§ 109. THE LEADERS OF THE LIBERTINES. 511
Their estates were confiscated, and their wives banished from Geneva. The office of captain-general was again abolished to avoid the danger of a military dictatorship.
But the government of Bern protected the fugitives, and allowed them to commit outrages on Genevese citizens within their reach, and to attack Calvin and Geneva with all sorts of reproaches and calumnies.
Thus the "comic Csesar" ended as the "tragic Csesar." An impartial biographer of Calvin calls the last chapter in Perrin's career "a caricature of the Catilinarian conspiracy."^
3. The case of Pierre Ameaux shows a close connection between the political and religious Libertines. He was a member of the Council of Two Hundred. He sought and obtained a divorce from his wife, who was condemned to perpetual imprisonment for the theory and practice of freelovism of the worst kind. But he hated Calvin's theology and discipline. At a supper party in his own house he freely indulged in drink, and roundly abused Calvin as a teacher of false doctrine, as a very bad man, and nothing but a Picard.^
For this offence he was imprisoned by the Council for two months and condemned to a fine of sixty dollars. He made an apology and retracted his words. But Calvin was not satisfied, and demanded a second trial. The Council condemned him to a degrading punishment called the amende honorable, namely, to parade through the streets in his shirt, with bare head, and a lighted torch in his hand, and to ask on bended knees the pardon of God, of the Council, and of Calvin. This harsh judgment provoked a popular outbreak in the quarter of St. Gervais, but the Council proceeded in a body to the
1 Dyer, p. 397.
2 He said, according to the Registers of the Council, Jan. 27, 1546, "que M. Calvin estoyt mesckant homme et nestoyt que un picard et preschoijt faulce doctrine," etc. Comp. on his case Annal. 368, 370, 37L Audin calls Anieaux " a man of the bar-room with a wicked tongue and a soul destitute of energy " (p. 386). He gives quite an amusing account of the drinking party.
512 THE KBFORMATION IN FEENCH SWITZERLAND.
spot and ordered the wine-shops to be closed and a gibbet to be erected to frighten the mob. The sentence on Araeaux •was executed April 5, 1546. Two preachers, Henri de la Mare and Aime Maigret, who had taken part in the drinking scene, were de^josed. The former had said before the Council that Calvin was " a good and virtuous man, and of great intellect, but sometimes governed by his passions, impatient, full of hatred, and vindictive." The latter had committed more serious offences.^
4. Pierre Vandel was a handsome, brilliant, and frivolous cavalier, and loved to exhibit himself with a retinue of valets and courtesans, with rings on his fingers and golden chains on his breast. He had been active in the expulsion of Calvin, and opposed him after his recall. He was imprisoned for his debaucheries and insolent conduct before the Consistory. He was Syndic in 1548. He took a leading part in the conspiracy of Perrin and shared his condemnation and exile.^
5. Philibert Berthelier (or Bertelier, Bertellier), an unworthy son of the distinguished patriot who, in 1519, had been beheaded for his part in the war of independence, belonged to the most malignant enemies of Calvin. He had gone to Noyon, if we are to believe the assertion of Bolsec, to bring back scandalous reports concerning the early life of the Reformer, Avhich the same Bolsec published thirteen years after Calvin's death, but without any evidence.^ If the Libertines had been in jDOSsession of such information, they would have made use of it. Berthelier is characterized by Beza as " a man of the most consummate impudence " and "guilty of many iniquities." He was excommunicated by
1 Annal. 378 and .380. The ministers interceded in behalf of De la Mare, and the Council gave him six dollars (ecus). Maigret was found guilty of neglecting his duties and visiting houses of ill fame.
2 Annal. 411, 611 sq. ; Opera, XII. 547, note 14, with references to Galiffe, Bonivard, and Roget.
^ See above, p. 302 sq. That abominable slander about sodomy, which even Galiffe rejects. Audin and Spalding are not ashamed to repeat.