Letters of John Calvin, Volume II

Salute earnestly in my name your colleagues, and your family. My colleagues, MM. Celso Martinengo and Budé, and the other brethren, respectfully salute you. – Yours truly,

John Calvin.

[Lat. Copy. – Library of Zurich. Coll. Simler, tom. 80.]

CCCXXXVII. – To Farel. 469

Assistance afforded to the faithful refugees in Switzerland – reply of the Churches on the subject of ecclesiastical disciplineGeneva, 30th December 1553.

Good men have indeed sent money to be laid out on the banished brethren and the exiles. They have ordered one part to be distributed among us, and they have designed the other two parts for the poor of Lausanne and your own city. Our friend Beza caused twenty-five gold pieces to be handed over to them. However, as but few exiles have hitherto gone among you, so far as I know, especially of that sort which is so numerous here, might you not, if you are not in immediate need, expend at your own discretion what would relieve the necessity of others? I do not ask you, certainly, to make a remission to us, but I wished to advise you on the matter, that if it should seem proper to you, you might transmit a certain sum to those who are in urgent need of money. Nevertheless, I do not dictate any course to you, but fearing, as I did, that you might be troubled with some doubts about how to act, I thought it better to anticipate them. The messenger has at length returned from the Helvetian Churches. Our Council will meet with a disappointment to-morrow in their replies. I expect a great deal of quarrelling, the issue of which, however, will perhaps turn out more fortunately than the wicked, who are now beginning to get crestfallen, had previously calculated upon. But there is in the other respect no cordiality. When we shall have completed the contests which are in store for us, I shall write you the whole more fully. Adieu, most upright brother, assist us with your prayers.

The men of Zurich prudently dissuade from making any change. Those of Bâle, without interposing any judgment, send a written copy of their own edicts. The people of Schaffhausen are the most judicious of all. Our neighbours push it coldly aside; a thing which I expected from the first. Salute your brethren and friends earnestly in my name. May the Lord be ever with you to guide you. – Yours,

John Calvin.

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

CCCXXXVIII. – To an Italian Lady. 470

He exhorts her to withdraw, by a voluntary exile, from the persecution and idolatry reigning in Italy[1553.]

