them to assemble for worship in any part of the kingdom, provided it was outside of towns; the present one restricted that privilege to those towns they held possession of on the 7th of March. It likewise placed restrictions on the exercise of their religion in rural districts; though, by way of com pensation, a town was appointed in every bailiwick depending immediately on the parliaments, outside of which they were allowed to hold their conventicles.1 Coligny arrived at Orleans on the 23d of March, after the peace had been concluded. When informed of its provisions, he expressed much displeasure, and pointed out, that, at the beginning of the war, the Triumvirate had offered to adopt the edict of January, provided that Paris were excepted from its operation. He affirmed that more churches had been ruined by this single stroke of the pen, than could have been overthrown in ten years by force of arms.2 But the matter was now past remedying. The peace of Orleans put an end to the first civil war, and Calvin did not live to see the second. Beza now returned to Geneva, where his presence was much required, as the ill state of Calvin's health prevented him from effectively discharging the extra duties which had devolved upon him.3 It appears from an entry in the Registers of Geneva, on the 7th of May, 1563, that Beza received the public thanks of the heads of the Calvinist party in France, for his services in that country.* The edict will be found, Hist. des Eglises Réf., ii., p. 283. P. Henry, iii., 537. CHAPTER XV. Controversy with Baudouin Tract against De Saconay-Answer to Hesshus-Calvin's last Illness-Interview with the Council-Exhortation to the Ministers-His Death-Will-Beza's Character of CalvinAnother Estimate-His Literary Merits-Conclusion. THE two or three last years of Calvin's life were marked by those theological controversies which had characterized his literary career from its beginning. In the preceding chapter, there was occasion to mention the name of Baudouin (Balduinus) as one of his opponents. The history of Calvin's connection and dispute with that person was as follows: After the death of his wife, Calvin's house became the resort of several young men, to whom he was in the habit of dictating his works and letters. Among these was François Baudouin, a native of Arras, in whom Calvin seems to have taken a peculiar interest. He asked him to his table, interested himself in his education, and admitted him to his library, where Baudouin had free access to all Calvin's books and papers. After talking of a journey to France, Baudouin suddenly disappeared from Geneva, and with him some of Calvin's papers, which he must have selected, in order to use them in the attack which he seems to have been already meditating. They consisted of letters from Bucer to Calvin, in which the latter was blamed in no measured terms.1 In France, Baudouin, as already related, ingratiated himself with King Anthony, and it was by the command of that prince that he went into Germany, in order to consult with Cassander. The result was his presenting, at the conference of Poissy, Cassander's project for a union. This tract was printed at Basle, and Calvin immediately suspected that it was the production of Baudouin himself. In a letter to Beza at Poissy, dated on the 10th of September, 1561, Calvin says: "Snares are laid for you to set aside the discussion of the business in hand, and throw all into confusion. It is for this 1 P. Henry, iii., 550. Baudouin affirmed that in one of these letters Bucer had said that Calvin knew no medium in his love or hatred. But this seems to have been an invention of Baudouin's, though Bucer undoubtedly reproached Calvin with his morosity. See Calvin, Responsio, &c., Opera, viii., p. 315, B., and 318, A., Amst. ed. 3 purpose that little book was published at Basle, of which I suspect, nay, am almost certain, that Baudouin is the author. I should like to answer the scoundrel as he deserves; but I am overwhelmed with my private correspondence, and the little alacrity that remained to me is growing cold and feeble. Yet I will do what I can.' The result of this resolution was, that before the close of the year Calvin published his "Answer to a certain Trimming Mediator;" a severe and caustic attack upon Baudouin, who, though he was not named in the book, was clearly pointed out as Calvin's former guest and assistant, and characterized as a cheat. Baudouin defended himself in the appendix to a work entitled "A Commentary on the Laws respecting Libel and Calumniators;" of which he now gave a new edition, and in which Calvin was loaded with abuse. To this, Calvin replied very bitterly in his "Answer to the Reproaches of Baudouin,' though it must be allowed that on this occasion such a tone was more than ordinarily justified by the conduct of his opponent. Yet he was himself perfectly aware that he had exceeded the bounds of moderation, and in a letter to Beza remarks: "Weariness makes me repent of the labor I have undertaken, and in reading my book you will perceive that I have been exacerbated by the indignities offered me. If I did not already compassionate your multifarious occupations, I should like to see the beast depicted by your pencil also.' Baudouin, among other things, had reproached Calvin with the death of Servetus, to which he replies: "Perhaps Castellio obtained from him, as a pledge of friendship, that he should patronize the cause of Servetus. That man, indeed, suffered the penalty due to his heresies, but was it by my will? Certainly his arrogance destroyed him not less than his impiety. And what crime was it of mine if our council, at my exhortation, indeed, but in conformity with the opinion of several churches, took vengeance on his execrable blasphemies? Let Baudouin abuse me as long as he will, provided that, by the judgment of Melancthon, posterity owe me a debt of gratitude for having purged the church of so pernicious a monster."5 And a little further on, in answer to Baudouin's taunts, Calvin thus speaks of his way of life: "I will not enumerate the pleasures, conveniences, and riches I have renounced for Christ. I will only 1 Ep. 313. 