Chapter XVI: Calvin’s Relations with Sadoleto

(1539.)

[Sidenote: MEETING OF PRELATES AT LYONS.]

Rome, meanwhile, was not indifferent to what was taking place at Geneva. Between the papacy and the Reformation there were action and reaction, which kept both in constant agitation. When once the Catholic reaction began, not content with mere resistance, it assumed the offensive. The partisans of the pope, still pretty numerous in Geneva, informed the Bishop de la Baume of what occurred in the town; and he, who like all dispossessed princes was always expecting to be restored to his episcopal see, the sweets of which he remembered better than the bitterness, communicated with the pope. The latter gave to La Baume the cardinal’s hat, in the hope that this dignity might be a bait to draw the Genevese to place themselves once more under the crook of their bishop. Then he invited the prelates who were nearest neighbors to Geneva to take in hand the cause of their colleague. The Bishops of Lyons, Besançon, Lausanne, Vienne, Turin, Langres and Carpentras, met the Bishop of Geneva in the first of these towns. ‘The flock,’ they said, ‘being now deprived of its pastors, men so eminent, we must seize the opportunity to rescue it from the Reformation.’[787] Many Genevese Catholics had emigrated to Lyons, and they spared no pains to bring about the restoration of the prelate. Pierre de la Baume asked of his colleagues ‘the recovery of his diocese.’ The Cardinal of Tournon, the notorious persecutor of the Vaudois, and the introducer of the Jesuits into France, who was at this time archbishop of Lyons, was president of the meeting. He had thus an opportunity of satisfying his inextinguishable passion against the _Calvinists_. Jean Philippe, chief author of the banishment of Calvin, met with Tournon in the church at Lyons, and carried on intrigues with him.[788] The affair might perhaps have had a violent ending, but that a man was there present of a different stamp from the archbishop. This was Cardinal Sadoleto, who, as bishop Carpentras, a town in Dauphiné bordering on Savoy, seemed by his neighboring position bound to concern himself more particularly with Geneva. He was connected with Bembo, secretary to Leo X., was a great lover of the classics, of philosophy and the arts, and was a man of great eloquence, says Beza, but used it for extinguishing the true light.[789] He very much regretted that the Reformation appeared to be taking precedence of the Renaissance. He was, however, of more liberal mind than adherents of the pope usually were. He loved Melanchthon. He thought that it was not right to address the Genevese in the imperious tone of a master, with dogmatic arguments of the school, or with the intolerance of inquisitors, but rather in a polite style. Sadoleto was therefore instructed to write a letter to the Genevese in which he was to invite them mildly to return to the bosom of the Church. That the contrivances and efforts of the pope, of the Bishop de la Baume, of the Cardinal of Tournon and his colleagues, should issue only in a letter, was rather a feeble conclusion.

Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

[Sidenote: LETTER OF SADOLETO TO GENEVA.]

But they probably saw that they were powerless to do more. The cardinal-bishop hoped to gain over the Genevese ‘by wheedling them with fine words to turn them away from Jesus Christ,’ says a contemporary, ‘and by blaming the ministers of whom God had made use for reforming the town.’[790] On March 26 his messenger, Jean Durand, of Carpentras, was admitted into the hall of the council, and delivered the missive addressed by his bishop to his _well-beloved brethren_ the syndics, councils, and citizens of Geneva. There was not a word about the conference at Lyons. ‘It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to me to write to you. The reason is that while at Carpentras I have heard reports concerning you which partly make me sad and partly give me hope.’ Knowing how seductive flattery is, he writes the most beautiful eulogy of Geneva. ‘I love the noble aspect of your town, the order and form of your republic, the excellence of the citizens, and, above all, the exquisite humanity which you display towards all foreign people and nations.’ But by the side of this flattering picture he hastens to place a portrait not so pleasing of the reformers. ‘Certain crafty men, enemies of Christian union and peace, have cast into your town the seeds of discord. I hear on one side the weeping, sighing, and groaning of our holy Church. On the other side I perceive that these innovators are not only pestilential to souls, but also pernicious in a high degree to public and private affairs.’ Next he himself makes an almost evangelical profession. He exalts the Word of God which, says he, ‘does not entangle minds in difficult processes of reasoning; but, a heavenly affection of the heart coming to its aid, offers itself with clearness to our understandings.’ He exalts the work of Christ, ‘who was willing to be our salvation, by suffering death in the flesh and afterwards resuming an immortal life.’ He even exalts justification by faith, _faith alone_, which all Roman controversialists curse. ‘This everlasting salvation comes to us,’ said he, ‘by faith alone in God and in Jesus Christ. When I say _by faith alone_, I do not mean that charity and the duty of a Christian are dispensed with.’ Sadoleto was undoubtedly sincere in these professions. He belonged, as is known, to a small body of men feebly inclined towards the Gospel, who were at that time supported by the papacy in the hope that they would be the means of bringing back the Protestants. But he must have known well that the doctrine of the reformers, far from dispensing with duty and charity, asserted them, made them possible, and at the same time necessary.

