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

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Calvin had left Regensburg as soon as he found a chance, about the middle
of June, much to the regret of Bucer and Melanchthon, who wished to
retain him. f543
His sojourn there was embittered by the ravages of the pestilence in
Strassburg, which carried away his beloved deacon, Claude Féray
(Feraeus), his friends Bedrotus and Capito, one of his boarders, Louis de
Richebourg (Claude’s pupil), and the sons of Oecolampadius, Zwingli, and
Hedio. He was thrown into a state of extreme anxiety and depression,
which he revealed to Farel in a melancholy letter of March 29, 1541. f544
“My dear friend Claude, whom I singularly esteemed,” he writes, “has been
carried off by the plague. Louis (de Richebourg) followed three days
afterwards. My house was in a state of sad desolation. My brother
(Antoine) had gone with Charles (de Richebourg) to a neighboring village;
my wife had betaken herself to my brother’s; and the youngest of Claude’s
scholars [probably Malherbe of Normandy] is lying sick in bed. To the
bitterness of grief there was added a very anxious concern for those who
survived. Day and night my wife is constantly present to my thoughts, in
need of advice, seeing that she is deprived of her husband. f545 ... These
events have produced in me so much sadness that it seems as if they would
utterly upset the mind and depress the spirit. You cannot believe the grief
which consumes me on account of the death of my dear friend Claude.”
Then he pays a touching tribute to Féray, who had lived in his house and
stuck closer to him than a brother. But the most precious fruit of this sore
affliction is his letter of comfort to the distressed father of Louis de
Richebourg, which we shall quote in another connection. f546
§ 90. CALVIN AND MELANCHTHON.
The correspondence between CALVIN (14 letters) and Melanchthon
(8 letters), and several letters of CALVIN to FAREL from Strassburg
and Regensburg.
Henry, Vol. I. chs. XII. and XVII,—STÄHELIN, I. 237–254.—MERLE
D’AUBIGNÉ, bk. XI. ch. XIX. (vol. VII. 18–22, in Cates’ translation).
One of the important advantages which his sojourn at Strassburg brought
to Calvin and to the evangelical Church was his friendship with
Melanchthon. It has a typical significance for the relationship of the
Lutheran and Reformed Confessions, and therefore deserves special
consideration.