STRASBURG AND GENEVA.
(END OF 1538-1539.)
[Sidenote: CALVIN AT STRASBURG.]
Calvin, meanwhile, notwithstanding the melancholy which sprang from
the remembrance of his recent struggles, was happy at Strasburg. This
town, in which, as in a common centre, met the influences of Germany,
Switzerland, and France, was esteemed, next to Wittenberg, the most
important seat of the Reformation. It was called the _Antioch_ of that
epoch, in remembrance of what Antioch was in the apostolic age. Some
named it subsequently the _New Jerusalem_, and this partly because
it was ‘the hostess of the man who gave his name to Calvinism.’[747]
At the period of Calvin’s arrival, Strasburg was already the home
of several distinguished men--Capito, Bucer, Hedio, Niger, Mathias
Zell, and others besides, who shone in its Church like precious and
transparent jewels.[748] ‘What gratitude we owe you,’ they wrote to
Farel, ‘for resigning Calvin to us!’ He was a treasure for them. He
very much enjoyed their society, and this sojourn was to be beneficial
to him. Not only did the affection of Strasburg for him heal the wounds
inflicted by the hostility of Geneva, but his mind was to receive still
further development. The small city on the shores of the Leman lake
was a narrow platform on which it was not easy to move about. But on
reaching Strasburg Calvin set foot on the vast Germanic realm which
contained so many illustrious men, in which so many profound thoughts
were stirring, and in which the Reformation had already fought so
many battles and won so many victories. There were, it is true, some
opposite teachings, but it was necessary to be acquainted with them.
Strasburg, moreover, was the place in which doctrines were weighed
one against the other, and where the labor destined to conciliate
them was undertaken. At Geneva Calvin might have occupied the post
of a spectator who attempts to distinguish by means of a telescope
an action fought at a great distance. But now he was in the thick
of the battle, learnt to recognize the feeble and the strong, and
became one of the combatants, or at least one of the negotiators. His
horizon was widened, his intelligence in this vast sphere would be
enlarged, his ideas would be developed, would grow, ripen, and move
with greater freedom. He would be brought under influences to which he
was not exposed at Geneva, and which would contribute to form the great
theologian. Embracing at a glance the whole extent of the kingdom of
God, he would become familiar with its various provinces. Winds blowing
from so many and adverse regions would bring to him new reports.
There would doubtless be sometimes stormy blasts, powerful enough to
overthrow the strongest, but often also a pure and life-giving air
fitted to sanctify his Christian energy.
The theological and Christian circle which he entered at Strasburg
was in more than one way in sympathy with him. He was convinced, as
the doctors of this town were, that it was necessary not to stick at
trifling differences, but to consider Christianity in its great facts,
its great doctrines, the new life which it creates, in the great whole
on which all the reformers were agreed. All those who took their stand
on the same rock, Jesus Christ, no matter whether a little higher up
or a little lower down, ought in his view to join hand in hand. Calvin
and the theologians of Strasburg were disgusted with the theological
subtilties and the scholastic nomenclature beneath which the living
doctrine of the Gospel, especially as to the supper, was stifled. ‘Can
I in very deed believe that I receive in the holy supper the body and
the blood of the Lord, _substantialiter_, _essentialiter_, _realiter_,
_naturaliter_, _præsentialiter_, _localiter_, _corporaliter_,
_quantitative_, _qualitative_, _ubiqualiter_, _carnaliter_? The devil
has brought us all these terms from the abyss of hell. Christ said
simply, _This is my body_. If all these fantastic expressions had been
necessary, he would certainly have employed them.’ Calvin, like Zell,
the author of the above passage, found in that heap of qualifying terms
a mass of rubbish and confusion. There was, however, one difference
between the doctors of Strasburg and the doctor of Geneva. Bucer and
Capito were willing to bring union by the way of accommodation, perhaps
by the use of phrases in a double sense. The eagle of Geneva, soaring
in the higher regions, called on Christians to have but one thought
in contemplating one and the same sun, and in attaching themselves to
one and the same truth.[749]
[Sidenote: HIS SPIRITUAL JOYS.]
