Letters of John Calvin, Volume II. Calvin Jean
Falais
Monseigneur, – Two days after the arrival of M. Budé, I received your letter, which you had delivered to James Dallichant; so that all of them have been delivered. Thinking to find a messenger, I have twice since then been disappointed; and I was also in doubt whether to undertake the journey. For notwithstanding the hindrances which might detain me, I was afraid that I had no sufficient excuse. But the tidings which have since reached us, have removed that doubt. I return thanks to our Lord, and all our friends along with me, for the happy delivery which he has granted to Madame, praying that he would so bless the offspring which he has given you, that you may have a twofold comfort in them in the time to come, as I do also hope. We shall look for a letter from you shortly. It is enough in the meanwhile to know that all is well as to the main point.
In reply to all that you have sent to me, I had requested Gallars to translate the Apology, promising to revise it finally myself. But he has been so negligent, that Master Francis Baulduin153 came just in time to begin it. I send you, therefore, his translation, which we have revised together, not to polish it very highly, but merely to see whether the meaning had been truly rendered, at the same time with the French copy in the handwriting of Saint André.
In the Latin epistle of Dryander,154 I have corrected what appeared to me to be right; you can follow that which shall seem best to yourself. I hope that you will understand who has induced me to write many things, which I did not object to, but which appeared to me to be superfluous, or at least that they would be of no weight with the individual to whom they were addressed.
You will see the answers which I have made in the name of Mademoiselle de Wilergy, and may give effect to, if you think they are the right thing. I speak drily enough to the Abbess, because of the suspicion, which is very strong.
If it please God to settle a church there, it will be a great comfort to your family. But the blessing will extend much further, and will have the effect of removing many stumblingblocks. It is a great pity the scattering of the handful who met at Vezel.155 Our Lord, I fear, must have been disposed to punish that excessive moroseness, which could only arise from a despising of his blessing. However, I hope that, after having punished the fanatics and crack-brained persons who have been the cause of all the mischief, he will yet set up again his little flock which remains, and will hold out a hand to them, to lead them always in the right way.
What moved me to urge you about the house, was my fear of the shame I should feel if perhaps you did arrive here and should not find a lodging ready. Besides, the repairs which the landlord thought of making thereon, would not make it fit for your occupation. Thus the rent you are paying for it, would be so much money lost, unless we should fall upon some remedy for it. Although I have taken it for three years, it was at my option to be quit of the bargain at the end of the half-year, on giving intimation three weeks before the term. At this time we shall be foreclosed of that liberty. If you could have decided upon coming, I would have desired the whole to be put in proper repair, that you might be exempt from annoyance. But seeing the matter stands as it does, it is very unadvisable indeed to charge yourself with a house here; only I could have wished to cause you no needless expense. But since you have allowed this half year to pass away, we shall need to take care between this and the end of January, so as not to enter upon the second year.
I perceive that the troubles which we have had here are also exaggerated with you as well as elsewhere. At Lyons they have had me dead in more than twenty ways. Everywhere throughout the country they tell of wonders, of which, God be thanked, we perceive nothing. It is very true Satan has here very many firebrands; but the flame passes off with a blaze like that of flax. The capital punishment which has been inflicted upon one of their companions,156 has laid their horns in the dust. As for your landlord,157 I know not what face he will wear towards us when he returns. He appeared to go away on friendly terms, at least manifesting more compunction and respect towards me than formerly. Meanwhile, however, his wife has played the she-devil to such a degree, that she has found it necessary to gain the open country. It is already about three months that he has been absent. He must needs walk softly upon his return. Up to the present time, we have got on very well, considering the condition of the servants of God. Had we not been so depressed, we should have been too much at our ease. I believe, indeed, that he may have opened the letter, and that that may have given boldness to Valeran, and to that worthy man with whom he was lodged, to take a second look into them. However that may be, in complaining about it as he does, he must at once avow himself to be a breaker-open of letters, which is certainly the act of a lawless man. As for his wrongs, they weigh no more with me than his person in the scale of importance, which is a little less than a feather. Moreover, it is evident that he was drunk, or at least seeing double, when he thus wrote. Provided he does not go the length of throwing stones, our patience, yours and mine, will not find it very hard to bear with his abuse. We are not better than David, were we even called to bear further injury, and he is at least quite as worthy as Shimei. In that and in greater things, let us pray God that he may vouchsafe us grace to call us to his light, despising the calumnies of those who judge in darkness. I am more sorry than for aught else to see him gone so far astray.
