This reformer was born at Noyon in Picardy,
July 10, 1509. He was instructed in grammar, learning at Paris
under Maturinus Corderius, and studied philosophy in the College
of Montaign under a Spanish professor.
His father, who discovered many marks of
his early piety, particularly in his reprehensions of the vices
of his companions, designed him at first for the Church, and got
him presented, May 21, 1521, to the chapel of Notre Dame de la
Gesine, in the Church of Noyon. In 1527 he was presented to the
rectory of Marseville, which he exchanged in 1529 for the rectory
of Pont I’Eveque, near Noyon. His father afterward changed
his resolution, and would have him study law; to which Calvin,
who, by reading the Scriptures, had conceived a dislike to the
superstitions of popery, readily consented, and resigned the chapel
of Gesine and the rectory of Pont I’Eveque, in 1534. He made
a great progress in that science, and improved no less in the
knowledge of divinity by his private studies. At Bourges he applied
to the Greek tongue, under the direction of Professor Wolmar.
His father’s death having called him
back to Noyon, he stayed there a short time, and then went to
Paris, where a speech of Nicholas Cop, rector of the University
of Paris, of which Calvin furnished the materials, having greatly
displeased the Sorbonne and the parliament, gave rise to a persecution
against the Protestants, and Calvin, who narrowly escaped being
taken in the College of Forteret, was forced to retire to Xaintonge,
after having had the honor to be introduced to the queen of Navarre,
who had raised this first storm against the Protestants.
Calvin returned to Paris in 1534. This year
the reformed met with severe treatment, which determined him to
leave France, after publishing a treatise against those who believed
that departed souls are in a kind of sleep. He retired to Basel,
where he studied Hebrew: at this time he published his Institutions
of the Christian Religion; a work well adapted to spread his fame,
though be himself was desirous of living in obscurity. It is dedicated
to the French king, Francis 1. Calvin next wrote an apology for
the Protestants who were burnt for their religion in France. After
the publication of this work, Calvin went to Italy to pay a visit
to the duchess of Ferrara, a lady of eminent piety, by whom he
was very kindly received.
From Italy he came back to France, and having
settled his private affairs, he proposed to go to Strassburg or
Basel, in company with his sole surviving brother, Antony Calvin;
but as the roads were not safe on account of the war, except through
the duke of Savoy’s territories, he chose that road. “This
was a particular direction of Providence,” says Bayle; “it
was his destiny that he should settle at Geneva, and when he was
wholly intent upon going farther, he found himself detained by
an order from heaven, if I may so speak.”
At Geneva, Calvin therefore was obliged
to comply with the choice which the consistory and magistrates
made of him, with the consent of the people, to be one of their
ministers, and professor of divinity. He wanted to undertake only
this last office, and not the other; but in the end he was obliged
to take both upon him, in August, 1536. The year following, he
made all the people declare, upon oath, their assent to the confession
of faith, which contained a renunciation of popery. He next intimated
that he could not submit to a regulation which the canton of Berne
had lately made. Whereupon the syndics of Geneva summoned an assembly
of the people; and it was ordered that Calvin, Farel, and another
minister should leave the town in a few days, for refusing to
administer the Sacrament.
Calvin retired to Strassburg, and established
a French church in that city, of which he was the first minister:
he was also appointed to be professor of divinity there. Meanwhile
the people of Geneva entreated him so earnestly to return to them
that at last he consented, and arrived September 13, 1541, to
the great satisfaction both of the people and the magistrates;
and the first thing he did, after his arrival, was to establish
a form of church discipline, and a consistorial jurisdiction,
invested with power of inflicting censures and canonical punishments,
as far as excommunication, inclusively.
It has long been the delight of both infidels
and some professed Christians, when they wish to bring odium upon
the opinions of Calvin, to refer to his agency in the death of
Michael Servetus. This action is used on all occasions by those
who have been unable to overthrow his opinions, as a conclusive
argument against his whole system. “Calvin burnt Servetus!-
Calvin burnt Servetus!” is a good proof with a certain class
of reasoners, that the doctrine of the Trinity is not true- that
divine sovereignty is Antiscriptural and Christianity a cheat.
We have no wish to palliate any act of Calvin’s
which is manifestly wrong. All his proceedings, in relation to
the unhappy affair of Servetus, we think, cannot be defended.
Still it should be remembered that the true principles of religious
toleration were very little understood in the time of Calvin.
