Letters of John Calvin, Volume II
305
"I am glad your Commentary on Isaiah, and also the Canonical Epistles, are designed for our king; and I do not doubt but that, even from your letter to him, very considerable benefit will accrue to the English king." – Utenhoven to Calvin. Paris MSS. Recueil Historique de France, tom. xix.
306
See Calvin's letter to the King of England, of January 1551.
307
Louis de Budé, Sieur de la Motte, brother of John de Budé, was particularly versed in Oriental languages, of which he was made professor at Geneva, a short time after his arrival in that town. He died in 1552. We have of his a Psautier traduit de l'Hebreu en Français. 8vo. Geneva, 1550.
308
The celebrated printer Robert Etienne, (Stephens,) a man of the purest reputation, who lived in an age which failed to recognize his genius, and which rewarded his labours with ingratitude. Having become odious to the clergy by his beautiful editions of the Bible, and by his desire for reform, and but ill protected by the King of France against the vexations of the Sorbonne, he resolved to quit his country and remove his presses to Geneva, whither the printer Crespin had already preceded him. He arrived there towards the end of the year 1550, with his son Henry, who afterwards shed a new lustre on the name of Stephens. He publicly embraced the cause of the Reformation, together with the members of his family, and honoured his adopted country by the publication of various works of antiquity, both sacred and profane. Made a burgess of Geneva in 1556, he lived in constant intimacy with Calvin and Beza, until his death in 1559. – Senebier, Hist. Litt., pp. 355, 356; Haag. France Protestante, Art. Estienne.
309
In allusion to a tolerably numerous party in France, who, on receiving the Gospel, believed they might remain united in external communion with the Romish Church, and escape persecution by an apparent adhesion to its dogmas.
310
After leaving Bâle, and his establishment at Geneva, (July 1548). This seigneur lived in the village of Veigy, situated several leagues from the city, between Hermance and Les Voirons.
311
In allusion to the misconduct of a servant of Monsieur de Falais.
312
We read in the MS. Chronicle of Michael Roset, lib. v. chap. 27, "By advice of the ministers, April 3, 1550, it was enacted, that an annual visitation be maintained from house to house, for the examination of men and women as to their faith, in order to discern between the ignorant, and hardened sinners, and true Christians, which in time has wrought great benefit."
313
See the notice, p. 249.
314
The plague, which had cut off Hedio, the pious minister at Strasbourg, made great ravages at Berne during the same year. It entered the houses of Wolfgang Musculus, and of John Haller, although they escaped themselves. A great number of the ministers of the Church of Berne sunk under the attacks of this awful scourge. – Ruchat, tom. v. p. 470. The Chronique of Haller, cited by Hottinger.
315
Ruchat, who reproduces this letter, (tom. v. p. 441,) considers that the name here suppressed is that of Pierre Kontzen, a minister of Berne, who presided, in 1538, at the Synod of Lausanne.
316
Always attentive to regulate by ordinances the different points of religious and ecclesiastical life, the Seigneurs of Berne had just published (Dec. 1550) new edicts more rigorous than those which had preceded them. These edicts were especially directed against the gross notions and certain customs of the Papists, which Berne punished by fine. Indulgent to the taking of oaths, of which the custom was generally disseminated among the Catholic population subject to their dominion, the Seigneurie seemed to reserve all their severity for the offence of not observing the feasts abolished at Geneva.
317
This abolition, which was at a later period to provoke such warm debates between Berne and Geneva, had been pronounced the 16th Nov. 1550.
318
Richard Le Fèvre, a native of Rouen, one of the martyrs of the Reformed Church of Lyons. Seized in that town in 1551, and condemned to death, he appealed thence to the Parliament of Paris, and was delivered in transitu by some unknown friends. Surprised, two years afterwards, at Grenoble, he was brought back to the dungeons of Lyons, saw his first sentence confirmed by the Parliament of Paris, and went cheerfully to the stake the 7th July 1551. He wrote on the 3d of May to Calvin, – "The present is to let you know, that I hope to go to keep Whitsuntide in the kingdom of heaven, and to be present at the marriage of the Son of God, … if I am not sooner called away by this good Lord and Master, whose voice i am ready to obey, when he shall say, Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you before the foundation of the world." – (The original autograph letter, Library of Geneva, Vol. 109.) During his first captivity at Lyons, Richard Le Fèvre had consulted Calvin on some points of doctrine, and had received pious exhortations from him regarding them.