Another happiness awaited Calvin at Strasburg. His greatest sufferings
at Geneva had their source in that state-church, that people-church,
that shapeless community which comprised the whole nation, believers
and unbelievers, righteous men and profligates. In its place at
Strasburg he found some Christians exiled on account of their faith,
purified by their trial like gold, who had given up all for Christ,
their righteousness and their life. The mass of professing Christians
at Geneva had as it were suffocated him. Now at Strasburg he was in the
midst of brethren and sisters, and almost all of them belonged to his
own country, France. He breathed freely. The evangelical order intended
by the apostles prevailed in his Church.[750] He preached four times a
week. He met his elders and deacons once a week for the study of the
Holy Scriptures and for prayer; and some of those lay friends well
endowed by God were soon qualified to take the place of their pastor in
case of his absence, and to edify their brethren. The first supper was
celebrated in September, and it was repeated every month. How wide the
difference for Calvin between that repast at Geneva, to which men came
who drank, gamed, quarrelled, and sang indecent songs, and whom, for
all that, he had to admit to the communion of the body and the blood
of the Redeemer, and this brotherly supper at Strasburg, celebrated
in company with pious Christians, persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
whose names were written in heaven, and who drew nigh to the Lord with
devotion, as members of his family! Calvin gave all his attention to
the cure of souls. If there were any Christians who had not an adequate
acquaintance with the doctrine of salvation, he instructed them; if any
were reproached by their own conscience, cast down and in distress, he
consoled and lifted them up; if any had gone astray from the path of
righteousness, he rebuked them. He certainly met with some opposition,
especially on the part of the younger folk; but he held his ground.
While he required a pure faith and life, he protested against the
tyranny exercised by the priests in auricular confession, and declared
that no man had the right to bind the conscience of his brethren. Thus
he saw his flock thriving from day to day under his direction.[751]
‘It was at Strasburg that the first Church was organized to serve as a
model to others,’ says Raemond. A remarkable conversion distinguished
its early days. Herman of Liége, who had engaged in discussion with
Calvin at Geneva, was converted by him and joined his Church. He
embraced the doctrines which Calvin found in the Holy Scriptures, on
free will, the divinity and humanity of Christ, regeneration, and
baptism. He was in doubt only as to predestination. Calvin gained other
victories besides.
[Sidenote: VIEW OF THE LORD’S SUPPER.]
He was now not only a pastor, but also a teacher. At the beginning
of the year 1539, Capito, struck with his gifts for theological
teaching, entreated him to join that office with his pastorate.
Although he felt reluctant to do so, from his sense of the difficulty
of that ministry, he at length consented. Every day he preached in
the church of St. Nicholas, in which he taught the students of the
academy. The interpretation of the Scriptures was for him the basis
of theological science, and for his exposition he selected two of
the richest books of the New Testament--the Gospel of St. John and
the Epistle to the Romans. His plan was to search out the meaning of
the sacred writer, and to set it forth with an easy ‘brevity which
did not entail obscurity;’ and for that purpose ‘he took pains to
regulate and proportion his style.[752]’ In his view the Epistle to
the Romans was ‘a path to the understanding of the whole Scripture.’