All the other reformers then living approved of Calvin’s
conduct. Even the gentle and amiable Melancthon expressed himself
in relation to this affair, in the following manner. In a letter
addressed to Bullinger, he says, “I have read your statement
respecting the blasphemy of Servetus, and praise your piety and
judgment; and am persuaded that the Council of Geneva has done
right in putting to death this obstinate man, who would never
have ceased his blasphemies. I am astonished that any one can
be found to disapprove of this proceeding.” Farel expressly
says, that “Servetus deserved a capital punishment.”
Bucer did not hesitate to declare, that “Servetus deserved
something worse than death.”
The truth is, although Calvin had some hand
in the arrest and imprisonment of Servetus, he was unwilling that
he should be burnt at all. “I desire,” says he, “that
the severity of the punishment should be remitted.” “We
endeavored to commute the kind of death, but in vain.” “By
wishing to mitigate the severity of the punishment,” says
Farel to Calvin, “you discharge the office of a friend towards
your greatest enemy.” “That Calvin was the instigator
of the magistrates that Servetus might be burned,” says Turritine,
“historians neither anywhere affirm, nor does it appear from
any considerations. Nay, it is certain, that he, with the college
of pastors, dissuaded from that kind of punishment.”
It has been often asserted, that Calvin
possessed so much influence with the magistrates of Geneva that
he might have obtained the release of Servetus, had he not been
desirous of his destruction. This however, is not true. So far
from it, that Calvin was himself once banished from Geneva, by
these very magistrates, and often opposed their arbitrary measures
in vain. So little desirous was Calvin of procuring the death
of Servetus that he warned him of his danger, and suffered him
to remain several weeks at Geneva, before he was arrested. But
his language, which was then accounted blasphemous, was the cause
of his imprisonment. When in prison, Calvin visited him, and used
every argument to persuade him to retract his horrible blasphemies,
without reference to his peculiar sentiments. This was the extent
of Calvin’s agency in this unhappy affair.
It cannot, however, be denied, that in this
instance, Calvin acted contrary to the benignant spirit of the
Gospel. It is better to drop a tear over the inconsistency of
human nature, and to bewail those infirmities which cannot be
justified. He declared be acted conscientiously, and publicly
justified the act.
It was the opinion, that erroneous religious
principles are punishable by the civil magistrate, that did the
mischief, whether at Geneva, in Transylvania, or in Britain; and
to this, rather than to Trinitarianism, or Unitarianism, it ought
to be imputed.
After the death of Luther, Calvin exerted
great sway over the men of that notable period. He was influential
in France, Italy, Germany, Holland, England, and Scotland. Two
thousand one bundred and fifty reformed congregations were organized,
receiving from him their preachers.
Calvin, triumphant over all his enemies,
felt his death drawing near. Yet he continued to exert himself
in every way with youthful energy. When about to lie down in rest,
he drew up his will, saying: “I do testify that I live and
purpose to die in this faith which God has given me through His
Gospel, and that I have no other dependence for salvation than
the free choice which is made of me by Him. With my whole heart
I embrace His mercy, through which all my sins are covered, for
Christ’s sake, and for the sake of His death and sufferings.
According to the measure of grace granted unto me, I have taught
this pure, simple Word, by sermons, by deeds, and by expositions
of this Scripture. In all my battles with the enemies of the truth
I have not used sophistry, but have fought the good fight squarely
and directly.”
May 27, 1564, was the day of his release
and blessed journey home. He was in his fifty-fifth year.
That a man who had acquired so great a reputation
and such an authority, should have had but a salary of one hundred
crowns, and refuse to accept more; and after living fifty-five
years with the utmost frugality should leave but three hundred
crowns to his heirs, including the value of his library, which
sold very dear, is something so heroic, that one must have lost
all feeling not to admire. When Calvin took his leave of Strassburg,
to return to Geneva, they wanted to continue to him the privileges
of a freeman of their’ town, and the revenues of a prebend,
which had been assigned to him; the former he accepted, but absolutely
refused the other. He carried one of the brothers with him to
Geneva, but he never took any pains to get him preferred to an
honorable post, as any other possessed of his credit would have
done. He took care indeed of the honor of his brother’s family,
by getting him freed from an adulteress, and obtaining leave for
him to marry again; but even his enemies relate that he made him
learn the trade of a bookbinder, which he followed all his life
after.
The Rev. Dr. Wisner, in his late discourse
at Plymouth, on the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims,
made the following assertion: “Much as the name of Calvin
has been scoffed at and loaded with reproach by many sons of freedom,
there is not an historical proposition more susceptible of complete
demonstration than this, that no man has lived to whom the world
is under greater obligations for the freedom it now enjoys, than
John Calvin.”
