CAREFULLY WRITTEN BY THEODORE BEZA MINISTER OF THE CHURCH OF GENEVA LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN, BY THEODORE BEZA SHOULD any one suppose that I have engaged in writing this Life of John Calvin from any other motive than zeal to maintain the truth, the present state of human affairs will, I hope, easily vindicate me from the calumny.

For there is scarcely any shorter road to all kinds of disaster than to praise virtue; and it were extreme folly voluntarily to bring down on one’s self evils which mere silence may avert. But if the wicked allow no kind of virtue to be proclaimed with impunity, what must those expect, whose object it is to proclaim piety, which is of a higher order than virtue, and is not only opposed by the wicked, but is also very often assailed even by persons who are most desirous to appear, and sometimes also to be, honest? For piety has no enemies more inveterate than those who have sincerely embraced a false religion, thinking it true, But these things, however formidable in appearance, have not at all deterred me. For it were shameful if, from fear of the wicked, the good were not to be spoken of, and if the voice of religion were to be suppressed by the clamors of the superstitious.

But should any one object, that to write the Life of Calvin is a very different thing from defending the truth, I will at once admit that man and truth are very different things; this, however, I will not hesitate to say, that He who is truth itself did not speak rashly when he said, “As the Father hath sent me, so send I you,” ( John 20:21,) and “who so heareth you heareth me,” ( Luke 10:16.)

Let men, therefore, (both those who believe through ignorance, and those who so speak from malice,) cry out, that Luther, Zuinglius, and Calvin, are regarded by us as gods, though we are continually charging the worshippers of saints with idolatry; let them, I say, cry out as much and as long as they please, — we are prepared with our answer, viz., that to commemorate the labors which holy men have undertaken in behalf of religion, together with their words and actions, (through the knowledge of which the good become better, while the wicked are reproved, our only aim in this kind of composition,) is a very different thing from doing as they do, when they either bring disgrace on the lives of men who were truly pious, by narratives not less impious than childish, (as an obscure individual called Abdias did with the history of the Apostles,) or compose fabulous histories filled with the vilest falsehoods, (they, in their barbarous jargon, call them Golden Legends, I call them abominable trash,) and endeavor, moreover, to bring back the idols of the ancient Gods, the only difference being a change of name.

We are as far from these worshippers of the dead as light is from darkness.

Against conduct such as theirs, the Lord denounces the severest threatenings, ours, on the contrary, he commends, when he bids us keep both our bodily and mental eye intent upon his works. Nobody, I presume, will deny, that of all the works of God, men best deserve to be known and observed, and of men, those of them who have been distinguished at once for learning and piety. It is not without cause Daniel ( Daniel 12:3) compares holy men of God to stars, since they by their brightness show the way of happiness to others. Those who allow that brightness to be entirely extinguished by death, deserve to be themselves plunged in thicker darkness than before. I have no intention, however, to imitate those who, in their eagerness for declamation and panegyric, have not so much adorned the truth as brought it into suspicion. Trying not how elegantly, but how truly I could write, I have preferred the style of simple narrative. JOHN CALVIN was born at Noyons, a celebrated town in Picardy, or at least on the confines of Picardy, on the 27th July, in the year of our Lord 1509. His father’s name was Gerard Calvin, his mother’s Joan France, both of them persons of good repute, and in easy circumstances. Gerard being a person of no small judgment and prudence, was highly esteemed by most of the nobility of the district, and this was the reason why young Calvin was from a boy very liberally educated, though at his father’s expense, in the family of the Mommors, one of the most distinguished in that quarter. Having afterwards accompanied them to Paris in the prosecution of his studies, he had for his master in the College of La Marche, Maturinus Corderius, a man of great worth and erudition, and in the highest repute in almost all the schools of France as a teacher of youth.

He attained the age of 85, and died (the same year as Calvin) at Geneva, while a professor in the Academy of that city. Calvin afterwards removed to the College of Mont Aigu, and there had for his master a Spaniard, a man of considerable attainments. Under him Calvin, who was a most diligent student, made such progress, that he left his fellow-students behind in the Grammar course, and was promoted to the study of Dialectics, and what is termed Arts.

His father had at first intended him for the study of Theology, to which he inferred that he was naturally inclined; because, even at that youthful age, he was remarkably religious, and was also a strict censor of every thing vicious in his companions. This I remember to have heard from some Catholics, unexceptionable witnesses, many years after he had risen to celebrity.

Being thus, as it were, destined to the sacred office, his father procured a benefice for him from the Bishop of Noyons, in what is called the Cathedral church, and thereafter the cure of a parish connected with a suburban village called Pont — Eveque, the birth-place of his father, who continued to live in it till his removal to the town. It is certain that Calvin, though not in priest’s orders, preached several sermons in this place before he quitted France f1 . The design of making him a priest was interrupted by a change in the views both of father and son — in the former, because he saw that the Law was a surer road to wealth and honor and in the latter, because, having been made acquainted with the reformed faith, by a relation named Peter Robert Olivet (the person to whom the churches of France owe that translation of the Old Testament, from the Hebrew, which was printed at Neufchatel,) he had begun to devote himself to the study of the Holy Scriptures, and from an abhorrence at all kinds of superstition, to discontinue his attendance on the public services of the Church. * Calvin went therefore to Orleans for the purpose of prosecuting his studies in civil law, which was taught by Peter de l’Etoile, the most distinguished of all the French civilians; and his progress in a short time was so surprising that, as he frequently supplied the chairs of the professors themselves, he was esteemed a teacher rather than a scholar.

The degree of Doctor, free of expense, was offered him when on the point of leaving, with the unanimous and most flattering testimony of all the professors to his merits, and his claims upon the University. In the midst of his other labors, he made so great a progress in the study of the Scriptures, which he at the same time diligently prosecuted, that all those who were zealous to be instructed in the reformed religion, frequently applied to him for information, and were struck with deep admiration of the extent of his erudition, and of the ardor of his pursuits. Some of his surviving associates and fellow-students assert, that he was accustomed at this period of his life, after taking a very frugal supper, to pursue his lucubrations till midnight, and employ his morning hours in bed, reviewing, and as it were, digesting the studies of the preceding night; nor did he easily allow any interruption to this train of meditation. These longcontinued watchings assisted him indeed in attaining solid erudition, and improving an excellent memory, but there is every reason for thinking that in return he contracted a weakness of the digestive organs, productive of various diseases, and finally even of an untimely death.

