356 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
were preached every Sunday, two every week day, and were well attended. The schools were flourishing, and public morality was steadily rising. Saunier, in a school oration, praised the goodly city of Geneva which now added to her natural advantages of a magnificent site, a fertile country, a lovely lake, fine streets and squares, the crowning glory of the pure doctrine of the gospel. The magistrates showed a willingness to assist in the maintenance of discipline. A gambler was placed in the pillory with a chain around his neck. Three women were imprisoned for an improper head-dress. Even FranQois Bonivard, the famous patriot and prisoner of Chillon, was frequently warned on account of his licentiousness. Every open manifestation of sympath}- Avith poper}^ by carrying a rosary, or cherishing a sacred relic, or observing a saint's day, was liable to punishment. The fame of Geneva went abroad and began to attract students and refugees. Before the close of 1537 English Protestants came to Geneva to "see Calvin and Farel." ^
On July 29, 1537, the Council of the Two Hundred ordered all the citizens, male and female, to assent to the Confession of Faith in the Church of St. Peter.^ It was done by a large number. On Nov. 12, the Council even passed a measure to banish all who would not take the oath.^
1 Bullinger's letter to Farel and Calvin, Nov. 1, 1537 (in the Siraler collection of Ziirich), and in Op. X., Pt. I. 128, also in Herminjard, IV. 309. Bullinger recommends three worthy English students of the Bible, " Eliott, Buttler, and Partridge," who had spent some time in Ziirich. BuUinger had made the acquaintance of Farel at the disputation in Bern, January, 1528, and of Calvin in Basel, February, 1536.
2 Annal. 218: " De la confession: que Von donne ordrefaire que tons les dizenniers ameneront leurs gens dizenne par dizzenne en realise S. Pierre et la leiir seront leuz les articles touchant la confession en dieu et seront interrogne's s'ils veulent cela tenir; aiissi sera faict le serment de Jidelite' a la ville." A dizennier is a tithingman, or headborough.
8 Annal. 216 from Reg. du Cons. Tom. 31, fol. 90. But the order could not be executed. Not one from the rue des Allemands would subscribe to the Confession. Even Saunier was opposed to the imposition of a personal pledge.
§ 83. ORDER AND DISCIPLI]SrE INTRODUCED. 357
The Confession was thus to be made the law of Church and State. This is the first instance of a formal pledge to a symbolical book by a whole people.
It was a glaring inconsistency that those who had just shaken off the yoke of popery as an intolerable burden, should subject their conscience and intellect to a human creed ; in other words, substitute for the old Roman popery a modern Protestant popery. Of course, they sincerely believed that they had the infallible Word of God on their side ; but they could not claim infallibility in its interpretation. The same inconsistency and intolerance was repeated a hundred years later on a much larger scale in the " Solemn League and Covenant " of the Scotch Presbyterians and English Puritans against popery and prelacy, and sanctioned in 1648 by the Westminster Assembly of Divines which vainly attempted to prescribe a creed, a Church polity, and a directory of worship for three nations. But in those days neither Protestants nor Catholics had any proper conception of religious toleration, much less of religious liberty, as an inalienable right of man. " The power of the magistrates ends where that of conscience begins." God alone is the Lord of conscience.
The Calvinistic churches of modern times still require subscription to the Westminster standards, but only from the officers, and only in a qualified sense, as to substance of doctrine ; while the members are admitted simply on profession of faith in Christ as their Lord and Saviour.^
1 The Congregational or Independent and Baptist churches, however, while they disown the autliority of general confessions, and hold to the voluntary principle, usually have local or congregational creeds and covenants which must be assented to by all applicants for membership. In this respect the Prestjyterian churches are more liberal.