Note 490 — CXXXII.—To Viret.[490]

Calvin was already on his return from the journey which he had undertaken in Switzerland, and which he had accomplished with extraordinary despatch. In succession he had visited Berne, Zurich, Schaffhausen, Basle, Strasbourg, everywhere exhorting the magistrates to make energetic intercession in favour of their French brethren, so cruelly persecuted. Last of all, he had gone to the Diet of Arau, and had addressed the same entreaties to the deputies of the Cantons. These latter wrote to the King, Francis I., with much force of language; but their tardy interference had no influence upon the resolution of the monarch, blinded by perfidious counsels, and which were not entirely cleared away until two years afterwards upon a deathbed.—Extract from the Council Registers of Geneva, May 1545; Ruchat, Hist. de la Réf., tom. v. p. 253.