§ 92. Calvin’s Marriage and Home Life.
§ 92. Calvin’s Marriage and Home Life.
Calvin’s Letters to Farel and Viret quoted below.
Jules Bonnet: Idelette de Bure, femme de Calvin. In the "Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire du protestantisme français." Quatrième année. Paris, 1856. pp. 636–646.—D. Lenoir, ibid. 1860. p. 26. (A brief note.)
Henry, I. 407 sqq.—Dyer, 99 sqq.—Stähelin, I. 272 sqq.—Merle d’Aubigné, bk. XI. ch. XVII, (vol. VI. 601–608).—Stricker, l.c. 42–50. (Kampschulte is silent on this topic.)
The most important event in Calvin’s private life during his sojourn in Germany was his marriage, which took place early in August, 1540.584 He expresses his views on marriage in his comments on Ephesians 5:28–33. "It is a thing against nature," he remarks, "that any one should not love his wife, for God has ordained marriage in order that two may be made one person—a result which, certainly, no other alliance can bring about. When Moses says that a man shall leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife, he shows that a man ought to prefer marriage to every other union, as being the holiest of all. It reflects our union with Christ, who infuses his very life unto us; for we are flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone. This is a great mystery, the dignity of which cannot be expressed in words."
He himself was in no hurry to get married, and put it off till he was over thirty. He rather boasted that people could not charge him with having assailed Rome, as the Greeks besieged Troy, for the sake of a woman. What led him first to think of it, was the sense of loneliness and the need of proper care, that he might be able the better to serve the Church. He had a housekeeper, with her son, a woman of violent temper who sorely tried his patience. At one time she abused his brother so violently that he left the house, and then she ran away, leaving her son behind. The disturbance made him sick.585
He was often urged by his friend Farel (who himself found no time to think of marrying till his old age), and by Bucer, to take a wife, that he might enjoy the comforts of a well-ordered home. He first mentions the subject in a letter to Farel, from Strassburg, May 19, 1539, in which he says: "I am none of those insane lovers who, when once smitten with the fine figure of a woman, embrace also her faults. This only is the beauty which allures me, if she be chaste, obliging, not fastidious, economical, patient, and careful for my health.586 Therefore, if you think well of it, set out immediately, lest some one else [Bucer?] gets the start of you. But if you think otherwise we will let it pass." It seems Farel could not find a person that combined all these qualities, and the matter was dropped for several months.
In Feb. 6, 1540, Calvin, in a letter to the same friend, touched again upon the subject of matrimony, but only incidentally, as if it were a subordinate matter. After informing him about his trouble with Caroli, his discussion with Hermann, an Anabaptist, the good understanding of Charles V. and Francis I., and the alarm of the Protestant princes of Germany, he goes on to say: "Nevertheless, in the midst of such commotions as these, I am so much at my ease as to have the audacity to think of taking a wife. A certain damsel of noble rank has been proposed to me,587 and with a fortune above my condition. Two considerations deterred me from that connection—because she did not understand our language, and because I feared she might be too mindful of her family and education."588
He sent his brother for another lady, who was highly recommended to him. He expected to get married March 10, and invited Farel to celebrate the wedding. But this project also failed, and he thought of abandoning all further attempts.
At last he married a member of his congregation, Idelette de Bure, the widow of Jean Stordeur (or Storder) of Liège,589 a prominent Anabaptist whom he had converted to the orthodox faith,590 and who had died of the pestilence in the previous February. She was probably the daughter of Lambert de Bure who, with six of his fellow-citizens, had been deprived of his property and banished forever, after having been legally convicted of heresy in 1533.591 She was the mother of several children, poor, and in feeble health. She lived in retirement, devoted to the education of her children, and enjoyed the esteem of her friends for her good qualities of head and heart. Calvin visited her frequently as pastor, and was attracted by her quiet, modest, gentle character. He found in her what he desired—firm faith, devoted love, and domestic helpfulness. He calls her "the excellent companion of my life," "the ever-faithful assistant of my ministry," and a "rare woman."592 Beza speaks of her as "a grave and honorable lady."593
Calvin lived in happy wedlock, but only for nine years. His wife was taken from him at Geneva, after a protracted illness, early in April, 1549. He felt the loss very deeply, and found comfort only in his work. He turned from the coffin to his study table, and resumed the duties of his office with quiet resignation and conscientious fidelity as if nothing had happened. He remained a widower the remaining fifteen years of his life. "My wife, a woman of rare qualities," he wrote, "died a year and a half ago, and I have now willingly chosen to lead a solitary life."
We know much less of Calvin’s domestic life than of Luther’s. He was always reticent concerning himself and his private affairs, while Luther was very frank and demonstrative. In selecting their wives neither of the Reformers had any regard to the charms of beauty and wealth which attract most lovers, nor even to intellectual endowment; they looked only to moral worth and domestic virtue. Luther married at the age of forty-one, Calvin at the age of thirty-one. Luther married a Catholic ex-nun, after having vainly recommended her to his friend Amsdorf, whom she proudly refused, looking to higher distinction. He married her under a sudden impulse, to the consternation of his friends, in the midst of the disturbances of the Peasants’ War, that he might please his father, tease the pope, and vex the devil. Calvin married, like Zwingli, a Protestant widow with several children; he married from esteem rather than affection, after due reflection and the solicitation of friends.
