CALVIN, JOHN. 



CALVIN, JOHN. 



42 



tongue. Here Calvin was confirmed in the doctrines of the Reforma- 

 tion, and began indeed to preach them in the villages. His father 

 however dying at this time, he returned to Noyon, but after a short 

 period went to Paris, where, in the year 1532, lie published his 

 Commentaries on Seneca's two books, ' De dementia.' 



Calvin now resigned his beiiefices, and devoted himself to divinity. 

 The following year, Cop, the rector of the University of Paris, having 

 occasion to read a public discourse on the festival of All Saints' Day, 

 <Mvin persuaded him to declare his opinion on the new doctrines. 

 This brought upon them both the indignation of the Sorbonne and 

 parliament, and they were forced to leave the city. Calvin went to 

 several places, and at length to Angoulcme, where he got shelter in 

 the house of Louis du Tallet, a canon of Angoule'me, and supported 

 himself some time there by teaching Greek. It was there he com- 

 po-ed the greater part of his ' Institutes of the Christian Religion,' 

 which were published about two years afterwards. The Queen of 

 Navarre, sister to Francis I , having shown him some countenance in 

 respect of his learning and abilities, and no doubt also of his suffer- 

 ings, he returned to Paris in the year 1534 under her protection; but 

 persecution being again threatened, he quitted France the same year, 

 having first published a work, which he called ' Psychopannychia," to 

 confute the error of those who held that the soul remained in a state 

 of sleep between death and the resurrection, and retired to Basel in 

 Switzerland, where he published the ' Institutes,' which he dedicated 

 to Francis I., in an elegant Latin epistle. The design of the 'Insti- 

 tutes ' wag to exhibit a full view of the doctrines of the reformers ; 

 and ai no similar work had appeared since the Reformation, and the 

 peculiarities of the Romish Church were attacked in it with great 

 force and vigour, it immediately became highly popular. It soon 

 went through several editions ; it was translated by Calvin himself 

 into French, and has since been translated into all the principal 

 modern languages. Its effect upon the Christian world has been so 

 remarkable as to rntitle it to be looked upon as one of those books 

 that have changed the face of society. 



After the publication of this great work Calvin went to Italy to 

 visit the reformers there, and was received with marked distinction by 

 the learned Duchess of Ferrara, daughter of Louis XII. But not- 

 withstanding her protection, the Inquisition opened upon him, and he 

 was obliged to seek cafcty in flight. He returned to France, but soon 

 left it again, and in the month of August 1536 arrived at Geneva, 

 where the reformed religion had been the same year publicly estab- 

 lished. There, at the urgent request of Farel, Viret, and other 

 eminent reformers, by whom that revolution had been achieved, he 

 became a preacher of the Gospel, and professor, or rather lecturer on 

 divinity. Farel was then the moat distinguished person in the place ; 

 he was twenty years older than Calvin, who was in the twenty-seventh 

 year of his age ; but their objects were the same, and their learning, 

 virtue, and zeal alike, and these were now combined for the complete 

 reformation of Geneva, and the diffusion of their principles through- 

 out Europe. In the month of November a plan of church govern- 

 ment and a confession of faith were laid before the public authorities 

 lor their approval. Bcza makes Calvin the author of these productions; 

 but others, with perhaps greater reason, attribute them to Farel. 

 There is little doubt however that Calvin was consulted in their com- 

 position, and still less that ho lent his powerful aid to secure their 

 sanction and approval by the people in the month of July 1537. The 

 same year the Council of Geneva conferred on Farel the honour of a 

 burgem of the city, in token of their respect an 1 gratitude. But the 

 popular will was not prepared for the severe discipline of the 

 reformers, and in a short time the people resisted some innovations 

 on their religious practice!", and, under the direction of a faction, 

 met in a public a-sembly and expelled Farel and Calvin from the 

 place. 



Calvin repaired to Berne, and then to Strasbourg, where he was 

 appointed professor of divinity and minister of a French church, into 

 which he introduced his own form of church government and discipline. 

 In his absence great efforts were made to get the Genevese to return 

 to the communion of the Church of Rome, particularly by Cardinal 

 Sadolet, who wrote to them earnestly to that effect ; but Calvin, ever 

 alive to the maintenance of the principles of the Reformation, disap- 

 jiointed all the expectations of his enemies, and confirmed the Genevese 

 in the new faith, addressing to them two powerful and affectionate 

 letters, and replying to that written by Sadolet While at Strasbourg 

 also Calvin published a treatise on the Lord's Supper, in which he 

 combated the opinions both of the Roman Catholics and Lutherans, 

 and at the same time explained his own views of that ordinance. Here 

 too he published his 'Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.' 

 < 'alvin got acquainted with Castalio during his residence at Strasbourg, 

 and procured lor him the situation of a regent at Geneva; and it 

 was during bis stay in this city that by the advice of his friend 

 Hucer he married Idellet, the widow of an Anabaptist preacher just 

 deceased. 



In November of the same year he and Farel were solicited by the 

 Council of Geneva to return to their former charge in that city ; in 

 May 1541 their banishment was revoked ; and in September following 

 Calvin was received into the city amidst the congratulations of his 

 flock, Knrl remaining at Neufchatel, where he was loved and respected. 

