§ 80. From Basel to Ferrara. The Duchess Renée.
§ 80. From Basel to Ferrara. The Duchess Renée.
Shortly after, if not before, the publication of his great work, in March, 1536, Calvin, in company with Louis du Tillet, crossed the Alps to Italy, the classical soil of the literary and artistic Renaissance. He hoped to aid the cause of the religious Renaissance. He went to Italy as an evangelist, not as a monk, like Luther, who learned at Rome a practical lesson of the working of the papacy.
He spent a few months in Ferrara at the brilliant court of the Duchess Renée or Renata (1511–1575), the second daughter of Louis XII., of France, and made a deep and permanent impression on her. She had probably heard of him through Queen Marguerite and invited him to a visit. She was a small and deformed, but noble, pious, and highly accomplished lady, like her friends, Queen Marguerite and Vittoria Colonna. She gathered around her the brightest wits of the Renaissance, from Italy and France, but she sympathized still more with the spirit of the Reformation, and was fairly captivated by Calvin. She chose him as the guide of her conscience, and consulted him hereafter as a spiritual father as long as he lived.462 He discharged this duty with the frankness and fidelity of a Christian pastor. Nothing can be more manly and honorable than his letters to her. Guizot affirms, from competent knowledge, that "the great Catholic bishops, who in the seventeenth century directed the consciences of the mightiest men in France, did not fulfil the difficult task with more Christian firmness, intelligent justice and knowledge of the world than Calvin displayed in his intercourse with the Duchess of Ferrara."463
Renan wonders that such a stern moralist should have exercised a lasting influence over such a lady, and attributes it to the force of conviction. But the bond of union was deeper. She recognized in Calvin the man who could satisfy her spiritual nature and give her strength and comfort to fight the battle of life, to face the danger of the Inquisition, to suffer imprisonment, and after the death of her husband and her return to France (1559) openly to confess and to maintain the evangelical faith under most trying circumstances when her own son-in-law, the Duke of Guise, carried on a war of extermination against the Reformation. She continued to correspond with Calvin very freely, and his last letter in French, twenty-three days before his death, was directed to her. She was in Paris during the dreadful massacre of St. Bartholomew, and succeeded in saving the lives of some prominent Huguenots.464
Threatened by the Inquisition which then began its work of crushing out both the Renaissance and the Reformation, as two kindred serpents, Calvin bent his way, probably through Aosta (the birthplace of Anselm of Canterbury) and over the Great St. Bernard, to Switzerland.
An uncertain tradition connects with this journey a persecution and flight of Calvin in the valley of Aosta, which was commemorated five years later (1541) by a memorial cross with the inscription "Calvini Fuga."465
At Basel he parted from Du Tillet and paid a last visit to his native town to make a final settlement of family affairs.466
Then he left France, with his younger brother Antoine and his sister Marie, forever, hoping to settle down in Basel or Strassburg and to lead there the quiet life of a scholar and author. Owing to the disturbances of war between Charles V. and Francis I., which closed the direct route through Lorraine, he had to take a circuitous journey through Geneva.
Opera, XXXI. 21 (Latin and French).
Opera, V. 388 sqq.
The Latinized form of Cauvin or Chauvin. Alcuin, one of his assumed names, is an anagram of Calvin. See La France Protest., III. 518, note. He assumed the name Calvinus in his book on Seneca, 1532.
Michelet (Histoire de France, XI. 88) calls Picardy "un pays fécond en révolutionnaires, en brouillants amis de l’humanité." Lefranc (p. 24): "Les deux mouvements contraires, la Réforme française et ce qui la combattit avec le plus d’acharnement, la Ligue, sont nés dans le même pays." Noyon lies 67 miles N.N.E. of Paris, is enclosed with gardens, has a large old cathedral, a bishop’s palace, a hospital, a seminary, several public fountains, manufactures of fine linens, tulle, oil, leather, and a brisk trade, with a population of about 6000. From Lippincott’s Gazetteer, p. 1620.
