Letters of John Calvin, Volume II

198

Jodocus, minister of the Church of Berne.

199

See the letters, pp. 143, 160. In a new message to Bullinger, Calvin strove to dissipate the still lingering prejudices entertained by the Zurich theologians against those of Geneva and of Strasbourg, regarding the Sacraments; and he proposed the basis of that union, long-desired, which was consummated the following year between Zurich and Geneva. The Church of Berne, now deeply imbued with Lutheran views, refused its adhesion.

200

Ministers of the Church of Berne.

201

M. de Falais was on the point of leaving Bâle to settle at Geneva. He arrived, doubtless, in that town the end of July 1548. We read, in a letter of Calvin to Viret of the 20th August 1548: "Dominus Falesius uxor et soror vos salutant; – the wife and sister of M. de Falais salute you." – Vol. 106 of the Library of Geneva. The correspondence of Calvin with this Seigneur, thenceforward interrupted, was only resumed occasionally, and in 1552, ceased entirely.

202

The contract of marriage of Mademoiselle Wilergy.

203

M de Montmor. See the note, p. 141.

204

Messengers of the Emperor were then scouring the Cantons with a view to detach them from the French alliance, which was nevertheless renewed, 9th June 1549.

205

The minister Toussain, pastor of the church of Montbeliard, at that time dispersed by the imperial army.

206

See the letter to M. de Falais of 17th July 1548, and the relative note.

207

We have reproduced (Vol. i. p. 449,) a letter of Calvin to Viret, containing a severe judgment of the Reformer upon the magistrates of Geneva. Stolen from Viret by a faithless servant, and given to the Seigneury by Trolliet, this letter excited real commotions, the traces of which are to be found in the Registers of Council.

208

Perhaps to Charles de Jonvillers, who became some years afterwards the secretary and friend of the Reformer. It was in fact in 1549, and in consequence of the advice of Calvin, that this Seigneur left Chartres, his country, to go to Geneva, which received him as inhabitant in 1550, and as burgess in 1556.

209

Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, Duke of Somerset, Regent of England, under the minority of Edward VI. It was under his administration that the Reformation was victoriously established in England. Supported by Parliament, he suppressed the troubles which arose in some parts of the kingdom after the death of Henry VIII., confirmed the king's supremacy, abolished the worship of images, private masses, and restored the communion in both kinds. He held a correspondence with Calvin, who dedicated to him, June 24, 1548, his Commentary on the First Epistle of Paul to Timothy; and by advice of the Reformer, he offered an asylum to the exiles, Bucer, Fagi, Ochino, and Peter Martyr, – banished for the sake of their religion from the Continent. Beloved by the people, hated by the nobles, he made himself unpopular by his want of success in the war which he kept up against the Scots and in France; was overthrown by a conspiracy of the nobility, imprisoned in the Tower of London, (October 1549,) and only recovered his liberty the year following, to perish in 1552 on the scaffold, victim of the ambition of Warwick, Earl of Northumberland, his relative.

210

Deprived, the preceding year, of his office of councillor and captain-general, Amy Perrin had contrived, by the force of intrigue, to recover his former dignities.

211

The city of Bourdeaux having risen in revolt against the authority of the king on the ground of fresh taxation, the Constable Montmorency, being commissioned to suppress the disturbances, acted with relentless severity, and signalized his entry into the capital of Guienne by frightful executions. – De Thou, Lib. v.

212

Bucer wrote to Calvin: – "Earnestly entreat the Lord for this republic that it may learn to put away its own will and obey him." – Calv. Opera, Lib. ix. p. 46. But the magistrates had already resolved to make their submission, which involved the suppression of the Gospel in that unhappy city.

213

Is the reference to the partisans of the Imperial Alliance?

214

Without date. This letter appears to have been written at the moment when Strasbourg, menaced by the victorious army of Charles V., was disposed, in spite of the counsel of Bucer, to accept the Interim, and avoid by a voluntary submission the punishment inflicted on the leagued cities of Germany. – (December 1548.)

215

Conclusion wanting in the original manuscript.

