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=BONIVARD COMPLAINS OF GENEVA.=

THE partisans of absolutism and the papacy rose up on every side against Geneva, as if the Reformation were already established there. It was not so, however. Although Geneva had come out of Romanism, it had not yet entered Reform: it was still in those uncertain and barren places, that land of negations and disputes which lies between the two. A few persons only were beginning to see that, in order to separate really from the pope, it was necessary, as Haller and Zwingle said, to obey Jesus Christ. Bonivard, a keen critic, was indulging in his reflections, in his large arm-chair, at the priory of St. Victor, and carefully studying the singular aspect Geneva at that time presented. 'A strange spectacle,' he said; 'everybody wishes to command, and no one will obey. From tyranny we have fallen into the opposite and worse vice of anarchy.... There are as many tyrants as heads ... which engenders confusion. Everybody wishes to make his own profit or private pleasure out of the common weal; profit tends to avarice; and pleasure consists in taking vengeance on him whom you hate. Men are killed, but they are not the real enemies of Geneva.... If you wound a bear, he will not spring upon the man who wounded him, but will tear the first poles or the first tree in his way.... And this, alas! is what they are doing among us. Having groaned under a tyrannical government, we have the love of licence instead of the love of liberty. We must be apprentices before we can be masters, and break many strings before we can play upon the lute. The huguenots have driven out the tyrant, but have not driven out tyranny. It is not liberty to do whatever we desire, if we do not desire what is right. O pride! thou wilt be the ruin of Geneva! Pride has always envy for its follower; and when pride would mount too high, the old crone catches her by the tail and pulls her back, so that she falls and breaks her neck.... The huguenot leagues are not sufficient; the Gospel must advance, in order that popery may recede.' It is Bonivard himself who has transmitted these wise reflections.766

He was not the only person who entertained such thoughts. The affairs of the alliance often attracted Bernese to Geneva; and being convinced that the Reformation alone could save that city, they continued Ab Hofen's work. Being admitted into private families, they spoke against human traditions and extolled the Scriptures. 'God speaks to us of the Redeemer,' they said, 'and not of Lent.' But the Friburgers, thrusting themselves into these evangelical conferences, exclaimed: 'Obey the Church! If you separate from the Church, we will break off the alliance!'767

=BONIVARD'S ANSWER TO THE HUGUENOTS.=

The bishopers were with Friburg, the commoners with Berne. The latter were divided into three classes: there were politicians, to whom religion was only a means of obtaining liberty; serious and peaceful men, who called for true piety (Bonivard mentions Boutelier as one of these); and, lastly, the enemies of the priests, who saw the Reformation from a negative point of view, and regarded it essentially as a war against Roman superstitions. One day these sincere but impatient men said they could wait no longer, and went out to St. Victor to invite the prior to put himself at their head. They rang at the gate of the monastery, and the janitor went and told Bonivard, who ordered them to be admitted: 'We wish to put an end to all this papal ceremony,' they told him; 'we desire to drive out all its ministers, priests, and monks ... all that papistical rabble; and then we mean to invite the ministers of the Gospel, who will introduce a true christian reformation among us.'

The prior smiled as he heard these words: 'Gentlemen,' he said, in a sarcastic tone, 'I think your sentiments very praiseworthy, and confess that all ecclesiastics (of whom I am one) have great need to be reformed. But ought not those who wish to reform others to begin by reforming themselves? If you love the Gospel, as you say you do, you will live according to the Gospel. But if you wish to reform us without reforming yourselves, it is evident that you are not moved by love for the Gospel, but by hatred against us. And why should you hate us? It is not because our manners are contrary to yours, but because they are like them. Aristotle says in his Ethics,' continued the learned prior, 'and experience confirms the statement, that animals which eat off the same food naturally hate each other. Two horses do not agree at the same manger, nor two dogs over the same bone. It is the same with us. We are unchaste, and so are you. We are drunkards, and so are you. We are gamblers and blasphemers, and so are you. Why then should you be so opposed to us?... We do not hinder you from indulging in your little pleasures; pray do the same by us. You desire to expel us, you say, and put Lutheran ministers in our place.... Gentlemen, think well of what you are about: you will not have had them two years before you will be sorry for it. These ministers will permit you to break the commandments of the pope, but they will forbid your breaking those of God. According to their doctrines, you must not gamble or indulge in debauchery, under severe penalty.... Ah! how that would vex you!... Therefore, gentlemen, you must do one of two things: either leave us in our present condition; or, if you wish to reform us according to the Gospel, reform yourselves first.'

