CALVIN AND HIS ENEMIES.

A MEMOIR OF THE LIFE, CHARACTER, AND PRINCIPLES

OF

CALVIN

BY THE

REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D.D.

Quid enim tota ejus vita nisi tempestas veluti quaedam perpetua fuit? — Morus.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER 1

Introductory Remarks

CHAPTER 2

Calvin was the most eminent of all the Reformers, and remarkable for his courage

CHAPTER 3

The Genius and Works of Calvin

CHAPTER 4

Calvin vindicated from the charge of ambition, and his true greatness and wonderful influence shown

CHAPTER 5

Calvin vindicated from the charge of illiberality intolerance, and persecution

CHAPTER 6

Calvin vindicated from the charge of a want of natural affection and friendship

CHAPTER 7

The obligations which we owe to Calvin, as American citizens and

Christians, illustrated

CHAPTER 8

The closing scenes of Calvin’s Life

CHAPTER 9

A supplementary vindication of the Ordination of Calvin

APPENDIX.

1. The case of Servetus, Who are Calvin’s Revilers?

2. The Will of John Calvin.

3. The views of Calvin on Prelacy, vindicated by the Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D.

4. Testimonials to Calvin.

5. Origin of the calumny that Calvin wished to abrogate the Lord’s day. — Melancthon’s approbation of the course of Calvin towards Servetus, — The Testimony of a Unitarian, — Temptation of John Calvin, — Calvin’s Ordination,— Calvin’s Mission to Brazil.

6. Calvin’s Wife.

PREFACE.

• Calvin and His Enemies
  • Contents.
  • Preface.
  • Ch. 1 - Introductory Remarks
  • Ch. 2 - Calvin the Eminent Reformer
  • Ch. 3 - The Genius and the Works of Calvin
  • Ch. 4 - Calvin Vindicated From the Charge of Ambition
  • Ch. 5 - Calvin Vindicated From the Charge of Illiberality
  • Ch. 6 - Calvin Vindicated From the Charge of a Want of Natural
  • Ch. 7 - The Obligations Which We Own to Calvin
  • Ch. 8 - The Closing Scenes of Calvin's Life
  • Ch. 9 - A Supplementary Vindication of the Ordination of Calvin
• Appendix 1
  • The Case of Servetus.
  • Who Are Calvin’s Revilers?
• Appendix 2
  • The Will of John Calvin.
• Appendix 3
  • Calvin’s Views of Prelacy.
  • Letter 1
  • Letter 2
• Appendix 4
  • Testimonials to Calvin.
• Appendix 5
  • Origin of the Calumny That Calvin Wished to Abrogate the Lord's
  • Melancthon’s Approbation of the of Calvin's Course
  • The Testimony of a Unitarian.
  • Temptation of John Calvin.
  • Calvin’s Ordination.
  • Calvin’s Mission to Brazil.
• Appendix 6
  • Calvin’s Wife.
  • Idelette De Burre.

HISTORY

CALVIN AND HIS ENEMIES

by Rev. Thomas Smyth D.D

CALVIN AND HIS ENEMIES.

A MEMOIR OF THE LIFE, CHARACTER, AND PRINCIPLES

OF

CALVIN

BY THE

REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D.D.

Quid enim tota ejus vita nisi tempestas veluti quaedam perpetua fuit? — Morus.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER 1

Introductory Remarks

CHAPTER 2

Calvin was the most eminent of all the Reformers, and remarkable for his courage

CHAPTER 3

The Genius and Works of Calvin

CHAPTER 4

Calvin vindicated from the charge of ambition, and his true greatness and wonderful influence shown

CHAPTER 5

Calvin vindicated from the charge of illiberality intolerance, and persecution

CHAPTER 6

Calvin vindicated from the charge of a want of natural affection and friendship

CHAPTER 7

The obligations which we owe to Calvin, as American citizens and

Christians, illustrated

CHAPTER 8

The closing scenes of Calvin’s Life

CHAPTER 9

A supplementary vindication of the Ordination of Calvin

APPENDIX.

1. The case of Servetus, Who are Calvin’s Revilers?

2. The Will of John Calvin.

3. Actuated by these views, the alumni of the Theological Seminary at Princeton appointed the author to deliver a discourse in vindication of the life and character of Calvin, at their anniversary meeting in May, 1843. The substance of the following little work was accordingly 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 publication as one of their volumes.

   That it may lead the members of our beloved Church more highly to estimate and prize the character and achievements 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 continued guidance and protection — and that the inhabitants of this country may be brought by it more deeply to appreciate 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 CALVIN.

