[79] Caffard need not be taken to mean hypocrite: it was commonly used to denote a mendicant friar.

[80] The letter is given in Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iii. 119 f.

[81] The MS. chronicle of Michel Roset is the source for the statement about the order to burn translations of the Scripture.

[82] Furbiti was released in April 1536 at the request of Francis I. of France. He was exchanged for Antoine Saunier, a Swiss Evangelical in prison in France. Such exchanges were not uncommon between the Protestant cantons and France.—Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iii. 396 f.

A full account of the conferences between Farel and Furbiti is given in Lettres certaines d’aucuns grandz troubles et tumultes nuz à Genève, avec la disputation faicte l’an 1534, etc. (Basel, 1588). The booklet is very rare.

[83] Adjoining the house of Baudichon, with one building between them, was a large mansion occupied by the Seigneur de Thorens, a strong partisan of the Reformation. He was a Savoyard, expelled from his country because of his religious principles. He acquired citizenship in Bern. The Bernese, on the eve of their embassy, which reached Geneva on Jan. 4th, had bought this house, and placed M. de Thorens therein, intending it to be a place where the Evangelicals could meet in safety under the protection of Bern. It is probable that in time of special danger the Evangelicals met there for public worship. When the Council of Freiburg objected to Farel’s preaching, the Council of Geneva replied that the services were held in the house of the deputies of Bern. Cf. Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. ix. 459, f., 489 f.; Jeanne de Jussie, Le Levain du Calvinisme, pp. 91, 106, 107 (where the poor nun describes the various ceremonies of the Reformed cult with all the venom and coarseness of sixteenth century Romanism); Baum, Procès de Baudichon de la Maisonneuve accusé d’héresie a Lyon, 1534 (Geneva, 1873), pp. 110, 111; Doumergue, Jean Calvin, ii. 126 f., iii. 196-98.

[84] The poison was placed in some spinach soup, and the popular story was that Farel escaped because he did not like the food; that Froment had seated himself at table to take his share, when news was brought to him that his wife and children had arrived at Geneva—he rose from the table at once to go to meet them, and left the soup untasted. Poor Viret was the only one who took his share, and became very ill immediately afterwards. The prisoner’s confession, lately exhumed from the Geneva archives, tells another tale. The woman said that she stuffed a small bone with the poison, and placed it in Viret’s bowl; but was afraid to do the same to Farel’s because his soup was too clear. Cf. extracts quoted in Doumergue’s Jean Calvin, etc. ii. 133, 134 n.

[85] The Theses are given in Ruchat, Histoire de la Réformation de la Suisse, iii. 357.

[86] Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iii. 294, 295 n.

[87] Le Levain du Calvinisme, p. 118.

[88] Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iii. 294 n.

[89] Froment, Actes et Gestes, etc. pp. 144-146: “Nous avons les dieux des Prebstres, en voullés vous? et les iectoynt apres cielx” (p. 145).

[90] The minute is given in Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iii. 424; and the letter of the two Councils written for the information of the Councils of Bern at p. 332.

[91] Froment, Actes et Gestes, etc. pp. 142-144.

[92] The fullest contemporary account of these matters is to be found in Un opuscule inédit de Farel; Le Resumé des actes de la Dispute de Rive de 1535, published in the 22nd vol. of the Mémoires et Documents publiées par la Société d’Histoire et Archæologie de Genève. It has been reprinted separately.

[93] The words used by the spokesman of the secular clergy, among whom were the canons of the cathedral, were: “sua non esse sustinere talia, cum nec sint sufficientes nec sciant.”

[94] The minute of Council is quoted in Doumergue, Jean Calvin, etc. ii. 147, 148.

[95] For these relations, cf. Durrant, Les Relations politiques de Genève avec Berne et les Suisses, de 1536 à 1564 (1894).

[96] The devout Romanist, Sœur Jeanne de Jussie, testifies, with mediæval frankness, to the dissolute lives of the Romish clergy: “Il est bien vray que les Prelats et gens d’Église pour ce temps ne gardoient pas bien leurs vœus et estat, mais gaudissoient dissolument des biens de l’Église tenant femmes en lubricité et adultère, et quasi tout le peuple estoit infect de cest abominable et detestable péché: dont est à scavoir que les péchéz du monde abondoient en toutes sortes de gens, qui incitoient l’ire de Dieu à y mettre sa punition divine” (Le Levain du Calvinisme, p. 35; cf. minutes of the Council of Geneva at p. 241). Even the nuns of Geneva, with the exception of the nuns of St. Clara, to whom Jeanne de Jussie belonged, were notorious for their conduct; cf. Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. v. 349 n.

