favourable to the reformers, but who seems to have been corrupted by advancement, first to an abbacy and then to a bishopric, and also to have exerted an injurious influence on the mind of the queen of Navarre. But our reformer now wrote more fully on the necessity of standing aloof from superstitions; and, as some of the persons concerned, and whom he esteemed, thought him too severe, he at their request solicited the judgment of Luther, Melancthon, Bucer, and Peter Martyr in addition to his own. In his letter to Melancthon on this occasion, he Jan. writes as if he feared that he might not have the full concurrence of that reformer in his decisions. "I so esteem your judgment (as it is fit I should,) that it would be very painful to me to find myself differing from you. I know that the tenderness of your nature leads you to concede many things to others which you would not allow to yourself: but we must take care not to loose where God binds." He submits to Melancthon the letter in which he applied for Luther's advice, feeling some difficulty in approaching the sturdy Saxon, and desiring that the subject should be introduced to him under favourable circumstances. 2 It does not appear that Luther returned any answer. Of his sen timents however no doubt can be entertained: and, for the other eminent persons consulted, they all with one voice condemned the practice in question, as "fearing and obeying man rather than God."3 Beza tells us that the con1 Beza. Bayle, art. Navarre. 2 Epist. p. 31. Mackenzie, p. 60, gives us the letter to Luther, apparently from a French edition of the Institutes. 3 Their answers, with one from the Pastors of Zuric in 1549, are appended to Calvin's treatise: Op. viii. 434-457. They are also found in the "Consilia" of Melancthon i. A. D. 1545. CHAP. Calvin on Luther, sequence was, that henceforward the name and practice of the " Nicodemites" fell into ill odour in the church. 1 Calvin's approaching Luther so cautiously on the occasion just related, as if he feared that any thing from Switzerland might inflame him, was occasioned by the rumours he had heard of his recent and violent publication, which proved also his last on the subject of the sacraNov. 1544. ment. A previous letter had spoken more distinctly upon this subject, and shewn at the same time the good spirit which the writer cherished in himself and others towards the veteran hero of the reformation. It is addressed to Bullinger, who with the other divines of Zuric was to be considered as more particularly attacked. "I can now hardly ask you," says Calvin, "to hold your peace:... but I wish you all to remember, first, how great a man Luther is; what endowments he possesses; and what fortitude and firmness, what skill and what learning he has employed in routing the powers of antichrist, and in propagating the 627-638. Four Homilies, of the date of 1552, on kindred subjects, follow in Calvin's works, and a refutation of a Dutch man, apparently of the Libertine School, who, on the ground of the entire spirituality of Christians, made no account of their joining in external idolatrous rites. P. 457-499. Beza, ann. 1537 and 1545.-On communicating however with a church in which much imperfection and even corruption was found, Calvin says: "Christians should have such a horror of schism as always to avoid it when they lawfully can.... It is sufficient for us if the fundamentals of Christian doctrine are retained.... Private individuals are not to entangle themselves in scruples" arising from the character or appointment of the officiating minister. "By sacraments we have communion with the church:" and they are not frustrated by the hands of an unworthy minister. Epist. p. 5. (1538.) In the next page he speaks perhaps still more strongly and considers Judas as having unquestionably received the sacrament from the hands of Christ. (1539.) A. D. 1545. true doctrine of salvation. I have often said, that though he should call me a devil I would yet honour him as an illustrious servant of God. It is true however that, as he is distinguished by eminent virtues, so he labours under great faults. Oh that he had studied to restrain that intemperateness which is ever ready to boil over in him! That he had always directed that vehemence, which is inseparable from his nature, against the enemies of the truth, and not sometimes turned it upon the servants of God! That he had bestowed more pains in discovering his own faults! He was naturally too prone to indulge the impulses of his own mind: and flatterers have much injured him by cherishing that propensity. It is our duty however, even in reprehending his faults, to acknowledge his great excellences. I beg therefore of you and your colleagues, in the first place, to remember that he whom you have to encounter is a great and leading servant of Christ, to whom we are all deeply indebted. In the next place consider, that all you will gain by involving yourselves in the controversy will be-to afford matter of triumph to the ungodly, who will make it an occasion of insulting over the gospel still more than over us. When we become mutual accusers of each other, they will be only too ready to believe us both... Dwell upon these considerations, rather than on what the intemperance of Luther may have deserved at your hands. Let us not bite and devour one another, lest we be consumed." -Nothing assuredly can be more wise or more Christian than every part of this passage.-In a subse- June 28, quent letter to Melancthon, after having seen Luther's book, our author writes to this effect: Epist. p. 239. 1 1 1545. CHAP. last publication on the sacrament. "I acknowledge that we owe much to him; nor would I refuse him a high degree of authoand on his rity, if he would only govern himself: though in the church we must always take care not to defer too much to men, be they who they may." For the liberty of the church it was necessary that he should be resisted. His violence was increased by every one's giving way to him.-Calvin would have Melancthon therefore regard this publication as making a call upon him to speak out more than he had done; for he had long considered him as held in bondage upon the subject of the corporal presence and many now anxiously looked up to him for the relief of their doubts respecting it.2 Attempts of the Libertine faction. The years 1546 and 1547 (those of the death of Luther, the first sitting of the council of Trent, and the Smalcaldic war,) were years of alarm and even at Geneva they afforded much work to Calvin in fortifying the minds of the people against the apprehensions excited by the general council, the pope, and the emperor. They were also years of disturbance (Perrin.) from the Libertine faction. Ami Perrin, an early stickler for reformation, but a vain, ambitious, and licentious man, 3 having obtained the office of captain general, thought the opportunity advantageous for breaking through the restraints which Calvin and his coadjutors had imposed. He openly contended for the abrogation of the consistory and ecclesiastical dis 1 Epist. p. 6. 2 Ib. 33. 3 Calvin's name for him in his epistles is "Comicus Cæsar:" which I find translated "Cesar, a comical man! but which I understand to mean a sort of "mock Cesar”a vain aspirant to tread in Cesar's steps. P. 101, he calls him " pauper et famelicus." A. D. 1547. cipline, and for referring all cases exclusively to the senate and the civil courts, where he and his party hoped to find connivance at their excesses. The opposition which Calvin encountered from these persons was, according to Beza, to be traced directly to his maintaining "that the gospel is not a speculative doctrine, but must produce a holy life." And it was so violent that, in obeying the summons he received at different times to attend the council, his life was exposed to some danger, at one time from the swords of the contending parties, at another from persons who would have excited the people to throw him into the Rhone. The council however supported the ecclesiastical constitution which had been adopted, deprived Perrin of his office, and expelled him from the senate; and branded with infamy one of their own body who had accused Calvin as a false teacher at the same time depriving two members of the college of pastors who had prompted the accusation. One principal leader of the Gruet. cabal, James Gruet, even suffered capitally for his infidelity, profligate principles, and turbulent conduct. Though his crimes were not such as would be visited with capital punishment in modern times, as least in a free country, yet all these facts conspire to shew the character of the party with which Calvin had to contend. The following year in some degree revived the spirits of the lawless citizens, and that, as Beza observes, by Satan's device in making men instrumental to this result who were at heart most opposed to it. Farel and Viret visited Geneva, and, in their zeal to heal the divisions and disorders which they found there, 1 Beza. Spon, i. 288-9. Calv. Epist. p. 236, 237. 1547. 1548. |