Calvin determined to attend the lectures of Andrew Alciat, the first civilian without doubt of the age, who in consequence of accepting an invitation from Italy to the University of Bourges, settled there, and much increased its celebrity by his talents. During his residence at this city, Calvin formed an intimate friendship, on account of his religion and learning, with Melchior Wolmar, a native of Rothweil in Germany, and at that time public professor of Greek in Bourges. It affords me very great pleasure to speak of this distinguished scholar, because he was my sole preceptor from childhood to mature age; nor can I ever sufficiently praise his learning, piety, and other virtues, but especially his admirable skill in the instruction of youth. By his advice and assistance, Calvin attained an acquaintance with Greek literature, and was desirous to acknowledge the remembrance of his obligation to all future ages, by dedicating to Wolmar his Commentaries on the 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians. While Calvin pursued his professional studies he never neglected the Holy Scriptures, and occasionally preached at Ligniers, a small town in the Province of Berri, in the presence, and with the approbation of the head of that department. (III.)

The intelligence of the sudden death of his father recalled Calvin from Bourges to his native country. Not long after he removed from Noyon to Paris, and in his twenty-fourth year published his excellent Commentary on Seneca’s Epistle concerning Clemency. Calvin was certainly very much delighted with this very serious author, whose sentiments evidently harmonized with his own moral character. (IV.)

Calvin, during the few months he was at Paris, became acquainted with all the zealous supporters of the reformed religion; and we have frequently heard him afterwards praise, among the rest, Steven de la Forge, a distinguished merchant, subsequently burned for the name of Christ, on account of his remarkable piety. He has also eulogized this martyr in his treatise against the libertines. Calvin, from that time, abandoning all other studies, devoted himself to the service of God, to the very great satisfaction of all those pious characters, who then held their meetings privately in Paris.

Not long after this an opportunity presented itself for the display of his strenuous efforts in the cause of the reformed religion. Nicholas Cop, son of William Cop, physician to the king, and a citizen of Basle, was at that time appointed in the usual manner, rector of the University of Paris.

Calvin prepared for him an oration to be delivered according to custom, on the 1st of November, when the Roman Catholics celebrated the feast of All Saints; and in this he discussed the subject of religion with greater purity and more boldness, than the hierarchy had before experienced. This excited the displeasure, of the Sorbonne, and the parliament was so much offended as to cite the rector to appear. At first the rector prepared, with his officers, to attend the summons, but being admonished by friends, as he was on his way, to avoid his adversaries, he returned home, left the kingdom, and retired to Basle. A party proceeded to Calvin’s lodgings in the College de Forfret, but happily not finding him at home, they seized among his papers a considerable number of letters from his friends, and the lives of several of them were thus exposed to very imminent danger. f4 Such was the severity of the judges against the church of Christ at that period, and the violence of John Morin was peculiarly striking, whose name is yet distinguished for uncommon cruelty. The queen of Navarre, only sister of Francis 1st, a princess of extraordinary talents, afforded the reformer, on this occasion, marked protection, and the Lord dispelled the storm by her intercession. She invited Calvin to her court, received him with great honor, and gave him an audience. (V.)

Calvin left Paris, went to Saintonge, and assisted one of his friends, at whose request he composed some short Christian exhortations, which were presented to certain parishes to be read as homilies, that the people might gradually be enticed to a zeal in the investigation of the truth. f5 About this time he came to Nerac in Gascony, on a visit to James le Fevre, of Estaples, now far advanced in years, who had been defended by the same queen of Navarre, when in danger of his life from the vain and foolish doctors of the Sorbonne, for his having introduced great improvements in mathematics and other branches of philosophy in the University of Paris, after a long and very violent opposition, and for his assisting to rout out the scholastic theology. She had also provided for him in Nerac a town within her jurisdiction. The good old man received and saw young Calvin with great kindness, and predicted that he would become a distinguished instrument in restoring the kingdom of heaven in France. (VI.) Not long after Calvin returned to Paris, as if called there by the hand of God himself; for the impious Servetus was even then disseminating his heretical poison against the sacred Trinity in that city. He professed to desire nothing more earnestly than to have an opportunity for entering into discussion with Calvin, who waited long for Servetus, the place and time for an interview having been appointed, with great danger to his own life, since he was at that time under the necessity of being concealed on account of the incensed rage of his adversaries. Calvin was disappointed in his expectations of meeting Servetus, who wanted courage to endure even the sight of his opponent.

The year 1534 was distinguished by many horrid cruelties inflicted upon the reformers. Gerard de Rousel, Doctor of the Sorbonne, affording at that time great assistance to the study of religion, and Couraut, of the order of St. Augustin, who, having been for two years under the patronage of the queen of Navarre, promoted very much the cause of the gospel in Paris, were not only dragged out of their pulpits, but thrown into prison. The indignation of the infatuated Francis 1st, was so much enraged on account of certain papers against the mass dispersed through the city, and affixed to his chamber door, that having appointed a public procession, he walked uncovered before it, bearing a lighted torch, as if in expiation of the crime, accompanied by his three sons. He ordered eight martyrs to be burned alive in four principal quarters of the city, and declared with a solemn oath that he would not spare his own children, if by any chance infected with these, as he called them, most execrable heresies. (VII.)

Calvin, beholding with grief such a spectacle of woe, determined to leave France, after he had first published at Orleans an excellent little work, entitled “Psychopannychia,” against an error which commenced in the earliest ages of the church, and was again revived by those who taught that the soul sleeps when in a state of separation from the body.