[97] Cf. Wildermuth’s letter to the Council of the Two Hundred in Bern, telling that Farel was in prison at Payerne: “Would that I had twenty Bernese with me, and with the help of God we would not have permitted what has happened” (Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. ii. 344).

[98] Doumergue, Jean Calvin, etc. i. 42.

[99] Doumergue, Jean Calvin, etc. i. 35.

[100] Cordier, Corderius, Cordery, was a well-known name in Scottish parish schools a century ago, where his exercises were used in almost every Latin class. He became a convert of the Reformed faith, and did his best to spread Evangelical doctrines by means of the sentences to be turned into Latin. He followed his great pupil to Geneva, and died there in his eighty-eighth year.

[101] Doumergue, Jean Calvin, etc. i. 126.

[102] Corpus Reformatorum, xlix. p. 121.

[103] I owe this inference to my brother, Professor Lindsay of St. Andrews; he adds that Plautus was greatly studied in the time of Calvin’s youth in France.

[104] Cf. his letter to Francis Daniel, where he speaks about the publication of the Commentary; says that he has issued it at his own expense; that some of the Paris lecturers, to help its sale, had made it a book on which they lectured, and hopes quod publico etiam bono forte cessurum sit (Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. ii. 417).

[105] In a letter to Francis Daniel, of date Oct. 27th, 1553, Calvin calls Gerard “our Friend”; and in another, written about the end of the same month, he describes with a minuteness of detail impossible for anyone who was not in the inner circle, the comedy acted by the students of the College of Navarre, which was a satire directed against Marguerite, the Queen of Navarre, and Gerard Roussel, and the affair of the connection of the University of Paris and the Queen’s poem, entitled le Miroir de l’âme pécheresse; cf. Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iii. 103-11.

[106] Lang, Die Bekehrung Johannes Calvins (1897); Doumergue, Jean Calvin, etc. i. 344, ff.; Müller, “Calvins Bekehrung” (Nachrichten der Gött. Gel. for 1905, pp. 206 ff.); Wernle, “Noch einmal die Bekehrung Calvins” (Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, xxvii. 84 ff. (1906)).

[107] For the history of this Discourse written by Calvin and pronounced by Cop, see E. Doumergue, Jean Calvin; Les hommes et les choses de son temps (Lausanne, 1899), i. 331 ff.; A. Lang, Die Bekehrung J. Calvins (Leipzig, 1897), p. 46. ff. For accounts of the attempts to arrest Nicolas Cop and Calvin, see the letter of Francis I. to the Parlement of Paris in Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iii. 114-118, and the editor’s notes, also p. 418.

[108] “Magister Gulielmus Farellus proponit sicuti sit necessaria illa lectura quam initiavit ille Gallus in Sancto Petro. Supplicat advideri de illo retinendo et sibi alimentando. Super quo fuit advisum quod advideatur de ipsum substinendo” (Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iv. 87 n.).

[109] For the Disputation at Lausanne, see Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iv. 86 f. (Letter from Calvin to F. Daniel, Oct. 13th, 1536); Corpus Reformatorum, xxxvii. p. 876 f.; Ruchat, Histoire de la Réformation de la Suisse, vol. iv.; Doumergue, Jean Calvin, ii. 214 f.

[110] The ten Theses are printed in the Corpus Reformatorum, xxxvii. 701.

[111] Their names were Jean Mimard, regent of the school in Vevey; Jacques Drogy, vicar of Morges; Jean Michod, dean of Vevey; Jean Berilly, vicar of Prévessin; and a Dominican monk, de Monbouson.

[112] Corpus Reformatorum, xxxvii. 879-81.

[113] Wherever Farel went he had instituted what was called the “congregation”: once a week in church, members of the audience were invited to ask questions, which the preacher answered. These “congregations” were an institution all over Romance Switzerland. The custom prevailed in Geneva when Calvin came there, and it was continued.

[114] Bonnet, Lettres françaises de Calvin, ii. 574.

[115] “Il seroyt bien à désirer que la communication de la Saincte Cène de Jésucrist fust tous les dimenches pour le moins en usage, quant l’Église est assemblée en multitude” (Corpus Reformatorum, xxxviii. i. 7); cf. the first edition of the Institutio (1536): “Singulis, ad minimum, hebdomadibus proponenda erat christianorum cœtui mensa Domini.”