   CHAPTER 1

   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 doctrine or in discipline, since the doctrines and discipline embraced by Presbyterians existed previous to the appearance of Calvin, and were adopted, and not originated, by him. Calvin, however, being the great theologian of the Reformers, so well defended, so clearly expounded, and so perfectly systematized these principles, as to connect with them, wherever they are known, his illustrious name. The term Calvinist was first employed in the year 1562, in reference to the standards of the Huguenots or French Reformed church, which drew up; from which time it came to be employed as characteristic of all those who adopted similar doctrinal principles. ^f1 These principles, however, no more originated with Calvin than did the Bible, for they are the very same which were held forth by the apostles — which were proclaimed in all the apostolic churches — which were maintained by the ancient Culdees, by the Waldenses, and by other pure and scriptural bodies — and which were eminently defended by the celebrated Augustine, 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 organization 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 prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. We call no man master upon earth. We know no man after the flesh. We call neither Abraham, nor Moses, neither Paul, nor Augustine, 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 doctrine, and Presbyterians in polity, our doctrine being deduced from the Scriptures, and Presbytery 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 application 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 perhaps no other man, since the days of the Apostles, by whose name we would prefer to be designated.

   The reputation and character of this distinguished 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, misrepresented, and in all its circumstances imputed to his single agency, although consummated by the civil authorities of the republic, and although in accordance with the established sentiments of the age, has been made to color 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 opinions, must anticipate resistance in proportion to the success with which his efforts are accompanied. And while such opposition, in itself considered, 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 intended 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 certainty infer, that his personal character was irreproachable. 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 assured that his is the cause of truth and righteousness, 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 endeavors by artifice and treachery to accomplish her base designs. In Calvin, therefore, 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 honorable 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.

   CHAPTER 2

   CALVIN WAS ONE OF THE MOST EMINENT OF ALL THE REFORMERS, AND REMARKABLE FOR HIS COURAGE.

   “CALVIN,” said Bishop Andrews, “was an illustrious person, and never to be mentioned without a preface of the highest honor.” “Of what account,” 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 Commentaries 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 moment there are, which have deservedly procured him honor throughout the world: the one his exceeding pains in composing the Institutes of Christian Religion; the other his no less industrious travails for exposition of Holy Scripture, according unto the same Institutions. In which two things whosoever they were that after him their labor, he 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 Anglican. 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 honor in the Book of Convocation as late as the seventeenth century, and his spirit still breathes through those Articles which have preserved the Protestantism and the orthodoxy of the English church. ^f2

   Among the continental Reformers, Calvin was equally pre-eminent. Giants as they were in intellect, in acquirement, and in prowess, he towered above them all, like Saul among the people of Israel. Where all were great, he was greatest. Though naturally less bold than Luther, he was enabled to manifest a superhuman bravery, and was, even in this respect, not a whir behind that noble champion of the truth. “He was,” says Bayle, “frighted at nothing.” Exquisitely sensitive and timid by constitution, he was, from 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 gospel, 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 creeping into churches and colleges, and even into the recesses of private dwellings. The gens d’armes patrolled the highways to hunt down every favorer of the reform. ^f3 Then it was that Calvin enlisted as a good soldier under the Captain of Salvation; buckled on the armor 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, in 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 hesitated not to suspend the celebration of the communion, and when publicly debarred the use of 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, according 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 endeavored, but in vain, to induce them to revoke their indulgence granted to Bertelier, he received for answer, that “the senate changed nothing in their former decision.” After preaching, however, on the Sunday morning previously to the administration of the Lord’s supper, in a solemn tone, and with uplifted hand, he uttered severe denunciations against profaners of the holy mysteries: “and for my own part,” said 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 God.” 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 ordinance, 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 preceding the assembly, Calvin told his brethren that he apprehended tumult, and that it was his intention to be present. Accordingly, he and his colleagues proceeded to the council-house, where they arrived without being noticed. Before long, they heard loud and confused clamors, which were instantly increasing. The crowd heaved to and fro with all the violence of a stormy ocean chafed into ungovernable fury, and ready to overwhelm its victims in destruction. Calvin, however, like Caesar, cast himself, alone and unprotected, 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; addressed them in a long 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, timorous and shrinking Calvin. Firm as the mountains 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 exercising 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 of Christ’s truth and cause cast out all fear from the bosom of Calvin. Even in point of courage, 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 system and order; in cultivation and refinement of manners; in the depth and power of his intellect; Calvin shone forth amid the splendid galaxy of illustrious Reformers, a star of the first magnitude and brightest luster.

   Such was the man whose life and character I now review.

