Chapter III

FAREL, MAISONNEUVE, AND FURBITY IN GENEVA.
(DECEMBER 1533 TO JANUARY 1534.)

[Sidenote: Furbity Visited By The Catholics.]

De la Maisonneuve was determined to uphold the liberty of Gospel-preaching. ‘We are called Lutherans,’ said Froment; ‘now, _Luther_ in German means _clear_, and there is nothing clearer than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lutheran cause is the cause of light.’ And therefore De la Maisonneuve desired to propagate it.

The zealous huguenot did not lose a moment after his arrival at Berne. He told all his friends (of whom he had many) what was going on at Geneva. Froment and Alexander, who stood by his side, supported his complaints and repeated the insults of the Dominican. The Bernese were exasperated by the abuse the monk had heaped upon the protestants, but they were animated by a nobler motive. They had thought that Geneva, so famous for the energetic character of its citizens, would be a great gain for the Reformation; and now people were beginning to say in Savoy, in the Pays de Vaud, at Freiburg, and in France, that the reforming movement was crushed in the huguenot city. ‘A great rumor,’ says Farel, ‘spread everywhere touching Geneva, how that Master Furbity had triumphed in his disputations with the Lutherans.’[428] The Bernese resolved to assist the threatened Reform by despatching to Geneva ... not large battalions, but a humble preacher of the Gospel. They sent William Farel as Maisonneuve’s companion.

On Sunday, December 21, the feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury, Furbity, proud at having to eulogize so heroic a saint, was more energetic than ever. ‘All who follow that cursed sect,’ he cried, ‘are lewd and gluttonous livers, wanton, ambitious, murderers, and thieves, who live like beasts, loving their own sensuality, acknowledging neither a God nor a superior.’ These words raised the enthusiasm of the catholics, the chief of whom resolved to go in a body to the bishop’s palace to thank the reverend father. The noble Perceval de Pesmes, _capitaine des bons_, ‘the captain of the good,’ as the nuns called him, was at their head. ‘Most reverend father,’ said the descendant of the Crusaders, ‘we thank you for preaching such good doctrine, and beg you will fear nothing.’—‘Hold fast to the sword, captain; on my side I will use the spirit and the tongue.’ The compact being made, the deputation withdrew.

They had scarcely quitted the episcopal palace, when a strange report circulated through the town. ‘De la Maisonneuve has returned from Berne and brought the notorious William Farel with him!’ Farel having re-entered Geneva, was not to leave it again until the work of the Reformation was completed there. ‘What!’ exclaimed the catholics, ‘that wretch, that devil whom we drove out is come back!’ They were so exasperated that De Pesmes, Malbuisson, and others, meeting Farel and Maisonneuve in the street that very day, drew their swords and fell upon them; they were rescued by some huguenots. The episcopalians consulted together, and decided to take up arms to expel the reformer.

[Sidenote: Farel And Baudichon.]

Not without reason were the catholics alarmed. Farel was a hero. A work that is beginning requires one of those strong men who, by the energy of their will, surmount all obstacles, and set in motion all the forces of their epoch to carry out the plan they have conceived. Calvin and Luther are the great men of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Calvin defended it against dangerous enemies; he gave to the renovated Church a body of divinity and a simple powerful constitution. The scriptural faith which he has set forth is making, and will make, the circuit of the world. But when he arrived at Geneva, the Reform was already accomplished outwardly. Farel is really the reformer of that city as well as of other places in Switzerland and France. A noble and simple evangelist, his genius was less great, his name less illustrious than his successor’s; but he ceased not to expose his life in fierce combats for the Saviour, and, in the order of grace, he was in that beautiful country enclosed between the Alps and the Jura what fire is in the order of nature—the most powerful of God’s agents. He was not, as is sometimes imagined, a hot-headed man, liable to fits of violence and temper. With energy he combined prudence—with zeal, impartiality. ‘Would to God,’ he said, on the occasion of his discussion with Furbity, ‘that each man would state each thing without leaning to one side more than to the other.’[429] But it must be acknowledged that he had more force than circumspection, and an unparalleled activity was the principal feature of his character. To venture everywhere, to act in all circumstances, to preach in every place, to brave every danger, were his enjoyment and his life. His excessive genius ‘delighted in adventure,’ as was said of a celebrated conqueror, and he was never so truly happy as when he was in the field. Farel began the work, and Calvin completed it.

