§ 56. John Calvin. His Life and Character.

§ 56. John Calvin. His Life and Character.

Literature

I. Works and Correspondence of Calvin.

Joannis Calvini. Opera quæ supersunt omnia, ed. G. Baum, E. Cunitz, E. Reuss, theologi Argentoratenses. Brunsvigæ, 1863 sqq. (in the Corp. Reform.). So far (1884) 27 vols. 4to. The most complete and most critical edition.

Older Latin ed., Geneva, 1617, in 12 vols. folio, and Amstelod. 1671, 9 vols. fol.

An English edition of Calvin's Works, by the 'Calvin Translation Society,' Edinburgh, 1842-1853, in 52 vols.

Convenient editions of Calvin's Institutes, by Tholuck (Berol. 1834 and 1846); the Commentaries on Genesis, by Hengstenberg (Berol. 1838), on the Psalms (Berol. 1830-34), on the New Testament (except the Apocalypse, 1833-38, in 7 vols.), by Tholuck.

His most important works were also written in French.

A German translation of his Institutes, by Fr. Ad. Krummacher (1834), of his Comment., by C. F. L. Matthieu (1859 sqq.).

The extensive correspondence of Calvin was first edited in part by Beza and Jonvillers (Calvin's secretary), Genevæ, 1575, and other editions; by Bretschneider (the Gotha Letters), Lips. 1835; by A. Crottet, Genève, 1850; then much more completely by Jules Bonnet, Lettres Françaises, Paris, 1854, 2 vols.; an English translation (from the French and Latin) by D. Constable and M. R. Gilchrist, Edinburgh and Philadelphia (Presbyt. Board of Publ.), 1855 sqq., in four vols. (the 4th with an index), giving the letters in chronological order (till 1558). The last and best edition is by the Strasburg Professors in Calvini Opera, Vol. X. Part II. to Vol. XV., with ample Prolegomena on the previous editions of Calvin's Letters and the manuscript sources.

Compare, also, A. L. Herminjard: Correspondance des réformateurs dans les pays de langue française, (beginning with 1512). Genève and Paris, 1866, sqq., 5th vol. 1883. A most important work, with many new letters from and to the Reformers, illustrated by historical and biographical notes; the correspondence of Calvin begins Tome II. p. 278.

II. Biographies of Calvin.

Th. de Bèze: Histoire de la vie et la mort de J. Calvin, Genève, 1564; second French ed. enlarged and improved by Nic. Colladon, 1565, recently republished by A. Franklin, Paris, 1864; Latin ed. by Beza, as an introduction to Calvin's Letters, 1575, reprinted in Tholuck's ed. of Calvin's Commentaries. There are also German, English, and Italian translations. The second French and the Latin editions should be consulted. This work of Beza, together with Calvin's Letters and Works, furnishes the chief material for an authentic biography.

Hieron. Bolsec (a Carmelite monk, then physician at Geneva, expelled on account of Pelagian views and opposition to Calvin, 1551, returned to the Roman Church 1563): Histoire de la vie de Jean Calvin, Paris, 1577 (Genève, 1835); then in Latin: De J. Calvini magni quondam Genevensium ministri vita, moribus, rebus gestis, studiis ac denique morte, Coloniæ, 1580. 'A mean and slanderous libel,' inspired by feelings of hatred and revenge. See Schweizer, Centraldogmen, Vol. I. p. 205.

Jacques Le Vasseur (R.C.): Annales de l'église cathédrale de Noyon, Paris, 1633. Contains some notices on the youth of Calvin.

Jacques Desmay (R.C.): Remarques sur la vie de J. Calvin hérésiarque tirées des Registres de Noyon, Rouen, 1657.

Drelincourt: La défense de Calvin contre l'outrage fait à sa mémoire, Genève, 1667; in German, Hanau, 1671. A refutation of the slanders of Bolsec.

Paul Henry (pastor of a French Reformed Church in Berlin): Das Leben Johann Calvins des grossen Reformators, etc., Hamburg, 1835-44, 3 vols.; also abridged in one vol., Hamburg, 1846. English translation by Stebbing, London and New York, 1854, in 2 vols. The large work is a valuable collection rather than digestion of material for a full biography by a sincere admirer.

E. Stähelin (Reformed minister at Basle): Johannes Calvin; Leben und ausgewählte Schriften, Elberfeld, 1863, 2 vols. (in Väter und Begründer der reform. Kirche, Vol. IV. in two parts). Upon the whole the best biography, though not as complete as Henry's, and in need of modification and additions from more recent researches.

