1

an a collegis tantum et senioribus, qui censurae praesunt, an vero unius auctoritate constitui possit. . . . Habemus ergo esse hanc ex Verbo Dei (Act. vi. 2) legitimam ministri vocationem, ubi ex populi consensu et approbatione creantur 1 qui visi fuerint idonei. Praeesse autem electioni debere alios pastores, ne quid vel per levitatem, vel per mala studia, vel per tumultum a multitudine peccetur.

§ 16. Superest ritus ordinandi. . . . Constat autem Apostolos non alia ceremonia usos esse, quum aliquem ministerio admovebant, quam manuum impositione.2... Licet autem nullum exstet certum praeceptum de manuum impositione, quia tamen fuisse in perpetuo usu Apostolis videmus, illa tam accurata eorum observatio praecepti vice nobis esse debet.... Hoc postremo habendum est, non universam multitudinem manus imposuisse suis ministris, sed solos pastores. Quanquam incertum est an plures semper manus imposuerint necne (Act. vi. 6, xiii. 3; 2 Tim. i. 6).

c. xiv. De Sacramentis, § 1. Praedicationi Evangelii

aliud affine est fidei nostrae adiumentum in Sacramentis : de quibus certam aliquam doctrinam tradi, magnopere nostra refert, unde nos et quem in finem instituta fuerint, et quis eorum nunc usus sit, discamus. Principio animadvertere convenit quid sit Sacramentum. Videtur autem mihi haec simplex et propria fore definitio, si dixerimus externum esse symbolum, quo benevolentiae erga nos suae promissiones conscientiis nostris Dominus obsignat, ad sustinendam fidei nostrae imbecillitatem : et nos vicissim pietatem erga eum nostram tam coram eo et angelis quam apud homines testamur. Licet etiam maiore compendio aliter definire: ut vocetur divinae in nos gratiae testimonium externo signo confirmatum, cum mutua nostra erga ipsum pietatis testificatione. Utramlibet ex his definitionibus eligas, ab illa Augustini, quae sacramentum esse tradit rei sacrae visibile signum, aut invisibilis

1 This was Calvin's theory. In practice, election gave way to appointment. Cf. Les Ordonnances ecclesiastiques Opera X a [ = C. R. xxxviii.] 17, and infra, No. 302).

2 This was abandoned in Geneva as superstitious by Les Ordonnances (ibid. 18, and infra, No. 302), and in Scotland rejected with contempt by the First Book of Discipline, 1560 (infra, No. 350), but reintroduced by the Second, 1578.

3 Zwingli's sacramental teaching was thus abhorrent to Calvin. Cf. Inst. IV. xiv. 13, and, 11 Sept 1542, his letter to Viret, In scriptis prioribus [Zuinglii] memini quam profana sit de sacramentis doctrina' (Herminjard, viii, No. 1156).

gratiae visibilem formam, sensu nihil differt; rem vero ipsam melius ac certius explicat.

c. xvii. De Sacra Christi Coena, § 10. . . . Iam sacram illam carnis et sanguinis sui communicationem, qua vitam suam in nos transfundit Christus, non secus ac si in ossa et medullas penetraret, in Coena etiam testatur et obsignat: et quidem non obiecto inani aut vacuo signo sed efficaciam Spiritus sui illic proferens, qua impleat quod promittit. Et sane rem illic signatam offert et exhibet omnibus qui ad spirituale illud epulum accumbunt: quanquam a fidelibus solis cum fructu percipitur. . . . Quodsi verum est praeberi nobis signum visibile ad obsignandam invisibilis rei donationem, accepto corporis symbolo, non minus corpus etiam ipsum nobis dari certo confidamus.

§ 11. Dico igitur (quod et semper in ecclesia receptum fuit et hodie docent quicunque recte sentiunt) duabus rebus constare sacrum Coenae mysterium: corporeis signis, quae ob oculos proposita, res invisibiles secundum imbecillitatis nostrae captum nobis repraesentant, et spirituali veritate, quae per symbola ipsa figuratur simul et exhibetur. Ea qualis sit, dum familiariter demonstrare volo, tria soleo ponere significationem, materiam quae ex ea dependet, virtutem seu effectum quae ex utraque consequitur. Significatio in promissionibus est sita, quae quodammodo sunt signo implicitae. Materiam aut substantiam voco Christum cum sua morte et resurrectione. Per effectum autem redemptionem, iustitiam, sanctificationem vitamque aeternam et quaecunque alia nobis beneficia affert Christus, intelligo. Porro tametsi fidem haec omnia respiciunt, nullum tamen locum relinquo huic cavillo quasi, dum fide percipi Christum dico, intelligentia duntaxat ac imaginatione velim concipi. Offerunt enim illum promissiones, non ut in aspectu modo nudaque notitia haereamus, sed ut vera eius communicatione fruamur. . . . Dico igitur in Coenae mysterio per symbola panis et vini Christum vere nobis exhiberi adeoque corpus et sanguinem eius, in quibus omnem obedientiam pro comparanda nobis iustitia adimplevit, quo scilicet primum in unum corpus cum ipso coalescamus, deinde participes substantiae eius facti in bonorum omnium communicatione virtutem quoque sentiamus.

