| 68. Tributes to the Memory of Calvin. | ||||
Comp. the large collection of Opinions and Testimonies respecting the Writings of Calvin, in the last volume of the English edition of his works published by the Calvin Translation Society, Edinburgh, 1854, pp. 376-464. I have borrowed from it several older testimonies. | ||||
No name in church history not even Hildebrand's or Luther's or Loyola's has been so much loved and hated, admired and abhorred, praised and blamed, blessed and cursed, as that of John Calvin. Living in a fiercely polemic age, and standing on the watch-tower of the reform movement in Western Europe, he was the observed of all observers, and exposed to attacks from every quarter. Religious and sectarian passions are the deepest and strongest. Melanchthon prayed for deliverance from the fury of theologians. Roman Catholics feared Calvin as their most dangerous enemy, though not a few of them honorably admitted his virtues. Protestants were divided according to creed and prejudice: some regarding him as the first among the Reformers and the nearest to Paul; others detesting his favorite doctrine of predestination. Even his share in the burning of Servetus was defended as just during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but is now universally deplored or condemned. | ||||
Upon the whole, the verdict of history is growingly in his favor. He improves upon acquaintance. Those who know him best esteem him most. The fruits of his labors are abundant, especially in the English-speaking world, and constitute his noblest monument. The slanderous charges of Bolsec, though feebly re-echoed by Audin, are no longer believed. All impartial writers admit the purity and integrity, if not the sanctity, of his character, and his absolute freedom from love of gain and notoriety. One of the most eminent skeptical historians of France goes so far as to pronounce him the most Christian man of his age. Few of the great luminaries of the Church of God have called forth such tributes of admiration and praise from able and competent judges. | ||||
The following selection of testimonies may be regarded as a fair index of the influence which this extraordinary man has exerted from his humble study in the little corner on the south-western border of Switzerland upon men of different ages, nationalities, and creeds, down to the present time. | ||||
Tributes of Contemporaries (Sixteenth Century). | ||||
Martin Luther (1483-1546). | ||||
From a letter to Bucer, Oct. 14, 1539. | ||||
Present my respectful greetings to Sturm and Calvin (then at Strassburg], whose books I have perused with singular pleasure (quorum libellos singulari cum voluptate legi). | ||||
Martin Bucer (1491-1551). | ||||
Calvin is a truly learned and singularly eloquent man (vere doctus mireque Facundus vir), an illustrious restorer of a purer Christianity (purioris Christianismi instaurator eximius). | ||||
Theodore Beza (1519-1605). | ||||
From his Vita Calvini (Latin) at the Close (Opera, XXI. 172). | ||||
I have been a witness of Calvin's life for sixteen years, and I think I am fully entitled to say that in this man there was exhibited to all a most beautiful example of the life and death of the Christian (longe pulcherrimum vere christianae tum vita tum mortis exemplum), which it will be as easy to calumniate as it will be difficult to emulate. | ||||
Compare also the concluding remarks of his French biography, vol. XXI. 46 (Aug. 19, 1564). | ||||
John Sturm of Strassburg (1507-1589): John Calvin was endued with a most acute judgment, the highest learning, and a prodigious memory, and was distinguished as a writer by variety, copiousness, and purity, as may be seen for instance from his Institutes of the Christian Religion. I know of no work which is better adapted to teach religion, to correct morals, and to remove errors. | ||||
Jerome Zanchi (1516-1590). An Italian convert to Protestantism. Professor at Strassburg and Heidelberg. From a letter to the Landgrave of Hesse: Calvin, whose memory is honored, as all Europe knows, was held in the highest estimation, not only for eminent piety and the highest learning (praestanti pietate et maxima eruditione), but likewise for singular judgment on every subject (singulari in rebus omnibus judicio clarissimus). | ||||
Bishop Jewel (1522-1571): Calvin, a reverend father, and worthy ornament of the Church of God. | ||||
Joseph Scaliger (1640-1609): Calvin is an instructive and learned theologian, with a higher purity and elegance of style than is expected from a theologian. The two most eminent theologians of our times are John Calvin and Peter Martyr; the former of whom has treated sound learning as it ought to be treated, with truth and purity and simplicity, without any of the scholastic subtleties. Endued with a divine genius, he penetrated into many things which lie beyond the reach of all who are not deeply skilled in the Hebrew language, though he did not himself belong to that class. | ||||
O how well Calvin apprehends the meaning of the Prophets! No one better . O what a good book is the Institutes!... Calvin stands alone among theologians (Solus inter theologos Calvinus). | ||||
This judgment of the greatest scholar of his age, who knew thirteen languages, and was master of philology, history, chronology, philosophy, and theology, is all the more weighty as he was one of the severest of critics. | ||||
Florimond De Raymond (1540-1602). Counseiller du Roy au Parlement de Bordeaux. Roman Catholic. From his L'histoire de la naissanse, progrez, et decadence de l'heresie de ce Si cle, divise en huit livres, dedie n tre saint P re le Pape Paul cinquiEme. Paris, 1605. bk. VII. ch. 10. | ||||
Calvin had morals better regulated and settled than N., and shewed from early youth that he did not allow himself to be carried away by the pleasures of sense (plaisirs de la chair et du ventre) . With a dry and attenuated body, he always possessed a fresh and vigorous intellect, ready in reply, bold in attack; even in his youth a great faster, either on account of his health, and to allay the headaches with which he was continually afflicted, or in order to have his mind more disencumbered for the purposes of writing, studying, and improving his memory. Calvin spoke little; what he said were serious and impressive words (et n'estoit que propos serieux et qui portoyent coup); he never appeared in company, and always led a retired life. He had scarcely his equal; for during twenty-three years that he retained possession of the bishopric (l'evesche) of Geneva, he preached every day, and often twice on Sundays. He lectured on theology three times a week; and every Friday he entered into a conference which he called the Congregation. His remaining hours were employed in composition, and answering the letters which came to him as to a sovereign pontiff from all parts of heretical Christendom (qui arrivoyent luy de toute la Chretiente heretique, comme au Souveraine Pontife).... | ||||
