Letters of John Calvin, Volume II. Calvin Jean
that he would bestow increase by his grace, so that our labour may not be in vain. Such examples ought to incite us thereto, and likewise to admonish us, not to think that we have done some great thing by merely having written.
Monsieur, having presented the humble commendations of myself, as well as of my wife, to your kind favour, and also that of Madame, I pray our good Lord, that it would please him ever to preserve you in his holy protection, strengthening you in all might by his Spirit, making his glory to shine forth in you ever more and more.
I beg to be excused for faults, for I have not been able to revise the present letter, being engrossed by headache with which I have been seized. Our friend and brother, Des Gallars,90 also humbly commends himself to you, and sends you a distich which he has composed upon Renard. We greatly desire to have some news. If the war did not give holiday to the printing-presses, I would have sent Vendelin the Galatians; but since the Corinthians lie quiet in his desk, there is no need for my being in any hurry.
[Fr. orig. autogr. – Library of Geneva. Vol. 194.]
CLXXIX. – To Monsieur de Falais
Monseigneur, – The day before Camus arrived, I had written to you, as well as to others, by a young tailor of Picardy; but because I was not certain whether they had as yet informed you of the death of Madame your sister,91 I did not venture to mention it. Now I have rejoiced, and have thanked God with my whole heart, perceiving by the letter of Madame that you had at once taken your stand upon the point whereon I would have founded my principal argument, if I had wished to console you. And, indeed, you have much occasion for gratitude on account of the grace which God has vouchsafed to her, and to you also. For seeing that her husband had waxed so cold, the good lady would have been in an unhappy captivity had she remained longer in the world, and would only have languished her life away. On your part, you would not have had it in your power to lend her a helping hand, nor to solace her sorrows; and so you never could have thought of her without regret and vexation. God, therefore, has had pity upon you and her, in thus providing, and above all, in preventing the dangers into which she might have fallen in a long career, by reason of the frailty which is in us. And we have yet a better ground of further consolation, that it will not be long ere we find ourselves together again. Meanwhile, let us think of preparing ourselves to follow her, for the time will soon come. But I like much better to congratulate you, seeing that our Lord has already put these things in your heart, than to labour in recalling them to your memory. The other news which Camus has told me about you, has also cheered me to await the time when God will bring to pass what he has put into so good a train.
Monseigneur, after humble commendations to your kind favour, and having presented the humble remembrances of my wife, I pray our good Lord to have you ever in his safeguard, to strengthen you in body and in spirit, so as always to make you more abound in his service.
Your humble servant and bounden friend,
I assure you that you make me desire the arrival of the spring-time more than I would otherwise have done. Our brother Des Gallars commends himself also very humbly to your kind favour.
[Fr. orig. autogr. – Library of Geneva. Vol. 194.]
CLXXX. – To Madame de Falais
Madame, – Having been made aware that Monseigneur had been informed of the death of his sister, I have only given him one word on the subject, knowing beforehand from yourself that he has no need of long consolation, seeing that God, without human means, has put into his heart that which cannot fail to alleviate his sadness.
As for my promise, to which you hold me bound, I shall discharge myself of it, when God shall have vouchsafed me the means wherewith to do so. But I am astonished that you should even hint at the reward which my said Lord intends for me, as if I were looking to that, and had not other considerations in the discharge of my duty to him. The love and reverence which I may well bear toward him in our Lord are so strong, that I am very sorry that I cannot devote myself more to his and your service, to shew what is in my heart. Howbeit, I beseech you not to take amiss what I have now said, for I have had no other feeling than the fear that you may not place such reliance upon me as I desire. Besides, I do not mean to make any complaint which deserves a reply; for it is quite enough for me that you have neither entertained a doubt nor a suspicion which has induced you to mention it.
Now therefore I shall make an end, after having humbly commended me to your kind favour. I pray our good Lord to have you always in his holy protection, guiding and governing you after his own good will, so as to glorify his holy name in you.