2 Calvini Responsio ad versipellem quemdam Mediatorem; and also in French, Response à un certain Moyenneur rusé. 3 Johannis Calvini Responsio ad Balduini Convicia, Geneva, 1562. MS. Par., apud P. Henry, iii., 559. 5 Responsio, &c., p. 319, B. TRACT AGAINST DE SACONAY. 421 say that, had I the disposition of Baudouin, it would not have been very difficult for me to procure those things, which he has always sought in vain, and which he now but too greedily gloats upon. But let that pass. Content with my humble fortune, my attention to frugality has prevented me from being a burden to any body. I remain tranquil in my station; and have even given up a part of the moderate salary assigned to me, instead of asking for any increase. I devote all my care, labor, and study, not only to the service of this church, to which I am peculiarly bound, but to the assistance of all the churches, by every means in my power. I so discharge my office of a teacher, that no ambition may appear in my extreme faithfulness and diligence. I devour numerous griefs, and endure the rudeness of many; but my liberty is uncontrolled by the power of any man. I do not indulge the great by flattery; I fear not to give offense; no prosperity has hitherto inflated me; while I have intrepidly borne the many severe storms by which I have been tossed, till by the singular mercy of God I emerged from them. I live affably with my equals, and endeavor faithfully to discharge my friendships."1 Such was the picture which Calvin drew of his own life, many of the particulars of which can not be controverted; though it might, perhaps, have displayed better taste to have left them to be recounted by another. Baudouin rejoined: but Calvin had grown weary of the contest, and Beza now continued it for him, as Calvin had requested in the letter before cited. Beza's tract appeared at Geneva in 1563, under the title of " The Answer of Th. Beza to the Book of Fr. Baudouin, the Ecebolian Apostate." Beza gave him this name after Ecebolius, the ancient vicar of Bray, who changed his faith with every new emperor: no inappropriate appellation if indeed Baudouin, as is said, altered his religion no fewer than seven times. This versatility, however, does not seem to have prejudiced him in the profession of the law. He possessed great talent as a jurisconsult, and taught with much applause at Bourges, Strasburgh, Heidelberg, and Douay. Though Calvin prefixed a letter to Beza's Reply, in which he declared that he would take no further part in the dispute, yet Baudouin was determined to have the last word, and published a rejoinder. About the same time Calvin wrote his "Gratulation to the Venerable Priest Dom. Gabriel de Saconay, Precentor of 1 Responsio, &c., Opera, viii., 321, A. 2 See Bayle, art. Baudouin. Lyons." De Saconay had published a new edition of a part of Henry VIII.'s work against Luther on the "Seven Sacraments," which he accompanied with a vain and boastful preface, in which he reflected upon the nocturnal meetings of the Huguenots for prayer, and also reproached Beza with his want of chastity. According to Calvin's account, the conduct of De Saconay himself by no means afforded a pattern of that virtue; and the way in which Calvin exposed his amorous foibles shows that he was far from deficient in wit and humor when he chose to exert them. A tone of levity pervades the piece which puts it almost on a level with those facetic of Poggio and others, with which it had been forbidden to defile the ears of the faithful of Geneva. Calvin's jokes, however are intermixed with some grim reproofs; and the object of his chastisement is plainly told that, had he been one of his flock, his vices would long ago have rendered his carcase food for the crows.1 A little before these tracts, which have been mentioned first as connected with the subject of the preceding chapter, Calvin had been again plunged into a controversy with the Lutheran zealots, on the subject of the eucharist. After his controversy with Westphal, the Saxon clergy, of the faction of Flaccius Illyricus, had even gone so far as to talk of excommunicating Calvin. In 1559, this party procured from John Frederick, Elector of Saxony, a condemnation of the Zwinglian and Calvinistic doctrine respecting the Lord's Supper, to which, in October of that year, Melancthon published an answer, in which he showed that the Calvinistic theory could be refuted neither from Scripture, nor from the most ancient Fathers; but, on the other hand, with the timidity which always characterized him, he did not declare himself against the Lutheran view, but let both remain, as if they were not repugnant. Melancthon's death, which took place on the 19th of April, 1560, gave a new stimulus to the Flaccian, or bigoted Lutheran party, and especially to those of Jena. Shortly after that event they addressed a petition to John Frederick, in which they requested him to convoke a synod for the condemnation of the adiaphorists, the synergists, the Osiandrists, and sacramentaries. They demanded that none should be admitted to this synod who did not belong to the Confession of Augsburg, and that the Zwinglians should not 3 1 Gratulatio, &c., Opera, viii., 321, B., Amst. ed. |