Calvin had a brilliancy of spirit, a subtlety of judgment, a grand memory, an eminent erudition, and the power of graceful diction.... No man of all those who preceded him has surpassed him in style, and few since have attained that beauty and facility of language which he possessed. | ||||
Etienne Pasquier (1528-1615). | ||||
Roman Catholic. Consellier et Avocat General du Roy an la Chambre des Comptes de Paris. | ||||
From Les Recherches de la France, p. 769 (Paris, 1633). | ||||
. He [Calvin) wrote equally well in Latin and French, the latter of which languages is greatly indebted to him for having enriched it with an infinite number of fine expressions (enrichie d'une infinite de beaux traits), though I could have wished that they had been written on a better subject. In short, a man wonderfully conversant with and attached to the books of the Holy Scriptures, and such, that if he had turned his mind in the proper direction, he might have been ranked with the most distinguished doctors of the Church. | ||||
Jacques Auguste de You (Thuanus, 1553-1617). | ||||
President of the Parliament of Paris. A liberal Roman Catholic and one of the framers of the Edict of Nantes. | ||||
From the 36th book of his Historia sui Temporis (from 1543-1607). | ||||
John Calvin, of Noyon in Picardy, a person of lively spirit and great eloquence (d'un esprit vif et d'une grande eloquence), and a theologian of high reputation among the Protestants, died of asthma, May 20 [27], 1564, at Geneva, where he had taught for twenty-three years, being nearly fifty-six years of age. Though he had labored under various diseases for seven years, this did not render him less diligent in his office, and never hindered him from writing. | ||||
De You has nothing unfavorable to say of Calvin. | ||||
Testimonies of Later French Writers. | ||||
Charles Drelincourt (1595-1669). | ||||
In that prodigious multitude of books which were composed by Calvin, you see no words thrown away; and since the prophets and apostles, there never perhaps was a man who conveyed so many distinct statements in so few words, and in such appropriate and well-chosen terms (en des mots si propres et si bien choisis).... Never did Calvin's life appear to me more pure or more innocent than after carefully examining the diabolical calumnies with which some have endeavored to defame his character, and after considering all the praises which his greatest enemies are constrained to bestow on his memory. | ||||
Moses Amyraut (1596-1645). | ||||
That incomparable Calvin, to whom mainly, next to God, the Church owes its Reformation, not only in France, but in many other parts of Europe. | ||||
Bishop Jacques Benigne Bossuet (1627-1704). | ||||
From his Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes (1688), the greatest polemical work in French against the Reformation. | ||||
I do not know if the genius of Calvin would be found as fitted to excite the imagination and stir up the populace as was that of Luther, but after the movement had began, he rose in many countries, more especially in France, above Luther himself, and made himself head of a party which hardly yields to that of the Lutherans. By his searching intellect and his bold decisions, he improved upon all those who had sought in this century to establish a new church, and gave a new turn to the pretended reformation. | ||||
It is a weak feeling which makes us desirous to find anything extraordinary in the death-beds of these people. God does not always bestow these examples. Since he permits heresy for the trial of his people, it is not to be wondered at that to complete this trial he allows the spirit of seduction to prevail in them even to the end, with all the fair appearances by which it is covered; and, without learning more of the life and death of Calvin, it is enough to know that he has kindled in his country a flame which not all the blood shed on its account has been able to extinguish, and that he has gone to appear before the judgment of God without feeling any remorse for a great crime.... | ||||
Let us grant him then, since he wishes it so much, the glory of having written as well as any man of his age; let us even place him, if desired, above Luther; for whilst the latter was in some respects more original and lively, Calvin, his inferior in genius, appears to have surpassed him in learning. Luther triumphed as a speaker, but the pen of Calvin was more correct, especially in Latin, and his style, though severe, was much more consecutive and chaste. They equally excelled in speaking the language of their country, and both possessed an extraordinary vehemence. Each by his talents has gained many disciples and admirers. Each, elated by success, has fancied to raise himself above the Fathers; neither could bear contradiction, and their eloquence abounds in nothing more largely than virulent invective. | ||||
Richard Simon (1638-1712). | ||||
One of the greatest critical and biblical scholars of the Roman Catholic Church. | ||||
From his Critical History of the Old Testament (Latin and French). | ||||
As Calvin was endued with a lofty genius, we are constantly meeting with something in his commentaries which delights the mind (quo animus rapitur); and in consequence of his intimate and perfect acquaintance with human nature, his ethics are truly charming, while he does his utmost to maintain their accordance with the sacred text. Had he been less under the influence of prejudice, and had he not been solicitous to become the leader and standard-bearer of heresy, he might have produced a work of the greatest usefulness to the Catholic Church. | ||||
The same passage, with additions, occurs in French. Simon says that no author had a better knowledge of the utter inability of the human heart, but that he gives too much prominence to this inability, and lets no opportunity pass of slandering the Roman Church, so that part of his commentaries is useless declamations (declamations inutiles). Calvin displays more genius and judgment in his works than Luther; he is more cautious, and takes care not to make use of weak proofs, of which his adversaries might take advantage. He is subtle to excess in his reasoning, and his commentaries are filled with references skilfully drawn from the text which are capable of prepossessing the minds of those readers who are not profoundly acquainted with religion. | ||||
Simon greatly underrates Calvin's knowledge of Hebrew when he says that he knew not much more than the Hebrew letters. Dr. Diestel (Geschichte des Alten Test. in der christl. Kirche, 1869, p. 267) justly pronounces this a slander which is refuted by every page of Calvin's commentaries. He ascribes to him a very good knowledge of Hebrew: ausgewaehlt mit einer sehr tuechtigen hebraeischen Sprachkenntniss. | ||||
Pierre Bayle (1647-1706). | ||||
Son of a Reformed minister, educated by the Jesuits of Toulouse, converted to Romanism, returned to Protestantism, skeptical, the author of a Dictionnaire historique et critique. | ||||
