affairs in 1549. Three years later, in 1552, Maurice of Saxony, with his Lutheran army, pressed forward to Inspruck; the emperor fled across the Alps; France invaded Alsace and the peace of Passau, secured all the fruits of the victorious Reformation.

Old Frederick II stood now on the brink of the grave. By flatterers, but not by historians, he is called the Wise. This by-name sounds like a satire, because though he was a perfect knight and courtier, and a traveller, speaking several languages, and well acquainted with the affairs of the world, he had never developed any solid talents nor obtained any profound learning; while his profusion and extravagance, throughout life, had brought him in endless debts, embarrassments and distress. He was fond of buildingmagnificent castles, hunting lodges and palaces, which he . left fall to ruin again. His fêtes, banquets-Trinkgelagen— tournaments and other equestrian and military performances were the most splendid in Germany, and brought noble visitors to Heidelberg from all corners of Europe. Yet we dwell with particular pleasure on the able reforms he undertook at the Heidelberg University, which at last during his reign emerging from the scholastic bigotry of the middle ages, now hailed the genial light of a purer faith and reformed system of instruction, with a more thorough and tasteful development of classical studies. An efficient paedagogium or teachers' school was established and the increased library soon became the most precious in Germany. The pecuniary means for these useful reforms were found in the secularization of rich monasteries and convents. Frederic called distinguished philologians and mathematicians to the chairs, such as Jacob Curio, Nic. Cisner of Mosbach, Graff and the celebrated Jacob Micyllus; nay, even a remarkable lady, Signora Olympia Fulvia Morata from Ferrara, the admiration of Italy in classic accomplishments, filled a chair at Heidelberg University. In Italy it was nothing strange to see a lady at Bologna or Florence lecture to an audience of thousands of students, during the enthusiasm for classical literature in the fifteenth

century, and Italy has thus preceded the United States of America in the emancipation of the fair sex for five centuries. But in Germany a lady professor of a university— was considered as a non-plus-ultra. Most unhappily the young Signora was of delicate health and through change of climate and other misfortunes, died soon after in Heidelberg in 1555.

The death of Frederic II, 1556, and the succession of his nephew, Ott' Henry the Generous, Duke of Neuburg and Sulzbach, secured the Lutheran party in the Palatinate the prominent position which they occupied, though it was feared that the Bavarian duke and other Catholic princes would protest against the investiture of the Palatinate and the Vicariate of the empire being granted to a Protestant prince. Bavaria might thus have renewed her old claims and become a dangerous adversary. Ott' Henry had been in trouble with William, Duke of Bavaria; he himself had drawn the sword against Charles V in 1546, had been expelled from his duchy and was, during his exile in Heidelberg, the most enthusiastic partisan of the Reformation. Yet in spite of all this he succeeded. The time was a remarkable one; Charles V, tired of the weight of his diadem and of his checkered life had laid down the sceptre, and his brother Ferdinand of Austria desired peace and votes for the imperial election. Thus no opposition was made by the Catholic princes, and the College of the Electors received another protestant member.

Immediately at his arrival on the Rhine in 1556 Ott' Henry proclaimed the final abrogation of all papistic errors and the complete establishment of the Evangelic faith. The new Church regulations, composed by Michael Diller, Stolo and Marbach, soon appeared in the severest Lutheran form. The entire hierarchy underwent a thorough reorganization; with the princely power and oriental luxury of Bishops, Abbots and Abbesses, it was now at an end. The ecclesiastical Synod was composed of members of the University of Heidelberg, among whom were the distinguished professors Ch. Ehem, Thomas Erast and Michael

Diller. The different degrees of ministers in the new Church were pastors, deacons and superintendents: at the head of the whole Church establishment stood a general superintendent. The Elector Ott' Henry was a liberal minded man of the kindest disposition. He attempted to convert the phantastical Anabaptists by means of a religious disputation at Pfeddersheim in 1557, and when he did not succeed, he still permitted them to live quietly in the country. The same moderation he showed toward other dissenters, and at Frankfort in 1558 he proposed to the assembled princes and signed himself a creed of faith in so moderate a form that without diverging too far from the severe Lutheran Confession of Augsburg, it might yet be accepted by the rest of the Protestants. Even in his nearer intercourse he avoided all that might cause a clashing. He thus preserved peace, but he had hardly closed his eyes in death when that theological controversy began, the progress of which, during the reign of his successor, caused a total revolution in the ecclesiastic relations of the Palatinate.

