[1] The family name of Calvin seems to have been written
indifferently Cauvin, Chauve, Chauvin, Calvus, Calvinus. In the
contemporary notices of Gerard and his family, in the capitular
registers of the cathedral at Noyon, the name is always spelt Cauuin.
The anagram of Calvin is Alcuin, and this in its Latinized form
Alcuinus appears in two editions of his _Instltutio_ as that of the
author (Audin, _Vie de Calvin_, i. 520). The syndics of Geneva
address him in a letter written in 1540, and still preserved, as
"Docteur Caulvin." In his letters written in French he usually signs
himself "Jean Calvin." He affected the title of "Maitre," for what
reason is not known.
[2] Pierre de Montaigu refounded this institution in 1388. Erasmus
and Ignatius Loyola also studied here.
[3] Calv. _Praef. ad Comment. in Psalmos._
[4] _Jo. Calvini Vita, sub init._
[5] _Epist. Ded., Comment in Ep. II. ad Corinthios praefix._
[6] This edition forms a small 8vo of 514 pages, and 6 pages of
index. It appeared at Basel from the press of Thomas Platter and
Balthasar Lasius in March 1536, and was published by Johann Oporin.
The dedicatory preface is dated 23rd August 1535. It is a masterpiece
of apologetic literature. See W. Walker, _John Calvin_, 132 f., and
for an outline of the contents of the treatise, ib. 137-149.
[7] _Praef. ad Psalmos._
[8] _Ibid._
[9] Beza, _Vit. Calv. an. 1536._
[10] Fidelis Expositio Errorum Serveti, _sub init._ Calvini, _Opp_.
t. ix.
[11] Calvin to Farel, 20th Aug. 1553.
[12] Tuo judicio prorsus assentior. Affirmo etiam vestros magistratus
juste fecisse quod hominem blasphemum, re ordine judicata,
interfecerunt.--Melanchthon to Calvin, 14th Oct. 1554.
[13] Field _On the Church_, bk. iii. c. 27, vol. i. p. 288 (ed.
Cambridge, 1847).
[14] _Notes on English Divines_, vol. i. p. 49. See also _Table
Talk_, vol. ii. p. 282 (ed. 1835).
[15] W. Walker, _John Calvin_, pp. 403-8.
CALVINISTIC METHODISTS, a body of Christians forming a church of the
Presbyterian order and claiming to be the only denomination in Wales
which is of purely Welsh origin. Its beginnings may be traced to the
labours of the Rev. Griffith Jones (1684-1761), of Llanddowror,
Carmarthenshire, whose sympathy for the poor led him to set on foot a
system of circulating charity schools for the education of children. In
striking contrast to the general apathy of the clergy of the period,
Griffith Jones's zeal appealed to the public imagination, and his
powerful preaching exercised a widespread influence, many travelling
long distances in order to attend his ministry. There was thus a
considerable number of earnest people dispersed throughout the country
waiting for the rousing of the parish clergy. An impressive announcement
of the Easter Communion Service, made by the Rev. Pryce Davies, vicar of
Talgarth, on the 30th of March 1735, was the means of awakening Howell
Harris (1714-1773) of Trevecca, and he immediately began to hold
services in his own house. He was soon invited to do the same at the
houses of others, and ended by becoming a fiery itinerant preacher,
stirring to the depths every neighbourhood he visited. Griffith Jones,
preaching at Llanddewi Brefi, Cardiganshire--the place at which the
Welsh Patron Saint, David, first became famous--found Daniel Rowland
(1713-1790), curate of Llangeitho, in his audience, and his patronizing
attitude in listening drew from the preacher a personal supplication on
his behalf, in the middle of the discourse. Rowland was deeply moved,
and became an ardent apostle of the new movement. Naturally a fine
orator, his new-born zeal gave an edge to his eloquence, and his fame
spread abroad. Rowland and Harris had been at work fully eighteen months
before they met, at a service in Devynock church, in the upper part of
Breconshire. The acquaintance then formed lasted to the end of Harris's
life--an interval of ten years excepted. Harris had been sent to Oxford
in the autumn of 1735 to "cure him of his fanaticism," but he left in
the following February. Rowland had never been to a university, but,
like Harris, he had been well grounded in general knowledge. About 1739
another prominent figure appeared. This was Howell Davies of
Pembrokeshire, whose ministry was modelled on that of his master,
Griffith Jones, but with rather more clatter in his thunder.
In 1736, on returning home, Harris opened a school, Griffith Jones
supplying him with books from his charity. He also set up societies, in
accordance with the recommendations in Josiah Wedgwood's little book on
the subject; and these exercised a great influence on the religious life
of the people. By far the most notable of Harris's converts was William
Williams (1717-1791), Pant y Celyn, the great hymn-writer of Wales, who
while listening to the revivalist preaching on a tombstone in the
graveyard of Talgarth, heard the "voice of heaven," and was "apprehended
as by a warrant from on high." He was ordained deacon in the Church of
England, 1740, but Whitefield recommended him to leave his curacies and
go into the highways and hedges. On Wednesday and Thursday, January 5th
and 6th, 1743, the friends of aggressive Christianity in Wales met at
Wadford, near Caerphilly, Glam., in order to organize their societies.