That a man who had acquired so great a reputation and so great an authority should have had only a hundred crowns of salary, and have desired no more, and that after having lived fifty-five years with every sort of frugality, he left to his heirs only the value of three hundred crowns, including his library, is a circumstance so heroical, that one must be devoid of feeling not to admire it, and one of the most singular victories which virtue and greatness of soul have been able to achieve over nature, even among ministers of the gospel. Calvin has left imitators in so far as regards activity of life, zeal and affection for the interest of his party; they employ their eloquence, their pens, their endeavors, their solicitations in the advancement of the kingdom of God; but they do not forget themselves, and they are, generally speaking, an exemplification of the maxim that the Church is a good mother, in whose service nothing is lost. | ||||
The Catholics have been at last obliged to dismiss to the region of fable the atrocious calumnies (les calomnies atroces) which they had uttered against the moral character of Calvin; their best authors now restrict themselves to stating that if he was exempt from the vices of the body, he has not been so from those of the mind, such as pride, passion, and slander. I know that the Cardinal de Richelieu, or that dexterous writer who has published under his name 'The Method of Conversation,' had adopted the absurdities of Bolsec. But in general, eminent authors speak no more of that. The mob of authors will never renounce it. These calumnies are to be found in the 'Systema decretorum dogmaticorum,' published at Avignon in 1693, by Francis Porter. Thus the work of Bolsec will always be cited as long as the Calvinists have adversaries, but it will be sufficient to brand it eternally with calumny that there is among Catholics a certain number of serious authors who will not adopt its fables. | ||||
Jean Alphonse Turretin (1617-1737). | ||||
Professor of theology of Geneva and representative of a moderate Calvinism. The most distinguished theologian of his name, also called Turretin the younger, to distinguish him from his father Francois. | ||||
John Calvin was a man whose memory will be blessed to the latest age (vir benedictae in omne oevum memoriae). . He has by his immense labors instructed and adorned not only the Church of Geneva, but the whole Reformed world, so that not unfrequently all the Reformed Churches are in the gross called after his name. | ||||
Montesquieu (1689-1755). | ||||
Author of De l'esprit des lois (the oracle of the friends of moderate freedom). | ||||
The Genevese should bless the birthday of Calvin. | ||||
Voltaire (1694-1778). | ||||
Essai sur les moeurs et l'esprit des nations. | ||||
The famous Calvin, whom we regard as the Apostle of Geneva, raised himself up to the rank of Pope of the Protestants (s'erigea en pape des Protestants). He was acquainted with Latin and Greek, and the had philosophy of his time. He wrote better than Luther, and spoke worse; both were laborious and austere, but hard and violent (durs et emportes).... Calvinism conforms to the republican spirit, and yet Calvin had a tyrannical spirit.... He demanded the toleration which he needed for himself in France, and he armed himself with intolerance at Geneva.... The severity of Calvin was united with the greatest disinterestedness (au plus grand desinteressement). | ||||
Jean Jaques Rousseau (1712-1778). | ||||
A native of Geneva. The apostle of the French Revolution, as Calvin was the apostle of the French Reformation. | ||||
From Lettres ecrites de la montagne. | ||||
Quel homme f t jamais plus tranchant, plus imperieux, plus decisif, plus divinement infaillible son gre que Calvin, pour qui la moindre opposition... etait toujours une oeuvre de Satan, un crime digne Du feu! | ||||
D'alembert (1717-1783). | ||||
Calvin justly enjoyed a great reputation a literary man of the first rank (homme de lettre du premier ordre) writing in Latin as well as one could do in a dead language, and in French with singular purity for his time (avec une purete singuliEre pour son temps). This purity, which our able grammarians admire even at this day, renders his writings far superior to almost all those of the same age, as the works of the Port-Royalists are distinguished even at the present day, for the same reason, from the barbarous rhapsodies of their opponents and contemporaries. | ||||
Frederic Ancillon (1767-1837). | ||||
Tableau des Revolutions du SystEme Politique de l'Europe. | ||||
Calvin was not only a profound theologian, but likewise an able legislator; the share which he had in the framing of the civil and religious laws which have produced for several centuries the happiness of the Genevan republic, is perhaps a fairer title to renown than his theological works; and this republic, celebrated notwithstanding its small size, and which knew how to unite morals with intellect, riches with simplicity, simplicity with taste, liberty with order, and which has been a focus of talents and virtues, has proved that Calvin knew men, and knew how to govern them. | ||||
Fr. Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787-1874). | ||||
Celebrated French historian and statesman, of Huguenot descent. | ||||
From St. Louis et Calvin, pp. 361 sqq. | ||||
Calvin is great by reason of his marvellous powers, his lasting labors, and the moral height and purity of his character.... Earnest in faith, pure in motive, austere in his life, and mighty in his works, Calvin is one of those who deserve their great fame. Three centuries separate us from him, but it is impossible to examine his character and history without feeling, if not affection and sympathy, at least profound respect and admiration for one of the great Reformers of Europe and of the great Christians of France. | ||||
By the same (1787-1874). | ||||
From Musee des protestants celEbres. | ||||
Luther vint pour detruire, Calvin pour fonder, par des necessites egales, mais differentes.... Calvin f t l'homme de cette seconde epoque de toutes les grandes revolutions sociales, où, apr s avoir conquis par la guerre le terrain qui doit leur appartenir, elles travaillent s'y etablir par la paix, selon des principes et sous les formes qui conviennent leur nature.... L'idee generale selon laquelle Calvin agit en brUlant Servet etait de son Si cle, et an a tort de la lui imputer. | ||||
Francois Aug. Marie Mignet (1796-1884). | ||||
Celebrated French historian and academician. | ||||
From his Memoire sur l'etablissement de la Reforme Geneve. | ||||
Calvin f t, dans le protestantisme, apr s Luther, ce qu'est la consequance apr s le principe; dans la Suisse, ce qu'est la r gle apr s une revolution.... Calvin, s'il n'avait ni le genie de l'invention ni celui de la conquEte; s'il n'etait ni un revolutionnaire comme Luther ni un missionaire comme Farel, il avait une force de logique qui devait pousser plus loin la reforme du premier, et une faculte d'organisation qui devait achever l'oeuvre du second. C'est par l qu'il renouvela la face du protestantisme at qu'il constitua Geneve. | ||||
