CALVIN AND HIS ENEMIES. 
 
 % IHtmoir 
 
 LIFE, CHARACTER, AND PRINCIPLES 
 
 or 
 
 CALYIN. 
 
 Rev. THOMAS*' SMYTH, D. D. 
 
 Quid enim tota ejus vita nisi tempestas veluti quaedam 
 perpetua fuit? — MoRUs. 
 
 NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 265 Chestnut Street. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1856, by 
 
 JAMES DUNLAP, 
 
 in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the Eastern 
 District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Printed by 
 
 ■WILLIAM S. MARTIEX. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page. 
 Introductory Remarks, - - - 9 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Calvin was the most eminent of all the Reformers, 
 and remarkable for his courage, - - 14 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Genius and Works of Calvin, - - 20 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Calvin vindicated from the charge of ambition, 
 and his true greatness and -wonderful influ- 
 ence shown, - - - - 28 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Calvin vindicated from the charge of illiberality, 
 intolerance, and persecution, - - 40 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Calvin vindicated from the charge of a want of natu- 
 ral affection and friendship, - - 65 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The obligations which we owe to Calvin, as Ameri- 
 can citizens and Christians, illustrated, - 69 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Page. 
 The closing scenes of Calvin's Life, - - 77 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A supplementary vindication of the Ordination of 
 Calvin, - _ ... 84 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. The case of Servetus, . - _ 102 
 Who are Calvin's Revilers? - - - 105 
 
 II. The Will of John Calvin, - - - 117 
 
 III. The views of Calvin on Prelacy, vindicated by 
 
 the Rev. Samuel Miller, D. D. - - 122 
 
 IV. Testimonials to Calvin, - - _ 147 
 
 V. Origin of the calumny that Calvin wished to ab- 
 
 rogate the Lord's day, - - - 153 
 
 Melancthon's approbation of the course of 
 
 Calvin towards Servetus, - - - 154 
 
 The Testimony of a Unitarian, - - 155 
 
 Temptation of John Calvin, - - _ 1,57 
 
 Calvin's Ordination, _ _ _ 160 
 
 Calvin's Mission to Brazil, - - . 162 
 
 VI. Calvin's Wife, - - - - 165 
 
i 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The fact that John Calvin was led, by 
 the grace of God, to embrace and defend 
 all the essential principles of doctrine 
 and polity, which distinguish the sys- 
 tem of Presbyterianism, has exposed 
 him to the unceasing calumny of all 
 those to whom that system is unpala- 
 ble. Komanists, prelatists, and errorists 
 of every name, have vied with one 
 another in their efforts to blacken his 
 character and detract from his fame. 
 The defence of Calvin against these 
 misrepresentations is necessary for the 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 glory of that God who called him by his 
 rich grace ; for the honour of that truth 
 in whose cause Calvin lived and died; 
 and for the maintenance of that church 
 to which he was attached, and which is 
 built upon the foundation laid by apos- 
 tles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself 
 being the chief corner stone. And thi 
 defence is in a peculiar manner the 
 privilege and duty of Presbyterians, 
 with whom Calvin has been so gene- 
 rally identified. 
 
 Actuated by these views, the alumni 
 of the Theological Seminary at Prince- 
 ton appointed the author to deliver a 
 discourse in vindication of the life and 
 character of Calvin, at their amiiversary 
 meeting in May, 1843. The substance 
 of the following little work was accord- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ingly delivered in Philadelphia, in the 
 Second Presbyterian Church, during the 
 sessions of the General Assembly. At 
 the request of the alumni, it has since 
 been published in some of our religious 
 papers; and it is now prepared by the 
 desire of the Board of Publication of 
 the Presbyterian Church, for publica- 
 tion as one of their volumes. 
 
 That it may lead the members of our 
 beloved Church more highly to estimate 
 and prize the character and achieve- 
 ments of Calvin; that they may thus 
 be excited to bless God, (who raised up 
 Calvin, and qualified him for his work) 
 for his past dealings with his Church, 
 while they humbly look for his contin- 
 ued guidance and protection — and that 
 the inhabitants of this country may be 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 brought by it more deeply to appreci- 
 ate the influence of Calvin, and of the 
 system he advocated, in securing those 
 blessings of religious and civil freedom 
 by which they are distinguished, is the 
 sincere prayer of 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 OF 
 
 Or 
 
 CALYIN. , 
 
 PTER t: 
 
 ■■<[ 
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 Presbyterians, that is, the great body of the 
 Reformed Church throughout the world, have 
 been very commonly denominated Calvinists ; not 
 that they are followers of Calvin, either in doc- 
 trine or in discipline, since the doctrines and dis- 
 cipline embraced by Presbyterians existed pre- 
 vious to the appearance of Calvin, and were adopt- 
 ed, and not originated, by him. Calvin, how- 
 ever, being the great theologian of the Reformers, 
 so well defended, so clearly expounded, and so per- 
 fectly systematized these principles, as to connect 
 with them, wherever they are known, his illustri- 
 ous name. The term Calvinist was first employed in 
 the year 1562, in reference to the standards of the 
 Huguenots or French Reformed churcheS; which 
 2 
 
10 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 Calvin drew up; from which time it came to be em- 
 ployed as characteristic of all those who adopted 
 similar doctrinal principles.* These principles, 
 however, no more originated with Calvin than did 
 the Bible, for they are the veiy same which were 
 held forth by the apostles — which were proclaimed, 
 in all the apostolic churches — which were maintain- 
 ed by the ancient Culdees, by the Waldenses, and 
 by other pure and scriptural bodies — and which 
 were eminently defended by the celebrated Augus- 
 tine, and by other divines, in every period of the 
 Church. 
 
 As Presbyterians, we hold no principles which 
 are not found in the word of God. We claim no 
 antiquity less recent than the primeval organiza- 
 tion of the Church of God on earth. In our 
 Christian form, we build upon the only foundation 
 laid in Zion, the foundation of apostles and pro- 
 phets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner- 
 stone. We call no man master upon earth. AVe 
 know no man after the flesh. We call neither 
 Abraham, nor Moses, neither Paul, nor Augus- 
 tine, neither Luther, nor Calvin, ''our Father." 
 We are in subjection to no man, nor do we wear 
 the name or livery of any. We are Christians in 
 
 * Scott's Continuation of Milner, p. 472. — Waterman's 
 Life of Calvin, p. 210. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 11 
 
 doctrine, and Presbyterians in polity, our doctrine 
 being deduced from the Scriptures, and Presby- 
 tery being the only polity known to the Apostles, 
 or to the apostolic and primitive churches of 
 Christ. 
 
 But while we so speak, let us not be supposed 
 to disparage the name and character of Calvin, or 
 to deprecate, as either shame or reproach, the ap- 
 plication of the term Calvinists. In the great 
 body of Calvin's principles — though not by any 
 means in all — we concur. To the life, character, 
 and conduct of Calvin, we look with reverence and 
 high esteem. And while we apologize not for his 
 errors or his infirmities, yet were we required to 
 be called by any human cognomen, there is per- 
 haps no other man, since the days of the Apos- 
 tles, by whose name we would prefer to be desig- 
 nated. 
 
 The reputation and character of this distin- 
 guished Reformer have been opposed by every 
 artifice of ingenuity, sophistry, and malignity. 
 The vilest and most baseless calumnies have been 
 heaped upon his memory. The most senseless 
 and improbable stories have been invented to 
 blacken his character, and to detract from his 
 illustrious fame. A single event, distorted, mis- 
 represented, and in all its circumstances im- 
 puted to his single agency, although consum- 
 
12 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 mated by the civil authorities of the republic, and 
 although in accordance with the established senti- 
 ments of the age, has been made to colour his 
 whole life, to portray his habitual conduct, and to 
 cover with infamy the man and his cause. Now, 
 in these very efforts of his enemies, Romish and 
 Prelatist, and in their nature, source, and evident 
 design, we find a noble testimony to the genius, 
 power, and worth of Calvin. He who opposes 
 himself to existing customs and prevalent opin- 
 ions, must anticipate resistance in proportion to 
 the success with which his efforts are accompa- 
 nied. And while such opposition, in itself con- 
 sidered, does not prove that such a man is right 
 in his scheme of reformation, but only that his 
 plan involves the subversion of established forms^ 
 yet may we learn the character of such an in- 
 tended reformation, and of such a bold reformer, 
 by the very nature of that opposition which is 
 brought to bear against him. And if, as in the 
 present case, we find that, in order to withstand 
 the overwhelming influence of such a man, his 
 enemies are driven to the invention of forgeries, 
 and the grossest fabrications, we may with cer- 
 tainty infer, that his personal character was irre- 
 proachable. In like manner, when these enemies 
 are led to meet the arguments of such a man, by 
 personal invective and abuse, we may be equally 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 13 
 
 assured that his is the cause of truth and right- 
 eousness, and theirs the cause of error. Truth is 
 strong in her conscious and imperishable virtue. 
 She seeks therefore the light, courts investigation, 
 and offers herself to the most impartial scrutiny. 
 Error, on the contrary, having no inward strength, 
 is weak and cowardly. She seeks the covert and 
 the shade. She clothes herself in the garments of 
 concealment. She assumes borrowed robes and 
 names, and endeavours by artifice and treachery 
 to accomplish her base designs. In Calvin, there- 
 fore, we have a tower built upon the rock, 
 rearing its lofty head to the clouds, visible from 
 afar, and open to the observation of all men, 
 which, though the floods roar, and the winds arise 
 against it, yields not to the fury of the tempest — 
 because its foundations are secure. In the enemies 
 of Calvin, we behold the secret plotters of his ruin, 
 who, conscious of his invincibility when opposed 
 by any fair or honourable onset, dig deep within 
 the bosom of the earth, and there concealed by 
 darkness, and buried from all human sight, ply 
 their nefarious arts to sap, and undermine, and 
 by well concerted stratagem, to overwhelm in 
 destruction an innocent and unsuspecting victim. 
 
 2^ 
 
14 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 CALVIN WAS ONE OF THE MOST EMINENT OF ALL THE RE- 
 FORMERS, AND REMARKABLE FOR HIS COURAGE. 
 
 "Calvin/' said Bishop Andrews, "was an illus- 
 trious person, and never to be mentioned without 
 a preface of the highest honour," "Of what ac- 
 count,'' says his great opponent, Hooker, "the 
 Master of Sentences was in the Church of Rome, 
 the same and more amongst the preachers of 
 reformed churches Calvin had purchased: so that 
 the perfectest divines were judged they, which 
 were skilfulest in Calvin's writings; his books 
 almost the very canon to judge both doctrine and 
 discipline by." And again, concerning his Com- 
 mentaries and his Institutes, which together make 
 up eight parts out of nine of his works. Hooker 
 adds, "we should be injurious unto virtue itself, 
 if we did derogate from them whom their industry 
 hath made great. Two things of principal mo- 
 ment there are, which have deservedly procured 
 him honour throughout the world: the one his 
 exceeding pains in composing the Institutes of 
 Christian Religion; the other his no less industri- 
 ous travails for exposition of Holy Scripture, ac- 
 cording unto the same Institutions. In which 
 two things whosoever they were that after him 
 
or JOHN CALVIN. 15 
 
 bestowed their labour, be gained the advantage of 
 prejudice against them, if they gainsayed, and of 
 glory above them, if they consented/' 
 
 Such was the estimation in which Calvin was 
 held by his cotemporaries, both continental and 
 An2;lican. To Cranmer and his associates in the 
 English Reformation, he was all in all. They 
 sought his counsel, leaned upon his wisdom, were 
 guided by his directions, and sustained by his 
 consolations. His name is found enrolled with 
 honour in the Book of Convocation as late as the 
 seventeenth century, and bis spirit still breathes 
 through those Articles which have preserved the 
 Protestantism and the orthodoxy of the English 
 church.* 
 
 Among the continental Reformers, Calvin was 
 equally pre-eminent. Giants as they were in 
 intellect, in acquirement, and in prowess, he tow- 
 ered above them all, like Saul among the people 
 of Israel. Where all were great, he was great- 
 est. Though naturally less bold than Luther, he 
 was enabled to manifest a superhuman bravery, 
 and was, even in this respect, not a whit behind 
 that noble champion of the truth. "He was,'' 
 says Bayle, " frighted at nothing." Exquisitely 
 sensitive and timid by constitution, he was, from 
 
 * London Christian Observer, 1803, pp. 143, 144. 
 
16 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 his earliest years, obliged to bend to the inflexible 
 rule of duty, and thus became habituated to self- 
 sacrifice. When God called him by his grace to 
 the knowledge of the truth and power of the gos- 
 pel, he took up his cross to follow Jesus, suffering 
 the loss of all things, and not counting his life 
 dear unto him. The storm of persecution was 
 then at its height. Its fiery bolts were spreading 
 consternation and alarm throughout all France. 
 The Parliament was on the watch. The spies of 
 the Sorbonne and of the monks were found creep- 
 ing into churches and colleges, and even into the 
 recesses of private dwellings. The gens d^armes 
 patrolled the highways to hunt down every favour- 
 er of the reform.* Then it was that Calvin en- 
 listed as a good soldier under the Captain of Sal- 
 vation; buckled on the armour of God, and threw 
 himself boldly on the Lord's side. His whole 
 subsequent course proves that, through the grace 
 of God, he was valorous even to daring. At 
 the risk of his life, he ventured back to Paris, ia 
 1532, in the very midst of abounding persecution, 
 that he might defend the truth. While the whole 
 city of Geneva was in a ferment of rage, he hesi- 
 tated not to suspend the celebration of the com- 
 munion, and when publicly debarred the use of 
 
 * See D'Aubigne's Hist, of the Ref. vol. 3. p. 643.— 
 Eng. Ed. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 17 
 
 the pulpit, to appear in it as usual. When the 
 plague had broken out, and was carrying death 
 and destruction around, Calvin was found ready to 
 offer himself as a chaplain to its infected victims. 
 During his contests with the libertine faction, he 
 frequently attended the summons of the senate 
 when his life was exposed to imminent danger 
 from the swords of the contending parties, many 
 of whom were anxious for an opportunity, accord- 
 ing to their summary mode of punishment, to 
 throw him into the Rhone. In the year 1553, 
 through the influence of Bertelier, the grand 
 council of two hundred, decreed that all cases of 
 excommunication should be vested in the senate, 
 from which body Bertelier obtained two letters of 
 absolution. The resolution of Calvin, however, 
 was taken, and he was not to be daunted. He 
 first procured the senate to be called together, 
 stated his views and his determination, and en- 
 deavoured, but in vain, to induce them to revoke 
 their indulgence granted to Bertelier. He re- 
 ceived for answer, that "the senate changed no- 
 thing in their former decision." After preach- 
 ing, however, on the Sunday morning previously 
 to the administration of the Lord's supper, in 
 a solemn tone, and with uplifted hand, he ut- 
 tered severe denunciations against profaners of 
 the holy mysteries : " and for my own part/' said 
 
is LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 he, "after the example of Chrysostom, I avow 
 that I will suffer myself to be slain at the table, 
 rather than allow this hand to deliver the sacred 
 symbols of the Lord's body and blood to adjudged 
 despisers of Grod." This was uttered with such 
 authority, and produced such an effect, that Perrin 
 himself immediately whispered to Bertelier that 
 he must not present himself as a communicant. 
 He accordingly withdrew; and the sacred ordi- 
 nance, says Beza, "was celebrated with a profound 
 silence, and under a solemn awe in all present, as 
 if the Deity himself had been visible among 
 them/' 
 
 But there was another scene which occurred 
 amid those factious commotions by which Calvin 
 was continually distressed, which deserves to be 
 immortalized. Perrin and others having been 
 censured by the consistory, and failing to obtain 
 redress from the senate, appealed to the council 
 of two hundred. Disorder, violence and sedition 
 reigned throughout the city. On the day preced- 
 ing the assembly, Calvin told his brethren that he 
 apprehended tumult, and that it was his inten- 
 tion to be present. Accordingly, he and his col- 
 leagues proceeded to the council-house, where 
 they arrived without being noticed. Before long, 
 they heard loud and confused clamours, which 
 were instantly increasing. The crowd heaved to 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 19 
 
 and fro with all the violeDce of a stormy ocean 
 chafed into ungovernable fury, and ready to over- 
 whelm its victims in destruction. Calvin, how- 
 ever, like Cresar, cast himself, alone and unpro- 
 tected, into the midst of the seditious multitude. 
 They stood aghast at his fearless presence. His 
 friends rallied around him. Lifting his voice, he 
 told them he came to oppose his body to their 
 swords, and if blood was to flow, to offer his as 
 the first sacrifice. Rushing between the parties, 
 who were on the point of drawing their swords in 
 mutual slaughter, he obtained a hearing; ad- 
 dressed them in along and earnest oration; and 
 so completely subdued their evil purposes, that 
 peace, order, and tranquillity were immediately 
 restored. 
 
 Such, by the grace of God, was the weak, tim- 
 orous and shrinking Calvin. Firm as the moun- 
 tains of his country, he stood unmoved amid the 
 storms that beat around him. He lifted his soul 
 undaunted, above those mists, which, to all others, 
 shrouded the future in terrific gloom, and ex- 
 ercising a faith strong in the promises of God, 
 could behold afar off the triumphs of the cause. 
 As the twelve apostles, when left to themselves, 
 fled like frightened sheep at the approach of 
 danger, when endued with power from on high 
 were made bold as lions, so did" the perfect love 
 
20 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 of Christ's truth and cause cast out all fear from 
 the bosom of Calvin. Even in point of cour- 
 age, therefore, he was not inferior to the very 
 chiefest of Reformers. But in learning, in 
 sound and correct judgment, in prudence and 
 moderation; in sagacity and penetration; in sys- 
 tem and order; in cultivation and refinement of 
 manners; in the depth and power of his intel- 
 lect ; Calvin shone forth amid the splendid galaxy 
 of illustrious Reformers, a star of the first mag- 
 nitude and brightest lustre. 
 
 Such was the man whose life and character I 
 now review. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE GENIUS AND THE WORKS OF CALVIN. 
 
 In his early youth, Calvin manifested that genius 
 and eloquence which characterized him as a man. 
 The same intensity of will, the same rapidity of 
 thought, the same retentiveness of memory, the 
 same comprehensiveness of judgment, which ena- 
 bled him to discharge the inconceivable labours 
 of his maturer years, gave him an easy victory over 
 all his competitors for college fame, so that it be- 
 came necessary to withdraw him from the ordinary 
 
OF JOHN CALVTN. 21 
 
 ranks, and to introduce him singly to the higher 
 walks of learning. In his twenty-third year, he 
 published a commentary on Seneca's Treatise De 
 dementia, full of learning and eloquence. In 
 his twenty-fourth year, we find him at Paris, pre- 
 paring orations to be delivered by the rector of 
 the university, and homilies to be recited to their 
 people by the neighbouring clergy. During the 
 next year, he gave to the world his work on the 
 sleep of the soul after death, in which he mani- 
 fests an intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures, 
 and with the works of the early Fathers. Thus, 
 in the morning of his life, before others had 
 awaked from the dreams of boyhood, or realized 
 the responsibilities of maturer life, he was pro- 
 nounced by Scaliger, who was indisposed to give 
 praise to any, to be the most learned man in 
 Europe. He was only in his twenty-sixth year, 
 when he published the first edition of the Insti- 
 tutes of the Christian Religion, with an address 
 to the persecuting King of France which has 
 ever been esteemed a production unrivalled for 
 classic purity, force of argument, and persuasive 
 eloquence. Designed as a defence of the calum- 
 niated Reformers, and an exposure of the base in- 
 justice, tyranny, and corruption of their persecu- 
 tors, this work became the bu^ark of the Reform- 
 ation, and the stronghold of its adherents. It was 
 8 
 
22 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 made the Confession of Faith of a large portion of 
 the Protestant world, and the text hook of every 
 student. It was recommended by a Convocation 
 held at Oxford, to the general study of the Eng- 
 lish nation, and long continued to be the standard 
 work in theology in the English universities. 
 The Pope makes it one of his anathematizing 
 charges against Queen Elizabeth, that the impious 
 mysteries and Institutes, according to Calvin, are 
 received and observed by herself, and even en- 
 joined upon all her subjects to be obeyed.* 
 According to Schultingius, the English gave 
 these Institutes a preference to the Bible. "The 
 Bishops," he says,f "ordered all the ministers, 
 that they should learn them almost to a word; 
 that they should be kept in all the churches for 
 public use." He informs us also that they were 
 studied in both the universities; that in Scotland 
 the students of divinity began by reading these 
 Institutes; that at Heidelberg, Geneva, Lausanne, 
 and in all the Calvinistic universities, these In- 
 stitutes were publicly taught by the professors; 
 that in Holland, ministers, civilians, and the com- 
 mon people, even the coachman and the sailor, 
 studied this work with great diligence; that es- 
 
 ^ Burnet's Hist, of the Reformation, vol. 2, p. 347. 
 f Waterman's Life, p. 137. 
 
OP JOHN CALVIN. 23 
 
 teeming it as a pearl of great price, they had it 
 bound and gilt in the most elegant manner; and 
 that it was appealed to as a standard on all theo- 
 logical questions. According to this writer, and 
 the Cardinal Legate of the Pope, these Institutes 
 were considered more dangerous to the cause of the 
 papacy than all the other writings of the Reformers. 
 
 As an author, Calvin's fame will go on bright- 
 ening more and more. The Latin language was 
 in his day the language of the learned, and of 
 books. But ^'what Latin?" asks Monsieur Vil- 
 lers. " A jargon bearing all the blemishes of 
 eleven centuries of corruption and bad taste."* 
 And yet the French Encyclopedists testify that 
 *' Calvin wrote in Latin as well as is possible in a 
 dead language ;"'|" and an Episcopalian of Oxford 
 in 1839 has said, that ^'for majesty, when the 
 subject required it, for purity, and in short, every 
 quality of a perfect style, it would not suffer by a 
 comparison with that of Caesar, Livy, or Taci- 
 tus."t 
 
 The modern idioms also were at that time in 
 the same uncultivated rude state, into which long 
 want of use had plunged them. Now what 
 
 * Villers' Essay on the Reformation, p. 238. 
 f Article, Geneva. 
 
 J Pref. to Calvin's Comment, on the Psalms, vol. 1, 
 p. 18. 
 
24 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 Lutlier did for the Grerman, Calvin accomplished 
 for the French language; he emancipated, he 
 renovated, nay, he created it. The French of 
 Calvin became eventually the French of Protes- 
 tant France, and is still admired for its purity by 
 the most skilful critics.* 
 
 Of his Institutes we have already spoken ; '^ the 
 most remarkable literary work to which the Refor- 
 mation gave birth." Not less valued was his 
 Catechism, now too much neglected and unstu- 
 died. He published it in French and Latin. It 
 was soon translated into the German, English, 
 Dutch, Scotch, Spanish, Greek, and Hebrew lan- 
 guages, and was made one of the standards of the 
 Church of Scotland, the basis of the early Cate- 
 chism in the Church of England, and the model 
 of the Catechism published by the Westminster 
 Assembly of Divines. f 
 
 The judgment of his great opponent, Arminius, 
 upon Calvin's merits as a commentator, has been 
 sustained by the verdict of three centuries, 
 and his present advancing reputation. Arminius 
 Bays, " after the Holy Scriptures, I exhort the 
 
 * D'Aubigne, 3, 639, 641. French Encyclop. as 
 above, Taylor's Biogr. of the age of Elizabeth, 2. p. 17. 
 
 f Waterman, 35. Waterman's edition of it, Hart- 
 ford, 1815. Irving's Confessions of Faith, Appendix, 
 and Pref. p. 124, and Neal's Puritans, 1. 224, 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 25 
 
 students to read the commentaries of Calvin, for 
 I tell them that he is incomparable in the inter- 
 pretation of Scripture, and that his commentaries 
 ouo;ht to be held in crreater estimation than all 
 that is delivered to us in the writings of the 
 ancient Christian Fathers, so that in a certain 
 eminent spirit of prophecy, I give the pre-emi- 
 nence to him beyond most others, indeed beyond 
 them all."* 
 
 But the labours of Calvin were as multi- 
 plied and arduous as his achievements were 
 marvellous. The Genevan edition of his works 
 amounts to twelve folio volumes. Besides these, 
 there exist at Geneva two thousand of his sermons 
 and lectures, taken down from his mouth, as he 
 delivered them. He was but twenty-eight years 
 in the ministry altogether. He was always poor, 
 so as not to be able to have many books. The 
 sufferings of his body from headache, weakness, 
 and other complaints, were constant and intense, 
 so that he was obliged to recline on his couch a 
 part of every day. It was only the remnants of 
 his time, left from preaching and correspondence, 
 he devoted to study and writing. And yet, 
 every year of his life ma}^ be chronicled by his 
 various works. In the midst of convulsions and 
 
 * In Scott, 497. See the similar judgment of Scali- 
 
 ger in Bayle, 265, and Beza, 120, 204. 
 3* 
 
26 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 interruptions of every kind, he pursued his com- 
 mentaries on the Bible, as if sitting in the most 
 perfect cahn, and undisturbed repose. His labours 
 were indeed incredible, and beyond all comparison. 
 He allowed himself no recreation whatever. He 
 preached and wrote with headaches that would, 
 says Beza, have confined any other person to bed. 
 Calvin was a member of the Sovereign Council 
 of Geneva, and took a great part in the delibera- 
 tions, as a politician and legislator. He corrected 
 the civil code of his adopted country. He cor- 
 responded with Protestants throughout Europe, 
 both on religious subjects and State affairs ; for 
 all availed themselves of his experience in difficult 
 matters. He wrote innumerable letters of encour- 
 agement and consolation to those who were per- 
 secuted, imprisoned, condemned to death for the 
 Gospel's sake. He was a constant preacher, de- 
 livering public discourses every day in the week, 
 and on Sunday preaching twice. He was Professor 
 of Theology, and delivered three lectures a week. 
 He was President of Consistory, and addressed re- 
 monstrances, or pronounced other ecclesiastical sen- 
 tences against delinquent church members. He 
 was the head of the pastors; and every Friday, 
 in an assembly called the Congregation, he pro- 
 nounced before them a long discourse on the 
 duties of the evangelical ministr3^ His door was 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 27 
 
 constantly open to refugees from France, Eng- 
 land, Poland, Germany, and Italy, who flocked to 
 Geneva, and he organized for these exiled Pro- 
 testants, special parishes. His correspondence, 
 commentaries, and controversial writings, &c., 
 "VTOuld form annually, during the period of thirty- 
 one years, between two and three octavo volumes; 
 and yet he did not reach the age of fifty-five. 
 When laid aside by disease from preaching, he 
 dictated numberless letters, revised for the last 
 time his Christian Institutes, almost re-wrote his 
 Commentary on Isaiah, frequently observing that 
 *' nothing was so painful to him as his present 
 idle life." And when urged by his friends to 
 forbear, he would reply, " Would you have my 
 Lord to find me idle when he cometh ?" '' 0, 
 the power of Christian faith ! and of the human 
 will ! Calvin did all these things — he did more 
 than twenty eminent doctors ; and he had feeble 
 health, a frail body, and died at the age of fifty- 
 five years ! We bow reverently before this incom- 
 parable activity, this unparalleled devotion of 
 Calvin to the service of his Divine Master V 
 
28 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 CHAPTER ly. 
 
 CALVIN VINDICATED FROM THE CHARGE OP AMBITION, 
 AND HIS TRUE GREATNESS AND WONDERFUL INFLU- 
 ENCE SHOWN. 
 
 Gifted with sucli powers of mind, and stored 
 with such treasures of knowledge, who can ques- 
 tion the sincerity of Calvin's adherence to the 
 principles of the Reformation? He has been 
 charged, however, with ambitious motives, and 
 with aspiring to a new popedom. Shameless 
 calumny ! With the pathway to honour, emolu- 
 ment and fame opened to him, did he not choose, 
 like Moses, ^' rather to suffer with the people of 
 God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a sea- 
 son"? Did he not resign the benefices which 
 he held, and which by a covert conduct, he might 
 still have retained, and throw himself poor and 
 unpatronized among the houseless wanderers who 
 were everywhere spoken against as not worthy to 
 live? Did he not design to spend his time in 
 retirement, as deeming himself unfit to take part 
 in the noble strife? Was he not led to visit 
 Geneva by the invisible hand of God, who had 
 obstructed his route through Dauphiuy and Sa- 
 voy to Basle or Strasburgh, where he meant to re- 
 tire? Was it not after many refusals, and the 
 extremest urgency, he consented to remain in that 
 
OP JOHN CALVIN. 29 
 
 city? And when appointed Professor of Divinity 
 by the consistory and magistrates, did be not 
 earnestly decline the office of pastor, whicli tliey 
 also insisted upon his undertaking? When ban- 
 ished from that place did he not again seek re- 
 tirement, and "with manifest reluctance resume 
 the duties of professor and of pastor, which Bu- 
 cer, Capito, Hedio, and the Senate of Strasburgh 
 conferred upon him? And when the whole city 
 of Geneva entreated his return among them, did 
 he not say, that '' the further he advanced the 
 more sensible he was how arduous a charge is that 
 of governing a church, and that there was no 
 place under heaven he more dreaded than Gene- 
 va"? How did he praise and exalt Melancthon 
 and Luther l^ How did he bear with their oppo- 
 sition to his views, and their silence, when he 
 \frote to them in friendship ! Did he not, when 
 he had succeeded in founding the College at Ge- 
 neva, prefer Beza to the presidency, and himself 
 become a professor under him ?f Did he not as 
 late as 1553, in a letter to the minister of Zurich, 
 call Farel " the father of the liberties of Geneva 
 and the father of that church"? Ambitious ! " a 
 most extraordinary charge, says Beza, to be brought 
 against a man who chose his kind of life, and in 
 this state, in this church, which I might tmly 
 
 * Scott's Contin. of Milner, vol. 3. 175, 414, 382, 387. 
 f Ibid. p. 466. 
 