With an intention of leaving France, he went by way of Lorraine towards Basle, with the young gentleman at whose house, as already stated, he resided at Saintonge. Near Metz he was plundered by a servant, who saddled one of the strongest horses, and fled with so much speed that he could not be apprehended, after he had perfidiously robbed his masters of all things necessary for their journey, and reduced them to great difficulties. The other servant, however, lent them ten crowns, which enabled them to proceed with considerable inconvenience to Strasburgh, and thence to Basle. He formed an intimate friendship in this city with Simon Grinee, and Wolfgang Capito, men of the greatest celebrity, and devoted himself to the study of the Hebrew language. Though very desirous to do his utmost that he might remain in obscurity, as appears from one of Bucer’s letters to Calvin the following year, he was under the necessity of publishing what he called the Institutes of the Christian Religion, and the rudiment of much the largest of his works. For when the German princes, who had supported the gospel, and whose friendship he then courted, were indignant at Francis 1st, for the murder of his Protestant subjects, the only wise remedy proposed by Bellay-Lange, which he resolved to adopt, was his declaration that he had merely punished the Anabaptists, who boast only in their own spirit as the divine word, and despise all magistrates. Calvin, feeling indignant at the calumny with which the new religion was branded, seized this opportunity for publishing what I consider an incomparable work. He prefixed also an admirable preface to the king himself, and if he could from any circumstance have been induced to read it, I am either very much mistaken or a great wound would, even at that period, have been inflicted on the whore of Babylon. For the king differed in many respects from his successors; he was a very acute judge of the situation of affairs, possessed an excellent talent in detecting the truth, was a patron of learned men, and his inclination did not lead him to hate persons of the reformed religion.

But neither his own sins, nor the sins of his people, which were even then menaced with the speedy arrival of God’s indignation, allowed him to hear, much less to read, this work.

After completing his Institutes, and faithfully performing the duties he owed his native country, he felt a desire to pay, as if at a distance, his respects to Italy, and to visit Renee, the Duchess of Ferrara, and daughter of Louis 12th king of France, whose piety was at that time very much praised. He therefore, waited upon her, and at the same time so confirmed her in a sincere zeal for religion, to the utmost of his abilities according to the existing state of affairs, that she continued ever after to entertain a sincere affection for him during his life; and now also, as his survivor, exhibits striking marks of her gratitude after his death. (VIII.)

From Italy, whose territories he entered, to use his own language, only that he might leave them, Calvin returned to France, where he settled all his affairs, and brought along with him Anthony Calvin, his only surviving brother. His intention was to return to Basle or Strasburgh, but the wars compelled him to make his route through Dauphiny and Savoy, all other countries having been completely closed against his passage. This was the cause of his coining without his own intention to Geneva, where, as future events proved, he was conducted by a divine hand. For the gospel had a short time before been wonderfully introduced into that city by the joint exertions of two very distinguished characters, William Farel, a gentleman of Dauphiny, educated, not in a monastery, as was reported by some, but in the academy of James Fabre, of Estaples, and Peter Viret, of Orb, in the Territory of Berne, and Friburgh, whose labors were afterwards most abundantly blessed of the Lord. Calvin, passing through Geneva, visited these good men as a matter of course, on which occasion Farel, with his usual heroic spirit, after urging him at some length to continue, and share their labors at Geneva without going farther, thus addressed Calvin, when he manifested no disposition to comply with the proposal: “I denounce unto you, in the name of Almighty God, that if, under the pretext of prosecuting your studies, you refuse to labor with us in this work of the Lord, the Lord will curse you, as seeking yourself rather than Christ.”

Calvin, terrified by this dreadful denunciation, surrendered himself to the disposal of the Presbytery and magistrates, by whose votes, and the consent of the people, he was chosen not only preacher, which at first he had refused, but also appointed professor of divinity, which office he accepted in the month of August, 1536. f8 This year is also distinguished by a closer alliance between Geneva and Berne, and by the accession of Lausanne to Christ, where a free disputation was held against the Catholics, which Calvin also attended.

Calvin then published a certain formulary of doctrine suited to the state of the church of Geneva, which was only just emerging from the corruptions of popery. He added also a catechism, not, as it is now, distinguished into questions and answers, but much shorter, comprising the chief articles of religion. Afterwards he endeavored in conjunction with Farel and Couraut, to settle the state of the church in Geneva, the greater part of his colleagues, from timidity, avoiding all disturbance, while some even secretly opposed the work of the Lord, which Calvin beheld with deep concern. He induced the citizens to convene an assembly of the whole people, for the purpose of openly abjuring popery, and of swearing to the Christian doctrine and discipline included in a few articles.

Many refused to do this in a city not yet completely liberated from the artifices of the Duke of Savoy, and from the yoke of Antichrist, and where various factions still continued to rage. On the 20th July, however, in the year 1537, the Lord granted that the senate and people of Geneva, openly preceded by a public scribe, should swear to the articles reign among various persons in a city, which had been for so many years under the power of monks, and of a profligate clergy; and ancient quarrels, which commenced during the wars with the Duke of Savoy, were still fostered among some of the principal families. He first endeavored, without effecting any thing, to remove these disorders by gentle admonition, afterwards by severely reproving the stubborn and refractory. The evil increased so much that the city was divided by the seditious conduct of private individuals into various factions, and a considerable number altogether refused to join that body of the people who had abjured popery. At last affairs came to such a height, that Farel, Calvin, and Couraut, (who, as we have already stated, after boldly defending the truth at Paris, was brought by Calvin first to Basle, and afterwards to Geneva, when he himself was settled there,) openly testified that they could not properly administer the Lord’s Supper to citizens who lived in such a state of discord, and were so utterly averse to all church discipline. To this also was added another evil, the disagreement of the church of Geneva with that of Berne in certain rites. The churches of Geneva not only used common bread, but had removed all baptismal fonts, as they are called, considering them unnecessary for performing the office of baptism, and had abolished all festivals except Sunday. The synod of Lausanne, compelled by the people of Berne, had decided that Geneva should be requested to restore the use of unleavened bread, the baptismal fonts, and the festivals. The college of the ministers of Geneva considered it right that an audience should be afforded, and on this account another synod was convened at Zurich. Those who had been elected syndics at that time, for this highest office in Geneva is appointed annually, embracing this as a favorable opportunity, became the leaders of the seditious and factious part of the city, and assembled the people. They bought affairs to such a state, that while Calvin and the rest of his colleagues, who held the same views, offered in vain to assign a reason for their conduct, these three faithful servants of God, in consequence of the more virtuous party being outvoted, were ordered to leave the city within two days for refusing to administer the Lord’s Supper. When Calvin was informed of the decree of banishment, he said, “Certainly, had I been in the service of men, this would have been a bad reward; but it is well that I have served Him, who never fails to repay his servants whatever he has once promised.” f9 Who would not have thought that such measures were calculated to bring certain destruction to the church at Geneva? The event, however, on the other hand, showed that it was done by Divine Providence, partly with a view to qualify Calvin, by the various experience he acquired as a faithful servant in other scenes of usefulness, for engaging in still nobler labors, and partly to purge the church of Geneva from much of its corruption, while the leaders in the sedition were overthrown by their own violence. So wonderful does the Lord manifest himself in all his works, but especially in the government of his Church. The truth of these remarks was proved by the final result of this transaction. But these three servants of Christ, obeying at that time the edict, while all good men mourned on account of their banishment, proceeded first to Zurich, where a synod being convened of some of the Swiss churches, means were used according to its decree, by the intercession of the government of Berne, to try to influence the minds of the governors and people of Geneva. This attempt was of no avail, and Calvin went first to Basle, and next to Strasburg, where with the sanction of the senate of that city he was appointed professor of divinity, with a liberal stipend, by Bucer, Capito, Hedio, Niger, and the rest of their colleagues, men of the highest eminence, who then illuminated, as so many shining gems, the established church of that place. He not only taught divinity there with the greatest applause of all good men, but with the consent of the senate planted also a French church, and introduced such discipline as he approved. Satan, thus disappointed in his expectation, beheld Calvin welcomed by another city, on his expulsion from the church of Geneva, where in a short time a new church was formed. In the mean while Satan, using every exertion to subvert entirely the church erected at Geneva, which had been shaken to its very foundation, found in a short time some idle characters, who, for the purpose of concealing the great iniquity of the decree under the pretext of religion, determined that unleavened bread should be substituted for common, formerly used at the Lord’s table, with a view to afford an opportunity for fomenting new dissensions. And the great enemy of the Church would have succeeded in this plan, had not Calvin seriously admonished some good men, so displeased with the change as to consider it their duty to refrain from taking the Lord’s Supper, not to contend about a subject in itself indifferent. The use of unleavened bread commenced in the manner now stated, nor did Calvin on his future restoration think it worth while to make any opposition to the practice, though he did not attempt to conceal his approval of the use of common bread.

