excommunications should be permitted, and should be under the power of
elders chosen by the council, in conjunction with the clergy--that
order should be observed in the admission of preachers--and that only
the clergy should officiate in ordination by the laying on of hands. It
was proposed also, as conducive to the welfare of the church, that the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper should be administered more frequently,
at least once every month, and that congregational singing of psalms
should be practised in the churches. On these terms the synod interceded
with the Genevese to restore their pastors; but through the opposition
of some of the Bernese (especially Peter Kuntz, the pastor of that city)
this was frustrated, and a second edict of banishment was the only
response.

Calvin and Farel betook themselves, under these circumstances, to Basel,
where they soon after separated, Farel to go to Neuchatel and Calvin to
Strassburg. At the latter place Calvin resided till the autumn of 1541,
occupying himself partly in literary exertions, partly as a preacher and
especially an organizer in the French church, and partly as a lecturer
on theology. These years were not the least valuable in his experience.
In 1539 he attended Charles V.'s conference on Christian reunion at
Frankfort as the companion of Bucer, and in the following year he
appeared at Hagenau and Worms, as the delegate from the city of
Strassburg. He was present also at the diet at Regensburg, where he
deepened his acquaintance with Melanchthon, and formed with him a
friendship which lasted through life. He also did something to relieve
the persecuted Protestants of France. It is to this period of his life
that we owe a revised and enlarged form of his _Institutes_, his
_Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans_, and his _Tract on the Lord's
Supper_. Notwithstanding his manifold engagements, he found time to
attend to the tenderer affections; for it was during his residence at
Strassburg that he married, in August 1540, Idelette de Bure, the widow
of one Jean Stordeur of Liege, whom he had converted from Anabaptism. In
her Calvin found, to use his own words, "the excellent companion of his
life," a "precious help" to him amid his manifold labours and frequent
infirmities. She died in 1549, to the great grief of her husband, who
never ceased to mourn her loss. Their only child Jacques, born on the
28th of July 1542, lived only a few days.

During Calvin's absence