Though I knew, noble lady, that you would have need of an interpreter to understand my letters, yet some friends have encouraged me to write to you, or rather they have warmly pressed on me the accomplishment of that duty. But for that purpose I have made choice of the Latin language, because I was confident that you would find about you many persons to translate it into Italian, whereas the knowledge of French is unknown, or very rare among you. And first of all, that my letter may not fail in its effect, I must entreat you not to refuse it a favourable reception. This request I am sure I shall obtain of you, if you reflect on the object I have in view. Moreover the persons, by whose recommendation I write, pledge themselves that of your own accord and willingly you will do what I ask of you. Nor indeed would it be consistent with your piety to slight a person whom you acknowledge to be one of the servants of Christ, especially when he speaks from zeal for your salvation. And indeed I have just reason to begin with congratulating you, for I hear that you have embraced the faith of the gospel in such a manner that nothing is dearer to you than the pure worship of God; a singular zeal for which ought to predominate in the minds of all those who have truly tasted the sweetness of that grace which is offered to us in Christ. For to that end the Son of God has manifested himself, and daily lays before us his treasures, that, renouncing the allurements of the world, we should meditate on the life which is in heaven. To that end also, God regenerates us by the incorruptible seed of his doctrine, that our whole life may bring forth the fruits of justice corresponding to his holy adoption. Many indeed in these days impiously make a mock of Christ, seeking in his doctrine a cloak for their licentiousness. But we see in what terrible ways God punishes these acts of sacrilege. It is to me, however, a subject of rejoicing, that you on the contrary have concentrated all your thoughts on this point: namely, by holiness of life to add lustre to the gospel. And hence it appears that the gospel has struck deep and lively roots in your heart. But because, in the present day, the world abounds in numberless seductions, it behoves you not only to be animated with a right frame of mind to hold on your Christian course, but also to be armed with invincible courage to carry on your warfare under Christ your heavenly leader. For at the present day impiety has gained such ground, and especially among you the tyranny of Antichrist rages to such an extent, that you cannot, without much peril and many struggles, offer to God an unpolluted worship. Of which thing you are yourself the best witness; and in this the strength of your piety shines out most conspicuously, not only that you do not, like too many, indulge in the prevailing vices, but because, in your wisdom, you see to how wretched a slavery you are condemned in your own country, you had rather submit to a voluntary exile than remain entangled among the defilements which contaminate you. Now since God has roused you up to this point, I conceive that it is also incumbent on me to add a new impulse to your zeal, and further this holy resolution of yours. If, where you now are, it were in your power not to defraud God of that obedience which is due to him, I should persuade you to remain rather than abandon your country, to seek a far-distant and foreign land, by a tedious journey, at great expense, and with immense inconvenience. But when the threats and terrors of the enemies of Christ do not permit you to make such a profession of your faith as becomes you, the infirmity of the flesh is also an impediment to you; so that I have no hesitation in advising and urging you to make your escape as speedily as possible from these deadly entanglements. And even if I had been silent, it is impossible that the goads of your own conscience should not incessantly stimulate you to look out for a remedy. Meanwhile you must be on your guard not to cut yourself off from an opportunity of departure, by spinning out the time uselessly in deliberations. No doubt, in so arduous a matter, nothing is to be attempted rashly; but if the will of God do not appear obscure to you, you cannot, without serious wrong, long agitate, with an irresolute purpose, first one point and then another. Resolve then seriously that what God has enjoined is to be immediately executed, and, at the same time, without procrastinating, make ready for your journey. Nor let the vain and flattering fallacies with which most persons impose on themselves delay you, but let this reflection be ever present to your mind, that the confession of our faith is too precious a thing in God's sight, to permit us to consider it as a slight offence to wallow in impure superstitions. Add to this, that at present, like a famished sheep, you are wandering out of Christ's fold and pastures in a barren desert. Nor does it escape me how difficult and painful a thing it is for you to emigrate from your country, to live on a foreign soil far away from your kinsfolk, at your advanced age not only to change your habitation, but forego all those little comforts, of which it were hard and cruel, even in the prime of life, to be deprived. To all this I have but one consideration to oppose, but which, I trust, you will deem amply sufficient. It is this: if we have had a due foretaste of the life which is in heaven, there is nothing upon earth of such importance as to abate our ardour in the pursuit of the heavenly blessing. Moreover, the Son of God, not only because we owe him such a debt of gratitude, but also because he is possessed of supreme power, deserves that we should prefer his honour to all the honours, delights, riches, and comforts of the world. And were it permitted us to inhabit a place where God is worshipped, and his name invoked in purity, it were far better to live in exile there, than to live at ease in our own country, from which Christ, the sovereign of heaven and earth, is banished. Even if no necessity compelled you to quit the nest, yet you were no daughter of God, if this earthly life did not seem to you a pilgrimage. But now when the sacrilegious tyranny of Antichrist expels you from it, and God calls you with a loud voice to go forth; let not the condition of your peregrination seem painful to you, till the time when at last he shall bring us all together into his eternal inheritance. Noble and illustrious lady, for whom I shall always cherish an esteem, farewell. May the Lord direct you by the Spirit of his wisdom, increase your fortitude and constancy, and shelter you by his protection.

[Calvin's Lat. Corresp. Opera, tom. ix. p. 80.]

CCCXXXIX. – To a Seigneur of Jersey. 471

Christian exhortations – sending of a minister[1553.]

Dearest Seigneur and brother, – We praise God for having inclined your heart to try if it will be possible to erect, by your means, a small church on the place where you reside. And indeed according as the agents of the Devil strive by every act of violence to abolish the true religion, extinguish the doctrine of salvation, and exterminate the name of Jesus Christ, it is very just that we should labour on our side to further the progress of the gospel, that, by these means, God may be served in purity, and the poor wandering sheep may be put under the protection of the sovereign Pastor to whom every one should be subject. And you know that it is a sacrifice well pleasing to God, to advance the spread of the Gospel by which we are enlightened in the way of salvation, to dedicate our life to the honour of him who has ransomed us at so costly a price in order to bear rule in the midst of us. Therefore we pray you to take courage, as we supplicate at the same time the Father of all virtue to confirm you in your holy purpose. Meanwhile, because we have heard that you desire to be assisted by us, and to have a man proper for the work of edification, we have not wished to be a wanting to our duty. We present to you then our brother, the bearer of this letter, who has shewn us by deeds by what zeal he was animated. He has had such a conversation among us that we doubt not but that his life will be an excellent example. His doctrine is pure, and as far as we can judge, those who will content themselves with being taught by him in simplicity, and will shew themselves docile, will be able to profit by his preaching. We do not beg you to give him a kind welcome, being convinced of your favourable dispositions. Only deign to let him feel by experience that his labour among you is not in vain.

Whereupon, dearest Seigneur and brother, having affectionately commended us to your prayers, we will supplicate the heavenly Father to continue to have you in his holy keeping, to increase in you his spiritual gifts, to govern you in such a manner by his Spirit, that his name may be more and more glorified in you.

[Fr. copy. – Library of Geneva. Vol. 107.]

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.