The Vaudois of Provence--appeal addressed to Mathurin
Cordier--the Reformation at Paris and Lyons.
[GENEVA, _December 1541_.]
We detained this messenger here with us to-day, unwilling to let
him away until we had communicated the letter to Viret. I would
not have hesitated to have done so this morning. In the meantime a
letter is brought to us which ought long ago to have been delivered.
This was the reason why the messenger went from hence after dinner,
for Viret was not then at home, and did not return until a little
before sermon. In what regards the business of the brethren,[320]
the king's party and the Episcopals are contending with one another
about the division of the spoil, as if the beast were already slain.
When this booty shall have been adjudged to one or other of them,
he will immediately seize the possession of it unless opposed. The
procurators of the brethren may indeed interfere, and thus suspend
procedure in the cause until the Bernese have time to write a
memorial to the King. The letter would perhaps have more weight if
there should be some likelihood of war breaking out. But if there
is no reason to expect such an occurrence, or if there is risk of
danger from delay, we must see to it, that the Bernese themselves
defend the concessions they have been the means of obtaining for
your brethren. For it is of the greatest consequence to themselves
not to allow the privilege, which the King has granted to them,
thus to be extinguished. The prayer of their petition will easily
be obtained for them, and if the letter be written urgently, which
Giron will willingly do, the King will be ashamed not to perform
what he has always promised them. It will, however, be safer to
despatch a messenger, or to recommend the letter in such a way to
the care of the ambassador, that they may get an answer. And if
you think it expedient that I add my letter to his sister,[321]
you have only to mention it. As to the old man who at present
lives with Cordier, we can venture to undertake for nothing, until
Cordier himself has informed us what we ought to expect from him.
For the better establishment of our school is put off until his
arrival. If he is of a mind to aid us, and is of opinion that the
old man will be a suitable assistant, let him be sent at once; I
shall willingly lodge and board him with myself, until he shall have
got a situation; indeed I do not grudge the expense of a month, or
even two. But if Cordier has changed his mind, frightened by my
last letter, I dare scarce promise anything certain to the good old
man, until we shall have arranged with our leading men. Although,
as I have already said, I shall willingly sustain the charge for
one month or two. But I entreat of you, my dear Farel, do not
suffer Cordier to refuse this appointment which is offered him.
For, indeed, there is otherwise no hope of establishing the school,
unless, regardless of his own interest, he will serve the Lord
here.[322]
[320] Persecuted with equal animosity by the fanatical bigotry of
the courtiers and of the priesthood, the Waldenses had appointed
two procurators, Francis Chaix and William Armand, charged with
the duty of justifying their innocence at the Court of France; but
these agents could not even obtain from their judges a copy of
the process which had been instituted against the inhabitants of
Cabrières and Merindol, condemned by an iniquitous tribunal without
ever having been heard in defence; and it required no less than
royal intervention to compel the Parliament of Aix to give a copy of
the acts and procedure of the whole process. The two prelates, the
Bishop of Cavaillon and the Archbishop of Arles, were among the most
violent opponents of the Waldenses.--Bèze, _Hist. Eccl._ tom. i. p.
39.
[321] Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre.
[322] Mathurin Cordier left Neuchatel a few years afterwards, to
become Regent of the College of Lausanne. It was in 1557 that, at
the request of Calvin, his old pupil, he took upon him the office of
Principal of the College of Geneva. See the interesting notice of
Mathurin Cordier, by M. Professor Betant. Geneva, 1848.
We have no news from those of Metz. They say that there are some
good preachers at Paris. I am unwilling that you should exult too
much for joy, or rather for gladness, on that account. I wish what
is said may be true, but scarcely believe the half of what I hear;
nor do the letters of friends there commend to such an extent the
present state of matters. There is at least one piece of good news,
that Dolet[323] of Lyons is now printing the Psalter; presently he
will begin the Bible, and is to follow with the version of Olivetan.
Let them tell us after that, that Satan is not God's minister! I was
so overpowered by the sad intelligence of the death of Capito,[324]
that since that time I have neither been well in body nor in mind.
When this letter reaches you, if I am not mistaken, yours will
be upon the road, in which you will give us hope of your arrival.
Adieu; salute all the brethren.
JOHN CALVIN, in name of Viret and my own.
[_Lat. orig. autogr._--_Library of Geneva._ Vol. 106.]
[323] Stephen Dolet, the celebrated printer of Lyons. He published
learned writings concerning antiquity; drew upon himself much
enmity by the boldness of his opinions, and perished at the stake
in 1544, equally suspected on both sides. He had published a work
on the reading of the Bible in the vernacular dialect, which has
given occasion to consider him as one of the martyrs of the Reformed
Church.--See Bayle, _Dict. Hist._, Art. Dolet.
[324] Capito had died of the plague at Strasbourg, in the month
of November, as we learn from a letter of Calvin to Farel:--"When
this worthy brother had brought word that our excellent father,
and of holy memory, Capito, had been taken away from us, and that
Bucer, besides, was suffering from the plague, I was so affected
both in mind and spirit, that I could do nought but lament and
bewail."--Letter of 29th November 1541; _Calv. Opera_, tom. ix. p.
19. Endowed with the wisest and most conciliatory spirit, Capito
left a great void in the Church at Strasbourg; "happy at least,"
says Beza, "to have been called away from this life before having
witnessed the ruin of that Church. He did not share the exile of his
beloved colleagues, Bucer and Fagius, but went before to the abode
and dwelling-place of the heavenlies."--Theodori Bezæ, _Icones_. The
decease of Capito excited a general mourning; his loss was equally
deplored by the Reformers of Germany and of Switzerland.--Melchior
Adam, _Vitæ Theologorum Germanorum_.