Jules Michelet (1798-1874). | ||||
Histoire de France, vol. XI. (Les Guerres De Religion), Paris, 1884, pp. 88, 89, 92. | ||||
C'etait un travailleur terrible, avec un air souffrant, une constitution miserable et debile, veillant, s'usant, se consumant, ne distinguant ni nuit ni jour.... | ||||
C'etait une langue inouïe [Calvin's French style], la nouvelle langue fran aise. Vingte ans apr s Commines, trente ans avant Montaigne, dej la langue de Rousseau.... Son plus redoutable attribut, c'est sa penetrante clarte, son extr me lumiEre d'argent, plut t d'acier, d'une lame qui brille, mais qui tranche. On sent que cette lumiEre vient du dedans, du fond de la conscience, d'un coeur prement convaincu, dont la logique est l'aliment.... | ||||
Le fond de ce grand et puissant theologien etait d' tre un legiste. Il l'etait de culture, d'esprit, de caractEre. Il en avait les deux tendances: l'appel au juste, au vrai, un pre besoin de justice; mais, d'autre part aussi, l'esprit dur, absolu, des tribunaux d'alors, et it le porta dans la theologie.... La predestination de Calvin se trouva, en pratique, une machine a faire des martyrs. | ||||
Bon Louis Henri Martin (1810-1883). | ||||
Histoire de France depuis les temps les plus recules jusqu'en 1789, Tom. VIII. p. 325, of the fourth edition, Paris, 1860. Crowned by the French Academy. | ||||
Martin, in his standard work, thus describes the influence of Calvin upon the city of Geneva: Calvin ne la sauve pas seulement, mais conquiert cette petite ville une grandeur, une puissance morale immense. Il en fait la capitale de la Reforme, autant que la Reforme peut avoir une capitale, pour la moitie du monde protestant, avec une vaste influence, acceptee ou subie, sur l'autre moitie. Geneve n'est rien par la population, par les armes, par le territoire: elle est tout par l'esprit. Un seul avantage materiel lui garantit tons ses avantages moraux: son admirable position, qui fait d'elle une petite France republicaine et protestante, independante de la monarchie catholique de France et l'abri de l'absorption monarchique et catholique; la Suisse protestante, alliee necessaire de la royaute fran aise contre l'empereur, couvre Geneve par la politique vis- -vis du roi et par l'epee contra les maisons d'Autriche et de Savoie. | ||||
Ernest Renan (1823-1892). | ||||
Renan, a member of the French Academy, a brilliant genius, and one of the first historians of France, was educated for the Roman Catholic priesthood, but became a skeptic. This makes his striking tribute all the more significant. | ||||
From his article on John Calvin in his Etudes d'histoire religieuse, 7th ed. Paris, 1880, pp. 337-367. | ||||
Calvin was one of those absolute men, cast complete in one mould, who is taken in wholly at a single glance: one letter, one action suffices for a judgment of him. There were no folds in that inflexible soul, which never knew doubt or hesitation.... Careless of wealth, of titles, of honors, indifferent to pomp, modest in his life, apparently humble, sacrificing every thing to the desire of making others like himself, I hardly know of a man, save Ignatius Loyola, who could match him in those terrible transports.... It is surprising that a man who appears to us in his life and writings so unsympathetic should have been the centre of an immense movement in his generation, and that this harsh and severe tone should have exerted so great an influence on the minds of his contemporaries. How was it, for example, that one of the most distinguished women of her time, Renee of France, in her court at Ferrara, surrounded by the flower of European wits, was captivated by that stern master, and by him drawn into a course that must have been so thickly, strewn with thorns? This kind of austere seduction is exercised by those only who work with real conviction. Lacking that vivid, deep, sympathetic ardor which was one of the secrets of Luther's success, lacking the charm, the perilous, languishing tenderness of Francis of Sales, Calvin succeeded more than all, in an age and in a country which called for a reaction towards Christianity, simply because he was the most Christian man of his century (l'homme le plus chretien de son Si cle, p. 342). | ||||
Felix Bungener (1814-1874). | ||||
Pastor of the national Church of Geneva, and author of several historical works. | ||||
From Calvin, sa vie, son oeuvre et ses ecrits, Paris, 1862; English translation (Edinburgh, 1863), pp. 338, 349. | ||||
Let us not give him praise which he would not have accepted. God alone creates; a man is great only because God thinks fit to accomplish great things by his instrumentality. Never did any great man understand this better than Calvin. It cost him no effort to refer all the glory to God; nothing indicates that he was ever tempted to appropriate to himself the smallest portion of it. Luther, in many a passage, complacently dwells on the thought that a petty monk, as he says, has so well made the Pope to tremble, and so well stirred the whole world. Calvin will never say any such thing; he never even seems to say it, even in the deepest recesses of his heart; every where you perceive the man, who applies to all things to the smallest as to the greatest the idea that it is God who does all and is all. Read again, from this point of view, the very pages in which he appeared to you the haughtiest and most despotic, and see if, even there, he is anything other than the workman referring all, and in all sincerity, to his master.... But the man, in spite of all his faults, has not the less remained one of the fairest types of faith, of earnest piety, of devotedness, and of courage. Amid modern laxity, there is no character of whom the contemplation is more instructive; for there is no man of whom it has been said with greater justice, in the words of an apostle, 'he endured as seeing him who is invisible.' | ||||
From Dutch Scholars. | ||||
James Arminius (1560-1609). | ||||
The founder of Arminianism. | ||||
Next to the study of the Scriptures which I earnestly inculcate, I exhort my pupils to peruse Calvin's Commentaries, which I extol in loftier terms than Helmich himself (a Dutch divine, 1551-1608]; for I affirm that he excels beyond comparison (incomparabilem esse) in the interpretation of Scripture, and that his commentaries ought to be more highly valued than all that is handed down to us by the library of the fathers; so that I acknowledge him to have possessed above most others, or rather above all other men, what may be called an eminent spirit of prophecy (spiritum aliquem prophetiae eximium). His Institutes ought to be studied after the [Heidelberg] Catechism, as containing a fuller explanation, but with discrimination (cum delectu), like the writings of all men. | ||||
Dan. Gerdes (1698-1767). | ||||
