New appeal to the Seigneurs of Zurich, in favour of the
Waldenses of Provence--Luther's invectives against the Swiss
Reformer--remarkable judgment in regard to his character--his
injustice pardoned in consideration of the eminent services
rendered by him to the cause of Christ.
GENEVA, _25th November 1544_.
You will receive from this brother who has delivered to you my
letter, a crown-piece and two silver testons; for this, if I
remember correctly, was the amount that remained. Excuse me, I
pray you, for not having sent it sooner. As for the reason why this
brother has been sent to you, by those of Neuchatel, he will himself
tell you. There is, in my opinion, no difficulty, or very little,
indeed, if any, in the case. But the perverseness and importunity
of one individual compel them to be troublesome both to you and to
ourselves. They have in their meeting a man belonging to that class
of doctors, from which, hitherto, not a single good man has ever yet
come forth, one who has never ceased from time to time to pester
them with some troublesome affair or another. There are two causes
which urge him on in this course. For he seems born to contradict,
and because he is not so very highly esteemed by others as he rates
himself, it is after this fashion that he takes his revenge. Had he
been in our Church, he would easily have been restrained. For we had
a means of breaking him in quite ready at hand. But where he is, he
has the Prince's deputy by whom he is countenanced. For it is thus,
that men of this sort of pretension secure and fortify themselves
with defences, so as to work mischief with impunity. That you would,
all of you, do of your own accord what I am now about to ask, I am
well aware. Nevertheless, I would entreat of you, that in so sacred
a cause you may reach forth a helping hand to the brethren; that is,
that you would support them by your authority, and train them by a
right method that they may bridle up that Ishmael. This much have I
written, not because it might be supposed to be needful, but rather
to please our brother.
There is another affair, besides, in which I wish very specially
to implore your aid. There are brethren in Provence, for whom you
are aware that we have always taken much pains.[447] Nor were they
any way undeserving that we should do so; for they are a people
so harmless, and withal so piously disposed, that their peace and
safety ought to be the peculiar care of all good men. It is now
three years bypast, since they were so far advanced as to have
presented to the Parliament of Aix a confession of faith, pure and
simple as we could have set it forth ourselves. And besides, that
you may not suppose that such a step was taken from some sudden
impulse, which might immediately have evaporated, whenever they have
been called to account concerning it they have constantly stood firm
to their profession. In the meantime, however, they were cruelly
harassed. After they had been exposed for some time to the savage
tyranny of their enemies, they obtained at length of the King that
he would appoint a commission, who might hear evidence and report
truly upon the whole case. The King commissioned two persons, whose
duty was to make inquiry; he wished to take the entire cognizance
of the cause to himself, and so to pronounce an award. The tenor
of the commission was, that the persons who were to be sent were
to inquire particularly, and take special knowledge concerning
their doctrine and morals, both in public and private. This the
brethren have no dread or anxiety about. For they have so conducted
themselves toward all around them as to have an unexceptionable
testimony to their sterling worth, even from their adversaries.[448]
As for their doctrine, they are about to present their confession
of faith, clear and sincere, to the King as he has required, which
document comprises, and that distinctly, far more points than can
be alleged against them. At this present time, both the bishops,
the royal officers, and even the parliament itself, are striving
with all their might to set aside the royal commission; if it be
quashed, they will then be exposed to the fury of lions and wolves,
that they may spend their rage upon them. Indeed, their adversaries
are mainly desirous that they may have full license to discharge
all their fury upon these wretched people. If the commission be
received and acted upon, even in that event they will not have
escaped the danger. For in three small towns,[449] and in very many
of the villages, they profess the pure doctrine of the Evangel. In
one little town they have thoroughly cleansed the parish church
from all its defilements, and there they celebrate the Supper and
Baptism in the same manner as we do. The more immediately the
danger is impending over them on either side, they are all the more
on that account to be succoured by us; in this their wonderful
steadfastness, especially, to which should we be found wanting,
we would be chargeable with the basest cowardice. You must also
take into account that it is not their cause alone which is here
concerned; but either a way will be opened by their destruction to
the cruel persecution of the godly throughout the whole kingdom, or,
according to this method, he will assault and break up the Evangel.
What can we do, therefore, but strain every nerve that these godly
brethren may not, through our short-coming in duty, become the
victims of such cruelty, and that the door may not for a long time
be shut against Christ? I have desired beforehand to warn you of
the likelihood of this coming to pass, that if sooner or later they
fly to you, you may have inclined the hearts of all your friends to
render them all the help they can. One or other of these two things
will have to be done, either the King must be sought unto, that he
may allow them to enjoy the benefit which has been already granted,
or his anger must be appeased, if it shall have begun to wax hot
against them.
