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

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ft593 Vita Calv. (Opera, XXI. 130): “Viduam Idelletam nomine, gravem
honestamque feminam, Calvinus ex Buceri consilio uxorem duxit.”
ft594 “Die Welt hat nach Gottes Wort keinen lieblicheren Schatz auf Erden,
denn den heiligen Ehestand. Gottes höchste Gabe ist ein fromm,
freundlich, gottesfürchtig und häuslich Gemahl haben, mit der du
friedlich lebest, der du darfst alle dein Gut, ja dein Leib und Leben
vertrauen, mit der du Kinderlein zeugest.” See Köstlin, Luther’s
Leben, p. 578, and Schaff, History of the Chr. Church, VI. §§ 77 and
78, pp. 454 sqq.
ft5 95 “Calvin,” says J. Bonnet, in his sketch of Idelette de Bure (l.c., p.
637) “fut grand sans cesser d’être bon; il unit les qualités du coeur
aux dons du génie; il ressentit et il inspira les plus pures amitiés; il
connut, enfin, les félicita domestiques dans une union trop courte,
dont le mystère, àdemi révélépar sa correspondance, répand un jour
mélancolique et doux sur sa vie.”—”There was in Calvin,” says Merle
d’Aubigné (VI. 602) “a lofty intellect, a sublime genius, but also that
love of kindred, those affections of the heart, which complete the great
man.”
ft596 Opera, Ep. 1171 (fol. 228). The letter is wrongly dated April 11 by
Henry and Bonnet (II. 203), who mistook 11 for Roman figures.
ft597 Quae si quid accidisset durius, non exilii tantum ac inopiae
voluntaria comes, sed mortis quoque futura erat.” Opera, VIII. Ep.
1173 (fol. 230).
ft598 Aug. 19, 1542, at the close. Opera, XI. 430.
ft599 “Dederat mihi Deus filiolum, abstulit; hoc quoque recenset [Balduin
or Baudouin, a jurisconsult] inter probra liberis me carere. Atqui mihi
filiorum sunt myriades in toto orbe Christiano.” (Responsio ad
Balduini Convitia, Geneva, 1561.) Roman writers speak of the sterility
of his marriage as a reproach and judgment. Audin corrects them, but
adds (ch. XIX.) that Calvin “shed no tears” over the loss of his son,
and that “God did not permit him to become a father a second time!”
Bonnet asserts (l.c. 643) that Calvin had two other children, a daughter
and a son, who died likewise in infancy, and refers to a letter of Calvin
to Viret of 1544; but this is a mistake, for Calvin, long after the death
of his wife, speaks only of one infant son (filiolus), and Colladon, in his
biography, says (Opera, XXI. 61) that Idelette de Bure had one son
from him (elle eut un fils de lui).