and Reuss, vi., pp. xvii., xviii.) And Calvin
himself, in his farewell address to his fellow-ministers (April 28,
1564), as taken down from memory by Pinaut, observed: "As to the
prayers for Sunday, I took the form of Strasbourg, and borrowed the
greater part of it." (Adieux de Calvin, Bonnet, Lettres francaises,
ii. 578.) The Strasbourg liturgy to which Calvin here refers was
one which he had himself composed for the use of the French refugee
church of Strasbourg, when acting as its pastor, during his exile
from Geneva (1538-1541). The earliest edition known to be extant is
that of which a single copy exists in the collection of M. Gaiffe,
and of which M. O. Douen has for the first time given an account in
his "Clement Marot et le Psautier huguenot," Paris, 1878, i.
334-339. This Strasbourg liturgy of 1542 (the pseudo-_Roman_
edition already referred to, p. 275), like that of 1545 (which
Professors Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss described in their edition of
Calvin's works, vi. 174, 175), contains some striking variations
from the Geneva forms. In particular, immediately after the
"Confession of Sins," it inserts these words: "Here the Minister
recites some word of Scripture to comfort consciences, and then
pronounces the absolution as follows:

"Let each one of you recognize himself to be truly a sinner,
humbling himself before God, and believe that our Heavenly Father
will be gracious unto him in Jesus Christ.

"To all those who thus repent and seek Jesus Christ for their
salvation, I declare the absolution of their sins, in the name of
the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."

It was this Strasbourg liturgy of Calvin that was in the hands of
the framers of the English "Book of Common Prayer," and from this
they derived the introductory portion of the daily service.
"According to the first book of Edward VI., that service began with
the Lord's Prayer. The foreign reformers consulted recommended the
insertion of some preliminary forms; and hence the origin of the
Sentences, the Exhortation, the Confession, and the Absolution.
These elements were borrowed, not from any ancient formulary, but
from a ritual drawn up by Calvin for the church at Strasbourg." (C.
W. Baird, Eutaxia, or the Presbyterian Liturgies: Historical
Sketches, New Y