CALVIN’S RELATIONS WITH SADOLETO.
(1539.)
[Sidenote: MEETING OF PRELATES AT LYONS.]
Rome, meanwhile, was not indifferent to what was taking place at
Geneva. Between the papacy and the Reformation there were action and
reaction, which kept both in constant agitation. When once the Catholic
reaction began, not content with mere resistance, it assumed the
offensive. The partisans of the pope, still pretty numerous in Geneva,
informed the Bishop de la Baume of what occurred in the town; and he,
who like all dispossessed princes was always expecting to be restored
to his episcopal see, the sweets of which he remembered better than the
bitterness, communicated with the pope. The latter gave to La Baume
the cardinal’s hat, in the hope that this dignity might be a bait to
draw the Genevese to place themselves once more under the crook of
their bishop. Then he invited the prelates who were nearest neighbors
to Geneva to take in hand the cause of their colleague. The Bishops of
Lyons, Besançon, Lausanne, Vienne, Turin, Langres and Carpentras, met
the Bishop of Geneva in the first of these towns. ‘The flock,’ they
said, ‘being now deprived of its pastors, men so eminent, we must seize
the opportunity to rescue it from the Reformation.’[787] Many Genevese
Catholics had emigrated to Lyons, and they spared no pains to bring
about the restoration of the prelate. Pierre de la Baume asked of his
colleagues ‘the recovery of his diocese.’ The Cardinal of Tournon,
the notorious persecutor of the Vaudois, and the introducer of the
Jesuits into France, who was at this time archbishop of Lyons, was
president of the meeting. He had thus an opportunity of satisfying his
inextinguishable passion against the _Calvinists_. Jean Philippe, chief
author of the banishment of Calvin, met with Tournon in the church
at Lyons, and carried on intrigues with him.[788] The affair might
perhaps have had a violent ending, but that a man was there present of
a different stamp from the archbishop. This was Cardinal Sadoleto, who,
as bishop Carpentras, a town in Dauphiné bordering on Savoy, seemed by
his neighboring position bound to concern himself more particularly
with Geneva. He was connected with Bembo, secretary to Leo X., was a
great lover of the classics, of philosophy and the arts, and was a man
of great eloquence, says Beza, but used it for extinguishing the true
light.[789] He very much regretted that the Reformation appeared to be
taking precedence of the Renaissance. He was, however, of more liberal
mind than adherents of the pope usually were. He loved Melanchthon. He
thought that it was not right to address the Genevese in the imperious
tone of a master, with dogmatic arguments of the school, or with the
intolerance of inquisitors, but rather in a polite style. Sadoleto was
therefore instructed to write a letter to the Genevese in which he was
to invite them mildly to return to the bosom of the Church. That the
contrivances and efforts of the pope, of the Bishop de la Baume, of the
Cardinal of Tournon and his colleagues, should issue only in a letter,
was rather a feeble conclusion.
Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
[Sidenote: LETTER OF SADOLETO TO GENEVA.]
But they probably saw that they were powerless to do more. The
cardinal-bishop hoped to gain over the Genevese ‘by wheedling them with
fine words to turn them away from Jesus Christ,’ says a contemporary,
‘and by blaming the ministers of whom God had made use for reforming
the town.’[790] On March 26 his messenger, Jean Durand, of Carpentras,
was admitted into the hall of the council, and delivered the missive
addressed by his bishop to his _well-beloved brethren_ the syndics,
councils, and citizens of Geneva. There was not a word about the
conference at Lyons. ‘It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to me
to write to you. The reason is that while at Carpentras I have heard
reports concerning you which partly make me sad and partly give me
hope.’ Knowing how seductive flattery is, he writes the most beautiful
eulogy of Geneva. ‘I love the noble aspect of your town, the order and
form of your republic, the excellence of the citizens, and, above all,
the exquisite humanity which you display towards all foreign people
and nations.’ But by the side of this flattering picture he hastens
to place a portrait not so pleasing of the reformers. ‘Certain crafty
men, enemies of Christian union and peace, have cast into your town
the seeds of discord. I hear on one side the weeping, sighing, and
groaning of our holy Church. On the other side I perceive that these
innovators are not only pestilential to souls, but also pernicious in
a high degree to public and private affairs.’ Next he himself makes an
almost evangelical profession. He exalts the Word of God which, says
he, ‘does not entangle minds in difficult processes of reasoning; but,
a heavenly affection of the heart coming to its aid, offers itself with
clearness to our understandings.’ He exalts the work of Christ, ‘who
was willing to be our salvation, by suffering death in the flesh and
afterwards resuming an immortal life.’ He even exalts justification by
faith, _faith alone_, which all Roman controversialists curse. ‘This
everlasting salvation comes to us,’ said he, ‘by faith alone in God
and in Jesus Christ. When I say _by faith alone_, I do not mean that
charity and the duty of a Christian are dispensed with.’ Sadoleto was
undoubtedly sincere in these professions. He belonged, as is known,
to a small body of men feebly inclined towards the Gospel, who were
at that time supported by the papacy in the hope that they would be
the means of bringing back the Protestants. But he must have known
well that the doctrine of the reformers, far from dispensing with duty
and charity, asserted them, made them possible, and at the same time
necessary.