"De notaire apostolique, la première charge qu’il obtint, il devint successivement notaire du chapitre, greffier de l’officialité, procureur fiscal du comtéet promoteur du chapitre. C’estàNoyon, en quelque sorte, le fac-totum du clergé." Lefranc, p. 2.
Lefranc, pp. 17 and 199. Herminjard, II. 394. Bolsec, in his Histoire de Calvin, calls Gérard Cauvin "un très-exécrable blasphémateur de Dieu." Perhaps he confounded him with his eldest son, Charles.
See the genealogical table in Henry, vol. III.; Beilage, 16, p. 174.
Carolus ejus frater et presbyter Novioduni mortuus noctu et clam sepultus est inter quatuor columnas furcae publicae quia Eucharistiam sumere noluerat." Papire Masson, Vita Calv.; Lefranc, pp. 18-21 and 210.
Beza, at the close of his Latin Vita Calv. (in Calvin’s Opera, XXI. 171), and Lefranc, l.c., p. 184.
Letter of Bucer to Farel, May 1, 1528, in Herminjard, II. no. 232, and Opera, X. Pt. I. p. 1. The "juvenis Noviodunensis" there mentioned was not Calvin, as Kampschulte (I. 231) conjectures, but probably Olivetan. There is no trace of such an early visit of Calvin to Strassburg.
La France Prot. III. 639.
See the list and the profession in Lefranc, 216) sqq. He goes, however, too far when he says (p. x. sq.): "Ce qui ressort d’une étude attentive des faits, c’est que Calvin est sorti déja protestant de sa ville natale. C’est dans ce centre qu’il puisa ses idées. Il y trouva tout d’abord l’appui le plus ferme, ses amis les plus chauds et ses lieutenants les plus dévoués. A un moment donné, la moitiéde la population se déclara pour lui. Chose remarquable, un nombre considérable des ses compatriots, et parmi eux les personnages les plus en vue, le suivirent jusqu’àGenève. Durant toute sa vie, Calvin conserva d’actifs rapports avec sa villenatale et ceux de ses fidèles qui y étaient restés." Calvin was not converted before 1532. See § 72.
Desmay (quoting from the Registres of Noyon, see Op. XXI. 189): Jean Calvin obtient une portion du revenue de la chapelle de la Gésine de la Vierge fondée dans la cathédrale de Noyon." There were four chaplains at Noyon. The first two had to say mass alternately every morning. John Calvin, not being ordained, had to pay a priest to take his place. Lefranc, p. 10. Zwingli received a papal pension even after he had begun his work of reform. See above, § 8, p. 31 sq. This is all wrong, but was not so considered at that time.
Beza says: "Quo loco [Pons Episcopi] constat Calvinum, antequam Gallia excederet, nullis alioqui pontificiis ordinibus (unquam) initiatum, aliquot ad populum conciones habuisse." Op. XXI. 121. "Unquam" is omitted in the text, but added in the notes. The French biography of Colladon reads: "En laquelle cure il a depuis preschépar fois, avans qu’il se retirast de France." Ibid. 54.
This is the date given by Kampschulte (I. 223), Lefranc (p. 14), and others. According to Opera, XXI. 189, Calvin was "Corderii discipulus in Collegio de la Marche Lutetice," in the year 1529; but in that year he was a student of the university. There is some confusion in the dates referring to the period of his studies in Paris.
Cordier was called "linguae, morum vitaeque magister." He was the Rollin of the sixteenth century. He wrote Rudimenta grammaticae; le miroir de la jeunesse; commentarius puerorum, etc. See Lefranc, p. 62, and "Bulletin de la Soc. de l’hist. du Protest. français," XVII. 449.
Beza-Colladon (XXI. 54): "Quant àses moeurs, il estoit sur tout fort consciencieux, ennemi des vices, et fort adonnéau service de Dieu qu’on appeloit pour lors: tellement que son coeur tendoit entierement àla Theologie, et son père pretendoit de l’y faire employer." In the Latin Vita, Beza says that he was "tenera aetate mirum in modum religiosus." With this agrees the testimony of the Roman Catholic, Florimond de Raemond, previously quoted, p. 273.
