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PART II.

CENT. the Libertines of Geneva. These were rather a XVI. cabal of rakes than a sect of fanatics. For they SECT. III. made no pretences to any religious system, but pleaded only for the liberty of leading voluptuous and immoral lives. This cabal was composed of a certain number of licentious citizens, who could not bear the severe discipline of Calvin, who punished with rigour, not only dissolute manners, but also whatever carried the aspect of irreligion and impiety. This irregular troop stood forth in defence of the licentiousness and dissipation that had reigned in their city before the Reformation, pleaded for the continuance of those brothels, banquetings, and other entertainments of a sensual kind, which the regulations of Calvin were designed to abolish, and employed all the bitterness of reproach and invective, all the resources of fraud and violence, all the powers of faction, to accomplish their purpose [u]. In this turbulent cabal there were several persons, who were not only notorious for their dissolute and scandalous manner of living, but also for their atheistical impiety and contempt of all religion. Of this odious class was Gruet, who attacked Calvin with the utmost animosity and fury, calling him bishop Asculanensis, the new pope, and branding him with other contumelious denominations of a like nature. This Gruet, denied the Divinity of the Christian religion, the immortality of the soul, the difference between moral good and evil, and rejected, with disdain, the doctrines that are held the most sacred among Christians; for which impieties he was at last brought before the civil tribunals, in the year 1550, and was condemned to death [w].

XL. The

[u] Spon's Histoire de Geneve, tom. ii. p. 44. in the Notes of the editor, in the edition in 12mo. published at Geneva in

[w] Id. tom. ii. p. 47. in the Notes.

XVI. SECT. III.

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XL. The opposition that was made to Calvin CENT. did not end here. He had contests of another kind to sustain against those who could not relish his theological system, and, more especially, his melancholy and discouraging doctrine in relation Calvin's to eternal and absolute Decrees. These adversaries disputes felt, by a disagreeable experience, the warmth and talio ; violence of his haughty temper, and that impatience of contradiction that arose from an overjealous concern for his honour, or rather for his unrivalled supremacy. He would not suffer them to remain at Geneva; nay, in the heat of the controversy, being carried away by the impetuosity of his passions, he accused them of crimes, from which they have been fully absolved by the impartial judgment of unprejudiced posterity [x]. Among these victims of Calvin's unlimited power and excessive zeal, we may reckon Sebastian Castalio, master of the public school at Geneva, who, though not exempt from failings [y], was nevertheless a man of probity, and was also remarkable for the extent of his learning, and the elegance of his taste. As this learned man could not approve of all the measures that were followed, nor indeed of all the opinions that were entertained by Calvin and his colleagues, and particularly that of absolute and unconditional predestination, he was deposed from his office in the Ff

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[x] At this day, we may venture to speak thus freely of the rash decisions of Calvin, since even the doctors of Geneva, as well as those of the other reformed churches, ingenuously acknowledge that the eminent talents and excellent qualities of that great man were accompanied with great defects, for which, however, they plead indulgence, in consideration of his services and virtues. See the Notes to Spon's Histoire de Geneva, tom. ii. p. 110. as also the Preface to Calvin's Letters to Jaques de Bourgogne, p. 19.

[y] See Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Castalio, in which the merit and demerit of that learned man seem to be impartially and accurately examined.

CENT. year 1544, and banished the city. The magiXVI. strates of Basil received, nevertheless, this ingeSECT. III. nious exile, and gave him the Greek professorship in their university [*].

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with Bol- XLI. A like fate happened to Jerom Bolsec, a French monk of the Carmelite order, who, though much inferior to Castalio in genius and learning, was nevertheless judged worthy of esteem, on account of the motive that brought him to Geneva; for it was a conviction of the excellence of the protestant religion that engaged him to abandon the monastic retreats of superstition, and to repair to this city, where he followed the profession of physic. His imprudence, however, was great, and was the principal cause of the misfortunes that befel him. It led him, in the year 1551, to lift up his voice in the full congregation, after the conclusion of divine worship, and to declaim, in the most indecent manner, against the doctrine of absolute Decrees: for which he was cast into prison, and, soon after, sent into banishment. He then returned to the place of his nativity, and to the communion of Rome, and published the most bitter and slanderous libels, in which the reputation, conduct, and morals of Calvin and Beza were cruelly attacked [a]. From this treatment of Bolsec arose the misunderstanding between Calvin and Jaques de Bourgogne, a man illustrious by his descent from the dukes of Burgundy, who was Calvin's great patron and intimate friend, and who had settled at Geneva with no other view than to enjoy the pleasure

1

[*] See Uytenbogard's Ecclesiastical History, written in Dutch, part II. p. 70-73, where that author endeavours to defend the innocence of Castalio. See also Colomesii Italia Orientalis, p. 99.—Bayle's Dict. tom. i. p. 792.

