[8] The plague had dispersed the regents and students of the College of Geneva, and Calvin was labouring at the re-organization of that establishment. He had already proposed to the Council, in March 1545, to call to Geneva the celebrated Maturin Cordier, as president of the regents; but this proposal ended in nothing, and Maturin Cordier remained at Lausanne.
[9] Farel was then at strife with the Seigneury of Neuchatel, on the subject of the administration of ecclesiastical property.
[10] Rebuked on the ground of his morals, this minister had been banished to a country parish, and having refused to submit to the entire Consistory, he had received his dismissal.
[11] Minister of the Church of Geneva; deposed, a few years afterwards, on account of the irregularities of his life.
[12] Alarmed at the first movements of the Council of Trent, and the perils to which the good understanding between the Pope and the Emperor might subject the Reformation, the Deputies of the League of Smalkald had reassembled at Frankfort. But their union was not so solid as the gravity of the occasion demanded. The Elector of Saxe and the Landgrave of Hesse were influenced by different political views; but they were both alike disposed to seek the alliance of the Kings of France and England, as well as of the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland, that they might withstand the storm that menaced them.—Sleidan, l. xvi., and Robertson, vol. iv. B. vii. p. 234. London, 1851.
[13] "Upon the intelligence that the Duke of Savoy has retaken two strongholds in Piedmont, and that he is collecting a body of troops, resolved to continue to work at the fortifications."—Registers of Council, 28th December 1545.
[14] "Oath exacted of all private individuals, of fidelity to the Seigneury, and of their readiness to live and die for liberty."—Registers of Council, 7th January 1546.
[15] The Seigneurs of Berne, eagerly seeking every opportunity of establishing their influence at Geneva, had offered to guard the city, and to protect it against all foreign attacks. This proposal was discarded, as tending to compromise the independence of the Republic.—Registers of Council, 11th January 1546.
[16] We read, in the Registers of Council of the 29th of January of this year:—"Calvin having been ill, the Seigneury present to him ten crowns. On his recovery, he returns the money to the Council, who cause it to be expended in the purchase of a tun of wine for him, thus leaving him no alternative but to accept it."
[17] Calvin had just dedicated to M. de Falais his Commentary on the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. The epistle dedicatory is of the 22d January 1546. The name of M. de Falais—sad example of the fragile nature of human affections!—was effaced ten years afterwards from the preface of this Commentary, and replaced by the name of the Marquis of Vico.