[451] See the two preceding letters. Roused by the Lutheran
intolerance, kept up by a hot controversy, the quarrel about the
sacraments disturbed the Reformed Churches, and furnished weapons to
their adversaries. While Calvin deplored these excesses, addressing
himself by turns to Bullinger, to Melanchthon, to Luther himself,
he made vain efforts to bring about an accommodation between the
parties.
Explanations relative to the publication of the book
"Against the Nicodemites"--appeal to the authority of
Melanchthon and Luther--troubles arising from ecclesiastical
discords--announcement of the Council of Trent--policy of
Charles V. and of Francis I.--convocation of a Synod at Melun.
_21st January 1545._
In few words I will explain the reason why this young and pious
nobleman[452] has, at my request, undertaken this journey to you. I
had published a little treatise in the French language, wherein the
dissimulation of those persons was reproved, who, notwithstanding
they have been privileged in having the light of the Evangel, yet
nevertheless do not abstain from any of the Popish rites which
they know to be accursed and full of sacrilege.[453] You would
perhaps rather prefer that I remitted somewhat of that too precise
severity. But you will recognize the justice of my treatment of the
point when you shall have well weighed and considered the question.
When I heard that many persons complained about my strictness,
and especially persons of that class, who consider it a proof of
superior wisdom to care for their personal safety, I wrote an
Apology,[454] which has made their ears tingle even more severely
than did the former book. Many other persons, with whom religion
serves instead of philosophy, look down with serene contempt upon
the whole of this. Such others, however, who are earnest God-fearing
persons, are at least so far advanced, that they begin to feel
dissatisfied with themselves. But since the question seems to them
to be perplexed, they remain somewhat in doubt as to this point,
until they shall be confirmed by your authority and that of Dr.
Luther. And indeed I am rather afraid that they consult you on this
account, because they expect that you will be more indulgent to them
than I.[455] Whatsoever may be their motive for doing so, because
I feel thoroughly persuaded that you will give them faithful and
wholesome counsel according to your sincerity, and in conformity
with your singular prudence, I willingly undertook to do what they
asked me, which was, that I would take the trouble to send a fit
person to you. Because, moreover. I concluded, that it would be of
great importance that you should know accurately what my views are,
but also, that the reasons which have induced me to come to these
conclusions might not be unknown to you, I have taken care to have
the treatise turned into Latin.[456] And although it may have been
somewhat forward in me to set about this, yet, notwithstanding, I
would request you as a friend, that you do not refuse to submit to
the trouble of perusing them. So highly do I esteem your judgment,
as indeed is proper, that to me it would be very disagreeable to set
about anything which you would not be likely to approve. I know,
indeed, that with your benign courtesy, you allow of many things in
the practice of others which you do not permit to yourself, but we
must look well to it, that what we do is lawful, and that we do not
set loose where the Lord has bound. Neither, truly, do I ask you to
agree with me in all things, which would certainly be impertinent;
or that on my account you should turn aside from the free and simple
statement of your own opinion, but merely that you would not refuse
the trouble of a perusal. Certainly I do desire that we were so
entirely agreed, that not even in the most trifling expressions
there may seem to be any disagreement. But to you it rather belongs
to lead the way, than to have respect to what may be pleasing to me.
You see how unceremoniously I treat you; nor indeed am I under any
apprehension that I may exceed the bounds of due respect; for by the
experience I have had of your special kindness and good-will toward
me, I know how far I may go.
[452] Claude de Senarelens, of a noble Savoyard family, which had
settled in the Pays de Vaud, after having embraced the Reformation.
[453] This is the _Traité de fuir les Superstitions_. Geneva, 1544.
Inserted in the _Recueil des Opuscules_, p. 758.
[454] _Excuse aux Faux Nicodemites._ Genève, 1544. _Recueil des
Opuscules_, p. 789.
[455] The German theologians were indeed less strict. However,
says Beza, they admitted, with Calvin, that it is impossible to
serve two masters, and therein condemned those who were called
Nicodemites.--_Hist. Eccl._, tom. i. p. 49.
[456] This is the title:--De vitandis superstitionibus quæ cum
sincera fidei confessione pugnant, una cum J. Calvini excusatione
ad Pseudo-Nicodemos, cum duabus epistolis ad ministros Ecclesiæ
Tigurinæ. Geneva, 1545. The second edition of this work appeared in
1549, enhanced by the approbation of Melanchthon, of Bucer, and of
Peter Martyr. Calv. _Opera Omnia_, tom. viii.
With regard to Dr. Martin there will be somewhat more of
difficulty.[457] For so far as I could understand by report, and
by letters from different persons, the scarcely pacified temper of
the man might, on very slight occasion, break out into a sore.[458]
On that account, therefore the messenger will shew you the letter
which I have written to him, that on examination of the contents,
you may proceed as you think advisable, that nothing may be
attempted therein either rashly or unadvisedly, which may hereafter
produce unpleasant consequences. I am aware that you will do all
that you can worthily accomplish to the utmost of your power,
in every thing seemly and befitting. But what may have been the
contentions which have exercised you there, and what may have been
the result of them, I have never been able to learn with certainty,
except that I hear an atrocious libel hath gone forth, which would
prove like a lighted torch to kindle a new conflagration, unless, on
the other hand, the Lord restrain within bounds the resentment of
certain parties, who would otherwise be more fierce and peevish than
they ought to be, as you well know. But what else can we expect,
when they are provoked to such a degree? When I reflect how much, at
so unseasonable a time, these intestine quarrels divide and tear us
asunder, I almost entirely lose courage. A merchant of Nuremberg,
who was travelling this way, shewed me lately a certain apology of
Osiander,[459] of which, on his own account, I felt greatly ashamed.
