to the Divine command. Sixth.-He admitted the Presence of Christ in the Holy Sacrament, but said it was not real, but took place solely by faith. On this account he passed over to the sect of the Sacramentarians, and quarrelled with Luther, and it was in defence of that sect he wrote his dialogue, "Arbogastus" (11). He was selected by the Landgrave as the most likely person to unite the Zuinglians and Lutherans; but though he held many confer ences, he never could succeed, for Luther never would give up the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament. He left Strasbourg, where he lived and taught a long time, and in 1549, in the reign of Edward VI., went to England to join Peter Vermigli, commonly called Peter Martyr, who, two years previously, was appointed Professor of Theology in Oxford. He had not been three years in England when he died, at the age of sixty-one, in Cambridge, in 1551; and Cardinal Gotti says (12), he was tormented with remorse of conscience in his last moments. His bones were exhumed and burned, by order of Queen Mary, in 1556.

57. The other celebrated disciple of Zuinglius who, especially in England, endeavoured to disseminate his errors, was Peter Vermigli, a Florentine, commonly called Peter Martyr. He was born in Florence, in 1500, of a noble, but reduced family. His mother, who was acquainted with the Latin language, taught him till he was eighteen years of age, when, according to some authors, he took the Carthusian habit, but the general opinion is, that he became a Canon Regular (13) of St. Augustin, in the Monastery of Fiesole. In his novitiate he gave indications of great talent, and was, after his profession, sent to Padua, where he was taught Greek, Hebrew, and Philosophy. He thence went to Bologna to study theology, and returned with a great stock of learning (14). He next turned his attention to the pulpit, and preached several Lents in the principal cities of Italy. While preaching in the Cathedral of Naples, he had the misfortune to become acquainted with a Spanish lawyer of the name of Valdes, who, by reading Luther's and Calvin's works, became infected with their heresies, and fearing to be discovered in Spain, where the stake awaited him, went to Germany, but the climate not agreeing with him, he came to Naples, and contracted a friendship with Peter Martyr, and then made him a Sacramentarian. As soon as he tasted the poison himself he began to communicate it to others who used to meet him in a church. This had not gone on long when he was charged with his errors before the Nuncio, and immediately called to Rome. His brethren in religion, with whom he always lived on the best terms, and who certainly believed him innocent, took up his defence most warmly, and he was most fully acquitted and dismissed. From Rome he

(11) Gotti, loc. cit. n. 2, 3; Varil. t. 1, l. 8, p. 364. (12) Varil. . 11, p. 297. (13) Gotti, loc. cit. n. 5. (14) Varillas, t. 2, l. 17, p. 106; Dizion. Port. alla parola Vermigli.

went to Lucca, where he thought he could establish a Zuinglian congregation, with less risk to himself than in Naples, and he succeeded so far, that among others he made four proselytes among the Professors of the University. They were in a little while discovered and obliged to fly to the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland, where they soon became ministers. Peter being discovered also, and not knowing where to fly, turned his steps likewise to Switzerland, hoping that his disciples there would procure a Professorship for him. He went first to Zurich, and afterwards to Basle; but as he wished to make himself the master of all, he met but a cool reception in either place. He then went to Bucer, in Strasbourg, who received every heretic, and procured him immediately a Professorship of Theology. He remained there till called to England, where he went with a nun he married, and was received with great honour in London, and was appointed to a Chair in Oxford, with double the salary that was promised to him. He returned to Strasbourg, in 1553, and finally went to teach his blasphemies in Zurich, where he died in 1562, loaded with fruits of perdition, for besides the many years he taught his errors in all these places, he composed and left after him also a number of works to sustain them (15).

ARTICLE III.

THE HERESIES OF CALVIN.

SEC. II. THE BEGINNING AND PROGRESS OF THE HERESY OF CALVIN.

58. Birth and Studies of Calvin. 59. He begins to broach his Heresy; they seek to imprison him, and he makes his Escape through a Window. 60. He commences to disseminate his Impieties in Angouleme. 61. He goes to Germany to see Bucer, and meets Erasmus. 62. He returns to France, makes some Followers, and introduces the "Supper;" he afterwards goes to Basle, and finishes his "Instructions." 63. He goes to Italy, but is obliged to fly; arrives in Geneva, and is made Master of Theology. 64. He is embarrassed there. 65. He flies from Geneva, and returns to Germany, where he marries a Widow. 66. He returns to Geneva, and is put at the Head of the Republic; the impious Works he publishes there; his Dispute with Bolsec. 67. He causes Michael Servetus to be burned alive. 68. Unhappy End of the Calvinistic Mission to Brazil. 69. Seditions and Disturbances in France on Calvin's Account; Conference of Poissy. 70. Melancholy Death of Calvin. 71. His personal Qualities and depraved Manners.