   CHAPTER 3

   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 enabled him to discharge the inconceivable labors of his maturer years, gave him an easy victory over all his competitors for college fame, so that it became necessary to withdraw him from the ordinary 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 Clementia, full of learning and eloquence. In his twenty-fourth year, we find him at Paris, preparing orations to be delivered by the rector of the university, and homilies to be recited to their people by the neighboring clergy. During the next year, he gave to the world his work on the sleep of the soul after death, in which he manifests 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 pronounced 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 Institutes 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 defense of the calumniated Reformers, and an exposure of the base injustice, tyranny, and corruption of their persecutors, this work became the bulwark of the Reformation, and the stronghold of its adherents. It was made the Confession of Faith of a large portion of the Protestant world, and the text book of every student. It was recommended by a Convocation held at Oxford, to the general study of the English 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 enjoined upon all her subjects to be obeyed. ^f4 According to Schultingius, the English gave these Institutes a preference to the Bible. “The Bishops,” he says, ^f5 “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 Institutes were publicly taught by the professors; that in Holland, ministers, civilians, and the common people, even the coachman and the sailor, studied this work with great diligence; that esteeming 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 theological 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 brightening more and more. The Latin language was in his day the language of the learned, and of books. But “what Latin?” asks Monsieur Villers. “A jargon bearing all the blemishes of eleven centuries of corruption and bad taste.” ^f6 And yet the French Encyclopedists testify that “Calvin wrote in Latin as well as is possible in a dead language” ^f7 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 Tacitus.” ^f8

   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 Luther did for the German, Calvin accomplished for the French language; he emancipated, he renovated, nay, he created it. The French of Calvin became eventually the French of Protestant France, and is still admired for its purity by the most skillful critics. ^f9

   Of his Institutes we have already spoken; “the most remarkable literary work to which the Reformation gave birth.” Not less valued was his Catechism, now too much neglected and unstudied. He published it in French and Latin. It was soon translated into the German, English, Dutch, Scotch, Spanish, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and was made one of the standards of the Church of Scotland, the basis of the early Catechism in the Church of England, and the model of the Catechism published by the Westminster Assembly of Divines. ^f10

   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 says, “after the Holy Scriptures, I exhort the students to read the commentaries of Calvin, for I tell them that he is incomparable in the interpretation of Scripture, and that his commentaries 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-eminence to him beyond most others, indeed beyond them all.” ^f11

   But the labors of Calvin were as multiplied 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 may be chronicled by his various works. In the midst of convulsions and interruptions of every kind, he pursued his commentaries on the Bible, as if sitting in the most perfect calm, and undisturbed repose. His labors 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 deliberations, as a politician and legislator. He corrected the civil code of his adopted country. He corresponded 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 encouragement and consolation to those who were persecuted, imprisoned, condemned to death for the Gospel’s sake. He was a constant preacher, delivering 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 remonstrances, or pronounced other ecclesiastical sentences against delinquent church members. He was the head of the pastors; and every Friday, in an assembly called the Congregation, he pronounced before them a long discourse on the duties of the evangelical ministry, His door was constantly open to refugees from France, England, Poland, Germany, and Italy, who flocked to Geneva, and he organized for these exiled Protestants, special parishes. His correspondence, commentaries, and controversial writings, etc., would 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?” “O, 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 incomparable activity, this unparalleled devotion of Calvin to the service of his Divine Master!”

   CHAPTER 4

   CALVIN VINDICATED FROM THE CHARGE OF AMBITION, AND HIS TRUE GREATNESS AND WONDERFUL INFLUENCE SHOWN.

   GIFTED with such powers of mind, and stored with such treasures of knowledge, who can question 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 honor, emolument 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 season”? 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 Dauphiny and Savoy to Basle or Strasburgh, where he meant to retire? Was it not after many refusals, and the extremest urgency, he consented to remain in that city? And when appointed Professor of Divinity by the consistory and magistrates, did he not earnestly decline the office of pastor, which they also insisted upon his undertaking? When banished from that place did he not again seek retirement, and with manifest reluctance resume the duties of professor and of pastor, which Bucer, 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 Geneva”? How did he praise and exalt Melancthon and Luther! ^f12 How did he bear with their opposition to his views, and their silence, when he wrote to them in friendship! Did he not, when he had succeeded in founding the College at Geneva, prefer Beza to the presidency, and himself become a professor under him? ^f13 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 truly 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 blinded 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 Geneva, they insisted on his retaining the privileges of a citizen and the stipend they had assigned him while resident among them. Was it ambition that led Calvin resolutely to decline the generous offer? Was it ambition which led him to settle at Geneva, where his stipend, which was one hundred crowns a year, barely supported his existence, and which nevertheless he pertinaciously refused to have increased? Did he not for years abstain from all animal food at dinner, rarely eating 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 astonishment by these facts, put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. ^f14

   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 scepter, truth; his laws, the silent influence of principle. Consider the difficulties which he encountered 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. ^f15 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 superstition, the extreme corruption of the Romish clergy, the relaxation of manners consequent upon intestine feuds and open war, the licentiousness, anarchy and insubordination resulting from the first excesses of unrestrained freedom, the disorders occasioned by party spirit and factious demagogues, 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 magistrates, 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 ecclesiastical 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 enemies of truth and purity, though often triumphant, 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.” ^f16 From having been a small and unimportant town, Geneva became the focus of light, the center of attraction, and the source of incalculable influence upon the destinies of Europe and the world. Calvin‘s seminary supplied teachers and ministers to most of the Reformed states of Europe. Geneva was honored with the title of the mother of Protestantism. 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 intolerance of Popery, “came to get intoxicated with presbytery and republicanism,” to carry back with them those seeds which have sprung up in the republic of Holland, the commonwealth of England, the glorious revolution of 1688, and our own American confederation.

