Calvin at Strasburg
CHAPTER XIX. ae wisdom and kindness of God towards Calvin con-
spicuously appear in his removal. The weak and weary servant of the Lord, worn by incessant conflict with the hard, turbulent spirits of Geneva, needed rest in the atmosphere of kindness. Being earnestly invited to Strasburg by Bucer and Capito he repaired thither, where three years of happy useful labour awaited him.
Strasburg contained many distinguished foreigners, exiles for the Gospel. The French refugees, said to be about 15,000 in number, formed themselves into a congregation, and made him their pastor. Here he laid the foundation for the French Protestant Church. The Town Council also appointed him lecturer on theology, and appropriated the church of the Dominicans to his use. The fame of his lectures spread far and wide and drew students from other countries, and Strasburg rapidly grew as a School of Theology. Here he found more genial temperaments and a more educated class of men than Geneva could at this time furnish.
THE GENEVESE INVITED BY THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS TO RETURN TO HER GRASP.
While Calvin was at Strasburg matters went from bad to worse at Geneva. And the little city being now without a defender of the faith, and by the sophistry of the priesthood, divided against herself, Rome embraced the opportunity as a fitting one to open her arms to tempt Geneva into her iron grasp. One of her most able sons, James Sadoleto, Bishop of Carpentras, who had just received the cardinal’s hat, was selected for the purpose. He was a man of great eloquence, possessing all that plausibility of manner that the present Pope, Leo XIIL., seems to possess.
James Sadoleto, in 1589, penned a letter to the Genevese into which he threw all his powers of eloquence, plausibility, learning, and fascinating sympathy, to assure them of his paternal care, and to invite them back to their mother—the church of Rome. Not a man in Geneva could be found to write a reply. But Calvin having read Sadoleto’s letter in Strasburg ‘‘ forthwith answered it with so much truth and eloquence,” says Beza, ‘that Sadoleto immediately gave up.the whole affair as desperate.”
The pen of the ready writer and elegance of the accomplished scholar are discernible in both these letters. But Calvin having the advantage of being right, displays that openness, frankness, and energy in his vindication of truth which his opponent found it impossible to adopt.
Like an accomplished counsel, who pleads the cause of a guilty client, Sadoleto showed his marvellous ability to pass off the Church of the Inquisitiun as the chaste bride of Christ, but Calvin with equal ability uurobed the MOTHER OF HARLOTS, and exposed the deception of the Cardinal while he did honour to his learning.
MACAULAY’S REASON FOR WISE MEN BEING FOUND IN THE CHURCH OF ROME.
To some persons it may be astonishing that men of such highly cultivated intellects as Sadoleto, Manning, Newman, and others, should be found within the pale of such a palpably corrupt and erroneous system as the Papacy. But the following telling remarks by Lord Macaulay will, no doubt, help to enlighten the minds of such, Referring to men embracing extremely erroneous views, he says, ‘The truth is, that no powers of mind constitute a security against errors of this description. Touching God and His ways with man, the highest human faculties can discover little more than the meanest. In theology, the interval is small indeed between Aristotle and a child—between Archimedes and a naked savage. It is not strange, therefore, that wise men, weary of investigation, tormented by uncertainty, longing to believe something, and yet seeing objections to everything, should submit themselves absolutely to teachers who, with firm and undoubted faith, lay claim to a supernatural commission. Thus we frequently see inquisitive and restless spirits take refuge from their own scepticism in the bosom of a church which pretends to infallibility, and after questioning the existence of a Deity, bring themselves to worship a wafer.” *
We much adwire this apt elucidation of a somewhat mysterious fact.
NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE CONTRASTED.
One of the foregoing wise remarks by Macaulay we must digress a little to notice. He says, ‘‘ Zouching God and His ways with man, the highest human faculties can discover little more than the meanest.” Wewould be the last to
* His. Eng., vol. vi. 29,
98 CALVIN?
undervalue human learning, yet we cannot help noticing how readily fallen man will ascribe the highest meed of praise to any human attainment, and at the same time pour contempt upon that wisdom which cometh from above.
Who would reverence the labouring Christan man in fustian, or the godly rustic at the ploughtail, as he would reverence the learned, though godless linguist, philosopher, astronomer, or the doctor of law, of physic, or of music? Yet much as any of us may admire the cultivated, capacious powers of any human intellect, we cannot help seeing the greatest of such qualifications dwarfed before the humble Christian and his personal knowledge of God. In comparison therewith even Sir Isaac Newton, with all his grand astronomical discoveries, appears but as.an ant at Land’s End, calculating the wonders and wealth of the mighty ocean and discovering the waters to be salt.