216

Peronne de Pisseleu, wife of Michel de Barbançon, Seigneur de Cany, one of the personages of most importance in Picardy. This lady, instructed in the Reformed faith by Laurent de Normandie, lieutenant of the king at Noyon, and the friend of Calvin, had for a long time to endure the severity of her husband, who afterwards came at a later period to be a partaker of like faith. – Bèze, Hist. Eccl., tom. ii. p. 244.; De Thou, lib. xxv. Madame de Cany, sister of the Duchess d'Etampes, favourite of the late king, had possessed an unbounded influence at court, which she always used for generous purposes. Her ordinary residence was the Château de Varanues, situated on the Oise, near to Noyon.

217

The donations which a pious liberality daily multiplied at Geneva, gave rise to the foundations known by the name of French, German, and Italian Bourses. The names of Margaret de Valois, and the Duchess of Ferrara, shine in the first rank upon the list of foreign contributors. – Bolsec, Life of Calvin, c. xi.

218

To the Faithful Servants of Christ, the Ministers of the Church of Montbeliard, dearest Brethren and Fellow-Ministers.

219

The year 1549 is remarkable for the tendencies to union manifested by many of the Swiss Churches, and for their happy issue! Several persons, says Ruchat, zealous for religion, imagined that the clergy of Zurich and Geneva did not hold the same doctrine on the Supper, on the ground of some slight difference in the expressions they made use of; and this divergence caused them pain. Accordingly, as they held Bullinger and Calvin in great esteem, and desired to be able to profit equally by writings published by theologians of both churches, they deemed it necessary to institute conferences with a view to union; and Calvin, ever full of zeal for the interests of the Church, did not hesitate to subscribe to this petition. – Hospinien, tom. ii. p. 367; Ruchat, tom. v. p. 369.

220

Valeran Poulain, brother-in-law of Hooper, whose sister he espoused at Zurich. He became this same year minister of the congregation cf Foreign Protestants at Glastonbury, near London. We shall find him afterwards minister of the Church of Frankfort.

221

John Hooper, formerly chaplain to the Duke of Somerset, withdrew to Zurich during the latter years of the reign of Henry VIII. He was at this time disposed to return to England.

222

Ambroise Blaurer, formerly minister of the Reformed Church of Constance, at this time minister of the Church of Bienne.

223

This undated fragment should, we think, be referred to the month of February 1549; that is, to the period at which Bucer, compelled to leave Strasbourg, by the establishment of the Interim in that town, was making preparations for his departure for England. In one of his letters to Calvin we discover the following passage: – "We are only hindered by the tears and sighs of the pious – of whom there are still a great many here – from leaving this place before we get orders. For, if the Lord will, we wish rather to seal than to break up our ministry. You see how our affairs stand, and how much we need the assistance of your prayers, both in our own behalf and on that of this very unfortunate Church." – Calv. Opera, b. ix. p. 233.

224

While Calvin was engaged in active negotiations with the ministers of Zurich for the adoption of a common formula regarding the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, he addressed to the ministers of the Church of Berne a statement of what the Church of Geneva held on that important question, in the hope of leading that Church into the proposed union. But the Bernese clergy, placed in a position of absolute dependence on the seigneury, could not adopt any formula without its authority; and the seigneurs, jealous of their influence, regarded with a distrustful eye any communication with the ministers of Geneva. The approaches of Calvin, also, were not well received, and the noble desire of the Reformer for the union of the Helvetian churches, realized at a later period by Bullinger, met with no response. – Ruchat, tom. v. pp. 578, 579.

225

A peculiar interest attaches to this and the following letter, written under a load of great domestic affliction. Early in April 1549, Calvin lost the worthy partner of his life, Idelette de Bure, whose frail and delicate health gave way under the pressure of a protracted illness, and whose last hours are known to us by the touching picture given of them by the Reformer. The consolations of friendship, and the consideration of the important duties he had to discharge, supported Calvin in this affliction, and the self-control which he manifested during the first days of his bereavement, excited the admiration of his friends. Viret wrote him on this occasion as follows: "Wonderfully and incredibly have I been refreshed, not by empty rumours alone, but especially by numerous messengers who have informed me how you, with a heart so broken and lacerated, have attended to all your duties even better than hitherto … and that, above all, at a time when grief so fresh, and on that account all the more severe, might have prostrated your mind. Go on then as you have begun … and I pray God most earnestly that you may be enabled to do so, and that you may receive daily greater comfort and be strengthened more and more." – Letter of 10th April 1549. Calv. Opera, tom. ix. p. 53

226

Idelette de Bure had, by her first marriage with Jean Storder, several children known to us only by the pious solicitude of their mother on her deathbed.