Katherine Luther cut a prominent figure in her husband’s personal history and correspondence, and survived him several years, which she spent in poverty and affliction. Idelette de Bure lived in modest retirement, and died in peace fifteen years before Calvin. Luther submitted as "a willing servant" to the rule of his "Lord Kathe," but he loved her dearly, played with his children in childlike simplicity, addressed to her his last letters, and expressed his estimate of domestic happiness in the beautiful sentence: "The greatest gift of God to man is a pious, kindly, God-fearing, domestic wife."594
Luther’s home life was enlivened and cheered by humor, poetry, and song; Calvin’s was sober, quiet, controlled by the fear of God, and regulated by a sense of duty, but none the less happy. Nothing can be more unjust than the charge that Calvin was cold and unsympathetic.595
His whole correspondence proves the reverse. His letters on the death of his wife to his dearest friends reveal a deep fountain of tenderness and affection. To Farel he wrote, April 2, 1549:—596
"Intelligence of my wife’s death has perhaps reached you before now. I do what I can to keep myself from being overwhelmed with grief. My friends also leave nothing undone that may administer relief to my mental suffering. When your brother left, her life was all but despaired of. When the brethren were assembled on Tuesday, they thought it best that we should join together in prayer. This was done. When Abel, in the name of the rest, exhorted her to faith and patience, she briefly (for she was now greatly worn) stated her frame of mind. I afterwards added an exhortation, which seemed to me appropriate to the occasion. And then, as she had made no allusion to her children, I, fearing that, restrained by modesty, she might be feeling an anxiety concerning them, which would cause her greater suffering than the disease itself, declared in the presence of the brethren, that I should henceforth care for them as if they were my own. She replied, ’I have already committed them to the Lord.’ When I replied, that that was not to hinder me from doing my duty, she immediately answered, ’If the Lord shall care for them, I know they will be commended to you.’ Her magnanimity was so great, that she seemed to have already left the world. About the sixth hour of the day, on which she yielded up her soul to the Lord, our brother Bourgouin addressed some pious words to her, and while he wag doing so, she spoke aloud, so that all saw that her heart was raised far above the world. For these were her words: ’O glorious resurrection! O God of Abraham, and of all our fathers, in thee have the faithful trusted during so many past ages, and none of them have trusted in vain. I also will hope.’ These short sentences were rather ejaculated than distinctly spoken. This did not come from the suggestion of others, but from her own reflections, so that she made it obvious in few words what were her own meditations. I had to go out at six o’clock. Having been removed to another apartment after seven, she immediately began to decline. When she felt her voice suddenly failing her she said: ’Let us pray; let us pray. All pray for me.’ I had now returned. She was unable to speak, and her mind seemed to be troubled. I, having spoken a few words about the love of Christ, the hope of eternal life, concerning our married life, and her departure, engaged in prayer. In full possession of her mind, she both heard the prayer, and attended to it. Before eight she expired, so calmly, that those present could scarcely distinguish between her life and her death. I at present control my sorrow so that my duties may not be interfered with. But in the meanwhile the Lord has sent other trials upon me, Adieu, brother, and very excellent friend. May the Lord Jesus strengthen you by His Spirit; and may He support me also under this heavy affliction, which would certainly have overcome me, had not He, who raises up the prostrate, strengthens the weak, and refreshes the weary, stretched forth His hand from heaven to me. Salute all the brethren and your whole family.
To Viret he wrote a few days later, April 7, 1549, as follows: —
"Although the death of my wife has been exceedingly painful to me, yet I subdue my grief as well as I can. Friends, also, are earnest in their duty to me. It might be wished, indeed, that they could profit me and themselves more; yet one can scarcely say how much I am supported by their attentions. But you know well enough how tender, or rather soft, my mind is. Had not a powerful self-control, therefore, been vouchsafed to me, I could not have borne up so long. And truly mine is no common source of grief. I have been bereaved of the best companion of my life, of one who, had it been so ordered, would not only have been the willing sharer of my exile and poverty, but even of my death.597 During her life she was the faithful helper of my ministry.
"From her I never experienced the slightest hindrance. She was never troublesome to me throughout the entire course of her illness; she was more anxious about her children than about herself. As I feared these private cares might annoy her to no purpose, I took occasion, on the third day before her death to mention that I would not fail in discharging my duty to her children. Taking up the matter immediately, she said, ’I have already committed them to God.’ When I said that that was not to prevent me from caring for them, she replied, ’I know you will not neglect what you know has been committed to God.’ Lately, also, when a certain woman insisted that she should talk with me regarding these matters, I, for the first time, heard her give the following brief answer: ’Assuredly the principal thing is that they live a pious and holy life. My husband is not to be urged to instruct them in religious knowledge and in the fear of God. If they be pious, I am sure he will gladly be a father to them; but if not, they do not deserve that I should ask for aught in their behalf.’ This nobleness of mind will weigh more with me than a hundred recommendations. Many thanks for your friendly consolation.
"Adieu, most excellent and honest brother. May the Lord Jesus watch over and direct yourself and your wife. Present my best wishes to her and to the brethren."
In reply to this letter, Viret wrote to Calvin, April 10, 1549: —
"Wonderfully and incredibly have I been refreshed, not by empty rumors alone, but especially by numerous messengers who have informed me how you, with a heart so broken and lacerated, have attended to all your duties even better than hitherto, ... and that, above all, at a time when grief was so fresh, and on that account all the more severe, might have prostrated your mind. Go on then as you have begun, ... and I pray God most earnestly, that you may be enabled to do so, and that you may receive daily greater comfort and be strengthened more and more."
Calvin’s character shines in the same favorable light at the loss of his only son who died in infancy (1542). He thanked Viret and his wife (he always sends greetings to Viret’s wife and daughter) for their tender sympathy with him in this bereavement, stating that Idelette would write herself also but for her grief. "The Lord," he says, "has dealt us a severe blow in taking from us our infant son; but it is our Father who knows what is best for his children."598 He found compensation for his want of offspring in the multitude of his spiritual children. "God has given me a little son, and taken him away; but I have myriads of children in the whole Christian world."599
Of Calvin’s deep sympathy with his friends in domestic affliction we have a most striking testimony in a private letter which was never intended for publication. It is the best proof of his extraordinary fidelity as a pastor. While he was in attendance at Ratisbon, the pestilence carried away, among other friends, Louis de Richebourg, who together with his older brother, Charles, lived in his house at Strassburg as a student and pensionnaire, under the tutorship of Claude Féray, Calvin’s dearly beloved assistant. On hearing the sad intelligence, early in April, 1541, he wrote to his father—a gentleman from Normandy, probably the lord of the village de Richebourg between Rouen and Beauvais, but otherwise unknown to us—a long letter of condolence and comfort, from which we give the following extracts:600 —
"Ratisbon (Month of April), 1541.