Having thus gained his hearers, as he thought, the cardinal-bishop began the contest. ‘The loss of the soul,’ said he, ‘being the greatest ill possible to a man, our duty is, to the utmost of our power, to take care. Amidst the waves of our life we are in need of some means of escape from striking on the rocks and losing the vessel. This is what the Catholic Church has provided for fifteen hundred years; while these crafty men only began their innovations against the perpetual authority of the Church five-and-twenty years ago.’ Then follows a fine rhetorical burst which lacks nothing but truth and solidity. ‘Here is the point,’ said he; ‘here is the parting of the ways, the one road leading unto life, the other unto everlasting death. Every man arrives by his own road before the judgment-seat of the supreme Judge, Catholic and Protestant alike, there to have his cause investigated.’

The Catholics get off wonderfully, but when the turn of the Evangelicals comes it is quite otherwise with them. Sadoleto takes good care not to let the simple faithful ones appear, and brings before the tribunal only ‘one of the promoters of these divisions.’ He does not name either Luther or Calvin, but it is evident that it is one of them that he brings on the scene, probably the latter. Having leave to speak, the reformer begins thus: ‘O sovereign God! when I considered how all but universally corrupt are the morals of ecclesiastics, I was justly moved to anger against them; and when I thought also how much time I had spent in the study of theology and of human science, and that nevertheless I had not attained in the Church the rank which my labors deserved, while other men, my inferiors, were raised to honors and to benefices, I induced the greater part of the people to despise the decrees of the Church. I asserted that the bishops of Rome had falsely usurped the title of vicars of Christ; and having by this reputation of learning and wisdom obtained renown among the nations, I caused many seditions and divisions in the Church.’

[Sidenote: CONCLUSION OF THE LETTER.]

Sadoleto having made the reformer speak in this fashion, again addresses the men of Geneva, and says to them, ‘How will it turn out, then, brethren, whom I wish to be united with me?’ The result of this double appearance is inevitable, and the promoter of all this evil, ‘taking his stand upon his works, holding in contempt the general assemblies of bishops, dismembering the one spouse of Christ, and tearing to pieces the Lord’s robe, can only weep for ever over his misery, gnashing his teeth even at himself.’ Consequently, the cardinal-bishop exhorts his brethren of Geneva, after having removed all the mists of error, to abide in union with our holy mother Church.[791]

The reasoning of Sadoleto failed in its basis. He had confounded the Reformation of the sixteenth century with the so-called reforms of the preceding centuries. Those attempts, numerous enough, aimed at the morals of the clergy and the abuses of the Church without attacking the doctrine, and they miscarried. But the true Reformation directed its efforts against the false doctrines of Rome, in order to put the doctrine of the Gospel in its place. ‘It took the bull by the horns,’ as Luther says, and had him down. Liberal Catholics have imagined, that if from the first such a course as Sadoleto’s had been adopted, the course of the Reformation would have been entirely different.[792] But they are mistaken, as the Bishop of Carpentras was, who, aiming his blows at an enemy in the air, hit nothing but the air.

The council having heard the letter, very gladly accepted the compliments paid to Geneva, sincerely thanked the cardinal’s messenger, and charged him to say that a full reply should be sent in due course. This was necessary, for the partisans of the pope in Geneva praised the cardinal’s letter to the skies, and eagerly circulated it in all directions. But there was no one able to answer it. The pastors established by the government were not strong enough to venture a struggle with Sadoleto. Morand himself, who was requested by the council to undertake it, was incompetent. All those who in any degree adhered to the Reformation were in a state of alarm, for they understood that silence in this state of things would inevitably be a great calamity to Geneva.[793]

It was on March 26 that the letter in which Sadoleto urged the Genevese to forsake the Reformation had been delivered to the council, and on the 27th this body resolved to reply to it in due time and place. On the 28th several citizens appeared before the council; one of them, François Chamois, demanding on their behalf that the confession of faith of the Reformation which had been sworn at St. Peter’s, July 29, 1537, should be withdrawn from the possession of the former official secretary, as contrary to their liberties; and that they themselves should be released from the oath which they had taken to that confession.[794] There is so intimate and evident a relation between the proposal of Sadoleto and this proceeding of the citizens, the one so punctually followed upon the other, that it is very difficult not to suppose that the letter of the bishop had much to do in promoting the requisition of Chamois and his friends. The audience given by the council to the deputy of a cardinal, and the proposal of which he was the bearer, were a matter so considerable and of such exciting interest that the rumor of it could not fail to spread immediately in this town, where people so habitually used to say, ‘What is the news? What is talked of? What is going on?’

[Sidenote: IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES.]

Among the citizens who accompanied Chamois there might be some who did not belong to the Catholic party, and who merely took advantage of the opportunity for getting rid of a confession of faith which was burdensome to them. But it is not to be wondered at that some Roman writers have looked on the demand of Chamois as the consequence of the letter of Sadoleto. Michael Rozet, the son of Claude, says, not undesignedly, in his Chronicles, that it was one day after the reception at Geneva of the cardinal’s despatch, that the citizens _protested_ against the articles. He even adds, ‘There was warning from neighbors of a body of armed men in preparation by the enemy, and that these had an understanding with a party in the town.’ This measure was not unsuccessful. Claude Rozet had received the oaths of the citizens on July 29, and in his hands the original of the famous articles was still deposited. The council gave him orders to deliver them up. However grave a step this might be, it cannot be said that the faith was given up with the articles of faith. Many had never held this faith, and those who had held it, held it still. Nevertheless, the surrender of the fundamental document of the evangelical reformation was certainly an important step towards Rome.[795]

It was soon apparent what was to be thought of the _Christian charity, and the affection touched with double pity and compassion_, of which Sadoleto had given assurance. In the very month which followed the delivery of his letter, an eminent Genevese, Curtet, castellan of Chaumont on the Mount du Vuache, went to Annecy, which was not far distant; and during his stay, April 17, in his hostelry, talked with the country people of God and his Gospel.[796] Among those present was Montchenu, who, annoyed at having failed in his scheme for giving up Geneva to Francis I., continued to feel much bitterness about it; and, quite as much out of pique as from hatred of the Reformation, denounced the Genevese citizen and inflamed the clergy against him. Curtet was seized and burnt alive.

Another Genevese, Jean Lambert, brother of the councillor, had been for some time a prisoner in Savoy, on a like charge. A week after the execution of Curtet, the public place of Chambery was filled with such a crowd as always runs after the terrible spectacle of a violent death. Lambert was brought there about three o’clock. He was a ruddy and strong young man, and they led him up and down to show him to the people. ‘This is one of the bigots of Geneva,’ people said as he passed, with other speeches of the like kind. He was taken to the front of the castle, where a pile was erected. The provost wanted him to make some confession, but Lambert did not open his mouth. ‘Slit his tongue if he will not speak,’ barbarously cried the enraged provost to the executioner. The priests who stood round their victim would fain have compelled him to recite the _Ave Maria_, but the martyr refused to do it. Then addressing the Father who is in heaven, he uttered aloud the Lord’s prayer. This provoked the priests and the monks, who cried to the spectators, ‘Do not pray for this cursed dog, for he is damned to all the devils.’ ‘Lambert died,’ says one of the narratives, ‘for his faith in God and without any trial.’ If the words of Sadoleto were tender, the deeds of his fellow religionists were harsh.[797]

[Sidenote: CALVIN’S REPLY TO SADOLETO.]

