Letters of John Calvin, Volume II
402
We can judge of this from the remarkable memorial of Calvin to the Seigneurie, entitled La Cause contre Trolliet, where we meet with these words: – "That party, Noble Seigneurs, which is desirous of bringing Melanchthon and myself into mutual conflict, is doing great wrong to both of us, and in general to the whole Church of God. I honour Melanchthon as much for his superior learning as for his virtues, and above all, for having laboured so faithfully to uphold the Gospel. If I find fault with him, I do not conceal it from him, seeing that he gives me liberty to do so. There are witnesses in abundance on his side, who know how much he loves me. And I know that he will hold in detestation all those who, under cover of his name, seek to blacken my doctrine." – 6th Oct. 1552. (Library of Geneva, vol. 145.) Calvin's preface to Melanchthon's Common Places may also be consulted. Geneva, 1546, 8vo.
403
No date. Written evidently about the end of 1552. This letter, the last which Calvin wrote to M. de Falais, throws a great light on the circumstances of their rupture, of which Jerome Bolsec's process was the occasion. Banished from Geneva for his attacks on the doctrine of predestination and his invectives against Calvin, Bolsec had found means to interest in his cause M. de Falais, whose physician he was, and who interceded to no purpose for him with his judges: "Master Jerome is better acquainted with my constitution and what affords me relief than any other doctor that I know… It is to him after God that I am indebted for my life." – Archives of Geneva. Letters of the 9th and 11th November 1551. These steps undertaken from a feeling of humanity, would certainly not have indisposed Calvin, if M. de Falais had not too openly taken part with Bolsec against the Reformer. Calvin bitterly complained of it, "that M. de Falais should write that he (Bolsec) was not a bad man, and for the sake of an obscure wretch should hold up his reputation as a subject of mockery." Letter to the ministers of Bâle, January 1552. Expelled from Geneva and settled at Thonon, Bolsec contrived to envenom this difference which the recollections of a long friendship should have appeased, and which terminated in a painful rupture. In a vehement letter, Calvin, at that time suffering from bad health, took leave of his old friend, whose name he erased four years afterwards from the preface to his Commentary on the first Epistle to the Corinthians, in order to substitute in its place that of the Marquis de Vico.
404
See vol. i. pp. 403, 409. Settled at Bâle, Castalio had just published his Latin version of the Holy Scriptures, which being judged with excessive severity by the Reformed Divines, drew on him numerous enmities. – Bibla Sacra Latina, Basil, 1551.
405
The history of M. de Falais, after his rupture with Calvin, is enveloped in much obscurity. He left Geneva in order to settle at Berne, lost his wife in 1557, and contracted a second marriage. We know neither the date nor the place of his death. Is it true, as Bayle affirms, that this seigneur, chagrined by the spectacle of the divisions which he had witnessed at Geneva, at last returned to the Catholic church? We are rather inclined to believe, from the testimonies of Calvin and Beza, indirectly confirmed by the silence of the Brabançon historians, that, though differing on some points of Calvinistic theology, the great-grand-son of Philip of Burgundy did not abjure the tenets for which he had sacrificed his fortune and his country. See Bayle, Dict., Art. Philip of Burgundy, remark G; Calvin, Comment. on the 1st Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians, dedication to the Marquis of Vico, 24th January 1556; and the preface of Beza to the Commentary on Joshua.
406
Mathieu Dimonet, a devout Protestant of Lyons, was arrested in that town the 9th January 1553. In his letters to the ministers of Geneva he has himself related the details of his trial: – "On Monday 9 January being in my house in presence of the king's lieutenant and the official, who, after they had searched and visited my books, found nothing, except a little book of spiritual songs set to music…" Dimonet underwent a first examination, and was then led away to the prison of the officialty. "I have undergone," says he, "great assaults and temptations … for on the one side, they set before me tortures and death, then the shame and dishonour of myself and my relations, the sorrow of my mother, who they said was dying with grief and many other things … which would have been very hard for me to bear, unless the Lord had strengthened me by his Holy Spirit." The prisoner courageously withstood the threats of the inquisitor Oritz, and the pressing entreaties of his family. The 15th July 1553, quite cheerfully, and praying to the Lord, he endured the torment of death. – Histoire des Martyrs, p. 247.
