[1] _Iulis_ for _in ulnis_ according to the best MS. tradition.
[2] According to Dr R. Garnett (and Mr Greswell, as stated in
Conington's _Virgil_, i. p. 123, note) the emperor referred to is the
younger Gordian (A.D. 238). His arguments in favour of this will be
found in the article on Calpurnius by him in the 9th edition of the
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_ and in the _Journal of Philology_, xvi.,
1888; see in answer J.P. Postgate, "The Comet of Calpurnius Siculus"
in _Classical Review_, June 1902. Dean Merivale (_Hist. of the Romans
under the Empire_, ch. 60) and Pompei, "Intorno al Tempo del Poeta
Calpurnio" in _Atti del Istituto Veneto_, v. 6 (1880), identify the
amphitheatre with the Colosseum (Flavian amphitheatre) and assign
Calpurnius to the reign of Domitian.
[3] It has been variously ascribed to Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, Statius
and Saleius Bassus.
CALTAGIRONE, a city and episcopal see of the province of Catania,
Sicily, situated 1999 ft. above sea-level, 36 m. S.W. of Catania direct
(55 m. by rail). Pop. (1881) 25,978; (1901) town 35,116; commune 45,956.
It is well built, and is said to be the most civilized provincial town
in Sicily. Extensive Sicel cemeteries have been explored to the north of
the town (_Not. Scavi_, 1904, 65), and a Greek necropolis of the 6th and
5th centuries B.C. has been found to the south-east (_ibid._ 132).
Remains of buildings of Roman date have also been discovered; but the
name of the ancient city which stood here is unknown. The present name
is a corruption of the Saracen _Kalat-al-Girche_ (the castle of Girche,
the chieftain who fortified it).
CALTANISETTA, a town and episcopal see of Sicily, the capital of a
province of the same name, 60 m. S.E. of Palermo direct and 83 m. by
rail, situated 1930 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 43,303. The town is
of Saracenic origin, as its name _Kalat-al-Nisa_, the "Ladies' Castle,"
indicates, and some ruins of the old castle (called _Pietrarossa_) still
exist. Otherwise the town contains no buildings of artistic or
historical interest, but it commands striking views. It is the centre of
the Sicilian sulphur industry and the seat of a royal school of mines.
Two miles east is the interesting Norman abbey of S. Spirito.
CALTROP (from the Mid. Eng. _calketrappe_, probably derived from the
Lat. _calx_, a heel, and _trappa_, Late Lat. for a snare), an iron ball,
used as an obstacle against cavalry, with four spikes so arranged, that
however placed in or on the ground, one spike always points upwards. It
is also the botanical name for several species of thistles.
CALUIRE-ET-CUIRE, a town of eastern France, in the department of Rhone,
2-1/2 m. N. by E. of Lyons by rail. Pop. (1906) 9255. It has
manufactures of coarse earthenware and hard-ware, copper and bronze
foundries and nursery-gardens.
CALUMET (Norm. Fr. form of _chalumet_, from Lat. _calamus_, a reed), the
name given by the French in Canada to the "peace-pipe" of the American
Indians. This pipe occupied among the tribes a position of peculiar
symbolic significance, and was the object of profound veneration. It was
smoked on all ceremonial occasions, even on declarations of war, but its
special use was at the making of treaties of peace. It was usually about
2-1/2 ft. long, and in the west the bowl was made of red pipes tone
(catlinite), a fine-grained, easily-worked stone of a rich red colour
found chiefly in the Coteau des Prairies west of Big Stone Lake, Dakota.
The quarries were formerly neutral ground among the warring Indian
tribes, many sacred traditions being associated with the locality and
its product (Longfellow, _Hiawatha_, i.). The pipe stem was of reed
decorated with eagles' quills or women's hair. Native tobacco mixed with
willow-bark or sumac leaves was smoked. The pipe was offered as a
supreme proof of hospitality to distinguished strangers, and its refusal
was regarded as a grievous affront. In the east and south-east, the bowl
was of white stone, sometimes pierced with several stem holes so that
many persons might smoke at once.
See Joseph D. Macguire (exhaustive report,640 pages), "Pipes and
Smoking Customs of the American Aborigines" in _Smithsonian Report_
(American Bureau of Ethnology) for 1897, vol. i.; and authorities
quoted in _Handbook of American Indians_ (Washington, 1907).
CALUMPIT, a town of the province of Bulacan, Luzon, Philippine Islands,
at the junction of the Quingua river with the Rio Grande de la Pampanga,
about 25 m. N.W. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 13,897. It is served by the
Manila & Dagupan railway, and the bridge across the Rio Grande is one of
the longest in the Philippines. The surrounding country is a fertile
plain, producing large quantities of rice, as well as sugar, Indian corn
and a variety of fruits. Calumpit has a large rice-mill and one of the
largest markets in the Philippines. The bridge, convent and church of
the town were fired and completely destroyed by insurgent troops in
1899. The language is Tagalog.
CALVADOS, a department of north-western France, formed in 1790 out of
Bessin, Cinglais, Hiemois, Bocage, the Campagne de Caen, Auge and the
western part of Lieuvin. Pop. (1906) 403,431. Area, 2197 sq. m. It
received its name from a ledge of rocks, stretching along the coast for
a distance of about 15 m. between the mouths of the rivers Orne and
Vire. It is bounded N. by the English Channel, E. by the department of
Eure, S. by that of Orne, W. by that of Manche. The Bocage, or
south-western part of the department, is elevated, being crossed from
south-east to north-west by the hills of Normandy, the highest of which
is 1197 ft.; the rest of the surface is gently undulating, and consists
of extensive valleys watered by numerous streams which fall into the
English Channel. The coast, formed by cliffs, sandy beaches or reefs, is
generally inaccessible, except at the mouths of the principal rivers,
such as the Touques, the Dives, the Orne and the Vire, which are
navigable at high tide for several miles inland. Trouville is the chief
of the numerous coast resorts. The climate, though humid and variable,
is healthy. The raising of cattle, sheep and horses is the mainstay of
the agriculture of the department. Pasture is good and abundant in the
east and north-west, and there is a large export trade in the butter,
eggs and cheese (Camembert, Livarot, Pont l'Eveque) of these districts,
carried on by Honfleur, Isigny and other ports. The plain of Caen is a
great centre for horse breeding. Wheat, oats, barley, colza and potatoes
are the chief crops. The orchards of Auge and Bessin produce a superior
kind of cider, of which upwards of 40,000,000 gallons are made in the
department; a large quantity of cider brandy (eau-de-vie de Calvados) is
distilled. Poultry to a considerable amount is sent to the Paris
markets, and there is a large output of honey and wax. The spinning and
weaving of wool and cotton are the chief industries. Besides these,
paper-mills, oil-mills, tanneries, saw-mills, shipbuilding yards,
rope-works, dye-works, distilleries and bleach-fields, scattered
throughout the department, give employment to a number of hands. There
are productive iron-mines and building-stone, slate and lime are
plentiful. Fisheries, chiefly of lobster, oyster (Courseulles), herring
and mackerel, are prosecuted. Coal, timber, grain, salt-fish and cement
are among the imports; exports include iron, dairy products and sand.
Caen and Honfleur are the most important commercial ports. There is a
canal 9 m. in length from Caen to Ouistreham on the coast. The
department is served by the Ouest-Etat railway. It is divided into the
six arrondissements (38 cantons, 763 communes) of Caen, Falaise, Bayeux,
Vire, Lisieux and Pont l'Eveque. Caen, the capital, is the seat of a
court of appeal and the centre of an _academie_ (educational division).
