nent peril. He was said to have denounced Erasmus at Basel as another Balaam, and Erasmus repaid the compliment by describing him, in a letter, as the most arrogant, abusive, and shameless man he had ever met with. Yet Farel did not limit himself to denunciation. He understood well, and knew how to inculcate eloquently, the distinctive doctrines of the Protestant faith. His earliest attempt in Geneva was in 1532, immediately after the first revolution. He was then driven from the city, and owed his life to the bursting of a gun that was aimed at him. The second time he was more successful. The new doctrine was eagerly heard and won numerous disciples. At the political revolution, which expelled the bishop, the Protestant faith was adopted by the solemn act of the citizens. The general council, or the assembly of citizens, legalized the new order of divine service, which included the administration of the Supper thrice in the year; abolished all the festivals except Sunday, and prohibited worldly sports, such as dances and masquerades. The citizens took an oath to cast off the Romish doctrine and to live according to the rule of the Gospel. But signs of disaffection soon appeared. A large portion of the inhabitants of this prosperous, luxurious, and pleasureloving city, soon grew impatient of the new restraints which they had accepted in the moment of exhilaration over their newly gained political independence. They cried out openly against the preachers and demanded freedom.

There is no reason to doubt that the morals of Geneva were in a low state. The Savoyards had sought to secure the adherence of the young men by means of dances and convivial entertainments; and Berthelier endeavored to baffle this purpose by joining with them himself in their noisy banquets and licentious amusements. The priests and monks, according to trustworthy contemporary ac

1 Opera, iii. 823. Kirchhofer, Das Leben W. Farels, c. IV.

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counts, were exceptionally profligate. The prostitutes, over whom there was placed a queen who was regularly sworn to the fulfillment of prescribed functions, were far from being confined to the quarter of the city which was specially assigned to them. Gambling-houses and wineshops were scattered over the town. The various motives of opposition to the new system were sufficient to develop a powerful party that demanded the old customs and the former liberty. They clamored for deliverance from the yoke of the preachers.

Geneva was in this factious, confused state when Calvin arrived there, and took his lodgings at an inn, with the intention of remaining only for the night. In his Preface to the Commentary on the Psalms, which contains the most interesting passages of autobiography that we possess from his pen, he gives an account of his interview with Farel, to whom his arrival had been reported by his friend, Du Tillet. Farel besought him to remain and assist him in his work. Calvin declined, pleading his unwillingness to bind himself to any one place, and his desire to prosecute his studies. Seeing that his persuasions were fruitless, Farel told him that he might put forward his studies as a pretext, but that the curse of God would light on him if he refused to engage in His work. Calvin often refers to this declaration, uttered with the fervor of a prophet. He says that he was struck with terror, and felt as if the hand of the Almighty had been stretched out from heaven and laid upon him. He gave up his opposition. "Farel," it has been said, "gave Geneva to the Reformation, and Calvin to Geneva." He at once began his work, not taking the post of a preacher at first, but giving theological lectures of an exegetical sort in the Church of St. Peter. He composed hastily a catechism for the instruction of the young, which he deemed a thing essential in the guidance of a church. A confession of faith, drawn up by Farel, was presented to all the people,

1 Kampschulte, i. 90 seq.

and by them formally adopted. A body of regulations relating to church services and discipline, containing stringent provisions, was likewise ratified and put in operation. Opposition to the doctrines and deviation from the practices thus sanctioned, were penal offenses. A hairdresser, for example, for arranging a bride's hair in what was deemed an unseemly manner, was imprisoned for two days; and the mother, with two female friends, who had aided in the process, suffered the same penalty. Dancing and card-playing were also punished by the magistrate. They were not wrong in themselves, Calvin said, but they had been so abused that there was no other course but to prohibit them altogether. He who so dreaded a tumult, not only had to encounter Anabaptist fanatics who appeared in Geneva, but soon found himself, with his associates, in conflict with the government, and with the majority of the citizens who rebelled against the strictness of the new regime. At the head of the party of opposition, or of the Libertines, as they were styled by the supporters of Calvin, were Amy Perrin, Vandel, and Jean Philippe, who had been among the first advocates of the Reformation. In their ranks were many of the Confederates, or Eidgenossen, who had fought for the independence of the city. At Geneva, the baptismal font, the four festivals of Christmas, New Year's Day, the Annunciation, and the Ascension, and the use of unleavened bread in the Sacrament, all of which were retained in Berne, had been discarded. The opponents of the new system called for the restoration of the Bernese ceremonies. Finding themselves thwarted by the authorities in the enforcement of church discipline, on Easter Sunday (1538), the ministers, Calvin, Farel, and Viret,

