Chapter 16 15. A new signboard in an old era

The greatest of modern poets saw the world as a sea with many ships sailing it.Every time one ship crashes into another, "beautiful music" is created, and people call it history. I am willing to borrow Heine's sea, but only for my own purposes and metaphors.When we were kids we loved throwing stones into the pool for fun.The stones splash beautifully, and the beautiful ripples cause expanding circles, which is very beautiful.If you have bricks handy (and sometimes you do), you can also create an Armada out of walnut shells and matches to trap in a spectacular man-made storm.The heavy throwing object should not throw people off balance, or it will throw a child too close to the water, and leave him in bed afterwards, unable to eat his supper.

In a world reserved exclusively for grown-ups, the same pastime is not unknown, but ends far more tragically. All is calm and safe, the sun is shining and the skaters are swaying happily.Suddenly, a bold and bad boy came with a big stone (God knows where he found it), and before anyone could stop him, he threw the stone with all his strength in the middle of the pond, and a great commotion ensued.People ask who did it and how to spank his ass.Someone said, "Let him go." Others, jealous of the kid because he attracted everyone's attention, picked up old things around them and threw them into the puddle, splashing everyone.One wave of unrest and another wave, the end is often a gang fight, and millions of people have their heads broken.

Alexander is such a bold and bad boy. Helen of Troy is a beautiful, bold and bad woman.History is littered with these men. But the worst perpetrators of all time have been those low-spirited villains who, with their own purposes, make use of the stagnant intellectual indifference of men.I am not surprised that people in their right mind hate them so much that if they are caught they must be punished severely. Consider the devastation they have wrought for nearly four hundred years. They are the leaders of the Restoration of the Old World.The majestic moats of the Middle Ages reflected such a society; it was harmonious in color and structure.It's not perfect, but the people love it, love to see the red brick walls of their little houses merge with the dim gray Catholic church, with the church tower looking down on their souls.

The Renaissance sprang up horribly, turned upside down overnight.But that's just the beginning.The poor free folk had just recovered from their shock when the dreaded Germanic monk reappeared.They brought a whole load of specially prepared bricks and threw them into the center of the pope's lagoon.It was too much indeed, no wonder it took the world three centuries to recover from the shock. Older historians who study this history often make a small mistake.They see the unrest, conclude that the ripples are caused by a common cause, and call it the Renaissance or the Reformation in rotation.

Now we know better. The Renaissance and the Reformation were two movements that both claimed to pursue the same end.But the means to their end were so different that Humanists and Protestants were often hostile to each other. Both believe in the supreme right of man.In the Middle Ages, the individual was submerged in the collective.It's not like John Doe.John Doe was a wise man, coming and going, doing business at will, going to any of the dozen or so churches he wanted (or none, depending on his tastes and prejudices).All his life he lived from cradle to grave according to a rigid booklet of economic and spiritual etiquette, which taught him that the body was a shoddy garment borrowed from Mother Nature and used for nothing but the temporary sustenance of the soul. value.

This training convinced him that this world was only a way station to a better future, and that it should be treated with the same contempt that a traveler to New York despises Queenstown and Halifax. John is very content with this world and lives happily (because he only knows this world).Then came two fairy godmothers: the Renaissance and the Reformation.They said, "Rise up, noble citizen, you are free from now on." John asked, "Freedom to do what?" They gave different answers. "Freedom to pursue what is beautiful," replied the Renaissance. "Freedom to seek the truth," the Reformation admonished him.

"Freedom to explore the past, when the world was truly human. Freedom to realize the ideals to which poets, painters, sculptors, and architects have single-mindedly pursued. Freedom to contain the entire universe in your eternal laboratory, so that You know all its mysteries," Renaissance promised. "Freedom to study the Word of God and you will have the salvation of your soul and the forgiveness of your sins," warned the Reformation. They turned and walked away, leaving poor John Doe in his new freedom.But the new liberty is more uncomfortable than the bondage of the past.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the Renaissance soon reconciled hand in hand with the established order.The descendants of Phidias and Horace found that belief in God and apparent obedience to canon law were very different, and as long as they were careful to call the god Hercules, the spellcaster John Hera, and the Virgin Mary, they could be very different. Holyly paint pagan pictures and compose pagan concertos. It's like traveling to India. As long as you obey some insignificant laws, you can enter the temple, and you can travel freely without getting into trouble. But in the eyes of Luther's sincere followers, the smallest detail can become a matter of incomparable importance. A wrong comma in the Old Testament means exile.If a full stop is used incorrectly in the Book of Revelations, there is immediate death.

