[18] On the back, in the hand of M. de Falais—'Received the 6th February 1546.'
[19] Printer in Strasbourg.
[20] The French were then besieging the town of Boulogne, occupied by the English. The peace between the two rival monarchs of France and England, was signed the year following.—De Thou, lib. i. ii.
[21] The following is the address of this letter, taken from the original in the archives of the old Archbishopric of Vienne, and first published by the Abbé d'Artigny,—A Sire Jéhan Frellon, marchand libraire demeurant à Lyon, en la rue Mercière, enseigne de l'Escu de Coulongne. The mysterious personage who is pointed at in this letter, is no other than Michael Servetus—seven years before the trial which was to attach so fatal a celebrity to his name. Settled as a physician at Vienne, in Dauphiny, he kept up a correspondence with Calvin, under the cover of John Frellon, and he had just sent the Reformer an extract of the work which was in preparation under the title of Christianismi restitutio, expressing at the same time the desire of coming to Geneva. Then it was, that Calvin wrote to Farel the letter which has been so often cited, where this passage occurs, "Servet has lately written to me, and has added to his letter a large volume of his own delirious fancies.... If it may be agreeable to me, he undertakes that he would come hither. But I will not interpose my assurance of his safety, for if he shall come, provided that my authority is of any avail, I shall not suffer him to depart alive."*—Letter of the 13th February 1546. We know how that terrible threat was realized seven years afterwards.
*Servetus nuper ad me scripsit, ac literis adjunxit longum volumen suorum deliriorum... Si mihi placeat, huc se venturum recipit. Sed nolo fidem meam interponere, nam si venerit, modo valeat mea authoritas, vivum exire non patiar.
[22] Decimated by the most cruel persecution, the faithful of Dauphiné, the native country of Farel, had inquired of the ministers of French Switzerland, whether it was lawful for them to have recourse to flight, in order to escape the fury of their adversaries. Numerous refugees had already settled at Geneva.—See vol. i. p. 473.
[23] Ecclesiastical embroilments with the Seigneury of Berne.
[24] See letter of the 26th January, p. 28, note 2.
[25] See the preceding letter. It appears that relations between Calvin and Servetus continued in a state of interruption, as is proved by the following passage of a letter of Calvin to Viret, dated 1st September 1548:—"I think I once read to you my answer to Servetus. I was at length disinclined from striving longer with the incurable obstinacy of a heretic; and, indeed, I ought to have followed the advice of Paul. He now attacks you. You will see how long you ought to persist in rebutting his follies. He will twist nothing out of me henceforward."—Library of Geneva, Vol. 106.
[26] One of the most violent members of the party that combated the influence and institutions of the Reformer at Geneva.