J. H. Merle D'Aubigné - History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Vol. 1-8)

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 . 776He 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.' 777The 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. 779La 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.' 781It was the bishop who tore the contract that had subsisted between Geneva and himself.

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

767Ibid.

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

769Registres 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.

772Ibid.

773Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 483.

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

775Bonivard, Chroniq. ii. p. 477.

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

777'En portera la pâte au four.'

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