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.

[Footnote 889: The emperor's letter to the Count of Montrevel. Galiffe fils, _B. Hugues, Pièces Justificatives_, p. 494.]

[Footnote 890: Zwinglii _Opp._ iii. p. 439. _Archives de Genève._ James Fazy, _Précis de l'Histoire de la République de Genève_, pp. 183-191.]

[Footnote 891: Calvini _Opera_.]

[Footnote 892: Froment, _Actes et Gestes de Genève_, p. 4.]

[Footnote 893: Registres du Conseil du 31 décembre 1532.]

[Footnote 894: Ibid. du 8 janvier 1534.]

[Footnote 895: Calvin, _Comm. sur les Actes_.]

[Footnote 896: _Archives de Genève, Pièces Historiques_, nᵒ 7069, 8 juillet 1532.]

[Footnote 897: Calvin, on Matthew x. 36.]

[Footnote 898: Olivétan. Introduction to his French translation of the Bible. Fol. Neuchatel, 1535.]