Grindal. CHAP. sions of the Church to infallibility, should expect a deXVIII. ference to their authority, which implied an individual Edmund infallibility, not only as bearing upon their immediate 1575-6- followers, but as relating also to the decisions of those among their opponents whom they regarded as capable of forming an opinion. 1583. Calvin's third edi When our countrymen, however, were brought by Institutes, circumstances under the influence of Calvin, we are not tion, 1539. surprised if, while they deplored his intolerance, they were fascinated by his genius and learning. The third edition of his Institutes had been published in 1539; and the charm of his style, the profundity of his remarks, together with his intimate acquaintance with Scripture, rendered it influential wherever it was read. Among those who had ability to study it, it was widely and generally circulated. Notwithstanding the defects of the treatise, and the actual omission of some important doctrines, especially those relating to the day of judgment, if not to eschatology in general—of theological students we may venture to say, that few will cease from the perusal of his writings when once they have begun it, until they have mastered the subject of which he treats. Whether, when they have mastered Calvin's system, they will become really profound divines is another question. They who read it wisely will remember that there is only one book which is perfect the Holy Bible; and they will not forget that if Calvin's Institutes be a wonderful work, considering the age of the author when he transmitted it to press, there are other wiser and more learned authors for the interpretation of Scripture, whom they must feel it to be their duty also to consult. We may make our meaning intelligible by referring to Milton. The author of 'Paradise Lost' is one of the greatest poets the world. has ever known; but we should not send a student to XVIII. Edmund Grindal. 1583. Calvin's Milton for instruction on a theological difficulty. The CHAP. fascination of Calvin's book consists, to a great extent, in his having systematised the doctrine of which he writes; and it is comparatively easy to the mind, while avoiding a 1575-6dispute, to understand a system. Calvin's care it was to Fascinabe systematical. The Catholic or Churchman, therefore, tion of was not that kind of guide which it is the pleasure of a Calvinist to possess. Consequently, many became, and still become, Calvinists in order that they may thus obtain a leader capable of supplying them with an answer, whose object is to overcome the difficulties. which beset their ways, or the adversaries who perplex them. his genius, writings. deference modified Catholic principles retained in the Angli can Refor mation. As a Christian philosopher, Grindal was not desirous, Grindal's by addicting himself jurare in verba magistri, to save to Calvin, himself from the trouble of thought. The power of Calvin's by the intellect, his vigour, his clearness, his accuracy, his Grindal could highly, and therefore justly, appreciate. Any statement advanced by the learned doctor, Grindal could receive with the deference due to a master mind; and he would weigh in the balance of the sanctuary, after thought and prayer, all that he was not prepared to accept merely on the ground of its being the assertion of one who, though profound in Scriptural knowledge, and logical in his deductions from the facts conceded in discussion, was by no means free from error, and whose judgment was sometimes, not to say frequently, tainted with prejudice and warped by faction. Grindal, as the representative of the English Reformation, was willing to give due attention to the traditions of the Catholic Church, the Church being to him the authority which Luther or Calvin had become to others, and he was as a reformer preparing himself to carry out his principles still further, by bringing the traditions of the Church to the test of CHAP. Scripture; rejecting what was medieval, and accepting what was primitive. XVIII. Edmund Grindal. 1583. Reasons why Grindal does not settle in Geneva. Under these circumstances we understand why 1575-6- Grindal did not seek a settlement in Geneva. He would weigh well what Calvin advanced, but a Calvinist, in the strict sense of the word, he refused to become. Maintaining his independence, he would freely discourse with Calvin on the great facts of revelation when he met him in society; but being a man of high station in the schools and the court of his native land, he required to be treated as an equal; and he desired, in terms of equality, to maintain his own opinions and the principles of the Reformation of his country. Calvin's intoler ance. Then again,-Geneva was not the place in which the calm and philosophic mind of Grindal could find the peace and comfort which he had looked forward to enjoying when he left his native land, an expectation to enjoy which had been one object of his expatriation. We have seen how miserably the peace of society had been violated in England by those who, even if they had a sincere regard for the reformation of religion, sought in the first instance to enrich themselves by the spoils of the Establishment. Very different expectations had been excited in his mind by the description which came to England of the state of affairs in Geneva, where Calvin ruled a despot in church and state. On this subject the partisans of Calvin are sometimes heard to speak at the present time; and even to admit what they would fain deny, if the case were not too plain to admit of a denial. That Calvin had to deal with perverse and corrupt people in Geneva cannot be denied; but as his learned biographer remarks, it may be more than doubted whether he took the best method of reforming them. “The respect and submission exacted by Calvin far exceeded that claimed by other spiritual guides, and was anything but compatible with the meekness and humility inculcated by the Gospel. The most trifling slights and insults, such as most men would have overlooked with contempt, Calvin pursued with bitterness and acrimony. The Registers of Geneva abound with instances, which grew more frequent and more severe as his power became more consolidated. In 1551 we find Bertholier excommunicated by the consistory because he would not allow that he had done wrong in asserting that he was as good a man as Calvin. Three men who had laughed during a sermon of his were imprisoned for three days and condemned to ask pardon of the consistory. Such proceedings are very numerous, and in the two years 1558 and 1559 alone, 414 of them are recorded! To impugn Calvin's doctrine, or the proceedings of the consistory, endangered life. Calvin carried this system almost to a pitch of blasphemy; so that he sometimes dared to justify the. harshest and most unchristian-like conduct and words by the example of the apostles and even of Christ himself."* CH AP. XV III. Edmund Grindal. 1575-6 1583. Geneva The result was as might have been expected. A State of recent Genevese writer has remarked: "To those who under Calimagine that Calvin did nothing but good, I could vin. produce our registers, covered with records of illegitimate children, which were exposed in all parts of the town and country; hideous trials for obscenity; wills, in which fathers and mothers accuse their children not only of errors but of crimes; agreements before notaries between young women and their lovers, in which the latter, even in the presence of the parents of their paramours, make them an allowance for the education of their illegitimate offspring; I could instance multitudes of * Dyer's Life of Calvin, pp. 143, 144. XVIII. Grindal. 1575-61583. СНАР. forced marriages, in which the delinquents were conducted from the prison to the church; mothers who abandoned Edmund their children to the hospital, while they themselves lived in abundance with a second husband; bundles of lawsuits between brothers; heaps of secret negotiations; men and women burnt for witchcraft; sentences of death in frightful numbers; and all these things among the generation. nurtured by the mystic manna of Calvin." * Grindal and the To these historical facts I refer, because on the Calvinists. gradual formation of the character and principles of Grindal, they exercised an influence not the less powerful from the fact of his not always recollecting how they had become imbibed. If his principles had been fully established at the period of King Edward's death, he would probably, as was the case with Parker, have remained in England. He was fully convinced that the Papists were in error wherever they differed from the English reformers. He was equally certain that a Reformation was required; but in what particulars it would consist, and to what extent it was to be carried, his mind was not made up. By intercourse first with Lutherans and then with Calvinists, he desired to obtain the needful information, and to decide on his future conduct. Repelled by the Lutherans, he soon fell under the inover him. fluence of the Calvinists, and showed the weakness of his character, by deferring much more than was necessary to the opinions of men who, however learned, had not adopted the principles which swayed the English reformers, when they distinguished between the Church instituted by our Lord and the various sects which looked for their foundation to man. Afterwards, when he returned to England, he was partially restored to right Galiffe, Notices Généalogiques, tom. iii. Preface (quoted by Dyer, Their influence p. 153). |