[475] See note 1, p. 439, and Hist. Eccl., tom. i. p. 80.
[476] Of this number was doubtless the learned Danes, Professor of Greek in Paris, who at that time manifested favourable dispositions towards the Reformation. At a later period he became the preceptor of Francis II., a bishop, and a persecutor.—Hist. Eccl., tom. i. p. 48.
[477] Written to Viret in the outpouring of an unconstrained friendship, and pilfered from his master by an unfaithful valet, this letter became the subject, in 1548, of a formal accusation brought against Calvin before the Seigneury of Geneva, by Eremite Defrique Trolliet, one of the chiefs of the party of the Libertines. See on this affair the Correspondence of the Reformer with Farel and Viret, September 1548.
[478] He had resigned the office of Syndic and of Lieutenant of the Police of Geneva.
[479] In retirement at Geneva in 1543, the celebrated French poet, Clement Marot, had been charged, at the request of Calvin, with the translation of the Psalms in verse. Extracts of Registers of the Council, 15th October: "Calvin offers to engage Clement Marot to put the Psalms of David in verse." The same year fifty Psalms were printed at Geneva, with a preface by Calvin, which is found at the beginning of the subsequent editions of 1551, 1556, 1563. The work of Clement Marot was finished by Theodore de Bèze.
[480] Oswald Myconius had written on the 6th March to thank Calvin for sending him the book intituled, "Supplex Exhortatio ad Cæsarem Carolum V. et Illustriss. Principes aliosque ordines Spiræ nunc Imperii Conventum Agentes, ut Restituendæ Ecclesiæ curam serio suscipere velint, Genevæ, 1543." Translated into French in 1544; a writing much praised by Bucer and Beza. See the Letter of Myconius to Calvin.—Calv. Opera, p. 34.
[481] The Imperial Diet was then met at Worms. The Roman prelates were preparing for the celebration of the approaching Council by a life of gaiety and dissipation:—"Larvati ut non cognoscantur domos intrant civium; ibi edunt, bibunt, ludunt, saltant, libidinantur, &c., præparationes dignæ sive ad comitia, sive ad Concilium."—Myconius Calvino, 6th March 1545.
[482] The plague had then broken out afresh and was raging at Geneva.
[483] See Spon, Hist. de Genève, tom. i. p. 283;—the details relating to that fearful conspiracy.
[484] See notes, pp. 430, 431, 432.