Letters of John Calvin, Volume II

CCCVI. – To Monsieur de Falais. 403

Monseigneur, – Since you esteem your cause with respect to me so good, I shall not add to your satisfaction by avowing myself in the wrong, which indeed would be mere hypocrisy on my part. For I know that I myself had already long ago pointed out to you the conduct of the man, and his acts are moreover matter of public notoriety. Since that time you have bestowed on him such eulogiums, that the person who recited them to me employed these words, that he had never heard of a man held in such esteem. When you went such lengths, after having been duly informed by me, your object in extolling him so highly must have been to have us and our whole doctrine condemned; of which, he has shewn himself so deadly, so furious, and so diabolical an enemy, that he has not blushed to write: – The God of Calvin is hypocritical, mendacious, perfidious, unjust, the provoker and patron of crimes, and worse than the Devil himself. Thus then, that I may express my opinion of you frankly, I ought to renounce God and his truth, as well as the salvation which I hope for through it. Such I believe, is not your intention, but, if from the humanity and mildness of your disposition, you are content not only to remain ignorant of the character of the man who makes war on God, but also, by lending no credit to our testimony, you furnish a handle for rendering us odious, suffer me, I entreat you, to have some zeal in maintaining the honour of my Master. But you will say, that I should at least have given you some intimation of the affair. I reply that after having been thus obliquely disgraced by you, I wished to guard against exposing myself to derision. If ten hours earlier I had been made aware of the words which I have quoted, I should have contented myself with letting you know what I had on my heart. As it chanced, your friend immediately after, or the following day, asked me if I had seen you. I replied that I had, and that I was sorry for it, and I added that were you to pass a hundred times, I should avoid all contact with you more carefully than with the most avowed enemies, since in showing yourself so intimate with that man, you were, as I have since been informed, the panegyrist of Castalio,404 who is so perverse with all kinds of impiety, that in truth I had a hundred times rather be a Papist. Your friend then asked me if I had any objections to your being informed of that. I replied that it was with that intention that I had spoken to him on the subject, since I had not been made aware of the fact sufficiently in time. If he has divulged more than that, he has acted contrary to my opinion, my wishes, and even his own promise. To have told you that you were quite infected with the errors of that monster, was running counter to the ends I had in view, for I told him that you must needs have hated us gratuitously, to praise in our despite such a monster. The substance of what I said was that I should have been more painfully affected by such an injury coming from any other than you, such was the confidence I had in your integrity; but I was still more sorry to see you adhering, not knowing for what reason, to a person who is more detestable than all the Papists in the world. And in fact, I said to him several times, that I knew not how, nor wherefore, nor, indeed, what that meant. And since even at this present moment you love to follow a lesson quite opposed to that which I have learned in the school of my Master, for you say that you are well-pleased to forget the evil which may be in him; and yet we are told: Behold dogs, observe, mark, shun, and beware of them… I leave you the object of your affections! – If I have been too sharp and bitter, pardon me, you have obliged me to be so. And that you may know that I feel neither anger nor ill-will, I write to you the present letter, as one who is preparing to appear before God, who afflicts me anew with an evil which is for me as it were a mirror of death before my eyes. I will supplicate him, Monseigneur, that in having pity on me, and receiving me to his mercy, he may preserve and guide you by his Spirit, and increase you in all prosperity along with Mademoiselle and your whole family.405 Your servant,

[Fr. orig. autogr. – Library of Geneva. Vol. 107, a.]

