Geneva Bible

“ Religion there—unless it be among the common people—is reduced to the worship of one God; a certain respect for Jesus Christ and the Scriptures is, perhaps, the only thing that distinguishes the Christianity of Geneva from pure Deism.’
This in the city of Calvin. It was as though the encyclopædist had stirred a hornets’ nest. To change the metaphor, the fat was in the fire, and the flame blazed up at once. ”

“ It is sad to think of Geneva without the presence of its pastor, so admirably fitted as he is to carry on the work of S. Francis and execute the designs of God in this important see. The faith is most vigorous just where the attack is hottest, and it is on the missionary bishoprics, flung thus into the warring bosoms of non-Catholic nations, that, humanly speaking, the future—and let us say the triumph—of the church very much depends. ”

“ To invest with a dignity; to convey as a fee. 2. To surrender; to give up.
3. “Terra North Manorum.” Land of the North-men.
4. “Rubrics.” Those parts of any work which in ancient manuscripts were colored red, to distinguish them from other parts, especially the title pages.
5. “Genevan Bible.” This famous Bible appeared in 1557, so called because the translation was made in Geneva by several English divines who had fled from the persecutions of the bloody Mary. It was long the favorite version of the English Puritans. ”

“ The Geneva Conflict, 1870-1883.―The Catholic church of Canton Geneva, on the founding of the six Swiss bishoprics by a papal bull, had been incorporated “for all time to come,” after the style of the concordat, with the bishopric of Freiburg-Lausanne. But the government made no objection when the newly elected priest of Geneva, Mermillod, a Jesuit of the purest water, assumed the title and rank of an episcopal vicar-general for the whole canton. But when in 1864 the pope nominated him bishop of Hebron in partibus and auxiliary bishop of Geneva, it made a protest. ”

“ All the world knows of the great success with which the art of the pulpit is cultivated at Geneva; but men are so used to hearing divines preach one thing and practise another, that few have a chance of knowing how far the spirit of Christianity, holiness of manners, severity towards themselves and indulgence towards their neighbours, prevail throughout the whole body of our ministers. It is, perhaps, given to the city of Geneva alone, to produce the edifying example of so perfect a union between its clergy and men of letters. ”

“ It was not merely some of the Calvinistic doctrines of the sixteenth century that the pastors of Geneva doubted or denied, but it was also the fundamental articles of Christianity; they abandoned not only the Dogmas of predestination and salvation by faith alone, but the dogmas of original sin, and of the divinity of Jesus Christ. In 1810 according to some, as far back as 1802 according to others, symptoms of an evangelical reaction showed themselves at Geneva among the students in theology, some of whom afterward became distinguished pastors or writers. ”

“ One topic, and one protest, occupies the whole of Protestant Geneva, at the present time, and that is against Catholicism and its encroachments. More and more Catholics are continually flying hither from Savoy, and are now building themselves here, a magnificent cathedral. The Catholic bishop attracts an ever-increasing audience to his sermons. All this is a great grief to the true Genevese, and they speak violently against the encroaching church, which they, in the mean time, assure themselves they need not fear. ”

“ The church is more active at Geneva than almost anywhere in Europe; unbelief is more rampant and more unblushing; dissent more earnest, and, if blinded, yet more sincere. Thirty or forty years ago, a body of Genevese ministers of the “National Church” did what no other Protestant body corresponding in numbers and influence has ever done in modern times—they voluntarily gave up their benefices, and threw themselves with their families, utterly destitute, on the generosity of such among their flocks as would follow their conscience. ”

“ He undertook to new model the religious creed of the reformed church; to give it strength and consistency, and to render the church of Geneva the mother and mistress of all Protestant churches. His learning, eloquence, and talents for business, soon attracted general notice; and, while the fervour of his zeal, the austerity of his manners, and the devotional cast of his writings, attracted the multitude, the elegance of his compositions, and his insinuating style, equally captivated the gentleman and the scholar. By degrees, his fame reached every part of Europe. ”

