Note 401 — CCCV.—To Melanchthon.[400]

The same fact is related in a letter of Calvin to Dryander in the following terms: "After that monk let loose against us from the service of M. de Falais had been condemned, a plot having been clandestinely hatched, a noisy fellow was found who, not only at table in private families, but up and down the taverns, kept constantly bawling, that we made God the author of sin, and otherwise traduced our ministry in the most insulting manner possible. When I saw that these evenomed words were spread about everywhere, by means of which profligate men were intriguing, by no means covertly, to overthrow the whole kingdom of Christ in this city, I mildly admonished the people to be on their guard against them. I also pointed out to the Senate how dangerous dilatory measures were in such dissensions. Those who had suborned him to molest me, by their intrigues so protracted the cause, that I was kept in suspense upwards of three months. For among the judges there were several who favoured the adverse party. But among many injuries, there was nothing I felt more keenly and bitterly than that this affair forced me into a hateful contest with M. Philip, with whom, however, I broke in such a manner that I never spoke of so great a man except in honourable terms."—Library of Geneva. Vol. 107, a.