But the magistrates of this Republic did not venture completely to execute the will of Calvin, without first consulting the other Protestant cities of Switzerland; namely, Zurich, Berne, Bâsle, and Schaffhausen. The answers returned by these all indicated very great anxiety for the extinction of the heresy, without however expressly demanding the blood of the heretic. The people of Zurich were the most violent: and the answer of their “Pastors, Readers, and Ministers,” which is praised and preserved by Calvin, is worthy of the communion from which they had so lately seceded. As soon as these communications reached Geneva, Servetus was immediately condemned to death (on the 26th of October, 1553), and was executed on the day following.
There is extant a letter written by Calvin to his friend and brother-minister, William Farel (dated the 26th), which announces that the fatal sentence had been passed, and would be executed on the morrow. It is only remarkable for the cold conciseness and heartless indifference of its expressions. Not a single word indicates any feeling of compassion or repugnance. And as the work of persecution was carried on without mercy, and completed without pity, so likewise was it recollected without remorse; and the Protestant Republican Minister of Christ continued for some years afterwards to insult with abusive epithets the memory of his victim.
Soon after the death of Servetus, Calvin published a vindication of his proceedings, in which he defended, without any compromise, the principle on which he had acted. It is entitled, “A Faithful Exposition and short Refutation of the Errors of Servetus, wherein it is shown that heretics should be restrained by the power of the sword.” His friend and biographer Beza also put forth a work “On the propriety of punishing Heretics by the Civil authority.” Thus Calvin not only indulged his own malevolent humour, but also sought to establish among the avowed principles of his own Church the duty of exterminating all who might happen to differ from it.
He lived eleven years longer; and expired at Geneva on the 27th of May, 1564; having maintained his authority to the end of his life, without acquiring any of the affection of those about him. Neither of these circumstances need surprise us, for it was his character to awe, to command, and to repel. Fearless, inflexible, morose, and imperious; he neither courted any one, nor yielded to any one, nor conciliated any one. Yet he was sensible of, and seemingly contrite for, his defects of temper; for he writes to Bucer: “I have not had harder contests with my vices, which are great and many, than with my impatience. I have not yet been able to subdue that savage brute.” His talents were extremely powerful, both for literature and for business. His profound and various learning acquired for him the general respect which it deserved. He was active and indefatigable; he slept little, and was remarkable for his abstemious habits. With a heart inflated and embittered with spiritual pride, he affected a perfect simplicity of manner; and professed, and may indeed have felt, a consummate contempt for the ordinary objects of human ambition. Besides this, he was far removed from the besetting vice of common minds, by which even noble qualities are so frequently degraded—avarice. He neither loved money for itself, nor grasped at it for its uses; and at his death, the whole amount of his property, including his library, did not exceed, at the lowest statement, one hundred and twenty-five crowns, at the highest, three hundred.
We may thus readily understand how it was that Calvin acquired, through the mere force of personal character thrown into favourable circumstances, power almost uncontrolled over a state of which he was not so much as a native, and considerable influence besides over the spiritual condition of Europe—power and influence, of which deep traces still exist both in the country which adopted him, and in others where he was only known by his writings and his doctrines. His doctrines still divide the Christian world; but that ecclesiastical principle, which called in the authority of the sword for their defence, has been long and indignantly disclaimed by all his followers.
The best clue to the real character of Calvin will be found in his letters. Many accounts of his life, as well as of his doctrines and writings, exist; but they are mostly influenced by party feeling. The earliest is that of his friend Beza; it is said however not to be strictly accurate even as to the facts of Calvin’s life before 1549, when the author became acquainted with him, and it is of course a panegyric.
MANSFIELD
The first Earl of Mansfield was a younger son of a noble house in Scotland, which he raised to higher rank by his own brilliant talents and successful industry.
William Murray was the eleventh child of David, Viscount Stormont, and was born at Perth, March 2, 1704. He received his education at Westminster School and Christchurch College, Oxford, where he gained distinction by the elegance of his scholarship. He took his degree of M.A. in June, 1730, and was called to the bar in the Michaelmas term following: the interval he employed in travelling in France and Italy. At an early age he gained the friendship of Pope, who in several passages has borne testimony to the grace, eloquence, rising fame, and attractive social accomplishments of the young lawyer. In 1737, in consequence of the sudden illness of his leader, who was seized with a fit in court, Mr. Murray had to undertake, at an hour’s notice, the duty of senior counsel, in the cause of Cibber v. Sloper. From his success on this occasion he was wont to date the origin of his fortune. “Business,” he said, “poured in upon me on all sides; and from a few hundred pounds a year I fortunately found myself, in every subsequent year, in possession of thousands.” In the same year he was retained by the corporation of Edinburgh in the memorable transactions which arose out of the Porteous riot; and his exertions to preserve their privileges were subsequently acknowledged by the gift of the freedom of the city in a gold box. November 20, 1738, Mr. Murray was married to Lady Elizabeth Finch, daughter of the Earl of Winchelsea, a lady who, in addition to rank and fortune, possessed those more valuable qualities which rendered their married life, through near half a century, one of harmony and domestic happiness.