Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 1 29 whom he will agreeth rather with the willfulness of a tyrant than with the lawful sentence of a judge. Therefore they say that there is cause why men should accuse God if by his forewill, without their own deserving, they be predestinate to eternal death. If such thoughts do at any time come into the mind of the godly, this shall suffice to break their violent assaults, although they have nothing more, if they consider how great wickedness it is even so much as to inquire of the causes of the will of God. . . . For the will of God is the highest rule of righteousness, that whatsoever he willeth, even for this that he willeth it, ought to be taken for righteous. 1 It was not Calvin but Farel, another French Protes- tant, who first won the city of Geneva from the old Church. Farel (1489-1565) was an ardent missionary of the new faith, who had succeeded in converting sev- eral towns in French Switzerland before he went to Geneva in 1533. Owing to his preaching, a general, assembly of the people proclaimed (May, 1536) that they wished to live according to the " holy law of the gospel and the word of God" and to desert "all masses, papal ceremonies and abuses, images and idols." Just before Calvin's coming we have the following entry in the city council's register (July 24, 1536) : John Ballard was interrogated wherefore he refused to hear the word of God ? He replied that he believed in God, who taught him by his spirit. He could not believe our preachers. He said that we could not compel him to go to 1 The following is St. Paul's reply to the same query: "Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he [God] yet find fault ? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus ? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour ? " (Romans ix. iqsqq.) Under Farel's influence Geneva espouses Protestant- ism. 259. Prot- estant intolerance in Geneva before Calvin's arrival.
