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=SUPERSTITIONS IN GENEVA.=

WHILE the men of the old times were taking fright and retreating, the men of the new times were taking courage and advancing. They sat down at the firesides of the burgesses of Geneva, and, leading the way to religious conversation, gradually scattered new ideas in the city and new seed in men's hearts. Of these Lutherans, as they were called, some were Genevans, others Bernese; and the witty Bonivard occasionally joined in this familiar talk. Some of them, truly pious men, told their listeners that they ought to look for salvation to the cross alone, and that, just as the sun transforms the earth and causes it to produce fruit, so the light of the Gospel would transform their hearts and lead them to perform new works. Others, who were sarcastic and simply negative men, confined themselves to pointing out the abuses of Rome and of its clergy. They said openly what hitherto they had dared to utter only in secret. If they saw a cordelier passing, with ruddy face, long beard, brown frock, and disgusting aspect, they pointed at him and said: 'These monks creep not only into the consciences of the citizens, but into their houses, and defile the city by their scandals and adultery.801 Our grated windows and bolted doors can hardly keep out their unbridled vices, and protect the chastity of our wives and daughters.802 God has given them up to the lusts of their hearts.'

Such conversations as these were continually taking place among the Genevans and the Bernese during the interval between the reformation of Berne and that of Geneva. When a Genevan invited a Switzer to his house, the former would volunteer, after dinner, to show his guest the curiosities of the city. 'We will first go and have a look at the church of St. Pierre,' said he. 'See what a fine cathedral it is; admire these pillars, these arches, that vaulted roof; but there are other things besides. Here is a shrine containing an invaluable treasure—the arm of St. Anthony.... On holidays it is brought out for the adoration of the people, who kiss the relic with holy reverence. But,' added the Genevan, in a whisper to his companion, 'this arm some people affirm to be only one of the members of a stag. Come with me to the high altar; you see the box in which the brains of St. Peter are preserved!... To doubt this is a frightful heresy, and not to adore them abominable impiety; but ... between you and me ... these brains of the apostle are only pumice-stone.'803

=MONKISH TRICKS.=

Sometimes Swiss and Genevans crossed the river and climbed the street leading to the ancient church of St. Gervais. 'What are those old women about, putting their ears to that hole?' asked one of them. A number of priests and women had collected there. 'The bodies of St. Gervais, St. Nazaire, St. Celsus, and St. Pantaleon are buried under this altar,' said the priests to the women. 'These holy bodies desire to quit their vault; come and listen at this hole, and you will hear them.' The simple women approached, and heard a noise like that of men talking together. 'We can hear them,' they said.—'Alas!' continued the priests, 'in order to raise the body of a saint, we require bishops, ceremonies, silver utensils, and we have nothing!' As they wished to deliver these holy personages, these good women immediately cast their offerings into the church box ... and the priests gathered them up. 'Do you know,' said a huguenot, 'incredulous people affirm that the noise which proceeds, as the priests say, from the conversation of St. Pantaleon and his friends, is caused by certain pipes, cleverly arranged, which, immediately the hole is opened and the air flows in, give out the sounds that are heard?'804

'Have you ever seen souls out of purgatory? Nothing is easier at Geneva,' said a huguenot after supper. 'It is quite dark; let us go to the cemetery, and I will show them to you.... Here we are.... Do you see those little flames creeping slowly here and there among the scattered bones?... They are souls (the priests tell us) which, having left their place of anguish, crawl slowly about the cemetery at night, and entreat their relatives to pay the priests for masses and prayers to free them from purgatorial fires.... Wait a little ... there is one coming near us ... I will deliver it.' He stooped, and, picking it up, showed it to his companions: 'Ha! ha! upon my word, these souls are curiously made ... they are crabs, and the priests have fastened little wax tapers to their backs.'805

'That is one of the tricks of our clergy,' said a learned huguenot. (Bonivard often took part in these conversations.) 'They are buffoons in their repasts, fools in all difficult discussions, snails in work, harpies in exaction, leopards in friendship, bulls in pride, minotaurs in devouring, and foxes in cunning.'806

The Genevans went further still. One day—it was Tuesday, the 4th of January, 1530—when several huguenots had met together, and the relics and impositions of the priests had formed the subject of conversation, some of them, living in St. Gervais, indignant at the frauds of the clergy, who metamorphosed the bodies of saints into mines of gold, determined to protest against these abuses. They went out of the house in a body, marched up and down the different streets, and, stopping at certain places, assembled the people in the usual manner, when, surrounded by a large crowd, they held (says the council register) 'an auction of an unusual sort, by way of derision.' Perhaps they offered the bodies to the highest bidder; but, in any case, they themselves were sent to prison.