[447] See pp. 187, 228, 270, 273, 283, 308. Suspended by
Letters-patent of the King, and by the humanity of the President
Chassanée, the execution of the sentence of the Parliament of Aix
was furiously demanded by the new President of that Court, Jean
Menier, Baron d'Oppède, supported at Court by the Cardinal de
Tournon.
[448] William du Bellay, in his quality of lieutenant of the King
at Turin, charged with the duty of making a report to Francis
I., renders a very striking homage to the piety and purity of
the Vaudois.--De Thou, _Hist._, lib. vi. They obtained the same
testimony from the pious Bishop Sadolet, who took them under
his protection, and pleaded in vain their cause at the Court of
Rome.--De Thou, _ibidem._--_Hist. des Martyrs_, lib. iii. p. 140.
A doctor of the Sorbonne, having put some questions to some of the
children in one of their villages, upon the Catechisin, was so
struck by their answers, that he acknowledged, says Beza, "never to
have derived so much benefit in all the disputations he had been
engaged in, as he had learned from these little children."--_Hist.
Eccl._, tom. i. p. 42.
[449] Cabrières, Merindol, et Lourmarin, in the present Department
of Vaucluse.
I hear that Luther has at length broken forth in fierce invective,
not so much against you as against the whole of us.[450] On the
present occasion, I dare scarce venture to ask you to keep silence,
because it is neither just that innocent persons should thus be
harassed, nor that they should be denied the opportunity of clearing
themselves; neither, on the other hand, is it easy to determine
whether it would be prudent for them to do so. But of this I do
earnestly desire to put you in mind, in the first place, that you
would consider how eminent a man Luther is, and the excellent
endowments wherewith he is gifted, with what strength of mind and
resolute constancy, with how great skill, with what efficiency and
power of doctrinal statement, he hath hitherto devoted his whole
energy to overthrow the reign of Antichrist, and at the same time to
diffuse far and near the doctrine of salvation. Often have I been
wont to declare, that even although he were to call me a devil,
I should still not the less hold him in such honour that I must
acknowledge him to be an illustrious servant of God. But while he
is endued with rare and excellent virtues, he labours at the same
time under serious faults. Would that he had rather studied to curb
this restless, uneasy temperament which is so apt to boil over in
every direction. I wish, moreover, that he had always bestowed the
fruits of that vehemence of natural temperament upon the enemies of
the truth, and that he had not flashed his lightning sometimes also
upon the servants of the Lord. Would that he had been more observant
and careful in the acknowledgment of his own vices. Flatterers
have done him much mischief, since he is naturally too prone to be
over-indulgent to himself. It is our part, however, so to reprove
whatsoever evil qualities may beset him, as that we may make some
allowance for him at the same time on the score of these remarkable
endowments with which he has been gifted. This, therefore, I would
beseech you to consider first of all, along with your colleagues,
that you have to do with a most distinguished servant of Christ, to
whom we are all of us largely indebted; that, besides, you will do
yourselves no good by quarrelling, except that you may afford some
sport to the wicked, so that they may triumph not so much over us as
over the Evangel. If they see us rending each other asunder, they
then give full credit to what we say, but when with one consent and
with one voice we preach Christ, they avail themselves unwarrantably
of our inherent weakness to cast reproach upon our faith. I wish,
therefore, that you would consider and reflect on these things
rather than on what Luther has deserved by his violence; lest
that may happen to you which Paul threatens, that by biting and
devouring one another, ye be consumed one of another. Even should
he have provoked us, we ought rather to decline the contest than to
increase the wound by the general shipwreck of the Church. Adieu, my
much honoured brother in the Lord, and my very dear friend. Salute
reverently in my name all the brethren in the ministry. May the Lord
preserve you, and more and more increase his own gifts in you. My
colleagues very kindly salute you.
[_Calvin's Lat. Corresp._--Opera, tom. ix. pp. 239, 240.]
[450] In a recent publication, entitled, "Short Confession
concerning the Supper," (Kurzes Bekenntniss vom Abendmahl,) Luther,
renewing his invectives against the _adversaries of the Sacrament_,
had insulted the memory of Zuingli, and had not even respected
that of the learned and pious Œcolampadius.--Hospinian, _Hist.
Sacrament._, tom. ii. pp. 326-331. Grievously annoyed by these
violences, Melanchthon would have fled into retirement to get rid
of the sad spectacle of the disorders which rent in pieces the
Reformed Churches. He wrote to Bucer, the 28th August 1544, "I have
written to you about our Pericles, who has again begun to thunder
most vehemently on the subject of the Lord's Supper, and has written
a fierce attack, in which you and I are beaten black and blue. I am
a quiet peaceable bird, nor would be unwilling if I may depart out
of this prison-house, if our disturber shall constrain me."--Ph.
Melanchthonis _Opera_, edit. of Breitschneider, tom. v. p. 464.