58. JOHN CALVIN was born on the 10th of July, 1509, in Noyon, in the ancient province of Picardy, some say he was born in Bourg de Pont; but the almost universal opinion is, that he was born in the city itself, and Varillas (1) says that the house in which he first saw the light was afterwards razed to the ground by the people, and that a person who subsequently rebuilt it was hanged at the door. He was the third son of Gerard Caudin (he afterwards changed his

(15) Varillas, l. 17, p. 106; Berti, Hist. sec. 16. c. 3; Van Ranst, sec. 16, p. 391; Dizion. Portat. loc. cit. (1) Varillas, Istor. della Rel. t. 1, l. 12, p. 450.

name to Calvin), the son of a Flemish saddler, and Fiscal Procurator to the Bishop of Noyon, and receiver to the chapter. He obtained a chaplaincy for his son when he was twelve years old, and afterwards a country curacy in the village of Martville, which he some time after exchanged for the living of Pont l'Elveque (2). Endowed with those benefices, he at an early age applied himself with the greatest diligence to study, and was soon distinguished for talents, which God gave him for his service, but which he perverted to his own ruin, and to the ruin of many nations infected with his heresy. When he had gone through his preliminary studies, his father sent him to Bourges to study law under Andrew Alciati; but wishing to learn Greek, he commenced the study of that language under Melchior Walmer, a concealed Lutheran, and a native of Germany, who, perceiving the acute genius of his scholar, by degrees instilled the poison of heresy into his mind, and induced him to give up the study of law, and apply himself to theology (3); but Beza confesses that he never studied theology deeply, and that he could not be called a theologian.

59. In the meantime Calvin's father died, and he returned home, and without scruple sold his benefices, and went to Paris, where, at the age of twenty-three, he first began to disseminate his heresy (4). He then published a little treatise on "Constancy," in which he advised all to suffer for the truth as he called his errors. This little work was highly lauded by his friends, but it is only worthy of contempt, as it contains nothing but scraps of learning badly digested, injurious invectives against the Catholic Church, great praises of those heretics condemned by the Church, whom he calls martyrs of the truth, and numberless errors besides. The publication of this work, and the many indications Calvin had given of using his talents against the Church, aroused the attention of the Criminal Lieutenant, John Morin, who gave orders to arrest him in the College of Cardinal de Moyne, where he then lodged. Calvin, however, suspected what was intended, and while the officers of justice were knocking at the door, he let himself down from the window (5) by the bedclothes, and took refuge in the house of a vine-dresser, as Varillas informs us (6,) with whom he changed clothes, and left his house with a spade on his shoulder. In this disguise he was met by a canon of Noyon, who recognized him, and inquired the meaning of this masquerade. Calvin told him everything, and when his friend advised him to return, and retract his errors, and not cast himself away, he, it is said, answered: "If I had to begin again, I would

(2) Varillas, al. loc. cit; Nat. Alex. t. 19, a. 13, sec. 1, n. 1; Gotti, Ver. Rel. t. 2, c. 111, sec. 1, n. 1; Hermant, Hist. de Conc. t. 2, c. 271; Van Ranst, Hist. Hær. p. 119; Berti, Hist. sec. 16, c. 3, p. 161; Lancist, Hist. t. 4, sec. 16, c. 5. (3) Nat. loc. cit. n. 1; Gotti, ibid. n. 3; Hermant, cit. c. 271; Varil. al. loc. cit. p. 451. (4) Gotti, cit. c. 111, n. 5; Van Ranst, p. 320; Varill. t. 1, l. 10, p. 452. (5) Van Raust, p. 330; Gotti, loc. cit. n. 5; N. Alex. loc. cit. s. 1, n. 1. (6) Varillas, 10, p. 345.

not forsake the Faith of my fathers; but now I am pledged to my doctrines, and I will defend them till death;" and an awful and terrible death awaited him, as we shall see hereafter. Varillas adds, that while he resided afterwards in Geneva, a nephew of his asked him if salvation could be obtained in the Catholic Church, and that Calvin could not find it in his heart to deny it, but told him he might be saved in that Church.

