singular compound of scorn to the Puritans with deepest reverence for their sentiments. He not only loves orthodoxy, but he hates all heretics. He pours his vengeance on Tillotson for speaking respectfully of the Fratres Poloni; the Arminians of Holland he suspects of something worse; and even the learned Grotius cannot escape his sharp rebukes. Surely this man is no semi-Calvinist. And as to his buffoonry, we confess, for our personal selves (though the confession perhaps may injure our reputation for refinement), should such a buffoon rise again in society, we would walk forty miles to hear him. Anything-O anything but this conventional insipidity; this pious decorum which shocks no taste and touches no heart!

But this powerful champion, this bitter polemic, whose arguments were so strong and whose sarcasms were so scorching and whose tread shook the ground as he passed along, is now at rest. His enemies are at rest with him; and their personal opposition has ceased to agitate the world. They none of them murdered each other's character, nor destroyed each other's influence. We can now see the faults of Tillotson without regarding him as a knave in lawn sleeves; and we can enjoy the powers of South without beholding Puritanism as dead at his feet. They all of them now stand before the tribunal of a new generation. We strew the flowers on the graves which deserved them and pluck the thorn from the heart which it agonized. So it was with them and so it will be with us. Yet a little while and the mouldering earth will be heaped on our pert loquacity; and these venerable doctors who now agitate the little world around them by their limited wisdom, may rest assured that the progress of truth will be much more certain than the establishment of their several systems. The writer of this review had never much ambition to be a polemic; but when he stands on the tomb of the past and sees the piles of paper that have been wasted in this holy warfare; the strength that has been exerted and is now forgotten;

mind upon the actions of the creature and make God first wait and expect what the creature will do, and then frame his decrees and counsels accordingly, forget that He is the First Cause of all things, and discourse most unphilosophically, absurdly and unsuitably to the nature of an infinite Being; whose influence in every motion must set the first wheel a-going. He must still be the First Agent, and what he does he must will and intend to do, before he does it, and what he wills and intends once, he willed and intended from eternity; it being grossly contrary to the first notions we have of the infinite perfections of the Divine Nature, to state or suppose any new immanent act in God."-Sermon on Prov. 16: 33. Vol. I.

1845.]

Life of Calvin.

329

and finds that even the charm of their best writers is independent of their sectional purposes, he confesses, that he has been reluc tantly forced to this mortifying conclusion, that great men as often instruct us by their negative example as by their most brilliant precepts, or their most confident conclusions.

ARTICLE VI.

LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN.'

By R. D. C. Robbins, Librarian Theological Seminary, Andover, Mass.

Reasons for writing a Life of Calvin.

No apology is deemed necessary for making the Life of John Calvin, the great Reformer, a topic of discussion in this Journal. He is acknowledged, even by those who dislike him most, to have been a man of no ordinary endowments, and familiarity with the feelings and conduct of the great and the good is always profitable. Their lives benefit us not so much by reminding us, that we in our humble sphere "may make our lives sublime," as by assimilating us to themselves. They attract us upward. By ac

The work which has been most relied upon in the preparation of this Article is, Das Leben Johann Calvins des grossen Reformators; von Paul Henry, Prediger an der Französisch-Friedrichstädtischen Kirche zu Berlin. The first volume was published in 1835, the second in 1838. The third volume, issued during the last year, has not yet been received. The work shows diligent research into the original sources, discrimination in the choice of materials, and good religious feeling in the author. There are 554 letters of Calvin in the Library at Geneva which have never been published. Many of these from the domestic and personal nature of the contents, are especially valuable as throwing new light upon some of the most interesting traits in the character of the great Reformer, and may be considered as the best picture of the every day life of the man, in connection with his friends and associates, which can be found. Mr. Henry had free access to all of these and many other letters which have been collected in different parts of Germany, as well as to manuscript sermons and other writings contained in the Geneva Library. We have made free use of the materials found in Mr. Henry's Work whenever we have thought them to our purpose, and shall not during the course of this Article deem it necessary to refer in every case, to the page from which we have taken, or make any other acknowledgement than this general statement of our great obligation to that work. Other works consulted will be referred to in the course of the discussion.

companying them in their contests for the truth, we gain strength and courage to resist the foes by which we are beset, whether from without or from within. Are they conscientious and truthloving like John Calvin, by sympathy with them we are made more careful not to violate our convictions of right, and more anxious to exclude as a base and hurtful thing all that is wrong in our actions, thoughts and feelings.

The time at which Calvin appeared, also gives special interest to his life, both with the Christian and the scholar. The greatest number of illustrious monarchs who ever reigned at one time, were then at the head of affairs in Europe. Henry VIII of Eng land, second only to Francis L. in personal accomplishments, was thought worthy of the title of "defender of the faith" or "Arch-heretic" according as he favored or opposed the Catholics. Francis I., a friend and patron of learning was crowned king of France in 1515, and died the same year with Henry VIII. (1547). His rival, Charles I. of Spain, V. of Germany, who was chosen emperor in 1519, when Calvin was ten years old, swayed for a time the destinies of half of Europe, opposed Luther, held Francis L captive in Spain, shut up the Pope in the castle of St. Angelo plundered Rome, fought successfully against Solyman the Magnificent, and when he died,

"left a name at which the world grew pale, To point a moral and adorn a tale."