Some doctors attended these lectures, and expressed their high
admiration.[753] He did not content himself with being at the same
time pastor and professor, he also worked diligently in his study. He
revised his _Institution_, and prepared a second edition; he recast
his _Catechism_; he composed a treatise on the Supper, of which he
sent a copy to Luther. Calvin, like Zwingli, regarded the bread and
the wine as signs, as pledges that Christ gives to the believer his
crucified body and his shed blood; that is to say, communicates to him
the expiatory virtue of his death. He taught that the believer receives
the body and the blood by faith, which is _the mouth of the soul_, and
not by the bodily mouth. But he differed from the reformer of Zurich in
that he saw in the supper a mysterious union with the glorified person
of Christ. ‘With good reason,’ he said, ‘the bread is called body,
since it not only _represents_ him, but also _presents_ him to us. We
must therefore really receive in the supper the body and the blood of
Jesus Christ, since the Lord sets forth to us therein the communion of
both. If God gave us only bread and wine, leaving behind the spiritual
truth, would it not be the case that he had instituted this mystery
on fictitious grounds?[754] This alliance is effected on our part by
faith, and on the part of God by his secret and miraculous virtue. The
Spirit of God is the bond of this participation; that is why it is
called spiritual. When Luther began his course, he appeared to say that
the bread was the body of Christ. Œcolampadius and Zwingli appeared to
leave in the supper nothing but the bare signs without their spiritual
substance. Thus Luther failed on his side, Zwingli and Œcolampadius on
their side. Nevertheless, let us not forget the grace which the Lord
gave to all of them, and the benefits which he has conferred on us by
their instrumentality.’[755]
Luther acknowledged that Calvin’s doctrine went beyond that of Zwingli,
and expressed the delight which it gave him. As early as October, 1539,
the Saxon reformer wrote to Bucer--‘Greet John Calvin respectfully,
whose book I have read with singular enjoyment.’[756] As the treatise
on the Supper appeared only in 1541, the _Institution_ must be the
book spoken of, in which the doctrine of the Eucharist was already set
forth. When the reformer of Germany read the little treatise to which
we have just referred, he said, ‘Ah, if the Swiss did the same, we
should now be at peace instead of quarrelling.’[757]
In addition to his other labors, Calvin attended the theological
debates in the universities, sometimes even presiding at them. He held
conferences with the Roman Catholic doctors, at which he defended
the evangelical theology; thereby acquiring so high a renown that a
great number of students and even of learned men came from France to
Strasburg to hear him.[758]
This man, who already occupied so important a position, was at the
same time in the most humble circumstances. Poverty was added to
his other trials. He received from the publishers of his works only
very low remuneration. He did not think that he had any right to ask
remuneration from the state or even from the Church; but he would not
have refused it if it had been spontaneously offered to him. He was
living at this time on a small sum derived partly from his paternal
inheritance and partly from the sale of his library and other property
of various kinds. But this was far short of his need, and sometimes
the payment for his lodging was a great embarrassment. He wrote to
Farel--‘I am obliged to live at my own expense, unless I were willing
to become a burden to my brethren; and my destitution is now so great
that _I do not possess a farthing_.[759] It is not, you see, so easy
for me to take care of my health as you with so much kind care counsel
me to do.’ Calvin afterwards received a salary, but too small to
suffice even for his modest wants.
[Sidenote: DEATH OF OLIVÉTAN.]
Just at the time when Calvin was gaining new friends at Strasburg, he
lost some of his oldest and most beloved ones. We have seen his grief
on hearing of the death of Courault. At the beginning of January 1539,
he received a letter from Francesca Bucyronia, wife of the physician
Sinapi, tutor to the children of the Duchess of Ferrara, informing
him that his cousin Olivétan, one of the first evangelists of Geneva,
and translator of the French version of the Bible, had just died in
that town. Calvin’s pain at this news was increased by the report
that his friend, while at Rome, had taken poison, and that of this
he died. This was a conjecture at that period commonly put forward
to account for unexpected deaths. There is little probability of its
truth. Calvin does not speak of it. He contents himself with calling
Olivétan _our friend_, and adds that the natural sorrow which he feels
must be his apology to his correspondents for his short and disjointed
letters.[760] Few men have had so many friends as Calvin. His was no
ordinary friendship; it was always felt to be deep and unchangeable.
But Calvin’s thought was at this time occupied with affection of
another kind. He believed that those who have received a new life from
Christ are called to love all those who have received the same grace;
‘to love them with that simple affection, that natural proneness,
with which relations love each other.’ It was, however, no exclusive
love that he required. ‘In bidding us begin by loving the faithful,
the Lord leads us on, by a kind of apprenticeship, to the loving of
all men without exception.’[761] But union and agreement between the
children of God was the great need of his heart. When writing to
Bullinger (March 12, 1539) he said--‘Satan, who plots the ruin of the
kingdom of Christ, sows discord between us. Let us all then have a
cordial agreement with one another, and may it be the same with all the
Churches. I clasp you in my arms, wishing you all good.’[762]
With this cordial charity Calvin maintained an indomitable courage.
Capito was given to looking at the dark sides of things: black thoughts
often hovered around him and took possession of his imagination. In
vain his faith strove to lighten the darkness; mournful forebodings
overwhelmed him, and a dull distress was often read in his countenance.
