[63] Desirous of rendering assistance to Calvin during his illness and recovery, the Seigneurs of Geneva decided upon allowing him an attendant at the public expense.—Registers of Council, 4th March 1546.
[64] Viret was on the point of repairing to Berne, in order to discuss certain matters relative to the ordinances of the Reformation in the Pays de Vaud.—Ruchat, vol. v. p. 298.
[65] After the disgrace of the Chancellor Poyet, this high office was filled by François Olivier, Seigneur of Louville, President of the Parliament of Paris. He resigned in 1550, and again became Chancellor in 1559, in order to give his sanction to the lamentable executions of Amboise, which he survived only for a short time.
[66] On the back, in the handwriting of M. de Falais: "Received the 22d July." This note, taken in connection with the beginning of the next letter to M. de Falais, settles the date of the present one.
[67] M. de Falais was at the time dangerously ill.
[68] Certain persons having obtained from the magistrate permission to act in public a Morality, entitled, The Acts of the Apostles, which had received the approbation of the ministers; one of them, named Michael Cop, less conciliatory than his colleagues, preached a very violent discourse in the church of St. Peter, and said that the women who should mount the theatre to act that farce, would be shameless creatures. These words stirred up a great tumult in the city, and Calvin required to put forth all his influence to quiet the agitation, and to preserve the life of his imprudent colleague.
The plays were celebrated in presence of Viret. "It is ordained," say the Registers of Council, "that booths be erected for our seigneurs, that they may comfortably witness the representation of the Acts of the Apostles."—1st July 1546. It does not appear, however, that these representations were frequently repeated. "Upon the remonstrances of the ministers," we read in the Registers, "resolved to delay the representations of the theatre to a less calamitous time."—July 1546. Ruchat, vol. v. p. 313. The minister inculpated was not Abel Poupin, as Ruchat relates, but Michael Cop, as the Registers attest.
[69] The minister, Abel Poupin, exerted his interest with the actors to appease the tumult excited by his colleague.
[70] It is seen by this instance, that Calvin was not so stern as to proscribe public games and amusements that harmonized with decency. "He himself made no scruple in engaging in play with the seigneurs of Geneva; but that was the innocent game of the key, which consists in being able to push the keys the nearest possible to the edge of a table."—Morus, quoted Hist. de la Suisse, vol. xi. p. 356.
[71] Allusion to a sister of M. de Falais.