30 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 call the very seat of poverty.'^ No ! the love of 
 truth and of the cause of Christ, was the master 
 passion of his soul. He realized what millions 
 only profess, and judging with the apostle, that if 
 Christ died for all, then were all dead, and that 
 He thus died that they, who are made alive by his 
 Spirit, should not henceforth live unto themselves, 
 he consecrated his body, soul and spirit unto God. 
 "Since," says he, "I remember that I am not 
 my own, nor at my own disposal, I give myself 
 up, tied and bound, as a sacrifice to God." When, 
 therefore, he was driven from Geneva by a blind- 
 ed faction, amid the lamentations of his whole 
 flock, he could say, " Had I been in the service 
 of men, this would have been a poor reward; but 
 it is well — I have served him, who never fails to 
 repay his servants whatever he has promised." 
 "When the people of Strasburgh consented for a 
 season to lend his service to the people of Gene- 
 va, they insisted on his retaining the privileges of 
 a citizen and the stipend they had assigned him 
 while resident amono; them. Was it ambition 
 that led Calvin resolutely to decline the generous 
 oifer ? Was it ambition which led him to settle 
 at Geneva, where his stipend, which was one 
 hundred crowns a year, barely supported his ex- 
 istence, and which nevertheless he pertinaciously 
 refused to have increased ? Did he not for years 
 abstain from all animal food at dinner, rarely eat- 
 
or JOHN CALVIN. 81 
 
 ing anything after breakfast till his stated hour 
 for supper — and was not the whole amount of his 
 remaining property, including his library, which 
 sold high, less than three hundred crowns? Let 
 the infidel Bayle, who was struck with astonish- 
 ment by these facts, put to silence the ignorance 
 of foolish men.* 
 
 The charge of ambition is founded upon the 
 innate and surpassing greatness of Calvin. An 
 exile from his country, without money, without 
 friends, he raised himself, by merit alone, to a 
 dominion over the minds of men. His throne 
 was in the hearts of those who knew him; his 
 sceptre, truth; his laws, the silent influence of 
 principle. Consider the difficulties which he en- 
 countered at Geneva. When he arrived at that 
 place, in 1536, the city had neither religious nor 
 political organization. Calvin undertook the task 
 of giving it both.*)- But in order to do so, he had 
 first to cleanse the Augean stable, for to this the 
 demoralized condition of Geneva might be well 
 compared. The long reign of ignorance and su- 
 perstition, the extreme corruption of the Romisb 
 clergy, the relaxation of manners consequent upon 
 intestine feuds and open war, the licentiousness, 
 anarchy and insubordination resulting from the 
 
 * Bayle's Diet.— art. Calvin. BB. and Scott, 489. 
 f Dr. Taylor's Biography of the Age of Elizabeth, vol. 
 ii. p. 24. 
 
32 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 first excesses of unrestrained freedom, the disor- 
 ders occasioned by party spirit and factious dema- 
 gogues, and the secret attachment of many to the 
 discarded system of popery — these were causes 
 sufficient to lead to the unparalleled dissoluteness 
 of a city, where great numbers of houses of ill 
 fame were recognized and licensed by the magis- 
 trates, with a regular female superior, who bore 
 the name of Reine du Bordel. Calvin proved 
 himself to be not only a theologian of the highest 
 order, but also a politician of astonishing sagacity. 
 Morals became pure. The laws of the state were 
 revised and thoroughly changed. The ecclesias- 
 tical tribunals were made independent of the civil, 
 and a system of the strictest discipline established. 
 The sect of the Libertines was overthrown. The 
 most powerful factions were dispersed. The ene- 
 mies of truth and purity, though often triumph- 
 ant, and always violent, were made to lick the 
 dust, so that the wickedness of the wicked came to 
 an end, and righteousness prevailed. The effects 
 of Calvin's influence, says a recent and prejudiced 
 historian, "after the lapse of ages, are still visible 
 in the industry and intellectual tone of Geneva.'^* 
 From having been a small and unimportant town, 
 Geneva became the focus of light, the centre of 
 attraction, and the source of incalculable influence 
 upon the destinies of Europe and the world. Cal- 
 
 *Hist. of Switzerland. Lond. 1832; p. 227. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 33 
 
 vin's seminary supplied teachers and ministers to 
 most of the Reformed states of Europe. Geneva 
 was honoured with the title of the mother of Pro- 
 testantism. Lodgings could with difficulty be 
 found for the multitude of students that came to 
 sit at the feet of the man whom Melancthon called 
 "the divine." It was to this "metropolis of 
 Presbyterianism'^ all the proscribed exiles who 
 were driven from other countries by the intoler- 
 ance of Popery, " came to get intoxicated with 
 presbytery and republicanism/' to carry back with 
 them those seeds which have sprung up in the re- 
 public of Holland, the commonwealth of England, 
 the glorious revolution of 1688, and our own Ame- 
 rican confederation. 
 
 Would you see the amazing power and influ- 
 ence of Calvin, read the history of his triumph 
 over Bolsec, one of those hydras of faction that 
 successively shot up their revegetating heads in 
 Geneva.* Behold Troillet, another of his ene- 
 
 * Scott, ibid. 404, and Waterman, 70. " Those, says 
 Rousseau, who regard Calvin as a mere theologian, are 
 ill-acquainted with the extent of his genius. The pre- 
 paration of our wise Edicts, in which he had a great 
 part, does him as much honour as his Institutes. What- 
 ever revolution time may effect in our worship, while 
 the love of country and of liberty shall exist among us, 
 the memory of that great man shall never cease to be 
 blessed." 
 
 4 
 
34 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 mies, when about to die, sending for Calvin, that 
 he might confess his faults, declaring that he 
 could not die in peace without obtaining his for- 
 giveness. Behold him at Berne, debating against 
 Oastalio and others with such power that his op- 
 ponents were henceforth excluded from that Can- 
 ton. Thus, like another Hercules, armed with the 
 simple club of God's holy word, did he destroy the 
 numerous monsters who threatened to overthrow 
 the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 How wonderful was the influence, under God, 
 of this single man ! The Reformed Churches in 
 France adopted his confession of faith, and were 
 modelled after the ecclesiastical order of Geneva. 
 To him England is indebted for her articles, for a 
 purified liturgy, and for all her psalmody,* To 
 him Scotland owes her Knox, her Buchanan, and 
 her Melville, her ecclesiastical system, and all that 
 has made her proudly eminent among the nations 
 of the earth. To him Northern Ireland is indebt- 
 ed for the industry, manufactures, education, reli- 
 gion, and noble spirit of independence and free- 
 dom which she received from her first settlers, the 
 followers of Calvin. t To his letters, dedications, 
 and exhortations, every nation of any eminence in 
 
 * Sibson in Beza's Life, Am. ed. pp. Ill, 112. 
 f Waterman, p. 34. Scott, ibid. 370. Beza's Life, 
 p. 101. ► 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 35 
 
 Lis day, was accustomed to pay profound respect. 
 These writings had a salutary influence even upon 
 the Romish church. Her shame was excited, 
 abuses were abandoned, discipline enforced, and 
 the necessity of a reformation confessed. Nor was 
 this influence merely ecclesiastical or political. 
 The increase of his own church was, we are told, 
 wonderful, and he could say, even during his life, 
 "I have numberless spiritual children throughout 
 the world." His contemporaneous reputation was 
 even greater than his posthumous fame, because 
 all parties united in rendering him honour. Many 
 Komanists, says Bayle, "would do him justice if 
 they durst.'' Scaliger said, he was "the greatest 
 wit the world had seen since the apostles," while 
 the Romish bishop of Valence called him " the 
 greatest divine in the world."* The Romanists 
 too have been forced to acknowledge the falsity of 
 their infamous calumnies published against his 
 morals.f Such was the terror he had inspired in 
 this great apostasy, that when a false report of his 
 death was circulated, they decreed a public proces- 
 sion, and returned thanks to God in their churches 
 for his death. J Every pious, eminent, and learned 
 Reformer was his friend. It was the power of his 
 
 *Bayle'8 Diet. Vol. ii. p. 268; note X. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 265, and note 2. J Waterman, p. 135. 
 
36 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 reputation, proclaiming abroad their own con- 
 demnation, that led the General Assembly of 
 Geneva to adopt a decree for his return — to ac- 
 knowledge the great injury they had done him, 
 and implore forgiveness of Almighty God — to 
 send an honourable deputation to him, to persuade 
 him to accept their invitation — to go forth in 
 throngs to welcome his return — and to allow him 
 a secretary at the public expense. In short, it 
 would be no difl&cult matter, as has been said, to 
 prove, that there is not a parallel instance upon 
 record, of any single individual being equally and 
 so unequivocally venerated, for the union of wis- 
 dom and piety, both in England, and by a large 
 body of the foreign churches, as John Calvin. 
 
 The full extent to which the living influence of 
 Calvin extended, is only now being fully demon- 
 strated. ''A few days before he expired, in 1564, 
 Calvin was in his library with Theodore de Beza, 
 and, showing him the immense correspondence he 
 had kept up, for above a quarter of a century, 
 with the most evangelical Christians and the high- 
 est personages of Europe, proposed to him to pub- 
 lish it for the Church's instruction. This wish 
 of the dying Reformer was but tardily and par- 
 tially accomplished in the sixteenth century; but 
 a literary man, and a Christian of our days, Mr. 
 Jules Bonnet, Docteur es Lettres, has undertaken, 
 
OP JOHN CALVIN. 37 
 
 after the lapse of three hundred years, to fulfil 
 Calvin^s wish; and five years spent in travelling 
 in Switzerland, in France, and in Germany, with 
 careful studies and researches in the libraries of 
 these difi"erent countries, have enabled him to 
 form a collection which will throw a fresh light 
 on the history of the Reformation. This corres- 
 pondence, which terminates only on Calvin's 
 death-bed, embraces every period of his life, and 
 contains at the same time the familiar efi"usions of 
 friendship, grave theological statements, and ele- 
 vated views of the politics of Protestantism. We 
 see in' it the Reformer reproving, with all respect 
 and dignity, the Queen of Navarre, Marguerite de 
 Valois, sister of Francis I., exhorting the young 
 King of England, Edward VI., as a Christian 
 Mentor speaking to his Telemachus, conversing 
 with Melancthon, Bullinger, Knox, Conde, Co- 
 ligny, the Duchess of Ferrara, daughter of Louis 
 XII., Jeanne d' Albret, mother of Henry IV.; we 
 see him withstanding libertines, strengthening 
 martyrs, upholding all the churches. 
 
 " This important publication appears to be* a re- 
 markable event in the history of the Church and 
 of theology. As documents, these letters will 
 compel the odious calumnies which have been cir- 
 
 * Says D'Aubigne. 
 
 4* 
 
38 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 culated, to yield to the impartial witness of truth. 
 We shall learn from Calvin's own mouth what his 
 thoughts, wishes, and pursuits were, and we shall 
 find in his most familiar writings the secret of the 
 revolution of which he was, in this world, the 
 instrument. Certainly Luther is the first Reform- 
 er; but if Luther laid the foundation, Calvin built 
 thereon. If, on the one hand, we consider the 
 Lutheran Reformation imperfect in some respects, 
 and, on the other, the Calvinistic imperfect also, 
 I agree to it; but powerful, more complete, better 
 organized, and full of action. If we compare the 
 Lutheran nations of Germany, rich in intelligence, 
 in missionary zeal, but who are still far from un- 
 derstanding and practising some questions, in par- 
 ticular that of religious liberty, with the nations 
 which have passed chiefly under Calvin's influ- 
 ence — Holland, Scotland, England, the United 
 States — these free people, some of whom stretch 
 their sceptres over all seas, and to the very ex- 
 tremities of the world, it is impossible not to per- 
 ceive that Luther and Calvin are the greatest men 
 of modern times; the most eminent Christians 
 since St. Paul; at least, if we consider their influ- 
 ence on the human mind. How, then, could we 
 fail to study the familiar letters of Calvin, that 
 most powerful instrument in the hands of the 
 Lordr^ 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 89 
 
 This correspondence has already attracted the 
 attention of eminent men. In particular the 
 Paris Journal des Debats has devoted an interest- 
 ing article to the subject, from which we quote 
 the following lines : 
 
 '^Let us bring before our minds the state of 
 excitement in which the ardent disciple of the 
 Reformation (Calvin) must have lived, when from 
 Paris, from Lyons, from Chambery, he received 
 tidings of the tortures endured by his co-religion- 
 ists. History has not sufficiently dwelt upon the 
 atrocity of these persecutions, nor on the resigna- 
 tion, the courage, the serenity of the sufferers. 
 There are there pages worthy of the early ages of 
 the Church; and I do not doubt that a simple his- 
 tory, composed from the documents and the cor- 
 respondence of the times of these sublime strug- 
 gles, would equal in beauty the ancient martyr- 
 ology. Calvin's voice in these moments of trial 
 attains a fulness and elevation truly marvellous. 
 His letters to the martyrs of Lyons, of Chambery, 
 to the prisoners of Chatelet, appear an echo from 
 the heroic days of Christianity; pages from the 
 writings of Tertullian and Cyprian. I confess 
 that before I was introduced by Mr. Bonnet to 
 this sanguinary scene of martyrdom, I had nei- 
 ther understood the nobleness of the victims nor 
 the cruelty of their executioners.'' 
 
40 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CALVIN VINDICATED FROM THE CHARGE OF ILLIBER- 
 ALITY, INTOLERANCE, AND PERSECUTION. 
 
 But we will pass on to another view of Calvin's 
 character. A truly great mind, conscious of its 
 own resources, and more fully sensible than others 
 of the difficulties surrounding every subject of hu- 
 man speculation, is always calm, and tempered 
 with moderation, equally free from bigotry and 
 indifference. It has therefore been attempted 
 to deprive Calvin of his glory, by the allegation 
 that he was illiberal, extravagant, and intolerant — 
 a furious bigot and extreme ultraist — and the 
 most heartless of persecutors. Such charges, in 
 such an age and country as this, are, it is well 
 known, the most offensive, and the most sure to 
 cover with obloquy, the man and the cause with 
 which they are identified. But the very reverse 
 we affirm to be the truth in this case. Calvin 
 was liberal in his views, moderate in his spirit, 
 and tolerant in his disposition. 
 
 Who had endured greater calumny, reproach, 
 and hatred, at the hands of the Romanists, than 
 Calvin ? and yet he allowed the validity of Ro- 
 mish baptism, and the claims of Rome to the 
 character of a Church, not merely as comprising 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 41 
 
 many of God's elect children, but as having "the 
 remains of a church continuing with them."* 
 Against whom did Luther and his coadjutors ut- 
 ter severer lan2:uao:e, than against Calvin in refer- 
 ence to the sacramentarian controversy? And 
 whom did Calvin more delight to honour than 
 Luther? How did he study to cover the coals of 
 this pernicious discord, and if possible, entirely to 
 quench them ? "I wish you," he says, writing 
 to Bullinger and the other pastors of Zurich, 
 against whom Luther had used an inexcusable 
 wantonness of language, reproach, and anathema, 
 ^'I wish you to recall these things to your mind : 
 how great a man Luther is, and with how great 
 gifts he excels; also, with what fortitude and con- 
 stancy of mind, with what efficacy of learning, he 
 hath hitherto laboured and watched to destroy the 
 kingdom of antichrist, and to propagate, at the 
 same time, the doctrine of salvation. I often say, 
 If he should call me a devil, I hold him in such 
 honour, that I would acknowledge him an eminent 
 servant of God." And does not the whole Pro- 
 testant world now, including the Lutheran Church 
 itself, acknowledge that the doctrine of Calvin on 
 
 * "However broken and deformed it may be, a church 
 of some sort exists," and in proof of this, he quotes 
 2 Thess. ii. 4, See his letters to Socinus in 1549, and 
 Scott, ibid. 400. 
 
42 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 the Lord's Supper is true, scriptural, and catholic, 
 and that Luther's was as certainly extravagant 
 and wrong ? 
 
 In how many ways did he endeavour to pre- 
 serve the peace and harmony of the churches ; to 
 lead to compromise on matters of order and disci- 
 pline; to encourage submission to ceremonies 
 and forms which were in themselves '^fooleries," 
 rather than produce rupture, and give occasion to 
 the enemy to blaspheme; — to prevent schism, dis- 
 union, and alienation, — and to bind together with 
 the cords of love the whole brotherhood of the 
 Reformed Churches! ''Keep your smaller differ- 
 ences," says he, addressing the Lutheran churches, 
 ''let us have no discord on that account; but let 
 us march in one solid column, under the banners 
 of the Captain of our salvation, and with undi- 
 vided counsels pour the legions of the cross upon 
 the territories of darkness and of death." "I 
 should not hesitate to cross ten seas, if by this 
 means holy communion might prevail among the 
 members of Christ." 
 
 Nothing can be more liberal than his views as 
 to the character of other churches. "Let the 
 ministers, therefore," he says,* "by whom God 
 permits the Church to be governed, be what they 
 
 * Letter to Farel from Strasburgh, 1538, in Water- 
 man, pp. 249, 250. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 43 
 
 may; if the signs of the true Church are perceived, 
 it will be better not to separate from their com- 
 munion. Nor is it an objection, that some impure 
 doctrines are there delivered; for there is scarce 
 any church which retains none of the remains of 
 ignorance. It is sufficient for us, that the doc- 
 trine, on which the Church of Christ is founded, 
 should hold its place and influence." Hence has 
 it happened that the most absurd attempts have 
 been made, even in our own day, to represent 
 Calvin as the friend and defender of Prelacy, 
 which he spent his life in opposing — that liberal- 
 ity which made him willing to bear, for a time, 
 with the '^ tolerable fooleries" of the ritual of the 
 English Church, being most ungenerously inter- 
 preted into a warm and hearty approval of its un- 
 scriptural forms which Calvin as openly and con- 
 stantly condemned.* 
 
 Equally liberal and moderate was Calvin in his 
 doctrinal tenets. He steered the safe and middle 
 course between Antinomianism and Arminianism 
 — and between Fatalism and Latitudinarianism. 
 No one has ever been more belied. Garbled ex- 
 tracts have been made to give expression to views 
 
 * See Calvin's views on the subject of Episcopacy, 
 fully vindicated and established, by Dr. Miller, in his 
 recent letters to Bishop Ives, and also in his work on 
 the Christian Ministry, 2d ed. 8vo. 
 
44 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 which their very context was designed to overthrow. 
 Doctrines have been fathered upon Calvin, which 
 had existed in the church from the Apostles' 
 days, and in every age. And erroneous opinions, 
 both doctrinal and practical, have been attributed 
 to him which he spent his life in opposing, and of 
 which no confutation could be found more tri- 
 umphant than what is given in his own works. 
 But while these are unknown or unread, youthful 
 bigots, and learned fools, expose their shame by 
 retailing and perpetuating stereotyped abuse. It 
 were enough to repel all such criminations by the 
 fact, that for every doctrine Calvin appeals to the 
 Bible — that he exalts the Bible above all human 
 authority, including his own — that he claims for all 
 men liberty of conscience and of judgment — and 
 that he charges all men to search the Scriptures, 
 and thus to try his doctrines whether they be of 
 God. 
 
 And as this charge is based by many upon the 
 doctrines of predestination, decrees, and divine 
 sovereignty, let it be remembered that these were 
 not peculiar to Calvin, but were common to him, 
 with the greatest divines of all aires, and with all 
 the Reformers. He was, too, a Sub- and not 
 a Supra-lapsarian, teaching that God's decrees 
 had reference to man's foreseen condition and 
 necessities, and were not the causes of them. He 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 45 
 
 does not represent Grod as arbitrary. He utterly 
 repudiates, and constantly opposes, fatalism.* He 
 always inculcates the duty and necessity of using 
 means; condemning the confounding of "neces- 
 sity with compulsion/' and rejecting the supposi- 
 tion as absurd, that "man's being actuated by 
 Grod is incompatible with his being at the same 
 time active himself."^ He teaches that the 
 means of grace, such as exhortations, precepts, 
 and reproofs, are not confined to those who are 
 already pious, but are God's means of awakening 
 the careless, converting the sinner, and leaving the 
 impenitent without excuse. He teaches, there- 
 fore, that sinners are constantly to be urged to at- 
 tendance upon Grod's ordinances, and to the dili- 
 gent and prayerful use of all the means by which 
 they may be convinced, converted, and saved. J 
 He strenuously upholds the free agency and re- 
 sponsibility of man. § He rejects the doctrine of 
 reprobation, as it is vulgarly believed, since he 
 attributes the final condemnation of the wicked to 
 themselves, and not to any arbitrary decree of God.|| 
 
 * Institutes, B. I., ch. xvi. || 8, 9. 
 t Ibid. B. II., ch. iii. § 5, and B. I. ch. xviii. g 2. 
 X Instit. B. II., ch. v. |§ 1, 4, 5, &c. 
 § See numerous extracts in proof, in Scott' s Contin. ol 
 Milner, vol. ii. pp. 508, 521, 525, 379, 385, 405. 
 
 II Instit. B. III., ch. xxiv., is entitled ''Election Con- 
 5 
 
46 LITE AND CHARACTER 
 
 While Calvin held firmly to the great funda- 
 mental doctrine of imputation, and to the doc- 
 trine of a limited atonement, he nevertheless re- 
 jected all such views of the sacrifice of Christ as 
 would make him to have sufi'ered just so much for 
 each one that was to be saved by him, so that if 
 more or fewer had been appointed unto salvation, 
 he must have shed accordingly more or fewer 
 drops of his precious blood, and sufi"ered more or 
 
 firmed (i. e., made surely known to ns. Scott, ibid. p. 
 577) by the divine calling, the just destruction to which 
 the reprobate are destined, procured hy themselves. ^^ In 
 the epistle of the pastors of Geneva, (Calv. Epist. p. 
 63-65, in Scott 406,) we find reprobation most off'en- 
 sively spoken of as proceeding "from the bare will and 
 pleasure of God" — nudo Dei placito — when no such 
 thing as we should understand by the words is meant. 
 This appears from what presently follows: "It is be- 
 yond controversy, that the perdition of men is to be 
 ascribed to their own wickedness;" and that the punish- 
 ments which God inflicts on them are "deserved." It 
 would seem that all which they mean, and which Cal- 
 vin generally, at least, means by such obnoxious lan- 
 guage, is, that among a fallen and guilty race, God, ac- 
 cording to his sovereign pleasure, chooses whom he will 
 to bring to salvation, and whom (according to the title of 
 Calvin's work on Predestination) he will "leave in their 
 ruin." This appears to be the constant meaning of 
 Calvin, in the work which he now published on these 
 subjects. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 47 
 
 less severe dying pangs. Calvin on the contrary, 
 recognized in the death of Christ, a sacrifice ade- 
 quate to the sins of the whole world, and which 
 made provision for all whom it should please the 
 Father to enable and dispose to avail themselves 
 of it.* 
 
 He therefore fully and frequently proclaims the 
 ■universality of the gospel promises, and the duty 
 of all to receive and embrace them."]" While he 
 teaches that original sin is natural, he denies that 
 
 * On Romans v. 18, — "The free gift came on all men 
 to justification of life," he remai'ks, "The apostle makes 
 it a grace or farour common to all, because it is pro- 
 posed (or set forth) to all ; not because it is actually 
 extended to (conferred on) all. For, though Christ 
 suflFered for the sins of the whole world, and is offered 
 by the mercy of God to all indifferently, (without 
 exception or distinction,) yet all do not embrace him." 
 On 1 John ii. 2, he says: "Christ suffered sufficiently 
 for the whole world, but efficaciously only for the 
 elect." And finally, as early as the year 1535, in a 
 preface to the New Testament in French, he says: — 
 "At the appointed time the Messiah came, and amply 
 performed whatever was necessary for the redemption 
 of all. The benefit was not confined to Israel alone: it 
 was rather to be extended to the whole human race ; 
 because by Christ alone the whole human race was to 
 be reconciled to God." 
 
 f Instit. B. Ill,, ch. iii ^ 21, and ch. xxii. g 10, and 
 ch. xxiv. l^ 6, 8, 16, 17, and Scott, p. 597. 
 
48 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 it originated from nature. ''We deny," says he, 
 ''that it proceeded from nature, to signify that it 
 is rather an adventitious quality or accident, than 
 a substantial property, originally innate, yet we 
 call it natural, that no one may suppose it to be 
 contracted by every individual from corrupt habit, 
 whereas it prevails over all by hereditary right.'' 
 " No other explanation therefore can be given of 
 our being said to be dead in Adam, than that his 
 transgression not only procured misery and ruin 
 for himself, but also precipitated our nature into 
 similar destruction, and that not by his personal 
 guilt as an individual, which pertains not to us, 
 but because he infected all his descendants with 
 the corruption into which he had fallen." And 
 again — " We are, on account of this very corrup- 
 tion, considered as convicted and justly condemned 
 in the sight of God, to whom nothing is accepta- 
 ble but righteousness, innocence, and purity. And 
 this liability to punishment arises not from the 
 delinquency of another, for when it is said that 
 the sin of Adam renders us obnoxious to the 
 divine judgment, it is not to be understood as if 
 we, though innocent, were undeservedly loaded 
 with the guilt of his sin, but because we are all 
 subject to a curse, in consequence of his transgres- 
 sion, he is therefore said to have involved us iu 
 guilt. Nevertheless we derive from him not only 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 49 
 
 the punishment, but also the pollution to which 
 the punishment is justly due."* 
 
 He allows that even as fallen, '^ the soul of man 
 is irradiated with a beam of divine light, so that 
 it is never wholly destitute of some little flame, or 
 at least a spark of it," though ''it cannot compre- 
 hend Grod by that illumination," the remaining 
 image of G-od being but the ruin of the original, 
 and " confused, mutilated, and defiled. "f 
 
 His doctrines, therefore, as he frequently shows, 
 cut up by the roots all presumption, prevent des- 
 pair, encourage hope, and in an eminent degree 
 enforce and cherish holiness both of heart and 
 life. I His doctrines also make special provision 
 for the salvation of all elect children, whether bap- 
 tized or uubaptized, whether Christian or pagan ; 
 nor did he ever discountenance the idea that all 
 children dying in infancy may be regarded as 
 among the elect, and therefore as assuredly saved. § 
 
 * Instit. B. II. ch. i. ^| 10, 11, and B. II. ch. 1, ^| 6, 8. 
 
 t Ibid. B. I. cli. XV. §H & 6; B. II. ch. ii. § 12, and 
 B. II. ch. 1, ^^ 13, 19, 22, 24, and ch. iii. ^ 4. 
 
 % Instit. B. III. ch. xxiv. ^ 4, and ch. xiv. §§ 17—21. 
 
 ^ In his Instit. B. IV. ch. xvi. "where he argues against 
 those "who afl&rmed that regeneration cannot take place 
 in early infancy — ''God," says he, " adopts infants and 
 washes them in the blood of his Son," and " they are re- 
 garded by Christ as among his flock." Again, (Instit. 
 B. IV. ch. xvi. ^ 31, p. 461, see also pp. 435, 436, 451,) 
 5* 
 
50 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 He also approved the baptism of the infants of all 
 baptized parents, whether communicants or not, 
 recognizing the covenant right of such children to 
 the seal of those privileges to which thej have a 
 natural and necessary claim. 
 
 I may also mention, as interesting at this time, 
 that Calvin approved of a public form for the in- 
 troduction of professors into the Christian church.* 
 
 Now let these views of Calvin be compared with 
 those of Luther and Melancthon on the subject of 
 predestination, or with those of Beza, his own co- 
 adjutor; or with those of the English Reformers 
 and the Lambeth articles; and will they not be 
 allowed, by every impartial judge, to be at once 
 liberal, moderate, and wise? While these doc- 
 trines, by which alone many know Calvin, were 
 not peculiar to him, it is also true that they were 
 not dwelt upon with any undue prominence, but 
 
 he says of John iii. 36, "Christ is not speaking of the 
 general guilt in which all the descendants of Adam are 
 involved, but only threatening the despisers of the gospel 
 who proudly and obstinately reject the grace that is of- 
 fered them ; and this has nothing to do with infants. I 
 likewise oppose a contrary argument ; all those whom 
 Christ blesses are exempted from the curse of Adam and 
 the wrath of God; and it is known that infants were 
 blessed by him ; it follows that they are exempted from 
 death." 
 
 * Ins tit. B. IV. ch. xix. §H» 13. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 51 
 
 insubordination to other subjects.* And wben the 
 unparalleled consistency with which, through his 
 whole life, Calvin continued to maintain the same 
 views, is contrasted with the variation of others, 
 how illustriously do they exhibit the superiority of 
 his intellectual powers. Not that he was infalli- 
 ble — far from it. He too was human, fallible, and 
 chargeable with error. In making assurance of 
 salvation necessary to a true faith — in questioning 
 the peculiar and permanent sanctity of the Sabbath 
 day — in supposing that Christ descended to hell, 
 or endured on the cross the torments of hell — 
 Calvin certainly erred, and is not by any to be be- 
 lieved or followed. f 
 
 But we proceed to remark that Calvin was not 
 intolerant in spirit or in practice. It is true, that 
 Servetus was, at his prosecution, brought to trial 
 for conduct the most criminal, and opinions the 
 most horrible, which in the face of the laws and of 
 repeated admonition, he continued to propagate 
 with pestiferous zeal. But that Calvin did more 
 than this, in the whole course of his life, to give 
 occasion to the charges of persecuting intolerance 
 so loudly proclaimed against him, we positively 
 
 * "If you read the letters of Calvin, you will find very 
 little about predestination, and very much about all the 
 other doctrines of Christianity." 
 
 f See Scott's Contin. of Milner, vol. 3, pp. 545, 550, 
 and 583, and Bib. Repertory, 1831, p. 421. 
 
52 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 deny. To affirm, as many do, that he sousrht 
 the burning of Servetiis — that he influenced the 
 Senate in securing his death — that he aided or 
 abetted in his execution — or that he did not use 
 his best endeavours to procure a mitigation of his 
 sentence — is an atrocious calumny against the 
 truth of history, and an act of black persecution 
 against the memory of a great and good man. We 
 have already offered proof of the liberality and 
 moderation of Calvin even towards opponents. 
 Many similar facts illustrative of his great for- 
 bearance might be adduced. His benevolence no 
 one can dispute. Nor can any one question his 
 humble and unambitious spirit. The earlier edi- 
 tions of his Institutes contained also the follow- 
 ing eloquent argument in favour of toleration. 
 *' Though it may be wrong to form friendship or 
 intimacy with those who hold pernicious opinions, 
 yet must we contend against them only by exhor- 
 tation, by kindly instructions, by clemency, by 
 mildness, by prayers to God, that they may be so 
 changed as to bear good fruits, and be restored to 
 the unity of the church. And not only are erring 
 Christians to be so treated, but even Turks and 
 Saracens."* 
 
 This, then, was the natural spirit, and the gen- 
 
 * Dr. Taylor's Biography of the Age of Elizabeth, 
 vol. 2, p. 46. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 53 
 
 nine creed of Calvin. But it was diametrically 
 opposed to the spirit and to the universal senti- 
 ment of the age. The Romish Church had dif- 
 fused the notion that the spirit of the judicial 
 laws of the Old Testament still constituted the 
 rule and standard of the Christian Church. Of 
 necessity, therefore, a regard for the public peace, 
 and the preservation of the Church of Christ from 
 infection, required the punishment of heretics 
 and blasphemers.* Toleration of errorists was 
 deemed sinful, and their destruction a Christian 
 duty. Men were taught to believe that temporal 
 penalties were God's appointed means for making 
 men virtuous and religious. The gibbet, the 
 stake, the cell, and various other modes of torture, 
 were therefore the chief arguments employed. 
 Priests became inquisitors. The pulpit was the 
 inciter to slaughter; and Te Deums resounded 
 through cloistered walls in commemoration of the 
 deaths of infamous heretics. Persecution, in short, 
 was the avowed policy of both the Church and 
 the State for the suppression of dangerous opin- 
 ions. Now the E.eformers, be it remembered, 
 were all Romish theologians, trained up in the 
 bosom of the Roman Church, and imbued with 
 these fatal sentiments, which were everywhere 
 applauded.")" 
 