One day he protested before God and men that the Church was lost unless
prompt aid should arrive. Afterwards, when he found that the state of
things did not improve, he prayed God that he might die.[763] It was
not so with Calvin. ‘Ah,’ said he, ‘the Lord will bless us although
everything should be against us. Let us therefore try all remedies; and
if we do not find any to be efficacious, let us nevertheless persevere
as long as we have any breath of life.’[764] It is this unconquerable
steadfastness which made Calvin the great reformer.
[Sidenote: DESPOTISM AT GENEVA.]
The faith of Calvin was not to deceive him. But few voices had been
raised in his favor at Geneva in the general council of May 26, 1538.
The minority which adhered to the Reformation had at first shrunk
away into retirement and silence. The most active men, who are not
always the wisest, alone had spoken. But gradually the more competent
influential men appeared, recognized and united with each other, and
took combined action. The government party made little account of them;
and as Master Guillaume, as they called Farel, was in the popular
judgment the chief of the Evangelicals, they used to call these, with
a shrug of the shoulders, the _Guillemins_, nor had they a suspicion
that these people would ever recover themselves. The council, which was
little disposed to respect individual freedom, less so perhaps than
Calvin and Farel, ordered all heads of families to attend sermon on the
Sunday. This order was especially aimed at the friends of the reformers
and their refusal to hear the ministers who had taken the place of the
latter, and who, to make themselves agreeable to the magistrate, openly
censured their predecessors.
Farel and Calvin had established in Geneva not only the Church but
also the school; and some of their best friends, Saunier and Mathurin
Cordier were among the most eminent masters. This institution naturally
remained faithful to its founders, and the conduct of the government
towards it showed that they looked on it as decidedly opposed to
their views and opinions. The council did not intend to allow its
subordinates to show themselves hostile to its scheme for the direction
of ecclesiastical affairs. However, while they shrank perhaps from
disorganizing the school, they resolved, sparing at the outset the
leading men, to give them a lesson by energetically prosecuting one or
two of their under-masters.
Eynard and Gaspard were consequently cited, September 10, before
the council, which made complaint of their publicly censuring the
_preachers_, and inquired of them where they had received the supper
at Easter and Whitsuntide. They replied that they had not joined in
the communion anywhere, because St. Paul enjoined _that every man
should examine himself_, and that they had not felt in the right frame
of mind. They had no doubt been unwilling to receive the bread and
the wine, which are the communion of the body and the blood of the
Saviour, from the hands of pastors whom they judged unworthy. The
council ordered them to leave the town in three days. After having thus
inflicted disciplinary penalties on the humble under-masters, they
awaited Christmas.
Matters were by that time far worse. Many foreigners, chiefly refugees,
did not take the supper. They were condemned to leave the town, ten
days only being allowed to them to set their affairs in order. The
councillors and other Genevese who had been guilty of the same offence
were obliged to apologize and to promise ‘to live from this time forth
according to the way of the town.’ These things did not pass without
lively altercations; and in consequence of a dispute which took place
in the street on the night of December 30, 1538, one man was killed
and many were wounded.[765] The most enraged of the refractory party,
thinking to justify their conduct in attacking the settled ministers,
called them infidels, corrupters of Scripture, and papists, who tried
to deceive the people. The pastors, who were certainly not possessed
of ability enough to fill the place of the eminent doctors banished by
the council, but who endeavored for the most part to do as much good
as their moral and intellectual qualities permitted, were greatly
annoyed, complained to the council, and desired to withdraw and make
room for others better qualified than themselves. ‘These reproaches,’
they said, ‘we find it very hard to bear.’ The council assured them
that it meant to keep them, and to reconcile them with their accusers.
[Sidenote: THE REGENTS OF THE COLLEGE.]
After this second act of discipline, or rather, at the same time, the
council undertook a third, of graver character still. In their eyes the
college was still a fortress in which Calvinism had entrenched itself,
with the intention of resisting the attacks of its adversaries. The
magistrate resolved to give the regents an opportunity of declaring
themselves, and if they offered resistance, to expel them. To join
the ministers who had succeeded Farel and Calvin, to administer the
supper with them, to do an act which those great doctors had refused
to do,--this was the requirement addressed by the magistrate to
Saunier, rector of the college, and to the three regents, Mathurin
Cordier, Vautier, and Vindos. It would have been straining a point
for them to take the supper; but to be in the number of those who
administered it, after all the controversies which had taken place, was
not this ‘to be an occasion of stumbling’ for many, and a taking part
against those venerated men whose absence they deplored? These four
professors therefore stated to the council that their conscience did
not allow them to do what was required. The magistrates ought to have
considered that this act is not within the province of the regents,
and that they ought not to do anything which might, by depriving the
college of the able men who directed it, possibly lead to its ruin.