Having thus gained his hearers, as he thought, the cardinal-bishop
began the contest. ‘The loss of the soul,’ said he, ‘being the greatest
ill possible to a man, our duty is, to the utmost of our power, to
take care. Amidst the waves of our life we are in need of some means
of escape from striking on the rocks and losing the vessel. This is
what the Catholic Church has provided for fifteen hundred years; while
these crafty men only began their innovations against the perpetual
authority of the Church five-and-twenty years ago.’ Then follows a fine
rhetorical burst which lacks nothing but truth and solidity. ‘Here is
the point,’ said he; ‘here is the parting of the ways, the one road
leading unto life, the other unto everlasting death. Every man arrives
by his own road before the judgment-seat of the supreme Judge, Catholic
and Protestant alike, there to have his cause investigated.’
The Catholics get off wonderfully, but when the turn of the
Evangelicals comes it is quite otherwise with them. Sadoleto takes good
care not to let the simple faithful ones appear, and brings before
the tribunal only ‘one of the promoters of these divisions.’ He does
not name either Luther or Calvin, but it is evident that it is one of
them that he brings on the scene, probably the latter. Having leave to
speak, the reformer begins thus: ‘O sovereign God! when I considered
how all but universally corrupt are the morals of ecclesiastics, I was
justly moved to anger against them; and when I thought also how much
time I had spent in the study of theology and of human science, and
that nevertheless I had not attained in the Church the rank which my
labors deserved, while other men, my inferiors, were raised to honors
and to benefices, I induced the greater part of the people to despise
the decrees of the Church. I asserted that the bishops of Rome had
falsely usurped the title of vicars of Christ; and having by this
reputation of learning and wisdom obtained renown among the nations, I
caused many seditions and divisions in the Church.’
[Sidenote: CONCLUSION OF THE LETTER.]
Sadoleto having made the reformer speak in this fashion, again
addresses the men of Geneva, and says to them, ‘How will it turn
out, then, brethren, whom I wish to be united with me?’ The result
of this double appearance is inevitable, and the promoter of all
this evil, ‘taking his stand upon his works, holding in contempt the
general assemblies of bishops, dismembering the one spouse of Christ,
and tearing to pieces the Lord’s robe, can only weep for ever over
his misery, gnashing his teeth even at himself.’ Consequently, the
cardinal-bishop exhorts his brethren of Geneva, after having removed
all the mists of error, to abide in union with our holy mother
Church.[791]
The reasoning of Sadoleto failed in its basis. He had confounded the
Reformation of the sixteenth century with the so-called reforms of the
preceding centuries. Those attempts, numerous enough, aimed at the
morals of the clergy and the abuses of the Church without attacking
the doctrine, and they miscarried. But the true Reformation directed
its efforts against the false doctrines of Rome, in order to put the
doctrine of the Gospel in its place. ‘It took the bull by the horns,’
as Luther says, and had him down. Liberal Catholics have imagined, that
if from the first such a course as Sadoleto’s had been adopted, the
course of the Reformation would have been entirely different.[792] But
they are mistaken, as the Bishop of Carpentras was, who, aiming his
blows at an enemy in the air, hit nothing but the air.
