had been bound, and on the 24th of
June he was brought back to Geneva, surrounded by guards who led him to
prison. A procurator-fiscal treated like a criminal! it was a thing
unprecedented. The people stopped in the streets as he passed, and
looked at him with astonishment. The unhappy Mandolla's mind was in a
state of great confusion. He wondered if they would avenge on him the
deaths of Lévrier and Berthelier and the captivity of Bonivard. He felt
that he was guilty, but trusted in his powerful protectors. His friends
did not, indeed, lose a moment, but wrote to the bishop, who was at
Arbois.

[Sidenote: THE BISHOP PLOTS AGAINST GENEVA.]

Mandolla had hardly been three days in prison, when 'a severe and
threatening letter' from the bishop arrived at Geneva. The prelate was
indignant that the citizens should dare lay hands upon a clerk, who was
one of his officers, and especially on that fiscal who, as Bonivard
says, _brought the water to his mill_. 'Not content with the
unseasonable innovations you have made in our jurisdiction,' he wrote to
the syndics on the 27th of June, 'you have caused our procurator to be
arrested in the discharge of his functions.... And you do not like to be
called traitors!... We condemn the outrage as much as if you had done it
to our own person. Set our fiscal at liberty, without any damage to his
person; make amends for the outrage you have committed; otherwise we
shall employ all the means God has placed in our hands to obtain
vengeance.' The council were greatly astonished on reading this letter:
'The bishop forgets,' they said, 'that this is a case simply of robbery
and treason. How long has it been the custom to threaten with the
vengeance of God and man the magistrates who prosecute a thief?'—'My
lord,' answered the magistrates, 'Mandolla you well know to be a traitor
and a robber.' And, giving no heed to the episcopal summons, they drew
up an indictment against the fiscal. When this was told to La Baume, he
could not contain himself. His twofold title of prince and bishop filled
him with pride, and he could not bear the thought that these citizens of
Geneva disregarded his orders.

This affair only served to hasten the execution of his plans. His mind
was full of bitterness on account of the heresy he had discovered in the
city, and he thought but of punishing those whom he looked upon as
traitors. It did not occur to the bishop that Geneva, after undergoing a
great transformation, was one day to become the most active focus of the
Reform. But, without foreseeing such a future, he thought that if the
Reformation were established there, as at Zurich and Berne, the
provinces of Savoy, and others besides, would erelong fall a prey to the
contagion. He made up his mind to oppose it in every way, and it must be
confessed that he had a right to do so; but two things are to be
regretted: the unholy mixing up of the catholic cause with that of a
traitor and thief, and the means that the prelate employed.

[Sidenote: THE BISHOP APPEALS TO THE KNIGHTS.]

These means he sought in violence. In order to punish the huguenots he
must have allies. Where could he look for them except among the knights
of the Spoon? As prince and bishop of Geneva, he would give a shape to
this fraternity, and organise it against his own episcopal city. He
forthwith entered into communication with its principal leaders: John de
Viry, sire of Alamogne; John Mestral, sire of Aruffens; John de
Beaufort, baron of Rolle; Francis, sire of St. Saphorin; the sire of
Genthod, a village situated between Geneva and Versoix; and especially
Michael, baron of La Sarraz, whom the bishop called 'his dearly beloved
cousin.' Without waiting for these powerful lords to attack the city, he
began to carry on a little war himself. He put into prison two Genevan
cattle-dealers, who chanced to be in the territory of St. Claude;
ordered the Genevan _goats and cows_ to be seized, which were grazing on
the hills of Gex; and posted armed men on all the roads leading from
Geneva to Lyons, with instructions to stop his _subjects_ and their
friends, and to seize their goods.[830]

After this little war, the bishop turned his thoughts to the great one.
At first he wished to set in motion his own vassals, friends, and allies
on the western slopes of the Jura. 'Brother,' said he to the Baron of
St. Sorlin, 'call out our Burgundians.' His negotiations with La Sarraz,
Viry, and others having succeeded, he issued a general appeal to the
knights of the Spoon. 'Gentlemen and neighbours of my episcopal city,'
he said, 'I have been informed of your friendly disposition to aid me in
punishing my rebellious subjects of Geneva. And now, knowing that it
will be a meritorious work before God and the world to do justice upon
such evil-doers, I pray and require you to be pleased to help me in this
matter.' Many of these gentlemen crossed the Jura to come to an
arrangement with him, and filled Arbois with their indignation.

The 20th of August was an important day at the residence of the
prince-bishop; he had determined to make war upon his flock, and this
moment had been chosen for the declaration. Pierre de la Baume was not
so cruel as his predecessor, the bastard of Savoy; but his irritation
was now at its height. If he chanced to meet any Genevans who addressed
him in respectful language, he would smile graciously upon them, but 'it
was all grimace,' says the pseudo-Bonivard.[831] When they had quitted
him, La Baume once more indulged in angry and threatening words. The
convents, the commandery of Malta, and the college of the canons of
Arbois were still more violent in their complaints. On the 20th of
August a meeting took place at the priory. The knights of the Spoon, who
had found the wine of Arbois excellent, arrived with their swords, their
coats of mail, and their cloaks. The bishop, proud of having such
defenders, invited them near the chair where he was seated, and
graciously handed them their commissions to make war upon his subjects.
'We, Pierre de la Baume,' they ran, 'bishop and prince of Geneva, having
regard to the insolence, rebellion, treason, and conspiracies that some
of our subjects of Geneva are daily committing against us and our
authority ... imprisoning our subjects and our officers without orders,
assuming our rights of principality, and threatening to do worse; ...
being resolved _to maintain our Church in her authority and to uphold
our holy faith_, have commissioned and required our friends and
relatives to aid us in punishing the rebels, and, if need be, to proceed
by force of arms.' (Here follow the names of these friends, the Baron of
La Sarraz, and the other lords mentioned above.) The prelate ended the
document by a declaration that these gentlemen 'had full authority from
him, and that, in confirmation, he had written these letters with his
own hand at Arbois, on this 20th of August in the year 1530.' He had
signed the papers: _Bishop of Geneva_. The gentlemen thanked the
prelate, promised to do all in their power, and, quitting Franche-Comté,
returned to their castles to make ready for the campaign, repeating to
one another, as they rode along, that it was very necessary to maintain
_the authority of the Roman Church_ in Geneva, and to uphold _the holy
faith_, and seeming very proud that such was the object of the crusade
they were about to undertake.[832]

[Sidenote: LUTHERANS IMPRISONED.]

The bishop's alarm was not without foundation. The huguenots, even those
most inclined to protestantism, did not possess much evangelical light;
they were struck rather with the superstitions of Rome than with their
own sins and the grace of God. There were nevertheless some Genevans and
a few foreigners living in Geneva, who displayed great zeal, and replied
to the bishop's violence by going about from place to place seeking to
enlighten souls. The gentlemen of Savoy, who had just made an alliance
with the bishop, had seen this with their own eyes. 'They enter the
cottages, and even venture into our castles,' said the knights,
'everywhere preaching what they call the Word of God.' The peasants
listened rather favourably to the addresses of these evangelists; but,
says Balard, 'the gentlemen could not be prevented from taking vengeance
on such excesses.' When any of these daring pioneers of the Reformation
arrived at a castle, or even at the village or town which depended on
it, the lord, exasperated that the heretics should dare come and preach
their doctrines to his servants and vassals, seized them and threw them
into his dungeons.

Some envoys from Friburg who were going to Chambéry, having halted on
the road at the castle of one of their friends, heard of these doings;
it happened, too, that some of these huguenot prisoners (they may have
come from Berne) were confined in the place at which they were stopping.
As the Friburgers, although good catholics, were not in favour of
employing brute force in matters of religion, they found means to touch
the hearts of their persecutors, and succeeded in having these fervent
evangelists set at liberty. They then continued their journey to
Chambéry. But the duke had hardly given them audience before he said to
them with bitterness: 'I have to complain, gentlemen, that you go about
in search of prisoners in my country, and that the people of Geneva are
trying to make my people as bad as themselves.... I will not put up with
such disorders.... I cannot prevent my nobles from taking
vengeance.'[833] But the Genevans were equally unwilling to submit to
the ill-treatment to which some of their number had been exposed, and
accordingly Robert Vandel and John Lullin were despatched in all haste
to Berne and Friburg to urge on the arrival of these noble auxiliaries.
It is probable, however, that certain serious rumours which were
beginning to circulate in Geneva were the principal cause of their
mission.[834]

It was the autumn of 1530, and as the chiefs of German catholicism had
assembled at Augsburg to deliberate upon the means of destroying
protestantism in the empire, the duke and the bishop, the two great
enemies of Geneva, appointed a meeting at Gex, at the foot of the Jura,
to deliberate on the means of expelling both liberty and the Gospel from
the city of the Leman. 'Lutheranism is making considerable progress in
Geneva,' said the bishop to the duke; 'attack the city; for my part I
will employ in this work the revenues of my see and of my abbeys, and
even all my patrimony.'[835] The duke might have had reasons for
delaying the war. His brother-in-law the emperor, and the other catholic
princes assembled at Augsburg, thought they could not be ready before
the spring, and desired that protestantism should then be attacked on
all points at once. But passion prevailed with Charles III. Aspiring to
the sovereignty of Geneva, it was important for him to play the
principal part in the attack against that city; and when once Geneva was
taken, he would prove to all the world that, in accordance with the
system of the cardinals, it would be necessary to establish there some
ruler more powerful than a bishop, in order to prevent future
revolts.[836]

[Sidenote: LA SARRAZ HEADS THE KNIGHTS.]

The Baron of La Sarraz was already at work; he was a man fitted to
succeed Pontverre. Prejudiced like him against Geneva, liberty, and the
Reformation, he was less noble, less virtuous, and less headstrong than
that unhappy gentleman, but surpassed him in genius and in ability. He
had sworn that either he or Geneva should give way and perish.... The
oath was accomplished, but not in the manner he had anticipated. The
knights of the Spoon, summoned by the bishop, excited by La Sarraz,
supported by the fugitive mamelukes, and approved of by the duke, took
the field immediately. They intercepted the provisions intended for
Geneva, and sharp skirmishes occurred every day. If any citizen went
beyond the walls to look after his farm or attend to his business, the
knights would fall upon him and beat him, shut him up in one of their
castle dungeons, and sometimes kill him. But all this was a mere
prelude. The bishop came to an understanding with the Baron of La
Sarraz, through his cousin, M. de Ranzonière. Another conference took
place at Arbois towards the middle of September 1530. After a long
conversation about the heresy and independence of Geneva, and the
strange changes and singular perils to which that city and the
surrounding provinces were exposed, they decided upon a general
attack.[837]

On the 20th of September, the men-at-arms of the knights of the Spoon,
the Burgundians of the bishop, and the ducal troops, made arrangements
to surprise Geneva. On the 24th of September, some well-disposed people
came and told the citizens that the Duke of Nemours was at Montluel in
Bresse, three leagues from Lyons, with a large army. It was the Count of
Genevois, younger brother of the Duke of Savoy, whom his sister, the
mother of Francis I., had created Duke of Nemours in 1515. He was, as we
have already remarked, an able man, and, even while courting the
Genevans, desired nothing better than to destroy their city. His sister,
Louisa of Savoy, whose hostile disposition towards the Gospel we have
seen, thought it a very laudable thing to crush a place in which the
protestants, persecuted by her in France, might find an asylum. The six
captains of Geneva, on hearing this alarming intelligence, assembled
their troops and addressed them in a touching proclamation. This was on
Sunday, the 25th of September. 'We have been informed,' they said, 'that
our enemies will attack us very shortly. We pray you therefore to
forgive one another, and be ready to die in the defence of your rights.'
The citizens unanimously replied to these noble words: 'We are willing
to do so.'[838]

[Sidenote: TROOPS MARCH AGAINST GENEVA.]