Another still more dangerous evil commenced in the year 1539, and was at the same time extinguished by Calvin’s diligence. James Sadolet, Bishop of Carpentras, a man of great eloquence, which he chiefly abused to suppress the light of the truth, and who had been presented with a cardinal’s hat, with a view to enable a character, whose moral conduct was in other respects regular, to decorate a false religion in the best possible colors. He, observing the opportunity then offered, and thinking he would easily lead away a flock deprived of such distinguished pastors, adducing also as an excuse his vicinity to Geneva, for Carpentras is a city in Dauphiny, which joins on Savoy, sent letters addressed to his dearly beloved brethren, as he termed them, the magistracy, council, and people of Geneva, in which he omitted nothing that might be useful in recalling them to the bosom of Rome, that great harlot. There was no person at Geneva able to answer this work, and it would in all probability, if not written in a foreign language, have been productive of great mischief to that city in its present circumstances. But when Calvin read this letter at Strasburg, he forgot all the injuries he had received, and immediately answered it with so much truth and eloquence, that Sadolet forthwith gave up the whole business as desperate. But Calvin did not permit so long a period to elapse before he manifested the due affection which he felt as a pastor for his flock at Geneva, who were at that time suffering among their fellow citizens in a very severe manner for the common cause of religion. The excellent letters which he wrote at Strasburg, both in the year of his expulsion and the following, exhibit striking marks of his affection, in which his whole object is, in an especial manner, to exhort them to repentance before God, to forbearance towards the wicked, to concord and peace with their pastors, and prayer and supplication to the Head of the Church. He thus prepares them for the renewed expectation of the splendid shining forth of that much desired pleasant light from the midst of the most horrible darkness, and the event wonderfully proved the truth of his prediction. He then published, in a much more enlarged form, his “Christian Institutions,” his “Commentaries upon the Epistle to the Romans,” dedicated to his most affectionate friend Simon Grinee, as also a golden Treatise “on the Lord’s Supper,” for the use of his French congregation at Strasburg, translated afterwards into Latin by Galar. He handled the subject of the Lord’s Supper with so much skill and erudition, that it may in a very great measure be considered the means of affording, by the divine blessing, decisive answers to a great variety of most unhappy controversies, in which men of the highest attainments in learning and virtue justly acquiesced.

He had great success in reclaiming many Anabaptists; their principal leaders were Paul Volse, to whom Erasmus had dedicated his “Manual of the Christian Soldier,” afterwards a pastor in the church of Strasburg, and John Storder, of Liege, who subsequently fell a victim to the plague; and Calvin married, by the advice of Bucer, his widow, Idolette de Bure, distinguished for virtue and gravity. f10 Such were the studies and employments of Calvin at Strasburg till the year 1541, when conferences, appointed by Charles the 5th, were held first at Worms, and afterwards at Ratisbon, for effecting a pacification between the Catholics and Protestants. (See note A.) Calvin was present, by the appointment of the ministers of Strasburg, and was of no small use to the churches in general, particularly to those in his own country. Philip Melancthon and Gaspar Cruciger, of happy memory, were in a peculiar manner delighted with him; the former often honored Calvin with the distinctive appellation of “the divine,” and the latter, after holding a private conference with him on the subject of the Lord’s Supper, expressly approved of his views.

The time had now arrived when the Lord determined to have pity on his church at Geneva. One of the four syndics, by whose means the decree for banishing the faithful ministers had been passed, being accused of sedition in conducting the affairs of the state, was precipitated, in consequence of his corpulency, when he was endeavoring to escape through a window, and his body was so bruised that he died of his wounds a few days after the accident. Another was beheaded for murder. The other two, accused of having betrayed the interests of the city in an embassy, fled from their country, and were condemned to perpetual exile.

