PERRIN RESTORED AND ELECTED SYNDIC.

2

193

a letter to Viret in November, 1548, Calvin says: "There is nothing new here except that our comic Cæsar has been suddenly restored to the stage from which he had been driven. His friends availed themselves of the absence of a great number of the members of the council, and when there were scarce twenty present, carried his restoration by a majority." This must have been in the council of Two Hundred. This event gave new vigor to Perrin's followers. Early in the year they had begun to distinguish themselves by a party badge, a kind of cross worn over their breasts; and after Perrin's restoration they indulged in the grossest abuse of Calvin, and many, out of hatred to him, refused to attend the communion. The council endeavored to conciliate matters, and on the 18th of December brought about an amnesty between the principal parties, which was even sanctioned by an oath; after which ceremony the ministers and council supped together in order to obliterate all rancor.3 But Perrin was merely dissembling, in order that he might pave the way to the syndicate, the election for which office was approaching. Čalvin was not deceived by appearances, and in a letter to Farel, dated on the 12th of December, expressed his perplexity and apprehensions. In the following February (1549) Perrin not only obtained the syndicate, but was even elected first syndic, contrary to established custom. But before proceeding with Calvin's struggles against his domestic enemies, we must take a survey of his labors at this time in the general cause of the Church.

1 Gen. MS., apud P. Henry, ii., 438, note.

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2 "Une croix découpée sur leur pourpoint." This had been the old device of the Eignots, or Eidgenossen, in 1518 (Ruchat, i., 328).

3 Beza, who erroneously places Perrin's restoration in the spring. 17. Calv., anno 1548; and Régistres, Oct. 18, in Grénus, Fragmens Biogra iques. * Ep. 95.

5 Trechsel,

I

CHAPTER VII.

Work against the Council of Trent-Tract against judicial Astrology-The Interim-Melancthon's Concessions-Calvin blames Melancthon-Death of Calvin's Wife-Beza's Arrival at Geneva-The Zurich ConsensusLælius Socinus-Fêtes abolished at Geneva-Calvin's Tract De Scandalis.

DURING the course of these annoying, and sometimes dangerous contests with the Patriot, or Libertine party, Calvin found time not only to discharge his ordinary duties as pastor and lecturer, but to compose several works, and to take an active part, by correspondence and otherwise, in the general affairs of the Protestant Church. In 1546 he either translated, or caused to be translated, into French, the "Loci" of Melancthon, of which the preface at least is indubitably from his pen. The book appeared at Geneva in that year under the title of " La Somme de Theologie de Melancthon." We have already seen that these two theologians were not entirely agreed upon some points of doctrine, and especially that respecting election and predestination: yet in his preface Calvin made some considerable concessions to Melancthon's opinion on this head, in a remarkable passage, which there will be occasion to produce in the next chapter.

In the following year (1547) Calvin brought out his tract, addressed to the church of Rouen, against a certain Franciscan, a follower of the Libertines, and then a prisoner in that town, entitled, "Contre un Franciscain, Sectateur des Erreurs des Libertins," which piece may be considered as an Appendix to his former tract against that sect. A more important work, which he published in November of the same year, was that against the proceedings of the Council of Trent, originally written in Latin, and entitled "Acta Synodi Tridentina, cum Antidoto." That council had been assembled in the previous year; and Calvin prefixed to his book the address of the Pope's legates on opening the first session. In his preface, though he allows great weight to councils, he denies their infallibility, and supports his view by the authorty of St. Augustin. He then specially objects to that of Trent, on account of its composition. It is argued, he says, P. Henry, i., 376.

WORK AGAINST THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.

195

that a council can not err, because it represents the Church. But what if I deny this argument? This council, he continues, consists of some forty bishops, of whom even the warmest patrons of such assemblies must be heartily ashamed. Passing over the prelates of other nations, he confines himself to the representatives of France, the Bishops of Nantes and Clermont; both of whom he describes as equally ignorant and stupid, and as unacquainted with even the very rudiments of theology: the latter, moreover, as infamous and despicable for his dissolute life. He then attacks the monkish portion of the council; and affirms that there is no school of theology so wretched but what must despise all the doctors of Trent. But were its members angels, they were all dependent on the nod of the Pope for every decree was sent off post to Rome, where it was mangled and altered to suit the views of the pontiff and his advisers. "The couriers return; a session is proclaimed; the notary reads something which nobody dares to impugn; the asinine tribe signify their assent with their ears. Behold the oracle which is to bind the religion of all the world!" He then proceeds to give, in the body of his tract, the decrees of the several sessions, with remarks upon them.

