834 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
with an unwilling mind, because I thought I should prove unfruitful. For not knowing what the Lord had determined, I saw nothing before me but numbers of the greatest difSculties. But proceeding in this work, I at length perceived that the Lord had truly blessed my labors. Do you also persist in this vocation, and maintain the established order; at the same time, make it your endeavor to keep the people in obedience to the doctrine ; for there are some wicked and contumacious persons. Matters, as you see, are tolerably settled. The more guilty, therefore, will you be before God, if they go to wreck through your indolence. But I declare, brethren, that I have lived with you in the closest bonds of true and sincere affection, and now, in like manner, part from you. But if, while under this disease, you have experienced any degree of peevishness from me, I beg your pardon, and heartily thank you, that when I was sick, you have borne the burden imposed upon you.'
" When he had thus spoken, he shook hands with each of us. We, with most sorrowful hearts, and certainly not unmoistened eyes, departed from him."
Beza modestly omits Calvin's reference to himself which is as follows : " Quant a nostre estat interieur, vous avez esleu Monsieur de Beze pour tenir ma place. Regardez de le soulager, car la charge est grande et a de la peine, en telle sorte qu'il faudroit qu'il fust accable' soubs le Jardeau. Mais regardez a le supporter. De luy, ie s^ay qu'il a bon vouloir et /era ce qu'il pourra." Pinaut's report, in Calv. Opera, IX. 894.
§ 166. Calvin's Personal Character and Habits.
Calvin is one of those characters that command respect and admiration rather than affection, and forbid familiar approach, but gain upon closer acquaintance. The better he is known, the more he is admired and esteemed. Those who judge of his character from his conduct in the case of Servetus, and of his theology from the " decretum horribile" see the spots on the sun, but not the sun itself. Taking into account all his failings, he must be reckoned as cue of the greatest and best of men whom God raised in the history of Christianity. ,
He has been called by competent judges of different creeds and schools, " the theologian " par excellence, " the Aristotle of the Reformation," " the Thomas Aquinas of the Reformed Church," "the Lycurgus of a Christian democracy," "the Pope of Geneva." He has been compared, as a church ruler, to Gregory VII. and to Innocent III. The sceptical Renan
§ 166. Calvin's personal character. 835
even, who entirely dissents from his theology, calls him " the most Christian man of his age." Such a combination of theoretic and practical pre-eminence is without a parallel in history. But he was also an intolerant inquisitor and persecutor, and his hands are stained Avith the blood of a heretic.^ Take these characteristics together, and you have the whole Calvin ; omit one or the other of tliem, and you do liim injustice. He will ever command admiration and even reverence, but can never be popular among the masses. No pilgrimages will be made to his grave. The fourth centennial of his birth, in 1909, is not likely to be celebrated with such enthusiasm as Luther's was in 1883, and Zwingli's in 1884. But the impression he made on the Swiss, French, Dutch, and especially on the Anglo-Saxon race in Great Britain and America, can never be erased.^
Calvin's bodily presence, like that of St. Paul, Avas weak. His earthly tent scarcely covered his mighty spirit. He was of middle stature, dark complexion, thin, pale, emaciated, and in feeble health ; but he had a finely chiseled face, a wellformed mouth, pointed beard, black hair, a prominent nose, a lofty forehead, and flaming eyes which kept their lustre to
* His enemies in Geneva even started tlie proverb, if we are to believe the untrustwortiiy Baudouin : " Better witli Beza in hell than with Calvin in heaven."
2 See the collection of remarkable tributes in § 68, pp. 270 sqq. I will only add two more from Dr. Baur and Dr. Mohler, the great historians who were colleagues and antagonists, the champions, indeed, of opposite creeds in one of the most important theological controversies of the nineteenth century. The Protestant Baur, in his Kirchengeschichte (IV. 374), calls Calvin a man '• von seltener Gelehrsamkeit, feiner , vielseitifjer Bildung, scharfem, durchdringendem Geiste, kmjligem, aber strengem Charukter, voUkommen wilrdig, den iihrigen Hiiuptern der Reformation zur Seite zu stehen, an Schlirfe des Geistes zum Theil ihnen noch iiberlegen." The Roman Catholic Mohler, the author of the Symhollk, which caused a great sensation in its day, says in his posthumous Kirchengeschiclde (III. 180) : " Cahiin besass sehr viel Scharfsinn und eine ausnehmende Beredtsamkeit, nnd icar welt gelehrter als alle ubrigen Reformatoren, so dass Lehren, die bei einem andern abscheulich gewesen waren, ans seinem Munde ivohl klingen; " but he adds: " Zu bedatiern aber ist, dass eine so grosse geistige Kraft im Dienste des Irrthums war."