[116] Calvin says: “C’est une chose bien expédiente à l’édification de l’esglise, de chanter aulcungs pseaumes en forme d’oraysons publicqs.” The translations of the Psalms by Clement Marot, which were afterwards used in the Church of Geneva, were not published till 1541, and the pseaumes may have been religious canticles such as were used in the Reformed Church of Neuchâtel from 1533; but it ought to be remembered that translations of the Psalms of David did exist in France before Marot’s; cf. Herminjard, Correspondance, iv. 163 n.

[117] “Et comment ne souhaiterions-nous pas voir notre siècle ramené à l’image de cette église primitive, puisqu’alors Christ recevait un plus pur hommage, et que l’éclat de son nom était plus au loin répandu?... Puisse cette extension de la foi, puisse cette pureté du culte, aujourd’hui que reparaît la lumière de l’Évangile, nous être aussi accordées par celui qui est béni au-dessus de toutes choses! Aujourd’hui, je le répète, que reparait la lumière de l’Évangile, qui se répand enfin de nouveau dans le monde, et y éclaire de ses divins rayons un grand nombre d’esprits; de telle sorte que, sans parler de bien d’autres avantages, depuis le temps de Constantine, où l’Église primitive peu à peu dégénérée perdit tout a fait son caracter, il n’y a eu dans aucune autre epoque plus de connaissance des langues.... “—Lefèvre d’Étaples, aux Lecteurs chrétiens de Meaux (Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. i. 93).

[118] The prevailing idea was that the Evangelical pastors were the servants of the community, and therefore of the Councils which represented it. J. J. Watteville, the celebrated Advoyer or President of Bern, and a strong and generous supporter of the Reformation, was accustomed to say: “Nothing prevents me dismissing a servant when he displeases me; why should not a town send its pastor away if it likes?” (Herminjard, Correspondance, vii. 354 n.).

[119] Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. ix. 116.

[120] Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. viii. 280, 281, ix. 117, vi. 183; Ruchat, Histoire de la Réformation de la Suisse, ii. 520, f.; Farel, Summaire, edition of 1867, pp. 78 ff.

[121] Matt. xviii. 15-17.

[122] The action of the people of the four parishes which made the district of Thyez illustrates a condition of mind not easily sympathised with by us, and it shows what the commonalty of the sixteenth century thought of the powers of the Councils which ruled their city republics. The district belonged to Geneva, and was under the rule of the Council of that city. The inhabitants had been permitted to retain the Romanist religion. They were, nevertheless, excommunicated by their Bishop for clinging to Geneva with loyalty. They were honest Roman Catholics; they could not bear the thought of living under excommunication, and longed for absolution; the Bishop would not grant it; so the people applied to the Council of Geneva to absolve them, which the Council did by a minute which runs as follows: “(April 4th, 1535) Sur ce qu’est proposé par nostre chastelain de Thyez, que ceux de Thyez font doubte soy présenter en l’esglise à ces Pasques prochaines (April 16th), à cause d’aucunes lettres d’excommuniement qui sont esté contre aucuns exécutées, par quoi volentier ils desirent avoir remède de absolution.... Est esté résolu que l’on escrive une patente aux vicaires du dict mandement (district), que nous les tenons pour absols.” This was enough. The people went cheerfully to their Easter services (Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iv. 26 n.).

[123] Cf. the letter of the Council of Bern to the Council of Lausanne: “(July 1541): Concernant minas contra ministrum Verbi, lasciviam vitæ civium, bacchanalia, ebrietates, commessationes, contemptum Evangelii, rythmos impudicos, etc., ceux de Lausanne sont vertement réprimandés. On leur remontre leur négligence à châtier les vices. Il leur est ordonné de punir, dans le terme d’un mois, les bacchantes et aussi celui qui a menacé le prédicant et l’a interpellé dans la rue. Il est également ordonné aux ambassadeurs qui seront envoyés pour les appels, de faire de sévères remonstrances devant le Conseil et les Bourgeois, et de les menacer en les exhortant à s’amender” (Herminjard, Correspondance, vii. 145).

[124] This first Catechism has been republished and edited under the title, Le Catéchisme français de Calvin, publié en 1537, réimprimé pour la première fois d’après un exemplaire nouvellement retrouvé et suivi de plus ancienne Confession de foi de l’Église de Genève, avec deux notices, l’une historique, l’autre bibliographique, par Albert Rilliet et Théophile Dufour, 1878. The curious bibliographical history of the book is given in Doumergue, Jean Calvin, ii. p. 230; and at greater length in the preface to the reprint.

[125] Müller, Die Bekenntnisschriften der reformierten Kirche, p. 111.

