428 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
they were encouraged by a letter of the Emperor Charles V., who thus unwittingly aided the cause of Calvin. ^
The way was now prepared for the recall of Calvin. The best people of Geneva looked to him as the saviour of their city. His name meant order, peace, reform in Church and State.
Even the Artichauds, overpowered by public opinion, proposed in a general assembly of citizens, June 17, 1540, the resolution to restore the former status, and spoke loudly against poj)ery. Two of the new preachers, Marcourt and Morland, resigned Aug. 10, and returned to Bern. The other two, Henri de la Mare and Jacques Bernard, humbly besought the favor of Calvin, and begged him to return. A remarkable tribute from his rivals and enemies.^
§ 94. CalviTi's Recall to Geneva. Literature in § 93, especially the Correspondence and Registers.
Calvin did not forget Geneva. He proved his interest in her welfare by his Answer to Sadolet. But he had no inclination to return, and could only be induced to do so by mimistakable indications of the will of Providence.
He had found a place of great usefulness in a city where he could act as mediator between Germany and France, and benefit both countries ; his Sunday services were crowded ; his theological lectures attracted students from France and other countries ; he had married a faithful wife, and enjoyed
^ " Es viacht einen eigenthiimlichen Eindruck," says Ivampschulte (I. 365), " Karl V. hier fur den Sieg eines JiTannes mitthdtig zu sehen, dessen Wirksamkeit, wie kaum eine andere, dazu beigetragen hat, die Grundlagen seiner Macht zu untergraben."
2 Bernard wrote a letter to Calvin, Feb. 6, 1541 (Herminjard, VII. 23), in which he says: " T'e/u' ergo, venerande mi pater in Christo : noster es perfecto. Te enim nobis donavit Dominus Deus, Suspirant etiam post te omnes. . . . Faxit Dominus Jesus, itt velox adventus tuns sit ad nos! Vale, ecclesiceque digneris succurrere nostra;. Alioqui requiret de manu tua sanguinem nostrum Dominus Deus. Dedit enim te specidatorem domui Israel quce apud nos est." Calvin answered, March 1, 1541, that he was very reluctant to return to Geneva, but would obey the voice of the Church. Herminjard, VII. 38-40.
§ 94. calvin's recall to geneva. 429
a peaceful home. The government of Strassburg ajjpreciatecl him more and more, and his colleagues wished to retain him. Melanchthon thought he could spare him less at the Colloquies of Worms and Ratisbon than anybody else. Looking to Geneva he could, from past experience, expect nothing but severe and hard trials. " There is no place in the world," he wrote to Viret, " which I fear more ; not because I hate it, but because I feel unequal to the difficulties which await me there." ^ He called it an abyss from which he shrank back much more now than he had done in 1536. Indeed, he was not mistaken in his fears, for his subsequent life was an unbroken struggle. We need not wonder then that he refused call upon call, and requested Farel and Viret to desist from their efforts to allure him away.^
At the same time, he was determined to obey the will of God as soon as it would be made clear to him by unmistakable indications of Providence. "When I remember," he wrote to Farel, " that in this matter I am not my own master, I present my heart as a sacrifice and offer it up to the Lord." ^ A very characteristic sentence, which reveals the soul of his piety. A seal of Calvin bears this motto, and the emblem is a hand presenting a heart to God. Seven-
^ March 1, 1541 (from Ulm on his journey to Ratisbon): " Non aliter respondeo quam quod semper solitus sum : Nullum esse locum sub ccelo quern magis reforinidem, non quia oderim, sed quoniam tot difficultates illic mihi propositus video, quibus superandis sentio me longe esse imparem. Quoties superioriim temporitm subit recordatio, facere nequeo quin toto pectore exhorrescam, si cogar me iterum antiquis illis certuminibus objicere. Si mihi cum ecclesia ilia tantum esset negocium, animo essem quietiore ; certe nunus terrerer. Sed vicinos [allusion to Bern] cogito, qui mihi oUm tantum molestiie exhibuerunt." Opera, XI. 167; Herniinjard, VII. 43.
2 Dyer (p. 121) and Kampschulte (I. 370) suspect, without any reason, that Calvin, in his repeated refusals, was influenced by the unworthy motive to humble the pride of the Genevese. "What more could they do than bombard him with petitions and deputations 1 And this they did months before he accepted the call.
3 " Cor meum velut mactatum Domino in sacrijicium offero." Oct. 24, 1540. Opera, XI. 100 ; Herminjard, VI. 339. Henry has appropriately chosen this sentence as the motto for his biography.