§ 126. CALVIN AND CASTELLIO. 626
but recommended an increase of his salary, which the Council refused, with the direction that he should keep better discipline in the school. ^ He also gave him an honorable public testimony when he wished to leave Geneva, and added private letters of recommendation to friends. Castellio went to Lausanne, but soon returned to Geneva. In April, 1544, he asked the Council to continue him in his position for April, May, and June, which was agreed to.^
In a public discussion on some Scripture text in the weekly congregation at which about sixty persons were present, May 30, 1544, he eulogized St. Paul and drew an unfavorable contrast between him and the ministers of Geneva, charging them with drunkenness, impurity, and intolerance. Calvin listened in silence, but complained to the Syndics of this conduct.^ Castellio was summoned before the Council, which, after a patient hearing, found him guilty of calumny, and banished him from the city.*
He went to Basel, where the liberal spirit of Erasmus had not yet died out. He lived there several years in great poverty till 1553, when he obtained a Greek professorship in the University. That University was the headquarters of opposition to Calvinism. Several sceptical Italians gathered there. Fr. Hotoman wrote to Bullinger : " Calvin is no better spoken of here than in Paris. If one Avishes to scold another, he calls him a Calvinist. He is most unjustly and immoderately assailed from all quarters." ^
In the summer of 1554, an anonymous letter was addressed to the Genevese with atrocious charges against Calvin, who suspected that it was written by Castellio, and complained
1 See Reg. du Conseil, Jan. 14, 1544, quoted in Annul. 328.
2 E.xtriict from Reg. du Conseil, April 12, 1544, in Annul. 333.
3 May 31, Annal. 336.
* Tliis is tlie report of Beza: "ear nrhe excedere jussus est " ; but Castellio seems to have remained in Geneva till July 14. See Reg. du Conseil, in Annal. 340.
s Trechsel, Antitrinitarier, I. 219; Stiihelin, II. 304.
626 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
of it to Antistes Sulzer of Basel ; but Castellio denied the authorship before the Council of Basel. About the same time appeai-ed from the same anonymous source a malignant tract against Calvin, which collected his most obnoxious utterances on predestination, and was sent to Paris for publication to fill the French Protestants, then struggling for existence, with distrust of the Reformer (1555). Calvin and Beza replied with much indignation and bitterness, and heaped upon the author such epithets as dog, slanderer, corrupter of Scripture, vagabond, blasphemer. Calvin, upon insufficient information, even charged him with theft. Castellio, in self-defence, informs us that, with a large familydependent on him, he was in the habit of gathering driftwood on the banks of the Rhine to keep himself warm, and to cook his food, while Avorking at the completion of his translation of the Scriptures till midnight. He effectively replied to Calvin's reproachful epithets : " It ill becomes so learned a man as yourself, the teacher of so many others, to degrade so excellent an intellect by such foul and sordid abuse."
Castellio incurred the suspicion of the Council of Basel by las translation of Ochino's Dialogues^ which contained opinions favorable to Unitarianism and polygamy (1663). He defended himself by alleging that he acted not as judge, but only as translator, for the support of liis family. He was warned to cease meddling with theology and to stick to philology.
He died in poverty, Dec. 29, 1563, only forty-eight years old, leaving four sons and four daughters from two wives. Calvin saw in his death a judgment of God, but a few months afterwards he died himself. Even the mild Bullinger expressed satisfaction that the translator of Ochino's dangerous books had left this world.^ Three Polish Socinians, who
1 He wrote to Zanchi at Chiavenna, March 17, 15(i4 : " Opt.ime factuiyi, quod BdsllecE mortuus est Castellio." Quoted by Trechsel, I. 214, from the Siinler Collection in Ziirich.