227

We read in Viret's letter to Calvin already referred to, – "My wife salutes you most courteously; she has been grieved in no ordinary way by the death of her very dear sister, and she and I feel it to be a loss to us all." Idelette de Bure kept up with Viret's wife a pious epistolary correspondence, which has unfortunately not been preserved.

228

The minister Francis Bourgouin.

229

See the letter and the note at p. 201.

230

Laurent de Normandie, sprung from a noble family of Picardy, fellow-countryman and friend of Calvin, discharged the functions of master of requests and of lieutenant of the King at Noyon, before retiring to Geneva. Received inhabitant of the town, the 2d May 1547, burgess, the 25th April 1555, he lived there in intimacy with Calvin, who dedicated to him in 1550 his Traité des Scandales. He had married for his first wife Anne de la Vacquerie, of a noble family, which has merged in that of the Dukes of Saint Simon, and illustrious under the reign of Louis XI., by the first president Jacques de la Vacquerie. A short time after his arrival at Geneva he lost his wife, whose edifying death is the subject of Calvin's letter to Madame de Cany, and he married a second time (14th September 1550) Anne Colladon. – Galiffe, Notices Généalogiques sur les Familles de Genève, tom. ii. p. 527.

231

Eloi de la Vacquerie.

232

Accused of having wished to seduce a servant, Ferron was deposed from the ministry on the 5th September 1548. – Registers of the Council.

233

In a letter from Calvin to Farel, written on the same day as that to Viret, we meet with a passage regarding Amy Perrin: – "Cæsar, our comedian, in his last mission, exasperated them [the Bernese] exceedingly, and I fear he has commenced a serious tragedy among us." – MSS. of Geneva, vol. 106. Charged with a mission to Berne, he had returned to Geneva more insolent and more intractable than ever.

234

The learned lawyer, Francis Hotman, recently engaged in the evangelical cause, had quitted France, his native country, at the advice of Calvin, to retire to Geneva. He became, during the same year, Professor of Law at the Academy of Lausanne. – See La France Protestante, Art. Hotman.

235

The new King of France, Henry II., sought an alliance with the Swiss with extreme eagerness. His envoys, Boisrigault, Liancourt, Lavan, and Menage overran the Cantons, scattering everywhere proofs of his liberality, to obtain a renewal of the ancient treaties. Everywhere, says the Swiss historian, their proposals were welcomed, except at Berne and at Zurich. In the latter town, Bullinger rose with great energy against this negotiating with a man who was converting a loyal and Christian people into a nation of hired murderers. He called to their recollection the persecutions of which France had been the theatre, and adjured his fellow-citizens to avoid all terms with a persecuting monarch, who was covered with the blood of their brethren. Better aware than Bullinger of the dangers which the supremacy of the Emperor was spreading over the various states of Europe, and over the Reformed Churches of Germany and Switzerland, and hoping, perhaps, to obtain by a treaty some relief to the faithful of France, Calvin was in favour of the French alliance, and in this remarkable letter attempted to vindicate its legitimacy by examples borrowed from the Old Testament. – Histoire de la Suisse, tom. xi. p. 306, et suiv.

236

On the back: It is thought that this letter has been written to Madame de la Roche-Posay, Abbess of Thouars. A Seigneur of that name played an important part in the religious wars of Poitou, but he figured in the ranks of the Roman Catholic army. – Bèze, Hist. Eccl., tom. ii. p. 588. There is a letter from the Reformed Church of de la Roche-Posay of the 27th May 1561, addressed to Calvin. (Library of Geneva, Vol. 107.)