“ The spirit now dominant at Geneva clearly indicates the success of the late efforts toward reform. The congregations have largely increased; various humanitarian [Pg 430] enterprises have been vigorously prosecuted; societies for the circulation of religious knowledge have been founded; and the laity have come to the assistance of the clergy in labors for the social and moral elevation of the masses. For a quarter of a century young men have been judiciously trained in theology, and Switzerland is now supplying many prominent French pulpits with her graduates. ”

“ There were now not pastors enough. Switzerland was written to for more. Geneva, the Pays de Vaud, the canton of Neufchâtel, supplied as many as they could. They even deprived themselves of those, whose services were most useful to them, in order to satisfy wants more pressing than their own. Many young men, instructed under the eye of Calvin, and others of mature age, of different professions, were consecrated to the ministry of the Gospel. All saw, in the ardour of their faith, a great nation to be conquered. ”

“ You would not bring your wives and daughters to hear us speak of Jesus, though you would bring them to hear us if we danced and sang upon the stage of your theatre. Now you have expelled us; but still there are those multitudes in Geneva who are dark, lost, unsaved; and you know it. There they are; they exist. What will you do with them? Say—what will you do? Are they not a danger? Does not their lost condition cry out against you? ”

“ Lastly, those citizens who were both good Genevans and good catholics, were seized with fear and melancholy. 'No more canons, erelong perhaps no more bishop!... Will Geneva, without its canons and bishops, be Geneva still?' But the great voice, which drowned all the rest, was that of the partisans of progress, of liberty, of independence, and of reform, who desired to see political liberty developed among the community, and the Church directed by the Word of God and not by the bulls of the pope. Among them were Maison-Neuve, Bonivard, Porral, Bernard, Chautemps, and others. ”

“ But it is not sufficient to reject what is false; the truth preached by Christ and the apostles must be believed. Faith is the principle of the Reformation. There was at Geneva, to some extent, that negative protestantism which rejects not only the abuses of popery, but also evangelical truth itself; which can create nothing, and which is little else than a form—and certainly one of the least interesting forms—of philosophy. If Geneva was to be reformed, to become a centre of light and morality, and to maintain her political independence, she must have a positive and living christianity ”

“ Its antiquity, its remarkable history, its past greatness, and its present beauty, the many eminent men who have here spent their lives, and more than all its situation on this lake, give the city of Geneva an attraction that no other place in Switzerland possesses.
The cathedral here in Geneva is the venerable edifice in which John Calvin and his peers in the Reformation preached the doctrines that are now working their way into the minds of the entire Christian world, as the real basis for civil and religious liberty and progress. ”

“ We feel ill at ease in Geneva now, and still more ill in the midst of merrymakings than in the midst of trials. Would the duke and the bishop really succeed in stifling the new life which animated this little state? A great event will arise to give strength to liberty. She descended to the tomb with Berthelier, though still young; she will come forth again when, the gates of Switzerland opening wide, Geneva shall grasp the hand of the ancient champions of independence, and receive the words of Him who said: The truth shall make you free. ”

“ Mounting up to the steeple, I saw a fair Bell with a Crucifix cast upon it, shewing whose it was; and four good pieces of Ordnance, that none may say, the Church of Geneva wants Ecclesiastical Cannons. And a little below in the Belfree, there live in several Chambers, three or four families of husbands and wives, and sucking children begotten there, contrary to the Canons of any other Church, except those of Geneva. From the top of this Church you have a fair prospect upon the lake and neighbouring Countryes ”

“ It seems probable that the Calvinistic scrutiny in Geneva may easily have been in its narrowness and in its persistency a more serious obstacle during the last ten years of the sixteenth century, in the way of publishing and literary undertakings, than the censorship of the Catholic theologians of Paris. ”

