Read Ebook: History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin Vol. 6 (of 8) by Merle D Aubign J H Jean Henri Cates William L R William Leist Readwin Translator

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Licentiousness--Journey of Calvin and Farel to Berne--Journey to Basel--Their Reception there--Their Vindication--Hesitation as to Choice of a Post--Rivalry between Basel and Strasburg in seeking for Calvin--Farel called to Neuch?tel--Settlement of Calvin at Strasburg--Death of Courault--Calvin's Grief--The new Ministers of Geneva--Calvin's Opinion of them--Discontent--Accusations--The Complaints not unfounded--Calvin's Letter to Christians of Geneva--His Advice--Farel's Letter--His deep Sadness 439

STRASBURG AND GENEVA.

CALVIN'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH SADOLETO.

Colloquy of Bishops at Lyons--Cardinal Sadoleto--His Letter to the Genevese--Its Portraiture of the Reformers--Its Conclusion--Delivery of his Letter to the Council--Immediate Consequences--An important Step towards Rome--Two Martyrs in Savoy--Calvin's Reply to Sadoleto--Reason for his replying--Separation of the Church--Christian Antiquity--Justification by Faith--The Judgment Seat of God--Defence of Calvin--His first Faith--His Resistance--His Conversion--Who tears to Pieces the Spouse of Christ--To whom Dissensions are to be imputed--Luther's Joy--Copy received at Geneva--Caroli--His End 478

CATHOLICISM AT GENEVA--MARRIAGE OF CALVIN AT STRASBURG.

Citation of Priests before the Council--Their Attitude--The former Syndic Balard--His Courage--His Abjuration--Calvin's Thoughts on Geneva--His household Cares--His Desire to Marry--Various Projects--Hesitation--Idelette de Bure--Marriage--Catherine von Bora and Idelette de Bure--Second Assembly at Hagenau--Nothing done 499

GENEVA--DISSENSIONS AND SEVERITIES.

HISTORY

OF THE

REFORMATION IN EUROPE

IN THE TIME OF CALVIN.

THE REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND.

PREPARATION OF REFORM.

This is to be regretted, for the historian ought to embrace in his survey the whole field of human affairs. He must, of course, take into consideration the earthly powers which bear sway in the world, ambition, despotism, liberty; but he ought to mark also the heavenly powers which religion reveals. The living God must not be excluded from the world which He created. Man must not stop in his contemplations at elementary molecules, nor even at political influences, but must raise himself to this first principle, as Clement of Alexandria named it,--this existence, the idea of which is immediate, original, springs from no other, but is necessarily presupposed in all thought.

God, who renews the greenness of our pastures, who makes the corn come forth out of the bosom of the earth, and covers the trees with blossoms and with fruit, does not abandon the souls of men. The God of the whole visible creation is much more the light and the strength of souls, for one of these is more precious in his sight than all the universe. The Creator, who every spring brings forth out of the winter's ice and cold a nature full of life, smiling with light and adorned with flowers, can assuredly produce, when it pleases Him, a spiritual springtide in the heart of a torpid and frozen humanity. The Divine Spirit is the sap which infuses into barren souls the vivifying juices of heaven. The world has not seldom been like a desert in which all life seemed to be extinct; and yet, in those periods apparently so arid, subterranean currents were yielding sustenance here and there to solitary plants; and at the hour fixed by Divine providence the living water has gushed forth abundantly to reanimate perishing humanity. Such was the case in the two greatest ages of history, that of the Gospel and that of the Reformation.

Such epochs, the most important in human history, are for that reason the worthiest to be studied. The new life which sprang up in the 16th century was everywhere the same, but nevertheless it bore a certain special character in each of the countries in which it appeared; in Germany, in Switzerland, in England, in Scotland, in France, in Italy, in the Netherlands, in Spain, and in other lands. At Wittenberg it was to man that Christian thought especially attached itself, to man fallen, but regenerated and justified by faith. At Geneva it was to God, to His sovereignty and His grace. In Scotland it was to Christ--Christ as expiatory victim, but above all Christ as king, who governs and keeps his people independently of human power.

Scotland is peopled by a vigorous race, vigorous in their virtues and vigorous, we may add, in their faults. Vigor is also one of the distinguishing features of Scottish Christianity, and it is this quality perhaps which led Scotland to attach itself particularly to Christ as to the king of the Church, the idea of power being always involved in the idea of king.

This country is now to be the subject of our narrative. It deserves to be so; for although of small extent and situated on the confines of the West, it has by nature and by faith a motive force which makes itself felt to the ends of the earth.

