A GREAT THEOLOGIAN.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 556, 10 July 1909, Page 6

A GREAT THEOLOGIAN.

■; v QUARTER-CENTENABT. OP CALVIN...' . To-day i3-th<> quarter-centenary oftho birth of. John. Cabin, a .man: of whom, [compared ■with Knox and other reformers of his. day,' most people have a very dim impression, but who has beensplaoed' with' Paul and Augustine 6o .far as- his .rank .a^' a-theologian is concerned.:: ■ ■ .■ ■ . Calvin was:a-native of-PiCardy, and was for some/years 'a student for tho Roman Catholic priesthood,-.-before le-became lmbued- with', .tho doctrines. :of . the! . His :great. mental' gifts and erudition early i marked him out for ; a;teacher,.almost'against his will.. "By. nature," lie wrote,- "somewhat clownish, I always .preferred the shade; and ease, and would have sought some hiding-plaoe, but this was not.permitted;<for all my reitreats.bec£Cme like public scaools." : l ln his twenty-fourth year ho was: already -recognised -as-'''at' the'head' of the Reformation movement i in Franoe, r and, ■ four ■years later, Jiaving, incu'nred the .hostility. of the ruling powers, in France,' ho took up his •residence m ,Geneva, where the remainder, of his life was almost entirely spent. He was appointed- teacher Vof theology ;and preacher, and set up .has. own> church polity, besides defending his dootrines in vinous con'troversies. ■ 1 The most -memorable of these-was ■that whioh hei conducted",with Sorvoius,,who dejuod the: doctrine. 6f the Trinity.' '.Sorvetus Was • tried! on a- oharge "of iheresy;... Calvin' beingi his .■ chief- accuser."'; - The ; accused, was ' condemned to betburht to'^death; in. common with all the Swiss ohurches"and State,: governments and the genoral'voioe of Christendom at that time, Calvin approved . the judgment, though he endeavoured to have',ths* sentence mitigated to death by tho sword.- Despite long opposition, his- system of church polity was,firmly established, not only at Geneva, * but in other: parts of - Switzerland, and, adopted , 'substantially by the''Reformers in' Franco and Switzerland. jHe was a civic, as well as. a relii nous,; reformer; his work, it has been said, .'embraced everything." .-rAs^a,theologian, however, he has had the greatest influence on sue-) j ceeding agee. Ho died in 1561, • in' his '..fifty-; fifth jear. . .-' ; The intellectual. powers and memory.* of Calvin were ialike extraordinary, and-,his, capacity .for.-, lucid reasoning' was -almost .unrivalled. Despitotho habitual seventy of'his character; there is eyidence that'he could be cheerful and ■even'facetious-among his intimate/friends.'.: