‘Destroy Geneva’⤒🔗

It was a great day for the cause of the Reformation when the Acad­emy in Geneva was opened on 5 June 1559. It was in troublous times that this step was taken. The kings of France and Spain – the two great royal enemies of Protestantism – had just signed the Treaty of Cateau Cambresis (2 April 1559). The English ambassador at the French court described this treaty as an agreement between the Pope and the two kings to ‘join forces to crush the Reformed Faith’. Immediately Geneva made defensive preparations. She inspected her stores of munitions and her supplies of wheat and salt; she distributed her pikes and strengthened her walls and bulwarks. Citizens of all ranks – magistrates, ministers, and artisans – laboured at the defences, but above all they trusted to the aid of the Almighty. The danger was no imaginary one. Geneva was a place of refuge for those who had fled from the persecutions of Philip II of Spain and Henry II of France, and so they hated her. Moreover, the city had formerly been under the suzerainty of the Duke of Savoy, and the then Duke, who was nearly related to both monarchs, desired to regain the city. Henry II negotiated with the Duke of Alba to blot out the true Christian faith in France, the Low Countries, and elsewhere. Henry sent the Constable of France, de Montmorency, to conclude the monstrous agreement with Alba. The Constable said: ‘Geneva is the sink of all this corruption ... The two kings must concert measures to destroy Geneva.’ So the danger was terribly real.

Calm in the Storm←⤒🔗

Theodore Beza tells us that at this perilous time Calvin, though he was in bad health, laboured to defeat these plots against the city. Calvin ‘confirmed the churches and all the brethren, who, on account of the prospect before them, were in the greatest distress, and was incessant in prayer, imploring assistance from the Lord.’ He who sits in the heavens is well able to hear and answer, and to discomfit his foes. So it came that Alba and his royal master, Philip II, hesitated. Shortly afterwards Henry II was accidentally wounded in the eye in a tournament, and a few days later, this persecutor of Protestants departed this earthly life.

The Roaring Lion Seeks His Prey←⤒🔗

The Duke of Savoy kept up the effort to take Geneva. Among other agents, he sent Bishop Alardet to Geneva. Alardet came under the pre­text of being ill and needing a change of air. The City Council took advice from Calvin as to the answer to be given to Alardet’s overtures. Alardet reported that Calvin had declared that he ought to be put in prison as a seducer who sought to deprive the city of its liberties. On January 1560 Beza wrote to Bullinger in Zurich that ‘the wolf or rather the hungry lion which might devour us is prowling before our gates.’ A few days later the Council recorded in its Registers the decision that ‘by the grace of God they would be vigilant and resist with all their pow­ers.’ It would seem that Alardet went so far as to suggest to the Duke the assassination of Calvin; but the Duke, to his honour, would have none of it.

The French Roman Catholic leader, the Duke of Guise, also cher­ished bitter animosity toward Geneva. So threats from France continued too. But Calvin remained calm.

Pius IV became Pope on 25 December 1559, and took his nephew as his secretary. The nephew wrote to Philip II of Spain as follows: ‘One of the first thoughts of the Holy Father ... has been to blot out Geneva.’ The Duke of Savoy asked the Pope for help in the attack upon the city. The Pope promised 20,000 crowns, the use of his own cavalry, and other help if necessary. The Duke of Guise was favourably disposed to the attempt also. But suddenly all changed. The King of France said he was occupied with the affairs of Scotland, and the enthusiasm of Philip II and the Pope declined also. So Geneva was again saved.

Geneva ‘Established, Strengthened and Settled’←⤒🔗

In the midst of all these trials and threats, Geneva was being trans­formed into a city of God. Church discipline was increasingly perfected. It was ordained at the close of 1559 that an exhortation and an admo­nition be given by one of the ministers before the annual city elections. This was henceforth the law of the State. Before this there had been a system of mutual exhortation and criticism among the ministers. The magistrates and councillors thought this practice would be useful among their own number too, and so the decree was passed. Was there ever such a government as this in any State?

Not till now did Calvin become a citizen of Geneva. The Council offered him citizenship and begged that he would take it. This he did willingly and the Council put on record a tribute to his faithful ministry and abundant labours. It is evident from all this that a new Geneva had been born. But lest Calvin be exalted overmuch, there was given him a ‘messenger of Satan’ to buffet him: and Geneva was warned that she must not expect to keep him for long. His sickness came upon him and threatened to crush him. This disease – a quartan fever – continued eight months. It so exhausted his frail body, already worn out by many toils, that he never entirely recovered from it. Though at the urgent re­quest of his friends he left off preaching and lecturing when his sickness was at its height, he continued spending days and nights in dictating and writing letters. It is Beza who tells us of this, and says of Calvin: ‘He had no expression more frequently in his mouth than that life, as he expressed it, would be bitter to him if spent in indolence, though indeed we who were strong might, in comparison with him, have been thought indolent.’

On 24 December 1559, Calvin was preaching in St Peter’s. The church was filled. He raised his voice powerfully to make himself heard. The next day he was seized with violent coughing and began to bring up much blood. It was the consumption (tuberculosis) which was showing itself. But soon he was preaching again in spite of the pleadings of his doctors and friends. Just a few more years of toil and witness lay ahead for him.