Ibid. returned to England, and obtained from king Charles I. (who had as great a regard for him as king James had had) a patent to him and his heirs, for Maryland on the north of Biogr. Brit. Virginia. He died at London, on the fifteenth of April, 632, in the fifty-first year of his age, before the grant was made out; but his fon Cecil Calvert, lord Baltimore, who had been at Virginia, took it out in his own name, and the patent bears date, June 20, 1632. He was to hold it of the crown of England in common focage, as of the manor of Windfor; paying yearly, on Eafter Tuesday, two Indian arrows of those parts at the caftle of Windfor, and the fifth part of the gold and filver ore that fhould be found therein. King Charles himself gave that province the name of Maryland, in honour of his queen Henrietta Maria. The firft colony fent thither confifted of about two hundred people, Roman-catholicks, the chief of whom were gentlemen of good families. Since the firft planting of this colony in 1634, it is become very confiderable and flourishing, being chiefly peopled with Roman-catholicks, who have tranfplanted themselves thither, in order to avoid the penal laws made against them in England. The Baltimore family were in danger of lofing their property, on account of their religion, by the act which requires all Romancatholick heirs to profefs the proteftant religion, on pain. of being deprived of their eftates. But this was prevented by their profeffing the proteftant religion. George, the firft lord, was buried in the chancel of St. Dunstan's in State-Wor- the weft, in Fleet-ftreet. As to his character, dr. Lloyd fays, he was the only statesman, that, being engaged to a decried party [the Roman catholicks] managed his bufinefs with that great refpect for all fides, that all who knew him applauded him, and none that had any thing to do with him complained of him. He wrote, 1. Carmen funebre in D. Hen. Untonum ad Gallos vis legatum, ibique nuper fato functum. 2. Speeches in parliament. 3. Various letters of state. 4. The answer of Tom tell-truth. The practice of princes, and The lamentation of the kirk. thies, P. 752 CALVIN (JOHN) one of the chief reformers of the church in the XVIth century, was born at Noyon, in Pi cardy, July 10, 1509. He was inftructed in grammar learning at Paris, under Maturinus Corderius, and ftudied philo fophy in the college of Montaigu, under a Spanish profeffor. His father, who difcovered many marks of his early piety, particularly in his reprehenfions of the vices of his compani ons ons, defigned him for the church, and got him prefented, May 21, 1521, to the chapel of Notre Dame de la Gefine, in the church of Noyon. On the 27th of September, 1527, he was prefented to the rectory of Marteville, which he exchanged, July 5, 1529, for the rectory of Pont l'Eveque near Noyon. His father afterwards changed his refolution, La vie de and would have him ftudy law; to which, Calvin, who Jean Calvin, by reading the fcriptures, by advice of Robertus Olivetanus par Beza. his kinfman, had conceived a diflike to the fuperftitions of popery, readily confented, and refigned the chapel of Gefine, and the rectory of Pont l'Eveque, on the fourth of May, 1534: he had never been in prieft's orders, and belonged to the church only by having received the tonfure. He was Bayle. fent to study the law first under Peter de l'Etoile (Petrus Stella) at Orleans, and afterwards under Andrew Alciat at Bourges. He made a great progress in that science, and improved no less in the knowledge of divinity by his private ftudies. At Bourges he applied to the Greek tongue, under the direction of profeffor Wolmar. His father's death having called him back to Noyon, he ftaid there a short time, and then went to Paris, where he wrote a commentary on Seneca's treatise De clementia, being at this time about Beza four and twenty. Having put his name in Latin to this piece, he laid afide his furname Cauvin, for that of Calvin, ftyling himself in the title page Lucius Calvinus civis Romanus. He foon made himself known at Paris to fuch as had privately embraced the reformation. A fpeech of Nicholas Cop, rector of the univerfity of Paris, of which Calvin furnished the materials, having greatly displeased the Sorbonne and the parliament, gave rife to a perfecution against the proteftants; and Calvin, who narrowly escaped being taken in the college of Forteret, was forced to retire to Xaintonge, after having had the honour to be introduced to the queen of Navarre, who laid this firft ftorm raised against the proteftants. Calvin returned to Paris in 1534. This year the Reformed met with severe treatment, which determined him to leave France, after publishing a treatife against those who believe that departed fouls are in a kind of fleep. He retired to Bafil, where he ftudied Hebrew: at this time he published his Inftitutions of the chriftian religion; a work well adapted to fpread his fame, though he himfelf was defirous of living in obfcurity. It is dedicated Ibid. to the French king, Francis I. This prince being folicitous, according to Beza, to gain the friendship of the proteftants in Germany, and knowing that they were highly incenfed Bayle. by the cruel perfecutions which their brethren fuffered in France, he, by advice of William de Bellay, reprefented to them, that he had only punished certain enthufiafts, who substituted their own imaginations in the place of God's word, and despised the civil magistrate. Calvin, ftung with indignation at this wicked evafion, wrote this work as an apology for the proteftants who were burnt for their religion in France. The dedication to Francis I. is one of the three or four prefaces that are highly admired. That of Thuanus to his hiftory, and Cafaubon's preface to Polybius, are two others of the number. This treatife, when first published in 1535, was only a sketch of a larger work. The complete editions, both in Latin and in French, with the author's laft additions and corrections, did not appear till 1558. After the publication of this work, Calvin went to Italy to pay a vifit to the duchefs of Ferrara, a lady of eminent piety, by whom he was very kindly received. From Italy he came back to France, and having fettled his private affairs, he purposed to go to Strasbourg, or Bafil, in company with his fole furviving brother Antony Calvin ;. but as the roads were not fafe on account of