§ 101. THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 465
refugees who settled at Geneva. The revised code was begun in 1560, and published in 1568.^
Among the laws of Geneva we mention a press law, the oldest in Switzerland, dated Feb. 15, 1560. Laws against the freedom of the press existed before, especially in Spain. Alexander VI., a Spaniard, issued a bull in 1501, instructing the German prelates to exercise a close supervision over printers. Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic established a censorship which prohibited, under severe penalties, the printing, importation, and sale of any book that had not previously passed an examination and obtained a license. Rome adopted the same policy. Other countries, Protestant as well as Roman Catholic, followed the example. In Russia, the severest restrictions of the press are still in force.
The press law of Geneva was comparatively moderate. It put the press under the supervision of three prudent and experienced men, to be appointed by the government. These men have authority to appoint able and trustworthy printers, to examine every book before it is printed, to prevent popish, heretical, and infidel publications, to protect the publisher against piracy ; but Bibles, catechisms, prayers, and psalms may be printed by all publishers ; new translations of the Scriptures are privileged in the first edition.^
The censorship of the press continued in Geneva till the eighteenth century. In 1600 the Council forbade the printing of the essays of Montaigne ; in 1763 Rousseau's Emile was condemned to be burned.
1 On the Colladon family see La France Protestante, IV. 510 sqq. (second ed. by Bordier). Another distinguished member was Nicolas Colladon, who published a Life of Calvin in 1565, and succeeded him in the chair of theology in 1566.
- The Spanish censorship was applied to the vernacular versions of the Bible, the works of Erasmus, all Protestant books, the Mystics and Illurainati, the Molinists and Quietists. The natural consequence of this tyraimy was the decadence of intellectual and literary activity. See H. C. Lea, Chapters from ike Religious History of Spain connected with the Inquisition, Philadelphia, 1890.
466 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
It should be noted, however, that under the influence of Calvin Geneva became one of the most imjjortant places of publication. The famous Robert Stephen (Etienne, 1503- 1559), being censured by the Sorbonne of Paris, settled in Geneva after the death of his father, Henri, as a professed Protestant, and printed there two editions of the Hebi'ew Bible, and an edition of the Greek Testament, with the Vulgate and Erasmian versions, in 1551, which for the first time contains the versicular division of the text according to our present usage. To him we owe the Thesaurus Linguce Latinoe (third ed. 1543, in 4 vols.), and to his son, Henri, the Thesaurus Linguce Grcecce (1572, 4 vols.). Beza published several editions of his Greek Testament in Geneva (1565- 1598), which were chiefly used by King James' translators. In the same city appeared the English version of the New Testament by Whittingham, 1557 ; then of the whole Bible, 1560. This is the so-called " Geneva Bible," or " Breeches Bible " (from the rendering of Gen. 3 : 7), which was for a long time the most popular English version, and passed through about two hundred editions from 1560 to 1630.^ Geneva has well maintained its literary reputation to this day.
§ 102. Distinctive Principles of Calvin'' s Church Polity.
Calvin was a legislator and the founder of a new system of church polity and discipline. He had a legal training, which was of much use to him in organizing the Reformed Church at Geneva. If he had lived in the Middle Ages, he might have been a Hilde brand or an Innocent III. But the spirit of the Reformation required a reconstruction of church government on an evangelical and popular basis.
Calvin laid great stress on the outward organization and order of the Church, but in subordination to sound doctrine and the inner spiritual life. He compares the former to the
^ The Bibles in the Carton Exhibition, London, 1878, p. 95.