   Would you see the amazing power and influence 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. ^f17 Behold Troillet, another of his enemies, when about to die, sending for Calvin, that he might confess his faults, declaring that he could not die in peace without obtaining his forgiveness. Behold him at Berne, debating against Castalio and others with such power that his opponents were henceforth excluded from that Canton. 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. ^f18 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 indebted for the industry, manufactures, education, religion, and noble spirit of independence and freedom which she received from her first settlers, the followers of Calvin. ^f19 To his letters, dedications, and exhortations, every nation of any eminence in his 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 honor. Many Romanists, 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.” ^f20 The Romanits too have been forced to acknowledge the falsity of their infamous calumnies published against his morals. ^f21 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 procession, and returned thanks to God in their churches for his death. ^f22 Every pious, eminent, and learned Reformer was his friend. It was the power of his reputation, proclaiming abroad their own condemnation, that led the General Assembly of Geneva to adopt a decree for his return — to acknowledge the great injury they had done him, and implore forgiveness of Almighty God — to send an honorable 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 difficult 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 wisdom 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 demonstrated. “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 highest personages of Europe, proposed to him to publish it for the Church’s instruction. This wish of the dying Reformer was but tardily and partially accomplished in the sixteenth century; but a literary man, and a Christian of our days, Mr. Jules Bonnet Docteur es Lettres, has undertaken, after the lapse of three hundred years, to fulfill 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 different countries, have enabled him to form a collection which will throw a fresh light on the history of the Reformation. This correspondence, which terminates only on Calvin’s death-bed, embraces every period of his life, and contains at the same time the familiar effusions of friendship, grave theological statements, and elevated 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, Coligny, 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 ^f23 a remarkable event in

   the history of the Church and of theology. As documents, these

   letters will compel the odious calumnies which have been circulated, 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 Reformer; 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 understanding and practising some questions, in particular that of religious liberty, with the nations which have passed chiefly under Calvin’s influence — Holland, Scotland, England, the United States — these free people, some of whom stretch their scepters over all seas, and to the very extremities of the world, it is impossible not to perceive that Luther and Calvin are the greatest men of modern times; the most eminent Christians since St. Paul; at least, if we consider their influence 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 Lord?”

   This correspondence has already attracted the attention of eminent men. In particular the Paris Journal des Debats has devoted an interesting 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-religionists. History has not sufficiently dwelt upon the atrocity of these persecutions, nor on the resignation, 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 history, composed from the documents and the correspondence of the times of these sublime struggles, would equal in beauty the ancient martyrology. Calvin’s voice in these moments of trial attains a fullness 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 neither understood the nobleness of the victims nor the cruelty of their executioners.”

   CHAPTER 5

   CALVIN VINDICATED FROM THE CHARGE OF ILLIBERALITY, 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 human 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 Romish baptism, and the claims of Rome to the character of a Church, not merely as comprising many of God’s elect children, but as having “the remains of a church continuing with them.” ^f24 Against whom did Luther and his coadjutors utter severer language, than against Calvin in reference to the sacramentarian controversy? And whom did Calvin more delight to honor 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 constancy of mind, with what efficacy of learning, he hath hitherto labored 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 honor, that I would acknowledge him an eminent servant of God.” And does not the whole Protestant world now, including the Lutheran Church itself, acknowledge that the doctrine of Calvin on 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 endeavor to preserve the peace and harmony of the churches; to lead to compromise on matters of order and discipline, to encourage submission to ceremonies and forms which were in themselves “fooleries,” rather than produce rupture and give occasion to the enemy ,to blaspheme ;into prevent schism, disunion, and alienation, — and to bind together with the cords of love the whole brotherhood of the Reformed Churches! “Keep your smaller differences,” 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 undivided 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, ^f25 “by whom God permits the Church to be governed, be what they may; if the signs of the true Church are perceived, it will be better not to separate from their communion. 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 doctrine, 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 liberality which made him willing to bear, for a time, with the “tolerable fooleries” of the ritual of the English Church, being most ungenerously interpreted into a warm and hearty approval of its unscriptural forms which Calvin as openly and constantly condemned. ^f26 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 extracts have been made to give expression to views 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 triumphant 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 ages, and with all the Reformers, he was, too, a Sub- and not a Supralapsarian, teaching that God’s decrees had reference to man’s foreseen condition and necessities, and were not the causes of them. He does not represent God as arbitrary. He utterly repudiates, and constantly opposes, fatalism. ^f27 he always inculcates the duty and necessity of using means; condemning the confounding of “necessity with compulsion,” and rejecting the supposition as absurd, that “man’s being actuated by God is incompatible with his being at the same time active himself.” ^f28 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, therefore, that sinners are constantly to be urged to attendance upon God’s ordinances, and to the diligent and prayerful use of all the means by which they may be convinced, converted, and saved. ^f29 He strenuously upholds the free agency and responsibility of man. ^f30 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. ^f31