Another man, a layman, was called to play a part not less important in the Genevan Reformation. It has been remarked[430] that in the great revolutions of nations, God sometimes gives not a counsellor to be listened to, but a torrent to be followed. There was indeed in Geneva a mighty torrent rushing towards Reform, and the man who personified that popular force was Baudichon de la Maisonneuve. Noble in heart as in race, at first he had been merely an independent politician and an opponent of the papacy; but, opening his house and his heart to the Gospel, he came to love it more and more every day. Certainly he did not possess all the evangelical graces; he was somewhat of a jester, and might often be found laughing at the superstitions of his times. Occasionally, also, he was violent in his acts and words. But the republican energy that characterized him made him the fittest man to cope with Rome, the Duke, and the Inquisition. Strong, proud, immovable, he was on a small stage, what the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse were on a larger stage, the patron of evangelical doctrine. Although of noble descent, he was in trade, and had an extensive business. Rich and generous, he provided for the wants of the new creed. The magistrates of the cities with which he had dealings showed him much consideration; and not only did the puissant republic of Berne intercede in his favor, but King Francis I. also. De la Maisonneuve had no doubts about the triumph of the Reformation. One day, as a Lausanne dealer was buying one of his horses, the confident Genevan said to him: ‘You shall pay me when no more masses are celebrated at Lausanne.’ Two or three months later, when settling his accounts at Lyons, he said to one of his correspondents: ‘You shall pay me when the priests in this city are what those in Berne are now.’ This made the bigoted catholics exclaim: ‘He is the cause of the perversion of Geneva. Would to God he had died ten years ago!’[431] De la Maisonneuve had much affinity with Berthelier: the latter began the independence of the city, the former introduced the reform. They were both pioneers; but if Berthelier’s death was the most heroic, Baudichon’s life was the most exemplary.

De la Maisonneuve was able, in case of necessity, to unite prudence with energy. On the 21st December, the Dominican having preached with great _éclat_ in the cathedral, some of the reformed said, boldly: ‘Why should not our minister (Farel) preach in the church as well as a popish doctor?’ and invited the reformers to enter the building. The indignant catholics exclaimed: ‘It shall cost us our lives sooner!’ De la Maisonneuve calmed his friends; he wished to try legal means, and ask the magistrates for a church.

[Sidenote: The Plot Breaks Out.]

The next day he appeared before the council, and handed in the letter from the chiefs of the mighty Bernese republic. ‘What!’ they said, ‘you expel from your city our servants, people attached to the Holy Word, whom we commended to you, and at the same time you tolerate men who blaspheme against God. Your preacher has attacked us; we shall prosecute him, and call upon you to arrest him. Moreover, we ask for a place in which Farel may preach the Gospel publicly.’ The larger portion of the council was astounded at these two requests. They were about to deliberate on them when a commotion was heard in the street. A plot had broken out.

It was near midday. Between eight and nine hundred priests and laymen were going to the bishop’s palace, where they had appointed a meeting. In the palace everything was astir; the cellars were open, and the servants were running about with bottles in their hands. ‘They supplied wine in profusion, and every man promised to do his duty. They were respectable-looking people and well dressed.’ Two hundred men were to stop at St. Pierre’s to attack the heretics in the rear. All the others were to go down to the Molard, ‘burning for the cause of God,’ and attack Baudichon’s house, where Farel was to be found.[432]

De la Maisonneuve, understanding what was going on, hastily quitted the council-chamber, and ran to defend his home.[433] His first care was to hide Farel as well as he could, and then, while preparations were making to storm his house, he took steps for its defence. But the council, learning what was going on, left the hôtel de ville, and ordered the bishop’s partisans to lay down their arms. It seemed strange to do so, after so many protestations and so much zeal; yet they obeyed. ‘The wicked build triumphs in the air,’ said the huguenots, ‘and all these reports ended in smoke at last.’[434]

Farel left his hiding-place and resumed his preachings in the houses; but his audience had a singular appearance. In front of the minister might be seen the proud features of the huguenots, with helmets on their heads, swords by their sides, and some were armed with cuirass, arquebuse, or halberd; for, since the last catholic resort to arms, they feared a surprise. Baudichon watched over the assembly. Wearing an allécret (a sort of light breastplate), and holding a staff in his hand, he ‘set the people in order,’ assigning them their places, and whenever he chanced to hear any conversation, ‘bidding them be silent;’ then Farel would begin to speak and preach the Gospel with boldness.[435]

The syndics, placed between the reformers and the catholics, could not tell what to do. If they arrested Furbity, they would exasperate the catholics and Savoyards; if they allowed him to continue his philippics against the reformed, they would offend the huguenots and the Bernese. The Two Hundred therefore resolved to leave the Dominican ostensibly at large, at the same time treating him in reality as a prisoner. He might go where he pleased, but attended by six guards, who followed him even to the foot of the pulpit. ‘Alas!’ exclaimed his friends, ‘they have placed the reverend father in the keeping of the watch!’ On hearing which the monk observed, haughtily: ‘I am under restraint on account of a set of people who are good for nothing.’

