HKB
that the princes have begun to take up the matter in earnest; the free cities enter cordially into the arrangement, seeing that their ecclesiastical property is everywhere so wretchedly dilapidated.
[119] Calvin was about to set out for Frankfort, charged with an important mission by the Church of Strasbourg. Reconciled by a recent treaty with his rival Francis I., Charles V. had turned his whole attention in the direction of Germany, and solemnly announced his intention to accommodate religious differences in that country. The French king appeared to enter into his views, and the German princes shewed themselves disposed to favour the accomplishment of his wishes in meeting together at a solemn public conference between the Protestants and the Roman Catholic doctors. The day of meeting was fixed by the emperor himself for the 12th February 1539, and Frankfort was pointed out for the theatre of these conferences.--Sleidan, Commentarii, lib. xii., pp. 338, 339. Anxious to be represented at that assembly at Frankfort by the most eminent ministers, the town of Strasbourg chose for its deputies Bucer, Sturm, and Calvin.
Du Tailly wrote to me concerning Basil,[120] that he had lately proposed a public disputation to be held at Geneva, but had suffered a repulse, which, indeed, I hear all the more willingly, that false notions may not be spread abroad among a people who are otherwise more than enough eagerly desirous of novelty, and seeing that nobody takes the trouble to oppose these errors by refuting them.
[120] This was no doubt, M. Du Tailly, a French gentleman, who had taken refuge at Geneva. He was a correspondent of Calvin.