[Geneva, 1552.]
Monseigneur,—Since you esteem your cause with respect to me so good, I shall not add to your satisfaction by avowing myself in the wrong, which indeed would be mere hypocrisy on my part. For I know that I myself had already long ago pointed out to you the conduct of the man, and his acts are moreover matter of public notoriety. Since that time you have bestowed on him such eulogiums, that the person who recited them to me employed these words, that he had never heard of a man held in such esteem. When you went such lengths, after having been duly informed by me, your object in extolling him so highly must have been to have us and our whole doctrine condemned; of which, he has shewn himself so deadly, so furious, and so diabolical an enemy, that he has not blushed to write:—The God of Calvin is hypocritical, mendacious, perfidious, unjust, the provoker and patron of crimes, and worse than the Devil himself. Thus then, that I may express my opinion of you frankly, I ought to renounce God and his truth, as well as the salvation which I hope for through it. Such I believe, is not your intention, but, if from the humanity and mildness of your disposition, you are content not only to remain ignorant of the character of the man who makes war on God, but also, by lending no credit to our testimony, you furnish a handle for rendering us odious, suffer me, I entreat you, to have some zeal in maintaining the honour of my Master. But you will say, that I should at least have given you some intimation of the affair. I reply that after having been thus obliquely disgraced by you, I wished to guard against exposing myself to derision. If ten hours earlier I had been made aware of the words which I have quoted, I should have contented myself with letting you know what I had on my heart. As it chanced, your friend immediately after, or the following day, asked me if I had seen you. I replied that I had, and that I was sorry for it, and I added that were you to pass a hundred times, I should avoid all contact with you more carefully than with the most avowed enemies, since in showing yourself so intimate with that man, you were, as I have since been informed, the panegyrist of Castalio,[404] who is so perverse with all kinds of impiety, that in truth I had a hundred times rather be a Papist. Your friend then asked me if I had any objections to your being informed of that. I replied that it was with that intention that I had spoken to him on the subject, since I had not been made aware of the fact sufficiently in time. If he has divulged more than that, he has acted contrary to my opinion, my wishes, and even his own promise. To have told you that you were quite infected with the errors of that monster, was running counter to the ends I had in view, for I told him that you must needs have hated us gratuitously, to praise in our despite such a monster. The substance of what I said was that I should have been more painfully affected by such an injury coming from any other than you, such was the confidence I had in your integrity; but I was still more sorry to see you adhering, not knowing for what reason, to a person who is more detestable than all the Papists in the world. And in fact, I said to him several times, that I knew not how, nor wherefore, nor, indeed, what that meant. And since even at this present moment you love to follow a lesson quite opposed to that which I have learned in the school of my Master, for you say that you are well-pleased to forget the evil which may be in him; and yet we are told: Behold dogs, observe, mark, shun, and beware of them.... I leave you the object of your affections!—If I have been too sharp and bitter, pardon me, you have obliged me to be so. And that you may know that I feel neither anger nor ill-will, I write to you the present letter, as one who is preparing to appear before God, who afflicts me anew with an evil which is for me as it were a mirror of death before my eyes. I will supplicate him, Monseigneur, that in having pity on me, and receiving me to his mercy, he may preserve and guide you by his Spirit, and increase you in all prosperity along with Mademoiselle and your whole family.[405] Your servant,
John Calvin.
[Fr. orig. autogr.—Library of Geneva. Vol. 107, a.]
CCCVII.—To Mathieu Dimonet.[406]
Exhortation to patience and constancy under persecution.
The 10th of January 1553.
Very dear Brother,—Although I have not at present to sustain the like conflicts that you have, yet you will suffer the word of exhortation from me as if I were your fellow-prisoner, and in truth the zeal which moves me to write to you proceeds from nothing else. Yet I pray you to consider how we ought to refer all to the will and disposal of our heavenly Father, who calls every one of us in the order that he pleases. Sometimes he spares his children, until he has gradually led and prepared them, as we hear it said to St. Peter by the Master's own lips, "When thou shalt be old, they shall carry thee whither thou wouldst not." But it sometimes happens that he chooses novices, or at least such as have not been long disciplined to warfare. However that may be, there is this advantage that he is no less powerful to put forth his strength in the weak, rendering them at once invincible, than to continue it to those who have long experienced it. From what I hear, you have not been one of the first called to his knowledge; yet God has nevertheless put you among the foremost of his witnesses. He has bestowed such strength and steadfastness upon you at the first assault, that the enemies of truth have taken knowledge of the mark of Jesus Christ, which they cannot bear. I feel indeed by the sympathy I have for you (as I ought) that Satan ceases not to give you new alarms; but you must have recourse to Him who has made so good a beginning, praying him to complete his own work. If you have many trials, do not be greatly amazed on that account, even although you feel such frailty in yourself that you are almost ready to be shaken. Rather learn that it is by such means that God would humble you, that his help should be the better recognized by your need of it; and, moreover, that he invites you to call on his name, and to have all dependence on his grace, seeing there is need that we be forcibly driven to do so. I doubt not but that there may also be firebrands from without, who, under cover of friendship and relationship, will prove your worst and most mortal enemies, since to save the body they will do their utmost to draw the soul downward to perdition. And then, men's fancy is a marvellous workshop for forging out foolish imaginations, which disturb the true rest which we ought to have in the holy calling of our God, who commands us to look simply to himself, as indeed we have very good reason to do. Therefore we have need to be armed and accoutred at every point. But you need not be daunted, seeing that God has promised to equip his own according as they are assaulted by Satan. Only commit yourself to him, distrusting all in yourself, and hope that he only will suffice to sustain you. Further you have to take heed chiefly to two things: first, what the side is you defend, and next, what crown is promised to those who continue steadfast in the Gospel. The service of God, the boundless grace which he has manifested to us in his Son, and all the glory of his kingdom, are such precious things, that no mortal man ought to think it hard to spend his life in fighting against the base corruptions, whose reign throughout the world tends to bring to nought those blessings. And then, we know what will be the end of our warfare, and that He who has bought us will never suffer so dear a price as his blood to be lost, if we be but signed with it. Now we know how he owns as his own, and declares solemnly that he will own at the last day, all those who have confessed him here below. We do not know as yet what he has determined to do concerning you, but there is nothing better for you than to sacrifice your life to him, being ready to part with it whenever he wills, and yet hoping that he will preserve it, in so far as he knows it to be profitable for your salvation. And although this be difficult to the flesh, yet it is the true happiness of his faithful ones; and you must pray that it may please this gracious God so to imprint it upon your heart that it may never be effaced therefrom. For our part, we also shall pray that he would make you feel his power, and vouchsafe you the full assurance that you are under his keeping; that he bridles the rage of your enemies, and in every way manifests himself as your God and Father.