It was but a few days before his death, and in the course of one of
the latest conversations handed down to us by Theodore Beza, that
Calvin, pointing with failing hand to his most precious furniture,
his manuscripts, and the archives of the correspondence that, during
a quarter of a century, he had kept up with the most illustrious
personages of Europe, requested that these memorials might be
carefully preserved, and that a selection from his letters, made by
some of his friends, should be presented to the Reformed Churches,
in token of the interest and affection of their founder.[1]
[1] "migraturus ad deum johannes calvinus, quum de commodis ecclesiæ
ne tunc quidem cogitare desincret, sua mihi κειμήλια, id est
schedarum ingentem acervum commendavit ut si quid in iis invenissem
quo juvari possent ecclesiæ, id quoque in lucem ederetur."--th. de
bèze to the elector palatine, 1st february 1575. this letter is
printed as a preface to calvin's latin correspondence.
This request of the dying Reformer, although treasured in the heart
and memory of him who had succeeded to his plans and carried on his
work, received but an imperfect fulfilment in the sixteenth century.
The times were adverse, and the accomplishment of the duty was
difficult. The plague, which had broken out for the third time at
Geneva, and carried off thousands of victims; the great disasters,
public and private; the shock of the painful events that had been
occurring in France from the breaking out of the Civil War to the
Massacre of St. Bartholomew; even the scruples of friendship,
heightened by the perils that threatened the city of the Reformation
itself, all seemed to conspire against the execution of Calvin's
wish. "Without speaking," says Beza, "of the assistance that was
indispensable for the examination of so extensive a correspondence,
or of the time required for so laborious an undertaking, the
calamities that befell our city, the plague that raged for many
years, the convulsions of a neighbouring country, have more than
once interrupted the progress of the work. The selection of the
letters also involved great difficulties, at a time when men were
predisposed to judge harshly and unfairly. There are many things
that may be said or written in the familiar intercourse of sincere
and ingenuous friendship, such as Calvin's, which can hardly be
given to the public without inconvenience. We were obliged in our
work to have respect to persons, times, and places."[2] These
scruples of an earnest and respectful disciple, anxious to avoid
all collision with his contemporaries and at the same time to
render justice to a great name, would be out of place now; but they
were legitimate in an age of revolutions, when words were swords,
and when the war of opinion, often sanguinary, outlasting its
originators, was perpetuated in their writings.
[2] "Multa quippe familiaritor inter amicos dici scribique
consueverunt, præsertim ab ingenui spiritus hominibus, qualis fuit
Calvinus si quisquam nostris temporibus alius, quæ minime expediat
emanare. Et habenda quoque nobis fuit non modo personarum, verum
etiam temporum et locorum ratio."--Letter already cited.
Still it must be owned, that notwithstanding all these difficulties,
the friends of Calvin did not shrink from the performance of
their duty. Deeply impressed with the importance of the mission
intrusted to them, they applied themselves to their task with
religious fidelity. By their care, the originals or the copies of a
vast number of letters addressed to France, England, Germany, and
Switzerland, were collected at Geneva, and added to the precious
deposit already confided to them. The archives of the city of Calvin
received this treasure and preserved it faithfully through the storm
that fell upon the churches of France, destroying or dispersing
in foreign lands so many pages of their annals. By a remarkable
dispensation, Geneva, the holy city of French Protestantism, the
seminary of her ministers, of her doctors, and of her martyrs, after
having conferred upon her, by the hand of Calvin, her creed and her
form of worship, was also to preserve for her the titles of her
origin and of her history. These titles are gloriously inscribed in
the noble collection of autograph letters of the Reformer, for which
we are indebted to the pious care of some refugees of the sixteenth
century, whose names are almost lost in the lustre of those of
Calvin and Beza, but whose services cannot be forgotten without
ingratitude. Let us at least recall with a fitting tribute of
grateful respect, the names of Jean de Budé, Laurent de Normandie,
and especially of Charles de Jonvillers.