The next day, Monday, the 26th of September, a man of Granson, coming
from Burgundy, confirmed the news of the danger impending over the city.
'Everything is in motion on our side,' he told them. 'M. de St. Sorlin
has declared that _God and the world_ are enraged against Geneva (it was
the favourite expression of his family); companies of arquebusiers are
about to cross the Jura; the gentlemen of the Spoon are approaching with
a large number of armed men, and the day after the feast of St. Michael
they will enter Geneva by force, to kill the men, women, and children,
and plunder the city.' The man of Granson, at the request of the
syndics, hurried off to carry the news to Berne and Friburg.[839]

It was a singular thing, this expedition against Geneva in behalf of the
_holy faith_, for there was not a church in the city where mass was not
sung, and not one where the Gospel was preached. It was still a catholic
city; but, we must confess, it contained little really worthy of the
name, except old walls, old ceremonies, and old priests. Mass was
performed, but the huguenots, instead of listening to it, walked up and
down the aisles. The Reformation was everywhere in Geneva, and yet it
was nowhere. The bishop, the duke, and even the emperor, who were not
very acute judges, confounded liberty with the Gospel; and seeing that
liberty was in Geneva, they doubted not that the Gospel was there also.

[Sidenote: GENEVA BLOCKADED.]

On Friday, the 30th of September, the enemy's army debouched on all
sides of Geneva. The six captains of Geneva and their six hundred men
got their arms ready. At this moment envoys arrived from Friburg,
wishing to see, hear, and advise the councils. They had hardly entered
the city, when the troops of Savoy, Burgundy, and Vaud were seen
preparing to blockade it. A Friburg herald left immediately, to carry
the news to his lords; but at Versoix the ducal soldiers were on their
guard; the messenger was seized and conducted to the knight of the Spoon
who commanded in the castle. It was to no purpose that he declared
himself to be a Friburger: 'You wear neither the arms nor the colours of
Friburg,' was the reply; 'go back to Geneva.' And as the herald insisted
upon passing (he had had good reasons for not putting on his uniform),
the knights maltreated him and drove him before them close up to the
drawbridge of Geneva, insulting him from time to time in a very
offensive manner. The night was then approaching; the steps of the
horses and the shouts of the horsemen could be heard in the city; it was
believed that the assault was about to be made, and some citizens ran
off to ring the tocsin. The alarm continued through the night.

The enemy had pitched their camp at Saconnex, on the right bank of the
Rhone and the lake, about half a league from Geneva, in the direction of
Gex and the Jura. On Saturday, the 1st of October, they sallied forth
early in the morning, pillaged the houses round the city, set fire to
several farms, and returned to their camp: this was a petty prelude to
the meditated attack. At this moment a second herald, coming from
Friburg, was brought in. He had been stopped at Versoix, for nobody
could pass that post in either direction. The Friburgers, uneasy at
receiving no news from Geneva, had sent this man to learn whether their
friends were really in danger or not. 'What is your business?' asked the
officers. The herald, who had learnt the story of his colleague, had
recourse to a stratagem which the usages of war justify, but christian
truth condemns. 'I am ordered,' he said, 'to go and tell our ambassadors
that they must return immediately; and that if Monsieur of Savoy needs
the help of my lords of Friburg, they will assist him.' The Savoyards,
delighted at the mission of the Friburger, hastened to set him at
liberty; he went on to Geneva, and told the whole affair to the
ambassadors of his canton. The latter, extremely pleased at his
dexterity, asked him if he could once more make his way through the
triple barrier that the cavaliers had raised between Geneva and Friburg.
He was to report that the state of affairs was as bad as could be; and
that Geneva, attacked by superior forces, was on the point of falling.
'We have no time to write,' they added, for they feared their letters
would be intercepted; 'but we give you our rings as a token. Go
speedily, and tell the lords of the two cities (Berne and Friburg), that
if they wish to succour the city of Geneva, _they must do so now or_
_never_.' Prompt help from the Swiss could alone preserve the liberties
of Geneva. The cunning Friburger departed; but even should he succeed in
making his way through the Savoyard troops lying between Friburg and
Geneva, what might not happen before a Swiss army could arrive?[840]

The next day, Sunday, the 2nd of October, the episcopal army was put in
motion; it surrounded the city; a part of the Savoyard troops occupied
the suburb of St. Leger and the monasteries of St. Victor and Our Lady
of Grace; another part was drawn up opposite the Corraterie. The
Genevans could no longer restrain themselves: the gates of the
Corraterie were thrown open, and a number of the more intrepid sallied
out upon the Savoyards, who received them with their arquebuses: one
citizen was shot dead, and the others returned into the city. Erelong
similar skirmishes took place on every side, and the trainbands of
Geneva, firing upon the enemy from the wall, killed several of them.
Masters of the suburbs, the Savoyard army waited until night to make the
assault. _Death and plunder_ was the pass-word given by the leaders.

The situation of Geneva became more critical every hour. In the evening,
just as the bell was ringing for vespers, there was a gleam of light in
the stormy sky. Ambassadors arrived from Berne; they had passed through
the enemy's lines, doubtless in consequence of their diplomatic
character. They immediately visited their Friburg colleagues, who made
known to them all their fears: 'Yet a few hours more,' they said, 'and
Romish despotism will perhaps triumph over the Genevese liberties.' The
Swiss did not lose a moment, but despatched a herald, post-haste, to
demand immediate support. A part of the defenders of Geneva went to
their homes to take some slight repose.

[Sidenote: NIGHT ASSAULT.]

The night closed in, but a bright moon permitted every movement to be
observed which took place without the city. At midnight the moon set:
darkness and silence for some time reigned upon the walls. This was the
hour fixed for the assault. The bands of Savoy and Burgundy and the
knights of the Spoon moved forward without noise, and soon reached the
ditch, in readiness to attack the city. It was easy for them to break in
the gates and to scale the walls. The sentries on the ramparts listened,
and tried to make out the movements of the enemy. The Genevans were all
determined to sacrifice their lives, but they were too few to defend
their homes against such an army. They had to fear enemies still more
formidable. It was asserted that the governor of the Low Countries, the
pope, the Dukes of Lorraine and Gueldres, and the King of France were
all pushing forward troops against the city. The alarm had been given in
the courts of Europe by a recent act of the Landgrave of Hesse. He was
negotiating a treaty with the cantons of Zurich and Basle, by the terms
of which each of the contracting parties was bound to support the others
in case of violence against the cause of the Gospel. 'Might not Philip
do the same with Berne and Geneva?' said some. 'Might not the latter
city become an asylum of the Reformation in the south, for the
populations of the Latin tongue?... No time must be lost in destroying
it.'[841]

People were talking of these things at Augsburg. The protestant princes
and doctors had quitted that city, where the famous diet had just ended:
a month had been given them to become reconciled with Rome. But
Charles V., who did not reckon much upon this _entente cordiale_ between
the pope and Luther, had declared that he would terminate the
controversy with the sword, and had given orders to raise a powerful
army to crush both protestants and protestantism: that, however, was not
to be done before the spring of next year. One day, when the emperor was
conversing about Geneva with Duke Frederick and other catholic
princes,[842] despatches were brought him announcing the march of
different armed bodies against Geneva. Charles always displayed a
prudence and reserve in his plans, which proceeded as much from nature
as from habit. As his faculties had been developed slowly, he had
accustomed himself to ponder upon everything with close attention; he
had decided in particular that not a shot ought to be fired in Europe
against the protestants before the spring of 1531, and had instructed
his brother-in-law of Savoy to that effect. Accordingly, when he learnt,
in October, that an attack was preparing against Geneva, he gave
utterance to his vexation. 'Ha!' he exclaimed, 'the Duke of Savoy is
beginning this business too soon!'[843] 'These words give cause for
reflection,' said the deputies of Nuremberg, who reported them to their
senate. After Geneva, their own turn would come, no doubt.

[Sidenote: MYSTERIOUS RETREAT OF THE SAVOYARDS.]

Meanwhile, about one o'clock on a pitch-dark night, the troops of the
duke, the bishop, and the knights of the Spoon had come up close to the
ditch. But, strange to say, they remained inactive. They neither broke
down the gates nor mounted the walls: on the contrary, 'the nearer they
approached,' says Balard, who was in the city, '_the more their hearts
failed them._' Besides the knights of Vaud and the leaders of the
Burgundian bands, there were in the besieging army a certain number of
officers holding their commissions immediately from his highness the
duke. On a sudden these Savoyard captains drew back; they moved away,
and left the others at the edge of the ditch. This unexpected defection
surprised every one: the soldiers asked what it meant.... The troops
fell into disorder, a panic soon ran through their ranks, and in a
moment there was a general flight, their only exploit being the
plundering of the suburbs.

The officers of Savoy, as they retired, said that the duke 'had
commanded them to withdraw under pain of death.' He had indeed received
the emperor's orders not to begin the war before the spring; but he
could not resolve to arrange his plans in harmony with those of his
illustrious ally. Always anxious to make himself master of Geneva, he
had let things take their course. A more pressing message from the
emperor had arrived. The duke, much vexed, had communicated it with a
bad grace to his captains. Had it only reached them at the moment they
were making the attack? or did they hesitate at the very time when,
blinded by hatred, they were about to escalade the walls in defiance of
the orders of the puissant emperor? Had their courage failed them at the
last step? This seems the most probable conclusion. There is, however, a
certain mystery in the whole incident which it is difficult to
penetrate. Geneva, alone in the presence of a gallant and numerous army,
was defended during this memorable night by an unknown and invisible
power. The Genevans believed it to be the hand of the Almighty. Did they
not read in Scripture that a city, inhabited by the people of God,
having been compassed by horses, and chariots, and a great host, the
mountain round about was miraculously filled with horses and chariots of
fire in far greater numbers?[844] None of these indeed had been seen
upon the Alps, but the arm of the Lord had put the enemy to the rout.
'The bark of God's miracles' had been once more saved in the midst of
the breakers. The citizens reiterated in their homes, in the streets,
and in the council, the expression of their gratitude. 'Ah!' said syndic
Balard, 'the faint heart, the sudden discouragement of those who had
conspired against the city, came from the grace and pity of God!'[845]

The citizens wished to open the gates and follow in pursuit of the
enemy; but the ambassadors of Berne and Friburg restrained them. The
flight was so extraordinary that these warlike diplomatists feared that
it was a stratagem. 'You do not know,' they said, 'how great is the
cunning of the enemy. Wait until you receive help from our masters,
which we hope will soon arrive.'

[Sidenote: FIFTEEN THOUSAND SWISS ARRIVE.]

In fact, fifteen thousand of those soldiers who were the terror of
Europe were then entering the Pays de Vaud with ten pieces of cannon and
colours flying, and were marching to Geneva. Some of the citizens
regretted the arrival of these troops, who came (they said) when they
were not wanted, and who would be an expense to the city; but the more
far-sighted thought their presence still necessary. The enemies of the
new order of things still threatened Geneva on every side, and were even
in Geneva, always ready to renew the attack. It was necessary to put a
stop to the violence of these feudal lords and the intrigues of the
monks; it was necessary to free the country once for all from the
robbers who spread desolation all around; and the Swiss army was looked
upon as called to accomplish this work. This was also what the Bernese
and Friburgers said, and they spared no pains to deliver the inhabitants
of the shores of the Leman from their continual alarms. They did no harm
to the peasants, except that they 'lived upon the good man;'[846] but
they captured, plundered, and burnt the castles of the knights of the
Spoon. The garrisons fled at their approach, carrying away baggage,
treasures, and artillery across the lake to Thonon: boats were
continually passing from one shore to the other. The priests and friars
were not looked upon with very friendly eyes by the _Lutherans_, and
here and there they had their gowns torn; but not one of them was
wounded. One hundred and twenty Genevans, encouraged by this news, put
to flight at Meyrin eight hundred soldiers of Savoy and Gex.

