RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Calovius Calvin
The party of Calixtus naturally hated and despised him; but the fact that they found it necessary to spread absurd fictions about his horrible end shows clearly enough that nothing could justly be said against his personal character. In his own day he compelled the respect and admiration of a great variety of men, and his talents have been fully recognized by some who were far from agreeing with him, like Buddeus, Walch, and Staudlin. His incessant controversial activity has left a misleading impression of him; he himself says of this branch of his work, " I come to this kind of writing
unwillingly and by force; my dis-
Estimate position inclines me rather to stick
of to positive doctrinal work." As a
Calovius. theologian he was a faithful member
of the Wittenberg school. No one has insisted more on the necessity of a Scriptural basis for all teaching. It is true, of course, that the defects of Lutheran orthodoxy — its hardness and its extremes — are to be found in him. Faith is essentially the acceptance of the orthodox system; not only the essentials (and they covered a great deal of ground in those days), but every derived article must be accepted, for the faith is one. The standard books of doctrine are theoretically subordinate to the Scriptures; but the student is required to accept them not hypothetically but categorically — not in so far as, but because, they agree with the Bible. His firm conviction of the truth of his system gives, however, a certain dignity to his polemics; but his untiring activity never reached its aim — he did not succeed in raising the Consensus repetitus to the dignity of a creed, and a new era had dawned before he went to his rest.
(Johannes Kunze.)
Bibliography: The sources for a life of Calovius are: his own Historia syncretistica, 1682; a funeral discourse by his colleague J. F. Mayer, 1686; and C. S. Schurzfleisch, Orationes panegyricce, pp. 71 sqq., Wittenberg, 1697. Consult: H. Pipping, Memoria theologorum, pp. 108—136, Leipsic, 1705; J. C Erdmann, Lebensbeschreibungen von den wittenbergischen Theologen, pp. 88-91, Wittenberg, 1804; A. Tholuck, Der Geist der lutherischen Theologen Wittenbergs, pp. 185-211, Gotha, 1852; E. L. T. Ilenke, Georg Calixtus und seine Zeit, 2 vols., Halle, 1853— 1856.
CALVARY. See Holy Septjlcher.
CALVARY, MOUNT, ORDERS OF: Three religious orders taking their name from the Mount of Crucifixion.
1- The Calvarists or Priests of Mt. Calvary: An association of secular priests founded by Hubert Charpen tier at Mt. B6tharam, diocese of Lescar (4 m. n.w. by w. of Pau), France, in 1633 " in commemoration
of the sufferings of Christ and for the spread of the Catholic faith," five years later united with a similar association formed in Paris by a Capuchin named Hyacinthe, primarily to convert Protestants. The chief seat of the united orders was Mont Valerien, Paris (hence popularly called Colline du Calvaire). They perished in the French Revolution.
2. The Nuns of Mt. Calvary {Benedictines de Notre-Dame du Calvaire) : Founded by Antoinette d'Orleans (d. 1618) and the Capuchin Joseph de Clerc de Tremblay in 1617 at Poitiers, properly a branch of the Order of Fontevraud (q.v.). In the seventeenth century they had about twenty houses which were destroyed in the French Revolution. Since then the order has been revived and has a number of convents mostly in western France.
3. The Daughters of Mt. Calvary (Figlie del Calvario): Founded at Genoa in 1619 by Virginia Centurione (d. 1651), daughter of the doge of Genoa and wife of Grimaldi Bracelli, who undertook the care of abandoned children in a time of great distress from famine. She received help from the Marchese Emanuele Brignole, from whom the members of the order were called Le suore Brignole in Genoa. They spread in North Italy, were given a house in Rome by Gregory XVI. in 1833, and later established orphan asylums at Rieti and Viterbo. (0. Zockler-j-.)
Bibliography: Helyot, Ordres monastiques, vi. 355—370; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, i. 197, ii. 362, 427. Consult also A. M. Centurione, Vita di Virginia Centurione-Bracelli, Genoa, 1873.
CALVERT, JAMES: Wesleyan foreign missionary; b. at Pickering, 25 m. n. by e. of York, England, Jan. 3, 1813; d. at Torquay, England, Mar. 8, 1892. When appointed by the Wesleyan Missionary Society in 1838 to go to Fiji he was master of the printing and bookbinding trades and had been in 1837 a student in the Hoxton Academy. His industrial training stood him in good stead for he was able to do his own printing in Fiji and issue many books, among them a translation of the New Testament into the vernacular. He lived to see the complete abandonment of heathenism by the Fijians, a result to which his heroic labors contributed largely. From 1865 to 1872 he was supernumerary minister at Bromley, Kent, England, thence he went as missionary to the South African diamond fields. He returned in 1881 and settled at Torquay. In 1885 he paid a visit to Fiji and rejoiced in the marvelous change.
Bibliography: G. S. Rowe, James Calvert of Fiji, London, 1893.
Childhood (§ 1). Student of Theology (§ 2). Student of Law and the Classics (§ 3). His First Publication. Conversion (§ 4). Cop's Inaugural Address (§ 5). " Years of Wandering." Second Publication (§ 6).
John Calvin the Reformer, b. at Noyon (60 m.
n-e. of Paris), Picardy, July 10, 1509; d. in
Geneva, Switzerland, May 27, 1564, was the son
of Gerard Cauvin, or Caulvin, of which Calvin is
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