Note 308 — CCLXVIII.—To Farel.

The celebrated printer Robert Etienne, (Stephens,) a man of the purest reputation, who lived in an age which failed to recognize his genius, and which rewarded his labours with ingratitude. Having become odious to the clergy by his beautiful editions of the Bible, and by his desire for reform, and but ill protected by the King of France against the vexations of the Sorbonne, he resolved to quit his country and remove his presses to Geneva, whither the printer Crespin had already preceded him. He arrived there towards the end of the year 1550, with his son Henry, who afterwards shed a new lustre on the name of Stephens. He publicly embraced the cause of the Reformation, together with the members of his family, and honoured his adopted country by the publication of various works of antiquity, both sacred and profane. Made a burgess of Geneva in 1556, he lived in constant intimacy with Calvin and Beza, until his death in 1559.—Senebier, Hist. Litt., pp. 355, 356; Haag. France Protestante, Art. Estienne.