Chapter 17

[72]Peter Konzen, minister of Berne, deputy to the Synod of Zurich. In that assembly he manifested the most hostile sentiments toward Farel and Calvin, whose conduct at Geneva he disapproved.

[73]In order to testify the conciliatory spirit which animated them, Calvin and Farel accompanied, within a short distance from Geneva, the deputation which had been charged to entreat their return. But their solicitations having been rejected, they determined to proceed to Basle, where they arrived after a most fatiguing and even perilous journey. See following letter.

[74]John Oporin, Director of the Academy of Basle, one of the most celebrated printers of that town.

[75]The conclusion of this letter is addressed to the minister Courault, the colleague of Calvin, expelled along with him from Geneva. He lived in retirement with Christopher Fabri at Thonon, whence he was called as minister by the Church of Orbe.

[76]The first letter of Calvin to du Tillet (Letter xvii. p. 60) did not remain unanswered:—"If my retreat in this country has caused you great annoyance, as I have understood by your letter of the last of January, I myself have not thought the less of it, considering the interruption of our accustomed converse and familiarity ... could not produce in you so much disquietude. But what could I have done, if, having been there two years or thereby, my conscience could never be at peace on this account, that without a clear call I had retired from a charge which I ought not to have relinquished without the command of God, whereby I have been put into a state of languor, such as you have seen, and by reason of the great unceasing depression of mind which has taken possession of my spirit, I have for this some time past been useless for everything?"—Paris MSS.This letter, written from Paris, (10th March,) did not reach Calvin at all; it was during a sojourn to Strasbourg that the Reformer, driven from Geneva, (23d April 1538,) had retired to Basle, and imparted to his old friend the events which condemned him to a new exile.

[77]See Note, p. 60.

[78]Bucer and Capito, already mentioned.

[79]That town, then independent, and already Reformed, was united by a treaty of alliance to the Protestant cantons of Switzerland.

[80]Probably Geneva.

[81]The Bernese were the declared opponents of the ecclesiastical discipline which Farel and Calvin had wished to establish at Geneva, and which appeared to them to trench upon the right of the civil power. The seigneury of Berne were not disposed to favour the two banished ministers.

[82]Allusion to the truce concluded, 18th June 1538, between Francis I. and the Emperor Charles V., and to the approaching conclusion of a general peace, on which great expectation was founded for the settlement and reformation of the Church.

[83]Antony Firmin, minister of the church of St. Thomas at Strasbourg.—SeeSculteti Annales, I. 170, 172.

[84]To my most excellent friend and brother, William Farel, faithful minister of the church at Neuchatel.William Farel, the most illustrious missionary of the Reformation in French Switzerland, was born at Gap, in Dauphiny, (1509?) He studied at the University of Paris, under the direction of the learned Le Fevre of Etaples, whose friendship he speedily obtained, and shared with him the same faith. Of an ardent spirit, and gifted with an impetuous eloquence, he preached the doctrines of the Reformation successively at Paris, at Meaux, in Dauphiny. In 1524 he left France, when he retired to Strasbourg, and brought over to the new doctrine (as the true doctrine of the Gospel was termed at that time) the Duchy of Montbeliard, Bienne, Morat, Neuchatel, Aigle, Geneva. Driven at first from the latter town in 1532, he reappeared there, and was thereupon banished. On the 27th August 1535, he obtained the famous declaration which restored the Reformation. In less than two years afterwards he was banished from Geneva along with his colleague Calvin, whom he followed to Basle, and became, in the month of July 1538, pastor of the church of Neuchatel, which he served until his death (13th Sept. 1565) with indefatigable activity.Having been called as minister by the Church of Neuchatel, Farel had left Basle precipitately, without taking leave of Calvin, then on his journey to Strasbourg. On returning to Basle, Calvin wrote the following letter to his old colleague, which is one of the earliest in the long correspondence which they kept up with each other.

[84]To my most excellent friend and brother, William Farel, faithful minister of the church at Neuchatel.