Such people take religious belief so seriously that the easy eclectic spirit of the Renaissance seems to them an act of cowardice. As a result, the Renaissance and Reformation broke up, never to unite again. So the Reformation stood alone against the whole world, put on the armor of "rightness," and prepared to defend its most sacred possessions. At first, the rebel army was almost entirely Germanic.They fought, they suffered, they were heroic.But mutual jealousy was the root of the disaster, and quarrels among the northern nations soon counteracted their efforts, and at last they were forced to accept a truce.The strategy that led to the eventual victory was devised by an entirely different genius.Luther gave way to Calvin.

It is long overdue. In the same French academy where Erasmus spent many unhappy days, there was a lame (the result of a Gallic bullet) black-bearded young Spanish man who dreamed of one day leading a new army of God, sweeping All pagans in the Qing Dynasty. Requires one Zealot to defeat another Zealot. Only a man as tenacious as Calvin could defeat Loyola's plan. I'm glad I'm not living in sixteenth-century Geneva.But at the same time, I am also deeply grateful that Geneva existed in the sixteenth century. The twentieth century world would be a much worse place without it, and people like me would probably end up in jail.

The hero of this glorious battle, the famous John Calvin, was a few years younger than Luther.Date of birth: June 10, 1509.Birthplace: Noyen, northern France.Origin: French middle class.Father: lowly clergyman.Mother: Daughter of the tavern owner.Family members: five sons, two daughters.The characteristics of teenagers' education: agile, simple, orderly, generous, meticulous, and efficient. John was the second son, and the family planned to make him a priest.My father had powerful friends who could place him in a good parish.Before he was thirteen, he worked in the church in the city, and had a small fixed income, which was used to send him to the good schools in Paris.This kid is outstanding, and everyone who has been in contact with him said: "Watch out for this young man!" The French educational system of the sixteenth century was able to train such a child and make the best of his talents.At the age of nineteen, John was sanctioned to preach, and his career as a competent deacon seemed doomed. But there were five sons and two daughters in the family, and church advancement was slow, while the law offered better opportunities.Moreover, it was a time of religious turmoil, and the future was unpredictable.A distant relative named Bill Olivitan had just translated the Bible into French.John was with him a lot when he was in Paris.Two heathens in a family could not get along, so John packed up and was sent to Orleans, where he was taught by an old lawyer, so that he could learn the business of pleading, arguing, and drafting pleadings. What happened in Paris also happened here.At the end of the year, this student becomes a teacher, teaching those students who are not hardworking enough the outline of law.He quickly mastered everything he needed to take a case.His father gladly hoped that his son would one day be a rival to the famous lawyers, who were paid a hundred ducats for an opinion, and who rode in a chariot when summoned by the king of faraway Compiègne. But those dreams never came true, and John Calvin never practiced law. He returned to his first passion, sold his law collections and codes, devoted himself to collecting theological works, and began meticulously the work that would make him the most important historical figure of the twenty centuries. However, the Roman Code learned in those few years has left a deep imprint on his future activities, and it is impossible for him to look at problems with emotion.He's got a feel for things, and he's penetrating.Please read his letters to his followers, who later fell into the hands of the Catholic Church and were condemned to be roasted alive.In the agony of hopelessness, they still regard his letter as the most beautiful masterpiece in the world, expressing a subtle understanding of human psychology, so that those poor victims are still blessing a person when they are dying, but It was the teachings of this man that put them in danger. No, Calvin was not a man of stone, as many of his enemies claimed.But life was a sacred duty to him. He strives so hard to be honest with God and with himself that he must reduce every problem to underlying principles and doctrines, and submit it to the touchstone of human emotion. When Pope Pius IV heard of his death, he said: "The strength of this heretic lies in his indifference to money." If the Pope was praising his sworn enemy's indifference to personal gain, he was right.Calvin remained poor all his life, and refused to accept the last quarterly salary because "illness had prevented him from earning the same money as he had done before." But his strength is manifested in another way. He has only one belief, and only one strong impetus in his life: to recognize the real God embodied in the Bible. He incorporated it into his own rules of life.From then