Historia Evangelii Renovati, IV. 41 sq. (Groningae, 1752). | ||||
Calvin's labors were so highly useful to the Church of Christ, that there is hardly any department of the Christian world to be found that is not full of them, hardly any heresy that has arisen which he has not successfully encountered with that two-edged sword, the Word of God, or a portion of Christian doctrine which he has not illustrated in a remarkable manner. Certainly his commentaries on the Old and New Testaments are all that could be desired; every one of his sermons is full of unction; his Institutes bear the most complete and finished execution; his doctrinal treatises are distinguished by solidity; his critical works by warmth and fervor; his practical writings by virtue and piety; and his letters by mildness, prudence, gravity, and wisdom. | ||||
Judgments of German Scholars. | ||||
John Lawrence Mosheim (1695-1755). | ||||
From the English translation of his Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, by James Murdock, D. D., New York, 1854, vol. III. 163, 167, 192. | ||||
Calvin was venerated, even by his enemies, for his genius, learning, eloquence, and other endowments, and moreover was the friend of Melanchthon. | ||||
Few persons of his age will bear any comparison with Calvin for patient industry, resolution, hatred of the Roman superstition, eloquence, and genius. Possessing a most capacious mind, he endeavored not only to establish and bless his beloved Geneva with the best regulations and institutions, but also to make it the mother and the focus of light and influence to the whole Reformed Church, just as Wittenberg was to the Lutheran community. | ||||
The first rank among the interpreters of the age is deservedly assigned to John Calvin, who endeavored to expound nearly the whole of the sacred volume. | ||||
His Institutes are written in a perspicuous and elegant style, and have nothing abstruse and difficult to be comprehended in the arguments or mode of reasoning. | ||||
Johannes von Mueller (1752-1809). | ||||
The great historian of Switzerland, called the German Tacitus. | ||||
Allgemeine Geschichte, Bk. III. | ||||
John Calvin had the spirit of an ancient lawgiver, a genius and characteristic which gave him in part unmistakable advantages, and failings which were only the excess of virtues, by the assistance of which he carried through his objects. He had also, like other Reformers, an indefatigable industry, with a fixed regard to a certain end, an invincible perseverance in principles and duty during his life, and at his death the courage and dignity of an ancient Roman censor. He contributed greatly to the development and advance of the human intellect, and more, indeed, than he himself foresaw. For among the Genevese and in France, the principle of free inquiry, on which he was obliged at first to found his system, and to curb which he afterwards strove in vain, became more fruitful in consequences than among nations which are less inquisitive than the Genevese, and less daring than the French. From this source were developed gradually philosophical ideas, which, though they are not yet purified sufficiently from the passions and views of their founders, have yet banished a great number of gloomy and pernicious prejudices, and have opened us prospects of a pure practical wisdom and better success for the future. | ||||
Fr. August Tholuck (1799-1877). | ||||
Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, 3d ed. 1831, p. 19. | ||||
In his [Calvin's] Exposition on the Epistle to the Romans are united pure Latinity, a solid method of unfolding and interpreting, founded on the principles of grammatical science and historical knowledge, a deeply penetrating faculty of mind, and vital piety. | ||||
Dr. Twesten (1789-1876). | ||||
The successor of Schleiermacher in the chair of systematic theology at Berlin, and an orthodox Lutheran in the United Evangelical Church of Prussia. | ||||
From his Dogmatik der evangelisch Lutherischen Kirche, I. 216 (4th ed. Hamburg, 1838). | ||||
After speaking very highly and justly of Melanchthon and John Gerhard, Twesten thus characterizes Calvin's Institutes: - | ||||
Mehr aus einem Gusz, als Melanchthon's Loci, die reife Frucht eines tief religioesen und aecht wissenschaftlichen Geistes, mit groszer Klarheit, Kraft und Schoenheit der Darstellung geschrieben, einfach in der Anlage, reich und gruendlich in der Ausfuehrung, verdient es neben jenen auch in unserer Kirche als eins der vorzueglichsten Werke auf dem Gebiete der dogmatischen Literatur ueberhaupt studirt zu werden. | ||||
Paul Henry. | ||||
Doctor of theology and pastor of a French Reformed Church in Berlin, author of two learned biographies of Calvin: a large one, in 3 vols. (1833-1844), which is chiefly valuable as a collection of documents, and a popular one in 1 vol. | ||||
From Das Leben Johann Calvins (Hamburg and Gotha, 1846), pp. 443 sqq. | ||||
The whole tendency of Calvin was practical; learning was subordinate; the salvation of the world, the truth was to him the main thing. His spiritual tendency was not philosophical, but his dialectical bent ran principles to their utmost consequences. He had an eye to the minutest details. His former study of law had trained him for business.... He was a watchman over the whole Church.... All his theological writings excel in acuteness, dialectics, and warmth of conviction. He had great eloquence at command, but despised the art of rhetoric.... Day and night he was occupied with the work of the Lord. He disliked the daily entreaties of his colleagues to grant himself some rest. He continued to labor through his last sicknesses, and only stopped dictating a week before his death, when his voice gave out.... All sought his counsel; for God endowed him with such a happy spirit of wisdom that no one regretted to have followed his advice. How great was his erudition! How marvellous his judgment! How peculiar his kindness, which came to the aid even of the smallest and lowliest, if necessary, and his meekness and patient forbearance with the imperfections of others! | ||||
Dr. L. Staehelin. | ||||
Johannes Calvin. Leben und ausgewaehlte Schriften. Elberfeld, 1863. Vol. II. pp. 365-393. | ||||
This description of Calvin's character as a man and as a Christian is faithful in praise and censure, but too profuse to be inserted. Dr. Staehelin emphasizes the logic of his intellect and conscience, his firm assurance of eternal election, his constant sense of the nearness of God, the majesty of his character, the predominance of the Old Testament feature, his resemblance to Moses and the Hebrew Prophets, his irritability, anger, and contemptuousness, relieved by genuine humility before God, his faithfulness to friends, his life of unceasing prayer, his absolute disinterestedness and consecration to God. He also quotes the remarkable testimony of Renan, that Calvin was the most Christian man in Christendom. | ||||
Dr. Friedrich Trechsel (1805-1885). | ||||
