France, but soon left it agahi, and in the month of August, 1586, arrived at Geneva, where the Reformed religion had been the same year publicly established. There, at the request of Faiel, Yfaret, and other emi- nent Reformers, by whom that revolution had been achieved, he became a preacher of the Gospel, and pro- fessor, or rather lecturer on divinity. Farel was then twen^ years older than Calvin, but their elects were the same, and their learning, virtue, and zeal alike, and these were now combined for the complete refor- mation of Geneva, and the difi^ion of their principles throughout Europe. In the month of November a plan of Church government and a confession of faith were laid before the public authorities ibr their ap- provaL Beza makes Calvin the author of these pro- ductions ; but others, with perhaps greater reason!, at- tribute them to FareL There is little doubt, however, that Calvin was consulted in their composition, and ttSl less that he lent his powerful aid to secure their sanction and approval by the people in the month of July, 1587. The same year the Council of Geneva conferred on Farel the honor of a burgess of the city, in token of their respect and gratitude. But the popu- lar will was not prepared for the severe discipline of the Reformers, and in a short time the people, under the direction of a fiiction, met in a public assembly and expelled Farel and Calvin tram the place. Calvin re- pahed to Bern, and then to Strasburg, where he was appointed professor of divinity and minister of a French church, into which he introduced his own form of church government and discipline, tn his absence great efforts were made to get the Genevese to return to the communion of the Church of Rome, particularly by Cardinal Sadolet, who wrote to them earnestly to that effect; but Calvin, ever alive to^e maintenance of the principles of the Reformation, disappointed all the expectations of his enemies, and c<mfirmed the Genevese in the new futh, addressing to them two powerful and afiectionate letters, and replying to that written by Sadolet. While at Strasburg Calvin also published a treatise on the Lord's Supper (TraiU de la Samte Chie\ in which he combated the opinions both of the Roman Catholics and Lutherans, and at the same time explained his own views of that ordinance. Here, too, he published his Commeniary on the Epistle to the Romans. Calvin became acquainted with Casta- lio during his residence at Strasburg, and procured for hhn the situation of a regent at Geneva; and it was during his stay in this dty that, by the advice of his friend Bucer, he married Idellet, the widow of a con- verted Anabaptist
" In November of the same year he and Farel were solicited by the Council of Geneva to return to their former charge in that city; in May, 1541, their ban- ishment was revoked, and in September following Calvin was received into the city amid the congrat- ulations of his flock, Farel remaining at Neufchitel. He immediately laid before the council his scheme of church government, and after it was adopted and published by authority (20th ef November, 1541), he was unhesitating in its enforcement. His prompti- tude and firmness were now conspicuous ; he was the ruling spbit in Geneva; and the Church which he had established there he wished to make the mother and seminary of all the Reformed churches. His personal labors were unceasing. Geneva, however, was the common centre of all his exertions, and its prosperity peculiarly interested him, though less for its own sake than to make it a fountain for the sup-
Sly of the world. He established an academy there, tie high character of which was long maintained ; he made the dty a literary mart, and encouraged the French refugees and others who sought his advice to apply themselves to the occupation of a printer or li- brarian; and having finished the ecclesiastical regi- men, he directed his attention to the improvement of the municipal government of the place. That Calvin
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