the war, except through the duke of Savoy's territories, he chofe that road. "This was a particular direction of providence, fays "Bayle. It was his destiny that he should fettle at Geneva, " and when he was wholly intent on going farther, he found "himself detained by an order from heaven, if I may fo fpeak.' William Farel, a man of a warm enthufiaftick temper, who had in vain ufed many entreaties to prevail with Calvin to be his fellow-labourer in that part of the Lord's vineyard, at laft folemnly declared to him in the name of God, that if he would not stay, the curfe of God would attend him wherever he went, as feeking himself and not Chrift. Calvin therefore was obliged to comply with the choice which the confiftory and magiftrates of Geneva made of him, with the confent of the people, to be one of their ministers, and profeffor of divinity. He wanted to undertake only this last office, and not the other, but in the end he was obliged to take both upon him, in Auguft 1536. The year following he made all the people declare, upon oath, their affent to a confeffion of faith, which contained a renunciation of popery; and because this reformation in doctrine did not put an entire ftop to the immoralities that prevailed at Geneva, nor banish that fpirit of faction which had fet the principal families at variance, Calvin, in concert with his collegues, declared, that they could not celebrate the facrament, whilft they kept up their animofities, and trampled on the disci- Beza. pline of the church. He alfo intimated, that he could not fubmit to the regulation which the fynod of the canton of Berne had lately made [A]. Whereupon the fyndics of Geneva fummoned an affembly of the people, and it was ordered that Calvin, Farel, and another minifter fhould leave the town in two days, for refufing to adminifter the facrament. Calvin retired to Strafbourg, and established a French church in that city, of which he was the first minifter he was also appointed to be profeffor of 'divinity there. During his ftay at Strafbourg, he continued to give many marks of his affection for the church of Geneva; as appears, amongst other things, by the answer which he wrote in 1539, to the beautiful but artful letter of cardinal Sadolet, bishop of Carpentras, inviting the people of Geneva to return into the bofom of the Romish church. Two years after, the divines of Strafbourg, being very defirous that he should affift at the diet, which the emperor had appointed to be held at Worms, and at Ratisbon, for accommodating the religious difference, he went thither with Bucer, and had a conference with Melancthon. Mean while the people of Geneva (the fyndics, who promoted his banifhment, being now fome of them executed, and others forced to fly their country for their crimes) entreated him fo carnestly to return to them, that at laft he confented. He arrived at Geneva Bayle, on the 13th of September, 1541, to the great fatisfaction both of the people and the magiftrates; and the first thing he did, after his arrival, was to establish a form of church difcipline, and a confiftorial jurifdiction, invefted with the power of inflicting cenfures, and canonical punishments, as far as excommunication inclufively. This ftep was exclaimed against by many, as a revival of Romifh tyranny; nevertheless it was carried into execution, the new canon Ibid. being passed into a law, in an affembly of the whole people, held on the 20th of November, 1541; and the clergy and laity folemnly promifed to conform to it for ever. [A] The church of Geneva made ufe of leavened bread in the holy communion, had removed all the baptifmal fonts out of the churches, and obferved no holidays but Sundays. Thefe three things were difapproved by the churches of the canton of Berne, The in Bayle, Ibid, Ibid. Ibid. flexible rigour, with which Calvin afferted, on all occafions the rights of his confiftory, procured him many enemies : but nothing daunted him; and one would hardly believe, if there were not unquestionable proofs of it, that amidst all the commotions at home, he could take fo much care as he did of the churches abroad, in France, Germany, England, and Poland, and write fo many books and letters [B], He did more by his pen than by his prefence; nevertheless on fome occafions he acted in perfon, particularly at Francfort in 1556, whither he went to put an end to the disputes which divided the French church in that city. He was always employed; having almoft conftantly his pen in his hand, even when ficknels confined him to his bed; and he continued the difcharge of all those duties, which his zeal for the general good of the churches impofed on him, till the day of his death, May 27, 1564. He was a man whom God had endowed with very eminent talents: a clear understanding, a folid judgment, and a happy memory [c]: he was a judicious, elegant, and indefatigable writer, and poffeffed of very extenfive learning, and a great zeal for truth. Jofeph Scaliger, who was not lavifh of his praise, could not forbear admiring Calvin: none of the commenta➜ tors, he faid, had hit fo well the fenfe of the prophets; and he particularly commended him for not attempting to comment the book of the Revelation. We learn from Guy Patin, that many of the Roman-catholicks would do justice to Calvin's merit, if they dared to speak their minds, One cannot help laughing at thofe, who have been fo ftupid, as to accufe him of having been a lover of wine, good chear, money, &c. Artful flanderers would have owned that he was fober by conftitution, and that he was not folicitous to heap up riches. That a man who had acquired fo great a reputation and fuch an authority, fhould yet have had but a falary of an hundred crowns, and refufe to accept of more, and after living fifty-five years with the utmost frugality, thould leave but three hundred crowns to his heirs, includ [] The edition of his works published at Geneva, contains 12 volumes in folio; which have been brought into nine volumes in the edition printed at Amfterdam, in 1667. [c] We are told by Beza, who wrote his life both in Latin and French, that he knew men again, after many years, whom he had feen but once; and that when he was interrupted for feveral hours, whilft he was dictating any thing, he would refume the thread of his difcourfe, without being told where he broke off; and never forgot what he had once committed to memory. |