On February 23 the emperor had arrived at Ratisbon. Electors, princes, archbishops, bishops, and lords of all degrees had gathered around the chief of the empire, and all contributed by their presence to give special importance to the assembly. They wished by subtle negotiations to make an end of the Reformation. Never had there been so great danger for the Protestant opposition of being weakened and dissolved into the Romish hierarchical system. The pope had sent to Germany the amiable and pious Contarini as a capital bait for the Protestants; and these, when once caught, he would have thrown into his own fish-pond, and carefully secured them there. Melanchthon himself had desired that Calvin should attend the assembly, because he felt sure that the young doctor would do there what he himself would not have resolution enough to do. Calvin’s part at Ratisbon was not only to see what others did not see, but also to cry out to his too confiding friends—Beware! The time which he spent at this Germanic diet forms one of the most important epochs of his life; one in which he was called to act on the loftiest stage. The firmness with which he unveiled the designs of the papacy and strengthened the feeble Protestants had much to do with the breaking off of the insidious negotiations which Contarini himself at last felt bound to abandon. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was at this time menaced in Germany. It was necessary to save it. The sayings of Calvin hit hard. Some have said they were exaggerated; and yet ecclesiastical occurrences of succeeding years justified them. Learned and pious Catholics have uttered against Rome many of the same reproaches as the Reformer did. If Calvin did not recognize in the Roman Catholic Church some worthy and truly pious men, he was mistaken. But there is no evidence of such a mistake on his part. When he replies to a discourse of a nephew and legate of the pope—of the pope himself—it is only the Romish hierarchy that he attacks; and the more he finds the Germans disposed to give way, the more he feels it to be his duty to speak clearly, decisively, and courageously. ‘If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself to the battle?’

Speech Of Cardinal Farnese.

Pope Paul III. had sent to the emperor his nephew, Cardinal Farnese, ‘who was only just past boyhood.’ This young prelate had faithfully addressed to Charles V. the discourse which he had received from his uncle; and this was a bill of indictment against the Protestants. To this manifesto of the papacy Calvin felt it to be his duty to reply,[[57]] and thus to re-establish the truth which was trampled under foot. Never, perhaps, had the Reformation and the Papacy come into more direct collision, and this in the persons of their most considerable combatants, and, as it were, in the presence of the emperor and the diet. The epoch at which this dialogue appeared, the distinguished character of the interlocutors, the importance of the subjects discussed, the necessity that a history of the Reformation should not be limited to external movements but should penetrate to principles, and the circumstance that this work of Calvin’s has remained so long unknown—all these considerations compel us to fix our attention upon it. We cannot forget what Luther called ‘the kernel of the nut, the flour of the wheat, and the marrow of the bones.’ The Reformation is above all an idea: it has a soul, a life. It is the depth of this soul that Calvin here lays open. Let the pope and the reformer speak. The latter speaks with all the energy imparted to him by his character, his youth, and his indignation. Pope Paul III. addresses the mighty Emperor of Germany, and we may properly say that Calvin, although indirectly, does the same. This strange colloquy is well worth the trouble of listening to it.

The Pope. ‘We are desirous of the peace and the unity of Germany; but of a peace and a unity which do not constitute a perpetual war against God.’

Calvin. ‘That is to say, against the earthly god, the Roman god. For if he (the pope) wished for peace with the true God, he would live in a different manner; he would teach otherwise and reign otherwise than he does. For his whole existence, his institutions, and his decrees make war on God.’

The Pope. ‘The Protestants are like slippery snakes; they aim at no certain object, and thus show plainly enough that they are altogether enemies of concord, and want, not the suppression of vice, but the overthrow of the apostolic see! We ought not to have any further negotiations with them.’

Calvin. ‘Certainly, there is a snake in the grass here. The pope, who holds in abomination all discussion, cannot hear it spoken of without immediately crying “Fire!” in order to prevent it. Only let any one call to mind all the little assemblies held by the pontiffs these twenty years and more, for the purpose of smothering the Gospel, and then he will see clearly what kind of a reformation they would be willing to accept.[[58]] All men of sound mind see clearly that the question is not only of maintaining the status of the pope as a sovereign and limited episcopacy, but rather of completely setting aside the episcopal office and of establishing in its stead and under its name an antichristian tyranny.[[59]] And not only so, but the adherents of the papacy put men out of their minds by wicked and impious lies, and corrupt the world by numberless examples of debauchery. Not contented with these misdeeds, they exterminate those who strive to restore to the Church a purer doctrine and a more lawful order, or who merely venture to ask for these things.’

The Pope. ‘It is impossible to tell in what way to proceed in order to come to any agreement with such people as these, for they are not in agreement even with one another. The Lutherans want one thing, the Zwinglians want another, to say nothing of other sects.’

Calvin. ‘This is a malicious fiction. Let the institutions of Jesus Christ and the worship of the early church be re-established; let every thing be cast away that is opposed to these, and which can proceed only from Antichrists, and concord will thus be immediately restored among all who are of Christ, whether they be called by their enemies Lutherans or Zwinglians. If there be any who demand other things than those which I have just spoken of, the Protestants do not count them of their number.’[[60]]

The Pope. ‘Even if it were possible to bring about a union, if the Protestants could be brought to obey the holy see, this could not be effected without making many concessions to them.’