Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/640

 634 CALVIN and I to them." The city procured the inter- vention of Bern and Basel ; Bucer and Farel entreated ; the city of Strasburg at last allowed him to go, continuing his salary, which he re- fused to receive ; and Calvin yielded, " ottering to God his slain heart as a sacrifice, and forcing himself to Obedience." He returned to the city with the acclamation of the people, Sept. 13, 1541, and not only was a " plain house " pro- vided for him, but also " a piece of cloth for a coat." He returned with the full and fair un- derstanding that his discipline was to be carried out. His idea of the proper power and purity of the visible church was much higher than that of his contemporary German reformers ; Mohler accuses him of borrowing it from the Roman Catholics. To have a reformed church was his ideal. That reform must embrace not only doctrine and ritual, but also the whole life. The ministry is divinely appointed. Syn- ods of pastors and elders are for the preser- vation of truth and order. The state is to aid, and not to rule, this spiritual institution, though both church and state concur in the sphere of morals. Rules of discipline conformed to these radical views were adopted by the whole peo- ple, Nov. 20, 1541. The presbyterial system was fully inaugurated, which became a model for the government of the reformed churches in other countries. The consistory had twice as many elders (12) as ministers, and these elders were annually elected by the church. The sys- tem of representation was thus established, so fruitful in the subsequent political history of Europe. The consistory met every Thursday to consider cases of discipline. A congregation assembled on each Friday for practical religious improvement. The general council elected by the people continued its functions ; hut it assem- bled only twice a year, and the real power was gradually absorbed by the lesser council and by the consistory. The latter was the real tribunal of morals, and its inquisitorial sphere extended to the whole population. It could not punish beyond excommunication, but the civil power was expected to do the rest. The system was a bold one, and for a time eminently success- ful. Accusations, often frivolous, increased. In 1558-'9 there were 414 citations before the con- sistory. Severe penalties were often inflicted for slight offences ; once a person was punished for laughing while John Calvin was preaching. But the effect upon the city was marvellous. It became the most moral town in Europe. It was also the home of letters and the bulwark of or- thodoxy. Hooker says, " The wisest that time living could not have bettered the system." Knox, who was three times at Geneva, 1554 '6, declared that " it was the most perfect school of Christ since the days of the apostles." And Montesquieu exhorted the Geneveseto celehrate as festivals the day of Calvin's birth and the anniversary of his arrival there. In 1541 Cal- vin was also appointed on a commission to codify the laws of the state; the code was adopted Jan. 10, 1543. Here, as in the church, the government was aristocratic, with severe penalties. Ancillon says that his " labors for the civil law give him a higher title to re- nown than his theological works." The same year he published a new and revised liturgy, which was made the basis of many other re- formed liturgies. The public worship was or- dered with extreme simplicity, all that appealed merely to the senses and imagination being ex- cluded. Not that he was tenacious in opposi- tion to " things indifferent ;" for when consult- ed in 1555 about the English liturgy, then the occasion of troubles in Frankfort, though he replied that it contained ineptia, he added the adjective tolerabiles. Such power as Calvin now exercised could not he unresisted, except in a thorougli despotism with a standing army. The Libertines were strengthened in their op- position to Calvin by many who had united in the invitation for his return to the city, among others Amy Perrin. Some were animated by a feeling of patriotic independence ; others held to the gross views of the Familists; all joined in the opposition ; blood flowed. Perrin was executed in eftigy, in 1555, for trying to seize the government. Gruet was decapitated as a materialist, and an enemy of the state. Ber- thelier, a son of him who had headed the move- ment for independence against the duke of Savoy, was excommunicated; he appealed from the consistory to the general council, and the council acquitted him. The trial of strength came. All the clergy remonstrated against the decision of the council. Calvin appeared be- fore the 200, and pleaded in vain for the inde- pendence of the church. The council still de- manded that Berthelier should receive the communion. On the Sabbath, after the ser- mon, Calvin exhorted the church to partake of the sacrament, but thundered out that "he would sooner die than otter holy things to the excommunicated." Berthelier did not dare approach the table. The council postponed the final decision. The people in the street still cried, " Slay the alien ! " The contest con- tinued for a whole year, but the party of Cal- vin was strengthened by the naturalization of a large number of Frenchmen, 800 at one time in 1557, and the authority of the reformer was insured. Yet it was far from being absolute even with the consistory, who often opposed his views; in one letter he com plains that they even subjected his theological works to the cen- sorship. These ecclesiastical and civil disputes were only a small part of his labors. He was also engaged in perpetual theological disputa- tions. Bolsec, once a Roman Catholic and almoner of the duchess of Ferrara, now a con- vert to the reformed religion and a physician, disputed his doctrine of predestination. After a sharp controversy he was banished from Geneva, became again a Catholic, and wrote in 1577 a slanderous life of Calvin. The Span- ish and Italian anti-Trinitarians made much trouble at Geneva. Geibaldi was banished; Gentilis was led for a time to recant. Ltelius