It is to the latter mainly that we must ascribe the honour of the
formation of the magnificent epistolary collection that now adorns
the Library of Geneva. Born of a noble family in the neighbourhood
of Chartres, and carried across the Alps by the irresistible
necessity of confessing the faith which he had embraced with all the
ardour of youth, Charles de Jonvillers found in the affection of
Calvin, a compensation for the voluntary sacrifice of fortune and
country. Admitted, with his young patrician countrymen--the élite
of the Reformed party--to the intimacy of the Reformer, he devoted
himself with filial reverence and unbounded attachment to the great
man whose faith and energy, moulding a rebellious people, had
transformed an obscure Alpine city into a metropolis of the human
mind. He became his secretary, after the celebrated lawyer, François
Baudouin, and the minister Nicholas des Gallars, and henceforward
assisted him in his laborious correspondence, followed him to the
Auditoire and the Academy, and took down during Calvin's Lectures
those luminous Commentaries, which were afterwards dedicated to the
most illustrious personages of the age, and which modern theology
has never surpassed.
Such was the man to whom the friendship of Calvin and the confidence
of Beza assigned the great and laborious task of preparing for
publication the Letters of the Reformer. He brought to it the zeal
of a disciple and the filial reverence of a son who forgets himself
in the execution of a sacred will; undertaking distant journeys
to ensure its fulfilment, seeking everywhere for those precious
documents in which were preserved the thoughts of the venerated
master he had lost; and transcribing a vast number of letters with
his own hand; supported in these costly and difficult researches by
the consciousness of a duty accepted in humility and performed with
faithfulness.[3] This labour, early commenced and pursued for twenty
years under the vigilant superintendence of Beza, was the origin of
the collection of Calvin's Latin Correspondence published in 1575; a
faithful but incomplete tribute to the memory of the Reformer by his
disciples--an unfinished monument, which might indeed suffice the
generation that was contemporary with the Reformation, but which is
insufficient to satisfy the curiosity of our own.[4]
[3] "Ad eam rem unius præcipue Caroli Jonvillæi istarum rerum
custodis fidem, diligentiam, operam denique nobis appositissimam
fuisse profitemur."--Advertisement of Bèze to the reader.
[4] It is the collection intitled:--_Calvini Epistolæ et Responsa
quibus interjectæ sunt insignium in Ecclesia Dei virorun aliquot
etiam Epistolæ_, first published at Geneva, in 1575, reprinted in
the following year at Lausanne, and inserted with some additions in
the collection of Calvin's Works, _Calvini Opera_, tom. ix., edit.
d'Amsterdam, 1671. This latter edition, one of the sources of the
work which we now present to the public, comprises about 420 letters
or memoirs, of which 284 are letters of the Reformer.
Nearly three centuries had passed away without adding anything to
the work of Charles de Jonvillers and Beza. The Letters published
by their care have been the common source from which the apologists
and the adversaries of the Reformation have alike drawn; while the
numerous unpublished documents preserved in the Library of Geneva,
or collected in the Libraries of Zurich, Gotha, and Paris, have
been forgotten. It was reserved for the present age to rescue these
from unmerited oblivion, and thus to open up for history a mine of
information hitherto unexplored.
And here justice compels us to acknowledge, with gratitude, the
obligations of this unpublished correspondence to the recent labours
and investigations of several distinguished Protestant authors.
We refer especially to the "Life of Calvin," by Dr. Paul Henry
of Berlin,--a pious monument raised in honour of the Reformer
by a descendant of the refugees, and enriched with a number of
Letters from the libraries of France and Switzerland;[5] to the
learned researches of Professor Bretschneider, the editor of the
Gotha Letters;[6] the important work of Ruchat,[7] re-edited by
the talented continuator of the great historian Jean de Müller,
Professor Vulliemin of Lausanne, with an extensive Appendix,
containing precious fragments of Calvin's French Correspondence,
reproduced in the "Chronicle" of M. Crottet.[8] And now, having made
these acknowledgments, we may legitimately claim for ourselves the
privilege of offering to the public, for the first time, a general
and authentic collection of Calvin's Correspondence, the greater
part of which has, up to the present time, been buried in the dust
of libraries, and altogether unpublished.
[5] _Das Leben Calvins_, 3 vols. in 8vo. Hambourg, 1835-1842.
