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It transpired, however, that one of the Sisters--'the ill-advised Sister Blasine'--had been converted by the Reformers' arguments. The other nuns tried to detain her, but the citizens broke into the convent and fetched her out in triumph, and also insisted that the convent should provide her with a dowry and pay her damages for the disciplinary whippings inflicted upon her during her membership of the Order. It was the culminating outrage. The nuns decided to leave Geneva, and the Lady Superior applied to the Syndic for an armed escort. The request was granted, and the 'dolorous departure' began. Three hundred soldiers were turned out to see the Sisters safely across the bridge over the Arve, where the territory of Geneva ended. It was the first time since their taking of the veil that they had been outside the convent walls, and some of them had spent all their lives in the cloister and grown old there, so that they were in no fit state to travel thus on foot. Let Sister Jeanne tell us what befell them:

'Truly it was a pitiful thing to see this holy company in such condition, so overcome by pain and toil that several of them broke down and fainted by the way--and that on a rainy day and in a muddy road, and with no means of getting out of their trouble, for they were all on foot, except four invalids who were in a cart. There were six poor aged Sisters, who had been for sixteen years members of the Order, and two who for sixty-six years had never been outside the convent gate. The fresh air was too much for them. They fainted away; and when they saw the beasts of the fields, they were terrified, thinking that the cows were bears, and that the sheep were ravening wolves. Those who met them could not find words to express their compassion for them; and, though the M?re Vicaire had given each Sister a stout pair of boots to keep her feet dry, the greater number of them would not walk in boots, but carried them tied to their girdles, and in this way it took them from five o'clock in the morning until nearly nightfall to reach Saint Julien, though the distance is less than a league.'

THE RULE OF CALVIN

Stories such as those related above make it clear that rowdyism was likely to be the note of the Reformation at Geneva so long as Farel remained at the head of ecclesiastical affairs. With all his fiery zeal for Gospel truth, he was no better than a theological demagogue; and what Geneva wanted at the moment was not a demagogue, but a disciplinarian. Calvin supplied that need. He was a Protestant wanderer over the face of the earth, and he came to Geneva on his way from Italy to Strassburg. Farel, who had come to know his own limitations, called upon him in his inn, and prevailed upon him to stay and help him to keep order in the town, and, in particular, to help him to suppress certain Libertines, or Friends of Liberty, who had been protesting that the Reformers had no right to 'require the citizens to attend sermons against their will,' and demanding 'liberty to live as they chose without reference to what was said by the preachers.' Calvin, after much hesitation, consented, and so a new era began.

It was not the work of a day. Calvin began energetically enough, admonishing Bonivard for undue familiarity with his servant-maid, standing a gambler in the pillory with a pack of cards hung round his neck, imprisoning a hairdresser for making a client look too beautiful, and endeavouring to throw ridicule upon conjugal infidelity by obliging an offender to ride round the town on a donkey. But the recalcitrants fought stubbornly for the right of living as they chose. The people who wanted to live dissolute lives allied themselves with the people who wanted unleavened bread to be used for the Holy Communion; and the coalition was powerful enough to get Calvin and Farel first forbidden to meddle with politics, and then ordered to leave the town within three days.

They were no sooner gone, however, than they began to be missed. The disorders, rampant during their absence, became intolerable, and there was some danger that the Duke of Savoy might see his way to take advantage of them. A majority of the citizens came to the conclusion that strict regulations were to be preferred to insecurity, and they sent ambassadors to Calvin, inviting him to return, and to 'stay with them for ever because of his great learning.' He agreed to do so, and they voted him a small but sufficient salary, and gave him a strip of cloth to make him a new gown. In return, he drafted for their acceptance a new and original constitution, whereby the morals, and even the manners, of the community were placed under ecclesiastical supervision. That was the famous Theocracy, established in 1541, which seemed to John Knox to make Geneva 'the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in the earth since the days of the Apostles.' A recital of a few of the enactments, taken from a contemporary translation entitled 'The Laws and Statutes of Geneva,' will be the most simple means of presenting the picture of the social life of the town under the regime:

'THE LAWS AND STATUTES OF GENEVA.

'Item, that none shall play or run idly in the streets during the time of Sermons on Sundays, nor days of prayer, nor to open their shops during the sermon time under pain without any favour.'

'Item, that no man, of what estate, quality, or condition soever he be, dareth be so hardy to make, or cause to be made, or wear hosen or doublets, cut, jagged, embroidered, or lined with silk, upon pain to forfeit.'

'Item, that no Citizen, Burger, or Inhabitant of this City dareth be so hardy to go from henceforth to eat or drink in any Tavern.'

'Item, that none be so hardy to walk by night in the Town after nine of the clock, without candle-light and also a lawful cause.'