The department forms the diocese of Bayeux, in the ecclesiastical
province of Rouen, and belongs to the region of the III. army-corps. The
other principal towns are Falaise, Lisieux, Conde-sur-Noireau, Vire,
Honfleur and Trouville (q.v.).
Amongst the great number of medieval churches which the department
possesses, the fine Gothic church of St. Pierre-sur-Dives is second in
importance only to those of Lisieux and Bayeux; that of Norrey, a good
example of the Norman-Gothic style, and that of Tour-en-Bessin, in which
Romanesque and Gothic architecture are mingled, are of great interest.
Fontaine-Henri has a fine chateau of the 15th and 16th centuries.
CALVART, DENIS (1540-1619), Flemish painter, was born at Antwerp. After
studying landscape-painting for some time in his native city he went to
Bologna, where he perfected himself in the anatomy of the human form
under Prospero Fontana, and so completely lost the mannerism of Flemish
art that his paintings appear to be the work of an Italian. From Bologna
he went to Rome, where he assisted Lorenzo Sabbatini (1533-1577) in his
works for the papal palace, and devoted much of his time to copying and
studying the works of Raphael. He ultimately returned to Bologna and
founded a school, of which the greatest ornaments are Guido and
Domenichino. His works are especially admired for the power of grouping
and colouring which they display.
CALVARY, the conventional English rendering of the _calvaria_ of the
Vulgate, the Latin version of the Greek _[Greek: kranion]_, both meaning
"skull" and representing the Hebrew Golgotha, the name given to the
scene of Christ's crucifixion. The term "a Calvary" is applied to a
sculptured representation of the Crucifixion, either inside a church, or
adjoining one in the open air. There are many examples of the latter in
France, Italy and Spain. Among the most important are the Sacro Monte
(1486) at Varallo in Piedmont, and those at Guimiliau (1581), Plougastel
(1602), St Thegonnec (1610), and Pleyben near Quimper (1670), in
Brittany, all in good preservation.
CALVE EMMA (1864- ), Spanish operatic soprano, was born at Madrid, and
trained in Paris, making her first important appearance in opera at
Brussels in 1882. She sang mainly in Paris for some years, but in 1892
was first engaged at Covent Garden, London, and at once became famous as
the most vivid Carmen (in Bizet's opera) of the day.
CALVERLEY, CHARLES STUART (1831-1884), English poet and wit, and the
literary father of what may be called the university school of humour,
was born at Martley in Worcestershire on the 22nd of December 1831. His
father, the Rev. Henry Blayds, resumed in 1852 the old family name of
Calverley, which his grandfather had exchanged for Blayds in 1807. It
was as Charles Stuart Blayds that most of the son's university
distinctions were attained. He went up to Balliol from Harrow in 1850,
and was soon known in Oxford as the most daring and most high-spirited
undergraduate of his time. He was a universal favourite, a delightful
companion, a brilliant scholar and the playful enemy of all "dons." In
1851 he won the Chancellor's prize for Latin verse, and it is said that
the entire exercise was written in an afternoon, when his friends had
locked him into his rooms, declining to let him out till he had finished
what they were confident would prove the prize poem. A year later he
took his name off the books, to avoid the consequences of a college
escapade, and migrated to Christ's College, Cambridge. Here he was again
successful in Latin verse, and remains the unique example of an
undergraduate who has won the Chancellor's prize at both universities.
In 1856 he took second place in the first class in the Classical Tripos.
He was elected fellow of Christ's (1858), published _Verses and
Translations_ in 1862, and was called to the bar in 1865. Owing to an
accident while skating he was prevented from following up a professional
career, and during the last years of his life he was an invalid. His
_Translations into English and Latin_ appeared in 1866; his _Theocritus
translated into English Verse_ in 1869; _Fly Leaves_ in 1872; and
_Literary Remains_ in 1885. He died on the 17th of February 1884.
Calverley was one of the most brilliant men of his day; and, had he
enjoyed health, might have achieved distinction in any career he chose.
Constitutionally indolent, he was endowed with singular gifts in every
department of culture; he was a scholar, a musician, an athlete and a
brilliant talker. What is left us marks only a small portion of his
talent, but his sparkling, dancing verses, which have had many clever
imitators, are still without a rival in their own line. His humour was
illumined by good nature; his satire was keen but kind; his laughter was
of that human sort which is often on the verge of tears. Imbued with the
classical spirit, he introduced into the making of light verse the
polish and elegance of the great masters, and even in its most whimsical
mood his verse is raised to the level of poetry by the saving excellence
of style.
His _Complete Works_, with a biographical notice by Sir W.J. Sendall,
appeared in 1901. (A. Wa.)
CALVERT, the name of three English artists: Charles (1785-1852), a
well-known landscape-painter; Edward (1803-1883), an important
wood-engraver and follower of Blake; and Frederick, an excellent
topographical draughtsman, whose work in water-colour is represented at
the Victoria and Albert Museum, and who published a volume of
_Picturesque Views in Staffordshire and Shropshire_ (1830).
CALVERT, FREDERICK CRACE (1819-1873), English chemist, was born in
London on the 14th of November 1819. From about 1836 till 1846 he lived
in France, where, after a course of study at Paris, he became manager of
some chemical works, later acting as assistant to M.E. Chevreul. On his
return to England he settled in Manchester as a consulting chemist, and
was appointed professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution in that
city. Devoting himself almost entirely to industrial chemistry, he gave
much attention to the manufacture of coal-tar products, and particularly
carbolic acid, for the production of which he established large works in
Manchester in 1865. Besides contributing extensively to the English and
French scientific journals, he published a work on _Dyeing and
Calico-Printing._ He died in Manchester on the 24th of October 1873.
CALVERT, SIR HARRY, BART. (c. 1763-1826), British general, was probably
born early in 1763 at Hampton, near London. He was educated at Harrow,
and at the age of fifteen entered the army. In the following year he
served with his regiment in America, being present at the siege of
Charleston, and serving through the campaign of Lord Cornwallis which
ended with the surrender of Yorktown. From 1781 to 1783 he was a
prisoner of war. Returning to England in 1784, he next saw active
service in 1793-1794 in the Low Countries, where he was aide-de-camp to
the duke of York, and in 1795 was engaged on a confidential mission to
Brunswick and Berlin. In 1799, having already served as deputy adjutant
general, he was made adjutant general, holding the post till 1818. In
this capacity he effected many improvements in the organization and
discipline of the service. He greatly improved the administration of the
army medical and hospital department, introduced regimental schools,
developed the two existing military colleges (since united at
Sandhurst), and was largely responsible for the founding of the Duke of
York's school, Chelsea. In recognition of his work as adjutant general
he was made a G.C.B. (1815), and, on retiring from office, received a
baronetcy (1818). In 1820 he was made governor of Chelsea hospital. He
died on the 3rd of September 1826, at Middle Claydon, Buckinghamshire.
CALVES' HEAD CLUB, a club established shortly after his death in
derision of the memory of Charles I. Its chief meeting was held on the
30th of each January, the anniversary of the king's execution, when the
dishes served were a cod's head to represent the individual, Charles
Stuart; a pike representing tyranny; a boar's head representing the king
preying on his subjects; and calves' heads representing Charles as king
and his adherents. On the table an axe held the place of honour. After
the banquet a copy of the king's _Ikon Basilike_ was burnt, and the
toast was "To those worthy patriots who killed the tyrant." After the
Restoration the club met secretly. The first mention of it is in a tract
reprinted in the _Harleian Miscellany_ entitled "The Secret History of
the Calves' Head Club." The club survived till 1734, when the diners
were mobbed owing to the popular ill-feeling which their outrages on
good taste provoked, and the riot which ensued put a final stop to the
meetings.
