(FEBRUARY 1542.)
WITH Calvin words and deeds went hand in hand. If he took part in external affairs, we understand that he did so in the midst of his flock He was preacher and pastor, although he is chiefly known as teacher and reformer. Apart from Calvin, without the institutions of which he was the promoter, the evangelical reformation, religious and moral, would not have been accomplished in Geneva. We may also add that national
independence and political liberties would not have been maintained in this town. The old Genevese population would have been unable to do this.
Undoubtedly there had been men among this small people who had
displayed great energy in repulsing the ambitious attempts of the Dukes of Savoy, in taking from the bishops the temporal privileges which they had usurped, in restoring civil liberties and in uniting Geneva to the Swiss cantons. All these measures were essential to the Reformation, for which a free people was indispensable. We have already narrated their
achievements; and we have been reproached, unjustly, we think, for having done this at too great length. But at the time when Calvin appeared in the city of the first Huguenots, morality was far from being irreproachable;
religion, scarcely disengaged from the forms and errors of Rome, was with the majority neither personal nor evangelical, deep-seated, pure, vital, or active; and civilization itself was hardly at a higher level there than it had reached in other countries. The heroes of independence had need
themselves of being enlightened by the light of the Gospel, and of being transformed by its fire. Their first education was defective, and it was necessary to begin it again. Their intercourse with all that surrounded them exerted an influence over them which needed to be counterbalanced. The great advantage of the Reformation having been, in their view, their deliverance from the pretensions of priests and of princes, it was needful that they should learn to recognize in the Gospel the tidings of a higher
order, of a spiritual enfranchisement, which would deliver them from sin and would give them the liberty of the children of God. They had availed themselves of the reformation as a political instrument; they must now learn to have recourse to it as a religious, moral, and divine instrument, capable of making them citizens of another and more glorious city. Many did this. Calvin’s return was not exclusively the work of a party. A profound conviction existed, both in the most influential men and in the minds of the people in general, that Calvin was the man they wanted. The Genevese population was therefore disposed to accept the institutions which he offered them. But there were nevertheless some secret discontents, which were to break out some day, and would become for Calvin and for the consistory the occasion of frequent and obstinate conflicts.
The presidency of the consistory was not vested in Calvin, but in one of the syndics. The reformer knew how to keep his own place, and gave due honor to the lay magistrate. While, however, he was not president of this body, it may be truly said that he was its soul. f178 The consistory met immediately after its establishment. The report of its sittings did not begin till Thursday, February 16, 1542; but nine meetings had previously been held.
Calvin was not a theocrat, as he has been called, unless the term be taken in the most spiritual sense. A breath of eternal life inspired him; he was full of love for souls; a practical man in the best sense of the word. Many of the characteristics of St. Paul reappeared in Calvin. While, like Paul, he strenuously maintained the great doctrine of grace, he took an interest in the comforts of life of those to whom his preaching was addressed, and sometimes applied himself to the humblest details. He was well-infored even on matters which do not seem to be in his province. For instance, he made enquiries after house for his friend De Falais, and offered him one with ‘a garden, a large yard, and a fine view.’ f179 But it was especially in the consistory that he displayed the same interest in small things as in great. Conversation, dress, food, all were interesting to him. He protected women against the bad treatment of their husbands; he taught parents and children, masters and servants, their mutual duties; and saw that the sick were treated with all needful attention. At the first sitting of the
consistory (February 16, 1542), De Pernot, from the district of Gex, who
had somewhat the air of those loungers (flaneurs), who are found in all parties, related to the venerable body that he had been to Mount Saleve with Claudine de Bouloz and some companions. The Genevese had before this time begun to enjoy pleasure excursions on this mountain. This excursion was perhaps for De Pernot one of those parties of pleasure to which some mystery is attached. He walked with the Genevese maiden;
they chatted and laughed as they came down the mountain, and, as Racine says:—
Ils suivaient du plaisir la pente trop aisee.