These remarks were not quite so reasonable as they appeared to be. It is the sick that have need of a physician, and as these 'sons of Geneva' wished to invite the ministers of the Gospel, in order to introduce a true christian reform, Bonivard should have encouraged instead of opposing them. These worldly men might have had a real desire for the Gospel at the bottom of their hearts. Reprimanded by the prior, they withdrew. Bonivard watched them as they retired. 'They are going off with their tails between their legs.768 Certainly, I desire a reformation; but I do not like that those who are more qualified to deform than to reform should presume to be its instruments.'

=DETERMINATION TO EAT MEAT IN LENT.=

When they got home, these huguenots deliberated whether they would allow themselves to be stopped by Bonivard's irony; they resolved to follow out his precept—to reform themselves first; but, not knowing that reformation consists primarily in reestablishing faith and morality in the heart, they undertook simply to prune away certain superstitions. As the episcopal letter permitted them to take milk in Lent, De la Maison-Neuve and his friends said: 'We are permitted to take milk, why not meat?' Then repeating the lesson which the Bernese had taught them—Do not the Scriptures say, Eat of all that is sold in the shambles?—they resolved to eat meat every day. The council saw this with uneasiness, and forbade the new practice under pain of three days' imprisonment on bread and water and a fine of five sols.769 But wishing to hold the balance even, they had hardly struck one side before they struck the other, and condemned the forty-four fugitive mamelukes to confiscation and death.

This last sentence aroused the anger of all the adjacent country; the Sire de Pontverre, in particular, thought the time had come for drawing the sword, and immediately messengers were scouring the country between the Alps and the Jura. They climbed painfully up the rocky roads that led to the mountain castles; they crossed the lake, everywhere summoning the gentlemen, the friends of the mamelukes. The knights did not need to be pressed; they put on their armour, mounted their coursers, left their homes, and proceeded towards the appointed rendezvous, the castle of Bursinel, near Rolle, on the fertile slope which, running out from the Jura, borders the lake opposite Mont Blanc. These rough gentlemen arrived from La Vaux, Gex, Chablais, Genevois, and Faucigny: one after another they alighted from their horses, crossed the courtyard, and entered the hall, which echoed with the clash of their arms; then, shaking hands, they sat down at a long table, where they began to feast. The audacity of the Genevans was the principal subject of conversation, 'and heaven knows how they of Geneva were picked to pieces,' says a contemporary.770

Of all these nobles, the most hostile to Geneva was the Sire de Pontverre. Of athletic frame, herculean strength, and violent character, bold and energetic, he was, from his marked superiority, recognised as their chief by the gentlemen assembled at the castle of Bursinel. If these men despised the burgesses, the latter returned the compliment. 'They are holding a meeting of bandits and brigands at Bursinel,' said some of the Genevans. We must not, however, take these somewhat harsh words too literally. The depredations of these gentlemen doubtless undermined the social organisation, and it was time to put an end to these practices of the middle ages. Many of them were, however, good sons and husbands, good fathers, and even good landlords; but they had no mercy for Geneva. As they sat at table they said that the princes had succeeded in France and elsewhere in destroying the franchises of the municipal towns, and that this free city, the last that survived, deserved a similar fate much more than the others, since it was beginning to add a new vice to its former vices ... it was listening to Luther. 'A contest must decide,' they added, 'whether the future times shall belong to the knights or to the burgesses, to the Church or to heresy.' If Geneva were overthrown, they thought they would be masters of the future. Pontverre has been compared to the celebrated Roman who feared the Carthaginians, and, like him, never forgot to repeat at every meeting of the nobles: Delenda Carthago.771