At noon on Monday, the 10th of October, the Swiss army, with the avoyer
D'Erlach at its head, marched into Geneva. But where could they put
fifteen thousand soldiers in that little city? The citizens received a
great number; a part were quartered in the convents. 'Come, fathers,
make room,' said the quartermasters to the Dominicans. The monks gave up
their dormitories very unwillingly; but that did not matter: six
companies, '_all Lutherans_,' were lodged in the convent, and two
hundred horses were turned loose in their burial-ground to feed upon the
grass. The Augustine and Franciscan monasteries, as well as the houses
of the canons and other churchmen, were also filled with troops. These
men carried on the controversy in their own fashion—that is, in a
military and not an evangelical manner. A great number of them had to
bivouac in the open air. The Bernese artillerymen, who were posted round
the Oratory, situated between the city and Plainpalais, felt cold during
the night. They first began to examine the chapel, and then entered it,
and took away the altar and the wooden images, with which they made a
good fire. They were not, however, yet at their ease: these rough
Helvetians, having no desire to lie down or to remain standing all
night, broke up a large cross, and with the fragments made seats on
which they sat round the fire. Some Friburgers, observing what they
considered to be a sacrilege, went up to the Bernese and reprimanded
them sharply, asking them why they did not go and look for wood
somewhere else. 'The wood from the churches is usually very dry,' coolly
answered the artillerymen. These catholic Friburgers were no doubt
superstitious; but perhaps the Bernese were not very pious, and most of
them, while destroying the _idols_ without, left those standing that
were within.

[Sidenote: THE NUNS OF ST. CLAIRE.]

The Genevans anxiously looked about for quarters for their guests, being
unwilling to leave these confederates without shelter, who had quitted
everything for them. As the city was not large enough, the country was
laid under contribution. At the extremity of a fine promontory which
stretches from the southern shore into the lake, at Belle Rive, about a
league from the city, stood a convent of Cistercian nuns, staunch
partisans of the duke, and who were suspected of intriguing in his
favour, and of having been greatly delighted when the Savoyard army had
beleaguered the city not long before. 'Come with us,' said certain young
huguenots to a Swiss company bivouacking in the open air; 'we will
provide you comfortable quarters, situated in a beautiful locality.'
They marched off immediately. The nuns, whose hearts palpitated with
fear, were on the watch, and, looking from their windows, they saw a
body of soldiers advancing by the lake. Hastily throwing off their
conventual dress, they disguised themselves and took refuge in the
neighbouring cottages. At last the troop arrived. Were the Genevans and
Bernese irritated by this flight, or did they intend to follow the
custom of burning the houses of those who plotted against the State? We
cannot tell; but, be that as it may, they set fire to the convent, not,
however, to the church, and the house itself suffered but little, for
the nuns returned to it soon after. When the flames were seen from
Geneva, they occasioned much excitement; but nothing could equal that of
the sisters of St. Claire.[847] The poor nuns, huddling together in
their garden, looked at the fire with terror, and exclaimed: 'It is a
sword of sorrow to us, like that which pierced the Virgin.' They ran
backwards and forwards, they entered the church, they returned to the
garden, and fell down at the foot of the altar, and then, looking again
at the flames, devoutly crossed themselves. 'We must depart,' they said,
and immediately the best scholars among them drew up, as well as their
emotion permitted, a humble petition addressed to the syndics. 'Fathers
and dear protectors,' said they, 'on our bended knees and with uplifted
hands, we, being greatly alarmed, entreat you by the honour of our
Redeemer, of his virgin mother, of Monsieur St. Pierre, and Madame St.
Claire, and all the saints of paradise, to be pleased to allow us to go
out from your city in safety.' Three of the most devout members of the
council went to the convent to comfort them. 'Fear nothing,' they said,
'for the city has not the least intention of becoming Lutheran.'[848]

A certain consideration was shown towards the sisters, by requiring them
to find quarters for only twenty-five soldiers, all Friburgers, 'good
catholics,' says one of the nuns, 'and hearing mass willingly.' But
alas! the mass did not make them more merciful. 'They were as thievish
as the others,' says the same nun. Shortly after their arrival they
threatened to break down the doors and the walls, if the nuns did not
supply them with as much to eat and drink as they wanted. It is true
that the sisters put the soldiers upon spare diet, giving them only a
few peas.[849] This little garrison, however, was of advantage to the
church of St. Claire: it was the only place in Geneva where the Roman
worship was performed. The Friburgers, at the request of the sisters,
took post at the door, and prevented the _heretics_ from entering, but
gave admission _by order_ to all the priests and monks of Geneva who
showed themselves. The latter came dressed as laymen, carrying their
robes under their arms; they went into the vestry, put on their clerical
costume, entered the chapel, drew up round the altar, and chanted mass
_in pontificalibus_. When the service was over, the nuns congratulated
each other: 'What glory Madame St. Claire has over Madame Magdalen,
Monsieur St. Gervais, and even M. St. Pierre!' It was a great
consolation and indescribable honour to them.

The mass, however, was not to have all its own way in Geneva. The
Bernese desired to have the Word of God preached; consequently, on
Tuesday, the 11th of October, they proceeded to the cathedral with their
evangelical almoner, and ordered the doors to be opened. Some of them
went into the tower and rang the episcopal bells, after which the
almoner went up into the pulpit, read a portion of Scripture, and
preached a sermon. A great number of Genevans had gone to the church and
watched this new worship from a distance. They did not fully understand
it; but they saw that the reading of God's Word, its explanation, and
prayer were the essential parts, and they liked that better than the
Roman form. From that time, the evangelical service was repeated daily,
and 'no other bell, little or big, rang in Geneva.' The priests consoled
themselves by thinking that 'the accursed minister preached in German.'
The _German_, however, went further: he had brought with him some copies
of the Holy Scriptures in French, and French translations of several of
the writings of Zwingle, Luther, and other reformers; and when the
Genevans who had heard him without understanding him went to pay him a
visit, he gave them these books, after shaking hands with them, and in
this way prepared their minds for the work of the Reformation.

[Sidenote: CASTLES TAKEN AND BURNT.]

While these books might be producing some internal good, the Genevans
were anxious for another reform. They wished to purge the country of the
outrages, robberies, and murders which the nobility in the neighbourhood
of Geneva, still more than those in the Pays de Vaud, had made the
peaceful burghers endure so long. This also was a reform, though
different from that of Luther and Farel. 'Come along with us,' they said
to the terrible bands of Friburg and Berne, 'and we will lead you to
these brigands' nests.' The Swiss troops, guided by the Genevans,
appeared successively before the castles of Gaillard, Vilette,
Confignon, Sacconex, and others. They captured and set fire to many of
these haunts, where the noble robbers had so often hidden their plunder
and their prey. The terror of the partisans of the old order of things
now became extreme. The sisters of St. Claire thought that everything
was on fire round Geneva. 'Look!' said they, standing on the highest
part of their garden, 'look! although the weather is fair, the sky is
darkened by the smoke.' They fancied it was the last day. 'Of a surety,'
they added, 'the elements are about to be dissolved.' The desolation was
still greater in the country. The captain-general had issued an order
forbidding all marauding, but the soldiers rarely attended to it. The
peasantry were seen running away like sheep before the wolf; the
gentlemen hid themselves in the woods or the mountains; and several
noble dames, who had taken refuge in miserable huts, 'were brought to
bed there very wretchedly.'[850]

Although certain accusations have been brought against them, the nuns of
St. Claire were sincere in their devotion, and moral in their conduct;
and while the dissolute friars kept silence, these superstitious but
virtuous women appeared to stand alone by the side of popery in its
agony. Desiring to appease the wrath of heaven, they made daily
processions in their garden, barefooted in the white frost, chanting low
the litanies of the Virgin and the saints 'to obtain mercy.' They passed
all the night in vigils, 'praying to God in behalf of his holy faith and
the poor world.' After matins they lighted the tapers, and scourged
themselves; then bending to the earth, they exclaimed: _Ave, benigne
Jesu!_ 'hail, gentle Jesus!' Sister Jeanne affirms that by these means
they worked miracles. Indeed, one of the _mahometists_ (huguenots),
having flung a consecrated wafer into a cemetery, it could not be found
again: 'the angels had carried it away and put it in some unknown
place.'[851] It was not very miraculous that so small an object could
not be found among the grass and between the graves of a cemetery. A
miracle more real was worked.

The Duke of Nemours, brother of the Duke of Savoy, who, as we have seen,
had come from France with his men-at-arms to attack Geneva, laid aside
his warlike humour when he found the Swiss in the city, and, wishing to
conciliate the Genevans, repeated to all who came near him that he had
never intended to do them any harm, and would punish severely everybody
who was guilty of violence towards them. A truce was concluded at St.
Julien. The definitive treaty of peace was referred to a Swiss diet to
be held at Payerne. The bishop released the merchants, the cows, and the
goats he had seized, and the Genevans set Mandolla at liberty; 'but,'
adds Bonivard, 'I was not taken out of Chillon.'[852]

[Footnote 830: _Journal de Balard_, pp. 274-280. Registres du Conseil
des 23 juin; 5, 8, 19 juillet; 9 août. Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. p. 576.
Galiffe fils, _Besançon Hugues_, pp. 398, 399. Gautier MS.]

[Footnote 831: MS. _Hist. of Geneva_ in the Berne library, erroneously
ascribed to Bonivard.]

[Footnote 832: _Journal de Balard_, pp. 274-280. Registres du Conseil
des 23 juin; 5, 8, 19 juillet; 9 août. Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. p. 576.
Galiffe fils, _Besançon Hugues_, pp. 398, 399. Gautier MS.]

[Footnote 833: _Journal de Balard_, p. 280.]

[Footnote 834: Roset MS. _Chroniq._ liv. ii. ch. xlix. Registres du
Conseil du 4 juillet et du 12 août.]

[Footnote 835: Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. pp. 577, 578. Besson, _Mémoires
du Diocèse de Genève_, p. 62. Gautier MS.]

[Footnote 836: See vol. i. p. 69.]

[Footnote 837: Gautier MS. Besson, _Mémoires du Diocèse de Genève_.
Galiffe fils, _Besançon Hugues_, p. 400. Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. pp.
577, 578.]

[Footnote 838: _Journal de Balard_, p. 286.]

[Footnote 839: Ibid. p. 287.]

[Footnote 840: _Journal de Balard_, p. 289.]

[Footnote 841: Sleidan, _Hist. de la Réformation_, liv. vii. _Journal de
Balard_, p. 289.]

[Footnote 842: 'Als der Kayser mit Herzog Friedrichen und andern Fürsten
des Krieges vor Genf zu reden worden.'—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 421.]

[Footnote 843: 'Hat der Kayser unter andern in Französisch geredet: Ey,
der Herzog hat die Sache zu früh angefangen.'—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 421.]

[Footnote 844: 2 Kings vi. 17.]

[Footnote 845: _Journal de Balard_, pp. 289, 290.]

[Footnote 846: 'Ils vivaient sur le bon homme.' _Bon homme_ was a term
applied by the nobles to the peasantry. Hence the war of _Jacques
Bon-homme_ in France.]

[Footnote 847: Their convent was in the upper part of the city where the
palace of justice now stands, in the Bourg de Four.]

[Footnote 848: La Sœur J. de Jussie, pp. 11-14.]

[Footnote 849: La Sœur J. de Jussie, p. 18.]

[Footnote 850: La Sœur J. de Jussie, p. 21.]

[Footnote 851: La Sœur J. de Jussie, pp. 23-25.]

[Footnote 852: Ibid. pp. 20-25. Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. p. 586. Gautier
MS.]