319
In an assembly which met at Neuchatel on the 14th of March 1551, the number of individuals who should compose the Consistory was fixed, and a collection of regulations regarding marriage was drawn out.
320
The translation of the Psalms begun by Clement Marot, was continued by Theodore Boza, who obtained, during this same year, the authority of the Council of Geneva for the publication of a part of his work.
321
Edward VI., son of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour, King of England, born in 1537, died, in his sixteenth year, the 8th of July 1553. Gifted with a precocious strength of reason, and a lively sensibility, instructed in the ancient languages and foreign literature, this young prince did not live long enough to realize the hopes to which his accession to the throne had given birth. "His virtues," says the historian Hume, "had made him an object of tender affection to the public. He possessed mildness of disposition, application to study and business, a capacity to learn and judge, and an attachment to equity and justice." Devotional reading had a particular attraction for this prince, who was heartily devoted to the cause of the Reformation. Calvin dedicated two of his commentaries to him: "Joannis Calvini Commentarii in Iesaiam Prophetam, Eduardo VI., Angliæ Regi, 8 Cal. Januarii 1551." "Joannis Calvini Commentarii in Epistolas Canonicas." The dedication of the first of these commentaries (25th December 1550) furnishes us the date of the letter of Calvin, written in the month of January 1551, and brought to the King by the minister, Nicolas des Gallars.
322
The privilege granted by King Edward VI. to the Church of the foreign Protestants instituted at London 1550. The royal patent was thus expressed: – "Considering that it is the duty of a Christian prince well to administer the affairs of his kingdom, to provide for religion, and for the unhappy exiles, afflicted and banished by reason thereof, we would have you to know, that having compassion of the condition of those who have for some considerable time past been domiciled in our kingdom, and come there daily, of our special grace … will and ordain that henceforward they may have in our city of London a church, to be called the Church of the Lord Jesus, where the assembly of the Germans and other strangers can meet and worship, for the purpose of having the Gospel purely interpreted by the ministers of their church, and the Sacraments administered according to the word of God and the apostolic ordinance."
323
The agreement concluded two years before, between the Churches of Geneva and of Zurich, on the question of the Sacraments, had been a source of joy to all the sober-minded in Switzerland and in Germany, who had deplored the excesses of the sacramental quarrel. But it displeased the intemperate Lutheran party, who accused Calvin of fickleness, and went so far as to charge him with having changed his opinions, and with squaring his doctrine to that of Zuingle, since the defeat of the Protestant party in Germany. This was nothing but a calumny, which is removed by a comparison of the previous writings of Calvin upon the Supper, with the formula drawn up under his care and which he was desirous should be published at Zurich. – Ruchat, tom. v. p. 379.
324
Some have erroneously fixed on 1549 as the date of this publication. Delayed by the theologians of Zurich it was only finished in 1551, under the title – Consensio mutua in re Sacramentaria ministrorum Tigurinæ Ecclesiæ et D. Joannis Calvini Ministri Genevensis Ecclesiæ. Zurich, 8vo. Caused by Calvin to be translated into French the following year, this important document figures in the Recueil des Opuscules, p. 1137, with a preface by Calvin to the Ministers and Doctors of the Church of Zurich.
325
Under this title, Bullinger had commenced publishing a series of discourses concerning the principal points of the Christian religion.
326
See the letter to the king, p. 299.
327
Having returned to England the previous year, and having been appointed Bishop of Gloucester through the patronage of Cranmer, Hooper was imprisoned and suffered a few days of captivity for having refused to wear, at the time of his consecration, the sacerdotal dress then in use in the English Church. See his correspondence with Bullinger, Zurich Letters, 1537-1558, tom. i. p. 9; Burnet, vol. i.