   While Calvin held firmly to the great fundamental doctrine of imputation, and to the doctrine of a limited atonement, he nevertheless rejected all such views of the sacrifice of Christ as would make him to have suffered 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 suffered more or less severe dying pangs. Calvin on the contrary, recognized in the death of Christ, a sacrifice adequate 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. ^f31A

   He therefore fully and frequently proclaims the universality of the gospel promises, and the duty of all to receive and embrace them. ^f32 While he teaches that original sin is natural, he denies that 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 corruption, considered as convicted and justly condemned in the sight of God, to whom nothing is acceptable 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 transgression, he is therefore said to have involved us in guilt. Nevertheless we derive from him not only the punishment, but also the pollution to which the punishment is justly due.” ^f33 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 comprehend God by that illumination,” the remaining image of God being but the ruin of the original, and “confused, mutilated, and defiled.” ^f34

   His doctrines, therefore, as he frequently shows, cut up by the roots all presumption, prevent despair, encourage hope, and in an eminent degree enforce and cherish holiness both of heart and life. ^f35 His doctrines also make special provision for the salvation of all elect children, whether baptized or unbaptized, 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. ^f36

   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 they have a natural and necessary claim.

   I may also mention, as interesting at this time, that Calvin approved of a public form for the introduction of professors into the Christian church. ^f37

   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 doctrines, 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 insubordination to other subjects. ^f38 And when 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 infallible 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 believed or followed.” ^f39 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 trim 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 deny. To affirm, as many do, that he sought the burning of Servetus — 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 endeavors 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 forbearance might be adduced. His benevolence no one can dispute. Nor can any one question his humble and unambitious spirit. The earlier editions of his Institutes contained also the following eloquent argument in favor 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 exhortation, 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.” ^f40

   This, then, was the natural spirit, and the genuine creed of Calvin. But it was diametrically opposed to the spirit and to the universal sentiment of the age. The Romish Church had diffused 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. ^f41 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 opinions. Now the Reformers, 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. ^f42

   The liberty of the Reformation, also, had been abused to the greatest licentiousness, both of opinion and of practice. Such heresies in doctrine, and excesses in conduct, were all employed as arguments 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-defense, to oppose themselves to all heresy, continued to approve and to act upon those views which are now condemned as intolerant and persecuting. 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 disclaimed 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 ultimately abolished. Tried, therefore, by the universal judgment of his age, Calvin was not intolerant; and when condemned by the free and liberal views of the present time, he meets his sentence in common with all men, whether civilians or theologians, and with all the Reformers, whether continental or Anglican. ^f42A 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. ^f42B

   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 outraged Christian feeling and all propriety, so insulted the laws in force for his destruction, and so provoked the slumbering arm of vengeance to fall upon him. ^f43 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. ^f44 He was well aware of the intolerant character of the laws of the city of Geneva, enacted against heretics by the Emperor Frederick I, when under imperial and Romish jurisdiction which had been often exercised before that time — and which were still in force. ^f45 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 prosecuting 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. ^f46 The whole matter also, before sentence had been passed, was, at Servetus’ request, submitted to the judgment of the other cities, who unanimously approved of his condemnation. ^f47

   It was the sentiment of the age, that those who obstinately persisted in heresy and blasphemy were worthy of death. Even the gentle Melanchthon affirms, in a letter to Calvin, that the magistrates so acted rightly in putting this blasphemer to death;” and in a letter to Bullinger, the same mild and cautious and truly Christian man declares, “I have been surprised that there are men who blame this severity.”

   Servetus himself maintained this principle in his “Restitution of Christianity,” the very work which led to his trim and condemnation. The justice of such a punishment towards himself, Servetus 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 punishment, 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 Servertus, 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 condemned? Not for heretical opinions of any sort merely, or chiefly, we reply, his opinions and doctrines were doubtless heretical enough, according to the standards of judgment at the time; heretical they 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 which he stated and defended them, which gave offense. The elder Socinus was teaching 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 ribaldry 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 God a monster, a three-headed 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 saw Calvin or Geneva. Some 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 personalities and invectives as to shame even his judges, and wear out the patience of men, many of whom were inclined to look favorably 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 answer, says a dispassionate historian, “was more like the ravings of a maniac than the words of reason and truth. He exhibited a surprising indifference 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 being a murderer and a disciple of Simon Magus. The margin of the paper containing 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 Servetus, “It is no presumption to say, that in point of abuse and scurrility this defense stands unrivailed by any one that was ever made by any defendant, however infatuated, in the most desperate cause.”