Two periods are to be noted in the Scottish Reformation, that of Hamilton and that of Knox. It is of the first of these only that we are now to treat. The study of the beginnings of things attracts and interests the mind in the highest degree. Faithful to our plan, we shall ascend to the generative epoch of Caledonian reform, an epoch which Scotland herself has perhaps too much slighted, and we shall exhibit its simple beauty.

Before the days of the Reformation, Scotland received three great impulses in succession from the Christian countries of the south.

Several centuries passed away; the feudal system was established in Scotland. The mountainous nature of the country, which made of every domain a sort of fortress, the fewness of the large towns, the absence of any influential body of citizens, the institution of clans, the limited number of the nobles,--all these circumstances combined to make the power of the feudal lords greater than in any other European country; and this power at a later period protected the Reformation from the despotism of the kings. But the influence of the Culdees, though really perceptible in the Middle Ages, was very feeble. It may be said of the things of grace in Scotland as of the works of Creation, that the sun did not come to scatter the mists which brooded over a nature melancholy and monotonous, and that the influence of the winds which, rushing forth from the neighboring seas, roared and raged over the barren heaths or over the fertile plains of Caledonia, was not softened by the breath divine which comes from heaven.

Among the protectors of these brave folk was John Campbell, laird of Cessnock, a man well grounded in the evangelical doctrine, modest even to timidity, but abounding in works of mercy, and who received with goodwill not only the Lollards but those even whose opinions were opposed to his own. His partner, with a character of greater decision than his own, was a woman well versed in the Bible, and being thoroughly acquainted with the Scriptures was safe against intimidation. Every morning the family and the servants assembled in a room of the mansion, and a priest, the chaplain, opened in the midst of them a New Testament, a very rare book at that period, and read and explained it. When this family worship and the first meal were over, the Campbells would visit the poor and the sick. At the dinner hour they called together some of their neighbors: monks as well as gentlefolk would come and sit at their table. One day the conversation turning on the conventual life and the habits of the priests, Campbell spoke on the subject with moderation but also with freedom. The monks, exasperated, put crafty questions to him, provoked him, and succeeded in drawing from him words which in their eyes were heretical. Forgetting the claims of hospitality they hastened to the house of the bishop and denounced their host and the lady of the house. Inquiry was set on foot; the crime of heresy was proved. Campbell saw the danger which threatened him and appealed to the king.

The elections of priests were conducted after somewhat different methods. The lesser benefices were put up to auction and sold by wandering bards, diceplayers, or minions of the Court. The bishops, who gave their illegitimate daughters to the nobles, kept the best places in the Church for their bastards. These young worldlings, hurrying off to their pleasures, abandoned their flocks to monks, who retailed in the pulpit absurd legends of their saint, of his combats with the devil and of his flagellations, or amused the people with low jesting. This system, which passing for a representation of Christianity was merely its parody, destroyed not only Christian piety and morality, but the peace of families, the freedom of the people, and the prosperity of the kingdom.

While ambition, idleness and licentiousness thus prevailed among the clergy, God was preparing 'new vessels' into which to pour the new wine which the old vessels could no longer hold. Some simple-minded men were on the point of achieving by their Christian faith and life a victory over the rich, powerful, and worldly pontiffs. Three young men, born almost with the century, were just beginning a career, the struggles and trials of which were as yet unknown to them. These men were to become the reformers of the Church of Scotland.

On April 23, 1500, the wife of an honest citizen of Edinburgh gave birth to a son who was afterwards called by some Alane, and by others Ales, but who signed his own name Alesius, the form which we shall adopt. Alexander--that was his baptismal name--was a child remarkable for liveliness, and the anxiety of his devoted parents lest any accident should befall him led them to hang round his neck, as a safeguard against every danger, a paper on which a priest had written some verses of St. John. Alesius was fond of going, with other boys of his own age, to the heights which environ Edinburgh. The great rock on the summit of which the castle stands, the beautiful Calton Hill, and the picturesque hill called Arthur's Seat, in turn attracted them. One day--it was in 1512--Alexander and some friends, having betaken themselves to the last-named hill, amused themselves by rolling over and over down a slope which terminated in a precipice. Suddenly the lad found himself on the brink: terror deprived him of his senses: some hand grasped him and placed him in safety, but he never knew by whom or by what he had been saved. The priests gave the credit of this escape to the paper with which they had provided him, but Alexander himself attributed it to God and his father's prayers. 'Ah!' said he, many years afterwards, 'I never recall that event without a great shudder through my whole body.' Some time after he was sent to the University of St. Andrews to complete his education.

