. By
this code, lying, theft, perjury, assassination, were not only pardonable
but commendable, when they served the interests of the church. Under
various disguises the Jesuits worked their way into offices of state,
climbing up to be the counselors of kings, and shaping the policy of
nations. They became servants, to act as spies upon their masters. They
established colleges for the sons of princes and nobles, and schools for
the common people; and the children of Protestant parents were drawn into
an observance of popish rites. All the outward pomp and display of the
Romish worship was brought to bear to confuse the mind, and dazzle and
captivate the imagination; and thus the liberty for which the fathers had
toiled and bled was betrayed by the sons. The Jesuits rapidly spread
themselves over Europe, and wherever they went, there followed a revival
of popery.

To give them greater power, a bull was issued re-establishing the
Inquisition.(350) Notwithstanding the general abhorrence with which it was
regarded, even in Catholic countries, this terrible tribunal was again set
up by popish rulers, and atrocities too terrible to bear the light of day
were repeated in its secret dungeons. In many countries, thousands upon
thousands of the very flower of the nation, the purest and noblest, the
most intellectual and highly educated, pious and devoted pastors,
industrious and patriotic citizens, brilliant scholars, talented artists,
skilful artisans, were slain, or forced to flee to other lands.

Such were the means which Rome had invoked to quench the light of the
Reformation, to withdraw from men the Bible, and to restore the ignorance
and superstition of the Dark Ages. But under God's blessing and the labors
of those noble men whom He had raised up to succeed Luther, Protestantism
was not overthrown. Not to the favor or arms of princes was it to owe its
strength. The smallest countries, the humblest and least powerful nations,
became its strongholds. It was little Geneva in the midst of mighty foes
plotting her destruction; it was Holland on her sand-banks by the northern
sea, wrestling against the tyranny of Spain, then the greatest and most
opulent of kingdoms; it was bleak, sterile Sweden, that gained victories
for the Reformation.

For nearly thirty years, Calvin labored at Geneva; first to establish
there a church adhering to the morality of the Bible, and then for the
advancement of the Reformation throughout Europe