[149] A party, growing every day more numerous at Geneva, deplored the exile of Calvin. As the organ of that sentiment, M. Du Tailly incessantly exhorted the Reformer to forget the injury which had been done him, and to restore peace to the congregation and church at Geneva by his return. Calvin would by no means separate his cause from that of Farel, so as to make his return a personal matter to himself, and not, as it was, a question of principle. Therefore, he felt little disposed to resume the function of the ministry at Geneva.
[150] Louis du Tillet.
[151] The alliance of Smalkald, which the intrigues of the Catholic party endeavoured to break up, in the Assembly at Frankfort.
[152] The town of Strasbourg.
[153] From Neuchatel Farel observed attentively the progress of events at Geneva, and sent intelligence thereof to Calvin.
[154] The Church of Payerne, founded by the preaching of Farel and Viret.
[155] The minister Gaspar Grossman, (Megander,) had been discharged in 1537, by the Senate of Berne, for having composed a Catechism, which, on some points, did not agree with that of Bucer. Zebedee, minister of Orbe, had been censured for the same reason.
[156] The friends of Calvin at Strasbourg and in Switzerland were bent on bringing about the marriage of the Reformer. Farel and Bucer displayed the most active zeal in the prosecution of their matrimonial project; and it is known that Calvin's marriage, which took place the following year, may be attributed to the management of the latter.—Th. de Bèze, Calvini Vita.
[157] A letter, written in French, like that of the 1st October 1538,—"To the residue of the dispersion of the Church of Geneva." The French original is lost. It is preserved only in the Latin translation by Theodore Beza. We perceive in it the peculiar circumstances in which the Reformer retired to Strasbourg,—saw it to be his duty a second time to exhort the Church of Geneva. Discord among the members of that Church had never ceased from the time of their being deprived of their first pastors. The authority of the new ministers was constantly treated with contempt, and the town, scarcely reformed, had to struggle with the old disorders, aggravated by the excesses arising from the schism. Observant of these sad divisions, and superior to the resentment of injury personal to himself, Calvin exhorted the members of his old flock, reminded them of the holy sanction of the ministerial charge, and implored them to rally around their lawful pastors.
[158] Mal. ii. 7; 2 Cor. v. 20; 1 Thess. v. 13.