374 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
but very. solemn manner by the whole congregation. Calvin required the communicants to give him previous notice of their intention, that they might receive instruction, warning, or comfort, according to their need. Unworthy applicants were excluded.
The introduction of the Psalter in the vernacular was a most important feature, and the beginning of a long and heroic chapter in the history of worship and Christian life. The Psalter occupies the same important place in the Reformed Church as the hymnal in the Lutheran. It was the source of comfort and strength to the Huguenot Church of the Desert, and to the Presbyterian Covenanters of Scotland, in the days of bitter trial and persecution. Calvin himself prepared metrical versions of Psalms 25, 36, 43, 46,^ 91, 113, 120, 138, 142, together with a metrical version of the Song of Simeon and the Ten Commandments.^ He afterwards used the superior version of Clement Marot, the greatest French poet of that age, who was the poet of the court, and the psalmist of the Church (1497-1544). Calvin met him first at the court of the Duchess of Ferrara (1536), whither he had fled, and afterwards at Geneva (1542), where he encouraged him to continue his metrical translation of the Psalms. Marot's Psalter first appeared at Paris, 1541, and contained thirty Psalms, together with metrical versions of the Lord's Prayer, the Angelic Salutation, the Creed, and the Decalogue. Several editions, with fifty Psalms, were printed at Geneva in 1543, one at Strassburg in 1545. Later editions were enlarged with the translations of Beza. The popularity
^ The same Psalm furnished the key-note to Luther's immortal hymn,
" Einfeste Burg ist unser Gott." Calvin's version begins: —
" Nostre Dieu estferme appuy,
Vertiie, fortresse ei seur confort, Auquel aurons en notre enniiy. Present refuge et trks bon port."
2 They were printed at Strassburg, 1539, and republished, together with an original hymn (Salutation a Jesus- Christ), from an edition of 1545, in Opera, VI. 212-224.
§ 88. CALVIN AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHEFw 375
and usefulness of his and Beza's Psalter were greatly enhanced by the rich melodies of Claude Goudimel (1510- 1572), who joined the Reformed Church in 1562, and died a martyr at Lyons in the night of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. He devoted his musical sfenius to the Reformation. His tunes are based in part on popular songs, and breathe the simple and earnest spirit of the Reformed cultus. Some of them have found a place among the chorals of the Lutheran Church.
§ 88. Calvin as Theological Teacher and Author.
The Reformers of Strassburg, aided by leading laymen, as Jacob Sturm and John Sturm, provided for better elementary and higher education, and founded schools which attracted pupils from France as early as 1525. Gerard Roussel, one of the earliest of the refugees, speaks very highly of them in a letter to the bishop of Meaux.^ A Protestant college (gymnasium), with a theological department, was established March 22, 1538, and placed under the direction of John Sturm, one of the ablest pedagogues of his times. It was the nucleus of a university which continued German down to the French Revolution, was then half Frenchified, and is now again German in language and methods of teaching. The first teachers in that college were Bucer for the New Testament, Capito for the Old, Hedio for history and theology, Herlin for mathematics, and Jacob Bedrot or Pedrotus for Greek.^ A converted Jew taught Hebrew.
1 Herminjard, I. 407 ; also Farel in a letter of June 4, 1526, to Myconius, ibid. 433 sq. On the scliools in Strassburg see Roehrich, Gesckichte der Eeformation im Elsass, I. 253, 261-264; A. G. Strobel, Histoire du Gymnase protestant de Strasbourg, Strasb. 1838; Charles Schmidt, La vie et les travaux de Jean Sturm, Strasb. 1855 (quoted by Herminjard) ; and R. Zopffel, Johann Sturm, der erste ReJctor der Strassburger Akademie, Strassburg, 1887.
2 Pedrotus (Padrut), whose name often occurs in Calvin's letters, was a native of Pludenz in Vorarlberg, and famous as editor and expounder of ancient classics, hence also called Jacobus Grcecus. Capito recommended