Calvin's Influence Over The Reformed Churches.
His Presbyterianism.
After the termination of the trial of Servetus in 1553, and of
the contest with the Libertines in 1555, Calvin obtained, not
repose, but victory and unopposed supremacy. He had need of it,
for his health, which was naturally weak, had become exceedingly
infirm. He had frequent attacks of quartan fever, violent
headaches, disease of the liver, attacks of gout, and he was
threatened with consumption. There was no longer any one in his
home to watch over him with that tender assiduity which is almost
as necessary for the health of the soul as for that of the body.
He had lost his wife, Idelette de Bure, on the 6th of April,
1549. She had borne him three children, but they all died young,
and in their conjugal solitude she had shown that entire and
unselfish devotion which gives everything, and asks for nothing
in return. She had three children by her first husband, Störder;
when she was very ill, one of her friends urged her to speak to
Calvin about them: 'Why should I?' said she; 'that which concerns
me is to have them virtuously brought up: if they are virtuous,
he will be a father to them; if they are not, of what use is it
for me to commend them to his care?'
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But Calvin anticipated her maternal solicitude, and without
waiting until she spoke, he promised to treat them as if they
were his own children: 'I have already commended them to God,'
she said. 'That does not prevent me from also taking care of
them,' said Calvin. She answered: 'I know well that you will
never forsake those whom I have confided to the Lord.' She died
as she had lived, showing pious and tender confidence in God and
her husband. In the letters written during his lifetime to his
two most intimate friends, Farel and Viret, Calvin often spoke of
her, briefly but affectionately, and with entire satisfaction.
When she died he spoke of his grief more openly than he had ever
done of his happiness. He wrote to Viret: 'I have lost the
excellent companion of my life, who would never have forsaken me,
either in exile, poverty, or death. So long as she lived she was
my faithful assistant; she took no thought for herself, and was
never either a trouble or a hindrance to her husband. I control
my sorrow as far as it is in my power; my friends also do their
duty; but it is of very little use either for them or me. You
know the tenderness--not to say the weakness--of my heart. I
should give way utterly if God had not stretched out his hand to
hold me up. It is he who heals the broken-hearted, who consoles
the wounded spirit, who strengthens the trembling knees.'
[Footnote 127]
[Footnote 127: Henry, i. 416-423; _Bulletin de la Société
de L'Histoire du Protestantisme Français_, iv. 644-649.]
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From the time that he lost his wife until his own death, that is
from 1549 to 1564, Calvin lived alone in his little house at
Geneva. He had been deprived of that domestic happiness which is
a rest alike to body and soul; he took no part in any ordinary
pleasures, but gave himself up entirely to the duties which he
had undertaken, and to the work to which he was devoted. These
duties and labours extended far beyond the narrow bounds of the
city in which he lived. His ambition was loftier than that of the
most mighty princes, and his proposed sphere of action more vast
than that of the most extended kingdom. His ruling passion, the
strongest desire of his soul, was the re-establishment and
organization of the Christian Church in accordance with the
intention of its divine author, and on the foundation laid by the
apostles. He wished to build up a Christian Church, free and
independent in its evangelical unity and universality. He
believed that neither the separation of nations, nor diversity of
origin and language, nor difference of political rule, ought to
affect the great Christian society. For Calvin, as for St. Paul,
there was no longer either Jew, or Greek, or Barbarian; either
Swiss, or French, or Italian, or English, or Slave. He saw only
the human being, called to become a faithful Christian and to
live in close relation to Christ, keeping his faith and
fulfilling his law. Calvin was convinced that Christ had revealed
in the Gospel all the essential principles of Christian society,
that is of the Christian Church; and he believed that these
essential principles were three in number:
I. The union and united action of ecclesiastics and laymen within
the Church, and in its internal government; no human theocracy
and no ecclesiastical tyranny.
II. The mutual independence and limited alliance of Church and
State. The Church perfectly free in her spiritual rule, but at
the same time acknowledging and supporting the temporal rule of
the State.
