382 THE IIEFOKMATION IN FEENCH SWITZERLAND.
torian mouthpiece of the papal party, whom he regarded as an impudent babbler and vain sophist.^ The French king was represented by Du Veil, whom Calvin calls a "busy blockhead." There were present also a good many bishoi)s, the princes of the German States, and delegates of the imperial cities. The emperor, in an earnest speech, exhorted the divines, through an interpreter, to lay aside private feelings and to study only the truth, the glory of God, the good of the Church, and the peace of the empire.
The Colloquy passed slightly over the doctrines of original sin and the slavery of the will, where the Protestants were protected by the authority of St. Augustin. The Catholics agreed to the evangelical view of justification by faith (without the Lutheran sola)^ and conceded the eucharistic cup to the laity, but the parties split on the doctrine of the power of the Church and the real presence. Calvin was especially consulted on the last point, and gave a decided judgment in Latin against transubstantiation, which he rejected as a scholastic fiction, and against the adoration of the wafer which he declared to be idolatrous.^ He Avas displeased with the submissiveness of Melanchthon and Bucer, although he did not doubt the sincerity of their motives. He loved truth and consistency more than peace and unity. " Philip," he wrote to
1 See his judgment of these persons in the letter to Farel, April 24, 1541, in Herminjard, VII. 89. Of Eck he says: " Nemint dubium est quin Davus ille [referring to the impudent slave in the ancient drama] sua importunitate sit omnia turbatiirus." In a letter of May 12 he reports that Eck was struck by apoplexy (May 10), but recovered, adding: "Nondum meretur miindus ista hesiia liberari." (Herminjard, VII. 115 sq.) Eck died Feb. 16, 1543. Franz Burckhard, the Saxon Chancellor, gave, in a letter to Pontanus, April 22, 1541, a similar estimate of Pflug, Gropper, and Eck, and calls the last an " ebrius sophista, qui pliiris facit Bacchum quam idlam religionem " (Mel. Epist. IV. 185). Mosellanus described Eck, as he appeared at the disputation in Leipzig, as " a big-bodied, broad-shouldered, stout-hearted, and impudent man, who looked more like a town-crier than a theologian." Melanchthon thought that " no pious person could listen without disgust to the sophisms and vain subtleties of that talking mountebank."
2 Calvin to Farel, May 11, 1541, in Herminjard, VII. Ill sq.
§ 89. CALVIN AT THE COLLOQUIES. 383
Farel (May 12, 1541),i "and Bucer have drawn up ambiguous and varnished formulas concerning transubstantiation, to try whether they could satisfy the opposite party by giving them nothing.2 I cannot agree to this device, although they have reasonable grounds for doing so ; for they hope that in a short time they would begin to see more clearly if the matter of doctrine be left open ; therefore they rather wish to skip over it, and do not dread that equivocation (flexiloquation) than which nothing can be more hurtful. I can assure you, however, that both are animated with the best intentions, and have no other object in view than to promote the kingdom of Christ; only in their method of proceeding they accommodate themselves too much to the times. . . . These things I deplore in private to yourself, my dear Farel ; see, therefore, that they are not made public. One thing I am thankful for, that there is no one who is fighting now more earnestly against the wafer-god,^ as he calls it, than Brentz." *
All the negotiations failed at last by the combined opposition of the extreme men of both parties.^
The emperor closed the Diet on the 28th of July, "and promised to use his influence with the pope to convene a General Council for the settlement of the theological questions.^
Calvin had left Regensburg as soon as he found a chance,
1 Herminjard, VII. 115.
2 These formulas are printed in Melanchthon's Epistolce, IV. 262-264.
3 Or, in-breaded God, impanatus Deus.
* The leading Lutheran divine of Wilrttemberg, who attended the Colloquy.
^ The popular wit described the failure of the Colloquy in the line : " Sie pfliigen (Pflug, Plough), eggen (Eck), graben (Grobber), piitzen (Bucer or Butzer), und backen (Pistorius, whose German name was Becker), und richten nichts aus." Corp. Reform. IV. 335.
6 Calvin wrote to Viret from Strassburg, Aug. 13, 1541 (Herminjard, VII. 218) : "Finis comitiorum talis fuit qualem ego fore semper divinavi. 2'ota enim pacijicationis actio in fuinum abiit, cum ad concilium universale rejecta est, vel saltern nationals, si illud brevi obtineri nequeat. Quid enim hoc aliud est quam fru^trari '? "