The council having heard the letter, very gladly accepted the
compliments paid to Geneva, sincerely thanked the cardinal’s messenger,
and charged him to say that a full reply should be sent in due
course. This was necessary, for the partisans of the pope in Geneva
praised the cardinal’s letter to the skies, and eagerly circulated
it in all directions. But there was no one able to answer it. The
pastors established by the government were not strong enough to
venture a struggle with Sadoleto. Morand himself, who was requested
by the council to undertake it, was incompetent. All those who in any
degree adhered to the Reformation were in a state of alarm, for they
understood that silence in this state of things would inevitably be a
great calamity to Geneva.[793]
It was on March 26 that the letter in which Sadoleto urged the Genevese
to forsake the Reformation had been delivered to the council, and on
the 27th this body resolved to reply to it in due time and place. On
the 28th several citizens appeared before the council; one of them,
François Chamois, demanding on their behalf that the confession of
faith of the Reformation which had been sworn at St. Peter’s, July 29,
1537, should be withdrawn from the possession of the former official
secretary, as contrary to their liberties; and that they themselves
should be released from the oath which they had taken to that
confession.[794] There is so intimate and evident a relation between
the proposal of Sadoleto and this proceeding of the citizens, the one
so punctually followed upon the other, that it is very difficult not
to suppose that the letter of the bishop had much to do in promoting
the requisition of Chamois and his friends. The audience given by the
council to the deputy of a cardinal, and the proposal of which he was
the bearer, were a matter so considerable and of such exciting interest
that the rumor of it could not fail to spread immediately in this town,
where people so habitually used to say, ‘What is the news? What is
talked of? What is going on?’
[Sidenote: IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES.]
Among the citizens who accompanied Chamois there might be some who
did not belong to the Catholic party, and who merely took advantage
of the opportunity for getting rid of a confession of faith which
was burdensome to them. But it is not to be wondered at that some
Roman writers have looked on the demand of Chamois as the consequence
of the letter of Sadoleto. Michael Rozet, the son of Claude, says,
not undesignedly, in his Chronicles, that it was one day after the
reception at Geneva of the cardinal’s despatch, that the citizens
_protested_ against the articles. He even adds, ‘There was warning
from neighbors of a body of armed men in preparation by the enemy,
and that these had an understanding with a party in the town.’ This
measure was not unsuccessful. Claude Rozet had received the oaths of
the citizens on July 29, and in his hands the original of the famous
articles was still deposited. The council gave him orders to deliver
them up. However grave a step this might be, it cannot be said that
the faith was given up with the articles of faith. Many had never held
this faith, and those who had held it, held it still. Nevertheless, the
surrender of the fundamental document of the evangelical reformation
was certainly an important step towards Rome.[795]
It was soon apparent what was to be thought of the _Christian charity,
and the affection touched with double pity and compassion_, of which
Sadoleto had given assurance. In the very month which followed the
delivery of his letter, an eminent Genevese, Curtet, castellan of
Chaumont on the Mount du Vuache, went to Annecy, which was not far
distant; and during his stay, April 17, in his hostelry, talked with
the country people of God and his Gospel.[796] Among those present was
Montchenu, who, annoyed at having failed in his scheme for giving up
Geneva to Francis I., continued to feel much bitterness about it; and,
quite as much out of pique as from hatred of the Reformation, denounced
the Genevese citizen and inflamed the clergy against him. Curtet was
seized and burnt alive.
Another Genevese, Jean Lambert, brother of the councillor, had been
for some time a prisoner in Savoy, on a like charge. A week after the
execution of Curtet, the public place of Chambery was filled with
such a crowd as always runs after the terrible spectacle of a violent
death. Lambert was brought there about three o’clock. He was a ruddy
and strong young man, and they led him up and down to show him to
the people. ‘This is one of the bigots of Geneva,’ people said as he
passed, with other speeches of the like kind. He was taken to the front
of the castle, where a pile was erected. The provost wanted him to make
some confession, but Lambert did not open his mouth. ‘Slit his tongue
if he will not speak,’ barbarously cried the enraged provost to the
executioner. The priests who stood round their victim would fain have
compelled him to recite the _Ave Maria_, but the martyr refused to do
it. Then addressing the Father who is in heaven, he uttered aloud the
Lord’s prayer. This provoked the priests and the monks, who cried to
the spectators, ‘Do not pray for this cursed dog, for he is damned to
all the devils.’ ‘Lambert died,’ says one of the narratives, ‘for his
faith in God and without any trial.’ If the words of Sadoleto were
tender, the deeds of his fellow religionists were harsh.[797]
[Sidenote: CALVIN’S REPLY TO SADOLETO.]