With Ott' Henry, who died childless on the 12th of February, 1559, terminated the elder palatine line of Lewis III, son of the Emperor Rupert III. According to the family convention, he was followed by the Count Palatine John II of Simmern, the ancestor of the younger electoral dynasty.

We have thus brought the history of the Rhenish Palatinate to the close of the Middle Ages and the extinction of the elder Wittelsbach Dynasty. In our next, and last article, we shall enter upon the more interesting events of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries until the incorporation of the Electoral States with the Kingdom of Bavaria.

Franklin and Marshall College. }

February 14, 1859.

A. L. K.

ART. VII.-CALVIN'S ORDER OF HOLY BAPTISM,

TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN OF THE GENEVA CATECHISM.

THE Sacrament of Baptism being a subject which is at present discussed with earnestness by the periodical press, in books, and more or less in the pulpit also; and as entire branches of the Protestant Church will no doubt soon be led to review prevailing superficial, not to say rationalistic, theories; it is a matter of serious interest to all thinking minds to know definitely the views of the pious and learned men, by whom divine Providence inaugurated the Protestant form of the development of the Church; and of none of them is it less so than of John Calvin, the principal organ of the Reformed Confessions. On this point the Institutes are indeed satisfactory; but as the work combats the errors both of Romanism and rationalism, of scepticism and radicalism, passages may be found which are in apparent conflict with the sound scriptural view of Baptism which Calvin evidently held. To such misconception, however, the Order for the solemn administration of the Sacrament, prepared by him, is less exposed; and we may safely refer to it, as giving free, full and unequivocal expression to his views concerning the efficacy, or objective force,

of the ordinance.

The following translation, furnished by one of our contributors, is a faithful rendering of the entire office, including rubrics, as contained in the Geneva Catechism. The original Latin may be found in the Codex Liturgicus Ecclesiae Universae, edited by Dr. Herm. Adalb. Daniel, Vol. III. p. 114-120. A good translation into German, though not complete, may also be found in Ebrard's Reformirtes Kirchenbuch, p. 162–166.-ED.

ORDER OF HOLY BAPTISM.

Inasmuch as baptism is a solemn adoption into the Church of Jesus Christ, it should be administered to infants either at the time of catechization on the Lord's day, or on any other day, in the presence of the whole congregation.

After the sermon, the child shall be presented. Then the officiating minister shall say:

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven. and earth. Amen.

Do you bring this child here to be baptized?

Answer. We do.

Minister. Our Lord teaches us in what great misery and corruption we are born, when He says we must be born. again. For if our nature must needs be renewed, in order that we may enter the kingdom of God, it is clear that that nature is deeply corrupt and hateful in His eyes. Hence He exhorts us to humble ourselves, and lament and abhor our vileness. And thus He prepares us to desire and obtain from Him that grace by which the perversity and unworthiness of our original nature may be extinguished and thoroughly destroyed. For there is no room for Him. in us, until we abandon all confidence in our own virtue, righteousness and wisdom, and acknowledge our total depravity.

But when the Lord has made known to us our misery and corruption, He comforts us in His abundant mercy, promising to raise us up by his Holy Spirit to a new life, which shall be to us an entrance, as it were, into His kingdom. To this regeneration belong two things; first, that we renounce our own selves and no longer live according to our own reason or will or natural desires, but submit rather in heart and soul to the Divine wisdom and righteousness, mortifying the flesh with the affections and the lusts thereof; second, that we follow the light of God and obey His most holy will, as He teaches us in His Word and enlightens us and points out the way for us by His Holy Spirit. But both these are fulfilled and perfected in our Lord Jesus Christ; for whoever has part in His death, is dead and buried with Him to sin. Hence it is that we are raised by the power of His resurrection to a new life, which is from God, since His Spirit guides and rules us and works in us whatsoever is pleasing in His sight. Yet the main source of our salvation is this, that, on account