on, he acted according to his own ideas, completely ignoring the consequences of his decisions, and became invincible and unstoppable. However, this quality was not revealed until many years later.For the first ten years after his conversion, he had to grapple with a banal problem: making a living. The short-lived triumph of the "new studies" at the Sorbonne, the few lectures on Greek declensions, Hebrew irregular verbs, and other forbidden knowledge, all resonated.Even the Rector, who sat on the eminently learned throne, was contaminated by pernicious Germanic Protestantism, and steps were taken to purify what modern medicine would call "propagators of ideas."Calvin is said to have delivered some of the most controversial speeches to the rectory, so that his name appeared at the top of the list of suspects.His room was searched, his articles confiscated, and a warrant for his arrest was signed. He heard the news and hid in a friend's house. It is true that the turmoil in the little college will not last, but serving in the Roman church is out of the question.The time has come for a definite decision. In 1534 Calvin broke with the old faith.Almost at the same time, on the Montmartre hill overlooking the French capital, Loyola and several of his pupils also solemnly took the oath, which was later incorporated into the Jesuit statute. Then they all left Paris. Loyola went east, but thinking of the unfortunate end of his first attack on the Holy Land, he returned the same way and came to Rome.The work he began there brought his fame, if not infamy, to every corner of the world. John was different.His Kingdom of God is not limited by time or place.He roamed about, hoping to find a quiet place where he could spend the rest of his time reading, thinking, and peacefully preaching his doctrine. While he was on his way to Strasbourg, Charles V engaged Francis I, which forced him to take a detour through western Switzerland.In Geneva he was welcomed by Guillermo Farrier, the Petrel of the French Reformation, a remarkable escape from the cages of the Presbyterians and the Inquisition.Farrier greeted him with open arms, told him what he could accomplish in the little Swiss park, and asked him to stay.Calvin asked for time to think, and he stayed. In order to avoid war, the new kingdom of heaven should be built at the foot of the Alps. It was a strange world. Columbus set out in search of India and stumbled upon the New World. Calvin sought a quiet place in which to spend the rest of his life studying and contemplating the teachings.He wandered into a third-class Swiss town, made it his spiritual capital, and people quickly turned the territory of the Catholic kingdom into a vast Christian empire. Since reading history can achieve the purpose of covering everything, why should we read novels? I don't know if Calvin's family Bible is still preserved.If so, one will find that the sixth chapter of Daniel's book, which contains it, is particularly well-worn.The French reformer was a temperate man, but he often took solace in the story of an unwavering servant of God who was cast into the lion's den and whose innocence later saved him from a miserable life. die early. Geneva is not Babylon.It's a respectable little town, populated by decent Swiss tailors.They took life seriously, but not so much as the leader of the new religion, who preached from the pulpit like St. Peter. Besides, there was a Nebchanisa, the duke of Savoy.It was during the endless quarrels with the Savoy family that Caesar's descendants decided to unite with the rest of Switzerland and join the Reformation.The union of Geneva and Wittenberg is like a marriage of mutual use, a union based on common interests rather than mutual admiration. But as soon as the news of the Protestant conversion of Geneva spread, all the missionaries—there were no less than fifty of them—flocked to the shores of Lake Geneva, enthusiastic about every new and strange creed.With great energy, they began to preach the most grotesque teachings ever conceived by a living man. Calvin hated these amateur seers in his heart.He knew they were only dangerous to the cause they professed to be, passionate fighters on the wrong track.After resting for a few months, the first thing he did was to write down as accurately and concisely as possible the boundaries between right and wrong that he hoped the new believers could grasp.In this way, no one can use the old excuse: "I don't know." He and his friend Drill personally inspected the Genevans in groups of ten, and only the oath of allegiance to this strange religious law can enjoy full civil rights. He went on to compile a vast catechism manual for young people. He persuaded the city council to drive out all those who still held on to the wrong old views. After clearing the way for his next move, he set out to create a principality following the norms laid down by the political economists in Exodus and Deuteronomy.Calvin, like many other great reformers, was not a modern Christian, but more of a classical Jew.He worshiped the God Jesus with his lips, but in his heart he yearned for the Lord of Moses. Of course, this