Still, the establishment of temporal liberty was not the reformer's object: it flows only from his principles, as water from a spring. To proclaim the salvation of God, to establish the right of God—these are the things to which he devoted his life, and that work he pursued with unalterable firmness. He knows the resistance that men will oppose to him: but that shall not check his march. He will batter down ramparts, bridge over chasms, and unflinchingly trample under foot the barriers which he knows are opposed to the glory of God and the welfare of man. Calvin has a correct, penetrating, and sure eye, and his glance takes in a wide horizon. He resists not only the chief enemy, popery, but generously opposes those who seem to be on his side and pretend to support him: there is no acceptance of persons with him. He discerns manifold and grave errors hidden under the cloak of reform—errors which would destroy from its foundation the edifice to whose building, those who teach them, pretend to give their help. Whilst many allow themselves to be surprised, he discovers the small cloud rising from the sea; he sees the skies are about to be darkened and filled with storms, thunder, and rain. At the sight of these tempests he neither bends nor hides his head: on the contrary, he raises it boldly. 'We are called,' he says, 'to difficult battles; but far from being astonished and growing timid, we take courage, and commit our own body to the deadly struggle.'
That man had occasioned astonishment at first by his youthful air and the weakness of his constitution; but he had no sooner spoken than he rose in the eyes of all who heard him. He grew taller and taller, he towered above their heads. Every man presaged in him one of those mighty intelligences which carry nations with them, gain battles, found empires, discover worlds, reform religion, and transform society.
Calvin teaches in Geneva, he writes to those far beyond its walls. And ere long we see something new forming in the world. A great work had been commenced by the heroic Luther, who had a successor worthy of him to complete it. Calvin gives to the Reformation what the pope affirms it does not possess. There is a noise and a shaking, and the dry bones meet together. The breath comes from the four winds, the dead live and stand upon their feet, an exceeding great army. The Church of Christ has reappeared upon earth. From the bosom of that little city goes forth the word of life. France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, England, Scotland, and other countries hear it. A century later, that same word, borne by pious refugees or faithful missionaries, shall become the glory and strength of the New World. Later still, it shall visit the most distant isles and continents; it shall fill the earth with the knowledge of the Lord, and shall gather together more and more the dispersed families of the world round the cross of Christ in a holy and living unity.
=A COUNCIL MINUTE.=
On the 5th of September, 1536, the Council of Geneva ordered these words to be written in their public registers:
'Master William Farel explains that the lecture which that Frenchman had begun at St. Pierre's was necessary; wherefore he prayed that they would consider about retaining him and providing for his support. Upon which it was resolved to provide for his maintenance.'
On the 15th of February, 1537, they gave six crowns of the sun, and afterwards a cloth coat, to 'that Frenchman' recently arrived, and whose name it would seem they did not know.[858] Such are the modest notices of the young man in the public records of the city which received him. In a few years that name was sounded all over the world; and in our time a celebrated historian—impartial in the question, as he does not belong to the churches of the Reformation—has said: 'In order that French protestantism [we might say "protestantism" in general] should have a character and doctrine, it needed a city to serve as a centre, and a chief to become its organizer. That city was Geneva, and that chief was Calvin.'[859]
[841] Preface to Calvin's Commentaire sur les Psaumes.
[842] 'Il me fit connaître aux autres.'—Preface to the Commentaire sur les Psaumes. In the Latin edition, 'Statim fecit ut innotescerem.'
[843] Letter to Chr. Fabri, 6th June, 1561.