Now, in the midst of this gaiety and these pretty trifling speeches, there was, said Pernot to the consistory, some talk about marriage. Moreover, he added, they arrived at Collonges-sous-Saleve, Claudine had drunk with him ‘to their marriage, in the presence of credible witnesses.’ But Claudine denied it altogether. She drank, she owned, but agreed to nothing else, because she had not the permission of her parents. Thus then, a dispute about a promise made on the mountain and at the inn was one of the subjects to which the grave Calvin had to give his attention. There were other questions of more importance. Domestic disagreements, altercations, duels, games of chance, above all licentious conduct, were frequently brought before the consistory; but such cases gradually diminished in number. f180
The consistory had besides much to do with Roman Catholicism, which was of too long standing in the episcopal city to be expelled from it at a single stroke. Now, hostility to Rome was at this time general. It prevailed in the ministers and their friends by reason of their attachment to the Holy Scriptures, which condemned the system of the papacy. It prevailed in the other citizens by reason of the conviction which possessed them that Protestantism alone could maintain their independence. It influenced the French refugees who, having escaped from prison, and from the death to which their brethren were still exposed, felt their hearts stirred with indignation at the sight of Roman Catholicism, the source of these hateful persecutions. Further, many persons were cited before the consistory on suspicion of being Romanists. These people were not very courageous; in their own church they were placed under a regime of fear; and a soul that is led by fear is always the weaker. On March 30, 1542, Dame Jeanne
Peterman appeared before the consistory. She was unwilling to abjure her faith, but she endeavored to confess it as faintly as possible, and even had recourse to stratagem to avoid making an avowals of what she believed.
She made a well-tangled skein, and endeavored thereby to entangle the members of the consistory. They wanted to clear up the matter, and she tried to darken it. ‘You have not received the holy supper,’ they said to her, ‘and you go to mass; what is your faith?’ ‘I believe in God,’ she said,
‘and wish to live in God and holy church. I say my Pater Noster in the Roman tongue, and I believe just as the church believes.’ ‘What do you mean by that?’ ‘That I do not believe except just as the church believes.’
‘Is there no church in this town?’ ‘I do not know.’ ‘Are not the
sacraments of our Lord administered here?’ ‘I believe in the holy supper, as God said, This is my body.’ ‘Why are you not content with supper administered in this town, but go elsewhere?’ ‘I go where I please; our Lord will not come here in full array, but where his word is there is his body. He said that there would come ravening wolves.’ After Calvin had given her an admonition according to the Word of God, she said that on the previous Sunday a German, a very respectable man, asked her how she prayed, and that she had replied, ‘You do not find people here saying to the Virgin Mary, Pray for us.’ She did not on this occasion add that she herself invoked her. As she often said, ‘I believe in God,’ which deists themselves might have said, she was asked, ‘What then is your faith toward God?’ She replied, ‘The preachers ought to know better than I do about God. I am not a learned person like you. There is no other God for me but God.’ She was pressed more closely. ‘In what way will you take the holy supper?’ ‘I do not mean to be either an idolater or an hypocrite.
The Virgin Mary is my advocate. The Virgin is a friend of God, daughter and mother of Jesus Christ. I do not know about the church.’ By this she doubtless meant that she would not enter into controversy on this subject.
