After requiring that evangelical order should be established in the church, Calvin’s first act was to call the people to humiliation and prayer. The evils which then desolated Christendom were afflicting to him. The pestilence, after striking the reformer in his affections at Strasburg, was raging cruelly in many countries, and was threatening Geneva. In addition to this, Solyman was overrunning Hungary. But in this act of humiliation Calvin had another object in view. A new life must begin for Geneva, and how was it to be prepared except by repentance and prayer? There was need of a change of inclination, and this could only be effected by the voice of conscience making itself heard, and opposing with its authority the moral evil existing in each individual. Then a real sense of the need of redemption would awaken in men’s hearts, and they would lay hold of the Gospel which the Reformation brought them. Calvin, therefore, set forth in the council: ‘That the Christian churches are grievously troubled, both by the plague and by the persecution of the Turks; that we are bound to pray for each other; that it would be well to return to God with humble supplications for the increase and the honor of his holy Gospel.’ Consequently, ‘in the same month of October, one day in the week was appointed for solemn prayer in the church for all the necessities of men, and for turning away the wrath of God.’[115] Wednesday was the day definitely fixed. When the day came, therefore, all shops were closed, the great bell called the people together, the churches were crowded, the ministers implored the mercy of the Lord, and Calvin’s discourse was grave, and full not only of force but of charity. ‘With the truth,’ he said, ‘we must join love, to the end that all may be benefited, and be at peace with one another.’[116] Footnote 79: Calvin to Viret, Strasburg, 25th July and 13th August, 1541. _Opp._ xi. pp. 259, 262. Footnote 80: Chron. MS. de Roset, book iv. ch. 18. Registers of the Council. Gautier. Roget, _Peuple de Genève_, i. p. 304. Footnote 81: ‘Non ignoratis in quos _tumultus et horrida scandala_ ab eo quo pii ministri nostri, magna quidem _injuria_, _tumultu_ et conspiratione potius quam judicii ordine, ab urbe nostra injuste profligati fuerunt.’—Archives of Geneva. Gautier, Hist. MS., p. 474. Calv. _Opp._ xi. p. 227. Footnote 82: ‘Unde ingentem piorum et proborum virorum turbam ad gemitum et lacrimas adegerunt.’—Calv. _Opp._ xi. p. 227. Footnote 83: ‘Per eos rejecti qui propriam sectabantur concupiscentiam, potius quam Dei voluntatem.’—_Ibid._ Footnote 84: ‘Posteaquam factiosorum seditiosorumque hominum arte et machinationibus.’—Calv. _Opp._ xi. p. 222. Footnote 85: ‘Nihil præter molestias, inimicitias, lites, contentiones, dissolutiones, seditiones, factiones et homicidia.’—Calv. _Opp._ xi. p. 222. Footnote 86: ‘Cum hic velut ostium Galliæ, Italiæque simus.’—Calv. _Opp._ xi. p. 122. Footnote 87: