Chapter XIV

THE BANISHED MINISTERS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS.

(END OF 1538.)

[Sidenote: THE REFORMERS SET OUT TO BERNE.]

The reformers set out on their journey to Berne. Calvin at length breathed freely, but not without sadness; for while he felt himself free, as if standing on an invigorating height, he looked on Geneva sunk in the flats. It was in fulfilment of a sacred duty that he had made a last effort. He had not, succeeded. ‘It is evident now from the experiment that we have just made,’ said he, ‘that it was no mere groundless fear that influenced us when, although pressed (at Zurich) by the authority of the Church, we could, nevertheless, only with great reluctance consent to reënter that labyrinth. Now we have got clear of it. We have complied with the desire of all pious men, although with no result, except perhaps to render the evil twofold or threefold worse than it was before.[713] Satan exulted at Geneva and in the whole of France on occasion of our first banishment; but this refusal to receive us has added not a little to his presumption and to that of his members. It is incredible with what recklessness and insolence wicked men now give themselves up to all manner of vice; with what effrontery they insult the servants of Christ; with what violence they make a mock at the Gospel. This is a calamity which to us is very painful indeed....’ Afterwards, addressing Bullinger and all the ministers of Zurich, he said to them, ‘Entreat the Lord with us, dearly beloved brethren, with earnest prayer, that very soon he may arise.’[714] It is possible that the reports which reached Calvin may have been a little exaggerated and that his own phrases may be a little sharp; but there is no doubt that the condition of Geneva was at this time extremely critical. ‘_There was nothing but confusion_,’ says Rozet; ‘the citizens abandoned themselves to licentiousness, dancing, gaming, and drinking. The finger was pointed at those who mourned over these things; they were men marked and hated. No preaching could be fruitful in the midst of such confusion.’[715] The syndic Gautier, a man who was above all a champion of government, and who censured Calvin for not acknowledging that the very foundation of every society is subordination and obedience, duties to the civil magistrate which are as obligatory on pastors as on other men, after examining whether Calvin’s complaints were just, pronounced the following sentence: ‘Calvin was right so far as he had reference to the licentious lives of his adversaries, and to their love for libertinism and independence; but he was certainly mistaken if he considered them as enemies of God for wishing to observe the four principal festivals, and to introduce the use of unleavened bread.’[716] This is likewise our own opinion.

[Sidenote: CALVIN AND FAREL AT BERNE.]

When they reached Berne, Calvin and Farel found their friends in great astonishment at what had taken place. The latter told them that if they were not wanted at Geneva, they should stay at Berne. ‘It would be unpardonable in you,’ they added, ‘to refuse such a call.’[717] To be at Berne with Kunz would have been to abandon their lives to perpetual dissension. They were in haste to be gone. However, they were anxious to express their gratitude to the senate for its conduct towards them, and for that purpose they requested an audience. They were put off to the following day. Remembering all the delays of their recent sojourn, fearing lest they should find themselves beset by claims to which they could not yield, and believing that they had discharged their duty to the council by the request which they had made, they departed for Basel. They did not reach the city without encountering danger on the way. They had to cross a river, believed to be the Aar, and one of them was almost carried away by the swift current, which was swollen by the rain. ‘However,’ wrote Calvin to Viret, ‘the river was more merciful to us than men. The latter had determined, contrary to all right and reason, to compel us to undertake this journey, even were it on foot; but the Lord, in his compassion, preserved us from all evil.’ From the postscript to the same letter it appears that Farel and Calvin crossed the river on horseback. It is not known which of the two narrowly escaped drowning. They arrived at Basel, wet through with the rain, and half dead with fatigue.

At Basel Calvin found a valued friend, Grynæus. Already during the stay of the two reformers at Berne he had written to them--‘I hope that by your Christian meekness and your humility you will overcome all your adversaries, and take away from the enemies of the Gospel every occasion of calumniating you. Oh, that the eyes now sparkling with the fire of Satan may be cast down, and that the passion with which men are inflamed against your ministry may be quenched![718] Work on, work on, my well-beloved brethren, hearts most noble and most holy (_optima ac sanctissima pectora_); be ready for the conflict, arrayed in the whole armor of Christian warfare, ready and willing, especially at this time, when iniquity prevails, to lead us on with heroic fidelity. Let us apply ourselves to the work of the Lord with unconquerable hearts. The hatred of those who in this proceeding show themselves so worthy of hatred will not win the day. For our part, we are of those who can pray for our enemies, much more support and embrace them. Let not the senseless judgment of the people, let not the foolish and futile dread of popular opinion, disturb you in the least. Rule and protect this Church, which threatens to fall, by your courage and your persistency. How glorious is the function you will discharge! How solid and real the praise which you will deserve if, completely forgetting yourselves in this cause, you think of Jesus Christ alone!’