407
Peter Berger of Bar-sur-Seine, burgess of Geneva, was seized at Lyons three days after the scholars of Lausanne, whom he rejoined in the dungeons and preceded to martyrdom. "Having mounted the stake, he said, 'Lord, I commit my soul to thee.' Then looking up to heaven with steadfast gaze, and crying aloud, he said, 'To-day I see heaven open;' and immediately after, this saint yielded up his spirit to God." – Histoire des Martyrs, p. 234.
408
Christopher Fabri [or Libertet] was on the eve of his second marriage. We know nothing of his first wife. In a letter of May 1545, to Fabri, then pastor at Thonon, Calvin speaks highly of the entertainment he received from his wife, on his return from a long tour in the German Cantons: "I could never get your wife to treat us in a plain, homely way… She was willing to take advice. She repeatedly requested that I should ask for whatever I chose, as if it were my own; she adhered to her own opinion in this, however, that she entertained us too sumptuously; for there was twice as much food always prepared as there was any occasion for. We felt just as much at home as if you had been present." – MS. of the Library of Neuchatel.
409
In allusion to the efforts of the Libertine party, put forth with increasing violence for the overthrow of ecclesiastical discipline, and which gave rise during the same year to a decisive struggle between the Reformer and his adversaries.
410
A village on the banks of the Arve, a few miles from Geneva.
411
John Macard, originally from the neighbourhood of Laon in Picardy, took refuge in Geneva on account of religion. A man of resolute character, and endowed with a manly eloquence, he rendered eminent service to the Church alternately at Geneva and Paris, and the latter reckoned him among the number of its most distinguished pastors.
412
The minister, Philip de Ecclesia, deposed on account of his disorderly life.
413
John Cheke, preceptor of Edward VI., King of England, and distinguished alike in science and in letters, won the esteem and confidence of his royal pupil, who raised him to the rank of knighthood, and who gave him in many ways the most precious testimonies of his affection. – See Fuller's Church History, B. vii.; sixteenth cent., 19, 20. Though a man of sincere piety, Cheke was not possessed of a firmness of character equal to the variety of his knowledge and the greatness of his talents. He survived his pupil only to make a deplorable manifestation of the infirmity of his faith under fear of the scaffold and of martyrdom. Arrested in the Low Countries in 1556, by a secret order of Philip II., he was conducted to London, imprisoned in the Tower, and escaped death only by a solemn retractation. He then fell into a profound melancholy, and soon after died, exhibiting sentiments of sincere repentance, asking pardon of God and men for the sin of which he had been guilty. See Strype, Memoirs, III., i. 515, and Zurich Letters, first series, passim
414
Declared guilty of the crime of heresy, and delivered over to the secular arm by the Judge Ordinary of Lyons, the five students made their appeal to the Parliament of Paris, while the authorities of Berne strove in vain to save "leurs escholiers." Transferred from dungeon to dungeon, during a trial which lasted for more than a year, brought back at last from Paris to Lyons, to await the sentence of their judges, the constancy of these young men never faltered for a single day. At length, the 1st March 1553, they received the communication of the decree of the Parliament of Paris, which gave them over to the stake. – Hist. des Martyrs, lib. iv., p. 230. That melancholy intelligence soon spread around, and brought mourning to Lausanne and to Geneva.
415
This was the pious merchant, John Liner, of Saint Gall. – See the Letter of the 10th August, p. 358. He was present with the prisoners at the bar of Roanne when they received their sentence of death. He set out immediately for Berne, in order to try a last application on the part of the seigneury of that town to the King of France. – Hist. des Martyrs, pp. 230, 231. Various MSS. of the library of St. Gall.
416
The inquisitor, Nicolas Oritz, who presided at the trial of the five students. The paper here mentioned still exists in the library of Geneva, 113, with this title: – "Copy of a paper of the Inquisitor Houriz, given to the prisoners for the Word at Lyons, to be conveyed to M. Calvin to retain."
417
This gentleman, whose name is not known, corresponded by letter with Calvin, his countryman and friend. Shortly before his arrest he wrote to Calvin on the subject of a fire, which had almost entirely destroyed the town of Noyon, sparing, however, the house of the Reformer: "I have no doubt," said he, "that God has left this testimony against those of your town, who eight or ten days before had burnt in effigy Monsieur de Normandie and the rest." – Latin Letter of Calvin of 15th February 1553.
