[218] To the Faithful Servants of Christ, the Ministers of the
Church of Montbeliard, dearest Brethren and Fellow-Ministers.
George of Wurtemberg, Count of Montbeliard, having fallen under
the disgrace of the Emperor, at the end of the war of Smalkald, in
which he had taken part in the ranks of the Protestant princes,
was stript of his Principality in 1548, and withdrew to the Canton
of Berne.--Ruchat, vol. v. p. 368. At the termination of that
revolution, the Churches of the Pays de Montbeliard were dispersed,
and their ministers, among whom was to be remarked Pierre Toussain,
were banished, and sought an asylum in the different Reformed
Cantons of Switzerland, until the period of the restoration, both
political and religious, that replaced them some years afterwards in
their native country.
Exhortations to discharge to the end their ministerial duties.
[GENEVA, _16th January 1549_.]
Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus
Christ.--Very dear brethren, deserving of my hearty reverence, what
we so long feared has at length come to pass, for Satan has, by the
aid of his ministers, overturned among you also the order of the
Church as established by God. Yet your letter was consolatory--so
far as there could be any consolation in so very sad a state of
things--for we learned from it that you were all faithful to the
last in the discharge of your duty. In denouncing, as you say you
did, those seducers who were making themselves busy in defiling the
purity of sound doctrine, you acted with a decision worthy of the
ministers of Christ. You now give a bright example of the sincerity
of your faith, in preferring even exile to perfidious dissimulation.
For when he who had hitherto given a hospitable reception within
his dominions to the Church of Christ, and had granted you full
permission to preach Christ, now deprives you of the office of
teachers, there is no use in pushing the matter farther, as we
think, especially when there is no hope of making progress, and
when the sheep, over which Christ had made you pastors, no longer
desire your services. As he is a traitor who voluntarily yields up
and deserts his post, so it is our duty, when forced, not to offer
resistance, unless perhaps we should be expressly called upon by the
Church to undergo the extremity; for it is a hundred times better
to die, than for those who were prepared to follow Christ to make
vain their vows. But your case is far different; for so long as you
were pastors, you were faithful and assiduous in your attention to
your flocks. Now when there is no use in desiring to persevere, and
when the sheep themselves, to whom your faith was pledged, do not
consider it profitable for you to proceed farther, you are certainly
free from all further obligation. It remains, therefore, for you to
commend to Christ the charges committed to you, that he alone by his
Spirit may give guidance when you have no longer any opportunity
of carrying on your labours. Henceforward we may imagine what your
sorrow must be, seeing that nothing presents itself to you but exile
and poverty. But your greatest affliction will be caused by the
misery of the Church, for whose interests you have evinced greater
regard than for your own. And we indeed are equally affected--as we
ought to be--by your public and private misfortunes. Would that we
could extend a helping hand to you! For the rest, we exhort you to
hold on to the end in this your testimony of Christian sincerity.
Your lot, however hard, will be more blessed than if you maintained
a name and a place where the Son of God was exiled. Yet we shall
soon see him so reigning in heaven, as to make his power appear
also on the earth. Meanwhile, it becomes us to be ready for the
warfare, since it is not yet the hour of triumph. Adieu, best and
most upright brethren. May the Lord Jesus Christ be with you, may he
comfort and support you in your devoted steadfastness.
Your brethren truly in the Lord, the Ministers of the Church of
Geneva.--In the name of all,