Letter from John Calvin to Guillaume Farel

Among a number of exceptional documents, the MIR presents this important letter in the hand of Calvin, written in Latin to Guillaume Farel, on July 14, 1545 from Strasbourg. The author asks Farel: in order to be a little relieved and to find time to write, he asks him to agree to serve the Church of Geneva.

He then mentions an intervention made in Berne in favor of the Vaudois of Provence, the latter having been pursued and persecuted in Mérindol and Cabrières in April of the same year. Finally, Calvin mentions the purchase of a silk coat for Farel's brother.

In the postscript, he again mentions the preparation of an indictment against Pierre Caroli (1480 – after 1545). The latter accused Farel and Calvin of Arianism and attacked them in a recently published work. It was in August 1545 that Calvin responded to this attack in a “Defense of Farel and his colleagues against the slanders of Pierre Caroli”.

This manuscript by Admiral Gaspard de Coligny was one of the main Protestant leaders during the wars of religion in 16th century France.

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