 * See Clarke's Hist, of Intol,, vol, 1. p. xviii. and xxi. 
 I Viller on the Reformation, p. 260. 
 
54 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 The liberty of the Reformation, also, had been 
 abused to the greatest licentiousness, both of opin- 
 ion and of practice. Such heresies in doctrine, 
 and excesses in conduct, were all employed as ar- 
 guments against the Reformation. "While, then, 
 tolerance of error was a standing reproach in the 
 mouth of Rome, against their cause, the Reformers, 
 deluded in their first principles, blinded by the 
 universal opinion of all parties, and driven, in self- 
 defence, to oppose themselves to all heresy, con- 
 tinued to approve and to act upon those views 
 which are now condemned as intolerant and per- 
 secuting. Calvin, therefore, was led to think that 
 his previous views would encourage heresy, and 
 injure the cause of the Reform; and for once, he 
 allowed his better judgment to be warped, and 
 fully endorsed the principle that heresy must be 
 restrained by force. But still he utterly disclaim- 
 ed all right or power on the part of the Church to 
 employ that force. He transferred it altogether 
 to the civil authorities, that is, to the hands of the 
 community generally, by whom it has been ulti- 
 mately abolished. Tried, therefore, by the uni- 
 versal judgment of his age, Calvin was not intol- 
 erant ; and when condemned by the free and lib- 
 eral views of the present time, he meets his sen- 
 tence in common with all men, whether civilians 
 
OF JOHN CALVTN. 55 
 
 or theologians, and with all the Reformers, whe- 
 ther continental or Anglican.* So that the whole 
 guilt of the persecuting tenets of the Reformers 
 must ultimately rest upon that mother from whose 
 breasts these all had drawn the milk of intolerance, 
 and by whose nurture they had been trained up 
 in the way of persecution. The Romish Church, 
 therefore, as has been truly said, is answerable for 
 
 the execution of Servetus.t 
 
 / 
 
 * Scott's Contin. toI. 3, 420, 432, 433, 435, 437, 438. 
 D'Aubigne Hist, of Ref., yol. 3, p. 630. Beza's Life, 
 pp. 109, 110, 156, 197. 
 
 f "To appreciate," says D'Aubigne, "the Reformer's 
 sentiments as regards heresy, we must do something 
 similar to what is done when we wish to appreciate the 
 strength of a river ; we must separate it into two forces. 
 We must thus separate Calvin's feeling against heresy. 
 One force was excellent, it belonged to Calvin; the other 
 is deplorable, it belongs to the age he lived in. The 
 part that belongs to Calvin is the horror he feels for 
 false doctrines, which attack the glory of God in Jesus 
 Christ. Would to God we felt more of this horror for 
 iiW that is false and evil ! But to the sixteenth century 
 belongs the idea that the faults committed against the 
 first table of the law, or against God, ought to be pun- 
 ished by human tribunals, and by such a punishment 
 as would be inflicted for faults committed against the 
 second table, or against vian. This was a Judaizing 
 error: the sixteenth century had not yet understood 
 that all that belongs to the theocracy of the Old Testa- 
 
56 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 If, however, there ever was a case in which the 
 execution of the penalty of death could have 
 been properly inflicted, it was in that of Servetus. 
 Never had man so blasphemed his Maker, so out- 
 raged Christian feeling and all propriety, so in- 
 sulted the laws in force for his destruction, and so 
 provoked the slumbering arm of vengeance to fall 
 upon him.* 
 
 Servetus had been driven from every attempted 
 residence on account of his unbearable conduct. 
 He had been tried and condemned to be burned 
 to death by the Romanists at Vienna, from whose 
 hands he had just escaped when he came to 
 Geneva. "I" He was well aware of the intolerant 
 character of the laws of the city of Greneva, 
 enacted against heretics by the Emperor Fred- 
 erick I., when under imperial and Romish juris- 
 diction — which had been often exercised before 
 
 ment cannot be applied to the Christian Church. Cal- 
 vin, in this respect, was a man of his age; Melancthon 
 was also. It is sad, but can we be surprised at it ? A 
 longer period of time and greater discernment is re- 
 quired to perceive these errors than those which assault 
 our faith in a more direct manner. I know almost only 
 Luther who, on this point (religious liberty,) was in ad- 
 vance of his age. 
 
 * Beza's Life, pp. 163, 203. Philad. ed. 
 
 t Scott, ibid. 423. Beza, ibid. 163. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 57 
 
 that time — and wliich were still in force.* Calvin, 
 regarding his sentiments and conduct with just 
 abhorrence, and believing it to be his duty, for 
 the reasons stated, to oppose them, gave him 
 previous notice, that if he came to the city of 
 Geneva, he should be under the necessity of prose- 
 cuting him. There was therefore no previous 
 malice in Calvin towards him. When Servetus 
 had come, and Calvin had brought his character 
 and opinions to the view of the authorities, his 
 interference in the matter there ceased. He 
 never visited the court, except when required to 
 do so. The Senate, instead of being influenced 
 by him in the course they pursued, were, the 
 greater part of them, at that very time opposed to 
 him.f The whole matter also, before sentence 
 had been passed, was, at Servetus' request, sub- 
 mitted to the judgment of the other cities, wKo 
 unanimously approved of his condemnation. | 
 
 It was the sentiment of the age, that those who 
 obstinately persisted in heresy and blasphemy 
 were worthy of death. Even the gentle Melanch- 
 thon affirms, in a letter to Calvin, that the magis- 
 trates ''acted rightly in putting this blasphemer 
 
 ^ Scott, ibid. 347, 356, 374, 430, 443. Beza ibid. 167, 
 180, and 199. 
 
 t Scott, ibid. pp. 434, 440. Beza's Life, ibid. 168, 283. 
 X Scott, ibid. 427, 436. Beza's Life, ibid. 169, 195. 
 
 6 
 
58 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 to death;" and in a letter to Biillinger, the same 
 mild and cautious and truly Christian man 
 declares, " I have heen surprised that there are 
 men who blame this severity." 
 
 Servetus /imse// maintained this principle in his 
 "Restitution of Christianity," the very work which 
 led to his trial and condemnation. The justice of 
 such a punishment towards himself, SeiTetus 
 repeatedly avowed, if guilty of the charges against 
 him. And this punishment Servetus continually 
 demanded to be inflicted on Calvin, on the ground 
 that by the laws of the state it was required that 
 the person who lodged an accusation against any 
 one should sustain it and make it good, or failing 
 to do this, should suffer the punishment which 
 would have been due to the accused. This pun- 
 ishment, Servetus was led to believe he would 
 be able to inflict on Calvin, since in the council 
 of two hundred, before whom the case was first 
 argued, the opponents and determined enemies 
 of Calvin — the Libertines — predominated. 
 
 There is, however, no probability that Servetus, 
 under the circumstances, would have been visited 
 with the punishment he suffered, merely for his 
 opinions. 
 
 For what then, it has been asked, was he con- 
 demned? Not for heretical opinions of any sort 
 merel}^, or chiefly, we reply. His opinions and 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 59 
 
 doctrines were doubtless heretical enough, accord- 
 ing to the standards of judgment at the time ; 
 heretical thej would in any age be pronounced 
 by the great body of the Christian Church. But 
 it was not so much his opinions in themselves, as 
 the manner in ivhich he stated and defended them, 
 which gave offence. The elder Soeinus was teach- 
 ing substantially the same doctrines at Zurich 
 without molestation. But not content with simply 
 maintaining and defending calmly but earnestly 
 what he thought to be truth, Servetus it seems 
 had from the first set himself to assail with terms 
 of bitterest obloquy and reproach, nay with ribald- 
 ry and unmeasured abuse, the opinions of those 
 who differed from him. He made use of language 
 which could not fail to shock the minds of all 
 sober and pious men who held the doctrines of 
 either the Catholic or the Protestant Church. He 
 calls persons of the Godhead delusions of the 
 devil, and the triune Grod a monster, a three-head- 
 ed Cerberus. 
 
 It was this bitterness and intolerance of spirit, 
 this entire want of reverence for the most sacred 
 things, this deliberate insult and outrage of the 
 religious feelings of the entire Christian world, 
 that armed the entire Christian world against him, 
 and made him a marked and outlawed man long 
 before he ever sav7 Calvin or Geneva. Some 
 
60 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 thirteen years before his trial he sent back to 
 Calvin, with whom he was then corresponding, a 
 copy of his Institutes, with the most severe and 
 bitter reflections and taunts upon the margin, and 
 sent him several letters of the most abusive and 
 insulting character. 
 
 The same spirit was exhibited on his trial. He 
 manifested neither respect for his judges, nor a 
 decent regard for the religious sentiment of the 
 age. In the most insulting manner he heaped 
 upon Calvin the most undeserved reproaches and 
 the most abusive epithets, dealing so much in per- 
 sonalities and invectives as to shame even his 
 judges, and wear out the patience of men, many 
 of whom were inclined to look favoumbly upon 
 his cause. So far was this abuse carried, that 
 unable to bear it longer, the entire body of the 
 clergy, with Calvin at their head, arose on one 
 occasion and left the tribunal, thus closing the 
 examination. 
 
 On his final trial thirty-eight propositions, taken 
 from his last work, were handed him. His an- 
 swer, says a dispassionate historian, "was more 
 like the ravings of a maniac than the words of rea- 
 son and truth. He exhibited a surprising indiffer- 
 ence in regard to the erroneous doctrines which 
 were imputed to him, and sought mainly for hard 
 epithets to apply to Calvin. He accused him 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 61 
 
 * * * * of being a murderer and a disciple of 
 Simon Magus. The margin of the paper contain- 
 ing the propositions was covered with such 
 expressions as the following — 'Thou dreamest/ 
 'Thou liest,' 'Thou canst not deny that thou 
 art Simon the sorcerer.' " 
 
 Another historian says of this reply of Ser- 
 vetus, "It is no presumption to say, that in point 
 of abuse and scumlity this defence stands unri- 
 valled by any one that was ever made by any 
 defendant, however infatuated, in the most des- 
 perate cause." 
 
 It was not, then, so much his opinions and 
 dogmas, as the manner in which he main- 
 tained them, that occasioned the final decision 
 of the judges, and the almost unanimous ver- 
 dict of the Christian world against Servetus. 
 '* If Servetus had only attacked the doctrine of 
 the Trinity by arguments," says an able writer, 
 ''he would have been answered by arguments, 
 and without danger of persecution by the Protes- 
 tants he might have gone on defending it, until 
 called to answer for his belief by Him whose 
 character he had impugned. Argument was not 
 that which Calvin and his contemporaries opposed, 
 by the civil tribunal. It was insult and ribaldry, 
 and that too against the Most High, whose cha- 
 racter they would defend in the midst of a per- 
 6* 
 
62 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 verse and rebellious generation/^ ''If ever a 
 poor fanatic thrust himself into the fire/^ says 
 J. T. Coleridge, " it was Michael Servetus." 
 
 What, then, on the whole, was Calvin's agency 
 in this affair ? Simply this. He brought an 
 accusation against Servetus, when to have done 
 otherwise would have been a virtual betrayal of 
 the cause of the Protestant Reformation, as well as 
 a disregard of the laws of his country. 
 
 The position of Calvin was such that under the 
 circumstances he could hardly do otherwise. He 
 stood at the head of the Protestant clergy, not of 
 Geneva alone, but of Europe, and of the age. 
 The reproach of heresy was resting, in the esti- 
 mation of the Catholic world, upon the entire 
 Protestant body, and especially upon Calvin and 
 the clergy of Geneva. They were regarded as 
 anti-Trinitarians, and Geneva as a receptacle of 
 heretics. Servetus was known and acknowledged 
 to be a teacher of the most dangerous errors, and 
 in the common estimate of both Catholic and 
 Protestant, was a man worthy of death. If the 
 clergy of Geneva, the leaders of the Reformation, 
 failed to proceed according to the laws against 
 such a man, thus throwing himself into the midst 
 of them, what could they expect but that the oppro- 
 brium of heresy would justly fasten itself upon 
 them in the general opinion of men ? It was in 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 63 
 
 fact a matter of self-defence with them to show 
 the world, both Catholic and Protestant, that they 
 had no sympathy with men who undertook the 
 work of reform in the spirit, and with the princi- 
 ples of Servetus. It was due to themselves, due 
 to the cause of Protestantism, due to the State 
 under whose laws they dwelt. 
 
 As by law required he substantiated the charge 
 he had made. This he did; this, and nothing 
 more. With the condemnation and sentence of 
 Servetus he had nothing whatever to do. The 
 trial was before a civil tribunal, the highest and 
 most august in the State. Every opportunity of 
 defence was afforded the accused. Calvin him- 
 self furnished him the books he needed from his 
 own library. The trial was conducted with ex- 
 treme patience and deliberation. The case was 
 finally submitted to the churches of Switzerland 
 for their decision. With one voice they declared 
 the accused guilty. In the meantime the King 
 of France energetically demanded his death as a 
 condemned heretic, who had escaped from his 
 dominions. On political grounds therefore, and 
 these alone, his condemnation was at last given. 
 His punishment is decided by the united councils 
 after a deliberation of three days, and so far from 
 triumphing in its severity, Calvin, at the head of 
 the clergy, petitions, but in vain, for its mitigation. 
 
64 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 We do not defend, in all this, the condemna- 
 tion and death of Servetus. It was a gftat mis- 
 take ; call it if you will a crime. But let the 
 blame rest where it belongs; not on John Calvin, 
 but on the men who decreed that death, and on 
 the age which sanctioned and demanded it. 
 
 And when it is remembered that at this very 
 time the flames were consuming the victims of 
 Romish persecution, and also of those condemned 
 by Cranmer, who is called a pattern of humility — 
 that Davides fell a victim to the intolerance of 
 Socinus* — that the English Reformers applauded 
 the execution of Servetus — that his punishment 
 was regarded as the common cause of all the 
 churches in Christendom — and that for fifty years 
 thereafter no writer criminated Calvin for his 
 agency in this matter — may we not say to those 
 who now try Calvin by an ex post facto law, by a 
 public opinion, which is the result of the very 
 doctrines he promulgated — let him that is guilt- 
 less among you cast the first stone ? In thus 
 singling out Calvin as the object of your fierce 
 resentment, you manifest the very spirit you con- 
 demn — a spirit partial, unchristian, and unright- 
 eous. So much for the charge of intolerance, "j* 
 
 * Scott, ibid. 439. Williams' Relig. Liberty, p. 135. 
 f See further remarks in Appendix, No. 1. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 65 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CALVIN VINDICATED FROM THE CHARGE OF A WANT OF 
 NATURAL AFFECTION AND FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 Equally futile and untrue is anotlier charge 
 made against Calvin, that he was entirely desti- 
 tute of tenderness and all natural affection, and 
 that no expression of kindness can be found in 
 his writings. That his intellectual powers were 
 pre-eminent, and held his passions, appetites and 
 desires in complete subjection to the dictates of 
 prudence and calm sobriety, is unquestionably 
 true. But that Calvin possessed deep feeling, 
 and was susceptible of the strongest and most 
 tender emotions, we believe to be incontrovertibly 
 certain. ^'I had intended," he says, on his 
 return to the people of Geneva, who had so cru- 
 elly treated him, '^ to address the people, entering 
 into a review of the past, and a justification of 
 myself and my colleagues; but I found them so 
 touched with remorse, so ready to anticipate me 
 in the confession of their faults, that I felt that 
 such a proceeding would not only be superfluous 
 but cruel.'^ "It was beautiful," says Beza, "to 
 observe the union of these three great men — i. e., 
 Calvin, Farel, and Viret — in the service of their 
 common Master." When Farel wished to yisit 
 
66 LIFE AND CHARACTEB, 
 
 him in his last illness, Calvin wrote him, saying : 
 *' Farewell, my best and most worthy brother. 
 Since God has determined that you should sur- 
 vive me in this world, live mindful of our union, 
 which has been so useful to the Church of Glod, 
 and the fruits of which await us in heaven. Do 
 not fatigue yourself on my account. I draw my 
 breath with difficulty, and am expecting continu- 
 ally that my breath will fail. It is sufficient that 
 I live and die in Christ, who is gain to his ser- 
 vants in life and in death. Again, farewell with 
 the brethren.^' 
 
 After the death of his friend Courault, he says, 
 in a letter to Farel, ^'I am so overwhelmed, that I 
 put no limits to my sorrow. My daily occupa- 
 tions have no power to retain my mind from recur- 
 ring to the event, and revolving constantly the 
 oppressive thought. The distressing impulses of 
 the day are followed by the more torturing anguish 
 of the night. I am not only troubled with dreams, 
 to which I am inured by habit, but I am greatly 
 enfeebled by the restless watchiugs which are 
 extremely injurious to my health." 
 
 On the death of Bucer, he thus writes : — " I 
 feel my heart to be almost torn asunder, when I 
 reflect on the very great loss which the Church 
 has sustained in the death of Bucer, and on the 
 advantages that England would have derived from 
 
OF JOHN CALYIN. 67 
 
 his labours, had lie been spared to assist in carry- 
 ing on the Reformation in that kingdom." 
 
 Look, also, at his letters of consolation, addressed 
 to those confessors for the truth who had been 
 unable to make their escape from persecution.* 
 
 On the death of his son, he wrote to Viret, 
 saying, " The Lord has certainly inflicted a heavy 
 and severe wound on us, by the death of our little 
 son ; but He is our father, and knows what is expe- 
 dient for his children." And when his wife was 
 taken from him, we behold in Calvin all the ten- 
 derness of a most sensitive and affectionate heart. 
 Writing to Farel, to whom he gives a detail of 
 her illness, he says: ''The report of the death of 
 my wife has doubtless reached you before this. 
 I use every exertion in my power not to be entirely 
 overcome with heaviness of heart. My friends, 
 "who are about me, omit nothing that can afford 
 alleviation to the depression of my mind." Again, 
 *'may the Lord Jesus strengthen you by his Spirit 
 and me also in this so great calamity, which would 
 inevitably have overpowered me, unless from 
 heaven he stretched forth his hand, whose office 
 it is to raise the fallen, to strengthen the weak, 
 and to refresh the weary." Again, writing to 
 Yiret, he says, " Although the death of my wife 
 is a very severe affliction, yet I repress as much 
 
 * Scott's Contin. of Milner, p. 374. 
 
68 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 as I am able, the sorrow of my heart. My friends 
 also afford every anxious assistance, yet with all 
 our exertions, we effect less, in assuaging my 
 grief, than I could wish; but still the consolation 
 which I obtain, I cannot express. You know 
 the tenderness of my mind, or rather with what 
 effeminacy I yield under trials; so that without 
 the exercise of much moderation, I could not 
 have supported the pressure of my sorrow. 
 Certainly it is no common occasion of grief. I 
 am deprived of a most amiable partner, who, what- 
 ever might have occurred of extreme endurance, 
 would have been my willing companion, not only 
 in exile and poverty, but even in death. While 
 she lived, she was indeed the faithful helper of 
 my ministry, and on no occasion did I ever expe- 
 rience from her any interruption. For your 
 friendly consolation, I return you my sincere 
 thanks. Farewell, my dear and faithful brother. 
 May the Lord Jesus watch over and direct you 
 and your wife. To her and the brethren express 
 my best salutation." 
 
 Now, if these proofs of the tenderness of Calvin 
 are not sufficient, let any one read the account of 
 his closing scenes, and he will find the most 
 touchiuij; manifestations of an affectionate and 
 tender spirit. As a brother, friend, husband, 
 father, and minister, Calvin displayed warm, 
 steady, and unshaken friendship and regard. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 69 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 THE OBLIGATIONS WHICH WE OWE TO CALVIN AS AMERI- 
 CAN CITIZENS AND CHRISTIANS, ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Such was Calvin, and such the triumphant defence 
 of his character against all assaults, which he has 
 left behind him in his unspotted life, his unim- 
 peachable character, his familiar epistles, and his 
 everlasting works. His wisdom, learning, pru- 
 dence, and unapproachable excellencies as an 
 author, no one has ever dared to dispute. The 
 star of his fame has continued to shine with ever- 
 increasing brilliancy in the intellectual firmament, 
 and still guides many a voyager over the dark 
 and uncertain sea of time to the sure haven of 
 everlasting blessedness. Such is the rich inheri- 
 tance he left us, who would desire to be followers 
 of him, as far as he followed Christ. But this is 
 not all. To him we are indebted for other trea- 
 sures, dearly prized by evei'y American citizen. 
 
 We look, for instance, to our system of common 
 schools as the great hope of American freedom, in 
 the intelligence they everywhere diffuse. Now, 
 Calvin was the father of popular education, and 
 the inventor of the system of free schools. None 
 of the Reformers perceived more clearly the 
 7 
 
70 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 advantages of education, or laboured more earn- 
 estly to promote it. 
 
 Next to our common schools, we prize our col- 
 leges and theological seminaries as the nurseries 
 of citizens, statesmen, and ministers, capable of 
 guarding the affairs of a great and free people. 
 Now the building and complete endowment of the 
 college and seminary at Geneva, was among the 
 last acts accomplished by Calvin — it having been 
 opened in 1559, with 600 students. "Even now, 
 when Geneva has generally deserted the standards 
 of the original Reformers, and joined those of 
 Arius and Socinus, her sons rejoice in the great 
 triumph achieved by the wisdom of Calvin over 
 the power of Napoleon, who, on conquering Gen- 
 eva, wanted courage to make any change in the 
 system of education, which had been planted more 
 than two hundred years before Bonaparte was 
 born, by this distinguished friend of genuine 
 Christianity, and a truly scriptural education." 
 
 We hail the birth-day of our country's liberty. 
 We still commemorate the declaration of our 
 national independence. We glory in a country 
 more rapidly extending its territory, its population, 
 and its riches, than any other upon earth — in 
 laws the most just and impartial — in a govern- 
 ment the most equitable, economical and free — 
 and in the enjoyment of a religious liberty more 
 
OP JOHN CALVIN. 71 
 
 perfect and complete than can be paralleled in 
 the history of man. The star spangled banner 
 awakens the envy and the admiration of the 
 world — and our glorious republic is the fairy 
 vision which excites the emulous desire of imita- 
 tion in the bosom of every well-wisher to the 
 advancement of society. But whence came ail 
 these? "The pilgrims of Plymouth/' says Ban- 
 croft, "were Calvinists; the best influence in 
 South Carolina came from the Calvinists of 
 France; William Penn was the disciple of the 
 Hug-uenotsj the ships from Holland that first 
 brought colonists to Manhattan, were filled with 
 Calvinists. He that will not honour the memory 
 and respect the influence of Calvin, knows but 
 little of the origin of American liberty." Yes! 
 Calvin was a thorough-going republican. The 
 Institutes of Calvin carry with the truths of Chris- 
 tianity the seeds of republicanism to the ends of 
 the earth. "Indeed," says he,* "if these three 
 forms of government, which are stated by philoso- 
 phers, be considered in themselves, I shall by no 
 means deny, that either aristocracy, or a mixture 
 of aristocracy and democracy, far excels all others ; 
 and that, indeed, not of itself, but because it very 
 rarely happens, that kings regulate themselves, 
 
 * Inst. B. IV. c. 20. I 8. 
 
72 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 SO that their will is never at variance with justice 
 and rectitude; or in the next place, that they are 
 endued with such penetration and prudence, as in 
 all cases to discover what is best. The vice or imper- 
 fection of men, therefore, renders it safer and more 
 tolerable for the government to be in the hands 
 of many, that they may afford each other mutual 
 assistance and admonition, and that if any one 
 arrogate to himself more than is right, the many 
 may act as censors, and masters, to restrain his 
 ambition. This has always been proved by expe- 
 rience, and the Lord confirmed it by his authority, 
 when he established a government of this kind 
 among the people of Israel, with a view to pre- 
 serve them in the most desirable condition, till he 
 exhibited, in David, a type of Christ. x\nd as I 
 readily acknowledge, that no kind of government 
 is more happy than this, where liberty is regu- 
 lated with becoming moderation, and properly 
 established on a durable basis, so also I consider 
 these as the most happy people, who are permitted 
 to enjoy such a condition; and if they exert their 
 strenuous and constant efforts for its preservation, 
 I admit that they act in perfect consistence with 
 their duty.'' 
 
 ''Calvin," says Bishop Horsley, "was unques- 
 tionably, in theory, a republican; he freely de- 
 clares his opinion that the republican form, or an 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 73 
 
 aristocracy reduced nearly to the level of a repub- 
 lic, was of all the best calculated, in general, to 
 answer the ends of government. So wedded, 
 indeed, was he to this notion, that, in disregard of 
 an apostolic institution, and the example of the 
 primitive ages, he endeavoured to fashion the gov- 
 ernment of all the Protestant churches upon repub- 
 lican principles; and his persevering zeal in that 
 attempt, though in this country, through the mer- 
 cy of God, it failed, was followed, upon the whole, 
 with a wide and mischievous success. But in 
 civil politics, though a republican in theory, he 
 was no leveller." 
 
 Geneva, the mother of modern republics, is the 
 monument of Calvin's fame; and as Montesquieu 
 says, should celebrate, in annual festival, the day 
 when Calvin first entered that city. Politically 
 and ecclesiastically, Calvin honoured the people; 
 assumed their intelligence, virtue, and worth; and 
 entrusted them with the management of affairs. 
 He taught, also, the spiritual independence of the 
 Church; its entire separation from civil govern- 
 ment; and the supreme and exclusive headship 
 of its only lawgiver and sovereign, the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. These were the grand truths taught and 
 illustrated by Calvin ; truths which drew the lovers 
 of freedom to Geneva, which sent them away 
 burning with the thirst for liberty and republican- 
 7* 
 
74 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 ism, whicli aroused the slumbering people of Eu- 
 rope, wliich convulsed France, confederated the 
 states of Holland, revolutionized England, Presby- 
 terianized Scotland, colonized New England, and 
 founded this great and growing republic* 
 
 * "He lived in a day "w^lien nations were shaken to 
 their centre, by the excitement of the Reformation, 
 when the fields of Holland and France were wet with the 
 carnage of persecution; when vindictive monarchs on 
 the one side threatened all Protestants with outlawry 
 and death, and the Vatican on the other sent forth its 
 anathemas and its cry for blood. In that day, it is too 
 true, the influence of an ancient, long established, 
 hardly disputed error, the constant danger of his posi- 
 tion, the intensest desire to secure union among the 
 antagonists of Popery, the engrossing consciousness that 
 this struggle was for the emancipation of the Christian 
 world, induced the great Reformer to defend the use of 
 the sword for the extirpation of error. Reprobating 
 and lamenting his adhesion to the cruel doctrine, which 
 all Christendom had for centuries implicitly received, 
 we may as republicans, remember that Calvin was 
 not only the founder of a sect, but foremost among the 
 most efficient of modern republican legislators. More 
 truly benevolent to the human race than Solon, more 
 self-denying than Lycurgus, the genius of Calvin infused 
 enduring elements into the institutions of Geneva, and 
 made it for the modern world the impregnable fortress 
 of popular liberty, the fertile seed-plot of democracy." — 
 From an address to the public, by G. Bancroft^ Esq. 
 
OP JOHN CALVIN. 75 
 
 This, too, is an age of missions. The mission- 
 ary enterprise is the glory of the Church, the 
 regenerator of society, the precursor of the mil- 
 lennial reign of peace and happiness, and the hope 
 of the world. With generous emulation, all 
 branches of the church catholic strive for the 
 mastery in this glorious achievement, while Icha- 
 bod is written upon any denomination from 
 whose battlements the gospel banner is not un- 
 furled, and whose laggard troops come not up to 
 the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty. Now it was Calvin who led 
 on this mighty enterprise, and gave birth to this 
 modern crusade against the powers of darkness. 
 He alone, so far as we know, of all the Reformers, 
 while battling with surrounding foes, remem- 
 bered the waste places of the earth which are full 
 of the habitations of horrid cruelty, and con- 
 nected his name with the very earliest attempt 
 to establish a Protestant mission in the heathen 
 world. He united with the admiral de Coligny 
 in establishing a colony on the coast of Brazil, to 
 which he sent Peter Richter and several others 
 from G eneva, who were accompanied with numer- 
 ous French Protestants.* Presbytery and mis- 
 sions are therefore coeval, coextensive, and in- 
 separable. They went hand in hand during the 
 
 * Scott, ibid. pp. 462, 464. 
 
76 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 first six centuries. They again clasped hands in 
 indissoluble union at the era of the Reformation. 
 They have lived together in wedded peace, har- 
 mony and zeal. And whom Grod hath so joined 
 together, let no apathy or unbelief, or opinions, 
 ever put asunder. 
 
 To bequeath to us, his spiritual descendants, 
 these incomparable blessings, Calvin early sacri- 
 ficed the glittering crown of academic fame, and 
 certain worldly aggrandizement and honour — 
 became an exile from home, kindred, and country 
 — endured calumny, reproach, persecution, banish- 
 ment and poverty, wore out his weak and suffer- 
 ing body with excessive and unremitting toil — 
 and at the early age of fifty-four, sunk into the 
 tomb.* 
 
 * There is another blessing for which, as Christians, 
 we are indebted to Calvin, and which cannot be too 
 highly estimated ; I mean congregational psalmody. 
 Calvin encouraged Marot to make his metrical version 
 of the Psalms. He wrote a preface to them, when first 
 published, in 1543. He took care to have them set to 
 music by the most distinguished musicians. He then 
 introduced them into the public service of the church. 
 The mode of singing psalms in measured verse was 
 thus first introduced by Calvin, at Geneva, in 1543. 
 From that church the practice went forth into all the 
 reformed churches in France, and was introduced into 
 England by the Presbyterians who resided at Geneva, 
 and established an English church there during the 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 77 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 THE CLOSING SCENES OF CALVIX'S LIFE. 
 