The letter of the Bishop of Carpentras could not remain unknown to Calvin; in fact it was communicated to him in April by Sulzer, a pastor of Berne. The reformer read it, and his first impulse was to consider whether it was worth while to reply to it. But apprehending the evil which the letter might bring on Geneva, ‘forgetting all the wrongs that he had received,’[798] and yielding to the entreaties of his Strasburg friends, he undertook the task. ‘It will occupy me for six days,’ he wrote to Farel. Calvin’s letter bears date September 1, 1539.[799] It is an important document, both for the light which it throws on the character and the work of Calvin, and because it is necessary to know in what manner the blow then struck by Rome at the Reformation was parried. This letter, we may say, was the mighty voice which led back Geneva to the true Gospel.[800] Two feelings are conspicuous in it with regard to Sadoleto. Calvin, in addressing one of the most distinguished and most enlightened men in the Catholic Church, will speak to him with respect and even with praise, but at the same time he will not hide from him the indignation aroused by his attacks.

‘Thy surpassing learning,’ says he in beginning his letter, ‘thine admirable elegance of speech, have deservedly caused thee to be held in high esteem and admiration by the true votaries of polite literature, and it is exceedingly painful to me to be obliged by this complaint to sully thy fair renown. I should never have undertaken the task if I had not been compelled to do so.... No one can suppose that I could have abandoned the cause without great cowardice and contempt of my ministry.

‘Thou hast very recently written a letter to the council and people of Geneva, and having no wish to display harshness towards those of whom thou hadst need in order to gain thy cause, thou hast attempted by soft words to circumvent them. Next, thou hast come up impetuously, and so to speak, at full speed to discharge thy force against those who, according to thy saying, have involved that poor town in trouble by their sophistries. I would have thee know, Sadoleto, that I am one of those against whom thou speakest; and although I am at the present time relieved of the administration of the Genevese Church, this does not prevent my cherishing towards it a fatherly love.

‘But for thyself, Sadoleto, a foreigner, who hast hitherto had no acquaintance at all with the people of Geneva, thou professest on a sudden to feel for them singular love and goodwill, of which, nevertheless, no fruit ever appeared. Thou who didst serve thine apprenticeship at the Court of Rome, that shop of all artifice and cunning, who wert not only brought up as it were in the arms of Pope Clement, but what is more, made a cardinal, thou hast certainly many spots which render thee suspected. The duty of pastors is to lead obedient souls straight to Christ; but thy chief aim is to deliver them over to the power of the pope.

‘With a view to cast suspicion on us thou taxest us, unjustly (for thou well knowest the contrary), with having wished only to gratify our ambition and avarice. Certain it is that if I had paid regard to my personal advantage, I should never have separated from your faction. And who would dare to cast such charges at Farel, who, born of a noble house, had no need to ask assistance from others? Was not our shortest way of attaining to wealth and honors to accept from the first the conditions which you have offered us? For what price would your pope then have purchased the silence of many, and for how much would he still purchase it to-day? Did we not require that, after having assigned to the ministers so much as was fitting for their condition, the wealth of the Church, swallowed up by those gulfs, should be distributed to the poor as in the primitive Church? Our only thought has been the extension of the kingdom of God by means of our littleness and lowliness; and to attempt to persuade men of the contrary is a thing most unbecoming to Sadoleto, a man of such high reputation for knowledge, prudence, and seriousness.

[Sidenote: CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY.]

