ready to rail at piety, is not fit to judge of any thing." Towards the end of his reply, he dismisses him with the following Genevan benediction: " May the God Satan quiet thee: amen. Geneva, "1558."

About 1588, appeared in London, a work written, or at least approved by the English Bishops, against the Calvinistic sect of Puritans. Calvin and Beza are there described (a) as intolerant and proud men, who by open rebellion against their prince, had founded their gospel, and pretended to rule the Churches with a more odious tyranny, than that, with which they had so often reproached the sovereign pontiffs. They protest in the presence of the Almighty God, that," amongst all the texts of Scripture quoted "by Calvin or his disciples, in favour of the Church of Geneva "against the Church of England, there is not a single one, that is "not turned to a sense unknown to the Church and to all the "Fathers, since the time of the apostles; so that were Augustin, "Ambrose, Jerom, Chrysostom, &c. to return again to life and to see in what manner the Scripture had been cited by these Gene66 vese doctors, they would be astonished that the world should ever have met with a man, so audacious and extravagant as to "dare, without the least colour of truth, to ill-treat in such a way "the word of God, himself, his readers and the whole world." And after declaring that from this Genevese source an impoisoned, seditious and Catalinarian doctrine had been spread over England, they add; "Happy, a thousand times happy our island, if neither "English nor Scot had ever put foot in Geneva, if they had never "become acquainted with a single individual of these Genevese "doctors!"

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The partizans of Calvin have attempted, and for his credit, I wish they had succeeded in their attempt, to rescue his memory from the crime and disgrace of having the mark of infamy branded on his shoulder. "What must pass as an indisputable proof of the "crimes imputed to Calvin, is that, after the accusation had been

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prepared against him, the Church of Geneva, not only did not "shew the contrary, but did not even contradict the information, "which Berthelier, commissioned by the persons of the same town, gave at Noyon. This information was signed by the most re"spectable inhabitants of Noyon, and was drawn up with all the

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(a) A Survey of the pretended holy discipline, page 44, by Bishop Bancroft.

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"accustomed forms of the law. And in the same information we that this heresiarch having been convicted of an abominable "sin, which was always punished by fire, the punishment that he "had deserved was at the intercession of his bishop, mitigated into "that of the fleur-de-lis......Add to this, that Bolseque, hav66 ing given the same information, Berthelier, who was still living "in the time of Bolseque, did not contradict it, as, undoubtedly, "he would have done, had he been able to do so, without going "against the conviction of his conscience, and opposing the public "belief. Thus the silence both of the whole town interested in the "affair and also of his secretary, is, on this occasion, an infallible "proof of the disorders imputed to Calvin."(a) They were at that time so uncontested, that a Catholic writer, speaking of the scandalous life of Calvin, advances as a fact well known in England, that," the leader of the Calvinists had been branded with the fleur"de-lis and had fled from his native town; and that his antagonist “Wittaker, acknowledging the fact, merely replied by the follow“ing shameful comparison: Calvin has been stigmatised, so has "St. Paul, so have others also." (b) I find also that the grave and learned Doctor Stapleton (c), who had every opportunity of gaining information on this subject, having spent his life in the neighbourhood of Noyon, speaks of this adventure of Calvin's in the terms of one who was certain of the fact. Inspiciuntur etiam adhuc "hodie civitatis Noviodunensis in Picardiâ scrinia et rerum gestarum monumenta: in illis adhuc hodie legitur Joannem hunc "Calvinum sodomice convictum, ex Episcopi et magistratûs indul"gentiâ, solo stigmate in tergo notatum, urbe excessisse; nec ejus "familiæ honestissimi viri, adhuc superstites, impetrare hactenus

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potuerunt, ut hujus facti memoria, quæ toti familiæ notam aliquam inurit, e civicis illis monumentis ac scriniis eradere"tur." (d) Moreover, the Lutherans of Germany equally speak of it as of a fact: "De Calvini variis flagitiis et sodomiticis libidi"nibus, ob quas stigma Joannis Calvini dorso impressum fuit à "magistratu, sub quo vixit."(e) "And as for the affected silence "of Beza, it is replied, that the disciple having acquired notoriety

(a) Card. Richelieu, Traité p. convert. liv. II. pp. 319, 320.—(b) Campian in the 3rd reason, year 1581.—(c) Born in 1585. He was nearly 30 years of age when Calvin died, in 1564.—(d) Promptuar Catholic. pars. 32, p. 133.—(e) Conrad. Schlussemb, Calvin Theolog. lib. II. II. fol. 72.

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by the same crimes and the same heresy as his master, he merits "not the confidence of any one on this point.'

It is very possible and most easy to dissemble like Beza and others after him; but, surely, it is hardly possible to fabricate at pleasure the account that an eye-witness and that cotemporaries have given us of the death of this man-an account which must excite compassion and terror in all who hear it. An eye witness, who was then his disciple, gives the following information(a): Calvinus "in desperatione finiens vitam obiit turpissimo et fœdissimo morbo, 66 quem Deus rebellibus et maledictis comminatus est, prius excru"ciatus et consumptus. Quod ego verissime attestari audeo,

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qui funestum et tragicum illius exitum his meis oculis præsens aspexi."(b) The Lutherans of Germany testify, "Deum etiam "in hoc sæculo judicium suum in Calvinum patefecisse, quem in "virga furoris visitavit, atque horribiliter punivit, ante mortis "infelicis horam. Deus enim manu suâ potenti adeo hunc hereticum percussit, ut, desperatâ salute, dæmonibus invocatis, jurans, execrans, et blasphemans miserrime, animam malignam exha"larit; vermibus circa pudenda in aposthemate seu ulcere fœten"tissimo crescentibus, ita ut nullus assistentium fætorem amplius "ferre posset." (c)