 Let uSj tlien, before we take our leave, draw 
 near, and contemplate the last act in the drama of 
 this great and good man's life. Methinks I see 
 
 Marian persecution. The English exiles, while at Geneva, 
 commenced and completed a translation of the Scrip- 
 tures into the English language. The principal trans- 
 lators were Miles Coverdale, Christopher Goodman, 
 John Knox, Anthony Gilby, or Gibbs, Thomas Samp- 
 son, William Cole, and William Whittingham. They 
 divided the chapters into verses, and added notes in 
 the margin, and also tables, maps, &c., and published 
 it, with a dedication to Queen Elizabeth, in 1560, The 
 psalms, versified and set to music, as in the church of 
 Geneva, were annexed to this Bible. This version has 
 been known as that of Sternhold and Hopkins. The 
 initials of the name of the versifier were prefixed to 
 each psalm. Thus the psalms, versified in English, 
 came into England, and were allowed, first, to be sung 
 before the morning and evening service ; and at length 
 they were published with this declaration: — Psalvis set 
 forth and allowed to be sung in all churches, before and 
 after morning and evening prayer, as also before and after 
 sermons. And in a short time they superseded the Te 
 Deum, Benedicite, Magnificat, and Nunc dimittis, which 
 had been retained from the Romish Church. Bayle, 
 Art Marot; Neal, p. 109; Heylin, pp. 213, 214; Rees' 
 Cy., art, Bible; Burnet, p. 290; Waterman's Life of 
 Calvin, p. 403. 
 
78 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 that emaciated frame, that sunken cheek, and 
 that bright, ethereal eye, as Calvin lay upon his 
 study-couch. He heeds not the agonies of his 
 frame, his vigorous mind rising in its power as 
 the outward man perished in decay. The nearer 
 he approached his end, the more energetically did 
 he ply his unremitted studies. In his severest 
 pains he would raise his eyes to heaven and say, 
 How long, Lord ! and then resume his efforts. 
 When urged to allow himself repose, he would 
 say, '' What ! would you that when the Lord 
 comes he should surprise me in idleness V Some 
 of his most important and laboured commentaries 
 were therefore finished during this last year. 
 
 On the 10th of March, his brother ministers 
 coming to him, with a kind and cheerful coun- 
 tenance he warmly thanked them for all their 
 kindness, and hoped to meet them at their regu- 
 lar Assembly for the last time, when he thought 
 the Lord would probably take him to himself. 
 On the 27th, he caused himself to be carried to 
 the senate-house, and being supported by his 
 friends, he walked into the hall, when, uncover- 
 ing his head, he returned thanks for all the kind- 
 ness they had shown him, especially during his 
 sickness. With a faltering voice, he then added, 
 *' I think I have entered this house for the last 
 time/' and, mid flowing tears, took his leave. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 79 
 
 On the 2d of April, he was carried to the church, 
 where he received the sacrament at the hands of 
 Beza, joining in the hymn with such an expres- 
 sion of joy in his countenance, as attracted the 
 notice of the congregation. Having made his 
 will on the 2Tth of this month,'^ he sent to inform 
 the syndics and the members of the senate that he 
 desired once more to address them in their hall, 
 whither he wished to be carried the next day. 
 They sent him word that they would wait on him, 
 which they accordingly did, the next day, coming 
 to him from the senate-house. After mutual 
 salutations, he proceeded to address them very 
 solemnly for some time, and having prayed for 
 
 * See in the Appendix. Speaking of his iivill, Bayle, 
 the great infidel philosopher, says: — "For a man who 
 had acquired so great a reputation and authority, to 
 content himself with a hundred crowns a year salary, 
 and after having lived till near fifty-five years of age 
 with the greatest frugality, to leave behind him no 
 more than three hundred crowns, his library included, 
 is something so heroical, that it must be stupidity itself 
 not to admire it. To conclude, such a will as this of 
 Calvin's, and such a disinterestedness, is a thing so very 
 extraordinary, as might make even those who cast their 
 eyes on the philosophers of ancient Greece, say of him, 
 non inveni tantam fidera in Israel. I have not found so 
 great faith, no, not in Israel." See his Dictionary, 
 fol. 2. art. Calvin. 
 
80 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 them, shook hands with each of them, who were 
 bathed in tears, and parted from him as from a 
 common parent. The following day, April 28th, 
 according to his desire, all the ministers in the 
 jurisdiction of Geneva came to him, whom he also 
 addressed : '■'■ I avow," he said, '"'• that I have 
 lived united with you, brethren, in the strictest 
 bonds of true and sincere affection, and I take my 
 leave of you with the same feelings. If you have 
 at any time found me harsh or peevish under my 
 affliction, I entreat your forgiveness." Having 
 shook hands with them, we took leave of him, 
 gays Beza, '•' with sad hearts and by no means with 
 dry eyes." 
 
 " The remainder of his days," as Beza informs 
 us, ^^ Calvin passed in almost perpetual prayer. 
 His voice was interrupted by the difficulty of his 
 respiration; but his eyes (which to the last 
 retained their brilliancy,) uplifted to heaven, and 
 the expression of his countenance, showed the 
 fervour of his supplications. His doors," Beza 
 proceeds to say, "must have stood open day and 
 night, if all had been admitted who, from senti- 
 ments of duty and affection, wished to see him, 
 but as he could not speak to them, he requested 
 they would testify their regard by praying for 
 him, rather than by troubling themselves about 
 seeing him. Often, also, though he ever showed 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 81 
 
 himself glad to receive me, he intimated a scruple 
 respecting the interruption thus given to my em- 
 ployments; so thrifty was he of time which ought 
 to be spent in the service of the Church/' 
 
 On the 19th of May, being the day the minis- 
 ters assembled, and when they were accustomed 
 to take a meal together, Calvin requested that 
 they should sup in the hall of his house. Being 
 seated, he was with much difficulty carried into 
 the hall. ^'I have come, my brethren," said he, 
 ^Ho sit with you, for the last time, at this table.'' 
 But before long, he said, '^I must be carried to 
 my bed/' adding, as he looked around upon 
 them with a serene and pleasant countenance, 
 ^' these walls will not prevent my union with you 
 in spirit, although my body be absent." He 
 never afterwards left his bed. On the 27th of 
 May, about eight o'clock in the evening, the 
 symptoms of dissolution came suddenly on. In 
 the full possession of his reason, he continued to 
 speak, until, without a struggle or a gasp, his 
 lungs ceased to play, and this great luminary of 
 the Reformation set, with the setting sun, to rise 
 again in the firmament of heaven. The dark 
 shadows of mourning settled upon the city. It 
 was with the whole people a night of lamentatioa 
 and tears. All could bewail their loss; the city 
 her best citizen, the church her renovator and 
 8 
 
"82 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 guide, the college ber founder, the cause of 
 reform its ablest cbampion, and every family a 
 friend and comforter. It was necessary to ex- 
 clude tbe crowds of visitors who came to behold 
 his remains, lest the occasion might be misrepre- 
 sented. At two o'clock in the afternoon of Sab- 
 bath, his body, enclosed in a wooden coffin, and 
 followed by the syndics, senators, pastors, pro- 
 fessors, together with almost the whole city, 
 weeping as they went, was carried to the common 
 burying ground, without pomp. According to 
 his request, no monument was erected to his 
 memory; a plain stone, without any inscription, 
 being all that covered the remains of Calvin. 
 
 Such was Calvin in his life and in his death. 
 The place of his burial is unknown, but where is 
 his fame unheard? 
 
 As Cato said of the proposed statue for himself, 
 so may it be said of Calvin's monument : ''There 
 are so many monuments in this world of ours, 
 that it may be much better if people ask. Where 
 is Cato's monument? than to say, There it is.'' 
 So is it with Calvin. He hath built himself a 
 monument in the hearts and lives of millions, 
 more enduring and more glorious than any col- 
 umns of stone or brass. 
 
 What needs great Calvin, for his honoured bones, 
 The labour of an age in piled stones ? 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 83 
 
 Or that his hallowed relics should be hid 
 
 Under a starry-pointing pyramid? 
 
 Dear son of Memory, great heir of Fame, 
 
 What needest thou such weak witness of thy name? 
 
 Thou, in our reverence and astonishment. 
 
 Hast built thyself a live-long monument.* 
 
 To conclude, we may unite with a late episco- 
 pal reviewer of the character of Calvin, in hoping 
 ^Hhat the time is not far distant, when new Hors- 
 leys will be raised up to break in pieces the arrows 
 of calumny, and to make all the followers of the 
 Prince of Peace and truth ashamed to join the 
 ranks of the infidels, in using the poisoned weap- 
 ons of shameless detraction for the purpose of 
 vilifying the character of one of the most holy — 
 the most undaunted — the most laborious, and 
 
 * The following are the lines of Beza, in reference to 
 Calvin's tomb: 
 
 Why, in this humble and unnoticed tomb, 
 Is Calvin laid, the dread of falling Rome, 
 Mourned by the good, and by the wicked feared, 
 By all who knew his excellence revered; 
 
 From whom ev'n Virtue's self might virtue learn. 
 
 And young and old its value may discern? 
 'Twas modesty, his constant friend on earth, 
 
 That laid this stone, unsculptured with a name. 
 happy turf, enriched with Calvin's worth, 
 
 More lasting far than marble is thy fame. 
 
84 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 the most disinterested followers of a crucified Re- 
 deemer/^* 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A SUPPLEMENTARY VINDICATION OF THE ORDINATION OF 
 CALVIN. 
 
 In preparing this vindication of the character and 
 life of Calvin, I was not led to notice the question 
 which has been raised by his enemies, the Roman- 
 ists and Prelatists, whether Calvin was ever 
 ordained. This question did not fall under the 
 general view of Calvin's life and character, which 
 it was my object to take. The question had been 
 often met, and triumphantly answered; and ap- 
 peared to me to possess little interest or impQrt- 
 ance at the present time. Circumstances, how- 
 ever, have changed. The baseless attempts to 
 fasten upon Calvin an approval of diocesan episco- 
 pacy, having been completely foiled, and the cal- 
 umnies against his general character having been 
 repelled, his enemies have taken refuge in this for- 
 lorn hope, and are now heard on every side exclaim- 
 ing, " Ah, but Calvin, after all, was never ordain- 
 
 * The Rev. Mr. Sibson, A. B., of Trinity Coll., Dub- 
 lin, in his Transl. of Beza's Life, pp. 118, 119. 
 
OP JOHN CALVIN. 85 
 
 ed." It is really amusing to see the baby-arti- 
 fices which suffice these profound scholars ! these 
 inimitable logicians! these exclusive possessors of 
 all grace! ''Calvin was never ordained/' say our 
 prelatic friends. ''Calvin was never ordained/' 
 shout the Romanists. "And it is not even 
 attempted to prove this all-important fact/' they 
 both proclaim in loudest chorus. We will now, 
 then, meet these same confident boasters, and 
 accept their challenge to discuss this question. 
 
 And, in the first place, we remark, that it is a 
 matter of no practical importance whatever to 
 Presbyterians, whether Calvin was or was not 
 ordained. This whole outcry is mere noise, vox 
 et prceterea nihil, got up in order to drown the 
 voice of reason, and turn away attention from evi- 
 dent defeat. 
 
 Let it then be fully understood that the valid- 
 ity of Presbyterian ordination depends, in no 
 MANNER OR DEGREE, upon the ordination of Cal- 
 vin. He may have been ordained or not ordained, 
 while of our ordination there can be no manner 
 of doubt. Were the validity of our ordinations 
 made to depend upon the personal succession of 
 a line of single ordainers, were Calvin a link in. 
 that line, and were our present chain connected 
 with him, then, indeed, there would be some sense 
 
 and some force in the objections made against 
 8=K 
 
86 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 Calvin's ordination. li is on this ground we 
 boldly deny that any valid prelatical ordination ex- 
 istSj or can be shown to exist, either in the Rom- 
 ish, Anglican, or American Episcopal churches. 
 But we hold to no such doctrine. Our ordination 
 depends not upon one prelate, but upon many pres- 
 byters. So that even if invalidity could be shown 
 to attach to any one of the number of presby- 
 ters officiating in any given case, it does not affect 
 the whole, and consequently does not injure that 
 ordination which is given by the whole. Did Cal- 
 vin ever ordain alone ? Did Calvin ordain alone all 
 those from whom our present ordinations spring? 
 Preposterous assumption! which all the boldness 
 of reckless malignity has never dared to make. 
 
 Suppose, then, that Calvin, while unordained, 
 had united with the Presbytery of Geneva, in 
 conferring ordination upon others. Were not the 
 others, Farel and Coraud, ordained, and ordained, 
 too, by Romish prelates? Were not Luther and 
 Zuinglius, and many others, prelatically ordained ? 
 And subtracting, therefore, the invalid co-operation 
 of Calvin from the ceremony, was there not still 
 validity enough to secure a valid result? On the 
 ground of scripture, of reason, and of the theory 
 of Presbyterian ordination, most assuredly there 
 was. And whatever our opponents may choose to 
 say of the validity of Presbyterian ordination gen- 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 87 
 
 erally, they cannot, without betraying absolute 
 absurdity, affirm that it depends, in any degree, 
 upon the fact of Calvin's ordination. This whole 
 question, therefore, is merely one of literary curi- 
 osity and historical research. 
 
 But we proceed a step further, and affirm that 
 Calvin's character and authority as a minister of 
 Jesus Christ, did not depend upon his ordination. 
 Ordination does not confer upon any man either 
 the character or the authority of a minister of 
 Christ. The qualifications which fit any man for 
 this high office can be imparted only by God 
 through Christ, and by the effectual operation of 
 the Holy Spirit. Without these, no man is a fit 
 subject for ordination, which presupposes their 
 existence. The authority to preach the gospel 
 arises also from that commission which Christ has 
 given to all those whom he — as the only Head of 
 the Church, to whom all power in heaven and on 
 earth has been given — has qualified for the work. 
 It is a blasphemous assumption, in any church or 
 body of men, to claim the power of imparting to 
 others either the qualifications or the authority to 
 preach the gospel. Ordination, therefore, is not in 
 itself absolutely essential to a true ministry, since 
 there may be the qualifications and the authority 
 to use them, without it. Ordination is merely the 
 appointed method whereby any given branch of 
 
88 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 the Cturcli declares their belief that the indivi- 
 dual ordained is qualified and authorized by God 
 to preach the gospel, and whereby they commend 
 him to all those for whom they act, as worthy of 
 their confidence, and entitled to all the respect 
 and consideration due to a minister of Christ. 
 Ordination, therefore, is essential to the regularity 
 but not to the validity of the ministry. And 
 should any church have such unbounded confi- 
 dence in the qualifications and call of any man for 
 the ofiice, as to allow him to minister among them 
 without a special ordination, he would be no less 
 certainly a minister, because admitted in an unu- 
 sual way to the exercise of his gifts and calling. 
 In ordinary circumstances, of course, no such case 
 could occur. We speak hypothetically. But is 
 it true that Calvin was never ordained ? — then do 
 our remarks apply, in all their strength to him. 
 Who ever doubted his qualifications for the minis- 
 try? Not, surely, the ministers and magistrates 
 of Geneva, when they, almost by violence, com- 
 pelled him to enter upon his duties. Having, 
 then, as the whole reformed world believe, the 
 qualifications and call which fitted him for the 
 ministry, Calvin had also the authority of Christ 
 for emjasfina; in its work. And if the churches 
 
 coo 
 
 thought it unnecessary that he should be formally 
 set apart by ordination, Calvin's authority as a 
 
OP JOHN CALVIN. 89 
 
 minister of Christ is not the less, but even the 
 more evident; since it was believed by all to be 
 accredited by extraordinary gifts and calling.'*' . 
 
 But still further, we affirm, that Calvin was 
 authorized to preach by the Romish Church itself. 
 He received the tonsure at the hands of the Rom- 
 ish prelate, which is the first part of the ceremony 
 of ordination, and qualifies for holding benefices 
 and cures. The hair then cut from the crown of 
 the head, shows, as is taught by Romanists, that 
 the individual partakes of the sovereignty of Jesus 
 Christ. f In virtue of this office and authority, 
 ^'itis certain" that John Calvin delivered some 
 sermons at PontL'Eveque, before he left France. J 
 He had ordination sufficient, therefore, in the 
 judgment of the Romish Church, to warrant his 
 preaching. And since the power this Church 
 professes to give in ordination for the priesthood, 
 is idolatrous and blasphemous, § and is not at- 
 tempted or believed in by the Reformed Churches, 
 
 * See these views fully and literally sustained by the 
 Confession of the French Churches, article xxxi, Quick's 
 Synodicon, vol. 1, p. xiii. ; and by many other reformed 
 bodies and authors as given in Henderson's Rev. & Con- 
 sid. pp. 252-263. 
 
 t See Broughton's Eccl. Diet. Vol. 2, 468. 
 
 % Beza's Life. 
 
 ^ The offering of the sacrifice of the body and blood 
 of Christ by transubstantiation. 
 
90 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 Calvin received from tlie Romish ChurcTi all that 
 authority which is deemed sufficient for those 
 duties which are recognized by Protestants as 
 proper and peculiar to the ministry. 
 
 But we advance still further in our argument, 
 and assert that it is a matter of the most certain 
 inference that Calvin was ordained in the Re- 
 formed Church, and by the Presbytery of Geneva. 
 
 That a Presbytery existed at Geneva, before 
 Calvin reached that city, is be3''ond doubt. Beza 
 expressly declares that, when Farel, by his denun- 
 ciation, overcame the purpose of Calvin to pass by 
 Geneva, " Calvin, affrighted by this terrible denun- 
 ciation, gave himself up to the will of the Presby- 
 tery and the magistrates.'^ (Presbyterii et magis- 
 tratus voluntati.")* 
 
 That it was the established and uniform belief 
 of the Reformers, that ordination in the ordinary 
 circumstances of the Church was necessary and 
 very important, and that their practice was con- 
 sistent with this belief, is equally certain. Unless 
 this is denied, it is unnecessary to produce the 
 proofs which are at hand.| 
 
 Nay more, it is beyond doubt that this was the 
 
 * Calvin, i., 0pp. folio. 1. 
 
 + See Seaman's Vind. of the judgment of the Reformed 
 Church concerning Ordination. London, 1647. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 91 
 
 judgment not only of all the other Reformers, but 
 also of Calvin himself. He insists, in many parts 
 of his Institutes, (his earliest theological work,) 
 upon the importance and necessity of ordination 
 by the imposition of hands. (See Book IV. chap, 
 iii. § 16, and chap. iv. § 6, 10, 14.) These sen- 
 timents, which Calvin had published just before 
 going to Geneva, he ever after held, as is manifest 
 in all the subsequent editions of this work, and in 
 the Confession of the French Churches, which he 
 drew up, and in which ordination is declared to 
 be essential to a regular ministry. 
 
 The inference, therefore, is unavoidable, that 
 since there was a Presbytery at Geneva when Cal- 
 vin went there since all the Reformers, and Calvin 
 in particular, insisted on the necessity and scrip- 
 turality of ordination; and since Calvin is ex- 
 pressly said to have given himself up to the Pres- 
 bytery, he must have been, and he was, ordained. 
 No particular record of the time and manner of 
 his consecration is necessary. There is circum- 
 stantial evidence more than sufl&cient to establish 
 the fact in any court of law. 
 
 But still further. Calvin himself bears witness 
 that he was ordained. Thus in his preface to his 
 Commentaries on the Psalms, he says: — ''As 
 David was raised from the sheepfold to the high- 
 est dignity of government, so God has digniiSed 
 
^ LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 me, derived from an obscure and humble origin, 
 with the high and honourable office of minister 
 and preacher of the gospel."* But, since Calvin 
 himself publicly and constantly taught the neces- 
 sity of ordination to the ministry, in making this 
 declaration he asserts also the fact of his ordina- 
 tion. Thus, also, when Cardinal Sadolet attacked 
 the character of his ministry, he formally defend- 
 ed it in a long epistle addressed to that distin- 
 guished man.f In this defence he says: ^'Sed 
 quura ministerium meum quod Dei vocatione 
 fundatum ac sancitum fuisse non dubito, per latus 
 meum sauciari videam, perfidia erit, non patientia, 
 si taceam hie atque dissimulem. Doctoris pri- 
 mum, deinde pastoris munere in ecclesia ilia func- 
 tus sum. Quod earn provinciam suscepi, legitimae 
 fuisse vocationis jure meo contendo." "Hoc ergo 
 ministerium ubi a Domino esse constiterit," &c. 
 That is, ''when I see m?/ ministrt/, which I doubt 
 not was founded and sanctioned by the vocation 
 of God, wounded through my side, it would be 
 perfidy and not patience, if I should remain silent 
 and dissemble in such a case. I filled (or enjoyed 
 the honour of) the office, first of professor, and 
 
 * Hoc tamen honorifico munere dignatus est, ut evan- 
 gelii prseco essem ac minister. Op. Tom. iii. 
 
 f Ad. J. Sadoletum Responio, &c., in Op. Tom. viii. 
 p. 105, &c. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 93 
 
 afterwards of pastor in that church, and I con- 
 tend that I accepted of that charge, having the 
 authority of a lawful vocation." " Since then, 
 my ministry has been established by the Lord,'^ 
 &c. If, then, the testimony of Calvin — published 
 to the world, in the face of the Reformed Churches, 
 and in full view of their sentiments and practice 
 on the subject of ordination, in both which he 
 concurred, can be relied on, then is his introduc- 
 tion to the ministry by a regular ordination, be- 
 yond all controversy certain. 
 
 But still further. We have the evidence of the 
 Reformers and Reformed Churches themselves, 
 that Calvin was ordained. No one stood higher 
 amono; them as a minister and a leader. He was 
 chosen Moderator of the Presbytery at Geneva, 
 and continued to fill that office till his death. 
 He sat in the Synods of the Swiss churches. 
 When driven from Geneva he retired to Stras- 
 burg, where he was again constrained to enter 
 upon the duties of a professor and a pastor, by 
 the agency of those distinguished men, Bucer, 
 Capito, Hedio, Niger, and Sturmius. Bucer also, 
 in a letter addressed to him in 1536, expressly 
 calls him ''my brother and fellow minister." 
 Now all these Reformers, as we have seen, held 
 that ordination was both scriptural and necessary ; 
 and since Calvin himself was of the same opinion, 
 9 
 
94 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 we must regard their testimony to his ministerial 
 character and standing, as proof positive of their 
 belief that he was regularly ordained. 
 
 Beza, in his life of Calvin, seems to declare 
 that he was ordained as plainly as language could 
 do it. He says: ^^Calvinus sese presbyterii et 
 magistratus voluntati permisit ; quorum suffragiis, 
 accedente plebis consensu, delectus non concion- 
 ator tantum (hoc autem primum recusarat) sed 
 etiam sacrarum literarum doctor, quod unum ad- 
 mittebat, est designatus, A. D. MDXXXVI." 
 That is, ^'Calvin surrendered himself to the dis- 
 posal of the Presbytery and magistrates, by whose 
 votes, (the people having previously expressed 
 their willingness,) having been chosen not only 
 preacher, (which office he had, however, at first 
 declined,) but also professor of divinity, he was 
 set apart [or inducted into office,] in the year 
 1536." Now the very office and duty of a Pres- 
 bytery is, among other things, to admit and or- 
 dain men to the ministry. But Calvin was ad- 
 mitted to the ministry by a Presbytery composed 
 of Reformers, who strongly insisted upon the im- 
 portance of the rite of ordination. Calvin, also, 
 concurred in their views of this ordinance, as in- 
 troductory to their ministry. And Beza says, 
 that having been elected pastor by the people, 
 and having been approved by the votes of the 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 95 
 
 Presbytery, " lie was set apart," that is, in tlie 
 regular way, by ordination. Beza never dreamt 
 tbat, in after times, a fact so necessarily implied 
 in his statement, and in all the circumstances of 
 the case, could or would be questioned. 
 
 This clear testimony of Beza is confirmed by 
 that of Junius, the learned Professor of Divinity 
 in Leyden. In opposition to Bellarmine, he 
 affirms that the Reformers who preceded Calvin, 
 held and practised Presbyterian ordination, and 
 that by some of these, his predecessors, Calvin 
 was himself ordained.* 
 
 Certain it is that neither Romanists nor prela- 
 tists at that day, ever questioned the fact that 
 Calvin was ordained in the manner of the Re- 
 formed Church. The Romanists did not. Car- 
 dinal Bellarmine says that ''neither Luther, nor 
 Zuingle, nor Calvin, were bishops, (i. e. prelates,) 
 but only presbyters ;"{" thus evidently assuming as 
 undeniable that they were all presbyters, and 
 therefore ordained as such. Cardinal Sadolet 
 seems also, from the controversy between him 
 and Calvin, fully to have admitted Calvin's ordi- 
 nation according to the order of the Reformed 
 Church, but to have denied the validity of such 
 
 * Animadversiones in Bellarm. Controv. V Lib. cap. 
 3, in Dr. Miller on Min. p. 407. 
 
 f Controv. V. Lib. cap. 3, in Dr. Miller on Min. 
 
96 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 orders, because administered out of the Romish 
 Church. And hence the object of Calvin, in his 
 reply, is not to establish the fact of his ordination, 
 but the validity and scripturality of the orders of 
 the Reformed Church. 
 
 Neither did prelatists then question the minis- 
 terial character and standing, and the consequent 
 ordination of Calvin. Dr. John Philpot, arch- 
 deacon of Winchester, martyr in 1555, in proving 
 that the Reformed is the true Church, by the 
 "spirit of wisdom, that the adversaries thereof 
 could never be able to resist," says, "Where 
 is there one of you all that ever hath been able 
 to answer any of the godly, learned ministers, of 
 Germany, who have disclosed your counterfeit 
 religion. Which of you all, at this day, is able 
 to answer Calvin's Institutes, who is minister 
 of Geneva?'^ To this his Popish inquisitor. Dr. 
 Saverson, replied, not by denying the ordination 
 or ministerial character of Calvin, but by black- 
 ening the character of the Reformers generally — 
 "a godly minister, indeed, of receipt of cutpurses 
 and runagate traitors,'^ &c. "I am sure,'' replied 
 Philpot, "you blaspheme that godly man, and 
 that godly church ivhere he is a minister, as it is 
 your Church's condition, when you cannot answer 
 men by learning, to oppress them with blasphe* 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 97 
 
 mies and false reports."* This title he proceeds 
 to give Calvin again in the very next sentence. f 
 Bishop Jewell, the authorized expounder of the 
 sentiments of the English Church, replies to the 
 Jesuit Harding, 'touching Mr. Calvin, it is a 
 great wrong untruly to represent so reverend a 
 father and so worthy an ornament of the Church 
 of God. If you had ever known the order of the 
 church of Geneva, and had seen four thousand 
 people or more, receiving the holy mysteries to- 
 gether at one communion, you could not, without 
 your great shame and want of modesty, thus un- 
 truly have published to the world, that by Mr. 
 Calvin's doctrine the sacraments are superfluous." 
 — Defence of the Apology; see in Richmond's 
 Fathers of the English Church, vol. viii. p. 680. 
 Such also were the views entertained by Arch- 
 bishop Cranmer, Bishop Hooper, Bishop Hall, 
 and many others. Hooker implies the ordina- 
 tion and perfect ministerial standing of Calvin, in 
 all that he says of him. He calls him '' incom- 
 parably the wisest man («'. e. minister) the French 
 Church did enjoy, since the hour it had him.^' 
 Speaking of the Genevan clergy, he calls them 
 "pastors of their souls," and then adds, "Calvin 
 
 * See Examinations and Writings of Philpot, Parker 
 Society edition, pp. 45, 46. 
 f Foxe's Exam, of Philpot. 
 
 9* 
 
98 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 being admitted one of their preachers/^ that is, 
 one of these pastors, for they had no preachers, 
 except their regularly ordained ministers, *' where- 
 fore taking to him two of the other ministers," 
 
 Bullinger also, the cotemporary of Calvin, of 
 whom it is said that " all the fathers of the Eng- 
 lish reformation held him in great esteem,'' and 
 that ''he did much service in the Enolish 
 Church;" to whom Bishops Grindal and Horn, 
 in a joint letter to him, ''attribute chiefly the 
 favourable change which had taken place in the 
 feelings of the people toward the Church ;""|" and 
 whose catechism was selected by the University 
 of Oxford, as one of those books which the tutors 
 were required to use ; most explicitly sustains the 
 ministerial character of Calvin. In a work pub- 
 lished by order of the convocation of the English 
 Church in 1586, cum gratia et privilegio regice 
 majestatis, and as a manual for preachers,^ he 
 speaks of Calvin in these terms: "John Calvin, a 
 godly and learned man, who with great commend- 
 ation teacheth in the Church at this day, my 
 
 * Eccl. Pol. Pref. vol. i. pp. 158, 159, Keble's ed. 
 t Strype's Mem. II. 1. p. 531, 532, Oxf. ed. Strype's 
 Grindal, p. 156, Oxf. ed. 
 
 J Wilkin's Concilia, &c., vol. iv. p. 321, 322. 
 
OF JOHN CALVIN. 99 
 
 fellow minister, and most well-beloved and dear 
 brother."* 
 
 *' Stancarus also, the Polish Reformer, wrote a 
 work 'Adversus Henriciim BuUingerum, Petrum 
 Martyrem et Joannem Calvinum, et reliquos 
 Tigurinse ac Genevensis ecclesias minisfros, eccle- 
 si£e Dei perturbatores/^ etc., Basle, 1547. This 
 work was replied to by Semler, and is refeiTed to 
 by Bishop Jewell in a letter to this Swiss reformer. 
 Now here we have Calvin expressly denominated 
 a minister by a Romanist, in a controversial work 
 written against him, and in the same sense in 
 which Bullinger and Peter Martyr are called 
 ministers. And it remains to be shown that 
 Roman Catholic theologians are in the habit of 
 applying the term 'minister' to persons whom 
 they believe to be in no sense or manner or- 
 dained. "f In "A Christian Letter of certain 
 English Protestants, unfeigned favourers of the 
 present state of religion authorized and professed 
 in England, under that reverend and learned man, 
 Mr.R. Hooker/' written in 1590, it is said : ''The 
 reverend fathers of our Church call Mr. Calvin 
 one of the best writers (Whitgift Def. of Ans. p. 
 
 * Bullinger on the Sacraments, Cambridge, 1840, 
 p. 287. 
 
 f See Zurich Letters, 1558 — 1579, Parker Society, 
 p. 127. 
 
