John Calvin

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This man, undoubtedly the greatest ofProtestant divines, and perhaps, afterSt. Augustine, the most perseveringly followed by his disciples of anyWestern writer ontheology, was born at Noyon in Picardy,France, 10 July, 1509, and died atGeneva, 27 May, 1564.

A generation divided him fromLuther, whom he never met. By birth,education, and temper these two protagonists of the reforming movement were strongly contrasted.Luther was aSaxon peasant, hisfather a miner; Calvin sprang from the French middle-class, and hisfather, an attorney, had purchased the freedom of the City of Noyon, where he practised civil and canon law.Luther entered theOrder of Augustinian Hermits, took amonk'svows, was made apriest and incurred much odium by marrying anun. Calvin never wasordained in theCatholicChurch; his training was chiefly inlaw and the humanities; he took novows.Luther's eloquence made him popular by its force, humour, rudeness, and vulgar style. Calvin spoke to the learned at all times, even when preaching before multitudes. His manner is classical; he reasons on system; he has little humour; instead of striking with a cudgel he uses the weapons of a deadlylogic and persuades by a teacher's authority, not by a demagogue's calling of names. He writes French as well asLuther writes German, and like him has been reckoned a pioneer in the modern development of his native tongue. Lastly, if we term the doctor ofWittenberg amystic, we may sum up Calvin as ascholastic; he gives articulate expression to the principles whichLuther had stormily thrown out upon the world in his vehement pamphleteering; and the "Institutes" as they were left by their author have remained ever since the standard oforthodoxProtestantbelief in all the Churches known as"Reformed." His French disciples called theirsect "the religion"; such it has proved to be outside the Roman world.

The family name, spelt in many ways, was Cauvin latinized according to the custom of the age as Calvinus. For some unknown reason the Reformer is commonly called Maître Jean C. His mother, Jeanne Le Franc, born in theDiocese of Cambrai, is mentioned as "beautiful and devout"; she took her little son to various shrines and brought him up a goodCatholic. On the father's side, his ancestors were seafaring men. His grandfather settled at Pont l'Evêque nearParis, and had two sons who became locksmiths; the third was Gerard, who turnedprocurator at Noyon, and there his four sons and two daughters saw the light. He lived in the Place au Blé (Cornmarket). Noyon, abishop's see, had long been a fief of the powerful oldfamily of Hangest, who treated it as their personalproperty. But an everlasting quarrel, in which the city took part, went on between thebishop and the chapter. Charles de Hangest, nephew of the too well-known Georges d'Amboise,Archbishop ofRouen, surrendered thebishopric in 1525 to his own nephew John, becoming hisvicar-general. John kept up the battle with his canons until the Parliament ofParis intervened, upon which he went toRome, and at last died inParis in 1577. Thisprelate hadProtestant kinsfolk; he is charged with having fosteredheresy which in those years was beginning to raise its head among the French. Clerical dissensions, at all events, allowed the new doctrines a promising field; and the Calvins were more or less infected by them before 1530.

Gerard's four sons were madeclerics and heldbenefices at a tender age. The Reformer was given one when a boy of twelve, he becameCuré of Saint-Martin de Marteville in the Vermandois in 1527, and of Pont l'Eveque in 1529. Three of the boys attended the local Collège des Capettes, and there John proved himself an apt scholar. But his people were intimate with greater folk, the de Montmor, a branch of the line of Hangest, which led to his accompanying some of their children toParis in 1523, when his mother was probably dead and hisfather had married again. The latter died in 1531, underexcommunication from the chapter for not sending in his accounts. The old man's illness, not his lack of honesty, was, we are told, thecause. Yet his son Charles, nettled by thecensure, drew towards theProtestant doctrines. He was accused in 1534 of denying theCatholicdogma of theEucharist, and died out of theChurch in 1536; his body was publicly gibbeted as that of arecusant.