The letter of the Bishop of Carpentras could not remain unknown to
Calvin; in fact it was communicated to him in April by Sulzer, a pastor
of Berne. The reformer read it, and his first impulse was to consider
whether it was worth while to reply to it. But apprehending the evil
which the letter might bring on Geneva, ‘forgetting all the wrongs that
he had received,’[798] and yielding to the entreaties of his Strasburg
friends, he undertook the task. ‘It will occupy me for six days,’ he
wrote to Farel. Calvin’s letter bears date September 1, 1539.[799] It
is an important document, both for the light which it throws on the
character and the work of Calvin, and because it is necessary to know
in what manner the blow then struck by Rome at the Reformation was
parried. This letter, we may say, was the mighty voice which led back
Geneva to the true Gospel.[800] Two feelings are conspicuous in it with
regard to Sadoleto. Calvin, in addressing one of the most distinguished
and most enlightened men in the Catholic Church, will speak to him with
respect and even with praise, but at the same time he will not hide
from him the indignation aroused by his attacks.
‘Thy surpassing learning,’ says he in beginning his letter, ‘thine
admirable elegance of speech, have deservedly caused thee to be held in
high esteem and admiration by the true votaries of polite literature,
and it is exceedingly painful to me to be obliged by this complaint to
sully thy fair renown. I should never have undertaken the task if I had
not been compelled to do so.... No one can suppose that I could have
abandoned the cause without great cowardice and contempt of my ministry.
‘Thou hast very recently written a letter to the council and people of
Geneva, and having no wish to display harshness towards those of whom
thou hadst need in order to gain thy cause, thou hast attempted by soft
words to circumvent them. Next, thou hast come up impetuously, and
so to speak, at full speed to discharge thy force against those who,
according to thy saying, have involved that poor town in trouble by
their sophistries. I would have thee know, Sadoleto, that I am one of
those against whom thou speakest; and although I am at the present time
relieved of the administration of the Genevese Church, this does not
prevent my cherishing towards it a fatherly love.
‘But for thyself, Sadoleto, a foreigner, who hast hitherto had no
acquaintance at all with the people of Geneva, thou professest on
a sudden to feel for them singular love and goodwill, of which,
nevertheless, no fruit ever appeared. Thou who didst serve thine
apprenticeship at the Court of Rome, that shop of all artifice and
cunning, who wert not only brought up as it were in the arms of Pope
Clement, but what is more, made a cardinal, thou hast certainly many
spots which render thee suspected. The duty of pastors is to lead
obedient souls straight to Christ; but thy chief aim is to deliver them
over to the power of the pope.
‘With a view to cast suspicion on us thou taxest us, unjustly (for thou
well knowest the contrary), with having wished only to gratify our
ambition and avarice. Certain it is that if I had paid regard to my
personal advantage, I should never have separated from your faction.
And who would dare to cast such charges at Farel, who, born of a
noble house, had no need to ask assistance from others? Was not our
shortest way of attaining to wealth and honors to accept from the first
the conditions which you have offered us? For what price would your
pope then have purchased the silence of many, and for how much would
he still purchase it to-day? Did we not require that, after having
assigned to the ministers so much as was fitting for their condition,
the wealth of the Church, swallowed up by those gulfs, should be
distributed to the poor as in the primitive Church? Our only thought
has been the extension of the kingdom of God by means of our littleness
and lowliness; and to attempt to persuade men of the contrary is a
thing most unbecoming to Sadoleto, a man of such high reputation for
knowledge, prudence, and seriousness.
[Sidenote: CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY.]
