11.03.2019 Views

Rise and Establishment of Protestantism at Geneva - James Aitken Wylie

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

those bodies which afterwards <strong>at</strong> various intervals<br />

filled Popish Christendom with their swarms, <strong>and</strong><br />

made themselves a terror by the physical <strong>and</strong> moral<br />

horrors th<strong>at</strong> marked their career.<br />

"One day, in the large hall <strong>of</strong> the Cloisters,<br />

behind the c<strong>at</strong>hedral, Calvin was giving his lecture<br />

on divinity. Around his chair hundreds were<br />

thronging, <strong>and</strong> amongst them numbers <strong>of</strong> future<br />

preachers <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> future martyrs. Suddenly they<br />

hear outside laughter, cries, <strong>and</strong> a gre<strong>at</strong> clamore:<br />

This proceeds from fifteen or twenty Libertines,<br />

who, out <strong>of</strong> h<strong>at</strong>red to Calvin, are giving a specimen<br />

<strong>of</strong> their manners, <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> wh<strong>at</strong> they call liberty.<br />

"Such is the picture <strong>of</strong> the two <strong>Geneva</strong>s. One <strong>of</strong> the<br />

two must necessarily perish."[2]<br />

Among the Libertines, however, there were two<br />

classes. There was the class <strong>of</strong> which we have just<br />

had a specimen, <strong>and</strong> there was a class <strong>of</strong> a much<br />

less malignant <strong>and</strong> dangerous kind. The l<strong>at</strong>ter was<br />

composed <strong>of</strong> the old families <strong>of</strong> <strong>Geneva</strong>. They<br />

loved to dance, to masquerade, to play.<br />

266

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!