Two years had scarcely passed away since the banishment of Calvin, and already the victorious party, left to itself, had exhausted itself with its own excess and disorders. Of the four Syndics who pronounced the expulsion of the ministers, two were exiled to Berne; the other two had perished by a violent death.—Spon, Hist. de Genève, liv. i. pp. 280-282. Anarchy produced its ordinary fruit, regret for the absence of authority. Taught by severe experience, the people of Geneva demanded to have Calvin brought back again, and the new Syndics,—organs of the popular sentiment, sought to recall him.—Arch. of Geneva, Registres du Conseil, ann. 1540, passim.
[226] The bearer of this letter was Amy Perrin, who sought anxiously to bring about the recall of the Reformer, whose most determined adversary he became some years afterwards at Geneva.—Spon, tom. i. p. 283. Note P.
[227] In accordance with the desire expressed by the ministers of the Church at Strasbourg, Calvin had repaired to the Diet at Worms, to assist at the conferences which were about to take place between the theologians of the two modes of worship. It was in this town that he received the deputies of the Council of Geneva, bearers of the following letter:—
To Doctor Calvin, Minister of the Gospel.
Monsieur, our good brother and special friend,—We commend ourselves very affectionately unto you, for that we are thoroughly informed that you have no other desire than the growth and advancement of the glory and honour of God, and of his sacred and holy word. On the part of our lesser, great, and general councils, (which hereupon have strongly admonished us,) we pray you very earnestly that you would transfer yourself hitherward to us, and return to your old place and former ministry; and we hope, with the help of God, that this shall be a great benefit, and fruitful for the increase of the holy Evangel, seeing that our people greatly desire you among us, and will conduct themselves toward you in such sort, that you shall have occasion to rest content.—Your good friends,
The Syndics and Council of Geneva.
This 22d October 1540.
With the seal: Post tenebras spero lucem.
[228] The Conferences of Worms, where Melanchthon and Eck appeared as the principal actors, were in fact broken off at the request of the Emperor, and resumed with greater éclat the year following at the Diet of Ratisbon. Calvin went thither, and his wonderful intelligence procured for him, on the acknowledgment of Melanchthon himself, the surname of Theologian. He retraced the picture of that Assembly in several of his Latin letters, and above all, in the following writing:—"The Proceedings of the Imperial Diet held in the City of Regensbourg, otherwise called Ratisbon, the year one thousand five hundred forty and one, about the differences which are at present concerning Religion." Geneva, 1541.
[229] From the Assembly at Worms, where he sustained with Bucer and Melanchthon the weighty interests of the Reformation, Calvin cast a look of attentive regard on the humble parish of which he was the pastor at Strasbourg, and addressed to the Deacon Nicolas Parent, who was charged with the duty of supplying his place while absent, several letters, animated with the most lively interest in the spiritual wellbeing of his parishioners.