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 CALVIN 633 route, he went in August, 1536, not without personal peril, to Geneva. Delivered from the domination of the duke of Savoy, this city had received the reformed opinions through the zeal of William Farel, and in August, 1535, established the new service. But the old par- ties, the Eidgenossen (confederates), and the Mamelukes (Savoyards), reappeared under new forms. The city was demoralized ; libertinism as to both faith and morals was popular, though the old conseil general had been revived, and had already attempted the prohibition of worldly amusements. But the strict party was in the minority, and Farel, hearing of Cal- vin's presence in the city, besought him to re- main ; and when he pleaded his need of repose and desire for study, Farel broke out in a solemn adjuration: "Since you refuse to do the work of the Lord in this church, may the Lord curse the repose you seek, and also your studies !" Calvin yielded, he says, " as if to the voice of the Eternal." At first he would only teach theology, but he preached a sermon, and crowds followed him to secure its repetition ; and he was obliged to become one of the pas- tors. His salary must have been slight, judg- ing from the fact that after six months (Feb. 13, 1537) the council voted him six crowns, "seeing he had not received anything." In conjunction with Farel and Viret, he at once proceeded to the work of organizing the church affairs. In 1537 he published a catechism in French (in Latin in 1538), extracted from his "Institutes," "since to build an edifice that is to last long, the children must be instructed according to their littleness." A " Confession of Faith," with articles of strict discipline an- nexed, had been approved by the council in November, 1536, and was read in church every Sunday. At a public disputation with the Anabaptists, March 18, 1537, he put them to silence, so that for many years they were no longer heard of. At a disputation in Lau- sanne he spoke against the real presence, and on the authority due the fathers. A certain Caroli accused him, Farel, and Viret of being Arians, because the words Trinity and person (on which Calvin never insisted) were not in the Genevese creed, but his orthodoxy was amply vindicated at Lausanne and Bern. His great work, however, was the regulation of dis- cipline, according to the principles advocated in his "Institutes." And here he encountered wrathful opposition. Many of the Eidgenossen had joined the reforming party from merely patriotic motives ; the remaining partisans of Rome and the Anabaptists made common cause with these Libertines against the plan which was to extend ecclesiastical discipline to all the citizens, banishment being the penalty of obstinacy. Some sumptuary regulations were introduced; games of chance and licentious dances were prohibited anew they had been repeatedly forbidden since 1487 ; though Cal- vin granted that cards and dancing might be innocent in themselves, yet they led to " feuds and quarrels." The Libertines gained the election of Feb. 3, 1538, and at once forbade the ministers to mingle in politics. The min- isters then refused to hold communion at Eas- ter, on account of the prevailing immorality; they further refused to restore certain church festivals, to use the baptismal font, and to give unleavened bread in the supper, though a Lau- sanne council had recommended these things. Calvin was personally not opposed to these rites, hut went with his colleagues. There- upon, April 23, the council banished Calvin and Farel, who departed, saying, " It is better to obey God than man." Zurich and Bern in- terceded for them in vain ; a popular assembly, May 26, confirmed the decree of the council. And Calvin, though he "loved Geneva as his own soul," was glad to return to the life of a student. Expelled from Geneva, he was wel- comed at Strasburg by Bucer. A church of 1,500 French refugees was put under his charge, and adopted his discipline. The city gave him the right of citizenship, afterward prolonged for his life. He was present at the conference between the Roman Catholics and Protestants at Frankfort in 1539, and in that of Worms, adjourned to Ratisbon, in 1341. He prepared a treatise on the Lord's supper (De Coma), after a conference with the Luther- ans at Hagenau, in 1540, in which he devel- oped his view, intermediate between the Lu- theran and Zwinglian, asserting that Christ was spiritually present and spiritually received in the eucharist. He also lectured and pub- lished on the Epistle to the Romans, having modern Rome always in view; since Augus- tine no commentator had entered more fully and directly into the logic of Paul's argument. Crowds of students from all parts of France flocked to his lectures on the Romans, and on John's Gospel. He was scattering seed far and wide. Here, in 1540, he was married to Ide- lette de Bures, the widow of an Anabaptist, whom he had converted. In this woman he found a most faithful and devoted wife, " who never opposed me," he says, and "always aid- ed me." Idelette died in 1549, and her stern, hard, overworked husband speaks of his soli- tude and grief in several touching letters still extant. Two years had now passed since Cal- vin had been driven out of Geneva, and the city had need of him. He had still continued to cherish its welfare, advising his friends to moderate counsels. When Cardinal Sadolet wrote to the Genevese to -entice them back to Rome, Calvin replied with such wisdom a extorted praise even from his opponent. The Anabaptists were again restless. Disorders and tumults increased. Of the four syndics who had procured Calvin's expulsion, one had been hanged as a traitor, another was killed in an attempted flight, and the other two had been driven away. As early as Oct. 22, 1540, the council had vainly urged the disciplinarian to return; to another solicitation he replied, " The Genevese would be insupportable to me,