[282] The town of Magdeburg, then besieged by the army of the Elector Maurice, persisted in rejecting the Interim, and the theologians of that Church flooded Germany with pamphlets, in which Melanchthon was not spared. The Burghers of Magdeburg, put under the ban of the empire, sustained a long siege, and did not submit till the following year.—Sleidan, book xxii.
[283] In a reply to Flacius Illyricus, who maintained that, rather than tolerate the restoration of the Popish ceremonies, he would plunder and destroy the Churches and stir up the people,—"vastitatem faciendam in templis, et metu seditionum terrendos principes." Melanchthon advocated immovable steadfastness in doctrine, submission in everything else.—"In ceremoniis tolerandam aliquam servitutem, quæ tamen sit sine impietate."—Melch. Adam. Vita Melanchthonis, p. 344. But was it possible to submit to the Church of Rome without deserting sound doctrine?
[284] This letter is without date. We discover the date, however, in a letter of Calvin's to Valentin Pacaeus, a doctor of Leipsic, of 18th June 1550, where we meet with these words:—"I make no mention of M. Philip, as I am writing specially to himself."—Calv. Opera, tom. ix. p. 54.
[285] See note 2, p. 175. M. de Falais lived during the summer in a country-seat, situated at Veigy, a small village of Savoy, a few leagues from Geneva.
[286] On the opposite bank of the lake, where rises the delightful eminence of Chambesy, crowned at the present day with beautiful villas.
[287] Paolo Vergerio, one of the missionaries of Reform in Swiss Italy. Born of an illustrious family of Istria, he had successively studied law and oratory, was made Bishop of Istria, and discharged the duties of Pope's legate in Germany. He became a convert to the Gospel through conversations with Melanchthon, abandoned his diocese, and retired among the Grisons. He died in 1565.
[288] There is a beautiful letter from Bucer to Calvin, [Calvini Opera, tom. ix. p. 58,] dated from Cambridge, and containing curious details regarding the religious state of England. We find this passage in it relative to the young King Edward VI.,—"Increase in prayer in behalf of the most serene King, who is making quite wonderful progress in pious and literary studies."
[289] See the preceding letter.
[290] We find no allusion to this fact in the Registers of the Council of that year. But Ruchat mentions, after Roset, the arrest of one Jean Baptiste Didaco, Receiver-General of Finance at Rouen, who, having been imprisoned at Geneva at the impeachment of one of his domestics, was released at the request of the King of France, and of the Bernese, after three months' imprisonment.—Ruchat, tom. v. pp. 311, 313.
[291] The nature of this tax is not known; it was set on foot in the localities belonging to the ancient territory of the Chapter of Saint Victor, and shared between the jurisdiction of the two republics.