[a] See Bayle's Dict. at the article Bolsec.-Spon's Hist. de Geneve, tom. ii. p. 55. in the Notes.-Biblioth. Raisonnée, tom. xxxii. p. 446. tom. xxxiv. p. 409.

XVI. SECT. III.

pleasure of conversing with him. Jaques de Bour- CENT. gogne had employed Bolsec as his physician, and was so well satisfied with his services, that he en- PART II. deavoured to support him, and to prevent his being ruined by the enmity and authority of Calvin. This incensed the latter to such a degree, that he turned the force of his resentment against this illustrious nobleman, who, to avoid his vengeance, removed from Geneva, and passed the remainder of his days in a rural retreat [b].

XLII. Bernardin Ochinus, a native of Sienna, and with and, before his conversion, general of the order Ochinus. of Capuchins, was, in the year 1543, banished from Switzerland, in consequence of a sentence passed upon him by the Helvetic church. This proselyte, who was a man of a fertile imagination, and a lively and subtile turn of mind, had been invited to Zurich as pastorr of the Italian church established in that city. But the freedom, or rather the licentiousness, of his sentiments, exposed him justly to the displeasure of those who had been his patrons and protectors. For, among many other opinions very different from those that were commonly received, he maintained that the law, which confined a husband to one wife, was susceptible of exceptions in certain cases. In his writings also he propagated several notions that were repugnant, to the theological system of the Helvetic doctors, and pushed his enquiries into many subjects of importance, with a boldness and freedom that were by no means suitable to the genius and spirit of the age in which he lived. Some have, however, undertaken his defence, and have alleged in his behalf, that the errors he maintained at the time of his banishment, (when, Ff2

worn

[6] See Letters de Calvin à Jaques de Bourgogne, Preface, P. 8.-La Bibliotheque Raisonnée, tom. xxxiv. p. 444. tom. xxxiv. p. 406.

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PART II.

CENT. worn out with age, and oppressed with poverty, he XVI. was rather an object of compassion, than of resentSECT. III. ment), were not of such a heinous nature as to justify so severe a punishment. However that may have been, this unfortunate exile retired into Poland, where he embraced the communion of the Anti-trinitarians and Anabaptists [c], and ended his days in the year 1564 [d].

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XLIII. It is remarkable enough, that those very tween the doctors, who animadverted with such severity Church of upon all those who dared to dissent from any part of their theological system, thought proper, neverPuritans. theless, to behave with the greatest circumspection, and the most pacific spirit of mildness, in the long controversy that was earried on with such animosity between the Puritans, and the abettors of episcopacy in England. For if, on the

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[c] Boverii Annales Capucinorum.-Together with a book, entitled, La guerre Seraphique, ou Histoire des perils qu'a cours la barbe des Capuchins, livr. ii. p. 147. livr. iii. p. 190, 230. -Observationes Halenses Latina. tom. iv. Observ. xx. p. 406. tom. v. Observ. i. p. 3.—Bayle's Diction. at the article Ochin. -Christ. Sandii Biblioth. Anti Trinitar. p. 4. Niceron, Me moires pour servir à l'Histoire des hommes illustres, tom. xix.

p. 166.

[d] Ochinus did not leave the accusations of his adver saries without a reply; he published, in Italian, Five Books of Apology for his character and conduct, which were printed, together with a Latin translation of them, by Seb. Castalio, without the date of the year. The Geneva edition of this apology bears date 1554, and is in 8vo. There is a German edition in 4to, published (according to Vogtius, Catal. Lib. rar. p. 430.) in the year 1556. That copy in the Jena library bears date 1559. See Mylius' Memor. Acad. Jenens. C. c. p. 432. Beza, in his letter to Dudithius, insults the memory of Ochinus, and pretends to justify the severity with which he was treated, in such a taunting and uncharitable manner as does him little credit. See his Epist. Theolog. Geneva, 1575, in 12mo. Epist. i. p. 10. and Ep. 81. What the writers of the Romish church have laid to the charge of Ochinus, may be seen in the life of Cardinal Commendoni, written by Gratiani, bishop of Amelia, (and published in a French translation by the eloquent Flechier, bishop of Nismes), B. 2. C. 9. p. 138-149. N.

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