This piece occupied Calvin two or three months, and was composed amid those struggles with his opponents which have been related in the preceding chapter. Writing to Farel on the 21st of August, 1547, he says: "I have begun my attack on the Tridentine Fathers, but the work proceeds slowly, for I have not a single hour free from interruptions." " When it was published he forwarded a copy to Farel, who sat up all night to read it.3 Such was his admiration of Calvin's literary talents. Farel also dispatched a letter to Calvin, conveying his warm approval of the work, respecting the success of which the latter seems to have entertained some apprehensions; for in his reply he says: "I begin to like my Antidote,' now I find that you approve of it so much, for before I was not satisfied with it. It may be that you, who know my daily labors, and the contests by which I am exhausted, are led to pardon the more imperfect parts; but, for myself, I am surprised how I can at this time publish any thing readable."4

Calvin's tract was answered, on the part of the papists, by Cochlæus. In the following year, he re-published it in French,

1 Calvin, Opera, viii., 221, A.

3 Kirchhofer, ii., 91.

2 Ep. 81.

4 Ep. 83., Dec. 28th, 1547.

in a more popular form, omitting many learned references and allusions.i

In 1548, Calvin published his "Commentaries on six of St. Paul's Epistles, viz., Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, and Timothy." In the following year appeared his tract against judicial astrology, "Admonitio adversus Astrologiam quam judiciarum vocant," a work which shows that Calvin was much in advance of his age on such points, when some of the most enlightened minds were not free from that superstition. Melancthon, in particular, was a slave to it. What rendered it more difficult for Calvin to refute this pretended science was, that he was unacquainted with the true system of the universe. Though the work of Copernicus was written in 1530, it was some years before it became known; and it was not till the beginning of the following century that Galileo first ventured to adopt his system. Beza, in his work on the plague, shows that he had heard of it, but considered it a paradox; and in the last edition of his "Institutes," Calvin still considers the heavens as turning round the earth. This erroneous system favored astrology, inasmuch as it made the heavens appear only subsidiary to the earth; and thus occasioned a difficulty which Calvin found it hard to meet. The astrologers defended their views by the circumstance that the prophet Jeremiah calls the stars signs; and confirmed their argument by appealing to the first chapter of Genesis. A knowledge of the true system would have upset this reasoning; but Calvin could meet it only by referring to other texts of Scripture, as Isaiah, chap. xliv., ver. 25, "That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad ;" and by entering into a long argument to show in what sense Jeremiah used the word signs. He was of opinion that they do not denote when we should put on a new garment, nor whether we should transact our business on Monday rather than Tuesday or Wednesday, and things of the like sort; but whether we should sow, let blood, take physic, or prune our trees, &c. for though he disbelieved judicial astrology, he thought that our bodies, as well as other natural objects, had some sympathy with the stars,

P. Henry, ii., 305.

2 Ibid., p. 379.

3 Matthes, Leben Melancthons, p. 410. Socinus, writing to Bullinger from Wittenberg, August 28th, 1550, says: "All depend upon Melancthon alone, who is so addicted to judicial astrology, that I know not on which he most depends, the stars, or their Maker and Ruler." See Trechsel, Antitr., ii., 154, note.

P. Henry, ii., 392.

5 Calvin, Opera, viii., 505, B.

Be

and that a knowledge of the latter was useful in medicine and agriculture. So difficult is it even for the most vigorous understandings, when unaided by the light of science, to shake off ancient prejudices in such matters. He was also of opinion that some meaning might be attached to comets. sides astrology-which he thinks the revival of polite letters, if not the gospel, should have put an end to-Calvin also ridicules the alchemists in this tract; in the course of which he exhibits considerable profane learning, referring frequently to Greek and Roman history, and quoting Terence, Aristophanes, and other authors.

In 1549, Calvin also published his tract against the Interim. The Emperor Charles V. having overthrown the Smalcaldic league, and reduced its leaders, the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse, to submission, found himself enabled to dictate the footing on which religion should be placed throughout the empire: a step to which he was still further prompted by a desire of mortifying the Pope, at whom he was offended for having transferred to Bologna the sittings of the council which had been assembled at Trent. The system known by the name of the Interim, and which was to be the rule of religious practice till the decision of a general council, was laid before the diet assembled at Augsburg on the 15th of May, 1548. The Elector Joachim II., of Brandenburgh, is thought to have had a great share in bringing it about; at all events, his court preacher, John Agricola, who passed for a Protestant, but was suspected of having been bribed, was one of the three persons concerned in drawing it up; the other two being Roman Catholics, namely, Pflug and Michael Helding, titular bishop of Sidon. The only concessions of any importance made to the Protestants were the celebration of the communion in both kinds, and permission for married priests to retain their wives. Few of the princes assembled at Augsburg ventured to oppose the promulgation of the Interim; but the Elector Maurice entered a protest against it. Throughout the greater part of Germany it was received with indignation. Hesse and ducal Saxony, Hamburgh, Bremen, Lubec, Luneberg, rejected it; at Magdeburg, it was abused and ridiculed; Strasburgh held out against it for a considerable time; and Constance it was necessary to reduce to obedience by force of arms.1

The correspondence of Calvin and his friends at this period indicates the alarm which this measure had excited. Myco

1 Robertson, Charles V., b. ix. Matthes, Leben Melanc., p. 285, et seq.