[92] This diversion, dictated to the King of France by sound politics, was not effected, and Francis I. remained a peaceable spectator of events, whose necessary tendency was to secure, by the defeat of the Protestant party in Germany, the ascendency of Charles V. in Europe.
[93] The ministers of Berne were divided by incessant disputes on the subject of the Supper. Sulzer and certain of his colleagues inclined to the Lutheran view, which Erasme Ritter combated; and by an abuse of power, that was not uncommon at that period, the Seigneury of Berne claimed to determine by itself the sense of the controverted dogma, the settlement of which ought to have been remitted to a Synod.—Ruchat, tom. v. pp. 225, 226.
[94] The senator, Nicolas de Zerkinden, friend of Calvin and prefect of Nyon.
[95] The Roman Catholic and Reformed Cantons, solicited, the former by the emperor, the latter by the Protestant princes, to take part in the struggles of which Germany was the theatre, had both observed a strict neutrality. But the Seigneury of Berne having received information that military movements were taking place in Franche-Comté, then under the rule of the Spaniards, summoned ten thousand men to arms, and occupied the passes of the Jura. That measure, which arose out of the pressure of circumstances, would perhaps have brought about a division among the confederates, and serious complications from without, if the treachery of the Elector Maurice had not hastened on the course of events in Germany.—John de Müller, Hist. de la Confédération Suisse, continuation of M. Vulliemin, tom. xi. p. 292.
[96] A word effaced in the original.
[97] The original letter is without address. But it is generally believed that it was addressed by Calvin to the widow of the celebrated William Budé, great-grandson of the secretary to King Charles V., and one of the most learned personages of the period of the revival of letters. William Budé having declared in his will that he wished to be buried without ceremony, this circumstance led to the supposition that he had died in the faith of the Reformed. His widow not being able to make free profession of her faith at Paris, was about to settle at Geneva, on the solicitation of Calvin, (June 1549.) She was accompanied by her daughter and three of her sons, Louis, Francis, and John de Budé, who held a distinguished rank in the republic. The best known of the three brothers is John de Budé, Sieur de Vérace, the particular friend of Calvin and of Théodore de Bèze. He was received an inhabitant of Geneva the 27th June 1549, burgess the 2d May 1555, member of both Councils in 1559, fulfilled several important missions to the Protestant princes of Germany, and died in 1589, after having rendered distinguished services to his new country, and thereby added fresh lustre to his family, whose descendants still live at Geneva.—Galiffe, Notices Généalogiques des Familles Genèvoises, tom. iii. p. 83, et seq.
[98] On the back, in another handwriting,—"Of 46. I think that this letter must be to Madame Budé."
[99] Catharine de Budé married, in 1550, William de Trie, Seigneur de Varennes, a gentleman of the Lyonnais, a refugee at Geneva on account of religion.
[100] John Francis Nœguely, one of the most illustrious magistrates, and one of the most able captains of the republic of Berne, in the sixteenth century. In 1536 he commanded the Bernese army, which conquered the Pays de Vaud from the Duke of Savoy; discharged the functions of Avoyer from 1540 to 1568, and died at a very advanced age.
[101] In a note, by an unknown hand, "Philippe Buissonnier de Bresse."