1845.]

Return to Paris.

353

Before the close of the year 1533, Calvin returned to Paris. Permission was obtained for him to do this by the queen of Navarre, although she advised him to remain in her own dominions, as it might be difficult to protect him at Paris, where the Sorbonne were on the watch to detect and put down the least risings of heresy. He seemed to have been conducted thither at this time by an all-seeing Providence, to resist an evil which has pressed upon the reformed church to this day. Servetus, who had found himself without adherents in Germany, where he had been laboring to disseminate his heretical (not to say blasphemous) views of the Trinity, "had come hither also." He sent some of the tracts, which he had previously published, to Calvin, and specified a time at which he would hold a public discussion with him. Calvin gladly accepted the challenge, notwithstanding the danger to which it exposed him, in consequence of the personal hatred of the king and the Sorbonne. It should seem, if Calvin and Servetus could have met at this time and held a friendly discussion, that an enmity which ended so disastrously, might have been avoided, or at least mitigated. But Servetus did not ven

ture to oppose himself to such an antagonist, at the time appointed, and henceforth hastened to his dark fate.

The Psychopannychia.

Some time during the year 1534 Calvin published, at Orleans, his work on the Sleep of the Soul.1 It was intended as a confutation of the belief that the soul, separated from the body, remains dormant from death until the resurrection. This was one of the errors that the Anabaptists had brought from Germany into France. This sect assumed, in the latter country, substantially the garb of simple Christianity, and was, on this account, a great hindrance to the Reformation. For it was easy to confound those who embraced its tenets with the true witnesses of the gospel, and for opposers to represent their senseless fanaticism as the legitimate Calv. Opp. Omn. Tom. IX. Epist. 1, and a translation in Waterman's Life of Calvin, p. 239 sq.

1 The full title of this work, in the French ed. is: Traité par lequel est prouvé que les ames veillent et vivent après qu'elles sont sorties des corps: contre l'erreur de quelques ignorans qui pensent qu'elles dorment jusques au dernier jugement. Préface de J. Calvin addressé à un sien ami, d'Orleans, 1534. In Latin: : Psychopannychia quo refellitur eorum error qui animas post mortem usque ad ultimum judicium dormire putant. Paris, 1534.

result of the opposition to the established church. They also did much injury by destroying the unity of effort necessary to make the greatest progress against the abuses and errors of the church. Many of their doctrines were not easily answered by the uneducated mass, and hence the necessity for such men as Luther and Calvin to direct their shafts, not against the great enemy, but against those who professed to fight in the ranks of the reformers.

A summary of the contents of this book may be found in Henry's Life, page 63 sq. Even at this early age (twenty-five), the author exhibits the same qualities, "a strong memory, a clear and comprehensive intellect, and varied learning," as in his later works. The condensed thought, the power of reasoning, and the original tone of the work, are truly surprising. The Scriptures are the foundation of the whole argument, and the confidence with which Calvin appeals to and expounds them and thus confutes his antagonists, with their own assumed weapons, shows the diligence with which he had studied the Bible, not less than his power of comprehending and unfolding the truths contained in it. There is also much severe, cutting irony in the book, against the "sleepers and dreamers," who believe that the soul will sleep at death. But he says that "he will not pour out his anger without measure even against the Anabaptists; but wishes so to fashion his argument, that it will persuade rather than compel, and draw those who are unwilling to be led. His desire is to bring all back peaceably into the right way, rather than to attack them violently."

Calvin leaves France.

The year 1535 was generally unpropitious for the cause of the reformation. Francis I. threw off all the restraints which the queen of Navarre had placed around him, and came out openly and violently against the reformers. It is true that in England king Henry the VIII., in consequence of the refusal of the pope to sanction his divorcement, had forfeited the honor of "defender of the faith," which he had acquired by his book on the seven sacraments, against Luther, and throwing off all allegiance to the see of Rome, had declared himself head of the church in his dominions.

1 Waterman's Life of Calvin, p. 9.

Omnes certe in viam re

2 Nec contra eos, nisi modice, bilem effudi. ducere magis quam incessere, animus fuit.-Opp. Omn. Tom. VIII. p. 336.

1845.]

Calvin retires to Basil.

355

The previous year parliament had also confirmed this assumption. But Calvin did not, as many others, count this a fortunate event. In his Commentary on Amos chap. 7: 13, he says: "Those who, in the beginning, exalted Henry so much, were certainly inconsiderate; they bestowed on him the highest power over all, and this grieved me very much; then, a thing more to be lamented, they named him the chief head of the church under Christ; that was going too far." During this year the Anabaptists were suppressed in Germany by the taking of the city of Münster; but their errors were more widely diffused in the neighboring countries. The league of Smalcald, first made among the Protestants in 1530, was renewed, and the emperor Charles undertook his successful crusade against Barbarossa in Paris.