[6] _Johannis Calvini, Bezæ, aliorumque litteræ quædam nondum
editæ_, 1 vol. in 8vo. Leipsic, 1835. Published on the occasion of
the Reformation Jubilee at Geneva.
[7] _Histoire de la Réformation en Suisse_, 7 vols. in 8vo.
Lausanne, 1838.
[8] _Petite Chronique Protestante de France_, XVI^e Siècle; 1 vol.
in 8vo. Paris, 1846.
This collection is the result of five years of study and research
among the archives of Switzerland, France, Germany, and England.
Charged by the French Government, at the suggestion of M. Mignet,
under the liberal administration of two eminent ministers, MM. de
Salvandy and de Falloux, with a scientific mission that enabled
us to gather the first materials of a correspondence, the richest
depositories of which were in foreign countries, and sustained in
our labours by the cordial sympathy of those most distinguished
in the world of science and literature, we have spared nothing
that might ensure the completeness of a collection which throws so
much light on the history of the great religious revolution of the
sixteenth century.
The correspondence of Calvin begins in his youth and is only
closed on his deathbed, (May 1528 to May 1564.) It thus embraces,
with few intervals, all the phases of his life; from the obscure
scholar of Bourges and Paris escaping from the stake by flying
into exile, to the triumphant Reformer, who was able in dying,
to contemplate his work as accomplished. Nothing can exceed the
interest of this correspondence, in which an epoch and a life of
the most absorbing interest are reflected in a series of documents
equally varied and genuine; and in which the familiar effusions of
friendship are mingled with the more serious questions of theology,
and with the heroic breathings of faith. From his bed of suffering
and of continued labours, Calvin followed with an observant eye
the great drama of the Reformation, marking its triumphs and its
reverses in every State of Europe. Invested, in virtue of his
surpassing genius, with an almost universal apostolate, he wielded
an influence as varied and as plastic as his activity. He exhorts
with the same authority the humble ministers of the Gospel and the
powerful monarchs of England, Sweden, and Poland. He holds communion
with Luther and Melanchthon, animates Knox, encourages Coligny,
Condé, Jeanne d' Albret, and the Duchess of Ferrara; while in his
familiar letters to Farel, Viret, and Theodore Beza, he pours out
the overflowings of a heart filled with the deepest and most acute
sensibility. The same man, worn by watchings and sickness, but
rising by the energy of the soul above the weakness of the body,
overturns the party of the Libertines, lays the foundations of the
greatness of Geneva, establishes foreign churches, strengthens
the martyrs, dictates to the Protestant princes the wisest and
most perspicuous counsels; negotiates, argues, teaches, prays, and
with his latest breath, gives utterance to words of power, which
posterity receives as the political and religious testament of the
man.
These indications are sufficient to show the interest that attaches
to the correspondence of the Reformer. It is the common inheritance
of the countries emancipated by the Reformation and still animated
by its spirit; as well as of all the Churches, however diverse in
origin and varying in their confessions of faith, which manifest to
the world the spiritual unity of the Church of Christ. England's
portion in this precious legacy is neither the least, nor the least
interesting. Observant of the great work of religious Reformation
which, since the time of Wicliff, had been going on in that country,
and which was destined to have the singular privilege of placing
the civil and political liberties of the nation in the glorious
keeping of the Gospel, Calvin condemned with great severity the
spiritual tyranny of Henry the Eighth, and the endeavours of that
prince to substitute a sanguinary imperial popedom for that of
Rome. During the reign of his successor, he exercises a marked
influence in the councils of the crown, and traces with vigorous
hand, for the Duke of Somerset, a plan of religious reformation in
which the conservative spirit is happily blended with the liberal
and progressive tendency. He addresses the young King Edward VI.,
so prematurely withdrawn from the love of his subjects, in a strain
of exhortation dictated by paternal solicitude and respectful
affection:--"It is a great thing to be a king, and especially of
such a country; and yet I doubt not that you regard it as above all
comparison greater to be a Christian. It is, indeed, an inestimable
privilege that God has granted to you, Sire, that you should be a
Christian King, and that you should serve him as his lieutenant
to uphold the kingdom of Jesus Christ in England."[9]--The death
of this young King, so well fitted to carry out the designs of
Providence for his people, and the restoration of Popery under Mary,
heavily afflicted Calvin. He rejoices in the accession of Elizabeth,
freely exhorts her ministers, and his advice, dictated by a wisdom
and prescience to which time has set its seal, furnishes the most
remarkable proof of the faith and the genius of the Reformer.
