§ 163. CALVIN'S INFLUEXCK Ul'ON GREAT BIUTAIN. 819
denomination in general intelligence, liberality, and zeal for the spread of Christianity at home and abroad.
The hero of the Scotch Reformation, though four years older than Calvin, sat humbly at his feet and became more Calvinistic than Calvin. John Knox, the Scot of the Scots, as Luther was the German of the Germans, spent the five years of his exile (1554-1559), during the reign of the Bloody Mary, mostly at Geneva, and found there " the most perfect school of Christ that ever was since the days of the Apostles." 1 After that model he led the Scotch people, with dauntless courage and energy, and the perfervidum ingenium Scotorum^ from mediaeval semi-barbarism into the light of modern civilization, and acquired a name which, next to those of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin, is tlie greatest in the history of the Protestant Reformation.^
In the seventeenth century Scotch Presbyterianism and English Puritanism combined to produce a second and more radical reformation, and formulated the rigorous principles of Puritanic Calvinism in doctrine, discipline, and worship. The Westminster standards of 1647 have since governed the Presbyterian, and, in part, also the Congregational or Independent, and the regular Baptist Churches of the British Empire and the United States, with such modifications and adaptations as the progress of theology and church life demands.^
1 See above, § 110, p. 518.
2 Creeds of Christendom, I. 669-685, and the literature there given.
3 Ibid. I. 685-813.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE CLOSING SCENES IN CALVIN'S LIFE.
§ 164. Calvin's Last Days and Death.
Calvin had labored in Geneva twenty-three years after his second arrival, — that is, from September, 1541, till May 27, 1564,1 — when he was called to his rest in the prime of manhood and usefulness, and in full possession of his mental powers ; leaving behind him an able and worthy successor, a model Reformed Church based on the law of Moses and the gospel of Christ ; a flourishing Academy, which was a nursery of evangelical preachers for Switzerland and France, and survives to this day ; and a library of works from his pen, which after more than three centuries are still a living and moulding power.^
He continued his labors till the last year, writing, preaching, lecturing, attending the sessions of the Consistory and the Venerable Company of pastors, entertaining and counselling strangers from all parts of the Protestant world, and corresponding in every direction. He did all this notwithstanding his accumulating physical maladies, as headaches, asthma, dyspepsia, fever, gravel, and gout, which wore out his delicate body, but could not break his mighty spirit.
When he was unable to walk he had himself transported to church in a chair. On the 6th of February, 1564, he preached his last sermon. On Easter day, the 2d of April,
^ In the same year (1564) Michelangelo died, and Shakespeare and Galileo were born. Adding the two years of his first sojourn, from 1536 to 1538, Calvin spent twenty-five years in Geneva.
- He lived, says a Scotch divine, " somewhat less than fif tj^-five years, but into that period the work of centuries was compressed." Tweedie, I.e., p. 57.
§ 164. CALVIN'S LAST DAYS AND DEATH. 821
he was for the last time carried to church and received the sacrament from the hands of Beza.
On the 25th of April, he made his last will and testament. It is a characteristic document, full of humility and gratitude to God, acknowledging his own unworthiness, placing his whole confidence in the free election of grace, and the abounding merits of Christ, laying aside all controversy, and looking forward to the unity and peace in heaven.^
Luther, defying all forms of law, begins his last will with the words : " I am well known in heaven, on earth, and in hell," and closes : " This wrote the notary of God and the witness of his gospel. Dr. Martin Luther."
On the 26th of April, Calvin wished to see once more the four Syndics and all the members of the Little Council in the Council Hall, but the Senators in consideration of his health offered to come to him. They proceeded to his house on the 27th in solemn silence. As they were assembled round him he gathered all his strength and addressed them without interruption, like a patriarch, thanking them for their kindness and devotion, asking their pardon for his occasional outbreaks of violence and wrath, and exhorting them to persevere in the pure doctrine and discipline of Christ. He moved them to tears .2 In like manner, on the 28th of April, he addressed all the ministers of Geneva whom he had invited to his house, in words of solemn exhortation and affectionate regard. He asked their pardon for any failings, and thanked them for their faithful assistance. He grasped the hands of every one. " They parted," says Beza, " with heavy hearts and tearful eyes. "^
1 Beza's Vita, in Opera, XXI. pp. 162 sqq. (in Latin) ; Henry, III. p. 171 (in Frencli) ; translation in the next section.
2 See, besides the account of Beza, the entry in the Ee'g. du Conseil, April 27, Annal. XXI. 815.
3 See the Discours d'adieu aux membres du Petit Conseil, and the Discours d'adieu aux ministres, in his Opera, Tom. IX. 887-890, in Beza's Vita, and in the appendix to Bonnet's French Letters, Tom! II. 573. Comp. also Henry, III. 582 sqq. ; IStahelin, II. 462-468. Translation in the next section.