Pope Leo X. died when Calvin was young, but his works did not follow him. His influence was felt in many ways throughout Christendom, when Calvin came upon the stage of public action. The encouragement of learning, which has distinguished him above all the occupants of the papal throne for nearly twenty centuries, the establishment of seminaries of instruction, exertions for the recovery and publication of ancient works, munificence to professors of every branch of science, literature and art, even though they might be laboring directly for the aggrandizement of Rome, contributed not a little to the preparation of the way for the reformation in religion.

In Germany the Reformation had been several years in progress before Calvin commenced his labors, and although it had penetrated into France, its good effects were confined in a considerable degree to the country of Luther. The Reformed Church established in Switzerland by Zuingle, was little known beyond that country. The Swiss, hemmed in by their own mountains,

1845.]

Reasons for studying Calvin's Character.

331

did not seem anxious to disseminate their peculiar views in other lands, and but for John Calvin, centuries might have glided away ere the little leaven that was at work there, had pervaded the surrounding countries. The first great battle of the Reformation had been fought, but a new leader and a new mode of attack were necessary. Princes and nobles and the educated were to be called, and some one was needed to take the guidance, who would be able to stand before kings and to reason with the thoughtful man; some one who could meet the student in his retirement and guide him by a strong hand. Luther's call was to pull down, to demolish, another must build up. The German Reformer by dwelling upon one article of the Christian scheme in opposition to the abuses of Rome, was well fitted to rouse attention, to influence the masses, but he left them without any sure guide. To his sorrow he found at Münster, that he had conjured up a spirit which would not down at his bidding. He had not made the whole Bible the only foundation of faith and practice.

There seems to be special propriety in inviting the attention of both the clergy and laity among us to the contemplation of the character of the great Reformer at the present time. There has been of late years not only in the Episcopal branch of the Reformed Church, but even among the lineal descendants of the Puritans and Huguenots, a growing disregard for one to whom more than to any other uninspired man, we owe the freedom and manliness of thought, the thorough and systematic views of Christian doctrine, the absence of slavish subserviency to forms, superstitious rites and church authority, which we claim as our inheritance and our chief joy. Too often even among our New England Christians has Calvinist been a term of reproach; it has been used to characterize those who defend the hardest doctrines of the Bible in the rudest manner, and protrude the sharpest angles and the roughest corners of the Christian system, until it should seem that religion was not intended for man or angel, so opposed is it to all our kindlier feelings and native impulses.

It has been somewhat common for those, who are in general less prejudiced, to consider Calvin as destitute of all the gentler qualities of soul which win our esteem. Some may have felt a kind of reverence for him as a logician, as a reasoner, as a defender of the truth in perilous times, but they have not dreamed that he was a person whom they could love. He has not been thought of as a companion by the domestic hearth, or in the social circle.

The view, which many of us have taken of his character, has been a partial one. We have known him as the antagonist of Servetus, as the castigator of the Anabaptists and the inculcator of the doctrine of reprobation, but we have not known him as the devoted friend, the much loved companion, the protector of the oppressed, the retiring and timid student. His conduct has not always been traced back to moving causes. It has not been perceived that some of his worst faults are the result of the undue prominence of a good quality, such as a strong and conscientious love of truth. It is the design of the present inquiry to give, as far as we are able in the space allotted us, a view of the life and character of this great and good man, and if any are thus induced to look with more reverence, affection and gratitude upon him, our labor will not have been in vain.

Parentage and Early Life of Calvin.

At the beginning of the 16th century there lived at the small village, Le Pont l'Evêque, in the province of Picardy towards the north of France, a poor but honest old man, who gained his living by making vessels in which the surrounding peasants stored the produce of their vineyards. A large family circle1 had clustered about him in the same village. One of his sons, Gerhard Cauvin or Caulvin was Procureur Fiscal and secretary of the bishopric of Noyon, an ancient and celebrated village not far distant. This man though rigid in his religious principles, was possessed of a good judgment and skill in the management of whatever business he undertook. He was respected by all about him, and much loved by all the nobility of Noyon, especially by the family of Monmor the most distinguished in the province. He had married Anna Franc from Cambray, whose family was respectable, though possessed of but a moderate share of this world's treasures. She, as well as her husband, was scrupulously religious according to the principles and rites of the Romish church.

The second son of these worthy people, named John Caulvin, (Latin Calvinus, and hence his common designation, John Calvin,) was born the 10th of July, 1509, the same year that Henry VIII. was crowned king of England, and one year after Luther, then twenty-five years old, was established as preacher and pro

1 Many of these people afterwards changed their name to show their hatred of the great Reformer, and attachment to the Catholic church.-Henry, Leben d. J. Calvins, Bd. I. S. 24.