CCCVII. – To Mathieu Dimonet. 406

Very dear Brother, – Although I have not at present to sustain the like conflicts that you have, yet you will suffer the word of exhortation from me as if I were your fellow-prisoner, and in truth the zeal which moves me to write to you proceeds from nothing else. Yet I pray you to consider how we ought to refer all to the will and disposal of our heavenly Father, who calls every one of us in the order that he pleases. Sometimes he spares his children, until he has gradually led and prepared them, as we hear it said to St. Peter by the Master's own lips, "When thou shalt be old, they shall carry thee whither thou wouldst not." But it sometimes happens that he chooses novices, or at least such as have not been long disciplined to warfare. However that may be, there is this advantage that he is no less powerful to put forth his strength in the weak, rendering them at once invincible, than to continue it to those who have long experienced it. From what I hear, you have not been one of the first called to his knowledge; yet God has nevertheless put you among the foremost of his witnesses. He has bestowed such strength and steadfastness upon you at the first assault, that the enemies of truth have taken knowledge of the mark of Jesus Christ, which they cannot bear. I feel indeed by the sympathy I have for you (as I ought) that Satan ceases not to give you new alarms; but you must have recourse to Him who has made so good a beginning, praying him to complete his own work. If you have many trials, do not be greatly amazed on that account, even although you feel such frailty in yourself that you are almost ready to be shaken. Rather learn that it is by such means that God would humble you, that his help should be the better recognized by your need of it; and, moreover, that he invites you to call on his name, and to have all dependence on his grace, seeing there is need that we be forcibly driven to do so. I doubt not but that there may also be firebrands from without, who, under cover of friendship and relationship, will prove your worst and most mortal enemies, since to save the body they will do their utmost to draw the soul downward to perdition. And then, men's fancy is a marvellous workshop for forging out foolish imaginations, which disturb the true rest which we ought to have in the holy calling of our God, who commands us to look simply to himself, as indeed we have very good reason to do. Therefore we have need to be armed and accoutred at every point. But you need not be daunted, seeing that God has promised to equip his own according as they are assaulted by Satan. Only commit yourself to him, distrusting all in yourself, and hope that he only will suffice to sustain you. Further you have to take heed chiefly to two things: first, what the side is you defend, and next, what crown is promised to those who continue steadfast in the Gospel. The service of God, the boundless grace which he has manifested to us in his Son, and all the glory of his kingdom, are such precious things, that no mortal man ought to think it hard to spend his life in fighting against the base corruptions, whose reign throughout the world tends to bring to nought those blessings. And then, we know what will be the end of our warfare, and that He who has bought us will never suffer so dear a price as his blood to be lost, if we be but signed with it. Now we know how he owns as his own, and declares solemnly that he will own at the last day, all those who have confessed him here below. We do not know as yet what he has determined to do concerning you, but there is nothing better for you than to sacrifice your life to him, being ready to part with it whenever he wills, and yet hoping that he will preserve it, in so far as he knows it to be profitable for your salvation. And although this be difficult to the flesh, yet it is the true happiness of his faithful ones; and you must pray that it may please this gracious God so to imprint it upon your heart that it may never be effaced therefrom. For our part, we also shall pray that he would make you feel his power, and vouchsafe you the full assurance that you are under his keeping; that he bridles the rage of your enemies, and in every way manifests himself as your God and Father.

As I hear that our brother, Peter Berger,407 is in the same prison with you, I beg you to greet him from me, and to give him my letters as common to you both. Let us go forward, until we have arrived at our goal – the being gathered together into the everlasting kingdom.

I had forgotten one point, which is, that you should reply to adversaries reverently and modestly, according to the measure of faith God gives you. I say this because it is not given to every one to dispute. Indeed the martyrs themselves were no great scholars, nor subtile to enter upon profound disputations. Thus humbling yourself under the guidance of the Spirit of God, answer soberly, according to your knowledge, following the rule of Scripture, "I have believed, therefore I speak." Yet let not that hinder you from speaking frankly and plainly, in the full persuasion that He who has promised to give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay, will never fail you.

[Fr. – Printed in Histoire des Martyrs, lib. iv. p. 247.]

CCCVIII. – To Christopher Fabri

I am exceedingly glad that you are about to get married, not only because it will be for your own private good, but also because the brethren have considered it to be for the good of the whole Church.408 And while I do not indeed know enough of the lady, yet I confidently trust, from various conjectures, that each of you will turn out according to our wishes. We have good reason, therefore to congratulate you, and we feel thankful to God in no ordinary degree. I should gladly have been present at your marriage, had I not been detained at home by the wickedness of those who cease not to bring destruction upon themselves and the community by their madness.409 I have good reason to call it madness, for they have never exhibited more unbridled licentiousness. I shall say nothing of their mischievous plots for the destruction of the faith, of their gross contempt of God, of their impious conspiracies for the scattering of the Church, of the foul Epicurism of their whole life; and this, not because these are light evils, but because they are not unknown to you. The entire Republic is at present in disorder, and they are striving to root up the established order of things. Had your marriage been a month later, I should have had more leisure. I cannot move a foot at present. I have not been through the city-gates for a month past, not even for recreation. Would that I had less ground for my excuse. Assuredly the season of winter would not have stood in my way. But we shall pray that your marriage may come off well, the effects of which will be felt even here. I would not have thought it labour lost to obtain a conversation with our beloved Farel and your chief magistrate, at the expense of the cold and irksomeness of a three days' journey. But one consideration was sufficient for me, that you wished me to discharge a duty which I was as willing to fulfil, as you were earnest in desiring it. I hope to find it more convenient to visit my friends on another occasion. Adieu, very dear brother in the Lord. Farel will pardon me for not writing him. Present my very kind regards to him. Louis, minister of Veissy,410 left us lately; I see that his life has been a burden to him for some time past, owing to protracted debility. John Macard411 supplies his place. We must have a quarrel with Philip.412 Salute Maturin and the rest of our friends earnestly in my name. May the Lord watch over you and guide you by his Spirit. Amen. – Yours,

[Lat. orig. autogr. – Library of the Company of Neuchatel.]

