Letters of John Calvin, Volume II

1

The letters of the Cantons to the King, in favour of the Vaudois of Provence, only served to irritate that monarch. He passionately replied, – "The Vaudois have but received the just punishment of their crimes. Besides, the Swiss have no more right to busy themselves with what passes in my kingdom, than I have to make inquiry into what they do at home." – Histoire de la Confédération Suisse, vol. xi. p. 289. The failure of those proceedings redounded to the discredit of Calvin with the people, as he had been the instigator of them. His adversaries went about reiterating everywhere that he had compromised the most valued interests of the Cantons, by drawing upon them the enmity of the King of France.

2

Letter without date, written at the same time as the following, (September 1545.) Summoned in the name of the Emperor to leave Strasbourg and return to Brabant, M. de Falais had not obeyed that command. This refusal, in stirring up the imperial displeasure against him, had exposed him, without defence, to the interested denunciations of his enemies. The butt of most calumnious accusations, he saw his character misunderstood, his name outraged, his property put under sequestration, while he pined away himself – a prey to sickness and discouragement.

3

This letter, without date, seems to have been written at the same epoch, and under the same circumstances as the two preceding letters.

4

Letter without date, and without conclusion, written during the attack of the plague, under which the minister Geniston succumbed, that is to say, in September 1545.

5

Gautier Farel, brother to the Reformer. He was very soon afterwards restored to liberty, contrary to all expectation.

6

The minister, Louis de Geniston, following the noble example of Pierre Blanchet, cut off by the plague in 1543, had, of his own accord, offered himself for the service of the hospital set apart for those afflicted with the plague. He fell under it, a victim of his devotedness, in September 1545. His wife and two of his children were carried off a few days afterwards by the scourge, which almost wholly depopulated several quarters of the city.

7

There exists (Imp. Lib. Recueil Hist., de France, vol. xix.) a piece entitled Lepida Farelli Vocatio. In that letter Calvin vigorously urges his friend to repair to Geneva, by calling to mind the religious violence with which he was himself detained there, by the voice of Farel, at the time of his first entrance into that city in 1536. "Do you expect that I should thunder as you were wont to do, when you wished forcibly to draw me hither?" The urgencies of Calvin were fruitless, and the Church of Neuchatel retained, for twenty years longer, the services and the indefatigable activity of Farel.

8

The plague had dispersed the regents and students of the College of Geneva, and Calvin was labouring at the re-organization of that establishment. He had already proposed to the Council, in March 1545, to call to Geneva the celebrated Maturin Cordier, as president of the regents; but this proposal ended in nothing, and Maturin Cordier remained at Lausanne.

9

Farel was then at strife with the Seigneury of Neuchatel, on the subject of the administration of ecclesiastical property.

10

Rebuked on the ground of his morals, this minister had been banished to a country parish, and having refused to submit to the entire Consistory, he had received his dismissal.

11

Minister of the Church of Geneva; deposed, a few years afterwards, on account of the irregularities of his life.

12

Alarmed at the first movements of the Council of Trent, and the perils to which the good understanding between the Pope and the Emperor might subject the Reformation, the Deputies of the League of Smalkald had reassembled at Frankfort. But their union was not so solid as the gravity of the occasion demanded. The Elector of Saxe and the Landgrave of Hesse were influenced by different political views; but they were both alike disposed to seek the alliance of the Kings of France and England, as well as of the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland, that they might withstand the storm that menaced them. – Sleidan, l. xvi., and Robertson, vol. iv. B. vii. p. 234. London, 1851.

13

"Upon the intelligence that the Duke of Savoy has retaken two strongholds in Piedmont, and that he is collecting a body of troops, resolved to continue to work at the fortifications." – Registers of Council, 28th December 1545.

14

"Oath exacted of all private individuals, of fidelity to the Seigneury, and of their readiness to live and die for liberty." – Registers of Council, 7th January 1546.

15

The Seigneurs of Berne, eagerly seeking every opportunity of establishing their influence at Geneva, had offered to guard the city, and to protect it against all foreign attacks. This proposal was discarded, as tending to compromise the independence of the Republic. – Registers of Council, 11th January 1546.

16

We read, in the Registers of Council of the 29th of January of this year: – "Calvin having been ill, the Seigneury present to him ten crowns. On his recovery, he returns the money to the Council, who cause it to be expended in the purchase of a tun of wine for him, thus leaving him no alternative but to accept it."

17

Calvin had just dedicated to M. de Falais his Commentary on the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. The epistle dedicatory is of the 22d January 1546. The name of M. de Falais – sad example of the fragile nature of human affections! – was effaced ten years afterwards from the preface of this Commentary, and replaced by the name of the Marquis of Vico.

18

On the back, in the hand of M. de Falais – 'Received the 6th February 1546.'

19

Printer in Strasbourg.

