Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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matter of utter indifference, could they but obtain the liberty to do
whatever they desired. Many were induced by necessity and hunger, some
by ambition or by a shameful desire of gain, to attempt a general
overthrow, and to risk their own ruin as well as ours, rather than be subject
to the laws. Scarcely a single thing, I believe, was left unattempted by them
during this long period which we might not suppose to have been prepared
in the workshop of Satan. Their wretched designs could only be attended
with a shameful disappointment. A melancholy drama was thus presented
to me; for much as they deserved all possible punishment, I should have
been rejoiced to see them passing their lives in peace and respectability:
which might have been the case, had they not wholly rejected every kind of
prudent admonition.”
At one time he almost despaired of success. He wrote to Farel, Dec. 14,
1547: “Affairs are in such a state of confusion that I despair of being able
longer to retain the Church, at least by my own endeavors. May the Lord
hear your incessant prayers in our behalf.” And to Viret he wrote, on Dec.
17, 1547: “Wickedness has now reached such a pitch here that I hardly
hope that the Church can be upheld much longer, at least by means of my
ministry. Believe me, my power is broken, unless God stretch forth his
hand.” f728
The adversaries of Calvin were, with a few exceptions, the same who had
driven him away in 1538. They never cordially consented to his recall.
They yielded for a time to the pressure of public opinion and political
necessity; but when he carried out the scheme of discipline much more
rigorously than they had expected, they showed their old hostility, and
took advantage of every censurable act of the Consistory or Council. They
hated him worse than the pope. f729 They abhorred the very word
“discipline.” They resorted to personal indignities and every device of
intimidation; they nicknamed him “Cain,” and gave his name to the dogs of
the street; they insulted him on his way to the lecture-room; they fired one
night fifty shots before his bed-chamber; they threatened him in the pulpit;
they approached the communion table to wrest the sacred elements from
his hands, but he refused to profane the sacrament and overawed them. On
another occasion he walked into the midst of an excited crowd and offered
his breast to their daggers. As late as October 15, 1554, he wrote to an old
friend: “Dogs bark at me on all sides. Everywhere I am saluted with the
name of ‘heretic,’ and all the calumnies that can possibly be invented are