The greatest human attainment comes but to the threshold of the works of God, where unfathomable and incomprehensible wonders are ever beyond man’s reach. But the Christian, although of humble station, knows God. He has fellowship with the great Creator, ‘‘ Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure” (Isa. xl. 12). He has a knowledge of God in Christ—which knowledge is life eternal. Viewing thus the admirable works of God, a knowledge of which is the unbeliever’s highest attainment, the Christian is constrained to say:
“The WHOLE CREATION can afford But some faint shadows of my Lord,
Nature to make His beauties known Must mingle colours not her own.”
‘‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and the knowledge of the holy is understanding ” (Prov. ix, 10).
GENEVA REPENTING.
But we must return to notice Geneva repenting that she had banished the Reformer. The letter of Sadoleto did no harm to the Protestant cause. It helped to show the Genevese how much they needed the presence of Calvin, and from that time popular feeling began to rise
MIS LIFE AND TIMES. 99
in his favour. The city registers of 1540 show that, on September 21st, the Council charged Amy Perrin, one of its members, ‘‘to find means if she could to bring back Master Calvin.” ‘Oct. 18th, it was resolved to write to Monsieur Calvin that he would assist us.” Oct. 19th, the Council of Two Hundred resolved, in order that the honour and glory of God may be promoted, to seek all possible means to have ‘‘ Master Calvin as preacher.” Oct. 20th, it was ordered in the General Council, or assembly of the people, ‘‘to.send to Strasburg to fetch Master John Calvin, who is very learned, to be minister in this city.” The enthusiasm of the citizens is thus described by an eyewitness, Jacques Bernard: ‘‘They all cried out, Calvin, Calvin! we wish Calvin, the good and learned man, the true minister of Jesus Christ.”
CALVIN RELUCTANTLY RETURNS TO GENEVA.
Three several deputations did Geneva send to entreat his return, It was a critical moment, not only in Calvin’s ‘history, but in that of Christendom. The thought, he tells us, filled him with horror.
“Who will not pardon me,” he writes, ‘if I do not again willingly throw myself into a whirlpool which I have found so dangerous?” At last, however, he resolved in ' the strength of the Lord to go from all the happy associations of Strasburg and face persecution, or even death itself in Geneva, if the will of the Lord should be so. On September 13th, 1541, Calvin re-entered the gates of Geneva. The pulpit of St. Peter's was prepared for him, a piece of cloth was given him as a gown, and his salary fixed at 500 Geneva florins (about £120 of our day), twelve measures of corn, two casks of wine, and a house to live in. But the Geneva of 1541 was no better than that of 1538.
The Libertines still wished for liberty to practise the grossest immorality, and Calvin had returned with the full purpose of reforming the abuses, first in the Church, and next in the state.
The Political Reformers were then like some who call themselves Reformers in our own day. They were too much disordered in mind to be at liberty, and not
CALVIN: HIS LIFE AND TIMES. 101
sufficiently disordered for the asylum. They made fol0ics their firat principle, and their own numerous wills and fancies the rule of action. This, with them, was /:beral principle, and anything contrary to it was considered as the Inquisition over again. Calvin set the honour of God first, and took Divine revelation (the Bible) as his rule of action.
The honours which accompanied him from Strasburg, and the fresh honours which met him at Geneva’s gate, might help to pave the way a little, but he saw before him a battle - field, a tremendous struggle, and victory or death.
MORAL LAWS INTRODUCED.
When Calvin was invited to return to Geneva, it was agreed by the Senate that a code of moral laws should be introduced. These laws were drawn up by the ministers and appointed members of the Senate in conference, and presented to the Council on September 28th, 1541. After this they were amended and re-modelled and received by the final vote of the people, January 2nd, 1542. These moral laws, be it observed, were not like the laws of the Church of Rome, /oregulate the conscience, but for the general well being of society, and they were twice solemnly and unanimously voted by the people.
“The people could not afterwards allege,” says M. Gaberal, “ that they were deceived as to the bearings of the laws they were sanctioning. For several weeks they could meditate at leisure on them; they knew the value of their decision, and when twice—on November 20th, 1541, and again on January 2nd, 1542, they (about 20,000 of them) came to the Cathedral of St. Péter’s, and after each article, raised their hands in acceptance of it, the vote was an affair of conscience between God and themselves.”
Under this new regulation all went well for a time, and Calvin worked hard to extend the principles of the Reformation throughout Christendom. But after about six years, Popery and Infidelity began again to raise their heads. On December 16th, the Council of Two Hundred met to discuss the measures necessary to be taken to deal with the debauchery and hatred of some of the people. © On this occasion the contention was so hot, and the threats uttered against the pastors, and especially against Calvin, than simply taking a wife. It was a bold protest against the doctrine of the Church of Rome called