phenomenon often occurs during times of emotional stress.The humble carpenter of Nazareth was so unmistakable in his views on hatred and strife that a compromise between his views and his methods of violence was impossible.For two thousand years, every nation and every individual wanted to use violence to achieve their goals. So when war breaks out, everyone involved acquiesces; people temporarily close the Gospel, wallow in blood and thunder, and indulge in the Old Testament philosophy of an eye for an eye. The Reformation was indeed a war, and it was brutal.No one begged for life support, and there was no pardon, Calvin's principality was effectively a barracks, and any manifestation of individual freedom was suppressed one by one. Of course, all this has not been achieved without resistance.In 1538 Calvin was so threatened by the more cheerful elements of the organization that he was forced to leave the city.But by 1541 his supporters were once again in power.Amid the sound of bells and the loud praises of the priests, the magistrate Joannes returned to the castle on the Rhône.Thereafter he was crownless king of Geneva, spending the next twenty-three years in establishing and perfecting a theocratic form of government not seen since the days of Ezekiel and Ezra. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word "discipline" means: "to bring under control, to train obedience and to enforce." It best expresses the essence of the entire political-religious structure in Calvin's dream. Luther's nature, like that of most Germans, was a sentimentalist.In his view, only the word of God is sufficient to point out the way to the eternal world. This was too imprecise for the taste of the French reformers.The Word of God can be a beacon of hope, but the road is long and dark, and there are temptations that can cause a person to forget his purpose. But this Protestant pastor will not take detours, he is an exception.He knows all the pitfalls and won't be bribed.If he occasionally strayed from the right path, he was soon brought to his sense of duty by the weekly priestly meeting, where all decent men worthy of the name were free to criticize each other.Therefore, he is the ideal figure in the minds of all those who really seek salvation. Those of us who have climbed mountains know that professional guides can occasionally be downright tyrants.They know the dangers of a pile of rocks, and the dangers of a seemingly flat snow field. They have complete command authority over the travelers under their care. Any fool who dares to disobey orders will smash his head and face with harsh words. splash down. The clergy in Calvin's ideal duchy had the same sense of responsibility.They gladly lend a helping hand to those who fall and ask for help.But as soon as the determined man wants to leave the path he has opened, to leave the university, the hand is drawn back into a fist, and the punishment is swift and terrible. In many other religious organizations, priests like to use the same power.But magistrates were jealous of their privileges, and rarely allowed priests to stand alongside courts and executioners.Calvin knew this, and in his jurisdiction he instituted a ecclesiastical discipline that actually surpassed the law. After the Great War there have been many queer misconceptions about history, and are still widely circulated, but the most startling of them all is that the French (compared to the Teutons) are a freedom-loving people who hate all domination.For centuries, France had been governed by a bureaucracy that was sprawling and far less efficient than the pre-war Prussian government.Officials arrived late and left early for work, their collars were not properly tied, and they smoked inferior cigarettes.Or else they mess around and offend the people, like government officials in Eastern Europe, and the public accepts their rudeness with meekness, which is surprising for a nation obsessed with rebellion. Calvin loved centralization and was an ideal Frenchman.In some details he has come close to Napoleon's recipe for success.But he is not like that great emperor.Lacking personal ambition, he has a poor appetite and no sense of humor, just a terribly serious fellow. He scoured the Old Testament in order to find words suitable for his Jehovah, and then let the people of Geneva accept his interpretation of Jewish history as a direct expression of God's will.Overnight, the enchanted city of the Rhone became a place of mournful sinners.The City Inquisition, composed of six priests and twelve elders, listened day and night to the private discussions of the citizens.Whoever was suspected of being prone to "prohibited pagan views" was arraigned before a Presbyterian court to examine all his arguments and explain where and how he had obtained those books which instilled in him pernicious ideas and led him astray.If the defendant showed repentance, he could be exonerated and sentenced to attend Sunday school.If he persisted, he would have to leave the city within twenty-four hours, and he would not be allowed to appear again in the federal jurisdiction of Geneva. But the conflict with the so-called "Upper House of the Church Council" is not just due to a lack of orthodoxy.A game of bowls in the neighboring village in the afternoon, and if charged (as it was often the case), was justifiably scolded.Joking, useful or not, was considered the worst form.Brainstorming at a wedding is enough to send you to jail. Gradually, the new heaven is full of laws, decrees, rules, orders and decrees, and life becomes extremely complicated and loses its former elegance. No dancing, no singing, no poker, and of course no gambling.No birthday parties, no country markets, no silks and all fancy decorations.All that was allowed was to go to church and school, because Calvin was a man with clear ideas. Random prohibitions can absolve sins, but they cannot force people to love virtue. Virtue comes from inner enlightenment.So excellent schools and first-class universities were established, and all academic activities were encouraged.An interesting group life is also established to attract everyone's remaining energies and make people forget about suffering and limitations.If Calvin's system did not consider human tastes at all, it would not be able to survive, and it would not have played a decisive role in the nearly three hundred years of history.All this, though, thanks to a book on the development of political thought.Now we are interested in what Geneva has done for the cause of tolerance, and the conclusion is that Protestant Rome is no better than Catholic Rome. In the preceding pages I have enumerated the circumstances which extenuate sin.It was a time of barbarism such as the massacre of St. Bartholomew and the extermination of many Dutch cities, so expecting one side (the weaker side) to achieve the virtue of being tantamount to sitting still is utterly ridiculous. But this does not exonerate Calvin from inciting the court to kill Gruay and Servetus. In the case of the first individual, Calvin can still say that Jacques Gruay is seriously suspected of inciting civil riots and is a party that intends to overthrow Calvinism.But Servetus could hardly be said to have posed any threat to social security, that is, to Geneva. According to the rules of modern passports, he was only a "transiter" and left the country in twenty-four hours, but he missed the boat and died for it.This is a sensational story. McGuire Servetus is Spanish, and his father is a respected notary (this has a semi-legal status in Europe, not just a young man with a stamping machine watching someone sign and asking for a quarter) .McGuire was also preparing to practice law and was sent to the University of Toulouse.It was a happy day, when all instruction was in Latin, the range of study was wide and varied, and the wisdom of the whole world was open to all who had only to learn five declensions and a few irregular verbs. Servetus met Juan de Quintana at the French University.Quintana soon became the confessional godfather of Emperor Charles V. Medieval coronations of emperors were much like modern international fairs.When Charles was crowned in Bologna in 1530, Quintana took McGuire as secretary.This bright young Spaniard has seen it all.Like many men of his day, he had an insatiable curiosity, and over the next ten years he was exposed to a variety of subjects, including medicine, astronomy, astrology, Hebrew, Greek, and, most importantly, theology.He was a promising physician who had the idea of ​​the circulation of the blood while studying theology.This can be found in chapter fifteen of his first book against the doctrine of the Trinity.That those who have examined the writings of Servetus fail to see that he made one of the greatest discoveries of all, speaks volumes for the paranoia of sixteenth-century theological thought. If only Servetus had insisted on medical research!He can live to old age and die peacefully. But he simply could not avoid the pressing issues that were hotly debated at the time.He got acquainted with the Lyon printing house, and began to express his views on a variety of subjects. Now a generous millionaire can persuade a college to change "Trinity College" into the trademark of a popular tobacco product and get away with it.The propaganda machine said, "Isn't it good that Mr. Dingus gave so generously?" Everyone said, "Amen!" The world today seems to have ceased to be alarmed by such things as blasphemy, so trying to picture a time when the mere suspicion of one townsman saying something disrespectful to the Holy Trinity was enough to send a whole society into a panic- — This is indeed not an easy task.But we cannot understand the terror that Servetus wrought in the minds of good Christians in the first half of the sixteenth century unless we fully appreciate this. He's not radical at all. He was what we would now call a liberal. He resisted the old belief in the Trinity recognized by both Protestants and Catholics.Convinced that he was right, he wrote to Calvin proposing a private meeting with him in Geneva to discuss the whole matter thoroughly.He made a great mistake in writing. He was not invited. In fact, he could not accept the invitation, the Inquisitor of Lyons had intervened, and Servetus was