[9] We give here entire the striking passage, of which a fac-simile
will be found at the commencement of this volume.--"Or au pseaulme
présent il est parlé de la noblesse et dignité de l'Eglise, laquelle
doit tellement ravir à soy et grans et petits que tous les biens
et honueurs de la terre ne les retiennent, ny empeschent qu'ils ne
prétendent à ce but d'estre enrolléz au peuple de Dieu. C'est grand
chose d'estre Roy, mesme d'un tel païs; toutefois je ne doubte pas
que vous n'estimiez sans comparaison mieux d'estre Chrestien. C'est
doncq un privilège inestimable que Dieu vous a faict, Sire, que vous
soiez Roy Chréstien, voire que vous luy serviez de lieutenant pour
ordonner et maintenir le Royaulme de Jésus Christ en Angleterre."
Having pointed out the historical value of this correspondence, it
may not be out of place to refer to its literary merit. Trained in
the twofold school of profane and sacred Antiquity, of the Church
and of the world, Calvin's Latin is that of a contemporary of Cicero
or of Seneca, whose graceful and concise style he reproduces without
effort. He writes in French as one of the creators of that language,
which is indebted to him for some of its finest characteristics.
Writing before Montaigne, he may be regarded as the precursor and
the model of that great school of the seventeenth century which
could only fight him with weapons from his own armoury, and which
could not surpass him either in loftiness of thought or in stately
majesty of style. The French letters of Calvin, worthy of the author
of the immortal preface to the "Christian Institutes," contain many
admirable passages hitherto unknown, and are models of eloquence:
they will be found in this Collection interspersed with the Latin
Correspondence from which they were detached in the original Paris
edition, and will present, in chronological order, a series of moral
and religious studies--a genuine portrait of the Reformer drawn by
his own hand, in the original documents, which we now, for the first
time, present to the historian.
The seasonableness of such a publication cannot be denied. The
great debate ever pending between the Papacy and the Reformation is
renewed in our days with fresh vigour in almost all the countries
of Europe. Attack provokes defence; and in the strife of opinion,
the rights of justice and of truth are too frequently disregarded.
While some rare spirits, enlightened by the study of history, or
the attentive observation of the effect of the dogmas of either
religion on the moral conduct of its votaries, rise superior to the
mists of prejudice and form a judgment which is moulding that of
posterity,[10] the adepts of a school, unhappily celebrated as the
admirers of excesses which the sincere disciples of Christianity or
of philosophy have alike reproved, have nought but malediction and
insult for the glorious Revolution stamped by the names of Luther
and of Calvin. Never, perhaps, were detraction and outrage let loose
with such fury against these great deliverers of conscience; never
have their intentions been so audaciously misrepresented, their
actions so grossly caricatured.[11] To the falsehoods of a party
that shrinks not from slander, let us oppose the impartial evidence
of history; let us learn from these great men themselves what they
desired, what they did, what they suffered; and let us seek from
them alone the secret of the Revolution which they achieved.
[10] It is only necessary to quote the names of the two illustrious
French historians, M. Guizot and M. Miguet, who in their writings
have rendered a respectful homage to the religious and moral
influence of the Reformation. A distinguished writer, M. Charles de
Rémusat, has lately published, under the title of "De la Réforme et
du Protestantisme," an eloquent paper, which might well inaugurate a
new era of justice and impartiality in historical writing.
[11] We need only name "L'Histoire de Calvin," by M. Audin, in
itself entirely devoid of truthfulness, and the fruitful source of
calumnious and lying pamphlets against the memory of the Reformer.
