[44] The Protestants of this town, feebly supported by the league of Smalkald, and intimidated by the presence of the imperial legate, devoted to the Roman Catholic clergy, had already lost the rights which had been guarantied to them by the accord of 1543, and so found themselves deprived of the exercise of public worship and of the pastorate.—(See a letter of Myconius to Calvin, 13th November 1543. Calv. Epist. et Responsa, Amst. p. 26.)
[45] In the year 1546, the Palatinate witnessed the accomplishment of a great religious revolution. The Elector, Frederic II., yielding to the wish of his subjects, proclaimed the establishment of the Reformation, and the abolition of the old worship in his states. The chief instrument of that revolution was the minister Paul Fagius, the disciple of Capito.—Sleidan, Comment. lib. xvi. p. 266. De Thou, lib. ii. c. 3.
[46] The French Church of Strasbourg, of which Calvin had been pastor during his exile from Geneva.
[47] Introduced by Calvin to Myconius, Ochino made but a very short stay at Bâle, where those writings made their appearance which have been such a blot upon his memory. In 1545 he went to Augsbourg, where he became minister to the congregation of Italian refugees until the epoch of the Interim, which was the cause of his betaking himself to England. His leanings toward heterodoxy were veiled from the eyes of every one, except perhaps the clear-sighted discernment of Calvin, who valued his abilities, without having an entire confidence in the solidity of his doctrines. The ever-recurring changes of his unsettled life led him, at a later period, to class himself with the sect of the anti-Trinitarians. His discourses, so much admired by Cardinal Bembo, and the Emperor Charles V. himself, are less remarkable for their purity of doctrine than for the warmth of feeling and the poetical flash of the style. They have been printed under the following title: Prediche di Messer Bernardino Ochino, 1543, and reprinted on several occasions; but we are not aware of any translation, whether Latin or French. See Schelhorn, Ergötzlichkeiten, tom. iii. pp. 2022, 2161, 2166, and pp. 2174-2179.
[48] The sisters of M. de Falais.
[49] Juan Diaz, originally of Cuença, in Spain, studied letters at the University of Paris, and was distinguished, amid the scholars of his nation, "by superior learning, adorned with pure morals, great mildness, prudence, and benignity." Initiated in the knowledge of the Gospel, he left Paris and visited Geneva, Bâle, Strasbourg, where he acquired the friendship of Bucer, whom he accompanied into Germany. The Jesuit, Malvenda, a stout defender of Popish idolatry, having made vain efforts to lead him back to the Romish Church, the adversaries of Juan Diaz planned a most detestable conspiracy against his life, and, on the 27th of March, he was assassinated by order of Alphonso Diaz, his own brother, who had come from Rome in order to the accomplishment of this execrable outrage, the instigator of which remained unpunished.—See the record of this odious fratricide in Sleidan, and Histoire des Martyrs, pp. 162, 168; and Letter CLXIII.
[50] Calvin had this year a child by his wife, Idelette de Bure, which died in the birth.
[51] At the request of M. de Falais, Calvin had prepared an apology for his Lordship, which was to be presented to the Emperor at the Diet of Ratisbon. This memorial, drawn up at first in French, then translated into Latin, and along with a profession of faith, containing valuable details for the history of M. de Falais, has the following title:—Apology of the very Illustrious Lord James of Burgundy, of Falaise, and of Breda, wherein he has wiped away the accusations wherewith he has been branded in the sight of the Imperial Majesty, and sets forth the Confession of his Faith. This morceau has been published by the Amsterdam editor at the end of the letters of Calvin to M. de Falais.
[52] M. de Falais had five brothers. Those alone of whom mention is made in the letters of Calvin, are John, Seigneur de Fromont, and Peter, Pronotary apostolic, who had embraced the Reformation.
[53] Alphonso d'Avalos, Marquis of Guasto, governor of the Milanese, and one of the ablest generals of Charles the Fifth. He died in 1546.