rect knowledge of the truths of the Bible. He says in the Preface to this second edition: That he has arranged and treated the subjects introduced into this volume, in such a manner as to prepare the reader for the study of the Bible, and to enable him to understand its doctrines in their relations and practical bearing.' Thus,' he says, he shall not be obliged to introduce into his explanations of Scripture long doctrinal discussions. The utility of the volume in this respect, will be more evident by a reference to his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, than he can make it by words.'

It is not in accordance with the plan of this narrative, to give an analysis of the Institutes. A few particulars concerning its external history is all we have room to add. It was, even in its first edition, the most extensive and systematic exposition and defence of the reformed tenets which had then appeared,' and was an invaluable auxiliary in the work of reform. If Luther's words were "half battles," Calvin's writings were a well furnished store-house both for offensive and defensive war. The testimony of men of all parties and of all ages since its publication, in favor of the talent exhibited in the work is decisive. Paulus Thurius, a learned man from Hungary, affirms that," since the time of Christ, except the writings of the Apostles, no age has produced anything equal to this book."2 "It contains," says Bretschneider, a leading rationalist of Germany, " a treasure of excellent thoughts, acute analyses, and apt remarks, and is written in an elegant, animated and flowing style. The only thing analogous to this in the Lutheran church, is the celebrated Loci Communes of Melanchthon, which for symmetry, for solidity of argumentation, polemical strength, and systematic completeness cannot be compared with the work of Calvin."3 I scarcely need to add, that even the most bigoted Catholics, although they strenuously maintain that the doctrines contained in this work are false, and that great injury has resulted and must result from their diffusion, are compelled to acknowledge that the language in which the

1 Hallam's History of Literature, Vol. I. p. 192, Harpers' edition. Reformat. Almanach. S. 107.

J. Focanus says of it: Qui liber non solum abundat rebus optimis, sed et nitido, puro, gravi, magnifico et latinissimo stylo conscriptus est. Daniel Co

lonius of Leyden, in a work upon the Institutes also says:

Aureus hic liber est, hanc tu studiosa juventus,

Si cupis optatam studiorum attingere metam,

Noctes atque dies in succum verte legendo.

1845.]

Dedication of the Institutes to Francis I.

495

work is written is good and pure for the age in which Calvin lived, and that much acuteness of mind and discrimination in reference to theological subjects is exhibited in it.1

If further testimony in favor of the work is desired, it may be found in the numerous editions of it in the original, and in translations, which have made it not only the common property of Europe, but known and valued in other quarters of the globe. It has been translated by E. Icard into modern French, by Julius Paschalis into Italian, by Cyprian of Valera into Spanish, and by Thomas Norton and J. Allen into English; several translations have been made into German, and it is also found in the Dutch, the Hungarian, the Greek, and even the Arabic languages.

But Calvin's work was not done when he had prepared this summary of, and apology for the reformed doctrines. The apparent relenting of Francis gave him hope of exerting an influence directly upon him, and the importance of the king's course at this time was too great, to allow any measures for interesting him in the truth to be left unemployed. Calvin accordingly dedicated his Institutes to him. This dedication was written with great care, and will always remain an ornament to the Christian church. "There have been in the world of Letters only three great Prefaces, that of Thuanus to his History, that of Casaubon to his Polybius, and that of Calvin to his Institutes."2 "This last," as it has been said, “is a tribute worthy of a great king, a vestibule worthy a superb edifice, a composition worthy of more than a single perusal."

In this dedication Calvin exerted all the powers of his vigorous mind. He was pleading for the honor of his Maker, for the life of his friends, for those in whose breasts his admonitions and instructions had enkindled a love of the truth. It cannot be doubted too, that he in some degree foresaw the evils that would come upon France, unless the king could be influenced, and the tide of persecution stayed. No wonder that under such influences he wrote with power. But Francis was as unmoved as the emperor Charles V., when the Confession of Melanchthon was read before him at Augsburg. He had encased himself in armor that could not be pierced by the most polished weapons. It has been supposed that he did not read the appeal, but that is scarcely possi

See Fleury's Hist. Eccl. Tom. XXVIII. p. 114.

2 Quoted by Henry, I. 80, from S. Morus Panégyrique, p. 108. Inst. Ed. Icard. et Mélange Critique de feu M. Ancillon, Basle 1698. T. II. p. 65.

ble. He was too much interested to know what was scattered among his subjects, if he did not heed the entreaties of his noble sister, to leave it unperused. But the die was cast. The desolating current had set upon the fair fields of France, and wave after wave swept over it, especially under the dominion of Francis's successor, Henry II, and of Catharine De Medici, and still later under the administration of Richelieu. The time of this gracious visitation passed by,' says Henry,' and France, like Jerusalem, which our Saviour wept over, knew not the things that belonged to its peace.'

Calvin's Journey to Italy, and relation to the dutchess of Ferrara.

Calvin was not satisfied to confine his exertions to those who spoke the French language. His benevolence was not shut in by city-walls or limited by state-boundaries; wherever there were those who had erred, his desire was to bring them back to the fold of Christ. He loved his native France and wept over it, but when persecuted in one country, he fled to another; when cast out and reviled by the pharisee of the French capital, he remembered the gentile nations. Accordingly, after he had completed the Latin edition of his Institutes, probably at the end of March or beginning of April 1536, he decided to visit Italy. The journey was dangerous for him, and in order to avoid interruption he assumed the name of Monsieur Charles d'Espeville. This name he afterwards also sometimes adopted in his correspondence with his friends, so as not to expose them to danger.

