THE BANISHED MINISTERS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS. (END OF 1538.) [Sidenote: THE REFORMERS SET OUT TO BERNE.] The reformers set out on their journey to Berne. Calvin at length breathed freely, but not without sadness; for while he felt himself free, as if standing on an invigorating height, he looked on Geneva sunk in the flats. It was in fulfilment of a sacred duty that he had made a last effort. He had not, succeeded. ‘It is evident now from the experiment that we have just made,’ said he, ‘that it was no mere groundless fear that influenced us when, although pressed (at Zurich) by the authority of the Church, we could, nevertheless, only with great reluctance consent to reënter that labyrinth. Now we have got clear of it. We have complied with the desire of all pious men, although with no result, except perhaps to render the evil twofold or threefold worse than it was before.[713] Satan exulted at Geneva and in the whole of France on occasion of our first banishment; but this refusal to receive us has added not a little to his presumption and to that of his members. It is incredible with what recklessness and insolence wicked men now give themselves up to all manner of vice; with what effrontery they insult the servants of Christ; with what violence they make a mock at the Gospel. This is a calamity which to us is very painful indeed....’ Afterwards, addressing Bullinger and all the ministers of Zurich, he said to them, ‘Entreat the Lord with us, dearly beloved brethren, with earnest prayer, that very soon he may arise.’[714] It is possible that the reports which reached Calvin may have been a little exaggerated and that his own phrases may be a little sharp; but there is no doubt that the condition of Geneva was at this time extremely critical. ‘_There was nothing but confusion_,’ says Rozet; ‘the citizens abandoned themselves to licentiousness, dancing, gaming, and drinking. The finger was pointed at those who mourned over these things; they were men marked and hated. No preaching could be fruitful in the midst of such confusion.’[715] The syndic Gautier, a man who was above all a champion of government, and who censured Calvin for not acknowledging that the very foundation of every society is subordination and obedience, duties to the civil magistrate which are as obligatory on pastors as on other men, after examining whether Calvin’s complaints were just, pronounced the following sentence: ‘Calvin was right so far as he had reference to the licentious lives of his adversaries, and to their love for libertinism and independence; but he was certainly mistaken if he considered them as enemies of God for wishing to observe the four principal festivals, and to introduce the use of unleavened bread.’[716] This is likewise our own opinion. [Sidenote: CALVIN AND FAREL AT BERNE.]