The year 1554 lay in between the condemnation of Servetus (26 October 1553) and the defeat of the Libertines (16 May 1555). At the beginning of this year the Calvinist party met with a success – three of the four magistrates or syndics were chosen from their ranks. Indeed there were some in Switzerland who came to the conclusion that com­plete victory had been gained over the enemies of the Reformation in Geneva. As a matter of fact the dispute had not yet reached its limits. Calvin with his usual acuteness realised this.

The year was one of ups and downs, and near its close the Calvinist party received a check – one of the Libertines was appointed lieutenant of the city. If there was still a measure of peace, it was the uneasy calm which precedes the storm. The Libertines showed increasing disregard for the laws of the city and increasing contempt for fines and imprison­ment. They sought in various ways to annoy and humiliate Calvin. They attacked him personally, but especially they sought to provoke him by attacking the refugees from France. In this year the number of French exiles in Geneva grew rapidly. They had fled from fierce persecution at the hands of the Duke of Guise. Ami Perrin, the Libertine leader, ac­cused these unfortunates of treason – they had come to betray the city into the hands of the Duke of Guise. In other words, they intended to betray their benefactors to their butcher! At the instigation of the Lib­ertines their houses were searched for weapons very early one morning, but, of course, none were found. These exiles had reached Geneva half-dead with hunger, bringing their wives and carrying their children.

They were filled with joy on reaching the city of freedom. Now false charges were levelled against them. The Libertines went so far as to suggest that some of them were evil characters. Calvin’s heart went out to his suffering fellow-countrymen, and he was greatly distressed by these attacks.

All through the year the struggle went on. The Libertines sought to have the pastors deprived of the right of excommunication. They thought Calvin would succumb to their ceaseless attacks and leave the city in a fit of weariness or rage. But he stood fast and pursued his course. And all the time his labours were enormous. His was the care of all the churches. He not only fought the battles of Geneva; he comforted the troubled saints of Strasburg and Frankfurt and the per­secuted churches in France, and carried on a vast correspondence with a host of individuals scattered over Europe on all sorts of questions. Worn out with his toils, it seemed almost as if he would succumb, as the Libertines hoped. On 26 December 1554, depressed and sore vexed with the countless expedients of his enemies and their implacable rage, he wrote: ‘If I had the choice, I would prefer to be burned once for all by the Papists rather than be worn out by these local foes without end and without measure ... I have one consolation – that soon death will deliver me from a task so difficult.’ But the honour of God was involved and therefore he must keep on, trusting ever in divine providence. What could the Libertines do, asks Prof. Emile Doumergue, against such an adversary?

The Senate of Berne gave encouragement to the Libertines. It too seemed to be motivated by a blind hatred of Calvin. Emboldened by this support, the Libertines broke forth in open sedition. They began the year 1555 by going out into the streets after supper on 9 January with candles in their hands and singing the Psalms at the top of their voices, but mingling the sacred words with parody and scoffing.

In the following months the Calvinists gained notable victories. In the February elections all four syndics were chosen from their number and there were similar triumphs in the elections to the city councils. These bodies were then to a great extent purged of the Libertines. Various fac­tors were at play in this reaction to the influence of the Libertines, not least the political machinations of Perrin and his followers. He and his party had rid the Little Council of men of independent spirit so that they now exercised almost complete control over that body. But opposition to the Perrinists was strengthened by the addition of French refugees – good men and true – to the other city councils. When the Libertines under Perrin’s leadership sought to raise suspicions of the loyalty of these new citizens, Lambert, one of the city magistrates, reminded him that less than ten years earlier it was Perrin who had tried to bring into the city 200 troops loyal to the king of France!

Though the Libertines had experienced reverses, some of them still held important posts. One was master of the artillery, another had control of a stock of arms, and yet another had the right of access to the clock-tower to sound the call to action. So they felt they could still attain their purpose. On the evening of 16 May the ringleaders met for supper in a tavern. Perrin was the ringleader and he was supported by Vandel and the Berthelier brothers, Sept and Francois. What was actu­ally taking place is hard to say. Calvin thought that an armed uprising was being plotted; that may have been the case, but it is also possible that the ‘plotters’ had simply drunk too much beer and got carried away by a lot of wild talk about Geneva for the Genevese. What happened next is clear. Leaving their beer pots behind in the tavern, they set out to burn down a house which they thought was full of armed French­men. Confronted by a servant of one of their enemies, Bethelier threw a stone at him and injured him. Arriving at the house, they were ordered to disperse by Aubert, one of the syndics whose house was next door. Aubert was carrying his baton of office. Perrin snatched the baton from him, with the implication that he was seizing power. But another syndic arrived on the scene and ordered Perrin to go with him to the Hotel de Ville. At this the ‘patriots’ lost their nerve. The half-hearted and half-so­ber made their escape down side streets and dark back alleys. Calm was soon restored. The putsch was over, the plot had failed.

But a plot had been made. Perrin had dared to seize power by force. The authority of the republic had been attacked and insulted. Some of the leaders fled the city, Perrin among them. He was tried and con­demned to death in his absence along with several of his co-accused. Others less fortunate were tortured and executed. Those who managed to escape continued to make mischief from a distance. But the organised and protracted opposition to Calvin’s reforms was over. Calvin gave thanks and wrote: ‘Contrary to all hope and by the intervention of God the tempest is allayed.’

It was this event which closed the long period of struggle. There had been two irreconcilable elements in the city. But on the night of 16 May 1555, the Libertines over-reached themselves when they sought to secure their ends by violence. They were ‘blinded by their madness’, as often happens in such cases. Heated by drink and rage they acted too soon and with too little preparation. Moreover, Perrin, ‘the comic Caesar’ as Calvin described him, was not cut out for determined leadership. He had done much to stir up the seditious tumult, but then he left it to take its course. Not a life had been lost, but if the plot had been suffered to ma­ture, blood would undoubtedly have been spilt. As for the poor French exiles whose lives the Libertines sought, some slept quietly in their beds while others were preserved, unmoved by the cries for their blood.

With the defeat and exile of the Libertines, a new and final period of Calvin’s life in Geneva began – the nine years of triumph.

Now Israel may say, and that truly,
If that the Lord had not our cause maintained;
If that the Lord had not our right sustained,
When cruel men against us furiously
Rose up in wrath, to make of us their prey;

Then certainly they had devoured us all,
And swallowed quick, for ought that we could deem;
Such was their rage, as we might well esteem.
And as fierce floods before them all things drown,
So had they brought our soul to death quite down.

The raging streams, with their proud swelling waves,
Had then our soul o’erwhelmèd in the deep.
But blessed be God, who doth us safely keep,
And hath not giv’n us for a living prey
Unto their teeth, and bloody cruelty.

Ev’n as a bird out of the fowler’s snare
Escapes away, so is our soul set free:
Broke are their nets, and thus escaped we.
Therefore our help is in the Lord’s great name,
Who heav’n and earth by his great pow’r did frame.Psalm 124 (Second Version), The Scottish Psalter, 1650