[126] The question is carefully discussed by Rilliet in his Le Catéchisme français de Calvin, and by Doumergue, Jean Calvin, etc. ii. 237-39.

[127] The letter from Bern (dated Nov. 28th) was read to the recalcitrants, who gave way and accepted the Confession on Jan. 4th, 1538 (Herminjard, Correspondance, iv. 340 n.).

[128] Actes et Gestes merveilleux, p. 215, f.

[129] Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iv. 403, 404, 407; Doumergue, Jean Calvin, etc. ii. 278.

[130] Herminjard, Correspondance, etc, iv. 413.

[131] On April 8th it was reported that Coraut had said in a sermon that Geneva was a realm of tipplers, and that the town was governed by drunkards (from all accounts a true statement of fact, but scarcely suitable for a sermon), and had been brought before the Council in consequence.

[132] Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iv. 413-16, 420-22.

[133] Calvin says that he wished the matter to be regularly brought before the people and discussed: “Concio etiam a nobis habeatur de ceremoniarum libertate, deinde ad conformitatem populum adhortemur, propositis ejus rationibus. Demum liberum ecclesiæ judicium permittatur.” Cf. the memorandum presented to the Synod of Zurich by Calvin and Farel, ibid. v. 3; Corpus Reformatorum, xxxviii. ii. 191.

[134] Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iv. 423, 425, 426, 427, v. 3, 24.

[135] It is worth mentioning that while the three letters from Bern were brought before the Council of the Two Hundred, the decisions of the Lausanne Synod were produced at the General Council. Did the Council wish to give their decision a semblance of ecclesiastical authority?

[136] Bonnet, Les Lettres françaises de Calvin, ii. 575, 576.

[137] “A ceste cause, vous instantement, très-acertes et en fraternelle affection prions, admonestons et requérons que ... la rigueur que tenés aux dits Farel et Calvin admodérer, pour l’amour de nous et pour éviter scandale, contemplans que ce qu’avons à vous et à eulx escript pour la conformité des cérimonies de l’Esglise, est procédé de bonne affection et par mode de requeste, et non pas pour vous, ne eulx, constraindre à ces choses, que sont indifferentes en l’Esglise, comme le pain de la Cène et aultres” (Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iv. 428).

[138] For the letter of Bern to Geneva, and the answer of Geneva, cf. Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. iv. 427-430.

[139] Ibid. iv. 165 n.

[140] The memoir presented to the Synod of Zurich has been printed by Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. v. 3-6, and in the Corpus Reformatorum, xxxviii. ii. 190-192. The conclusion prays Bern to drive from their territory ribald and obscene songs and catches, that the people of Geneva may not cite their example as an excuse.

[141] “Wir habent ouch durch Etlich unsere vorordneten uffs ernstlichest mit ihnen reden lassen sich etlicher ungeschigter scherpffe zemaassen und sich by disem unerbuwenem volgk Cristenlicher sennffmütigkeit zu beflyssen” (Corpus Reformatorum, xxxviii. ii. 193).

[142] The minute of the Council of Bern says: “The Genevans had refused to receive Calvin and Farel. If my lords need preachers, they will keep them in mind” (Herminjard, Correspondance, v. 20 n.).

[143] Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. v. 139; Corpus Reformatorum, xxxviii. ii. 181.

[144] Doumergue, Jean Calvin, etc. ii 681 ff.

[145] Registres du Conseil, xxxiv. f., 483, 485, 490 (quoted in Doumergue, Jean Calvin, ii. 700).

[146] Herminjard, Correspondance des Réformateurs dans les pays de langue française (Geneva, 1866-93), vi. 365.

[147] Corpus Reformatorum, xxxix. (xi.) 114.

[148] Ibid. p. 54.

[149] Ibid. p. 170.

[150] Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. vii. 77.

[151] Registres du Conseil, xxxv. f., 324 (quoted in Doumergue, Jean Calvin, etc. ii. 710).

[152] For the wonderful influence of Calvin on the French Reformation and its causes, cf. below, pp. 153 ff.

[153] Articles of 1537 in the Corpus Reformatorum, xxxviii. i. (x. i.) 5-14; Ordinances of 1541; ibid. pp. 15-30; Ordinances of 1561; ibid. pp. 91-124; Institution, IV. cc. i.-xii.

[154] Corpus Reformatorum, xxxviii. i. 121, 122.

[155] Cambridge Modern History, ii. 375.