On the expulsion of such offscum from the city, Geneva began to demand its own Farel and Calvin. And when no hopes of recovering Farel from Neuchatel remained, the citizens directed their attention in the most earnest manner to Calvin, and sent a deputation, uniting also the intercession of Zurich, to Strasburg, that they might obtain the consent of its citizens for his removal. The people of Strasburg were very reluctant to part with Calvin, and though his own attachment to the people of Geneva had not been changed, in consequence of the insults offered him by men of the basest characters, yet he disliked all disturbance, and plainly refused to return, because he saw the Lord had blessed his ministry in the church at Strasburg. Bucer and his colleagues testified their very great unwillingness to part with him. The people of Geneva persisting to demand Calvin, f11 Bucer at last thought it right to grant their requests for a limited time; he could not, however, persuade Calvin to yield, until he denounced the severe judgment of Heaven against him, and pressed upon him the consideration of the example of Jonah. But since these things occurred at the time when Calvin and Bucer were engaged by a decree to go to the conferences at Ratisbon, his departure was deferred, and the Genevese only obtained leave from the inhabitants of Berne to allow Peter Viret to go from Lausanne to Geneva. Calvin returned to the city with more readiness when he found Viret appointed his colleague, whose assistance and counsel would be of great use to him in restoring the church. Thus, after the lapse of a few months, Calvin returned to Geneva on the 13th of September, 1541; all the people, and particularly the senate highly congratulating themselves on the occasion, and acknowledging, in an impressive manner, the signal kindness and favor of God to their city. Nor did Geneva rest until the temporary grant of his services, made by Strasburg, was changed into a permanent surrender. Strasburg conceded their request, but insisted on his retaining the privileges of a citizen, and the annual stipend of what they denominate the pretend. Calvin gladly accepted the former mark of respect, but could never be induced to receive the latter, since the care of riches occupied his mind the least of any thing. Calvin on being restored to the church at their earnest request, failed not, on his instauration, in consequence of observing the city to require such restraints, to testify how impossible if was for him duly to discharge his ministerial functions, unless together with Christian doctrine, the Presbyterian plan of church government was established by the state, as well as a regular ecclesiastical discipline. f13 On this occasion, therefore, as we shall detail more at length in another part of our narrative, laws were passed consistent with the word of God, and acceptable to the citizens, for the choice of elders, and for establishing the whole plan of Presbyterian discipline which Satan afterwards endeavored without effect, by wonderful contrivances, to disannul. Calvin also wrote a catechism in French and Latin, differing very little from his first, but much more copious, and divided into questions and answers. We may justly term this all admirable work which has received the approbation of very many foreign nations, and been translated in a very elegant style into the modern languages of Germany, England, Scotland, Holland, and Spain, into Hebrew by Immanuel Tremellius, a converted Jew, and into Greek by Henry Stephens.

The following statement of facts will enable us to form a judgment of his ordinary labors. In every fortnight he preached one whole week; thrice every week he delivered lectures; on the Thursdays he presided in the meetings of the Presbytery; on the Fridays he collated and expounded the Holy Scriptures to what we term the congregation. He was engaged in illustrating many of the sacred books by commentaries of very uncommon learning; on some occasions he was employed in answering the adversaries of religion, and at other times wrote to correspondents from every part of Europe concerning subjects of great importance. Every attentive reader of his numerous productions will be astonished to find one weak little man able to accomplish so many and such great labors. f14 He experienced much advantage from the assistance of Farel and Viret, who in return received greater from him. And the close intercourse and friendship of these two men, which excited as much envy in the wicked as it gave pleasure to all pious minds, afforded him wonderful delight. It was a most pleasant sight to behold and hear these three distinguished persons in the church cooperating with so much zeal in the work of the Lord, and flourishing in such a variety of gifts. Farel excelled in boldness and grandeur of mind. The thunders of his preaching none could hear without trembling, nor feel his most ardent prayers without the soul being elevated almost to heaven itself. Viret so excelled in a sweet persuasive eloquence, that his hearers were compelled to hang upon his lips. Calvin filled the minds of his hearers with as many most weighty sentiments as he uttered words. Hence I have often thought that a preacher would in some measure appear perfect, who was formed by the united excellencies of all three.

To return to Calvin, he was exercised not only with these public, but with domestic and many other foreign cares. For the Lord so blessed his ministry that he had visitors from every quarter to solicit his counsel in matters of religion, as all oracle of the Christian world; and so numerous were his hearers, that we have seen an Italian, English, and even Spanish church at Geneva, which seemed not sufficiently large to contain so many strangers.

Although his friendship was much cultivated in Geneva by the good, while he was regarded with terror by the wicked, and affairs were in the best state of arrangement, yet many opponents were still raised up to keep him actively employed. We will unfold his contests separately, that posterity may be presented with a singular example of fortitude, which is calculated to excite their most strenuous imitation.

To resume his history, — on his return to the city, keeping in mind that sentence of our Savior, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all other things will be added unto you.” ( Matthew 6:33,) he considered nothing so important as to prescribe laws of ecclesiastical polity consistent with the word of God, and sanctioned by the consent of the senate, from which neither citizens nor ministers would be allowed afterwards to depart. And this, which had been so much approved before, gradually excited the dislike of some of the common people, and of the chief citizens, who had indeed put off the pope, and put on Christ, but only in name. Some also of those ministers, who had remained on the expulsion of their pious brethren, (the most influential however, after being accused of profligate conduct, deserted their station in disgrace,) although convicted by the testimony of their conscience, they wanted courage to make an open resistance, still continued to pursue a system of secret opposition, and did not easily permit them, as to be forced to adopt the established discipline. Nor did they want a pretext for this their wicked conduct, namely, the example of other churches, which had not adopted excommunication. Some also cried out, that the tyranny of popery was thus recalled. But these difficulties were overcome by the constancy and remarkable moderation of Calvin, who proved that we ought to seek for the reason of ecclesiastical discipline, as well as of doctrine, from the Scriptures, and adduced in his support the opinions of the most learned men of that age, Aecolampadius, Zwinglius, Zuichius, Melancthon, Bucer, Capito, and Myconius, to whose writings he appealed. Nor did he assert that those churches ought to be therefore condemned as unchristian, which had not proceeded to the same extent, nor those shepherds to be opposed to their Lord, who considered the same curb and restraint not to be wanted by their own flocks.

Finally, he proved the difference between popish tyranny and the yoke of the Savior, and thus easily succeeded in inducing the people to receive, with unanimous consent, the same laws of ecclesiastical polity yet used by the church of Geneva, and which were written, read, and approved by the suffrages of the people on the 20th of November.