"When I first received the intelligence of the death of Claude and of your son Louis, I was so utterly overpowered (tout esperdu et confus en mon esprit) that for many days I was fit for nothing but to weep; and although I was somehow upheld before the Lord by those aids wherewith He sustains our souls in affliction, yet among men I was almost a nonentity; so far at least as regards my discharge of duty, I appeared to myself quite as unfit for it as if I had been half dead (un homme demi-mort). On the one hand, I was sadly grieved that a most excellent and faithful friend [Claude Féray] had been snatched away from me—a friend with whom I was so familiar, that none could be more closely united than we were; on the other hand, there arose another cause of grief, when I saw the young man, your son, taken away in the very flower of his age, a youth of most excellent promise, whom I loved as a son, because, on his part, he showed that respectful affection toward me as he would to another father.
"To this grievous sorrow was still added the heavy and distressing anxiety we experienced about those whom the Lord had spared to us. I heard that the whole household were scattered here and there. The danger of Malherbe601 caused me very great misery, as well as the cause of it, and warned me also as to the rest. I considered that it could not be otherwise but that my wife must be very much dismayed. Your Charles,602 I assure you, was continually recurring to my thoughts; for in proportion as he was endowed with that goodness of disposition which had always appeared in him towards his brother as well as his preceptor, it never occurred to me to doubt but that he would be steeped in sorrow and soaked in tears. One single consideration somewhat relieved me, that he had my brother along with him, who, I hoped, would prove no small comfort in this calamity; even that, however, I could not reckon upon, when at the same time I recollected that both were in jeopardy, and neither of them were yet beyond the reach of danger. Thus, until the letter arrived which informed me that Malherbe was out of danger, and that Charles and my brother, together with my wife and the others, were safe,603 I would have been all but utterly cast down, unless, as I have already mentioned, my heart was refreshed in prayer and private meditations, which are suggested by His Word ....
"The son whom the Lord had lent you for a season, He has taken away. There is no ground, therefore, for those silly and wicked complaints of foolish men: O blind death! O hard fate! O implacable daughters of Destiny! O cruel fortune! The Lord who had lodged him here for a season, at this stage of his career has called him away. What the Lord has done, we must, at the same time, consider has not been done rashly, nor by chance, neither from having been impelled from without, but by that determinate counsel, whereby He not only foresees, decrees, and executes nothing but what is just and upright in itself, but also nothing but what is good and wholesome for us. Where justice and good judgment reign paramount, there it is impious to remonstrate. When, however, our advantage is bound up with that goodness, how great would be the degree of ingratitude not to acquiesce, with a calm and well-ordered temper of mind, in whatever is the wish of our Father ....
"It is God who has sought back from you your son, whom He had committed to you to be educated, on the condition that he might always be His own. And, therefore, He took him away, because it was both of advantage to him to leave this world, and by this bereavement to humble you, or to make trial of your patience. If you do not understand the advantage of this, without delay, first of all, setting aside every other object of consideration, ask of God that He may show you. Should it be His will to exercise you still farther, by concealing it from you, submit to that will, that you may become wiser than the weakness of thine own understanding can ever attain to.
"In what regards your son, if you bethink yourself how difficult it is, in this most deplorable age to maintain an upright course through life, you will judge him to be blessed, who, before encountering so many coming dangers which already were hovering over him, and to be encountered in his day and generation, was so early delivered from them all. He is like one who has set sail upon a stormy and tempestuous sea, and before he has been carried out into the deeps, gets in safety to the secure haven. Nor, indeed, is long life to be reckoned so great a benefit of God, that we can lose anything, when separated only for the space of a few years, we are introduced to a life which is far better. Now, certainly, because the Lord Himself, who is the Father of us all, had willed that Louis should be put among the children as a son of His adoption, He bestowed this benefit upon you, out of the multitude of His mercies, that you might reap the excellent fruit of your careful education before his death; whence also you might know your interest in the blessings that belonged to you, ’I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed.’
"From his earliest boyhood, so far as his years allowed, Louis was grounded in the best studies, and had already made such a competent proficiency and progress, that we entertained great hope of him for the future. His manners and behavior had met with the approval of all good men. If at any time he fell into error, he not only patiently suffered the word of admonition, but also that of reproof, and proved himself teachable and obedient, and willing to hearken to advice … That, however, which we rate most highly in him was, that he had imbibed so largely the principles of piety, that he had not merely a correct and true understanding of religion, but had also been faithfully imbued with the unfeigned fear and reverence of God.
"This exceeding kindness of God toward your offspring ought with good reason to prevail more effectually with you in soothing the bitterness of death, than death itself have power to inflict grief upon you.
"With reference to my own feelings, if your sons had never come hither at all, I should never have been grieved on account of the death of Claude and Louis. Never, however, shall this most crushing sorrow, which I suffer on account of both, so overcome me, as to reflect with grief upon that day on which they were driven hither by the hand of God to us, rather than led by any settled purpose of their own, when that friendship commenced which has not only continued undiminished to the last, but which, from day to day, was rather increased and confirmed. Whatever, therefore, may have been the kind or model of education they were in search of, I rejoice that they lived under the same roof with me. And since it was appointed them to die, I rejoice also that they died under my roof, where they rendered back their souls to God more composedly, and in greater circumstances of quiet, than if they had happened to die in those places where they would have experienced greater annoyance from the importunity of those by whom they ought to have been assisted, than from death itself. On the contrary, it was in the midst of pious exhortations, and while calling upon the name of the Lord, that these sainted spirits fled from the communion of their brethren here to the bosom of Christ. Nor would I desire now to be free from all sorrow at the cost of never having known them. Their memory will ever be sacred to me to the end of my days, and I am persuaded that it will also be sweet and comforting.
"But what advantage, you will say, is it to me to have had a son of so much promise, since he has been torn away from me in the first flower of his youth? As if, forsooth, Christ had not merited, by His death, the supreme dominion over the living and the dead! And if we belong to Him (as we ought), why may He not exercise over us the power of life and of death? However brief, therefore, either in your opinion or in mine, the life of your son may have been, it ought to satisfy us that he has finished the course which the Lord had marked out for him.
"Moreover, we may not reckon him to have perished in the flower of his age, who had grown ripe in the sight of the Lord. For I consider all to have arrived at maturity who are summoned away by death; unless, perhaps, one would contend with Him, as if He can snatch away any one before his time. This, indeed, holds true of every one; but in regard to Louis, it is yet more certain on another and more peculiar ground. For he had arrived at that age, when, by true evidences, he could prove himself a member of the body of Christ: having put forth this fruit, he was taken from us and transplanted. Yes, instead of this transient and vanishing shadow of life, he has regained the real immortality of being.