1 He was compelled, much to his mortification, to withstand an attack of a different kind from another quarter. He was charged with Arianism and Sabellianism. See Henry, i. 178 seq. Calvin was cautious as to the terms which he used on the subject of the Trinity, and did not insist on the word person. See Institutes, b. 1. xiii. 5. For his opinion of the Athanasian creed, see Kampschulte, i. 297.

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preached in spite of the prohibition of the Syndics, and also took the bold step of refusing to administer the sacrament. Thereupon, by a vote of the Council, which was confirmed the next day by the general assembly of the citizens, they were banished from the city. Failing in their efforts to secure the intervention of Berne, and in other negotiations having reference to their restoration, they parted from one another. Farel went to Neufchâtel, and Calvin found a cordial reception in Strasburg. It was a general feeling, in which Calvin himself shared, that the preachers had gone imprudently far in their requirements. But the joy of Calvin at being delivered from the anxieties which he had suffered, and in finding himself at liberty to devote himself to his books, was greater, he says, than under the circumstances was becoming. But soon he was solicited by Bucer to take charge of the church of French refugees who were at Strasburg. Once more he was intimidated by Bucer's earnest appeal, who reminded him of the example of the fugitive prophet Jonah. Though his pecuniary support was small, so that he was compelled to take lodgers and even to sell his books to get the means of living, he was satisfied and happy. While at Strasburg, he was brought into intercourse with the Saxon theologians at the religious conferences held between the years 1539 and 1541, at Frankfort, at Worms, and at Hagenau, and in connection with the Diet at Ratisbon, where Contarini appeared as the representative of the Pope. Like Luther, Calvin had no faith in the practicableness of a compromise with the Catholics, and the negotiations became more and more irksome to him. His ignorance of the German language occasioned him some embarrassment. His talents and learning were fully recognized by the German theologians, and with Melancthon he formed a friendship which continued with a temporary, partial interruption, until they were separated by death. To the compromises

of the Leipsic Interim, Calvin was inflexibly opposed. On the great controverted point of the Eucharist, he and Melancthon were agreed, and the latter confided to him the anxieties which weighed heavily upon him on account of the jealousy on the Lutheran side, which was awakened by his change of opinion. With Luther, Calvin never came into personal contact; but he was delighted to hear that the Saxon leader had read some of his books with "singular satisfaction," had betrayed no irritation at his difference on the question of the Supper, and had expressed a high degree of confidence in his ability to be useful to the Church. He thought Luther a much greater man than Zwingle, but that both were one-sided and too much under the sway of prejudice in their combat upon the Eucharist. He exclaims that he should never cease to revere Luther, if Luther were to call him a devil.1 When called upon at a later day, after the death of Melancthon, to take the field against bigoted Lutherans, he breaks out with the exclamation: "O Philip Melancthon, I direct my words to thee who now livest before God with Jesus Christ, and there art waiting for us till we are gathered with thee to that blessed rest! A hundred times hast thou said, when, wearied with labor and oppressed with anxieties, thou hast laid thy head affectionately upon my bosom: O that, O that I might die upon this bosom !"" But notwithstanding their friendship, Melancthon could not be prevailed on to express himself in favor of Calvin's doctrine of predestination, though the latter dedicated to him, in flattering terms, a treatise on the subject, and by letters sought to enlist his support. Calvin was bringing in, Melancthon wrote to a friend, the Stoic doctrine of fate.2 When Bolsec was taken into custody for vehemently attacking this doctrine in public, Melancthon wrote to Camerarius that they had put a 1 Henry, ii. 352. 2 Corp. Ref., vii. 392.