Ir a man's greatness may be tested and measured by the size and the permanence of the shadow which he leaves on the face of the world, then it must be admitted that John Calvin was great, and even exceptionally great. For although his part as practical reformer was acted on a very narrow stage, his power as thinker and writer, organizer and systematizer, extended over the broad field of Europe. To found and preside over the Genevese theocracy for nearly thirty years was in itself an achievement which would have formed, like that of Savonarola at Florence, a deeply interesting episode in Church history, full of instruction, warning, and discouragement. But this was the smallest part of Calvin's work. His real place in the great Reformation was foreshadowed in Melanchthon's designation of him as "The Theologian." Trained in the same school of

Christian thought as Wycliffe and Luther, the system elaborated in the fifth century by St. Augustine, which had dominated the medieval church, Calvin took up the scattered beliefs and thoughts of the new Evangelical party, and in the loom of his strong logical and legal intellect wove them into a new system, and "theory of the universe." This system, embodied in his famous "Institutio Christianæ Religionis," at once found a home in the minds and hearts of men; and Calvin's Credo" was echoed and re-echoed from the lips of many churches and generations. Thus was he one of the conquering thinkers, who "lay on men the grasp of despotic genius, and chain an age to their thought and emotion." What a triumph he has had! Within the Reformation he founded a new reform, an imperium in imperio, and Calvinism became one of the living forces of the world. Followers in the train of this Genevese thinker were brave and suffering French Huguenots, fearless John Knox with his Scottish Covenanters, English Cromwell and the Puritans, and last, not least, the "Pilgrim Fathers" and the New England which they founded beyond the Atlantic. Surely an august following! But the world is changing. All things are for a time only.

Our little systems have their day,
They have their day and cease to be,

Calvin was the son of a notary, secretary to a bishop, and was born at Noyon, France, on the 10th of July, 1509. He was early sent to the University of Paris to study for the Church, and benefices were given him while a mere boy. His father wished him to exchange theology for law; and it was easy for him to comply, for by Olivétan's advice he had been studying the Bible, and was beginning to make earnest inquiries after truth. He was fond of solitude; he "scorned delights and lived laborious days." To study law he went to the University of Orleans, thence to Bourges. Here he made acquaintance with Wolmar, a reformer, with whom he studied Greek, and whose views he adopted and began to preach (1528). After the death of his father he went again to Paris. Persecution was raging against the Evangelicals; and Calvin began his course as author with a commentary on Seneca's treatise "De Clementia" (1532). He now resigned his benefices, gave up the law, and associated himself with the persecuted party. In 1533, in consequence of a discourse favourable to the Lutheran doctrines, delivered by Cop, the new regent of the Sorbonne, and which Calvin had written for him, they had both to fly from Paris. Calvin led a wandering life, and found a protector in Margaret, Queen of Navarre, at Nérac. Here he first met Lefèvre d'Étaples. He was at Paris again in 1534, but found no rest there; and in the summer, after publishing his "Psychopannychia," an argument against the doctrine of a sleep of the soul after death, he went to Basel, where the Reformation was already established. At Basel, early in

1536, Calvin published anonymously his "Institutio Christianæ Religionis." It was just twenty years since the Greek Testament of Erasmus had been published in the same city. Calvin now visited Italy, but to escape the Inquisition soon withdrew; and in August he first appeared at Geneva. It was a memorable year in the history of the Reformation, marked by the publication of Calvin's magnum opus, by the death of Erasmus, the beginning of Calvin's work at Geneva, the burning of Tyndale at Vilvorde, and the dissolution of the smaller monasteries in England.

Calvin was warmly welcomed at Geneva, for the Lutherans, with Farel at their head, had just got the upper hand. Without accepting any office he consented to preach and to lecture on theology. The next year a confession of Faith and a scheme of Church government were adopted, and the citizens were required to swear to the confession. The pressure of the system became so severe as to be intolerable; and in 1538 the Reformers were expelled. After a visit to Berne, Calvin went to Strasburg, where Lutheranism had been introduced by Bucer about ten years before. He found himself now called to act on a larger field, and was brought into contact with many eminent men. He was appointed professor of theology and pastor to the congregation of French refugees. As deputy for Strasburg he attended the conferences of Frankfort, Worms, and Ratisbon; made the acquaintance of Melanchthon, and took part in the attempt to reconcile the partisans of Luther and Zwingli on the subject of the Lord's Supper. It was at Strasburg that Calvin married (1539). He lost his wife ten years later.

When Cardinal Sadoleto attempted to recall the Genevese to Rome, Calvin wrote to them to strengthen them in their faith. After three years he was recalled (1541); and he lost no time in realizing his ideal of Church government. His project was approved by the council; and such a union of Church and State" was hardly ever seen as existed in Geneva for more than twenty years. A consistory, established to watch over the morals and the manners of the citizens, did stern battle with evildoers, wrong thinkers, revilers, and all manner of frivolous persons. Even children did not escape its inquisition and its rod. Calvin's influence was paramount in both civil and ecclesiastical affairs. His aim was to make Geneva not only a model city and pattern of the kingdom of God, but the central citadel of Protestantism. His personal labours were marvellous. As preacher, as professor, as president of the consistory, as controversialist, correspondent, and author, his hands were always full. He had not time, he said, to look out of his house at the blessed sun. If he made Geneva "the Rome of Protestants," he made himself its prince-bishop or pope. His rule lasted from his recall twentythree years.

Calvin's controversy with the Lutherans began about 1554, and its result was the separation and recognition of the Calvinists as the Reformed

Church, In 1561 Calvin was invited to settle at Paris, but he declined to leave Geneva. About the same time appeared complete his Commentaries on the New Testament. Calvin was one of those men who astonish the world by an early maturity of thought. He was only twenty-six when he published his "Institutio ;" and though he lived nearly thirty years longer, and the book grew in bulk, the first sketch was substantially identical with the completed work. So wise at twenty-six, but no wiser at fifty-five. A case like those of Pitt and Guizot. It may be questioned whether any other book written by one so young has ever had such power to persuade men. It has been translated into many languages, even into Greek and Arabic. In spite of very ill-health and premature infirmities, Calvin worked on bravely to the last; and after severe sufferings died at Geneva, in the arms of his friend Beza, on the 27th of May, 1564. The collection of his letters is of great interest; and a large mass of manuscripts illustrative of his life and labours is preserved at Geneva.

Of the character of Calvin a recent critic says, "He more than anybody had that inflexible austerity which must ever characterize the man of action. I doubt if a more finished type could be found of the ambitious man, eager to make his thought prevail, because he thinks it true. Careless of wealth, of title, of honour; indifferent to pomp, modest in his life, apparently humble, sacrificing everything to the desire of making others like himself; I hardly know of a man who could match him in these terrible transports. . . . This kind of austere seduction is exercised by those only who work with real conviction. He succeeded simply because he was the most Christian man of his generation."

THE birthplace of the founder of the famous Order of the Jesuits was the castle of Loyola, situate in that part of Spanish Biscay which extends towards the Pyrenees, and which is now called Guipuzcoa. He was the eleventh child, of Don Bertram, lord of Ognez and Loyola, and Doña Maria Saez y Balde. His father occupied a distinguished position among the nobility of the country, and his mother belonged to an equally illustrious family.

When scarcely fourteen years old, Ignatius was sent to the Court of Ferdinand V., King of Castile, and appointed one of the royal pages; but the restraint and inactivity of court life were distasteful to his enthusiastic mind, and under the auspices of his relative, Don Antonio Manriquez, Duke of Najera, he embraced the profession of arms. He followed