=THE ORDER OF THE SPOON.=

The dinner was drawing to an end; the servants of the lord of Bursinel had brought the best wines from the castle cellars; the libations were numerous, and the guests drank copiously. 'It chanced,' says Bonivard, 'that some rice (papet) was brought in, with as many spoons as there were persons at table.'772 Pontverre rose, took up a spoon with the same hand that wielded the sword so vigorously, plunged it into the dish of rice, and, lifting it to his mouth, ate and said: 'Thus will I swallow Geneva and the Genevese.' In an instant all the gentlemen, 'heated with wine and anger,' took up their spoons, and exclaimed as they ate, 'that they would make but one mouthful of all the huguenots.' Pontverre did not stop at this: he took a little chain, hung the spoon round his neck, and said: 'I am a knight of the Spoon, and this is my decoration.'—'We all belong to the same order,' said the others, similarly hanging the spoons on their breasts. They then grasped each other's hands, and swore to be faithful to the last. At length the party broke up; they mounted their horses, and returned to their mansions; and when their neighbours looked with surprise at what hung round their necks, and asked what the spoon meant, they answered: 'We intend to eat the Genevans with it; will you not join us?' And thus the fraternity was formed which had the conquest of Geneva for its object.

The Spoon was taken up everywhere, as in the time of the crusades men took up the Cross: the decoration was characteristic of these loud-spoken free-living cavaliers. Meetings took place every week in the various castles of the neighbourhood. New members joined the order, and hung the spoon round their necks, saying: 'Since the commonalty (the Genevans and Swiss) form alliances, surely the nobles may do so!' They drew up 'statutes and laws for their guidance, which were committed to writing, as in public matters.'773 Erelong the 'gentlemen of the Spoon,' as they called themselves, proceeded to perform their vow; they issued from their castles, plundered the estates of the Genevans, intercepted their provisions, and blockaded them closer and closer every day. When they came near the city, on the heights of Pregny, Lancy, and Cologny, they added derision to violence; they took their spoons and waved them in the air, as if they wished to use them in swallowing the city which lay smiling at their feet.

=ALARM AT GENEVA.=

The alarm increased every day in Geneva; the citizens called the Swiss to their aid, fortified their city, and kept strict watch. Whenever any friends met together, the story of the famous dinner at Bursinel was repeated. The Genevans went so far, says a chronicle, as to be unwilling to make use of the innocent spoon, such a horror they felt at it. Many of those who read the Scriptures began to pray to God to save Geneva; and on the 23rd of March, the council entered the following words in their register: 'May we be delivered from the evils we endure, may we conquer and have peace!... May the Almighty be pleased to grant it to us!'774

Pontverre was not a mere adventurer; he possessed a mind capable of discerning the political defects of his party. Two men in Geneva especially occupied his thoughts at this time: they were the bishop and the prior. In his opinion, they ought to gain the first and punish the other.

He began with Bonivard; no one was more detested by the feudal party than he was. That the head of a monastery should side with the huguenots seemed a terrible scandal. No one besides, at that time, advocated more boldly than the prior the principles opposed to absolute power; and this he showed erelong.

At Cartigny, on the left bank of the Rhone, about two leagues from Geneva, he possessed a fief which depended on the dukes of Savoy: 'It is a mere pleasure-house, and not a fortress,' he said; and yet he was in the habit of keeping a garrison there. The duke had seized it during his vassal's captivity, and to Bonivard's frequent demands for its restoration he replied 'that he dared not give it up for fear of being excommunicated by the pope.' Michaelmas having come, the time at which the rent was collected, the Savoy government forbade the tenants to pay it to the prior; the latter felt indignant, and the principles he then laid down deserve to be called to mind. 'The rights of a prince and his subjects are reciprocal,' he said. 'If the subject owes obedience to his prince, the prince owes justice to his subject. If the prince may constrain his subject, when the latter refuses obedience in a case wherein it is lawfully due, the subject has also the right to refuse obedience to his prince, when the latter denies him justice. Let the subject then be without fear, and rest assured that God is for him. Men, perhaps, will not be on his side; but if he has strength to resist men, I can answer for God.'775

