History of the Reformation in the Times of Calvin Vol 1

THIS history, though a separate work, may be considered as a second series of the History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century. The History of the Reformation in Europe in the time of Calvin naturally begins with Geneva.

THE REFORMATION AND MODERN LIBERTY

I am about to narrate the history of the Reformation of the sixteenth century in the time of Calvin. In the second century Christianity had its representatives in almost every part of the Roman world.

FIRST USURPATIONS AND FIRST STRUGGLES

The terrible struggle of which we have just spoken began in the first half of the thirteenth century. But the banks of the Thames could not make him forget those of the Leman.

A BISHOP SENT BY THE POPE TO ROB GENEVA OF ITS INDEPENDENCE

Enamored of the ancient liberties of his city, he was always prepared to sacrifice himself for them. The latter was astonished, for it was, as we have said, one of the most important posts in the State.

OPPOSITION TO THE DESIGNS OF THE DUKE, THE POPE, AND THE BISHOP

They hushed up complaints that compromised the honor of the clergy, the ambition of the duke, and the mitre of the bishop. In the name of the people,’ he said, ‘I oppose the surrender of this artillery to his Highness, the city cannot spare them.’ The four guns remained at Geneva, but from that hour Charles III. He had prepared a magnificent palace in the city of the popes and of the Caesars, for Julian and his young wife.

The sacred college had assembled, and the princes of the Church, robed in purple, had examined the affair.

BERTHELIER AND THE YOUTH OF GENEVA AROUSED BY THE BISHOP’S VIOLENCE

My council,’ the bishop answered, ‘will examine whether this arrest is contrary to your liberties, in which case I will amend what is to be. The anger of the people now grew fiercer against the citizens who had accepted the bishop’s pensions. The bishop knows very well,’ they said, ‘that some of them prefer his money to the liberties of the city.

Bonivard shrugged his shoulders, saying: ‘He is a mere idiot with his cock-and-bull stories!’ The friar proceeded next to.

THE OPPOSING PARTIES PREPARE FOR BATTLE

He saw in this little incident the great question between the legitimate authority of the bishop and the usurpations of the duke. The evening of the day when La Val d’Isere had reprimanded the bishop, the ducal envoy, with one of his colleagues and the vidame, supped at the priory of St. Victor, with the mild sparkling wine of the country on the table, they discoursed about the new times.

At Geneva he was the man of the Renaissance, as Calvin was the man of the Reformation.

ASSEMBLY, AGITATION, AND COMEDY OF THE PATRIOTS

He had, however, at bottom a sensitive heart, and the tyranny of the bishop provoked him. Besides, did not all noble hearts in Geneva beat in harmony with those of the fifty. People seriously discussed in the streets and at table the cause of the death of this famous beast.

The vidame, still irritated by the story of the mule, immediately presented his homage to the duke, and described the situation in the gloomiest of colors.

PECOLAT TORTURED AND BERTHELIER ACCUSED

The Bishop of Maurienne, precentor of the cathedral and canon of Geneva, who had a suit against the bishop, was then staying in the city and ‘feasting’ the citizens. Two Savoyards, creatures of the duke and the bishop, who were of the party, went immediately and repeated these words to the bastard. Pecolat was one of the band who had cried, ‘The skin of the gross beast!’ On the 27th of July, 1517, a warrant was issued against him.

The bishop had ordered him ‘to be examined and forced to speak the truth;’ and the torture-room was at the top of the castle.

BERTHELIER CALLS THE SWISS TO THE AID OF GENEVA HUGUENOTS AND MAMELUKES; THE

BISHOP’S VIOLENCE

Forty years before (in 1477) he had been one of the hostages given to the Swiss; since then he had been six times elected chief magistrate of the State. The man most respected in the whole State had been seized as a criminal at the very moment when he was giving the bishop proofs of the most loyal fidelity. The duke was displeased at these mistakes of the bishop, and they came upon him at a difficult moment.

When the syndics complained to him of the irregularities committed within the city and without,.

FRESH TORTURES, PECOLAT’S DESPAIR AND STRIKING DELIVERANCE

To put this plan into execution, it was necessary to change the layman — the ex- hosier, the merry fellow who was at every banquet and every masquerade. When he came near the bishop, the energetic prior letting go the thumb, which he had held as if in a vice, and pointing to the prelate, said to the clerk: ‘Do your duty.’ The bishop hearing these words, ‘was much afraid,’. Bonivard, who perhaps no longer believed in the miracles of saints, assigns another reason: ‘The surgeon dressed the wound in his tongue;’.

The poor man, being tongue-tied, told ‘the mystery of his sufferings with his fingers,’ says Bonivard.

BERTHELIER TRIED AT GENEVA; BLANCHET AND NAVIS SEIZED AT TURIN; BONIVARD

SCANDALIZED AT ROME

If any iniquity of the bishop’s is discovered, straight he cuts a plug to stop the hole. It was the moment when the bishop was on the watch to catch one of the ‘children of Geneva.’ Blanchet was seized and thrown into prison;. Blanchet’s examination began on the 3rd of May in the court of the castle of Turin.

Was it not Bonivard who had caused him such alarm in the palace on the occasion of the metropolitan summons.

BLANCHET AND NAVIS EXECUTED. THEIR LIMBS SUSPENDED TO THE WALNUT-TREE NEAR THE

BRIDGE OF ARVE

The provost and his men, having received them from the hands of the magistrates, led them to the place of execution. The bishop’s agents, who had received orders to make an exhibition of the mutilated limbs for the benefit of the. Genevans, proceeded to the bridge on Saturday night in order to discharge their disgraceful commission under cover of the darkness.