"Nor can you consider yourself to have lost him, whom you will recover in the blessed resurrection in the kingdom of God. For they had both so lived and so died, that I cannot doubt but they are now with the Lord. Let us, therefore, press forward toward this goal which they have reached. There can be no doubt but that Christ will bind together both them and us in the same inseparable society, in that incomparable participation of His own glory. Beware, therefore, that you do not lament your son as lost, whom you acknowledge to be preserved by the Lord, that he may remain yours forever, who, at the pleasure of His own will, lent him to you only for a season ....
"Neither do I insist upon your laying aside all grief. Nor, in the school of Christ, do we learn any such philosophy as requires us to put off that common humanity with which God has endowed us, that, being men, we should be tamed into stones.604 These considerations reach only so far as this, that you do set bounds, and, as it were, temper even your most reasonable sadness, that, having shed those tears which were due to nature and to fatherly affection, you by no means give way to senseless wailing. Nor do I by any means interfere because I am distrustful of your prudence, firmness, or high-mindedness; but only lest I might here be wanting, and come short in my duty to you.
"Moreover, I have requested Melanchthon and Bucer that they would also add their letters to mine, because I entertained the hope that it would not be unacceptable that they too should afford some evidence of their good-will toward you.
"Adieu, most distinguished sir, and my much-respected in the Lord. May Christ the Lord keep you and your family, and direct you all with His own Spirit, until you may arrive where Louis and Claude have gone before."
Or Strasbourg in French. Argentoratum was a Roman military station in the time of Augustus.
See vol. VI. 571 and 718.
"C’était le réceptacle des bannis de la France." Hist. de la naissance de l’herésie, p. 838.
It will take some time before the irritating question of language and nationality can be settled. When last in Strassburg, I asked, first, a shopkeeper whether the people speak more French or German, and received the prompt and emphatic answer: "On parle toujours français àStrasbourg." The next person, in answer to the same question, replied: "Man spricht mehr deutsch." At last, a market-woman told the truth: "Man spricht dietsch." The Alsatian dialect prevails at home, the French in society, the high German in the university, among the government officials and soldiers.
Not at the end of September, as Stähelin has it. See Stricker, p. 11, note, where he shows that Calvin preached his first sermon at Strassburg on the 8th of September.
July 30, 1539. Some historians err in stating that the citizenship was presented to him. See Stricker, 44, and Annal. XXI. fol. 250: "Uff den 30 tag Julij Anno 39 ist Johannes Calvinus uff unser Herren der statt Straszburg Saal erschinnen, und sich angeben lut der Ordnung und will dienen mit den schnydern."
Herminjard, V. 286 sq.; Opera, X., Pars II. 337.
"Cum innumeros aliquando amicos in Gallia habuerim, nemo fuit qui assent mihi obtulerit; et tamen si fecissent, poterant frui gratuita beneficentiae jactantia: nihil enim illis constitisset offerre quod acceptassem. Exciderat mihi Ludovicus [Du Tillet]; ille unus fuit qui obtulit; sed ipse quoque suam largitionem nimis magno venditabat: siquidem me tantum non ad recantandum hortabatur." Herminjard, V. 291 sq. See the letter of Du Tillet from Paris, Oct. 20, 1538, in which he offers him to furnish "assez àtoute vostre necessité" (ibid. p. 107).
May 1, 1539: "Joannes Calvinus so ein gelährter frommer Gesell sein soll und zu Zeiten auch in Theologia lese, zudem auch zu den Reuwern französisch predige, haben die Herren ... ist beschlossen dasz man demselben nuhn fürter ein Jar lang die 52 fl. alsz ein zuhelffer geben und soll prima Maij angehen." From the Thomas-Archiv, in Annal. fol. 246.
"Decem coronatos." Libertet (Christophe Fabri) to Farel, May 8, 1539, in Herminjard, V. 307.
"It is very agreeable to me," he wrote to Farel, who had communicated to his colleagues Calvin’s wants, "I confess, that my brethren entertain such a regard for me, that they are ready to supply my wants from their own means. It could not be otherwise than that I must be greatly delighted with such a testimony of their love (quin tali amoris testimonio delecter). Nevertheless, I have determined to abstain from putting both your kindness and theirs in requisition, unless a greater necessity shall compel me. Wendelin [Wendelin Rihel], the printer, to whom I intrusted my book [the second edition of the Institutio] to be printed, will provide me with as much as will be sufficient for any extraordinary expenses. From my books which yet remain at Geneva, there will be enough to satisfy my landlord till next winter. As to the future, the Lord will provide." (Herminjard, l.c.)
A census of Strassburg, taken Oct. 18, 1563, enumerates one hundred Frenchmen who were citizens, thirty-five who were not citizens, and sixteen soldiers (in all 161 men), without including wives, children, and servants. From this Stricker (p. 6) infers that the foreign population numbered four hundred souls. Doumergue (l.c. p. 3) counts from five hundred to six hundred. Specklin (1536-1589), the author of a chronicle of Strassburg (edited by Rud. Reuss, Strassb. 1890), gives a much larger number, namely, fifteen hundred; but he is not very accurate, and must be corrected by the official census.
"Ecclesiola Gallicana," as Calvin calls it.
Afterwards he preached in the Klosterkirche der Reuerinnen, now called the Magdalenen Kirche.
Calvin to Farel, in Herminjard, V. 291.
Kampschulte, I. 324, thus sums up Calvin’s pastoral labors in Strassburg: Strassburg hatte in Kurzem eine blühende wohlgeordnete französische Flüchtlingsgemeinde mit Predigt und Bibelstunden, mit regelmässiger Abendmahlsfeier und Psalmengesang, insbesondere aber mit einer strenge gehandhabten Disciplin, und nicht ohne Staunen erzählten die deutschen Pastoren bald einander von den Einrichtungen und dem merkwürdigen Eifer der neuen Emigrantenkirche in Strassburg."