Patrick, the young man of whom we speak, was therefore of the blood royal, both by the father's and the mother's side. He was born probably at the manor of Kincavil, and was there brought up. He grew up surrounded with all the sweetnesses of a mother's love, and from his childhood the image of his mother was deeply engraven on his heart. This tender mother, who afterwards engaged his latest thoughts on the scaffold, observed with delight in her son a craving for superior culture, a passion for science, a taste for the literature of Greece and Rome, and above all, lively aspirations after all that is elevated, and movements of the soul towards God.

The Hamiltons having many relations at Paris, Sir Patrick determined to send thither his second son, and at the age of fourteen the lad set out for that celebrated capital. His father, who destined him for the great offices of the Church, had already procured for him the title and the revenues of abbot of Ferne, in the county of Ross, and from that source the expenses of the young man's journey and course of studies were to be defrayed. It was the moment at which the fire of the Reformation, which was just kindled on the Continent, began to throw out sparks on all sides. One of these sparks was to light on the soul of Patrick. But if Hamilton were destined to bring from Paris to Scotland the first stone of the building, another Scotchman, one year younger than he, was destined to bring the top-stone from Geneva.

In one of the suburbs of Haddington, near Edinburgh, called Gifford-gate, dwelt an honorable citizen, member of an ancient family of Renfrewshire, named Knox, who had borne arms, like his father and his grandfather, under the earl of Bothwell. Some members of this family had died under the colors. In 1505 Knox had a son who was named John. The blood of warriors ran in the veins of the man who was to become one of the most intrepid champions of Christ's army. John, after studying first at Haddington school, was sent at the age of sixteen to Glasgow University. He was active, bold, thoroughly upright and perfectly honest, diligent in his duties, and full of heartiness for his comrades. But he had in him also a firmness which came near to obstinacy, an independence which was very much like pride, a melancholy which bordered on prostration, a sternness which some took for insensibility, and a passionate force sometimes mistakenly attributed to a vindictive temper. An important place was reserved for him in the history of his country and of Christendom.

The old rivalries were not slow to reappear. When the parliament assembled at Edinburgh in April 1520, the Hamiltons gathered in great numbers in the palace of the primate Beatoun. The primate ran hither and thither, armed from head to foot, brandishing the torch of discord. The bishop of Dunkeld entreated him to prevent a collision. When the primate, laying his hand on his heart, said: 'On my conscience I am not able to prevent it,' the sound of his coat mail was heard. 'Ah, my lord,' exclaimed Dunkeld, 'that noise tells me that your conscience is not good.' Sir Patrick Hamilton, the father of the reformer, counselled peace; but Sir James Hamilton, a natural son of the earl of Arran, a violent and cruel young man, cried out to him: 'You are afraid to fight for your friend.' 'Thou liest, impudent bastard;' retorted the haughty baron; 'I will fight to-day in a place in which thou wilt not dare to set thy foot.' The speaker immediately quitted the palace, and all the Hamiltons followed him.

The earl of Angus then occupied the High Street, and his men, drawn up behind barricades, vigorously repulsed their adversaries with their pikes. Sir Patrick, with the most intrepid of his followers, cleared the entrenchments, threw himself into the High Street, and striking out vigorously all round him with his sword, fell mortally wounded, while the rash young man who had insulted him fled at full speed.

His son Patrick was no longer present in the manor-house of Kincavil, to mingle his tears with those of his mother. Escaping from the gloomy atmosphere of Caledonia, he had gone to enjoy in Paris the splendid light of civilization, almost at the same time at which the famous George Buchanan arrived there. 'All hail!' exclaimed these young Scotchmen, as they landed in France; 'all hail! oh, happy Gaul! kind nurse of letters! Thou whose atmosphere is so healthful, whose soil is so fertile, whose bountiful hospitality welcomes all the universe, and who givest to the world in return the riches of thy spirit; thou whose language is so elegant, thou who art the common country of all peoples, who worshippest God in truth and without debasing thyself in outward observances! Oh! shall I not love thee as a son? shall I not honor thee all my life? All hail, oh, happy Gaul!'

It is probable that Hamilton entered the Coll?ge de Montaigu, the same to which Calvin was admitted four or five years later. At the time of Hamilton's arrival Mayor , who soon after removed to St. Andrews, was teacher of philosophy there.

