[445] "The London Church has more than 15,000 foreigners. Where will these miserable ones flee to, should the Pope gain the day? We must pray God therefore...."—Letter of Bullinger to Calvin, of 26th August 1553.—Eccl. Archives of Berne, vol. vi. p. 312.
[446] Cardinal Pole was at that time preparing to leave Rome to return to England:—"An English nobleman was sent lately by Queen Mary to recall that Reginald Pole, who is too well known both to you and myself; for that English Athaliah desires the benefit of his presence and his counsel."—Bullinger to Beza, letter already quoted.
[447] At the session of the 5th September, the Council of Geneva had decided, contrary to the wish of Calvin, upon consulting the Churches of Berne, Basle, Sebaffhausen, and Zurich, respecting the culpability of Servetus, but this decision was realized just a fortnight too late.—Rilliet, Relation du Procès de Servet, p. 84.
[448] Rudolph Gualter, minister of the Church of Zurich, and son-in-law to Bullinger.
[449] The Lesser Council of Geneva, acting upon the proposition made a few days previously, (note 1,) prepared to write to the Churches of Berne, Zurich, Sebaffhausen, and Basle, to ask their advice regarding the culpability of Servetus. It was not, however, till the 21st of September, that the messenger, charged with the various papers relative to the trial, had put into his hands the circular letter addressed to the magistrates or pastors of the four towns. These letters were accompanied by a copy of the Christianismi Restitutio, a copy of the works of Tertullian, and one of those of Irenæns, as well as the questions put to Servetus, together with his replies, and the refutation of the ministers. In those circulars, the council gave expression to its entire confidence in the intelligence of the pastors of Geneva, but desired, before coming to a decision, to have fuller information on the point, by consulting the other Churches. The fate of the prisoner evidently depended on the result of this supreme measure. Calvin, addressing Bullinger and Sulzer alternately, insisted strongly on the alleged culpability of Servetus, and on the necessity of a punishment, which should be, as it appeared to him, a solemn consecration of those truths which had been shaken by the attacks of the audacious Spanish doctor. The messenger charged with the letter to Sulzer was the Treasurer Du Pan, one of the most devoted disciples of the Reformer.
[450] These last words betray Calvin's want of confidence in the Pastors of the Church of Berne, with certain of whom he was found to disagree upon certain points of doctrine, and who had given expression to principles of great toleration in the reply relative to Bolsec.
[451] See letter, p. 418.
[452] Notice in the handwriting of Charles de Jonvillers:—"He wrote this letter to a good young lady, personally unknown to him, who having set out on the way to Geneva, was arrested by a relation of her own, who wished to deprive her of her liberty. Two of her brothers came hither to get letters from him. But fearing lest they might ask them for their own ends, and to the injury of the young lady, he wrote and adopted this style for the express object he had in view."
[453] "To the faithful dispersed in some isles of France." The peninsula of Arvert on the coast of Saintonge, peopled by fishermen and pirates, received the first seeds of the Gospel from some refugees driven away by persecution from the neighbouring towns. "The seed sown was afterwards fertilized by some monks preaching a kind of half truth, as regarded doctrine, and reproving vices; so that in a little time we saw (in that country) a strange alteration."—Beza, Hist. Eccl., tom. i. p. 101. From the point of Arvert, the Reformation spread into the adjoining islets, and there made numerous disciples, in spite of the rigours of the Parliament of Bourdeaux. A great missionary, Philibert Hamelin, regulated this movement. From Tours originally, he at first preached the Reformed doctrine with success at Saintes. Seized in that town, he miraculously escaped death, and sought an asylum at Geneva, where he followed the calling of a printer. But the ardour of his zeal soon led him to betake himself once more to the perilous apostolate, which was to close with martyrdom. He revisited La Saìntonge, visited his brethren dispersed among the islands, organized their churches, and taken a second time, he perished at the stake at Bourdeaux, the 18th April 1557. The journal of another glorious missionary of the Reformation, Bernard Palissy, may be consulted as to the ministry and death of Hamelin.
[454] Philibert Hamelin.