[156] On the one side of the stone is inscribed:

Le xxvii Octobre MDLIII
Mourut sur le bucher à Champel
Michel Servet
de Villeneuve d’Aragon, né le xxix Septembre MDXI.

and on the other:

Fils respectueux et reconnaissants de Calvin notre grand réformateur, mais condamnant une erreur qui fut celle de son siècle et fermement attachés à la liberté de conscience selon les vrais principes de la Reformation et de l’Évangile, nous avons élevé ce monument expiatoire. Le xxvii Octobre MCMIII.

[157] Like Jacques Bernard, the Franciscan monk, who was one of the pastors in Geneva after the banishment of Calvin and Farel, who, “cum esset inter Evangelii exordia, hostiliter repugnavit, donee Christum aliquando in uxoris forma contemplatus est.”

[158] Corpus Reformatorum, xxxviii. i. (x. i.) 17-20, 45-48, 55-58, 93-99, 116-118.

[159] Corpus Reformatorum, xxxviii. i. (x. i.) 65-90.

[160] Mémoires d’un protestant condamné aux galères de France pour cause de religion, écrits par lui-même (1757, repub. 1865), pp. 404-407.

[161] Sources: Théodore de Bèze (Beza), Histoire Ecclésiastique des églises réformées au Royaume de France (ed. by G. Baum and E. Cunitz, Paris, 1883-89); J. Crespin, Histoire des martyrs persécutez et mis à mort pour la vérité (ed. by Benoist, Toulouse, 1885-87); Herminjard, Correspondance des Réformateurs dans les pays de langue française, 9 vols. (Geneva, 1878-91); Calvin’s Letters, Corpus Reformatorum, vols. XXXVIII. ii.-XLVIII. (Brunswick, 1872, etc.); Bonnet, Lettres de Jean Calvin, 2 vols. (Paris, 1854).

Later Books: E. Doumergue, Jean Calvin, 3 vols. (published Lausanne, 1899-1905); H. M. Baird, History of the Rise of the Huguenots (London, 1880), and Theodore Beza (New York, 1899); Lavisse, Histoire de France, V. i. pp. 339 ff.; ii. 183 ff.; VI. i. ii.; Hamilton, “Paris under the Valois Kings” (Eng. Hist. Review, 1886, pp. 260-70).

[162] Marguerite was born at Angoulême on April 11th, 1492; married the feeble Duke of Alençon in 1509; was a widow in 1525; married Henri d’Albret, King of Navarre, in 1527; died in 1549. Her only child was Jeanne d’Albret, the heroic mother of Henry of Navarre, who became Henri IV. of France. When she was the Duchess of Alençon, her court at Bourges was a centre for the Humanists and Reformers of France; when she became the Queen of Navarre, her castle at Nérac was a haven for all persecuted Protestants. The literature about Marguerite is very extensive: it is perhaps sufficient to mention—Génin, Lettres de Marguerite d’Angoulême, reine de Navarre (published by the Société de l’Histoire de France, 1841-42); Les idées religieuses de Marguerite de Navarre, d’auprès son œuvre poétique; A. Lefranc, Les dernieres poésies de Marguerite de Navarre (Paris, 1896); Becker, “Marguerite de Navarre, duchesse d’Alençon et Guillaume Briçonnet, évêque de Meaux, d’aprés leur correspondance manuscrite, 1521-24” (in the Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme française, xlix. Paris, 1890); Darmesteter, Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (London, 1886); Lavisse, Histoire de France, v. i.; Herminjard, Correspondance, etc., vol. i., which contains sixteen letters written by her, and twelve addressed to her.

[163] Louise de Savoie, Journal, 1476-1522 (in Michaud et Poujoulat, Collection, etc. v.).

[164] Lefranc, “Marguerite de Navarre et le platonisme de la Renaissance” (vols. lviii. lix. Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes, 1897-98).

[165] Herminjard, Correspondance, etc. i. 67.

[166] Heptameron, Preface.

[167] Ibid., Nouvelle xxxiii.

[168] Briçonnet belonged to an illustrious family. He was born in 1470, destined for the Church, was Archdeacon of Rheims, Bishop of Lodève in 1504, 1507 got the rich Abbey of St. Germain-des-Près at Paris, and became Bishop of Meaux in 1516. He at once began to reform his diocese; compelled his curés to reside in their parishes; divided the diocese into thirty-two districts, and sent to each of them a preacher for part of the year.

[169] Cf. K. H. Graf, “Jacobus Faber Stapulensis,” in the Zeitschrift für die historische theologie for 1852, 1-86; Doumergue, Jean Calvin, i. 79-112; Herminjard, Correspondance, i. 3 n.