‘The men of Geneva, extricating themselves from the slough of error in
which they were sunk, have returned to the doctrine of the Gospel, and
this thou callest abandoning the truth of God! They have retired from
papal subjection and tyranny in order to have a better ecclesiastical
government, and this, sayest thou, is a real separation from the
Church! Surely, Sadoleto, I shall stop thee on the way. Where is, on
your side, the Word of God, which is the mark of the true Church? If
a man belongs to God’s army he must be prepared for the battle. See,
the enemy is quite near; he approaches, he fights, and he is indeed an
enemy so well-conditioned that no earthly power can resist him. What
armor will this poor Christian be able to put on, to save him from
being overwhelmed? It is the Word of God. The soul deprived of the Word
of God is delivered over to the devil, quite defenceless, to be slain.
The first attempt of the enemy, therefore, will be to take from the
combatant the sword of Jesus Christ. The pope, like the “illuminés,”
arrogantly boasts of possessing the Spirit. But it is to insult the
Holy Spirit to separate him from the Word.
‘We are more nearly in agreement with antiquity than you our opponents,
as thou knowest, Sadoleto, and we ask for nothing else than to see
restored that ancient face of the Church which has been torn to pieces
and almost destroyed by the pope and his faction. And, not to speak
of the condition of the Church as constituted by the apostles (which,
however, we are bound to accept), consider what it was among the Greeks
in the days of Chrysostom and Basil, and among the Latins in the days
of Cyprian, Ambrose, and Augustin, and afterwards contemplate the
ruins which are all that now remain to you. Thou wilt find as much
difference between the two as between the Church as it flourished under
David, and the Church as fallen into all kinds of superstitions under
Zedekiah. Wilt thou call that man an enemy of antiquity, who, full
of zeal for ancient piety, longs to restore in their first splendor
the things which are now corrupted? With what right are we accused of
having subverted the ancient discipline, by the very party that has
abolished them?
‘Dost thou not recollect that at the time when our people began to
appear, nothing was taught in the schools but pure sophistries, so
tangled and twisted that scholastic theology might well be called a
kind of secret magic? There were no sermons from which foolish old
women did not learn more dreams than they could relate in a month by
their own fireside. The first portion was devoted to obscure questions
of the schools, to excite the wonder of the poor people, and the
second portion to merry tales or amusing speculations, to rouse their
hearts to mirth. But no sooner had our preachers raised their banner
than the shadows were dispersed, and your preachers, taught by them
and compelled by shame and the murmurs of the people, were obliged to
follow their example, although they have still traces of these old
follies.
‘Thou touchest on justification by faith. But this article, which
stands supreme in our religion, has been effaced by you from the memory
of men. Thou allegest that we take no account of good works. If thou
lookest into my catechism, at the first word thou wilt be silent as
if overcome. We deny, it is true, that they are of any avail in the
justification of man, not even so much as a hair, for the Scripture
gives us no hope except in the goodness of God alone. But while we deny
the virtue of works in the justification of man, we attribute worth
to them in the life of the just, for Christ came to create _a people
zealous of good works_.’
We pass over the beautiful passages in which Calvin speaks of the
supper, confession, the invocation of saints, purgatory, the ministry,
and the Church, and we come to the moment at which he remembers that
Sadoleto had cited him and his brethren ‘as criminals before the
judgment-seat of God.’ He accepts that summons.
[Sidenote: CALVIN’S DEFENCE.]
‘We prick up our ears,’ said he, ‘at this sound of the trumpet which
the very ashes of the dead will hear in the depths of their graves.’
And then, not only in his own name but in that of all the reformers,
Calvin says to God:--
‘I have ever appealed to thy tribunal, Lord, from the accusations
with which I have been harassed on the earth, and it is with the same
confidence that I now appear before thee, knowing that in thy judgments
truth prevails. They have accused me of very grievous crimes and of
heresy. But in the first place, what have I done? Seeing that, with
no regard to thy Word, they abused the common people, and made a mock
at them by I know not what sort of drivelling, I dared to contradict
their constitutions. Thy Christ was indeed adored as God, but he was
virtually without honor; for deprived of his virtue and of his power,
he was lost sight of in the crowd of saints, as if merely one of the
common mass. There were none who rested in his righteousness alone; and
if any one, enjoying thy loving kindness and the righteousness of thy
Son, conceived a sure hope of salvation, this was, they said, rash
presumption and foolish arrogance. Then, O Lord, thou didst set before
me thy Word, like a torch, to make me know how pernicious these things
are; and thou hast touched my heart, to the end that I may hold them in
abhorrence.