1 Note the influence of Butzer here; and cf. the Confessio Tetrapolitana, supra, No. 226.

No. 274. Calvin detained by Farel in Geneva, Aug. 1536.

3

Porro an propositum esset mihi famam aucupari, patuit ex brevi discessu, praesertim quum nemo illic1 sciverit me autorem esse. Quod etiam alibi semper dissimulavi, et in animo 12 erat idem institutum prosequi, donec Genevae non tam consilio vel hortatu quam formidabili Gulielmi Farelli obtestatione retentus sum, ac si Deus violentam mihi e caelo manum iniiceret. Quum rectum iter Argentoratum tendenti bella clausissent, hac celeriter transire statueram, ut non longior quam unius noctis mora in urbe mihi foret. Paulo ante huius optimi viri et Petri Vireti opera profligatus erat papatus: sed res adhuc incompositae et urbs in pravas et noxias factiones divisa. Unus homo, qui nunc turpi defectione iterum ad papistas rediitʻ, statim fecit ut innotescerem. Hic Farellus (ut incredibili zelo promovendi evangelii flagrabat) statim ad me retinendum obnixe nervos omnes intendit. Et quum privatis et occultis studiis me intelligeret esse deditum, ubi se vidit rogando nihil proficere, usque ad exsecrationem descendit, ut Deus otio meo malediceret, si me a ferendis subsidiis in tanta necessitate subducerem. Quo terrore perculsus, susceptum iter ita omisi ut mihi et verecundiae et timiditatis meae conscius obeundo certo muneri fidem meam non obstringerem.

No. 275. Calvin lecturer at the Cathedral in Geneva, 5 Sept. 1536.

From the Registers of the Council.-Mag. Guil. Farellus exponit sicuti sit necessaria illa lectura qualem initiavit ille Gallus in S. Petro: propterea supplicat videri de ipso retinendo et sibi alimentando. Super quo fuit advisum quod advideatur de ipsum sustinendo.

XV

FAREL AND CALVIN IN GENEVA, 1536-8

Farel was now 'preacher of the Gospel' and Calvin 'reader in Holy Scripture at Geneva' (Herminjard, iv, No. 650).

(i) Their first enterprise as colleagues took them beyond Geneva, to promote reform in the Pays de Vaud. With reform of its newly 1 At Basel. The passage is a continuation of No. 268, supra.

2 sc. of the Institutes.

3 The second war between Charles and Francis, 1536-8.

Louis du Tillet.

conquered, Jan.-Feb. 1536, territories in view, Bern, ignoring [No. 276] the Emperor's prohibition (Ruchat, iv. 504; Herminjard, iv, No. 565) of 5 July, by [No. 277] summons (Ruchat, iv. 500) of 16 July, arranged for, 1-8 October [No. 278] the Disputation of Lausanne (ibid. 171 sqq.). Farel prepared the Theses (ibid. 505: in French, Calv. Op. ix. [= C. R. xxxvii.] 701) and Calvin who, as a humanist, had learned to value the appeal to antiquity, perhaps from the school of Faber Stapulensis', intervened, 5 Oct., in the discussion of Thesis III to claim the Fathers as witnesses against a corporal presence in the Eucharist (Op. ix. [= C. R. xxxvii.] 877 sqq.). In a letter of 13 Oct. (Herminjard, iv, No. 573) he describes the debate. It went by default; and Bern followed it up by, 19 Oct., [No. 279] an order to put down 'popery' (Ruchat, iv. 519); by the appointment first of Caroli, 1 Nov. (Herminjard, iv, No. 576), and then, 7 June 1537 (ibid. No. 633), of Viret (till 1559; †71) to be pastor at Lausanne; by, 24 Dec. 1536, [No. 280] an edict of Reformation (Ruchat, iv. 522 sqq.); and by a commission of five, 5 Jan. 1537, to enforce the Bernese ceremonies (Herminjard, iv, No. 600). Some pressure was needed to reduce the clergy at

