thanks for having maintained his cause "both eloquently and piously.1

The origin and formation of the council of Trent, and the nature of its decisions, are probably familiar to most of the readers of these pages. It commenced its consultations in January 1546. In 1547 after the doings of seven of its twenty-five sessions, Calvin published in Latin, Acta synodi Tridentinae cum Antidoto, the first review which had been made of its proceedings. His first object was to show that the decisions of such an assemblage had no obligatory force. He adduces the opinion of Augustine, upon the council of Nice, who says, in answer to the Arian Maximian: "Our questions are decided by the words of the Holy Scriptures, which belong neither to you or to me alone, but to us both." Calvin further shows how ridiculous it is, that such a council, when there were only about forty bishops present, should represent the whole church and be secure from error. The character of many of the bishops present at this council was by no means free from reproach. The only two who were there from all France, were both ignorant and stupid, and one of them, had been guilty of the grossest licentiousness. But, had they been the best of men and an adequate representation, it would not alter the case very materially as far as the binding nature of their decisions is concerned. For, he says, they decree nothing except what the pope prescribes. The pope controls the Holy Spirit, and as soon as a decree is prepared a courier immediately proceeds to Rome to see what their divinity thinks of it. The holy father calls his council together, and one takes away from, another adds to, and a third changes it and the courier returns. The article is read in the next session, and the dolts3 nod assent with their ears. Such is the oracle which is binding

on the whole world."

After a discussion of the council and its mode of operation,

lisaient, il leur arriveroit peutêtre très souvent ce qui est arrivé à Albertus Pighius lequel comme le dit Crakanthorp: dum refellendi studio Calvini Institutiones et scripta evolvit, in uno ex praecipuis fidei dogmatibus factus est ipsi Calvinianus.

1 Non solum pie sed etiam eloquenter. See the letter, Calvin, Opp. Omn. ed Amst. and in Henry II. 300, 1, and also an extract from Calvin's Dedication of the work to Melanchthon, Henry 290.

2 It was said rather aptly, in reference to the Catholics, than reverently, that the Holy Spirit was sent from Rome in a portmanteau.-Browning's Huguenots, p. 44.

3 Asini.

1845.]

Regard for Calvin in Geneva.

725

Calvin proceeds with logical power, great learning and a most bold and triumphant spirit to dispatch each session by itself. And although, favored by both pope and king, the decrees of this notable convocation are consumed and vanish into thin air, before the burning words of the servant of the God of truth.1

Calvin's Power in Geneva not absolute.

The power of Calvin at Geneva has been so often spoken of both by his friends and enemies that it may not be amiss to give a few hints in regard to it. The plague visited Geneva in 1542, the year after Calvin's return there. Terror sat upon every face. Almost all shrank from a contact with the sick. But Calvin, Blanchet and Castellio, offered to attend upon those who were collected in the plague-hospital. They cast lots to decide which should take his turn first, and the lot fell upon Castellio. But he drew back and Calvin held himself in readiness for the work. But the council and Blanchet would not permit him to expose himself. Blanchet commenced the work alone and died in ten months. Another was required to take his place, but the council showed their regard for Calvin by commanding that he should not be allowed to stand in his lot with the other clergy, "for the church had need of him." The value that the council placed upon his advice and coöperation has been previously mentioned. Yet his authority was by no means absolute as it has sometimes been represented to have been. It varied with the opinion of a fickle multitude. A modified republican government, and a church polity in which the popular element predominated, did not allow the despotic authority of one man. His influence was indirect and changing. He never commanded as one in authority. Yet it must be allowed that a man of such strength of character and superior genius does in a great degree rule the minds that come in contact with him.

Letters and notices of different dates, however, show that he appeared sometimes to be almost without influence. In a letter to Bullinger while the trial of Servetus was in process, he says: "All that we say awakens their suspicion. If we declare that a thing is as clear as the mid-day sun they will forthwith question it." In the year 1556 when his influence was at its culmination,

No one can fail to be interested in a perusal of some parts of this Antidote. See Opp. Omn. Tom. VIII. p. 216 sq. ed. Amst.

he writes: "I very well know what slanders the bad circulate about me, but I withhold my influence from the officers of gov ernment, since it is asserted, that I draw them to myself with absolute power; thus I live as a stranger in this city. The Senate never calls for my advice except when it is in the greatest extremity, and can contrive no other expedient for escape; either because it does not consider it proper to do so, or because it is not willing to call for help from abroad, or possibly because it sees that I avoid it."1 Calvin was also compelled in 1554 to submit some of his writings to the censors, which was very annoying to him. "I had almost," he says, "made an offering of my book to Vulcan; for when I laid it before the council it was decided that it must be subjected to the censors. I was so much enraged when I received this answer, that I declared to the four Syndics that even if I were to live a thousand years longer, I would never publish anything in this city."2

He com

Even in the consistory his power was not despotic. mits to Viret the cause of a certain Sonnerius, for whom, he says, "he has done what he could, but without success; his colleagues in spite of all his exertions to guide them into milder measures, remained firm. Only two of the members voted with him while ten were against him." He also confidently appeals to his fellow counsellors to say whether they had ever felt themselves offended by his rule, and says that if those who accuse him of tyranny knew under what severe restrictions he held his office, they would blush at their ungrounded accusations in regard to the exercise of arbitrary power by him.

