Note 225 — LIII.—To the Seigneury of Geneva.[225]

Directed on the back,—To the Magnificent and Honourable Lords Messieurs the Syndics and Council of Geneva.

Two years had scarcely passed away since the banishment of Calvin, and already the victorious party, left to itself, had exhausted itself with its own excess and disorders. Of the four Syndics who pronounced the expulsion of the ministers, two were exiled to Berne; the other two had perished by a violent death.—Spon, Hist. de Genève, liv. i. pp. 280-282. Anarchy produced its ordinary fruit, regret for the absence of authority. Taught by severe experience, the people of Geneva demanded to have Calvin brought back again, and the new Syndics,—organs of the popular sentiment, sought to recall him.—Arch. of Geneva, Registres du Conseil, ann. 1540, passim.