237

This letter is without a date, but is evidently related to the early period of Bucer's residence in England. Proceeding from Strasbourg on the 5th April 1549 with Paul Fagius, he reached London on the 25th, and met with a very cordial reception at Lambeth, in the house of Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. At the desire of his protector, and amid the sorrows inseparable from his exile, he immediately undertook a new translation of the Bible, which he was not permitted to finish, owing to repeated illness, brought on by the change of climate. He was engaged, at the same time, on a revision of the English Liturgy, from which he removed everything that appeared to be tainted with Popery, without going as far in these corrections as he was desired by Calvin, who was pressing him by letter to remove the accusations of his life, by showing himself more resolute and firm than hitherto. – See La France Protestante of M. M. Haag. Art. Bucer.

238

War prevailed at that time between France and England, with Artois and Scotland for its theatre. Peace was concluded only the year following (May 1550). – De Thou, tom. vi.

239

In allusion to the Emperor, who saw his power increase by the weakness of the English and French monarchs, who were equally interested in opposing his supremacy on the Continent.

240

Doubtless one of the ministers of the Church of Berne.

241

Nicolas Amsdorf, a learned German minister, exaggerated the Lutheran doctrine regarding Works and the Supper, and wrote a book, in which he endeavoured to prove that good works are hurtful to salvation, – Bona opera sunt ad salutem noxia et perniciosa. – McIchior Adam, pp. 69, 70

242

The common formulary, doubtless, on the Supper, compiled by Calvin, which the theologians of Zurich and Geneva were led to adopt.

243

While Schaffhausen, Basle, and Bienne acceded to the French alliance, Zurich and Berne haughtily refused to be the allies of a monarch who was the persecutor of the churches of France. Moved by the eloquence of Bullinger, the Seigneury of Zurich declared that it would lean upon God alone, and dispense with the alliance of the king. – Hist. de la Suisse, tom. xi. p. 308.

244

"To the Most Noble, Most Gifted, and Most Honourable Lady Ann, Eldest Daughter of the very Illustrious Protector of England."

245

The messenger charged with the letter to the Regent of 22d October 1549.

246

The names and fate of these two brothers of M. de Falais are not known.

247

See the account of the persecutions in Hainault in L'Histoire des Martyrs, p. 184. A woman named Mary was buried alive. A learned Frenchman named M. Nicolas, endured courageously the torment of the stake, crying out in the midst of the flames: "O Charles, Charles, how long will thy courage endure?"

248

One of the martyrs here referred to was a poor tailor, who, led before the King and Diana of Poictiers, made a courageous confession of his faith, addressed stern words to la favorite, and was condemned to perish in the flames. The king wished to be a spectator of his sufferings, "and, to command a better view, went to the house of Sieur de la Rochepot, opposite the stake. The martyr remained firm, and having perceived the king, he fastened on him a look so fixed and penetrating, that the affrighted monarch was forced to retire; and he afterwards repeatedly confessed, that the look of that man incessantly pursued him, and that he never again wished to be present at a fine spectacle." – Histoire des Martyrs, p. 189, Bèze, tom. i. p. 79.

249

George de Wurtemberg, Count of Montbeliard, dispossessed of his estates by Charles V. He had obtained from the Seigneury of Berne permission to reside at Arau.

250

See letter p. 208.

251

See the preceding letter. The negotiations entered into with the Church of Zurich, and already near a close, were prosecuted equally at Berne; but they were encountered there by insurmountable difficulties, arising from the hesitation of the ministers and the policy of the Seigneury. Calvin did not shrink from any concessions which, without causing injury to the integrity of the doctrine, might rally their spirits to union and peace. – Hospinian, tom. ii. p. 370.

252

In the month of July 1549, the fury of the persecutions was redoubled at Paris and in the provinces, and places of execution were so multiplied everywhere, as if the King had wished, by additional severity, to remove from memory the Edict which he had restored on account of the Vaudeis of Provençe. – Bèze, Hist. Eccl., tom. i. p. 70, et suiv. Notwithstanding all this violence, says Bèze, the churches increased and gathered strength in many places.

