...You are also doing well to meet together both to invoke in your midst the name of God and also to receive such good and holy instruction as God’s grace endows upon some to teach the rest. For, given our manifest frailty, such discipline is necessary to us until we leave this world. We need to be even more thoroughly fortified when Satan is making such efforts to destroy our faith.
With the use of the sacraments, you must make sure that you build only upon firm foundations. When you meet together, every one amongst you should bring along such talents as those which God has granted him, and whoever has been more generously endowed can share his with the rest. Those who are not yet so confident should modestly and humbly receive what is laid before them. But to teach is a very different thing from administering the sacraments. For to have a man who may distribute to you the holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ, first of all he must be elected and chosen by you all in common. And in order to do this, you must have a certain and established community constituted as a church. You must be resolved on following up the business and organization of assembling yourselves which you have already begun. We do not require you to make a public confession of your faith, for we are well aware of the strict tutelage in which you are held, and under these circumstances it is quite sufficient that the little flock should assemble in secret. As a result, it is necessary that you should agree amongst yourselves to meet both for joint prayers and for the preaching of the Word, in order to have the form of the church. This established, when there is some one among you who is fit to be called to the office of pastor, it will be his duty to administer the sacraments to you. But take heed that those who come forward with you to receive the sacraments in such purity as God has ordained are not still contaminated with papal superstitions, but that you may, in reality, be separated from anything which is opposed to our Lord Jesus Christ.
The inauguration of this church came about through the agency of a nobleman from Maine, le Sieur de la Ferrière, who had come to Paris with his family so as to escape observation because of his religion. In particular it was because his wife was pregnant and he did not want the child whom God should give him to be baptized with the usual superstitious ceremonial and ritual of the Roman Church. Some time later la Rivière and some others met together on one occasion at the house of the nobleman, in the district known as Préaux Clercs, for prayer and Bible reading...As it happened that the lady had now had her baby La Ferrière asked the gathering not to allow the child whom God had given him to be deprived of baptism by which Christian children ought to be dedicated to God. So he asked them to select a minister who could undertake the baptism. When the company did not want to agree he pointed out to them that his conscience did allow him to accept the conglomeration and corruption of baptism into the Church of Rome. It was impossible for him to go to Geneva for this purpose. If the child died without his service he would be extremely sorry and he would appeal to God against them if they would not do what he so rightly asked them in God’s name. This event was the occasion for the first meetings of the church of Paris. La Rivière was chosen by the congregation after prayer and fasting, as was appropriate, and taken even more carefully and seriously than usual since it was an innovation there. Then they set up a small establishment as far as their limited numbers would allow by forming a consistory of some elders and deacons to supervise the church, all this following as closely as possible the example set by the primitive Church of apostolic times.
For the rest, I have heard that some are debating among themselves whether, if an atrocity is committed against them, they would resort to violence rather than allow themselves to be hunted down by brigands. I beseech you, beloved brethren, to abandon any such notions for they will never obtain God’s blessing and will never succeed since he disapproves of such things. I well understand what distress you feel, but it is not in my power - nor that of any living creature - to grant you dispensation to act in opposition to the will of God. When you are in trouble for having done nothing except your duty, this consolation will not fail you, that God will look upon you with compassion and come to your aid in some way or another. But if you strive to do more than permitted to you, then not only will your exceptions be frustrated, but you will have the bitter remorse of sensing that God is against you...If you are tormented by the unrighteous for having heard the Word of God, withdrawn yourselves from idolatries and confessed the gospel of Christ, at least you shall always have this to support you, that you suffer in a righteous cause, and one in which God has promised that he will stand by you. But he has not armed you to resist those who are established by him to govern.
Calvin to the church in Paris, 16 September 1557
Dearly Beloved Seigneurs and Brethren,
I need not dwell at great length on how much the news of your sufferings has pained and saddened us. The intimate bond which binds us all to our common cause is enough to explain our distress. If we had it in our powers to show you by our actions the desire we have to lessen your affliction, you would feel it more effectively. But, beyond our prayers on your behalf we cannot do much, though other means of coming to your aid are not neglected by us. We do not know if they will help you, but do not doubt that God has you in mind and that your tears and lamentations will be listened to by him. For if we do not trust to his providence, distress will become an abyss which will swallow us up. We shall be shaken to and fro at every breath of wind; we shall be troubled in our perplexities and led astray in our counsels; in a word, our whole life will be a labyrinth, especially when Satan and his agents have been let loose to torment and molest the poor Church of God.
Among those attacked and imprisoned in the incident were many artisans and women, for the appeal of Calvinism was never restricted to any particular social group. Calvin wrote to the women in prison to remind them that God asked the same sacrifice of them as of men.
You see that the truth of God, wherever it is found, is the object of their hatred. It is no less detestable to them in men than in women, in the learned than in the ignorant, in the rich than in the poor, in the great than in the small. If they use the excuse of sex or social status to fall more furiously upon us (and we see how they deride women and poor artisans, as if they had not a right to speak of God and learn the way of salvation), then you will recognize that such conduct is a testimony against them and to their utter ruin. But since it has pleased God to call you as well as men (for the sex does not matter to him), it is important that you do your duty and give him the glory according to the measure of grace which he has dealt out to you.
... Sire, the sighs and groans of so many true believers deserve your attention. You should be courageous and come to their aid, procuring their relief so far as it is in your power to do so. At present no more fitting moment could be found than in this assembly of the estates. Probably in their discussions of public administration, they will touch upon the question of religion. Many will think it repugnant, I know, that you should try to sustain the cause of Jesus Christ. But if you, Sire, who ought to be the instrument of all the children of God, keep silent, who else will be bold enough to open his mouth and say a word? Do not wait until God sends you a messenger from heaven, but take it for granted that, in calling you to such an assembly and with such a rank as yours, you are the witness and advocate of his cause...If the circumstances do not allow you to stand up for what is right with entire freedom and condemn what is evil, the least that you can do is to ask for an investigation so that many poor people are not condemned without good reason. At the same time it would be appropriate for you to demonstrate by well-chosen arguments that it is not for the tranquillity and advantage of the kingdom to proceed by violent means, inasmuch as the fires of persecution do but increase the numbers of the persecuted, so that the blood of martyrs becomes the seed of the Church.
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