William Farel, the most illustrious missionary of the Reformation in French Switzerland, was born at Gap, in Dauphiny, (1509?) He studied at the University of Paris, under the direction of the learned Le Fevre of Etaples, whose friendship he speedily obtained, and shared with him the same faith. Of an ardent spirit, and gifted with an impetuous eloquence, he preached the doctrines of the Reformation successively at Paris, at Meaux, in Dauphiny. In 1524 he left France, when he retired to Strasbourg, and brought over to the new doctrine (as the true doctrine of the Gospel was termed at that time) the Duchy of Montbeliard, Bienne, Morat, Neuchatel, Aigle, Geneva. Driven at first from the latter town in 1532, he reappeared there, and was thereupon banished. On the 27th August 1535, he obtained the famous declaration which restored the Reformation. In less than two years afterwards he was banished from Geneva along with his colleague Calvin, whom he followed to Basle, and became, in the month of July 1538, pastor of the church of Neuchatel, which he served until his death (13th Sept. 1565) with indefatigable activity.

Having been called as minister by the Church of Neuchatel, Farel had left Basle precipitately, without taking leave of Calvin, then on his journey to Strasbourg. On returning to Basle, Calvin wrote the following letter to his old colleague, which is one of the earliest in the long correspondence which they kept up with each other.

[85]The new ministers elected at Geneva to replace Calvin, Farel, and Courault, were Antony Marcourt, pastor of the Church of Nyon, and Doctor Morand. Their nomination, approved only by a part of the Church, gave occasion to serious disorder. See Gaberel,Histoire de l' Eglise de Genève, 1853, vol. i.passim.

[86]Without doubt, Peter Caroli.—See Note 3, p. 57.

[87]See Note 2, p. 73.

[88]The pestilence, seven times in the course of this century, made great havoc in the city of Basle. The plague of 1564 carried off a third part of the population of the town and suburbs.—See Jean de Muller,Hist. de la Confédération Suisse, tom. xi.passim, and theDiary of the Physician Platerus, MS. Library of Basle.

[89]Letter without date, but written, as the first words indicate, shortly after the departure of Calvin from Basle, and his arrival at Strasbourg, (September 1538.) Earnestly solicited by Bucer and Capito to associate himself in their labours, he had accepted the charge of Professor of Theology and the ministry of the French Church in that town.

[90]Bucer had entered into correspondence with some of the magistrates of Geneva to bring about a reconciliation between them and the banished ministers.

[91]The Church at Geneva was at this period given up to the most lamentable divisions and in a state of deplorable disorder.

[92]The Reformation had extended to Metz in 1523. Two martyrs, Jean le Clerc and Jean Chatelain, had sealed with their blood the introduction of the Gospel into that country.—Bèze,Hist. Eccl., tom. iii. p. 431.

[93]Although he had become the minister of a community of exiles, and had engaged in theological works of the greatest importance at Strasbourg, the activity of Calvin was by no means confined to these objects. But in the midst of the contending claims on his time and care, his attention was ever turned towards the Church of which he had been the pastor—towards "these relics of the dispersion," whom he exhorted from the depths of his exile, and whom he consoled by his letters.

[94]From Farel's hand: Received in the month of October 1538.

[95]The negotiations relative to the union of the Reformed Churches of Germany with those of Switzerland, were at all times eagerly promoted by Bucer. But the theologians of Zurich had but little hope of arriving at a satisfactory accord of agreement between the two parties, on account of the absolute opinion of Luther on the Supper. Having been invited to a conference held in the house of Simon Grynée, at Basle, they did not attend that meeting, where Bucer and Capito were both present, and which took place without attaining the object for which they had met.—Hospinian,Hist. Sacrament., vol. ii. pp. 290-300.

[96]Pierre Konzen, a minister of Berne, the opponent of Farel and of Calvin, whose conduct at Geneva he disapproved.

[97]Ministers of the Church of Geneva. See note 1, p. 74.

[98]The French Church of Strasbourg.