This scene had greatly amused the inhabitants of the suburb. Old superstitions were giving way in Geneva and falling to the ground amid the applause of the people. The huguenots claimed the right of free inquiry, and desired that the human understanding should have some authority in the world. These experiments of liberty, which alarmed the Church, delighted the citizens. The inhabitants of St. Gervais, animated with generous sentiments, went in great numbers to the hôtel-de-ville. 'We desire that the prisoners be set at liberty,' said they to the syndics, 'and we offer to be bail for them.' The magistrates still clung to the old order of things.—'I ought to reprimand you severely for your disorders,' said the premier syndic. 'We will have no tumult or sedition here. Let the relatives of the prisoners come before the council to-morrow, and we will hear them.' On the 9th of January, the Two-Hundred resolved to pardon the prisoners, and to tell them that this folly, if they ever committed another like it, should count double against them.807

=A NEGATIVE REFORM.=

The beginning of the Reformation at Geneva had a negative character. Men everywhere in the sixteenth century felt the need of thinking and judging.... The Genevans, more than others, wished to reform the abuses which successive usurpations had introduced into the State: how could they fail to demand a reform of the abuses introduced into the Church? Not only isolated grievances and local annoyances, but popery itself, would be struck down by a reform. This course, natural as it seemed, was not the best, however. The external, that is to say, government, rites, and ceremonies, are not essentials in christianity; but the internal, namely, faith in the teaching of the Word of God, change of heart, and a new life—these are essential. When we wish to reform a vicious man, it is not enough to take off his filthy clothes and wash the dirt from his face: his will must be transformed. At Wittemberg the Reformation began in the person of Luther with the internal; at Geneva it began in the huguenots with the external. This would have been a great disadvantage, if religion at Geneva had not become, under the influence of Calvin, as internal as in Germany. The Genevese reform would have perished if it had preserved the character it assumed at first. But the tendency we have pointed out was a useful preparation for that change which realises the grand announcement of Christ: 'The kingdom of God is within you.'

The bishop, who was still in Burgundy, desired neither internal nor external reform. He was alarmed at what was taking place at Geneva, and, finding himself unable alone to check the torrent which threatened to sweep away both mitre and principality, he complained to the duke, the emperor, and even the syndics. On the 8th of August, a messenger from the prelate appeared before the council, and ordered them, in his name, 'to desist from what they had begun, and to send ambassadors to Charles V., who would put everything to rights.' In October, the bishop, annoyed that they paid no attention to his complaints, made fresh demands, in a severe and threatening tone. He gave them to understand that he would destroy Geneva rather than permit any abuses to be reformed. His letters were read in the council, and their contents communicated to the people. Threatened with the anger of the duke, the pope, and the emperor, and reduced to the greatest weakness, what would they do? 'Geneva,' they said, 'is in danger of being destroyed.... But God watches over us.... Better have war and liberty than peace and servitude. We do not put our trust in princes, and to God alone be the honour and glory.'808 With such confidence nations never perish.

=THE GENEVANS TRUST IN GOD.=

Geneva required it much. Her enemies said that violent revolutions were at the gate; that they had begun in Saxony, where at least they had not touched the political authority; while, on the contrary, in this city of the Alps, civil revolution was advancing side by side with religious revolution. The Swiss were beginning to be tired of a city so weak and yet so obstinate, which had not strength to defend itself and too much pride to submit. Excited and influenced by the Duke of Savoy, they determined to propose a revocation of the alliance. This news spread consternation through the city. 'Alas!' said the huguenots, 'if the sheep give up the dogs, the wolves will soon scatter them;' and, without waiting to receive notice of this fatal determination, the patriots stretched out their hands towards that Switzerland from which the duke wished to separate them, and exclaimed: 'We will die sooner!'... But, at the same time, the few mamelukes who still remained in the city, thinking that the end was at hand, made haste to join the ducal army.