[Sidenote: THEIR RECEPTION.]

We can imagine how affectionately Grynæus and his friends received the two brethren banished on account of the noble fidelity which they had displayed. Grynæus had already invited the reformer, while he was still at Geneva, to go to his house rather than bend under the yoke which his enemies wished to put on him. ‘We welcome thee joyfully,’ he said to Calvin afterwards, ‘as our brother in the Lord, and we embrace thee as a distinguished ornament of our Church.’[719] Calvin therefore abode with Grynæus at Basel, where the most brotherly hospitality was shown him. Farel took up his abode in the house of the famous printer, Oporin.

Calvin and Farel bore their great trial with much patience and meekness, forgiving their enemies and praying for them, and endeavoring to avoid everything which might become an occasion of grief to their brethren. Viret was very anxious to see them and to share their tribulations. ‘Thou knowest well,’ replied Calvin to him, ‘that no greater happiness could befall us at this moment than to talk with thee for a short time. But the danger to which the journey would expose thee checks our desire: thou wouldst reap more hatred from it than we should joy.’ Thus did Calvin think of his friends before thinking of himself. It appears, however, that Viret did see him at Basel.[720] This was doubtless at a later period. Calvin was anxious to avoid everything which might lead to any useless dispute. ‘I beg of thee, my dear brother,’ he said to Farel, ‘take pains in these evil times to preserve whatever can be tolerated. Our brethren must not so obstinately dispute about mere ceremonies. Let us be free; but let us be the slaves of concord and of peace.’[721] ‘What I have above all at heart,’ he said further to him, ‘is that we may not cause new quarrels, nor be the occasion of any strife.’

At the same time, nevertheless, one of the first things which the reformers had done after their arrival at Basel was to give an account of what had befallen them to their brethren of Zurich and Strasburg. Their enemies did not cease, indeed, to pursue them with their accusations; and those who had forced them to leave Geneva cried out that they were schismatics, forgetting that they themselves had compelled the two reformers to separate from their Church. Such is party logic. Calvin, Farel, and their friends, therefore, thought it advisable to hold a meeting at which delegates from the towns of Zurich, Berne, Basel, Strasburg, and one of that place (_un dudit lieu_) (probably Geneva), should attend, and at which it should be ‘declared that they had duly and faithfully administered their office.’[722] They did not, however, eagerly press for this. They knew that their judge was in heaven. ‘I can do nothing,’ said Calvin, ‘but commend the issue to the great physician, who alone can provide for it and give it shape.’[723]

[Sidenote: CALLS AND HESITATIONS.]

If Calvin committed himself to God as to his past, he did the same as to his future. ‘I withdraw to Basel,’ he says, in the same letter, ‘awaiting what the Lord will do with me.’ Calls were not wanting. They wished to retain him at Basel. Toussaint desired that he should settle at Lausanne, or in the canton of Berne, that he might there be an example of decision and devotion. Others thought it their duty to recommend him to the Duke of Würtemburg.[724] But Strasburg appeared to be the place to choose. Already in November, 1536, Bucer, delighted with the _Institution_, which had just appeared, had asked for an interview with Calvin. ‘We will go wherever you wish for the purpose of conferring with you on the whole doctrine of Christ.’[725] They saw each other subsequently at Berne and at Zurich. Bucer and Capito, now that they knew he was at liberty and staying at Basel, did not fail to press him to come to them. At the beginning of July he went to Strasburg. ‘I have been so earnestly entreated to come by the two chief ministers of this town,’ he wrote on the 10th of that month, ‘that to satisfy them I have made a journey hither.’[726] It did not at that time appear likely to him that he was to settle there. The terrible conflicts through which he had passed at Geneva made him view with alarm the proposal to accept a new ministry. He recurred to his studious projects. ‘I shrink, above all things,’ said he, ‘from reëntering on the office from which I am delivered, considering in what perplexities I was involved from the time when I was first engaged in it.’ He adds, ‘there are other reasons which I can explain only by word of mouth.’ What were these? Doubtless the too accommodating theology of the doctors of that town. Basel was his favorite city. He returned thither, saying, ‘It is not the fault of the Strasburgers that I am not their guest, but they have burden enough without me.’ He might, however, have found good reasons for accepting their invitation, for his poverty was so great that he found it necessary to sell ‘a part of his books’ for his maintenance.[727]