'Item, that no manner of person, of what estate, quality or condition soever they be, shall wear any chains of gold or silver, but those which have been accustomed to wear them shall put them off, and wear them no more upon pain of three score shillings for every time.'

'Item, that no women, of what quality or condition soever they be, shall wear any verdingales, gold upon her head, quoises of gold, billiments or such like, neither any manner of embroidery upon her sleeves.'

'Item, that no manner of person, whatsoever they be, making bride-ales, banquets, or feasts shall have above three courses or services to the said feasts, and to every course or service not above four dishes, and yet not excessive, upon pain of three score shillings for every time, fruit excepted.'

'Item, that no manner of men shall go to the baths appointed for women, and also women not to go to those that be appointed for men.'

'Item, that no manner of person do sing any vain, dishonest or ribaldry songs, neither do dance, nor make masques, mummeries, or any disguisings in no manner or sort whatsoever it be, upon pain to be put three days in prison with bread and water.'

'Item, that all Hosts and Hostesses shall advertise their guests, and expressly forbid them not to be out of their lodging after the Trumpet sound to the Watch or ringing of the Bell , upon pain of the indignation of the Lords.'

'Item, that all Hosts and others shall make their prayers to God, and give thanks before meat and after upon pain of forty shillings and for every time being found or proved, and if the Hosts or Hostesses be found negligent and not doing it, to be punished further as the case requireth.'

'Item, that none do enterprise to do, say, nor contract anything out of this City that he dare not do or say within the same concerning the Law of God and Reformation of the Gospel, upon pain to be punished according as the case requireth.'

THE TRIUMPH OF THE THEOCRACY

Such was the constitution in theory; and, if we want to see it at work, we have only to turn to the Register of the Consistory, in which we may read how the citizens were punished for peccadilloes. One woman, we find, got into trouble for saying her prayers in Latin, and another for wearing her hair hanging down her back. One man was punished for wearing baggy knickerbockers in the street; a second for offering his snuff-box to a friend during the sermon; a third for talking business to a neighbour as he was coming out of church; a fourth for calling his cow by the Scriptural name Rebecca; a fifth for likening the braying of his donkey to the chanting of a psalm. There was also the case of a workman whose property was confiscated because he did not relieve the indigence of his aged parents; of a child stood in the pillory and publicly whipped for throwing a stone at its mother; of a mother imprisoned for carelessly dropping her baby on the floor; and of a young lady solemnly arraigned on the charge of casting amorous glances at a minister of the Word.

Not everybody, of course, approved of such elaborate interference with liberty. The Friends of Liberty resisted it as long as they could, and their methods of resistance were not passive. They set their dogs at Calvin; they openly ridiculed him; they came drunk to church and brawled. But Calvin was a match for them. Pierre Amaulx, who said of him that he 'thought as much of himself as if he were a Bishop,' was compelled to apologize, bareheaded, in public; and all those who tried, as Calvin put it, to 'throw off the yoke of the Gospel' came to a bad end. One of them, Raoul Monnet, was beheaded for inviting young men to look at indecorous pictures; and the party was ultimately broken up as the result of a row in the streets. They were very drunk, and were threatening certain of the Reformers with violence, when Syndic Aubert, hearing their noise, came out and faced them in his nightgown, carrying his staff of office in one hand and a lighted candle in the other. Thus attired and equipped, he placed himself at the head of the watch, summoned the soldiers to his aid, and put the rioters to rout. Some of them were killed in the scuffle; others were captured, tried, and executed; while the remnant escaped into the country, where, for a period, they eked out a precarious existence by means of highway robbery.

From that time forward Calvin's supremacy was undisputed. The principal use which he made of it was to burn Servetus; but that is a thorny branch of the subject into which it is better not to enter. Our modern Calvinists do not, indeed, hold that Servetus deserved to be burnt, but they do sometimes maintain that Calvin did no great harm in burning him. There might be some risk of putting them to confusion if the topic were pursued; and this is not a controversial work. We shall be on safer ground if we turn aside to consider Calvin's services to the State as an educationist.

THE UNIVERSITY

'In our school the lectures begin at five o'clock in the morning and continue until ten, which is our usual dinner hour. The ordinary curriculum consists of instruction in the three most excellent languages, Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, not to mention the French language, which, in the opinion of the learned, is by no means to be despised. We hope that, the Lord helping us, the time will come when we shall also teach rhetoric and dialectic.'

Calvin, however, wanted something better than the ?cole de la Rive. He found a means, therefore, of founding a University, and placed Th?odore de B?ze at the head of it as Rector. It was, at first, as Mark Pattison clearly proved in his 'Life of Isaac Casaubon,' little more than a grammar school, culminating in a theological college; but it soon expanded, and is still expanding. Nowadays, indeed, housed in commodious new buildings, it furnishes instruction in almost every imaginable branch of knowledge, and specially favours studies of a utilitarian character; but the original programme was confined to the humane letters, the funds for the maintenance of the institution being raised with difficulty, and by means of ingenious fiscal devices, hardly to be held up to the imitation of modern fiscal reformers.