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On this subject I find an account too curious to be omitted here. "The Dean told me that an old Canon, a familiar. "friend of Calvin's, had formerly related to him the manner, in "which John Calvin died, and that he had learnt it from a man "called Petit Jean, who was Calvin's valet and who attended on "him to his last expiring breath. This man after his master's death, left Geneva, and went to reside again at Noyon. He re"lated to this Canon that Calvin on his death-bed made much la"mentation, and that oftentimes he heard him cry out aloud and

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bitterly bewail his condition, and that one day he called him to "him and said; Go to my study, and bring from such a part The "Office of our Lady according to the use at Noyon.' He went and "brought it; and Calvin continued a long time praying to God "from this office: he mentioned that the people of Geneva were unwilling to let many persons visit him in his illness, and said "that he laboured under many complaints, such as imposthumes,

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(a) Joan Harem. Apud Pel. Cutzamium.-(b) See Dict, de Feller art. CALVIN, (c) Conrad Schlussemb. in Theolog. Calvin, lib. II. fol. 72. Francof. an, 1592.

"the rash, the piles, the stone, the gravel, the gout, consumption, "shortness of breath, and spitting of blood; and that he was "struck by God, as those of whom the Prophet speaks, Tetigit "eos in posteriora, opprobrium sempiternum dedit eis." (a)

This recital agrees with that of Bolse, who also cites the testimony of those who attended upon Calvin in his last illness. For after having spoken of the complaints mentioned by Beza, and of the lousy disease, about which Beza says nothing, he adds: "Those "who attended upon him to his last breath have testified it. Let "Beza, or whoever pleases deny it it is however clearly proved, "that he cursed the hour in which he had ever studied and writ"ten: while from his ulcers and his whole body proceeded an "abominable stench, which rendered him a nuisance to himself "and to his domestics, who add moreover, that this was the rea"son why he would have no one go and see him." (Life of Calvin, Lyons, 1577, transl. from the Latin.)

THEODORE BEZA.

Let us now pass on to Calvin's celebrated biographer. The Lutherans shall teach us in what esteem and value we are to hold him: "Who will not be astonished (says Heshusius) at the "incredible impudence of this monster, whose filthy and scanda"lous life is known throughout France, by his more than cynical "epigrams. And yet you would say, to hear him speak, that he " is some holy personage, another Job, or an anchoret of the de"sert, nay greater than St. Paul or St. John; so much does he 66 every where proclaim his exile, his labours, his purity and the "admirable sanctity of his life."(b)

(a) Remargues sur la vie de J. Calvin, taken from the records of the chapter at Noyon, the personal examination that took place in 1614; by James Desmay, docter of Sorbonne, vic. gen. of Rouen, This little work, dedicated to Lord Kay, earl of Ancaster, 1621, is to be found in the Bibliotheque du Roi.

It is the part of candour to signify that I have not seen a word about the famous fleur-de-lis in the work of M. Desmay, although he carefully made his enquiries in these places. I should be glad if that silence carried sufficient weight with it to destroy the very positive and public assertions of authors who wrote more than forty or fifty years before him. It appears that M. Desmay only examined the records of the Chapter and not those of the town. Moreover, it was then eighty years after the sentence had been passed upon Calvin, and we are assured that his friends had succeeded in removing it from the records of the town.-(b) Traduct. de Florim. p. 1048.

If we wish to refer the matter to one holding an elevated situation among the Lutherans ; "Beza (says he to us) draws to the "life, in his writings, the image of those ignorant and gross per66 sons, who for want of reason and argument have recourse to "abuse, or of those heretics, whose last resource is insult and "abuse...... and thus, like an incarnate demon, this obscene "wretch, this perfect compound of artifice and impiety vomits "forth his satirical blasphemies." (a) The same Lutheran testifies that" after having spent twenty-three years of his life in reading

more than 220 Calvinistic productions, he had not met with 66 one, in which abuse and blasphemy were so accumulated as in "the writings of this wild beast. ...... And if any one doubt of "it, adds he, let him run over his famous Dialogues against Dr. "Heshusius. No one would ever imagine they were written by a

man, but by Beelzebub himself in person; I should be horror "struck to repeat the obscene blasphemies which this impure "atheist puts forth on the gravest subjects with a disgusting mix"ture of impiety and buffoonery: undoubtedly, he had dipped his 66 pen in some infernal ink."

"Beza who was a Frenchman, says Florimond, (b) and the "great buttress of Calvin's opinions attacked Luther's version as impious, novel and unheard of." "Truly, retorted the Lutherans, "it well becomes a French merry-andrew, who understands not a word of our language, to teach the Germans to speak German."

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MELANCHTON.

Let us confine ourselves to the judgment passed upon him by those of his own communion. The Lutherans declared in full synod "that he had so often changed his opinions upon the supremacy of "the Pope, upon justification by faith alone, upon the Lord's "supper and free-will, that all this his wavering inconstancy had "staggered the weak in these fundamental questions and prevented

a great number from embracing the confession of Augsburgh; "that by changing and re-changing his writings he had given too "much reason to the Episcopalians to set off his variations, and to "the faithful to know no longer what doctrine to consider as true." (c) They add "that his famous work upon the theological

(a) Schlussemberg, in Theolog. Calvin. lib. II. passim.—(b) p. 96.— (c) Colloq. Altenb, fol. 502, 503, year 1568.