Stricker, pp. 11, 12, 64; Erichson, p. 65; Doumergue, p. 4; Calvin’s letter to Bullinger, Sept. 12, 1563 (Opera, X. 151). Under the French rule the Reformed Church was reorganized in Strassburg.
Republished by Baum at Strassburg, 1859. Douen, l.c. I. 346.
In a letter to Gaspard Megander, an influential minister at Bern (probably from Feb. 20, 1537), Calvin writes: "Libellum tuum ceremonialem a Mauro [Maurus Musaeus, Morelet de Museau], rogatu nostro, versum, cum nostro contulimus, a quo nihil penitus nisi brevitate differt." Herminjard (vol. IV. 191) adds the following note: "La liturgie usitée dans l’église genevoise était, selon toutes les vraisemblances, celle de Farel, publiée àNeuchâtel, le 29 août 1533, sous le titre suivant: ’La Manière et Fasson qu’on tient en baillant le sainct baptesme ... ès lieux que Dieu de sa grâce a visites.’ Nous avons constatéque la liturgie bernoise offre les plus grands rapports avec ’La Manière et Fasson,’ et qu’elle en diffère seulement par la brièveté."
"Nostre aide soit au nom de Dieu, qui a faict le Ciel et la terre. Amen." Opera, VI. 173.
This confession is still in use and may be favorably compared with the confession in the Anglican liturgy. It is as follows (in modern spelling):—
"Mes frères, qu’un chacun de nous se présente devant la face du Seigneur, avec confession de ses fautes et péchés, suivant de son coeur mea paroles.
"Seigneur Dieu, Père éternal et tout-puissant, nous confessons [et reconnaissons] sans feintise, devant ta Sainte Majesté, que nous sommes pauvres pécheurs, conçus et nés en iniquitéet corruption, enclins àmal faire, inutiles àtout bien, et que par notre vice, nous transgressons sans fin et sans cesse tes saints commandements. En quoi faisant, nous acquérons, par ton juste jugement, ruine et perdition sur nous.
"Toutefois, Seigneur, nous avons déplaisir en nous-mêmes, de t’avoir offensé, et condamnons nous et nos vices, avec vraie repentance, désirant que to grâce [et aide] subviennent ànotre calamité.
"Veuille donc avoir pitiéde nous, Dieu et Père très bénin, et plein de miséricorde, au nom de ton Fils Jésus-Christ, notre Seigneur; effaçant donc nos vices et macules, élargis nous et augmente de jour en jour les grâces de ton Saint-Esprit, afin que, reconnaissant de tout notre coeur notre injustice, nous soyons touches de déplaisir, qui engendre droite pénitence en nous: laquelle nous mortifiant àtous péchés produise en nous fruits de justice et innocence qui te soient agréables par ice-lui Jesus-Christ. Amen."
After this confession the Strassburg Liturgy adds a form of absolution, which was afterwards omitted:—
"Ici, dit le ministre quelques paroles de l’Écriture pour consoler les consciences, et fait l’absolution en cette manière:
"Un chacunde vous se reconnaisse vraiment pécheur, s’humiliant devant Dieu, et croie que le Pare céleste lui veut étre propice en Jésus-Christ. A tous ceux qui, en cette manière se repentent, et cherchent Jésus-Christ pour leur salut, je dénonce l’absolution au nom du Père, du Fils, et du Saint-Esprit. Amen."
In this respect Calvin followed the example of the Lutheran churches. Gérard Roussel, who was one of the earliest refugees at Strassburg, reported to Briçonnet, bishop of Meaux, that the singing of Psalms, translated from the Hebrew, was there a prominent feature of worship, and that "le chant des femmes, se mêlant àcelui des hommes, produit un effet ravissant." Herminjard, I. 404-408. In another letter, he speaks also of the congregational chanting of the Apostles’ Creed and the Kyrie Eleison at the communion. Ibid. I. 411-413. Doumergue, pp. 8, 9.
An interesting description of the Reformed worship at Strassburg, by a French student in 1545, was first published in 1885 by Erichson, p. 7, and is given by Doumergue, l.c. p. 15 sq. He speaks of daily preaching and chanting of Psalms by the whole congregation ("tant homine que femme avec un bel accord") from a tune book (un livre de musique), which each member had in his hand.
He says, Instit. IV. ch. XV. Par. 19: "Whether the person who is baptized be wholly immersed, and whether thrice or once, or whether water be only poured or sprinkled upon him, is of no importance; churches ought to be left at liberty in this respect, to act according to the difference of countries. The very word baptize, however, signifies to immerse; and it is certain that immersion was the practice of the ancient Church."
The same Psalm furnished the key-note to Luther’s immortal hymn, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott." Calvin’s version begins:—
" Nostre Dieu est ferme appuy,
Vertue, fortresse et seur confort,
Auquel aurons en notre ennuy,
Présent réfuge et très bon port."
They were printed at Strassburg, 1539, and republished, together with an original hymn (Salutation à Jesus-Christ), from an edition of 1545, in Opera, VI. 212-224.
Herminjard, I. 407; also Farel in a letter of June 4, 1526, to Myconius, ibid. 433 sq. On the schools in Strassburg see Roehrich, Geschichte der Reformation im Elsass, I. 253, 261-264; A. G. Strobel, Histoire du Gymnase protestant de Strasbourg, Strasb. 1838; Charles Schmidt, La vie et les travaux de Jean Sturm, Strasb. 1855 (quoted by Herminjard); and R. Zöpffel, Johann Sturm, der erste Rektor der Strassburger Akademie, Strassburg, 1887.
Pedrotus (Padrut), whose name often occurs in Calvin’s letters, was a native of Pludenz in Vorarlberg, and famous as editor and expounder of ancient classics, hence also called Jacobus Graecus. Capito recommended him very highly in a letter to Blaarer, Nov. 26, 1625, in Herminjard, I. 440, note 16. He died of the pestilence at Strassburg, 1541.
Calvin to Farel, January, 1539 (Herminjard, V. 230): "Nuper ad publicam professionem invitus a Capitone protractus sum. Ita quotidie aut lego aut concionor." He preached four times, and lectured three times. The salary of 52 guilders for one year was to commence the first of May. It is mentioned in Annal. 246, by Herminjard, V. 231, note 19, and by Stricker, 22.