But Richardet and his friends were despots who did not intend to allow
any resistance to their will. On the day after Christmas, they ordered
the rector and the three regents to quit Geneva in the space of three
days. Saunier was dismayed. He had a very numerous household. Many
boys of good family from Basel, Berne, Zurich, Bienne, and other
towns, lived in his house; and he had a young daughter, in delicate
health, whom he would be obliged to take with him in the depth of
winter. The next day, December 27, he appeared before the Council of
the Two Hundred, stated the circumstances which we have just related,
reminded them that he was a citizen of the town, and showed them
that the resolution which they had adopted might be the ruin of the
college, which was indispensable to the youth of Geneva. In fine, he
could not possibly make the necessary arrangements in so short a time.
This last point was the only one to which the Great Council took any
heed. It confirmed the resolution of the Little Council, but granted
to the regents fifteen days to act upon it. He must therefore depart.
Saunier and his colleagues took the same road as Calvin and Farel had
taken. Mathurin Cordier, who had received the knowledge of the Gospel
from the celebrated Robert Etienne, had devoted his life to the task
‘of training youth in piety and in good morals, cultivating in them
a pure and elegant style, and the love of literature;’ had composed
some important works;[766] and was one of those antique souls, it has
been said, who always prefer the public good to their own interest.
The loss of such a man was irreparable, but it was not final. The
council sought for substitutes for these men; but they were forced to
acknowledge that to find them was no easy matter. The first candidate
who offered himself was rejected because he was a German. The second,
Claude Viguier, beat one of his pupils so severely as to draw blood.
The republican magistrates of 1538 placed submission to their arbitrary
orders before the real interests of the schools and the people.[767]
Calvin seemed to regret the course taken by Saunier. He entreated Farel
to do everything in his power to prevent division and confusion from
extending, and to induce the brethren no longer to refuse the rites
adopted by the council.
[Sidenote: PERSECUTION OF CALVIN’S FRIENDS.]
When this matter was settled, the council undertook another campaign.
Among the partisans of Calvin and of the Reformation were several
eminent men whose submission was much desired. The severity which had
just been displayed towards the learned might induce these citizens
to yield to the conquerors. Two former syndics especially, Porral and
Pertemps, looking more at the lamentable occurrences which had attended
the government appointment of the supper than at the supper itself,
had not yet been able to bring themselves to sanction blameworthy
proceedings (the banishment of their well-beloved pastors) by taking
part in the ceremonies condemned by their friends. They had, it is
true, received the letter from Calvin which urged them ‘to have
only a zeal for God moderated by his Spirit and ruled by his Word.’
But when Christmas drew near, and the supper was to be given with
unleavened bread, they had hesitated as to what they should do; and
as they doubted, they had abstained. The council was not inclined to
decide this case of conscience in an accommodating way. On January 9,
1539, Porral having appeared and being asked by the council whether
he would conform to the ordinances respecting the supper, made answer
at first in a rather vague way; and on being requested to answer
more distinctly, he said, without entering into the question of the
ordinances, ‘If it please God, I am ready to take the supper, _after
having examined myself_.’ Pertemps spoke to the same effect.[768]
The friends of Calvin knew that the reformer was distressed at the
disorders which prevailed in Geneva, and which reduced the town to
the saddest state. ‘Nothing causes me more sorrow,’ he wrote to his
friends, ‘than the quarrels and the debates which you have with the
ministers who have succeeded us. There is hardly a hope of amelioration
while altercation and discord exist. Turn away, then, your minds and
your hearts from men, and cling solely to the Redeemer.’ Calvin did not
approve the renunciation of the communion by his friends on the ground
of its celebration with unleavened bread, and he gave them a serious
admonition not to disturb the peace on this immaterial question.[769]
The council did not stop here. There were still some principal citizens
of whom they had a wish to be rid. Claude Savoye, formerly first
syndic, who had shown so much love for Geneva and even so much heroism,
was a friend of the reformers and had censured the council. He was put
in prison, September 6, 1538, on merely frivolous charges. He refused
to answer magistrates whom he regarded as his personal enemies. The
council deliberated whether it should not cause torture to be applied
to this great citizen. But honorable men revolted against this notion;
and the council, having nothing against him but presumptions without
any foundation, contented themselves with taking from him all his
offices, depriving him of all his rights, and making the town his
prison. Savoye escaped, went to Berne, and from that city announced to
the syndics that he resigned the citizenship of Geneva. Jean Goulaz,
who in 1532 had posted on the walls of the town _the great pardon
of Jesus Christ_ in opposition to the indulgences of the pope,[770]
informed the council that he likewise renounced the citizenship,
requested them to release him from his oath, and withdrew. While the
council were deliberating on his request, he felt it prudent to quit
the territory. The council, receiving information of this, ordered
pursuit to be made. He was overtaken on the bridge of Arve and was
sent to prison. Michel Rozet says with reference to these various
prosecutions, ‘Those, in a word, who had banished the ministers,
omitted no occasion of entirely dislodging their adherents.’[771]
[Sidenote: SUPPRESSION OF DISORDERS.]