100 LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 890;) a reverend father and a worthy ornament 
 of tlie Churcli of God, (Jewel Apol. Def. of, pt. 
 II. p. 149, and Fulke against Stapleton, p. 71;) 
 not only defending the same doctrine, but also 
 discharging him of slanderous reports wrongfully 
 laid against him; knowing that by defaming the 
 persons of ministers, the devil of old time laboured 
 to overthrow the gospel of Christ." See quoted 
 at length in Hanbury's edition of Hooker's Works, 
 vol. i. p. 22, 23. The whole is very strong. See 
 also Wordsworth's Eccl. Biogr. vol. iv. p. 269, 
 vol. V. p. 544, &c. Of the opinion of the Eng- 
 lish Church, as to the ordination of John CalviE 
 in 1586, there can, therefore, be no longer an-;^ 
 question. 
 
 Such, then, is the accumulated evidence in 
 proof of the certain and necessary ordination of 
 Calvin. It can only be denied by those who are 
 willing, for sectarian purposes, to shut their eyes 
 against the clearest light. It is asserted by Cal- 
 vin himself, by Beza, and by Junius. It is im- 
 plied as necessary in the practice of the whole 
 Reformed Church, of which Calvin approved, and 
 which the Presbytery of Geneva must have car- 
 ried out. It was allowed by Romanists and pre- 
 latists of his own age, and is implied in the esti- 
 mation in which he was regarded by the whole 
 Reformed Church. 
 
OP JOHN CALVIN. 101 
 
 But even were the ordination of Calvin doubt- 
 ful, we have shown that he was so far ordained 
 by the Romish Church as to be authorized to 
 preach; that his authority as a minister depends 
 not on the ceremony of ordination; and that, in- 
 asmuch as our present orders are in no degree 
 dependent upon his, their validity is in no way 
 connected with the fact or certainty of Calvin's 
 ordination. 
 
 While the validity of Romish and prelatical 
 ordination hangs upon the baseless assumption of 
 an unbroken line of personal successors of the 
 Apostles — a mere figment of the imagination, and 
 without any foundation in scripture, reason, or 
 fact — our ordination is traced up directly to 
 Christ and his apostles; is based upon the clear 
 evidence of Scripture, and the undoubted practice 
 of the primitive Christians; and is transmitted, 
 not through one line, but through many, and not 
 through any one order of prelates, but through 
 the whole body of pastors and ministers who have 
 successively existed in every age of the Church. 
 
APPENDIX No. I. 
 
 THE CASE OF SERVETUS. 
 
 It had been a favourite design of tlie late cele- 
 brated Dr. McCrie, to publish the life of Calvin, 
 and to set at rest the question of Servetus's death, 
 by instituting original researches in the archives 
 and public library of Geneva. This labour was 
 entrusted to his able son, the Rev. John McCrie, 
 who visited the above city for that purpose, and 
 devoted more than a year to collecting valuable 
 historical data for his father. But the venerable 
 Doctor died when on the eve of undertaking the 
 work which was to crown his literary career. The 
 Rev. John McCrie accepted as a sacred inheritance 
 from his father, and a fruit of his laborious inves- 
 tigation, the now easy and distinguished task of 
 rehabilitating the Reformer in public opinion, 
 when a premature death disappointed the expec- 
 tations of his friends and relatives. 
 
 The rehabilitation of Calvin, however, was 
 delayed only to become the more sure by being 
 entrusted to his enemies, and taking place in the 
 very city where the scenes reproachfully ascribed 
 to him were enacted. A Unitarian clergyman of 
 considerable talent and learning, the Rev. A. 
 Reilliet, stimulated by the example of Dr. McCrie, 
 ransacked the archives of Geneva, investigated 
 carefully all the manuscripts and correspondence 
 
 102 
 
THE CASE OF SERVETTJS. 103 
 
 of the times, preserved in the public libraries of 
 Europe, which bore on this case; and although 
 avowing bitter hostility to Calvinism, yet, as an 
 impartial historian, he published, in 184-1, the 
 detailed result of his investigations, which is a 
 complete verdict of acquittal of the mischievous 
 and ungrounded charges brought against Calvin, 
 in reference to Servetus's death. 
 
 The conclusion to which Mr. Reilliet arrives, 
 upon evidence which can never be contested, may 
 be summed up as follows : Servetus, although op- 
 posed to the Trinity, was anything but a modern 
 Unitarian. While the latter denies the divinity 
 of Christ, he denied his humanity, and considered 
 him the absolute God; thus he was one degree 
 further removed from Unitariauism than the ortho- 
 dox; otherwise, a thorough Pantheist, who assert- 
 ed, even before his judges, that the bench on 
 which he sat was God. 
 
 When Servetus came to Geneva, he had just 
 escaped from the prison at Vieune, where the 
 Komish bishops had him sentenced to be burned 
 by a slow fire. He concealed himself in a tavern 
 under an assumed name. But learning that the 
 ministers had lost all influence upon a government 
 which hated their rigid morals, that Calvin at the 
 time was thwarted by them in everything, and 
 that Geneva had become untenable for him, he 
 emerged from secrecy, in the hope of placing 
 himself at the head of a political party, and driv- 
 ing both Reformers and the Reformation from 
 Geneva, and substituting his own rules and tenets. 
 The trial of Servetus was equally that of Calvin ; 
 indeed, the fate of the latter was at times the 
 more imminent of the two, the President of the 
 
104 APPENDIX. 
 
 Court, and influential members of the Council 
 being his avowed and personal enemies. The 
 struggle was forced upon him; the acquittal of the 
 one was to be the sentence of the other. The awe 
 of the Protestant governments might have saved 
 Calvin from death, but not from imprisonment or 
 perpetual exile, if Servetus had succeeded. 
 
 The Court was partial to Servetus, and would 
 fain have saved him, if his triumphant over- 
 bearance had not ruined his cause ; yet, they 
 would not pass sentence upon him, but left the 
 case to the decision of the four Protestant govern- 
 ments of Berne, Basle, Zurich, and Schaff hausen. 
 These all urged that the sentence of the Romish 
 Bishops be carried out against Servetus, and left 
 no other alternative to the weak government of 
 Geneva. In the meantime the King of France 
 claimed energetic all y the execution of the heretic 
 who had escaped from his kingdom under sentence. 
 Servetus entreated as a favour to be executed in 
 Geneva, and not by the slow fire of the Romish 
 Bishops. 
 
 A most important point established by Reilliet 
 is, that the condemnation of Servetus was j^^reli/ 
 jwlitical. He was sentenced by the magistrates 
 of Geneva, not as a heretic, but as a rebel, who 
 attempted to subvert the constitution of Geneva. 
 The purely theological quarrel disappeared before 
 this motive for condemning him. The judicial 
 sentence in the list of charges brought against Ser- 
 vetus, does not mention at all, either the attacks 
 against Calvin, or those against the ministers of 
 Geneva. Servetus well understood that if he could 
 free himself from the suspicion of being a man of 
 bad repute, and dangerous to the public tranquil- 
 
THE CASE OF SERVETTJS. 105 
 
 lity, his doctrine by itself would not form a suffi- 
 cient motive for condemning him, or, at least, 
 would not draw down a very severe castigation. 
 
 When the sentence was irrevocably passed, Cal- 
 vin and his colleagues used all their eiForts to 
 have the punishment mitigated, by at least substi- 
 tuting the sword for the fire, but "the little coun- 
 cil rejected the request of Calvin. It is to him, 
 notwithstanding, that men have always imputed 
 the guilt of that funeral pile, which he wished 
 had never been reared V 
 
 WHO ARE CALVIN'S REVILERS ? 
 
 Calvin thought heresies injurious to the Church 
 and to the State deserved to be punished with 
 civil penalties, and he gave evidence to prove that 
 Servetus was such an heretic. This he did in the 
 sixteenth century, when such was the universally 
 prevalent opinion. It is therefore concluded that 
 Calvin was a ferocious bigot and monster of cruelty 
 — that such is the spirit of the system of religion 
 he taught — and that such, therefore, is the sjnrit 
 of every one who now believes that system. 
 
 And who are they that, against all charity 
 and reason, and common sense, thus teach and 
 affirm ? They are, first, Papists ; secondly, Unita- 
 rians ; and thirdly, Infidels. In retorting upon 
 them the shamelessness of their conduct, I will 
 use the language of another. 
 
 1. What eflTrontery can be more gross than the 
 Popish denunciation of Calvin for his share in the 
 10 
 
106 APPENDIX. 
 
 trial, and liis supposed share in the condemnation 
 of Servetus I The Church of Rome may well bear 
 a grudge at Calvin. He has been, and by the 
 influence of his writings and of the churches 
 which he had a hand in forniino;, he continues to 
 be one of their most formidable foes ; but this 
 constitutes no reason for such impudent injustice 
 as that with which she is chargeable when she 
 hunts his memory as a persecutor. We do not 
 refer to Rome's si/atematic and wholesale persecu- 
 tion — we ask, from whom was Servetus fleeing 
 when he came to Geneva, where he was appre- 
 hended and tried? He was fleeing from the 
 Romish Inquisition at Yienne, in France. He 
 was about to be condemned by that body to the 
 flames, for the very heresy for which he was sub- 
 sequently condemned at G-eneva. Meanwhile, he 
 made his escape. Did the Romish Church in 
 tenderness, and relenting here, allow the matter 
 to drop ? No ; though the accused had fled, she 
 pursued the case — condemned Servetus to the 
 flames — burnt him in efiigy amid a pile of his 
 works, sharing the same fate — pronounced him an 
 outlaw, liable to the stake the first moment he re- 
 turned to the territory of France. Nay, hearing 
 that he had been apprehended at Geneva, whither 
 he had gone — not kidnapped by Calvin, but as to 
 the safest asylum then existing — she applied to 
 the Genevese magistrates to have him delivered 
 up to her summary justice, requesting that he 
 might be sent back to them, that they might ''in- 
 flict the said sentence (of death), the execution of 
 which would punish him in a way that there 
 would be no need to seek other charges against 
 him!" The magistrates refused to surrender their 
 
THE CASE OF SERVETUS. 107 
 
 prisoner. Not that they had any wish, probably, 
 to carry out the trial; it would have saved them 
 much trouble to have resig-ned him into the hands 
 of those from whom he had fled; but by the laws 
 of Geneva, often, and even recently acted upon, 
 the magistrates were not entitled to surrender an 
 accused prisoner, even though the crime were com- 
 mitted beyond their territory. They were bound 
 to try the case for themselves. It is owing to 
 this accident, and nothing surely could be more 
 purely accidental, that Servetus was burnt at 
 Geneva by Protestant and Erastian magistrates, 
 and not at Vienne by Popish inquisitors. But 
 for this accident we should never have heard of 
 '' Calvin and Servetus.''' The name of the latter 
 would have been lost among the thousands and 
 tens of thousands of Romish autos-da-fe ; and 
 Gibbon would have had all the cruelty without 
 being '' scandalized. '^ It maj^ be added, that on 
 the poor man himself being asked, whether he 
 would remain at Geneva, or go back to Yienne, he 
 implored them to try him at Geneva, and asked 
 them, '' above all, that they would not send him back 
 to Vienne/' "This," adds Reilliet, "was, amid two 
 evils, to shun the more certain." Servetus had had 
 experience of the intolerance of Popery and of Pro- 
 testantism, and, contrary to the opinion of Gibbon, 
 he thought himself safer with the latter. And 
 here as we have seen, he would probably have 
 escaped, had not the Popish king of France de- 
 manded his execution. 
 
 Such is the connection of the Church of Rome 
 with the case of Servetus; and is it possible not 
 to be filled with disgust when Papists chime in 
 with the infidel cry against the Reformed Church 
 
108 APPENDIX. 
 
 and, above all, against John Calvin, as the atro- 
 cious persecutor of Servetus to death ? From tlie 
 language which is often used, one would suppose 
 not only that the Church of Rome was unstained 
 with human blood, but that she bad been a sor- 
 rowing and sympathizing defender of Servetus 
 during all the days of his trial, and particularly on 
 the day of his execution ; that she had stood by 
 him when Protestant Christendom was up in 
 arms against him ; and that she fain, at any sacri- 
 fice, would have rescued and honoured him. How 
 widely different the facts of history! Servetus 
 was twice condemned to be burnt; and the first 
 condemnation to burning was by the Church of 
 Rome ! and, marvellous to tell, her educated sup- 
 porters have the face of brass to turn around and 
 denounce Calvin, and all who hold the theological 
 views and system of Calvin, as the exclusive per- 
 secutors of Servetus, and in representing him as 
 guilty of a crime so atrocious as to overbalance 
 and obliterate all the autos-da-fe of the Romish 
 Church through revolving centuries ! Was ever 
 such matchless effrontery manifested out of the 
 Church of Rome ? Ah, the insolence and credu- 
 lity of Popery ! 
 
 2. And now in regard to Infidelity. She came 
 too late into the world in an avowed form to be a 
 very open persecutor, unless, indeed, we class 
 many of the leadiug officials of the Romish 
 Church, including popes and cardinals in the 
 number. There can be little question that, under 
 a thin disguise, not a few of them were sceptics; 
 and if they were persecutors, as we know they 
 were, then we have a specimen of persecution in 
 its most shocking form — persecution by men for 
 
THE CASE OF SERVETUS. 109 
 
 not belieYing what they themselves do not be- 
 lieve. But the intolerance of Infidelity is not 
 confined to such cases. Sociaianism may be fairly 
 ranked with scepticism. It disclaims all that is 
 •peculiar in divine revelation. Now none have 
 been greater partisans of Servetus — none more 
 fierce denouncers of Calvin, than just the Soci- 
 nian party. Indeed, if there were any religious 
 body bearing the Christian name, to which Ser- 
 vetus might be said to belong, the Socinian would 
 be that body. His creed was nearer to theirs 
 than any other. His party have all along given 
 themselves out as the friends of free inquiry, of can- 
 dour, and toleration — indeed, they have assumed 
 a monopoly of such qualities. They are, jKir ex- 
 cellence, the men of liberty, civil and religious. 
 All else are but bigots and slaves. The small 
 amount of what they believe, and its freedom 
 from the mysterious, they hold, gives them an 
 advantage over others in the way of loving and 
 practising freedom. 
 
 But what says history in regard to their prac- 
 tice of freedom ? Though but a small party, seldom 
 allied with civil power as a religious body, they 
 have continued to give full evidence that the 
 spirit of intolerance is not limited to Popery or 
 orthodox Protestantism — that it is natural to man 
 and that there is nothing in their religious sys- 
 tem, as there is in evangelical religion, to stay or 
 extinguish it. Early in the days of the Reform- 
 ation, Francis David, superintending office-bearer 
 of a Socinian Church in Transylvania was thrown 
 into prison, where he died, by his own Socinian 
 friends. For what reason ? Because he held that 
 Christy beino; a creature^ should not be prayed to, 
 
110 APPENDIX. 
 
 wlille Socious held that he should be so worvsliip- 
 ped. This was all the difference in belief between 
 David and Socinus — an inconceivably smaller dif- 
 ference than between Calvin and Servetus; for 
 both ^'rational Christians" held that Christ was 
 merely a creature; and yet there was imprison- 
 ment, terminating in death. Does this discover 
 remarkable candour and liberty? Does it afford 
 any ground for the Socinians to triumph, not over 
 Calvin — for he had nothing to do with the sen- 
 tence — but over the Erastian magistrates of Geneva 
 when they condemned Servetus as a blasphemer 
 as well as a heretic, to the flames? It would 
 seem that indifference and scepticism in religion 
 do not diminish severity in judging of others. 
 Socinus, according to the difference at issue, was 
 a greater persecutor than the magistracy of Gen- 
 eva. Nor was this a solitary instance ; the same 
 spirit has appeared in later times. The Socinians 
 assembled at Zurich in 1818, and the Socinian 
 authorities, in Church and State, as well as the 
 Socinian populace in the Canton de A^aud in 
 1824, and for several years together, not forget- 
 ting the same parties in Geneva itself, at the 
 same period, all betrayed a spirit of as real perse- 
 cution as ever appeared in Christendom; and then, 
 it is to be remembered, that these intolerant and 
 violent proceedings appeared not in the sixteenth 
 or seventeenth century, but in the first quarter of 
 the nineteenth, at a period boasting of its advance- 
 ment in knowledge, and liberality, and freedom. 
 In short, with the exception of Popery, which 
 persecutes upon principle, and which, therefore, 
 is ever at home in the business, the latest perse- 
 cutors in Christendom have been the Socinian 
 
THE CASE OF SERVETUS. Ill 
 
 or sceptical party — the very party "which, all the 
 while, has been making a boast of its love of free 
 inquiry, and almost monopolizing the name of 
 freedom. Persecuting proceedings at the present 
 moment, in the same quarters of Switzerland, 
 show, it would seem, that Socinianism and Infidel- 
 ity do not mean to make any change in the intol- 
 erant character which has hitherto belonged to 
 them. Republicans in civil politics, and Socin- 
 ians, if not Infidels in religion, have the honour, 
 along with old Popery, of being the persecutors of 
 1846. Perhaps at the existing moment the for- 
 mer surpass the latter. It would be difficult, in 
 any Popish country, pretending to any measure of 
 light or freedom, to parallel the legislative pro- 
 ceedings and the practical doings of the Canton 
 de Vaud, under Socinian and Infidel rule, during 
 the last six months. 
 
 But, to bring out the intolerance of Infidelity 
 proper, we must turn back for a little into the last, 
 the eighteenth century. Avowed Infidels have 
 taken great credit to themselves as the friends and 
 patrons of freedom, and have even cried out bit- 
 terly against the supposed severity and intolerance 
 of evangelical religion, particularly in its Calvin- 
 istic form. They have had no patience for the 
 uncharitable and persecuting spirit of " the saints," 
 and hence "Calvin and Servetus" has proved quite 
 a stock in trade to them. But have they really 
 any great ground of boasting? The fact of their 
 being obliged to go so far back — nearly 300 years 
 — for a single case, is rather against their theory. 
 We do not need to turn so far back for illustra- 
 tions of the persecuting character of Infidelity. 
 Montesquieu, in his "Esprit des Lois," lib. 12, c. 
 
112 APPENDIX. 
 
 5, lias the candour to say: ^'I have not said that 
 it is not necessary to punisli heresy. I have only 
 said that it is necessary to be very circumspect 
 in punishing it.^^ We dare say that none of the 
 much-calumniated Reformers of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury would quarrel with the statement. Is it 
 necessary to remind the reader of the sentiment 
 of Rousseau? "The only way to hinder fanati- 
 cism (in other words, evangelical religion,) is to 
 restrain those who preach it. I see but one way 
 to stop its progress, and that is to combat it with 
 its own weapons. Little does it avail to reason 
 or convince; you must lay aside philosophy, shut 
 your books, take uj) the sicord, and punish the 
 knaves." Not long after the days of Rousseau, 
 there was an opportunity of showing what French 
 InJBdelity understood by "fanaticism." Chris- 
 tianity in any form — corrupted, as well as true — 
 including the Bible and the Sabbath, were de- 
 nounced as a fanaticism; and the disciples of 
 Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, &c., engaged in a 
 fierce and bloody persecution of the Christian 
 name, in point of atrocity surpassed only by the 
 Popish persecutions of the middle ages. Where 
 were the charity, and candour, and toleration of 
 Infidelity in the days of the French Revolution ? 
 And yet her crimes were perpetrated in the 
 sacred nameof liberty ! It might be shown that 
 leading British Infidels, such as Hume and Gib- 
 bon, whatever might be their professed principles, 
 were intolerant in practice, so far as their circum- 
 stances, and the spirit of the age, and indifierence 
 to all religion, would allow. It is notorious that 
 in their writings, they took the side of the 
 oppressor and the persecutor, when he was 
 
THE CASE OF SERVETUS. 113 
 
 arrayed against evangelical triitli and its friends. 
 Their sympathies were not with the religious suf- 
 ferer, though suffering in the cause of civil free- 
 dom, but with the tyrant and the persecutor. 
 Their practical treatment, too, of men holding 
 evangelical truth, did not correspond with their 
 professed creed of universal toleration and non- 
 responsibility for error. They will ever be found 
 sarcastically or otherwise, wounding the feelings 
 of Christians, ridiculing and condemning them; 
 and, in short, discovering anything but a toler- 
 ant and charitable spirit. Holding the views 
 which these Infidels maintained on the subject of 
 truth and error, they ought to have been forbear- 
 ing and kind; at least, full of commiseration for 
 evangelical Christians. Is this their spirit ? Was 
 it this spirit which characterized Hume in his 
 social intercourse; or Gibbon, when, denouncing 
 Calvin, he declared that he was more scandalized 
 by his supposed connection with the death of Ser- 
 vetus, than with all the burnings of the Church of 
 Rome? Even a recent and partial biographer of 
 the former (Burton,) speaking of an early work, 
 says : '^ Though his philosophy (Hume's) is scep- 
 tical, his manner is frequently dogmatical; and 
 while illustrating the feebleness of all human rea- 
 soning, he seems as if he felt a7i innate infalli- 
 hility in his own !" 
 
 But the inconsistencies of former philosophers 
 are small compared with those of a modern states- 
 man and author, whose religious as well as philo- 
 sophical standing we feel some difficulty in ascer- 
 taining. We allude to Lord Brougham. No man 
 of any name in modern times has been more un- 
 merciful upon Calvin than his Lordship ; and cer- 
 
114 APPENDIX. 
 
 tainly no one has betrayed more ignorance of the 
 real facts of the case which has drawn forth so 
 keen a condemnation. Yet, of all men, Lord 
 Brougham should have been the most tolerant 
 and candid. If he does not belong to the scepti- 
 cal, he at least belongs to the yery liberal school. 
 He has proclaimed as the very foundation of 
 toleration, and that with a most oracular voice, 
 that a man is no more responsible for what he be- 
 lieves than for the hue of his skin or the height of 
 his stature. His name was wont to be associated 
 with the advocacy of all that was free, whether 
 civil or religious. Surely, then, Brougham should 
 have pitied Calvin, and been kind and charitable 
 in his judgment. The Reformer believed, as a 
 general doctrine, that flagrant and incorrigible 
 heretics and blasphemers should be punished. 
 Such was his deliberate conviction. For this con- 
 viction he was no more responsible than for the 
 hue of his skin and the height of his stature. 
 And why, then, does Lord Brougham blame him, 
 and mercilessly misrepresent and traduce him for 
 this his sober belief, any more than for his com- 
 plexion and his stature? Does the result not 
 plainly show, that Liberalism in religion and 
 politics, whatever it may pretend, is essentially 
 intolerant and persecuting? and if this be its 
 character in the hands or heart of Lord Brougham, 
 who had so many reasons for being, in this respect, 
 on his good behaviour, how much stronger must 
 the same intolerant persecuting spirit prove in 
 those who are less under restraint! Well may 
 we ask, Is Brougham the man to condemn the 
 intolerance of Calvin ? Intolerant himself with- 
 out a reason — or rather in the face of strong rea- 
 
THE CASE OF SERVETUS. 115 
 
 sons to the reverse — intolerant in the nineteenth 
 century, is he the man, especially holding his own 
 doctrine of non-responsibility, to rebuke the in- 
 tolerance of the sixteenth century ? What can 
 be more ludicrous and inconsistent? Nothins: 
 save what proceeds from the same mint, and the 
 new coinage has appeared but yesterday. Lord 
 Brougham sets himself forth as the very patron 
 and pattern of freedom in every form; so much 
 so that contrary to his own principles, he is enti- 
 tled to rebuke with all severity the great Genevan 
 Reformer, within the British Senate, 300 years 
 after he has passed to his account. Surely, then 
 modern Liberalism must be tolerant and charita- 
 ble; indeed the very foe of whatever savours of 
 persecution. What is the fact ? Lord Brougham 
 but the other day, vindicated the Scottish site-re- 
 fusers, contending that their proceedings were 
 involved in the just rights of landed property ! 
 The man who condemns Calvin as the most atro- 
 cious of persecutors, sees no persecution (pity but 
 that he could /ee/ enough to know it !) in hundreds 
 and thousands of his countrymen, far more devout 
 and religiously intelligent than himself, being 
 denied a piece of ground on which they may wor- 
 ship God, and being compelled, for summer and 
 winter together, to conduct their service under 
 the open canopy of heaven. Lord Brougham 
 sees no persecution in large congregations being 
 driven to the high-roads or the sea-shore, and be- 
 ing kept there for their religious worship since 
 May 1843 to the present hour — August 1846. 
 According to his lordship's principle, there is no 
 persecution, though this state of things should be 
 perpetrated for ever. Nay, he is indignant that 
 
116 APPENDIX. 
 
 any one should deem this to be persecution, and 
 will not allow it to be so declared in his presence 
 without an immediate and much-offended contra- 
 diction; and this is the liberal-minded censor of 
 the intolerant Calvin ! Who can compare the 
 two cases, and the part which Calvin took in the 
 trial of Servetus (for he had no hand in the sen- 
 tence) a solitary case of severity — with the open, 
 wilful, wanton oppression of multitudes for years, 
 in free Britain in the free nineteenth century, 
 and not come to the conclusion that, all circum- 
 stances considered, the one is much more aggra- 
 vated and inexcusable than the other ? But it is 
 not needful to enter into any comparison. All that 
 we intended to show, and with this remark we 
 close, is that Infidelity, in its different forms of 
 Socinianism, avowed Scepticism, and irreligious 
 Liberalism, is most unjust in its judgment of 
 Calvin in the matter of Servetus; and, instead of 
 being so candid and tolerant in itself as to be en- 
 titled to take high ground, and become the re- 
 prover of others, is essentially intolerant, and is 
 much less excusable in its intolerance than the 
 men of the sixteenth century. — The Free Church 
 Magazine. 
 
APPENDIX II. 
 
 THE WILL OF JOHN CALVIN. 
 
 In the name of the Lord — Amen. In the year 
 15G-i, and 25th day of April, I, Peter ChenaL^t, 
 citizen and notary of Geneva, do witness and de- 
 clare, that I was sent for by that excellent charac- 
 ter, John Calvin, minister of the word of God in 
 this church of Geneva, and enrolled citizen of the 
 same, who, being indisposed in body, but sound in 
 mind, said he was desirous to make his testament, 
 and to express the judgment of his last will; and 
 requested me to take it down, and write what he 
 should dictate and declare by word of mouth; 
 which I profess I immediately did, and wrote 
 down word by word as he pronounced and dictated, 
 without omission or addition, in the following 
 form, dictated by him : 
 
 In the name of the Lord — Amen, I, John 
 Calvin, minister of the word of God in the church 
 of Geneva, finding myself so much oppressed and 
 afflicted with various diseases, that I think the 
 Lord God has determined speedily to remove me 
 out of this world, have ordered to be made and 
 written, my testament, and declaration of my last 
 will, in form and manner following: First, I give 
 thanks to God, that taking compassion on me 
 whom he had created and placed in this world, 
 he not only delivered me by his power out of the 
 11 (117) 
 
118 APPENDIX. 
 
 deep darkness of idolatry, into which I was 
 plunged, that he might bring me into the light of 
 his gospel, and make me a partaker of the doc- 
 trine of salvation, of which I was most unworthy ; 
 that with the same goodness and mercy he has 
 graciously and kindly borne with my multiplied 
 trant^gressions and sins, for which I deserved to 
 be rejected and cut off by him; and has also exer- 
 cised towards me such great compassion and 
 clemency, that he has condescended to use my 
 labour in preaching and publishing the truth of 
 his gospel. I also testify and declare, that it is 
 my full intention to pass the remainder of my 
 life in the same faith and religion, which he has 
 delivered to me by his gospel ; having no other 
 defence or refuge of salvation than his gratui- 
 tous adoption, on which alone my safety depends. 
 I also embrace with my whole heart the mercy 
 which he exercises towards me for the sake of 
 Jesus Christ, atoning for my crimes by the merits 
 of his death and passion, that in this way satisfac- 
 tion may be made for all my transgressions and 
 offences, and the remembrance of them blotted 
 out. I further testify and declare that, as a sup- 
 pliant, I humbly implore of him to grant me to be 
 so washed and purified by the blood of that sove- 
 reign Redeemer, shed for the sins of the human 
 race, that I may be permitted to stand before his 
 tribunal in the image of the Ptedeemer himself. 
 I likewise declare, that according to the measure 
 of grace and mercy which God has vouchsafed 
 me, I have diligently made it my endeavour, 
 both in my sermons, writings, and commentaries, 
 purely and uncorruptly to preach his word, and 
 faithfully to interpret his sacred Scriptures. I 
 
Calvin's will. 119 
 
 testify and declare that in all the controversies 
 and disputes, which I have conducted with the 
 enemies of the gospel, I have made use of no 
 craftiness, nor corrupt and sophistical arts, but 
 have been engaged in defending the truth with 
 candour and sincerity. 
 
 But, alas! my study, and my zeal, if they de- 
 serve the name, have been so remiss and languid, 
 that I confess innumerable things have been 
 wanting in me to discharge the duties of my office 
 in an excellent manner; and unless the infinite 
 bounty of Grod had been present, all my study 
 would have been vain aad transient. I also ac- 
 knowledge that unless the same goodness had 
 accompanied me, the endowments of mind bestow- 
 ed upon me by God, must have made me more 
 and more chargeable with guilt and inactivity 
 before his tribunal. And on these grounds I wit- 
 ness and declare, that I hope for no other refuge 
 of salvation than this alone — that since God is a 
 Father of mercy, he will show himself a Father to 
 me, who confess myself a miserable sinner. 
 Further, I will, after my departure out of this life, 
 that my body be committed to the earth in that 
 manner, and with those funeral rites, which are 
 usual in this city and church, until the day of 
 the blessed resurrection shall come. As for the 
 small patrimony which God has bestowed upon 
 me, and which I have determined to dispose of 
 in this will, I appoint Anthony Calvin, my very 
 dearly beloved brother, my heir, but only as a 
 mark of respect. Let him take charge of, and 
 keep as his own, my silver goblet, which was given 
 me as a present by Mr. Yaranne: and I desire he 
 will be content with it. As for the residue of my 
 
120 APPENDIX. 
 
 property, I commit it to his care with this request, 
 that he restore it to his children at his death. I 
 bequeath also to the school for boys, ten golden 
 crowns, to be given by my brother and legal heir, 
 and to poor strangers the same sum. Also to 
 Jane, daughter of Charles Costans and of my half- 
 sister by the paternal side, the sum of ten crowns. 
 Furthermore, I wish my heir to give, on his death, 
 to Samuel and John, sons of my said brother, my 
 nephews, out of my estate, each forty crowns, after 
 his death; and to my nieces Ann, Susan, and Doro- 
 thy, each thirty golden crowns. To my nephew 
 David, as a proof of his light and trifling conduct, 
 I bequeath only twenty-five golden crowns. 
 
