so near the Roman Catholics in the end, that in a letter to his brother he has these words:  “It cannot be denied that there are several Roman Catholic pastors here who teach true religion, without any mixture of superstition:  it were to be wished that all did the same.”  In his later works he speaks of Calvin with the highest indignation[573]:  “I know, he says, with what injustice and bitterness this Calvin treated Cassander, Baudoin, and Castellio, who were much better men than himself.”

In refuting the apology of Rivetus he speaks with all the zeal of a Roman Catholic Disputant, and proves that the Calvinists are Schismatics, and had no mission; that they neither had miracles for them, nor any particular command from God:  that the Ministers are factious spirits, who seek only to disturb the State:  that their religion is new, and has not antiquity on its side.  In his youth he had commended Beza in some anapest verses; extolling him as one of the most zealous defenders of the truth:  he afterwards retracted this elogium, and wished it buried in eternal oblivion.

In fine, the Jesuits, who were the objects of his aversion before he knew them, became his friends.  He was reproached with this; and mentions the accusation in a letter to his brother[574].  “I am not, says he, the common defender of Jesuits; but the King looks on them as good subjects and employs them on several occasions.”  He publicly took their part in some of his works.  He maintains in his pieces against Rivetus[575] that the Society had produced very able men of an irreproachable life, and that there were more such among them than among others.  “I know many of them, he says, who are very desirous to see the abuses abolished, and the church restored to its primitive unity.  The King entrusts them with his most valuable concerns.”  Father Petau, among others, possessed his confidence, as we have already observed, and shall see again.

FOOTNOTES: 

[560] Ep. 85. p. 780.

[561] Ep. 935. p. 120.

[562] Ep. 487. p. 864.

[563] Ep. 1004. p. 641.

[564] Ep. 593. p. 913.

[565] Ep. 534. p. 914. 537. p. 916. & 1520, p. 689.

[566] Ep. 1570. p. 709.

[567] Ep. 1078. p. 711.

[568] Ep. 607. p. 938.

[569] Ep. 610. p. 939.

[570] Ep. 613. p. 940.

[571] Ep. 674. p. 959.

[572] Ep. 677. p. 959.

[573] Animad. in animad.  Riveti, p. 640.

[574] Ep. 628. p. 915.

[575] Animad in anim.  Riveti, ad Art. 6. p. 658.  Discussio Rivet.  Apolog. p. 694. & p. 681.

XIX.  His great knowledge of antiquity and that singular veneration which he always paid to the primitive church made him even in his youth look upon the abolition of episcopacy, and of a visible head of the church, as something very monstrous.  He went much farther in the sequel; shewing that[576] Melancton himself wanted the Pope to be left in the Church, and that King James of England and several able Protestants acknowledged the utility of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome:  adding, “If several Protestants had made the same reflection, we should have had a church more reformed.”