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

=PRIESTS SENTENCED.=

The council sent for the vicar-general: 'We have a great complaint to make,' they told him. 'No remedy has been applied to the depravity and scandalous conduct of the ecclesiastics, who are the cause of all kinds of irregularity. Exert your authority without waiting until the secular power is compelled to interfere.' It would appear that, as the vicar held out no great hopes of amendment, the council were of opinion that, after condemning the laymen who walked about in the churches, they ought also to condemn the priests who were caught in disorderly houses. One councillor imagined it would be but fair to yoke, so to say, these two different kinds of delinquents to the same car. A second resolution was therefore adopted by the council, which, never losing sight of the necessity of protecting the city against Savoy, ordered 'that the priests should forthwith forsake their evil ways under penalty of building three toises of the wall of St. Gervais, in company with the others.' 818Thus the forerunners of protestantism and the profligate priests were ordered to labour together at the same task in the fosses of St. Gervais. The latter were indignant at being placed in the same rank with the former, and thought their dignity compromised by the singular decree which forced them to supply the heretics with mortar. It would appear, however, that the two orders were not very strictly observed, that wicked ecclesiastics continued to gratify their appetites, and that the wall advanced but slowly. 'The canons, priests, and friars are incorrigible,' said the people; 'they are jovial fellows, fond of drinking, and rear their bastard children openly. How can the Church be scandalised at such a course of life, when even the popes set the example?' 819

Although this decree of the council showed great impartiality and a certain amount of good sense, we cannot put in the same rank the two classes whom it affected. The huguenots, seeing that the Holy Scriptures call that a doctrine of devils which commands men ' to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving ,' 820did what the Word of God directs, while the evil priests indulged in the most scandalous disorders. Negative protestantism, however, is not true piety; and hence it was that the evangelical christians of Zurich and Berne, taking advantage of the frequent journeys the Genevans made to these two cities on public or private business, were constantly urging them to receive the true essence of the Gospel. In the visits they made to each other, in their friendly walks on the shore of the lake of Zurich or on the hills which overlook the Aar, these pious reformers of German Switzerland said to the huguenots: ' The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 821Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, but born as a man, has become our Redeemer by his death and by his resurrection. He alone satisfies completely the religious wants of mankind. Unite yourselves to Him by faith, and you will experience in yourselves that the pure religion of the Gospel is not only the first among all religions professed by men, but, as coming from God, is perfect.'

=PLAN FOR PREACHING AT ST. VICTOR.=

The four Vandels, without entirely breaking with Rome, had been for more than three years among the most decided of the so-called Lutheran party. Hugues Vandel was sent into Switzerland as ambassador (this is the name usually given to the envoys in the official documents of the period). At Zurich, 'the Zwinglians gave him a hearty welcome;' the friends of Haller did the same at Berne, where he happened to be in June 1530. All of the evangelicals in these two cities were earnest in their wishes to see a vital christianity displace the few negative reforms in Geneva. 'The majority in the city of Geneva would like to be evangelical,' answered Vandel; 'but they want to be shown the way, and no one would dare preach the Gospel in the churches for fear of Friburg.' What is to be done? thought he. Day and night he tried to find the means of having the Gospel preached to his fellow-citizens; at last a bright idea suddenly occurred to him; he spoke about it to the Zwinglians at Zurich, and to Berthold Haller at Berne; he wrote about it to Farel, to Christopher Fabry, and also to his brother Robert at Geneva. His idea was this: It will be remembered that St. Victor was a little independent principality at the gates of the city. 'Suppose it were made over to my lords of Berne,' said Vandel; 'they would like to have a bailiff there and a preacher who would be our great comfort .' It is true that the church of St. Victor was old, and would probably 'tumble down' erelong, but Berne would be able to rebuild it. All the evangelicals of Geneva, forsaking the mass in the city churches, and crossing St. Antoine, would go in crowds to hear Christ preached in the church of Bonivard.... Thus that Renaissance of which the prior was the representative, would be truly for Geneva the gate of the Reformation. An event which had just taken place may have suggested this idea to Vandel. It was a scheme suggested by the pope, and carried out by the duke. 822

Bonivard, deprived of his benefice at the time of Berthelier's death, had recovered his priory but not his revenue. Endowed, as he was, with resolution and invention rather than perseverance, holding that the detention of his property by the duke was an injustice, desiring to be restored to full possession of his little principality, and not a little ashamed of having to tell his servant that he had nothing in his purse when the latter came and asked for money to purchase the necessaries of life—Bonivard had girded on his sword, taken a musquetoon, mounted his horse, and, thus equipped and accompanied by a few men-at-arms, had made several raids into the duke's territory to levy his rents. But he had to deal both with the duke and the pope. He had been replaced in his priory by the bishop and the council, but without the consent of the courts of Rome and Turin, which had illegally despoiled him of it. Consequently a pontifical proctor, attended by an escort, made his appearance to prevent the prior from recovering his property. Bonivard, who was naturally impetuous, looked upon this man as a robber come to plunder him; he therefore rushed forward, caught up his arms, and discharged his musquetoon at the Roman official. The latter, who was terrified, rode off as fast as he could; for Bonivard with his firelock had wounded the horse. 823Both pope and duke were loud in their complaints, and Clement even issued a brief against him. In consequence of this, the council of Geneva forbade Bonivard to indulge in these military freaks; and as he had no means of living, the magistrates granted him four crowns and a half a month, to pay his expenses and those of his servant, until he was in a better position. 'Alas!' said the prior, 'four crowns a month! ... it is so little, that I can hardly keep myself and my page.' However, he remained patient, but he was not left in peace.

The Roman proctor, taking up the matter again, claimed the priory, in the name of Clement, on behalf of the priest who had been invested with it after the death of the traitor Montheron. Bonivard, desiring to place his benefice beyond the reach of fresh attacks, annexed it to the hospital of Geneva, which was to receive the revenues for him as prior. But the duke had other views. More than four hundred persons, carrying arms, and assembling by night before the hôtel-de-ville, had demanded justice on certain monks of St. Victor, who were accused of plotting to betray the convent to the partisans of Savoy. Besançon Hugues and Thomas Vandel, the procurator-fiscal, were the bearers of this request, and Bonivard had the monks shut up in prison. When the duke was informed of the annexation of the priory to the hospital of Geneva, his anger was increased, for he had a great desire to possess St. Victor's, which would give him a footing close to the gates of the city. His agents therefore solicited the prior 'daily' to revoke this act, and promised him 'seas and mountains' if he would consent; but Bonivard shook his head, saying: 'I do not trust him!' Charles now determined to get rid of a man who was an obstacle in his path in all his enterprises against Geneva. 824