III. The spiritual and moral authority of the Church over the
religious and moral life of its members, to be maintained, if
necessary, by the power of the State.
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The application and development of these principles was to be
found, according to Calvin's views, in the self-government of the
Church by a mixed body consisting of pastors and members. There
would then be the mutual and valuable influence of the Church in
the State, and of the State in the Church, each according to the
nature of its own power, and within the limits of its own rights.
He believed that such a system was in harmony on the one hand
with the Gospel, and on the other with the condition and
requirements of European society in the sixteenth century. He saw
in it the abolition of abuses, which time, and the crimes or
follies of men, had introduced into the Christian religion; and
he hoped by means of it to restore the spirit as well as the
spontaneous organization of the early Christian Church. He
expected to introduce into this system the degree of freedom and
of restraint necessary to accomplish the great aim of
Christianity, namely the discipline and salvation of the human
soul.
This was the Reformation according to Calvin's view, and he
endeavoured to realize it in the system known as Presbyterianism.
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He watched its establishment in Switzerland, France, Holland,
England, Scotland, Germany, and Poland with inexhaustible
interest and unshaken fidelity. He had abundant means of knowing
all that was going on throughout Europe in reference to the
Reformation. Numerous refugees had sought a place of safety in
Geneva; he himself had made many expeditions into France,
Germany, and Italy; and the friendships which he had formed, and
his numerous correspondents had brought him into close connexion
with many foreign reformers. He knew how far the Reformation had
succeeded in different countries, what progress it was making,
and what obstacles it had met with, so that he could modify his
course of action according to circumstances. Where there was no
band of reformers ready to unite and openly proclaim themselves a
religious society, as for example in Italy, Calvin endeavoured,
in his letters and by his advice, to sow the first seeds of the
Reformation; and to make known the fundamental doctrines of the
reformed faith. 'Wherever he found the rudiments of a Christian
association and a reformed church, he endeavoured to promote its
organization in accordance with the principles of the system
established at Geneva. As a mother country provides for the early
wants of her colonies, so he sent models for confessions of faith
and rules of discipline, as well as founders and preachers for
the distant churches; and he watched over the progress of these
local works with paternal solicitude. Many of the French churches
were originally organized by Calvin, and received their first
pastors from him. Letters reached him from all parts asking for
light or guidance in the prevailing religious fermentation.
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M. de Beaulieu wrote to Farel from Geneva on the 30th of October,
1561, saying: 'I cannot tell you how many persons there are in
this city who have come from Lyons, Nismes, Gap, Orleans,
Poitiers, and elsewhere, and who are asking for labourers in the
new harvest. Many have told me that if four or five thousand
pastors could be sent out, there would be no lack of work for
them.' [Footnote 128]
[Footnote 128: Henry, iii. 483.]
In the midst of the stormy vicissitudes of the Reformation in
England and Scotland, Calvin's influence was also felt. He wrote
to the young king of England, Edward VI., to Queen Elizabeth, and
to all the most important persons in the kingdom, political or
ecclesiastical. He addressed the prudent and versatile Cranmer,
as well as the fiery and intractable Knox, and to each he gave
the advice best calculated to promote the general interests of
the Reformation. After Knox had been banished from Frankfort in
1555, he went to Geneva, where he was appointed pastor, and
remained until 1559, making himself fully acquainted with the
doctrine and discipline of the Presbyterian Church. In this vast
and varied exercise of his influence, Calvin was never led astray
by political bias or prejudice in favour of any system or sect.
He thought Knox took too prominent a part in the struggles of the
nobles and people in Scotland; that he was unduly hostile to the
Anglican Church, its liturgies and forms of worship: 'I hope,' he
wrote, 'that in those things which concern ceremonies, your
severity, which is displeasing to so many persons, is somewhat
abated. No doubt we must take care that the Church is purged from
all those evils which have been introduced by error and
superstition.
