[425] One of the Genevese refugees at Berne, belonging to one of the most distinguished families of the republic.
[426] In the original: ἀμνήστιας. During the period of Calvin's banishment to Strasbourg, several parties had arisen at Geneva. The most important was that of the Articulans, or of the Artichaud, whose chiefs, after having possessed supreme power for some time, were either put to death or banished, in consequence of a popular reaction. Several of the exiles retired to Berne, whence, after matters in dispute had been arranged between the two cities, they were permitted to return to Geneva—Spon, Hist. de Genève, tom. i. pp. 281, 282, Note O.
[427] Without doubt the Dialogues of Viret, Dialogi de Confusione Mundi, published in Latin and French. Geneva, 1545.
[428] "It was," says Th. de Bèze, "in this year (1543) that those of Sorbonne, with the connivance of the bishops, usurped the authority of making articles of faith on the controverted questions of our time in the matter of religion."—Hist. Eccl. tom. i. p. 33. It was not Viret who replied to that strange pretension of the Sorbonne, but Calvin. The answer of the Reformer, a model of pith and irony, appeared in 1544, under the title, Les Articles de la Sacrée Faculté de Théologie de Paris, avec le Remède contre le Poison.—Recueil des Opuscules, p. 71.
[429] Brieve Instruction pour armer tout bon Fidèle contre les Erreurs de la Secte Commune des Anobaptistes: Geneva, 1544. Inserted in the Recueil des Opuscules, with a preface by Calvin to the Ministers of the Churches of the county of Neuchatel, 1st June 1544.
[430] Sebastian Castalio.
[431] The Doctor John Chaponneau, aneien moine of the Abbaye of Saint Amboise, at Bourges, become minister of the Church of Neuchatel, had attacked in some points the doctrine of the book of the "Institution Chrétienne." Calvin answered his observations in a few words. Chaponneau did not feel satisfied, and repeated his attacks with extreme violence. The subject of debate was the Divinity of Christ, seriously altered by the rash interpretations of Chaponneau. The reply of the Reformer, written at the request of Farel, was addressed to the pastors of the Church of Neuchatel.
[432] Son-in-law of the minister Chaponneau, whose opinions he no doubt shared.
[433] The celebrated jurisconsult, Andrew Alciat, from Milan, whose instruction Calvin had received at the University of Bourges. He lectured upon Law alternately in the schools of France and Italy, and died in 1546, leaving numerous disciples in the various countries of Europe.
[434] The Church of Geneva, set up as a butt for the attacks and blackening defamation of her maligners who were unwilling to submit to the authority of her discipline, had also to lament the scandales occasioned by the conduct of many of her pastors. Two of Calvin's colleagues, Henry de la Mare and Champereau, were not ashamed to frequent the taverns and cabarets, and so to expose the office of the ministry to the mockeries of insolent raillery, and those who took a pleasure in repeating that the ministers wished to make Canons of them.—Chronique de Roset, lib. v. c. 2 et 3.—Grieved on account of these scandals, but without the power of repressing them, Calvin found vent to his sorrow in the intimacy of his correspondence with Farel and Viret.