He defeated him again at Worms in the presence of Melanchthon. Jacob Sturm, Antipappi, as quoted in Herminjard, VII. 20, note 6.
"Ter desertor, ter transfuga, ter proditor utriusque partes," he is called by Calvin. See on this unimportant episode Stricker, pp. 30-39.
Calvin’s letter to Martin Schalling, a minister at Regensburg, March, 1557, in Opera, XVI. 430: "Nec vero Augustanam Confessionem repudio, cui pridem volens ac libens subscripsi sicut eam autor ipse interpretatus est." His colleagues, Bucer and Capito, understood the Augsburg Confession in the same irenic spirit.
Herminjard, VII, 198 sqq.; Opera, XI. 62 sqq.
Herminjard, VII. 126-128; Opera, XI. Ep. 311, p. 220. Comp. Epp. 302, 307, 309. Calvin was not satisfied with the success."Quantum ad fratres attinet," he wrote to Farel (July 6, 1541), "qui ob evangelium laborant, non feci quod volui." Melanchthon incurred the displeasure of the emperor for favoring the French Protestants. Herminjard, VII. 179, note 16.
"Nihil hic novi audimus, nisi quod Rex et Caesar, certatim in pios saeviendo, idolum Romanum sibi demereri student." Herminjard, VI. 316, comp. note 8.
Beza (Opera, vol. XXI. 130): "Calvinus ... Domino Philippo Melanchthoni et Gaspari Crucigero beatae memoriae imprimis gratus, adeo ut eum ille saepe ’Theologum’ cognominaverit, hic vero privatum de coena cum eo colloquium habuerit eiusque cognitam sententiam diserte comprobarit." The Report of the Strassburger Kirchenordnung, II. 140, as quoted by Stricker (p. 28, note), says: "Auff welchem Colloquio auch Philippus [Melanchthon], Cruciger und andere furneme Theologi Kundtschafft mit Calvino gemacht, dass sie ihn, per Excellentiam, ’den Theologum’ genannt." Papire Masson (in Vita Calv., as quoted by Herminjard, VII. 26): "Wormatiam missus a civibus excercuit excellentis ingenii vires tanto applausu theologorum Germania, ut judicio Melanchthonis et reliquorum si ngulari privilegio Theologicognomen adeptus sit." A theologian in that eminently theological age meant a great deal more than a doctor of divinity nowadays.
Epinicion ad Christum, in Opera, V. 423-428. Dyer (p. 106), Kampschulte (I. 333), Henry (I. ch. XVIII), and even Merle d’Aubigné (VII. 23), were mistaken in calling this Song of Victory the only poem of Calvin (I. 333). He wrote also metrical versions of a number of Psalms, and a lyric hymn to Christ. See Opera, VI. 212-224.
As he says himself in the concluding lines:—
"Quod natura negat, studii pius efficit ardor,
Ut coner laudes, Christe, sonare tuas."
He gave the manuscript to a few friends, but did not permit it to be printed till the court of Toulouse, four years afterwards, put the poem in the list of forbidden books, and caused many inquiries after it. Otherwise he would have allowed it to be forgotten. See his preface in Opera, V. 422.
"Invitissimus," he wrote to Farel (Feb. 19, 1541, in Herminjard, VII. 26), "Ratisponam trahor: tum quia ipsam profectionem mihi molestissimam prospicio fore: tum quod valde timeo ne diuturna mora futura sit, ut solent saepe numero comitia ad decimum mensem producere: tum quod minime idoneus mihi ad tales actiones videor, quidquid alii judicent. Sed Deum sequar, qui novit cur mihi hanc necessitatem imponat."
See his judgment of these persons in the letter to Farel, April 24, 1541, in Herminjard, VII. 89. Of Eck he says: "Nemini dubium est quin Davus ille [referring to the impudent slave in the ancient drama] sua importunitate sit omnia turbaturus." In a letter of May 12 he reports that Eck was struck by apoplexy (May 10), but recovered, adding: "Nondum meretur mundus ista bestia liberari." (Herminjard, VII. 116 sq.) Eck died Feb. 16, 1543. Franz Burckhard, the Saxon Chancellor, gave, in a letter to Pontanus, April 22, 1541, a similar estimate of Pflug, Gropper, and Eck, and calls the last an "ebrius sophista, qui pluris facit Bacchum quam ullam religionem " (Mel. Epist. IV. 185). Mosellanus described Eck, as he appeared at the disputation in Leipzig, as "a big-bodied, broad-shouldered, stout-hearted, and impudent man, who looked more like a town-crier than a theologian." Melanchthon thought that "no pious person could listen without disgust to the sophisms and vain subtleties of that talking mountebank."
Calvin to Farel. May 11, 1541, in Herminjard, VII. 111 sq.
Herminjard, VII. 115.
These formulas are printed in Melanchthon’s Epistolae, IV. 262-264.
Or, in-breaded God, impanatus Deus.
The leading Lutheran divine of Württemberg, who attended the Colloquy.
The popular wit described the failure of the Colloquy in the line: "Sie pflügen (Pflug, Plough), eggen (Eck), graben (Grobber), putzen (Bucer or Butzer), und backen (Pistorius, whose German name was Becker), und richten nichts aus." Corp. Reform. IV. 335.
Calvin wrote to Viret from Strassburg, Aug. 13, 1541 (Herminjard, VII. 218) "Finis comitiorum talis fuit qualem ego fore semper divinavi. Tota enim pacificationis actio in fumum abiit, cum ad concilium universale rejecta est, vel saltem nationale, si illud brevi obtineri nequeat. Quid enim hoc aliud est quam frustrari?"
Letter to Farel from Strassburg, early in July, 1541, in Herminjard, VII. 176. He gives in this letter an account of the later disputes at Regensburg on confession and absolution, the invocation of saints, and the primacy of the pope.
Herminjard, VII. 65 sqq.; Opera, XI. 174 sqq.
"Mihi dies ac noctes animo obversatur uxor, consilii inops, quia capite suo caret.’
See below, Par. 92, p. 421.
