Note 443 — CCCXXV.—To Viret.[443]
Reading edition
A serious conflict came to be raised between the ministers and the magistrates of Geneva. A chief of the Libertins, Philibert Berthelier, was excommunicated by the Consistory for his irregular habits, and appealed to the Council of State, which annulled the ecclesiastical sentence, and gave Berthelier authority to go forward to the Supper. The experiment was decisive; it was made to know whether or not Calvin would abandon ecclesiastical discipline, or resist the government. This letter of the Reformer to Viret, shows us with what energetic resolution and heroic constancy he resolved, in this instance, to maintain the honour of Christ. This conflict, which mutually divided the representatives of the spiritual and civil powers, could only be terminated by the solemn intervention of the Helvetian Churches.—Registers of Council, anno 1553. See also the various histories of Geneva, Spon, Picot, &c.