The end seemed to be really approaching. On the 1st of May, an imposing embassy from the five cantons of Zurich, Basle, Soleure, Berne, and Friburg, arrived at Geneva, and was soon followed by delegates from Savoy. The Genevans saw with astonishment the Swiss and the Savoyards walking together in the streets, lavishing marks of courtesy on each other, and looking at the huguenots with a haughty air. What! the descendants of William Tell shaking hands with their oppressors! The thoughts of the citizens became confused: they asked each other if there could be any fellowship between liberty and despotism.... They were forced to drain the cup to the dregs. On the 22nd of May the embassy appeared before the council. Their spokesman was Sebastian de Diesbach, a haughty Bernese, eminent magistrate, distinguished diplomatist, and celebrated soldier. He refused to call the Genevans his co-burghers, bluntly demanded the revocation of the alliance, and proposed a peace which would have sacrificed the independence of the citizens to the duke. At the same time he gave them to know that the Swiss were not singular in their opinion, and that the great powers of Europe were making a general arrangement. In truth, Francis I., changing his policy, supported the demands of his uncle the duke, and declared that, in case of refusal, he would unite the armies of France with those of Savoy. Charles V. was quite ready to repay himself for his inability to destroy the protestants of Germany, by indulging in the pleasure of crushing this haughty little city. Even the King of Hungary sent an ambassador to Geneva in the Savoy interest. Would this little corner of the world presume to remain free when Europe was resolved to crush it under its iron heel?809

While the powerful princes around Geneva were oscillating between two opinions—so that at times it was hard to say whether Charles was for the pope or against him, and whether Francis was for the protestants or against them—the Genevans, those men of iron, had but one idea, liberty ... liberty both in State and Church. The huguenots showed themselves determined, and kept a bold front in the presence of the ambassadors. 'Take care, gentlemen,' said De Lussey, De Mezere, and others; 'we shall first exercise strict justice against the city, and, if that is not sufficient, strict war; while, if you restore to the duke his old privileges, he will forgive everything, and guarantee your liberties.'—'Yes,' added the Swiss, 'under a penalty of ten thousand crowns if he does the contrary.' ... But, 'marvellous sight,' says a contemporary, 'the more the ambassadors threatened and frightened, the more the Genevans stood firm and constant, and exclaimed: "We will die sooner!"'

=SWISS PROPOSE TO BREAK THE ALLIANCE.=

On the 23rd of May the Sire de Diesbach proposed the revocation of the alliance to the Council of Two Hundred; and on the following day, the council-general having been summoned, the premier syndic, without losing time in endless explanations, plainly answered the deputies of the cantons: 'Most honoured lords, as the alliance with the League was not concluded hastily (à la chaude), we hope in God and in the oath you made to us that it will never be broken. As for us, we are determined to keep ours.' The magistrate then turned towards the people and said: 'I propose that whosoever speaks of annulling the alliance with the Swiss shall have his head cut off without mercy, and that whosoever gets information of any intrigue going on against the alliance, and does not reveal it, shall receive the strappado thrice.' The general council carried this resolution unanimously.

Diesbach and his colleagues were confounded, and looked at one another with astonishment. 'Did not Monsieur of Savoy assure us,' they said, 'that, except some twenty-five or thirty citizens, all the people were favourable to him?'—'And I too know,' said a stranger, whose name has not been handed down to us, 'that if the alliance had been broken, the duke would have entered Geneva and put thirty-two citizens to death.'810 'Come with us,' said the most respected men in Geneva; and, laying their charters before the ambassadors, they proved by these documents that they were free to contract an alliance with the cantons. The delegates from Berne, Friburg, Zurich, Basle, and Soleure ordered their horses to be got ready. Some huguenots assembled in the street, and shouted out, just as the Bernese lords were getting into their saddles: 'We would sooner destroy the city, sooner sacrifice our wives, our children, and ourselves, than consent to revoke the alliance.' When Diesbach made a report of his mission at Berne, he found means to gloss over his defeat a little: 'There were a thousand people at the general council,' he said with some exaggeration; 'only one person [he meant the president] protested against the rupture of the alliance; upon which all the rest joined in with him!'... Did he not know that it was quite regular for a proposition to be made by one person, and to be carried by a whole nation?811

=FIRMNESS OF THE GENEVANS.=

A new spirit, unknown to their ancestors, now began to animate many of the Genevans. Ab Hofen's mission had not been without effect. Besides a goodly number of persons, who were called indeed 'by the name of Luther,' but whose sole idea of reform was not to fast in Lent and not to cross themselves during divine worship, there were others who desired to receive the Word of God and to follow it. The Romish clergy understood this well. 'If these Genevans cling so much to the Swiss,' said the priests at their meetings, 'it is in order that they may profess heresy freely. If they succeed, we shall perhaps see Savoy, Aosta, and other countries of Italy reforming themselves likewise.'

