Calvin was in Geneva for the second time, dragged there both times
unwillingly, his dream of a quiet scholar's life completely shattered.
The work that lay before him proved to be almost as hard as he had
foreseen it would be. The common idea that from this second entry Calvin
was master within the city, is quite erroneous. Fourteen years were
spent in a hard struggle (1541-55); and if the remaining nine years of
his life can be called his period of triumph over opponents (1555-64),
it must be remembered that he was never able to see his ideas of an
ecclesiastical organisation wholly carried out in the city of his
adoption. One must go to the Protestant Church of France to see Calvin's
idea completely realised.[152]
On the day of his entry into Geneva (Sept. 13th, 1541) the Council
resolved that a Constitution should be given to the Church of the city,
and a committee was formed, consisting of Calvin, his colleagues in the
ministry, and six members of the Council, to prepare the draft. The work
was completed in twenty days, and ready for presentation. On September
16th, however, it had been resolved that the draft when prepared should
be submitted for revision to the _Smaller Council_, to the _Council of
Sixty_, and finally to the _Council of Two Hundred_. The old opposition
at once manifested itself within these Councils. There seem to have been
alterations, and at the last moment Calvin thought that the Constitution
would be made worthless for the purpose of discipline and orderly
ecclesiastical rule. In the end, however, the drafted ordinances were
adopted unanimously by the _Council of Two Hundred_ without serious
alteration. The result was the famous _Ecclesiastical Ordinances of
Geneva_ in their first form. They did not assume their final form until
1561.[153]
When these _Ordinances_ of 1541 are compared with the principles of
ecclesiastical government laid down in the _Institutio_, with the
_Articles_ of 1537, and with the _Ordinances_ of 1561, it can be seen
that Calvin must have sacrificed a great deal in order to content the
magistrates of Geneva.
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