French monarch, Francis I. to cover with a specious pretext his barbarous persecution of the friends of the Reformation, and to prevent the resentment of the protestants in Germany, with whom it was his interest to be on good terms, alledged, that his severity fell only upon a sect of enthusiasts, who, under the title of anabaptists, substituted their visions in the place of the doctrines and declarations of the holy scriptures. To vindicate the reformers from this reproach, Calvin wrote the book now under consideration; and though the theology that reigns in it be chargeable with some defects, yet it is as remote from the spirit and complexion of fanaticism, as any thing can be. Nor indeed is this spirit visible in any of the writings of Calvin that I have perused. His Commentary upon the Old and New Testament, is a production that will always be esteemed, on account of its elegant simplicity, and the evident marks it bears of an unprejudiced and impartial enquiry into the plain sense of the sacred writings, and of sagacity and penetration in the investigation of it."

MEMOIRS

OF THE

LIFE OF CALVIN.

SECTION I.

Birth and Education of Calvin.-His applica tion to the study of the law-Reasons for quitting that profession-Publication of his Institutes-Journey to Italy.

JOHN CALVIN, the celebrated reformer, was born at Noyon, a town in Picardy, on the 10th of July 1509. Undistinguished by the splendor of family consideration, it was reserved for him to give dignity and perpetuity to a name, which had hitherto occupied an humble but respectable rank in society. His father,

* The circumstance of a trifling alteration in the name of our reformer, which it appears was Cauvin, having been maliciously perverted by some of his enemies, we shall present our readers with a justification of it in the words of the celebrated Mr. Drelincourt. "In reality," saith he, "the change of a letter in Calvin's name is very inconsiderable, or rather, signifies nothing at all, for being to turn Cauvin into Latin, if one would give it an air and termination suitable to the genius of the language, how can one turn it otherwise than by Calvinus; for as all good authors call that in Latin, Calvus,

whose name was Gerard, a sensible and prudent man, had gained the esteem and friendship of all the neighbouring gentlemen, and particularly of the family of Montmor, a family of the first distinction in Picardy. John Calvin was brought up with the children of this family, and though his education was very expensive to Gerard, he bore it with great cheerfulness. He even wished his son to accompany them to Paris, and to pursue his studies with them under Marturin Cordier, regent of the Collége de la Marche; a man illustrious for his erudition and integrity, and as his talents were particularly adapted to the instruction of youth, he spent his life in tuition at Nevers, at Bourdeaux, at Neuf Chatel, at Lausanne, and at Geneva, where he died in the eighty-fifth year of his age, and in the same year as Calvin.

On quitting the Collége de la Marche, Calvin removed to that of Montaign, the tutor of which was a learned Spaniard. Here he advanced so

which the Picards call Cauve, and the Frenchmen Chauve, so instead of Cauvin in Picard, and Chauvin in French, the Latin must have it Calvinus. Now this godly man's first work being written in Latin and he thereby known by the name of Calvinus, if, after that when he wrote in French, he had used any other name than that of Calvin, the work might have been taken for another man's, to the no small damage of the reader and printer."

Defense de Calvin par Drelincourt, p. 202.

rapidly in his studies, that he soon entered upon philosophy. But as he had from his youth discovered considerable piety, and an extreme horror at vice, frequently censuring the excesses of his companions, Gerard thought that he should be following the inclinations of his son in consecrating him to theology. He therefore procured for him, in the year 1529, a benefice in the cathedral church at Noyon, and the rectory of Pont L'Eveque, where he was born. Here Calvin, though unordained, preached frequently. It is probable that in this instance the father complied with his son's inclination in opposition to his own wishes, as we find him so soon after changing his conduct with respect to his future destination.

How mysterious are the ways of Providence! How little probable did it appear from Calvin's present situation and prospects (a member and a minister of the church of Rome), that he should be an instrument appointed to overthrow that pile of corruptions! Two reasons, however, concurred in influencing our reformer's future character and conduct; they were dissimilar indeed in their nature, but tended equally to one point, that of inducing him to quit his ministry in the church of Rome. His father resolved to make him study the law, convinced that it was the most certain method of acquiring