‘They have accused me of schism. But is that man to be reputed a
traitor who, when he sees the soldiers quitting the ranks, forgetting
their captain, the battle, and the oath which they have taken,
scattered, wandering to and fro, raises the standard, calls them back,
and sets them again in order? To recall them from such wanderings I
have not given to the wind a strange flag, but that noble standard
which it is necessary we should follow, if we would be enrolled in the
number of thy people. But those whose duty it was to keep the soldiers
in good order and who have on the contrary cast them into error, have
laid hands on me, and the conflict has been so furious as to break up
union. But on which side is the fault? It is for thee, Lord, now to say
and to decide.
‘If I had desired to maintain peace with those who boast of being
the foremost in the Church, I could have purchased it only by the
renunciation of the truth. I have felt it my duty to risk all the
dangers of the world rather than stoop to a compact so abominable.
But I do not think that by being at war with those great ones I am at
variance with thy Church. Thy Son, and thine apostles, had foretold
that there would be ravening wolves even amongst those who gave
themselves out for pastors. Was I bound then to give them my hand? The
prophets were not schismatics by reason of their contending against the
priests. For my part, confirmed by their example, I have so persisted
in my course that neither their threats nor their denunciations have in
the least degree amazed me.
‘Commotions have followed; but as they were not caused by me, they
ought not to be imputed to me. Thou knowest well, Lord, that I have had
no other object in view except this, that by thy Word all controversy
might be terminated. Thou knowest that I have not objected, even at the
peril of my life, that peace should be restored in the Church. But what
did our adversaries do? Did they not run off suddenly and furiously to
the fire, to the gallows, to the sword? Did they not stir up people of
all ranks to the same rage?... Hence it has come to pass that such a
war has been kindled. And whatever may be thought, I am freed from all
fear, since we are before thy judgment-seat where justice and truth
meet together.’
[Sidenote: HIS FIRST FAITH.]
At this point Calvin narrates his conversion. It is an important part
of his defence, and we cannot omit it. He still addresses the Supreme
Judge:--
‘As for me,[801] Lord, I confessed the Christian faith as I had learnt
it from my youth.
‘At that time there were but few people to whom was committed the
pursuit of that divine and secret philosophy, and it was with them
that the oracles had to be sought. But they had not instructed me
well respecting either the adoration of thy divinity, or an assured
hope of salvation, or the obligation of a Christian life. To obtain
thy mercy they showed no other means than making satisfaction for our
sins, and blotting out thy remembrance of them by our good works. They
said that thou wast a rigorous judge, severely avenging iniquity; they
pointed out how terrible thy look must be, and commanded us to address
the saints, to the end that through their intercession thou mightest
be made propitious to us. But when I had done all these things, and
although to some extent I relied on them, I was very far from having a
quiet and trustful conscience. Every time that I descended into myself,
or lifted up my heart to thee, a horror so extreme seized upon me that
there were neither purifications nor satisfactions that could heal me.
The more closely I considered my case, the sharper became the stings
with which my conscience was tormented: there was neither solace nor
comfort left me.
‘As nothing better was offered me, I pursued the course which I had
begun, when there arose an entirely different form of doctrine, not
intended to turn us away from the Christian profession, but to trace
it back to its real source, and to restore it in its purity, cleansed
from all defilement. Offended with this novelty, I would not listen
to it; and I confess that at the outset I did courageously resist it.
One thing especially kept me from believing those people; this was
reverence for the Church.
