Note 404 — CIV.—To the Seigneury of Geneva.[404]

This letter, written from Strasbourg, has reference, as well as the following, to the journey which Calvin undertook, in 1543, for the evangelization of Metz.

A town of the Empire, and the seat of one of the three bishoprics which the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis incorporated with France, Metz received betimes the seed of the Reformation. The first missionaries were John Leclerc and John Chatelain, who suffered martyrdom, (1523-1524.) The Church, which they had helped to found by their testimony, enlarged under the cross of persecution. She demanded, in 1544, the free exercise of religion at the Diet of Ratisbon, but without obtaining it. The year following, she called Farel. The intrepid missionary answered the perilous appeal. Driven from the town by a sedition, he retired to the village of Montigny, where the Protestants flocked together to wait upon his preachings. The gates of the town were shut upon them by order of the Roman Catholic magistrates, and thus they perceived they were driven from their country. Received with kindness by the magistrates of Strasbourg, they had recourse to the intervention of the Protestant princes of Germany to obtain free access to their houses and property, as well as the free exercise of their worship. It was during these negotiations that Calvin left Geneva, and rejoined Farel at Strasbourg.—Bèze, Hist. Eccl. tom. iii. p. 431, and following.