The entreaties of the Strasburgers, nevertheless, became more urgent. They wrote to Grynæus to do all he could to induce Calvin to settle at Strasburg: only they would rather that he should come without Farel, because they were afraid that, if the two Frenchmen were together, the Germans would have too great difficulty in bending them to their views. This was also the opinion of Grynæus. To give up Farel entirely was too great a sacrifice for Calvin to make. He again declined the offer, giving as his reason the condition which was imposed on him not to take Farel with him.[728] ‘I await thy counsel,’ wrote Calvin to his friend; and impelled by the warmest affection for this man of God, he adds, ‘O that I could now fly to thee! I am only held back by the strongest motives.’

Farel was not at Basel at that moment, and was not to return thither. The tidings of the persecutions which had fallen upon him, of his exile and his sufferings, had grieved the people of Neuchâtel, and revived in their hearts their old love for the man from whom they had learned the elements of the faith. The Council of the Sixty, representatives of the city, after calling upon the Lord, communicated to the class of ministers the desire which they felt of inviting Farel to become their pastor.[729] The post was, as we shall see, actually vacant. Two councillors and two members of the class went to Basel. ‘Come,’ they said to him, ‘and complete the building of which you laid the foundation.’ Farel, like Calvin, could not make up his mind to accept a pastoral charge, but preferred to devote himself to study.[730] At length, encouraged by his friends, entreated in the name of the Lord, and ‘persuaded to it with great earnestness by the German Churches,’ he consented; but it was on condition that he should introduce in the Church the order prescribed in the Holy Scriptures. Having once decided, he set out suddenly for Neuchâtel, about the end of July, ‘with his customary promptitude,’ says Calvin.[731] Thenceforth Farel and Calvin were separated; but this removal from each other did not in any degree impair the union of their hearts nor the firmness of their characters, whatever the moderates of Strasburg might think.

[Sidenote: FAREL CALLED TO NEUCHATEL.]

The latter once more renewed their call. Would not the ministerial office conferred on Calvin by a Church of such high standing as that of Strasburg be a brilliant justification which would silence evil tongues? What good service might he not render there! The empire had need of able theologians, and perhaps the Strasburgers desired to have him settled among them by way of counterpoise to the powerful personality and authority of Luther. Be that as it may, his friends on the banks of the Rhine could not bear the thought that so powerful a servant of God ‘should be satisfied to live in retirement without undertaking any public office;’[732] and as he still refused, they took steps towards inducing the Genevese to recall the reformer. If he will not come to Strasburg, let him go to Geneva. This proceeding appears to have had some effect on Calvin. He would go anywhere rather than return to the city of his sorrows. The Strasburgers, finding that he was somewhat giving way, made a fresh advance. ‘That excellent servant of Christ, Martin Bucer,’ says Calvin, ‘addressing to me a remonstrance and protest similar to that which Farel had previously made, called me to another place. Alarmed by the case of Jonah, which he set before me, I persevered still in the office of teacher.’[733] Calvin therefore went to Strasburg in September, and began to preach in the choir of the church of the Dominicans to the French refugees in the town, with whom were associated other persons, some of whom understood and others did not understand the tongue, but all of them were desirous of seeing the face and hearing the voice of the famous exile. These refugees, it is said, were fifteen hundred in number.