253

Among the number of professors burnt on occasion of the public entrance of the King into Paris, there is found Florent Venot, of Sedano in Brie, – allowed to stand for six weeks in a pit at Chatelet, called the Hippocras' Cup, where it was impossible either to remain lying or standing – and whose firmness overcame the cruelty of the executioners. "You think," he said to them, "by long torment, to weaken the force of the spirit, but you waste your time, and God will enable me to bless his holy name even till my death." Compelled, by a refinement of cruelty, to be a spectator of the torment of his brethren burnt at Paris, he exhorted them by look and gesture before he ascended the pile prepared for him in the Place Maubert. – Hist. des Martyrs, p. 186.

254

The preceding letter.

255

Francis Spira, a jurisconsult of Padua, having abjured the Protestant faith through fear of the tortures of the Inquisition, died a short while afterwards in a state of fearful mental anxiety. Paolo Vergerio, an aged Bishop of Pola in Istria, who was led to give up his bishopric that he might live in the free profession of the doctrines of the gospel, among the Grisons, visited Spira on his deathbed, and endeavoured in vain to console this unhappy penitent. Tho history of Spira, written by Vergerio, and translated from the Italian into Latin by Celio Secondo Curione, was published in 1550, with a preface by Calvin. – (Miscellanea Groningana, tom. iii. p. 109.) We have not met with this edition, which is become extremely rare.

256

We find Calvin's opinion of Vergerio at greater length, in a letter to Farel of July 1550.

257

Endowed, according to the testimony of his contemporaries, with a powerful and impetuous eloquence which charmed multitudes, and which, with the strong faith with which he was animated, could alone explain his splendid success as a missionary, Farel was abler with the tongue than with the pen, and his various writings, called forth by circumstances, are in general defective. We find in them a few ideas, cast forth at hazard, without plan, in strange disorder, and with a superabundance of explanation, in a diffuse and obscure style. It is not uninteresting to know the judgment which Calvin pronounced upon the works of his friend, and to find in this judgment even a new testimony to the brotherly candour which presided at all times over the intercourse of the two Reformers. – See on the writings of Farel, Senebier, Hist. Litt. tom. i. pp. 148, 149; Sayous, Etudes sur les Ecrivains de la Réformation, tom. i., 1st sketch; and Haag, France Protestante, Art. Farel.

258

See Note 1, p. 223.

259

The only work of Farel's mentioned at this date by Senebier, is the following: Le Glaice de la Parole Véritable contre le Bouclier de Défense, duquel un Cordelier s'est voulu servir, in 12mo, Geneva, 1550. It is a vehement reply to a Cordelier who had adopted the sentiments of that spiritual mysticism which leads to a denial of all morality. It presents, besides, the ordinary defects of the works of Farel – confusion and prolixity.

260

Laurent de Normandie, a Picard gentleman, and Procurator-general at Noyon, had retired to Geneva some months previously, at the request of Calvin, his countryman and friend. – Registers of the Council, 2d May 1549. "Laurent de Normandie retires to this place for the sake of religion, and presses the Council to receive him as an inhabitant, which is granted him."

261

See the preceding letter.

262

This is the first time the name of Beza is found mentioned in the correspondence of Calvin. Born on the 24th of June 1519, at Vezelay, in Burgundy, he had left Paris after a brilliant and dissipated youth, to retire to Geneva. – Registers of the Council, 3d May 1549. "Eight French gentlemen, among whom is Theodore Beza, arrive here and obtain permission to remain." Beza was a short time afterwards, made Professor of Greek in the Academy of Lausanne, from which place he wrote to Bullinger: – "The Lord has shewn me this, in the first place, for which may I be able to make my boast in him continually, – that I must prefer the cross to my country, and to all changes of fortune. In the next place, I have received the friendship of Calvin, Viret, Musculus, and Haller; kind Heaven, the friendship of such men! When I think that these are my friends, so far from feeling any inconvenience from exile, I may adopt the saying of Themistocles, – 'Perieram nisi periissem.'" – MSS. of Archives of Zurich, Gest. vi. p. 139.