20

The French were then besieging the town of Boulogne, occupied by the English. The peace between the two rival monarchs of France and England, was signed the year following. – De Thou, lib. i. ii.

21

The following is the address of this letter, taken from the original in the archives of the old Archbishopric of Vienne, and first published by the Abbé d'Artigny, – A Sire Jéhan Frellon, marchand libraire demeurant à Lyon, en la rue Mercière, enseigne de l'Escu de Coulongne. The mysterious personage who is pointed at in this letter, is no other than Michael Servetus – seven years before the trial which was to attach so fatal a celebrity to his name. Settled as a physician at Vienne, in Dauphiny, he kept up a correspondence with Calvin, under the cover of John Frellon, and he had just sent the Reformer an extract of the work which was in preparation under the title of Christianismi restitutio, expressing at the same time the desire of coming to Geneva. Then it was, that Calvin wrote to Farel the letter which has been so often cited, where this passage occurs, "Servet has lately written to me, and has added to his letter a large volume of his own delirious fancies… If it may be agreeable to me, he undertakes that he would come hither. But I will not interpose my assurance of his safety, for if he shall come, provided that my authority is of any avail, I shall not suffer him to depart alive."* – Letter of the 13th February 1546. We know how that terrible threat was realized seven years afterwards.

22

Decimated by the most cruel persecution, the faithful of Dauphiné, the native country of Farel, had inquired of the ministers of French Switzerland, whether it was lawful for them to have recourse to flight, in order to escape the fury of their adversaries. Numerous refugees had already settled at Geneva. – See vol. i. p. 473.

23

Ecclesiastical embroilments with the Seigneury of Berne.

24

See letter of the 26th January, p. 28, note 2.

25

See the preceding letter. It appears that relations between Calvin and Servetus continued in a state of interruption, as is proved by the following passage of a letter of Calvin to Viret, dated 1st September 1548: – "I think I once read to you my answer to Servetus. I was at length disinclined from striving longer with the incurable obstinacy of a heretic; and, indeed, I ought to have followed the advice of Paul. He now attacks you. You will see how long you ought to persist in rebutting his follies. He will twist nothing out of me henceforward." – Library of Geneva, Vol. 106.

26

One of the most violent members of the party that combated the influence and institutions of the Reformer at Geneva.

27

Calvin shewed himself, on more than one occasion, disposed to forgive personal injuries, as the Registers of Council testify: – "A woman having abused M. Calvin, it is directed that she be consigned to prison. Liberated at the request of the said M. Calvin, and discharged with a reproof." – 12th December 1545.

28

See p. 22, note 2.

29

Allusion to the Bernese and to their pretensions of ruling Geneva under cover of the Alliance. – See p. 28, note 2.

30

The year 1546 was especially remarkable for the great persecutions that arose within the bounds of the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris. Meaux, Seulis, Orleans, reckoned numerous martyrs. One named Jean Chapot of Dauphiné, colporteur of Geneva, arrested at Paris, was condemned to death, after having undergone the most cruel tortures. He had his tongue cut out before he was cast into the flames. "The dispersion," says Beza, "was widespread, but it led to the great advancement of many churches which were built up of the stones of that ruin." – Hist. Eccl. tom. i. p. 82. Histoire des Martyrs, pp. 170, 177.

31

Francis I., King of France.

32

On the death of the minister Chaponneau, the people of Neuchatel wished to have in his room Christopher Fabri, minister of Thonon: they accordingly asked him from the Seigneury of Berne, who with a good grace conceded him to them. – Ruchat, vol. v. p. 299.

33

We again find marks of the same solicitude in a letter of Calvin to Viret of the preceding month. "Adieu, with your wife, whose health we will commend to the Lord. Be assured that we are not less solicitous about her than if she were the wife or daughter of each of us. The Lord keep you and sustain you with the consolation of his Spirit." – (January 1546,) Vol. 106, from Geneva.

34

Viret was at that time plunged into the deepest affliction. He had just lost, after a long illness, his wife, Elizabeth Turtaz, of Orbe, with whom he had lived for many years in a godly union. The grief which he felt on that occasion is expressed, in a very touching manner, in a letter written many years afterwards to Calvin: – "I was so completely dispirited and prostrated by that arrow of affliction, that the whole world appeared to me nothing but a burden. There was nothing pleasant, nothing that could mitigate my grief of mind." – Calv. Epist. et Resp., p. 53. The friends of Viret, and especially Farel and Calvin, lavished upon him, during that trial, marks of the tenderest and most brotherly affection. The familiar correspondence of Calvin furnishes us with precious revelations in this respect.

35

Nephew of Viret, and minister in the Pays de Vaud.

36

To the most honourable Doctor Theodore Vitus, most faithful Minister of Christ at Nuremberg.