One device was to ear-mark for the University chest all the fines imposed upon law-breakers. Those who gave short measure in the market, and those who spoke evil of the magistrates, were alike mulcted in the interests of learning; the heaviest contribution was that exacted from a bookseller convicted of having charged an excessive price for a copy of the Psalms of David. A second method consisted in summoning all the notaries of the town before the Council, and instructing them, when any citizen called them in to make his will, to impress upon the testator the desirability of bequeathing something to the University; the result was a total gain of 1,074 florins, including 312 florins from Robert Estienne, the printer, and 5 sous from a poor woman in the baking business. A third contrivance was to suppress a public banquet, and require the cost, estimated at 100 florins, to be handed to the University authorities.

In this way the University--such as it was--was started, with class-rooms for the scholars and apartments for the professors, who were allowed to supplement their incomes by taking boarders. Everything was poorly done, however, and nobody appears to have been comfortable. Complaints of one sort and another are recorded, in large numbers, in the Register of the Council. For one thing, there was no heating apparatus, but 'the teachers used to keep up charcoal fires at their own expense, and require every pupil to pay something towards them.' For another thing, there was no glass in the windows, and we read that 'as to the request of the Principal that glass windows shall be placed in the class-rooms, it is decided that this shall not be done, but that the scholars may, if they like, fill up the apertures with paper.' The teachers, too, were constantly expressing dissatisfaction with the accommodation provided for them. As early as 1559 we have one of them applying for a more commodious lodging, on the ground that 'God has called him to the estate of matrimony.' A little later we come upon this note:

'Claude Bridet requested permission to lodge above the Tower, where M. Chevalier, lecturer in Hebrew, used to live, for the sake of his health, and because the lower ground is damp. Decided that he must be satisfied with his present apartment, and that the place to which he refers shall be kept for someone else.'

In spite of discomfort, however, hard work was the order of the day. A letter has been preserved from M. de B?ze, the Rector of the University, to the parent of a pupil, in which he says: 'I fear I shall be able to make nothing of your son, for, in spite of my entreaties, he refuses to work more than fourteen hours a day.' The ordinary curriculum did not call for quite such persistent application as that, but was, none the less, sufficiently severe.

The day began, at 7 a.m., with prayers, roll-call, and lessons. At 8.30 there was half an hour's rest, during which the pupils were instructed to 'eat bread, praying while they did so, without making a noise.' From 9 to 10 there were more lessons, terminating with more prayers; from 10 to 11 the scholars dined; from 11 to 12 they sang psalms; from 12 to 1 there were further lessons, inaugurated by prayer; from 1 to 2 there was a quiet time devoted to eating, writing, and informal study; from 2 to 4 there was a final instalment of lessons; and at 4 there was punishment parade in the great college hall.

The punishments were mainly corporal, and were inflicted so frequently that the milder professors protested. 'The daily fustigations,' said Mathurin Cordier, 'disgust the children with the study of the humane letters; moreover, their skins get hardened like the donkeys', and they no longer feel the stripes.' It should be added, however, that the stripes were not so often inflicted for neglect of the humane letters as for misbehaviour in church. The children had to attend three services every Sunday and one every Wednesday, in addition to the frequent daily prayers at school. They talked and played, as children will, to the scandal of their elders, and they played truant whenever they saw a chance. It must be admitted to be an indication of imperfect discipline that these peccadilloes were often solemnly reviewed before the Town Council, instead of being summarily dealt with at a Court of First Instance in the head-master's study. The Councillors, however, showed no sentimental tendency to spare the rod. They might fine offenders whom their police caught in the streets when they ought to have been availing themselves of the means of grace; but they also very generally turned them over to the scholastic authorities to be whipped. A typical case is that of two lads who were caught playing quoits on the ramparts during the hours of Divine service on a Sunday morning.

'Resolved,' runs the entry, 'to hand them over to M. de B?ze, that he may cause them to be given such a fustigation as will prevent them from doing it again.'

PROFESSOR ANDREW MELVILL

It does not appear that the fustigations at first formed brilliant scholars. The University was, for a long time, more famous for its professors than for its pupils. Few learned men, at that period, were regarded as prophets in their own countries; and a goodly proportion of those who were so regarded had to emigrate for fear of being stoned. Many of the fugitives settled at Geneva, and taught there; and the readiness of the welcome accorded to the men who were considered suitable may be illustrated from the career of Andrew Melvill, the Scottish scholar, who subsequently reformed the Scottish Universities, and went to profess theology at Sedan. Andrew Melvill had been teaching in a college at Poictiers, and the town had been besieged by the Huguenots. Then--

'The siege of the town being raised, he left Poictiers, and accompanied by a Frenchman, he took journey to Geneva, leaving books and all there, and carried nothing with him but a little Hebrew Bible in his belt. So he came to Geneva, all upon foot, and as he had done before from Dieppe to Paris, and from that to Poictiers; for he was small and light of body, but full of spirits, vigorous, and courageous. His companions of the way, when they came to the inn, would lie down like tired dogs, but he would out and sight the towns and villages, whithersoever they came. The ports of Geneva were carefully kept, because of the troubles of France, and the multitude of strangers that came. Being therefore inquired what they were, the Frenchman, his companion, answered:

'"We are poor scholars."