 Calvin did not trifle in the peculiarly favourable circumstances in which 

 BIOO. DIV. VOL. ti. 



he was now placed. He immediately laid before the council his scheme 

 of church government, and after it was adopted and published by 

 authority, which was on the 20th of November 1541, he was unhesi- 

 tating in its enforcement. His promptitude and firmness were now 

 conspicuous; he was the ruling spirit in Geneva; and the churcli 

 whica he had established there he wished to make the mother and 

 seminary of all the reformed churches. His personal labours were 

 unceasing : he preached every day for two weeks of each month; he 

 gave three lessons in divinity every week ; he assisted at all the 

 deliberations of the consistory and company of pastors ; he defended 

 the principles of the reformation against all who attacked them ; ho 

 explained those principles both in writing and discourse ; and main- 

 tained a correspondence with every part of Europe. Geneva however 

 was the common centre of all his exertions, and its prosperity peculiarly 

 interested him, though less for its own sake than to make it a fountain 

 for the supply of the world. He established an academy there, the 

 high character of which was long maintained ; he made the city a 

 literary mart, and encouraged the French refugees and others who 

 sought his advice to apply themselves to the occupation of a printer 

 or librarian ; and having finished the ecclesiastical regimen, he directed 

 his attention to the improvement of the municipal government of the 

 place. That Calvin should, in the circumstances iu which he was now 

 placed, show marks of intolerance towards others is not surprising; 

 and to seek a palliation of his guilt we need not go back to the time 

 when he belonged to the Church of Rome, nor yet to the notions of 

 civil and religious liberty prevalent in his age. We have only to reflect 

 on the constitution of the human mind, and the constant care necessary 

 to prevent power in any hands from degenerating into tyranny. His 

 conduct towards Servetus [SERVKTUS] has been justly condemned, and 

 has drawn down upon him the epithet of ' a most cruel and atrocious 

 monster;' yet the punishment of Servetus was approved of by meu of 

 undoubted worth, and even by the mild Melancthon. In 1554, the 

 year following Servetus's death, Calvin published a work in defence of 

 the doctrine of the Trinity against the errors of Servetus. and to prove 

 the right of the civil magistrate to punish heresy ; Beza the same year 

 published a work on the like subject, in reply to the treatise of Castalio. 

 Of all the testimonies to the merits of Calvin at this time, the most 

 unsuspected is that of the canons of Noyon, who in 1556 publicly 

 returned thanks to God on occasion of his recovery from an illness 

 which it was thought would prove mortal. The state of Calvin's 

 health prevented him going iu 1561 to the famous Conference of Poissy ; 

 an assembly which in his view promised to be of so much consequence, 

 and which was indeed remarkable in this respect, that from that time 

 the followers of Calvin became known as a distinct sect, bearing the 

 name of their leader. Amidst all his sufferings however, neither his 

 public functions nor his literary labours ceased : he continued to edify 

 the church of Geneva by his sermons and his intercourse among the 

 people, and to instruct Europe by his works; and to the last he 

 maintained the same firmness of character which had distinguished 

 him through life. On his death-bed he took God to witness that he 

 had preached the gospel purely, and exhorted all about him to walk 

 worthy of the divine goodness : his deUcate frame gradually became 

 quite emaciated, and on the 27th of May 1564 he died without a 

 struggle, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. 



The person of Calvin was middle-sized and naturally delicate ; his 

 habits were frugal and unostentatious ; and he was so sparing in his 

 food, that for many years ho had only one meal in the day. He had 

 a clear understanding, an extraordinary memory, and a firmness and 

 inflexibility of purpose which no opposition could overcome, no variety 

 of objects defeat, no vicissitude shake. In his principles he was devout 

 and sincere, and the purity of his character in private life was without 

 a stain. His writings are very numerous ; but except his ' Christian 

 Institutes,' bis commentaries on the Bible, and a few others, they have 

 long been covered with undisturbed dust, though in their day none of 

 his works were without their influence. There have been various 

 collections of his works. In 1552 all his minor pieces, or ' Opuscula,' 

 were collected and published at Geneva. Iu 1576 a similar collection, 

 was maue of his theological tracts ; and tho same year Beza published 

 a collection of his letters, with a life of Calvin, We find also in 

 Senebier (' Hist. Lett, de Geneve,' torn, i.) not only a list of all Calvin's 

 publications, but a catalogue of sermons preached by him which yet 

 remain in manuscript iu the public library of Geneva. Calvin's 

 'Commentaries on various books of the Old and New Testaments,' 

 his ' Tracts relating to the Reformation,' his ' Institutes," and some 

 others of his writings, have been newly translated into English, or 

 the old translations revised, and published within the last twelve or 

 fourteen years under the auspices of the Calvin Translation Society at 

 Edinburgh. But perhaps a still more important work as illustrating 

 the character of ths man and his times is a new edition of his 

 letters, now in course of publication, including a very groat number 

 previously inedited : 'Letters of John Calvin, compiled from the 

 original manuscripts, and edited with historic notes by Dr. J. Bonnet; 

 translated by D. Cpnstable, 8vo,' Edinb., 1855, &c. 



the year 1536; but it does not appear to have obtiined the name of 