An improvement, however, had just been made in the government. On
February 9, 1539, the general assembly of the people having to elect
the syndics of the year, not one of the citizens who had played a
part in the expulsion of Calvin and his friends was chosen. The new
magistrates were taken from the moderate party, and one of them,
Antoine Chiccand, was attached to the reformer. The less respectable
class of the people did not seem to be aware of the change, and they
celebrated the accession of the new magistrates after a strange
fashion. It was the time of Carnival, Easter falling that year on April
6; and although Geneva had no longer any wish for the religion of the
papacy, this class of the inhabitants still kept up its festivals and
its amusements. Their pastimes were numerous, burlesque, and even
indecent. ‘There were mummeries, lewdness, indecent songs, dances, and
blasphemies. Some went naked about the town with timbrels and pipes,’
says a contemporary.[772] Did these disorderly doings form part of
the Roman Catholic reaction that was then attracting attention? We do
not assert this. However it might be, the pastors complained to the
council, and the latter ordered an inquiry, especially against those
who went about the streets at night without their clothes. It appeared
from the inquiry that ‘those who had done so were all young, and had
intended nothing more than a freak of youthful folly.’ The council
‘remonstrated’ with the delinquents; and some women who had ‘danced to
the songs’ were put in prison for a day, and afterwards were severely
censured by the syndic. Three days later the council issued a decree
which enjoined the people ‘devoutly to listen to the Word of God on
Sundays, and to govern themselves according to it; not to swear nor
blaspheme, nor play for gold or silver;’ and forbade them ‘to go about
the town after nine o’clock without candles, to dance at any dances
except at weddings, to sing any indecent songs, to disguise themselves,
or to indulge in masks or mummeries.’
At the time when magistrates who were better disposed towards Calvin
were called to the government of the republic, a door was opened on
another side which revealed to the reformer a new world, Germany
with her doctors and her princes. Calvin was living on the banks of
the Rhine at the period when the emperor was convoking frequent and
important assemblies, which were attended by the princes either in
person or by their delegates, and in which they discussed the deepest
questions of theology with as much eagerness as diplomatists in
congress discuss the interests of their respective governments. From
the year 1535 to 1539 Protestantism had been gaining in strength; it
had made many conquests in North Germany, and appeared to be on the
point of winning the decisive victory. The Catholics were beginning to
lose heart, and the successive congresses at which they required the
Protestants to come to terms with them might well lead one to call them
a weakened army which desired only favorable conditions for lowering
its flag. Calvin watched with his keen eye this astonishing process. He
continually asserted in his letters that it was not the existence of
one Church (that of Geneva), but of all Churches, that was at stake.
There were moments when he thought that he had a glimpse of the triumph
of the Gospel in Europe; at other times he was seized with great
despondency. There was a conflict within him. His natural timidity led
him to shrink from appearing in the Germanic assemblies; but his faith
and his zeal for the kingdom of God made him long to take part in them.
[Sidenote: CONFERENCE AT FRANKFORT.]