 CHAPTER XII.
 GENEVA RECLAIMED BY THE BISHOP AND AWAKENED BY THE
 GOSPEL.
 (NOVEMBER 1530 TO OCTOBER 1531.)

[Sidenote: IMPERIAL LETTER TO GENEVA]

Thus had failed the attack of the bishop-prince against his city; and it
was much to be feared that such an act, instead of restoring his power,
would only accelerate his fall. Pierre de la Baume saw this, and
resolved to employ other means to regain in Geneva the authority he had
lost.

The thought that the Helvetic league was to be the arbiter between
Geneva and her bishop-prince oppressed him like a nightmare: he did not
doubt that the diet would pronounce against him. A clever idea occurred
to him. 'If,' said he, 'I could but have the emperor as arbiter, instead
of the Swiss.... Surely the monarch, who is preserving the papacy in
Germany, will preserve it also at Geneva.' Charles V. and the catholic
party were still at Augsburg; and the bishop would have desired to
substitute a congress of princes for a diet of republicans. 'In truth,'
said the emperor, when this petition was laid before him, 'we should not
like the rights of the most reverend father in God, the Bishop of
Geneva, to be prejudiced.... They are of imperial foundation; and it is
our duty, therefore, to maintain them.' Charles had never been more
irritated against the protestants than he was now. It was the middle of
November: the imperial _recess_ had just been rejected by the
evangelicals, because the emperor (they said) had not authority to
command in matters of faith.[853] The deputies of Saxony and Hesse had
left without waiting for the close of the diet. The imperialists assured
the friends of the Bishop of Geneva that he could not have chosen a
better time, and that his cause was gained. On the 19th of November
proclamation was to be made in Augsburg of the re-establishment 'of one
and the same faith throughout the empire.' On the evening before, while
this was being drawn up, the emperor called his secretary, and dictated
to him the following letter, addressed to the people of Geneva:—

'DEAR LIEGEMEN,

'We have been informed that there is a question between you and our
cousin, the Duke of Savoy, about matters touching the rights of our
well-beloved cousin and counsellor, the Bishop of Geneva. We have
desired to write to you about that, enjoining you very expressly to send
to our imperial authority persons well informed on all points in dispute
between the bishop and yourselves. We shall demand the same of the said
lords, the duke and the bishop, our cousins, for the settlement of your
differences, which will be for the welfare and tranquillity of both
parties. You will thus learn the desire we have that _our subjects_
should live in peace, friendship, and concord.

 'Dear liegemen, may God watch over you!
 'At Augsburg, 18th of November, 1530.
 'CHARLES.'

[Sidenote: ANSWER OF THE GENEVESE.]

This letter from his imperial majesty created a great sensation in
Geneva. It was known that Charles V. was preparing to reduce mighty
princes, and every one perceived the danger that threatened the city.
'What!' said the people, 'we are to send deputies to Augsburg, and
perhaps to Austria, where they will meet those of the bishop and the
duke ... and the emperor will be our judge!' The councils assembled
frequently without coming to any decision as to the answer to be
returned. First one and then another was commissioned to draw it up.
Councillor Genoux produced a draft signed 'Your very humble
subjects.'—'We are not subjects,' exclaimed the huguenots. At length
they decided on writing as follows:—

'Most serene, most invincible, very high and mighty Prince Charles,
always august. For this long time past, we, in defence of the authority
and franchises of our prince-bishop and city of Geneva, have suffered
many vexations, great charges, expenses, and dangers, proceeding from
the most illustrious duke. Quite recently we were surrounded by armed
men, his subjects, and outrageously attacked. Nevertheless, by God's
will and the kind succour of the magnificent lords of Berne and Friburg,
we have been preserved from this assault—to relate which would be
wearisome to your majesty.' The council added that, as the settlement
which the emperor desired to undertake would be arranged at Payerne
before the Swiss diet, they could not profit by his good intentions, and
concluded by commending to him the city of Geneva, 'which, from desiring
to observe its strict duty, would have been almost destroyed but for the
grace of God.'[854]

Thus did the little city boldly decline the intervention of the great
emperor. The duke and the bishop had hoped that Charles V., who was in
their opinion called to destroy the Reformation in Germany, would begin
by crushing it in Geneva. Accordingly, when the news of the Genevese
refusal reached the ears of the duke and the bishop, their indignation
knew no bounds. 'Since these rebels reject the peaceful mediation of the
emperor,' they said, 'we must bring the matter to an end with the
sword.' They once more resolved to take the necessary steps, but with as
much secresy as possible, so that the Swiss should not be informed of
them. The Duke of Nemours, who had not made use of his army, instructed
ten thousand lansquenets who were at Montbéliard to move as quietly as
they could behind the Jura, arrive at St. Claude, descend as far as Gex,
and, two days before the opening of the diet of Payerne which the bishop
so much dreaded, _suddenly take Geneva by storm, set it on fire_, and,
leaving a heap of ashes behind them, retire rapidly into Burgundy before
the Swiss could have time to arrive. At the same time messengers were
sent to all the castles of the Pays de Vaud, inviting the gentlemen to
hold themselves in readiness. On his side, the Duke of Savoy, who was
then at Chambéry, made 'great preparation' of armed men and adventurers,
both Italian and French. Everything, he said, was to be completed with
the greatest secresy.

[Sidenote: DECISION OF THE DIET OF PAYERNE.]

But Charles was less discreet than his brother; he could not keep
silence, but boasted of the clever _coup de main_ that he was preparing.
On the other hand, a man coming from Montbéliard to Berne reported that
he had seen ten thousand soldiers reviewed in that town. At this
intelligence, the energetic lords of Berne desired all the cantons to
hold themselves in readiness to succour Geneva, and threatened the
gentry of the Pays de Vaud to waste their country with fire and sword if
they moved. Meanwhile the council called out all the citizens. Thus the
mine was discovered, the blow failed, and the duke, once more
disappointed in his expectations, left Chambéry for Turin.[855] The diet
which met at Payerne, even while conceding the vidamy to the duke (which
he was not in a condition to reclaim), maintained the alliance of
Geneva, Berne, and Friburg, and condemned Charles III. to pay these
three cities 21,000 crowns. Geneva and Berne desired more than this:
they demanded that Bonivard should be set at liberty—'if perchance he be
not dead,' they added. The Count of Chalans replied that M. St. Victor
was 'a lawful prisoner.'[856]

As neither war nor diplomacy had succeeded in restoring the
prince-bishop to his see, he had recourse to less secular means: he
turned to the pope, who determined to grant the city a marvellous favour
by which he hoped to attach once more the bark of Geneva to the ship of
St. Peter. The heroism which the sisters of St. Claire had shown when
the Swiss had come to the help of the city in October 1530, had touched
the pontiff: among the conventuals of Geneva the only men were the
women. The pope therefore granted a general pardon to all who should
perform certain devotions in the church of that convent. On Annunciation
Day (March 25) this remarkable grace was published throughout the
country.

[Sidenote: PILGRIMAGE TO ST. CLAIRE.]

An immense crowd from all the Savoyard villages flocked to the city, 'in
great devotion,' on the first day. Chablais, Faucigny, Genevois, and Gex
were full of devotees strongly opposed to the Reformation; they were
delighted at going to pay homage in Geneva itself to the principles for
which they had so often taken up arms. As they saw these long lines
approach their walls, the citizens felt a certain fear. 'Let us be on
our guard,' they said, 'lest under the dress of pilgrims the knights and
men-at-arms of the Spoon should be concealed.' They suddenly closed the
city gates. The pilgrims continuing to arrive soon made a crowd, and,
being fatigued with their long march, exclaimed in a pitiful voice:
'Pray open the gates, for we have come from a distance.' But the
Genevans were deaf. Then appeared the pilgrims from Faucigny, energetic
and vigorous men, who got angry, and finding words of no avail, they
forced the gates, and proceeded to the church of St. Claire, where they
began unceremoniously to say their _Paters_ and _Aves_. According to a
bull of Adrian VI., it was sufficient to repeat five of these to obtain
seventy thousand years of pardon.[857] The colour mounted to the cheeks
of some of the huguenots, who would have resisted the unlawful
intrusion; but the Faucignerans continued their devotions as calmly as
if they had been in their own villages. Then the syndics went to St.
Claire (it was the hour of vespers), accompanied by their sergeants
'with drawn swords and stout staves,' and made the usual summons for
these strangers to leave the city. Upon the refusal of the Savoyards,
the public force interfered; the Faucignerans resisted, blows were
exchanged, and finally these extraordinary pilgrims were compelled to
retire without having gained their pardon. This scene increased the
dislike of the Genevans to the Romish ceremonies. To publish indulgences
was a curious means of strengthening catholicism in Geneva. Pope
Clement VII. forgot that Leo X. had thus given the signal for the
Reformation.[858]

When these scenes were described at Rome, they excited great irritation.
The sacred college determined to try again, and to exhibit in the very
midst of this heretic population a still more striking act of Roman
devotion. Clement VII. called his secretary and dictated to him, 'of
divine inspiration,' a new pardon, to which the Bishop of Geneva affixed
his _placet_, and which inflicted the penalty of excommunication on any
who should oppose it. This bull was published in the Savoyard country
adjacent to Geneva. The parish priests had scarcely announced the pardon
from their pulpits, ere the villages were astir, and men and women, old
and young, made their arrangements to go and seek the glorious grace
offered them in the city of the huguenots. The Genevans, friends of
religious liberty and legality, determined to offer no hindrance to
these devotions. But they took their precautions, and the
captain-general called out a strong guard. The pilgrims approached,
staff in hand, some carrying a cross on their shoulders; and erelong a
great crowd of Savoyards appeared before the walls. Here they were
compelled to halt. At each gate were arquebusiers, a great many of them
huguenots, who searched the pilgrims lest they should carry swords
beneath their clothes, in addition to their staves. The examination was
made, not without much grumbling, but no arms were found.

Then the devoted multitude rushed into the city, and crowded into the
church of St. Claire as if it had been that of Our Lady of Loretto. The
Genevans suffered the pilgrims to go through all their forms without
obstruction. If the Savoyards wished to perform their devotions, they
reckoned also, as is usual in affairs of this kind, upon eating and
drinking, and that abundantly. The crowd for this part of the pilgrimage
was so great, that the tavern-keepers, for want of room, were forced to
set tables in the open air. This mixture of praying and drinking made
the spectators smile, and some of the huguenots gave vent to their
sarcastic humour: 'Really,' said one, 'this pardon is quite an
ecclesiastical fair' (_nundinæ ecclesiasticæ_)! 'The fair,' said
another, 'is more useful than people imagine. By these pilgrimages the
priests revive the flagging zeal of their flocks. They are nets in which
the simple birds come and are caught.' 'I very much fear,' added a
third, 'that in order to sell her indulgences, the Church makes many
promises which God certainly will not fulfil.... It is a pious fraud, as
Thomas Aquinas says.'—'Let them alone,' said others, 'let them bring
their money ... and then, when the plate is well filled, we will empty
it.' They did not proceed to such extremities: the syndics merely
forbade the money to be spent out of the city.[859]

[Sidenote: PRIDE OF THE NUNS OF ST. CLAIRE.]

The sisters of St. Claire rejoiced. The pope had honoured them in the
sight of all christendom; their monastery was on the way to become a
celebrated place. They believed themselves to be the favourites of God
and of the heavenly intelligences, and imagined that angels would come
to their assistance. As the plague was then raging in Geneva, they
saw—surprising miracle!—the hosts of heaven leaving their glorious
abodes to preserve the convent: the plague did not visit it. All the
nuns were convinced that this was due to a miraculous intervention. And
when the sisters, in church or in refectory, at vespers or at matins,
conversed about this great grace, they whispered to one another: 'Three
wondrously handsome and formidable knights, each having a beautiful
shining cross on his forehead, keep watch before the gate.... And when
the wicked plague appears, she sees them straight in front of her, and
flees away, fearing the brightness of their faces.' Sister Jeanne de
Jussie informs us of this miraculous fact, and concludes her narrative
with this pious exclamation: 'To God be the honour and praise!' Some
sensible men afterwards asked why these knights, 'with the shining cross
on their foreheads,' had not stationed themselves at the gates of Geneva
to prevent the entrance of that other plague (as Rome called it), the
Reformation?