The duke, being determined to extinguish these threatening flames, resolved to claim the influence of the pope, with his treasures and even his soldiers; for the vicar of Him who forbade the sword to be drawn possesses an army. Besides, Clement VII. was one of the cleverest politicians of the age, and his advice might be useful. As Pietro Gazzini, Bishop of Aosta, was then at Rome, the court of Turin commissioned that zealous ultramontanist to inform the pope of what was going on at Geneva. Gazzini begged an audience of Clement, and having been introduced by the master of the ceremonies on the 11th of July, 1529, he approached the pope, who was seated on the throne, and, kneeling down, kissed his feet. When he arose, he described all the acts committed by the Lutherans at Geneva and in the valleys of Savoy. 'O holy father,' said he, 'the dangers of the Church are imminent, and we are filled with the liveliest fears. It is from Upper Burgundy and the country of Neufchatel that this accursed sect has come to Geneva. And now, alas! what mischief it has done there!... Already the bishop dares not remain in his diocese; already Lent is abolished, and the heretics eat meat every day; and, worse still, they read forbidden books (the New Testament), and the Genevans set such store by them that they refuse to give them up, even for money. These miserable heretics are doing extreme mischief, and not at Geneva only; Aosta and Savoy would have been perverted long since, had not his highness beheaded twelve gentlemen who were propagating these dangerous doctrines. But this wholesome severity is not enough to stop the evil. Although his highness has forbidden, under pain of death, any one to speak of this sect and its abominable dogmas, there is no lack of wicked babblers who go about circulating these accursed doctrines all over his territories. They say that his highness is not their king; and, making a pretence of the great expenses of the war, they vehemently call upon us to sell the little ecclesiastical property we possess.... The duke, my lord and master, is everywhere destroying this sect. He is the barrier that closes Italy against it, and in this way he renders your holiness the most signal service; but we need your help.' Gazzini closed his address with a demand for a subsidy.

=BISHOP OF AOSTA AND THE POPE.=

Clement had listened with great attention; he understood the mischief and the danger which the Bishop of Aosta had pointed out, and the dignitaries and other priests around him seemed still more affected. Thoroughly versed in philosophical and theological questions, endowed with a perspicacity that penetrated to the very heart of the most difficult matters, the pope saw how great the danger would be if heresy should find in the south, at Geneva, a centre that might become far more pernicious than even Wittemberg; he felt also the necessity of having a prince, a zealous catholic, to guard the French and Italian slopes of the Alps. This pontiff, perhaps the most unlucky of all the popes, saw the Reformation spreading under his eyes over Europe without having the power to stop it, and whatever he did to oppose it served but to propagate it more widely still. Now, however, he met with a sympathising heart. He wished to prevent Geneva from being reformed, and to save a fortress from being delivered up to the enemy; while a powerful prince offered to carry out the necessary measures. Clement therefore received Gazzini's overtures very graciously; and yet he was ill at ease. In the Piedmontese ambassador's speech there was a word, one word only, that embarrassed him—the subsidy: in fact, he had not recovered from the sack of Rome. Clement VII. replied: 'I look upon his highness as my dearest son, and I thank him for his zeal; but as for money, it is impossible for me to give him any, considering the emptiness of the treasury.' Then, appealing to the wants of the Church and the duty of princes, who ought to be ready to sacrifice for it their wealth, their subjects, and their lives, the pope added: 'I pray the duke to keep his eye particularly upon Geneva. That city is becoming far too Lutheran, and it must be put down at any risk.'812 Gazzini, having been attended to the gates of the palace by the pontifical officers, regretted his failure in the matter of the subsidy. His chief object, however, had been attained: the papacy was warned; it would watch Geneva as a general watches the enemy.