Le Vasseur, p. 1158. Beza gives some probability to this report by the notice that Calvin was "severus omnium in suis sodalibus censor."
"Doctor potius quam auditor," says Beza, who studied in the same universities a few years later, and lodged at Orleans in the house or pension of Duchemin, a friend of Calvin.
Beza (XXI. 122): "Quibus continuatis vigiliis ille quidem solidam eruditionem et excellentissiman memoriam est consequutus, sed etiam vicissim, ut verisimile est, ventriculi imbecillitatem contraxit, quae varios ipsi morbos et tandem etiam intempestivam mortem attulit."
Florimond de Raemond (who shows a tendency to discredit the French Reformation by tracing it to a foreign, German source) asserts that Volmar first instilled the poison of heresy into the mind of Calvin, and advised him to exchange the Code of Justinian for the Gospel of Christ. But Calvin and Beza (Op. XXI. 122), while speaking highly of Volmar as a teacher and friend, say nothing about his religious influence.
Opera, XII. no. 814. He apologizes for his long silence. The correspondence with Volmar is lost, but may yet be found.
March 6, 1531. Herminjard, II. 314 sq. no. 328; Lefranc, 79 sq.
In Op. XXI. 190, the degree is dated from the year 1532."Dans un act de se jour [Febr. 14]est nommémaistre Jean Cauvinlicenciées lois." In a document relating to the settlement of the estate of the deceased Gérard Cauvin, which Lefranc (p. 202) quotes from Le Vasseur (Annal., p. 1169), and assigns to Feb. 14, 1631, Calvin is mentioned as "licentiéès loix."
"Absque ullo precio, summo docentium omnium consensu," says Beza (Op. XXI. 122). Colladon (f. 54) adds that Calvin refused the offer ("ce que toutesfois il refusa"); but it is not clear whether he meant the gratuity or the degree itself, probably the former.
Gerdes, IV. 201; M’Crie, 63; Dyer, Life of Calvin, p. 8. Burnet, in his Hist. of the Ref. of the Ch. of England (Part I. Bk. II.), refers to a letter of Calvin on the subject, which I cannot find in Herminjard.
Lefranc (p. 89) calls him "l’un des esprits les plus profonds et les plus puissants de cette Renaissance qui compta tant de génies universels," and quotes the distich:—
Magnus Budaeus, major Danesius ille,
Argivos norat, iste etiam reliquos."’
"Nolui eam deducere a sententia ... sed paucis admonui, ne suis se viribus efferret, ne quid sibi de se temere promitteret, sed omnia reponeret in Dei virtute, in quo sumus et vivimus." Herminjard, II. 347.
See the last three letters of Calvin to Daniel (1559 and 1560) in Opera, vol. XVII. 584, 680, and XVIII. 16. Lefranc says (p. 77): "Rien de touchant comme cette correspondance oùle grave réformateur montre une indulgence et une souriante bonhomie qui ne lui sont pas habituelles .... Cet échange de lettres révèle veritablement un Calvin affectueux et délicat qu’on a trop souvent méconnu, sur la foi des Bolsec et des Audin." There is a German monograph on Pierre Daniel d’Orleans by Hagen of Bern, translated into French by Paul de Felice, Orleans, 1876.
"Litterarum alterum decus ac primae deliciae." In his dedicatory letter to Claude de Hangest, April 4, 1532, which is also printed in Herminjard, II. p. 411.
He freely quotes Aristotle, Plutarch, Virgil, Livy, Ovid, Horace, Pliny, Quintilian, Curtius, Macrobius, Terence, Diogenes Laërtius, and especially his favorite Cicero, whom he was for some time in the habit of reading through once a year. Lecoultre gives in an appendix a list of the works quoted by Calvin. He thinks that he was already then at heart a Protestant.
"Quum Nero diris suppliciis impotenter saeviret in Christianos." Op. V. 10. Henry, Herzog, Dorner, and Guizot assume an apologetic aim; while Stähelin and Kampschulte deny it.
