deserving of death, if he refused when reasoned with to recant, is unhappily true ; but that lie was actuated by personal spite and animosity against Servetus himself there is no evidence ; on the contrary 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.[1] 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 re garded by him as an " atrocity," for which he sought to substitute death by the sword.[2] All that can be justly charged against Calvin in this matter is that he took the initiative in bringing on tha trial of Servetus, that as his accuser he prosecuted the suit against him with undue severity, and that he approved the sentence which con demned Servetus to death. When, however, it is remem bered 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;[3] that an eminent English divine of the next age should declare the process against him "just and honourable,"[4] and that only a few voices here and there were at the time raised against it, candid and impartial men 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."[5]The heresy of Servetus was not extirpated by his death, but none of his followers were visited with severer penalties than that of banishment from Geneva. The trials of several of these, with the conferences and controversies connected with them, occupied much of Calvin s time for several years. He 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 of whom hold that in the eucharist the body and blood of Christ are objectively and consubstantially present, and so are actually partaken of by the communicants, whilst the latter maintain that there is only a virtual presence of the body and blood of Christ, and consequently only a spiritual participation thereof through faith. In connection with these controversies on points of faith, Calvin 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 enraged at the restraints imposed upon the disorderly by the exercise 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 daunt less 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. 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, as has been justly said, " 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 Geneva 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 college, which still flourishes, and from which so many learned men have gone forth.
Amidst these multitudinous cares and occupations, Calvin found time to commit to writing 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. In the estimation of many, these constitute the most valuable of his works. His candour and sincerity as an inquirer into the meaning of Scripture 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 conspire to confer a high value on his exegetical works, and to make them at once rich sources of biblical knowledge and admirable models of biblical exposition.
But it is chiefly as a theologian and the head of a theological school that Calvin is now known. This renders it fitting that some account should be here given of his theological system. This is developed in his Institutio, which, though produced originally at an early period of his life, was so frequently and carefully revised by him, that in the form in which it has come down to us it presents his most matured views and thoughts. In some of his tracts and polemical writings certain of his doctrines are more fully expounded, illustrated, and defended ; but nowhere has he advocated any tenet which is not in sub stance to be found in the Institutio.
Much of Calvin s theology is common to him with all evangelical divines, and in the parts which are more peculiar to him and his school he follows closely in the steps of Augustine. The following may be regarded as his characteristic tenets, though all are not peculiar to him.
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 stato Adam fell, and in his fall involved the whole human race descended from him. Hence depravity and corruption, dif fused 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 per verted in all parts of their nature, and on account of such cor ruption 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- ↑ Fidelia Expositio Errorum Serveti, sub init. Calvini Opp. t. ix.
- ↑ Calvin to Farel, 20th Aug. 1553.
- ↑ Tuo judicio prorsus assentior. Aflirmo etiam vestros magistrates juste fecisse quod hominem blusphemum, re ordine judicata, interfece- runt. Melaiichtlion to Calvin, 14th Oct. 1554.
- ↑ Field On the Church, bk. iii. c. 27, vol. i. p. 288, ed. Camb. 1847.
- ↑ Notes on English Divines, vol. i. p. 49. Se< ii. p. 282, ed. 1835. See also Table Talk, vol.