Charles V., after making peace with Francis I., had convoked, at
Frankfort, for the month of February 1539, a conference of evangelical
and Roman Catholic theologians, who were to endeavor to find a basis
of agreement. We have not to devote our attention to all the work done
at the German assemblies which Calvin attended, but only to that which
concerns him personally. Deputies from Strasburg went to Frankfort,
but the young French doctor did not accompany them. He contented
himself with earnestly commending to Bucer the cause of the persecuted
Protestants. But shortly after, having received a letter from Bucer,
informing him that he found it was impossible for him to do anything
for his co-religionists, and hearing at the same time that Melanchthon
was present at the conferences, his spiritual earnestness overcame
the timidity of his nature. He was seized with a strong desire to go
to Frankfort and to converse with the friend of Luther on religion
and the affairs of the Church. He set out in great haste the next
day. At Frankfort he met some of the most prominent characters of the
Reformation. Here were the pious John Frederick, elector of Saxony;
young Maurice of Saxony, who was one day to prove so formidable to
Charles V.; the famous landgrave Philip of Hesse, the Duke of Luneburg,
and many other princes, whose acquaintance could not be a matter of
indifference to the young reformer. Several of these young princes were
accompanied by a great number of knights and soldiers, and all appeared
to be full of courage for the defence of the Gospel. Calvin, in long
letters to Farel, gave an account of all that he saw and thought. He
formed a most just conception of the Protestant question in Germany, of
the disposition of the princes, of the policy of Charles V., and of the
various matters under discussion. But one man was there whose society
he coveted more than that of all the princes. Calvin’s sojourn at
Frankfort is especially marked by the conversations which he had with
Melanchthon ‘on many subjects.’[773] Several of the most influential
men of the Reformation, in Switzerland and in France, were not well
informed as to the opinions of this celebrated doctor. Calvin wished
to be able to bear testimony to them with certitude. The great idea of
the French doctor was agreement between all evangelical Christians.
He was convinced that it was necessary, not only for the sake of
obedience to the commandments of Jesus Christ, but further to promote
the triumph of the evangelical cause. He wished for union, not only of
the various parties in Germany, but of Germany and Switzerland. Now
Melanchthon appeared to him the fittest man to bring about agreement
among the Protestants. No sooner had these two great doctors met and
exchanged the most kindly greetings, than Calvin opened the question.
He had communicated to Melanchthon some articles in which his view
of the supper was set forth in a way to terminate dissension. ‘There
is no room for controversy between you and me,’ said Melanchthon,
immediately; ‘I accept your articles.’[774] This was a great pleasure
to Calvin. It was however soon disturbed. ‘But,’ continued the friend
of Luther, ‘I must confess to you that we have some among us who
demand something more material, and this so obstinately, not to say so
despotically,[775] that I have found myself for a long time exposed
to danger because they know that I differ from them on this subject.
I do not believe that a solid agreement is attainable. But I desire
that we should abide by the present agreement, such as it is, until the
Lord lead us by one way or another into union in the truth.’ Calvin
perfectly satisfied, hastened to write to Farel--‘Entertain no more any
doubt about him, but consider him as holding altogether the same views
as we do.’ Farel and Calvin found in Melanchthon an important ally.
[Sidenote: CALVIN AND MELANCHTHON.]
There was another question on which Calvin desired to ascertain the
opinion of Melanchthon; it was that of discipline. On this subject he
was not fully satisfied. Hardly had he mentioned it when his companion
began, like others, says Calvin, to lament its absence in the Church.
‘Ah,’ said Calvin, ‘it is easier to mourn over the miserable state of
the Church in this respect than to change it. And meanwhile how many
examples are there which ought to animate us in seeking a remedy for
this evil! Not long ago a good and learned man, who could not take on
himself to tolerate vice, was driven from Ulm in disgrace, while his
colleagues gave him the most honorable references. The news received
from Augsburg is no better. Some day people will make a sport of
deposing their pastors and sending them into exile.’ ‘We are in the
midst of such a storm,’ said Melanchthon, ‘that we can do nothing
better than give way for a short time to adverse winds.[776] We may
hope that when external foes give us more repose, we shall be able to
apply ourselves to remedying the evils that are within.’
