CALVIN AND FAREL AT BERNE.
When they reached Berne, Calvin and Farel found their friends in great astonishment at what had taken place. The latter told them that if they were not wanted at Geneva, they should stay at Berne. ‘It would be unpardonable in you,’ they added, ‘to refuse such a call.’[717] To be at Berne with Kunz would have been to abandon their lives to perpetual dissension. They were in haste to be gone. However, they were anxious to express their gratitude to the senate for its conduct towards them, and for that purpose they requested an audience. They were put off to the following day. Remembering all the delays of their recent sojourn, fearing lest they should find themselves beset by claims to which they could not yield, and believing that they had discharged their duty to the council by the request which they had made, they departed for Basel. They did not reach the city without encountering danger on the way. They had to cross a river, believed to be the Aar, and one of them was almost carried away by the swift current, which was swollen by the rain. ‘However,’ wrote Calvin to Viret, ‘the river was more merciful to us than men. The latter had determined, contrary to all right and reason, to compel us to undertake this journey, even were it on foot; but the Lord, in his compassion, preserved us from all evil.’ From the postscript to the same letter it appears that Farel and Calvin crossed the river on horseback. It is not known which of the two narrowly escaped drowning. They arrived at Basel, wet through with the rain, and half dead with fatigue.
At Basel Calvin found a valued friend, Grynæus. Already during the stay of the two reformers at Berne he had written to them—‘I hope that by your Christian meekness and your humility you will overcome all your adversaries, and take away from the enemies of the Gospel every occasion of calumniating you. Oh, that the eyes now sparkling with the fire of Satan may be cast down, and that the passion with which men are inflamed against your ministry may be quenched![718] Work on, work on, my well-beloved brethren, hearts most noble and most holy (optima ac sanctissima pectora); be ready for the conflict, arrayed in the whole armor of Christian warfare, ready and willing, especially at this time, when iniquity prevails, to lead us on with heroic fidelity. Let us apply ourselves to the work of the Lord with unconquerable hearts. The hatred of those who in this proceeding show themselves so worthy of hatred will not win the day. For our part, we are of those who can pray for our enemies, much more support and embrace them. Let not the senseless judgment of the people, let not the foolish and futile dread of popular opinion, disturb you in the least. Rule and protect this Church, which threatens to fall, by your courage and your persistency. How glorious is the function you will discharge! How solid and real the praise which you will deserve if, completely forgetting yourselves in this cause, you think of Jesus Christ alone!’
THEIR RECEPTION.
We can imagine how affectionately Grynæus and his friends received the two brethren banished on account of the noble fidelity which they had displayed. Grynæus had already invited the reformer, while he was still at Geneva, to go to his house rather than bend under the yoke which his enemies wished to put on him. ‘We welcome thee joyfully,’ he said to Calvin afterwards, ‘as our brother in the Lord, and we embrace thee as a distinguished ornament of our Church.’[719] Calvin therefore abode with Grynæus at Basel, where the most brotherly hospitality was shown him. Farel took up his abode in the house of the famous printer, Oporin.
Calvin and Farel bore their great trial with much patience and meekness, forgiving their enemies and praying for them, and endeavoring to avoid everything which might become an occasion of grief to their brethren. Viret was very anxious to see them and to share their tribulations. ‘Thou knowest well,’ replied Calvin to him, ‘that no greater happiness could befall us at this moment than to talk with thee for a short time. But the danger to which the journey would expose thee checks our desire: thou wouldst reap more hatred from it than we should joy.’ Thus did Calvin think of his friends before thinking of himself. It appears, however, that Viret did see him at Basel.[720] This was doubtless at a later period. Calvin was anxious to avoid everything which might lead to any useless dispute. ‘I beg of thee, my dear brother,’ he said to Farel, ‘take pains in these evil times to preserve whatever can be tolerated. Our brethren must not so obstinately dispute about mere ceremonies. Let us be free; but let us be the slaves of concord and of peace.’[721] ‘What I have above all at heart,’ he said further to him, ‘is that we may not cause new quarrels, nor be the occasion of any strife.’
At the same time, nevertheless, one of the first things which the reformers had done after their arrival at Basel was to give an account of what had befallen them to their brethren of Zurich and Strasburg. Their enemies did not cease, indeed, to pursue them with their accusations; and those who had forced them to leave Geneva cried out that they were schismatics, forgetting that they themselves had compelled the two reformers to separate from their Church. Such is party logic. Calvin, Farel, and their friends, therefore, thought it advisable to hold a meeting at which delegates from the towns of Zurich, Berne, Basel, Strasburg, and one of that place (un dudit lieu) (probably Geneva), should attend, and at which it should be ‘declared that they had duly and faithfully administered their office.’[722] They did not, however, eagerly press for this. They knew that their judge was in heaven. ‘I can do nothing,’ said Calvin, ‘but commend the issue to the great physician, who alone can provide for it and give it shape.’[723]
CALLS AND HESITATIONS.
If Calvin committed himself to God as to his past, he did the same as to his future. ‘I withdraw to Basel,’ he says, in the same letter, ‘awaiting what the Lord will do with me.’ Calls were not wanting. They wished to retain him at Basel. Toussaint desired that he should settle at Lausanne, or in the canton of Berne, that he might there be an example of decision and devotion. Others thought it their duty to recommend him to the Duke of Würtemburg.[724] But Strasburg appeared to be the place to choose. Already in November, 1536, Bucer, delighted with the Institution, which had just appeared, had asked for an interview with Calvin. ‘We will go wherever you wish for the purpose of conferring with you on the whole doctrine of Christ.’[725] They saw each other subsequently at Berne and at Zurich. Bucer and Capito, now that they knew he was at liberty and staying at Basel, did not fail to press him to come to them. At the beginning of July he went to Strasburg. ‘I have been so earnestly entreated to come by the two chief ministers of this town,’ he wrote on the 10th of that month, ‘that to satisfy them I have made a journey hither.’[726] It did not at that time appear likely to him that he was to settle there. The terrible conflicts through which he had passed at Geneva made him view with alarm the proposal to accept a new ministry. He recurred to his studious projects. ‘I shrink, above all things,’ said he, ‘from reëntering on the office from which I am delivered, considering in what perplexities I was involved from the time when I was first engaged in it.’ He adds, ‘there are other reasons which I can explain only by word of mouth.’ What were these? Doubtless the too accommodating theology of the doctors of that town. Basel was his favorite city. He returned thither, saying, ‘It is not the fault of the Strasburgers that I am not their guest, but they have burden enough without me.’ He might, however, have found good reasons for accepting their invitation, for his poverty was so great that he found it necessary to sell ‘a part of his books’ for his maintenance.[727]
The entreaties of the Strasburgers, nevertheless, became more urgent. They wrote to Grynæus to do all he could to induce Calvin to settle at Strasburg: only they would rather that he should come without Farel, because they were afraid that, if the two Frenchmen were together, the Germans would have too great difficulty in bending them to their views. This was also the opinion of Grynæus. To give up Farel entirely was too great a sacrifice for Calvin to make. He again declined the offer, giving as his reason the condition which was imposed on him not to take Farel with him.[728] ‘I await thy counsel,’ wrote Calvin to his friend; and impelled by the warmest affection for this man of God, he adds, ‘O that I could now fly to thee! I am only held back by the strongest motives.’