Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/83

CALVIN". til (July, 1536), he met there his friend, Louis du Tillet, who eomnmnicated the fact of his arrival to Farol, then in the very midst of his struggle to promote the Reformation in the city and neighborhood. Farel liasten' d to see him and urged upon him the diity of remaining where he was, and undertaking his share of the work of God, under the burden of which lie himself was likely to sink. Calvin did not at first respond to the call. He was given, he himself says, to his "own thoughts and private studies." He wished to devote himself to the service of the reformed churches generally rather than to the care of any particular chiircli. A life of intellectual and theological labor was that which at that time was most congenial to him. By some strange insight, however, Farel discerned the higher fitness of the young stranger who stood before him, and he ventured, in the spirit of that dar- ing enthusiasm which characterized him, to lay the curse of God upon him and his studies if he refused his aid to the Church of Geneva in her time of need. This seemed to Calvin a divine menace. "It was," he said, "as if God had seized me by His awful hand from heaven." He yielded and joined eagerly with Farel in the work of reformation. Such was the beginning of Calvin's great ca- reer in Geneva. Having abandoned his intention of pursuing his journey, he soon infused an energy into his task which crowned the strug- gling efforts of Farel with success. The hier- archical authority was already overturned before his arrival; the citizens had asserted their inde- pendence as against the Duke of Savoy, whose alliance with the ruling episcopate, which was the direct governing influence in the place, had called forth the patriotic as well as the religious feelings of the people. The magistrates and peo- ple eagerly joined with the reformers in the first heat of their freedom and zeal. A Protestant confession of faith was drawn up. approved of by the Council of Two Hundred, the largest gov- erning board of the city, and then prcK-laimed in the cathedral church of St. Peter's as binding upon the whole body of the citizens. Great and marvelous changes were wrought in a short time upon the manners of the people: where license and frivolity had reigned, a strict moral severity began to characterize the whole aspect of so- ciety. The change, however, was too sudden and the strain was too extreme. A spirit of rebellion against the rule of Calvin and Farel broke forth. They, however, refused to yield to the wishes of a party animated by a more easy and libeial spirit than themselves (known in the history of Geneva under the nickname of Libertines) ; and the con- sequence was that they were both expelled from the citv after less than two vears' residence (April '23, 1.538). Calvin turned to Strassburg, ^vhere he had meant to go when arrested in his course in Ge- neva. Here he settled, and devoted himself to theological study, and especially to his critical labors on the Xew Testament. Here, also, in f)ctoher, l,5.'jn, he married a member of his con- gregation, Idelette de Bure, widow of Jean Stor- dem, of Li&ge, an Anabaptist, whom he had con- verted, and who hail died in February, 1538. The marriage appears to have proved a happy one. His wife bore him one child, a son, who, being bom prematurely, died shortly after his birth. CAIiVIN. (See his letters to Viret of July and August 19, 1542.) She herself died in April, 1549. The Genevans found, after a slun-t time, that they could not well do without Calvin. His rule might be rigid: but an authority even such as his, which might prove galling in its severity, was better than no settlecl authority at all ; aiid the Libertine party seemed to have been unable to construct any efficient and beneficent form of government. Accordingly, the citizens invited Calvin to return: and after some delay on his part, in order to test the spirit in which they were acting, he acceded to their invitation, and on September 13, 1541. after three years' ab- sence, once more made his entry into Geneva. Xow, at last, he succeeded in establishing his plan of Church government, in all its forms and details. By his college of pastors and doc- tors, and his eonsistorial court of discipline, he founded a theocracy, with himself at the head of it, which aimed virtually to direct all the aff'airs of the city, and to control and modify both the .social and individual actions of the citizens. Xot without a struggle, it may be supposed, did he succeed in his great autocratic scheme. The Lib- ertines, although dishonored by their ineffectual attempts to maintain order in the city, and up- hold its rights and dignity, still remained a strong party, which was even augmented after Calvin's return by such men as Amy Perrin, who had strongly concurred in the invitation to Calvin, but who were afterwards alienated from him by the arbitrary way in which he pursued his designs, no less than by their own schemes of ambition. The struggle with these opponents lasted with varying fortunes for no less a period than fifteen years, and was only terminated in 1555, after a somewhat ridiculous cincute in the streets. Amy Perrin and others, driven from the city, were executed in effigj'; and the re- former's authority from this date strengthened into an absolute sujireniacy. During the period of this long struggle with the Libertines, Calvin had many other disputes, in which he displayed equal zeal. The most re- markable of these were his controversies with Sebastian Castellio, Jerome Bolsec, and, above all, Jlichael Servetus. Calvin had become acquainted with Castellio in Strassburg (1540). They entertained at first a warm friendship for eacrh other, and Calvin showed great zeal in assisting Castellio, whose poverty and learning had attracted his sjtu- pathy. ^Mien he returned to Geneva, he " in- vited Castellio to join him there, and procured for him the rectorship in the Latin school of the city. There was little similarity, however, in the characters of the two men, and the di- versity of their tastes and views soon became ap- parent. The learning of Castellio was intensely humanistic: a classical sjiirit and a somewhat ar- bitrary opinionativeiiess iiiolded all his studies. As soon as be began to apply himself to theology, he came into conflict with ('alvin. In a letter to Viret, September 11. we find Calvin speaking of "the freaks of our friend Sebastian, which may both raise your bile and your laughter at the same time." These freaks relate to Castellio's notions of scriptural translation, and his refusal of Calvin's offer to revise the version which he had made of certain parts of Scripture. Then, two years later, when Castellio desired to en-