These conversations of Calvin and Melanchthon possessed a great
attraction for both of them. We can imagine how interesting was this
exchange of views between two of the most distinguished minds of the
age. Their speech was simple, profound, and natural. They listened
well and replied well. Calvin spoke with great freedom, although
without dogmatism. The ceremonies of worship in the Lutheran churches,
the singing in Latin, the images and other things quite as much to
be censured, were among the subjects which he had at heart. ‘I must
confess to you frankly,’ he said to Melanchthon, ‘that this superfluity
of ceremonies pains me; it seems to me that the forms which you have
kept are not far removed from Judaism.’[777] Calvin having given
his reasons, ‘I will not dispute with you on this subject,’ said
Melanchthon; ‘I own that we have among us too many of these senseless,
or at any rate certainly superfluous rites.[778] But it was necessary
to concede this to the canonists, who show themselves very obstinate
with respect to it. For the rest, there is no place in Saxony which
is less overloaded with them than Wittenberg, and even there much of
this farrago will be thrown overboard. Luther disapproves just as much
the ceremonies which he has been compelled to keep as he does your
parsimony in regard to them.’ Calvin when relating this conversation
to Farel adds, ‘Bucer cannot endure that for the sake of these paltry
outward observances we should separate from Luther; and I too believe
that they are not legitimate causes of division.’[779] From all these
conversations Calvin derived the conviction of the complete sincerity
of Melanchthon, and this he was anxious to communicate to those who
doubted it.
[Sidenote: HENRY VIII. AND MELANCHTHON.]
Henry VIII. was at this time requesting that a new embassy should
be sent to him, and that Melanchthon should be a member of it. The
princes were not inclined to intrust the mission to this doctor, as
they feared that he might, for want of firmness of character, make
imprudent concessions to the king.[780] Calvin opened his mind freely
to Melanchthon on the subject. ‘I swear most solemnly to you,’ replied
the latter, ‘that there is no ground for this fear.’ ‘I rely on him no
less than on Bucer,’ wrote Calvin to Farel. ‘When the business is to
treat with those who require to be treated with some indulgence, Bucer
is animated with so much zeal for the propagation of the Gospel that,
content with having obtained the most important things, he is perhaps
sometimes rather too ready to give up those which he looks on as very
subordinate, and which for all that have their weight.’ Further,
Calvin’s opinion of Henry VIII. was formed, and he did not conceal
it. ‘This prince,’ said he, ‘is scarcely half wise.[781] He prohibits
the marriage of priests and bishops, not only under the penalty of
deprivation of their offices, but by severe punishments besides. He
maintains the daily masses and the seven sacraments. He has thus a
mutilated Gospel, half of it torn off, and a Church still full of many
absurdities.[782] He has recently published a new edict, by which he
endeavors to keep the people from the reading of the Bible; and to
show you that it is not mere thoughtlessness, but that he takes up the
matter in earnest, he has lately had a good and wise man burnt because
he denied the carnal presence of Christ in the bread.’[783] Calvin
afterwards says, ‘The worst of it is that the king tolerates nothing
but what he has sanctioned with his own authority. Thus it will come
to pass that Christ shall profit them nothing, except the king should
be willing to permit him. The Lord will punish such arrogance by some
notable chastisement.’[784]
It was determined at Frankfort that another assembly should be held in
the course of the summer. Melanchthon, soon after his arrival in that
town, had seen in a dream a large picture in which was represented the
figure of Christ on the cross, and around him souls clothed in white.
The electors of the empire, bearing the ensigns of their dignity, were
approaching it in regular order. Next after them came an ass, covered
with a linen cope and dragging after him with a rope the emperor and
the pope, as if he were going to conduct them to that assembly of the
blessed.[785] ‘I think,’ said Myconius, who was then at Frankfort,
‘that it is the Germanic ass which the emperor and the pope have
hitherto ridden so hard and miserably treated.’ The good Melanchthon
was very much taken up with the thought of leading to Christ all the
German princes, and even the emperor and the pope; and it appears that
in his great humility he had represented himself in his dream under the
figure of an ass. Luther in his reply thinks decidedly that it was a
two-footed ass.[786] Be that as it may, the assembly at Frankfort does
not appear to have led anybody to the crucified, and especially neither
pope nor emperor. It would have taken more than one rope to draw them
thither. Calvin did not wait for the close of the colloquy to return to
Strasburg.