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Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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in that college were Bucer for <strong>the</strong> New Testament, Capito for <strong>the</strong> Old,<br />

Hedio for history and <strong>the</strong>ology, Herlin for ma<strong>the</strong>matics, and Jacob Bedrot<br />

or Pedrotus for Greek. f523 A converted Jew taught Hebrew.<br />

Calvin was appointed assistant pr<strong>of</strong>essor <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ology in January, 1539. f524<br />

He lectured on <strong>the</strong> Gospel <strong>of</strong> John, <strong>the</strong> Epistle to <strong>the</strong> Romans, and o<strong>the</strong>r<br />

books <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bible. Many students came from Switzerland and France to<br />

hear him, who afterwards returned as evangelists. He speaks <strong>of</strong> several<br />

students in his correspondence with satisfaction. In some cases he was<br />

disappointed. He presided over public disputations. He refuted in 1539 a<br />

certain Robertus Moshamus, Dean <strong>of</strong> Passau, in a disputation on <strong>the</strong> merits<br />

<strong>of</strong> good works, and achieved a signal victory to <strong>the</strong> great delight <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

scholars <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> city. f525<br />

But he had also an unpleasant dispute with that worthless <strong>the</strong>ological<br />

turncoat, Peter Caroli, who appeared at Strassburg in October, 1539, as a<br />

troubler in Israel, as he had done before at Lausanne, and sought to<br />

prejudice even Bucer and Capito against Calvin on <strong>the</strong> subject <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

Trinity. f526<br />

With all his pr<strong>of</strong>essional duties he found leisure for important literary work,<br />

which had been interrupted at Geneva. He prepared a thorough revision <strong>of</strong><br />

his Institutes, which superseded <strong>the</strong> first, and a commentary on <strong>the</strong> Epistle<br />

to <strong>the</strong> Romans, which opened <strong>the</strong> series <strong>of</strong> his invaluable exegetical works.<br />

Both were published at Strassburg by <strong>the</strong> famous printer Wendelin Rihel in<br />

1539. He had been preceded, in <strong>the</strong> commentary on Romans, by<br />

Melanchthon, Bucer, Bullinger, but he easily surpassed <strong>the</strong>m all. He also<br />

wrote, in French, a popular treatise on <strong>the</strong> Lord’s Supper, in which he<br />

pointed out a via media between <strong>the</strong> realism <strong>of</strong> Lu<strong>the</strong>r and <strong>the</strong> spiritualism<br />

<strong>of</strong> Zwingli. Both parties, he says towards <strong>the</strong> close, have failed and<br />

departed from <strong>the</strong> truth in <strong>the</strong>ir passionate zeal, but this should not blind us<br />

to <strong>the</strong> great benefits which God through Lu<strong>the</strong>r and Zwingli has bestowed<br />

upon mankind. If we are not ungrateful and forgetful <strong>of</strong> what we owe to<br />

<strong>the</strong>m, we shall be well able to pardon that and much more, without blaming<br />

<strong>the</strong>m. We must hope for a reconciliation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> two parties.<br />

At <strong>the</strong> Diet <strong>of</strong> Regensburg in 1541 he had, with <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r Protestant<br />

delegates, to subscribe <strong>the</strong> Augsburg Confession. He could do so honestly,<br />

understanding it, as he said expressly, in <strong>the</strong> sense <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> author who, in <strong>the</strong><br />

year before, had published a revised edition with an important change in<br />

<strong>the</strong> 10th Article (on <strong>the</strong> doctrine <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Lord’s Supper). f527

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