Includes both Cardinal Sadolet's letter to the senate and people of Geneva (in which he endeavors to bring the city back to allegiance to the Roman antichrist) and Calvin's reply to this letter.

After declining to dispense the Lord's Supper (because of the "unchristian spirit which prevailed in Geneva" [Beveridge]) Calvin, Conrad and Farel were banished from the city. Rome, wanting to make the most of this opportunity, called upon one of her most accomplished scholars, Sadolet, to write the Genevese. Calvin did not hesitate to reply.

"The reply, besides containing a triumphant vindication of the Reformed doctrine -- a vindication so triumphant that Sadolet is said to have forthwith given up the affair as desperate, is written in a spirit of meekness and candour," notes Beveridge.

Hitting the main controversies of the Reformation (including the authority of Scripture [and the church], justification by faith alone, worship, unity and schism) Calvin's letter is a masterful defence of first Reformation thought. This item is also available in Calvin's Selected Works, Volume 1.