806 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
The Academy continued to flourish with some interruptions. It attracted students from all parts of Protestant Europe, and numbered among its teachers such men as Casaubon, Spangenheim, Hotoman, Francis and Alphonse Turretin, Leclerc, Pictet de Saussure, and Charles Bonnet. It was the chief nursery of Protestant ministers and teachers for France, and the principle school of reformed theology and literary culture for more than two hundred years. A degree from that Academy was equivalent in Holland to a degree of any University. Arminius was sent there by the city of Amsterdam to be educated under Beza (1582), who gave him a good testimonial, not knowing that he would become the leader of a mighty reaction against Calvinism.
In 1859 the third centennial of the Academy was celebrated in Geneva.
The evangelistic work of that Academy was resumed and is successfully carried on in the spirit of Calvin by the Evangelical Society and the Free Theological Seminary of Geneva, which numbered among its first teachers Merle d' Aubign^, the distinguished historian of the Reformation.
§ 162. CalviTi's Influence upon the Reformed Churches of the
Continent.
Calvin's moral power extended over all the Reformed Churches, and over several nationalities — Swiss, French, German, Polish, Bohemian, Hungarian, Dutch, English, Scotch, and American. His religious influence upon the Anglo-Saxon race in both continents is greater than that of any native Englishman, and continues to this day.^
1 It is interesting to read the judgment on Calvin's influence by a highlyaccomplished lady, who moved in the best society of England and the Continent. The Baroness Bunsen, whose husband was successively Prussian Ambassador in Italy, Switzerland, and England, writes in one of her letters (Aug. 19, 1865) : "I read in the winter a life of Calvin by Bungener, and a very painful book it is, but the subject is of grand effect from the display of moral
§ 162. calvtn's influence upon the churches. 807
Calvin and France.
Calvin never entered French soil after his settlement in Geneva, and was not even a citizen of the Republic till 1559; but his heart was still in France. From the time he wrote that eloquent letter to Francis the First, in dedicating to him his Institutes, he followed the Protestant movement with the liveliest interest. He was the head of the French Reformation and consulted at every step. He was called as pastor to the first Protestant church in Paris, but declined. He gave to the Huguenots their creed and form of government. The Gallican Confession of 1559, also called the Confession of Rochelle, was, in its first draft, his work, and his pupil Antoine de la Roche Chandieu (also called Sadeel) brought it into its present enlarged shape, in which it was presented by Beza to Charles IX. at the Colloquy at Poissy, 1561, and signed at the Synod of La Rochelle, 1571, by the Queen Jeanne d'Albret of Navarre ; her son, Prince Henry of Navarre (Henry IV.) ; Prince Conde ; Prince Louis, Count of Nassau ; Admiral Coligny ; Chatillon ; several nobles, and all the preachers present.^
The history of French Protestantism down to 1564 is largely identified with Calvin's name. He induced the Swiss Cantons and the princes of the Smalkaldian League to intercede for the persecuted Huguenots. He sent messengers and letters of comfort to the prisoners. " The reverence," says one of his biographers, " with which his name was mentioned, the boundless confidence reposed in his person, the enthusiasm of the disciples who hastened to him, or came from him, surpasses all the usual experience of men. Congrega-
power almost unequalled. . . . The merit of Calvin is his own, and he has been the creative instrument of the strength of England, of Scotland, of the United States of America, not to speak of the Protestants of France, wlio have been scattered abroad to sow good seed in every country into which they fled, as not being suffered to build up their own." 1 Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, vol. I. 490-501.