CALVI, a sea-port in Corsica, capital of an arrondissement in the N.W.
of the island, 112 m. N. of Ajaccio by road. Pop. (1906) 1967. It is
situated on the Bay of Calvi, in a malarial region, and is the port in
Corsica nearest to France, being 109 m. from Antibes; the harbour,
however, is exposed to the east and north-east winds. The modern town
lies at the foot of a rock, on which stands the old town with its steep
rock-paved streets and fortified walls, commanded by the Fort Muzello.
Fishing is carried on, and timber, oil, wine, lemons and other
sub-tropical fruits are exported to some extent. The most important
buildings are the old palace of the Genoese governor, used as barracks,
and the church (16th century), with the monument of the Baglioni
family, which was intimately associated with the history of the town.
Calvi was founded in the 13th century and in 1278 passed into the hands
of the Genoese. From that date it was remarkable for its adherence to
their side, especially in 1553 when it repulsed two attacks of the
united forces of the French and Turks. In recognition thereof the
Genoese senate caused the words _Civitas Calvi semper fidelis_ to be
carved on the chief gate of the city, which still preserves the
inscription. In 1794 Calvi was captured by the English, but it was
retaken by the Corsicans in the following year.
CALVIN, JOHN (1500-1564), Swiss divine and reformer, was born at Noyon,
in Picardy, on the 10th of July 1509. His father, Gerard Cauvin or
Calvin,[1] was a notary-apostolic and procurator-fiscal for the lordship
of Noyon, besides holding certain ecclesiastical offices in connexion
with that diocese. The name of his mother was Jeanne le Franc; she was
the daughter of an innkeeper at Cambrai, who afterwards came to reside
at Noyon. Gerard Cauvin was esteemed as a man of considerable sagacity
and prudence, and his wife was a godly and attractive lady. She bore him
five sons, of whom John was the second. By a second wife there were two
daughters.
Of Calvin's early years only a few notices remain. His father destined
him from the first for an ecclesiastical career, and paid for his
education in the household of the noble family of Hangest de Montmor. In
May 1521 he was appointed to a chaplaincy attached to the altar of La
Gesine in the cathedral of Noyon, and received the tonsure. The actual
duties of the office were in such cases carried out by ordained and
older men for a fraction of the stipend. The plague having visited
Noyon, the young Hangests were sent to Paris in August 1523, and Calvin
accompanied them, being enabled to do so by the income received from his
benefice. He lived with his uncle and attended as an out-student the
College de la Marche, at that time under the regency of Mathurin
Cordier, a man of character, learning and repute as a teacher, who in
later days followed his pupil to Switzerland, taught at Neuchatel, and
died in Geneva in 1564. In dedicating to him his _Commentary on the
First Epistle to the Thessalonians_, as "eximiae pietatis et doctrinae
viro," he declares that so had he been aided by his instruction that
whatever subsequent progress he had made he only regarded as received
from him, and "this," he adds, "I wish to testify to posterity that if
any utility accrue to any from my writings they may acknowledge it as
having in part flowed from thee." From the College de la Marche he
removed to the College de Montaigu,[2] where the atmosphere was more
ecclesiastical and where he had for instructor a Spaniard who is
described as a man of learning and to whom Calvin was indebted for some
sound training in dialectics and the scholastic philosophy. He speedily
outstripped all his competitors in grammatical studies, and by his skill
and acumen as a student of philosophy, and in the college disputations
gave fruitful promise of that consummate excellence as a reasoner in the
department of speculative truth which he afterwards displayed. Among his
friends were the Hangests (especially Claude), Nicolas and Michel Cop,
sons of the king's Swiss physician, and his own kinsman Pierre Robert,
better known as Olivetan. Such friendships testify both to the worth and
the attractiveness of his character, and contradict the old legend that
he was an unsociable misanthrope. Pleased with his success, the canons
at Noyon gave him the curacy of St Martin de Marteville in September
1527. After holding this preferment for nearly two years, he exchanged
it in July 1529 for the cure of Pont L'Eveque, a village near to Noyon,
and the place to which his father originally belonged. He appears to
have been not a little elated by his early promotion, and although not
ordained, he preached several sermons to the people. But though the
career of ecclesiastical preferment was thus early opened to him, Calvin
was destined not to become a priest. A change came over the mind both of
his father and himself respecting his future career. Gerard Cauvin began
to suspect that he had not chosen the most lucrative profession for his
son, and that the law offered to a youth of his talents and industry a
more promising sphere.[3] He was also now out of favour with the
cathedral chapter at Noyon. It is said also that John himself, on the
advice of his relative, Pierre Robert Olivetan, the first translator of
the Bible into French, had begun to study the Scriptures and to dissent
from the Roman worship. At any rate he readily complied with his
father's suggestion, and removed from Paris to Orleans (March 1528) in
order to study law under Pierre Taisan de l'Etoile, the most
distinguished jurisconsult of his day. The university atmosphere here
was less ascetic than at Paris, but Calvin's ardour knew no slackening,
and such was his progress in legal knowledge that he was frequently
called upon to lecture, in the absence of one or other of the regular
staff. Other studies, however, besides those of law occupied him while
in this city, and moved by the humanistic spirit of the age he eagerly
developed his classical knowledge. "By protracted vigils," says Beza,
"he secured indeed a solid erudition and an excellent memory; but it is
probable he at the same time sowed the seeds of that disease (dyspepsia)
which occasioned him various illnesses in after life, and at last
brought upon him premature death."[4] His friends here were Melchior
Wolmar, a German schoolmaster and a man of exemplary scholarship and
character, Francois Daniel, Francois de Connam and Nicolas Duchemin; to
these his earliest letters were written.
From Orleans Calvin went to Bourges in the autumn of 1529 to continue
his studies under the brilliant Italian, Andrea Alciati (1492-1550),
whom Francis I. had invited into France and settled as a professor of
law in that university. His friend Daniel went with him, and Wolmar
followed a year later. By Wolmar Calvin was taught Greek, and introduced
to the study of the New Testament in the original, a service which he
gratefully acknowledges in one of his printed works.[5] The conversation
of Wolmar may also have been of use to him in his consideration of the
doctrines of the Reformation, which were now beginning to be widely
diffused through France. Twelve years had elapsed since Luther had
published his theses against indulgences--twelve years of intense
excitement and anxious discussion, not in Germany only, but in almost
all the adjacent countries. In France there had not been as yet any
overt revolt against the Church of Rome, but multitudes were in sympathy
with any attempt to improve the church by education, by purer morals, by
better preaching and by a return to the primitive and uncorrupted faith.
Though we cannot with Beza regard Calvin at this time as a centre of
Protestant activity, he may well have preached at Lignieres as a
reformatory Catholic of the school of Erasmus. Calvin's own record of
his "conversion" is so scanty and devoid of chronological data that it
is extremely difficult to trace his religious development with any
certainty. But it seems probable that at least up to 1532 he was far
more concerned about classical scholarship than about religion.