If there is no pressing hurry, or if there might be more hope of reasonable despatch in the absence of the protonotary, I think that it would only be right to await his return, as well that nothing may be done by halves, as to avoid the suspicion he might take up, that you had watched the opportunity, or anticipated the complaint he meant to make, in terms of his letter, which was not a little dissatisfied. But should there be any damnum aut periculum in mora, this consideration ought not to hamper you, so at least methinks. Otherwise the better way will be, to wait for an opportunity to get rid of the whole at once.
As for the book-mark – your own arms, as well as the motto, everything will be liable to be blazoned abroad by those who, without good ground, are, nevertheless, always open-mouthed in speaking evil of us. Howbeit, I find nothing amiss, neither in the one nor in the other. Even had there been no diminishing of the expenses, there could be no harm in putting the arms at the beginning, and the motto at the end. But I am much puzzled which of the two methods to choose, unless you were to put your armorial bearings with the saying underneath, – Qui recedit a malo prædœ est expositus, with the citation of the chapter.158
As regards the marriage,159 for my part, I would by no means consent to it. You see how confidentially I reply to you. 'The family is very poor indeed. The noblesse of Savoy is very different from that of your country; the man himself is well enough, but not so steady as to withstand evil counsels; subject to illnesses, arising chiefly from a sanguine temperament, – (you fear one reproach; I am afraid of a quite different one, which I would only mention if I desired to be put out of the way, &c.) You had been rash in entertaining his proposal.' Pardon me if I am too forward. I would like better to take the other whom I know, if it fell to me to decide. But it is full time for me to pull up, having certainly exceeded due bounds.
Before I have concluded, a cough has seized me, and hits me so hard upon the shoulder that I cannot draw a stroke of the pen without acute pain.160 There is a letter to Wendelin, to which I would much desire to have a reply, because there is some inquiry regarding the Commentaries on St. Paul, of which several persons urge the printing. I hope that it shall be profitable, otherwise I would not have composed them. Seeing that the present bearers are not quite certain of going so far as Strasbourg, and that even if they do go, I could not be sure to have an answer by them, I beg you kindly to charge some one of your servants to convey the letter in good time, and to procure the answer.
Monsieur, having heartily commended me to your kind favour, and that of Madame,
Francis Baudouin of Arras, a distinguished lawyer, fled to Geneva on account of religion. He became the friend and the secretary of Calvin, whose opinions at a later period he attacked, and betrayed his confidence by robbing him of his most precious papers. – (See Drelincourt, Defence of Calvin, pp. 251, 252.) Called successively as Professor of Law to Bourges, to Strasbourg, and to Heidelberg, Baudouin died in 1573, leaving the reputation of one of the most learned men of his time, and of a most versatile spirit in matters of religion. It has been justly said of him, that he was a Roman Catholic in France, a Lutheran at Strasbourg, and a Calvinist at Geneva.
See note 1, p. 111. Dryander seems at this period to have filled the office of secretary to M. de Falais. He carried on at the same time a correspondence with Calvin, expressing the highest esteem for his character and talents. –
Some Flemish and French refugees had already formed a community at Vezel, which was enlarged in 1553 by the dispersion of the foreign congregation of London, and which was constituted as a church by the minister Francis Pérucel, called La Rivière.
Jacques Gruet. See p. 128.
Amy Perrin.
Isaiah lix. 15.
Of Mademoiselle de Wilergy.
The conclusion of the letter is in the handwriting of Francis Baudouin.