The Spaniard

seduce the unwary into error. fixed the time and place for a meeting with Calvin, for the purpose of discussing his tenets, but when the appointed day arrived he did not make his appearance, "because he could not endure," as it was said by some, (6 to look the lion in the face."

As the violence of the storm which raged against the evangelical party in France increased rather than diminished, Calvin determined to leave his native country; and shortly after publishing at Orléans his work respecting the unscriptural notion of the soul's sleep from death to the resurrection, he departed for Basle, accompanied by his friend Tillet. Passing through Strasburg, he "contracted a friendship with the learned Simon Grynæus, and likewise with Wolfgang Capito, which was terminated only by death. At Basle he devoted himself with his usual ardour to Hebrew literature, and it would have been his wish to live in complete retirement, that he might have the opportunity of giving undivided attention to his studies. But it was not God's will that he should remain long in seclusion. He had work for his servant to do on the broad stage of the world, and Calvin was therefore soon summoned

to buckle on his armour again, and to appear in the arena of conflict. Events now occurred which summoned him before the general eye, and called forth the publication of the most celebrated of his writings.

CHAPTER II,

Francis 1.-His cruel and perfidious conduct-Calvin comes forward as the champion of the Protestant cause-Publishes his Institutes-Appeals in the Dedication to Francis-Flies from France-Takes refuge at Ferrara-Returns to France -Leaving his native country, arrives at Geneva- His struggles with various opponents-His exile from Geneva.

THAT it is one of the prerogatives of God to overrule evil for good is a truth most apparent, not alone from sacred history, but profane; for surely as it is written," The wrath of man shall praise thee," Psa. lxxvi. 10. It has passed into a proverb that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church;" and so it proved now. Francis, wishing to exhibit in some conspicuous manner his zeal for the church of Rome and his hatred to the reformed doctrines, again began to persecute to the death the preachers of gospel truth in his capital. But while he put to the torture those Protestants of his own country whom he was able to arrest, he with seeming

B

inconsistency, but for political purposes, earnestly solicited the aid of the German princes associated by the League of Smalkald. He was about to enter upon a war with the emperor, and in order to secure an alliance with the Protestants of Germany, he not only affected a wonderful moderation with regard to the points in dispute between the Romish and the Reformed churches, but even invited Melancthon to visit Paris, that he might assist in concerting such measures as would be most likely to reconcile the two conflicting sects. This double game, however, was not long permitted to be played. Circumstances arose which forced the time-serving monarch to act in a manner diametrically opposed to the hollow professions by which he was endeavouring to win the Protestants of Germany to his cause.

The untempered zeal of some of his subjects who had received the reformed doctrines, and who were prohibited by the enemies of the truth from proclaiming their sentiments in public, prompted them to affix to the gates of the Louvre, and even on the walls of the king's palace at Blois, certain papers, containing indecent satires against the mass, and other doctrines and ceremonies of the Romish church.

Five of the persons concerned were discovered, and seized on the 29th January, 1535. The king, in order to avert the judgment which it was supposed their blasphemies might draw down upon the nation, appointed a solemn procession. The holy sacrament was carried through the city in great pomp; Francis walked uncovered before it, bearing a torch in his hand; the princes of the blood supported the canopy over it; the nobles marched in order behind. In the presence of this numerous assembly, the king declared that if one of his hands were infected with heresy he would cut it off with the other, and would not spare even his own children if found guilty of that crime. As a dreadful proof of his being in earnest, the six unhappy persons were publicly burned, before the procession was finished, with circumstances of the most shocking barbarity attending their execution. Nor were these the only victims of the king's unrighteous zeal. John Sturmius, of Strasburg, writes from Paris to Melancthon, that eighteen had either been burned to death or tortured, and that many others were expecting the like treatment.

The German princes, indignant at the king's perfidy and cruelty, at once broke off all