37

The following is the passage of the letter of Vitus to Calvin to which he here refers: – "I have read your short address to the people on the Sacrament of the Supper, and I approve of your calling the bread and wine signs in such a sense that the things signified are in reality present. Would that they who leave only the naked signs, might be led by you to adopt that view!" – Calv. Epist. et Resp., Amst., p. 37.

38

This desire was happily realized some years afterwards, by the adoption of a common symbol on the Supper, approved alike by the theologians of Zurich and Geneva.

39

Vitus lent useful aid to Luther in the revision of his different writings, and rendered a real service to the Church by collecting and offering to the public the Commentaries of Luther on the Prophet Micah, and the first eleven chapters of Genesis. – Melch. Adam, Vitæ Theol. Germ.

40

The Conference opened by the Emperor at Ratisbon, and to which Bucer had been summoned, was a mere feint to divert men's minds, and to transfer the decision of the points at issue to the Council of Trent.

41

Viret, yielding to the entreaties of Calvin, went to Geneva towards the end of March, and there received the most honourable marks of public affection. We read in the Registers of Council, of date the 2d April 1546, – "Grand reception given to Farel and Viret, who had just arrived at Geneva."

42

On the back, in the handwriting of M. de Falais, – Received the 16th of April 1546.

43

A new diet had been assembled at Ratisbon, for the pacification of the religious troubles of Germany. That assembly opened in the month of June 1546, in presence of the Emperor, and like those which had preceded, concluded without any result whatsoever.

44

The Protestants of this town, feebly supported by the league of Smalkald, and intimidated by the presence of the imperial legate, devoted to the Roman Catholic clergy, had already lost the rights which had been guarantied to them by the accord of 1543, and so found themselves deprived of the exercise of public worship and of the pastorate. – (See a letter of Myconius to Calvin, 13th November 1543. Calv. Epist. et Responsa, Amst. p. 26.)

45

In the year 1546, the Palatinate witnessed the accomplishment of a great religious revolution. The Elector, Frederic II., yielding to the wish of his subjects, proclaimed the establishment of the Reformation, and the abolition of the old worship in his states. The chief instrument of that revolution was the minister Paul Fagius, the disciple of Capito. – Sleidan, Comment. lib. xvi. p. 266. De Thou, lib. ii. c. 3.

46

The French Church of Strasbourg, of which Calvin had been pastor during his exile from Geneva.

47

Introduced by Calvin to Myconius, Ochino made but a very short stay at Bâle, where those writings made their appearance which have been such a blot upon his memory. In 1545 he went to Augsbourg, where he became minister to the congregation of Italian refugees until the epoch of the Interim, which was the cause of his betaking himself to England. His leanings toward heterodoxy were veiled from the eyes of every one, except perhaps the clear-sighted discernment of Calvin, who valued his abilities, without having an entire confidence in the solidity of his doctrines. The ever-recurring changes of his unsettled life led him, at a later period, to class himself with the sect of the anti-Trinitarians. His discourses, so much admired by Cardinal Bembo, and the Emperor Charles V. himself, are less remarkable for their purity of doctrine than for the warmth of feeling and the poetical flash of the style. They have been printed under the following title: Prediche di Messer Bernardino Ochino, 1543, and reprinted on several occasions; but we are not aware of any translation, whether Latin or French. See Schelhorn, Ergötzlichkeiten, tom. iii. pp. 2022, 2161, 2166, and pp. 2174-2179.

48

The sisters of M. de Falais.

49

Juan Diaz, originally of Cuença, in Spain, studied letters at the University of Paris, and was distinguished, amid the scholars of his nation, "by superior learning, adorned with pure morals, great mildness, prudence, and benignity." Initiated in the knowledge of the Gospel, he left Paris and visited Geneva, Bâle, Strasbourg, where he acquired the friendship of Bucer, whom he accompanied into Germany. The Jesuit, Malvenda, a stout defender of Popish idolatry, having made vain efforts to lead him back to the Romish Church, the adversaries of Juan Diaz planned a most detestable conspiracy against his life, and, on the 27th of March, he was assassinated by order of Alphonso Diaz, his own brother, who had come from Rome in order to the accomplishment of this execrable outrage, the instigator of which remained unpunished. – See the record of this odious fratricide in Sleidan, and Histoire des Martyrs, pp. 162, 168; and Letter CLXIII.

50

Calvin had this year a child by his wife, Idelette de Bure, which died in the birth.

51

At the request of M. de Falais, Calvin had prepared an apology for his Lordship, which was to be presented to the Emperor at the Diet of Ratisbon. This memorial, drawn up at first in French, then translated into Latin, and along with a profession of faith, containing valuable details for the history of M. de Falais, has the following title: – Apology of the very Illustrious Lord James of Burgundy, of Falaise, and of Breda, wherein he has wiped away the accusations wherewith he has been branded in the sight of the Imperial Majesty, and sets forth the Confession of his Faith. This morceau has been published by the Amsterdam editor at the end of the letters of Calvin to M. de Falais.