328
After having proscribed the Reformed worship in the town of Augsburg, the Emperor took up his quarters at Inspruck, among the valleys of the Tyrol, from which he could keep an eye at once upon the Council of Trent, Germany, and Italy. – Robertson, book x.
329
Bullinger had presented the King of England with his third and fourth Decade, (see note 1, p. 306,) with a long letter, in which he reminds the young king of the duties which he had to fulfil towards his subjects. "This epistle and book were presented to the King by the hands of Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, personally acquainted with Bullinger, to whom the King declared his good acceptance thereof, and the respect and esteem he had for the reverend author." – Strype, Memoir, vol. ii. pp. 390, 394.
330
The letter here referred to has escaped all our investigations, and appears to be entirely lost.
331
One of the first acts of the new Pope, Julius III, was to decree the re-assembly of the Council of Trent, on the 1st of May 1551. This session, termed the eleventh – eight having been held at Trent and two at Bologna – was without result. The fathers resolved upon fixing that there should not be another assembly until the 1st of September. – Fra Paolo, Hist. du Concile de Trente, lib. iv. sect. i.
332
An invitation to the Council was, in point of fact, addressed by the Pope to the Cantons, with all sorts of flattering words, to induce them to comply. The theologians of Zurich, appointed to draw up a reply, had little difficulty in showing that the Council was not for the advantage of the Swiss, or for the good of religion, and the Reformed Cantons adopted unanimously the conclusions of the theologians, and refused to send deputies to the Council. – Ruchat, tom. v. p. 426.
333
The year 1551 was marked by two grievous losses to the Reformed churches of Europe. Bucer, overcome by the sorrows of exile, died in England on the 28th of February, and the decease of Joachim Vadian, one of the most brilliant minds of that age, occurred at Saint Gall during the same year. The earliest notice of Bucer's death is to be found in the Journal of King Edward VI. of England: – "February 28th. – The learned man Bucerus died at Cambridge, who was two days after buried in St. Mary's Church, all the whole University, with the whole town, bringing him to the grave, to the number of three thousand persons. Also there was an oration of Mr. Haddon made very elegantly at his death…" &c. – Zurich Letters, first series, tom. ii. p. 492. Vadian, cut off in the prime of life, breathed his last in the arms of his friend Kessler, the poet, leaving behind him a name held in deep veneration by his friends and countrymen. Above two thousand of the present inhabitants of Saint Gall claim the honour of being descended from the burgomaster Vadian. See the notice of him given in the present collection, vol. i. p. 475.
334
Nicolas des Gallars.
335
In a letter to Calvin of the 25th May preceding, Farel gave eloquent expression to his sorrow at the death of Bucer: – "I have at length received the last letter of the pious Bucer. What a spirit! How calmly he sunk down! We must mingle joy with our sorrow, inasmuch as our friend has gone up to God." – Library of Paris. Recueil Historique de France, tom. xix.
336
A man of distinguished learning, an accomplished statesman, and an able negotiator, as well as a theologian, and an admirable poet, Joachim Vadian left as wide a blank in the political councils, as he did in the churches of his country. He had been elected eleven times to the office of Burgomaster of Saint Gall. – See Melchior Adam, Vitæ Medicorum Germanorum; and the Theatrum of Pauli Freheri, tom. ii. pp. 1231, 1232.
337
An allusion to a recent work of Osiander's On Justification, which gave rise to keen controversy in Germany. – See the Correspondence of Calvin with Melanchthon in 1552.
338
By all appearance Amy Perrin.
339
The number of refugees daily increasing at Geneva, permission was grantod them to assemble together for public worship in their own languages. English was preached at the Auditoire, Italian at the College, Spanish at Saint Gervais, and Flemish in Saint Germain. The unity of the Spirit shone through the diversity of languages. – Spon and Picot, Histoire de Genève.
340
The Pope and the King of France were at that time engaged in a struggle about the town of Parma, which the former wished to plunder, and the latter to defend in behalf of Ottavio Farneso. Tho Emperor was not slow in joining the cause of the Pope, and peace was not concluded till the following year.