The means which the pope had selected for reannexing Geneva to Rome, had
quite a different effect: they produced a revival of religion. The Roman
indulgence aroused the Genevans, and made them seek for a real pardon.
Had not Luther, fourteen years before, proclaimed at Wittemberg that
'_every true christian participates in all the blessings of Christ, by
God's gift, and without a letter of indulgence_?'—'This doctrine,' said
certain huguenots who had returned from a journey through the cantons,
'is received in Switzerland, and not at Zurich and Berne alone. There
are many people of Lucerne and Schwytz even, who prefer God's pardon to
the pardons of the pope.'

An invisible hand was at that time stretched over the city, and holding
a blessing in reserve for it. Farel, who was on the shores of the lake
of Neufchatel, was informed of the evangelical movement which followed
the noisy devotions of the Faucignerans, and wrote about it immediately
to Zwingle, his friend and counsellor. This was in October 1531: yet a
few more days, and the reformer of Zurich was to meet his death on the
battle-field of Cappel. This awakening of Geneva was the last news which
came to rejoice his oppressed soul. 'Many in that city,' wrote Farel,
'feel in their hearts holy aspirations after true piety.'[860] And,
according to this energetic reformer, it was something more than vague
movements of the soul that they felt. 'Several Genevans,' he wrote
another day to Zwingle, 'are meditating on the work of Christ.'[861]

[Sidenote: 'DE CHRISTO MEDITARI.']

Thus, then, did that city of Geneva, which had been so engrossed with
political independence, begin to reflect on Jesus Christ. It was the new
topic which the Reformation presented everywhere to the consideration of
earnest men. In Germany, Switzerland, France, and England, still more
than at Geneva, serious minds were beginning to meditate on Christ—_de
Christo meditari_. Some did so in a superficial manner; others devoted
themselves to it in the depths of their soul; and holy thoughts found a
home in the houses of the citizens, in the colleges, in obscure cells,
and even on the throne. 'Christ is the Redeemer of the world,' thought
these meditative minds, 'the restorer of the union with God, which sin
destroyed.... Christ came to establish the kingdom of God upon earth....
But no one can enter that kingdom unless God pardons his sins.... In
order that we may find peace, not only must our souls be relieved from
the penalty, but our consciences must be delivered from the feeling of
the sin that keeps it apart from its God.... An atonement is
necessary.... Christ, like those whom he came to save, a man like them,
is at the same time of an eternal and divine nature, which has given him
power to ransom the entire people of God, and to be the principle of a
new life.... He took upon himself the terrible penalty which we
deserved.... His whole life was one continuous expiatory suffering....
But the crowning of his sorrows, and what gave them truly the character
of expiation, was his death.... Christ, uniting himself to humanity
through love for us, suffered death under a form which bears in the most
striking manner the character of a punishment, that is to say, the pain
of a malefactor condemned by a human tribunal.... He, the Holy One,
wishing to save his people, was made sin upon the cross.... He was
treated as the representative of sinful humanity.... He, the beloved of
the Father, endured for rebellious men the most deadly anguish, the
entire abandonment by God.... From that hour the people of God enjoy the
remission of their sins, they are reconciled with God, they have free
access to the Father.... That sacrifice is of universal
comprehensiveness; no one is excluded from it ... and yet no one
receives the benefit of it, except by a personal appropriation, by being
united to Jesus Christ, by participating, through faith, in his holy and
imperishable life.'

Such, in the sixteenth century, were the meditations of elect souls in
many a secret chamber, and it is in this way that the Reformation was
accomplished. Perhaps one or two Genevans had similar thoughts; but,
generally, their knowledge was not very advanced, and most of the
huguenots desired rather to be delivered from the bishop and the duke
than from sin and condemnation. Farel did not conceal from Zwingle his
anxieties in this respect, and said, in his letter from Granson: 'As for
the degree of fervour with which the Genevans seek after piety—it is
known only to the Lord.'[862]

[Sidenote: FAREL FEELS THE WANTS OF GENEVA.]

No one interested himself more than Farel in the reformation of Geneva.
That year he was at Avenche, Payerne, Orbe, Granson, and other places;
and everywhere he ran the risk of losing his life. In one place a
sacristan threatened him with a pistol; in another, a friar tried to
kill him with a knife concealed under his frock; but Farel never thought
of himself. Of intrepid heart and indomitable will, always burning with
desire to promote the triumph of the Gospel, and prepared to confront
the most violent opposition, he felt himself strongly drawn to Geneva as
soon as he heard that the Reformation had to contend with powerful
adversaries there. He then fixed his eyes on that city, and during his
long career never turned them away from it. In the midst of his labours
at Granson, by the side of the lake, near the old castle, on the famous
battle-field, Geneva occupied his thoughts. He reflected that although
it already had a reputation for heresy, there was in reality no true
reform. What! shall the Reformation die there before it is born? He
desired to see the Word of God preached there publicly, in an
appropriate, vivifying, effective manner, and, as Calvin said, 'by
pressing the people importunately.' He desired to see the pulpit become
the seat of the prophets and apostles, the throne of Christ in his
Church. No time must be lost. The Reformation would be ruined in Geneva,
and the new times would perish with it, if the huguenots, who had ceased
to listen to the mass, were contented, as their only worship, with
walking up and down the church while the priests were chanting. The
ardent passions and warlike humour of the Genevese alarmed him. 'Alas!'
he said, 'there is no other law at Geneva than the law of arms.'[863] He
desired to establish the law of God there. He would have liked to go
there himself, and perhaps he would have carried away some by his lively
eloquence, and alarmed others by the thunders of his voice; but he owed
himself at this time to the places he was evangelising at the peril of
his life. If he quitted the work, Rome would regain her lost ground. He
therefore looked about him for a man fitted to scatter through the city
the seeds of the Word of God.

[Sidenote: CALLS TOUSSAINT TO GO THERE.]

Pierre Toussaint, the young canon of Metz, had quitted France, at the
invitation of Œcolampadius, after his sojourn at the court of the Queen
of Navarre, and had joined Zwingle at Zurich.[864] Farel came to the
determination of sending Toussaint to Geneva: they had occasionally
preached the Gospel together since 1525. 'Make haste to send him into
the Lord's vineyard,' he wrote to Zwingle, 'for you know how well fitted
he is for this work. I entreat you to extend a helping hand.'[865] And,
as if he foresaw the importance of the reformation of Geneva, he added:
'It is no small matter: see that you do not neglect it.[866] Urge
Toussaint to labour strenuously, so as to redeem by his zeal all the
time he has lost.'[867] Zwingle executed the commission. Toussaint, one
of the most amiable among the secondary personages of the Reform,
listened attentively to the great doctor, and at first showed himself
inclined to accept the call.[868] Zwingle spared no pains to bring him
to a decision: he set before him what the Gospel had already done in
Geneva, and what remained to be done. 'Enter into this house of the
Lord,' he said. 'Rend the hoods in pieces, and triumph over the
shavelings.... You will not have much trouble, for the Word of God has
already put them to flight.'[869] He did not mean that Toussaint should
literally tear the friars to pieces, for the expression is figurative;
but the energy of Farel and Zwingle, and what he heard of the Genevan
persecutions, alarmed the poor young man. He had quitted the court of
Francis I. because of the worldliness and cowardice he had encountered
there; and now, seeing in Geneva monks and priests, _bishopers_ and
_commoners_, huguenots and mamelukes, he shrank back in terror, as if
from a den of wild beasts. He had said 'No' to the court, he said 'No'
to the energetic and impetuous city. Geneva wanted heroes—men like Farel
and Calvin. The project failed.

Farel was vexed. He who had never shrunk from any summons could not
succeed in sending an evangelist into this city!... He called to mind
that all help comes from a God of mercy, and in his anguish turned to
the Lord: 'O Christ,' he said, 'draw up thy army according to thy good
pleasure; pluck out all apathy from the hearts of those who are to give
thee glory, and arouse them mightily from their slumber.'[870] The
moment was soon to arrive when he would go himself to Geneva; but before
he appeared there, his prayer would be answered. God, whom he had
invoked, was to send there within a few months a strong and modest man,
who would prepare the way for Farel, Calvin, and the Reformation.

Meanwhile several Genevans, who did not understand that a conversion of
the heart is necessary, wished to effect at least a negative reform,
which would have consisted in doing away with the mass, images, and
priests. The more daring asked why Geneva should not do like Zurich,
Berne, and Neufchatel. 'Yes,' answered the more prudent, 'if the
Friburgers would permit.'[871]

These desires for reform, weak as they were, alarmed the Romish party.
Friars, priests, and bigots got up an agitation, and, going in great
numbers before the procurator-fiscal, conjured him to lay aside his
apathy, seeing that this new religion would change everything in Geneva,
and deprive the bishop not only of his spiritual jurisdiction, but of
his secular authority also. The fiscal, who was empowered to watch over
the rights of the prince, called for a severe inquiry upon all suspected
persons.[872] At these words there was silence in the assembly: some of
the members of the council looked at one another, and felt ill at ease,
for they were among the number of the suspected. The fiscal spoke out
more plainly, and filled the hall with complaints and clamour. 'Let us
destroy heresy!' he repeated.[873] The council, perplexed to the highest
degree, evaded the matter by doing nothing either for or against it.

[Sidenote: BERNE AND FRIBURG AT GENEVA.]

The fervent catholics next proceeded to the hotel where the Friburg
ambassadors were staying. 'If Geneva is reformed,' said the latter,
'there is an end to the alliance.' The Friburgers did more than this:
leaving their lodgings, they accosted the more decided liberals, and
repeated to them in a firm tone: 'If Geneva is reformed, there is an end
to the alliance!' The huguenots hurried off to the Bernese ambassadors;
but the battle of Cappel was not far off, and it was a matter of doubt
whether the Reformation could be preserved even in Berne and Zurich. The
Bernese received the Genevans coldly, and the latter returned astonished
and incensed. 'Alas!' said Farel, 'the Bernese show less zeal for the
glory of Christ than the Friburgers for the decrees of the pope.'[874]

A new difficulty arose. The huguenots would have desired to march to the
deliverance of Zurich and the reformed, while the catholics wished to
support Lucerne and the smaller cantons. On the 11th of October—the very
day of the battle of Cappel, but it was not yet known—Berne demanded a
hundred arquebusiers of Geneva; and the next day Friburg wrote desiring
them to send all the help they could against the heretical cantons.
Which side should Geneva take? 'Let us refuse Friburg,' said some. 'Let
us refuse Berne,' said others. The former called to mind the assistance
which the most powerful republic in Switzerland had sent them; the
latter remembered that Friburg had espoused the cause of Geneva when
Berne was against them. The council, impelled in contrary directions,
resolved to preserve a just balance, and extricated themselves from
their embarrassment by the strangest middle course. They resolved that a
hundred Genevans should go and fight in favour of the Reformation, and
appointed Jean Philippe, one of the most zealous huguenots, to command
them; after which they also gave Friburg a favourable answer, and
elected syndic Girardet chief of the auxiliaries intended for the
catholics.[875]

[Footnote 853: _Hist. of the Ref. of the Sixteenth Century_, vol. iv.
bk. xiv. ch. xii.]

[Footnote 854: See the emperor's letter of Nov. 18, 1530, and the answer
of the Council, Dec. 10. Registers, December 9, 1530. Bonivard,
_Chroniq._ ii. pp. 591-594.]

