[262] This is the first time the name of Beza is found mentioned in the correspondence of Calvin. Born on the 24th of June 1519, at Vezelay, in Burgundy, he had left Paris after a brilliant and dissipated youth, to retire to Geneva.--_Registers of the Council_, 3d May 1549. "Eight French gentlemen, among whom is Theodore Beza, arrive here and obtain permission to remain." Beza was a short time afterwards, made Professor of Greek in the Academy of Lausanne, from which place he wrote to Bullinger:--"The Lord has shewn me this, in the first place, for which may I be able to make my boast in him continually,--that I must prefer the cross to my country, and to all changes of fortune. In the next place, I have received the friendship of Calvin, Viret, Musculus, and Haller; kind Heaven, the friendship of such men! When I think that these are my friends, so far from feeling any inconvenience from exile, I may adopt the saying of Themistocles,--'Perieram nisi periissem.'"--_MSS. of Archives of Zurich_, Gest. vi. p. 139.
Adieu, most upright brother and friend, together with your wife, your little daughter, and your whole family. May the Lord keep you and guide you by his Spirit! Salute the brethren earnestly in my name.--Yours,
[_Lat. orig. autogr.--Library of Gotha._ Vol. 404, p. 16.]
[263] "To John Haller, Pastor of the Bernese Church."
John Haller, of the illustrious family of that name, which reflected so much honour on Switzerland, was born at Zurich in 1523, and became a minister at the age of nineteen, as he informs us himself in his _Chronicle_. He became the colleague of Musculus, at Augsburg, in 1545, was recalled to Zurich three years afterwards, and, yielding to the pressing solicitations of the Seigneury of Berne, undertook the duties of a minister of that church in 1548. His zeal and talents, together with his prudence, which was remarkable in one so very young, raised him to the highest offices; and before he was quite twenty-nine, he was chosen president of the clergy of Berne, an office which he filled for a long period amidst very trying circumstances.--Ruchat, tom. v. p. 329, _et suiv._
A Reformer's complaints on the malevolence of the Bernese ministers.
I beg you, my dear Haller, not to take it amiss that I ask you to discharge the present duty for me, as I shall impose a new burden on you, by and by, to provide, viz., for the transmission of my letter to Zurich. Conrad Curio, who is at present schoolmaster at Zurtolphi, got me to become security for him with a certain bookseller. My reminding him of it has been hitherto useless, and I am now pulling his ears a little more smartly, lest I pay the penalty of his negligence. I send a letter to be safely delivered to him at an early period, which may be done without trouble to yourself. Had I not been convinced of your love toward me, I should not have ventured to impose any burden on you. Would that I had the same confidence in all! But I see that Satan has too much influence among those who wish to be regarded as ministers of Christ, when Hotman[264] was lately refused a place among the deacons, for which I can see no other reason than that he was for some time my coadjutor. But although I am his familiar companion, he ought not [on that account] to injure the pious and the learned. Those unscrupulous individuals who go about raging so wildly will never cause me to regret the labour which I incur in behalf of the Church. They will assuredly bring upon themselves equal odium and reproach from all good men. I shall defer the rest for two days or four.