Meanwhile, young John was going through his own trials at theUniversity of Paris, thedean or syndic of which, Noel Bédier, had stood up againstErasmus and bore hard uponLe Fèvre d'Etaples (Stapulensis), celebrated for his translation of theBible into French. Calvin, a "martinet", oroppidan, in the Collèege de la Marche, made this man's acquaintance (he was from Picardy) and may have glanced into his Latincommentary onSt. Paul,dated 1512, which Doumergue considers the firstProtestant book emanating from a French pen. Another influence tending the same way was that of Corderius, Calvin's tutor, to whom he dedicated afterwards his annotation ofI Thessalonians, remarking, "if there be anygood thing in what I have published, I owe it to you". Corderius had an excellent Latin style, his life was austere, and his "Colloquies" earned him enduring fame. But he fell under suspicion ofheresy, and by Calvin's aid took refuge in Geneva, where he died September 1564. A third herald of the "New Learning" was George Cop, physician toFrancis I, in whose house Calvin found a welcome and gave ear to the religious discussions which Cop favoured. And a fourth was Pierre-Robert d'Olivet of Noyon, who also translated the Scriptures, our youthful man of letters, his nephew, writing (in 1535) a Latin preface to theOld Testament and a French one — his first appearance as a native author — to theNew Testament.

By 1527, when no more than eighteen, Calvin'seducation was complete in its main lines. He had learned to be ahumanist and a reformer. The "sudden conversion" to a spiritual life in 1529, of which he speaks, must not be taken quite literally. He had never been an ardentCatholic; but the stories told at one time of his ill-regulated conduct have no foundation; and by a very natural process he went over to the side on which hisfamily were taking their stand. In 1528 he inscribed himself atOrléans as alaw student, made friends with Francis Daniel, and then went for a year toBourges, where he began preaching in private. Margaret d'Angoulême, sister ofFrancis I, and Duchess of Berry, was living there with many heterodox Germans about her.

He is found again atParis in 1531. Wolmar had taught him Greek atBourges; from Vatable he learned Hebrew; and he entertained some relations with the erudite Budaeus. About thisdate he printed a commentary on Seneca's "De Clementiâ". It was merely an exercise in scholarship, having no political significance.Francis I was, indeed, handlingProtestants severely, and Calvin, now Doctor of Law atOrléans, composed, so the story runs, an oration onChristian philosophy which Nicholas Cop delivered onAll Saints' Day, 1532, both writer and speaker having to take instant flight from pursuit by the royal inquisitors. This legend has been rejected by modern critics. Calvin spent some time, however, with Canon du Tillet atAngoulême under a feigned designation. In May, 1534, he went to Noyon, gave up hisbenefice, and, it is said, wasimprisoned. But he got away to Nerac in Bearn, the residence of the Duchess Margaret, and there again encountered Le Fèvre, whose French Bible had been condemned by the Sorbonne to the flames. His next visit toParis fell out during a violent campaign of theLutherans against theMass, which brought on reprisals, Etienne de la Forge and others were burnt in the Place de Grève; and Calvin accompanied by du Tillet, escaped — though not without adventures — to Metz andStrasburg. In the latter cityBucer reigned supreme. The leading reformers dictatedlaws from thepulpit to their adherents, and this journeyproved a decisive one for the Frenchhumanist, who, though by nature timid and shy, committed himself to awar on paper with his own sovereign. The famous letter toFrancis I isdated 23 August, 1535. It served as a prologue to the "Institutes", of which the first edition came out in March, 1536, not in French but in Latin. Calvin's apology for lecturing the king was, that placards denouncing theProtestants as rebels had been posted up all over the realm.Francis I did not read these pages, but if he had done so he would have discovered in them a plea, not for toleration, which the Reformer utterly scorned, but for doing away withCatholicism in favour of the new gospel. There could be only onetrue Church, said the youngtheologian, therefore kings ought to make an utter end of popery. (For an account of the "Institutes" seeC) The second edition belongs to 1539, the firstFrench translation to 1541; the final Latin, as revised by its author, is of 1559; but that in common use,dated 1560, has additions by his disciples. "It was more God's work than mine", said Calvin, who took for his motto"Omnia ad Dei gloriam", and in allusion to the change he had undergone in 1529 assumed for his device a hand stretched out from a burning heart.