 This is the sum of all the patrimony and pro- 
 perty which God hath given me, as far as I am 
 able to ascertain, in books, movables, my whole 
 household furniture, and all other goods and chat- 
 tels. Should it, however, prove more, I desire it 
 may be equally distributed between my nephews 
 and nieces aforesaid, not excluding my nephew 
 David, should he, by the favour of God, return to 
 a useful manner of life. 
 
 Should it, however, exceed the sum already 
 written, I do not think it will be attended with 
 much difficulty, especially after paying my just 
 debts, which I have given in charge to my said 
 brother, in whose fidelity and kindness I confide. 
 On this account I appoint him executor of this 
 my last testament, with Laurence de Normandie, 
 a character of tried worth, giving them full power 
 and authority, without a more exact command and 
 order of court, to make an inventory of my goods. 
 I give them also power to sell my movables, that 
 from the money thus procured they may fulfil the 
 
Calvin's will. 121 
 
 conditions of my above-written will, which I have 
 .set forth and declared this 25th day of April, in 
 the year of our Lord 1564. 
 
 John Calvin. 
 
 When I, Peter Chenalat, the above-mentioned 
 notary, had written this last will, the same John 
 Calvin immediately confirmed it by his usual sub- 
 scription and hand-writing. On the following day, 
 April 26th, 1564, the same tried character, John 
 Calvin, commanded me to be called, together with 
 Theodore Beza, Raymond Chauvet, Michael Cops, 
 Louis Enoch, Nicholas Colladon, James de Bordes, 
 ministers and preachers of the word of God in 
 this church of Geneva, and also the excellent 
 Henry Scringer, professor of arts, all citizens of 
 Geneva, and in their presence he hath declared 
 and testified that he dictated to me this his will, 
 in the words and form above written. He ordered 
 me also to recite it in their hearing, who had been 
 called for that purpose, which I profess to have 
 done, with a loud voice, and in an articulate man- 
 ner. After thus reading: it aloud, he testified and 
 declared it to be his last will and testament, and 
 desired it to be ratified and confirmed. As a tes- 
 timony and corroboration of this, he requested 
 them all to witness the same will with their hands. 
 This was immediately done by them on the day 
 and year above written, at Geneva, in the street 
 called the Canons, in the house of the said testa- 
 tor. In proof and witness of this I have written 
 and subscribed, with my own hand, and sealed, 
 with the common seal of our supreme magistrate, 
 the will above-mentioned. 
 
 P. Chenalat. 
 11* 
 
APPENDIX III. 
 
 CALVIN'S VIEWS OF PRELACY. 
 
 On this subject we will present to our readers 
 the letters of the Rev. Dr. Miller in reply to 
 Bishop Ives,* which appeared in the Presbyterian 
 in January, 1842. 
 
 L E T T ER I . 
 To the Editor of the Presbyterian. 
 
 Reverend and Dear Brother — The fol- 
 lowing letter, and another which you will receive 
 in a few days, were written a number of weeks 
 ago, and sent to Lincolnton, in North Carolina, 
 for insertion in the "Lincoln Republican," a 
 weekly journal printed in that town. Very un- 
 expectedly to me, the editor of that paper, after 
 publishing Bishop Ives's letter, refused to give 
 admission to my reply. On learuing this, I re- 
 quested the friend to whose care my communica- 
 tions had been sent, to transmit them to the 
 *' Watchman of the South,'' in whose pages they 
 
 * This is the gentleman who has figured so much of 
 late, as a convert to Popery, having resigned into the 
 hands of the Pope the insignia of his office as Bishop 
 of the Episcopal Church in North Carolina. — Editor of 
 the Board. 
 
 (122) 
 
Calvin's views of prelacy. 123 
 
 would be likely to be seen by a large number of 
 tbose who had been readers of the " Lincoln Re- 
 publican." But as Bishop's Ives's letter has 
 been republished in at least one paper in your 
 city, and as in my reply to an attack in that 
 paper, which you were so good as to publish, I 
 referred to the letters which had been sent to 
 North Carolina for further light on the same 
 subject, I hope you will do me the favour to aive 
 insertion in the Freshyterian to the first letter, 
 which you will receive herewith ; and also to the 
 second, which, with the permission of Providence, 
 will reach you next week. 
 
 I make no apology, Mr. Editor, for the trouble 
 which I have given you, for several weeks past, 
 in consequence of these ecclesiastical polemics. 
 I regret them as much as any one can do. 
 They were not of my seeking. I am not con- 
 scious on this, or on any other occasion, of hav- 
 ing ever gone into the field of denominational 
 controversy, excepting when forced into it by 
 fidelity to my beloved Church, and to her Head, 
 my blaster in heaven. To that high responsi- 
 bility, however irksome controversy may be, es- 
 pecially at my time of life, I hope I shall never 
 be suffered to be recreant. It would be much 
 more agreeable to me to have no warfare but with 
 the open enemies of our " common salvation,'' 
 but surely complaints of "attack" come with 
 rather an ill grace from those who scarcely ever 
 issue a paper without loading it with offensive 
 missiles against all who are out of their pale. It 
 has often amused me to see what a morbid sensi- 
 bility to what they called " attacks," was mani- 
 fested by those who were constantly dealing 
 
124 ' APPENDIX. 
 
 around them ^^ firebrands and arrows," and pro- 
 fessing at the same time, in words, to be "fierce 
 for moderation/' and "furious for peace." I am, 
 mj dear sir, very respectfully yours, 
 
 Samuel Miller. 
 
 Princeton, January 24, 1842. 
 
 To the Editor of the Lincoln Republican. 
 
 Sir — It was not until this day that I saw, in 
 your paper of the 10th instant, a letter from 
 Bishop Ives, in reply to a letter from me, directed 
 to a clerical friend in your neis^hbourhood, and 
 published in your paper a few weeks before. 
 
 My letter was a private one, and published 
 altogether without my consent. I kept no copy 
 of it, and while I distinctly remember its general 
 substance, I have not the least recollection of its 
 language. The Bishop complains of the language 
 as strongly characterized by asperity and posi- 
 tiveness. As I have never seen even the printed 
 copy, as it appeared in your paper, I am wholly 
 unable to make any other reply to this charge, 
 than to say that, as I felt strongly on the subject, 
 and was perfectly confident that the allegations 
 which I opposed were altogether unfounded, I 
 think it probable, that in a private letter to a 
 friend, I expressed myself in terms which would 
 have been modified if I had felt myself to be 
 writing for the public eye. I had an interview 
 with Bishop Ives, in this place, since the date of 
 his letter ; but as I had not the least knowledge, 
 at that time, of the publication of my own letter, 
 or of his reply to it, nothing, of course, respect- 
 ing the matter passed at that interview. 
 
Calvin's views of prelacy. 125 
 
 More than two months ago, a correspondent in 
 North Carolina informed me that Bishop Ives, in 
 a public discourse delivered a short time before, 
 alleged that the celebrated Reformer, Calvin, had 
 avowed a belief in the divine institution of Epis- 
 copacy, and had requested to receive Episcopal 
 ordination from the bishops of England. My 
 correspondent requested me to inform him whe- 
 ther there was any foundation for this statement. 
 I ventured, without hesitation, to assure him that 
 there was not, and that no well-informed person 
 could possibly make it. I have no recollection of 
 having impeached the honesty or the veracity of 
 the reverend preacher ; for I had no doubt that 
 he made the statement on evidence which he 
 deemed sufficient ; and I have still no doubt that 
 he verily believed what he stated to be strictly 
 true. But I meant to express, and presume I 
 did express, strong confidence that the represen- 
 tation which he made was entirely incorrect. 
 Bishop Ives is equally confident that his represen- 
 tation was well founded; and, in his reply to my 
 published letter, has made statements which he 
 seems to think perfectly decisive, and which, I 
 dare say, many others will deem equally decisive, 
 in support of his representation. And yet I will 
 again assert, and hope I shall make it appear to 
 the satisfaction of every candid reader, that that 
 representation is destitute of all solid support in 
 historical verity. 
 
 The first testimony which Bishop Ives adduces 
 in support of his former statement, is in the fol- 
 lowing words: '' In his commentary upon 1 Tim. 
 iv. 14, a passage so much relied upon by Presby- 
 terians, he gives an interpretation which makes it 
 
126 APPENDIX. 
 
 perfectly consistent with tlie Episcopal character 
 of Timothy.'^ 
 
 The passage, in our common translation, reads 
 thus : "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which 
 was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of 
 the hands of the presbytery/^ 
 
 Calvin's commentary is as follows : "He admon- 
 ishes him that he should employ the grace with 
 which he was endowed for the edification of the 
 Church. For it is not the will of the Lord that 
 those talents should perish, or be uselessly buried 
 in the earth, which he has deposited with any 
 one to be profitably used. To neglect a gift, is, 
 through sloth and negligence to leave it unem- 
 ployed; so that, given up, as it were, to rust, it 
 is worn out in no useful service. Therefore let 
 each of us consider what abilities he has, that he 
 may sedulously apply them to some use. He says 
 that the grace was given to him hy prophecy. 
 How? Doubtless (as we said before) beause the 
 Holy Spirit, by revelation, had appointed Timothy 
 to be set apart to the office of a pastor; for he had 
 not been chosen only by man's judgment, as is 
 customary, but by the previous declaration of the 
 Spirit. He says that it was conferred with the 
 laying on of hands; by which is meant that, in 
 addition to the ministerial office, he was furnished 
 also with the necessary gifts. It was a settled 
 custom of the Apostles to ordain ministers with 
 the imposition of hands; and, indeed, concerning 
 this rite, its origin and meaning, I have treated 
 at some length before, and a full account may be 
 found in the Institutes. Presbytery — Those who 
 think that this is a collective name put for the col- 
 lege of Preshyters, in my opinion judge correctly. 
 
CALVIN^S VIEWS OP PRELACY. 127 
 
 Altliouo;li, all things considered, I confess there 
 is another sense not unsuitable, viz. that it is the 
 name of an office. The ceremony he has put for 
 the act of ordination itself. Therefore the sense 
 is, that Timothy, when called to the ministry by 
 the voice of the prophets, and afterwards ordained 
 by the customary rite, was, at the same time, fur- 
 nished for the performance of his duties by the 
 grace of the Holy Spirit — whence we infer that 
 it was not an empty rite, for to that consecra- 
 tion which men represented jfiguratively by the 
 imposition of hands, God imparted reality, (or 
 ratification) by his Spirit." 
 
 This is Calvin's commentary on the passage in 
 question, and it is the whole of it. He who can 
 find anytliing favourable to the Episcopal charac- 
 ter of Timothy here, will be at no loss to find it 
 in any document on earth. The only thing no- 
 ticeable in its bearing on that point is the sug- 
 gestion, that while in the opinion of Calvin the 
 term Presbytery means the bench or body of Pres- 
 byters, it may mean the name of an office. But 
 surely this makes nothing in favour of the prela- 
 tical character of Timothy ] for if this sense be 
 admitted, then the statement will be that Timothy 
 was ordained to the office of the Presbyterate, or 
 was made a Presbyter. 
 
 The Bishop next produces a fragment from 
 Calvin's commentary on Titus i. 5, which he thus 
 translates: "We learn also from this place that 
 there was not then such an equality among the 
 ministers of the Church, but that some one had 
 the pre-eminence in authority and counsel." 
 
 The candid reader will doubtless feel astonished 
 
128 APPENDIX. 
 
 ■when he reads this passage in connection with the 
 context in which it stands — It is as follows : 
 
 ^^ Presbyters or Elders, it is well known, are not 
 so denominated on account of their age, since 
 young men are sometimes chosen to this office, as, 
 for instance, Timothy; but it has always been 
 customary, in all ages, to apply this title, as a 
 term of honour, to all rulers — and as we gather, 
 from the first Epistle to Timothy, that there were 
 two hinds of Elders, so here the context shows 
 that no other than teaching Elders are to be un- 
 derstood ; that is, those who were ordained to teachy 
 because the same persons are immediately after- 
 wards called Bishops. It may be objected that 
 too much power seems to be given to Titus, when 
 the Apostle commands him to appoint ministers 
 over all the churches. This, it may be said, is 
 little less than kingly power; for on this plan, the 
 right of choice is taken away from the particular 
 churches, and the right of judging in the case 
 from the college of pastors — and this would be to 
 profane the whole of the sacred discipline of the 
 Church. But the answer is easy. Everything 
 was not entrusted to Titus as an individual, nor 
 was he allowed to impose such Bishops on the 
 churches as he pleased; but he was commanded 
 to preside in the elections as a Moderator, as it is 
 necessary for some one to do. This is a mode of 
 speaking exceedingly common. Thus a Consul 
 or Regent or Dictator is said to create Consuls, 
 because he convenes assemblies for the purpose of 
 making choice of them. So also, Luke uses the 
 same mode of speaking concerning Paul and Bar- 
 nabas in the Acts of the Apostles; not that they 
 alone authoritatively appointed pastors over the 
 
Calvin's views op prelacy. 129 
 
 churclies without their being tried or approved ; 
 but they ordained suitable men, who had been 
 elected or chosen by the people. We learn also 
 from this place, that there was not, then, such an 
 equality among the ministers of the Church as was 
 inconsistent with some one of them presiding in 
 authority and counsel. This, however, is nothing 
 like the tyrannical and profane Prelacy which 
 reigns in the Papacy: the plan of the Apostles was 
 altogether different.'' 
 
 Is the reader prepared to find Bishop Ives sepa- 
 rating the last sentence but one in this paragraph 
 from what preceded and what follows, and calling 
 it a declaration in favour of Episcopacy ^ when its 
 whole tenor is directly the other way? If the 
 Bishop had read one page further on, he would 
 have found in Calvin's commentary on verse 7th 
 of the same chapter, the following still more 
 explicit declarations : 
 
 *' Moreover, this place abundantly teaches us 
 that there is no difference between Freshyters and 
 Bishops, because the Apostle now calls promis- 
 cuously by the second of these names those whom 
 he had before called Presbyters — and indeed the 
 argument which follows employs both names 
 indifferently in the same sense, which Jerome 
 hath observed, as well in his commentary on this 
 passage, as in his Epistle to Evagrius. And 
 hence we may .see how more has been yielded to 
 the opinions of men than was decent, because the 
 style of the Holy Spirit being abrogated, a cus- 
 tom introduced by the will of man prevailed. I 
 do not, indeed, disapprove of the opinion that, 
 soon after the commencement of the Church, every 
 college of Bishops had some one to act as Moder- 
 12 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 ator. But ttat a name of office which God had 
 given in common to all, should be transferred to 
 an individual alone, the rest being rohhed of ity 
 was both injurious and absurd. Wherefore, so 
 to pervert the language of the Holy Spirit as that 
 the same expressions should convey a meaning to 
 us different from that which he intended, partakes 
 too much of profane audacity J^ 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the work which 
 contains this passage was published in 1549, in 
 the reign oi Edward VI.; and when Calvin was 
 carrying on a friendly correspondence with Arch- 
 bishop Oranmer — yet he did not hesitate then to 
 avow his Presbyterian sentiments. 
 
 Again: in his commentary on 1 Peter v. 1, 
 written in 1551, and dedicated to Edward YI. 
 of England, Calvin thus speaks : 
 
 '■'■ Presbyters. — By this title he designates pastors, 
 and whoever were appointed to the government of 
 the Church. And since Peter calls himself a 
 Fresbyter, like the rest, it is hence apparent that 
 this name was common, which, indeed, from 
 many other passages, appears still more clearly. 
 Moreover, by this title he claimed to himself 
 authority, as if he had said that he admon- 
 ished pastors in his own right, because he was 
 one of their number, for among colleagues there 
 ought to be this mutual privilege : whereas if he 
 had enjoyed any pre-eminence of authority among 
 them, he might have urged that, and it would 
 have been more pertinent to the occasion. But 
 although he was an Apostle, yet he knew this 
 gave him no authority over his colleagues, but 
 that he was rather joined with the rest in a social 
 oifice.^' 
 
Calvin's views of prelacy. 131 
 
 Bishop Ives, as a fiirttier proof that Calvin was 
 persuaded of the Divine right of Prehicy, tells us 
 that in his commentary on G-alatians ii. 9, he 
 represents it as " highly probable that St. James 
 was 'prefect of the Church of Jerusalem/' "Now," 
 says he, '•^ 2^ prefect is a chief and permanent ruler 
 of others." Here again the slightest inspection 
 of what Calvin does really and truly say, will 
 sufficiently refute this construction of his language. 
 It is this : 
 
 ^' When the question is here concerning dig- 
 nity, it may seem wonderful that Jcimes should 
 be preferred to Peter. Perhaps that might have 
 have been done because he was the president^ 
 (praefectus) of the Church of Jerusalem. In 
 regard to what may be included in the title of 
 ^' Pillars/' we know that it is so ordered in the 
 nature of things, that those who excel others in 
 talents, in prudence, or in other gifts, are also 
 superior in authority. So in the Church of God, 
 by how much any one excels in grace by so much 
 ought he to be preferred in honour. For it is 
 ingratitude, nay it is impiety, not to do homage 
 to the Spirit of Grod wherever he appears in his 
 gifts. Hence it is, that as a people cannot do 
 without a pastor, so every assembly of pastors 
 needs some one to act as moderator. But it ought 
 ever to be so ordered that he who is first of all 
 should be a servant, according to Matthew xxiii. 
 12." 
 
 In his commentary on Acts xx. 28, written in 
 1560, a few years before his death, Calvin ex- 
 presses himself thus : " Concerning the word 
 Bishop, it is observable that Paul gives this title 
 to all the Elders of Ephesus; from which we may 
 
132 APPENDIX. 
 
 infer, that, according; to Scripture, Preshi/ters dif- 
 fered, in DO respect, from Bishops; but that it 
 arose from corruptinn and a departure from 
 primitive purity^ tliat those who held the first 
 seats in particuhir cities began to be called Biah- 
 ops. I say that it arose from corruption, not that 
 it is an evil for some one in each college of pas- 
 tors to be distinguished above the rest; but be- 
 cause it is an intolerahle presmmption, that men, 
 in perverting the titles of Scripture to their own 
 humour, do not hesitate to alter the meaning of 
 the Holy Spirit/' 
 
 The Bishop's extract from Calvin's work De 
 Necessitate Reformandoi Ecclesice, will also prove, 
 when examined, quite as little to his purpose as 
 any of the preceding. The passage, as given by 
 him, is in the following words: "If they will 
 give us such an hierarchy in which the bishops 
 have such a pre-eminence as that they do not re- 
 fuse to be subject to Christ, then I will confess 
 that they are worthy of all anathemas, if any such, 
 shall be found who will not reverence it, and 
 submit themselves to it with the utmost obe- 
 dience." 
 
 The passage, as really found in Calvin's work, 
 is as follows : — After speaking of the hierarchy 
 of the Romish Church; of its claims of uninter- 
 ruj^tecl succession from the apostles, which he 
 turns into ridicule; and of the gross departure of 
 the bishops from the spirit and rules of the gos- 
 pel, he says: "If the Papists would exhibit to us 
 such an hierarchy, as that the bishops should be 
 80 distinguished as not to refuse to be subject to 
 Christ; to rely on Him as their only Head; to 
 cherish fraternal union among themselves; and 
 
Calvin's views op prelacy. 133 
 
 to be bound together by no otber tie than his 
 truth, then I should confess that there is 
 no anathema of which tliey are not worthy, 
 who should not regard such an hierarchy with 
 reverence and obedience. But what likeness to 
 such an one is borne by that spurious hierarchy, 
 in which they (the Romanists) boast?" He 
 then goes on inveighing against the arrogance 
 and tyranny of the Bishop of Borne, by name, 
 and showing how entirely different that system is 
 from that to which Christ and his apostles gave 
 their sanction, and even that which prevailed in 
 the time of Cyprian. 
 
 It is well known that Calvin, in all his writings 
 maintained that there were hishojys in the primi- 
 tive Church ; that every pastor of a congregation 
 was a scriptural bishop ) of course, he might well 
 say, that if there were any who would not obey 
 such bishops as were conformed to the will of 
 Christ, they were worthy of all condemnation. 
 Some have alleged, indeed, that his use of the 
 word hierarchy, {hierarchiain) in this passage, 
 proves that he could have had reference to no 
 other than a preJatical government; that the 
 term is never applied to any other. This is an 
 entire mistake. The word hierarchy simply im- 
 plies sacred or ecclesiastical government. It may 
 be applied with as much propriety to Preshyteri- 
 anism or Independency, as to Prelacy. Calvin 
 himself in his Institutes, Book iv., chapter 5, 
 speaks of that hierarchy, or spiritual government, 
 which was left in the Church by the apostles, 
 and which he expressly declares, in the same 
 chapter, to be Presbyterian in its form. 
 
 Further, we are told, it seems, by Durell, in 
 12* 
 
134 APPENDIX. 
 
 ia his ^' View of the Foreign Reformed Churches," 
 that Calvin, in writing to an "old friend," speaks 
 of the office of Bishop as of ''divine institution 
 or appointment." It is true that language of this 
 kind is found in that letter, but the most cursory 
 perusal of the whole letter, will banish from any 
 candid mind the idea that Calvin is here speak- 
 ing of diocesan or prelatical Episcopacy. Does 
 not every intelligent reader know that that great 
 Reformer believed and uniformly taught that the 
 office of Bishop, (that is, of the primitive^ paro- 
 chial bishop,) was a divine institution? It is 
 evidently of this parochial EptUcopacy that he 
 speaks, when writing to his "old friend" in the 
 language above quoted. The duties which he 
 urges upon him, and the passages of Scripture 
 which he quotes to enforce his counsel, all show 
 that it is that Episcopacy alone which he maintains 
 to be of divine appointment. A Prelatist might 
 as well quote the fourth chapter of the Presby- 
 terian Form of Government, in which it speaks 
 of Bishops, as proof positive that it maintains the 
 divine right of Prelacy, as adduce the language 
 cited by Bishop Ives, to prove that Calvin was an 
 advocate for the divine institution of Prelatical 
 Episcopacy. 
 
 Such is the clear, undubitable testimony that 
 the illustrious Reformer of Geneva was guiltless 
 of the charge which has been brought against 
 him. It is manifest that, with perfect uniformity 
 during the greater part of his public life, from 
 1535 to 1560, he steadfastly maintained the doc- 
 trine that the apostolic form of Church govern- 
 ment was Presbyterian and not Prelatical; that 
 even in works which he dedicated to the king of 
 
Calvin's views op prelacy. 135 
 
 England and to the Lord Protector, the highest 
 nobleman in the realm, he still firmly contended 
 for the scriptural doctrine of ministerial parity. 
 The more closely I examine his writings, the 
 more confirmed is my persuasion, that nothing 
 which wears a contrary aspect can be fairly pro- 
 duced from them. 
 
 II. The second allegation of Bishop Ives, is, 
 that this eminent man wished to introduce Pre- 
 lacy into the Church of Geneva; and that he uni- 
 ted with others in requesting the English Bishops 
 to impart it to them,. 
 
 If I do not greatly mistake, this allegation 
 also is capable of being completely refuted. But 
 as I have already trespassed so far on the columns 
 of your paper, I shall postpone to another week 
 the remarks and the testimony which I have to 
 adduce in regard to that point. In the mean 
 time, I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient 
 servant, Samuel Miller. 
 
 Princeton, Nbvemier 20, 1841. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 The second allegation of Bishop Ives is, that 
 Calvin was desirous of introducing diocesan Epis- 
 copacy into the Church of Geneva; and that he, 
 with others, requested the bishops of England to 
 impart it to them,. 
 
 I have expressed a strong confidence that this 
 statement is utterly unfounded; and that it ad- 
 mits of satisfactory refutation. To attempt this 
 refutation I now proceed. 
 
 And; in proceeding to the execution of this 
 
136 APPENDIX. 
 
 task, my first remark is, that, anterior to all 
 search after testimony, the allegation is, in itself j 
 utterly incredible. The character which the 
 friends of Prelacy are fond of imputing to John 
 Calvin, is that of an austere, fierce, tyrannical 
 man, fond of power, and impatient of all opposi- 
 tion. His character, indeed, in this respect, has 
 been much misunderstood, and shamefully mis- 
 represented. A degree of magisterial intolerance 
 has been ascribed to him, which he never mani- 
 fested. Still it is true that he possessed great 
 decision of cliai-acter, and that in following his 
 convictions, and labouring to attain his favourite 
 objects, he was hardly ever exceeded by any man. 
 In this, it is believed, all are agreed. Now, if 
 this man, who had such controlling influence in 
 Geneva, had been desirous of introducing Prelacy 
 into his own pastoral charge, and the neighbour- 
 ing churches, who was there to prevent it? Sure- 
 ly not the civil government. The secular rulers 
 had been accustomed to Prelacy all their lives, 
 and would, no doubt, have regarded it with more 
 favour than any other form of ecclesiastical regi- 
 men that could be proposed to them. Not his 
 ministerial colleagues., for though they were by no 
 means timid or pliant men, yet his influence over 
 them seems to have been of the highest kind; 
 and if Prelacy had been introduced, who can 
 doubt that Calvin himself would have been the 
 Prelate? Who else would have been thought of? 
 To him all eyes would have been instantly di- 
 rected. No one acquainted with the history of 
 Luther, Calvin, and several of the leading Re- 
 formers, who acted with them, can hesitate a 
 moment to believe, that a bishop's chair was with- 
 
Calvin's views of prelacy. 137 
 
 in the reach of every one of them, if he had only 
 signified his wish to the effect, or even intimated 
 his belief that such an office was warranted by the 
 word of God. 
 
 But suppose in the face of all this improbabi- 
 lity, that Calvin did wish to introduce Prelacy; 
 what occasion had he to go to England for the 
 purpose of obtaining it? Were there not several 
 men who had been Bishops under the Papacy, 
 who espoused the cause of the Reformation, and 
 who would have been ready to lend their aid to- 
 ward the consummation of the desired object? 
 Besides, our Episcopal brethren tell us that the 
 Wald ensues always had bishops, in their sense of 
 that title, among them. If so, where was the 
 difficulty of Calvin and his colleagues obtaining 
 the Episcojxd succession, as the modern phrase is, 
 from that body of pious believers? We know, 
 indeed, that this assertion concerning the Wal- 
 denses is unfounded. They had no such bishops. 
 They themselves, in their correspondence with 
 CEcolampadius, in 1530, explicitly inform him 
 that they had not; still, as an argumentum ad 
 Jiominem, the argument is conclusive. Either 
 there were no such bishops among that pious, 
 devoted people, as Prelatists claim; or Calvin, 
 who knew the Waldenses intimately, and had 
 intercourse with them, acted a strange part in 
 seekino- an ecclesiastical favour from the British 
 Church, which he might, quite as conveniently, 
 to say the least, have obtained from churches in 
 his native country, where many of them were set- 
 tled, as well as in the Valleys of Piedmont. 
 
 But there is another fact bearing on the point, 
 no less conclusive. The allegation is, that Calvin 
 
138 APPENDIX. 
 
 and his friends begged for Episcopal consecration 
 from Archbishop Cranmer, in the reign o? Edicard 
 YI., when that prelate was at the head of the 
 ecclesiastical affairs of England. Now, in that 
 very reign, when this wish and request must have 
 been pending, as shown in a former letter, we 
 find Calvin repeatedly publishing to the world his 
 opposition to Prelacy, and his solemn conviction 
 that the Scriptures laid down a different form of 
 church order; and one of these publications, con- 
 taining one of his strongest assertions in favour 
 of Presbyterianism, he dedicated to the king of 
 England, and sent to him by the hand of a special 
 messenger; on the return of which messenger, 
 Cranmer wrote to Calvin an affectionate letter, 
 thanking him for his present, and expressing an 
 opinion that he could not do better than often to 
 write to the king. (^See Strypes Memorials of 
 Cranmer, p. 4:1S.) How is it possible for these 
 things to hang together? If Calvin was capable 
 of writing and printing these things, and sending 
 them by special messengers to the king, and to 
 Archbishop Cranmer, at the very time when he 
 was negotiating with Cranmer, to obtain from him 
 an investiture of a different and opposite kind; — if 
 he was capable of acting thus, it would be difficult to 
 say, whether he was more of a knave or a fool. 
 But I know not that any one, who was acquainted 
 with the history or the writings of that eminent 
 man, ever charged him with being either. 
 
 The first evidence that Bishop Ives adduces to 
 support his allegation, that Calvin desired to ob- 
 tain Prelatical Episcopacy for his own Church in 
 Geneva, is drawn from his language in the Con- 
 fession of Faith, which he composed in the name 
 
Calvin's views of prelacy. 139 
 
 of the French Churches. The friends of Prelacy 
 are heartily welcome to all the testiioony which 
 can be drawn from that Confession. Everything 
 in it which bears upon this point is in the follow- 
 ing words: "As to the true Church, we believe 
 it ought to be governed according to the policy 
 which our Lord Jesus Christ has established; 
 that is, that there be Pastors, Elders and Deacons; 
 that the pure doctrine may have its course; that 
 vices may be corrected and repressed; that the 
 poor and all other afflicted persons be succoured 
 in their necessities ; and that all the assemblies be 
 made in the name of God, in which both great 
 and small may be edified. We believe that all 
 true pastors, in whatsoever place they be, have the 
 same autlwriti/ and an equal poicer^ under one 
 only Chief, only Sovereign, and universal Bishop, 
 Jesus Christ; and for that reason that no church 
 ought to pretend to Sovereignty or Lordship over 
 another." If this be evidence that Calvin wished 
 to introduce Prelacy into those churches on the 
 Continent, over which he had influence, then I 
 know not what testimony means. The Confession 
 is decisively anti-prelatical in its character 
 throughout, and the churches which were organ- 
 ized on its basis, were as thoroughly Presbyterian 
 as the Church of Scotland ever was. Li the "iVrti- 
 cles of Ecclesiastical Discipline," drawn up at the 
 same time, it is declared that "a President in 
 each Colloquy (or classis) or Synod shall be chosen 
 with a common consent to preside in the Colloquy 
 or Synod, and to do everything that belongs to it; 
 and the said oflace shall end with each Colloquy 
 or Synod and Council." {See LavaVs History of 
 the Reformation in France^ Vol. I. jp. 118.) 
 
140 APPENDIX. 
 
 Anotlier source of proof on whicli Bishop Ives 
 relies to show that Ccalvin wished for and endea- 
 voured to obtain Prelacy from the English Church, 
 is found in the language which he addressed to 
 the clergy of Cologne, blaming them for attempt- 
 ing to depose their Archbishop, because he was 
 friendly to the Reformation. But could not Cal- 
 vin reprobate this conduct without believing in the 
 divine institution of the office which the Arch- 
 bishop held? Suppose Bishop Ives should be- 
 come a Calvinist, as to his theological creed, and 
 suppose the Episcopal clergy of North Carolina 
 should conspire on that account alone, to expel 
 him from his diocese, might not the firmest Pres- 
 byterian in the State remonstrate against their 
 conspiracy without being an advocate for the 
 divine right of prelacy? Might he not consider 
 it much better to retain, in an influential station, 
 one who was an advocate for evangelical truth, 
 rather than thrust him out to make way for an err- 
 orist in doctrine as well as in church order? 
 