‘But after I had consented sometimes to be instructed, I perceived that
the fear of seeing the majesty of the Church lessened was idle. These
people showed that there was a wide difference between forsaking the
Church and correcting the vices with which she was defiled; and that
if they spoke freely against the Pope of Rome, held to be the vicar of
Christ and head of the Church, they did so because these titles were
only idle terrors which ought not to dazzle the eyes of the faithful;
that the pope had risen to such magnificence only when ignorance
oppressed the world like deep sleep; that it was by his own authority
and sole will that he had elected himself, and that we were under no
obligation to endure the tyranny with which he oppressed the nations,
if we desired that the kingdom of Christ should remain in its fulness
amongst us; that when this principality was erected, the genuine order
of the Church was wholly lost, the keys (ecclesiastical order) wickedly
falsified, Christian liberty suppressed, and the kingdom of Christ
totally overthrown.
‘When I began to discover in what a slough of errors I had wallowed
and with how many stains I was disgraced, desperately alarmed and
distracted at the sight of the misery into which I had fallen, and
by the knowledge of the eternal death which was at hand, I condemned
with tears and groans my former way of life, and esteemed nothing more
needful for me than to betake myself to thine. What then is left for
me to do, for me poor and miserable, but to offer to thee, as all my
vindication, a humble supplication not to impute to me the so horrible
forsaking and estrangement from thy Word, from which thou hast once
rescued me by thy marvellous kindness?’
[Sidenote: THE REAL SCHISMATICS.]
Having finished his pleading before the Judge, Calvin returns to
Sadoleto and says: ‘Now, if it seem good to thee, compare this address
with that which thou hast put into the mouth of thy man, whose defence
turns only on this hinge, to wit, that he constantly kept the religion
which had been handed down to him by his forefathers and predecessors.
His salvation is in great peril, without a shadow of doubt; for on the
same ground Jews, Turks, and Saracens would escape the judgment of God.
The tribunal will not then be prepared to accept the authority of men,
but to maintain the truth of God. Your doctors will not then have a
stage at hand for the sale, without risk, of their imitation gems, and
for the abuse of consciences by their trumpery and inventions. They
will remain what they are, and they will fall by the judgment of God,
which depends not on popular favor, but on his unchangeable justice.
‘Although thou treatest us with too little humanity in the whole of thy
letter, it is nevertheless in the last clause, in the plainest terms,
that thou imputest to us the most enormous of all crimes, to wit, _that
we disperse and tear to pieces the spouse of Jesus Christ_. What! would
the spouse of Jesus Christ be torn in pieces by those who desire to
present her as a chaste virgin to Christ, and who, finding her polluted
with many stains, recall her to her plighted faith? Was not the purity
of the Church destroyed by strange doctrines, disgraced by innumerable
superstitions, tainted by the worship of images? Indeed, because we did
not endure that the sacred resting place and nuptial chamber of Christ
should be thus defiled by you, we are accused of having dismembered
his spouse. It is you that have been guilty of this laceration, and
not with regard to the Church only, but with regard to Jesus Christ
himself, whom you have miserably cut in pieces. Where is the wholeness
of Christ, when the glory of his righteousness, of his holiness, of his
wisdom, is transferred to others?
‘I acknowledge that since the Gospel has appeared anew, great conflicts
have been occasioned. But it is not at our door that the guilt of this
is to be laid. We ask for a peace with which the kingdom of Christ
shall flourish; but you judge that all that is gained for Christ is
lost to you. Pray the Lord, Sadoleto, that thou and thy people may once
for all understand that there is no other bond in the church but Christ
our Lord, who withdraws us from the dissipations of the world to place
us in the society of his body, to the end that by his only Word and by
his Spirit, we may be united in one heart and one thought!
‘Strasburg, the 1st day of September, 1539.’
This letter found its way wherever the great question of the age was
discussed, and made a deep impression. There were in it an impulse, a
strength, a freedom, and a life which people were not accustomed to
find in the writings of the Roman doctors. Luther greatly rejoiced in
it, and soon after its publication sent a ‘respectful’ greeting to
Calvin. At the same time, struck by the Romish presumption of Sadoleto,
he added, with a touch of malice, ‘I wish that Sadoleto could believe
that God is the Creator of men even beyond the borders of Italy.’[802]
He expressed his joy that God raised up men like Calvin, and, far from
looking on him as an antagonist, he saw in him a doctor who would
continue what he had himself begun against Antichrist, and with God’s
help would complete it.
[Sidenote: EFFECT OF THE REPLY AT GENEVA.]