Your humble servant and good brother for ever,
[Fr. orig. autogr. – Library of Geneva. Vol. 194.]
CLXXXI. – To Viret
Two letters of Bucer were delivered to me after a short interval. I send both of them to you, although they may contain almost nothing which you have not learned from other sources. With regard to the King of France, I think that he will shortly be brought to give some assistance with money to our party – the only thing that is sought from him. It is, moreover, in the highest degree, his interest to distract the attention of Charles by another war.92 I have enjoined Peter Textor to pay to you sixteen crowns; for although I had ten with me when I came to the marriage, it escaped my memory. But here is a greater lapse of memory; when I had found them laid aside in my desk, I stood still for some time, not knowing whether I had ever seen them before. Raymond came upon me, who reminded me of the fact, that he had given them to me by order of Antony Maillet. You will therefore add this sum to the former. In the other six [crowns,] I am afraid that I have made a mistake; for they may possibly belong to my brother. For as a teacher of Orleans was in his debt, he arranged that payment should be made by the son of Bruno. He had lately received five [crowns.] You will therefore retain these until I shall have learned with certainty from Saint André, whether they ought to be given to you or to my brother.
Sulzer lately wrote to me that matters had reached an extremity.93 He implores our aid. I consulted with the brethren. As we could discover no plan of procedure in circumstances so perplexed, and almost desperate, I repaired to Nyon. I became aware that they had committed much more grievous errors than the letters contain any mention of. They are not, in my opinion, fighting for a cause that is good in every respect. All see that their proceedings are preposterous; and yet when we also see that everything is going to ruin, with what conscience shall we be silent? I asked Nicolas,94 whether he thought that a letter from us would be of any service? He gave a trembling and hesitating consent to our writing. Should a messenger present himself in good time, I wish that you also would intimate your opinion; thereafter consider whether it be not time to press for obtaining a Synod.
Adieu, brother, and most sincere friend, along with your wife, whom you will respectfully salute in the name of all ours, as well as James and the rest. – Yours,
[Lat. orig. autogr. – Library of Geneva. Vol. 106.]
CLXXXII. – To Monsieur de Falais
Monseigneur, – I have nothing to write you at present, except that we are waiting to see what will be done by the Swiss.95
Nicolas des Gallars, of Paris, (M. de Saules,) the friend and secretary of Calvin, and one of the most distinguished ministers of Geneva. He was sent as pastor to the Church at Paris in 1557, reappointed in 1560 to the French Church of London, assisted the following year at the conference at Poissy, was named minister of the Church of Orleans, and became, in 1571, preacher to the Queen of Navarre. We have several of his works mentioned by Senebier,
Helène de Falais. She had married Adrien de L'Isle, Seigneur de Trénoy.
This diversion, dictated to the King of France by sound politics, was not effected, and Francis I. remained a peaceable spectator of events, whose necessary tendency was to secure, by the defeat of the Protestant party in Germany, the ascendency of Charles V. in Europe.
The ministers of Berne were divided by incessant disputes on the subject of the Supper. Sulzer and certain of his colleagues inclined to the Lutheran view, which Erasme Ritter combated; and by an abuse of power, that was not uncommon at that period, the Seigneury of Berne claimed to determine by itself the sense of the controverted dogma, the settlement of which ought to have been remitted to a Synod. – Ruchat, tom. v. pp. 225, 226.
The senator, Nicolas de Zerkinden, friend of Calvin and prefect of Nyon.
The Roman Catholic and Reformed Cantons, solicited, the former by the emperor, the latter by the Protestant princes, to take part in the struggles of which Germany was the theatre, had both observed a strict neutrality. But the Seigneury of Berne having received information that military movements were taking place in Franche-Comté, then under the rule of the Spaniards, summoned ten thousand men to arms, and occupied the passes of the Jura. That measure, which arose out of the pressure of circumstances, would perhaps have brought about a division among the confederates, and serious complications from without, if the treachery of the Elector Maurice had not hastened on the course of events in Germany. – John de Müller,