known fanatics. They forged the name of the city where, they falsely pretended, this confused treatise had been published, and inserted it in the preface. I afterwards returned an answer to this work, which contained not only the error already mentioned, but many blasphemies, with a view to free Calvin from the troublesome interruption he would have experienced in the prosecution of works of greater importance, especially in writing his very learned commentaries on Genesis, and also in his unwearied labours for warding off other dangers, hereafter to be stated, by which the church was threatened. For the factious persisted in their innovations; and though, on the 2d of February, an amnesty was again ratified in the presence of the senate with a solemn promise, yet they daily increased in wickedness. Calvin continued to be very much occupied, while he laboured by his usual reproofs to recal the abandoned to habits of virtue, and to confirm the good against the vile conduct of the wicked for they had advanced to such a dreadful height of vice, as to parody the word of God itself in obscene songs, and to knock down, and sometimes even to plunder, foreigners, whom they met in the evening. They called in also the private and special assistance of Bolsec, Castellio, and certain other characters, who forsooth displayed great anxiety about the truth, for the purpose of renewing the controversy concerning predestination. They were not satisfied with disseminating that famous anonymous work, replete with calumny, in which Calvin, the faithful servant of God, was reviled in a very surprising manner; but Castellio sent another Latin work to be published secretly at Paris, which I afterwards answered, and Calvin himself refuted some foolish absurdities of the same argument comprehended in certain articles.

Calvin was at this time occupied with the care of the numerous strangers, who had been obliged to quit England, some of whom had retired to Vezel, others to Embden, and the rest to Franckfort, who all frequently solicited his advice.

He was much distressed by the audacity of certain pastors, belonging to the French church at Strasburg, formerly founded by him, who were supported by the secret favour and assistance of some of their colleagues.

The great labours in which Calvin was engaged this year, for the interests of various churches, appear from his numerous letters, by which he induced many princes to embrace the gospel, and confirmed, with very great advantage, many of his brethren, either exposed to the most imminent danger of their lives, or confined in chains.

We have already spoken of the published harmony of the doctrine of the sacraments among all the Swiss and Grison churches, which afforded great joy to the learned and good of all denominations. This harmony displeased the spirit of error, with whose power we are already well acquainted. He easily got one Joachim Westphal to stir up the covered embers, who, having sounded the tocsin, was supported by Heshusius, then minister of the word of God, and now made a bishop, of whom we shall afterwards give a more full account. Calvin published, at that time, an explanation of this harmony, which, in proportion as it excited the furious indignation of these writers, proved more highly useful to all the lovers of truth.

The following year, by the wonderful kindness of God, produced a desired rest for the church and state of Geneva from its domestic contentions. The factious ruined themselves in consequence of the timely detection of a dreadful conspiracy, by the petulance and audacity of certain drunkards concerned in it; some of them were condemned to a capital punishment, and others left their native country. And although they harassed the city for a considerable space of time afterwards, yet all shared at last a shameful death; and in this way exhibited a singular example of the late, but just judgment of God. The republic was thus freed from these pests of society; and God conferred another bless

ing by the answer of the four Swiss states, which was re

turned a short time before this event, whose opinion the senate had determined to take the preceding year, as already stated, concerning the discipline of the church of Geneva. All the edicts of church government, contrary to the expectation of the factious, were ratified, and confirmed by the unanimous suffrages of the citizens.

Calvin was not left without occasion for strenuous exertions, as in foreign affairs he took great pains in promoting the establishment of the churches in Poland, according to the will of the king. The dreadful tempest excited on the change of government in England, hurried away to heaven, along with innumerable others in that country, those three bishops and martyrs of unrivalled piety-Hooper, Ridley, and Latimer, and at length the great Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. Calvin was very much employed in comforting his French brethren in bonds, and especially the five martyrs of most distinguished bravery, who were burned in the most cruel manner at Cambray.

