[465] A letter without address and without date, probably written to one of the friends of the Reformer in France,—perhaps Louis du Chemin, or Francis Daniel,—who, while sincerely adhering to the doctrine of the Reformed, kept up in appearance their connection with the Roman Catholic Church. It is to this enlightened but timid class of men that two writings, submitted by Calvin to the approbation of Luther, were specially addressed. See two preceding Letters. "These writings," says Beza, "were the cause of a great blessing, several persons having resolved to devote themselves to God's service, who had formerly been asleep in their uncleanness."—Hist. Eccl., tom. i. p. 49. But we know not who is the individual to whom Calvin addresses warnings against the seductions of the Court of Rome, and in the absence of certain knowledge, we are only left to conjecture.
[466] See note 1, p. 438.
[467] It is the same thought confirmed by the events which the Reformer expressed six years later, in the preface of the Commentary on the Canonical Epistles, dedicated to the King of England.—"But although the venerable fathers had begun to dazzle the eyes of the simple with some Will-o'-the-Wisp stories about the sitting of a Council, all this shining deceptious appearance having been dissipated by a secret whisper suddenly mooted by the See of Rome, vanished in smoke, except, that in order to keep up the excitement, a little cloud hovered for a season over Bologna."—Dedication to King Edward VI., 26th January 1551, édit. de Genève, 1562.
[468] See Sleidan, lib. xvi., pp. 455, 456.
[469] See the note 1, p. 437.
[470] See the note 2, p. 434.
[471] See the Letter to the Ministers of Neuchatel, p. 410.
[472] This was, doubtless, the celebrated printer of Paris, Robert Etienne, who retired in 1551 to Geneva.
[473] William du Bellay had died in 1543, without realizing the hope which the Reformers of Germany and Switzerland had rested on his character and talents, for the spread of the Gospel in France. (See note 1, p. 58.) Th. de Bèze accuses him of double-dealing, and stigmatizes him as "rather the servant of the king than of God."—Hist. Eccl., tom. i. p. 22. Sleidan is less severe; witness the fine éloge he has written of the Lord of Langey, lib. xv. pp. 424-426.
[474] The work of Viret which is here alluded to, is without doubt, the following:—Deux Discours addressés aux Fidèles qui sont parmi les Papistes, in 8vo, Genève, 1544.