‘The men of Geneva, extricating themselves from the slough of error in which they were sunk, have returned to the doctrine of the Gospel, and this thou callest abandoning the truth of God! They have retired from papal subjection and tyranny in order to have a better ecclesiastical government, and this, sayest thou, is a real separation from the Church! Surely, Sadoleto, I shall stop thee on the way. Where is, on your side, the Word of God, which is the mark of the true Church? If a man belongs to God’s army he must be prepared for the battle. See, the enemy is quite near; he approaches, he fights, and he is indeed an enemy so well-conditioned that no earthly power can resist him. What armor will this poor Christian be able to put on, to save him from being overwhelmed? It is the Word of God. The soul deprived of the Word of God is delivered over to the devil, quite defenceless, to be slain. The first attempt of the enemy, therefore, will be to take from the combatant the sword of Jesus Christ. The pope, like the “illuminés,” arrogantly boasts of possessing the Spirit. But it is to insult the Holy Spirit to separate him from the Word.

‘We are more nearly in agreement with antiquity than you our opponents, as thou knowest, Sadoleto, and we ask for nothing else than to see restored that ancient face of the Church which has been torn to pieces and almost destroyed by the pope and his faction. And, not to speak of the condition of the Church as constituted by the apostles (which, however, we are bound to accept), consider what it was among the Greeks in the days of Chrysostom and Basil, and among the Latins in the days of Cyprian, Ambrose, and Augustin, and afterwards contemplate the ruins which are all that now remain to you. Thou wilt find as much difference between the two as between the Church as it flourished under David, and the Church as fallen into all kinds of superstitions under Zedekiah. Wilt thou call that man an enemy of antiquity, who, full of zeal for ancient piety, longs to restore in their first splendor the things which are now corrupted? With what right are we accused of having subverted the ancient discipline, by the very party that has abolished them?

‘Dost thou not recollect that at the time when our people began to appear, nothing was taught in the schools but pure sophistries, so tangled and twisted that scholastic theology might well be called a kind of secret magic? There were no sermons from which foolish old women did not learn more dreams than they could relate in a month by their own fireside. The first portion was devoted to obscure questions of the schools, to excite the wonder of the poor people, and the second portion to merry tales or amusing speculations, to rouse their hearts to mirth. But no sooner had our preachers raised their banner than the shadows were dispersed, and your preachers, taught by them and compelled by shame and the murmurs of the people, were obliged to follow their example, although they have still traces of these old follies.

‘Thou touchest on justification by faith. But this article, which stands supreme in our religion, has been effaced by you from the memory of men. Thou allegest that we take no account of good works. If thou lookest into my catechism, at the first word thou wilt be silent as if overcome. We deny, it is true, that they are of any avail in the justification of man, not even so much as a hair, for the Scripture gives us no hope except in the goodness of God alone. But while we deny the virtue of works in the justification of man, we attribute worth to them in the life of the just, for Christ came to create _a people zealous of good works_.’

We pass over the beautiful passages in which Calvin speaks of the supper, confession, the invocation of saints, purgatory, the ministry, and the Church, and we come to the moment at which he remembers that Sadoleto had cited him and his brethren ‘as criminals before the judgment-seat of God.’ He accepts that summons.

[Sidenote: CALVIN’S DEFENCE.]

‘We prick up our ears,’ said he, ‘at this sound of the trumpet which the very ashes of the dead will hear in the depths of their graves.’ And then, not only in his own name but in that of all the reformers, Calvin says to God:--

‘I have ever appealed to thy tribunal, Lord, from the accusations with which I have been harassed on the earth, and it is with the same confidence that I now appear before thee, knowing that in thy judgments truth prevails. They have accused me of very grievous crimes and of heresy. But in the first place, what have I done? Seeing that, with no regard to thy Word, they abused the common people, and made a mock at them by I know not what sort of drivelling, I dared to contradict their constitutions. Thy Christ was indeed adored as God, but he was virtually without honor; for deprived of his virtue and of his power, he was lost sight of in the crowd of saints, as if merely one of the common mass. There were none who rested in his righteousness alone; and if any one, enjoying thy loving kindness and the righteousness of thy Son, conceived a sure hope of salvation, this was, they said, rash presumption and foolish arrogance. Then, O Lord, thou didst set before me thy Word, like a torch, to make me know how pernicious these things are; and thou hast touched my heart, to the end that I may hold them in abhorrence.

