Jean Calvin - Letters of John Calvin, Volume II

Nicolas Zerkinden, senator of Berne, prefect of the town of Nyon.

The establishment of discipline in the churches of the Pays de Vaud.

An ordinance had recently interdicted the use of slashed breeches at Geneva. The reason which Calvin gives for this prohibition may be seen in a subsequent letter to the faithful of France, (24th July 1547.)

John de Budé, Sieur de Vérace. See note 1, p. 90.

Amy Perrin.

See the notice concerning the family of Budé, p. 90. We believe, contrary to the opinion of M. Galiffe, Notices Généalogiques , tom. iii. p. 83, that this letter is addressed to Louis or to Francis Budé, and not to John de Budé, Sieur de Vérace, their brother. This latter had already made a journey to Geneva, and he was known to the Reformer, who had introduced him in very kind terms to M. de Falais. – Letter of 4th June 1547, p. 118. It is not then to the Sieur de Vérace, that the first words of Calvin's letter can apply, but to one of his brothers: "Although I am personally unknown to you, I do not on that account hesitate to write you privately, in the hope that my letter will be welcome," &c. The family of Budé were then preparing to leave France. Two years afterwards, they settled at Geneva, as appears from their registration in the list of the inhabitants, 27th June 1549, and the following passage of a letter from Viret to Calvin, 12th June of the same year: " I rejoice that the Budé have arrived, along with their mother. " – MSS. of the Library of Geneva.

"Complaint of Calvin against the wife of Amy Perrin, who insulted the minister Abel in full Consistory." – Registers of Council , 24th June.

The import of this note, written in the Savoyard language, and affixed to the pulpit of the ministers, was, "that people did not wish to have so many masters; that they (the ministers) had now gone far enough in their course of censure; that the renegade monks like them had done nothing more than afflict all the world in this way; that if they persisted in their course, people would be reduced to such a condition that they would curse the hour in which they emerged from the rule of monachism; and that they (the ministers) should take care lest as much should be done to them as was done to the Canon Vernly of Fribourg." The last passage was equivalent to a threat of death.

The former canon, Jacques Gruet, of dissolute manners, of licentious and perverse doctrine, constantly opposed to the ministers, and intolerant of all rule in the Church as in the State, had lain under the imputation of having been the instigator of the attempt at poisoning Viret in 1535. – Histoire de la Suisse , vol. xi. p. 364.

Pierre Vandel, one of the chief of the reprobate children of Geneva. Handsome and brilliant, he loved to exhibit himself surrounded by valets and courtezans, with rings on his fingers, and his breast covered with gold chains. He had been imprisoned on account of his debaucheries, and his insolent behaviour before the Consistory.

Doctor Chelius, in the handwriting of Calvin.

Henry of Brunswick.

The personage here designated is doubtless Erich, hereditary prince of Sweden, who ascended the throne in 1560, and was deposed in 1568.

A common interest at that time conciliated the King of France and the Swiss. The ambassadors of Henry II., Brissac and Marillac, assured Geneva of the friendship of the King, and took in charge letters of Calvin to the Helvetic Churches. – Histoire de la Suisse , vol. xi. p. 358.

The minister Francis Perucel, called La Rivière.

Intimidated by the defeat of the Elector of Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse had submitted himself to the Emperor, and only obtained his pardon by imploring it upon his knees, and surrendering his person and states into the power of this prince.

Amy Perrin. His wife, daughter of a rich burgess, François Favre d'Echallens, and reprimanded incessantly by the Consistory, was the implacable enemy of the ministers and of Calvin.

Jacques Gruet, formerly a Canon, and a man of licentious and irregular morals, impatient of all restraint either of Church or State. Severely censured by the ministers on account of his debaucheries, he had uttered threats of death against them, which he even ventured to affix to the pulpit of St. Peter's Church. His trial, conducted with all the rigour of that period, terminated by a sentence of capital punishment. Condemned for sedition, blasphemy, and atheism, he perished on the scaffold the 26th July 1547.

Subjected to torture, Gruet admitted his guilt, and as well on the ground of his impious and blasphemous productions, as of a letter written to a private individual, in which he exhorted the Duke of Savoy to turn his arms against Geneva, he was condemned to death. It appeared, according to the letter of Calvin to Viret, of which a fragment is here reproduced, that this sentence was not unanimous, and that Gruet reckoned up to this time, in the councils of the republic, friends or accomplices who were desirous of saving him. This did not prevent his execution on the 26th July 1547, and the example threw terror into the ranks of the party of the Libertins. On the trial of Gruet, see the various historians of Geneva, – Spon, Picot, and the Histoire de la Suisse , vol. xi. pp. 364, 365.

Entitled : To our very dear lords and brethren who desire the advancement of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ils font des mauvais chevaulx à mordre et à regimber.

Francis Baudouin of Arras, a distinguished lawyer, fled to Geneva on account of religion. He became the friend and the secretary of Calvin, whose opinions at a later period he attacked, and betrayed his confidence by robbing him of his most precious papers. – (See Drelincourt, Defence of Calvin, pp. 251, 252.) Called successively as Professor of Law to Bourges, to Strasbourg, and to Heidelberg, Baudouin died in 1573, leaving the reputation of one of the most learned men of his time, and of a most versatile spirit in matters of religion. It has been justly said of him, that he was a Roman Catholic in France, a Lutheran at Strasbourg, and a Calvinist at Geneva.

See note 1, p. 111. Dryander seems at this period to have filled the office of secretary to M. de Falais. He carried on at the same time a correspondence with Calvin, expressing the highest esteem for his character and talents. – Library of Geneva , Vol. 110. One of his brothers, John Ensinas, had been burnt at Rome in 1545, a martyr to the Protestant faith.

Some Flemish and French refugees had already formed a community at Vezel, which was enlarged in 1553 by the dispersion of the foreign congregation of London, and which was constituted as a church by the minister Francis Pérucel, called La Rivière.

Jacques Gruet. See p. 128.

Amy Perrin.

Isaiah lix. 15.

Of Mademoiselle de Wilergy.