‘I do not know,’ she added, ‘whether the faith of others is right. Our lady is a good woman, and I wish to live in the faith of holy church.’ Thus the poor woman hardly got further than the Virgin and the church. This was a long way. It appears that it was the president-syndic and not Calvin who had pressed her, for she ended by saying, ‘The lord syndic is a heretic, and I do not wish to be one.’ The pastors said to her, ‘There is only one mediator, Jesus Christ; as for the saints, male or female, let people do as
they will.’ The consistory required that the poor woman should be corrected in an evangelical manner, in order that she might not go to other places to worship idols; ‘that remonstrance should be made, and that she should go daily to sermon.’ Again, appearing before them on the following Thursday, she spoke with more decision. ‘I cannot receive the supper,’
she said; ‘I have taken it and will take it elsewhere, until the Lord touch my heart.’ Thereupon she was declared to be out of the church. ‘In my time,’ she said, ‘the Jews have been driven out of this town, and a time will come when the Jews will be all over the town.’ If the prediction has not been fulfilled with respect to the Jews, those who adhere to the faith of this woman are now very numerous there; and, perhaps, this is what at bottom she meant to predict. f181
Matters of the same kind as that which we have just indicated, and others, such as extravagance in dress, licentious or irreligious songs, improprieties during divine service, usury, frequenting of taverns and gaming houses,
f181a
drunkenness, debauchery, and other like offences were frequently brought before the consistory. It had nothing to do, or only indirectly, with political events, or even with measures for the suppression of the libertine party, for this was effected by judicial methods, and the
consistory was not called upon to take cognizance of such matters. There is not a word about the trial of Servetus in 1543; the consistory had nothing to do with that proceeding. The only allusion that we find to it does not occur till a month after that odious act, November 23, 1543. On that day a woman, accused of frequenting a certain house, replied that she had only been there twice, the day after the supper ‘and the day the heretic was burnt.’ The name of Servetus is not even mentioned. In this circumstance there is, perhaps, a hint for those who look upon Calvin as the principal offender in the death of the unfortunate Servetus. Assuredly he was blameworthy, and his whole age with him. f182
If the consistory proceeded with severity against immorality and licentiousness, its activity was no less conspicuous in a charitable direction, and one favorable to the public liberties. f183 It did not forget that it was bound to protect the little ones who were oppressed, and all those who were in any misfortune. Calvin recalled the saying of Jesus Christ about those of his people who are brought low, and said, ‘If their insignificance give occasion to the world to fall upon them, they ought to
know that God does not despise them. It would be a thing too absurd for a mortal to make no account of those who are so precious in the sight of God. f184 The consistory used its influence with the council on behalf of reforms which were for the advantage of the people. It demanded a reduction in the price of wheat, improvement of prison discipline, and restriction of imprisonment for debt. It censured fathers who were too severe with their children, and creditors who were too exacting with their debtors. It was severe against those who held a monopoly, and against forestallers of food. It urged moderation in the citations made before the consistory, and desired that they should be confined to scandalous cases.
Men have been heard at various periods, even men of the humblest class, lifting up their voices against Calvin and his consistory without any suspicion that they were insulting their own friends and benefactors. Was not the suppression of drunkenness, of immorality, of gaming-houses, of quarrelling, and other evils of the like kind a benefit, and a very great benefit to the people? One who has set forth in the most accurate and impartial manner the proceedings of the consistory has said, ‘We must not, indeed, expect absolute impartiality nor abundance of good nature in the face of the resistance which was offered to the consistory;
nevertheless, the facts speak, and are all in favor of the reformers.’ F184a The realization of the plan formed by Calvin, the moral and religious restoration of Geneva, called for great efforts on his part, and exposed him to much opposition, many affronts and contemptuous speeches which were flung in his teeth. He bore it all without cherishing resentment. This man, whose name was familiar throughout Christendom, the leader who could cope with Rome, the great teacher whose letters kings received with reverence, when called by a fish-wife, in the presence of his colleagues, ‘a tavern-haunter,’ took it with admirable patience. Wrongs done against the persons of the pastors were treated by the consistory with greater lenity than opposition to evangelical doctrine, invocation of the devil, or invocation of the Virgin and the saints. Calvin, admitting that outward appearance has its value in the policy of the world, but holding that it ought not to be considered in the spiritual kingdom of Christ,’ held the balance true between a working man and a member of the most honorable families. Sons of the latter were more than once reprimanded and
punished, even though the father was friendly to the Reformation. Hence
troubles frequently arose, although the fathers continued faithful to the established order. In the midst of these agitations Calvin remained calm.