T. H. Dyer: Life of Calvin, London, 1850. 'Valuable and impartial' (Fisher).

Felix Bungener: Calvin, sa vie, son oeuvre et ses écrits, Paris, 1862; English translation, Edinb. 1863.

F. W. Kampschulte (a liberal Roman Catholic, Professor of History at Bonn, died an Old Catholic, 1871): Joh. Calvin, seine Kirche und sein Staat in Genf, Leipzig, 1869, Vol. I. (Vols. II. and III. have not appeared). A most able, critical, and, for a Catholic, remarkably fair and liberal work, drawn in part from unpublished sources.

Guizot (the great historian and statesman, a descendant of the Huguenots, d. at Val Richer, Sept. 12, 1874): St. Louis and Calvin, London, 1868. Comp. also his sketch in the Musée des protestants célèbres.

The work of the Roman Catholic Audin: Histoire de la vie, etc., de Calvin, Paris, 1841, 5th ed., 1851, in 2 vols. (also in English and German), is mostly a slanderous caricature, based upon Bolsec.

III. Biographical Sketches and Essays.

H. Mignet: Mémoire sur l'établissement de la réforme et sur la constitution du Calvinisme à Genève, Paris, 1834.

J. J. Herzog: Joh. Calvin, Basel, 1843; and in his Real-Encyklop. Vol. II. p. 511.

E. Renan: Jean Calvin, in Études d'histoire réligieuse, 5th ed., Paris, 1862; English translation by O. B. Frothingham (Studies of Religious History and Criticism, New York, 1864, pp. 285-297).

Philip Schaff: John Calvin, in the Bibliotheca Sacra, Andover, 1857, pp. 125-146.

Henry B. Smith: John Calvin, in Appleton's American Cyclopædia, New York, Vol. IV. (1859) pp. 281-288.

James Anthony Froude: Calvinism, an Address delivered to the Students of St. Andrew's, March 17, 1871 (In his Short Studies on Great Subjects, Second Series, New York, 1873, pp. 9-53).

A. A. Hodge (of Alleghany, son of Dr. Charles Hodge of Princeton): Calvinism, in Johnson's Universal Cyclopædia (New York, 1875 sqq.), Vol. I. pp. 727-734.

Lyman H. Atwater: Calvinism in Doctrine and Life, in the Presbyt. Quarterly and Princeton Review, New York, Jan. 1875, pp. 73-106.

IV. Histories of the Reformation in Geneva.

Abr. Ruchat (Professor in Lausanne): Histoire de la réformation de la Suisse, Genève, 1727 sqq. 6 vols.; new edition, with appendices, by Prof. Vulliemin, Nyon, Giral. 1835-1838, 7 vols.

C. B. Hundeshagen (Professor in Berne, afterwards in Bonn, d. 1872): Die Conflicte des Zwinglianismus, Lutherthums und Calvinismus in der Bernischen Landeskirche von 1532-1558. Nach meist ungedruckten Quellen. Bern, 1842.

J. Gaberel (ancien pasteur): Histoire de l'église de Genève depuis le commencement de la réforme jusqu'en 1815. Genève, 1855-63, 3 vols.

P. Charpenne: Histoire de la réforme et des réformateurs de Genève. Paris, 1861.

Amad. Roget: L'église et l'état à Genève de vivant Calvin, 1867; and Histoire du peuple de Genève depuis la réforme jusqu'à l'escalade. Genève, 1870.

Merle d'Aubigné (Professor of Church History at Geneva, d. 1872): History of the Reformation in Europe in the time of Calvin (from the French), New York, 1863-1879, 8 vols. (the second division of his general history of the Reformation. The last two volumes were edited from the author's MSS. They carry the history down to the middle of the 16th century.

G. P. Fisher: The Reformation. New York, 1873, Ch. VII. pp. 192-241.

For the political history of Geneva preceding and during the time of Calvin are to be compared Fr. Bonnivard: Les Chroniques de Genève, edited by Dunant (Gen. 1831, 4 vols.); Galiffe: Matériaux pour l'histoire de Genève; J. P. Bérenger: Histoire de Genève jusqu'en 1761 (1772, 6 vols.); and the Mémoires et documents publiés par la Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Genève (1840 sqq.).