418
Laurent de Normandie.
419
The reading of this letter, filled with the most lively and disinterested testimonies of affection for Farel, calls to one's mind the beautiful preface of Calvin's Commentary on the Epistle of St. Paul to Titus, dedicated to Farel and Viret: – "I do not think," says Calvin, "that there have ever been friends who have lived together in such fast friendship and concord, as we have done during our ministry. I have been a fellow-pastor here with both of you. So far from there having been any appearance of envy between you and me, I always regarded us as one. We have since been separated. As for you, Master William, the Church of Neuchatel, which you have delivered from the tyranny of the Papacy, and won over to Christ, called you to be its pastor; and as for you, Master Peter, you stand in a similar relation to the Church of Lausanne. Each of us, however, guards so well the place committed to us, that by our united efforts, the children of God assemble within the fold of Jesus Christ, and are even united in one company." – Dedication of 29th November 1549.
420
On the back. – To my kind brethren and friends, the brothers Christopher and Thomas Zollicoffre, merchants of Saint Gall, dwelling at Lyons. Pardon the mistake as to the names and the haste.
421
In a letter to the King of the 15th March, Messieurs of Berne had made strong complaint of the conduct of the Cardinal de Tournon, who, after having promised them to interest himself in behalf of the five students, had, with the utmost rigour, instituted proceedings against them. In a second letter, written three days later, they represented to this prince the innocence of their scholars, arrested at Lyons before they had sojourned there a single day, and condemned to death, although they had neither preached, nor dogmatized, nor excited any disturbance in the kingdom. They concluded by saying, – "We very humbly pray your Majesty to bestow them on us as a pure, royal, gratuitous, and liberal gift, which we shall esteem as great and precious, as if a present had been made us of an inestimable amount of gold and silver." These petitions were of no avail. Inspired by the fatal genius of the Cardinals of Tournon and of Lorraine, Henry II. confirmed the sentence of the parliament of Paris.
422
The letter to which allusion is here made is lost; and one cannot sufficiently deplore the disappearance of documents, which would have shed a fuller light on the relations of Calvin with the Reformer of England.
423
Seigneur of Picardy, no doubt one of the ancestors of that illustrious confessor, Louis de Marolles, who expiated in the galleys of Marseilles the crime of his resistance to the dragooning zeal of Louis XIV. and the pressing solicitations of Bossuet. "The hour of liberty," says M. Charles Weiss, "never struck for that unfortunate one. He died in 1692 in the Hôpital des Forçats at Marseilles, and was interred in the Turkish cemetery, the ordinary burial-place of the Reformed who died in the galleys, faithful to the last in the religion for which they had suffered." – Histoire des Refugiés Protestantes de France, tom. i. p. 101. See also the book entitled Histoire des Souffrances du bien heureux martyr, M. Louis de Marolles. La Haye, 1699.
424
This was doubtless Madame de Cany. See note, p. 295.
425
See the letter to the brothers Zollieoffre, and the notes relative to the last intercession of the Seigneurie of Berne in behalf of the students of Lausanne, p. 396. Viret took the most lively interest in the captives, and wrote them a beautiful letter a short while before their martyrdom, full of Christian exhortations, which may be seen in the Histoire des Martyrs, pp. 248, 249.
426
The Constable, Anne de Montmorency, governor of Lyonnais, shared with Cardinal de Tournon the melancholy honour of having urged on with fury the condemnation of those prisoners who had been recommended to his merciful intercession with the king. – Hist. des Martyrs, p. 231, MSS. of the Archives of Berne.
427
This letter is without a date, but from the allusion to the very dangerous illness of Farel, it must have been written in the month of April 1553.
428
Theodore Bibliander, professor of Theology at Zurich. Of an ardent and irritable nature, he could not bear to be contradicted, and it is even told of him that he challenged to a duel the celebrated Peter Martyr, one of his colleagues, owing to some disagreement on the doctrine of predestination. The Seigneurie of Zurich dismissed the warlike theologian. – Hist. de la Suisse, tom. xii. p. 87.
429
Is this John ab Ulmis of whom we read in numerous letters to Bullinger? – Zurich Letters, first series, vol. ii. pp. 377, 458.