   It was not, then, so much his opinions and dogmas, as the manner in which he maintained them, that occasioned the final decision of the judges, and the almost unanimous verdict of the Christian world against Servetus. “If Servetus had only attacked the doctrine of the Trinity by arguments,” says an able writer, the would have been answered by arguments, and without danger of persecution by the Protestants 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 character they would defend in the midst of a perverse 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 estimation of the Catholic world, upon the entire Protestant body, and especially upon Calvin and the clergy of Geneva. They were regarded as and-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 opprobrium of heresy would justly fasten itself upon them in the general opinion of men? It was in fact a matter of self-defense 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 principles 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 defense was afforded the accused. Calvin himself furnished him the books he needed from his own library. The trial was conducted with extreme 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.

   We do not defend, in all this, the condemnation and death of Servetus. It was a great mistake; 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 ^f48 — 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 guiltless among you cast the first stone? In thus singling out Calvin as the object of your fierce resentment, you manifest the very spirit you condemn — a spirit partial, unchristian, and unrighteous. So much for the charge of intolerance. ^f49

   CHAPTER 6

   CALVIN VINDICATED FROM THE CHARGE OF A WANT OF NATURAL AFFECTION AND FRIENDSHIP.

   EQUALLY futile and untrue is another charge made against Calvin, that he was entirely destitute 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 cruelly 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 visit him in his last illness, Calvin wrote him, saying: “Farewell, my best and most worthy brother. Since God has determined that you should survive me in this world, live mindful of our union, which has been so useful to the Church of God, 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 continually that my breath will fail. It is sufficient that I live and die in Christ, who is gain to his servants 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 occupations have no power to retain my mind from recurring 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 watchings 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 his labors, had he been spared to assist in carrying 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. ^f50

   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 expedient for his children.” And when his wife was taken from him, we behold in Calvin all the tenderness 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 nay 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 Viret, he says, “Although the death of my wife is a very severe affliction, yet I repress as much 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 experience 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 touching manifestations of an affectionate and tender spirit. As a brother, friend, husband, father, and minister, Calvin displayed warm, steady, and unshaken friendship and regard.

   CHAPTER 7

   THE OBLIGATIONS WHICH WE OWE TO CALVIN AS AMERICAN CITIZENS AND CHRISTIANS, ILLUSTRATED.

   SUCH was Calvin, and such the triumphant defense of his character against all assaults, which he has left behind him in his unspotted life, his unimpeachable character, his familiar epistles, and his everlasting works. his wisdom, learning, prudence, 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 inheritance 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 treasures, dearly prized by every 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 advantages of education, or labored more earnestly to promote it.

   Next to our common schools, we prize our colleges 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 Geneva, 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 birthday 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 government the most equitable, economical and free — and in the enjoyment of a religious liberty more 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 imitation in the bosom of every well wisher to the advancement of society. But whence came all these? “The pilgrims of Plymouth,” says Bancroft, “were Calvinists; the best influence in South Carolina came from the Calvinists of France; William Penn was the disciple of the Huguenots; the ships from Holland that first brought colonists to Manhattan, were filled with Calvinists. He that will not honor 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 Christianity the seeds of republicanism to the ends of the earth. “Indeed,” says he, ^f51 “if these three forms of government, which are stated by philosophers, 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, 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 imperfection 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 experience, 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 preserve them in the most desirable condition, till he exhibited, in David, a type of Christ. And as I readily acknowledge, that no kind of government is more happy than .this, where liberty is regulated 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 unquestionably, in theory, a republican; he freely declares his opinion that the republican form, or an aristocracy reduced nearly to the level of a republic, 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 endeavored to fashion the government of all the Protestant churches upon republican principles; and his persevering zeal in that attempt, though in this country, through the mercy 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 honored 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 government; 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 republicanism, which aroused the slumbering people of Europe, which convulsed France, confederated the states of Holland, revolutionized England, Presbyterianized Scotland, colonized New England, and founded this great and growing republic. ^f52

   This, too, is an age of missions. The missionary enterprise is the glory of the Church, the regenerator of society, the precursor of the millennial 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 Ichabod is written upon any denomination from whose battlements the gospel banner is not unfurled, 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, remembered the waste places of the earth which are full of the habitations of horrid cruelty, and connected 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 Geneva, who were accompanied with numerous French Protestants. ^f53 Presbytery and missions are therefore coeval, coextensive, and inseparable. They went hand in hand during the first six centuries. They again clasped hands in indissoluble union at the era of the Reformation. They have lived together in wedded peace, harmony and zeal. And whom God 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 sacrificed the glittering crown of academic fame, and certain worldly aggrandizement and honor — became an exile from home, kindred, and country — endured calumny, reproach, persecution, banishment and poverty, wore out his weak and suffering body with excessive and unremitting toil — and at the early age of fifty-four, sunk into the tomb. ^f54

   
   

• CHAPTER 8

  THE CLOSING SCENES OF CALVIN’S LIFE.

