698 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
dom of the will ; but he could claim Augustin in his later writiiifs, in which he retracted his earlier advocacy of freedom. The objection that the slavery of the will nullifies the exhortations to repent, would be valid, if God did not make them effective by his Spirit.
The reply of Calvin to Pighius is more cautious and guarded than Luther's reply to Erasmus, and more churchly than Zwingli's tract on Providence. In defending himself, he defended what was then the common Protestant doctrine, in opposition to the then prevailing Pelagianism in the Roman Church. It had a good effect upon the Council of Trent, which distinctly disowned the Pelagian and Semi- Pelagian heresy.^
Calvin dedicated his book to Melanchthon, as a friend wdio had agreed with him and had advised him to write against Pisfhius, if he should attack the Reformation. But Melanchthon, who had taught the same doctrine, was at that time undergoing a change in his views on the freedom of the will, chiefly because he felt that the denial of it would make God the author of sin, and destroy man's moral accountability .^ He was as competent to appreciate the logical argument in favor of necessity, but he was more open to the force of ethical and practical considerations. In his reply to Calvin's dedication. May 11, 1543, he acknowledged the compliment paid to him, but modestly and delicately intimated his dissent and his desire that Protestants should unite in the defence of those more important doctrines, which commended themselves by their simplicity and practical usefulness. " I wish," he says, "you would transfer your eloquence to the adorning of these momentous subjects, by which our friends would be strengthened, our enemies terrified, and the weak encouraged ; for who in these days possesses a more forcible
1 See the remarks of Schweizer on the value of this controversy, I.e., 1. 198.
2 The successive changes are marked in the editions of his Loci Theologici, 1525, 1535, 1544, 1548. See above, p. 548.
§ 120. THE ANTI-PAPAL WRITINGS. 699
or splendid style of disputation? ... I do not write this letter to dictate to you who are so learned a man, and so well versed in all the exercises of piety. I am persuaded, indeed, that it agrees with your sentiments, though less subtle and more adapted for use." ^
Calvin intended to answer the second part of the work of Pighius, but as he learned that he had died shortly before, he did not wish "to insult a dead dog" (!), and applied himself " to other pursuits." ^ But nine years afterwards he virtually answered it in the Consetisus Gienevensis (1552), which may be considered as the second part of his refutation of Pighius, although it was occasioned by the controversy with Bolsec.
§ 120. The Anti-Papal Writings. Criticisin of the Council of Trent. 1547.
I. Most of Calvin's anti-papal writings are printed in Opera, Tom. VI. (In
the Amsterdam ed., Tom. IX. 37-90; 99-335 and 409-485.) An English translation in vols. I. and III. of Tracts relating to the Reformation by John Calvin, translated from the original Latin by Henry Beveridge, Esq. Edinburgh (Calvin Translation Society), 1844 and 1851.
II. Acta Synodi Tridentime cum antidoto. In Opera, VII. 365-506. Comp. Schweizer, I. 239-249; Dyer, p. 229 sq. ; Stiihelin, II. 255 sqq.
Calvin's anti-papal writings are numerous. Among them his Answer to Cardinal Sadolet (1540), and his Plea for the Necessity of the Reformation, addressed to Emperor Charles V.
1 " Et quidem scio, hwc cum tuis congruere, sed sunt irax'^T^pci, et ad usum accommodata." He also refers to Basil's saying: fiSfov de\r}crou, Kal 6ihs -rrpoairavTa. Calvin's Opera, XI. 539-542. Melanchthon's letters are usually interspersed with Greek words and sentences.
■■2 Cons. Genev. : " Paulo post librum editum, moritur Pighius. Ergo ne cani tnortito insultarem, ad alias lucuhrationes me converti." He characterizes Pighius as a "homo phrenettca plane audacia prceditus," because he attempted to establish the freedom of man, and to overthrow the secret counsel of God, by wiiitli he elects some to salvation and others to eternal ruin {alios a'terno exitio destinat). It is no excuse for Calvin's insulting language on a dead enemy that St. Jerome said of his former friend Kufinus : "The scorpion now lies under ground ! " Among polemic theologians charity is a great rarity.