Many circumstances contributed to awaken in him an interest for Italy. The power of the pope was resisted there, even after it was acknowledged by the western churches. The way for the abandonment of superstition and bigotry and religious domination had been none the less really, if less palpably, prepared by Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, Boccacio, and even by the illustrious princes of the houses of Este and Medici, than by Arnold of Brescia, Bernard, Savonarola and Picus of Mirandola. Before a taste for literature the power of superstition must disappear; but there is danger that indifference or skepticism will take its place, as they were already beginning to do in Italy. The appeal of Leo

1 Brantôme rapporte qu'un jour où le Roi s'xpliqua sur ce sujet, il lui échappe de dire que cette nouveauté tendoit du tout au renversement de la monarchie divine et humaine, etc. Henry, 1. 99.

2 M'Crie's Reform. in Italy, p. 1.

1845.]

State of Italy at the time of Calvin's Visit.

497

X. for means to aid in the aggrandizement of the Holy See, had called forth a response from the German monasteries, which was as little expected as desired. The cry of Antichrist and Babylon, issuing from the German forests, echoing from hill to mountain, gaining new force from resistance, and redoubled as it poured down from the Alpine heights where Zuingli was posted, had reached even to the Vatican, and struck the death-knell upon many a heart resting there in fancied security. The German troops and Swiss auxiliaries of Charles of Bourbon, as they poured into Italy in 1526, scattered the principles of the reformation with one hand, while they dealt death blows with the other. The confinement of the pope, the vicar of God, within prison walls, the waving of the soldier's plume where mitred heads were wont to appear, the gleaming of the soldier's steel upon "The Transfiguration," could not, while it excited the horror of the people, fail to lessen the reverence which they had been taught to feel for everything connected with papal Rome. The thunders of the Vatican, at which Europe just now trembled, reverberating through hall and along corridor, no longer issued forth as aforetime. They died away with a murmur, and a voice was heard saying, "Watchman, what of the night? And the watchman answered: The morning cometh and also the night."

Ferrara was at this time an object of special interest. Under the dominion of the dukes of the house of Este, it had long been the rival of Florence, under the government of the Medici, in the patronage of learning and the arts. Ariosto lived at the court of Alfonso I., Tasso at that of Hercules II. At the time of Calvin's visit, Ferrara was not only a seat of learning and refinement, but also a refuge for the persecuted, who fled from other parts of Italy and from foreign countries. Its reigning duke, Hercules II., had married Renée or Renata, daughter of Louis XII. of France. This accomplished woman became acquainted with the reformed doctrines before she left her native land, at the court of the Queen of Navarre. For their introduction into Ferrara, she at first limited her exertions to entertaining, as men of letters, those who favored these doctrines. Afterwards she selected the instructors of her children, with reference to the dissemination of the new views. In addition to the men of liberal and independent minds who were connected with the University of Ferrara, and permanently attached to the Court, Calvin met there Madame de Soubise,1 and 1 Governess of the dutchess, who while in France was the means of introducing several men of letters there.-M'Crie's Reform. in Italy, p. 8.

her daughter Anna of Parthenai, distinguished for her elegant taste; also her son, Jean de Parthenai, afterwards leader of the protestant party in France, Count de Marennes, the future husband of Anna, and Clement Marot, a poet of considerable eminence, who after "the placards" had been compelled to flee from France, and was at this time secretary of the dutchess.

The duke of Ferrara sometime during the year of Calvin's arrival there, 1536, entered into a league with the Pope and the Emperor, a secret article of which required him to remove all French residents from his court. The dutchess thus saw herself compelled to part with Madame de Soubise and her family. Marot retired to Venice. Calvin did not escape this persecution. The eyes of the inquisitors were soon upon him, and he sought safety in flight. It is to be regretted that he was compelled to leave Ferrara, when he had been there not more than two or three months. Such a mind as his must have found much sympathy in the cultivated circle by whom the dutchess was surrounded. He seemed to need just such an influence to counter-act the rigid severity, which the opposition that he was compelled to encounter, must almost necessarily superinduce in one of so strong powers of mind, and scrupulous conscientiousness.

Although Calvin's visit to Ferrara was so short, that he says, 'he only saw the frontiers of Italy to bid them farewell,' it was not unimportant in its influences. He subsequently maintained a correspondence with the children of Madame de Soubise, and without doubt aided them much, (especially Jean de Parthenai,) in the important work which they were called to perform in favor of the reform in France. But the person over whom his influence was most exerted, was the dutchess of Ferrara. She had previously to his visit a reputation for piety, but Calvin's influence greatly strength. ened her faith and increased her zeal. After his visit she embraced the principles of the reform, in distinction from those of Luther which she had previously favored, and maintained them to the end of her life. Calvin never saw Renée after this time, but he frequently exchanged letters with her. One of the last letters which he wrote was directed to her. says that "she esteemed him above all others while he lived, and when

Beza 3

1 See Hallam's Hist. of Literature, Vol. I. p. 220, Harpers' ed.

2 The Catholic historian Fleury says: Hercules, fearing for his standing with the pope, warned this heretic to flee to France immediately, if he wished to escape the Inquisition.-Hist. Eccl. Tom. XXXVIII. p. 136.

3 Calvini Vita.

4 Semper unice dilexerit.