142 STATESMEN AND SAGES with the reformers in the first heat of their freedom and their zeal. A Protestant Confession of Faith was drawn out, approved of by the Council of Two Hun- dred, and then proclaimed in the cathedral church of St. Peter. Great and marvellous changes were wrought in a short time upon the manners of the people ; where license and frivolity had reigned, a strict moral severity began to characterize the whole aspect of society. The strain, however, was too sudden and too extreme. A spirit of rebellion against the rule of Calvin and Farel broke forth ; but they refused to yield to the wishes of a party animated by a more easy and liberal spirit than them- selves, and known in the history of Geneva under the nickname of Liber- tines ; and the consequence was that they were both expelled from the city after less than two years' residence. Calvin retreated to Strasbourg, and devoted himself to theological study, especially to his critical labors on the New Testament. Here, in October, 1539, he married the widow of a con- verted Anabaptist. The Genevans found, after a short time, that they could not well get on without Calvin. His rule might be rigid ; but an authority even such as his was better than no settled authority at all ; and the Libertine party seem to have been unable to construct any efficient and beneficent form of government. Accord- ingly, they invited Calvin to return ; and, after some delay on his part, in order to test the spirit in which they were acting, he acceded to their invitation, and in the autumn of 1541, after three years' absence, once more made his entry into Geneva. Now, at length, he succeeded in establishing his plan of church-government By his College of Pastors and Doctors, and his Consistorial Court of Discipline, he founded a theocracy, which aimed virtually to direct all the affairs of the city, and to control and modify both the social and individual life of the citizens. The Libertines still remained a strong party, which was even augmented after Cal- vin's return, by men such as Ami Perrin, who had strongly concurred in the in- vitation to Calvin, but who were afterward alienated from him by the high hand with which he pursued his designs, as well as by their own schemes of ambition. The struggle with this party lasted, with varying fortune, for no less a period than fifteen years, and was only terminated in 1555, after a somewhat ridiculous tmeute in the streets. Perrin and others, driven from the city, were executed