‘They have accused me of schism. But is that man to be reputed a traitor who, when he sees the soldiers quitting the ranks, forgetting their captain, the battle, and the oath which they have taken, scattered, wandering to and fro, raises the standard, calls them back, and sets them again in order? To recall them from such wanderings I have not given to the wind a strange flag, but that noble standard which it is necessary we should follow, if we would be enrolled in the number of thy people. But those whose duty it was to keep the soldiers in good order and who have on the contrary cast them into error, have laid hands on me, and the conflict has been so furious as to break up union. But on which side is the fault? It is for thee, Lord, now to say and to decide.

‘If I had desired to maintain peace with those who boast of being the foremost in the Church, I could have purchased it only by the renunciation of the truth. I have felt it my duty to risk all the dangers of the world rather than stoop to a compact so abominable. But I do not think that by being at war with those great ones I am at variance with thy Church. Thy Son, and thine apostles, had foretold that there would be ravening wolves even amongst those who gave themselves out for pastors. Was I bound then to give them my hand? The prophets were not schismatics by reason of their contending against the priests. For my part, confirmed by their example, I have so persisted in my course that neither their threats nor their denunciations have in the least degree amazed me.

‘Commotions have followed; but as they were not caused by me, they ought not to be imputed to me. Thou knowest well, Lord, that I have had no other object in view except this, that by thy Word all controversy might be terminated. Thou knowest that I have not objected, even at the peril of my life, that peace should be restored in the Church. But what did our adversaries do? Did they not run off suddenly and furiously to the fire, to the gallows, to the sword? Did they not stir up people of all ranks to the same rage?... Hence it has come to pass that such a war has been kindled. And whatever may be thought, I am freed from all fear, since we are before thy judgment-seat where justice and truth meet together.’

[Sidenote: HIS FIRST FAITH.]

At this point Calvin narrates his conversion. It is an important part of his defence, and we cannot omit it. He still addresses the Supreme Judge:--

‘As for me,[801] Lord, I confessed the Christian faith as I had learnt it from my youth.

‘At that time there were but few people to whom was committed the pursuit of that divine and secret philosophy, and it was with them that the oracles had to be sought. But they had not instructed me well respecting either the adoration of thy divinity, or an assured hope of salvation, or the obligation of a Christian life. To obtain thy mercy they showed no other means than making satisfaction for our sins, and blotting out thy remembrance of them by our good works. They said that thou wast a rigorous judge, severely avenging iniquity; they pointed out how terrible thy look must be, and commanded us to address the saints, to the end that through their intercession thou mightest be made propitious to us. But when I had done all these things, and although to some extent I relied on them, I was very far from having a quiet and trustful conscience. Every time that I descended into myself, or lifted up my heart to thee, a horror so extreme seized upon me that there were neither purifications nor satisfactions that could heal me. The more closely I considered my case, the sharper became the stings with which my conscience was tormented: there was neither solace nor comfort left me.

‘As nothing better was offered me, I pursued the course which I had begun, when there arose an entirely different form of doctrine, not intended to turn us away from the Christian profession, but to trace it back to its real source, and to restore it in its purity, cleansed from all defilement. Offended with this novelty, I would not listen to it; and I confess that at the outset I did courageously resist it. One thing especially kept me from believing those people; this was reverence for the Church.