To a strong dislike of the writings of the sophists Hamilton joined a great love for those of the true philosophers. But presently a light more pure than that of Plato and Aristotle shone in his eyes. As early as 1520 the writings of Luther were read with eager interest by the students of the schools of Paris; some of whom took part with, others against the Reformation. Hamilton was listening to these disputations and reading the books which came from Germany, when suddenly he learnt the tragical death of Sir Patrick. He was profoundly affected by the tidings, and began to seek God with yet more ardor than before. He was one more example of the well-known fact, that at the very moment when all the sorrows of the earthly life overwhelm the soul, God gives to it the heavenly life. Two great events--the death of Sir Patrick, and the beginning of the Reformation in Paris--occurring simultaneously--occasioned in the soul of the young Scotchman a collision by which a divine spark was struck out. The fire once kindled in his heart, nothing could thenceforth extinguish it.

Hamilton took the degree of Master of Arts about the close of 1520, as still appears in the registers of the University. He may possibly have visited Louvain, where Erasmus then dwelt; he returned to Scotland probably in 1522.

THE MOVEMENT OF REFORM BEGINS.

It was to St. Andrews that Patrick Hamilton betook himself on his return from the Continent, after a visit to the bereaved family of Kincavil. He was admitted on June 9 of the same year into the University of the metropolitan city, and on October 3 of the following year he was received member of the faculty of letters. St. Andrews had powerful attractions for him. No other university in the kingdom had on its staff so many enlightened men; and the college of St. Leonard's, which he entered, was the one whose teaching had the most liberal tendencies. The studies which he had pursued, the knowledge which he had acquired, and the rank which he held, gave him distinction among his fellow-disciples. Buchanan, a severe judge, looked on him as a 'young man of great intellect and of astonishing learning.' Hamilton held the hypocrisy of the monks in such abomination that he never would adopt either their dress or their way of life; and although he was abbot of Ferne he never took up his residence in his monastery. Skilled in the musical art, he composed a chant in parts, which was performed in the cathedral, and delighted the hearers. He did more: he dreamed, as all reformers do at the outset of their career, of the transformation of the Catholic Church; he resolved to seek the imposition of hands, 'in order,' says Fryth, 'that he might preach the pure Word of God.' Hamilton did not, to be sure, preach at that time with the boldness and the power of a Luther or a Farel. He loved the weak; he felt himself weak; and being full of lowly-mindedness, he was content to impart faithfully the truth which he had received.

He had only just set sail when the cause of the Reformation, threatened by his presence, received a powerful reinforcement. In 1524, and at the beginning of 1525, some books of Luther and of other Reformers were brought into Scotland by merchant-ships, and getting dispersed over the country, produced there the same effect as they had in France and in Italy. Gawin Dunbar, the old bishop of Aberdeen, was the first to become aware of this. He discovered one day a volume of Luther in his own town. He was in consternation when he saw that the fiery darts hurled by the hand of the heretic were crossing the sea. As like discoveries were made in Linlithgow, St. Andrews, and other places, the affair was brought before Parliament. 'Damnable heresies are spread abroad in various countries,' said the partisans of Rome. 'This kingdom of Scotland, its sovereigns and their subjects, have always stood fast in the holy faith since they received it in the primitive age; attempts are being made at this moment to turn them away from it. Let us take all needful steps to repulse the attack.' Consequently, on July 17, 1525, parliament enacted that no person arriving in any part of the kingdom should introduce any book of Luther or of his disciples, or should publish the opinions of that German except for the purpose of refuting them, 'Scotland having always bene clene of all filth and vice.'

This act was immediately published throughout the country, and particularly at all ports, in order that no one might be able to pretend ignorance of it. About four days after the closing of parliament the sheriffs received orders from the king's council to set on foot without delay the necessary inquiries for the discovery of persons who might possess any books of Luther, or who should profess his errors. 'You will confiscate their books,' the order ran, 'and transmit them to us.' The Reformation, which till that time had been almost unknown in those regions, became suddenly a public fact, proclaimed by the highest body in the realm, and was on the point of preoccupying all minds. The enemies of the truth were preparing its triumph.

In May 1525, James having reached his fourteenth year, had been declared of age, in conformity with the law of Scotland. It had been a mere matter of form. Angus, supported by the most powerful of the nobles and by the parliament, verified the fears of the queen; he gave all places to the Douglases, and taking the Great Seal from archbishop Beatoun, kept it himself. The queen-mother indignantly entreated her very dear brother to secure the intervention of the pope on behalf of her son. All was useless: the authority of the bold and ambitious Angus remained unimpaired.

But this was not enough. The reform of the Church by the Church itself would not suffice; nor would reform by the writings of the reformers; there was need of a mightier principle,--the Word of God. This Word does not merely communicate a bare knowledge; it works a transformation in the will and in the life of man, and as soon as such a change is accomplished in two or three individuals in any place whatsoever, there exists a church. The increased liberty enjoyed in Scotland after the flight of the primate favored the introduction of this mighty Word, to which it was reserved to effect the complete enfranchisement of the nation.