Although Calvin had thus made a successful commencement, yet he knew that such plans could not in reality he carried into effect without difficulty; and, on this account, was very desirous to have Viret, whom the people of Berne had allowed only for a certain period, and Farel, who had been received on his expulsion from Geneva at Neuchatel, to be appointed his perpetual colleagues. In this attempt he was unsuccessful, for Viret returned soon after to Lausanne, and Farel remained at Neuchatel, so that he enjoyed almost the whole praise of restoring the church by his own unassisted efforts.

Many things occupied Calvin the ensuing year; for to omit various domestic affairs which pressed upon his attention, the inflamed fury of the foreign enemies of the gospel banished numbers from France and Italy to Geneva, a neighboring and now distinguished city. Calvin’s zeal in comforting and refreshing those refugees by every kind of dutiful solicitude is very surprising. I omit mentioning the consolation, which he afforded to those who were indeed in the yawning jaws of the lion, by the various letters which he wrote them under their trials.

Another very great and two-fold evil occurred this year; namely, dearness of provision, and famine, its general attendant. It was even then a custom at Geneva to have a separate hospital out of the city for such as suffered from the plague. Since the attendance of a constant and active pastor was required, most of them dreaded the danger of contagion, and three only offered themselves — Calvin, Sebastian Castellio, (of whom we shall mention more circumstances in the following part of this narrative,) and Peter Blanchet. The lot, for this was the method of their appointment, fell on Castellio, who changed his mind, and impudently refused to undertake the burden. The senate would not allow the lots to be taken a second time, contrary to Calvin’s inclination, and Blanchet himself, therefore, undertook the whole charge. Other weighty affairs also occurred at that time: for the controversy concerning the Lord’s Supper engaged the attention of Peter Tossanus, pastor of Montbelliard; and some at Basle, Myconius opposing without effect, were desirous to overturn the foundations of church discipline, which had scarcely yet been firmly laid, and held two conferences with Calvin. Farel had been invited to preach at Metz, with great success, but very much hindrance was given to the work of the Lord, partly by the apostate P. Caroli already mentioned. The various labors in which Calvin was thus involved by writing, admonishing, and exhorting, and by other methods of affording assistance, are clearly proved by the great number of his published letters, and the testimony of many survivors.

But the Sorbonne, increasing in boldness, supported by P. Liser, first president of the parliament of Paris, whose memory is universally detested, had the courage to attempt a measure, which, to the astonishment of every one, was endured by the bishops, and even by the pope. These last, being constantly employed, like robbers, in dividing the wealth of the church among themselves, voluntarily resigned their own proper duties of distributing the word of life to such of their brethren as they denominated good doctors, provided those last suffered themselves to be treated like dogs, which gnaw the bones that their masters, after repeated nibbling, have left. The Sorbonne had the audacity, unsupported either by human or divine authority, to prescribe such articles of Christian faith, as both by their falsehood, and their very trifling character, so commonly to be met with among this body of divines, deservedly lessened their authority in the opinion of all those, who were not wholly devoid of judgment. Some had subscribed these articles through fear, and others from ignorance, on which account Calvin answered them in such a manner as to refute, with great learning and by solid reasoning, the errors they contained, and he exposed their folly by a beautiful vein of irony, to the amusing derision of all men of common discernment.

The following year experienced equally destructive ravages from the dearness of provisions, and from the plague which infested Savoy. Calvin was constantly employed in strengthening his own flock at Geneva, and in boldly repressing the enemies of the church abroad, particularly by publishing four books on free will, dedicated to Melancthon, in answer to Albert Pighius, a Dutchman, and the most skilled sophist of the age, who had selected Calvin as an adversary, expecting that he would obtain a cardinal’s hat as the reward of the distinguished victory lie hoped to gain.

He was, however, disappointed in his expectations, and reaped, what the enemies of the truth justly deserve, the contempt of all learned and sensible men, while he was deceived by Satan himself. Melancthon testified by his letters the esteem in which he held these works of Calvin, and we considered it right to publish their correspondence, that posterity may have a certain and clear testimony against the calumniators of such distinguished men. A letter written this same year to the church of Montbelliard affords a sufficient answer to such as complain of his too great severity in the exercise of ecclesiastical discipline.

Calvin in the following year, 1544, stated his opinion concerning the plan which the church of Neuchatel should adopt in their ecclesiastical censures. Sebastian Castellio, in Geneva, whose fickleness we have already noticed, concealing under an apparent modesty a foolish kind of ambition, and evidently belonging to that class of men, which the Greeks call selfopinionative, became irritated with Calvin because he disapproved of his conceits in a French version of the New Testament; who carried his indignation to such a height, that not satisfied with maintaining some erroneous opinions, he even ordered, in a public manner, the Song of Solomon to be erased from the canon, as an impure and obscene song, and reviled with very violent reproaches the ministers of Geneva by whom he was opposed. They justly thought that it was not their duty patiently to endure such conduct, and summoned him before the senate, where, after a very patient hearing, on the last day of May, and a calm examination of the charges brought against him, he was condemned for calumny, and ordered to leave the city. He afterwards settled in Basle, and his conduct there will be considered in another part of our narrative.

Charles 5th, in the year 1543, advancing with all his strength against Francis 1st, had taken care to secure for the two great religious parties in Germany the enjoyment of equal rights, until the meeting of a council which he promised to convene. Pope Paul III, feeling very indignant at such a proceeding, published a very grave admonition to Charles for his having thus placed the heretics on a level with the Catholics, and for putting his scythe into a crop which belonged to another. Charles returned what he considered a fair answer. Calvin repressed the audacity of the pontiff for the severity with which he had attacked in these letters the truth of the gospel, and the moral conduct of the reformers.