But the ashes of Servetus began again to spring up afresh at home, whose blasphemies were favoured by Matthew Gribaldo, an eminent lawyer, who had accidentally come to Geneva, as Fargias, a village in the neighbourhood of that city, belonged to him. Calvin, on being introduced to him by certain Italians, among whom he had been a teacher at Padua, refused to give him the right hand of fellowship, unless they were agreed about the first article of Christian faith, the sacred Trinity, and the divinity of Christ. Such conduct left no room for exhortations or arguments, and he in reality experienced afterwards, what Calvin even then predicted, that the dreadful judgment of God was impending over him for his obstinate impiety. He first escaped from Tubingen, where he had been introduced by the kindness of Virgerius; and was afterwards taken at Berne, where he renounced his heresies, in order to escape the dangers by which he was threatened. He afterwards returned to his former principles, and became the supporter and guest of

Gentilis, to whose conduct we shall on another occasion revert. He at last died of the plague, by which he was suddenly seized, and thus escaped the punishment prepared for him.

Another circumstance prevented Calvin from experiencing uninterrupted joy this year. A faction arose of a few | neighbouring ministers, who were of their own accord opposed to Calvin, and under the influence of Bolsec. These persons, though of infamous characters, thinking to acquire reputation by attacking so illustrious an adversary, accused him, in scurrilous language, of making God the author of sin, because he taught that nothing is exempted from the eternal providence and appointment of God. Calvin despised at first these calumnies to which we have already alluded, but compelled at last by their railings, solicited permission to repair to Berne, accompanied by envoys from the republic, to maintain the cause of truth before the inhabitants of that city.

After advocating his cause, Castellio was banished with infamy from the territory of Berne, and Bolsec was also ordered to depart; nor did they think it then necessary to draw up any definite articles on the subject discussed, since the Lord himself took his own plans for supporting the interests of his church. Calvin would otherwise have appeared to have gained his object by authority or favour, which was subsequently supported by the voluntary confession of his opponent. For all these calumnies soon afterwards vanished into smoke, and Andrew Zebedee, Calvin's bitterest accuser on this occasion, retracted his errors on his death-bed, after Calvin's decease, having sent for the principal citizens of Newburgh, four miles distance from Geneva. He manifested his perfect detestation of his former conduct, by ordering all his own papers to be burned before his eyes, which was certainly a better decision than if these orders had been issued by a thousand decrees of the senate. (1)

In the following year, Calvin, in consequence of his imprudence, was attacked with a tertian fever when preaching,

and obliged, contrary to his inclination, to leave the pulpit. This circumstance gave rise to many false reports, which were so acceptable to the Roman Catholics, that a solemn procession was held at Noyon, his native city, and the canons returned public thanks to their idols for the death of our reformer. But the prayers of the pious prevailed, and Calvin was so far from falling a victim to the disease, that he seemed, as it were, to be renewed in strength, and commenced an unusually long journey to Franckfort, where he had been invited for the purpose of terminating the disputes of the French church.

Calvin, on his return from Franckfort, though something impaired in his health, did not remit his daily labours, having published, the following year, his remarkably learned Commentaries on the Psalms, accompanied with a very valuable preface. Part of this year, which was very turbulent, and distinguished for tumults, excited by some factious ministers, and by the very great price of wheat, Calvin devoted to the defence of the truth against Joachim Westphal. After Calvin had answered Westphal, in consequence of his continually prating on this subject, I engaged in the controversy myself with a success, by the grace of God, that leaves me no cause to repent of the part I took in this question. Then also the calumnies of Castellio against the eternal providence of God, which he had circulated without affixing his name to the work, were refuted by us both.

The news of the very dreadful persecution of the protestants, which particularly began in Paris, where the congregation in James' Street was seized, assembled for celebrating the Lord's supper, deeply, and in an especial manner affected Calvin. Nearly eighty of them were seized, (the rest escaping by means of the darkness of the night,) and dragged to prison about break of day, with much reproachful and contumelious language, though several ladies were observed among them of the first quality. The courtiers, and circumstances of the times, had awakened the king's anger against