His residence at Bourges was cut short by the death of his father in May
1531. Immediately after this event he went to Paris, where the "new
learning" was now at length ousting the medieval scholasticism from the
university. He lodged in the College Fortet, reading Greek with Pierre
Danes and beginning Hebrew with Francois Vatable. It was at this time
(April 1532) that Calvin issued his first publication, a commentary in
Latin on Seneca's tract _De Clementia_. This book he published at his
own cost, and dedicated to Claude Hangest, abbot of St Eloi, a member of
the de Montmor family, with whom Calvin had been brought up. It was
formerly thought that Calvin published this work with a view to
influence the king to put a stop to the attacks on the Protestants, but
there is nothing in the treatise itself or in the commentary to favour
this opinion.
Soon after the publication of his first book Calvin returned to Orleans,
where he stayed for a year, perhaps again reading law, and still
undecided as to his life's work. He visited Noyon in August 1533, and by
October of the same year was settled again in Paris. Here and now his
destiny became certain. The conservative theology was becoming
discredited, and humanists like Jacques Lefevre of Etaples (Faber
Stapulensis) and Gerard Roussel were favoured by the court under the
influence of Margaret of Angouleme, queen of Navarre and sister of
Francis I. Calvin's old friend, Nicolas Cop, had just been elected
rector of the university and had to deliver an oration according to
custom in the church of the Mathurins, on the feast of All Saints. The
oration (certainly influenced but hardly composed by Calvin) was in
effect a defence of the reformed opinions, especially of the doctrine of
justification by faith alone. It is to the period between April 1532 and
November 1533, and in particular to the time of his second sojourn at
Orleans, that we may most fittingly assign the great change in Calvin
which he describes (_Praef. ad Psalmos_; opera xxxi. 21-24) as his
"sudden conversion" and attributes to direct divine agency. It must have
been at least after his _Commentary on Seneca's De Clementia_ that his
heart was "so subdued and reduced to docility that in comparison with
his zeal for true piety he regarded all other studies with indifference,
though not entirely forsaking them. Though himself a beginner, many
flocked to him to learn the pure doctrine, and he began to seek some
hiding-place and means of withdrawal from people." This indeed was
forced upon him, for Cop's address was more than the conservative party
could bear, and Cop, being summoned to appear before the parlement of
Paris, found it necessary, as he failed to secure the support either of
the king, or of the university, to make his escape to Basel. An attempt
was at the same time made to seize Calvin, but, being forewarned of the
design by his friends, he also made his escape. His room in the College
Fortet, however, was searched, and his books and papers seized, to the
imminent peril of some of his friends, whose letters were found in his
repositories. He went to Noyon, but, proceedings against him being
dropped, soon returned to Paris. But desiring both security and solitude
for study he left the city again about New Year of 1534 and became the
guest of Louis du Tillet, a canon of the cathedral, at Angouleme, where
at the request of his host he prepared some short discourses, which were
circulated in the surrounding parishes, and read in public to the
people. Here, too in du Tillet's splendid library, he began the studies
which resulted in his great work, the _Institutes_, and paid a visit to
Nerac, where the venerable Lefevre, whose revised translation of the
Bible into French was published about this time, was spending his last
years under the kindly care of Margaret of Navarre.
Calvin was now nearly twenty-five years of age, and in the ordinary way
would have been ordained to the priesthood. Up till this time his work
for the evangelical cause was not so much that of the public preacher or
reformer as that of the retiring but influential scholar and adviser.
Now, however, he had to decide whether, like Roussel and other of his
friends, he should strive to combine the new doctrines with a position
in the old church, or whether he should definitely break away from Rome.
His mind was made up, and on the 4th of May he resigned his chaplaincy
at Noyon and his rectorship at Pont l'Eveque. Towards the end of the
same month he was arrested and suffered two short terms of imprisonment,
the charges against him being not strong enough to be pressed. He seems
to have gone next to Paris, staying perhaps with Etienne de la Forge, a
Protestant merchant who suffered for his faith in February 1535. To this
time belongs the story of the proposed meeting between Calvin and the
Spanish reformer Servetus. Calvin's movements at this time are difficult
to trace, but he visited both Orleans and Poitiers, and each visit
marked a stage in his development.
The Anabaptists of Germany had spread into France, and were
disseminating many wild and fanatical opinions among those who had
seceded from the Church of Rome. Among other notions which they had
imbibed was that of a sleep of the soul after death. To Calvin this
notion appeared so pernicious that he composed a treatise in refutation
of it, under the title of _Psychopannychia_. The preface to this
treatise is dated Orleans 1534, but it was not printed till 1542. In it
he chiefly dwells upon the evidence from Scripture in favour of the
belief that the soul retains its intelligent consciousness after its
separation from the body--passing by questions of philosophical
speculation, as tending on such a subject only to minister to an idle
curiosity. At Poitiers Calvin gathered round him a company of cultured
and gentle men whom in private intercourse he influenced considerably.
Here too in a grotto near the town he for the first time celebrated the
communion in the Evangelical Church of France, using a piece of the rock
as a table.
The year 1534 was thus decisive for Calvin. From this time forward his
influence became supreme, and all who had accepted the reformed
doctrines in France turned to him for counsel and instruction, attracted
not only by his power as a teacher, but still more, perhaps because they
saw in him so full a development of the Christian life according to the
evangelical model. Renan, no prejudiced judge, pronounces him "the most
Christian man of his time," and attributes to this his success as a
reformer. Certain it is that already he had become conspicuous as a
prophet of the new religion; his life was in danger, and he was obliged
to seek safety in flight. In company with his friend Louis du Tillet,
whom he had again gone to Angouleme to visit, he set out for Basel. On
their way they were robbed by one of their servants, and it was only by
borrowing ten crowns from their other servant that they were enabled to
get to Strassburg, and thence to Basel. Here Calvin was welcomed by the
band of scholars and theologians who had conspired to make that city the
Athens of Switzerland, and especially by Oswald Myconius, the chief
pastor, Pierre Viret and Heinrich Bullinger. Under the aupices and
guidance of Sebastian Munster, Calvin now gave himself to the study of
Hebrew.
Francis I., desirous to continue the suppression of the Protestants but
anxious, because of his strife with Charles V., not to break with the
Protestant princes of Germany, instructed his ambassador to assure these
princes that it was only against Anabaptists, and other parties who
called in question all civil magistracy, that his severities were
exercised. Calvin, indignant at the calumny which was thus cast upon the
reformed party in France, hastily prepared for the press his _Institutes
of the Christian Religion_, which he published "first that I might
vindicate from unjust affront my brethren whose death was precious in
the sight of the Lord, and, next, that some sorrow and anxiety should
move foreign peoples, since the same sufferings threatened many." The
work was dedicated to the king, and Calvin says he wrote it in Latin
that it might find access to the learned in all lands.[6] Soon after it
appeared he set about translating it into French, as he himself attests
in a letter dated October 1536. This sets at rest a question, at one
time much agitated, whether the book appeared first in French or in
Latin. The earliest French edition known is that of 1540, and this was
after the work had been much enlarged, and several Latin editions had
appeared. In its first form the work consisted of only six chapters, and
was intended merely as a brief manual of Christian doctrine. The
chapters follow a traditional scheme of religious teaching: (1) The Law,
(as in the Ten Words), (2) Faith (as in the Apostles' Creed) (3) Prayer,
(4) the Sacraments; to these were added (5) False Sacraments, (6)
Christian liberty, ecclesiastical power and civil administration. The
closing chapters of the work are more polemical than the earlier ones.
