Still, if you had attacked me in my private character, I could easily have forgiven the attack in consideration of your learning, and in honor of letters. For though religion was already established, and the form of the Church corrected, before I was invited to Geneva, yet having not only approved by my suffrage, but studied as much as in me lay to preserve and confirm what had been done by Viret and Farel, I cannot separate my case from theirs. I, however, Sadolet, profess to be one of those whom with so much enmity you assail and stigmatize.
#Cardinal chains answers full#
And here (so help you) you bear down full sail upon those who, under pretence of the gospel, have by wicked arts urged on the city to what you deplore as the subversion of religion and of the Church. Any thing of obloquy and bitterness you directed against those whose exertions had produced the revolt from that tyranny. In that letter, as it was not expedient to wound the feelings of these whose favor you required to gain your cause, you acted the part of a good pleader for you endeavored to soothe them by abundance of flattery, in order that you might gain them over to your views. You lately addressed a Letter to the Senate and People of Geneva, in which you sounded their inclination as to whether, after having once shaken off the yoke of the Roman Pontiff, they would submit to have it again imposed upon them. I trust, however, that after explaining the nature of my undertaking, I shall not only be exempted from all blame, but there will not be an individual who will not admit that the cause which I have undertaken I could not on any account have abandoned without basely deserting my duty. For I am not unaware how reprehensible it would be to show any eagerness in attacking a man who has deserved so well of literature, nor how odious I should become to all the learned were they to see me stimulated by passion merely, and not impelled by any just cause, turning my pen against one whom, for his admirable endowments, they, not without good reason, deem worthy of love and honor. Nor, indeed, would I have done it if I had not been dragged into this arena by a strong necessity.
In the great abundance of learned men whom our age has produced, your excellent learning and distinguished eloquence having deservedly procured you a place among the few whom all, who would he thought studious of liberal arts, look up to and revere, it is with great reluctance I bring forward your name before the learned world, and address to you the following expostulation. John Calvin to James Sadolet, Cardinal, - health. Sadolet's Letter and Printable Version Here Calvin's "Reply ," a powerful defense of the need for reform, sought to explain that Protestant reform was not simply a response to abuses in the church but to a rejection of the very heart of Catholic faith and practice. In spite of having expelled Calvin from the town, the Genevans nonetheless requested that Calvin respond to Sadoleto's tract, and soon afterwards the city government ordered that the response be printed and publicized. He argued that nevertheless authentic Christian faith was still best sought under the cloak of Holy Mother Church.
Sadoleto's letter is notable in that it frankly acknowledged the abuses and corruption most frequently attacked by Protestants and other reformers. After Calvin's expulsion from Geneva (1538),, the archbishop of Carpentras (in southern France, near Avignon, about as far from Geneva as Strasbourg was, but in the other direction) wrote to the Genevan people in an effort to persuade them to return to Roman Catholicism.
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