He wrote to Myconius,’ It was in my power, when I came here, to triumph over my enemies, and to attack at full sail the party which done me wrong; but I have abstained. I have also most carefully avoided all kinds of reproach, lest in uttering a word, however innocent, I should seem to intend to persecute the one or the other.’ f185
The knowledge which he gained during his first residence at Geneva, and the reflections which had occupied his mind during the three years of his exile, been profitable to the reformer; his wisdom and his meekness had been ripened by experience.
Calvin and Viret had resolved to use their utmost efforts to procure peace;
‘for,’ said the former, ‘it is necessary not only that we abstain from debate, but that we take great pains to put an end to dissension among others, removing every occasion of hatred and rancor.’ He was well
acquainted with the state of men’s minds in Geneva, and likewise with the sentiments of his colleagues. f186 ‘There are some of them,’ he wrote to Myconius, ‘who are no friends of mine, and others who are openly hostile; but I take all the pains I can to prevent the spirit of discord from creeping in amongst us. We have in the town a seed of intestine discord, but we strive by our patience and gentleness f187 to prevent the church suffering from it. Everyone knows, by experience, the humane and amiable disposition of Viret. f188 I am not more severe than he is, at least in this respect. Perhaps you will hardly believe this, but for all that it is true. I value so highly general peace and a cordial union that I do violence to myself; so that even those who are opposed to us are obliged to give me this praise. This is so well known that day after day men who were previously my avowed enemies are becoming my friends. I conciliate others by my courtesy, and in some measure succeed, although not on all occasions.’
The opponents of Calvin in his own time were not the only ones to do justice to him; those likewise whom he has had in later times have done the same. ‘This kindly and conciliatory conduct of Calvin after his return,’ one of these has said, ‘is one of the most beautiful pages of his history.’ It is impossible not to value this testimony; but is it fair to add that it would
have been more meritorious if Calvin had had less consciousness of it, and that what he wrote to his friends on the subject often leaves on the mind of the reader an unpleasant impression? f189 We must, in the first place, remark that, in attributing patience and gentleness to himself, Calvin is not speaking exclusively of himself. He says we, which includes, at least, Viret. f190 Next, we must note that he was bound to give an accurate account of the state of things to the friends who had done everything to promote his return to Geneva. And, lastly, that if Calvin is to be
condemned for this communication, we shall have to condemn likewise (which no one will do) Christians more perfect than he was; St. Paul, for instance, who said, ‘Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
In Calvin gentleness was combined with strength. He understood the difficulties of his task, and devoted himself to it with great seriousness and indefatigable zeal. He had now to set in motion the chariot which he had taken so much pains to construct. He had to teach each man his duty, to restore the public worship, to attend to the young, the poor and the sick, to do the work of peacemaker, of consoler, and of reformer. It was to him that recourse was had about everything, sometimes even about affairs of the state. He had not two consecutive hours, he says, free from
interruption. ‘You cannot believe,’ he wrote to Bucer,’ in what a
whirlwind and confusion I am writing to you. In this place I am entangled in such a multitude of affairs that I am almost beside myself.’ And to Myconius he said, ‘During the first month of my ministry I was so overwhelmed with painful and distressing labors that I was well-nigh exhausted. How difficult and wearisome is the task of reconstructing a fallen building!’ f191
Calvin consequently felt the need of assistants who would earnestly cooperate with him. He endeavored to retain Viret at Geneva. ‘With Viret,’
he said, ‘I can bear the burden tolerably well; but if he is taken from me I shall be in a more deplorable position than I can say.’ f192 Viret was, however, obliged to resume his duties at Lausanne in July 1542. The Ordinances had provided that there should be at Geneva five ministers and three coadjutors, the latter also to be ministers. Now, on his arrival Calvin had found, in addition to Viret and Bernard, Henri de le Mare and Aime Champereau, the last elected in 1540. But these ministers were ‘rather an obstacle than an aid.’ He found them too rough, full of themselves, having