Quum superstitionibus papatus magis pertinaciter addictus essem, quam ut facile esset e tam profundo luto me extrahi, animum meum, qui pro aetate nimis obduruerat, subita conversione (par une conversion subite)ad docilitatem subegit." Opera, XXXI. 21. Lefranc (p. 40) weakens the sense of this decisive passage.
So Kampschulte (I. 242), Lefranc (p. 98 "dans la seconde moitiéde l’année 1532 "), and, apparently, also the Strassburg editors, vol. XXI. 191. Beza seems to date the conversion further back (to 1628 or 1627) and traces it to the influence of Olivetan, and so also Henry and Merle d’Aubigné (I. 635). Stähelin (I. 21) puts it forward to the beginning of 1533. Calvin spent the greater part of the year 1532 to 1533 at Orleans. Op. xxi. 191.
Ep. 19 in Op. X. Part II. 27. Bonnet, I. 12. Herminjard, III. 106. Lefranc, 109 sqq.
"Tuus ex animo." Op. X. Part II. 24. Bonnet, Letters, I. 9-11. Herminjard, III. 201, locates this letter in 1534, which is more likely than 1532. The letter presupposes a previous acquaintance with Bucer. This might be dated back with Kampschulte (I. 231) to the year 1528, if Calvin were that unnamed "Noviodunensis juvenis" whom Bucer, in a letter to Farel, dated May 1, 1528, mentions as having fled from persecution at Orleans to Strassburg to study Greek and Hebrew; but Bucer probably referred to Pierre Robert Olivetan, who was likewise from Noyon, and a relative and friend of Calvin, and perhaps brought Calvin into contact with Bucer. Herminjard, II. 132 (note 5), conjectures that the young man was Froment. But Froment was a native of Dauphiné, not of Noyon. Comp. Op. X. Part II. 1; xxi. 191.
Audin, following in the track of Bolsec, traces Calvin’s conversion to wounded ambition, and thereby exposes, as Kampschulte justly observes (I. 242), his utter ignorance and misconception of Calvin’s character, whose only, ambition was to serve God.
"Je renonce le cresme, et retient mon Baptesme." Colladon, in Op. XXI. 53.
The value of the tonsure was differently estimated, but it was generally excluded from the lower orders. Calvin says (Inst. IV. ch. 19, § 22): "Some represent the clerical tonsure to be the first order of all, and episcopacy the last; others exclude the tonsure, and place the archiepiscopal office among the orders." Peter the Lombard distinguishes seven orders, corresponding to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (Isa. 11:2, 3),—beadles, readers, exorcists, acolytes, subdeacons, deacons, priests. He regards the episcopate, not as a separate ordo, but only as a dignity with four grades,—patriarch, archbishop, metropolitan, bishop. Several schoolmen and canonists reckon eight or nine ordines, including bishops and archbishops. The Council of Trent defined the three ordines majores,—bishops, priests (presbyters), and deacons.
Colladon, Op. XXI. 56: "Il prescha (while he studied at Bourges) quelquefois en une petite ville du pays de Berry, nommée Lignières, et eut entrée en la maison du seigneur du lieu qui estoit pour lors: lequel ... disait ... qu’il lui semblait que, M. Jean Calvin preshoit mieux que les moines." His preaching at Pont l’Evèque is mentioned by Colladon, ibid. fol. 64, and by Beza, fol. 121. See above, p. 301.
Beza, Vita C. (XXI. 125 sq.) Suffragiis presbyterii et magistratus, accedente plebis consensu, delectus non concionator tantum (hoc autem primum recuserat), sed etiam sacrarumliterarum doctor, quod unum admittebat, est designatus anno Domini MDXXXVI mense Augusto." Comp. Colladon, ibid. fol. 58 sq.: "declaréPasteur et Docteur en caste Eglise [de Genève]avec légitime élection et approbation."
Inst. IV. ch. III. § 16.
Institutes, IV. ch. XIX. § 28. (In Tholuck’s ed. II. 470.)
Keble says in his Introduction to Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity:, Nearly up to the time when Hooker wrote (1594), numbers had been admitted to the ministry of the Church of England with no better than presbyterial ordination."