For what good purpose could it serve to assault the Zuinglians every
third line, and to attack Zuingli himself in such an unmannerly
style; and not even to spare Œcolampadius, that holy servant of
God, whom I wish that he resembled, even in being half as good, in
which case he would certainly stand far higher in my esteem than he
does? I do not demand that he should allow his name to be defamed
with impunity in silence; but I would like that he might abstain
from contemptuous reproaches of those men whose memory ought to
be held in honourable esteem by all the godly. Therefore, for the
same reason for which I blame the impudence of that fellow by whose
verses he complains that he has been slandered,--therefore, also,
I desire to see in himself some moderation and prudence, or rather
a more sound and correct judgment. O God of grace, what pleasant
sport and pastime do we afford to the Papists, as if we had hired
ourselves to do their work! But I make myself disagreeable by
recounting these evils to you, and increase your sorrow when you
are not able to get them healed. Let us, notwithstanding, mourn
together, since it well becomes us to take earnestly to heart
the misfortunes of the Church. In the meantime, let us cheer up
our spirits with this hope, that to whatsoever extent we may be
oppressed and harassed, we cannot be utterly overwhelmed among the
great sea billows.
[457] See note 2, p. 432.
[458] In a letter written at this period, Bucer made a humble
remonstrance to Luther, representing to him, that if the theologians
of Zurich had somehow incurred his indignation, he ought, however,
to have had some consideration for the imperial towns of Upper
Germany, and the cantons of Berne and Basle, who had given him no
ground of complaint, and who had always remained faithful to the
thought of a Christian alliance.--Hospinian, _Hist. Sacramentar._,
tom. ii. p. 331.
[459] Andrew Osiander, professor of theology at the University of
Königsberg, was of a presumptuous and violent spirit; he put forth
rash doctrines on the nature of Christ, on justification, and
exaggerated, in the Roman Catholic sense, the Lutheran dogma of the
Supper. He died in 1552. Melchior Adam, _Vitæ Theolog. Germ._, pp.
226-240.
Everywhere throughout France the minds of men are raised to
great expectation from the talk of a Council,[460] nor is there
any doubt that the King himself entertained at first some hope,
and some intention of assembling a Council. For the Cardinal de
Tournon,[461] on his return from the Emperor, had persuaded the
King that the Emperor had so intended. Meanwhile he recommended,
in the name of the Emperor, that the King should call to him two
or three theologians of your number, and that separately, so as
thereby to draw somewhat out of each of them by his cajoleries, or
that he might somehow or other squeeze out of each what he could
never be able to obtain from the whole of them in a body. The
Emperor promised that he, on his side, would do the same. The aim
of all this was, that fettered, as it were, by these flattering
preliminaries, you should have less power whenever you should get
the length of a serious discussion of the question. For because
they cannot succeed in discouraging or defeating us by a direct,
straightforward, and simple dealing with the case, they see no
more summary method of going about it, than to have the princes
at their mercy, and that _they_ may hold their liberty captive
and dependent upon _them_. As this advice was well liked by the
King, Chatelain[462] declared that it would not do to send French
theologians to attend the disputation, unless they were well
disciplined and trained beforehand; that you were men thoroughly
acquainted with the subject and used to this warfare, nor could you
be made, so easily as they supposed, to waste your strength to no
purpose; that by betraying the ignorance of his theologians, the
King ought to be upon his guard lest he should expose the whole
kingdom to derision. The vain-glory of the King gave the preference
to this opinion. Twelve French theologues have been commissioned
to dispute at Melun on the controverted points, and to report
at length to the King what they shall have concluded upon. They
have bound themselves by oath to secrecy. But all their silence
notwithstanding, I am thoroughly well assured, that every thought
will be directed to the oppression of the truth.[463] Though they
may pretend to seek some sort of reformation, nothing is more
certain than that they have only this one object in view, how to
bury the light of sound doctrine, that they may establish their
own tyranny. It is my belief, that God defeated the counsel of the
Cardinal de Tournon, that they might not ensnare a single man of us,
even when we had not the slightest suspicion of such a thing. You
can remember having yourself been tempted by the same artful policy
on the part of Langey. If, however, we look to the Lord, they shall
in vain assault us with all their contrivances.
[460] Transferred successively from Vicenza to Mantua, and from
Mantua to Trent, the Council opened in that latter town the 13th
December 1545.
[461] Francis de Tournon, Archbishop of Lyons, and a cardinal, one
of the fiercest persecutors of the Reformed under the reigns of
Francis I., of Henry II., and of Francis II. He introduced the order
of the Jesuits into France, set himself steadily in opposition to
the establishment of religious liberty, and died in 1562.
[462] Chatelain, Bishop of Mâeon, Reader to the King, Francis
I., who partook of his taste and disposition. Favourable to the
Reformation, which, however, he dared not to profess openly, this
prelate, at a later period, betrayed the hopes of the Reformed by
taking up his position among the persecutors of the Gospel.--See
Beza, _Hist. Eccl._, tom. i. pp. 79, 80.
[463] These theologians actually did assemble at Melun: "but there
was," says Beza, "such division among them, that they only exchanged
words and abuse, and were on the point of coming sometimes even to
blows; the more ignorant who had been mixed up with the others not
being willing to suffer those who were more learned to touch upon
the abuses, however gently."--_Hist. Eccl._, tom. i. p. 48.
Adieu, most excellent sir, and my ever to be respected friend may
the Lord be ever present to you and long preserve you safe and sound
for the good of his own Church.--Yours,