His indebtedness to Luther is of course great, but his spiritual kinship
with Martin Bucer of Strassburg is even more marked. Something also he
owed to Scotus and other medieval schoolmen. The book appeared
anonymously, the author having, as he himself says, nothing in view
beyond furnishing a statement of the faith of the persecuted
Protestants, whom he saw cruelly cut to pieces by impious and perfidious
court parasites.[7] In this work, though produced when the author was
only twenty-six years of age, we find a complete outline of the
Calvinist theological system. In none of the later editions, nor in any
of his later works do we find reason to believe that he ever changed his
views on any essential point from what they were at the period of its
first publication. Such an instance of maturity of mind and of opinion
at so early an age would be remarkable under any circumstances; but in
Calvin's case it is rendered peculiarly so by the shortness of the time
which had elapsed since he gave himself to theological studies. It may
be doubted also if the history of literature presents us with another
instance of a book written at so early an age, which has exercised such
a prodigious influence upon the opinions and practices both of
contemporaries and of posterity.
After a short visit (April 1536) to the court of Renee, duchess of
Ferrara (cousin to Margaret of Navarre), which at that time afforded an
asylum to several learned and pious fugitives from persecution, Calvin
returned through Basel to France to arrange his affairs before finally
taking farewell of his native country. His intention was to settle at
Strassburg or Basel, and to devote himself to study. But being unable,
in consequence of the war between Francis I. and Charles V., to reach
Strassburg by the ordinary route, he with his younger brother Antoine
and his half-sister Marie journeyed to Lyons and so to Geneva, making
for Basel. In Geneva his progress was arrested, and his resolution to
pursue the quiet path of studious research was dispelled by what he
calls the "formidable obtestation" of Guillaume Farel.[8] After many
struggles and no small suffering, this energetic spirit had succeeded in
planting the evangelical standard at Geneva; and anxious to secure the
aid of such a man as Calvin, he entreated him on his arrival to
relinquish his design of going farther, and to devote himself to the
work in that city. Calvin at first declined, alleging as an excuse his
need of securing more time for personal improvement, but ultimately,
believing that he was divinely called to this task and that "God had
stretched forth His hand upon me from on high to arrest me," he
consented to remain at Geneva. He hurried to Basel, transacted some
business, and returned to Geneva in August 1536. He at once began to
expound the epistles of St Paul in the church of St Pierre, and after
about a year was also elected preacher by the magistrates with the
consent of the people, an office which he would not accept until it had
been repeatedly pressed upon him. His services seem to have been
rendered for some time gratuitously, for in February 1537 there is an
entry in the city registers to the effect that six crowns had been voted
to him, "since he has as yet hardly received anything."
Calvin was in his twenty-eighth year when he was thus constrained to
settle at Geneva; and in this city the rest of his life, with the
exception of a brief interval, was spent. The post to which he was thus
called was not an easy one. Though the people of Geneva had cast off the
obedience of Rome, it was largely a political revolt against the duke of
Savoy, and they were still (says Beza) "but very imperfectly enlightened
in divine knowledge; they had as yet hardly emerged from the filth of
the papacy."[9] This laid them open to the incursions of those fanatical
teachers, whom the excitement attendant upon the Reformation had called
forth, and who hung mischievously upon the rear of the reforming body.
To obviate the evils thence resulting, Calvin, in union with Farel, drew
up a condensed statement of Christian doctrine consisting of twenty-one
articles. This the citizens were summoned, in parties of ten each, to
profess and swear to as the confession of their faith--a process which,
though not in accordance with modern notions of the best way of
establishing men in the faith, was gone through, Calvin tells us, "with
much satisfaction." As the people took this oath in the capacity of
_citizens_, we may see here the basis laid for that theocratic system
which subsequently became peculiarly characteristic of the Genevan
polity. Deeply convinced of the importance of education for the young,
Calvin and his coadjutors were solicitous to establish schools
throughout the city, and to enforce on parents the sending of their
children to them; and as he had no faith in education apart from
religious training, he drew up a catechism of Christian doctrine which
the children had to learn whilst they were receiving secular
instruction. Of the troubles which arose from fanatical teachers, the
chief proceeded from the efforts of the Anabaptists; a public
disputation was held on the 16th and 17th of March 1537, and so excited
the populace that the Council of Two Hundred stopped it, declared the
Anabaptists vanquished and drove them from the city. About the same time
also, the peace of Calvin and his friends was much disturbed and their
work interrupted by Pierre Caroli, another native of northern France,
who, though a man of loose principle and belief, had been appointed
chief pastor at Lausanne and was discrediting the good work done by
Pierre Viret in that city. Calvin went to Viret's aid and brought Caroli
before the commissioners of Bern on a charge of advocating prayers for
the dead as a means of their earlier resurrection. Caroli brought a
counter-charge against the Geneva divines of Sabellianism and Arianism,
because they would not enforce the Athanasian creed, and had not used
the words "Trinity" and "Person" in the confession they had drawn up. It
was a struggle between the thoroughgoing humanistic reformer who drew
his creed solely from the "word of God" and the merely semi-Protestant
reformer who looked on the old creed as a priceless heritage. In a synod
held at Bern the matter was fully discussed, when a verdict was given in
favour of the Geneva divines, and Caroli deposed from his office and
banished. He returned to France, rejoined the Roman communion and spent
the rest of his life in passing to and from the old faith and the new.
Thus ended an affair which seems to have occasioned Calvin much more
uneasiness than the character of his assailant, and the manifest
falsehood of the charge brought against him, would seem to justify. Two
brief anti-Romanist tracts, one entitled _De fugiendis impiorum sacris_,
the other _De sacerdotio papali abjiciendo_, were also published early
in this year.
Hardly was the affair of Caroli settled, when new and severer trials
came upon the Genevan Reformers. The austere simplicity of the ritual
which Farel had introduced, and to which Calvin had conformed; the
strictness with which the ministers sought to enforce not only the laws
of morality, but certain sumptuary regulations respecting the dress and
mode of living of the citizens; and their determination in spiritual
matters and ecclesiastical ceremonies not to submit to the least
dictation from the civil power, led to violent dissensions. Amidst much
party strife Calvin perhaps showed more youthful impetuosity than
experienced skill. He and his colleagues refused to administer the
sacrament in the Bernese form, i.e. with unleavened bread, and on Easter
Sunday, 1538, declined to do so at all because of the popular tumult.
For this they were banished from the city. They went first to Bern, and
soon after to Zurich, where a synod of the Swiss pastors had been
convened. Before this assembly they pleaded their cause, and stated what
were the points on which they were prepared to insist as needful for the
proper discipline of the church. They declared that they would yield in
the matter of ceremonies so far as to employ unleavened bread in the
eucharist, to use fonts in baptism, and to allow festival days, provided
the people might pursue their ordinary avocations after public service.
These Calvin regarded as matters of indifference, provided the
magistrates did not make them of importance, by seeking to enforce them;
and he was the more willing to concede them, because he hoped thereby to
meet the wishes of the Bernese brethren whose ritual was less simple
than that established by Farel at Geneva. But he and his colleagues
insisted, on the other hand that for the proper maintenance of
discipline, there should be a division of parishes--that
excommunications should be permitted, and should be under the power of
elders chosen by the council, in conjunction with the clergy--that
order should be observed in the admission of preachers--and that only
the clergy should officiate in ordination by the laying on of hands. It
was proposed also, as conducive to the welfare of the church, that the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper should be administered more frequently,
at least once every month, and that congregational singing of psalms
should be practised in the churches. On these terms the synod interceded
with the Genevese to restore their pastors; but through the opposition
of some of the Bernese (especially Peter Kuntz, the pastor of that city)
this was frustrated, and a second edict of banishment was the only
response.
