§ 110. GENEVA REGENERATED. 515
had no excommunication in their Church. The answers of the two other cantons are lost, but seem to have been rather favorable to Calvin's cause.
In the meantime matters assumed a more promising aspect. On Jan. 1, 1554, at a grand dinner given by the Council and judges, Calvin being present, a desire for peace was universally expressed. On the second of February the Council of Two Hundred swore, with uplifted hands, to conform to the doctrines of the Reformation, to forget the past, to renounce all hatred and animosity, and to live together in unity.
Calvin regarded this merely as a truce, and looked for further troubles. He declared before the Council that he readily forgave all his enemies, but could not sacrifice the rights of the Consistory, and would rather leave Geneva. The irritation continued in 1554. The opposition broke out again in the conspiracy against the foreigners and the council, which has been already described. The plot failed. Berthelier was, with Perrin, condemned to death, but escaped with him the execution of justice by flight.^
This was the end of Libertinism in Geneva.
§ 110. Greneva Regenerated. Testhnonies Old and New.
The final result of this long conflict with Libertinism is the best vindication of Calvin. Geneva came out of it a new city, and with a degree of moral and spiritual prosperity which distinguished her above any other Christian city for several generations. What a startling contrast she presents, for instance, to Rome, the city of the vicar of Christ and his cardinals, as described by Roman Catholic writers of the sixteenth century! If ever in this wicked world the ideal of Christian society can be realized in a civil community
1 Reg. du Conseil, Aug. 6, 1555 (in Annal. 611 sq.) : " Philibert Bertellier, P. Vandel, et J. B. Sept condamn^s h mart par contumace, Michael Sept au hanisspinent /lerpe'tuel, sans peine de mori ; six autres a la meme peine ; deux a dix ans ile bunisstiaent, et tons au.c di-'pens."
516 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
with a mixed population, it was in Geneva from the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the eighteenth century, when the revolutionary and infidel genius of Rousseau (a native of Geneva) and of Voltaire (who resided twenty years in the neighborhood, on his estate at Ferney) began to destroy the influence of the Reformer.
After the final collapse of the Libertine party in 1555, the peace was not seriously disturbed, and Calvin's work progressed without interruption. The authorities of the State were as zealous for the honor of the Church and the glory of Christ as the ministers of the gospel. The churches were well filled; the Word of God was preached daily; family worship was the rule ; prayer and singing of Psalms never ceased ; the whole city seemed to present the aspect of a community of sincere, earnest Christians who pi'actised what they believed. Every Friday a spiritual conference and experience meeting, called the " Congregation," was held in St. Peter's, after the model of the meetings of "prophesying," which had been introduced in Ziirich and Bern. Peter Paul Vergerius, the former papal nuncio, who spent a short time in Geneva, was especially struck with these conferences. "All the ministers," he says,^ "and many citizens attend. One of the preachers reads and briefly explains a text from the Scriptures. Another expresses his views on the subject, and then any member may make a contribution if so disposed. You see, it is an imitation of that custom in the Corinthian Church of which Paul speaks, and I have received much edification from these public colloquies."
The material prosperity of the city was not neglected. Greater cleanliness was introduced, which is next to godliness, and promotes it. Calvin insisted on the removal of all filth from the houses and the narrow and crooked streets. He induced the magistracy to superintend the markets, and
1 Letter in the Zurich library, quoted by Gaberel, I. 512, and StiLlielin, I. 364.