The Correspondence of Calvin will, we believe, throw a fresh light
upon those grave questions which Modern Science, worthy of the
name, now proposes to herself with a desire for impartial justice
which does her honour. It is by this sentiment that we may venture
to say we have been animated, in the course of the long researches
which have enabled us to offer this collection to the public. Guided
solely by the love of truth, and shrinking from no revelation that
was guarantied by authentic documents, we have rejected no sources
of information, nor omitted any evidence. Our ambition has been to
make Calvin live again in his letters--to shew him as he was, with
his austere and inflexible convictions, which yet were far from
intolerant, in the intercourse of friendship and the freedom of the
domestic circle--with that stern self-sacrifice of his life to duty
which alone explains its power and excuses its errors--with the
failings which were the heritage of his times and those which were
peculiar to himself. History, interrogated in original documents,
is not a panegyric; it throws no veil over the shortcomings of its
heroes, but it remembers that they are men, and draws lessons alike
from their infirmities and from their greatness.
We cannot close this Preface without offering the tribute of our
sincere gratitude to those friends in England and on the Continent
whose kind encouragement has favoured the publication. And we
would address our first acknowledgments to the Librarians of the
Continental Libraries, who eagerly placed at our disposal the whole
MS. collections committed to their charge. We have pleasure in
paying the same tribute to one of the most distinguished citizens
of Geneva, Colonel Henri Tronchin, who so liberally opened to us
the precious documents that have been transmitted to him through
a series of illustrious ancestors; and we regard it as a peculiar
privilege to record our obligations, while at Geneva, to the
encouraging kindness of two men eminent in her sacred literature, M.
le Pasteur Gaussen, and to the learned historian of the Reformation,
M. le Docteur Merle d'Aubigné, whose patronage, which was given as a
matter of course to the publication of Calvin's Correspondence, has
been the means of attracting to us valuable sympathies in the United
States, in England, and in that noble country of Scotland, where the
name of Calvin, gloriously associated with that of Knox, receives
an honourable tribute in the labours of a Society devoted to the
translation of his writings. It is with heartfelt satisfaction that
we inscribe on the first page of the collection, and recall in one
grateful thought, the names of the three generous patrons of the
undertaking, Mr. Douglas of Cavers, Mr. Henderson of Park, and Mr.
James Lenox of New York.
Our personal thanks we may surely be permitted to offer to the
translator of the work. Nothing could exceed the difficulty of
rendering Calvin's letters in English, and of harmonizing the
antique style of the originals with the structure of a modern
language. We believe that this difficulty has been happily overcome
by the translator, who has devoted himself with persevering ardour,
and with a sort of filial piety, to a work requiring so great an
amount of patience and of learning. If, through the transparent
mirror of a scrupulously faithful translation, the reader is enabled
to follow the grave religious beauty of the originals,--if he is
brought, as it were, into communion with the soul of Calvin himself,
in the fine and varied effusions of his correspondence, he will be
indebted for this privilege to the labour of Mr. Constable, revised
by the Rev. Dr. Cunningham, Principal of the New College, Edinburgh,
with a degree of watchful care and enlightened solicitude that
cannot be too highly appreciated.[12]
[12] Mr. Constable translated only the first two volumes, which were
published in Edinburgh.--EDITOR OF THE BOARD.
And thus the wish expressed by Calvin on his deathbed, and forgotten
during three centuries, is now realized for Britain as well as for
France. His memory loses nothing from these tardy revelations,
and the only testimony worthy of him is that of truth. This is
the testimony that appears in every page of his correspondence.
In so far as we have been his faithful interpreters we are happy
if, according to the measure of our poor ability, we have been
permitted, not to glorify a man, but to glorify God himself, in the
life of one of his chosen instruments for the accomplishment of one
of the noblest acts in the providential drama of history.
* * * * *
The English edition of Calvin's collected Correspondence will form
four volumes similar to the present, and will contain at least 600
letters, the greater part of which are now published for the first
time. An appendix at the end of the work will give, in chronological
order, and with a summary of their contents, a list of those letters
which it has been thought unnecessary to include in this edition,
but which those who may desire to do so, will have an opportunity of
consulting in the complete edition of the originals, in course of
publication in Paris.