Calvin and Farel betook themselves, under these circumstances, to Basel,
where they soon after separated, Farel to go to Neuchatel and Calvin to
Strassburg. At the latter place Calvin resided till the autumn of 1541,
occupying himself partly in literary exertions, partly as a preacher and
especially an organizer in the French church, and partly as a lecturer
on theology. These years were not the least valuable in his experience.
In 1539 he attended Charles V.'s conference on Christian reunion at
Frankfort as the companion of Bucer, and in the following year he
appeared at Hagenau and Worms, as the delegate from the city of
Strassburg. He was present also at the diet at Regensburg, where he
deepened his acquaintance with Melanchthon, and formed with him a
friendship which lasted through life. He also did something to relieve
the persecuted Protestants of France. It is to this period of his life
that we owe a revised and enlarged form of his _Institutes_, his
_Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans_, and his _Tract on the Lord's
Supper_. Notwithstanding his manifold engagements, he found time to
attend to the tenderer affections; for it was during his residence at
Strassburg that he married, in August 1540, Idelette de Bure, the widow
of one Jean Stordeur of Liege, whom he had converted from Anabaptism. In
her Calvin found, to use his own words, "the excellent companion of his
life," a "precious help" to him amid his manifold labours and frequent
infirmities. She died in 1549, to the great grief of her husband, who
never ceased to mourn her loss. Their only child Jacques, born on the
28th of July 1542, lived only a few days.
During Calvin's absence disorder and irreligion had prevailed in Geneva.
An attempt was made by Cardinal Jacopo Sadoleto (1477-1547), bishop of
Carpentras, to take advantage of this so as to restore the papal
supremacy in that district; but this design Calvin, at the request of
the Bernese authorities, who had been consulted by those of Geneva,
completely frustrated, by writing such a reply to the letter which the
bishop had addressed to the Genevese, as constrained him to desist from
all further efforts. The letter had more than a local or temporary
reference. It was a popular yet thoroughgoing defence of the whole
Protestant position, perhaps the best apologia for the Reformation that
was ever written. He seems also to have kept up his connexion with
Geneva by addressing letters of counsel and comfort to the faithful
there who continued to regard him with affection. It was whilst he was
still at Strassburg that there appeared at Geneva a translation of the
Bible into French, bearing Calvin's name, but in reality only revised
and corrected by him from the version of Olivetan. Meanwhile the way was
opening for his return. Those who had driven him from the city gradually
lost power and office. Farel worked unceasingly for his recall. After
much hesitation, for Strassburg had strong claims, he yielded and
returned to Geneva, where he was received with the utmost enthusiasm
(September 13, 1541). He entered upon his work with a firm determination
to carry out those reforms which he had originally purposed, and to set
up in all its integrity that form of church polity which he had
carefully matured during his residence at Strassburg. He now became the
sole directive spirit in the church at Geneva. Farel was retained by the
Neuchatelois, and Viret, soon after Calvin's return, removed to
Lausanne. His duties were thus rendered exceedingly onerous, and his
labour became excessive. Besides preaching every day in each alternate
week, he taught theology three days in the week, attended weekly
meetings of his consistory, read the Scriptures once a week in the
congregation, carried on an extensive correspondence on a multiplicity
of subjects, prepared commentaries on the books of Scripture, and was
engaged repeatedly in controversy with the opponents of his opinions. "I
have not time," he writes to a friend, "to look out of my house at the
blessed sun, and if things continue thus I shall forget what sort of
appearance it has. When I have settled my usual business, I have so many
letters to write, so many questions to answer, that many a night is
spent without any offering of sleep being brought to nature."
It is only necessary here to sketch the leading events of Calvin's life
after his return to Geneva. He recodified the Genevan laws and
constitution, and was the leading spirit in the negotiations with Bern
that issued in the treaty of February 1544. Of the controversies in
which he embarked, one of the most important was that in which he
defended his doctrine concerning predestination and election. His first
antagonist on this head was Albert Pighius, a Romanist, who, resuming
the controversy between Erasmus and Luther on the freedom of the will,
violently attacked Calvin for the views he had expressed on that
subject. Calvin replied to him in a work published in 1543, in which he
defends his own opinions at length, both by general reasonings and by an
appeal to both Scripture and the Fathers, especially Augustine. So
potent were his reasonings that Pighius, though owing nothing to the
gentleness or courtesy of Calvin, was led to embrace his views. A still
more vexatious and protracted controversy on the same subject arose in
1551. Jerome Hermes Bolsec, a Carmelite friar, having renounced
Romanism, had fled from France to Veigy, a village near Geneva, where he
practised as a physician. Being a zealous opponent of predestinarian
views, he expressed his criticisms of Calvin's teaching on the subject
in one of the public conferences held each Friday. Calvin replied with
much vehemence, and brought the matter before the civil authorities. The
council were at a loss which course to take; not that they doubted which
of the disputants was right, for they all held by the views of Calvin,
but they were unable to determine to what extent and in which way Bolsec
should be punished for his heresy. The question was submitted to the
churches at Basel, Bern, Zurich and Neuchatel, but they also, to
Calvin's disappointment, were divided in their judgment, some
counselling severity, others gentle measures. In the end Bolsec was
banished from Geneva; he ultimately rejoined the Roman communion and in
1577 avenged himself by a particularly slanderous biography of Calvin.
Another painful controversy was that with Sebastien Castellio
(1515-1563), a teacher in the Genevan school and a scholar of real
distinction. He wished to enter the preaching ministry but was excluded
by Calvin's influence because he had criticized the inspiration of the
Song of Solomon and the Genevan interpretation of the clause "he
descended into hell." The bitterness thus aroused developed into
life-long enmity. During all this time also the less strict party in the
city and in the council did not cease to harry the reformer.
But the most memorable of all the controversies in which Calvin was
engaged was that into which he was brought in 1553 with Michael Servetus
(q.v.). After many wanderings, and after having been condemned to death
for heresy at Vienne, whence he was fortunate enough to make his escape,
Servetus arrived in August 1553 at Geneva on his way to Naples. He was
recognized in church and soon after, at Calvin's instigation, arrested.