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We must take heed lest the divine mysteries be changed into
childish mummery; but when that is done, you are well aware that
there are many things which, without being approved, may yet be
tolerated. I am profoundly grieved at the dissensions of your
nobles.' [Footnote 129 ]
[Footnote 129: Calvini Epistolæ, ix. 150. (Amsterdam, 1667.)]
John Knox, the Scotch reformer, was one of the most eminent and
influential of Calvin's allies, and, I do not say disciples but
coadjutors. By character, as well as position, Knox was a master,
not a disciple. He was four years older than Calvin, and like
Calvin he had been drawn towards the Reformation in early life;
but when he began to play an important part in it, he was led by
the state of public feeling, and probably by his own inclination
also, to take part in the political as well as the religious
struggles of his age and country. He was the champion of a party
as well as of a cause, and was quite as eager to subdue his
enemies in the State as to insure the predominance of his
doctrines in the Church. Often active and influential in his own
country, at other times proscribed and wandering on the continent
of Europe, he was tossed to and fro by divers fortunes. He became
personally acquainted with Calvin, and understood and admired him
from the very first. One of those close and intimate friendships
sprang up between them which unite men of the same temperament,
whatever may be their difference of disposition and habit.
Whenever Knox was compelled to leave Scotland, he sought refuge
in Geneva; he took the warmest interest in the labours, the
trials, and the struggles for success in which Calvin was
engaged, and watched his skilful organization of the reformed
Genevese Church.
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When he returned to Scotland, he corresponded constantly
with Calvin, consulted him on numerous occasions, and set great
store by his advice, although he always preserved his own
independence of thought and action. Knox was as resolute and
persevering as Calvin, but more fiery, more violent, and without
that respect and consideration for established authority which
was so characteristic of Calvin even when he was opposing it. And
yet, with all their difference of predilection and method, the
work of the two reformers was essentially the same. Although he
was no less independent than his great ally, Knox was powerfully
influenced by Calvin's example, and he transported the
presbyterian system to Scotland, which, after three centuries of
trial, still flourishes there as it does in Geneva. The Scotch
Church has lately passed through the severe ordeal of division
into a Free and an Established Church, and, to its great honour,
without danger to the State or to religion.
But to return to Calvin: in France his moderation and liberality
were carried very far. He aimed at establishing the reformed
churches on the presbyterian basis, but he expressly warned their
members never to take the initiative in appeals to force or
insurrection. His correspondence with the principal French
reformers was a constant exhortation to prudence, patience,
submission to the civil powers and religious independence. He
desired to see neither aggression nor vengeance on the part of
the Protestants. He strongly condemned the conspiracy of Amboise,
[Footnote 130] and the sanguinary reprisals of the Baron des
Adrets. [Footnote 131]
[Footnote 130: The conspiracy of Amboise was planned among
the French Reformers in 1559 and 1560, and carried on by a
gentleman of Perigord, named Godefroi de la Renaudie, in the
name of the principal Protestant leaders, especially that of
the Prince de Condé. Its object was to take all power from
the hands of the Guises, to 'have them punished by law,' and
to secure for the reformers, not only religious liberty, but
the chief power over Francis II. in the government of France.
It was discovered in March 1560, and repressed and punished
with great severity.]
[Footnote 131: The Baron des Adrets (Fraçois de Beaumont) was
a Protestant gentleman of Dauphiné, who lived from 1513 to
1586, and who was notorious at that period for his cruel
reprisals upon the Catholics in the religious wars of
France.]
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No doubt the precepts and practice of St. Paul were always
present to his mind, and that he both preached and practised
obedience to the powers that be, in things that did not interfere
with faith in Christ and the will of God. In all that concerned
religion no innovator was ever bolder than Calvin, and at the
same time less revolutionary. None was ever more scrupulously
indifferent to all other aims than the propagation of the Gospel,
the organization of the evangelical Church, and the reformation
of man's moral nature. I do not know how far his logical
forethought was able to penetrate the future, or if, whilst he
was prosecuting his work of religious emancipation, he foresaw
that what he was doing would bring forth, as a natural
consequence, such immense political and social changes. I am
inclined to believe that he did not concern himself about it in
any way, that his essentially judicious and practical mind was
'exclusively occupied by his mission and by the immediate
present, and that he did not seek to penetrate the darkness of
future centuries, and the far-off designs of God.