Die Protestantischen Antitrinitarier. Heidelberg, 1839-1844 (I. 177). | ||||
People have often supposed that they were insulting Calvin's memory by calling him the Pope of Protestantism! He was so, but in the noblest sense of the expression, through the spiritual and moral superiority with which the Lord of the Church had endowed him for its deliverance; through his unwearied, universal zeal for God's honor; through his wise care for the edifying of the kingdom of Christ; in a word, through all which can be comprehended in the idea of the papacy, of truth and honor. | ||||
Ludwig Haeusser (1818-1867). | ||||
Professor of history at Heidelberg. | ||||
The Period of the Reformation, edited by Oncken (1868, 2d ed. 1880), translated by Mrs. Sturge, New York, 1874 (pp. 241 and 244). | ||||
As the German Reformation is connected with Martin Luther, and the Swiss with Ulrich Zwingli, that of the Romanic and Western European nations is connected with John Calvin, the most remarkable personage of the time. He was not equal either to Luther or Zwingli in general talent, mental vigor, or tranquility of soul; but in logical acuteness and talent for organization he was at least equal, if not superior, to either. He settled the basis for the development of many states and churches. He stamped the form of the Reformation in countries to which he was a stranger. The French date the beginnings of their literary development from him, and his influence was not restricted to the sphere of religion, but embraced their intellectual life in general; no one else has so permanently influenced the spirit and form of their written language as he. | ||||
At a time when Europe had no solid results of reform to allow, this little State of Geneva stood up as a great power; year by year it sent forth apostles into the world, who preached its doctrines every where, and it became the most dreaded counterpoise to Rome, when Rome no longer had any bulwark to defend her. The missionaries from this little community displayed the lofty and dauntless spirit which results from stoical education and training; they bore the stamp of a self-renouncing heroism which was elsewhere swallowed up in theological narrowness. They were a race with vigorous bones and sinews, for whom nothing was too daring, and who gave a new direction to Protestantism by causing it to separate itself from the old traditional monarchical authority, and to adopt the gospel of democracy as part of its creed. It formed a weighty counterpoise to the desperate efforts which the ancient Church and monarchical power were making to crush the spirit of the Reformation. | ||||
It was impossible to oppose Caraffa, Philip II., and the Stuarts, with Luther's passive resistance; men were wanted who were ready to wage war to the knife, and such was the Calvinistic school. It every where accepted the challenge; throughout all the conflicts for political and religious liberty, up to the time of the first emigration to America, in France, the Netherlands, England, and Scotland, we recognize the Genevan school. | ||||
Dr. Karl Rudolf Hagenbach (1801-1874). | ||||
Swiss Reformed, of Basel. | ||||
Geschichte des Reformation, 5th ed. edited by Nippold, Leipzig, 1887, p. 605. | ||||
Calvin hatte so zu sagen kein irdisches Vaterland, dessen Freiheit er, wie Zwingli, zu wahren sich bewogen fand. Das himmlische Vaterland, die Stadt Gottes war es, in welche er alle zu sammeln sich berufen sah. Ihm galt nicht Grieehe, nicht Skythe, nicht Franzose, nicht Deutscher, nicht Eidgenosz, sondern einzig und allein die neue Kreatur in Christo. Es waere thoericht, ihm solches zum Vorwurf zu machen. Es ist vielmehr richtig bemerkt worden, wie Calvin, obgleich er nicht die Groesze Genfs als solche gesucht, dennoch dieser Stadt zu einer weltgeschichtlichen Groesze verholfen, die sie ohne ihn niemals erreicht haben wuerde. Aber so viel ist richtig, dasz das Reinmenschliche, das im Familien- und Volksleben seine Wurzel hat, und das durch das Christenthum nicht verdraengt, aber wohl veredelt werden soll, bei Calvin weniger zur Entwickelung kam. Maenner des strengen Gedankens und einer rigiden Gesetzlichkeit werden geneigt sein, Calvin ueber Luther und Zwingli zu erheben. Und er hat auch seine unbestreitbaren Vorzuege. Poetisch angelegte Gemuetsmenschen aber werden anfaenglich Calvin und seiner vom Naturboden losgeloesten, abstrakten Froemmigkeit gegenueber sich eines gewissen Froestelns nicht erwehren koennen und einige Zeit brauchen, bis sie es ueberwunden haben; waehrend sie sich zu dem herzgewinnenden Luther sogleich und auch dann noch hingezogen fuehlen, wenn er schaeumt und vor Zorn uebersprudelt. | ||||
Dr. Is. Dorner (1809-1884). | ||||
Geschichte der Protestantischen Theologie. Muenchen, 1867, pp. 374, 376. | ||||
Calvin was equally great in intellect and character, lovely in social life, full of tender sympathy and faithfulness to friends, yielding and forgiving towards personal offences, but inexorably severe when he saw the honor of God obstinately and malignantly attacked. He combined French fire and practical good sense with German depth and soberness. He moved as freely in the world of ideas as in the business of Church government. He was an architectonic genius in science and practical life, always with an eye to the holiness and majesty of God. (Condensed translation.) | ||||
Dr. Kahnis (Lutheran, 1814-1888). | ||||
Die Lutherische Dogmatik. Leipzig, 1861, vol. II. p. 490 sq. | ||||
The fear of God was the soul of his piety, the rock-like certainty of his election before the foundation of the world was his power, and the doing of the will of God his single aim, which he pursued with trembling and fear.... No other Reformer has so well demonstrated the truth of Christ's word that, in the kingdom of God, dominion is service. No other had such an energy of self-sacrifice, such an irrefragable conscientiousness in the greatest as well as the smallest things, such a disciplined power. This man, whose dying body was only held together by the will flaming from his eyes, had a majesty of character which commanded the veneration of his contemporaries. | ||||
F. W. Kampschulte (1831-1872). | ||||
Catholic Professor of History In the University of Bonn from 1860 to 1872, and author of an able and Impartial work on Calvin, which was Interrupted by his death. Vols. II. and III. were never published. He protested against the Vatican decrees of 1870. | ||||
Johann Calvin. Seine Kirche und sein Staat in Genf. Erster Band, Leipzig, | ||||
1869, p. 274 sq. | ||||
