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

Confusion was in the bishop’s palace. As soon as opposition is made to the duke, said some, revolution breaks its bounds ... this election must be annulled. The bishop ordered that another general council should be held on the morrow, and, calculating on his personal influence, he appeared at it, attended by his councillors and officers; but the people were deaf, and confirmed Philippe’s election; only they appointed his brother-in-law (D. Franc) to take his place during his absence. Not satisfied with this, the people repealed all statutes contrary to the liberties of Geneva passed under fear of Charles of Savoy. The bishop, alarmed at these republican proceedings, exclaimed: ‘Is there nobody that wishes to maintain these ordinances?’ No one answered. Everything fell, and the ancient constitution was restored. After having changed the laws, they set about changing the persons. They would have no partisans of Savoy to preserve the liberties of Geneva. Huguenot councillors were elected in the place of mamelukes. The restoration of Genevese liberties had been so promptly accomplished that the ducal faction could not believe their eyes. ‘Our brewers were never more astounded,’ said the huguenots. (The brewers were the men who brewed or plotted treason.) There were men in the ducal party who changed their opinions as the wind changes; they were now seen accosting the patriots and shaking hands with them.... ‘See,’ said the huguenots, ‘how well they counterfeit the air of good fellowship!’ ... Then all true friends of their country exclaimed: ‘Let us praise God! Laus Deo! ’ 398

Thus did liberty triumph. The Genevese people had restored their franchises, dismissed the mamelukes, rejected the cruel protectorate of Charles III., sought the alliance of Switzerland; and after all that, they gave God the glory. 399

As the cause of Savoy was lost, the bishop, so long wavering, made a show of placing himself on the side of the free and the bold. He sent Pierre Bertholo to carry this important news to Jean Philippe and all those exiles of whom he was so afraid. The latter had not lost their time; they endeavoured to enlighten the Swiss, and Hugues continually argued and repeated that Geneva was not under subjection to the duke. At this time Bertholo arrived. ‘The ordinances of Savoy are repealed,’ he told the refugees; ‘patriots replace the serviles everywhere, and one of you has been elected syndic—Jean Philippe!’ They could hardly believe this news. What! one of these wretched fugitives, of these mendicants (as their enemies called them), raised by the people of Geneva to the head of the State!... What a refutation of the ducal calumnies! But the ‘foreigners’ did not forget themselves in the joy which this message caused them. Taking Bertholo with them, they proceeded to the Bernese council, and reported the unexpected intelligence brought by the messenger. ‘Up to the present time,’ said the avoyer, ‘I have invited Besançon Hugues alone, as your chief, to sit down at my side; now, Messire Jean Philippe, take your seat above Besançon, as syndic of Geneva.’ The alliance would no longer meet with obstacles. ‘We accept you as fellow-freemen,’ continued the avoyer, ‘without heed to those growlers and their threats, which do not last long now-a-days.’ 400

The people of Geneva were about to rise, if we may so speak, from the grave. They had acted with decision, with energy, with unwavering firmness. They desired to have for their magistrates none but men able to maintain their laws and independence, and had boldly erased from the code of the republic all ordinances contrary to the liberties of Geneva. Accordingly, ‘a person of mark,’ who lived at the beginning of the seventeenth century, exclaimed, after studying these facts: ‘This history is a marvellous one, and calls to my mind a tract in the Philetes of Plato, touching the moral good comprised in the three ideas: Reality , Proportion , and Truth . It is full of the special marks of the wise and merciful providence of God, who has guided, up to this present hour, this ship of his miracles through an infinity of shoals. The more thoroughly we contemplate human action, so much the deeper appear the counsels of God.’ 401What we are about to see appears to confirm these words.

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Then a step was taken without which the Reformation would never have been established in Geneva. In the morning of the 20th of February the representatives of Berne, Friburg, and Geneva resolved to conclude solemnly the alliance between the three cities, for which the people had sighed during so many years. They met, they gave their hands, affection and confidence were in every feature. ‘In the name of the most holy and most high Trinity,’ said the three free states, ‘in the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we reciprocally promise mutual friendship and intercourse in order that we may be able to preserve the good that God has given us in justice, repose, and true peace.... And if hereafter one or many should wish to molest the syndics, councils, or freemen of the city of Geneva in their persons, honour, goods, or estate, we, the avoyers, councils, and freemen of the cities of Berne and Friburg—by virtue of our oath made and sworn—are bound to give the said city favour, aid, and succour, and to march out our armies ... at their charge, however.’ 402The required formalities having been fulfilled: ‘Gentlemen,’ said Jean Philippe, ‘we will depart and carry this good news ourselves to our country.’ The councils of Berne and Friburg ordered that a number of deputies from each canton equal to that of the fugitives should accompany them, with power to seal the alliance at Geneva. All the exiles left on the same day; but how different was the return from that breathless flight which had not long ago brought them to Friburg! ‘They went, not in fear and dread as they had come, but taking the high road through the Pays de Vaud, where all strove to do them honour; for,’ says Bonivard, ‘they still smelt the reek of the roast meat of Morat.’

On the 23rd of February the news of the speedy arrival of the exiles and delegates of the cantons spread through Geneva; citizen told it to citizen, great was the joy, and arrangements were made for their reception. The syndics on horseback, carrying their batons, followed by all who had horses, went out to meet them, and the people collected near the Swiss gate to receive them. A salute of guns announced their approach. They walked three abreast: in the middle was a Genevan fugitive, on his right and left a deputy of Berne and of Friburg: this order, continued through the whole line, announced more clearly than all the rest the close union of the three cities. Geneva, allied to the Swiss, might be able to preserve its independence; Geneva was saved. A conversion had been wrought in its people. Hitherto they had turned to the south; now they turned towards the north: they began to cast off Rome and to catch a glimpse of Wittemberg. There are certain movements in nations that transform their destinies. The citizens could not take their eyes off those unhappy men who had had such difficulty in escaping the archers of Savoy, and who, strange to say, were returning holding Berne and Friburg by the hand. They had gone away, still disposed to appeal to Rome; but having heard much talk in Switzerland of the Reformation, they were to be the first to welcome Farel and the Gospel to Geneva.... Relations and friends pressed in their arms these fugitives, whom they had thought they should never see again. ‘They were sumptuously entertained at the hôtel-de-ville. A morality on the said alliance was performed, and a bonfire was lighted on the Place Molard.’ 403The Council of Two Hundred was convened.