Our own age is witness to this fact. I may refer to Dwight Lyman Moody, who is a plain, unordained layman, but a genuine, God-taught evangelist. He has probably converted more people to a Christian life than any clergyman or learned professor of theology of this age, and has made his home at Northfield a Jerusalem for Bible students from all parts of the country, and even from across the sea.
Le miroirde l’âme pécheresse (1533). The book was condemned on purely negative evidence. The silence about purgatory and the intercession of saints was construed as a denial.
Elie Courault (Coraud, Couraud, Coraldus) afterwards fled to Basel in 1534, and became a colleague of Farel and Calvin at Geneva in 1536. See Herminjard, IV. 114, note 9.
Bulaeus, Historia Universitatis Parisiensis, VI. 238, and in the "Catalogus illustrium Academicorum Univ. Parisiensis" at the end of the same volume. A notice of Cop in Herminjard, III. 129 sq. note 3.
The incomplete draft of’ this address has been discovered by J. Bonnet among the MSS. of the Geneva Library, and the whole of it by Reuss and Cunitz in the library of St. Thomas in Strassburg. It is printed in Opera, X. Pars II. 30-36 (and the shorter draft, IX. 873-876). Comp. Herminjard, III. 117, note, and 418 sqq.
Three hundred crowns were offered for his capture dead or alive. So Bucer wrote to Blaurer, Jan. 13, 1534, in Herminjard, III. 130. Cop informed Bucer, April 5, 1534, that a German was burned in Paris, for denying transubstantiation. Ibid. III. 159.
According to Beza (XXI. 123), Queen Marguerite protected Calvin and honorably received him at the court; but he certainly left Paris very soon. Colladon says nothing of an interference of Marguerite. The story of the escape of Calvin is told by Papyrius Masson, and Desmay. See M’Crie, p. 100, note 59. It has been compared to Paul’s escape at Damascus, Acts 9:25.
They are indiscriminately called "faux prophètes, damnables trompeurs, apostats, loups, faux pasteurs, menteurs, blasphémateurs, meurtriers des âmes, renonceurs de Jésus Christ, ravisseurs de l’honneur de Dieu, et plus détestables queles diables." Farel, then in Switzerland, was suspected of having some share in this incendiary publication, but without any evidence. Courault, who was then in confinement, advised not to publish the paper, "as it would excite great commotion in the minds of the people, and bring odium on the whole body of the faithful." Hist. Martyr., fol. 64, quoted by M’Crie, p. 102.
Beza (XXI. 124) gives a brief account of the persecution:"Eousque inflammata fascinati Francisci Regis ira ob schedas quosdam adversus missam per urbem sparsas ipsiusque regii cubiculi foribus ad fixas, ut publica decreta supplicatione, cui una cum liberis suis tribus nudo capite ardentem facem quasi expiationis causa gestans interfuit, quatuor urbis celebrioribus locis octonos martyres vivos ustulari juberet, atque adeo solemni jure jurando testaretur, se ne liberis quidem suis parsurum, si forte teterrimis illis, ut vocabat, haeresibus essent infecti." The Protestant reports are verified by that of a Roman Catholic, "Bourgeois de Paris," who witnessed the burnings with satisfaction, as a spectacle well pleasing to God, and mentions the dates and places of execution (namely, Nov. 10, 1534, Nov. 18, Nov. 19, Dec. 4; Jan. 21,1535, Jan. 22, Feb. 16, 19, 26, March 3, May 5), as well as the occupations of the victims, most of whom were workingmen, one a rich merchant. This report was published in 1854 and is reprinted in Michelet’s Histoire de France (vol. X. 340 sq.).
Pour excuser envers les princes protestants les persécutions qu’on faisait contre l’Evangile." Colladon (XXI. 57).
Michelet (X. 339) says: "Rien de plus saint, de plus pur, que les origines du protestantisme français. Rien de plus éloignéde la sanglante orgie de Munster."
Michelet, l.c. 342 sq.
Such as Charles d’Espeville, Martianus Lucanius, Carolus Passelius, Alcuin, Deperçan, Calpurnius. There is a monograph on these assumed names, Diatribe de Pseudonymia Calvini, by Liebe, Amsterdam, 1723, which includes several letters of importance. So says Kampschulte, I. 245.
