[27] Calvin shewed himself, on more than one occasion, disposed to forgive personal injuries, as the Registers of Council testify:—"A woman having abused M. Calvin, it is directed that she be consigned to prison. Liberated at the request of the said M. Calvin, and discharged with a reproof."—12th December 1545.
[28] See p. 22, note 2.
[29] Allusion to the Bernese and to their pretensions of ruling Geneva under cover of the Alliance.—See p. 28, note 2.
[30] The year 1546 was especially remarkable for the great persecutions that arose within the bounds of the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris. Meaux, Seulis, Orleans, reckoned numerous martyrs. One named Jean Chapot of Dauphiné, colporteur of Geneva, arrested at Paris, was condemned to death, after having undergone the most cruel tortures. He had his tongue cut out before he was cast into the flames. "The dispersion," says Beza, "was widespread, but it led to the great advancement of many churches which were built up of the stones of that ruin."—Hist. Eccl. tom. i. p. 82. Histoire des Martyrs, pp. 170, 177.
[31] Francis I., King of France.
[32] On the death of the minister Chaponneau, the people of Neuchatel wished to have in his room Christopher Fabri, minister of Thonon: they accordingly asked him from the Seigneury of Berne, who with a good grace conceded him to them.—Ruchat, vol. v. p. 299.
[33] We again find marks of the same solicitude in a letter of Calvin to Viret of the preceding month. "Adieu, with your wife, whose health we will commend to the Lord. Be assured that we are not less solicitous about her than if she were the wife or daughter of each of us. The Lord keep you and sustain you with the consolation of his Spirit."—(January 1546,) Vol. 106, from Geneva.
[34] Viret was at that time plunged into the deepest affliction. He had just lost, after a long illness, his wife, Elizabeth Turtaz, of Orbe, with whom he had lived for many years in a godly union. The grief which he felt on that occasion is expressed, in a very touching manner, in a letter written many years afterwards to Calvin:—"I was so completely dispirited and prostrated by that arrow of affliction, that the whole world appeared to me nothing but a burden. There was nothing pleasant, nothing that could mitigate my grief of mind."—Calv. Epist. et Resp., p. 53. The friends of Viret, and especially Farel and Calvin, lavished upon him, during that trial, marks of the tenderest and most brotherly affection. The familiar correspondence of Calvin furnishes us with precious revelations in this respect.
[35] Nephew of Viret, and minister in the Pays de Vaud.
[36] To the most honourable Doctor Theodore Vitus, most faithful Minister of Christ at Nuremberg.