840 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
which cannot be defended, but he never condescended to coarse and vulgar abuse, like so many of his contemporaries.^
He has often been charged with coldness and want of domestic and social affection, but very unjustly. The chapter on his marriage and home life, and his letters on the death of his wife and only child show the contrary .^ The charge is a mistaken inference from his gloomy doctrine of eternal reprobation ; but this was repulsive to his own feelings, else he would not have called it " a horrible decree." Experience teaches that even at this day the severest Calvinism is not seldom found connected with a sweet and amiable Christian temper. He was grave, dignified, and reserved, and kept strangers at a respectful distance ; but he was, as Beza observes, cheerful in society and tolerant of those vices which spring from the natural infirmity of men. He treated his friends as his equals, with courtesy and manly frankness, but also with affectionate kindness. And they all bear testimony to this fact, and were as true and devoted to him as he was to them. The French martyrs wrote to him letters of gratitude for having fortified them to endure prison and torture with patience and resignation.^ " He obtained," says Guizot, " the devoted affection of the best men and the esteem of all, without ever seeking to please them." " He possessed," says Tweedie, " the secret and inexplicable power of binding men to him by ties that nothing but sin or death could sever. They treasured up every word that dropped from his lips."
Among his most faithful friends were many of the best men and women of his age, of different character and disposition, such as Farel, Viret, Beza, Bucer, Grynseus, Bullinger, Knox, Melanchthon, Queen Marguerite, and the Duchess
1 Comp. above, § 118, p. 595.
2 See above, § 92, pp. 413-424.
3 Michelet (XI. 95) : " Les martyrs, a leur dernier jour, se faisaient une consolation, un devoir d'^crire a Calvin, lis n'aiiraient pas quitte' la vie sans remercier celui dont la parole les avail mene's a la mort. Leurs lettres, respectueuses, nobles et douces, arrachant les larmes."
§ 166. CALVm's PERSONAL CHARACTER. 841
Ren^e. His large correspondence is a noble monument to his heart as well as his intellect, and is a sufficient refutation of all calumnies. How tender is his reference to his departed friend Melanchthon, notwithstanding their difference of opinion on predestination and free-will : " It is to thee, I appeal, who now livest with Christ in the bosom of God, where thou waitest for us till we be gathered with thee to a holy rest. A hundred times hast thou said, when, wearied with thy labors and oppressed by thy troubles, thou reposedst thy head familiarly on my breast, ' Would that I could die in this bosom ! ' Since then I have a thousand times wished that it had happened to us to be together." IIoav noble is his admonition to Bullinger, when Luther made his last furious attack upon the Zwinglians and the Ziiriehers (1544), not to forget " how great a man Luther is and by what extraordinary gifts he excels." And how touching is his farewell letter to his old friend Farel (May 2, 1564) : " Farewell, my best and truest brother I And since it is God's will that you should survive me in this world, live mindful of our friendship, of which, as it was useful to the Church of God, the fruits await us in heaven. Fniy, do not fatigue yourself on my account. It is with difficulty that I draw my breath, and I expect that every moment will be my last. It is enough that I live and die for Christ, who is the reward of his followers both in life and in death. Again, farewell, with the brethren."
Calvin has also unjustly been charged with insensibility to the beauties of nature and art. It is true we seek in vain for specific allusions to the earthly paradise in which he lived, — the lovely shores of Lake Leman, the murmur of the Rhone, the snowy grandeur of the monarch of mountains in Chamounix. But the writings of the other Reformei's are equally bare of such allusions, and the beauties of Switzerland were not properly appreciated till towards the close of the eighteenth century, when Haller, Goethe, and Schiller directed