52

M. de Falais had five brothers. Those alone of whom mention is made in the letters of Calvin, are John, Seigneur de Fromont, and Peter, Pronotary apostolic, who had embraced the Reformation.

53

Alphonso d'Avalos, Marquis of Guasto, governor of the Milanese, and one of the ablest generals of Charles the Fifth. He died in 1546.

54

The Emperor, in 1544, had undertaken a disastrous expedition against the town of Argiers. The military movements which were then going forward in Italy, were intended to cover his real projects of attack against the Protestant princes of Germany.

55

See the following letter.

56

The Ecclesiastical Ordinances, digested by Calvin and adopted by the councils of the republic, daily encountered the keenest opposition in the heart of a party which reckoned at its head men belonging to the most distinguished families among the Genevese. The Consistory and Councils together took care that the laws were rigidly enforced, and checked improprieties without respect of persons. The Captain-General, Amy Perrin, the Syndic Corna, and several other persons, having, contrary to the prohibitions, danced in a private house, "It is ordained," as is contained in the Registers of 12th April 1546, "that they all be imprisoned;" and with regard to the wife of Amy Perrin, who spoke insolently to the Consistory, that she also be imprisoned, and be required to find security. Perrin, to avoid undergoing the punishment pronounced against him, had recourse to the pretext of a journey to Lyons; but he was incarcerated on his return. The Syndic Corna acknowledged his fault, and, after a deposition of some days, he was reinstated in his office. The minister, Henry de la Mare, was deposed, for having been present at the ball, and taken the side of the dance and dancers against the Consistory. See Registers of Council, April 1546.

57

At the head of the opposition to the ministers were observed the different members of the family of Francis Favre, a dissolute old man, and father-in-law of Amy Perrin. Francisca, his daughter, wife of the latter, made herself remarkable by the violence of her invectives against the Consistory. "They remonstrated with her, and made no more account of herself and her father than of the lowest in the city. Being again interrogated whether she would name the dancers, twice replied, that she would rather submit to punishment, and be dragged before all the justices, than appear before the Consistory." – Notes Extracted from the Registers of the Consistory of Geneva, by the late Syndic Cramer, 4te, 1853.

58

"That the father-in-law of Amy Perrin, who has committed adultery, be also imprisoned, and put upon his trial." – Registers of Council. Ibid.

59

See the whole of this narrative in the Histoire des Martyrs, from the tract of Claude de Senarclens: Vera Historia de Morte Joannis Diazii Hispani. 1546.

60

Letter without date, of which the original French is lost. It is here reproduced from the Latin translation inserted in the collection of the published Latin letters of Calvin, with restoration of date, April 1546.

61

Menaced by a common peril, and having equally to resist the pretensions of Charles V. to universal rule, the King of France and the Protestant Princes of Germany had resumed negotiations, that must seemingly issue in a lasting treaty. This treaty of alliance was for long the object of the prayers and the hopes of Calvin, who reckoned upon extracting from it advantageous results to the French Protestants, and an implicit toleration for churches until then subjected to the most violent persecutions. He pressed Farel and Viret, one or other, to repair to Germany, to hasten the progress of negotiations and determine the conditions of the alliance.

62

Is this Uzés a small town of Languedoc, now comprised in the department of Gard? Beza and the historian of the martyrs furnish us with no information on this point.

63

Desirous of rendering assistance to Calvin during his illness and recovery, the Seigneurs of Geneva decided upon allowing him an attendant at the public expense. – Registers of Council, 4th March 1546.

64

Viret was on the point of repairing to Berne, in order to discuss certain matters relative to the ordinances of the Reformation in the Pays de Vaud. – Ruchat, vol. v. p. 298.

65

After the disgrace of the Chancellor Poyet, this high office was filled by François Olivier, Seigneur of Louville, President of the Parliament of Paris. He resigned in 1550, and again became Chancellor in 1559, in order to give his sanction to the lamentable executions of Amboise, which he survived only for a short time.

66

On the back, in the handwriting of M. de Falais: "Received the 22d July." This note, taken in connection with the beginning of the next letter to M. de Falais, settles the date of the present one.

67

M. de Falais was at the time dangerously ill.

68

Certain persons having obtained from the magistrate permission to act in public a Morality, entitled, The Acts of the Apostles, which had received the approbation of the ministers; one of them, named Michael Cop, less conciliatory than his colleagues, preached a very violent discourse in the church of St. Peter, and said that the women who should mount the theatre to act that farce, would be shameless creatures. These words stirred up a great tumult in the city, and Calvin required to put forth all his influence to quiet the agitation, and to preserve the life of his imprudent colleague.

69