  LET us, then, 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 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, O 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?” Some of his most important and labored commentaries were therefore finished during this last year.

  On the 10th of March, his brother ministers coming to him, with a kind and cheerful countenance he warmly thanked them for all their kindness, and hoped to meet them at their regular 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, uncovering his head, he returned thanks for all the kindness 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. 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 expression of joy in his countenance, as attracted the notice of the congregation. Having made his will on the 27th of this month, ^f55 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 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, says 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 fervor of his supplications. It is doors,” Beza proceeds to say, “must have stood open day and night, if all had been admitted who, from sentiments 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 himself glad to receive me, he intimated a scruple respecting the interruption thus given to my employments; 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 ministers 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, “to 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 lamentation and tears. All could bewail their loss; the city her best citizen, the church her renovator and guide, the college her founder, the cause of reform its ablest champion, and every family a friend and comforter. It was necessary to exclude the crowds of visitors who came to behold his remains, lest the occasion might be misrepresented. At two o’clock in the afternoon of Sabbath, his body, enclosed in a wooden coffin, and followed by the syndics, senators, pastors, professors, 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 columns of stone or brass.

  What needs great Calvin, for his honored bones, The labor of an age in piled stones? 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. ^f56

  To conclude, we may unite with a late episcopal reviewer of the character of Calvin, in hoping “that the time is not far distant, when new Horsleys 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 weapons of shameless detraction for the purpose of vilifying the character of one of the most holy — the most undaunted — the most laborious, and the most disinterested followers of a crucified Redeemer.” ^f57

  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 the Church declares their belief that the individual 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 confidence in the qualifications and call of any man for the office, as to allow him to minister among them without a special ordination, he would be no less certainly a minister, because admitted in an unusual 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 ministry? Not, surely, the ministers and magistrates of Geneva, when they, almost by violence, compelled 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 engaging in its work. And if the churches thought it unnecessary that he should be firmly set apart by ordination, Calvin’s authority as a 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 Romish 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. ^f59 In virtue of this office and authority, “it is certain” that John Calvin delivered some sermons at Pont L’Eveque, before he left France. ^f60 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, ^f61 and is not attempted or believed in by the Reformed Churches, Calvin received from the Romish Church 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 Reformed Church, and by the Presbytery of Geneva.

  That a Presbytery existed at Geneva, before Calvin reached that city, is beyond doubt. Beza expressly declares that, when Farel, by his denunciation, overcame the purpose of Calvin to pass by Geneva, “Calvin, aftrighted by this terrible denunciation, gave himself up to the will of the Presbytery and the magistrates.” (Presbyterii et magistratus voluntati.”) ^f62

  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 consistent with this belief, is equally certain. Unless this is denied, it is unnecessary to produce the proofs which are at hand. ^f63

  Nay more, it is beyond doubt that this was the 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. chapter

  3. § 16, and chapter 4. § 6, 10, 14.) These sentiments, 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 Calvin went there since all the Reformers, and Calvin in particular, insisted on the necessity and scripturality of ordination; and since Calvin is expressly said to have given himself up to the Presbytery, he must have been, and he was, ordained. No particular record of the time and manner of his consecration is necessary. There is circumstantial evidence more than sufficient 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 highest dignity of government, so God has dignified me, derived from an obscure and humble origin, with the high and honorable office of minister and preacher of the gospel.” ^f64 But, since Calvin himself publicly and constantly taught the necessity of ordination to the ministry, in making this declaration he asserts also the fact of his ordination. Thus, also, when Cardinal Sadolct attacked the character of his ministry, he formally defended it in a long epistle addressed to that distinguished man. ^f65 In this defense he says: “Sed quum ministerium meum quod Dei vocatione fundatum ac sancitum fuisse non dubito, per latus meum sauciari videam, perfidia erit, non patientia, si taceam hic atque dissimulem. Doctoris primum, deinde pastoris munere in ecclesia illa functus sum. Quod eam provinciam suscepi, legitimae fuisse vocationis jure meo contendo.” “Hoc ergo ministerium ubi a Domino esse constiterit,” etc. That is, “when I see my ministry, 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 ease. I filled (or enjoyed the honor of) the office, first of professor, and afterwards of pastor in that church, and I contend that I accepted of that charge, having the authority of a lawful vocation.” “Since then, ministry has been established by the Lord,” etc. 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 introduction to the ministry by a regular ordination, beyond 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 among 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 Strasburg, 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, 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

  concionator tantum (hoc autem primum recusarat) sed etiam

  sacrarum literarum doctor, quod unum admittebat, est designatus,

  A.D. MDXXXVI.”

