[229] See the letter and the note at p. 201.
[230] Laurent de Normandie, sprung from a noble family of Picardy, fellow-countryman and friend of Calvin, discharged the functions of master of requests and of lieutenant of the King at Noyon, before retiring to Geneva. Received inhabitant of the town, the 2d May 1547, burgess, the 25th April 1555, he lived there in intimacy with Calvin, who dedicated to him in 1550 his Traité des Scandales. He had married for his first wife Anne de la Vacquerie, of a noble family, which has merged in that of the Dukes of Saint Simon, and illustrious under the reign of Louis XI., by the first president Jacques de la Vacquerie. A short time after his arrival at Geneva he lost his wife, whose edifying death is the subject of Calvin's letter to Madame de Cany, and he married a second time (14th September 1550) Anne Colladon.—Galiffe, Notices Généalogiques sur les Familles de Genève, tom. ii. p. 527.
[231] Eloi de la Vacquerie.
[232] Accused of having wished to seduce a servant, Ferron was deposed from the ministry on the 5th September 1548.—Registers of the Council.
[233] In a letter from Calvin to Farel, written on the same day as that to Viret, we meet with a passage regarding Amy Perrin:—"Cæsar, our comedian, in his last mission, exasperated them [the Bernese] exceedingly, and I fear he has commenced a serious tragedy among us."—MSS. of Geneva, vol. 106. Charged with a mission to Berne, he had returned to Geneva more insolent and more intractable than ever.
[234] The learned lawyer, Francis Hotman, recently engaged in the evangelical cause, had quitted France, his native country, at the advice of Calvin, to retire to Geneva. He became, during the same year, Professor of Law at the Academy of Lausanne.—See La France Protestante, Art. Hotman.
[235] The new King of France, Henry II., sought an alliance with the Swiss with extreme eagerness. His envoys, Boisrigault, Liancourt, Lavan, and Menage overran the Cantons, scattering everywhere proofs of his liberality, to obtain a renewal of the ancient treaties. Everywhere, says the Swiss historian, their proposals were welcomed, except at Berne and at Zurich. In the latter town, Bullinger rose with great energy against this negotiating with a man who was converting a loyal and Christian people into a nation of hired murderers. He called to their recollection the persecutions of which France had been the theatre, and adjured his fellow-citizens to avoid all terms with a persecuting monarch, who was covered with the blood of their brethren. Better aware than Bullinger of the dangers which the supremacy of the Emperor was spreading over the various states of Europe, and over the Reformed Churches of Germany and Switzerland, and hoping, perhaps, to obtain by a treaty some relief to the faithful of France, Calvin was in favour of the French alliance, and in this remarkable letter attempted to vindicate its legitimacy by examples borrowed from the Old Testament.—Histoire de la Suisse, tom. xi. p. 306, et suiv.
[236] On the back: It is thought that this letter has been written to Madame de la Roche-Posay, Abbess of Thouars. A Seigneur of that name played an important part in the religious wars of Poitou, but he figured in the ranks of the Roman Catholic army.—Bèze, Hist. Eccl., tom. ii. p. 588. There is a letter from the Reformed Church of de la Roche-Posay of the 27th May 1561, addressed to Calvin. (Library of Geneva, Vol. 107.)
[237] This letter is without a date, but is evidently related to the early period of Bucer's residence in England. Proceeding from Strasbourg on the 5th April 1549 with Paul Fagius, he reached London on the 25th, and met with a very cordial reception at Lambeth, in the house of Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. At the desire of his protector, and amid the sorrows inseparable from his exile, he immediately undertook a new translation of the Bible, which he was not permitted to finish, owing to repeated illness, brought on by the change of climate. He was engaged, at the same time, on a revision of the English Liturgy, from which he removed everything that appeared to be tainted with Popery, without going as far in these corrections as he was desired by Calvin, who was pressing him by letter to remove the accusations of his life, by showing himself more resolute and firm than hitherto.—See La France Protestante of M. M. Haag. Art. Bucer.
[238] War prevailed at that time between France and England, with Artois and Scotland for its theatre. Peace was concluded only the year following (May 1550).—De Thou, tom. vi.