 A further testimony to which he appeals is, 
 that Calvin in writing to Itliavius, a Polish Bishop, 
 styles him ''illustrious and Reverend Lord Bish- 
 op/' He addresses him, '' iUustris et reverende 
 JDomine.^' The last word, which is equivalent to 
 sir, Calvin addresses to the humblest curate to 
 whom he writes. Of course no stress can be laid 
 on that title. But what does the venerable Re- 
 former say to this Polish dignitary? Urging him 
 to give his influence decisively in favour of the Re- 
 formation, he writes to him in the following faith- 
 ful language — a part of which only Bishop Ives 
 quotes — ''It is base and wicked for you to remain 
 neutral, when God, as with outstretched hand, 
 
Calvin's views of prelacy. 141 
 
 calls yon to defend Ins cause. Consider wbat 
 place you occupy, and what burden has been laid 
 upon you." This is proof enough that Calvin 
 thought that Ithavms had been placed in his sta- 
 tion by the providence of God, and that he was 
 bound to employ all the influence and authority 
 connected with that station for promoting the 
 cause of truth; and certainly nothing more. I 
 take for granted that Bishop Ives believes that the 
 tyrant Nero was raised to the imperial throne by 
 the providence of God; that, in that station, he 
 had a great opportunity for doing good, if he had 
 been inclined to improve it; and that any benevo- 
 lent inhabitant of his dominions might have ad- 
 dressed his emperor in the very language ad- 
 dressed to Ithavius, without believing in the di- 
 vine right of monarchy. 
 
 An extract of a letter from Calvin to the King 
 of Poland, is also brought forward to show that 
 he was an advocate for Prelacy. Let the passage 
 which Bishop Ives refers to, be seen in its connec- 
 tion, and its worthlessuess for his purpose, will 
 be manifest to the most cursory reader. It is as 
 follows: — " Finally, it is ambition and arrogance 
 alone that have invented this Primacy which the 
 Eomanists hold up to us. The ancient Church 
 did indeed institute Patriarchates, and also ap- 
 pointed certain primacies to each province, in 
 order that, by this bond of concord, the Bishops 
 might continue more united among themselves; 
 just as if at the present day, one Archbishop were 
 set over the kingdom of Poland; not to bear rule 
 over the others, or to arrogate to himself autho- 
 rity of which the others are robbed; but for the 
 sake of order, to hold the first place in Svnods, 
 13 
 
142 APPENDIX. 
 
 and to cherish a holy union among; his colleagues 
 and brethren. Then there might be either pro- 
 vincial or city Bishops, to attend particularl}' to 
 the preservation of order: inasmuch as nature dic- 
 tates that, out of each college one should be 
 chosen on whom the chief care should devolve. 
 But possessing an office of moderate dignity, that 
 is to the extent of a man's ability, is a different 
 thing from embracing the whole world in unlim- 
 ited jurisdiction/' 
 
 Here it is evident that, by the "Ancient 
 Church/' Calvin meant, not the apostolic church j 
 for then there were no patriarchates, as all agree j 
 but the church as it stood in the fourth and fifth 
 centuries. He thus fully explains this phrase in 
 his letter to Sadolet, as well as in his Institute.-i. 
 And it is no less evident that by the man in each 
 college of ecclesiastics on whom the "chief care 
 was to be devolved," he meant only a standing 
 moderator, such as he describes in those extracts 
 from his Commentary, which I detailed in my 
 last letter. And besides, as Calvin knew that 
 prelacy was universally and firmly established in 
 Poland, he was much more anxious to plead for 
 the promotion of the doctrines and spirit of true 
 true religion in that country, than for pulling 
 down its hierarchy. Hence he was disposed to 
 treat the latter with indulgence, if the former 
 might have free course. 
 
 But Bishop Ives seems to lay the greatest 
 stress for proof of his assertion, on a statement 
 found in Stripe's "Memorials of Cranmer," 
 p. 207; and in his "Life of Bishop Parker,^' 
 pp. 69, 70. The story, as related by Strype, is, 
 that Bulllnger and Calvin, and others, wrote a 
 
Calvin's views of prelacy. 143 
 
 joint letter to king Edward, offering to make him 
 their defender, and to have such bishops in their 
 churches as there were in England. The story 
 is a blind and incredible one. Let us see the 
 letter, and we will then believe that such a com- 
 munication was sent, and not till then. The 
 truth is, Bonner and Gardiner were popish bish- 
 ops, entirely out of favour during the reign of 
 king Edward, and a letter directed to the king 
 would be by no means likely to fall into their 
 ' hands. Calvin is known to have kept up a con- 
 stant correspondence with Archbishop Cranmer, 
 as long as the latter lived. Cranmer consulted 
 him frequently, sought his counsel on a variety 
 of occasions, and requested his aid in conducting 
 the affairs of the English Reformation. The 
 archbishop sent to Calvin the first draught of the 
 English Liturgy, early in the reign of Edward, 
 requesting his advice and criticism respecting 
 it. Calvin returned it, saying that he found in 
 it some tolerahiles ineptias (tolerable fooleries) 
 which he could wish might be corrected. This 
 criticism was well received, and the Liturgy was 
 corrected agreeably to his wishes. This fact is 
 attested by Dr. HeijUn, one of the bitterest oppo- 
 nents of Calvin, and of Presbyterianism, that ever 
 lived. "The first Liturgy," says he, "was dis- 
 continued, and the second superinduced upon it, 
 to give satisfaction unto Calvin's cavils, the curi- 
 osities of some, and the mistakes of others, his 
 friends and followers.'' Histori/ of the Preshyte- 
 rians, p. 12. 207. Dr. JVichols, also, the author 
 of a Commentary on the Common Prayer, bears 
 testimonv to the same fact, in the following 
 Statement. " Four years afterwards the Book of 
 
144 APPENDIX. 
 
 Common Prayer uuderwent another review, 
 wherein some ceremonies and usages were laid 
 aside, and some new prayers added, at the in- 
 stance of Mr. Calvin of Geneva, and Bucer, a 
 foreign divine, who was invited to be a Profes- 
 sor at Cambridge." Preface to his Comment^ 
 
 The fact is, Cranmer and his coadjutors in the 
 Eno;lish Reformation, had to stru2;2;le with sreat 
 difficulties. The Papists, on the one hand, as- 
 sailed and reproached them for carrying the Re- 
 formation too far; while some of the most pious 
 dignitaries, and others in the Church, thought it 
 was not carried far enough. In these circum- 
 stances, Cranmer wrote often to the Reformers 
 on the Continent, and sought advice and coun- 
 tenance from them, and to none more frequently 
 than to Calvin, who wrote, we are told, in return, 
 much to encourage and animate Cranmer. Among 
 other expressions of opinion, we are informed 
 that Calvin blamed Bishops Hooper and Latimer^ 
 those decided friends of evangelical truth, for 
 their persevering scruples respecting the Jiahiis 
 or ecclesiastical vestments, which were then the 
 subject of so much controversy. He gave it as 
 his opinion, that where the great and vital princi- 
 ples of the gospel were at stake, it was bad policy 
 for the friends of true religion to allow them- 
 selves to be alienated and divided by questions 
 concerning clerical dress, or even the external 
 order of the Church. The kind and friendly 
 things of this nature which he so frequently ut- 
 tered, were, no doubt, misinterpreted, as indicat- 
 ing a more favourable opinion of the Prelacy 
 
Calvin's views op prelacy. 145 
 
 of England, than lie really entertained, or ever 
 meant to express. 
 
 I shall trespass on your patience, Mr. Editor, 
 only by making one statement more. Calvin was 
 so far from ever alleging that the Genevan form 
 of church government was adopted by him from 
 necessiti/ and not from clioice, that he, on the con- 
 trary, steadfastly maintained that it was strictly 
 agreeable to the word of God, and that which he 
 felt him#lf bound, by obedience to Christ, to es- 
 tablish and defend. '^ Besides,'^ says he, "that 
 our conscience acquits us in the sight of God, 
 the thing itself will answer for us in the sight of 
 men. Nobody has yet appeared that could prove 
 that we have altered any one thing which God has 
 commanded, or that we have appointed any new 
 thing, contrary to his word, or that we have 
 turned aside from the truth to follow any evil 
 opinion. On the contrary, it is manifest that we 
 have reformed our Church MERELY BY God's 
 WORD, which is the only rule by which it is to be 
 ordered and lawfully defended. It is, indeed, an 
 unpleasant work to alter what has been formerly in 
 use, were it. not that the order which God has once 
 fixed must be esteemed by us as sacred and invio- 
 lable ; insomuch, that if it has, for a time, been 
 laid aside, it must of necessity, (and whatever the 
 consequences should prove,) be restored again. 
 No antiquity, no prescription of custom, may be 
 allowed to be an obstacle in this case, that the 
 government of the church which God has aj)point- 
 er7, should not be perpetual, since the Lord him- 
 self has once fixed it." Epis. ad quendam Cura- 
 tum — In Calvin. Epist. p. 386. 
 
 Such are the testimonies which satisfy me that 
 13* 
 
146 APPENDIX. 
 
 Calvin was a sincere and uniform advocate of 
 Presbyterian church, government, and that if he 
 ever wished to introduce Prelaay into his church 
 at Geneva, we must despair of establishing any 
 fact by historical records. That Bishop Ives was 
 a real believer in the truth of all that he asserted, 
 I never entertained the least doubt. But I have 
 as little doubt, that it is totally destitute of any 
 solid foundation. Either Calvin had no such de- 
 sire as the bishop ascribes to him, or h#was one 
 of the most weak and inconsistent men that ever 
 breathed. That nobody ever thought him. 
 
 I am, Mr. Editor, yours respectfully, 
 
 Samuel Miller. 
 
 PaiscETON, Decemher 6, ISil. 
 
APPENDIX lY. 
 
 TESTIMONIALS TO CALVIN. 
 
 The estimation iu which the character and learn- 
 ing of Calvin have been held, may be seen from 
 the following testimonies. 
 
 "He lived fifty-four years, ten months, and 
 seventeen days; half of which time he passed in 
 the sacred ministry. His stature was of a middle 
 size, his complexion dark and pallid, his eyes 
 brilliant, even till death, expressing the acuteness 
 of his understanding. He lived nearly without 
 sleep. His power of memory was almost incredi- 
 ble; and his judgment so sound, that his decisions 
 often seemed almost oracular. In his words he 
 was sparing; and he despised an artificial elo- 
 quence: yet was he an accomplished writer: and, 
 by the accuracy of his mind, and his practice of 
 dictating to an amanuensis, he attained to speak 
 little difi"erently from what he would have written. 
 The consistency and uniformity of his doctrine, from 
 first to last, are scarcely to be paralleled. Nature 
 had formed him grave; yet, in the intercourse of 
 social life no one showed 7nore suavity. He ex- 
 ercised great forbearance towards all such infirm- 
 ities in others as are consistent with integrity — 
 not overawing his weaker brethren; but towards 
 flattery, and every species of insincerity, especially 
 
 (147) 
 
148 APPENDIX. 
 
 where religion was concerned, he was severe and 
 indignant. He was naturally irritable; and this 
 fault was increased by the excessive laboriousness 
 of his life : yet the Spirit of God had taught him 
 to govern both his temper and his tongue. — That 
 so many and so great virtues, both in public and in 
 private life, should have called forth against him 
 many enemies, no one will wonder, who duly con- 
 siders what has ever befallen eminent men, both 
 in sacred and profane history. Those enemies 
 brand him as a heretic: but Christ suffered under 
 the same reproach. He was edc'pelled^ say they, 
 from Geneva. True, he was, but he was solicited 
 to return. He is charged with ambition, yea, 
 with aspiring at a new popedom. An extraordinary 
 charge to be brought against a man who chose 
 his kind of life, and in this state, in this church, 
 which I might truly call the very seat of poverty. 
 They say again that he coveted wealth. Yet all 
 his worldly goods, including his library, which 
 brought a high price, scarcely amounted to three 
 hundred crowns. Well might he say in his pre- 
 face to the book of Psalms, 'That I am not a 
 lover of money, if I fail of persuading men while 
 I live, my death will demonstrate.' How small 
 his stipend was, the senate knows: yet they can 
 bear witness that, so far from being dissatisfied 
 with it, he pertinaciously refused an increase 
 when it was offered him. He delighted, forsooth, 
 in luxury and indulgence ! Let his labours an- 
 swer the charge. What accusations will not some 
 men bring against him ? But no refutation of 
 them is wanting to those persons who knew him 
 while he lived ) and they will want none, among 
 posterity, with men of judgment, who shall collect 
 
TESTIMONIALS TO CALVIN. 149 
 
 his character from his writings. Haying given 
 with good faith the history of his life and of his 
 death, after sixteen years' observation of him, I 
 feel myself warranted to declare, that in him was 
 proposed to all men an illustrious example of the 
 life and death of a Christian; so that it will be 
 found as difficult to emulate, as it is easy to cal- 
 umniate him." — Beza. 
 
 ''It is impossible to refuse him the praise of 
 vast knowledge, exquisite judgment, a penetra 
 tion which is uncommon, a prodigious memory 
 and admirable temperance and sobriety. . . . 
 Affairs public and private, ecclesiastical and civil 
 occupied him in succession, and often all together 
 Consulted from all quarters both at home and 
 abroad; carrying on a correspondence with all the 
 churches and all the learned men of Europe, with 
 the princes and other persons of high distinction, 
 who had embraced the reformed religion ] it seems 
 almost inconceivable how one man could be capa- 
 ble of so many things, and how he should not 
 sink under the weight of the business which 
 pressed upon him. The enemy of all pomp; 
 modest in his whole deportment; perfectly disin 
 terested and generous, and even entertaining a 
 contempt for riches; he made himself not less re- 
 spected for the qualities of his heart, than admired 
 for the powers of his understanding. When the 
 council wished to make him a present of five and 
 twenty crowns, on occasion of his continued ill- 
 ness, he refused to accept it; because, he said, 
 since he then rendered no service to the Church, 
 so far from meriting any extraordinary recompense, 
 he felt scruples about receiving his ordinary sti- 
 
150 APPENDIX. 
 
 pend: and a few days before his death he abso- 
 lutely refused a part of his appointments which 
 had become due. .... He always presided in the 
 company of pastors. Without envy they saw 
 him, by reason of his rare merit, which raised 
 him far above all his colleagues, occupy the first 
 
 place When his frequent illnesses prevented 
 
 his being regularly present among them, they had 
 requested Beza to supply his place. A few days 
 after Calvin's death, Beza declined this service, 
 and at the same time recommended to them not 
 in future to entrust an office of such importance 
 permanently to any individual — safely as it might 
 have been committed to Calvin, and due as it 
 justly was to his services — . . . but rather to 
 choose a fresh moderator every year, who should 
 simply be considered as primus inter pares — pre- 
 siding among his equals. This proposition was 
 unanimously approved, and Beza himself, notwith- 
 standing the pleas on which he would have 
 been excused, was immediately chosen the first 
 moderator, as possessing all the requisite qualifi- 
 cations : and the choice was sanctioned by the 
 council." — Spoil's History of Geneva. 
 
 ''This (his superiority to the love of money) is 
 one of the most extraordinary victories virtue and 
 magnanimity can obtain over nature, even in 
 those who are ministers of the gospel. Calvin 
 has left behind him many who imitated him iu 
 his active life, his zeal and affection for the cause; 
 they employ their voices, their pens, their steps 
 and solicitations, for the advancement of the king- 
 dom of Grod, but then they take care not to forget 
 themselves, and are, generally speaking, a demon- 
 
TESTIMONIALS TO CALVIN. 151 
 
 stration that the Church is a bountiful mother, 
 
 and that nothing is lost in her service 
 
 Such a will as this of Calvin, and such a disinter- 
 estedness, is a thing so very extraordinary, as 
 might make even those who cast their eyes on 
 the philosophers of Greece say of him, ' I have 
 not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.' When 
 Calvin was taking his leave of those of Strasburg, 
 in order to return to Geneva, they offered to con- 
 tinue his freedom, and the revenue of a prebend 
 they had assigned him; he accepted the first, but 
 
 rejected the latter He carried one of his 
 
 brothers with him to Geneva, without ever think- 
 ing of advancing him to any honours, as others 
 
 would have done with his great credit Even 
 
 his enemies say he had him taught the trade of 
 a bookbinder, which he exercised all his life." — 
 Bayle. 
 
 ^^We should be injurious unto virtue itself, If 
 we did derogate from them whom their industry 
 hath made great. Two things of principal mo- 
 ment there are, which have deservedly procured 
 him honour throughout the world: the one his 
 exceeding pains in composing the Institutions of 
 Christian Religion, the other his no less industri- 
 ous travails for exposition of Holy Scripture, ac- 
 cording unto the same Institutions. In which 
 two things whosoever they were that after him 
 bestowed their labour, he gained the advantasre of 
 prejudice against them if they gainsaid, and of 
 glory above them if they consented. '^ — Hooker. 
 
 ^' After the Holy Scriptures, I exhort the stu- 
 dents to read the Commentaries of Calvin. . . . 
 
152 APPENDIX. 
 
 for I tell tlieiD tliat he is incomparable in the in- 
 terpretation of Scripture 3 and that his Commenta- 
 ries ought to be held in greater estimation than 
 all that is delivered to us in the writings of the 
 ancient Christian Fathers: so that, in a certain 
 eminent spirit of prophecy, I give the pre-em- 
 inence to him beyond most others, indeed beyond 
 them all. I add, that, with regard to what belongs 
 to common places, his Institutes must be read 
 after the Catechism, as a more ample interpreta- 
 tion. But to all this I subjoin the remark, that 
 they must be perused with cautious choice, like 
 all other human compositions." — A?'minins. 
 
APPENDIX V. 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE CALUMNY THAT CALVIN WISHED 
 TO ABROGATE THE LORD'S DAY. 
 
 The authority of Calvin, too, has sometimes 
 been adduced in support of loose views respect- 
 ino; the oblio'ation of the fourth commandment. 
 It is an old and foolish calumny. We take the 
 following extract from Beza, not only to meet this 
 allegation, for Beza, as the personal friend of Cal- 
 vin, must have known his sentiments perfectly, but 
 to counteract any impressions which may be circu- 
 lated to the disparagement of the faithfulness and 
 purity of the Church of Greneva, in the days of 
 Calvin. 
 
 *'The year 1550 was remarkable for its tranquil- 
 lity with respect to the Church. The Consistory 
 resolved that the ministers should not confine their 
 instructions to public preaching — which was ne- 
 glected by some, and heard with very little advan- 
 tage by others — but at stated seasons should visit 
 every family from house to house, attended by an 
 elder and a decurion of each ward, to explain the 
 Christian doctrines to the common people, and 
 require from every one a brief account of their 
 faith. These private visits were of great use to 
 the Church, and it is scarcely credible how much 
 fruit was produced by this plan of instruction. 
 The Consistory gave directions that the celebra- 
 14 (153) 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 tion of the birth of Christ should be deferred to 
 the following day, and that no festival should be 
 observed as holy excepting the seventh, which is 
 called the Lord's Day. This proceeding gave 
 offence to many, and /or the puiyose of reproach- 
 ing Calvin, there were some who circulated an 
 unfounded report of his abrogating the Sabbath 
 Itself 
 
 MELANCTHON'S APPROBATION OF THE COURSE OF 
 CALVIN TOWARDS SERVETUS. 
 
 M. D'Aubigne was strictly correct in his histo- 
 rical allusions to this celebrated German reformer. 
 In a letter from Melancthon to Calvin, bearing 
 the date of October 14th, 1554, we find the fol- 
 lowino; sentiments : — 
 
 ''Reverend and dear brother — I have read 
 your book, in which you have clearly refuted the 
 horrid blasphemies of Servetus ; and I give thanks 
 to the Son of God, who was the awarder of your 
 crown of victory in your combat." " To you, also, 
 the Church owes gratitude at the present moment, 
 and will owe it to the latest posterity." " I per- 
 fectly assent to your opinion." 
 
 ''I affirm also," says he, in another letter, dated 
 August 20th, "■ that the Genevese senate did per- 
 fectly right in putting an end to this obstinate 
 man, who could never cease blaspheming, and I 
 wonder at those who disapprove of this severity." 
 
 This opinion of Melancthon was sustained by 
 Bullinger, Peter Martyr, Zanchius, Farel, Theo- 
 dore Beza, Bishop Hall, and others. Your cor- 
 respondent must, therefore, admit that Melanc- 
 
THE TESTIMONY OF A UNITARIAN. 155 
 
 thon's name is properly coupled with that of John 
 Calvin, in the affair of Servetus, approve, or disap- 
 prove of the sentence as we may. 
 
 H. B. 
 
 THE TESTIMONY OF A UNITARIAN. 
 
 The followinp: is from the pen of George Ban- 
 croft, author of the History of the United States, 
 formerly minister plenipotentiary to England, a 
 Unitarian in his religious opinions. 
 
 '' It is in season to rebuke the intolerance which 
 would limit the praise of Calvin to a single sect. 
 They who have no admiration but for wealth and 
 rank, can never admire the Grenevan reformer; for 
 though he possessed the richest mind of his age, 
 he never emerged from the limits of frugal poverty. 
 The rest of us may be allowed to reverence his 
 virtues and regret his errors. He lived in a day 
 when nations were shaken to their centre by the 
 excitement of the Reformation, when the fields of 
 Holland and France were wet with the carnage of 
 persecution; when vindictive monarchs, on the one 
 side, threatened all Protestants with outlawry and 
 death; and the Vatican on the other, sent forth 
 its anathemas and its cry for blood. In that day, 
 it is too true, the influence of an ancient, long- 
 established, hardly disputed error; the constant 
 danger of his position; the intensest desire to 
 secure union among the antagonists of Popery j 
 the engrossing consciousness that his struggle was 
 for the emancipation of the Christian world, 
 induced the great Reformer to defend the use of 
 the sword for the extirpation of error. Reprobat- 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 ing and lamenting his adhesion to the cruel doc- 
 trine which all Christendom had for centuries im- 
 plicitly received, we may, as republicans, remem- 
 ber, that Calvin was not only the founder of a 
 sect, but foremost among the most efficient of 
 modern republican legislators. More truly bene- 
 volent to the human race than Solon, more self- 
 denying than Lycurgus, the genius of Calvin 
 infused enduring elements into the institutions of 
 Geneva, and made it for the modern world the 
 impregnable fortress of popular liberty, the fertile 
 seed-plot of democracy. 
 
 Again, we boast of our common schools j Calvin 
 was the father of popular education, the inventor 
 of the system of free schools. 
 
 Again, we are proud of the free States that 
 fringe the Atlantic. The Pilgrims of Plymouth 
 were Calvinists; the best influence in South Caro- 
 lina came from the Calvinists in France. William 
 Penn was the disciple of Huguenots; the ships 
 from Holland, that first brought colonists to Man- 
 hattan, were filled with Calvinists. He that will 
 not honour the memory^ and respect the ivjinence 
 of Calvin, knows hut little of the origin of Ameri- 
 can liberty. 
 
 Or do personal considerations chiefly win ap- 
 plause? Then no one merits our sympathy and 
 our admiration more than Calvin. The young 
 exile from France, who achieved an immortality 
 of fame before he was twenty-eight years of age, 
 now boldly reasoning with the king of France for 
 religious liberty; now venturing as the apostle of 
 truth to carry the new doctrines into the heart of 
 Italy; and now hardly escaping from the fury of 
 papal persecution; the purest writer, the keenest 
 
TEMPTATION OF JOHN CALVIN. 157 
 
 dialectician of his age; pushing free inquiry to its 
 utmost verge, and yet vahiing inquiry only as the 
 means of arriving at fixed principles. The light 
 of bis genius scattered the mask of darkness, 
 which superstition had held for centuries before 
 the brow of religion. His probity was unques- 
 tioned, his morals spotless. His only happiness con- 
 sisted in 'the task of glory, and of good;' for 
 sorrow found its way into all its private relations. 
 He was an exile from his place of exile. As a hus- 
 band, he was doomed to mourn the premature loss 
 of his wife; as a father, he felt the bitter pangs 
 of burying his only child. x\lone in the world, 
 alone in a strange land, he went forward in his 
 career with serene resignation and inflexible firm- 
 ness : no love of ease turned him aside from his 
 vigils; no fear of danger relaxed the nerve of his 
 eloquence ; no bodily infirmities checked the 
 incredible activity of his mind; and so he contin- 
 ued, year after year, solitary and feeble, yet toil- 
 ing for humanity ; till after a life of glory, he be- 
 queathed to his personal heirs a fortune, in books 
 and furniture, stocks and money, not exceeding 
 two hundred dollars, and to tlie icorld a pure Re- 
 formation, a rejmhlican spirit in religion, with the 
 kindred principjles of republican liberty J" 
 
 TEMPTATION OF JOHN CALVIN. 
 
 The following anecdote of Calvin, while it does 
 much honour to his moral and religious character, 
 is a curious historical fact, which deserves to be 
 generally known. It was related at Greneva, by 
 
158 APPENDIX. 
 
 Diodati, one of Calvin's successors, to the first 
 Lord Orrery, who flourished under the reign of 
 Charles I. The extract is taken from ''The State 
 Letters and Memoirs of the Eight Honourable 
 Koger Bojle/^ 
 
 "Eckius being sent by the Pope, legate into 
 France, upon his return resolved to take Geneva 
 in his way, on purpose to see Calvin -, and if occa- 
 sion were, to attempt reducing him to the Eoman 
 Church. Therefore, when Eckius was come with- 
 in a league of Geneva, he left his retinue there, 
 and went, accompanied with one man, to the city 
 in the forenoon. Setting up his horses at an inn, 
 he inquired where Calvin lived, whose house be- 
 ing showed him, he knocked at the door, and Cal- 
 vin himself came to open to him. Eckius inquir- 
 ing for Mr. Calvin, he was told he was the person. 
 Eckius acquainted him that he was a stranger; 
 and having heard much of his fame, was come to 
 wait upon him. Calvin invited him to come in, 
 and he entered the house with him; where, dis- 
 coursing of many things concerning religion, Eck- 
 ius perceived Calvin to be an ingenious, learned 
 man, and desired to know if he had not a garden 
 to walk in. To which Calvin, replying that he 
 had, {hey both went into it ; and there Eckius be- 
 gan to inquire of him why he left the Koman 
 Church, and oifered him some arguments to per- 
 suade him to return ; but Calvin could by no means 
 be inclined to think of it. At last Eckius told 
 him that he would put his life in his hands; and 
 then said he was Eckius, the Pope's legate. At 
 this discovery, Calvin was not a little surprised, 
 and begged his pardon, that he had not treated 
 him with that respect which was due to his quality. 
 
TEMPTATION OF JOHN CALVIN. 159 
 
 Eckius returned the compliment, and told him if 
 he would come back to the Roman Church, he 
 would certainly procure for him a Cardinal's cap. 
 But Calvin was not to be moved by such an offer. 
 Eckius then asked him what revenue he had. 
 He told the Cardinal he had that house and gar- 
 den, and fifty livres per annum, besides an annual 
 present of some wine and corn ; on which he lived 
 very contentedly. Eckius told him, that a man 
 of his parts deserved a greater revenue; and then 
 renewed his invitation to come over to the Roman 
 Church, promising him a better stipend if he 
 would. But Calvin giving him thanks, assured 
 him he was well satisfied with his condition. — 
 About this time dinner was ready, when he enter- 
 tained his company as well as he could, excused 
 the defects of it, and paid him great respect. 
 Eckius after dinner desired to know, if he might 
 not be admitted to see the church, which anciently 
 was the cathedral of that city. Calvin very read- 
 ily answered that he might; accordingly, he sent 
 to the officers to be ready with the keys, and de- 
 sired some of the syndics to be there present, not 
 acquainting them who the stranger was. As soon, 
 therefore, as it was convenient, they both went 
 towards the church, and as Eckius was coming 
 out of Calvin's house, he drew out a purse, with 
 about one hundred pistoles, and presented it to 
 Calvin. But Calvin desired to be excused ; Eck- 
 ius told him, he gave it him to buy books, as 
 well as to express his respect for him. Calvin, 
 with much regret took the purse, and they pro- 
 ceeded to the church, where the syndics and offi- 
 cers waited upon them ; at the sight of whom Eck- 
 ius thought he had been betrayed, and whispered 
 
160 APPENDIX. 
 
 his thouglits in Calvin's ear; but Calvin assured 
 him to the contrary. Thereupon they went into 
 the church; and Eckius having seen all, told Cal- 
 vin he did not expect to find things in so decent 
 an order, having been told to the contrary. After 
 having taken a full view of everything, Eckius 
 was returning out of the church, but Calvin stop- 
 ped him a little, and calling the syndics and officers 
 together, took the purse of gold which Eckius had 
 given to him, telling them that he had received 
 that gold from this worthy stranger, and that now 
 he gave it to the poor, and so put it all into the 
 poor box that was kept there. The syndics 
 thanked the stranger, and Eckius admired the 
 charity and modesty of Calvin. When they were 
 come out of the church, Calvin invited Eckius 
 again to his house, but he replied that he must 
 depart; so thanking him for all his civilities, 
 offered to take his leave. But Calvin waited upon 
 him to the inn, and walked with him a mile out 
 of the territories of Geneva, where with great com- 
 pliments, they took a farewell of each other.'' 
 
 Eckius was a very learned divine. Professor in 
 the University of Ingolstadt, memorable for his 
 opposition to Luther, ]Vlelancthon, and other 
 reformers in German3^ He died in 15-43 aged 
 fifty-seven. 
 
 CALVIN'S ORDINATION. 
 
 The chief difficulty, which I had occasion to 
 mention in noticing the allegation made by Eo- 
 manists and Prelatists, that Calvin was never 
 
Calvin's ordination. 161 
 
 ordained, was the fact tliat there is no record, in 
 so iiia/ny words, of its time and place, and of the 
 persons who officiated at the ordination. I have 
 shown, however, that there is every evidence that 
 could be adduced for the certainty of the fact, and 
 for its universal recognition by all his cotempora- 
 ries, both Romish, Anglican, and Eeformed. 
 
