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

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are some wicked and contumacious persons. Matters, as you see,
are tolerably settled. The more guilty, therefore, will you be before
God, if they go to wreck through your indolence. But I declare,
brethren, that I have lived with you in the closest bonds of true and
sincere affection, and now, in like manner, part from you. But if,
while under this disease, you have experienced any degree of
peevishness from me, I beg your pardon, and heartily thank you,
that when I was sick, you have borne the burden imposed upon
you.’
“When he had thus spoken, he shook hands with each of us. We,
with most sorrowful hearts, and certainly not unmoistened eyes,
departed from him.”
Beza modestly omits Calvin’s reference to himself which is as follows
“Quant à nostre estat interieur, vous avez esleu Monsieur de Beze pour
tenir ma place. Regardez de le soulager, car la charge est grande et a de
la peine, en telle sorte qu’il faudroit qu’il fust accablé soubs le fardeau.
Mais regardez à le supporter. De luy, ie sçay qu’il a bon vouloir et fera ce
qu’il pourra.” Pinaut’s report, in Calv. Opera, IX. 894.
§ 166. CALVIN’S PERSONAL CHARACTER AND HABITS.
Calvin is one of those characters that command respect and admiration
rather than affection, and forbid familiar approach, but gain upon closer
acquaintance. The better he is known, the more he is admired and
esteemed. Those who judge of his character from his conduct in the case of
Servetus, and of his theology from the “decretum horribile,” see the spots
on the sun, but not the sun itself. Taking into account all his failings, he
must be reckoned as one of the greatest and best of men whom God raised
up in the history of Christianity.
He has been called by competent judges of different creeds and schools,
“the theologian” par excellence, “the Aristotle of the Reformation,” “the
Thomas Aquinas of the Reformed Church,” “the Lycurgus of a Christian
democracy,” “the Pope of Geneva.” He has been compared, as a church
ruler, to Gregory VII. and to Innocent III. The sceptical Renan even, who
entirely dissents from his theology, calls him the most Christian man of his
age.” Such a combination of theoretic and practical pre-eminence is
without a parallel in history. But he was also an intolerant inquisitor and
persecutor, and his hands are stained with the blood of a heretic. f1265 Take