in prison.The judge had already heard of the young man's blasphemy, for he had secretly received a letter from Genevans at the behest of Calvin. Soon there were other manuscripts confirming the accusation against Servetus, also secretly provided by Calvin.It seems Calvin didn't care who hanged the poor fellow, as long as he was hanged.But the Inquisitor neglected his priesthood, and Servetus fled. He first wanted to cross the Spanish border, but his name was known, and the long journey through the south of France was dangerous, so he decided to detour through Geneva, Milan, Naples and the Mediterranean. On a Saturday evening in August 1553, he arrived in Geneva.He would have gone across the lake in a boat, but there was no sailing near the Sabbath, until Monday. The next day was Sunday, and neither locals nor strangers were allowed to avoid religious services, otherwise it was misconduct.Servetus also went to church.He was recognized and arrested.Servetus, a Spanish national, has not been charged with violating any laws in Geneva.But he is a liberal in doctrine, does not worship the gods, and dares to make heresy remarks on the Trinity.It is absurd for such a person to want to be protected by the law.Criminals may, but not heretics!He could not help but be locked into a dirty and damp cave, and all his money and personal belongings were confiscated.He was taken to court two days later and asked to answer thirty-eight different questions on a questionnaire. The trial lasted two months and twelve days. Finally, he was charged with "persisting heresy against the foundations of Christianity".When it came to his point, his answer made the judge fly into a rage.The usual sentence in such cases, especially against foreigners, was permanent expulsion from Geneva, but the case of Servetus was an exception.He was sentenced to be burned alive. At the same time, the French courts reopened the fugitive's case, reached the same conclusion as the Protestants, sentenced Servetus to death, and sent the magistrate to Geneva to demand that the criminal be handed over to him and brought back to France. The request was turned down. Calvin was also able to carry out the execution of the stake. The journey to the execution ground was difficult indeed, and a party of priests followed the heretic on his final journey, babbling and persuading.The agony lasted for more than half an hour, until a handful of freshly gathered sticks were thrown into the flames out of sympathy for the poor victim.It's an interesting read for anyone who likes that sort of thing, but it's best left alone.One more death penalty or one less, what difference does it make in the age of religious fanaticism and unscrupulousness? But the case of Servetus would not pass away, and its consequences were dire.It has been blatantly shown that the Protestants, who clamor about the "right to hold their own opinion," are really nothing but Catholics in disguise, narrow-minded, who treat dissidents as cruelly as enemies; reign of terror. The accusation is serious and cannot be dismissed with a shrug of the shoulders and a "well, what else do you expect". We have a wealth of material about the trial, and we know in detail how it was viewed by the outside world, and it is indeed a harrowing read.Calvin once suggested that Servetus should be beheaded instead of burned out of a moment of generosity.Servetus thanked him for his kindness, but demanded another solution.He asked to be released from prison.He insisted (all on his side) that the courts had no jurisdiction over him, but that he was a man of integrity seeking the truth, and therefore entitled to debate in public with his opponent, Dr. Calvin. But Calvin didn't want to hear that. He had sworn not to let this heretic escape alive if he fell into his hands, and he would keep his vow.It did not matter that he would have to have the cooperation of his arch-enemy, the Inquisition, in order to convict Servetus.He could even join hands with the Pope if he had documents that would further incriminate the unfortunate Spaniard. There are worse things. On the morning of Servetus' death, he begged to see Calvin, and Calvin came to the dark and dirty cell. At this moment, he should be more generous and humane. He has none of them. He stood before this man who was going to see God in two hours, arguing, spitting, livid, furious, but not a word of mercy, not a word.There's just viciousness and hatred: "You deserve it, stubborn rogue. Burn you damn it!"
This was many, many years ago. Servetus is dead. All statues and monuments cannot bring him back to life. Calvin is dead. A thousand volumes that cursed him could not reach his unknown grave. Fanatical religious reformers trembled at the trial, fearing that the blasphemous hooligans would escape; staunch supporters of the church praised and cheered after the execution, writing to each other: "Long live Geneva! Take action." They are all dead and perhaps best forgotten too. We just need to pay attention to one thing. Tolerance is like freedom. Just begging is not enough.Only constant vigilance can keep it. Let us remember this for the new Servetus of posterity.