Calvin's Lehrbuch der christlichen Religion ist ohne Frage das hervorragendste und bedeutendste Erzeugniss, welches die reformatorische Literatur des sechszehnten Jahrhunderts auf dem Gebiete der Dogmatik aufzuweisen hat. Schon ein oberflaechlicher Vergleich laesst uns den gewaltigen Fortschritt erkennen, den es gegenueber den bisherigen Leistungen auf diesem Gebiete bezeichnet. Statt der unvollkommenen, nach der einen oder and ern Seite unzulaenglichen Versuche Melanchthon's, Zwingli's, Farel's erhalten wir aus Calvin's Hand das Kunstwerk eines, wenn auch nicht harmonisch in sich abgeschlossenen, so doch wohlgegliederten, durchgebildeten Systems, das in allen seinen Theilen die leitenden Grundgedanken widerspiegelt und von vollstaendiger Beherrschung des Stoffes zeugt. Es hatte eine unverkennbare Berechtigung, wenn man den Verfasser der Institution als den Aristoteles der Reformation bezeichnete. Die ausserordentliche Belesenheit in der biblischen und patristischen Literatur, wie sie schon in den frueheren Ausgaben des Werkes hervortritt, setzt in Erstaunen. Die Methode ist lichtvoll und klar, der Gedankengang streng logisch, ueberall durchsicktig, die Eintheilung und Ordnung des Stoffes dem leitenden Grundgedanken entsprechend; die Darstellung schreitet ernst und gemessen vor und nimmt, obschon in den spaeteren Ausgaben mehr gelehrt als anziehend, mehr auf den Verstand als auf das Gemueth berechnet, doch zuweilen einen hoeheren Schwung an. Calvin's Institution enthaet Abschnitte, die dem Schoensten, was von Pascal und Bossuet geschrieben worden ist, an die Seite gestellt werden koennen: Stellen, wie jene fiber die Erhabenheit der heiligen Schrift, aber das Elend des gefallenen Menschen, ueber die Bedeutung des Gebetes, werden nie verfehlen, ait den Leser einen tiefen Eindruck zu machen. Auch von den katholischen Gegnern Calvin's sind diese Vorzuege anerkannt und manche Abschnitte seines Werkes sogar benutzt worden. Man begreift es vollkommen, wenn er selbst mit dem Gefuehl der Befriedigung und des Stolzes auf sein Werk blickt und in seinen uebrigen Schriften gern auf das 'Lehrbuch' zurueckverweist. | ||||
Und doch beschleicht uns, trotz aller Bewunderung, zu der uns der Verfasser noethigt, bei dem Durchlesen seines Werkes ein unheimliches Gefuehl. Ein System, das von dem furchtbaren Gedanken der doppelten Praedestination ausgeht, welches die Menschen ohne jede Ruecksicht auf das eigene Verhalten in Erwaehlte und Verworfene scheidet und die Einen wie die Anderen zu blossen Werkzeugen zur Verherrlichung der goettlichen Majestaet macht... ein solches System kann unmoeglich dem deukenden, Belehrung und Trost suchenden Menschengeist innere Ruhe und Befriedigung gewaehren. | ||||
Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss. | ||||
Joh. Calvini Opera, vol. I. p. ix. | ||||
The Strassburg editors of Calvin's Works belong to the modern liberal school of theology. | ||||
Si Lutherum virum maximum, si Zwinglium civem Christianum nulli secundum, si Melanthonem praeceptorem doctissimum merito appellaris, Calvinum jure vocaris theologorum principem et antesignanum. In hoc enim quis linguarum et literarum praesidia, quis disciplinarum fere omnium non miretur orbem? De cujus copia doctrinae, rerumque dispositions aptissime concinnata, et argumentorum vi ac validitate in dogmaticis; de ingenii acumine et subtilitate, atque nunc festiva nunc mordaci salsedine in polemicis, de felicissima perspicuitate, sobrietate ac sagacitate in exegeticis, de nervosa eloquentia et libertate in paraeneticis; de prudentia sapientiaque legislatoria in ecclesiis constituendis, ordinandis ac regendis incomparabile, inter omnes viros doctos et de rebus evangelicis libere sentientes jam abunde constat. Imo inter ipsos adversarios romanos nullus hodie est, vel mediocri harum rerum cognitione imbutus vel tantilla judicii praeditus aequitate, qui argumentorum et sententiarum ubertatem, proprietatem verborum sermonemque castigatum, stili denique, tam latini quam gallici, gravitatem et luciditatem non admiretur. Quae cuncta quum in singulis fere scriptis, tum praecipue relucent in immortali illa Institutione religionis Christianae, quae omnes ejusdem generis expositiones inde ab apostolorum temporibus conscriptas, adeoque ipsos Melanthonis Locos theologicos, absque omni controversia longe antecellit atque eruditum et ingenuum lectorem, etiamsi alicubi secus senserit, hodieque quasi vinctum trahit et vel invitum rapit in admirationem. | ||||
Tributes from English Writers (Mostly Episcopal). | ||||
Richard Hooker (1553-1600). | ||||
From his Preface to the Ecclesiastical Polity (Keble's ed. vol. I. p. 158). | ||||
Whom [Calvin], for my own part, I think incomparably the wisest man that ever the French Church did enjoy since the hour it enjoyed him. His bringing up was in the study of the civil law. Divine knowledge he gathered not by hearing or reading so much as by teaching others. For, though thousands were debtors to him, as touching knowledge of this kind, yet he to none, but only to God, the Author of that most blessed fountain, the Book of Life, and of the admirable dexterity of wit, together with the helps of other learning, which were his guides. We should be injurious to virtue itself, if we did derogate from them whom their industry has made great. Two things of principal moment there are, which have deservedly procured him honor throughout the world: the one, his exceeding pains in composing the Institutions of the Christian Religion; the other, his no less industrious travails for exposition of Holy Scripture, according to the same Institutions.... | ||||
Of what account the Master of Sentences [Peter Lombard] was in the Church of Rome; the same and more, among the preachers of Reformed Churches, Calvin had purchased; so that the perfectest divines were judged they which were skilfullest in Calvin's writings; his books almost the very canon to judge both doctrine and discipline by. | ||||
Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626). | ||||
Calvin was an illustrious person, and never to be mentioned without a preface of the highest honor. | ||||
Dr. John Donne (1573-1631). | ||||
Royal Chaplain and Dean of St. Paul's, London; distinguished as a poet and divine. | ||||
St. Augustine, for sharp insight and conclusive judgment in exposition of places of Scripture, which he always makes so liquid and pervious, has scarce been equalled therein by any of all the writers in the Church of God, except Calvin may have that honor, for whom (when it concerns not points of controversy) I see the Jesuits themselves, though they dare not name him, have a high degree of reverence. | ||||
Bishop Hall (1574-1656). | ||||
Works, III. 516. | ||||
Reverend Calvin, whose judgment I so much honor, that I reckon him among the best interpreters of Scripture since the Apostles left the earth. | ||||
Bishop Sanderson (1587-1663). | ||||
When I began to set myself to the study of Divinity as my proper business, Calvin's Institutions were recommended to me, as they generally were to all young scholars in those times, as the best and most perfect system of Divinity, and the fittest to be laid as a groundwork in the study of the profession. And, indeed, my expectation was not at all ill-deemed in the study of those Institutions. | ||||
Richard Baxter (1615-1691). | ||||
I know no man, since the Apostles' days, whom I value and honor more than Calvin, and whose judgment in all things, one with another, I more esteem and come nearer to. | ||||