A much disputed chapter in Calvin's biography is the visit which he was long thought to have paid at Ferraro to theProtestant Duchess Renée, daughter of Louis XII. Many stories clustered about his journey, now given up by the best-informed writers. All weknow for certain is that the Reformer, after settling hisfamily affairs and bringing over two of his brothers and sisters to the views he had adopted undertook, in consequence of thewar betweenCharles V andFrancis I, to reach Bale by way ofGeneva, in July, 1536. At Geneva theSwiss preacher Fare, then looking for help in his propaganda, besought him with such vehemence to stay and teachtheology that, as Calvin himself relates, he was terrified into submission. We are not accustomed to fancy the austereprophet so easily frightened. But as a student andrecluse new to public responsibilities, he may well have hesitated before plunging into the troubled waters ofGeneva, then at their stormiest period. No portrait of him belonging to this time is extant. Later he is represented as of middle height, with bent shoulders, piercing eyes, and a large forehead; his hair was of an auburn tinge. Study andfasting occasioned the severe headaches from which he suffered continually. In private life he was cheerful but sensitive, not to say overbearing, his friends treated him with delicate consideration. His habits were simple; he cared nothing for wealth, and he never allowed himself a holiday. His correspondence, of which 4271 letters remain, turns chiefly ondoctrinal subjects. Yet his strong, reserved character told on all with whom he came in contact; Geneva submitted to his theocratic rule, and theReformed Churches accepted his teaching as though it wereinfallible.

Such was the stranger whom Farel recommended to his fellowProtestants, "this Frenchman", chosen to lecture on theBible in a city divided against itself. Geneva had about 15,000 inhabitants. Itsbishop had long been its prince limited, however, by popular privileges. Thevidomne, or mayor, was the Count ofSavoy, and to hisfamily thebishopric seemed aproperty which, from 1450, they bestowed on their younger children. John ofSavoy,illegitimate son of the previousbishop, sold hisrights to the duke, who was head of the clan, and died in 1519 at Pignerol. Jean de la Baume, last of itsecclesiastical princes, abandoned the city, which receivedProtestant teachers fromBerne in 1519 and from Fribourg in 1526. In 1527 the arms ofSavoy were torn down; in 1530 theCatholic party underwent defeat, and Geneva became independent. It had two councils, but the final verdict on public measures rested with the people. These appointed Farel, a convert of Le Fevre, as their preacher in 1534. A discussion between the two Churches from 30 May to 24 June, 1535 ended in victory for theProtestants. The altars weredesecrated, the sacred images broken, the Mass done away with. Bernese troops entered and "the Gospel" was accepted, 21 May, 1536. This impliedpersecution ofCatholics by the councils which acted both asChurch and State. Priests were thrown intoprison; citizens were fined for not attending sermons. At Zürich, Basle, and Berne the samelaws were established. Toleration did not enter into theideas of the time.

But though Calvin had not introduced thislegislation, it was mainly by his influence that in January, 1537 the "articles" were voted which insisted on communion four times a year, set spies on delinquents, established a moral censorship, and punished the unruly withexcommunication. There was to be a children'scatechism, which he drew up; it ranks among his best writings. The city now broke into "jurants" and "nonjurors" for many would not swear to the "articles"; indeed, they never were completely accepted. Questions had arisen with Berne touching points that Calvin judged to be indifferent. He made a figure in the debates atLausanne defending the freedom ofGeneva. But disorders ensued at home, whererecusancy was yet rife; in 1538 the council exiled Farel, Calvin, and the blind evangelist, Couraud. The Reformer went toStrasburg, became the guest of Capito andBucer, and in 1539 was explaining theNew Testament to French refugees at fifty two florins a year. Cardinal Sadolet had addressed an open letter to the Genevans, which their exile now answered. Sadolet urged thatschism was a crime; Calvin replied that theRoman Church was corrupt. He gained applause by his keen debating powers at Hagenau, Worms, andRatisbon. But he complains of his poverty and ill-health, which did not prevent him from marrying at this time Idelette de Bure, thewidow of anAnabaptist whom he had converted. Nothing more is known of this lady, except that she brought him a son who died almost at birth in 1542, and that her own death took place in 1549.