Le Vasseur, 1161. Herminjard, V. 104. Op. XXI. 193.
Beza calls the year 1534 "horrenda in multos pios saevitia insignia" (Calv. Op. XXI. 124).
Dyer (Life of Calvin, p. 18) says of her: "Plato’s divine and earthly love never met more conspicuously in a human being," and quotes the remark of M. Génin, the editor of her correspondence: "Le trait saillant du caractère de Marguerite c’est d’avoir alliétoute sa vie les idées religieuses et les idées d’amour mondain."
Ep. 20, Op. X. Pt. I. 37. Florimond de Raemond (p. 883) extends Calvin’s sojourn at Angoulême to three years, which is evidently an error.
Florimond de Raemond: "Il estoit en bonne estiméet réputation, aiméde tous ceux qui aimoient les lettres."
According to the same Roman Catholic historian.
Ep. 29 in Op. X. Pars I. 51: the preface in vol. IX. 787-790. Beza (followed by Stähelin, I. 88) makes him take part also in the first edition, which appeared in 1634, and contained only the New Testament. But this seems to be an error. See Reuss, "Révue de Theologie," 1866, No. III. 318, and Kampschulte, I. 247; also Herminjard, III. 349, note 8.
Beza (XXI, 123): "Excepit juvenem [Calvinum] bonus senex et libenter vidit, futurum augurans insigne coelestis in Gallia instaurandi regni instrumentum."
According to Florimond de Raemond.
Bayle, Art. Calvin and La Place. Crottet, Petite Chronique Protestante de France, 96 sqq. Stähelin, I. 32. Lefranc, 120. Herminjard, III. 202, note 4.
M. Crottet, Correspondance de Calvin avec L. du Tillet, 1850.
"Lumen Galliae." See the Reminiscences of Basel, by Petrus Ramus (1572), quoted in Op. XXI. 194. Ch. Waddington, Ramus, sa vie, ses écrits et ses opinions, Paris, 1855. Stähelin, I. 41 sqq. Kampschulte, I. 250.
See above, p. 219. Ep. 2634, referred to in Op. XXI. 196.
"Video magnam pestem oriri in Ecclesia contra Ecclesiam."
It rests on the sole authority of Florimond de Raemond, p. 890. He puts the visit in the year 1534, when Calvin was yet in France, and could not accompany Bucer. Beza and Colladon know nothing of such an interview. Bayle doubted it. Merle d’Aubigné, III. 203-204 (Engl. trans. III. 183-185), however, accepts and embellishes it as if he had been present and heard the colloquy of the three scholars.
Kampschulte, a Roman Catholic historian, and others, call him "the Aristotle;" Martin, a liberal French historian, and others, call him—more appropriately—"the Thomas Aquinas," of Protestantism.
Florimond de Raemond: "l’Alcoran ou plutôt le Talmud de l’hérésie."
See the testimonies of Bossuet, and especially of Kampschulte, quoted in 68, p. 285 sq.
"Videmur nobis agnoscere, dominum instituisse tui ustum ecclesiis suis uberrimum concedere, eisque tuo ministerio latissime commodare." Herminjard, IV. 118.
Dogmengeschichte, vol. III. 27.
Kirchengeschichte, p. 405 (11th edition).
Many editors print, as a motto, the distich of the Hungarian, Paul Thurius:
Praeter apostolicas post Christi temporachartas,
Huic peperere libro saecula nulla parem."
I have made use of the faithful translation of John Allen, compared with the Latin original.
