‘O nose that must with drink be dyed! O nose, my glory and my pride! O nose, that didst enjoy a-right-- Nose, my alembic of delight! My bibulous big bottle-nose, As highly coloured as the rose, ‘It was my hope that thou wouldst share My shifting fortunes everywhere. A Churchman’s nose thou wast indeed-- The partner of his prayers and creed; Proof against all doctrinal shocks, And never aught but orthodox.’
Let that suffice. It is rather vulgar fooling; but to have omitted all mention of it would have been to give an imperfect impression of the Reformer. He owed some of his influence with the vulgar to the fact that he knew how to descend to their level; and he needed all his influence, for he had to guide Geneva through perilous times. There was a terrible epidemic of the plague; innumerable fugitives from the Massacre of St. Bartholomew took refuge in the town; there was a long war with Savoy.
In the case of the plague the difficulty was, as it always had been at Geneva, to compel the doctors and the clergy to do their duty to the sick. A note in the Register of the Council shows us how, in the days before the Reform, the monks had envisaged their obligations. The canons of the cathedral, it there appears, passed the following resolution:
‘In view of the fact that the plague is suspected to exist in the town, the reverend fathers vote themselves a month’s holiday from the duty of residing there and attending to the services; their stipends, in the meantime, to continue to be paid.’
The month’s holiday, we also gather, was subsequently extended to a year, with the same liberal stipulation as to emoluments; and after the Reformation we find the Protestant clergy displaying an equal timidity in the presence of the disease. The entry concerning them runs thus:
‘The ministers appeared before the Council confessing that it was their duty to go and offer consolation to the sufferers from the plague, but that not one of them had the courage to do so. They begged the Council to overlook their weakness, seeing that God had not given them the grace to brave and overcome the peril with the intrepidity required--always excepting Matthew Geneston, who is quite willing to go, if the lot should fall upon him.’