[99]In a new letter to Calvin (7th September 1538) Louis du Tillet had thought it his duty to signalize the events which had recently occurred at Geneva as a providential chastening, destined to recall his old friend from the way of schism. "I am disposed to think, indeed," said he, "that the things which have happened to you have been brought about and pursued by the evil disposition of persons who have more care about the aims and ends of this world than consideration of what is due to God. But what I beseech you take in good part, I believe you have rather to consider on your part whether our Lord has not meant to warn you by that to bethink yourself if there has been nothing to reprove in your administration, and to humble you in his sight, and that by this means the great gifts and graces with which our Lord has furnished you may be employed to his glory, to the salvation of his elect, and on that account always more and more increased."—MSS. of Paris. Calvin replies to that objection, and appeals from "the sentence of the wise" to the tribunal of God.

[100]The passage in Du Tillet's letter, to which Calvin here alludes, is as follows:—"One thing to be most carefully avoided is an overweening confidence in our own judgment, and a too great readiness either to accept new opinions or to condemn old ones, especially where matters of religion or piety are concerned; for a mistake on such ground is more fatal than on any other; ... and God punishes the temerity of such as thus act, bringing them into a thousand perplexities."—MSS. of Paris.

[101]That is to say, in France. Louis du Tillet had advised Calvin to return to that country, where the profession of the Evangel was interdicted. "I greatly desire that on your part it might be possible for you to retire hitherward, and that our Lord had furnished you the means ... but if that cannot be done as yet, I applaud and appreciate your determination to stop for the present at Basle, without mixing yourself up in anything else. In waiting upon our Lord you will shew plainly whitherward you tend."—MSS. of Paris.

[102]These expressions are taken from a letter addressed by Simon Grynée to Calvin, to induce him to decide on accepting the ministerial charge at Strasbourg. Here is the original text, which Calvin quotes from memory:—"Fac esse quod tuâ unius gravissima culpa res Christi sic labefactæ sint Genevæ, non tamen pia erit ejusmodi pœnitentia, quâ in ista ministrorum qui istic idonei sunt copia, tu istis dotibus non tibi sed Ecclesiæ ornatus, oblatum ministerium repudies."—Grynæi Epistolæ, edition of Streuber, p. 55.

[103]Du Tillet had made an offer of money to Calvin in the letter above cited:—"It is possible that you may be ill provided with money, without which you cannot live there in a manner becoming you; but you need not mind about that, for should you receive nothing elsewhere but from me, if you wish it, God helping, I will supply enough to meet your necessity, as for the present I have no occasion for any money, living entirely in the house of my brother.... But that notwithstanding, I will find means to furnish you."

[104]The minister Courault. See following note.

[105]The aged monk, Augustin Courault, a zealous preacher of the Reformation at Paris and at Geneva. He took part with Calvin and Farel; after a short imprisonment was banished from Geneva, found a retreat with Christopher Fabri at Thonon, and was appointed pastor at Orbe, where he died, 4th October 1538. Courault was advanced in years, and had become blind. ("Illuminant les âmes, dit Bèze, combien qu'il fust devenu aveugle quant au corps."—Hist. Eccl.tom. i. p. 15.) His death, which was at first attributed to poison, caused the deepest regret both to Farel and Calvin, who were his colleagues in the ministry.

[106]As one of the cities in league with Smalkald for the defence of the Gospel, the town of Minden had just been placed under the ban of the empire. The Roman Catholic princes of Germany confederated at Nuremberg prepared to execute the sentence against which the Protestant princes had solemnly protested.—Sleidan,Commentarii, lib. xii. p. 338, édit. de 1612, in 4to.

[107]Antony Saunier, countryman and disciple of Farel, was honoured to be his companion in announcing for the first time the simple Gospel in Geneva, (September 1532.)—(See Spon,Hist. de Genève, tom. i. p. 215, Note P.) Having been appointed Regent of the college of that town, he offered, in 1538, a determined opposition to the pastors who were elected in room of Farel and Calvin, and along with his colleague Mathurin Cordier was banished, on account of his refusal—notwithstanding the advice of Calvin himself, to receive the sacrament at the hands of the new ministers. He retired to the Pays de Vaud, and at a later period became pastor of the church at Morges.

[108]He refers here to the second edition of theInstitution Chrétienne, which appeared in 1539 at Strasbourg.

[109]Robert Olivetan died in 1538, at Ferrara. That intelligence was announced to Calvin by Francisca Bueyronia, wife of the physician, John Sinapi, a German settled at the Court of the Duchess of Ferrara as the preceptor of her children.

