§ 126. CALVIN AND CASTELLIO. 621
this effect in private letters.^ Socinus appealed to the judgment of MeLanchthon in a letter to Calvin, and Calvin, in his reply, could not entirely deny it. Yet, upon the whole, Melanchthon, like Bullinger, was more on the side of Calvin, and in the more important affair of Servetus, both unequivocally justified his conduct, which is now generally condemned by Protestants.
§ 126. Calvin and CastelUo.
I. Castellio's chief work is his Biblia sacra lathia (Basil., 1551, 1554, 1555^ 1556, 1572; the N. T. also at Amst., 1683, Leipz., 1760, Halle, 1776). His French version is less important. He defended both against the attacks of Beza {Defensio suarum translationum Bibliormn, Basil., 1562). After the execution of Servetus, 1553, CastelUo wrote several anonymous or pseudonymous booklets against Calvin, and against the persecution of heretics, which provoked the replies of Calvin and Beza (see below). His views against predestination and the slavery of the will are best set forth in his four Dialog i de pmdestinatione, de elect ione, de libera arbitrio, de ^fide, which were published after his death at Basel, 1578, 1613, 1610, and in English, 1679. See a chronological list of his numerous works in La France Protesta/ite, vol. IV. 126-141. I have before me (from the Union Seminary Library) a rare volume : Sebastiani Castellionis Diahgi IV., printed at Gouda in Holland anno 1613, which contains the four Dialogues above mentioned (pp. 1-225)", Castellio's Defence against Calvin's Adr. Nebulonem, his Annotations on the ninth ch. of Romans, and several other tracts.
Calvin : Brevis Responsio ad diluendas riebulonis ruiusdnm calumnias quibiis doctrinam de rcterna Dei pra'destinatione ffedare conatus est, Gen. (1554), 1557. In Opera, IX. 253-266. The unnamed nebnlo (in the French ed. le broullion) is Castellio. Cahimnio' nebulonis cujnsdam adversus doctrinam Joh. Ccdvini de occulta Dei providentia. Johannis Calvini ad easdem responsio, Gen., 1558. In Opera, IX. 269-318. In this book Castellio's objections to Calvin's predestinarian system are set forth in twenty -four theses, with
1 He wrote to Caspar Peucer, his son-in-law, Feb. 1, 1552: " Lelius mihi scribit, tanta esse Genevce certamina de Stoica necessitate, ut carceri incl.usits sit qxiidam \_Bolsec'\ a Zenone [Co/(»'wo] dissentient. 0 rem miseram ! Doctrina salutaris obscuratur peregrinis disputationibus." Mel.'s Opera (^Corp. Re/.), vol. VII. 932. To his friend Camerarius he wrote, under the same date, Feb. 1, 1552 (VII. 930) : " Hie Polonus a Lelio accepit literas. . . . Ac vide seculi furores, certamina Allobrogica [Genevensia] de Stoica necessitate tanta .sunt, ut carceri inclusus sit quidam, qui a Zenone, dissentit. Lelius narrat, se Kopv<pai(f cuidam [Ca/i7Ho] scripsisse, ne tarn vehementer jmgnet. Et mitiores sunt Tigurini."
622 THE IIEFOKIMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
a defence, and then answered by Calvin. The first thesis charges Calvin with teaching : " Deus maximam mundi partem nudo puroque voluntatis sua. arbitric creacit ud perditionem." Thes. V.: "Nullum adulterium, furtum,. homicidium cominittitur, quin Dei voluntas intercedat."
Beza: Ad Seb. Castellionis calmnnias, quibus unicum salutis nostra: fundamentum, I.e. aternam Dei prwdestinutionem evertere nititur, resporisio, Gen., 1558. In his Traciat. theoL I. 337-423 (second ed. Geneva, 1582).
II. Bayle : Castalion in his " Diet. hist, et crit." — Joh. C. Fusslin : Lebensgeschichte Seb. Castellio's. Frankf. and Leipzig, 1776. — F. Trechsel: Die protest. Antitrinitarier, vol. I. (1839), pp. 208-2U.— C. Rich. Brenner- Essai sur la vie et les Merits de Seb. Chatillon, 1853. — Henry : II. 383 sqq. ; III. 88 sqq.; and Beilage, 28-42. — * Alex. Schweizer: Centraldogmen, I. 310-356 ; and Sebastian Castellio als Bekdmpfer der Calvinischen Priidestinationslehre, in Baur's " Theol. Jahrbiicher" for 1851. — Stahelin, I. 377-381; II. 302-308. — Jacob Maehly: Seb. Castellio, ein biographischer Versuch, Basel, 1862. — Jules Bonnet: Se'b. Chatillion ou la tolerance an XVP siecle, in the "Bulletin de la Socie'te' de I'hist. du protest, fran^ais," Nos. XVI. and XVII., 1867 and 1868. —Em. Brossoitx : Se'b. Chasteillon, Strasbourg, 1867. — B. Riggenbach, in Herzog^, III. 160 sqq.— Lutte- ROTH : Castallion in Lichtenberger, II. 672-677. —* La France Protes- TANTE (2d ed.) : Chateillon, torn. IV. 122-142. — * Ferd. Buisson : Se'bastien Castellion, Paris, 1892, 2 vols.
Castellio was far superior to Bolsec as a scholar and a man, and lived in peace with Calvin until differences of opinion on predestination, free-will, the Canticles, the descent into Hades, and religious toleration made them bitter enemies. In the heat of the controversy both forgot the dignity and moderation of a Christian scholar.
Sebastian Castellio or Castalio was born at Chatillon in Savoy, in 1515, six years after Calvin, of poor and bigoted parents.^ He acquired a classical and biblical education by hard study. He had a rare genius for languages, and mastered Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In 1540 he taught Greek at Lyons, and conducted the studies of three noblemen. He published there a manual of biblical history under the
1 His French name is Bastien de Chatillon or Chateillon. He assumed, not without vanity, tlie classical name Castalio with allusion to the Castalian fountain at the foot of Parnassus.. The usual spelling is Castellio. His precise origin is uncertain. He was either a Frenchman or a Savoyard. He was numbered with the liberal anti-calvinistic Italians, and charged with using a corrupt French dialect. See Bayle, I.e., and Schweizer, I. 311.