‘But after I had consented sometimes to be instructed, I perceived that the fear of seeing the majesty of the Church lessened was idle. These people showed that there was a wide difference between forsaking the Church and correcting the vices with which she was defiled; and that if they spoke freely against the Pope of Rome, held to be the vicar of Christ and head of the Church, they did so because these titles were only idle terrors which ought not to dazzle the eyes of the faithful; that the pope had risen to such magnificence only when ignorance oppressed the world like deep sleep; that it was by his own authority and sole will that he had elected himself, and that we were under no obligation to endure the tyranny with which he oppressed the nations, if we desired that the kingdom of Christ should remain in its fulness amongst us; that when this principality was erected, the genuine order of the Church was wholly lost, the keys (ecclesiastical order) wickedly falsified, Christian liberty suppressed, and the kingdom of Christ totally overthrown.

‘When I began to discover in what a slough of errors I had wallowed and with how many stains I was disgraced, desperately alarmed and distracted at the sight of the misery into which I had fallen, and by the knowledge of the eternal death which was at hand, I condemned with tears and groans my former way of life, and esteemed nothing more needful for me than to betake myself to thine. What then is left for me to do, for me poor and miserable, but to offer to thee, as all my vindication, a humble supplication not to impute to me the so horrible forsaking and estrangement from thy Word, from which thou hast once rescued me by thy marvellous kindness?’

[Sidenote: THE REAL SCHISMATICS.]

Having finished his pleading before the Judge, Calvin returns to Sadoleto and says: ‘Now, if it seem good to thee, compare this address with that which thou hast put into the mouth of thy man, whose defence turns only on this hinge, to wit, that he constantly kept the religion which had been handed down to him by his forefathers and predecessors. His salvation is in great peril, without a shadow of doubt; for on the same ground Jews, Turks, and Saracens would escape the judgment of God. The tribunal will not then be prepared to accept the authority of men, but to maintain the truth of God. Your doctors will not then have a stage at hand for the sale, without risk, of their imitation gems, and for the abuse of consciences by their trumpery and inventions. They will remain what they are, and they will fall by the judgment of God, which depends not on popular favor, but on his unchangeable justice.

‘Although thou treatest us with too little humanity in the whole of thy letter, it is nevertheless in the last clause, in the plainest terms, that thou imputest to us the most enormous of all crimes, to wit, _that we disperse and tear to pieces the spouse of Jesus Christ_. What! would the spouse of Jesus Christ be torn in pieces by those who desire to present her as a chaste virgin to Christ, and who, finding her polluted with many stains, recall her to her plighted faith? Was not the purity of the Church destroyed by strange doctrines, disgraced by innumerable superstitions, tainted by the worship of images? Indeed, because we did not endure that the sacred resting place and nuptial chamber of Christ should be thus defiled by you, we are accused of having dismembered his spouse. It is you that have been guilty of this laceration, and not with regard to the Church only, but with regard to Jesus Christ himself, whom you have miserably cut in pieces. Where is the wholeness of Christ, when the glory of his righteousness, of his holiness, of his wisdom, is transferred to others?

‘I acknowledge that since the Gospel has appeared anew, great conflicts have been occasioned. But it is not at our door that the guilt of this is to be laid. We ask for a peace with which the kingdom of Christ shall flourish; but you judge that all that is gained for Christ is lost to you. Pray the Lord, Sadoleto, that thou and thy people may once for all understand that there is no other bond in the church but Christ our Lord, who withdraws us from the dissipations of the world to place us in the society of his body, to the end that by his only Word and by his Spirit, we may be united in one heart and one thought!

‘Strasburg, the 1st day of September, 1539.’

This letter found its way wherever the great question of the age was discussed, and made a deep impression. There were in it an impulse, a strength, a freedom, and a life which people were not accustomed to find in the writings of the Roman doctors. Luther greatly rejoiced in it, and soon after its publication sent a ‘respectful’ greeting to Calvin. At the same time, struck by the Romish presumption of Sadoleto, he added, with a touch of malice, ‘I wish that Sadoleto could believe that God is the Creator of men even beyond the borders of Italy.’[802] He expressed his joy that God raised up men like Calvin, and, far from looking on him as an antagonist, he saw in him a doctor who would continue what he had himself begun against Antichrist, and with God’s help would complete it.

[Sidenote: EFFECT OF THE REPLY AT GENEVA.]