“ And yet the love and the reverence in which they hold this sacred mystery, have induced them to give it such a prominence in all their writings, that I defy you, fathers, with all your cunning, to detect in them either the least appearance of ambiguity, or the slightest correspondence with the sentiments of Geneva.
Everybody knows, fathers, that the essence of the Genevan heresy consists, as it does according to your own showing, in their believing that Jesus Christ is not contained (enfermé) , in this sacrament; that it is impossible he can be in many places at once ”

“ The Genevans, who had not a moment's repose, mournfully told one another the news. 'In the states of Savoy there are loud rumours of war,' they said; 'the nobles are enraged against the evangelicals, whom they call Lutherans; and some of the gentry are assembled already, and going to and fro under arms.' The citizens did not give way to dejection; on the contrary, the knowledge of these intrigues and preparations made them long the more earnestly for the emancipation of Geneva. ”

“ The religious phases that have come and gone in this small and seemingly insignificant spot form an epitome of the religious history of Europe. The age of faith, the age of fanaticism, the age of indifferentism, have reigned successively in Geneva. In the XIIIth century, as in many an earlier one, High Mass was sung at S. Peter's, and monks or canons sat in the stalls which yet remain in the choir; in the XVIth, Calvin and Beza sat in plain black gown, teaching justification by faith alone, and burning Michael Servetus for tenets that disturbed the new "personal infallibility" of the Reformers ”

“ Socialists who had found refuge in Geneva—men of many nationalities—came en masse. A large part of the audience were so entirely strangers to the idea of worship or of a Divine Being, that the sound of prayer called forth loud derisive laughter, with questions and cries of surprise and scorn.
But the soldiers of Christ, clad in armour of light, were more than a match for the powers of darkness. Many a winged word found its mark, and the after-meeting in the smaller hall, into which three hundred were crowded, was pervaded by a death-like stillness, in which many sought and found salvation. ”

“ In the presence of such facts as these, the hopes of the ancient Catholic rulers of Geneva began to revive, and its last bishop, Pierre de la Baume (who had been made cardinal) , the Duke of Savoy, and the Pope (Paul III.) prepared themselves for fresh efforts. A conference was established at Lyons, consisting of three cardinals and six archbishops or bishops, the object of which was to seek and put into operation means whereby the ancient Catholic religion might be re-established in Geneva. There was no lack of partisans or agents in Geneva itself. ”

“ The huguenots of Geneva captivated his attention. The decision, the sacrifices, the perseverance, and the heroism, with which the Genevans defended their threatened liberty, moved him profoundly. The independence of a city, acquired by so much courage and by so many privations, perils, and sufferings, is, without doubt, a sacred thing in the eyes of all ”

“ Ladies and gentlemen, always preserve your glorious title, and make yourselves worthy of the great name borne by your noble city. Is it not called Geneva, Gebenna, [485] that is to say, gens bona, gens benigna, gens sancta, gens præclara, gens devota? ... a good, merciful, holy, illustrious, and devout people.... Your name declares it.’ The monk was inexhaustible in extravagant compliments, although he knew very well what he ought to think of the ‘holiness’ of the Genevese, and particularly of the monks and priests. ”

“ This final effort of Roman-catholicism in Geneva did not succeed. On the contrary, the huguenots, provoked by his fawning, said: ‘We do not desire to please either gentlemen or ladies,’ [486] and moved with firm steps in the path of Reform. Farel, setting aside the manifold ceremonies with which Rome had overburdened public worship, desired to re-establish baptism in conformity with the Gospel institution, as a sign of regeneration. The news spread, and excited great curiosity even among the strangers who were in Geneva. ”

“ Geneva without the Gospel, without Calvin, would not [360] have won the sympathy of the evangelical nations, nor would she have possessed the moral force to surmount great perils. Weakened, enervated, and corrupted, this city would soon have lost her independence, as all those free cities of the Middle Ages in Italy and elsewhere did. These were one after another compelled to stoop under the sword of their neighbors and under the yoke of Rome. A free people must have a religion of high quality (de bon aloi) . ”