Bishop Wilson of Calcutta. | ||||
From Sermon preached on the death of the Rev. Basil Wood. | ||||
Calvin's Commentaries remain, after three centuries, unparalleled for force of mind, justness of exposition, and practical views of Christianity. | ||||
Archbishop Lawrence. | ||||
From his Bampton Lectures. | ||||
Calvin was both a wise and a good man, inferior to none of his contemporaries in general ability, and superior to almost all in the art, as well as elegance, of composition, in the perspicuity and arrangement of his ideas, the structure of his periods, and the Latinity of his diction. | ||||
Archdeacon Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855). | ||||
He had, of all Englishmen, the best knowledge and highest appreciation of Luther. | ||||
From his Mission of the Comforter, II. 449. | ||||
Calvin's Commentaries, although they too are almost entirely doctrinal and practical, taking little note of critical and philosophical questions, keep much closer to the text [than Luther's], and make it their one business to bring out the meaning of the words of Scripture with fulness and precision. This they do with the excellence of a master richly endowed with the word of wisdom and with the word of knowledge, and from the exemplary union of a severe masculine understanding with a profound insight into the spiritual depths of the Scriptures, they are especially calculated to be useful in counteracting the erroneous tendencies of an age, when we seem about to be inundated with all that was fantastical and irrational in the exegetical mysticism of the Fathers, and are bid to see divine power in all allegorical cobwebs, and heavenly life in artificial flowers. I do not mean to imply an adoption or approval of all Calvin's views, whether on doctrinal or other questions. But we may happily owe much gratitude and love, and the deepest intellectual obligations, to those whom at the same time we may, deem to be mistaken on certain points. | ||||
Thomas H. Dyer. | ||||
The Life of John Calvin. London, 1850, p. 533 sq. | ||||
That Calvin was in some respects a really great man, and that the eloquent panegyric of his friend and disciple Beza contains much that is true, will hardly be denied. In any circumstances his wonderful abilities and extensive learning would have made him a shining light among the doctors of the Reformation; an accidental, or, as his friends and followers would say, a providential and predestinated visit to Geneva, made him the head of a numerous and powerful sect. Naturally deficient in that courage which forms so prominent a trait in Luther's character, and which prompted him to beard kings and emperors face to face, Calvin arrived at Geneva at a time when the rough and initiatory work of Reform had already been accomplished by his bolder and more active friend Farel. Some peculiar circumstances in the political condition of that place favored the views which he seems to have formed very shortly after his arrival.... | ||||
The preceding narrative has already shown how, from that time to the hour of his death, his care and labor were constantly directed to the consolidation of his power, and to the development of his scheme of ecclesiastical polity. In these objects he was so successful that it may be safely affirmed that none of the Reformers, not even Luther himself, attained to so absolute and extensive an influence. | ||||
Archdeacon Frederic W. Farrar, D. D., F. R. S. | ||||
History of Interpretation. London, 1886, pp. 342-344. | ||||
The greatest exegete and theologian of the Reformation was undoubtedly Calvin. He is not an attractive figure in the history of that great movement. The mass of mankind revolt against the ruthless logical rigidity of his 'horrible decree.' They fling it from their belief with the eternal 'God forbid!' of an inspired natural horror. They dislike the tyranny of theocratic sacerdotalism [?] which be established at Geneva. Nevertheless his Commentaries, almost alone among those of his epoch, are still a living force. They are far more profound than those of Zwingli, more thorough and scientific, if less original and less spiritual, than those of Luther. In spite of his many defects the inequality of his works, his masterful arrogance of tone, his inconsequent and in part retrogressive view of inspiration, the manner in which he explains away every passage which runs counter to his dogmatic prepossessions in spite, too, of his 'hard expressions and injurious declamations' he is one of the greatest interpreters of Scripture who ever lived. He owes that position to a combination of merits. He had a vigorous intellect, a dauntless spirit, a logical mind, a quick insight, a thorough knowledge of the human heart, quickened by rich and strange experience; above all, a manly and glowing sense of the grandeur of the Divine. The neatness, precision, and lucidity of his style, his classic training and wide knowledge, his methodical accuracy of procedure, his manly independence, his avoidance of needless and commonplace homiletics, his deep religious feeling, his careful attention to the entire scope and context of every passage, and the fact that he has commented on almost the whole of the Bible, make him tower above the great majority of those who have written on Holy Scripture. Nothing can furnish a greater contrast to many helpless commentaries, with their congeries of vacillating variorum annotations heaped together in aimless multiplicity, than the terse and decisive notes of the great Genevan theologian.... A characteristic feature of Calvin's exegesis is its abhorrence of hollow orthodoxy. He regarded it as a disgraceful offering to a God of truth. He did not hold the theory of verbal dictation. He will never defend or harmonize what he regards as an oversight or mistake in the Sacred writers. He scorns to support a good cause by bad reasoning.... But the most characteristic and original feature of his Commentaries is his anticipation of modern criticism in his views about the Messianic prophecies. He saw that the words of psalmists and prophets, while they not only admit of but demand 'germinant and springing developments,' were yet primarily applicable to the events and circumstances of their own days. | ||||
Scotch Tributes. ln Scotland, the land of John Knox, who studied at the feet of Calvin, his principles were most highly appreciated and most fully carried out. | ||||
Sir William Hamilton (1788-1856). | ||||
Looking merely to his learning and ability, Calvin was superior to all modern, perhaps to all ancient, divines. Succeeding ages have certainly not exhibited his equal. To find his peer we must ascend at least to Aquinas or Augustine. | ||||
Dr. William Cunningham (1805-1861). | ||||
Principal of the New College and Professor of Church History in Edinburgh. Presbyterian of the Free Church. | ||||
Reformers, and the Theology of the Reformation. Edinburgh, 1866, pp. 292, 294, 299. | ||||