In a letter to Bucer, Oct. 14, 1539: "Salutabis Dn. Joannem Sturmium et Joannem Calvinum reverenter, quorum libellos cum singulari voluptate legi. Sadoleto optarem ut crederet Deum esse creatorem hominum extra Italiam." De Wette, V. 211; and Herminjard, VI. 73 (comp. note 6). Calvin refers to this compliment in a letter to Farel, Nov. 20, 1539 (in Herminjard, VI. 130). He also quotes, from a lost letter of Melanchthon, the words: "Lutherus et Pomeranus [Bugenhagen] Calvinum et Sturmium jusserunt salutari. Calvinus magnam gratiam iniit." (Ibid. p. 131.) Luther is reported to have expressed also a favorable judgment on Calvin’s tract on the Lord’s Supper, published at Strassburg, 1541, in French. See vol. VI. 660.
In a letter of 11 Cal. Maii, 1544 (Opera, XI. 698), he addresses him as "ornatissime vir, fidelissime Christi minister, et amice mihi semper honorande. Dominus te semper spiritu suo regat, diuque nobis et ecclesiae suae incolumem conservet."
On these changes see the biographies of Melanchthon by Galle, Carl Schmidt, and Herrlinger; Gieseler’s Church History; and Schaff’s Creeds of Christendom, I. 261 sqq.
Merle d’Aubigné (VII. 19) thinks that "esteem was uppermost in Melanchthon, and affection in Calvin;" that "on the one side the friendship was founded more on reflection (réfléchi), on the other it was more spontaneous;" but "on both sides it was the product of their noble and beautiful qualities."
Calvin wrote to Farel, after his return to Strassburg, at the end of March, 1539: "Cum Philippo fuit mihi multis de rebus colloquium."
"Sine controversia ipse assentitur." Calvin adds: "de ipso (Mel.) nihil dubita, quin penitus nobiscum sentiat." Herminjard, V. 269. In a previous letter to Farel, October, 1538 (in Herminjard, V. 146 and note 24), he informed Farel that he had sent twelve articles of agreement with a letter to Melanchthon from Strassburg. The articles are lost, but may yet be recovered.
"Sed fatetur, esse in illa parte nonnullos qui crassius aliquid requirant: atque id tanta pervicacia, ne dicam tyrannide, ut diu in periculo fuerit, quod eum videbant a suo sensu nonnihil alienum." Herminjard, V. 269. Those men who outluthered Luther, were not satisfied with the words of institution, simpliciter, but demanded such scholastic terms as substantialiter, essentialiter, corporaliter, quantitative, ubiquitaliter, carnaliter. When Matthaeus Zell, preacher in the Minster at Strassburg, told Melanchthon (in 1536) that he abhorred these terms as diabolical additions, Melanchthon assented. See Roehrich Mittheilungen aus der Geschichte der evang. Kirche des Elsasses, III. 133, as quoted by Stähelin, I. 169.
Letter to Farel, April, 1539 (Herminjard, V. 292): "Nuper Philippo in faciem non dissimulavi, quin mihi admodum illa ceremoniarum copia displiceret. Videri enim mihi formam quam tenent non procul esse a Judaismo."
In Calvin’s Opera there are fourteen letters of his to Melanchthon.
Letters of John Calvin by Dr. Jules Bonnet, translated from the original Latin and French by Constable, vol. I. 349. In Calvin’s Opera, XI. 515. The original copy is in Simler’s Collection in the City Library of Zürich.
"Hoc saltem nobis nullo regionum longinquitas eripiet, quin hac conjunctione, quam Christus sanguine suo consecratam Spiritu quoque suo in cordibus nostris sanxit, contenti, dum vivimus in terra sustineamur beato illa spe, ad quam nos literae tum revocant:in coelis nos simul perpetuo victuros, ubi amore amicitiaque nostra fruemur."
"Defensio sanae et orthodoxae doctrina de servitute et liberations humani arbitrii adversus calumnias Alberti Pighii Campensis. Opera, VI. 225-404.
Melanchthon’s Commentary on Daniel appeared in the same year at Wittenberg and Leipzig.
Opera, vol. XI. 539-542. Also in Corp. Reform. V. 107.
This is a direct contradiction to the assertion in the first edition of his Loci (1521), and his commentary on the Romans (1524), that God does all things not permissive, but potenter, and that he foreordained and wrought the adultery of David, and the treason of Judas, as well as the vocation of Paul. He so understood the Epistle to the Romans. In December, 1525, Luther expressed the same views in his book against Erasmus, which he never recalled, but pronounced one of his best books (1537).
"Ad usum accommodata."
Mel. Opera, in the Corpus Reformatorum, VII. 390.
Opera, XV. 215-217. Dated 6 Calendas Septembris.
The preface is reprinted in his Opera, vol. IX. 847-850.
Henry justly remarks (I. 376): "So free were these rare men of ambition, love of glory, and littleness of spirit, that they thought of nothing but the salvation of the world. Calvin wanted France to love Melanchthon as much as he did, and to be converted to Christ through him." Comp. Stähelin, I. 244.
His "Short Confession on the Lord’s Supper." See this History, vol. VI. 654 sqq.
Bonnet-Constable, I. 442-444; Opera, XII. 98-100.
Claude de Senarcleus, a friend of Calvin, returned from Wittenberg with an album full of pious inscriptions of leading Lutheran divines, which is preserved in the Town Library of Geneva. Bonnet, l.c. I. 444.
Opera, XIII. 593 sqq.
The zealous Lutherans at Magdeburg which stood out a long siege by the army of the Elector Maurice.
Opera, XIV. 368; Corp. Ref., VII. 1085.
"Quia et judicium tuum magni facio,et scio integritatem animi et candorem in te summum esse."
w}sper o[no" ejn sfhkivai".
Bonnet-Constable, II. Opera, XIV. 416-418.
Nowadays a letter from Wittenberg will reach Geneva in less than two days.
See below, § 139, pp. 706 sqq.
Opera, XVI. 556-558.
Opera, XVII. 384-386.
Opera, IX. 461.
"In Romanae illius meretricis gremium," a frequent polemical designation of the Roman Church, derived from a misinterpretation of the apocalyptic harlot which means heathen Rome (Rev. 17:5).
In the following extracts I make use of the translation of Henry Beveridge, with a few slight changes.
