[213] Is the reference to the partisans of the Imperial Alliance?
[214] Without date. This letter appears to have been written at the moment when Strasbourg, menaced by the victorious army of Charles V., was disposed, in spite of the counsel of Bucer, to accept the Interim, and avoid by a voluntary submission the punishment inflicted on the leagued cities of Germany.—(December 1548.)
John Sturm, a learned humanist and able politician, born at Sleida in 1507, passed through a brilliant course of study at the University of Louvain. Famous from his youth for learning and eloquence, he was nominated in 1529 Professor of Belles Lettres in the College of France, founded by Francis I., and became in 1537 Rector of the celebrated Academy of Strasbourg. Connected thenceforward with the German and Swiss Reformers, he occupied an important place in the religious negotiations of the age, maintained a correspondence with the principal European sovereigns, and died in 1583.
Calvin and Sturm were known to each other, and associated together during the sojourn of the French Reformer at Strasbourg. From this period date the relations they maintained during many years, numerous precious memorials of which are to be found in the correspondence of Calvin. See on the subject of Sturm the curious and learned work entitled:—La vie et les travaux de Jean Sturm, Premier Recteur de l'Académie de Strasbourg, par C. Schmidt. 1 vol. in 8vo, 1855.
[215] Conclusion wanting in the original manuscript.
[216] Peronne de Pisseleu, wife of Michel de Barbançon, Seigneur de Cany, one of the personages of most importance in Picardy. This lady, instructed in the Reformed faith by Laurent de Normandie, lieutenant of the king at Noyon, and the friend of Calvin, had for a long time to endure the severity of her husband, who afterwards came at a later period to be a partaker of like faith.—Bèze, Hist. Eccl., tom. ii. p. 244.; De Thou, lib. xxv. Madame de Cany, sister of the Duchess d'Etampes, favourite of the late king, had possessed an unbounded influence at court, which she always used for generous purposes. Her ordinary residence was the Château de Varanues, situated on the Oise, near to Noyon.
[217] The donations which a pious liberality daily multiplied at Geneva, gave rise to the foundations known by the name of French, German, and Italian Bourses. The names of Margaret de Valois, and the Duchess of Ferrara, shine in the first rank upon the list of foreign contributors.—Bolsec, Life of Calvin, c. xi.
[218] To the Faithful Servants of Christ, the Ministers of the Church of Montbeliard, dearest Brethren and Fellow-Ministers.
George of Wurtemberg, Count of Montbeliard, having fallen under the disgrace of the Emperor, at the end of the war of Smalkald, in which he had taken part in the ranks of the Protestant princes, was stript of his Principality in 1548, and withdrew to the Canton of Berne.—Ruchat, vol. v. p. 368. At the termination of that revolution, the Churches of the Pays de Montbeliard were dispersed, and their ministers, among whom was to be remarked Pierre Toussain, were banished, and sought an asylum in the different Reformed Cantons of Switzerland, until the period of the restoration, both political and religious, that replaced them some years afterwards in their native country.
[219] The year 1549 is remarkable for the tendencies to union manifested by many of the Swiss Churches, and for their happy issue! Several persons, says Ruchat, zealous for religion, imagined that the clergy of Zurich and Geneva did not hold the same doctrine on the Supper, on the ground of some slight difference in the expressions they made use of; and this divergence caused them pain. Accordingly, as they held Bullinger and Calvin in great esteem, and desired to be able to profit equally by writings published by theologians of both churches, they deemed it necessary to institute conferences with a view to union; and Calvin, ever full of zeal for the interests of the Church, did not hesitate to subscribe to this petition.—Hospinien, tom. ii. p. 367; Ruchat, tom. v. p. 369.