[248] One of the martyrs here referred to was a poor tailor, who, led before the King and Diana of Poictiers, made a courageous confession of his faith, addressed stern words to la favorite, and was condemned to perish in the flames. The king wished to be a spectator of his sufferings, "and, to command a better view, went to the house of Sieur de la Rochepot, opposite the stake. The martyr remained firm, and having perceived the king, he fastened on him a look so fixed and penetrating, that the affrighted monarch was forced to retire; and he afterwards repeatedly confessed, that the look of that man incessantly pursued him, and that he never again wished to be present at a fine spectacle."—Histoire des Martyrs, p. 189, Bèze, tom. i. p. 79.
[249] George de Wurtemberg, Count of Montbeliard, dispossessed of his estates by Charles V. He had obtained from the Seigneury of Berne permission to reside at Arau.
[250] See letter p. 208.
After the long conferences, in which Farel and Fabri took part in the name of the Church of Neuchatel, and after a correspondence of many months, the theologians of Zurich and Geneva came to an agreement on the doctrine of the sacrament of the Supper, and drew up a common formula, which may be seen in Hospinian.—Hist. Sacr., tom. ii. pp. 369, 370. It is very likely, says Ruchat, that this definite formula was the work of Calvin. We recognize his genius in it at least, and we find in it the same ideas and expressions met with in his Liturgy on the Holy Supper.—Hist. de la Réf., tom. v. p. 378. Tho adoption of this formula was the first step towards the union of the Swiss churches, sanctioned two years after the death of Calvin (1566), by the adoption of the famous Helvetic Confession.
[251] See the preceding letter. The negotiations entered into with the Church of Zurich, and already near a close, were prosecuted equally at Berne; but they were encountered there by insurmountable difficulties, arising from the hesitation of the ministers and the policy of the Seigneury. Calvin did not shrink from any concessions which, without causing injury to the integrity of the doctrine, might rally their spirits to union and peace.—Hospinian, tom. ii. p. 370.
[252] In the month of July 1549, the fury of the persecutions was redoubled at Paris and in the provinces, and places of execution were so multiplied everywhere, as if the King had wished, by additional severity, to remove from memory the Edict which he had restored on account of the Vaudeis of Provençe.—Bèze, Hist. Eccl., tom. i. p. 70, et suiv. Notwithstanding all this violence, says Bèze, the churches increased and gathered strength in many places.
[253] Among the number of professors burnt on occasion of the public entrance of the King into Paris, there is found Florent Venot, of Sedano in Brie,—allowed to stand for six weeks in a pit at Chatelet, called the Hippocras' Cup, where it was impossible either to remain lying or standing—and whose firmness overcame the cruelty of the executioners. "You think," he said to them, "by long torment, to weaken the force of the spirit, but you waste your time, and God will enable me to bless his holy name even till my death." Compelled, by a refinement of cruelty, to be a spectator of the torment of his brethren burnt at Paris, he exhorted them by look and gesture before he ascended the pile prepared for him in the Place Maubert.—Hist. des Martyrs, p. 186.
[254] The preceding letter.
[255] Francis Spira, a jurisconsult of Padua, having abjured the Protestant faith through fear of the tortures of the Inquisition, died a short while afterwards in a state of fearful mental anxiety. Paolo Vergerio, an aged Bishop of Pola in Istria, who was led to give up his bishopric that he might live in the free profession of the doctrines of the gospel, among the Grisons, visited Spira on his deathbed, and endeavoured in vain to console this unhappy penitent. Tho history of Spira, written by Vergerio, and translated from the Italian into Latin by Celio Secondo Curione, was published in 1550, with a preface by Calvin.—(Miscellanea Groningana, tom. iii. p. 109.) We have not met with this edition, which is become extremely rare.
[256] We find Calvin's opinion of Vergerio at greater length, in a letter to Farel of July 1550.