§ 68. TRIBUTES TO THE MEMORY OF CALVIN. 283
Dr. L. Stahelin.
Johannes Calvin. Leben unci ausgewdhlle Schri/ten. Elberfeld, 1863. Vol. II.
pp. 3G5-393.
This description of Calvin's character as a man and as a Christian is faithful in praise and censure, but too profuse to be inserted. Dr. Stahelin emphasizes the logic of liis intellect and conscience, his firm assurance of eternal election, his constant sense of the nearness of God, "tlie majesty" of his character, the predominance of the Old Testament feature, his resemblance to Moses and the Hebrew Prophets, his irritability, anger, and contemptuousness, relieved by genuine humility before God, his faithfulness to friends, his life of unceasing prayer, his absolute disinterestedness and consecration to God. He also quotes the remarkable testimony of Renan, that Calvin was "the most Christian man in Christendom."
Dr. Friedkich Tuechsel (1805-1885). Die Protestantischen Antitriniturier. Heidelberg, 1839-1844 (I. 177).
" People have often supposed that they were insulting Calvin's memory by calling him the Pope of Protestantism ! He was so, but in the noblest sense of the expression, through the spiritual and moral superiority with which the Lord of the Church had endowed him for its deliverance ; through his unwearied, universal zeal for God's honor; through his wise care for the edifying of the kingdom of Christ; in a word, through all which can be comprehended in the idea of the papacy, of truth and honor."
LuDwiG Hausser (1818-1867). Professor of history at Heidelberg. The Period of the Reformation, edited by Oncken (1868, 2d ed. 1880), translated by Mrs. Sturge, New York, 1874 (pp. 241 and 244).
"As the German Reformation is connected with Martin Luther, and the Swiss with Ulrich Zwingli, that of the Romanic and Western European nations is connected with John Calvin, the most remarkable personage of tlie time. He was not equal either to Luther or Zwingli in general talent, mental vigor, or tranquility of soul ; but in logical acuteness and talent for organization he was at least equal, if not superior, to either. He settled the basis for the development of many states and churches. He stamped the form of the Reformation in countries to which he was a stranger. The French date the beginnings of their literary development from him, and his influence was not restricted to the sphere of religion, but embraced their intellectual life in general; no one else has so permanently influenced the spirit and form of their written language as he.
"At a time when Europe had no solid results of reform to show, this little State of Geneva stood up as a great power; year by year it sent forth apostles into the world, who preached its doctrines everywhere, and it became the most dreaded counterpoise to Rome, when Rome no longer had any bulwark to defend her. The missionaries from this little community displayed the lofty
284 THE REFORJVIATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
and dauntless spirit which results from stoical education and training; they bore the stamp of a self-renouncing heroism which was elsewhere swallowed up in theological narrowness. They were a race with vigorous bones and sinews, for whom nothing was too daring, and who gave a new direction to Protestantism by causing it to separate itself from the old traditional monarchical authority', and to adopt the gospel of democracy as part of its* creed. It formed a weighty counterpoise to the desperate efforts which the ancient Church and monarchical power were making to crush the spirit of the Reformation.
"It was impossible to oppose Caraffa, Philip II., and the Stuarts, with Luther's passive resistance ; men were wanted who were ready to wage war to the knife, and such was the Calvinistic school. It everywhere accepted the challenge ; throughout all the conflicts for political and religious liberty, up to the time of the first emigration to America, in France, the Netherlands, England, and Scotland, we recognize the Genevan school."
Dr. Karl Rudolf Hagexbach (1801-1874).
Swiss Reformed, of Basel.
Geschichte des Reformation, 5th ed. edited by Nippold, Leipzig, 1887, p. 605.
" Calvin hatte so zu sagen kein irdisches Yaterland, dessen Freiheit er, wie Zwinyli, zu icahren sich bewogen fand. Das himmlische Vaterland, die Stadt Gottes war es, in icelche er atle zu sammeln sich berufen suh. Ikm gait nicht Grieehe, nicht Skythe, nicht Franzose, nicht Deutscher, nicht Eidgenosz, sonderii einzig xmd allein die neue Kreatur in Christo. Es tcdre thoricht, ihm solches zum Vorwurf zu machen. Es ist vielmehr richtig bemerkt warden, trie Calvin, obgleich er nicht die Grosze Genfs ats solche gesuchi, dennoch dieser Stadt zu einer weltgeschichtlichen Grosze verholjen, die sie ohne ihn niemals erreicht haben wiirde. Aber so viel ist richtig, dasz das Reinmenschliche, das im Familien- und Volksleben seine Wurzel hat, und das durch das Christenthum nicht verdrdngt, aber wohl veredelt werden soil, bei Calvin weniger zur Entwickelung kam. Manner des strengen Gedankens und einer rigiden Gesetzlichkeit werden geneigt sein, Calvin iiber Luther und Zwingli zu erheben. Und er hat auch seine unbestreitbaren Vorziige. Poetisch angelegte Gemiitsmenschen aber iverden anfdnglich Calvin und seiner vom Naturboden losgelosten, abstrakten Frommigkeit gegeniiber sich eines gewissen Frostelns nicht erwehren konnen und einige Zeit brauchen, bis sie es iiberwunden haben ; wdhrend sie sich zu dem herzgewinnenden Luther sogleich und auch dann noch hingezogen Juhlen, wenn er schdumt und vor Zorn nbersprudelt."
Dr. Is. DoRXER (1809-1884).
Geschichte der Protesiantischen Theologie, Miinchen, 1867, pp. 374, 376.
"Calvin was equally great in intellect and character, lovely in social life, full of tender sympathy and faithfulness to friends, yielding and forgiving towards personal offences, but inexorably severe when he saw the honor of God obstinately and malignantly attacked. He combined French fire and practical good sense with German depth and soberness. He moved as freely