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Calvin's conscientious conviction of the necessity of submission
was so great that he would sometimes say a man ought not to
employ force even to effect his escape from prison and to save
himself from martyrdom. After all, he said, it was martyrdom
which had contributed so powerfully to the triumph of the early
Christian Church; and when the cause of God had need of martyrs,
it was man's duty to submit.
This excessive severity and pious enthusiasm did not, however,
prevent him from using all the influence which he possessed, and
exerting all his power, both moral and political, in behalf of
those reformers who were persecuted, imprisoned, and on the eve
of martyrdom. He was not satisfied with doing all that was in his
own power, writing, preaching, importuning and harassing the
persecutors; he induced all those governments that were
favourable to the reformers, and able to exert influence which
would be beneficial to them, to intercede on their behalf. He
sent agents, legal help, indirect protectors, money and
assistance of all kinds. And when he had been unable to succeed
in averting persecution or diminishing its severity, when the day
of martyrdom arrived, he employed all his Christian zeal in
sustaining the courage of the victims, lavishing upon them proofs
of his own sympathy, and teaching them to put their trust in God
and his Divine justice. The persecuted reformers at Nismes in
1537; the Waldenses, cruelly ill-treated and tortured in Provence
and Dauphiné in 1545; the martyrs of Lyons in 1552; the church of
Paris and the victims of the attack upon the reformers in the Rue
St. Jacques in 1556 and 1557; and in many other places and on
many other occasions, the fugitives and martyrs of the French
reformation received warm help and fraternal consolation from
Calvin.
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We may say that he changed the words of Dante, and that, when he
had been unable to save those for whom he had laboured, he opened
the doors of the eternal future, saying to them, 'Do not lose all
hope, ye who enter here!'
But Calvin's solicitude was not confined to the fugitives only,
and to the patent and manifest sufferings of the French
reformers. He had too deep a knowledge of human nature and the
world not to know the secret aspiration, hidden grief, and
ignoble strife which vex and torment the soul, and are found in
every social condition, the most exalted as well as the most
humble. In many such cases his watchful care and influence were
also felt. The Duchess Renée of Ferrara was not the only woman
nor the only great lady with whom he kept up a zealous
correspondence through life. He wrote numerous letters to
important personages, renowned leaders or vacillating friends of
the Reformation; to the King of Navarre, Admiral de Coligny, the
Duke de Longueville, M. de Soubise, and the Baron des Adrets. In
addition to these, the numerous published collections of Calvin's
letters, and the repositories which contain those that are still
unpublished, are full of others addressed to M. and Mme. de
Falais, M. and Mme. de Budé, Mme de Cany, Mme de Rentigny, the
Marchioness of Rothelin, Mlle. de Pons, Mme. de Grammont, and a
host of other persons who were important or interesting in his
eyes. Some of them were more or less closely connected with the
great cause which he had at heart; to others he was drawn by
their spiritual condition, and by the value which he set upon
their faith, conduct, and salvation.
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Calvin was one of those rare great men who are rich both in heart
and intellect, who can no more look with indifference at the fate
of an individual than at that of a kingdom, and who feel for the
joy and sorrow of the human heart, as well as for the storms
which agitate a nation. He was as deeply interested in the faith
and sorrows of one simple woman as in those of all Christendom,
and could apply himself as eagerly to the enlightenment of a
single conscience as to the moral reformation of a whole city.
Moreover, he knew that sooner or later, far or near, the
influence which he thus acquired over single individuals would be
so much gained for the authority which he desired to exercise
over the general cause of the Reformation, and thus the
sympathetic zeal of the Christian helped the social mission of
the founder of a church.
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