341
This letter without an address, was written to a friend, perhaps to one of the members of the family of Beza in France, during an illness which endangered his life, in 1551, and which called forth from the Reformer the most touching testimonies of his affection.
342
See the letter to the King of the month of January, p. 299. The ministor, Nicolas des Gallars, charged to present to the King the letter and the Commentaries of Calvin, had met with the most flattering reception at Court.*
343
Calvin published his treatise, De Æterna Dei Praedestinatione, during the following year, in reply to certain attacks directed against this doctrine by an Italian Doctor named George of Sicily, and the German theologian, Albert Pighius, whom he had already assailed in 1543. – (See vol. i. p. 371 of the present Collection.) Little is known regarding George of Sicily. Suspected by the Catholics on account of his professing certain of the Reformed doctrines, and by the Protestants from his holding certain heterodox opinions, he was disclaimed alike by both of those Churches, and ultimately fell a victim to the Inquisition, at Ferrara. – MSS. of the Library of Ferrara.
344
Notwithstanding the interested advances made by the King of France to the Swiss Cantons, and despite his alliance with the Protestants of Germany, the persecutions did not terminate in France. A minister of the district of Neuchatel, originally from the neighbourhood of Mans, named Hugues Gravier, having undertaken a journey to his native country, was arrested at the bridge of Maçon, and, after a long imprisonment, condemned to the flames, notwithstanding the intervention of the Seigneurs of Berne in his behalf. He submitted to this cruel torture at Bourg-en-Bresse, with wonderful firmness; and his death, says the historian of the Martyrs, was the means of forming a nursery of the faithful throughout the entire neighbourhood. – Hist. des Martyrs, p. 234, anno 1552. Hist. Eccl., p. 86.
345
The new opinions made every day fresh progress in France, in spite of the rigour of the edicts, and the severity of the judges. Inspired by the evil spirit of Cardinals Tournon and Lorraine, the King resorted to measures of great cruelty. The Edict of Chateaubriand, issued on the 27th of June 1551, declared Protestants amenable at once to ecclesiastical and civil tribunals, so that if absolved by the jurisdiction of the one, they were liable to condemnation by that of the other! This was a violation of the laws of the most ordinary justice; but at a time when the Emperor, aided by the heretic Maurice of Saxony, was attacking the Pope, the King of France could not give too strong a pledge of his orthodoxy. The blood of the disciples of the Gospel flowed like water, to expiate the alliance of this persecuting monarch with the Lutherans of Germany. – Haag, France Protestante, Introduction, p. x.
346
There were at that time proposals of marriage between the young King Edward, and Elizabeth of France, daughter of Henry II., but the negotiations relative to that match wore without result. – Burnet, History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 282, (Nares' Edition.)
347
Calvin, referring to the same circumstance in a letter to Viret, (Aug. 1551,) expressed himself thus: – "An ignorant monk, from an obscure village, disparaged me. A ridiculous affair. He was a demagogue, who from the front of the platform, bawled out that we were worse than the Papists, and brought forward a paper before the Consistory, written by himself, in which he accused me, by name, of teaching what was false and contrary to the word of God; called me an impostor; babbled out that those who agreed with me held impious opinions," &c. – (Calv. Opera, vol. ix. p. 61.) From these last traits, we recognize the same obscure individual, who made bold to bring forward such accusations against Calvin, and whose disputes with the Reformer were soon to acquire a sad notoriety over all Switzerland. This man was Jerome Bolsec! – See the following letter.