George Whitefield was in the chair. Rowland, Williams and John
Powell--afterwards of Llanmartin--(clergymen), Harris, John Humphreys
and John Cennick (laymen) were present. Seven lay exhorters were also at
the meetings; they were questioned as to their spiritual experience and
allotted their several spheres; other matters pertaining to the new
conditions created by the revival were arranged. This is known as the
first Methodist Association--held eighteen months before Johm Wesley's
first conference (June 25th, 1744). Monthly meetings covering smaller
districts, were organized to consider local matters, the transactions of
which were to be reported to the Quarterly Association, to be confirmed,
modified, or rejected. Exhorters were divided into two classes--public,
who were allowed to itinerate as preachers and superintend a number of
societies; private, who were confined to the charge of one or two
societies. The societies were distinctly understood to be part of the
established church, as Wedgwood's were, and every attempt at estranging
them therefrom was sharply reproved; but persecution made their position
anomalous. They did not accept the discipline of the Church of England,
so the plea of conformity was a feeble defence; nor had they taken out
licenses, so as to claim the protection of the Toleration Act. Harris's
ardent loyalty to the Church of England, after three refusals to ordain
him, and his personal contempt for ill-treatment from persecutors, were
the only things that prevented separation.
A controversy on a doctrinal point--"Did God die on Calvary?"--raged for
some time, the principal disputants being Rowland and Harris; and in
1751 it ended in an open rupture, which threw the Connexion first into
confusion and then into a state of coma. The societies split up into
Harrisites and Rowlandites, and it was only with the revival of 1762
that the breach was fairly repaired. This revival is a landmark in the
history of the Connexion. Williams of Pant y Celyn had just published a
little volume of hymns, the singing of which inflamed the people. This
led the bishop of St David's to suspend Rowland's license, and Rowland
had to confine himself to a meeting-house at Llangeitho. Having been
turned out of other churches, he had leased a plot of land in 1759,
anticipating the final withdrawal of his license, in 1763, and a
spacious building was erected to which the people crowded from all parts
on Sacrament Sunday. Llangeitho became the Jerusalem of Wales; and
Rowland's popularity never waned until his physical powers gave way. A
notable event in the history of Welsh Methodism was the publication in
1770, of a 4to annotated Welsh Bible by the Rev. Peter Williams, a
forceful preacher, and an indefatigable worker, who had joined the
Methodists in 1746, after being driven from several curacies. It gave
birth to a new interest in the Scriptures, being the first definite
commentary in the language. A powerful revival broke out at Llangeitho
in the spring of 1780, and spread to the south, but not to the north of
Wales. The ignorance of the people of the north made it very difficult
for Methodism to benefit from these manifestations, until the advent of
the Rev. Thomas Charles (1755-1814), who, having spent five years in
Somersetshire as curate of several parishes, returned to his native land
to marry Sarah Jones of Bala. Failing to find employment in the
established church, he joined the Methodists in 1784. His circulating
charity schools and then his Sunday schools gradually made the North a
new country. In 1791 a revival began at Bala; and this, strange to say,
a few months after the Bala Association had been ruffled by the
proceedings which led to the expulsion of Peter Williams from the
Connexion, in order to prevent him from selling John Canne's Bible among
the Methodists, because of some Sabellian marginal notes.
In 1790, the Bala Association passed "Rules regarding the proper mode of
conducting the Quarterly Association," drawn up by Charles; in 1801,
Charles and Thomas Jones of Mold, published (for the association) the
"Rules and Objects of the Private Societies among the People called
Methodists." About 1795, persecution led the Methodists to take the
first step towards separation from the Church of England. Heavy fines
made it impossible for preachers in poor circumstances to continue
without claiming the protection of the Toleration Act, and the
meeting-houses had to be registered as dissenting chapels. In a large
number of cases this had only been delayed by so constructing the houses
that they were used both as dwellings and as chapels at one and the same
time. Until 1811 the Calvinistic Methodists had no ministers ordained by
themselves; their enormous growth in numbers and the scarcity of
ministers to administer the Sacrament--only three in North Wales, two of
whom had joined only at the dawn of the century--made the question of
ordination a matter of urgency. The South Wales clergy who regularly
itinerated were dying out; the majority of those remaining itinerated
but irregularly, and were most of them against the change. The lay
element, with the help of Charles and a few other stalwarts, carried the
matter through--ordaining nine at Bala in June, and thirteen at Llandilo
in August. In 1823, the _Confession of Faith_ was published; it is based
on the _Westminster Confession_ as "Calvinistically construed," and
contains 44 articles. The Connexion's _Constitutional Deed_ was formally
completed in 1826.