Bonivard, who was determined to obtain justice, laid before the council of Geneva the patents which established his rights, and prayed their help in support of his claim. His petition at first met with some little opposition in the general council. 'The city has enough to do already with its own affairs,' said many, 'without undertaking the prior's;' but most of the huguenots were of a contrary opinion. 'If the duke has at St. Victor a lord after his fashion,' they said, 'it might be a serious inconvenience to us. Besides, the energetic prior has always been firm in the service of the city.' This consideration prevailed and the general council decided that they would maintain Bonivard's rights by force of arms if necessary.

The prior now made his preparations. 'Since I cannot have civil justice,' he said, 'I will have recourse to the law of nations, which authorises to repel force by force.' The petty sovereign of St. Victor, who counted ten monks for his subjects, who no longer possessed his uncle's culverins, and whose only warlike resources were a few arquebusiers, hired by a Bernese adventurer, besides four pounds of powder, determined to march against the puissant Duke of Savoy, prince of Piedmont, and even to brave that pope-king who once upon a time had only to frown to make all the world tremble. Perish St. Victor rather than principles!

=BONIVARD DEFENDS CARTIGNY.=

Bonivard sent for a herald and told him: 'The Duke of Savoy has usurped my sovereignty; you will therefore proceed to Cartigny and make proclamation through all my lordship, in these terms: "No one in this place shall execute either ducal or papal letters under pain of the gallows.'" We see that Bonivard made a large use of his supreme power. The herald, duly escorted, made the terrible proclamation round the castle; and then a captain, a commissioner, and a few soldiers, sent by Bonivard, took possession of the domain in his name, under the nose of the pope and the duke.776 He was very proud of this exploit. 'The pope and the duke have not dared send men to prevent my captain from taking possession,' he said good-humouredly; for Bonivard, though sparkling with wit, was also a good-tempered man.

The fear ascribed to the duke did not last long. The lands of Cartigny were near those of Pontverre, and the order of the Spoon was hardly organised when an expedition directed against the castle was the prelude to hostilities. A ducal provost, with some men-at-arms, appeared before the place on the 6th of March, 1528. Bonivard had vainly told his captain to defend himself: the place was taken. The indignant prior exclaimed: 'My people allowed themselves to be surprised.' He believed, as the Genevans also did, that the duke had bribed the commandant: 'The captain of Cartigny, after eating the fig, has thrown away the basket,' said the huguenots in their meetings.

The prior of St. Victor, being determined to recover his property from his highness's troops, came to an understanding with an ex-councillor of Berne, named Boschelbach, a man of no very respectable character, who had probably procured him the few soldiers of his former expedition, and who now, making greater exertions, raised for him a corps of twenty men. Bonivard put himself at the head of his forces, made them march regularly, ordered them to keep their matches lighted, and halted in front of the castle. The prior, who was a clever speaker, trusted more to his tongue than to his arms: he desired, therefore, first to explain his rights, and consequently the ex-councillor, attended by his servant Thiebault, went forward and demanded a parley on behalf of the prior. By way of answer the garrison fired, and Thiebault was shot dead.

That night all Geneva was agitated. The excited and exasperated citizens ran armed up and down the streets, and talked of nothing but marching out to Cartigny to avenge Thiebault's death. 'Be calm,' said Boschelbach; 'I will make such a report to my lords of Berne that Monsieur of Savoy, who is the cause of all the mischief, shall suffer for it.'777 The syndics had not promised to attack Savoy, which would have been a serious affair, but only to defend Bonivard. In order, therefore, to keep their word, they stationed detachments of soldiers in the other estates belonging to St. Victor, with orders to protect them from every attack. Cartigny was quite lost to the prior; but he was prepared to endure even greater sacrifices. He had his faults, no doubt; and, in particular, he was too easy in forming intimacies with men far from estimable, such as Boschelbach; but he had noble aspirations. He knew that by continuing to follow the same line of conduct he would lose his priory, be thrown into prison, and perhaps put to death: 'But what does it matter,' he thought, 'if by such a sacrifice right is maintained and liberty triumphs?'778

