I am still waiting to hear what has been done at Berne, what has
been said to the Deans, what sort of a reply they made, and what
they found they could not obtain. Whenever a trustworthy messenger
arrives among us, I will explain my meaning more fully. For the
present, I send you a formula, from which you can extract what you
please, or strike out what you do not like; and yet, peradventure
the Lord will vouchsafe something better, so that it may be
unnecessary either to correct or to approve what I now propose to
you.
Our friends both shame and grieve me, Viret, when the truth of God
is overborne by either the hatred or the favour of men.[365] I
express myself in this way, because Gering[366] speaks in such terms
as if the hypothesis of Erasmus[367] were, after all, the best;
the others speak nought but falsehood. I can clearly perceive how
greatly rumours of this kind endanger sound doctrine, and therefore,
that I may keep a clean conscience, I have determined openly,
without dissimulation or concealment, to declare my sentiments.
[365] The Seigneury of Berne, jealous of the authority which they
claimed the right to exercise in ecclesiastical as well as in civil
affairs, and looking on every attempt of the ministers to maintain
the dignity of their office as a direct infringement on their power,
began to introduce the system of despotism in Church matters, which
had met at first but slight resistance in the Pays de Vaud, recently
brought under government, but which was destined gradually to
excite there an energetic opposition, and to occasion the voluntary
retirement of the most distinguished ministers.--Ruchat, _Hist. de
la Réf._ tom. vi. p. 256, _et seq._
[366] The minister Beat Gerung or Gering, a declared partisan of the
Lutheran dogma of the Supper, and one of the most servile of the
Bernese clergy.
[367] Another minister of Zurich.
Besides, what occasion is there for any apology? I have not found
a single individual in this Church who has even a competent
understanding of this sacrament. What annoys me at present is this,
that while they are not only nourished and brought up in error, and
at the same time confirmed in it, they at length fall into such a
condition as to become wholly incurable. I now repeat what I said
before, that if you put any confidence in my judgment, you must not
humour our friends overmuch in this fundamental doctrine. We think
alike; let us, therefore, all with one voice speak the same thing.
[_Lat. orig. autogr._--_Library of Geneva._ Vol. 106.]