ABSTRACT
The change in the political and religious climate had forced Sleidan to leave France in 1544, but his connections with the country continued. Sleidan’s return to Germany was not an entirely happy one. Although he had contemplated such a move since the death of his father in 1542, his hope that the long-sought for French-German alliance might eventually be arranged had kept him at Du Bellay’s chancellery in Paris. There, in the centre of French diplomacy, he felt his services for the communal cause could be of best use. However, the Diet of Regensburg proved to be yet another disappointment for the alliance plans. Having spent so much time and effort with the Du Bellays attempting to convince the French of the merits of such an alliance, it must have been devastating for him to see the German willingness crumble so dramatically. Sleidan himself did not explain why he left France, but one may think that with the failure of the alliance negotiations and the subsequent decline of the star of the Du Bellays he felt that he could be of more use in Germany. Which other city would offer more to Sleidan than Strasbourg, the Imperial city on the French border near his place of birth, home to his closest friends Johann Sturm, Martin Bucer and Jakob Sturm, promising a good chance of employment?