60. He escaped into Angouleme, and for three years taught Greek, as well as he could from the little he learned from Walmar, and his friends procured him lodgings in the house of the parish priest of Claix, Louis de Tillet, a very studious person, and possessor of a library of 4,000 volumes, mostly manuscripts. It was here he composed almost the entire of the four books of his pestilent Institutes, the greater part of which he took from the works of Melancthon, Ecolampadius, and other sectaries, but he adopted a more lucid arrangement, and a more elegant style of Latinity (7). As he finished each chapter he used to read it for Tillet, who at first refused his assent to such wicked doctrine; but by degrees his Faith was undermined, and he became a disciple of Calvin, who offered to accompany him to Germany, where a Conference with the reforming doctors, he assured him, would confirm him in the course he was adopting. They, accordingly, left for Germany, but had not gone further than Geneva when Tillet's brother, a good Catholic, and Chief Registrar of the Parliament of Paris, joined them, and prevailed on his brother to retrace his steps and renounce his Calvinistic errors. In this he happily succeeded; the priest returned, and was afterwards the first in his district to raise his voice publicly against Calvinism (8).

61. Calvin continued his route to Germany, and arrived at Strasbourg, where Bucer was labouring to unite the Lutherans and Zuinglians in doctrine, but never could succeed, as neither would consent to give up their peculiar tenets on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Calvin, seeing the difficulties he was in, suggested to him a middle way to reconcile both parties-that is, to propose as a doctrine that in the reception of the Eucharist it is not the flesh, but the substance or power of Jesus Christ that is received; this, he imagined, would reconcile both parties. Bucer, however, either because he thought Luther never would give up his own particular views, or, perhaps, jealous that the idea did not originate with himself, refused to adopt it. Calvin next visited Erasmus with a letter of recommendation from Bucer, in which he told Erasmus to pay particular attention to what would drop from him; he did so, and after some conversation with him, told his

(7) Nat. Alex. t. 19, a. 13, s. 1; Gotti, c. 3, s. 1, n. 3; Van Ranst, p. 330; Varil. 7. 30, p. 454. (8) Varil. cit. p. 454; Gotti, loc, cit. n. 6.

friends that he saw in that young man one who would be a great plague to the Church (9).

62. Calvin, finding it difficult to make many proselytes to his Sacramentarian doctrines in Germany, returned to France in 1535, and went to Poictiers, where at first, in the privacy of a garden, he began to expound his tenets to a few, but his followers increasing, he transferred his chair to a hall of the University, called Ministerium, and here the Calvinistic teachers took the name of ministers, as the Lutherans called themselves preachers. Calvin sent out from this several ministers to the neighbouring towns and villages, and, by this means, made a great many proselytes (10). It was there he first published the forty articles of his heresy, and it was there also he introduced the Supper, or Manducation, as he called it, which was privately celebrated in the following manner: First, some part of the Testament relative to the Last Supper was read, then the minister made a few observations on it, but in general the burden of these discourses was the abuse of the Pope and of the Mass, Calvin always saying that in the New Testament no mention is made of any other sacrifice than that of the Cross. Bread and wine were then set on the table, and the minister, instead of the words of consecration, said: "My brethren, let us eat of the bread and drink of the wine of the Lord, in memory of his passion and death." The congregation were seated round a table, and the minister, breaking off a small portion of bread, gave it to each, and they ate it in silence; the wine was dispensed in like manner. The Supper was finished by a prayer, thanking God for enlightening them, and freeing them from Papistical errors; the Our Father and the Creed was said, and they swore not to betray anything that was there done. It was, however, impossible to conceal the existence of this new Church of Poictiers, and as the Royal Ordinances were very rigorous against innovators, and Calvin felt that he could not be safe in Pictou, he went to Nerac in Aquitaine, the residence of Margaret, Queen of Navarre, a patroness of the new doctrine. Even here he was not in safety, as Royal edicts were every day published against heretics, so he went to Basle, where he employed himself in preparing his four books of the Institutes for the press. He was twenty-six years of age when he published this work, with the motto, "I came not to send peace, but a sword;" showing, like a true prophet, the great evils this work would bring on France, and every other country where its pestilential doctrines would be embraced (11).

63. While Calvin was at Basle he felt a great desire to propagate his doctrine in Italy, where Luther could make no way; and understanding that Renee, daughter of Louis XII. of France, and wife of Hercules of Este, Duke of Ferrara, was a woman fond of

(9) Van Ranst, s. 16, p. 323; Nat. Alex. loc. cit. n. 1; Varill. p. 459. (10) Varill. 1. 10, p. 457; Hermant, t. 2, c. 271; Nat. Alex. s. 1, n. 1; Gotti, c. 111, s. 2, n. 1. (11) Nat. Alex. t. 19, a. 13, n. 2; Van Ranst, p. 321; Gotti, c. 111, s. 2, n. 4.