The Little Book, Dedication 2
To Laurence Normandie a man endewed with excellent gyftes, Iohn Caluin sendeth gréetinge.
WHereas for many considerations, I had vowed some parte of my trauels vntounto you in my hart, I hauehave déemed this little woorke woorthie to be chosen before others, bicause your example may auaile, and that not smally, to bringe in credite the doctrine whiche it conteineth. For since the time, that forsakynge your countrie willingly, you hauehave come hither as a bānished man, we two can best beare witnesse with how many and how violēt practises of Sathā you hauehave bene assaulted: & yet there are other also that knowe of it. The fourth monethmonth after your departinge, came tidinges of your Fathers death. It could not be but that you muste néedes thinke that, which malicious persones letted not to speake, how the cause of his death might be ascribed to thought, to the entent that all the blame might be laide vppon your necke. Anon after followed a moste sharpe wounde, that your wife beyng suche a woman as eueryevery good man would wishe him selfe the like, was takē away in the chiefe flowre of her age. Here also it coulde not otherwise be, but that diuers tēptatiōs perced your minde, beynge not a man of a blockishe nature. Now sounded in your eares the slaūders of euill men, that she was drawen out of her natiue soyle in an vnluckie hower, to leaue her wretched life, almoste in an other worlde. But this touched you nerer at the hart: that they should hauehave any colour, bicause they reported that your purpose was cursed of the Lorde with a sorowfull issue. I omit the other innumerable prickinges which you could not but féele inwardly. For seynge widowhoode is a grieuous euill, it was to excéedinge a griefe to you, to be depriued of suche a cō panion of your life. And to encreace the heape of your sorrowes, laste of all came also the buriall of your little daughter. In the meane while the Deuill powred out of other places, all the mischiefe he could deuise, to the entēt that ouerwhelminge your wounded hart, he might dispatch you out of hāde. Finally you were driuē to swallow vp more trouble within one halfe yéere, than many that are cō mended for the haultnesse of their courages hauehave suffered all their liues longe. That was a heape of stumblingblockes cast against you by the sutteltie of Sathā euen at your firste settinge foorth in your race, to hauehave compelled you to pull backe your foote againe. But you puttyng your affiance in the inuincible power of Gods spirite, gaue ensample to all others, that there is no let so déepe & difficulte, which by the same ayde may not be waded out of. And therewithal you hauehave tried, with what armour the Lorde is wonte to furnishe his seruantes, as often as he calleth them to the encounter. I remember whē I first tolde you your Father was dead, and that I alledged the example of Abraham, whome the men of his age mighte call the murtherer of his Father, in that Thare followinge him when he went frō home, miscaried by the waye: you made me answeare by and by, that for asmuche as God did bothe beare witnesse to your doyng, and also allowed it, you passed nothinge for the slaunders of the wicked: and that nothinge grieued you, but that your Father bearynge you companie in your iourney had not made you like vntounto Abraham. For you were neither so nice nor so prowde, that you would eyther refuse to be Abrahams companion, or that you would shunne that slaunder, whiche God setteth out with great commendation. Howbeit your wife did of her selfe wonderfully asswage and mitigate the sorrowe of her death, before she departed from vsus. For there coulde no apter medicine hauehave bene wisshed, than those heroicall woordes of hers, whiche she vttered vponupon her death bedde: when takinge me by the hande she thanked God, who had brought her on his hāde in to such a place, where she might die with a quiet cōsciēce: when, bewailyng in her harte the state of her former life, she cried out that she was double happie, in that beynge lately drawen out of the cursed iayle of Babilon, she should now also depart out of the miserable pryson of the bodie: when out of the liuely sence of her conscience, disputinge of her owne sinnes, of the gilte of eternall death, and of the dreadfull iudgement of God, not womanlike, she extolled highly the grace of Christ, & with like humblenesse and affiance embraced it as a holly Anchor. I doo so well remember her, howe she vttered these woordes, not onelyonly plainely and distinctly, but also with an vnaccustomed earnestnesse euen at her last drawinge on, that me thinkes I sée her yet still. Therfore when I sawe you on the contrary part, nobly striuyng to subdue the heauinesse of your harte, I marueled the lesse that a man shoulde be stoute in sorrowe, beynge helped with so many and so goodly remedies. I will not tarrie in rehearcinge of others. This I saye onelyonly, when the Deuill had framed a buisie Labyrinth, of an vnmeasurable heape of stumblingblockes for you, you ouercame them all in such sorte, that you maye not onelyonly be a méete admonissher & counseller vntounto others, but also that such as are somewhat weakeharted, beynge encouraged by your example, may woorthely take a new stoutenesse vntounto them. Yée may sée that the moderatenesse of an vpright minde is a very defēsible towre, wherof you hauehave giuen a singular proofe, partely in other thinges, but specially herein, in asmuch as hauing lefte in your countrie, thinges whiche leade some men to ambition, and holde other some faste with their enticementes, you are touched with no desire at all of them: so that it may appeare you beare the want of them with as quiet and vpright a minde, as you did easely once renounce them. Of this your godlinesse like as I reape no small fruite and pleasure, so it is no wonder if I desire that parte thereof shoulde redoūde vntounto others. For I who a while agoe, (when you were the Kings Lieuetenant of the same Citie where I was borne, and the Mayor of our Citizens,) lamented your case, as for one farre remoued from Christe: doo nowe (since you are wholy addicted to Christe,) take you as my very owne, and embrace you as it were in the bosome of the Uniuersall Church. Neuerthelesse I would that this booke shoulde be a demonstration after a sorte of my louelove towardes you, euen vntounto thē that know you not. For you your selfe demaunde no pledge. Surely there are betwene vsus many bandes of trewe friendshippe: but there is no néerenesse of bloud, nor any other aliance, whiche may surmount our louelove. And so little it grieueth your déere brother that you shoulde be made equall vntounto him, yt he accepteth it as a ful recōpence, in asmuch as he perceiueth him self to be beloued as entierly at your hande againe. Moreouer, in that this booke commeth foorth somewhat later than many wisshed, I would I might be lawfully excused by the auncient Prouerbe, whiche I hauehave cited in the beginnynge: howe that thinge is done soone inough, whiche is done well inough. But I am afrayde least many, whiche partely by reason of the largenesse of the matter, and partely by reason of the longe delay, hauehave promised to themselues some great thinge (I wote not what,) will be offended when thei are deceiued of theyr hope, when they shall sée suche thinges, as are moste woorthie to hauehave bene set out with plentuousnesse, gloriousnesse, high stile, or behemencie of enditinge, and finally with all the thunderinges, or artificiousnesse cunnynge, and force of eloquence to be touched briefly, basely, homelily, poorely, nakedly, and sparely. Unto whome I hauehave not ought to answeare, but that I hauehave followed that fasshion which I déemed beste. Wherein I requyre not that they should subscribe vntounto me, so they refuse not to giuegive me leaue to dissent from them. Farewell woorthie man, and my right déere brother in the Lord. At Geneua the .viij. of Iuly, beynge the daye of my byrthe. Anno 1550.
Thankes be to God.