[349] This is Calvin's last letter to Myconius. Struck by apoplexy while in the pulpit of the Cathedral of Bâle, a few days before the Easter festivals of 1551, Myconius never rallied, till he was carried off by the plague in October 1552, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. His bereaved widow survived him only a few days. Simon Sulzer succeeded him in the office of Antistes which he had filled during more than ten years with moderation and wisdom.—See Melch. Adam, Vitæ Theol. Germ., p. 224; Ruchat, tom. v. p. 468.
[350] Alluding to the reply expected from the ministers of Bâle, concerning the case of Bolsec. See the preceding letter.
[351] See letter, p. 319.
[352] "To Mons. Christopher Fabri, minister of the Word of God in the Church of Neufchatel."
The theologians of Bâle were the first to communicate their sentiments regarding the case of Bolsec. In a letter dated 28th November, they openly acknowledged the doctrine which was the occasion of the dispute. They regarded election as "the effect of a secret cause, known to God alone, and which man should not attempt to fathom." So far as Bolsec himself was concerned, they were inclined to treat him with indulgence, deceiving thereby the hopes of the Reformer, who desired a triumphant condemnation of his adversary.
[353] In the theological disputes between Calvin and Bolsec, M. de Falais declared himself in favour of the latter, from whom he received medical advice. He had even written a letter to Bâle in his behalf.
[354] See the preceding letter, p. 327.
[355] The theologians of Zurich, like those of Bâle, did not hesitate to profess adherence to the doctrine attacked by Bolsec. "Jerome," said they, "deceives himself and wrongs Zuingle, if he believes that the latter taught that God himself was the cause of man's sinning; for if he appeared to teach something similar to that in his book on The Providence of God, we must, at the same time, consult his other writings, where he has plainly established that sin comes by no means from God, but from human corruption and voluntary wickedness." Addressed to the Councils of Geneva by an oversight which the ministers of that church seemed keenly to feel, the answer from Zurich did not appear to Calvin to be a sufficiently explicit condemnation of his adversary. See the letter to Bullinger of January 1552.
[356] Lelio Socin, founder of the celebrated sect which bears his name, was born at Sienna of a distinguished family: his father, Mariano Socin, a professor in the University of Bologna, was one of the most learned jurisconsults of his age. Of a bold and active mind, which found pleasure in the most subtle speculations, and which would not stop short of the interpretation of mysteries, Lelio left his native country in 1548, and joined the Reformers of Switzerland and Germany, whose friendship he won by the politeness of his manners, the purity of his life, and his zeal for learning. He resided by turns at Zurich and Wittemberg, and was not slow, by correspondence or conversation, to express his doubts on the common doctrines, which he skilfully advanced rather in the form of questions than as opinions which he was prepared to maintain and to teach. He was beloved by Bullinger, who did not suspect the heterodoxy of his beliefs, and who wrote to Calvin regarding him, "I restrain as far as I can this man's curiosity;" and Calvin himself, after having repeatedly broken off correspondence with Socin, could not forbear renewing it, and giving a friendly reply to the doubts which he had expressed on the resurrection, baptism, the trinity, &c. (Calv. Opera, tom. ix. pp. 51, 57, 197.) The letter, which is published here for the first time, throws valuable light on the relation of the Reformer to the founder of a sect to which even Socin himself was yet a stranger, and whose doubts were afterwards to be set up as dogmas by his disciples. Lelio Socin died in 1562, before he had completed his thirty-seventh year.—M'Crie, Hist. of Ref. in Italy, passim.
[357] This letter, without a date, appears to us to belong to the last months of the year 1551. Lelio Socin was living at that time at Wittemberg.—M'Crie, Hist. of the Ref. in Italy, p. 430.