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

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Allemaigne et Itallie: cherchant son adventure, et passa par la ville de
Ferrare, ou il receut quelque aumone de Madame la Duchesse.”
ft463 St. Louis and Calvin, p. 207. He adds: “And the duchess was not the
only, person towards whom he fulfilled this duty of a Christian pastor.
His correspondence shows that he exercised a similar influence, in a
spirit equally lofty and judicious, over the consciences of many
Protestants.”
ft464 See the correspondence in the Letters by Bonnet, and in the
Strassburg-Braunschweig edition. On Renée and her relation to Calvin
see Henry, I. 159, 450-454; III. Beilage 142-153; in his smaller work,
62-69; 478-483; Stähelin, I. 94-108; Sophia W. Weitzel, Renée of
France, Duchess of Ferrara, New York, 1883; and Theod. Schott, in
Herzog 2 , XII. 693-701.
ft465 In the city of Aosta, near the Croix-de-Ville, stands a column eight
feet high, surmounted by a cross of stone, with the following
inscription:
HANC CALVINI FUGA EREXIT
ANNO MDXLI
RELIGIONIS CONSTANTIA
REPARAVIT ANNO MDCCXLI.
The inscription was renewed again in 1841, with the following addition
(according to Merle d’Aubigné, who saw it himself, vol. V. 531):
CIVIUM MUNIFICENTIA
RENOVAVIT ET ADORNAVIT.
ANNO MDCCCXLI.
“Religionis constantia” must refer to the Roman faith which drove
Calvin and his heresy away. Dr. Merle d’Aubigné accepts Calvin’s
flight on the ground of this monumental testimony as a historical fact,
but the silence of Calvin, Beza, and Colladon throws doubt on it. See J.
Bonnet, Calvin au Val d’Aosta, 1861; A. Rilliet, Lettre àMr. Merle
d’Aubignésur deux points obscure de la vie de Calvin, 1864; Stähelin,
I. 110; Kampschulte, I. 280 (note); La France Prof., III. 520; Thomas
M’Crie, The Early Years of Calvin pp. 95 and 104.
Fontana: Documenti del archivio vaticano e dell’ Estenso circa
soggiorno di Calvino a Ferrara, 1885. COMBA in “Rivista christiana,”
1885; SANDOVINI in Rivista stor. italiana,” 1887.