Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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with Queen Elizabeth, in the vain hope of an invitation to England. He
desired to be sent as delegate to the religious conference at Poissy in
France, 1561, but was again disappointed. He paid four visits to the
Grisons (November, 1561; March, 1562; May, 1563; and April, 1564), to
counteract the intrigues of the Spanish and papal party, and to promote the
harmony of the Swiss Church with that of Würtemberg. On his second visit
he went as far as the Valtellina. He received an informal invitation to attend
the Council of Trent in 1561 from Delfino, the papal nuncio, in the hope
that he might be induced to recant; he was willing to go at the risk of
meeting the fate of Hus at Constance, but on condition of a safe conduct,
which was declined. f238 At last he wished to unite with the Bohemian
Brethren, whom he admired for their strict discipline combined with pure
doctrine; he translated and published their Confession of Faith. He was in
constant need of money, and his many begging letters to the Dukes of
Würtemberg and of Prussia make a painful impression; but we must take
into account the printing expenses of his many books, his frequent
journeys, and the support of three nephews and a niece. In his fifty-ninth
year he conceived the plan of contracting a marriage, and asked the Duke
to double his allowance of two hundred guilders, but the request was
declined and the marriage given up. f239
He died Oct. 4, 1565, at Tübingen, and was buried there. Dr. Andreae, the
chief author of the Lutheran Formula of Concord, preached the funeral
sermon, which the learned Crusius took down in Greek. Duke Christopher
erected a monument to his memory with a eulogistic inscription. f240
The very numerous Latin and Italian books and fugitive tracts of Vergerio
are chiefly polemical against the Roman hierarchy of which he had so long
been a conspicuous member. f241 He exposed, with the intemperate zeal of a
proselyte, the chronique scandaleuse of the papacy, including the mythical
woman-pope, Johanna (John VIII.), who was then generally believed to
have really existed. f242 He agreed with Luther that the papacy was an
invention of the Devil; that the pope was the very Antichrist seated in the
temple of God as predicted by Daniel (11:36) and Paul (2 Thess. 2:3 sq.),
and the beast of the Apocalypse; and that he would soon be destroyed by a
divine judgment. He attacked all the contemporary popes, except Adrian
VI., to whom he gives credit for honesty and earnestness. He is especially
severe on “Saul IV.” (Paul IV.), who as Cardinal Caraffa had made some
wise and bold utterances on the corruption of the clergy, but since his
elevation to the “apostate chair, which corrupts every one who ascends it,”