After some negotiation Ami Perrin, commissioner for Geneva, persuaded Calvin to return. He did so, not very willingly, on 13 September, 1541. His entry was modest enough. The church constitution now recognized "pastors,doctors, elders,deacons" but supreme power was given to the magistrate. Ministers had the spiritual weapon ofGod's word; the consistory never, as such, wielded the secular arm Preachers, led by Calvin, and the councils, instigated by his opponents, came frequently into collision. Yet the ordinances of 1541 were maintained; theclergy, assisted by lay elders, governed despotically and in detail the actions of every citizen. A presbyterianSparta might be seen atGeneva; it set an example to laterPuritans, who did all in their power to imitate its discipline. The pattern held up was that of theOld Testament, althoughChristians were supposed to enjoy Gospel liberty. In November, 1552, the Council declared that Calvin's "Institutes" were a "holydoctrine which no man might speak against." Thus the State issued dogmatic decrees, the force of which had been anticipated earlier, as when Jacques Gouet wasimprisoned on charges of impiety in June, 1547, and after severe torture was beheaded in July. Some of the accusations brought against the unhappy young man were frivolous, othersdoubtful. What share, if any, Calvin took in this judgment is not easy to ascertain. The execution of however must be laid at his door; it has given greater offence by far than the banishment of Castellio or the penalties inflicted onBolsec — moderate men opposed to extreme views in discipline anddoctrine, who fell under suspicion as reactionary. The Reformer did not shrink from his self-appointed task. Within five years fifty-eight sentences of death and seventy-six of exile, besides numerous committals of the most eminent citizens toprison, took place in Geneva. The iron yoke could not be shaken off. In 1555, under Ami Perrin, a sort of revolt was attempted. No blood was shed, but Perrin lost the day, and Calvin's theocracy triumphed.

"I am more deeply scandalized", wrote Gibbon "at the single execution of Servetus than at the hecatombs which have blazed in the autos-da-fé ofSpain andPortugal". He ascribes the enmity of Calvin to personal malice and perhapsenvy. The facts of the case are pretty well ascertained. Born in 1511, perhaps atTudela, Michael Served y Reves studied atToulouse and was present in Bologna at thecoronation ofCharles V. He travelled inGermany and brought out in 1531 at Hagenau his treatise "De Trinitatis Erroribus", a strongUnitarian work which made much commotion among the moreorthodoxReformers. He met Calvin and disputed with him atParis in 1534, became corrector of the press atLyons; gave attention to medicine, discovered the lesser circulation of the blood, and entered into a fatal correspondence with the dictator ofGeneva touching a new volume "Christianismi Restitutio," which he intended to publish. In 1546 the exchange of letters ceased. The Reformer called Servetus arrogant (he had dared to criticize the "Institutes" in marginal glosses), and uttered the significant menace, "If he comes here and I have any authority, I will never let him leave the place alive." The "Restitutio" appeared in 1553. Calvin at once had its author delated to theDominican inquisitorOry atLyons, sending on to him the man's letters of 1545-46 and these glosses. Hereupon theSpaniards wasimprisoned at Vienne, but he escaped by friendly connivance, and was burnt there only in effigy. Some extraordinary fascination drew him to Geneva, from which he intended to pass the Alps. He arrived on 13 August, 1553. The next day Calvin, who had remarked him at the sermon, got his critic arrested, the preacher's own secretary coming forward to accuse him. Calvin drew up forty articles of charge under three heads, concerning thenature of God, infantbaptism, and the attack which Servetus had ventured on his own teaching. The council hesitated before taking a deadly decision, but the dictator, reinforced by Farel, drove them on. Inprison the culprit suffered much and loudly complained. The Bernese and otherSwiss voted for some indefinite penalty. But to Calvin his power in Geneva seemed lost, while the stigma ofheresy; as he insisted, would cling to allProtestants if this innovator were notput to death. "Let the world see" Bullinger counselled him, "thatGeneva wills the glory of Christ."