430
The end of this letter is wanting.
431
This letter must have preceded by some days the last conflict of the five prisoners. Foreseeing their end near, they wrote, on the 5th May, to the Seigneurie of Berne, to thank them for the testimonials of affection which they had received from them. "If it has not pleased God," they said, "to preserve life by your means, it has at least been prolonged thereby … in spite of the fury of all those who would have desired long ago to put us to death. Since, then, that He is pleased that our blood should soon be shed for the confession of his holy name, we reckon ourselves far happier than if we were set at liberty, for as he is true and all-powerful, he will strengthen us, and will not permit us to be tormented beyond our strength; and after that we have suffered awhile, he will receive us into his heavenly kingdom, and will bestow upon us eternal rest with himself…" It was the 16th May when the five scholars were told to prepare for death; they received that intelligence with a pious serenity. The stake was set up upon the Place des Terreaux; they proceeded thither, singing psalms, and repeating passages of holy writ. "Having arrived at the place of death, they cheerfully mounted on the heap of wood, the two youngest first… The last who went up was Martial Alba, the elder of the five, who had been a long time on his knees in prayer to the Lord. He earnestly requested Lieutenant Tignac to grant him a favour. The lieutenant said to him: What would you? He said to him: That I might kiss my brethren before I die. The lieutenant granted his wish. Then the said Martial kissed the other four who were already bound, saying to each of them, Adieu, adieu, my brother. The fire was kindled; the voice of the five confessors was heard, still exhorting one another in the midst of the flames: Courage, my brothers; courage… These were the last audible words of these five valiant champions and martyrs of the Lord." – Hist. des Martyrs, lib. iv. p. 231.
432
Calvin refers here to other prisoners of Lyons, Mathieu Dimonet and Denis Peloquin, who kept up in prison a pious correspondence by letter with the scholars of Lausanne.
433
In the Fellowship Register of Geneva, (Registres de la Compagnie de Genève, Vol. A. p. 440,) there is a document entitled, "Letter of a Lady persecuted by her Papist Husband," from France, 24th June 1552. That lady was of high birth, as these words indicate, "Knowing the house to which she belongs, and the great lords of the kingdom to whom she is related, and who are in great favour with the king…" This passage appears to us to point at Madame de Cany; see the Note, p. 295. Persecuted by her husband on account of her belief, that lady found her only consolation in the letters and exhortations which she received in secret from Geneva. Note, p. 409.
434
A town of Savoy, some leagues from Geneva – used sometimes as a pseudonyme by the Reformer.
435
The dungeons in which Mathieu Dimonet still pined away, contained several other prisoners, Denis Peloquin of Blois, Louis de Marsac, gentleman of the Bourbonnais, and one of his cousins. It is to the two last, recently arrived at Lyons, that the letter of the Reformer is addressed. The prisoners maintained a pious correspondence with those outside their prison. Peloquin wrote to his relations, – "… My dear brothers and sisters, … do not stay yourselves, I beseech you, upon the judgment of the world, which is so blinded, that it cannot find life in death, nor blessing in cursing. Let us know that the means of being confirmed in Jesus Christ … is that we should carry our cross with him, for the servant is not greater than the master…" Louis de Marsac wrote to Calvin: – "Sir and brother, … I cannot express to you the great comfort I have received … from the letter which you have sent to my brother Denis Peloquin, who found means to deliver it to one of our brethren who was in a vaulted cell above me, and read it to me aloud, as I could not read it myself, being unable to see anything in my dungeon. I entreat of you, therefore, to persevere in helping us with similar consolation, for it invites us to weep and to pray." – Histoire des Martyrs, pp. 236, 251.
436
King Edward VI. died a very pious death on the 6th of July preceding. See Burnet's History. Bullinger verified this mournful event to Calvin in the following words: – "I have received intelligence from England of a very sad occurrence. That most pious king departed to the Lord on the 6th of July; and he departed very happily indeed with a holy confession. The book which I here send you was written by him, and published in the month of May. You will see from it how great a treasure the Church of Christ has lost." – Bullinger to Calvin, August 1553. Eccl. Archives of Berne.