The charge of blasphemy was founded on certain statements in a book
published by him in 1553, entitled _Christianismi Restitutio_, in which
he animadverted on the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, and advanced
sentiments strongly savouring of Pantheism. The story of his trial is
told elsewhere (see art. SERVETUS), but it must be noted here that the
struggle was something more than a doctrinal one. The cause of Servetus
was taken up by Calvin's Genevan foes headed by Philibert Berthelier,
and became a test of the relative strength of the rival forces and of
the permanence of Calvin's control. That Calvin was actuated by personal
spite and animosity against Servetus himself may be open to discussion;
we have his own express declaration that, after Servetus was convicted,
he used no urgency that he should be put to death, and at their last
interview he told Servetus that he never had avenged private injuries,
and assured him that if he would repent it would not be his fault if all
the pious did not give him their hands.[10] There is the fact also that
Calvin used his endeavour to have the sentence which had been pronounced
against Servetus mitigated, death by burning being regarded by him as an
"atrocity," for which he sought to substitute death by the sword.[11] It
can be justly charged against Calvin in this matter that he took the
initiative in bringing on the trial of Servetus, that as his accuser he
prosecuted the suit against him with undue severity, and that he
approved the sentence which condemned Servetus to death. When, however,
it is remembered that the unanimous decision of the Swiss churches and
of the Swiss state governments was that Servetus deserved to die; that
the general voice of Christendom was in favour of this; that even such a
man as Melanchthon affirmed the justice of the sentence;[12] that an
eminent English divine of the next age should declare the process
against him "just and honourable,"[13] and that only a few voices here
and there were at the time raised against it, many will be ready to
accept the judgment of Coleridge, that the death of Servetus was not
"Calvin's guilt especially, but the common opprobrium of all European
Christendom."[14]
Calvin was also involved in a protracted and somewhat vexing dispute
with the Lutherans respecting the Lord's Supper, which ended in the
separation of the evangelical party into the two great sections of
Lutherans and Reformed,--the former holding that in the eucharist the
body and blood of Christ are objectively and consubstantially present,
and so are actually partaken of by the communicants, and the latter that
there is only a virtual presence of the body and blood of Christ, and
consequently only a spiritual participation thereof through faith. In
addition to these controversies on points of faith, he was for many
years greatly disquieted, and sometimes even endangered, by the
opposition offered by the libertine party in Geneva to the
ecclesiastical discipline which he had established there. His system of
church polity was essentially theocratic; it assumed that every member
of the state was also under the discipline of the church; and he
asserted that the right of exercising this discipline was vested
exclusively in the consistory or body of preachers and elders. His
attempts to carry out these views brought him into collision both with
the authorities and with the populace,--the latter being not unnaturally
restive under the restraints imposed upon their liberty by the vigorous
system of church discipline, and the former being inclined to retain in
their own hands a portion of that power in things spiritual which Calvin
was bent on placing exclusively in the hands of the church rulers. His
dauntless courage, his perseverance, and his earnestness at length
prevailed, and he had the satisfaction, before he died, of seeing his
favourite system of church polity firmly established, not only at
Geneva, but in other parts of Switzerland, and of knowing that it had
been adopted substantially by the Reformers in France and Scotland. The
men whom he trained at Geneva carried his principles into almost every
country in Europe, and in varying degree these principles did much for
the cause of civil liberty.[15] Nor was it only in religious matters
that Calvin busied himself; nothing was indifferent to him that
concerned the welfare and good order of the state or the advantage of
its citizens. His work embraced everything; he was consulted on every
affair, great and small, that came before the council,--on questions of
law, police, economy, trade, and manufactures, no less than on questions
of doctrine and church polity. To him the city owed her trade in cloths
and velvets, from which so much wealth accrued to her citizens;
sanitary regulations were introduced by him which made Geneva the
admiration of all visitors; and in him she reverences the founder of her
university. This institution was in a sense Calvin's crowning work. It
added religious education to the evangelical preaching and the thorough
discipline already established, and so completed the reformer's ideal of
a Christian commonwealth.
Amidst these multitudinous cares and occupations, Calvin found time to
write a number of works besides those provoked by the various
controversies in which he was engaged. The most numerous of these were
of an exegetical character. Including discourses taken down from his
lips by faithful auditors, we have from him expository comments or
homilies on nearly all the books of Scripture, written partly in Latin
and partly in French. Though naturally knowing nothing of the modern
idea of a progressive revelation, his judiciousness, penetration, and
tact in eliciting his author's meaning, his precision, condensation, and
concinnity as an expositor, the accuracy of his learning, the closeness
of his reasoning, and the elegance of his style, all unite to confer a
high value on his exegetical works. The series began with _Romans_ in
1540 and ended with _Joshua_ in 1564. In 1558-1559 also, though in very
ill health, he finally perfected the Institutes.
The incessant and exhausting labours to which Calvin gave himself could
not but tell on his fragile constitution. Amid many sufferings, however,
and frequent attacks of sickness, he manfully pursued his course; nor
was it till his frail body, torn by many and painful diseases--fever,
asthma, stone, and gout, the fruits for the most part of his sedentary
habits and unceasing activity--had, as it were, fallen to pieces around
him, that his indomitable spirit relinquished the conflict. In the early
part of the year 1564 his sufferings became so severe that it was
manifest his earthly career was rapidly drawing to a close. On the 6th
of February of that year he preached his last sermon, having with great
difficulty found breath enough to carry him through it. He was several
times after this carried to church, but never again was able to take any
part in the service. With his usual disinterestedness he refused to
receive his stipend, now that he was no longer able to discharge the
duties of his office. In the midst of his sufferings, however, his zeal
and energy kept him in continual occupation; when expostulated with for
such unseasonable toil, he replied, "Would you that the Lord should find
me idle when He comes?" After he had retired from public labours he
lingered for some months, enduring the severest agony without a murmur,
and cheerfully attending to all the duties of a private kind which his
diseases left him strength to discharge. On the 25th of April he made
his will, on the 27th he received the Little Council, and on the 28th
the Genevan ministers, in his sick-room; on the 2nd of May he wrote his
last letter--to his old comrade Farel, who hastened from Neuchatel to
see him once again. He spent much time in prayer and died quietly, in
the arms of his faithful friend Theodore Beza, on the evening of the
27th of May, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. The next day he was
buried without pomp "in the common cemetery called Plain-palais" in a
spot not now to be identified.
Calvin was of middle stature; his complexion was somewhat pallid and
dark; his eyes, to the latest clear and lustrous, bespoke the acumen of
his genius. He was sparing in his food and simple in his dress; he took
but little sleep, and was capable of extraordinary efforts of
intellectual toil. He had a most retentive memory and a very keen power
of observation. He spoke without rhetoric, simply, directly, but with
great weight. He had many acquaintances but few close friends. His
private character was in harmony with his public reputation and
position. If somewhat severe and irritable, he was at the same time
scrupulously just, truthful, and steadfast; he never deserted a friend
or took an unfair advantage of an antagonist; and on befitting occasions
he could be cheerful and even facetious among his intimates. "God gave
him," said the Little Council after his death, "a character of great
majesty." "I have been a witness of him for sixteen years," says Beza,
"and I think I am fully entitled to say that in this man there was
exhibited to all an example of the life and death of the Christian,
such as it will not be easy to depreciate, such as it will be difficult
to emulate."
Though Calvin built his theology on the foundations laid by earlier
reformers, and especially by Luther and Bucer, his peculiar gifts of
learning, of logic and of style made him pre-eminently the theologian
of the new religion. The following may be regarded as his
characteristic tenets, though not all are peculiar to him.
The dominant thought is the infinite and transcendent sovereignty of
God, to know whom is the supreme end of human endeavour. God is made
known to man especially by the Scriptures, whose writers were "sure
and authentic amanuenses of the Holy Spirit." To the Spirit speaking
therein the Spirit-illumined soul of man makes response. While God is
the source of all good, man as a sinner is guilty and corrupt. The
first man was made in the image and likeness of God, which not only
implies man's superiority to all other creatures, but indicates his
original purity, integrity and sanctity. From this state Adam fell,
and in his fall involved the whole human race descended from him.
Hence depravity and corruption, diffused through all parts of the
soul, attach to all men, and this first makes them obnoxious to the
anger of God, and then comes forth in works which the Scripture calls
works of the flesh (Gal. v. 19). Thus all are held vitiated and
perverted in all parts of their nature, and on account of such
corruption deservedly condemned before God, by whom nothing is
accepted save righteousness innocence, and purity. Nor is that a being
bound for another's offence; for when it is said that we through
Adam's sin have become obnoxious to the divine judgment, it is not to
be taken as if we, being ourselves innocent and blameless, bear the
fault of his offence, but that, we having been brought under a curse
through his transgression, he is said to have bound us. From him,
however, not only has punishment overtaken us, but a pestilence
instilled from him resides in us, to which punishment is justly due.