But it was especially at Geneva that Calvin’s letter made a deep impression. The respect which he had shown to Sadoleto prepossessed people in his favor; and the eloquence of his discourse, that gift of the soul which he possessed, made him master of men’s minds. In his thought and in his expressions there was a close correspondence with the disposition of a large number of his readers. Moreover, it was impossible to read the two letters without seeing that the young evangelical doctor had beaten the Roman cardinal. And then, was not the cause in behalf of which Calvin had given battle that of Geneva? Was not the defeat of Sadoleto, and thereby also that of his constituents, the pope and the conference of Lyons, the greatest service that could be rendered to the republic? And finally had not this man whom they had driven away spoken of the town which had expelled him with fatherly love? Did he not say in his letter, ‘I cannot divert my attention from the Church of Geneva; I cannot love it less nor hold it less dear than my own soul.... Consider what folly it would be not to lay to heart the ruin of those for whose protection I am bound to watch day and night.’

Sadoleto could not conceal from himself the force of the blow which he had received, nor did he venture to reply. The general himself being beaten, the staff dispersed. There was nothing more said about the conference of Lyons, and the Bishop de la Baume was not long before he disappeared from the scenes of this world. At the same time that Calvin replied to Sadoleto, he wrote to Neuchâtel, Lausanne, and Geneva. He called the inhabitants of the latter town to repentance towards God, to patient bearing with the wicked, and to peace with their pastors; and above all he exhorted them to call upon God.[803] Geneva was confirmed in her love for a cause which had been so well defended against the attacks of one of the most distinguished orators of the age, and the gates of the city, lately closed against the reformer, began to open again.

Calvin had at this time to do with another Catholic doctor of much less worth than Sadoleto, Caroli. This man is not worth the trouble of dwelling long on anything that concerns him. As he had not succeeded in gaining the good graces of the pope or of the Cardinal Tournon, he made one more change and turned anew towards the reformers. Farel received him with much kindness, believed in his promises and made peace with him. Caroli came to Strasburg. Bucer, as kind by nature as Farel, nevertheless requested Calvin to make known all the faults of the adventurer. This the reformer declined to do, believing that it would have no good result; but he invited the haughty doctor to confess cordially and sincerely that he had sinned. Instead of this a writing was handed to Calvin in which Caroli said, ‘that he left to the judgment of the Lord the offences which had been committed against himself, and which had induced him to quit the Evangelical Church.’ The reformer was indignant. ‘This stirred my bile so much,’ said he, ‘that I discharged it with bitterness. I declared that I would sooner die than sign such a paper as that.’ He yielded, however, a little to his friends, and said that he would consider the matter with more care before giving a decisive answer. Hardly had he returned to his own house when he was seized with an extraordinary paroxysm. ‘I could find no consolation,’ said he to Farel, ‘but in sighs and tears; and what afflicted me most was the circumstance that you were the cause of all this mischief. You ought not to have received him anew into our communion until he solemnly confessed his offence and declared that he repented of it. But now that you have received him, prevent at least your people from insulting him.’[804] Ere long, however, Calvin’s friends at Strasburg and Farel himself acknowledged that they had been too indulgent. Caroli, finding that the churches of Neuchâtel and Strasburg refused to comply with the requests that he addressed to them, retired to Metz. From that place he wrote to Calvin a letter in which he offered to be reconciled with him if he would get a benefice for him. He seemed to wish to overawe him by reproaches and idle bravado. Calvin asked him how it came to pass that he had made a boast before the adversaries of Christ at Metz that he was prepared to convict of heresy the reformer and his friends. He added that he was not able to procure for him the church which he asked for, in the first place because he had none at his disposal, and further because he could not do so while they were not in agreement about doctrines. ‘Turn you seriously to the Lord,’ he said to him, ‘and then you will be able to return to us with that friendship and brotherly concord which Farel and I are prepared, in that case, to show you.’ Caroli did not adopt this friendly council. He returned to Rome, and died in a hospital there of want and, it is said, of foul diseases.[805]