But it was especially at Geneva that Calvin’s letter made a deep
impression. The respect which he had shown to Sadoleto prepossessed
people in his favor; and the eloquence of his discourse, that gift
of the soul which he possessed, made him master of men’s minds. In
his thought and in his expressions there was a close correspondence
with the disposition of a large number of his readers. Moreover, it
was impossible to read the two letters without seeing that the young
evangelical doctor had beaten the Roman cardinal. And then, was not the
cause in behalf of which Calvin had given battle that of Geneva? Was
not the defeat of Sadoleto, and thereby also that of his constituents,
the pope and the conference of Lyons, the greatest service that could
be rendered to the republic? And finally had not this man whom they had
driven away spoken of the town which had expelled him with fatherly
love? Did he not say in his letter, ‘I cannot divert my attention from
the Church of Geneva; I cannot love it less nor hold it less dear than
my own soul.... Consider what folly it would be not to lay to heart the
ruin of those for whose protection I am bound to watch day and night.’
Sadoleto could not conceal from himself the force of the blow which he
had received, nor did he venture to reply. The general himself being
beaten, the staff dispersed. There was nothing more said about the
conference of Lyons, and the Bishop de la Baume was not long before he
disappeared from the scenes of this world. At the same time that Calvin
replied to Sadoleto, he wrote to Neuchâtel, Lausanne, and Geneva. He
called the inhabitants of the latter town to repentance towards God, to
patient bearing with the wicked, and to peace with their pastors; and
above all he exhorted them to call upon God.[803] Geneva was confirmed
in her love for a cause which had been so well defended against the
attacks of one of the most distinguished orators of the age, and the
gates of the city, lately closed against the reformer, began to open
again.
Calvin had at this time to do with another Catholic doctor of much
less worth than Sadoleto, Caroli. This man is not worth the trouble of
dwelling long on anything that concerns him. As he had not succeeded
in gaining the good graces of the pope or of the Cardinal Tournon,
he made one more change and turned anew towards the reformers. Farel
received him with much kindness, believed in his promises and made
peace with him. Caroli came to Strasburg. Bucer, as kind by nature
as Farel, nevertheless requested Calvin to make known all the faults
of the adventurer. This the reformer declined to do, believing that
it would have no good result; but he invited the haughty doctor to
confess cordially and sincerely that he had sinned. Instead of this a
writing was handed to Calvin in which Caroli said, ‘that he left to
the judgment of the Lord the offences which had been committed against
himself, and which had induced him to quit the Evangelical Church.’
The reformer was indignant. ‘This stirred my bile so much,’ said he,
‘that I discharged it with bitterness. I declared that I would sooner
die than sign such a paper as that.’ He yielded, however, a little
to his friends, and said that he would consider the matter with more
care before giving a decisive answer. Hardly had he returned to his
own house when he was seized with an extraordinary paroxysm. ‘I could
find no consolation,’ said he to Farel, ‘but in sighs and tears; and
what afflicted me most was the circumstance that you were the cause
of all this mischief. You ought not to have received him anew into
our communion until he solemnly confessed his offence and declared
that he repented of it. But now that you have received him, prevent
at least your people from insulting him.’[804] Ere long, however,
Calvin’s friends at Strasburg and Farel himself acknowledged that
they had been too indulgent. Caroli, finding that the churches of
Neuchâtel and Strasburg refused to comply with the requests that he
addressed to them, retired to Metz. From that place he wrote to Calvin
a letter in which he offered to be reconciled with him if he would get
a benefice for him. He seemed to wish to overawe him by reproaches and
idle bravado. Calvin asked him how it came to pass that he had made a
boast before the adversaries of Christ at Metz that he was prepared to
convict of heresy the reformer and his friends. He added that he was
not able to procure for him the church which he asked for, in the first
place because he had none at his disposal, and further because he could
not do so while they were not in agreement about doctrines. ‘Turn you
seriously to the Lord,’ he said to him, ‘and then you will be able to
return to us with that friendship and brotherly concord which Farel and
I are prepared, in that case, to show you.’ Caroli did not adopt this
friendly council. He returned to Rome, and died in a hospital there of
want and, it is said, of foul diseases.[805]