He himself gives in the preface to the last edition the following account of the successive improvements of the work: "In the first edition of this work, not expecting that success which the Lord in his infinite goodness hath given, I handled the subject for the most part in a superficial manner, as is usual in small treatises. But when I understood that it had obtained from almost all pious persons such a favorable acceptance as I never could have presumed to wish, much less to hope, while I was conscious of receiving far more attention than I had deserved, I thought it would evince great ingratitude, if I did not endeavor at least, according to my humble ability, to make some suitable return for the attentions paid to me;—attentions of themselves calculated to stimulate my industry. Nor did I attempt this only in the second edition, but in every succeeding one the work has been improved by some farther enlargements. But though I repented not the labor then devoted to it, yet I never satisfied myself till it was arranged in the order in which it is now published. And I trust I have here presented to my readers what their judgments will unite in approving. Of my diligent application to the accomplishment of this service for the Church of God, I can produce abundant proof. For, last winter, when I thought that a quartan ague would speedily terminate in my death, the more my disorder increased, the less I spared myself till I had finished this book, to leave it behind me as some grateful return to such kind solicitations of the religious public. Indeed, I would rather it had been done sooner, but it is soon enough, if well enough. I shall think it has appeared at the proper time, when I shall find it to have been more beneficial than before to the Church of God. This is my only wish."
See the quotations of the several passages bearing upon this doctrine in Schweizer’s Centraldogmen, I. 150-152, and in Stähelin, I. 66-68.
462 Beza (xxi. 123): "Illam [Ferrariensem Ducissam]in vero pietatis studio confirmavit, ut eum postea vivum semper dilexerit, ac nunc quoque superstes gratae in defunctum memoriae specimen edat luculentum." Colladon (53) speaks likewise of the high esteem in which the Duchess, then still living, held Calvin before and after his death. Bolsec in his libel (Ch. v. 30), mentions the visit to Ferrara, but suggests a mercenary, motive. "Calvin," he says, "s’en alla vers Allemaigne et Itallie: cherchant son adventure, et passa par la ville de Ferrare, ou il receut quelque aumone de Madame la Duchesse."
463 St. Louis and Calvin, p. 207. He adds: "And the duchess was not the only, person towards whom he fulfilled this duty of a Christian pastor. His correspondence shows that he exercised a similar influence, in a spirit equally lofty and judicious, over the consciences of many Protestants."
464 See the correspondence in the Letters by Bonnet, and in the Strassburg-Braunschweig edition. On Renée and her relation to Calvin see Henry, I. 159, 450-454; III. Beilage 142-153; in his smaller work, 62-69; 478-483; Stähelin, I. 94-108; Sophia W. Weitzel, Renée of France, Duchess of Ferrara, New York, 1883; and Theod. Schott, in Herzog2, XII. 693-701.
465 In the city of Aosta, near the Croix-de-Ville, stands a column eight feet high, surmounted by a cross of stone, with the following inscription:
Hanc
Calvini Fuga
erexit
Anno MDXLI
Religionis Constantia
Reparavit
Anno MDCCXLI.
The inscription was renewed again in 1841, with the following addition (according to Merle d’Aubigné, who saw it himself, vol. V. 531):
Civium Munificentia
Renovavit Et Adornavit.
Anno MDCCCXLI.
"Religionis constantia" must refer to the Roman faith which drove Calvin and his heresy away. Dr. Merle d’Aubigné accepts Calvin’s flight on the ground of this monumental testimony as a historical fact, but the silence of Calvin, Beza, and Colladon throws doubt on it. See J. Bonnet, Calvin au Val d’Aosta, 1861; A. Rilliet, Lettre àMr. Merle d’Aubignésur deux points obscure de la vie de Calvin, 1864; Stähelin, I. 110; Kampschulte, I. 280 (note); La France Prof., III. 520; Thomas M’Crie, The Early Years of Calvin pp. 95 and 104.
Fontana: Documenti del archivio vaticano e dell’ Estenso circa soggiorno di Calvino a Ferrara, 1885. Comba in "Rivista christiana," 1885; Sandovini in Rivista stor. italiana," 1887.
466 This visit to Noyon is mentioned by Beza in the Latin Vita, who adds that he then brought his only surviving brother Antoine, with him to Geneva (XXI. 125). Colladon (58) agrees, and informs us that Calvin left Du Tillet at Basel, who from there went to Neuchâtel. In his French Life of C., Beza omits the journey to France: "A son retour d’Italie ... il passa àla bonne heure par ceste ville de Genève."