i

THE

REFORMATION IN EUROPE

IN THE TIME OF CALVIN.

VOL. I.
ii

LONDON
PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.
NEW-STREET SQUARE
iii

HISTORY
OF
THE REFORMATION IN EUROPE
IN THE TIME OF CALVIN.

BY J. H. MERLE D’AUBIGNÉ, D.D.
AUTHOR OF THE
‘HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY’ ETC.
‘Les choses de petite durée out coutume de devenir fanées, quand elles out passé leur temps.
‘Au règne de Christ, il n’y a que le nouvel homme qui soit florissant, qui ait de la vigueur, et dont il faille faire cas.’
Calvin.



VOL. I.

GENEVA AND FRANCE.


LONDON:
LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, & GREEN.
1863.iv

v

PREFACE.

At the conclusion of the preface to the firstvolume of the History of the Reformation, theauthor wrote, ‘This work will consist of four volumes,or at the most five, which will appear successively.’These five volumes have appeared. In them aredescribed the heroic times of Luther, and the effectsproduced in Germany and other countries by thecharacteristic doctrine of that reformer—justificationby faith. They present a picture of that greatepoch which contained in the germ the revival ofchristianity in the last three centuries. The authorhas thus completed the task he had assigned himself;but there still remained another.

The times of Luther were followed by those ofCalvin. He, like his great predecessor, undertook tosearch the Scriptures, and in them he found thesame truth and the same life; but a different characterdistinguishes his work.

The renovation of the individual, of the Church,and of the human race, is his theme. If the HolyGhost kindles the lamp of truth in man, it is (accordingvito Calvin) ‘to the end that the entire man shouldbe transformed.’—‘In the kingdom of Christ,’ he says,‘it is only the new man that flourishes and has anyvigour, and whom we ought to take into account.’

This renovation is, at the same time, an enfranchisement;and we might assign, as a motto tothe reformation accomplished by Calvin, as well as toapostolical christianity itself, these words of JesusChrist: The truth shall make you free.1

When the gods of the nations fell, when the Fatherwhich is in heaven manifested Himself to the world inthe Gospel, adopting as His children those who receivedinto their hearts the glad tidings of reconciliation withGod, all these men became brethren, and this fraternitycreated liberty. From that time a mighty transformationwent on gradually, in individuals, in families, andin society itself. Slavery disappeared, without wars orrevolutions.

Unhappily, the sun which had for some time gladdenedthe eyes of the people, became obscured; theliberty of the children of God was lost; new humanordinances appeared to bind men’s consciences andchill their hearts. The Reformation of the sixteenthcentury restored to the human r

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