To this civil overturning succeeded an ecclesiastical revolution. Protestant tendencies had established themselves in Bern, and from there had extended themselves to Geneva. The struggle in the latter place was a severe one, but Protestantism gained ground till under the leadership of Farel and with the assistance of Bern an ecclesiastical reconstruction was effected, the bishop driven out, Protestantism established and Geneva left independent. This meant not only a new form of doctrine and mode of worship, but a reformed system of morals, and thereby a strain put upon the large profligate element of the population that soon worked a reaction strenuously encouraged by the Savoyards and the Catholic priests. The entire city was in this way wrought into a con dition of tumultuous faction, and it was just in the midst of this warring of civil, moral and ecclesiastical elements that Calvin arrived at Geneva as already stated, and took lodgings for the night with the distinct intention of going on to Basel the next day. Farel, who was in charge of the Protestant movement, learned of Calvin's presence in the city, through Louis du Tillet, got into communication with him and in an interview graphically described by Calvin in the preface to his 'Commentary on the Psalms> (a work especially rich in auto biographical references), entreated him to re main and help work out the problem of Prot estantism in Geneva, denouncing upon him the curse of God if he refused. Calvin was awe stricken by what seemed to him the prophetic deliverance of Farel and yielded to his Elijah like expostulation, so that the dictum is well justified that °Farel gave Geneva to the Ref ormation and Calvin to Geneva.' He prefaced his work in Geneva by intro ducing and setting in operation a system of stringent regulations relative to doctrine, dis cipline and daily conduct. Amusements like dancing and card-playing were punishable of fenses, not because in his judgment inherently wrong, but because so abused that the only safe course was to prohibit them altogether. The stringency of this policy excited a revolt led by the Libertines, so styled, and participated in even by many of the same °Eidgenossen" that had helped wrest Geneva from the grasp of the Duke. The opposition culminated in an act of Council expelling Calvin and Farel from the city (1538), the latter going to Neuchatel, and Calvin to Strassburg, where, with a sense of relief he thought to find himself free to gratify his tastes and resume his studies. Here again, however, as at Geneva, he was stirred by an intimidating call and applied himself to the work of ministering to the French refugees there gathered. It was during his stay in Strass burg that he married a lady of admirable char acter, Idelette de Bure, widow of Jean Strodem of Liege, with whom he lived in relations of tender attachment till her death nine years later, their only child, a son, dying in early infancy.
In Geneva, in the meantime, matters had been going from bad to worse, till by the united voice of government and people Calvin was called. Crime and vice had become ram pant. Catholics were planning for the restora tion of the old faith. Cardinal Sordelet had addressed to the people a flattering and cajoling letter calculated to win them back to the Catholic Church. To that letter Calvin while still in Strassburg had published a reply both sagacious and masterly. Bern was suspected of having ambitious political designs on the city. The local government was too weak to maintain itself amid such a storm of conflicting elements and so after three years the people turned again helplessly to the man they had exiled. He fought against the overtures ten dered him but was overborne by their earnest ness and unanimity and came back to Geneva to make there his life-long home (1541).
Calvin entered at once upon his office of ad ministrative head of the city, considered in both its ecclesiastical and civic character. Though combining the two in his own person he was no Erastian, and Church and State stood to him as theoretically distinct, and yet contribut ing, each, to the interests of the other, the Church infusing its spirit into the State and the State in turn furnishing authoritative sup port to the Church. Civil authority, previously widely distributed, he made more oligarchic and vested it primarily in what was known as the °Little Council of Twenty-five.° The code de
vised for the city bears everywhere the marks of Calvin's authorship. For this his legal train ing especially qualified him. Larger and smaller matters alike came under his purview. Like the English Alfred the Genevese legislator braced his system of enactments by a liberal infusion of the Mosaic letter and 'spirit. Ecclesiastical discipline was delegated to the Consistory, com posed at first of 18 members, 6 clerical and 12 lay, with Calvin as its president. The city was divided into districts or parishes and a system of vigilance so thoroughly organized that every family was at least once a year visited by re sponsible parties for purposes of censure, coun sel or relief.
Although introducing his administration with a measure of moderation, its animus soon evinced itself in a way that made evident to the lawless and vicious classes what it was they had to contend with, and a wide-reaching op position began immediately to organize itself. This opposition included the Libertines and the °Patriots,° which latter class bitterly opposed the close aristocratic lines with which the previous popular government had been re placed and regarded with jealousy the foreign ers that in great numbers were coming to make their home at Geneva. The enmity toward him and his administration was still further fomented by the irrational and merciless severity shown in the punishment of small of fenses, such as the beheading of a child for striking its mother, the committal of heretics to the flames, the eliciting of testimony by torture. His rule was one of terror and he was both feared and hated. Mobs attempted to in timidate him. Dogs in the street were named after him. To antagonize Calvin was a crime, as Castellio found to his cost, and to speak dis respectfully of predestination, as did Bolsec, a felony. But cases like these two are quite eclipsed by the instance of Servetus.
Servetus was a Spaniard, a scholar of in dependent thought, who convinced himself of the groundlessness of papal claims, but without cordially accepting the theology of Protestant ism. In 1531 he published a book entitled 'The Errors of the Trinity.> Irritated by Calvin's treatment of him and his speculations he re torted upon him and the Reformed doctrine flatly and acrimoniously. Though out of sym pathy with the Roman Catholic Church Serve tus continued for 20 years in outward con formity with its doctrine and discipline and then wrote another volume under the title The Res toration of Christianity.) This was issued by him during his residence at Vienne and resulted in his arrest at the instance of the archbishop. A copy of the work came under Calvin's eye, who declared that if Servetus were to come to Geneva he should not get away alive if his au thority was sufficient to prevent it. Having es caped from Vienne Servetus did come to Geneva, where his presence soon reached the knowledge of Calvin, who ordered his arrest. Thirty-eight heretical propositions were alleged against him, among others the rejection of the Trinity and speculation leaning toward pan theism: and, although he conducted his defense with vigor and with a degree of acuteness, he was condemned and, to the disgrace of the Protestant cause, was burned a little way out from Geneva on 27 Oct. 1553. It is claimed in behalf of Calvin that he tried to mitigate the severity of the penalty. Howevcr that may be, he was set on pursuing Servetus to the death, and it is on record that he wrote as follows to Farel two months before the execu tion,—°I hope the sentence will be capital but desire the atrocity of the punishment to be miti gated.° It has to be remembered however that all of this was in keeping with the barbarism of the age and that so gracious-spirited a man as Melancthon gave to it his assent. After the execution of Servetus and the expulsion of the Libertines two years later, Calvin's power in Geneva was firmly established. He used his influence vigorously for the defense of Protest antism throughout Europe. By the mediation of Theodore de Biza he made his influence felt in France in the great struggle going on there between the hierarchical party with the Guises at its head and the Protestants led by Condi and Coligny. In 1561, his energies be gan to fail, and after much bodily suffering, he died.