Calvin embraced the opportunity offered him by the diet assembled at Spiers, for publishing a book on the necessity of reforming the church, which in my opinion, is one of the most nervous, powerful treatises published in our age on that subject. Calvin, the same year, so refuted, in two books, both the anabaptists and libertines, who had revived the most monstrous heresies of antiquity, that I think no attentive reader, unless designedly and knowingly, could have been deceived, or, if he had formerly been in an error, would not voluntarily have returned to the right way. The book published against the libertines very much displeased the Queen of Navarre, because, which is almost incredible, she had been so infatuated by the two principal leaders of this horrible sect, Quintin and Pocquet, whom Calvin had expressly attacked, as to consider them, though she did not adopt their mysterious views, good men, on which account she thought herself in some measure deeply wounded through their sides. Calvin, on learning this, answered her with uncommon moderation, mindful of her dignity, and of the several kindness which this queen had conferred upon the church of Christ; he blamed her too great imprudence in an ingenuous and discreet manner with great address, becoming a courageous servant of God, for harkening to such men, while he asserted at the same time the authority of his own ministry. His writings produced the effect of confining the followers of this horrid sect of the Libertines, which had begun to spread in France, within the boundaries of Holland, and of the adjacent countries.

After he had terminated so many labors in 1544, he was again involved, in the following year, in new disputes of a still more serious kind. For as if a pestilence inflicted by God himself was not sufficient to waste the city and the whole neighborhood, some of the very lowest classes, whose assistance was required by the rich in cleansing their houses and healing the sick, were induced by avarice to form a shocking conspiracy, for the purpose of infecting the posts and thresholds of their doors, and of every thing in their road, with an ointment that conveyed the disease and communicated this dreadful scourge. They also, by a terrible oath, mutually taken in the most solemn manner, bound themselves as slaves to Satan should they ever be found to betray their accomplices, though the rack itself were used to extort confession. A considerable number of them were detected both in the city and adjoining country, and received a punishment merited by their enormous crimes. The reproach is incredible which Satan, by this artifice, raised against Calvin and the city of Geneva, as if the prince of darkness plainly reigned in that city where he was most violently opposed.

This year was disgraced by a massacre of unparalleled cruelty, occasioned by an edict which the parliament of Aix issued against the Waldenses of Merindol and Cabrier, and the whole of that tract of country; it was not confined to one or two sufferers, but extended to the whole people without distinction of age or sex, and the villages were consumed in one common conflagration. These evils pressed more heavily on Calvin, who afforded solace and succor to the few refugees that fled to Geneva, because he had on a former occasion used means, by sending letters and supplying pastors, to have them purely instructed in the gospel, and by his intercession with the German princes and the Swiss states, had preserved them from impending danger.

The unhappy controversy respecting the Supper of our Lord was at this time again renewed. Osiander, a proud man and of a strange disposition, stirred up the flame of discord, which seemed to be extinguished, and Calvin used every exertion in his power to terminate it, as appears by his letters written to Melancthon, and published under my inspection. But Osiander’s want of moderation prevented him from listening to the sound advice of these two great men, by whom he is denominated Pericles.

In the mean time many excellent characters fell victims to the plague which raged in the city. But Calvin thundered with all his power from the pulpit against the vices of some, and particularly against fornication, which the scourge of the plague could not terminate. The good supported him, but the efforts of the pious were weakened by a few demagogues, until, as will be stated in its proper place, they voluntarily plunged themselves in irretrievable ruin. These evils were increased by the unseasonable disputes concerning the right of the city; nor could faithful pastors in other parts of Europe endure to see church property, taken from the Roman hierarchy, improperly managed in many places. Clamors and complaints were at that time very frequent on this subject, and much labor devoted to it both in writing and speaking, but generally without effect. Calvin, indeed, openly professed that he was by no means a friend to so many sacrilegious proceedings, which he knew must finally meet with a most severe divine scourge, but acknowledged the just judgment of the Lord God because he would not allow revenues, acquired formerly by priests in so base a manner, to be brought into the treasuries of the church.

Calvin felt deep concern this year, both from a domestic and foreign cause.

A Genevese of the name of Troillet, young, indeed, but artful, after having counterfeited for some time the hermit in France, had returned to Geneva.

Calvin, distinguished above most men for his sagacious penetration into character, developed this person, who concealed himself in the commencement under the appearance of piety. Calvin first admonished him mildly, but afterwards rebuked him more freely, when his conduct in the congregation was distinguished by insolence and ambition. He did not bear such reproof properly, and endeavored to secure the aid and zealous favor of such as were generally condemned by Calvin on account of their vices. On the death of one of the pastors, Troillet openly endeavored, with the assistance of his friends, to canvass for the office of a minister of the gospel, when the appointment of a successor was under consideration. In short, the senate interposed its authority, and ordered him to be preferred.

Calvin and his colleagues opposed the measure, proving how much such a system of canvassing was contrary to the word of God, and obtained, with the approbation of the senate, the enforcement of the written laws of the church.

There were also at that time in France certain persons, who, having renounced the protestant religion at the commencement, through fear of persecution, had begun afterwards so far to flatter themselves as to deny there was any sin in being present with their bodies only at the celebration of the mass, provided they embraced the true religion in their hearts.

Calvin, whom they blamed for the excess of his severity, plainly refuted, by his clear and elegant writings, this very pernicious error, which the fathers had long ago condemned. He annexed also the opinions of the most learned reformers, Philip Melancthon, Peter Martyr, Bucer, and the church of Zurich, and so far restrained the progress of this error, that the Nicodemites, which name they had acquired by adducing the example of this most holy person as a pretext for their false sentiments, he fell into bad repute in the church.

The year 1546 was not less stormy than the past. For it was necessary to fortify the minds of the people against the frequent accounts circulated concerning the designs of Charles 5th in opposition to religion, and against the fraudulent schemes of the pope, who was reported to employ a number of emissaries as incendiaries. The state of the city itself also particularly excited his commisseration, for the petulance of the wicked, so far from suffering itself to be subdued by so many scourges, became still more insolent, and at last broke through all restraints. For Ami Perrin, a very audacious and ambitious character, denominated on this account by Calvin, in his letters, the mock Caesar, had succeeded, by the suffrages of the people, in obtaining the nomination of captain-general, and some time before had become leader of the opposers of order. This man imagining, as was the fact, that neither he nor his accomplices could succeed, while the laws were maintained with rigor, and Calvin in particular continued to thunder against their wanton and disorderly conduct, began openly to discover this year what he and his associates had long projected. He continued silent for a while, when he had been punished and crushed by the authority of the senate, merely with a view to disclose afterwards his wickedness in a more open manner. For, a short period having elapsed, one of the senators, secretly instigated, as is supposed, by two ministers addicted to wine, who had good reason, as well as others, to dread the severity of the laws, accused Calvin of false doctrine before a considerably large assembly. Calvin continued unmoved by such attacks. This senator was tried, condemned, branded with infamy by his own body, the two false pastors were conjointly suspended from their office, and the taverns deprived of their license. Such was the result of the machinations of the wicked, who were completely disappointed.