Calvin was no sooner settled at Strasburg than he heard that his colleague, the blind old Courault, who, ‘after having fought valiantly at Paris for the truth,’[734] had first retired to Thonon, and then had been called as pastor to Orbe, had departed this life on October 4, and gone to God. This was a terrible blow for his loving heart. He wrote to Farel--‘I am so dismayed at the death of Courault, that my grief overpasses all bounds. Not one of my daily occupations is any longer able to fix my attention, and I am incessantly returning to the same thought. To the lamentations and pains of the day succeed the more terrible torments of the night.’[735] This death, so unexpected, was attributed to poison. Suspicions of that kind were very common, and were in those unhappy times too often justified. Calvin rejected this thought, but in spite of himself it was continually presenting itself to his imagination.[736] He endeavored, nevertheless, to console himself and to revive his own courage and that of Farel. ‘All testify,’ he said to him, ‘by their grief and their regrets how highly they esteemed his courage and his uprightness, and this is a great consolation. For us whom the Lord leaves for a time in this world, let us hold on in the path which he pursued until we have finished our course. Whatever difficulties we may have to encounter, they will not prevent us from entering into that rest which is even now his portion.’ ‘When we get there,’ said he on another occasion, ‘it will be known on which side rashness or error was. To that court I appeal from the sentence of all the wise. There the angels of God will bear witness which are the schismatics.’[737] He adds, ‘Only let us stand firm on the height we have reached, which commands the field of battle, until the kingdom of Christ, at present hidden, shall appear.’

Thus the three pastors expelled from Geneva had each found his place; and that of the old blind minister was the best.

[Sidenote: NEW PASTORS AT GENEVA.]

It was not long before the Genevese established the institutions to which the reformers had objected. It was decreed to reërect the baptismal fonts which had been cast down, and to baptize children in them, to celebrate the four festivals, and to conform to the ceremonies agreed upon. On Whit-Sunday, which this year fell at the beginning of June, there were only two pastors at Geneva, Henri de la Mare and Jacques Bernard, both Genevese. The Lord’s supper was to be celebrated, and for that purpose two ministers were needed in each church. The council deputed two of its members to act instead of them, one at St. Peter’s, the other at St. Gervais’.

The government exerted itself to find substitutes for the two exiles. The states of Berne and Neuchâtel gave up to it Jean Morand, pastor at Cully,[738] on the shores of the lake of Geneva, and Antoine Marcourt, of Lyons, pastor of Neuchâtel, who were installed about the end of June. The council determined to give them, considering their age and their large families, three hundred Genevese florins;[739] the two Genevese each had two hundred and fifty florins. We became acquainted with Marcourt at the synod of Lausanne. He had published several treatises on the Eucharist, on the mass; to him likewise were attributed the famous placards of 1534, which Florimond Raemond believes to have been the work of Farel. The governor and councils of Neuchâtel, in resigning Marcourt to Geneva, declared, June 18, ‘that they had always found him a man of peace, one who desired, and to the utmost of his power maintained, peace and public tranquillity.’ This character seems hardly like that of the author of the _Placards_, one of the most violent writings of the sixteenth century, which were pronounced by the Roman Catholics[740] to be filled with ‘execrable blasphemies and horrible threats against the king,’ and which gave rise to that bloody persecution by the Valois and the Bourbons of which the reformed Christians were the victims for more than two centuries. However, we must confess that pacific men are not always consistent. It would seem that Marcourt was not so much a man of peace as the people of Neuchâtel had said; at least if we take literally what Calvin says. ‘How our successors will demean themselves,’ he wrote on August 4 to Farel, ‘is a point on which we can form an opinion from their first proceedings. They break off by their irritable temper every promise of peace, and they seem to suppose that the best thing they have to do is to tear to pieces both in public and in private the reputation which we enjoyed, and to make us as hateful as possible.’[741] Calvin is especially severe, perhaps too much so, with regard to the two Genevese ministers. There was, however, some truth in the last touch in the picture which he drew of them for Bullinger: ‘Both of them are very ignorant, and when they open their mouths, it is to rave. This does not prevent them from assuming an insolent pride.’[742]

[Sidenote: ACCUSATIONS.]