Christmas day arrived: the Dominican had ‘a very numerous audience, particularly of women.’ Incense smoked on the altars; the chants resounded in the choir; the faithful had never shown so much fervor, and the monk preached with such warmth that, ‘within the memory of man, there had never been so fine a service.’[436] At the same time, Farel, plainly dressed, was preaching in a large room. There was no incense, no tapers, no chanting, but the words of God which stirred men’s consciences. This irritated Furbity still more, and on the last day of the year he exclaimed from the pulpit: ‘All who follow the new law are heretics and the most worthless of men.’[437] Thus ended the year 1533.

[Sidenote: Furbity Takes Leave.]

The new year was to make the balance incline to the side of the Reformation; accordingly the clergy, as if terrified at the future, resolved to destroy the tree by the roots, and inaugurated the first day of the year 1534 by an extraordinary proclamation. ‘In the name of Monseigneur of Geneva and of his vicar,’ said the priests from all the pulpits, ‘it is ordered that no one shall preach _the Word of God_, either in public or in private, and that all the books of Holy Scripture, whether in French or in German, shall be burnt.’[438] The reformed, who were present in great numbers in the church, were staggered at the new-year’s gift which the bishop presented to his people. The Dominican, who was preaching that day for the last time, outdid the proclamation, and bade farewell of his audience in a paltry epigram:—

Je veux vous donner mes étrennes,
Dieu convertisse les luthériens!
S’ils ne se retournent à bien,
Qu’il leur donne fièvres quartaines!
Qui veut _si, prennent ses mitaines_![439]

Notwithstanding his invocation of the quartan ague, the catholics said, with tears in their eyes, ‘With what devotion he takes leave of us!’ All, however, had not been equally touched: just as the monk was preparing to depart, his guards stopped him, for he had forgotten that he was a prisoner.

Meanwhile the episcopal mandate was causing disturbance in the city. ‘Forbid the preaching of the Gospel,’ said some; ‘burn the holy books! What a horrible notion! The Mahometans never did anything like it with regard to the Koran, or the Ghebers with the books of Zoroaster. Those who are charged to preach the Word of God are the very men to condemn it to the flames!’ Thus catholics and evangelicals took up arms—the former to destroy the Bible, the others to defend it.

They remained under arms not only during the night of the first of January, but also during the second, the third, and a part of the fourth, bivouacking in the squares, and kindling great fires. The citizens of Geneva had often taken up arms from other motives. If any one had now gone to the catholics and asked them: ‘Why are you doing this?’ they would have answered: ‘Because we desire to drive out the Bible:’ and if the same question had been put to the reformed, they would have answered: ‘Because we desire to keep it.’ These poor folks had often nothing to eat or drink; and when any party sent to a house to procure provisions, the other party often seized the spoil. They were obliged to give the purveyors a strong escort.[440]

It was a strange sight, no doubt, to see a town filled with armed men because of the Word of peace. It was in this way that great emotions displayed themselves at that epoch, and it would be ridiculous to exhibit the men of the sixteenth century with the manners of the nineteenth. The evangelical Christians believed that, if the Bible were taken from them, Jesus would also be lost to them; it seemed that if there were no more Scripture, there would be no more Christ, no more salvation. The political huguenots, not troubling themselves about that matter, thought that the Bible was the best means of getting rid of the bishop. Consequently all alike passed the days and nights under arms around the watchfires, being unwilling to have the Scriptures taken away from them. The reformed, desiring to appear pacific, thought it their duty to yield a little, and prevailed upon Alexander to withdraw, as he had been lawfully banished. He turned his steps in the direction of France, where he soon after found a martyr’s death. But the evangelical cause in Geneva lost nothing, for, as Alexander left on one side, Froment returned on the other; and almost at the same moment an embassy from Berne, headed by Sebastian of Diesbach, appeared at the city gates. These worthy deputies, seeing what was going on,—the bivouacks, the soldiers, the spears, and arquebuses,—stopped their horses, examined the groups with an air of astonishment, asked what it all meant, and finally exhorted the rival parties to withdraw. The Genevese began to understand the strangeness of their position: the huguenots felt that it was a different power from that of their arquebuses which should defend the Bible; the men of both parties, therefore, yielded to the wise remonstrances of the Bernese, and every man retired to his own house.[441]

[Sidenote: Three Reformers In Geneva.]

Diesbach and his colleagues came with the intent of prosecuting the Dominican; but while shutting the door against the monk, they desired to throw it wide open to the Reformation. Farel had been at Geneva some time; Froment had just arrived; but that was not all. A man of modest appearance, who formed part of the Bernese retinue, was to be more formidable to Roman-catholicism than the illustrious ambassadors themselves. They had with them the young and gentle Viret. Weak and faint, he was still suffering from a wound inflicted by a priest of Payerne, but the deputies of Berne had insisted on his accompanying them. Thus Farel, Viret, and Froment—three men of lively faith and indefatigable zeal—were going to work together in Geneva. Everything seemed to indicate that the reformed bands of Switzerland were unmasking their batteries and preparing to dismantle those of the pope. They were about to open a sharp fire, which would beat down the thick walls that for so long had sheltered the oracles and exactions of the papacy.

