[504] The Count Aymar de Grignan, deputy of the King at Worms and governor of Provence, one of the most savage persecutors of the Vaudois.
[505] This Commissary was a creature of the Cardinal de Tournon. The 23d August 1545, the authors of the massacre obtained, by the credit of the Cardinal, letters of approbation from the King, who afterwards, says Beza, "being at the point of death, had amazing remorse on account of this business, and charged his son, with strong protestations, to do justice in the matter."—Hist. Eccl., tom. i. p. 47; De Thou, lib. vi.
[506] See preceding letter.
[507] See the two preceding letters.
[508] Joachim Wadian, Burgomaster of Saint Gall, one of the most learned men of the 16th century. Educated at the University of Vienne, he there distinguished himself by an extraordinary aptness in the cultivation of literature and the sciences, and cultivated with equal success, poetry, eloquence, medicine, and mathematics; he travelled the principal countries of Europe, and returning to Saint Gall his native country, corresponded with some of the most illustrious persons of his time who honoured his genius and his virtues. United by the ties of friendship to the Swiss and German Reformers, he powerfully contributed to the establishment of the Reform in his country. An upright magistrate, a conciliatory theologian, an able statesman, he formed the connecting link of important negotiations between the different Swiss Churches, and died in 1550, leaving an illustrious name and revered memory. His books and his manuscripts, carefully preserved in his native town, form the principal basis of the Town Library of Saint Gall, called sometimes after his name, the Library of Wadian. See Melchior Adam, Vitæ Germanorum Medicorum. Edit. 1706, p. 24.
[509] Alluding to the quarrel about the Sacraments. While he freely admitted an interpretation opposed to that of Luther in regard to the Supper, Joachim Wadian had always shewn great deference for the Reformers of Germany, and animated by the desire of bringing about an accommodation between the Churches divided upon that fatal question, he published in 1536, a book entitled, "Aphorismorum Libri Sex de consideratione Eucharistiæ," which he sent along with a respectful letter to Luther.—See Hospinian, Hist. Sacrament., tom. ii. pp. 270, 271.
[510] See the preceding letters.
[511] It ceased to ravage Geneva only in 1546.
[512] A gentleman of Hanover, a refugee at Geneva.
[513] Another refugee, from Besançon. He was admitted to the ministry in the following year.