[Footnote 855: _Journal de Balard_, pp. 306-309.]

[Footnote 856: Ibid. pp. 312, 313. Bonivard, _Chroniq._ ii. pp. 595,
607. Galiffe fils, _Besançon Hugues_, p. 407. Ruchat, ii. p. 305.]

[Footnote 857: Chais, _Lettres sur les Jubilés_, ii. p. 583.]

[Footnote 858: La Sœur J. de Jussie, p. 25.]

[Footnote 859: La Sœur J. de Jussie, p. 28.]

[Footnote 860: 'Sunt qui ad pietatem aspirant.'—Farel to Zwingle,
October 1, 1531, _Epp._ ii. p. 647. This letter, written from Granson
eleven days before Zwingle's death, was the last the Zurich reformer
ever received. That which comes after, dated simply from Orbe, 1531, is
evidently anterior to that from Granson.]

[Footnote 861: 'Apud Gebennenses non nihil audio de Christo
meditari.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 862: 'Sed quanto fervore novit Dominus.'—Zwingl. _Epp._ ii.
p. 647.]

[Footnote 863: 'Jus est in armis.'—Zwingl. _Epp._ ii. p. 647.]

[Footnote 864: 'Petrus Tossanus per Œcolampadium sæpe suis vocatus
literis, quibus nostras frequentes addidimus. E Gallis pulsus ad te se
contulit.'—Farel to Zwingle, Orbe, _Epp._ ii. p. 648.]

[Footnote 865: 'Quantum agnoscis idoneum, tantum adige in vineam Domini
properare.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 866: 'Res non parva est, neque contemnenda.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 867: 'Strenue laborare, id studio et diligentia compenset,
quod diu cessans omisit.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 868: 'Petrum sperabam in messem Domini venturum.'—Farel to
Zwingle, _Epp._ ii. p. 648.]

[Footnote 869: 'Fractis cuculatis aliisque rasis, quos pridem Verbum
fugasset.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 870: 'Christus pro sua bona voluntate disponat omnia!
Socordiam omnem et veternum excutias a pectoribus eorum, per quos
Christi honor procurandus venit.'—Farel to Zwingle, Orbe, _Epp._ ii. p.
648.]

[Footnote 871: 'Et si per Friburgenses liceret, asserit excipiendum
prompte Evangelium.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 872: 'In hæreticæ pravitatis suspectos severa diligentia
inquireretur.'—Spanheim, _Geneva Restituta_, p. 37.]

[Footnote 873: 'Clamosa quiritatione et crebro convitio.'—Spanheim,
_Geneva Restituta_, p. 37.]

[Footnote 874: 'Bernenses non ea diligentia laborant pro Christi gloria,
qua Friburgenses pro pontificiis placitis.'—Zwingl. _Epp._ ii. p. 648.]

[Footnote 875: Registres du Conseil des 11, 13, 14 octobre 1531.]

 CHAPTER XIII.
 DANGER TO WHICH GENEVA IS EXPOSED BY THE DEFEAT OF
 CAPPEL.
 (OCTOBER 1531 TO JANUARY 1532.)

[Sidenote: GENEVA AGAIN IN DANGER.]

The news of the war between the catholics and the reformed having
reached Turin, the duke thought it a favourable opportunity for
attacking Geneva. It was reported that five thousand lansquenets were
approaching on the side of Burgundy, ten thousand Italians on the side
of the Alps, and that all the states of his highness beyond the
mountains were in motion to fall upon the city. 'There are certain heads
in Geneva,' said the duke, 'that I purpose to set flying.' The Genevans
lost not a moment. 'Let everything be destroyed that may obstruct the
defence of the city,' said the council. 'Let all the suburbs be
levelled—Eaux Vives on the left shore of the lake; St. Victor, at the
other side of St. Antoine; St. Leger, up to the Arve; and the Corraterie
as far as the Rhone. Let every man keep a good look-out; let no one be
absent without leave; let those who are away return to defend the city;
and let solemn prayers and processions be made for three days.'[876]

Thus, while Lucerne and the smaller cantons were attacking Zurich, the
Duke of Savoy and the gentlemen of the Leman were preparing to attack
Geneva. These two cities were in the sixteenth century the capitals of
protestantism in Switzerland. Geneva, however, was still filled with
priests and monks, while the choirs of all the churches reechoed with
the matins and other chants of the Romish ritual,

  De pieux fainéants y laissant en leur lieu,
  A des chantres gagés, le soin de louer Dieu.

How did it happen that Geneva was at this time coupled with Zurich? It
is because that city, though not yet won over to the Reformation, was
predestined to be so: a solitary example, probably, of a state exposed
to great dangers, not so much on account of what it is, as on account of
what it will be. The beginnings of the evangelical faith to be found
there were so very small, that they would not have sufficed to draw upon
it the anathemas of the bishop and the armies of the duke; but the
election of God was brooding over it; God prepared it, tried it, and
delivered it, because of the great things for which he destined it. The
adversaries of the Gospel seemed to have a secret presentiment of this;
and they desired therefore to destroy by the same blow the city of
Zwingle and that which was to be the city of Calvin.

[Sidenote: DEFEAT AT CAPPEL: TRIUMPH OF ROME.]

All the citizens were afoot. Some armed with arquebuses mounted guard;
others marched out with their mattocks to level the suburbs. At this
moment a messenger arrived from Switzerland announcing the defeat at
Cappel: Zurich had succumbed.... At first the huguenots could not
believe the mournful news; they made the messenger repeat it; but it was
soon confirmed from various quarters, and the friends of independence
and of the Reformation bent their heads in sorrow. The arm in which they
had trusted was rudely broken. The protestant party throughout
Switzerland was disheartened, while the Roman party rejoiced. It was
told at Geneva that the mass had been restored at Bremgarten,
Rapperschwyl, and Soleure, and in all the free bailiwicks, and that the
monks were returning in triumph to their deserted cells. Was it possible
for the Reformation to plant its banners on the shores of Lake Leman, at
the very moment when it was expelled from those places where it seemed
to have been so firmly established?

The Genevan catholics anticipated their triumph. The death of the Swiss
reformer was (they thought) the end of the Reformation; they had only to
strike the final blow. Their secret meetings became more numerous;
detestable plots were concocted. The heroes of the old episcopal party,
resuming their arrogant look, walked boldly in the streets of Geneva,
some rattling their swords, others sweeping the ground with their long
robes. If they chanced to meet any _suspected_ persons, they made
contemptuous gestures at them, picked quarrels with them, insulted, and
even struck them, and the outrages remained unpunished.[877] The
Friburgers, in particular, thought everything was lawful against the
evangelicals,[878] and desiring to subdue Geneva, emulous of the
Waldstettes at the Albis, they marched through the streets in small
bands, and whenever they discovered any huguenot, they surrounded him,
carried him off, and threw him into prison without trial.[879] In this
way the partisans of the bishop expected to restore him to his episcopal
throne. Pierre de la Baume was getting ready to ascend it again.

The huguenots, astonished at the perpetration of such outrages in the
presence of the Swiss, and even by the Swiss, applied once more to the
Bernese, but in vain. The latter were unwilling to countenance a
struggle in Geneva which they were checking in other quarters. 'Let
there be no petulance, no violence,' they said; 'we have the orders of
the senate.' But, as the Genevans were not disposed to remain quiet, the
envoys of Berne assumed a grave countenance, and, putting on a
magisterial haughtiness, dismissed their unseasonable visitors. The
Genevans withdrew murmuring: 'What scandalous neglect and cowardice!'
they said; 'Messieurs of Berne think a great deal more of this world
than of the world to come.'—'The senate of Berne,' repeated Farel,
'would not put up with the slightest insult to one of their ambassadors,
and yet they make light of serious insults offered to the Gospel of
Christ.'[880]

[Sidenote: APPROACH OF THE DUKE AND HIS ARMY.]

The defeat of Zurich redoubled the energy of Duke Charles. Desirous of
adorning his brows with laurels similar to those of the victors at
Cappel, he gave orders for a general attack. The troops of Vaud and
Savoy surrounded Geneva, and cut off the supplies; the boats were seized
on both shores of the lake, and the duke arrived at Gex, three leagues
from the city, with a strong force of cavalry to superintend the
assault. Under these gloomy auspices the year 1532 began in Geneva. The
danger appeared such that, at seven in the evening of the 2nd of
January, all the heads of families assembled and resolved to keep night
and day under arms, to wall up the gates, and to die rather than
renounce the Swiss alliance and their dearest liberties. A greater
misfortune was about to befall them.[881]

On the 7th of January, five days after this courageous resolution, three
Bernese deputies, De Diesbach, De Watteville, and Nägueli, appeared
before the council. Sadness was depicted on their faces, and everything
betokened that they were the bearers of a distressful message. 'We are
come from Gex, where the duke is lying,' they said. 'He consents to
treat with you, if you will first renounce the alliance with the
cantons. Remember, he is a mighty prince, and able to do you much harm.
You have not yet paid for the last army we sent you; we cannot set
another on foot. We conjure you to come to some arrangement with his
highness.'

During this speech the Genevans flushed with anger and indignation. They
could not understand how the proud canton of Berne could ask them to
renounce the cause of independence and the Swiss alliance. The deputy
having ended his address—the general council of the people had been
convened to hear it—the premier syndic replied: 'We will listen to no
arrangement except how to preserve the alliance. The more we are
threatened, the firmer we shall be. We will maintain our rights even
till death. We trust in God and in Messieurs of the two cities. And if,
to pay you what we owe, we must pawn our property, our wives, and our
children, we will do so. As for the alliance, we are resolved to live
and die for it.' The syndic had scarcely done speaking, when all the
people cried out: 'So be it! We will do nothing else—we will die first!'
The arquebusiers of Jean Philippe and of Richardet were of the same
mind. The ambassadors thought it strange that they should dare to resist
Berne. 'We will carry your answer back to our lords,' they said, 'and
they will do what pleases them.' They then retired. The people held up
their hands, and all swore to be faithful to the alliance.

The Bernese envoys had left. The people were in great agitation. The
cause of liberty had just been vanquished at Cappel; the armies of the
duke surrounded the city, and the Swiss desired to cancel the alliance.
Geneva was not exempt from secret terrors: the women shed tears, and
even the men felt an oppression like that of the nightmare; but
enthusiasm for liberty prevailed over every fear. Deprived of the help
of men, the Genevans raised their eyes to heaven. Many of them
experienced extraordinary emotions, and were the victims of strange
spectral hallucinations. One night, the sentries posted on the walls saw
seven headless horsemen, dressed in black, keeping guard around the
city. They were dressed in black, for all Geneva was in mourning; they
were without heads, for no one could reckon upon preserving his own; and
then these Genevans fancied, in their enthusiasm, that they could defend
Geneva, even when their heads were off. The duke, having learnt that
some mysterious allies had come to the help of the city, quitted Gex,
and hurried off to Chambéry. It is probable, however, that his
conference with the three lords of Berne had more influence in arresting
the execution of his designs, than the apparition of the seven black
horsemen.[882]

[Sidenote: GOD PREPARES GENEVA BY TRIAL.]