Again, towards the close of Calvin's life, the council and people of Geneva showed their great regard for their benefactor, and unlimited confidence in him. They appointed a herald to accompany him upon his journeys,3 and when sick a secretary was employed for him at public expense. In 1561 the dutchess of Ferrara desired to obtain a preacher from Geneva and was allowed a free choice from all except Calvin and Beza, who were indispensable to the State. Also when his life was in danger in his last sickness, March 10th, 1564, every one in the State was ordered to pray for his restoration to health.

1 Mss. Gen. 1556.

2 Mss. Gen. See also the Protocol of Sept. 1542.

* Oct. 12, 1555, Jean Calvin remercie le conseil du héraut qu'on lui avoit donné pour l'accompagner à Francfort.

4 1545.

1845.] Simplicity and Conciseness of the Sermons of Calvin. 727

Calvin as a Preacher.

Homiletics received little attention in France before the time of Calvin. The Reformation by raising the sermon from the low rank which it held in the Catholic church in comparison with the other exercises, made it a matter of no small importance for the preacher to be a good speaker. Even the Catholics found themselves compelled to emulate the Protestants in this particular. Thus a great change was gradually effected, and the French pulpit became deservedly distinguished. We are not therefore to compare Calvin with a Fenelon or a Saurin. He knew nothing of the rhetorical art of which they became masters; and besides, the French language of Calvin's time had neither the flexibility or polish which it exhibited a century later.

Simplicity is perhaps the most prominent characteristic of Calvin's sermons. They should seem to have been modelled after Seneca rather than Cicero. There is an admirable harmony be tween his style and character. He spoke out plainly what he thought or felt and moved straight forward to the accomplishment of his object, without turning aside, for striking antitheses, or metaphors or any of the outward adornings of rhetoric. He despised everything done for mere show. Gaudy trappings were not less out of place in the sermon or the essay than on the bride prepared for her nuptials. This simplicity appears more conspicuous when we compare his sermons with the artfully fashioned and somewhat pompous compositions of the preachers of the next century. "Thus it remains true," says his biographer, “that the greater genius is always the more simple."

The conciseness which is so nearly allied to simplicity and which Calvin loved so much, appeared in the length of his sermons as well as in the construction of sentences. The one hundred and fifty sermons on the book of Job could have seldom occupied him more than half an hour each in the delivery, and even the four against the Nicodemites which are more elaborate, would not require more than three quarters of an hour, even at a moderate rate of utterance, whilst those upon the Epistles are much shorter. Luther was less uniform in the length of his sermons, sometimes making them very short and at other times very long.

Calvin's sermons were especially practical; more generally so perhaps than Luther's. The latter bound himself to no particu

lar form. Sometimes he spoke according to rule in short sentences, and in artificial order; sometimes his words flowed forth like a torrent without method. At one time he quietly gave instruction and again he spoke in anger and with reproaches. Calvin, like the Scriptures, dwelt much upon action in religion and seemed to have the condition and circumstances of his hearers always in view. He would often wander far away from his text to introduce and confute objections. The end of his sermons could not be seen from the beginning, but original thoughts and important truths, expressed in short, sinewy sentences, were scattered all along through them. He did not so often discuss doctrines as enforce duties. Still there is no want of acute criticism, nice discrimination or thorough investigation in the sermons of Calvin. He sometimes also employed satire to show the absurdity of an opinion and make the unbeliever ridiculous in his own eyes, but this was not his common method. Luther's words like fire from heaven, burned every garb on which they fell, especially the purple and the ermine, but Calvin, when in the pulpit, delighted more in the milder radiance of the mid-day sun. By his fervent appeals and simple argument he often extorted from those most opposed to him the confession, so often made by the audiences of the great Athenian orator, that "the truth must certainly be with him."

Calvin preached extempore. We find no proof that he ever wrote his sermons. He expressly says: "I did not write out in my chamber the twenty-two sermons upon the eighth Psalm, but they were printed in the natural method in which they fell from my lips in the church. There you may perceive my ordinary style and manner." We are informed by Scaliger who was accustomed to hear him preach, that "it was easy to take down the whole sermon since Calvin was troubled with a phthisis and spoke moderately." Henry however thinks it proper to judge from his style that he spoke with zeal and warmth and uttered his sentences somewhat rapidly, but made long pauses to enable his hearers to comprehend the thoughts. The habit of dictating to amanuenses enabled him to speak with nearly the same correctness with which he wrote, and even in his last years his power of impressive speaking continued. The concourse of people to his sermons was so great as to receive in the Register of June, 19th, 1559 this notice: Multitude prodigieuse de peuple aux sermons de Messrs. Calvin et Viret.

1 Scaligerana secunda.