These words of Calvin are rather sharp. This is doubtless explained by his recent sorrow. Subsequently he expressed himself with more moderation. His partisans at Geneva did the same. While the wisest men still held their peace, the most violent did not spare their adversaries. The two parties were very ill-disposed towards one another, and some of those who belonged to them threw off all restraint both in their deeds and in their words. Licentious men among the enemies of the reformers ‘triumphed over the banished ministers, insulted the servants of God, laughed at the Gospel, and abandoned themselves to impurity, dancing, gaming, and drunkenness. Nothing was talked of but masquerades, gallantries and excesses, and the services of the church turned to the disgrace of the Reformation.’ On the other side, the most vehement partisans of Calvin and Farel had no mercy on the lay and ecclesiastical chiefs under whose administration these things took place. They called the new pastors _wolves_, and the magistrates _the unrighteous_. They murmured as they went out from sermon, and their ill-humor was not sparing of criticism. ‘The Gospel which is preached at present,’ said Richard after one of the services, ‘is only _the Gospel for twenty days_.’ He had no doubt that, when that time had elapsed, the new preachers would be dismissed. For this they sent him to prison. ‘The syndics of to-day,’ said another, ‘are of no use but to bring back lascivious men and women into the town.’ For this saying he was expelled from the town for a year.[743] ‘The mass is sung in Geneva,’ said many, ‘and the people who love the Gospel are expelled the town.’ These charges were circulated in Switzerland, and greatly alarmed the friends of reform.

None felt these reproaches more keenly than the pastors, for they knew that they all recoiled on themselves. On September 17 they all appeared, the two Genevese and the two foreigners, before the council. ‘Calumniators,’ they said, ‘are spreading reports in the cantons which are doing serious injury to the Gospel.’ They requested that two of their number might have leave of absence to go and refute the slanders, which inflicted a blow on the honor of the town. The request was granted. Marcourt and Morand set out for Berne, and presented themselves before the assembly of the pastors, in which Kunz could not fail to support them. In fact it was resolved at this meeting ‘that those who rose against the persons in office at Geneva were worse than wicked men, traitors, and Jews.’ The Bernese pastors communicated this declaration to the council, which contented itself with deciding that if any defamers of Geneva appeared at Berne, information should be given to the magistrates of that town. The lay authorities were obviously less under the influence of passion than the ecclesiastics. It appears even that the council of Berne did not place implicit confidence in the report of the Genevese ministers, for one of their own number was immediately after sent to Geneva to see with his own eyes what was the real state of the Genevese Church.

The complaints made both at Geneva and in other places were well grounded. This is proved by the proceedings of the magistrates, who, although they were hostile to the reformers, perceived that their own honor required them not to authorize licentiousness. It is quite certain that people ‘went about the streets at night, uttering cries and singing indecent songs;’ that ‘gaming, lewdness, haunting of taverns, and drunkenness,’ were common offences; for a decree of July 19 prohibited them under a penalty of sixty sous for the first time; and, as the evil continued, other decisions of a similar character were taken on August 20 and October 22. It is certain that, as was said in Switzerland, some citizens went to mass, for according to the intolerant customs of the age, they were ordered ‘to leave the town.’ The councils were seen to be as much opposed to religious liberty as Calvin had been. Perhaps they went even further than he would have gone; for, on August 20, they ordered the priests who were still on Genevese soil to go to sermon if they wished to remain there.

[Sidenote: CALVIN’S LETTER TO THE GENEVESE.]