=INTERFERENCE OF THE EMPEROR.=

As the pope was won, it next became necessary to influence the emperor. That was an easier task for the duke, as Charles V. was his brother-in-law, and the empress and the Duchess of Savoy, who were sisters, and strongly attached to Rome, could write to each other on the subject. The protest drawn up at Spires by the evangelical princes, in April 1529, had irritated that monarch exceedingly; and he therefore prepared, in accordance with the oath he had sworn at Barcelona, to apply 'a suitable antidote against the pestilent malady under which christendom was suffering.' When Geneva was mentioned to him, his first thought was that it was a long way off; yet, as it was an imperial city, he determined to include it in the plan of his campaign, and resolved immediately to take a preliminary step to restore it to the papacy. On the 16th of July, 1529, the emperor dictated to his secretary the following letter, addressed to the syndics of Geneva:—

'Faithful Friends,

'We have been informed that several preachers hold private and public meetings in your city and in the frontier countries, that they propagate the errors of Luther, and that you tolerate these proceedings. These practices cause the Church most serious damage, and the pontifical majesty, as well as the imperial dignity, is grievously insulted by your conduct. Wherefore we order you to arrest the said preachers, and punish them according to the tenor of the severest edicts. By this means you will extirpate impiety from your country, and will do an act agreeable to God and conformable to our express will.

'Carolus, Imp.'813

This letter, which savoured so strongly of the absolute monarch, excited much astonishment in Geneva. The citizens did not deny that the emperor might claim a certain authority over them, since theirs was an imperial city. They have resisted the bishop-prince, they have resisted the duke: will they also resist this powerful sovereign? His demand was clear, and some of them said that to oppose so great a prince would be the height of madness, in a little city of merchants. But the Genevans did not hesitate, and, without any bravado, returned the emperor this simple message: 'Sire, we intend to live, as in past times, according to God and the law of Jesus Christ.'

Upon this, Charles promised to assist the duke with an armed force. The pope, too, changed his mind, in spite of his refusal to Gazzini, and found in the emptiness of his treasury a subsidy of four thousand Spanish livres. The two mightiest personages in christendom united against this little city their influence, their excommunications, their cunning, their wealth, and their soldiers; and everything was got ready for the meditated attack.

801 'Et in domos et toros grassabantur.'—Geneva Restituda, p. 21.

802 'Vix ac ne vix tot admissariorum prurentium ardores arceri poterant.'—Ibid.

803 'Pro cerebro Petri pumex repertus.'—Ibid. See also Calvin's Inventaire des Reliques.

804 'Reperti tubi, tanta arte inter se commissi, ut excitatum ab adstantibus sonum statim exciperent.'—Geneva Restituta, p. 26. Registres du Conseil du 8 décembre 1535. Froment, Actes et Gestes merveilleux de la Cité de Genève nouvellement convertie à l'Evangile, publiés par M. G. Revilliod, p. 49.

805 'Sed his spectris, propius vestigatis, animæ crustosæ et testaceæ deprehensæ ... ellychniis succensis dorsorum crustæ alligatis.'—Geneva Restituta, p. 27. Froment, Actes et Gestes de Genève, p. 150.

806 'In exactionibus harpias, ad superbiendum tauros, ad consumendum minotauros.'—Geneva Restituta, p. 28.

807 'Leur serait comptée pour deux.'—Registres du Conseil des 4 et 9 janvier 1530.

808 'Melius est bellum cum libertate quam pacifica servitus. Nolite confidere in principibus; soli Deo honor et gloria!'—Journal de Balard, pp. 226, 264, 267. Registres du Conseil des 17 avril, 8 août, 17 octobre, 14 novembre, &c.

809 Registres du Conseil de Genève du 23 mai 1529. Journal de Balard, p. 229.

810 Registres du Conseil des 23 et 24 mai 1529. Journal de Balard, pp. 331-336. Gautier MS.

811 Registres du Conseil des 23 et 24 mai 1529. Journal de Balard, pp. 331-336. Gautier MS. Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 535. Galiffe fils, Besançon Hugues, p. 364.

812 Archives de Turin, Correspondance romaine; Dépêches du 12 juillet 1529 et du 23 décembre 1530. Gaberel, Pièces Justificatives, p. 31.

813 Archives de Turin, première catégorie, p. 11, nᵒ 63. Gaberel, i. p. 101.