348
At a general meeting, held October 16, 1551, the minister of Jussy, Jean de Saint André, in preaching from the words of St. John, (viii. 47,) "He that is of God heareth God's words …" took occasion to develope the doctrine of eternal election, declaring that "those who are not regenerated by the Spirit of God, continue in a state of rebellion even to the end, because obedience is a gift accorded only to the elect." He had scarcely finished speaking when one of the hearers rose up, and pronounced this doctrine false and impious, accompanying his discourse with coarse abuse of those who make God the author of sin, and exhorted the people to guard against this new doctrine as a detestable piece of folly. This man was the old Carmelite monk, Jerome Bolsec, a physician, preacher, and poet, who, wandering by turns in France and Italy, had retired to Geneva some months previously, where he had already frequently attacked the doctrines of Calvin. Unnoticed in the crowd, the Reformer, whom Bolsec had thought absent, immediately rose up, and by a succession of testimonies borrowed from the writings of Augustine, eloquently refuted his adversary. Arrested on account of the temerity of his language, and interrogated by the magistrate, Jerome refused to retract, and was thrown into prison. The case was brought before the Council, where he boldly maintained his opinion, adding, besides, that many of the Swiss ministers shared in his sentiments. Before pronouncing a judgment, which the ministers of Geneva earnestly desired, the magistrates wrote concerning the subject to three Reformed towns, namely, Zurich, Berne, and Bâle, furnishing them with a list of the errors of Bolsec, and asking their advice as to how they should treat him. See the Registers of the Council, Oct. 1551; Gautier, Manuscript History of Geneva, and Ruehat, tom. v. p. 456.
349
This is Calvin's last letter to Myconius. Struck by apoplexy while in the pulpit of the Cathedral of Bâle, a few days before the Easter festivals of 1551, Myconius never rallied, till he was carried off by the plague in October 1552, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. His bereaved widow survived him only a few days. Simon Sulzer succeeded him in the office of Antistes which he had filled during more than ten years with moderation and wisdom. – See Melch. Adam, Vitæ Theol. Germ., p. 224; Ruchat, tom. v. p. 468.
350
Alluding to the reply expected from the ministers of Bâle, concerning the case of Bolsec. See the preceding letter.
351
See letter, p. 319.
352
"To Mons. Christopher Fabri, minister of the Word of God in the Church of Neufchatel."
353
In the theological disputes between Calvin and Bolsec, M. de Falais declared himself in favour of the latter, from whom he received medical advice. He had even written a letter to Bâle in his behalf.
354
See the preceding letter, p. 327.
355
The theologians of Zurich, like those of Bâle, did not hesitate to profess adherence to the doctrine attacked by Bolsec. "Jerome," said they, "deceives himself and wrongs Zuingle, if he believes that the latter taught that God himself was the cause of man's sinning; for if he appeared to teach something similar to that in his book on The Providence of God, we must, at the same time, consult his other writings, where he has plainly established that sin comes by no means from God, but from human corruption and voluntary wickedness." Addressed to the Councils of Geneva by an oversight which the ministers of that church seemed keenly to feel, the answer from Zurich did not appear to Calvin to be a sufficiently explicit condemnation of his adversary. See the letter to Bullinger of January 1552.
356
Lelio Socin, founder of the celebrated sect which bears his name, was born at Sienna of a distinguished family: his father, Mariano Socin, a professor in the University of Bologna, was one of the most learned jurisconsults of his age. Of a bold and active mind, which found pleasure in the most subtle speculations, and which would not stop short of the interpretation of mysteries, Lelio left his native country in 1548, and joined the Reformers of Switzerland and Germany, whose friendship he won by the politeness of his manners, the purity of his life, and his zeal for learning. He resided by turns at Zurich and Wittemberg, and was not slow, by correspondence or conversation, to express his doubts on the common doctrines, which he skilfully advanced rather in the form of questions than as opinions which he was prepared to maintain and to teach. He was beloved by Bullinger, who did not suspect the heterodoxy of his beliefs, and who wrote to Calvin regarding him, "I restrain as far as I can this man's curiosity;" and Calvin himself, after having repeatedly broken off correspondence with Socin, could not forbear renewing it, and giving a friendly reply to the doubts which he had expressed on the resurrection, baptism, the trinity, &c. (Calv. Opera, tom. ix. pp. 51, 57, 197.) The letter, which is published here for the first time, throws valuable light on the relation of the Reformer to the founder of a sect to which even Socin himself was yet a stranger, and whose doubts were afterwards to be set up as dogmas by his disciples. Lelio Socin died in 1562, before he had completed his thirty-seventh year. – M'Crie, Hist. of Ref. in Italy, passim.