CCCIX. – To John Cheke. 413

I have hitherto avoided writing you, most distinguished sir, lest I should perhaps seem anxious to obtain what my own inclinations did not prompt. For as the friendships of the world are hollow, and ambition and deception everywhere prevail, so that those who cultivate sincerity are exceedingly few, it is absolutely necessary for us almost to regard all with suspicion whose uprightness of character we have not thoroughly tested. I have at length, however, found an exceedingly just motive for writing you, inasmuch as I have now frequently made bold to write to the King himself, and have never written a single letter to you, which was not at all becoming, seeing that it was owing to your influence (under the grace of God) that myself and the other servants of Christ were permitted access to him. And as for the past my excuse is easy, for I was at the first afraid lest those whom I was writing to exhort might have too little confidence in me, if I employed the service of others in presenting my letters; and I was again disinclined to give you any trouble, as no familiarity had passed between us. If I have in any way offended you in this matter, attribute it rather to my shyness than to my negligence. Nay, indeed, it is now a long while ago, that having been led thereto by the fame of your rare piety and excellent learning, I must have worthily esteemed you. Moreover, this one reason is sufficient to win for you the favour of all good men, viz., that England has a king whom you have trained by your labour, not only possessing very superior talents, but also a maturity of moral excellence beyond his years, who is extending a hand to the suffering – I should rather in fact say miserable – Church of God in these very sad times. Certainly, having deemed you worthy of this honour, the Lord has not only endeared you to those who experience the present benefit of it, but to as many as desire to see the Church of God re-established, or at least to see her remains gathered together. If then I bear testimony to that affection which I have so long cherished towards you in silence, I am persuaded this expression of my regard will not be unpleasant to you. And again, while you, in that splendid position of yours, do not require the humble offices of men like me, and I, in turn, content with my own poor state, am averse to impose any burden on you of my own account, let us nevertheless cherish towards each other a mutual goodwill throughout this fleeting life, until we find its full enjoyment in heaven. Let us meanwhile, with one accord, make it our study to adorn the kingdom of Christ, and, as far as in us lies, to extend and watch over it. For we see how numerous are its open and malicious enemies, whose fury is already kindled, and is growing greater day by day; and, on the other hand, how few is the number of those who have lent their name to the Gospel, how few are conscientiously labouring for the advancement of the glory of God. We see how much coldness, or rather how much indifference, there is among many men of influence; in a word, how much deadness there is throughout the world. And while I believe you will do so of your own accord, and stand in no need at all of any foreign stimulus, yet, with your accustomed good nature, I have no doubt but that you will take in good part what I have laid thus familiarly before you, and which it becomes every one of us earnestly to call to mind. I have indeed particularly to request of you, whenever at any time you think that the most serene King could be cheered forward by my exhortations, to advise me thereon, and, according to circumstances, that you will not grudge me your opinion. Adieu, most excellent and heartily esteemed sir. May the Lord guard you by his protection, continue to guide you by his Spirit, and bless your sacred labours.

[Calvin's Lat. Corresp. Opera, tom. ix. p. 68.]

CCCX. – To the Five Prisoners of Lyons. 414

My Brethren, – We have been for some days past in deeper anxiety and sadness than ever, having heard of the resolve taken by the enemies of the truth. When the gentleman you wot of passed this way,415 while he was dining very hurriedly, to avoid all delay, I drew up such a form of letters as seemed to me expedient to write. God has given, both to you and all his people, some further respite; we wait the event as it shall please him to dispose it, always praying him to uphold you, and not permit you to fall away; in short, to have you in his keeping. I feel well assured that nothing shakes the firmness which he has put within you. Doubtless, for a long time past, you have meditated upon the last conflict which you will have to sustain, if it be his good pleasure to lead you thereto, and have even so fought hitherto that long practice has inured you to fill up what remains. It cannot be but that you feel some twinges of frailty; yet, be confident that He whose service you are upon will so rule in your hearts by his Holy Spirit, that his grace shall overcome all temptations. If he has promised to strengthen with patience those who suffer chastisement for their sins, how much less will he be found wanting to those who maintain his quarrel, – those whom he employs on so worthy a mission as being witnesses for his truth! You must therefore keep this sentence in mind, that He who dwells in you is stronger than the world. We who are here shall do our duty in praying that he would glorify himself more and more by your constancy, and that he may, by the consolation of his Spirit, sweeten and endear all that is bitter to the flesh, and so absorb your spirits in himself, that in contemplating that heavenly crown, you may be ready without regret to leave all that belongs to this world.

