He lived down calumny; and put his enemies to shame, but the fatal error which he had committed, in taking the side of Spain rather than of England at so momentous a crisis, could never be repaired.

He regained the good opinion of the most virtuous and eminent personages in Europe, but in the noon of life he voluntarily withdrew from public affairs.

The circumstances just detailed had made him impossible as a political leader, and it was equally impossible for him to play a secondary part.

He occasionally consented to be employed in special diplomatic missions, but the serious avocations of his life now became theological and literary.

He sought--in his own words--to penetrate himself still more deeply than ever with the spirit of the reformation, and to imbue the minds of the young with that deep love for the reformed religion which had been the guiding thought of his own career.