[102] Several ministers of the Pays de Vaud, and particularly Zebedee, later pastor of Nyon, Lange, pastor of Bursins, delivered from the pulpit the most virulent declamations against the doctrines of the Reformer.
[103] On the news of the dangers that menaced the churches of Germany, an important mission had been confided to the Reformer. "Calvin is despatched by the Seigneury to Zurich, to obtain certain information of the condition of the war between the Emperor and the Protestant princes."—Registers of Council, 23d January 1547. "Calvin having returned, reports that the war between the Emperor and the Protestants is more enkindled than ever, and that the Swiss, apprehensive of that prince turning his arms against them, are putting themselves in a state of defence."—Ibid., 23d January 1547.
In a letter to Farel, he gave with greater detail the impressions he had received during his hasty journey.
[104] Situated at the extremity of the Confederation, without forming part of it, and sharing the faith of the Reformed Cantons, Constance, the first city open to the attacks of the Emperor upon the banks of the Rhine, invoked the aid of the Cantons, whose rigorous neutrality left it exposed without defence to its adversaries.—Histoire de la Confédération Suisse, tom. xi. p. 296.
[105] Ulrich, Duke of Wurtemberg, although among the first to submit to the Emperor, was compelled to sue for pardon on his knees, and to pay a ransom of 300,000 crowns.—Robertson, Hist. of Charles V., book viii.
[106] The present Quai des Bergues.
[107] Calvin at that time inhabited the house of the Sieur de Fréneville, situated in the Rue des Chanoines, near St. Peter's Church, and corresponding to the house in the same street which is now No. 122.—See the Mémoires de la Société d'Histoire de Genève, vol. ix. p. 391.
[108] He sought in marriage a relation of M. de Falais.
[109] The Emperor Charles the Fifth,—conqueror, without a combat, of the army of the confederate princes: thanks to the treason of Maurice of Saxony, this prince, although suffering severely from the gout, was at this very time receiving the submission of the confederate towns of Suabia and of the Palatinate, from which he exacted enormous penalties.
[110] The King, Francis I. He died the following month, the 31st March 1547.