I have received a certain paper containing some very subtle arguments of that unhappy animal Oritz,416 to prove that it is allowable to make idols. I do not know whether it is you who have sent it me, and whether you would have me to reply to it. I have not thought it worth while to do so, because I was in some doubt about it, and really I do believe that you have no great need of it. But if you like you shall have an answer to it by the first. There is one thing which I have to request of you: you saw some time ago the letters of a paltry mocker of God in this place, who does nothing but trouble the Church, and has never ceased to deal in that trade for five years past. I wish much that by the first, you would write a word of warning to make known his malice, as there is really no end to him. And this I beseech you, as you love the repose of this Church, which is more teased than you can well believe by internal foes.

And now, my brethren, after having besought our good Lord to have charge over you, to assist you in everything and through everything, to make you taste by experience how kind a Father he is, and how careful of the salvation of his own, I pray to be remembered in your prayers.

[Fr. – Printed in Hist. des Martyrs, lib. iv., p. 247.]

CCCXI – To Edward VI

Sire, – Although I had a petition to make to you for myself, I should not have the boldness to urge it, yet I think that you will not take it amiss, that I should make a request for another, when you are informed of the necessity which constrains me, and the merits of the case, which commends itself to you not less than to myself. It is, Sire, that there is a French gentleman detained prisoner in Paris417 on account of some intercepted letter written by him to one of our friends, who was the king's lieutenant in the town of Noyon (of which I am a native), and retired to these parts;418 added to which the said gentleman was already held suspected in the matter of religion. And being a man of some rank they kept an eye upon him, which has been the occasion of his seizure. Now, if my testimony has any weight with your Majesty, I can assure you, Sire, that he is as right-minded a man as you could anywhere meet with, excelling in all honour and virtue, endowed with graces which deserve to be loved and valued, and above all, confirmed in the fear of God. I know very well that this is great praise; but did you know him, Sire, I have no doubt that you would form a like judgment, and discover that I do not exceed due measure. Now, as he is beloved of all, both high and low, even of Monsieur de Vendosme and other princes, there is nothing save the cause of Jesus Christ on account of which he can be hated or rejected, which cause is so dear to you, Sire, that I hope you will not refuse to help him, if there be any means of doing so. I am aware that your Majesty cannot aid, as might be wished, all those who labour and are persecuted on account of the Gospel. But should it be your good pleasure to exert yourself for him of whom I treat, be assured, Sire, that in the person of one man you will console many who are at present greatly dismayed, while the foes of truth are fully intending to triumph if they succeed. But not to be too troublesome to your Majesty, I shall enter no further upon facts, which, if it seem good to you, you can better learn from the statements of the gentleman who delivers this. Only I beseech you, in the name of God, with all possible affection, yea as eagerly as I would on behalf of my own life, that it may please you to grant this request, namely, to ask the King of France to let him depart out of his country, together with his wife, also detained, and with as much of his property as can be withdrawn. In doing which you will not only lay me under obligation more and more to pray God to prosper you, but an infinite number of believers besides.

Sire, after having commended myself as humbly as I can to your kind favour, I pray our good Lord to keep you under his holy protection, and to govern you by his Spirit in all prudence, uprightness, and strength of purpose, and to make your crown to flourish more and more. – Your very humble and obedient servitor,

[Fr. copy. – Imperial Library. Coll. Dupuy, vol. 102.]

CCCXII. – To Farel. 419

When I recently performed the last offices of a friend towards you, as I indeed thought, I was desirous of escaping the remainder of the grief which was incidental to your premature death. I have suffered the punishment which I deserved for my overhastiness. And would that I had been the only one who suffered it. It made the thing worse, that I involved very many good men in the same grief with myself. Consoled, however, now by more joyful news, I am forgetting my folly and disgrace. And it is certainly proper that this wonderful goodness of God should absorb all cause for sorrow. Seeing now that your disease has left you, you must endeavour gradually to recover that vigour of mind which you exercised too actively in the most trying conflicts, and to regain possession of that strength of body which must needs be worn out and exhausted. Since I have buried you before the time, may the Lord grant that the Church may see you my survivor. My own private comfort is joined with the public good of the faithful in this prayer; for my warfare will be the shorter, and I shall not be subjected to the pain of lamenting your death. Yet I am not, in the meanwhile, averse, if it should so please God, to your life being so long lengthened out, as to allow me ten years of labour. But let us now live so for Christ, that we may be daily prepared to die for him; we ought, while we have opportunity, to prepare for what will befall us. Make it your sole study, in the meanwhile, to take care of your health, that you may soon recover. My brother will tell you better, orally, than I can here how many friends salute you. Adieu, very worthy brother. May the Lord, who, contrary to our expectation, has restored you to his Church, cause you ever to triumph over Satan and the wicked. Much health to your fellow-ministers and others. – Yours truly,