Thus even infants, whilst they bring their own condemnation with them
from their mother's womb, are bound not by another's but by their own
fault. For though they have not yet brought forth the fruits of their
iniquity, they have the seed shut up in them; nay, their whole nature
is a sort of seed of sin, therefore it cannot but be hateful and
abominable to God (_Instit._ bk. ii, ch. i. sect. 8).
To redeem man from this state of guilt, and to recover him from
corruption, the Son of God became incarnate, assuming man's nature
into union with His own, so that in Him were two natures in one
person. Thus incarnate He took on Him the offices of prophet, priest
and king, and by His humiliation, obedience and suffering unto death,
followed by His resurrection and ascension to heaven, He has perfected
His work and fulfilled all that was required in a redeemer of men, so
that it is truly affirmed that He has merited for man the grace of
salvation (bk. ii. ch. 13-17). But until a man is in some way really
united to Christ so as to partake of Him, the benefits of Christ's
work cannot be attained by him. Now it is by the secret and special
operation of the Holy Spirit that men are united to Christ and made
members of His body. Through faith, which is a firm and certain
cognition of the divine benevolence towards us founded on the truth of
the gracious promise in Christ, men are by the operation of the Spirit
united to Christ and are made partakers of His death and resurrection,
so that the old man is crucified with Him and they are raised to a new
life, a life of righteousness and holiness. Thus joined to Christ the
believer has life in Him and knows that he is saved, having the
witness of the Spirit that he is a child of God, and having the
promises, the certitude of which the Spirit had before impressed on
the mind, sealed by the same Spirit on the heart (bk. iii. ch. 33-36).
From faith proceeds repentance, which is the turning of our life to
God, proceeding from a sincere and earnest fear of God, and consisting
in the mortification of the flesh and the old man within us and a
vivification of the Spirit. Through faith also the believer receives
justification, his sins are forgiven, he is accepted of God, and is
held by Him as righteous, the righteousness of Christ being imputed to
him, and faith being the instrument by which the man lays hold on
Christ, so that with His righteousness the man appears in God's sight
as righteous. This imputed righteousness, however, is not disjoined
from real personal righteousness, for regeneration and sanctification
come to the believer from Christ no less than justification; the two
blessings are not to be confounded, but neither are they to be
disjoined. The assurance which the believer has of salvation he
receives from the operation and witness of the Holy Spirit; but this
again rests on the divine choice of the man to salvation; and this
falls back on God's eternal sovereign purpose, whereby He has
predestined some to eternal life while the rest of mankind are
predestined to condemnation and eternal death. Those whom God has
chosen to life He effectually calls to salvation, and they are kept by
Him in progressive faith and holiness unto the end (bk. iii.
_passim_). The external means or aids by which God unites men into the
fellowship of Christ, and sustains and advances those who believe, are
the church and its ordinances, especially the sacraments. The church
universal is the multitude gathered from diverse nations, which though
divided by distance of time and place, agree in one common faith, and
it is bound by the tie of the same religion; and wherever the word of
God is sincerely preached, and the sacraments are duly administered,
according to Christ's institute, there beyond doubt is a church of
the living God (bk. iv. ch. 1, sect. 7-11). The permanent officers in
the church are pastors and teachers, to the former of whom it belongs
to preside over the discipline of the church, to administer the
sacraments, and to admonish and exhort the members; while the latter
occupy themselves with the exposition of Scripture, so that pure and
wholesome doctrine may be retained. With them are to be joined for the
government of the church certain pious, grave and holy men as a senate
in each church; and to others, as deacons, is to be entrusted the care
of the poor. The election of the officers in a church is to be with
the people, and those duly chosen and called are to be ordained by the
laying on of the hands of the pastors (ch. 3, sect. 4-16). The
sacraments are two--Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism is the sign
of initiation whereby men are admitted into the society of the church
and, being grafted into Christ, are reckoned among the sons of God; it
serves both for the confirmation of faith and as a confession before
men. The Lord's Supper is a spiritual feast where Christ attests that
He is the life-giving bread, by which our souls are fed unto true and
blessed immortality. That sacred communication of His flesh and blood
whereby Christ transfuses into us His life, even as if it penetrated
into our bones and marrow, He in the Supper attests and seals; and
that not by a vain or empty sign set before us but there He puts forth
the efficacy of His Spirit whereby He fulfils what He promises. In the
mystery of the Supper Christ is truly exhibited to us by the symbols
of bread and wine; and so His body and blood, in which He fulfilled
all obedience for the obtaining of righteousness for us, are
presented. There is no such presence of Christ in the Supper as that
He is affixed to the bread or included in it or in any way
circumscribed; but whatever can express the true and substantial
communication of the body and blood of the Lord, which is exhibited to
believers under the said symbols of the Supper, is to be received, and
that not as perceived by the imagination only or mental intelligence,
but as enjoyed for the aliment of the eternal life (bk. iv. ch. 15,
17).
The course of time has substantially modified many of these positions.
Even the churches which trace their descent from Calvin's work and
faith no longer hold in their entirety his views on the magistrate as
the preserver of church purity, the utter depravity of human nature,
the non-human character of the Bible, the dealing of God with man. But
his system had an immense value in the history of Christian thought.
It appealed to and evoked a high order of intelligence, and its
insistence on personal individual salvation has borne worthy fruit. So
also its insistence on the chief end of man "to know and do the will
of God" made for the strenuous morality that helped to build up the
modern world. Its effects are most clearly seen in Scotland, in
Puritan England and in the New England states, but its influence was
and is felt among peoples that have little desire or claim to be
called Calvinist.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The standard edition of Calvin's works is that
undertaken by the Strassburg scholars, J.W. Bauin, E. Cunitz, E.
Reuss, P. Lobstein, A. Erichson (59 vols., 1863-1900). The last of
these contains an elaborate bibliography which was also published
separately at Berlin in 1900. The bulk of the writings was published
in English by the Calvin Translation Society (48 vols., Edinburgh,
1843-1855); the _Institutes_ have often been translated. The early
lives by Beza and Collodon are given in the collected editions. Among
modern biographies are those by P. Henry, _Das Leben J. Calvins_ (3
vols., Hamburg, 1835-1844; Eng. trans, by H. Stebbing, London and New
York, 1849); V. Audin, _Histoire de la vie, des ouvrages, et des
doctrines de Calvin_ (2 vols., Paris, 1841; Eng. trans, by J. McGill,
London, 1843 and 1850) unfairly antagonistic; T.H. Dyer, _Life of John
Calvin_ (London, 1850); E. Stahelin_, Joh. Calvin, Leben und
ausgewahlte Schriften_ (2 vols., Elberfeld, 1863); F.W. Kampschulte,
_Joh. Calvin, seine Kirche und sein Staat in Genf_ (2 vols., 1869,
1899, unfinished); Abel Lefranc, _La Jeunesse de Calvin_ (Paris,
1888); E. Choisy, _La Theocratie a Geneve au temps de Calvin_ (Geneva,
1897); E. Doumergue, _Jean Calvin; les hommes et les choses de son
temps_ (5 vols., 1899-1908). See also A.M. Fairbairn, "Calvin and the
Reformed Church" in the _Cambridge Modern History_, vol. ii. (1904);
P. Schaff's, _History of the Christian Church_, vol. vii. (1892), and
R. Stahelin's article in Hauck-Herzog's _Real-encyk. fur prot.
Theologie und Kirche._ Each of these contains a useful bibliography,
as also does the excellent life by Professor Williston Walker, _John
Calvin, the Organizer of Reformed Protestantism_, "Heroes of the
Reformation" series (1906). See also C.S. Horne in _Mansfield Coll.
Essays_ (1909). (W. L. A.; A. J. G.)