Thomas Charles had tried to arrange for taking over Trevecca College
when the trustees of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion removed
their seminary to Cheshunt in 1791; but the Bala revival broke out just
at the time, and, when things grew quieter, other matters pressed for
attention. A college had been mooted in 1816, but the intended tutor
died suddenly, and the matter was for the time dropped. Candidates for
the Connexional ministry were compelled to shift for themselves until
1837, when Lewis Edwards (1809-1887) and David Charles (1812-1878)
opened a school for young men at Bala. North and South alike adopted it
as their college, the associations contributing a hundred guineas each
towards the education of their students. In 1842, the South Wales
Association opened a college at Trevecca, leaving Bala to the North; the
Rev. David Charles became principal of the former, and the Rev. Lewis
Edwards of the latter. After the death of Dr Lewis Edwards, Dr. T.C.
Edwards resigned the principalship of the University College at
Aberystwyth to become head of Bala (1891), now a purely theological
college, the students of which were sent to the university colleges for
their classical training. In 1905 Mr David Davies of Llandinam--one of
the leading laymen in the Connexion--offered a large building at
Aberystwyth as a gift to the denomination for the purpose of uniting
North and South in one theological college; but in the event of either
association declining the proposal, the other was permitted to take
possession, giving the association that should decline the option of
joining at a later time. The Association of the South accepted, and that
of the North declined, the offer; Trevecca College was turned into a
preparatory school on the lines of a similar institution set up at Bala
in 1891.
The missionary collections of the denomination were given to the London
Missionary Society from 1798 to 1840, when a Connexional Society was
formed; and no better instances of missionary enterprise are known than
those of the Khasia and Jaintia Hills, and the Plains of Sylhet in N.
India. There has also been a mission in Brittany since 1842.
The constitution of the denomination (called in Welsh, "Hen Gorph," i.e.
the Old Body) is a mixture of Presbyterianism and Congregationalism;
each church manages its own affairs and reports (1) to the district
meeting, (2) to the monthly meeting, the nature of each report
determining its destination. The monthly meetings are made up of all the
officers of the churches comprised in each, and are split up into
districts for the purpose of a more local co-operation of the churches.
The monthly meetings appoint delegates to the quarterly Associations, of
which all officers are members. The Associations of North and South are
distinct institutions, deliberating and determining matters pertaining
to them in their separate quarterly gatherings. For the purpose of a
fuller co-operation in matters common to both, a general assembly
(meeting once a year) was established in 1864. This is a purely
deliberative conclave, worked by committees, and all its legislation has
to be confirmed by the two Associations before it can have any force or
be legal. The annual conference of the English churches of the
denomination has no legislative standing, and is meant for social and
spiritual intercourse and discussions.
In doctrine the church is Calvinistic, but its preachers are far from
being rigid in this particular, being warmly evangelical, and, in
general, distinctly cultured. The London degree largely figures on the
Connexional Diary; and now the Welsh degrees, in arts and divinity, are
being increasingly achieved. It is a remarkable fact that every Welsh
revival, since 1735, has broken out among the Calvinistic Methodists.
Those of 1735, 1762, 1780 and 1791 have been mentioned; those of 1817,
1832, 1859 and 1904-1905 were no less powerful, and their history is
interwoven with Calvinistic Methodism, the system of which is so
admirably adapted for the passing on of the torch. The ministerial
system is quite anomalous. It started in pure itineracy; the pastorate
came in very gradually, and is not yet in universal acceptance. The
authority of the pulpit of any individual church is in the hands of the
deacons; they ask the pastor to supply so many Sundays a year--from
twelve to forty, as the case may be--and they then fill the remainder
with any preacher they choose. The pastor is paid for his pastoral work,
and receives his Sunday fee just as a stranger does; his Sundays from
home he fills up at the request of deacons of other churches, and it is
a breach of Connexional etiquette for a minister to apply for
engagements, no matter how many unfilled Sundays he may have. Deacons
and preachers make engagements seven or eight years in advance. The
Connexion provides for English residents wherever required, and the
English ministers are oftener in their own pulpits than their Welsh
brethren.
The Calvinistic Methodists form in some respects the strongest church in
Wales, and its forward movement, headed by Dr. John Pugh of Cardiff, has
brought thousands into its fold since its establishment in 1891. Its
Connexional Book Room, opened in 1891, yields an annual profit of from
L1600 to L2000, the profits being devoted to help the colleges and to
establish Sunday school libraries, etc. Its chapels in 1907 numbered
1641 (with accommodation for 488,080), manses 229; its churches[1]
numbered 1428, ministers 921, unordained preachers 318, deacons 6179;
its Sunday Schools 1731, teachers 27,895, scholars 193,460, communicants
189,164, total collections for religious purposes L300,912. The
statistics of the Indian Mission are equally good: communicants 8027,
adherents 26,787, missionaries 23, native ministers (ordained) 15,
preachers (not ordained) 60.
The Calvinistic Methodists are intensely national in sentiment and
aspirations, beyond all suspicion loyalists. They take a great interest
in social, political and educational matters, and are prominent on
public bodies. They support the Eisteddfod as the promoter and inspirer
of arts, letters and music, and are conspicuous among the annual prize
winners. They thus form a living, democratic body, flexible and
progressive in its movements, yet with a sufficient proportion of
conservatism both in religion and theology to keep it sane and safe.
(D. E. J.)