See vol. VI, 659. Kampschulte’s impartial judgment on the Answer to Sadolet is worth quoting (I. 354): "Es ist in Wahrheit eine der glänzendsten Streitschriften, die je aus seiner Feder geflossen, und auch wer seine Anschauungen nicht theilt, wird ihm in diesem Streite die Palme zuerkennen müssen …. Er entwickelt in der Vortheidigung des neuen Glaubenssystems eine Kraft der Rede, eine Gewandtheit der Beweisführung und eine Fülle der Gedanken, welche die rhetorischen, sentimentalen, oft auch inhaltsarmen Phrasen des Gegners um so mehr in ihrer Schwäche zeigen. Den Glanzpunkt der Schrift Calvin’s bildet aber vielleicht seine eigene Vertheidigung. Mit Recht durfte er den versteckten Angriffen des Cardinals gegenüber auf sein vergangenes Leben hinweisen, um den Beweis zu liefern, dass nicht die Aussicht auf irdischen Gewinn oder äussere Ehren, sondern seine ernste Ueberzeugung seine Schritte geleitet, dass er erst nach schweren Kämpfen von der katholischen Kirche sich losgesagt. Diese Schrift war es, welche auch Luther’s Herz für den wälschen Rivalen erwärmte. Damals konnte Melanchthon nach Strassburg melden, dass Calvin in Wittenberg ’hoch in Gnaden stehe.’ "
584 The precise day is not known. Before Aug. 17 he was a married man, and received congratulations and greetings to his wife from Libertet (Opera, XI. Ep. 234, fol. 77). Merle d’Aubigné wrongly puts his marriage at the end of August; Bonnet and Stähelin, in September.
585 He tells the story to Farel, September, 1540, shortly after his marriage. Opera, XI. Ep. 238 (fol. 83 sq.), and Herminjard, VI. 313.
586 "Haec sola est quae me illectat pulchritudo, si pudica est, si morigera, si non fastuosa, si parca, si patiens, si spes est de mea valetudine fore solicitam." Herminjard, V. 314.
587 Probably by Bucer. She was of a patrician family of Strassburg, and her brother a great admirer of Calvin and anxious for the match.
588 Herminjard, VI. 167 sq. It seems that the lady had no disposition to learn French, and asked time for consideration.
589 Not of "une petite ville de la Gueldre," as Bonnet states (l.c., p. 639). Beza calls him "Storder Leodinensis."
590 Florimond de Raemond: "Calvin épousa la veuve de Jean Lestordeur, natif de Liège, de religion anabaptiste; il l’a changée àson opinion: elle était appelée Idelette de Bure."
591 According to Lenoir of Liège, in "Bulletin," etc., 1860, p. 26.
592 "Optima socio vitae;" "fida ministerii me iadjutrix" (letter to Viret, April 7, 1549); "singularis exempli femina," etc.
593 Vita Calv. (Opera, XXI. 130): "Viduam Idelletam nomine, gravem honestamque feminam, Calvinus ex Buceri consilio uxorem duxit."
594 "Die Welt hat nach Gottes Wort keinen lieblicheren Schatz auf Erden, denn den heiligen Ehestand. Gottes höchste Gabe ist ein fromm, freundlich, gottesfürchtig und häuslich Gemahl haben, mit der du friedlich lebest, der du darfst alle dein Gut, ja dein Leib und Leben vertrauen, mit der du Kinderlein zeugest." See Köstlin, Luther’s Leben, p. 578, and Schaff, History of the Chr. Church, VI. §§ 77 and 78, pp. 454 sqq.
595 "Calvin," says J. Bonnet, in his sketch of Idelette de Bure (l.c., p. 637) "fut grand sans cesser d’être bon; il unit les qualités du coeur aux dons du génie; il ressentit et il inspira les plus pures amitiés; il connut, enfin, les félicita domestiques dans une union trop courte, dont le mystère, àdemi révélépar sa correspondance, répand un jour mélancolique et doux sur sa vie."—"There was in Calvin," says Merle d’Aubigné (VI. 602) "a lofty intellect, a sublime genius, but also that love of kindred, those affections of the heart, which complete the great man."
596 Opera, Ep. 1171 (fol. 228). The letter is wrongly dated April 11 by Henry and Bonnet (II. 203), who mistook 11 for Roman figures.
597 Quae si quid accidisset durius, non exilii tantum ac inopiae voluntaria comes, sed mortis quoque futura erat." Opera, VIII. Ep. 1173 (fol. 230).
598 Aug. 19, 1542, at the close. Opera, XI. 430.
599 "Dederat mihi Deus filiolum, abstulit; hoc quoque recenset [Balduin or Baudouin, a jurisconsult] inter probra liberis me carere. Atqui mihi filiorum sunt myriades in toto orbe Christiano." (Responsio ad Balduini Convitia, Geneva, 1561.) Roman writers speak of the sterility of his marriage as a reproach and judgment. Audin corrects them, but adds (ch. XIX.) that Calvin "shed no tears" over the loss of his son, and that "God did not permit him to become a father a second time!" Bonnet asserts (l.c. 643) that Calvin had two other children, a daughter and a son, who died likewise in infancy, and refers to a letter of Calvin to Viret of 1544; but this is a mistake, for Calvin, long after the death of his wife, speaks only of one infant son (filiolus), and Colladon, in his biography, says (Opera, XXI. 61) that Idelette de Bure had one son from him (elle eut un fils de lui).
600 The letter was written in French and translated into Latin by Beza in his edition of Calvini Epistolae, Genevae, 1575, p. 280 (under the wrong date of 1540). See Opera, XI. 188 sqq.; Herminjard, VII. 66-73; Bonnet-Constable, I. 222-229. I have used Constable’s translation after comparing it with the French original. The concluding part, however, is only extant in Beza’s Latin version.
601 Probably the youngest of Féray’s pupils, a native of Normandy. Herminjard, VII. 55, note 6.
602 The older son of M. de Richebourg.
603 "Charles et mon frèrè, avec ma femme et les autres se portoyent bien." This explains why Calvin did not hurry back to Strassburg earlier than he did.
604 "Neque hanc philosophiam discimus in schola Christi, ut eam quam nobis indidit humanitatem exuendo, ex hominibus lapides fiamus." This shows how far Calvin was from heathen stoicism.