[110]George Duke of Saxony, cousin of the Elector of Saxony, John Frederick. Although the princes of his family had adopted the (so called) new doctrines, this prince had constantly opposed the Reformation, which he persecuted in his states. He died in 1539.

[111]Under the inspiration of Farel the company of pastors of Neuchatel had put forth a desire for the union of the Churches of Germany and Switzerland; but that wish for union, actively followed out by Bucer, desired with so much ardour by Calvin, must necessarily be the fruit of reciprocal concessions; and certain of the Zurich ministers, too much inclined to exalt the memory of Zuingli at the expense of Luther, seemed not much disposed to favour the connection. They altogether distrusted Bucer, who, they said, maintained an artificial spirit throughout these negotiations, equally adapted to deceive both sides; and even Bullinger himself, who was of so conciliating and so elevated a character, was not entirely free from these tendencies.—Hospinian,Hist. Sacramentaria, tom. ii. p. 290.

[112]The Synod of Zurich, held from the 29th April to the 3d May of the preceding year, had remained without result. The ministers of Strasbourg and of Zurich had separated much dissatisfied with each other.

[113]The theologians of Zurich had accused Bucer of having spread a snare to entrap their good faith by artificial expressions, better suited to veil the difficulties of union than to solve them.—See Hospinian, tom. ii. p. 290.

[114]This letter of Bullinger is only known to us by Calvin's allusion to it. Bucer manifested great displeasure at the conduct of the theologians of Zurich, and bitterly complained of it in a letter to Comander, minister of Coire. But if we may believe the testimony of Sturm, quoted by Hospinian, it does not appear that the friendly relations between the churches of Zurich and Strasbourg were thereby long or seriously affected.

[115]Bibliander (Theodore), professor of theology at Zurich. He died of the plague in 1564.

[116]The friends of Calvin at Strasbourg were at this time very desirous of having the Reformer married. See the following Letters, (1539-1540,)passim.

[117]Hermann of Liege, the celebrated Flemish Anabaptist. He had maintained a discussion at Geneva, publicly, against Farel and Calvin; and overcome on that occasion, he had been banished from the town the 19th March 1538.

[118]Written to Bullinger after a long silence, this letter was to be the means of drawing closer the ties of friendship which had already united the French Reformer to the minister of Zurich, and to remove the unjust prejudice of the latter against Bucer and the Strasbourg ministers. See the preceding letter.

[119]Calvin was about to set out for Frankfort, charged with an important mission by the Church of Strasbourg. Reconciled by a recent treaty with his rival Francis I., Charles V. had turned his whole attention in the direction of Germany, and solemnly announced his intention to accommodate religious differences in that country. The French king appeared to enter into his views, and the German princes shewed themselves disposed to favour the accomplishment of his wishes in meeting together at a solemn public conference between the Protestants and the Roman Catholic doctors. The day of meeting was fixed by the emperor himself for the 12th February 1539, and Frankfort was pointed out for the theatre of these conferences.—Sleidan,Commentarii, lib. xii., pp. 338, 339. Anxious to be represented at that assembly at Frankfort by the most eminent ministers, the town of Strasbourg chose for its deputies Bucer, Sturm, and Calvin.

[120]This was no doubt, M. Du Tailly, a French gentleman, who had taken refuge at Geneva. He was a correspondent of Calvin.

[121]Is this John Le Comte, minister of Grauson, or Beat Comte, a minister of Lausanne, who at a later period devoted himself to medicine, and distinguished himself by his devotedness to the care of those who were affected with the plague in that town? (See Ruchat, tom. v. p. 277.) We incline rather to this last conjecture.

[122]Genan, an unknown personage.

[123]The Elector John Frederick, the friend of Luther, and truest protector of the Reformation in Germany.

[124]Maurice of Saxony, who had so great a part in the religious wars of Germany with Charles V.

[125]Philip of Hesse, who, from the year 1521, had been favourable to the tenets of Luther.

[126]Ernest, Duke of Lunebourg, promoter of the Reformation in his states.

[127]The Treaty of Alliance formed by the Protestant Princes at Smalkald, (1538,) had been agreed to by a great number of the Towns.

