that which was pronounced by contemporaries. CHAPTER XI. CALVIN AND FAREL PREACH IN SPITE OF THE PROHIBITION BY THE COUNCIL.--THEY ARE BANISHED FROM GENEVA. (EASTER, 1538.) [Sidenote: APPROACH OF THE CRISIS.] The crisis was approaching. The danger was increasing. Geneva was in one of those perilous but decisive moments in which some sudden change takes place, whether for better or for worse. The population was getting more and more excited. The news that the ministers would not celebrate the supper in Geneva raised irritation to the highest pitch. All explanations were useless; many people would not listen to anything; anger had stopped their ears. It is said that in the evening the streets were in an uproar, and that bands of factious men were shouting against the ministers. It is even added that a masquerade had been organized for the purpose of presenting a parody of scenes from the Gospel. We are not sure that the libertines went to that length; but there was during the evening a great agitation in the town, as the next day too plainly showed. These scenes of tumult greatly grieved Calvin. If he turned his thoughts to the past, the great sorrows which he had already borne in Geneva appeared to him again; and he foresaw that those which were approaching would be more bitter still. Interfered with in the preaching of the Word, in the administration of the sacraments, in the maintenance of apostolical discipline and in the organization of the Church (the council refused its consent to the division of the town into parishes, a measure which would have greatly facilitated the discharge of pastoral duties, and have promoted the good of families), what was he to do? ‘I confess,’ he wrote, ‘that the first letters by which the senate endeavored to turn aside my will from the right path struck me a heavy blow.[629] I saw that I was thus again plunged into the distresses from which I had hoped that I was delivered by the great goodness of God. When I accepted the government of this Church, in conjunction with my excellent and most faithful colleague Farel, I applied myself in all good conscience to seeking out the means by which it might be maintained; and although it was for me a very laborious charge, I never thought of abandoning the place. I considered myself as set by the hand of God at a post from which I could not withdraw. And nevertheless, if I were to tell the least part of the cares, or rather of the miseries, which we were forced to endure throughout a whole year, I am sure that you would think it incredible.[630] I can assure you that not a day has passed in which I did not ten times wish for death.’[631] This Easter eve, when he was on the point of exposing himself to the greatest griefs, while giving unto God the honor which is due to him, was doubtless one of those days. He must drink the cup of the people’s wrath. He, the timid scholar, as he