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

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§ 150. STATE OF POLITICAL PARTIES AT GENEVA IN 1553.
Calvin’s position in Geneva at that time was very critical. For in the year
1553 he was in the fever-heat of the struggle for church discipline with the
Patriots and Libertines, who had gained a temporary ascendency in the
government. Amy Perrin, the leader of the patriotic party, was then
captain-general and chief syndic, and several of his kinsmen and friends
were members of the Little Council of Twenty-five. f1168 During the trial of
Servetus the Council sustained Philibert Berthelier against the act of
excommunication by the Consistory, and took church discipline into its
own hands. The foreign refugees were made harmless by being deprived of
their arms. Violence was threatened to the Reformer. He was everywhere
saluted as “a heretic,” and insulted on the streets. Beza says: “In the year
1553, the wickedness of the seditions, hastening to a close, was so
turbulent that both Church and State were brought into extreme danger ….
. Everything seemed to be in a state of preparation for accomplishing the
plans of the seditious, since all was subject to their power.” And Calvin, at
the close of that year, wrote to a friend: “For four years the factions have
done all to lead by degrees to the overthrow of this Church, already very
weak. Behold two years of our life have passed as if we lived among the
avowed enemies of the gospel.”
The hostility of the Council to Calvin and his discipline continued even
after the execution of Servetus for nearly two more years. He asked the
assistance of Bullinger and the Church of Zürich to come to his aid again in
this struggle. f1169 He wrote to Ambrose Blaurer, Feb. 6, 1554: “These last
few years evil disposed persons have not ceased on every occasion to
create for us new subjects of vexation. At length in their endeavors to
render null our excommunication, there is no excess of folly they have left
unattempted. Everywhere the contest was long maintained with much
violence, because in the senate and among the people the passions of the
contending parties had been so much inflamed that there was some risk of
a tumult.” f1170
We do not know whether Servetus was aware of this state of things. But
he could not have come at a time more favorable to him and more
unfavorable to Calvin. Among the Libertines and Patriots, who hated the
yoke of Calvin even more than the yoke of the pope, Servetus found
natural supporters who, in turn, would gladly use him for political