Calvin, at Strasburg, was watching attentively what was passing at Geneva. He heard that a certain number of Genevese kept faithfully to the path which they had taken under his direction. Some of his adherents cried out rather loudly, but the majority led a quiet life, and the most decided of the latter displayed their opposition in no other way than by absenting themselves from a form of worship which they did not consider to be in conformity with the principles of the Gospel. Calvin had not written to them during the first months of his exile. He was not willing to lay himself open to the charge of attempting to draw them over to himself. But he felt keenly that the trials of his friends at Geneva proceeded from their supineness in adhering to the Word of God, and that the remedy for them was in humbling themselves before God and waiting upon Him for the remedy. ‘However the affection which he always cherished for them’ did not permit him to remain longer silent, and on October 1 he wrote to them a letter remarkable for the pacific, discreet, charitable, and elevated spirit which it breathed. He addressed it, not to all the Genevese, but to those who had received into their hearts the seed of the divine Word, and who were still deeply affected by the blow which had struck them in the punishment of their pastor. He named them his brethren, _the relics of the dispersion of the Genevese church_. He spoke of the love which he bore them. ‘I cannot refrain from writing to you,’ said he, ‘to assure you of the affection which I always cherish for you. Our conscience is fully persuaded before God that it is by his call that we were at one time associated with you, and it ought not to be in the power of men to break such a bond.’ He begs them to forget themselves and their sufferings, to forget even the hostility of their adversaries. ‘If we lose our time in fighting against men,’ he said, ‘thinking only of taking vengeance and getting indemnified for the injuries which they have done us, it is doubtful whether we can overcome them, but it is certain that we shall be overcome by the devil. If on the contrary we resist the devices of that spiritual enemy, there is no fear then of our not coming off conquerors. Cast away every evil affection, be led only by zeal for God, controlled by his Spirit and the rule of his Word.’ Calvin went further. He showed himself severe to his friends. ‘It is easy for you to justify yourselves before men, but your conscience will feel burdened before God.’ He did himself what he required of others. ‘I doubt not,’ he said, ‘that God has humbled us in order to make us acquainted with our ignorance, our imprudence, and our other infirmities, of which I for my part have been fully conscious, and which I have no hesitation in confessing before the Church. However,’ he adds, ‘we did faithfully administer our office. The Lord will cause our innocence to come forth like the morning-star, and our righteousness to shine like the sun.’ But he endeavors chiefly to console the believers of Geneva. ‘Be not cast down because it hath pleased the Lord to humble you for a time, for he lifts up the humble out of the dust and takes the poor from the dunghill. He gives the manna of joy to those who are in tears; he gives back light to them that sit in darkness, and he restores to life them that walk in the shadow of death. Be of good courage then, and endure with patience the chastening of his hand, until the time that he reveal his grace to you.’[744] It is impossible not to recognize the wisdom and the Christian charity which have left their impress on this letter. It is indeed a pastor that speaks. Calvin was so far from the excessive strictness imputed to him that he wrote at the same time to Farel--‘If we find in any Church the ministry of the Word and the sacraments, it is better not to separate from it. It is not right even to do so on the ground that some doctrines are not purely taught in it; for there is hardly a Church in existence which does not retain some traces of its former ignorance. It is sufficient for us if the doctrine on which the Church is founded has its place there and keeps it.’[745] Calvin held that there are some doctrines fundamental and vital, essential to salvation; but he acknowledged that there are others on which difference is permissible.

[Sidenote: FAREL’S LETTER TO THE GENEVESE.]

Farel likewise wrote to the Christians of Geneva. He did so even before Calvin, in June, in August, and again in November. He expressed to them his deep sadness. He would fain be ‘so far away that he could hear nothing of the miserable breaking-up and dispersion of the Church.’ He strives ‘to banish from his heart the pains, the labors that he undertook for that town; for nothing pierces the heart like ingratitude; to see evil rendered for good, hate for love, death and shame in place of the life and the honor which were procured.’ He contents himself with praying for the town and commending it to all who are able to give it any assistance. Meanwhile he cannot help seeing the unhappy condition in which his own friends and all the faithful of Geneva are, deprived of their pastors, and witnessing the triumph of their enemies. He shares largely in their troubles; they are his only trial. ‘I should be too happy,’ he wrote to them, ‘if you were not so unhappy.’ But at the same time he exhorts them to Christian charity and gives evidence of it himself. ‘Cherish in your hearts no rancor,’ he said to his former flock, ‘no root of bitterness, no anger. Do not reproach this man nor that man, but let each one reproach himself: lay all the blame on yourselves and say nothing but good of others. Let God’s holy will be your rule, and not _poor man_ (the natural man), and what is in him.’ He does not hesitate to rebuke his friends. ‘You have not obeyed God wholly, but have halted and swerved to one side and the other.’ Then he earnestly exhorts them to repentance. ‘You, great and small, men and women, cast yourselves humbly before God, with all earnestness and love, beseeching his grace, and praying him to turn away his anger from you. Yes, cast yourselves before him with sobs and tears, with fasting and prayer, like the king of Nineveh and his people. Cry, weep, lift up your voices; that your cry going forth from the depths of this terrible calamity may reach the ear of God.’[746] Thus spoke Farel and Calvin.