  That is, “Calvin surrendered himself to the disposal 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 Presbytery is, among other things, to admit and ordain men to the ministry. But Calvin was admitted to the ministry by a Presbytery composed of Reformers, who strongly insisted upon the importance of the rite of ordination. Calvin, also, concurred in their views of this ordinance, as introductory to their ministry. And Beza says, that having been elected pastor by the people, and having been approved by the votes of the Presbytery, “he was set apart,” that is, in the regular way, by ordination. Beza never dreamt that, 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 practiced Presbyterian ordination, and that by some of these, his predecessors, Calvin was himself ordained. ^f66

  Certain it is that neither Romanists nor prelatists at that day, ever questioned the fact that Calvin was ordained in the manner of the Reformed Church. The Romanists did not. Cardinal Bellarmine says that “neither Luther, nor Zuingle, nor Calvin, were bishops, (i.e. prelates,) but only presbyters; ^f67 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 ordination according to the order of the Reformed Church, but to have denied the validity of such 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 than question the ministerial character and standing, and the consequent ordination of Calvin. Dr. John Philpot, archdeacon 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 blackening the character of the Reformers generally — “a godly minister, indeed, of receipt of cutpurses and runagate traitors,” etc. “I am sure,” replied Philpot, “you blaspheme that godly man, and that godly church where he is a minister, as it is your Church’s condition, when you cannot answer men by learning, to oppress them with blasphemies and false reports.” ^f68 This title he proceeds to give Calvin again in the very next sentence, ^f69 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 have ever known the order of the church of Geneva, and had seen four thousand people or more, receiving the holy mysteries together at one communion, you could not, without your great shame and want of modesty, thus untruly have published to the world, that by Mr. Calvin’s doctrine the sacraments are superfluous.” — Defense of the Apology; see in Richmond’s Fathers of the English Church, volume 8. p. 680. Such also were the views entertained by Archbishop Cranmer, Bishop Hooper, Bishop Hall, and many others. Hooker implies the ordination and perfect ministerial standing of Calvin, in all that he says of him. He calls him “incomparably the wisest man (i. 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 being admitted one of their preachers,” that is, one of these pastors, for they had no preachers, except their regularly ordained ministers, “wherefore taking to him two of the other ministers,” etc. ^f70

  Bullinger also, the cotemporary of Calvin, of whom it is said that “all the fathers of the English reformation held him in great esteem,” and that “he did much service in the English Church;” to whom Bishops Grindal and Horn, in a joint letter to him, “attribute chiefly the favorable change which had taken place in the feelings of the people toward the Church;” ^f71 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 published by order of the convocation of the English Church in 1586, cum gratia et privilegio regiae majestatis, and as a manual for preachers, ^f72 he speaks of Calvin in these terms: “John Calvin, a godly and learned man, who with great commendation teacheth in the Church at this day, my fellow minister, and most well-beloved and dear brother.” ^f73

  “Stancarus also, the Polish Reformer, wrote a work ‘Adversus Henricum Bullingerum, Petrum Martyrem et Joannem Calvinum, et reliquos Tigurinae ac Genevensis ecclesiae ministros, ecelesiae Dei perturbatores,” etc., Basle, 1547. This work was replied to by Semler, and is referred 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 ordained.” ^f74 In “A Christian Letter of certain English Protestants, unfeigned favorers 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 Del. of Ans. p. 390;) a reverend father and a worthy ornament of the Church of God, (Jewel Apol. Del. 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 labored to overthrow the gospel of Christ.” See quoted at length in Hanbury’s edition of Hooker’s Works, volume 1. p. 22, 23. The whole is very strong. See also Wordsworth’s Eccl. Biogr. volume 4 269, volume 5.

  p. 544, etc. Of the opinion of the English Church, as to the ordination of John Calvin in 1586, there can, therefore, be no longer any 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 Calvin himself, by Beza, and by Junius. It is implied as necessary in the practice of the whole Reformed Church, of which Calvin approved, and which the Presbytery of Geneva must have carried out. It was allowed by Romanists and prelatists of his own age, and is implied in the estimation in which he was regarded by the whole Reformed church.

  But even were the ordination of Calvin doubtful, 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, inasmuch 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 all 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 1

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 spirit 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, Unitarians; and thirdly, Infidels. In retorting upon them the shamelessness of their conduct, I will use the language of another.

1. What effrontery can be more gross than the Popish denunciation of Calvin for his share in the trial, and his supposed share in the condemnation of Servetus! 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 forming, 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 systematic and wholesale persecution we ask, from whom was Servetus fleeing when he came to Geneva, where he was apprehended and tried? He was fleeing from the Romish Inquisition at Vienne, in France. He was about to be condemned by that body to the flames, for the very heresy for which he was subsequently condemned at Geneva. 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 effigy amid a pile of his works, sharing the same fate — pronounced him an outlaw, liable to the stake the first moment he returned 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 “inflict 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