Accordingly, sentence was pronounced 26 October, 1553, of burning at the stake. "Tomorrow he dies," wrote Calvin to Farel. When the deed was done, the Reformer alleged that he had been anxious to mitigate the punishment, but of this fact no record appears in the documents. He disputed with Servetus on the day of execution and saw the end. A defence and apology next year received the adhesion of the Genevanministers.Melanchthon, who had taken deep umbrage at theblasphemies of the SpanishUnitarian, strongly approved in well-known words. But a group that included Castellio published at Basle in 1554 a pamphlet with the title, "Shouldheretics bepersecuted?" It is considered the first plea for toleration in modern times. Beza replied by an argument for the affirmative, couched in violent terms; and Calvin, whose favorite disciple he was, translated it into French in 1559. The dialogue, "Vaticanus", written against the "Pope ofGeneva" by Castellio, did not get into print until 1612. Freedom of opinion, as Gibbon remarks, "was the consequence rather than the design of theReformation."

Another victim to his fieryzeal wasGentile, one of anItaliansect in Geneva, which also numbered among its adherentsAlciati and Gribaldo. As more or lessUnitarian in their views, they were required to sign a confession drawn up by Calvin in 1558.Gentile subscribed it reluctantly, but in the upshot he was condemned andimprisoned as aperjurer. He escaped only to be twice incarcerated atBerne, where in 1566, he was beheaded. Calvin's impassioned polemic against theseItalians betrays fear of theSocinianism which was to lay waste his vineyard. Politically he leaned on the French refugees, now abounding in the city, and more than equal in energy — if not in numbers — to the older native factions. Opposition died out. His continual preaching, represented by 2300 sermons extant in themanuscripts and a vast correspondence, gave to the Reformer an influence without example in his closing years. He wrote to Edward VI, helped in revising theBook of Common Prayer, and intervened between the rival English parties abroad during theMarian period. In theHuguenot troubles he sided with the more moderate. His censure of the conspiracy of Amboise in 1560 does himhonour. One great literary institution founded by him, the College, afterwards the University, ofGeneva, flourished exceedingly. The students were mostly French. When Beza wasrector it had nearly 1500 students of various grades.

Geneva now sent outpastors to the French congregations and was looked upon as theProtestantRome. ThroughKnox, "the Scottish champion of the Swiss Reformation", who had been preacher to the exiles in that city, his native land accepted the discipline of the Presbytery and thedoctrine of predestination as expounded in Calvin's "Institutes". ThePuritans inEngland were also descendants of the Frenchtheologian. His dislike of theatres, dancing and the amenities ofsociety was fully shared by them. The town on Lake Leman was described as without crime and destitute of amusements. Calvin declaimed against the "Libertines", but there is no evidence that any such people had a footing inside its walls The cold, hard, but upright disposition characteristic of theReformed Churches, less genial than that derived fromLuther, is due entirely to their founder himself. Its essence is a concentratedpride, alove of disputation, a scorn of opponents. The only art that it tolerates is music, and that not instrumental. It will have noChristian feasts in its calendar, and it is austere to the verge ofManichaeanhatred of the body. Whendogma fails theCalvinist, he becomes, as in the instance of Carlyle, almost a pureStoic. "At Geneva, as for a time inScotland," says J. A. Froude, "moralsins were treated as crimes to be punished by the magistrate." The Bible was a code of law, administered by theclergy. Down to his dying day Calvin preached and taught. By no means an aged man, he was worn out in these frequent controversies. On 25 April, 1564, he made his will, leaving 225 French crowns, of which he bequeathed ten to his college, ten to thepoor, and the remainder to his nephews and nieces. His last letter was addressed to Farel. He wasburied without pomp, in a spot which is not now ascertainable. In the year 1900 a monument of expiation was erected to Servetus in the Place Champel. Geneva has long since ceased to be the head ofCalvinism. It is a rallying point forFree Thought,Socialist propaganda, andNihilist conspiracies. But in history it stands out as theSparta of theReformed churches, and Calvin is its Lycurgus.

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