380 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
capacity of a commissioner both of Strassburg and the dukes of Liineburg. He went reluctantly, being just then in ill health and feeling unequal to the task. But he gathered strength on the spot, and braced up the courage of Melanchthon who, as the spokesman of the Lutheran theologians, showed less disposition to yield than on former occasions. He took a prominent part in the discussion. He defeated Dean Robert Mosham of Passau in a second disputation, and earned on that occasion from Melanchthon, and the Lutheran theologians who were present, the distinctive title "the Theologian " by eminence.^
He also wrote at Worms, for his private solace, not for publication, an epic poem in sixty-one distichs (one hundred and twenty-two lines), which celebrates the triumph of Christ and the defeat of his enemies (Eck, Cochlteus, Nausea, Pelargus) after their apparent and temporary victory.^ He was not a poetic genius, but by study he made up the defects of nature.^
1 Beza {Opera, vol. XXI. 130) : " Calvimis . . . Domino Philippo Melanckthoni et Gaspari Crucigero beatce memorice imprimis (jratus, adeo ut eum ille soepe ' Theologum ' cognominaverit, hie vera privatum de ccena cum eo colloquium habuerit eiusque cognitam sententiam diserte comprobarit." The Report of the Strassburger Kirchenordnung, II. 140, as quoted by Strieker (p. 28, note), says : " Auff welchem Colloquio auch Philippus [Melanchthon], Cruciger und anderefurneme Theologi Kandlschafft mit Galvino gemacht, dass sie ihn, per Excellentiam, 'den Theologum' genannt." Papire Masson (in Vita Calv., as quoted by Hernainjard, VII. 26) : " Wormatiam missus a civibus excerruit excellentis ingenii vires tanto applausn theologorum Germania', ut judicio Melanchthonis et reliquorum singular i privilegio Theologi cognomen adcptus sit." A theologian in that eminently theological age meant a great deal more than a doctor of divinity nowadays.
2 Epinicion ad Christum, in Opera,Y. 423-428. Dyer (p. 106), Kampschulte (I. 333), Henry (I. ch. XVIII), and even Merle d'Aubigne' (VII. 23), were mistaken in calling this Song of Victory the only poem of Calvin (I. 333). He wrote also metrical versions of a number of Psalms, and a lyric hymn to Christ. See Opera, VI. 212-224.
3 As he says himself in the concluding lines : —
" Quod natura negat, studii pius efficit ardor, Ut coner laudes, Chrisie, sonare tuas."
He gave the manuscript to a few friends, but did not permit it to be printed till the court of Toulouse, four years afterwards, put the poem in the list of
§ 89. CALVIN AT THE COLLOQUIES. 381
The Colloquy of Worms, after having hardly begun, was broken off in January, 1541, to be resumed at the approaching Diet of Regensburg (Ratisbon) in presence of the emperor on liis return.
The Diet at Regensburg was opened April 5, 1541. Calvin appeared again as a delegate of Strassburg and at the special request of Melanchthon, but reluctantly and with little hope of success. He felt that he was ill suited for such work, and would only waste time.^ After long and vexatious delays in the arrival of the deputies, the theological Colloquy was opened and conducted on the Roman Catholic side by Dr. John Eck, professor at Ingolstadt (who had disputed with Luther at Leipzig and promulgated the papal bull of excommunication), Julius Pflug, canon of Mainz (afterwards bishop of Naumburg), and John Cropper, canon and professor of canon law at Cologne ; on the Protestant side by Melanchthon of Wittenberg, Bucer of Strassburg, and Pistorius of Nidda in Hesse. Granvella presided in the name of the emperor; Cardinal Contarini, an enlightened and well-disposed prelate, who was inclined to evangelical views and favored a moderate reformation, acted as legate of Pope Paul TIL, who sent, however, at the same time the intolerant Bishop Morone as a special nuncio. Calvin could see no difference between the two legates, except that Morone would like to subdue the Protestants with bloodshed, Contarini without bloodshed. He was urged to seek an interview with Contarini, but refused. He speaks favorably of Pflug and Cropper, but contemptuously of Eck, the sten-
forbidden books, and caused many inquiries after it. Otherwise he would have allowed it to be forgotten. See his preface in Opera, V. 422.
1 " Invitissimus," he wrote to Farel (Feb. 19, 1541, in Herminjard, VII. 26), "Ratisponam trahor : turn quia ipsam prqfectionem mihi molestissimam prospicio fore : turn quod valde timeo ne diuturna mora futura sit, ut sclent scepe numero comitia ad decimum mensem producere : turn quod minime idoneus mihi ad tales actiones videor, qnidquid alii judicent. Sed Deum sequar, qui novit cur mihi hanc necessitatem imponat."