437
We have already read at p. 30, of the present volume of Calvin's first connection with Servetus, and of the rupture of that connection as attested by the letter of Calvin to John Frellon (13th February 1546). Wandering by turns in France, Germany, and Italy, Servetus had taken up his residence at Vienne in Dauphiné, where he at once exercised the profession of a doctor, and persisted in his daring attacks on Christianity, for which he aspired to substitute a rational philosophy. Such is the drift of his book entitled Christianismi Restitutio, which he published anonymously in 1553, after having two-and-twenty years before directed his bold attacks against the doctrine of the Trinity, in his book De Trinitatis Erroribus, published at Haguenau in 1531. Accused by a Genevan refugee before the Inquisition of Lyons, as the author of these writings, Servetus was arrested, cast into the dungeons of Vienne, and condemned by Catholic judges to be burnt, from which he only escaped by flight. Hear how Theodore Beza recounts, in his letter to Bullinger, the preparations for the trial of Servetus, of his escape from prison, and of his arrival and arrest at Geneva: – "You have heard doubtless of that impious blasphemer Servetus. He caused a book, or rather volume of his blasphemies to be secretly printed at Lyons. Certain good brethren at Lyons informed the magistrate of this deceitful action. Persons were despatched to Vienne, where he was practising as a physician, to bring him bound [to Lyons]. He was seized, but soon after effected his escape by deceit. At length he came to Geneva, where he went skulking about. He was forthwith recognized, however, by a certain person, and cast into prison. Calvin also, whom he treated very unhandsomely by name in thirty printed letters, pled the cause of the Church against him in the Council, in the presence of a great assemblage of the pious. He continued in his impiety. What will come of it I know not. Let us pray the Lord to purge his Church of these monsters." – MSS. of Zurich. Letter of the 27th August 1553. Such was the opening of the process which terminated so fatally for Servetus. Born in an age not disposed to show mercy to errors of faith, he seems, says a historian, to have fled from Spain – the native country of the auto-da-fé – only to see his effigy burnt in a strange land by the torch of a Catholic executioner, and to come afterwards to expire amid flames kindled by Calvinistic justice. – Albert Rilliet, Relation du Procès Criminel intenté contre Servet. Genève, 1844. 8vo. – [Translated into English by the Rev. Dr. Tweedie.]
438
Nicolas de la Fontaine, a servant of Calvin's, was made, conformably to the judicial usages then in operation at Geneva, criminal prosecutor against Servetus. – Registers of the Council, 14th August 1553.
439
It is curious to read on this point the reply of Farel to Calvin: – "In desiring to mitigate the severity of his punishment, you act the part of a friend to a man who is most hostile to you. But I beseech you so to manage the matter that no one whatever may rashly dare to publish new dogmas, and throw all things into confusion with impunity for such a length of time as he has done." In his relentless rigour against heresy, Farel did not hesitate to pronounce himself even to be worthy of death if he should teach any dogma opposed to the faith. His words deserve to be recorded: – "When I read Paul's statement that he did not refuse to suffer death if he had in any way deserved it, I saw clearly that I must be prepared to suffer death if I should teach anything contrary to the doctrine of piety. And I added, that I should be most worthy of any punishment whatever, if I should seduce any one from the faith and doctrine of Christ." – 8th Sept. 1553. Calv. Opera, tom. ix. p. 71
440
Occupying the same cell during the last days of their captivity, the two prisoners were only separated to die. Denis Peloquin was taken from his prison the 4th September, and conducted to Ville Franche, where his heroic constancy at the stake excited the wonder and tender sympathy of the spectators. Louis de Marsac, with two other victims, Etienne Gravot of Gyen, and Marsac, his cousin, who had followed him into his dungeon, "gave thanks to God for the inestimable honour which he conferred upon them of suffering for his name." At the moment when the three condemned were about to be led to the place of execution, a rope was put about their neck, according to custom. "Louis de Marsac, seeing that they spared him in that particular, out of some regard to his quality, asked in a loud voice if the cause of his two brethren was different from his, adding these words, 'Alas! do not refuse me the collar of so excellent an order.' The lieutenant agreed to his wish, and the three martyrs, chanting with one voice the song of deliverance, shortly after mounted the pile prepared on the Place des Terreaux, and expired in the midst of the flames." – Hist. des Martyrs. Lib. iv. p. 254. Hist. Eccl. tom. i. p. 92.