'But Mr. Andrew, perceiving that they had no wish for poor folks, being already overlaid therewith, said:

'"No, no; we are not poor! We have as much as will pay for all we take as long as we tarry. We have letters from his acquaintance to Monsieur de B?ze; let us deliver those, we crave no further."

'And so, being convoyed to Beza and then to their lodging, Beza perceiving him a scholar, and they having need of a Professor of Humanity in the College, put him within two or three days to trial in Virgil and Homer; wherein he could acquit himself so well that without further ado, he is placed in that room of profession; and at his first entry a quarter's fee is paid him in hand. So that howbeit there was but a crown to the fore betwixt them both, and the Frenchman weak-spirited and wist not what to do, yet he found God's providence to relieve both himself and help his companion till he was provided.'

There follows a picture of Melvill's life in the city:

'In Geneva he abode five years; during the which time his chief study was Divinity, whereon he heard Beza's daily lessons and preachings; Cornelius Bonaventura, Professor of the Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac languages; Portus, a Greek born, Professor of the Greek tongue, with whom he would reason about the right pronunciation thereof; for the Greek pronounced it after the common form, keeping the accents; the which Mr. Andrew controlled by precepts and reason, till the Greek would grow angry and cry out:

'He heard there also Francis Hotman, the renownedst lawyer in his time. There he was well acquainted with my uncle, Mr. Henry Scrymgeour, who, by his learning in the laws and policy and service of many noble princes, had attained to great riches, acquired a pretty plot of ground within a league of Geneva, and built thereon a trim house called "the Vilet," and a fair lodging within the town, all which, with a daughter, his only born, he left to the Syndics of the town.'

TH?ODORE DE B?ZE

Calvin died and was buried with his fathers--not before it was time, in the opinion of a good many of his critics--and was succeeded in the dictatorship by Th?odore de B?ze, whose name is commonly latinized as Beza.

The two men had always worked well together; but they differed widely both in their antecedents and in their dispositions. Calvin, a theologian from his earliest years, had had no hot youth, no unregenerate days. Monsieur de B?ze, born of a good old Burgundian family, had been a man of the world before he became a man of God; before he versified the Psalms he had written verses which his enemies described as indecorous; when he enrolled himself among the Reformers, the first person whom he had to reform was himself; for, though there does not seem to be any truth in the statement of the Jesuit Maimbourg that he had a love-affair with the wife of a tailor, there is no denying that he had betrayed a young woman of humble birth under promise of marriage, and had allowed four years to elapse before fulfilling his promise. Moreover, he kept his high spirits when he settled down to virtuous courses; and his fellow-citizens were so delighted with his jollity that it became a saying in Geneva that it would be better to go to hell with Beza than to heaven with Calvin.

'O nose that must with drink be dyed! O nose, my glory and my pride! O nose, that didst enjoy a-right-- Nose, my alembic of delight! My bibulous big bottle-nose, As highly coloured as the rose, 'It was my hope that thou wouldst share My shifting fortunes everywhere. A Churchman's nose thou wast indeed-- The partner of his prayers and creed; Proof against all doctrinal shocks, And never aught but orthodox.'

Let that suffice. It is rather vulgar fooling; but to have omitted all mention of it would have been to give an imperfect impression of the Reformer. He owed some of his influence with the vulgar to the fact that he knew how to descend to their level; and he needed all his influence, for he had to guide Geneva through perilous times. There was a terrible epidemic of the plague; innumerable fugitives from the Massacre of St. Bartholomew took refuge in the town; there was a long war with Savoy.

In the case of the plague the difficulty was, as it always had been at Geneva, to compel the doctors and the clergy to do their duty to the sick. A note in the Register of the Council shows us how, in the days before the Reform, the monks had envisaged their obligations. The canons of the cathedral, it there appears, passed the following resolution:

'In view of the fact that the plague is suspected to exist in the town, the reverend fathers vote themselves a month's holiday from the duty of residing there and attending to the services; their stipends, in the meantime, to continue to be paid.'

The month's holiday, we also gather, was subsequently extended to a year, with the same liberal stipulation as to emoluments; and after the Reformation we find the Protestant clergy displaying an equal timidity in the presence of the disease. The entry concerning them runs thus:

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