The introduction of the Reformation in Geneva is a story often told, and it forms
no part of the present analysis except in so far as it bears upon the evolution of
Bern’s foreign policy and in particular on its relations with Fribourg, a city which
from the outset had set its face against the new doctrines. Up to 1532, as William
Monter has stressed, the conflict in Geneva was essentially a political movement
directed against the prince-bishop and Savoy, though he is right to state that the
struggle would hardly have succeeded without Bern’s signature on the Burgrecht in
1526.356 Nevertheless, Bern could not avoid being exposed to the growing confes-
sional antagonisms within the Confederation on its own doorstep. Already in
March 1527 Luzern had written, along with Fribourg, a cautionary letter to Bern
about the spread of evangelical doctrines.357 In particular, Luzern warned that if
Bern succeeded in winning over both Fribourg and Solothurn it would achieve a
majority among the cantons for the new teachings.358 These fears were quite intel-
ligible given that the Bernese authorities had licensed Guillaume Farel to preach
the new doctrines in its dependencies of Aigle and Bex from 1526 onwards.359
Meanwhile, tensions in Geneva continued to simmer. From late 1526 to 1529
Duke Charles II did not intervene directly in Genevan affairs, but that signalled
no softening in his determination to bend the city to his will. Instead, the task
devolved upon a league of Savoyard noblemen known as the League of the Spoon
(Confrèrie de la Cuiller), formed in October 1527 by François de Pontverre, lord
of Ternier, which harried and blockaded the city. The cost of defence weighed
heavily upon Geneva’s finances for years,360 but it was offset to some degree by the
confiscation of Mammelu property on the instructions of the newly instituted
Eidguenot Council of Two Hundred.361 Mathieu Caesar has calculated that the
proceeds amounted to 25,410 fl in 1528/29 alone, with a further 11,611 fl being
realized between 1531 and 1533. To put these sums in context, Geneva’s annual
revenues never exceeded 4,000 fl in this period. How much of the confiscated
tally flowed into the public coffers is, of course, another matter, since many
356 Monter, ‘De l’Évêché’, 133.
357 EA IV, 1a, 1058–60 (no. 422) (March 1527); 1060–1 (no. 424: I; II) (March 1524).
358 EA IV, 1a, 1061 (no 424: 1; 3); 1061–2 (no. 425: I; II) (March 1527). Both Fribourg and
Solothurn promised to observe the terms of their Burgrechte with Bern.
359 Gordon, Swiss Reformation, 149–50; Euan Cameron, The European Reformation Oxford, 1991), 223.
360 Catherine Santschi (ed.), Crises et Révolutions à Genève 1526–1544 [text: Sandra Coram-
Mekkey, Christophe Chalazon, and Gilles-Olivier Bron] (Geneva, 2005), 9.
361 Caesar, Pouvoir, 90; Monter, ‘De l’Évêché’, 132.