The trials, the terrors, the repeated attacks that Geneva was forced to
undergo at the hands of her enemies, are the characteristics of her
history at the epoch of the Reformation. Her citizens, plundered, hunted
down, captured, thrown into the dungeons of the castles, always between
life and death, lived continually in the apprehension of an assault, and
almost every year their fears were changed into terrible realities; of
this we have seen several instances, and we shall see more. There is
probably no city of the sixteenth century which arrived at the
possession of truth and liberty through such great perils. When their
supplies failed, when their communications, with Switzerland were
interrupted, when no one could leave the city, when all around the arms
of the Savoyards were seen flashing in the rays of the sun, the citizens
no doubt displayed an heroic courage; but yet the women and the aged
men, and even men in the vigour of life, felt a mortal fear and anguish.
'Christians are not logs of wood,' it was said subsequently in this
city, and we may well apply the words to the Genevans of this epoch;
'they are not so devoid of human feeling, that they are not touched by
sorrow, that they do not fear danger, that poverty is not a burden to
them, and persecution sharp and difficult to bear. This is why they feel
sad when they are tried.'[883] Long ago in the early days of
Christianity, famines, earthquakes, plagues, persecution, and
afterwards, at the period of the invasion of the barbarians, the
devastations with which that calamity was attended, made serious souls
feel the presence of God, and led them to the cross. An earthquake which
threw down part of the city of Philippi, terrified a gaoler, until then
hardened in superstition, humbled him, and made him listen to the
teaching of the disciples which he had previously despised;[884] and,
later still, a similar calamity in Africa brought a great number of
pagans to confess the Gospel and be baptised.

It was by such trials as these that Geneva was now prepared. God was
ploughing the field which he wished to sow. Distresses and deliverances
continually repeated revealed to thoughtful men the power of God: to
this even the Registers of the Council bear witness. Did this rough
school lead any souls further? Were there any who sought beyond the
world for life incorruptible?... The inward travail of men's minds is
generally concealed, and the chroniclers give us no information on this
point (it is not their department); but we cannot doubt that the end for
which God sent the trial was attained. Perhaps at that time there were
souls which, in the midst of the evils they saw around them, were led to
discover in themselves the supreme evil—sin; perhaps in some private
chamber humble voices were then raised to heaven; perhaps the judgments
of God, which were suspended over their heads and those of their wives
and children, induced some to dread the last judgment; and perhaps there
were many who embraced the eternal love, that inexhaustible source of
salvation, who believed in the Gospel of the Son of God and found peace
therein. We know not what took place in the secret depths of men's
hearts; but certainly the times which we are describing were times of
trial which contributed to make Geneva what it subsequently became: it
was a 'burning furnace from which came forth fine brass.'[885] If Geneva
shone out in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was partly
because at the epoch of the Reformation it had been sorely tried, and,
if the expression be allowable, 'brightly burnished.'—'We are as it were
annealed in the furnace of God,' may be said of this city, 'and the scum
of our faith has been thus purged away.'[886]

[Sidenote: SWISS PATRICIANS CANCEL THE ALLIANCE.]

On the 7th of February, 1532, five ambassadors—two from Berne, and three
from Friburg—with Sebastian de Diesbach at their head, appeared at
Geneva before the Council of Two Hundred; they were the representatives
of the Swiss aristocracy, of those proud captains who figured in battles
and appeared in the courts of kings. They discharged their mission with
as little ceremony as they observed in taking cities, and demanded that
Geneva should renounce its alliance with the Swiss and put the Duke of
Savoy again in possession of his supremacy.... What will the Genevans
do? Even Friburg, which had at first appeared favourable to them, failed
them now.... Two hundred voices exclaimed: 'We will die sooner!' The
next day, when the general council was assembled, the greatest
excitement prevailed among them; everybody seemed eager to speak at
once; loud clamours arose on every side: 'All the people began to
shout,' say the minutes of this assembly. The language of Diesbach was
urgent, imperative, and threatening.... A hurricane was blowing over
Geneva; the tree must bend or break. But it neither bent nor broke. The
ambassadors, amazed and indignant, returned to their own country.[887]

The Genevans, left alone, asked what was to be done.... The cup was
overflowing. Suddenly a happy idea crossed the minds of certain
patriots. Although the patricians and pensioners are opposed to the
rights of Geneva, will not the people, and the grand council which
represents them, be in favour of liberty? When the Reformation was
established at Berne, in 1528, the noblest resolutions were formed. The
indigent had been clothed with the church ornaments, the pensions of the
princes renounced, and the military capitulations which bound the Swiss
to the service of foreign powers abolished. Then the enthusiasm had
cooled down; the pensioners regretted the old times; they tampered with
the more influential people of the city, and exasperated them against
the alliance with Geneva which displeased their old master the duke.
'Let us make an attempt,' exclaimed some of the Genevese, 'to revive in
Berne the noble aspirations for Reform and liberty.' Robert Vandel and
two other deputies departed for the banks of the Aar.

Vandel was well suited for this mission. Ever since the day when he saw
his aged father illegally seized by the bishop and thrown into prison,
he had given his heart to independence, as he subsequently gave it to
the Gospel. He knew that the people had retained their sympathy for
Geneva, and that if the patricians prevailed in the little council, the
citizens prevailed in the great council: he therefore appeared before
this body. He explained to them the dangers of the Genevans, their love
of independence, and their resolution to risk everything rather than
separate from the Swiss. His language moved the hearts of the Bernese,
and the good cause prevailed. 'We will maintain the alliance,' they
said; 'and, if necessary, we will march to defend your rights.' Friburg
adopted the resolutions of Berne.[888] Thus after the trial came the
deliverance; Geneva began to breathe freely. Yet another sorrow was in
store for it.

[Sidenote: RESIGNATION AND DEATH OF HUGUES.]

On the 20th of February, Besançon Hugues appeared before the council and
resigned all his functions. 'I am growing old,' he said (he was only
forty-five); 'I have many children, and I desire to devote myself to my
own affairs.' There is no doubt that the motives assigned by Hugues had
some part in his determination; we may, however, ask if they were the
only ones. He watched attentively the movement of men's minds in Geneva,
and, being devoted to Roman-catholicism and the bishop, he could not
help seeing that the opposite party was gaining more followers every
day. He had spared neither time, trouble, fortune, nor health to bring
about the alliance with the Swiss. Seeing that it existed no longer
solely in the parchments of the archives, but in the hearts of the
people, he thought that he had fulfilled his task, and that for the new
work Geneva ought to have new leaders. If Hugues was not old, he was
ailing; he already felt the approaches of that disease which carried him
off a few months later. He declined rapidly, and breathed his last
towards the end of the year.

The death of Besançon Hugues did not proceed from an ordinary sickness:
he died of a broken heart. Although still a catholic, at the moment when
the Reform was about to enter his country, a crown ought to be laid upon
his grave. The continual anxiety which the perils of Geneva had caused
him; more than forty official missions; his incessant labours in the
Genevan cause; the new burdens continually imposed upon him; the
reverses which rent his heart; his precipitate flight, his dangers on
the roads and in the cities, cold, watchings, and the cares of a
family—('I commend to you my poor household,' he said sometimes in his
letters to the council); his disappointments; the reproaches he had to
endure from both parties; his struggles with the pensioners, the agents
of Savoy, the knights of the Spoon, and some of his fellow-citizens—all
these vexations contributed to his disease and death. The head of
Besançon Hugues did not fall under the sword of the executioner, like
those of Berthelier and Lévrier; but the pacific hero sank under the
weight of fatigue and sorrow. An invisible sword struck him; and it may
be said that the deaths of the three great men of Genevan emancipation
were the deaths of martyrs.

[Footnote 876: Registres du Conseil du 11 octobre 1531.]

[Footnote 877: 'Alii impune injuria afficiuntur.'—Zwingl. _Epp._ ii. p.
648.]

[Footnote 878: 'Nihil pene non licet Friburgensibus in pios.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 879: 'Indicta causa, rapiuntur in carceres.'—Zwingl. _Epp._
ii. p. 648.]

[Footnote 880: 'Non putarim senatum Bernensem olim ita laturum levem
injuriam in nuntium sicut gravem in Evangelium perfert.'—Ibid.]

[Footnote 881: Registres du Conseil du 2 janvier 1532.]

[Footnote 882: Registres du Conseil des 7, 8, 9 janvier 1532. Savyon,
_Annales_.]

[Footnote 883: Calvin on 1 Peter i. 7.]

[Footnote 884: Acts xvi. 23, 24.]

[Footnote 885: Revelation i. 15.]

[Footnote 886: Calvin.]

[Footnote 887: Registres du Conseil des 4, 7, 8 février 1532.]

[Footnote 888: _History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century_,
bk. xv. ch. iii. Ruchat, ii. p. 83. Galiffe fils, _B. Hugues_, p. 442.]

 CHAPTER XIV.
 AN EMPEROR AND A SCHOOLMASTER.
 (SPRING 1532.)

[Sidenote: THE EMPEROR'S NEW SCHEME.]

Just as the noble citizen, who had defended with such devotedness the
independence of his country, had retired from the stage of the world,
new plots were got up against Geneva; but new strength came also to her
help. An emperor was rising against the city, and a schoolmaster was
bringing it the everlasting Word.

The imperial court was then at Ratisbon, where the Germanic diet was to
assemble. The Duke and Duchess of Savoy, who could not make up their
minds to resign Geneva, had ordered their ambassador accredited to
Charles V. to solicit the influence of that prince in order to induce
the bishop, his partisan, to cede his temporal principality to the
duke's second son. The duchess, who appears to have been anxious to
bring about this cession, made every possible exertion to attain her
object. The emperor, who was very fond of Beatrice, answered: 'I desire
this arrangement, because of the singular love, goodwill, and affection
I feel towards my dearly beloved cousin and sister-in-law.' He added,
moreover, that he desired it also 'in the interest of the holy faith and
for the preservation of mother Church.' He undertook to persuade Pierre
de la Baume to transfer his temporality to the young prince; and, that
he might bring the negotiation to a favourable issue, he applied to the
Count of Montrevel, the head of the bishop's family. On the 14th of
April, 1532, he dictated and forwarded the following letter to that
nobleman: 'The emperor, king, duke, and count of Burgundy, to his very
dear liegeman: We require and order you very expressly, that as soon as
possible, and at the earliest opportunity and convenience, you proceed
to the Bishop of Geneva, and tell him, as you may see most fitting, the
desire we have that he should _please our said cousins_, the duke and
duchess; employing with him soft words of persuasion, according to your
accustomed prudence. He can all the easier yield to our prayer, because,
as the successor-designate of the Archbishop of Besançon, he must
necessarily leave Geneva to reside in that city.' The emperor, moreover,
used his influence with the Marshal of Burgundy, the Baron of St.
Sorlin, Pierre de la Baume's brother. The prelate was to be attacked on
every side. Charles's recommendations could hardly have been more urgent
if the safety of the German empire had been at stake.[889]

The duke, who was delighted at these letters of the emperor, began to
take such measures as would enable him to profit by them. Since the
puissant Charles V. gives Geneva to his son, he will go in quest of the
young prince's new states. In the following month (May 1532) everything
foreboded that some new attack was preparing against Geneva. There was
great commotion in the castles; trumpets were sounding, banners flying,
and priests raising loud their voices. It might have been imagined that
they were preparing for a crusade like those which had taken place of
yore against the Albigenses or the Saracens. The Genevans, who had not a
moment's repose, mournfully told one another the news. 'In the states of
Savoy there are loud rumours of war,' they said; 'the nobles are enraged
against the evangelicals, whom they call _Lutherans_; and some of the
gentry are assembled already, and going to and fro under arms.' The
citizens did not give way to dejection; on the contrary, the knowledge
of these intrigues and preparations made them long the more earnestly
for the emancipation of Geneva. They said that from the day when the
pope had deprived the citizens of the choice of their ruler, and had
nominated creatures or members of the house of Savoy as bishops at
Geneva, there had been in the city nothing but disorders, violence,
extortion, imprisonment, confiscations, tortures, and cruel punishments.
They asked if it was not time to return to the primitive form of
Christianity, to the popular organisation of the Church; they repeated
that Geneva would never secure her independence and her liberty, except
by trusting to the great principles of the Reformation. 'Zurich,' they
said, 'has resumed the rights which Rome had taken away: it is time that
Geneva followed her example.'[890]

[Sidenote: NEGATIVE PROTESTANTISM INSUFFICIENT.]