 But the difficulty may be met by an ai-giiment- 
 um ad Jiominem. Has any one, I ask, ever ques- 
 tioned the ordination of Bishop Butler, or docs 
 any one now doubt whether he was really and 
 canonically ordained? The answer must be given 
 in the negative. And yet on the ground assumed 
 by our opponents, his ordination may be altogether 
 denied. For in his life by Mr. Bartlett, it is 
 recorded, that ''at what time he took orders doth 
 not appear, nor who the bishop was by whom he 
 was ordained." And again : ''It is perhaps a lit- 
 tle singular that notwithstanding his private me- 
 moranda, which refer to the date of almost every 
 other event connected with his public life, there 
 is wo allusion either to tJie period of his ordina- 
 tion, or to the Prelate who conferred orders upon 
 him/' 
 
 This, certainly, is very singular, and more than 
 a parallel to the case of Calvin. Was Calvin edu- 
 cated in the Romish Church? — Butler was brought 
 up in the Presbyterian Church. Had Calvin 
 difficulty in making up his mind to embrace the 
 Reformed opinions? — So had Butler in receiving 
 the tenets of the Establishment. Did Calvin em- 
 brace and avow the Reformed opinions respecting 
 the Church, and the ministry, and ordination? — 
 So did Butler those of the Established Church in 
 England. And do tliese avowed opinions of But- 
 
162 APPENDIX. 
 
 ler, and this very change of connection, make it 
 certain that he must have been regularly ordained, 
 although there is such a mysterious absence of all 
 proof — and how much more certainly must we con- 
 clude that such was also the case as it regards Cal- 
 vin? For if such an omission can be supposed in 
 England, at so recent a period, and under the cir- 
 cumstances of the case, how much more mis-ht it 
 be looked for in the earliest period of the Reform- 
 ation, and amid the incipieucy of all their arrange- 
 ments. 
 
 Our opponents, therefore, before again exposing 
 their captious malice by taunting us with the case 
 of Calvin, had better learn the wisdom of that 
 proverb, that " they who live in glass houses ought 
 not to throw stones.'^ 
 
 CALVIN'S MISSION TO BRAZIL. 
 
 It was during this dark time that an event oc- 
 curred which has escaped the notice of many 
 American antiquaries and historians. We mean 
 the emigration of French Protestants to Brazil. 
 To call this a mission, Dr. Henry thinks inaccu- 
 rate.* Yet it appears from the letters of Richer, 
 the preacher of the refugees, that they were not 
 without some thoughts of converting the heathen. 
 Yillegagnon, a knight of Malta, gave the great 
 Coligni reason to believe, that he was about to 
 secure a spot in America, where the persecuted 
 Protestants might find a refuge. The admiral was 
 
 * Guericke, Kircliengesch. p. 1151. 
 
Calvin's mission to brazil. 163 
 
 won by the benevolent prospect. A small island, 
 we suppose it to have been near Eio de Janeiro, 
 was occupied by A^'illegagnon, in the name of Co- 
 ligni. Ministers of the word were now demanded, 
 and Richer and Chartier were sent from Geneva. 
 But, by a hideous treachery, these poor non-con- 
 formists of the South, less favoured than their 
 later brethren of Plymouth, were fiercely pur- 
 sued under the French edicts. Four of them 
 witnessed a good confession, and were cast into 
 the sea: the rest escaped to France. Jean de 
 Lery, afterwards a minister at Berne, was an eye- 
 witness of these atrocities, which he described on 
 his return. 
 
 The unusual interest which attaches to this 
 somewhat obscure chapter in history justifies us 
 in adding a few more particulars. Nicolas de 
 Yillegagnon was vice-admiral in Brittany, under 
 Henry II. Being disappointed and chagrined, 
 because his services were not sufficiently recog- 
 nized, he put himself at the head of the expedi- 
 tion aforesaid. There were two excellent ships, 
 and they set sail in 1555. The river Coligni, at 
 which they made settlement, is sufficiently pointed 
 out by the rude approximative statement of the 
 latitude.* The natives were kind, but the set- 
 tlers had more than the usual trials of colonists. 
 Kicher, whom we just now named, was fifty years 
 of age, and Chartier about thirty. Even on their 
 voyage they were ill-treated by the people of Yil- 
 legagnon. They landed on the 7th of March, 
 1556, and showed their letters, to which was ap- 
 
 * Oil le pole antarctique s'eleve sur I'horizon 23 de- 
 gres quelque peu moins. 
 
164 APPENDIX. 
 
 pended the name of Calvin. The perfidious gov- 
 ernor did not at first throw aside the mask, but 
 even went so far as to partake of the Lord's Sup- 
 per, according to the Protestant rite, as appears 
 from Kicher's letter to Calvin. In this letter are 
 several things worthy of more special notice than 
 we can here bestow. There is much naivete and 
 piety in the good missionary's report. The peo- 
 ple are rude, he says, though he knows not assur- 
 edly that they are cannibals. They have no sense 
 of right and wrong, and no idea of Grod, so that 
 there is little hope of making Christ known to 
 them. The language is a chief hinderance. No- 
 thing can be hoped until there are more settlers, 
 by whose converse and example the Indian people 
 may be christianized. A certain learned doctor 
 Cointiac used the preachers ill, and declared him- 
 self an enemy of the Huguenot worship. In this 
 he was now joined by Villegagnon, who suspended 
 Richer from his functions. Chartier was sent to 
 Europe to represent the matters in contest. Vil- 
 legagnon now began to persecute, and forbade the 
 wretched exiles to escape. Richer and his com- 
 panions retired to the forest, where they were 
 humanely treated by the savages. But others, 
 who endeavoured to get off by ship, were seized 
 and imprisoned. Villegagnon, in his new zeal for 
 popery, condemned five Huguenots to death, under 
 the ordonnances of Francis I. and Henry II. One 
 Bordel was cast into the sea, to die as a martyr : 
 so died also Vermeil and Pierre Bourdon. Ville- 
 gagnon returned to France, and "wrote against the 
 gospel, but was answered iDy Richer. The perse- 
 cutor died wretched and impenitent. 
 
APPENDIX VI. 
 
 CALVIN'S WIFE. 
 
 The following account of Calvin's wife, and of 
 his domestic life and character, will be at once 
 very interesting, and will very thoroughly corrob- 
 orate our view of his character. It is given in 
 the words of Monsieur G. de Felice, and is taken 
 from the New York Observer, of which he is the 
 able and always interesting correspondent. 
 
 IDELETTE DE BURE. 
 
 calyin's wife. 
 
 Preliminary Observations — Calvin hanislied froTn 
 Geneva and established at Strasbiirg — Traits 
 in his Character — Various Plans of Marriage — 
 Idelette De Bure — Biographical Notice — The 
 Marriage Ceremony — Ccdvin's Journey — His 
 Return to Geneva. 
 
 In my letter on the religious anniversaries of 
 Paris, I said that Mr. Jules Bonnet, a distin- 
 guished writer, who had spent several years in col- 
 lecting the manuscript correspondence of Calvin, 
 had read at the meeting of the Society for the 
 History of French Protestantism, a notice of Ide- 
 lette De Bure, the wife of the great Reformer. 
 The piece has since been published, and I am 
 15 (165) 
 
166 APPENDIX. 
 
 happy to communicate a sketch of it to your 
 readers, adding some facts derived from other 
 sources. 
 
 Idelette de Bure may be a new name, even to 
 well informed theologians, who have carefully 
 studied the annals of the Reformation. I confess 
 humbly that, for my part, I had hardly read here 
 and there three or four lines on the wife of Cal- 
 vin, and that I knew nothing of his domestic life. 
 The same ignorance exists probably in a majority 
 of those who will cast their eyes upon my letter. 
 Mr. Jules Bonnet has then rendered a real and 
 important service to the numerous friends of the 
 Geuevese Keformer : this notice of him is an his- 
 torical resurrection. 
 
 Of Luther's wife everybody has heard — that 
 Catherine de Bora, who left a nunnery to enter 
 the holy state of matrimony. The German Re- 
 former often alludes to the character, habits, and 
 opinions of his dear Katy, as he called her. He 
 shows us under her different aspects, this good, 
 simple-hearted woman, who had little intellectual 
 culture, but earnest piety. He acquaints us 
 minutely with his domestic life. We weep with 
 him over the grave of his 31agdalen; we listen to 
 his conversations with his son, to whom he speaks 
 in poetic terms of the joys of Paradise. In a 
 word, Luther's house is thrown open, and poster- 
 ity see the sweet face of Catherine de Bora, 
 drawn by the pencil of the illustrious Lucas 
 Kranach, as distinctly almost as Luther's. Why 
 is it not the same with Calvin and his wife ? 
 Why is their domestic sanctuary so little known ? 
 
 The chief reason is found in the marked differ- 
 ence between the two great founders of Protes- 
 
Calvin's wife. 167 
 
 tantism. Lutlier, the faithful representative of 
 the German or Saxon genus, loved home-life, and 
 attached value to its least incidents; he was warm 
 hearted, ever ready to introduce his friends to the 
 joys and sorrows of his fireside. He took pleasure 
 in sharino; with his wife and children all his own 
 emotions. Calvin had also, as we shall see, an 
 affectionate heart, capable of strong attachments. 
 But his natural disposition was reserved and aus- 
 tere. He would have regarded it as a weakness, 
 perhaps an act of guilty pride, to draw frequent 
 attention to himself, his sentiments, his personal 
 concerns. He avoided expressions of warm feel- 
 ing. "His soul, absorbed by the tragic emotions 
 of the struggle he maintained at Geneva, and by 
 the labours of his vast propagandism abroad,'' 
 says Mr. Bonnet, "rarely revealed itself, and only 
 in brief words: which are the lightnings of moral 
 sensibility, revealing unknown depths, without 
 showing them wholly to our view." No wonder 
 that Idelette de Bure remained half concealed, 
 the more so as she lived only a few years, and no 
 children remained of their marriage. Yet, among 
 Calvin's letters are found interesting notices of this 
 woman, who was certainly worthy of the illustri- 
 ous man that had offered her his hand. 
 
 During his youth, Calvin had not thought of 
 contracting the bonds of matrimony : he could not 
 indeed be married. Hunted by implacable per- 
 secutors, with no house in which to repose his 
 head; forced to hide himself sometimes in Ang- 
 ouleme, sometimes in Bale; preaching from place 
 to place, and celebrating the holy supper with 
 some friends in the depths of woods or in caves; 
 besides, occupied day and night in composing his 
 
168 APPENDIX. 
 
 book on the Institutions of the Christian Religion, 
 which was intended to plead before the King 
 Francis I , the cause of his brethren, who were 
 condemned to frightful punishments; how could 
 he wish to be married ? Would he have acted 
 wisely to aggravate his evils by domestic cares, 
 and to call a wife to bear half of so heavy a bur- 
 den? 
 
 In August, 1536, Calvin became professor and 
 pastor at Geneva. He had acquired a home ] but 
 still his labours were great. He had to struggle 
 against the men called libertines, who, after break- 
 ing the yoke of Romanism, abandoned themselves 
 to the grossest licentiousness. They viewed the 
 Reformation as a license to disregard all laws hu- 
 man and divine. These libertines occupied high 
 offices in Geneva. They were in the councils of 
 state, and had behind them a disorderly populace. 
 Calvin saw that the precious interests of the evan- 
 gelical faith were jeoparded. He lifted his voice 
 with invincible energy against the libertines, and 
 refused to receive them at the holy table, expos- 
 ing his blood, his life, to the discharge of his 
 duty. Certainl}^, this was not the moment to seek 
 a wife. 
 
 He was banished from Geneva by the libertine 
 party in April, 1538; and having been invited by 
 the pious Bucer to come to Strasburg, he was 
 appointed pastor of a parish of French refugees. 
 Then, for the first time, marriage seems to have 
 occupied his thoughts ; or rather, his friends, par- 
 ticularly Farel, tried to find for him a wise and 
 good companion. 
 
 In a letter addressed to Farel in May, 1539, 
 (he was then thirty years old), Calvin sketches 
 
Calvin's wife. 169 
 
 his ideal of a wife. "Remember/' he says to 
 his friend, "what I especially desire to meet with 
 in a wife. I am not, you know, of the number 
 of those inconsiderate lovers who adore even the 
 faults of the woman who charms them. I could 
 only be pleased with a lady who is sweet, chaste, 
 modest, economical, patient, and careful of her 
 husband's health. Has she of whom you have 
 spoken to me these qualities? Come with her 
 . . . . , if not let us say no more." 
 
 Another letter to the same pastor, Farel, dated 
 6 Febniary, 1540, shows us Calvin, eluding skil- 
 fully a proposal of marriage. "There has been 
 named to me," he says, "a young lady, rich, of 
 noble birth, and whose dowry surpasses all I could 
 desire. Two reasons, however, induce me to de- 
 cline: she does not know our language (she was 
 of Alsace, a German province,) and I think that 
 she is too proud of her birth and of her educa- 
 tion. Her brother endowed with uncommon 
 piety, and blinded by his friendship for me, so as 
 even to neglect his own interest, urges me to the 
 choice, and the wishes of his wife second his own. 
 What could I do ? I should have been forced to 
 yield if the Lord had not drawn me from my em- 
 barrassment. I replied that I would consent if 
 the lady, on her part, would promise to learn the 
 French language. She had asked for time to re- 
 flect " 
 
 The plan was abandoned. Calvin had foreseen 
 it, and congratulated himself on not marrying a 
 lady, who, with a large fortune, was far from pos- 
 sessing the requisite simplicity and humility. 
 This correspondence confirms what history relates 
 of Calvin's character. He was eminently disin- 
 
170 APPENDIX. 
 
 terested. A large dowry was a small thing in 
 his eyes. Of what importance was it for him to 
 have a rich wife^ if she was not a Christian ? 
 This is the same man who refused all the pecuni- 
 ary oifers of the sovereign council of Geneva, and 
 hardly left wherewith to pay the expenses of his 
 funeral — the paltry sum of fifty silver crowns. 
 
 A second proposal of marriage was made. The 
 lady in question had not any fortune, but she was 
 distinguished for her virtues. ''Her praise is in 
 every mouth," writes Calvin to Farel, in June, 
 1540. So Calvin requested his brother, Anthony 
 Calvin, in connection with other friends, to make 
 proposals of marriage. Unhappily, he learnt some 
 time after, something unfavourable of the young 
 lady's character; he withdrew the proposals, and 
 wrote sadly to his colleague: ''I have not yet 
 found a companion ; is it not wisest to abandon 
 my search?" Thus, he was discouraged by these 
 fruitless attempts, and seemed to give up the 
 prospect of marriage, as if the sweets of this 
 union were not made for him. It should be re- 
 marked that though he possessed such manly 
 firmness in questions of Christian faith, and 
 though capable of giving his life for the cause of 
 truth, Calvin was timid and reserved in little 
 things of common life. ''I am," he somewhere 
 says, "of a shy, bashful disposition; I have al- 
 ways loved quiet, and I seek concealment. I 
 know that I am naturally timid, soft and pusillan- 
 imous." 
 
 He preferred to remain a bachelor, lest he 
 should be ill received by the young ladies whom 
 he addressed, or not make a good choice. An 
 unexpected incident changed his resolution. There 
 
Calvin's wipe. 171 
 
 was in Strasburg a pious lady named Idelette de 
 Bure. She was a widow, and all her time was 
 spent in training the children she had had by her 
 first husband, John Storderj of the Anabaptist 
 sect. She was born in a small town of Guelders, 
 in Holland. She came to the capital of Alsace 
 as a place of refuge for victims of persecution. 
 The learned Dr. Bucer knew Idelette de Bure, 
 and it was he apparently who recommended her 
 to Calvin's attention. 
 
 Externally, there was in this woman nothing 
 very attractive. She was encumbered with seve- 
 ral children of a first marriage ] she had no for- 
 tune; she was dressed in mourning; her person 
 was not particularly handsome. But for Calvin, 
 she possessed the best of treasures, a living and 
 tried faith, an upright conscience, and lovely as 
 well as strong virtues. As he afterwards said of 
 her, she would have had the courage to bear with 
 him exile, poverty, death itself, in attestation of 
 the truth. Such were the noble qualities which 
 won the Reformer. 
 
 The nuptial ceremony was performed in Sep- 
 tember, 1540. Calvin was then thirty-one years 
 old and two months. He was not constrained by 
 juvenile passion, but obeyed the voice of nature, 
 reason and duty. The papists who constantly re- 
 proach the Reformers are mistaken. Luther and 
 Calvin, both of them, married at mature age: 
 they did what they ought to do and nothing 
 more. 
 
 No pomp in Calvin's marriage, no ill-timed re- 
 joiciags. All was calm and grave, as suited the 
 piety and gravity of the married pair. The con- 
 sistories of Neufcliatel and of Valentin, in Swit- 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 zerland, sent deputies to Strasburg to attend this 
 marriage; a striking mark of their attachment and 
 respect for Calvin, 
 
 Hardly were the nuptials passed when the 
 leader of the French Reformation was constrained 
 to leave the sweets of this domestic union. A 
 diet was convened at Wo/^ms, in which most im- 
 portant questions, relative to the future conditions 
 of Protestantism, were to be discussed. Calvin 
 was naturally called to take part in them. He 
 went to Worms, then to Ratishonne, trying to 
 conclude a peace between the two branches of the 
 Reformation. During his absence he confided 
 his wife to the care of Anthony Calvin, and the 
 noble family de Riclichourg, where he fulfilled for 
 some time the office of preceptor. The plague 
 broke out at Strasburg to his great alarm, and 
 penetrated the house where Idelette de Bure 
 lived. Jjouis de Richebourg and another inmate 
 of the family had fallen a prey to the disease. 
 Calvin trembled for his dear wife. ''I try,'' he 
 writes, 'Ho resist my grief — I resort to prayer 
 and to holy meditations, that I may not lose all 
 courage." During his residence at Ratisbonne, 
 where the fundamental interests of the new 
 churches were discussed, Calvin received a depu- 
 tation from Geneva, begging him earnestly to 
 return to that city. The Libertine party had dis- 
 closed their detestable designs. The strong will 
 and the moral power of Calvin were necessary to 
 restore order. He resisted this call a long time. 
 His hesitation, his tears, his anguish, attested that 
 he viewed with a sort of horror the heavy burden 
 which was laid upon him. At last he yielded, 
 saying: ^'Not my will; God^ but thine be done! 
 
Calvin's wife. 173 
 
 I offer my heart a sacrifice to thy holy will!" 
 And on the 13th of September, 1511, he returned, 
 after an exile of three years to the city of 
 Geneva, the face and the destinies of which he 
 changed. I am, &c., 
 
 G. De F. 
 
 Idelette de Bure settled in Geneva — Her Chris- 
 tian Virtues — Domestic Ajffiictions — Her fre- 
 quent Sickness — Last Moments — Death — Cal- 
 vin^ s Grief- — Conclusion. 
 
 Before fixing his residence definitely in Geneva, 
 Calvin had determined to go there and examine 
 for himself the true state of things. He went 
 alone, leaving his wife in Strasburg. But he 
 had no sooner entered the walls of the city than 
 the Genevese, fearing to lose once more a man of 
 whom they stood in so much need, took all proper 
 measures to detain him. The public councils 
 decided that a messenger of state should be sent to 
 Idelette at Strasburg, and should bring her with 
 her household (these were the terms of the reso- 
 lution) into the house assigned to the Reformer. 
 Thus did this humble, Christian woman, receive 
 honours decreed to a princess of royal blood, hav- 
 ing a messenger of state to guide and usher her 
 into her new dwelling. 
 
 Recent researches have been published con- 
 cerning this house which the magistrates gave for 
 Calvin's use after his return from exile. It had 
 belonged formerly to an abbey, and was situated in 
 
174 APPENDIX. 
 
 an agreeable position which opened extensive 
 views of the smiling borders of Lake Leman and 
 the majestic amphitheatre of the Alps. It is 
 remarkable, this house is now again in the hands 
 of the Roman Catholics, who have converted it 
 into a charitable institution, under the protection 
 of St. Vincent of Paul. In spite of the honours 
 which were accorded by the political councils of 
 Geneva, Idelette de Bure was not ambitious to 
 play a brilliant part in society. Always modest 
 and reserved, practising the virtues which suited 
 her sex, and shunning noise and pomp with as 
 much solicitude as other women seek them, she 
 consecrated her days to the duties of her pious 
 vocation. Her private correspondence with Cal- 
 vin — on the rare occasions when he mentions his 
 wife — makes us see her under a very engaging 
 aspect. She visited the poor, consoled the afflict- 
 ed, and received with hospitality the numerous 
 strangers who came without knocking at the gate 
 of the Reformer. In fact, every one recognized 
 in her the pious woman, of whom it is said in 
 Scripture, having "a meeh and quiet spirit which 
 is in the sight of God of great price," and worthy 
 to be praised for ever for her works. 
 
 Idelette de Bure devoted herself particularly to 
 the care of her husband. Exhausted by his con- 
 stant labours, Calvin was frequently ill; and treat- 
 ing his body roughly, after the example of Paul, 
 he persisted amidst bodily sufferings to perform 
 the multiplied duties of his office. Then his wife 
 would come and tenderly recommend him to take 
 a little repose, and watch at his pillow when his 
 illness had assumed an alarming character. Be- 
 sides, (and this will surprise the reader,) Calvin 
 
Calvin's wife. 175 
 
 had at times, like ordinary men, desponding feel- 
 ings; he was inclined to low spirits. '^Some- 
 times," he himself says, "although I am well in 
 body, I am depressed with grief, which prevents 
 me from doing anything, and I am ashamed to 
 live so uselessly." In these moments of dejec- 
 tion, when the heroic Reformer seemed, in spite 
 of his energy and incomparable activity, to sink 
 under the weight of our common infirmities, 
 Idelette de Bure was at hand, with tender and 
 encouraging words, which the heart of woman 
 can alone find; and her hand, so feeble, yet so 
 welcome and so affectionate, restored the giant of 
 the Reformation, who made the Pope and kings 
 tremble on their thrones ! Oh, the precious sup- 
 port and the magic power of a religious, attentive 
 and loving wife ! 
 
 Who can picture the salutary influence which 
 the humble Idelette de Bure exercised over the 
 Reformer? Calvin, as Mr. Jules Bonnet remarks, 
 was often pained by the opposition he met with, 
 for men submit reluctantly to the designs of 
 genius. '' How often," adds the biographer, "in 
 these years of struggle and of secret weaknesses 
 which his correspondence reveals, did he become 
 composed before the courageous and sweet woman 
 who could make no compromise with duty ! How 
 many times, perhaps, he was soothed and quieted 
 by one of those words which come from the heart ! 
 .... And when afterwards more gloomy days 
 arrived, and the strife of opinions called forth 
 JBoIsec, Michael Servetus, Gentilis, (Idelette de 
 Bure was no longer alive) who can say how much 
 the Reformer missed the advice, the sweet in- 
 fluence of this woman? 
 
176 APPENDIX. 
 
 To return to our narrative. Idelette's greatest 
 pleasure was to listen to the holy exhortations of 
 Far el, Peter Vlret, ^Theodore de Beze, who often 
 sat at the hospitable table of their illustrious 
 chief, and loved to renew their courage in con- 
 verse with him. Sometimes — but rarely — she 
 accompanied her husband in his walks to Cologny, 
 to Belle-Rive on the enchanting banks of Lake 
 Leman. At other times, in order to repose after 
 her fatigues, or when Calvin was called away to 
 attend to the business of the Reformed Churches, 
 Idelette would go and spend some days at Laus- 
 anne with the wife of Yiret. We see her in this 
 Christian family in 1545 and 1548, careful not to 
 give trouble to her hosts, and troubled because 
 she could not render them some good offices in 
 return for those which they had shown her. 
 
 Bitter domestic afflictions came upon Calvin 
 and his wife. The second year of their marriage, 
 in the month of July, 1542, Idelette had a son. 
 But, alas I this child, for whom they had devoutly 
 returned thanks to God, and oiFered so many fer- 
 vent prayers, was soon taken from them by death. 
 The churches of Geneva and of Lausanne showed 
 the parents marks of sympathy. Feeble mitiga- 
 tion of so heavy a trial ! It is easier to imagine 
 than to express the grief of a mother's heart. 
 Calvin lets us see his sorrow and that of his com- 
 panion, in a letter addressed, the 10th of August, 
 1542, to Peter A'iret : ^' Salute all our brethren,'' 
 says he, '' salute also your wife, to whom mine 
 presents her thanks for her tender and pious con- 
 solations She would like to answer them 
 
 with her own hand, but she has not even the 
 strength to dictate a few words. The Lord has 
 
Calvin's wife. 177 
 
 dealt us a grievous blow, in taking from us our 
 son; but He is our Father, and knows what is 
 meet for his children." Paternal affection and 
 Christian resignation are both displayed in Cal- 
 vin's letters at this time. In 1544, a new trial 
 of this kind afflicted the hearts of these parents. 
 A daughter was born to them ; she lived only a 
 few days, as we see in a letter addressed in 1544 
 to the pastor Viret. Again a third child was 
 taken from them. Idelette wept bitterly; and 
 Calvin, so often tried, sought his strength from 
 the Lord ; and the thought occurred to him that 
 he was destined only to have children according 
 to the faith. So he said to one of his adversaries, 
 who had been base enough to reproach bim with 
 his domestic losses: "Yes," replied Calvin, "the 
 Lord has given me a son; he has taken him from 
 me. Let my enemies, if they see proper, re- 
 proach me for this trial. Have not I thousands 
 of children in the Christian world?" 
 
 The health of Idelette, already delicate, was 
 impaired by these repeated griefs. The familiar 
 letters of the Reformer inform us that she passed 
 her last years in a state of languor and suffering. 
 Often he speaks of her as sick in bed, and asks 
 the prayers of her friends. Often he tells how 
 she has revived. Calvin's affection for his wife 
 appears in these communications ; " Salute your 
 wife," he writes to Viret in 1548; ''mine is her 
 sad companion in bodily weakness. I fear the 
 issue. Is there not enough evil threatening us 
 at the present time? The Lord will perhaps 
 show a more favourable countenance." 
 
 There was then at Geneva a learned physician, 
 named Benedict Textor. He was a pious man. 
 16 
 
178 APPENDIX. 
 
 full of zeal for the Lord, and a particular friend of 
 Calvin. He was assiduous in his care of Idelette, 
 and exhausted himself in seeking all the aid that 
 human art could afford. But his efforts were 
 fruitless, the fever increased. Calvin felt for the 
 physician deep gratitude, and addressed him in 
 the month of July, 1550, a letter dedicating to 
 him his commentary on the second epistle to the 
 Thessalonians. Early in April, 1549, Idelette's 
 condition inspired deep anxiety. Theodore de 
 Beze, Hottman, Desgallers, and other colleagues 
 of the Reformer hastened to him to console him 
 as well as his wife in her last illness. Idelette, 
 sustained even to the end by piety, had consented 
 to the sundering of her earthly ties; her only 
 anxiety was concerning the fate of the children 
 she had had b' ler first marriage. One of her 
 friends asked iier to speak of them to Calvin. 
 "Why should I do so?" she answered; "what 
 concerns me, is that ray children may be brought 
 
 up in virtue If they are virtuous they will 
 
 find in him a father. If they are not, why should 
 I recommend them to him?'' But Calvin him- 
 self knew her wishes, and promised to treat her 
 children as if they were his own. " I have already 
 recommended them to God," said Idelette. "But 
 that does not hinder that I should take care of 
 them also,'' said Calvin. "I know well," said 
 she, "that you will never abandon those whom I 
 have confided to the Lord." 
 
 Idelette saw the approach of death with calm- 
 ness. Her soul was unshaken in the midst of her 
 sufferings, which were accompanied by frequent 
 faintings. When she could not speak, her look, 
 her gestures, the expression of her face, revealed 
 
Calvin's wife. 179 
 
 sufficiently tlie faith which strengthened her in 
 her last hour. On the morning of April 6th, a 
 pastor named Bourgoin addressed to her pious ex- 
 hortation. She joined in broken exclamations, 
 which seemed an anticipation of heaven : "0 glo- 
 rious resurrection ! God of Abraham and our 
 
 fathers ! Hope of Christians for so many 
 
 ages, in thee I hope.'' 
 
 At 7 o'clock in the morning she fainted again; 
 and, feeling that her voice was about to fail, 
 *'Pray," said she, ^'0 my friends, pray for me!" 
 Calvin approaching her bedside, she showed her 
 joy by her looks. With emotion he spoke to her 
 of the grace that is in Christ; of the earthly pil- 
 grimage; of the assurance of a blessed eternity; 
 and closed by a fervent prayer. Idelette followed 
 his words, listened attentively to '' '^e holy doctrine 
 of salvation in Jesus crucified: About nine 
 o'clock she breathed her last sigh, but so peace- 
 fully that it was for some moments impossible to 
 discover if she ceased to live, or if she was asleep. 
 
 Such is the account Calvin gives to his col- 
 leagues of the death of his beloved wife. Then he 
 turned sadly his eyes upon his now desolate stcite 
 of widowhood. '' I have lost," he said to Viret, 
 in a letter of April 7th, 1549, ''I have lost the 
 excellent companion of my life, who never would 
 have left me in exile nor in pain, nor in death. 
 So long as she lived, she was a precious help to 
 me. Never occupied with herself, and never be- 
 ing to her husband a trouble nor a hiuderance. . . 
 ... I suppress my grief as much as I can; my 
 friends make it their duty to console me; but 
 they and myself eifect little. You know the tender- 
 ness of my heart, not to say its weakness. I 
 
180 APPENDIX. 
 
 should succumb if I did not make an effort over 
 myself to moderate my affliction/' Four days 
 after, he wrote to his old friend, Farel : ''Adieu, 
 dear and beloved brother ; may Grod direct you 
 by his Spirit and support me in my trial ! I would 
 not have survived this blow, if God had not ex- 
 tended his hand from heaven. It is He who raises 
 the desponding soul, who consoles the broken 
 heart, who stren2:thens the feeble knees." 
 
 Under the weight of so grievous a loss, Calvin 
 however, was enabled to fulfil all the duties of 
 his ministry; and the constancy he displayed 
 amidst his tears excited the admiration of his 
 friends, as we read it in Yiret's reply to Calvin. 
 The remembrance of her whom he had no more, 
 was not effaced from his heart. Although he was 
 but forty years of age, he never thought of contract- 
 ing other ties ; and he pronounced the name of 
 Idelette de Bure only with profound respect for 
 her virtues and a deep veneration for her memory. 
 
 I close with these words of the biographer : 
 '' Calvin was great without ceasing to be good; he 
 joined the qualities of the heart to the gifts of 
 
 genius He tasted domestic happiness in 
 
 too brief a union, the secrets of which, dimly re- 
 vealed by his correspondence, shed a melancholy 
 and sweet li2;ht over his life.'' G. de F. 
 
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