XCII.—To Viret.[364]

Disquietude of Calvin on occasion of the acts of the Synod of Berne.

Geneva, [August 1542.]

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.

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.]