1 'Et quidni saecula nostra ad primigeniae illius Ecclesiae effigiem redigi optaremus, cum tunc et purius Christus coleretur et nomen eius latius effulgeret? Quandoquidem tunc (attestantibus non paucis ac etiam in libello Adversus Iudaeos [cap. vii] Tertulliano, qui illius tempestatis erat) Persae ... Britanni... Germani. . . ignotarum gentium insulae . . . Christum adorabant.... Haec ille, de illius tempestatis fide in Christum longe lateque diffusa. Quam fidei amplitudinem, quem puritatis cultum redeunte Evangelii luce, nobis quoque annuat ille qui est super omnia Benedictus. Redeunte, inquam, Evangelii luce, quae sese tandem mundo rursum hac tempestate insinuat, qua plerique divina luce illustrati sunt: adeo ut praeter alia multa, a tempore Constantini, quo primitiva illa quae paulatim declinabat, desiit Ecclesia, non fuerit maior linguarum cognitio, non maior orbis detectio, non ad longinquiora terrarum spatia quam temporibus istis nominis Christi propagatio. Linguarum enim cognitio et maxime Latinae et Graecae (nam postea Hebraicarum litterarum studium a Iohanne Capnione excitatum est) circa tempora Constantinopoleos ab hostibus Christi expugnatae redire coepit: paucis Graecis, nimirum Bessarione, Theodoro Gaza, Georgio Trapezuntio, Emmanuele Chrysolora, illinc in Italiam receptis. Terrarum autem detectionem, et subinde nominis Christi propagationem haud ita multo post, ad exortum quidem solis fecere Lusitani ; ad occasum vero vergendo ad meridiem, primum (duce Ligure 1) Hispani, deinde vergendo ad septentrionem etiam Galli. In quibus omnibus locis, utinam nomen Christi pure ac sincere annunciatum sit, et posthac annuncietur. . . . (Faber Stapulensis, Commentarii Initiatorii in iv Evang. Praefatio.Meldis MDXXII.)

• 1395-1481.

a

1453- ° 1395-†1472.

1355-1415.

Prince Henry the Navigator, 1395-+1460: Vasco da Gama, 1450-+1524. Christopher Columbus, 1446-+1506.

Bretons and Normans (from 1504: see Harrisse, Jean et Sébastien Calot, 271) to the Banks of Newfoundland, &c.

b

Lausanne (ibid. No. 662): but, out of 40 Religious Houses and 337 Secular Clergy invited (ibid. No. 573, n. 16) to the Disputation, some 80 Religious and above 120 Seculars (ibid. No. 662, n. 3) conformed. The new system began with the founding of the University of Lausanne, Jan. 1537 (ibid. No. 603), and was afterwards organized by [No. 281] Synods at Lausanne. The first, 14 May 1537, set up seven ecclesiastical districts or 'Classes' and ordered periodical Colloquies' (Ruchat, iv. 413 sqq.). The second, March 1538 (ibid. 451 sqq.) adopted, 4 April, the ceremonies and 'the four feasts', other than Sunday, in use at Bern (Herminjard, iv, No. 698). In Sept. 1539 all priests who still declined to conform were deprived and banished (Ruchat, iv. 477).

(ii) Returning to Geneva, Farel resumed the project which, in, 24 July 1536, [No. 282] the case of Jean Balard (Calv. Op. xxi. [= C. R. xlix] 203: Journal du Syndic Jean Balard ap. Mémoires et Documents publiés par la Société d'Histoire de Genève, X. lxvii, n. 1); cf. H. D. Foster, Am. Hist. Rev. viii. 231 sqq.), had already met with some success, of restraining the citizens in the use of their new-found liberties. Restraint from Magistrates was one thing; a mediaeval city was well accustomed to it (cf. J. M. Vincent, European Blue Laws in Report of the American Historical Association, 1897, pp. 357 sqq.), and in Geneva such legislation antedated not only Calvin but the Reformation' (Foster, ut sup. 231, n. 4). But restraint from Ministers was another-a new ecclesiastical tyranny, whereas the old had but just been shaken off. Following up the vote of 21 May to live according to the Gospel, it was ordered, says the Register of the Councils, pour l'unité de la ville, et afin d'unir les citoyens dans la foi en Christ' (ap. Rilliet et Dufour, Le Premier Catéchisme Français de Calvin, xiii), that articles be drafted. On 10 Nov [No. 283] Farel's Articuli de regimine ecclesiae (Calv. Op. xxi. [= C. R. xlix.] 206) were adopted but they appear to have been too merely destructive to be related to the constructive scheme of reform outlined by Calvin from the Institutes in, 13 Jan. 1537, [No. 284] a memorandum of the Ministers of Geneva to the Council (Opera, xa [= C. R. xxxviii.] 5 sqq.; Herminjard, iv, No. 602). In this memorandum the ministers, taking as their standard the weekly Eucharist, the discipline and the catechetical instruction of the primitive Church, proposed to make every citizen of Geneva a monthly communicant, and, to that end, a Christian under fear of excommunication. On 16 Jan. [No. 285] the Two Hundred accepted the memorandum with modifications (Opera, xxi. [= C. R. xlix.] 206), and at the elections of 4 Feb. their action was endorsed by the appointment of four Syndics favourable to the preachers (ibid. 207). There then appeared, by 17 Feb. (Herminjard, iv, No. 634, nn. 3, 4) from (Opera, xxii. [= C. R. l.] 11) the pen of Calvin a Catechism',

1 The Catechismus Genevensis Prior superseded by Le Catechisme de Genève of 1542 (Opera vi. [= C. R. xxxiv.] 1 sqq.) or Cat. Gen. Posterior; see below, No. 304.