The general conflagration which had been smothered this year, burst forth in 1547, which was the most calamitous period during that age. The churches in Germany were reduced to the greatest extremity, her princes and cities either surrendered to the emperor, or were taken by force, and a work, which had been raised by the unwearied labors of so many years, seemed to be overthrown in one moment. Many considered those happy, who had been rescued by a timely death from such dreadful tumults. Who, then, can picture the anguish that wrung the pious breast of Calvin in those public calamities by which so many churches were overwhelmed?

When the churches enjoyed the most profound peace, our reformer felt as ardent an affection for the most distant, as if the weight of them all rested on his own shoulders. What pungency of grief must he at that time have felt, when he beheld those illustrious characters, Melancthon, Bucer, Martyr, his dearest friends, exposed to such imminent danger, as to be placed on the very brink of death! His writings, however, testify, and the fact itself proved, that Calvin overcame these storms with the greatest fortitude. Though persecuted in a very severe manner by the wicked at Geneva, he did not move a step from the high station of constancy and integrity which he had taken.

To return to Calvin’s domestic disputes, — when his whole time was employed in proving that the gospel he preached was not a mere speculative doctrine, but consisted in a pious Christian life, he necessarily incurred the enmity of those, who had proclaimed war not only against all piety and virtue, but even against their very country. Perrin, as already stated, still continued their leader, for his own condition and the state of his associates were so bad, that it was evident they must make the most desperate efforts; and the abandoned openly declared it was necessary for the cognizance of all questions under discussion, that they should be removed from the presbytery to the senate. The presbytery, on the other hand, insisted that the laws established concerning church discipline were agreeable to the word of God, and they implored the aid of the senate to prevent the church from receiving any injury. The senate determined it necessary to ratify the laws of the church, and confirmed them accordingly. After Perrin had exposed himself to very great danger by his own audacious conduct, the whole affair was settled by expelling him from the senate, depriving him of his captaincy, and reducing him to a mere private station. Though all these transactions were carried on before the magistrates, yet it is impossible to state how much trouble they occasioned Calvin. On one occasion there was great danger of blood being shed in the court itself, where the council of two hundred was assembled, by the swords of the contending parties. Calvin coming up with his colleagues, at the risk of his own life, since the faction of the wicked was chiefly aimed against him, quelled the riot. He still persisted to hold up to detestation, in the most solemn manner, their criminal conduct, and to rebuke them in the strongest terms according to their deserts. Nor was his denunciation of God’s judgment vain, since a certain person was then apprehended for writing a libel, and fixing it to the pulpit, in which he produced many base charges against the ministers, and declared, in a written document, that Calvin himself ought to be cast into the Rhone. He was summoned to trial, convicted in an unexpected manner of a great variety of other blasphemous proceedings, and beheaded. After his death a paper was found professedly written with his own hand against Moses, and consequently Christ, and his impious conduct left no doubt of his having also infected some others.

Calvin wrote, this year, in the midst of all these contentions, his “Antidote against the seven Sessions of the Council of Trent.” He also sent an epistle to the church of Rouen, fortifying them against the artifices of a certain Franciscan preacher, who was disseminating the poison of the errors of Carpocrates, that were renewed by the libertines.

The following year, 1548, the disorders of the factious again broke forth in Geneva by the device of Satan, who made Farel and Viret instrumental to this result; a fact scarcely credible, because they were most desirous to cure all the evils. These ministers came to Geneva in the beginning of the year, and addressed the senate in a very solemn manner on the necessity of healing their contentions, since Calvin only demanded reformation of manners. Perrin, with his associates, that he might recover his former situation, pretended to agree to whatever was proposed. Every thing now appeared to be amicably arranged, but the result afterwards showed that he had only imposed upon the pious. On Perrin’s restoration, the wickedness of the abandoned citizens went to such a height, that they openly used certain breastplates, cut in the form of a cross, as a mark for distinguishing each other; some called their dogs Calvin, others transformed Calvin into Cain; a considerable number declared they refrained, in consequence of their hatred of Calvin, from the Lord’s Supper. Our reformer and his colleagues rebuked all this conduct with much boldness, summoned them to the senate, and the innocence of the pious was easily victorious. An amnesty was finally again ratified on the 18th of December by a solemn oath. The event proved that Perrin had been dissembling in the whole of his late conduct, and the only object he had in view was to rise to the syndicate, for the purpose of more completely opening to himself and his associates a still more certain access to these offices, which might enable them to involve all in one common ruin.

Calvin was not diverted from his labors by these disputes, but he illustrated six epistles of St. Paul, by very learned commentaries, as if he had enjoyed the utmost leisure, he refuted what was termed the “Interim,” that was published with a view to ruin the German churches, by a work written with great force, which pointed out the true method for restoring the church. He exposed, in a very elegant paper, the falsehood and vanity of judicial astrology, of which many at that time entertained a high opinion. Having received an obliging letter from Brentius, banished to Basle, he consoled him with much tenderness and friendship, and I wish Brentius had not broken the bonds of this union. He then also candidly exhorted Bucer, when banished to England, to speak and write his opinion more openly concerning the Lord‘s Supper, and comforted him in a friendly manner. At the same time he took great pains to give advice, by letter, to the Duke of Somerset, protector of England, who afterwards very unjustly suffered an ignominious death; and had Calvin’s plans been followed, the church of England would in all probability have escaped many storms. (IX.)

The church of Geneva wonderfully increased in the midst of these disputes, and this grieved Satan and bad men to a very great degree.

Calvin’s zeal on the other hand was very much increased, by entertaining, in the kindest manner, those who were banished from their country on account of religion. The faction of the seditious, though not entirely extinguished, was much subdued the following year, and afforded him more leisure for attending to the distresses of the suffering Protestants, he required, indeed, a cessation from such disputes, for he now sustained a very severe domestic affliction in the loss of his wife, who was distinguished by a most e