The exile of the two great reformers and this lamentable state of things, which rejoiced the men of the Romish party, everywhere filled the friends of the Reformation with sorrow. They wept over ‘the great joy of the Pharisees and of the enemies of God’s holy name.’ There were groans, prayers, and exclamations. ‘How is it that this town, which the Son of God had chosen as his abode and his sanctuary, was nevertheless as deeply sunk in its pollutions as before, just as if no single drop of God’s grace had ever fallen upon it?’[664] People thought of Capernaum, which was at first lifted up to heaven and then cast down to hell! Calvin perceived that the causes which had led to his exile endangered not only the progress but the very existence of the Reformation. Terrified at the peril, he was resolved to do his utmost to prevent such a calamity. Où le danger est grand, c’est là que je m’efforce. Will not the Churches and even the States of Switzerland sympathize in their trials? Will they not help them to save Geneva? If Roman Catholicism were reëstablished there and if by that means Savoy should become predominant, the Reformation in Berne and the other cantons would be more or less menaced, and the Pays de Vaud might return to its former lords. Calvin, assuredly, might have elsewhere a more peaceful and comfortable life than at Geneva; but he had decided to ‘lose his life,’ and had given it up for God and his kingdom. This town, in which he hoped to raise the standard of the Gospel, might have become one day a fortress whose formidable front would have repelled the combined attacks of the enemy. And now he has to abandon it. He hastened to Berne, where he expected to obtain assistance, as formerly the Bertheliers and the Besançon Hugh had done, when threatened by the forces of Savoy. [Sidenote: THE COUNCIL OF BERNE.]