[128]Christian III., King of Denmark, (1534-1559,) who introduced the Reformation into his States.

[129]Eastern Prussia was reformed and secularized, in 1525, by the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Albert of Brandenbourg. It formed since that epoch the Duchy of Prussia.

[130]Ulrich, Count of Montbeliard, and Duke of Wurtemberg.

[131]Louis, the Elector Palatine, and Joachim, the Elector of Brandenbourg, although favourable to the Reformation, remained attached to the cause of the Emperor, and tried to bring about a reconciliation between the two parties.

[132]John Vesal, Archbishop of Lunden, was the Emperor's ambassador at the Diet. (Sleidan, lib. xii. p. 339.) He became afterwards Bishop of Constance, and was present at the Council of Trent.

[133]Albert of Brandenbourg, the brother of Joachim, the Elector of Brandenbourg. This prelate sternly opposed all compromise in religious matters. He made continual complaints of the indulgence shewn by the Emperor towards Protestants.

[134]On the death of Charles Van Egmont, Duke of Gueldres, his relation, William, Duke of Cleves and Juliers, took possession of that town, of which he was dispossessed by the Emperor in 1543.

[135]The King of England, Henry VIII.

[136]The details of these negotiations will be found in Burnet, and in Seckendorf,Commentarii, lib. iii. sect. 19, par. 73. The Protestant princes of Germany, desirous to bind so powerful a monarch as the King of England as closely as possible to the cause of the Reformation, had sent deputies to request his assent to the Augsburg Confession, and the revocation of the cruel statutes still in force against those of his subjects who professed the pure Gospel. Two of the King's counsellors, Cromwell and Archbishop Cranmer, seconded timidly the entreaties of the Protestant princes; but this imperious and violent monarch, satisfied with having transferred to himself the papal authority in matters of religion, shewed indisposedness to promote the interests of an actual reformation. He protracted the negotiations, and added daily by new laws to the rigour of the most hateful despotism—that which is exercised by a prince over the consciences of his subjects.

[137]John Lambert, schoolmaster.—See Burnet,Hist. Ref.vol. i. pp. 252-254.

[138]He was living in exile on the Continent from the time of the rupture of England with the See of Rome. He returned under the reign of Mary, became Archbishop of Canterbury, President of the Royal Council, and died in 1558, after having been the instrument of a short but bloody restoration of Popery in his native country.

[139]See Hume,History of England, chap. xxxi.

[140]See note 1, p. 105. George of Saxony himself died the same year.—Sleidan, lib. xii. p. 342.

[141]It was not Maurice who succeeded Duke George, but his father, Henry the Pious, who recalled all the exiles on account of religion, and introduced the Reformation into the Duchy of Saxony.—Ibid. p. 344.

[142]The Elector of Saxony, John Frederic, had married Sibilla of Cleves, who evinced the most noble character on the misfortune of her husband, vanquished and dispossessed after the battle of Mühlberg.

[143]It was not until the next year (1540) that a resolution was adopted on this subject. The princes desired to use their influence in favour of those who were suffering in France on account of their religious opinions; but not before they had obtained correct information regarding the state of affairs in that country, the private inclinations of the king, and the probability that their interference would prove successful.—Sleidan, xiii. p. 361.

[144]Martin Frecht, a learned preacher and theologian of the Church at Ulm. He refused to submit to theInterim, and died the 14th September 1556, at Tübingen.

[145]This was undoubtedly "L'Institution Chrétienne." See Note 2, p. 45.

[146]Calvin had returned to Strasbourg without waiting the conclusion of the deliberations of the colloquy at Frankfort.

[147]Wendelin, the printer at Strasbourg.

[148]Farel laboured hard to bring about a union between the Churches of Geneva, of Neuchatel, and of the Pays de Vaud, which were at variance in regard to the Sacraments, and ecclesiastical discipline in general.

[149]A party, growing every day more numerous at Geneva, deplored the exile of Calvin. As the organ of that sentiment, M. Du Tailly incessantly exhorted the Reformer to forget the injury which had been done him, and to restore peace to the congregation and church at Geneva by his return. Calvin would by no means separate his cause from that of Farel, so as to make his return a personal matter to himself, and not, as it was, a question of principle. Therefore, he felt little disposed to resume the function of the ministry at Geneva.

