CCXLIV.—To Bucer.[237]

Encouragements and consolations—desire for the conclusion of peace between France and England—excesses of the ultra-Lutheran party in Switzerland and Germany—agreement between the Churches of Geneva and Zurich.

June 1549.

Although your letter was mixed with joy and sorrow, yet it was extremely pleasant to me. Would that I were able in some measure to lighten the sufferings of your heart, and those cares by which I see you are tortured! We all beseech you, again and again, not to keep afflicting yourself to no purpose. Yet it is neither proper in itself, nor is it in keeping with your piety, nor should we desire to see it, that amid such various and manifold causes for grief, you should be joyous and cheerful. You should make it your study, however, to serve the Lord and the Church as far as you have opportunity. You have indeed run a long race, but you know not how much may be still before you. It may be that I, who have just commenced the race, am at present nearer to the goal. But the direction and the termination of your course are alike in the hand of the Lord. I am a daily witness to many deaths, in order that I may be made as active as possible amid the dangers which threaten us from many quarters. Just as wars keep you busy where you are, so we here give way to sluggish fears. I trust, however, that the internal tumults are already calmed; and there is a report of a cessation of hostilities between you and the French.[238] Would that a plan of stable peace could be agreed upon: for we see that trainer of gladiators, who is bringing these two kingdoms into conflict, in the meantime laughing at his ease, and ready to seize any turn of fortune, in order that he may attack the victor with fresh forces, and gather the spoils of the vanquished without sweat and blood, and thus triumph over and carry off the booty from both.[239] But when I reflect on the wicked counsels by which France is ruled, I almost despair of this matter. Indeed, they fear him more than enough; but, by haughtily despising others, they do not guard themselves against his craft. And indeed the Lord is by this blindness justly avenging, as I take it, their atrocious cruelty to his saints, which is daily increasing. Just as their wickedness is gathering strength, and is continually becoming worse, so I pray that the English may, with a contrary emulation, make a stand for the genuine purity of Christianity, until everything in that country is seen to be regulated according to the rule which Christ himself has laid down. As you wished, and as the present state of things urgently demanded, I have attempted to encourage the Lord Protector; and it will be your duty to insist by all means, if you get a hearing—and of that I am persuaded—that those rites which savour of superstition be entirely removed. I particularly commend this to you, that you thereby may free yourself of a charge which many, as you know, falsely bring against you; for they always regard you as either the author or approver of half measures. I know that this suspicion is fixed too deeply in the minds of some to be easily rooted out, even if you do your best. And some have been led to calumniate you spitefully for no error whatever. This is accordingly damaging to you, in some measure fatal, as you can with difficulty escape from it. However, you must be on your guard, lest occasion of suspicion be afforded the ignorant: the wicked eagerly snatch at any pretext for abuse. I am exceedingly sorry that N.[240] is annoying you without cause. Would that he would learn humanity some time! I am the more ready to pardon him, as he seems to me to be so moved by malice, as to be driven by a blind impulse. You cannot credit how bitterly he has wounded us at times; alike the innocent, the absent, and the friendly. When Viret was well nigh overcome by the very great injustice of some, and by the perfidiousness of others, he was as violently attacked by this individual, as if he had been the most infamous traitor to the Church. He would certainly accustom himself to mildness if he knew what hurt is done by the intemperateness of his too fervid zeal and immoderate severity. You must endure with your accustomed forbearance this and other indignities offered to you. The people of Zurich, certainly, did not approve of his cause. I differ from you somewhat in this matter; in that, you think injury will be done to the opposite party. For while you think that they would never labour under such gross hallucinations as to imagine that Christ was diffused everywhere, you do not hold what Brentius, among others, has written, that when Christ was lying in the manger he was, even as to his body, full of glory in heaven. And to speak more plainly, you know that the Popish doctrine is more moderate and sober than that of Amsdorf,[241] and those resembling him, who have raved as if they were the priestesses of Apollo. You know how cruelly Master Philip has been annoyed, because he observed a certain degree of moderation. In their madness they even drew idolatry after them. For what else is the adorable sacrament of Luther but an idol set up in the temple of God? I desired, however, to see all these things buried. Indeed I have done my utmost among our neighbours to keep them from railing; yet as it afforded them satisfaction, I did not hesitate, the names being suppressed, to condemn all the errors to which I was expressly opposed. You certainly seem to me to enter with too much subtlety into the discussion about place. Others are more seriously offended by your obscurity, which they think you have studied craftily to employ. I know indeed that in this they are wrong. But I do not see why you should shrink so much from what we teach; that when Christ is said to have ascended into heaven, there is affirmed by this expression a diversity of places. For it is not disputed here whether there is place in celestial glory, but only whether the body of Christ is in the world. As the Scriptures have borne clear testimony on that point, I have no hesitation in embracing it as an article of faith. And yet, as you will find from our document,[242] this was yielded to the fretfulness of some, not without a struggle: for I had framed the words differently. Nothing was comprised in this formula which we employed, except what I perceived it would be scrupulousness not to concede to others. You wish piously and wisely, to explain more clearly and fully the effect of the Sacrament, and what the Lord bestows through it. Nor indeed was it owing to me that they were not fuller on some points. Let us bear therefore with a sigh what we cannot correct. You will find here a copy of the document which they sent me. The two paragraphs which you feared they would not admit, were readily adopted. Had the rest imitated the calmness of Bullinger, I should have obtained all more easily. It is well, however, that we have agreed about the truth, and that we are at one in the most important sense. It would be exceedingly appropriate for you to modify these two theses somewhat, in order to bring out more clearly that you place Christ apart from us who are in the world, by a diversity of place; in the second place, that you might discard the more obviously all those false inventions by which the minds of men have been led to superstition; and above all, that you might vindicate the glory of the Holy Spirit and of Christ, lest aught should be attributed to the ministers or to the elements. At the commencement of our deliberations, agreement seemed really hopeless. Light suddenly broke forth. Our forefathers wished to deliberate with other Churches. We agreed without difficulty. N.'s dissension must be borne with equanimity. Farel, as you will see, writes you at great length. Viret dare not, for you cannot believe how unjustly he is treated. He salutes you as dutifully as he can, and wishes you to excuse him. All my colleagues, also, salute you respectfully. There is nothing new here except that Zurich and Berne have cut off all hopes of an alliance with France.[243] Adieu, very illustrious sir, and father in the Lord, truly worthy of my regard.

John Calvin.

[Calvin's Lat. Corresp. Opera, tom. ix. p. 49.]