The anger of the people rose impetuously, and poured itself out on the prelate more than on the duke.

THE HUGUENOTS PROPOSE AN ALLIANCE WITH THE SWISS, AND THE MAMELUKES AMUSE

THEMSELVES AT TURIN

The great agitator took advantage of the bastard’s cruelty, and employing the energetic language of the times, he said: ‘The same pin hangs on the cloak of every one of us. It was not I who did it,’ said Charles; ‘it was my lord of Geneva; go to the bishop at Pignerol.’ The deputation proceeded to this town, situated in the neighborhood of the schismatic Waldenses, whom the prelate hated as much at least as he did the. Who ever thinks in our meetings of the safety of the city?’ Bonivard then began to speak: ‘The house of M.

The duke and the bishop say one thing, and they always do another: they think only of destroying your liberties, and Friburg of defending them.’ The council, who found it more.

THE HUGUENOTS DEMAND AN ALLIANCE WITH FRIBURG: THE MAMELUKES OPPOSE IT

BERTHELIER IS ACQUITTED

The meeting of the 5th of December was no sooner dissolved than the citizens dispersed through the town. Most of the city are joining our brotherhood,’ said Bonivard; ‘decidedly the townsfolk are the strongest.’ The Christmas holidays favored the exultation of the citizens. The vidame, knowing this to be impossible, got out of the way: he could not be found.

We will make no reply to the ambassadors of Savoy so long as they do not name the conspirators.’ The Savoyards increased their attentions, and showed the tenderest regard for the purses of the.

THE PEOPLE IN GENERAL COUNCIL VOTE FOR THE ALLIANCE. THE DUKE INTRIGUES AGAINST IT

It is a strange thing that the city bearing on its flag the symbols of these two absolute Powers — the key of the popes and the eagle of the emperors — raised this very significant banner, and thus proclaimed, as if in a spirit of contradiction, liberty in Church and State. The duke, the count, and the bishop, informed successively by their ambassadors, the vidame, and lastly by the mamelukes of ‘the little stove,’. Well, then,’ he said, ‘let us raise all Switzerland.’ The energetic Saleneuve, the able Chappuis, and the diplomatic Lambert were sent as ambassadors from Savoy to the deputies of the cantons then sitting in diet, and.

Better see our wives and children slain, better die a thousand deaths ourselves, than cancel the alliance with Friburg!’ The general council desiring to give an energetic proof of its will, and to make the resolution irrevocable, decreed that if any should propose the rupture of the alliance, he should be forthwith beheaded.

THE CANONS JOIN THE DUKE, AND THE PEOPLE RISE AGAINST THEM

The canons were too full of the sense of their own importance to heed the protest. The decision of the canons was soon known in the city, and the people immediately assembled in great numbers in the Place Molard. But if Bonivard was opposed to the despotism of princes, he was equally so to the disorders of the people.

He found them at the top of the Perron, a steep street, which opens between the cathedral and the Rue des Chanoines.

THE DUKE AT THE HEAD OF HIS ARMY SURROUNDS GENEVA

Many reasons, — the question of expense being one, — restrained the citizens, for they were poor. He desires to do violence to nobody.’ The mamelukes proposed that the gates should be opened to the duke immediately, but the syndics replied that-they would consult the general council on the morrow. But,’ he added, ‘the bad ones have shut the gates, stretched the chains, placed guards.

Make a virtue of necessity; or, at the least, send him a deputation:’ The syndics started for Galliard.

THE ARMY OF SAVOY IN GENEVA

Hand me the keys of the gates,’ said the count, ‘the ramparts, the arsenal, and the provision magazines.’ If the magistrates had really fancied that the Savoyards would come as friends, their foolish delusion must now have ceased and the bandage have fallen from their eyes. Friburg!’ exclaimed several voices; ‘the Friburg army is coming!’ At these words the city herald, the men-at-arms, the mamelukes, and the Savoyards who accompanied him, stopped, and, on learning that a courier had just arrived from the Pays de Vaud, they dispersed. You are too good christians,’ they said ironically to the Savoyards, ‘to eat meat now.’ And hence they derisively called the expedition ‘the Besolles war,’ a name recorded in contemporaneous chronicles.

From the war of 1519 until 1525,’ says the learned Secretary of State, Chouet, ‘the people of Geneva was in great consternation.’ ftb53.

ARREST OF BONIVARD AND BERTHELIER

This establishment would naturally fall to the abbot; but the latter engaged to pay the Sieur de Voruz an annual pension of two hundred florins out of the stipend. Bonivard, who thought himself free now that he had become poor, had to learn that the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. The syndic de la Mare and one of his colleagues, alarmed for the future of the.

They saw that the prelate’s entrance was only a second edition of that of the duke.

PHILIBERT BERTHELIER THE MARTYR OF LIBERTY

TERROR AND OPPRESSION IN GENEVA

The blood of Berthelier, which was about to be shed, excited a thirst in his heart which the blood of the huguenots alone could quench; from that hour Pontverre was the deadliest enemy of Geneva and the Genevans. The procession continued its march as far as Champel, where the executioner suspended the body of the father of Genevese liberty to the gibbet. Thence, by a singular refinement of cruelty, they proceeded to the bridge of Arve, and the head of the dead man, who had so often terrified the bishop, was fastened up in the place where those of Blanchet and Navis had hung so long.

On one side were the splendors of the throne, the majesty of the priesthood, armies,.