Rise and Establishment of Protestantism at Geneva - James Aitken Wylie

the side of the ministers, the Council ventured on
issuing an edict, commanding the Libertines to
leave the city.
But it had not the courage to enforce its own
order; and the Libertines, seeing its weakness, grew
every day more insolent. At length the elections in
February, 1538, gave a majority in their favor in
the Council; three out of the four Syndics were on
the side of the Libertines.[5] This turn of affairs
placed the pastors in a position of extreme
difficulty. They stood in front of a hostile Council,
pushed on from behind by a hostile population.
Calvin remained firm. His resolution was taken
unalterably to save his principle, come what might
to himself. He was determined at all hazards not to
give holy things to unholy men; for he saw that
with that principle must stand or fall the
Reformation in Geneva.
While these intestine convulsions shook the
city within, invasion threatened it without. The
strifes of the citizens were the signal to their old
enemies to renew their attempts to recover Geneva.
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