=BISHOP AND DUKE RECONCILED.=

The lord of Pontverre was occupied with a scheme far more important than Bonivard's destruction. He wished, as we have said, to win back the bishop. Possessing much political wisdom, seeing farther and more clearly than the duke or the prelate, he perceived that if the war against the new ideas was to succeed, it would be necessary for all the old powers to coalesce against them. Nothing, in his opinion, was more deplorable than the difference between Charles III. and Pierre de la Baume: he therefore undertook to reconcile them. He showed them that they had both the same enemies, and that nothing but their union would put it in their power to crush the huguenots. He frightened the bishop by hinting to him that the Reformation would not only destroy Catholicism, but strip him of his dignities and his revenues. He further told him that heresy had crept unobserved into his own household and infected even his chamberlain, William de la Mouille, who at that time enjoyed his entire confidence.779 La Baume, wishing to profit immediately by Pontverre's information, hastened to write to La Mouille: 'I will permit no opportunity for breeding in my diocese any wicked and accursed sect—such as I am told already prevails there. You have been too slow in informing me of it.... Tell them boldly that I will not put up with them.'780

The prelate's great difficulty was to become reconciled with the duke. Having the fullest confidence in his talent for intrigue, he thought that he could return into friendly relations with his highness without breaking altogether with Hugues and the Genevans. 'He is a fine jockey,' said Bonivard; 'he wants to ride one and lead the other by the bridle!' The bishop began his manœuvres. 'I quitted Geneva,' he informed the duke, 'in order that I might not be forced to do anything displeasing to you.' It will be remembered, on the contrary, that he had run away to escape from Charles III., who wanted to 'snap him up;' but that prince, satisfied with seeing La Baume place himself again under his guidance, pretended to believe him, and cancelled the sequestration of his revenues. Being thus reconciled, the bishop and the duke set to work to stifle the Reformation. 'Good,' said Bonivard; 'Pilate and Herod were made friends together, for before they were at enmity between themselves.'

=BISHOP HATEFUL TO THE CITY.=

The bishop soon perceived that he could not be both with the duke and Geneva; and, every day drawing nearer to Savoy, he turned against his own subjects and his own flock. And hence one of the most enlightened statesmen Geneva ever possessed said in the seventeenth century, to a peer of Great Britain who had put some questions to him on the history of the republic: 'From that time the bishop became very hateful to the city, which could not but regard him as a declared enemy.'781 It was the bishop who tore the contract that had subsisted between Geneva and himself.

766 Bonivard, Police, &c. pp. 398-400; Chroniq. ii. p. 473. Gautier MS.

767 Ibid.

768 'La queue entre les jambes.'—Bonivard, Advis des difformes Réformateurs, pp. 149-151.

769 Registres du Conseil des 11 et 26 février 1528. Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 479.

770 'Dieu sait comme ceux de Genève étaient déchiquetés.'

771 'Ne taschait, fors à la ruine de Genève.'—Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 482.

772 Ibid.

773 Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 483.

774 Registres du Conseil des 14, 23, 24 mars. Journal de Balard, p. 156. Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. pp. 482, 486, etc.

775 Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 477.

776 'A la barbe du pape et du duc.'

777 'En portera la pâte au four.'

778 Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. pp. 475, 480, 502. Gautier MS.

779 See nineteen letters from the bishop to William de la Mouille, his chamberlain, printed in Galiffe, Matériaux pour l'Histoire de Genève, ii. pp. 461-485.

780 Galiffe, ii. p. 477.

781 Memoir to Lord Townshend on the History of Geneva, by Mr. Secretary Chouet. Berne MSS. vi. 57.