The persecution which followed the Placards of Jan. 29th, 1535, together with Calvin's desire to find a quiet retreat for study, now influenced him to leave France. Basil, it will be recollected, was the place to which Cop had previously retired. The Reformation began there ten years before, and many circumstances rendered it a desirable place of abode for Calvin at this time. Its retirement was favorable for the accomplishment of an object which he looked forward to with hope, namely, the completion of the first edition of his Institutes. Besides, Calvin always sought retirement and opportunity for study, when duty did not oppose.

Accompanied by his friend Louis du Tillet, he proceeded on his way from Orleans to Basil, through Lorraine. Near Metz they were robbed by a servant, who escaped with one of their horses, and they would have been entirely destitute of the means of proceeding on their journey, but for another servant, who happened to have in his possession ten crowns, which was barely sufficient to enable them to reach Strasburg. Calvin did not meet the German reformers as a stranger. His labors and his spirit had gone before him. From his sympathy with them he lived, from this time, a new life. His great earnestness, his depth of character and conscientiousness, all were appreciated by his fellow laborers in Strasburg. He soon, however, proceeded to Basil, where he first saw S. Grynaeus, who, distinguished both as a theologian and philologist, read lectures upon the Scriptures, and especially upon all the classics. He also formed a firm friendship with Wolfgang Capito, the pioneer of the Reformation at Basil. lived here in close retirement, and, aided by Capito, applied

1 Robertson's Charles V. Book v. Works, Vol. IV. p. 281 sq.

himself zealously to the study of the Hebrew language,1 a knowledge of which he found to be necessary to his highest useful

ness.

ARTICLE VII.

REMARKS ON THE AUTHENTICITY AND GENUINENESS OF

THE PENTATEUCH.

By B. B. Edwards, Professor at Andover.

Ir is certainly not the part of wisdom to introduce to the American Public, indiscriminately, the skeptical opinions on morals and religion which prevail in Europe. Some of these opinions will soon perish on the soil that gave them birth. Before they can be confuted, they will cease to exist.2 Other opinions are so interinterwoven with habits of thinking peculiar to the people of continental Europe; they are the product of a state of society, philosophical and religious, so unlike our own, that the attempt, on our part, to controvert, or even to comprehend them, would be a fruitless labor.

But some of the opinions referred to are not indigenous in France or Germany only. They are by no means exotics in English or American soil. Indeed not a few of the most destructive theories that prevail in Germany, were transplanted from England. The German skeptic is the lineal descendant of men who once figured in English literature. Doubts or disbelief in respect to the doctrines of revelation which exist among us, are the spontaneous growth of our own institutions and habits of thought, and have been only reinforced from abroad. It has been obvious, for a number of years, that there has been an increasing tendency in certain quarters to question or reject the divine authority of the Old Testament. This has been manifest in the case of some individuals who have no special regard for German literature, or

1 In "Calvin and the Swiss Reform." it is said: "He applied himself to the Hebrew and Syriac, in order to the better understanding of the Old Testament." p. 322.

F. A. Wolf is said to have remarked, that “ what comes forward in Germany with eclat, may be expected, for the most part, to end, after some ten years, shabbily."

1845.] Distinction between the Old and N. Test. not recognized. 357.

who may have even a positive antipathy to it. The origin of their doubts is either within themselves, or it must be ascribed to habits of thinking and acting peculiar to Americans. Foreign skepticism is not specially in fault.

While the Old Testament generally is assailed, the Pentateuch is made the subject of special attack. Moses, it is alleged, is the least trustworthy of the Jewish historians, or rather the genuineness of the Pentateuch is denied altogether, and its authorship, unceremoniously, thrust down to the Babylonish captivity or still later. Many of the miraculous events which it describes, are regarded as no better than Rabbinic fables, or Grecian myths.

It may be well here to inquire, briefly, into some of the grounds of this prevalent skepticism. Why are the Hebrew Scriptures, and the five books of Moses particularly, subjected to these fresh assaults? Some causes may exist which have hitherto been unknown, or comparatively inoperative.

A prominent ground of this skeptical tendency is the injudicious, or incorrect method, which has been pursued by not a few orthodox interpreters of the Old Testament. They have never distinctly seen the relations which exist between the Old Testament and the New. They do not, practically at least, recognize the great truth, that God has communicated his revelations gradually. They have looked for the meridian sun in the faint light of the morning. They seem never to have entered into the spirit of the declarations, that Christ brought life and immortality to light, and that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the illustrious forerunner of our Lord. In their view, the patriarchs did not see through a glass darkly, but enjoyed almost the perfect vision of the apostles. A system of types, extending to minute particulars, and to bad men, as well as to good, has been forced into the interpretation of the Old Testament, to the detriment of all sound philology, and often of common sense. Men of eminent learning, in our own days, have found in the Mosaic ritual all varieties of allegory and hidden sense, so that, almost literally, every cord has cried out of the tabernacle, and every pin from its timber has answered. In the predictions of the Old Testament, a speciality, or a minute historical reference has been discovered, alike at variance with the nature of prophecy and the actual events of history. In such circumstances, reasonable men might naturally be deterred, not only from adopting such a method of interpretation, but from placing much confidence in the inspired records themselves. They insensibly learn to question. VOL. II. No. 6.

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