Viret immediately asked after his friends Farel and Froment, who had been forced to hide themselves during the armed crisis; some huguenots went in search of them and brought them to the Tête-noire, where the embassy was quartered. ‘You shall stay with us,’ said the Bernese; ‘we will protect your liberty, and you shall announce the Gospel.’ The three reformers immediately began to preach in private houses,[442] proclaiming the authority and the doctrines of those Holy Scriptures which the clergy had condemned. What a strange contradiction! The bishop had just interdicted the Bible, and the three most powerful preachers in the French tongue were now publicly teaching its divine lessons.... So many and such good workmen had never before been seen in Geneva. ‘And the papists dared do nothing against them.’[443]

But the Bernese wanted more: ‘You protect that Dominican who slanders our good reputation,’ they said to the council; ‘you despise our mode of living, you condemn the holy Gospel of God, you maltreat those who desire to understand it, and banish those who preach it: is that conducting yourselves in conformity with the treaty of alliance? Let the monk defend what he has taught: we have brought preachers who will show him the falseness of his doctrine. If you refuse these requests, Berne will find other means of vindicating her honor.’ The syndics replied to the Bernese: ‘It is not our business to know what concerns priests; apply to the prince-bishop.’—‘That is a mere evasion,’ answered Berne. ‘We give you back our letters of alliance.’ At these words the premier syndic, becoming alarmed, offered to let the Dominican appear before them. The Bernese accepted, but ‘on condition that the monk should be obliged to answer the ministers before all the people.’[444] That was the essential point.

Footnote 428:

_Lettres certaines d’aucuns grands troubles et tumultes advenus à
Genève, avec la disputation faite l’an 1534._ This pamphlet is dated
April 1, 1534, and is from the pen of Farel, though the printer
describes it as being by a notary of Geneva.

Footnote 429:

_Lettres certaines d’aucuns grands troubles et tumultes advenus à
Genève, avec la disputation faite l’an 1534_, avant-propos.

Footnote 430:

Thiers on the Insurrection in Spain.

Footnote 431:

MS. du procès inquisitionnel de Lyon. Archives de Berne, pp. 38, 198,
229, 285.

Footnote 432:

Registre du Conseil du 22 Décembre 1533. Froment, _Gestes merveilleux
de Genève_, p. 78. Sœur Jeanne, _Levain du Calvinisme_, p. 71.
_Lettres certaines d’aucuns grands troubles_, &c.

Footnote 433:

Recent investigations indicate that this house was situated in the Rue
basse du Marché, in front of the Terraillet.

Footnote 434:

‘Les méchants se bâtissent des triomphes en l’air, et tous ces bruits
ne sont finalement que fumée.’—_Lettres certaines._ Froment, _Gestes
de Genève_, p. 79. Sœur Jeanne, _Levain du Calvinisme_, p. 73.

Footnote 435:

Froment, _Gestes de Genève_, p. 79. MS. du procès inquisitionnel de
Lyon, p. 226.

Footnote 436:

‘De vie d’hommes, n’avait été fait si bel office.’ Registre du Conseil
des 23 et 24 Décembre et du 27 Janvier, 1534.—La Sœur Jeanne, _Levain
du Calvinisme_, p. 74.

Footnote 437:

Registre du Conseil des 27 et 28 Décembre.—Gautier MSC.—Ruchat, iii.
p. 245.

Footnote 438:

MSC. de Roset, liv. iii. ch. xvii.—Registre du 1 Janvier, 1534.—Spon.
i. p. 50.—Ruchat, iii. p. 244.—Roset and Farel, both contemporaries,
and in a position to know the truth, report the fact that the Holy
Scriptures were to be _burnt_. The minutes of the council do not
mention it; but the secretary occasionally toned down what seemed too
strong for a council the majority of which was at that time catholic.

Footnote 439:

_Prendre ses mitaines_, a figurative expression for _prendre ses
mesures_.—_Lettres certaines_, &c.

Footnote 440:

Froment, _Actes de Genève_, p. 80.

Footnote 441:

Froment, _Gestes de Genève_, p. 80.

Footnote 442:

Farellus, Fromentius, Viretus intra privatos parietes in prædicando
Dei verbo. _Geneva restituta_, p. 65.

Footnote 443:

MSC. de Roset, _Chron._, lib. iii. ch. xviii.—Froment, _Gestes de
Genève_, pp. 80, 81.—Registre du Conseil du 5 Janvier.

Footnote 444:

Registre du Conseil des 7 et 8 Janvier, 1534.—Froment, _Gestes de
Genève_, pp. 80, 81.—Ruchat, iii. p. 245.