The Reformation was neither a movement of liberty nor a philosophical
development, but a christian, a heavenly renewal. It sought after God,
and, having found him, restored him to man: that was its work. But, at
the same time, wherever it was established, at least under the
Calvinistic form, civil liberty followed it. We must acknowledge,
however, that the reformers, with the exception of Zwingle, did not
trouble themselves much about this. It was grace that filled them with
enthusiasm. It was the great idea of a free pardon, and not artillery,
which shattered the power of the pope. Every man was then invited to the
foot of the cross, to receive immediately from Christ, and through no
sacerdotal channel, an inestimable gift. But Christianity, which the
priesthood had monopolised, vitiated, and made a trade of during the
middle ages, became common property in the sixteenth century. It passed
from the pomps of the altar to men of humble and contrite heart, from
the gloomy and solitary cloisters to the domestic hearth, from isolated
Rome to universal society. Once more launched into the midst of the
nations, it everywhere restored to man faith, hope, and morality, light,
liberty, and life.

[Sidenote: OLIVÉTAN ARRIVES AT GENEVA.]

At the very time when a beautiful princess was coveting Geneva, an
ambitious duke intriguing, and courtiers agitating, and when a puissant
monarch was granting his imperial favours, a humble schoolmaster arrived
in the city. And while all those pomps and ceremonies were among the
number of things worn out and passing away, this teacher brought with
him the principles of a new life. Farel, as we have seen, ardently
desired that the Word of God should be circulated and even publicly
preached at Geneva. He thought that then only would the Reformation be
truly established and independence secured. It is probable that the
person who arrived in this city, and whom he had long known, was sent by
him; but we have no proof that such was the case. However, this man was
not, properly speaking, a preacher; he was merely a schoolmaster, and
yet he was to perform a work greater than that of the emperor. At that
time Geneva passed for protestant; but her protestantism was limited to
throwing off despotism and superstition. But it is not sufficient to
reject what is false; the truth preached by Christ and the apostles must
be believed. _Faith_ is the principle of the Reformation. There was at
Geneva, to some extent, that negative protestantism which rejects not
only the abuses of popery, but also evangelical truth itself; which can
create nothing, and which is little else than a form—and certainly one
of the least interesting forms—of philosophy. If Geneva was to be
reformed, to become a centre of light and morality, and to maintain her
political independence, she must have a positive and living
christianity; and it was this that Olivétan, Farel, and Calvin were
about to bring her.

[Sidenote: CHARACTER OF CHAUTEMPS.]

In the street of the Croix d'Or, not far from the Place du Molard, lived
an enlightened, wealthy, and influential citizen, Jean Chautemps, a
member of council. He was a quiet and conscientious man, yielding
unhesitatingly to his convictions. Chautemps valued learning highly, and
having sons desired to see them well educated. People spoke to him of a
Frenchman, born at Noyon, in Picardy, who, after a long residence at
Paris, had been compelled to leave France in consequence of one of the
attacks so frequently made upon the _Lutherans_ at that time. 'Besides,'
added his informant, 'he is a very learned man.' Indeed, without being
either a Reuchlin in Hebrew or a Melanchthon in Greek, he had a sound
knowledge of both languages; it was his practice to read the Holy
Scriptures in the original text, and he was fond of inserting in his
writings passages from the Old Testament, where they still appear in
beautiful Hebrew characters, in the midst of his antiquated French. His
name was Peter Robert Olivétan—the same who, during his residence in
Paris, had had the happiness of bringing to a knowledge of evangelical
truth one of his cousins and fellow-townsmen, John Calvin. Chautemps,
considering it fortunate to have such a master for his children,
received him into his house.

Calvin's cousin boldly set to work. He taught his patron's children,
and, as it would appear, some others that had been placed with them. He
taught with love and clearness, according to 'the right mode' of
Mathurin Cordier, whom he had known at Paris. He believed, as Calvin
says, that 'roughness and servile austerity excite children to
rebellion, and extinguish in them the holy affections of love and
reverence,' and he strove 'by moderate and kind treatment to increase in
them the will and readiness to obey.'[891]

The schoolmaster, as he is termed in the Registers of the Council of
Geneva, did not restrict himself to teaching Latin and Greek. He was
simple and modest, and calls himself, in the preface to the book which
has immortalised him (the translation of the Bible), '_the humble and
lowly translator_.' But God had kindled a divine fire in his heart. He
believed that the christian ought to carry a lighted lamp in his hand to
show others the way of life, and he never failed to do so. He sometimes
accompanied Chautemps to the churches, and was observed to be deeply
moved by the errors which he heard there; he would leave the temple in
agitation, return home, and, seated with his patron, refute by Holy
Scripture the opinions of the priests, and faithfully explain the true
Christian doctrine. The councillor, who had early sided with those who
inclined towards the Reformation, was struck with these conversations,
and, far from resisting the truth that was set before him, joyfully
yielded himself to it. He presently displayed, according to Froment's
testimony, 'if not a perfect knowledge, at least a great desire for
learning, with much love and zeal to show himself as a friend of the
Reformation.'[892] From that hour the pious councillor always came
forward whenever there was a question of upholding the evangelical cause
in Geneva. When that great missionary, Farel, arrived, Chautemps was
among the first to welcome him. When a dispute occurred with the curate
of St. Magdalen's, he was one of those who defended the teaching of the
Scriptures.[893] And subsequently he boldly declared, in full council,
that he desired to live according to the Gospel and the Word of God.[894]

Olivétan's zeal was not confined to the house in which he lived; he
laboured to make the Gospel known to the councillor's friends, and even
to everybody whom he found accessible to the Divine Word. He exerted
himself, and overcame obstacles; by means of the Scriptures he
endeavoured to 'point out _with gentleness_' to the priests the errors
which they taught, and would not allow himself to be hindered by any
fear. Such zeal was not without danger, for the priests had still much
power in Geneva. Chautemps and his friends accordingly advised Olivétan
to be prudent, lest he should come to harm; but the schoolmaster said
like his cousin: 'It is God's will that his truth should be proclaimed,
happen what may; it must be published, even should the depths of hell
pour forth their rage against it.[895] Olivétan once reproved a priest
with so much boldness that the latter stirred up all the clergy against
him, and he was ordered (without being brought to trial) to leave the
city; but this belongs to a later time.

Conversation did not suffice, and if any persons showed a desire to
learn the new doctrine, Olivétan explained it to them. He did not do so
before large audiences; it was generally to small parties. Yet a
document speaks of assemblies held not only in private houses, but in
public, in the open places, and in front of the churches.[896] Olivétan,
therefore, like his illustrious relative, called to mind that in the
beginning of christianity the doctrine of the Lord did not remain
'hidden as it were in little comers, and that never was thunder heard so
loud and so piercing as the sound of the preaching of the Gospel,
reverberating from one end of the world to the other.'[897] He sometimes
quitted the humble conventicle and preached the Word of truth under the
vault of heaven. Alarmed at the great disorders in which those men
indulged who were one day to bear the name of 'libertines,' he attacked
the conscience with holy intrepidity.

[Sidenote: OLIVÉTAN'S MISSION.]

One day, one of those 'private assemblies' was held, of which the
emperor had complained to the syndics. It was, we may suppose, in the
house of Chautemps or some other huguenot (public meetings were, I
think, rare exceptions) in the street of the Croix d'Or or of the
_Allemands_, so called because some German Switzers, friends of the
Reformation, lived in it. A few men and women, most of them known to the
master of the house, came and took their seats on the benches in front
of the evangelist. Olivétan, who saw before him souls slumbering in
false security and heedless of the Supreme Judge, 'magnificently
discharged the embassy intrusted to him' (according to Calvin's
expression). 'One day,' he said, 'when thou shalt hear the Lord calling
thee to judgment, will there be found anything in thee but fear and
trembling, flight and concealment? Look! Access to the Lord is cut off,
because of sin. With whom wilt thou take refuge? In what place wilt thou
find relief? God, the avenger of sin, from whom nothing can be hid, is
everywhere present ... and everywhere terrifies the guilty conscience.'

Then, imagining that he saw some of those Genevans, whose morals, as
depraved as those of the monks, alienated them from the Gospel, he
exclaimed: 'The flesh excludes the Spirit, and stops the way, so that
the entrance of the heart is not opened to it. The flesh desires present
pleasures, it follows vanity, it carefully seeks after the delights of
the body, by eating and drinking, by idleness, licentious pursuits, and
other such things, in which it is entirely absorbed. Reason, illumined
by the Spirit, strives after good things, and fights against the flesh;
but the sensual man is nothing more than a brute, and gives himself up
entirely to things that belong to brutes.'

Among those who sat on the humble benches and listened to the preacher,
were also some of those intellectual men, numerous in Geneva, who would
have liked to come to the faith, but whom the doctrine of Christ
astonished and even alarmed. 'You believe,' said the evangelist, 'and
yet you do not believe. You willingly hear the words of salvation, and
yet you are terrified at them. There is nothing that we hear from the
mouth of the Saviour which, without a mediator, should not be terrifying
to us, and the flesh is quite dismayed that it should be necessary to
possess such faith.'

Then the schoolmaster raised the trumpet of the Gospel to his lips and
announced the great mystery of Redemption, without concealing what the
Greeks would have called its _foolishness_. 'Let us turn then,' he
exclaimed, 'to the Mediator, who has consummated the alliance and
purified us by his own blood, with which our consciences are sprinkled
and watered. The Old Covenant always depended on the blood of beasts;
the New Covenant depends on new blood. Eternal Redemption was effected
by an eternal sacrifice. The alliance is indissoluble, perpetual, and
perfect through the eternal blood which was of God.... The kingdom of
the Messiah has no end; its king must therefore be immortal; and the new
men, also immortal, are citizens of an everlasting kingdom.'

The huguenots were fond of debating, even unseasonably. Some of those
seated in front of Olivétan were astonished at hearing this doctrine of
Christ's sacrifice set forth, and maintained that, if they were to judge
from facts, it did not do much to free man from sin. 'No doubt,' said
Olivétan, 'if the Holy Ghost does not teach us. We cannot attain true
holiness if the Holy Ghost, who is the reformer of hearts, is absent. By
the Spirit of Jesus Christ the remains of sin in us diminish little by
little. The Spirit of Christ burns gently and cleanses away the stains
of the heart.... What a profound mystery! He who was hung upon the
cross, who even ascended into heaven to finish everything, comes and
dwells in us, and there accomplishes the perfect work of eternal
Redemption.'[898]

Thus spoke the tutor of Councillor Chautemps' children.

Olivétan was a mysterious personage, a singular reformer. At Paris he
called Calvin to the Gospel, and gave him to Christianity as the apostle
of the new times. At Geneva, he was the forerunner of his illustrious
relative; like a pioneer in the forest, he cut down the secular trees,
and prepared the soil into which his pious and mighty successor so
copiously scattered the seed. Later, as we shall see, he gave to the
reformed French Church its first Bible, a translation which, revised by
Calvin, so greatly advanced the kingdom of God. Perhaps Olivétan, during
his residence in Geneva, may have thought that his cousin would
hereafter occupy this post. He appears in history only as the precursor
of the reformer, and Calvin had hardly set foot in this city when
Olivétan crossed the Alps, went to Italy, even to the city of the
pontiffs, as if he desired now to accomplish a new work, to come to
close quarters with the papacy, and prepare Rome for the Reformation as
he had prepared Geneva. But there he suddenly disappeared—poisoned, as
some say. There is a veil over his death as over his life. He is spoken
of no more, and scarcely any one appears to know either his work or his
name. But we must not anticipate: we shall meet him again erelong.

Olivétan certainly played an important part in the great change which
has renewed modern society, and his name deserves to be enrolled among
those which are carved on the foundation-stones of the vast temple of
the Reformation.