[150]Louis du Tillet.

[151]The alliance of Smalkald, which the intrigues of the Catholic party endeavoured to break up, in the Assembly at Frankfort.

[152]The town of Strasbourg.

[153]From Neuchatel Farel observed attentively the progress of events at Geneva, and sent intelligence thereof to Calvin.

[154]The Church of Payerne, founded by the preaching of Farel and Viret.

[155]The minister Gaspar Grossman, (Megander,) had been discharged in 1537, by the Senate of Berne, for having composed a Catechism, which, on some points, did not agree with that of Bucer. Zebedee, minister of Orbe, had been censured for the same reason.

[156]The friends of Calvin at Strasbourg and in Switzerland were bent on bringing about the marriage of the Reformer. Farel and Bucer displayed the most active zeal in the prosecution of their matrimonial project; and it is known that Calvin's marriage, which took place the following year, may be attributed to the management of the latter.—Th. de Bèze,Calvini Vita.

[157]A letter, written in French, like that of the 1st October 1538,—"To the residue of the dispersion of the Church of Geneva." The French original is lost. It is preserved only in the Latin translation by Theodore Beza. We perceive in it the peculiar circumstances in which the Reformer retired to Strasbourg,—saw it to be his duty a second time to exhort the Church of Geneva. Discord among the members of that Church had never ceased from the time of their being deprived of their first pastors. The authority of the new ministers was constantly treated with contempt, and the town, scarcely reformed, had to struggle with the old disorders, aggravated by the excesses arising from the schism. Observant of these sad divisions, and superior to the resentment of injury personal to himself, Calvin exhorted the members of his old flock, reminded them of the holy sanction of the ministerial charge, and implored them to rally around their lawful pastors.

[158]Mal. ii. 7; 2 Cor. v. 20; 1 Thess. v. 13.

[159]The date of this letter is in the handwriting of Farel.

[160]The magistrates of Strasbourg united themselves to Protestant princes of Germany to intercede in common with Francis I. in favour of his cruelly persecuted Protestant subjects.

[161]Sulzer, minister of the Church of Berne. At a later period he was pastor of the Church of Basle.

[162]Cardinal Sadolet, Bishop of Carpentras, informed of the troubles of Geneva, had written to the magistrates of that town exhorting them to return to the communion of the Roman Church. Calvin wrote a reply to Sadolet, and that letter, dated from Strasbourg, 1st September 1539, is one of the most remarkable monuments of the Reformer's genius. SeeCalv. Opera, edit. d'Amsterdam, tom. viii.; and theRecueil des Opuscules, p. 145.

[163]Condemned by the Synod of Lausanne, and banished by the Senate of Berne, Caroli had returned to the Church of Rome, and had in vain sought the favour of the Cardinal de Tournon. Deceived in his expectations, he reappeared in Switzerland, confessed his past offences, and obtained the forgiveness of Farel. Afterwards he proceeded to Strasbourg, where Bucer and Sturm tried every means to reconcile him with Calvin.—Ruchat,Hist. de la Réformat. en Suisse, tom. v. pp. 129-134.

[164]Bonneville, on the Lake of Bienne. It was there where the interview between Caroli and Farel, accompanied by the two deputies from Neuchatel, had taken place.

[165]Rognac—is it the burgh of that name in Provence, department of Bouches du Rhone?

[166]James Bedrot, native of the Grisons, professor of Greek in the Academy at Strasbourg.

[167]That is to say, the preceding letter concerning Caroli.

[168]Alexandre, late minister of Thonon. He had been excommunicated by the presbytery of Neuchatel for having deserted his charge.

[169]This refers, doubtless, to the Edict which was published the following year in France. It contained most rigorous clauses against heretics.

[170]Ulric Chelius, a distinguished physician, the friend of Bucer.

[171]See notes 2, pp. 129, 150. The Protestant princes of Germany, irritated by the persecutions directed against their brethren of the Reformed Churches of France, threatened the rupture of all friendly relations with the reigning sovereign, Francis I.

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