IN his early youth, Calvin manifested that genius and eloquence which characterized him as a man. The same intensity of will, the same rapidity of thought, the same retentiveness of memory, the same comprehensiveness of judgment, which enabled him to discharge the inconceivable labors of his maturer years, gave him an easy victory over all his competitors for college fame, so that it became necessary to withdraw him from the ordinary ranks, and to introduce him singly to the higher walks of learning. In his twenty-third year, he published a commentary on Seneca’s Treatise De Clementia, full of learning and eloquence. In his twenty-fourth year, we find him at Paris, preparing orations to be delivered by the rector of the university, and homilies to be recited to their people by the neighboring clergy. During the next year, he gave to the world his work on the sleep of the soul after death, in which he manifests an intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures, and with the works of the early Fathers. Thus, in the morning of his life, before others had awaked from the dreams of boyhood, or realized the responsibilities of maturer life, he was pronounced by Scaliger, who was indisposed to give praise to any, to be the most learned man in Europe. He was only in his twentysixth year, when he published the first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, with an address to the persecuting King of France which has ever been esteemed a production unrivalled for classic purity, force of argument, and persuasive eloquence. Designed as a defense of the calumniated Reformers, and an exposure of the base injustice, tyranny, and corruption of their persecutors, this work became the bulwark of the Reformation, and the stronghold of its adherents. It was made the Confession of Faith of a large portion of the Protestant world, and the text book of every student. It was recommended by a Convocation held at Oxford, to the general study of the English nation, and long continued to be the standard work in theology in the English universities. The Pope makes it one of his anathematizing charges against Queen Elizabeth, that the impious mysteries and Institutes, according to Calvin, are received and observed by herself, and even enjoined upon all her subjects to be obeyed. According to Schultingius, the English gave these Institutes a preference to the Bible. “The Bishops,” he says, “ordered all the ministers, that they should learn them almost to a word; that they should be kept in all the churches for public use.” He informs us also that they were studied in both the universities; that in Scotland the students of divinity began by reading these Institutes; that at Heidelberg, Geneva, Lausanne, and in all the Calvinistic universities, these Institutes were publicly taught by the professors; that in Holland, ministers, civilians, and the common people, even the coachman and the sailor, studied this work with great diligence; that esteeming it as a pearl of great price, they had it bound and gilt in the most elegant manner; and that it was appealed to as a standard on all theological questions. According to this writer, and the Cardinal Legate of the Pope, these Institutes were considered more dangerous to the cause of the papacy than all the other writings of the Reformers.

As an author, Calvin’s fame will go on brightening more and more. The Latin language was in his day the language of the learned, and of books.

But “what Latin?” asks Monsieur Villers. “A jargon bearing all the blemishes of eleven centuries of corruption and bad taste.” And yet the French Encyclopedists testify that “Calvin wrote in Latin as well as is possible in a dead language” and an Episcopalian of Oxford in 1839 has said, that “for majesty, when the subject required it, for purity, and in short, every quality of a perfect style, it would not suffer by a comparison with that of Caesar, Livy, or Tacitus.” f8 The modern idioms also were at that time in the same uncultivated rude state, into which long want of use had plunged them. Now what Luther did for the German, Calvin accomplished for the French language; he emancipated, he renovated, nay, he created it. The French of Calvin became eventually the French of Protestant France, and is still admired for its purity by the most skillful critics. f9 Of his Institutes we have already spoken; “the most remarkable literary work to which the Reformation gave birth.” Not less valued was his Catechism, now too much neglected and unstudied. He published it in French and Latin. It was soon translated into the German, English, Dutch, Scotch, Spanish, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and was made one of the standards of the Church of Scotland, the basis of the early Catechism in the Church of England, and the model of the Catechism published by the Westminster Assembly of Divines. f10 The judgment of his great opponent, Arminius, upon Calvin’s merits as a commentator, has been sustained by the verdict of three centuries, and his present advancing reputation. Arminius says, “after the Holy Scriptures, I exhort the students to read the commentaries of Calvin, for I tell them that he is incomparable in the interpretation of Scripture, and that his commentaries ought to be held in greater estimation than all that is delivered to us in the writings of the ancient Christian Fathers, so that in a certain eminent spirit of prophecy, I give the pre-eminence to him beyond most others, indeed beyond them all.” f11 But the labors of Calvin were as multiplied and arduous as his achievements were marvellous. The Genevan edition of his works amounts to twelve folio volumes. Besides these, there exist at Geneva two thousand of his sermons and lectures, taken down from his mouth, as he delivered them. He was but twenty-eight years in the ministry altogether. He was always poor, so as not to be able to have many books. The sufferings of his body from headache, weakness, and other complaints, were constant and intense, so that he was obliged to recline on his couch a part of every day. It was only the remnants of his time, left from preaching and correspondence, he devoted to study and writing. And yet, every year of his life may be chronicled by his various works. In the midst of convulsions and interruptions of every kind, he pursued his commentaries on the Bible, as if sitting in the most perfect calm, and undisturbed repose.

His labors were indeed incredible, and beyond all comparison. He allowed himself no recreation whatever. He preached and wrote with headaches that would, says Beza, have confined any other person to bed.