It was during the time that archbishop Beatoun, arch-foe of the Reformation, was feeding his sheep on the Fifeshire hills in September, October, and November 1526, that the New Testaments arrived and were distributed in the towns and neighboring districts. Scotland and England received the Holy Scriptures from the same country and almost at the same time. The citizens of Edinburgh and the canons of St. Andrews were reading that astonishing book as well as the citizens of London and the canons of Oxford. There were monks who declared that it was a bad book 'recently invented by Martin Luther,' but the reading of it was not forbidden. At St. Andrews especially these sacred writings soon shed the evangelical light over the souls of men.

There was in that town a young man who was already acquainted with the great facts of salvation announced in this book, and who was well qualified to circulate and explain it. Patrick Hamilton, gifted with keen intelligence and a Christian heart, knew how to set forth in a concise and natural manner the truths of which he was convinced. He knew that there is in the Scriptures a wisdom superior to the human understanding, and that in order to comprehend them there is need of the illumination of the Holy Spirit. He believed that with the written it is necessary to combine oral teaching; and that as Testaments were come from the Netherlands, Scotland needed the spoken word which should call restless and degenerate souls to seek in them the living water which springs up unto life eternal. God was then preparing His witnesses in Scotland, and the first was Patrick Hamilton. He laid open the New Testament; he set forth the facts and the doctrines contained in it; he defended the evangelical principles. His father, the foremost of Scottish knights, had not broken so many lances in the tournament as Patrick now broke in his college, at the university, with the canons, and with all who set themselves against the truth. At the beginning of Lent 1527, he publicly preached in the cathedral and elsewhere the doctrines taught by Martin Luther. We have no further particulars of his preaching; but these are sufficient to show us that at this period the people who gathered together in the ancient churches of Scotland heard this faithful minister announce that 'it is not the law, that terrible tyrant, as Luther said, that is to reign in the conscience, but the Son of God, the king of justice and of peace, who, like a fruitful rain, descends from heaven and fertilizes the most barren soil.'

Circumstances were by no means favorable to the Reformation. Archbishop Beatoun had soon thrown off his shepherd's dress and left the flocks which he was feeding in the solitary pastures of Bogrian in Fifeshire. The simple, rude, and isolated life of the keeper of sheep was a sufficiently severe chastisement for an ambitious, intriguing, and worldly spirit: day and night, therefore, he was looking for some means of deliverance. Although he was then sleeping on the ground, he had plenty of gold and great estates: this wealth, the omnipotence of which he knew well, would suffice, said he to himself, to ransom him from the abject service to which a political reverse had reduced him. Since the victory of Linlithgow, Angus had exercised the royal power without opposition. It was needful then that Beatoun should gain over that terrible conqueror. The queen-mother, who had also fled at first, having ventured two months later to approach Edinburgh, her son had received her and conducted her to Holyrood palace. This encouraged the archbishop. His nephew, David Beatoun, abbot of Arbroath, was as clever and as ambitious as his uncle, but he hated still more passionately all who refused to submit to the Roman Church. The archbishop entreated him to negotiate his return; the party of the nobles was hard to win; but the abbot, having gained over the provost of Edinburgh, Sir Archibald Douglas, uncle of Angus, the bargain was struck. The archbishop was to pay two thousand Scottish marks to Angus, one thousand to George Douglas, the king's gaoler, one thousand to cruel James Hamilton, the assassin of Lennox, and to make a present of the abbey of Kilwinning to the earl of Arran. Beatoun, charmed, threw away his crook, started for Edinburgh, and resumed his episcopal functions at St. Andrews.

It was some time after the return of Beatoun that the king's cousin began to preach at St. Andrews the glad tidings of free salvation through faith in Christ. Such doctrines could not be taught without giving rise to agitation. The clergy took alarm, some priests and monks went to the castle and prayed the archbishop to chastise the young preacher. Beatoun ordered an inquiry: it was carried out very precisely. The persons with whom Hamilton had engaged in discussion were heard, and some of his hearers gave evidence as to the matter of his discourses. He was declared a heretic. Beatoun was not cruel; he would perhaps have been content with seeking to bring back by fatherly exhortations the young and interesting Hamilton into the paths of the Church. But the primate had by his side some fanatical spirits, especially his nephew David, and they redoubled their urgency to such a degree that the archbishop ordered Hamilton to appear before him to give an account of his faith.

The inquiry could not be made without this noble Christian hearing of it. He perceived the fate that awaited him; his friends perceived it too. If he should appear before the archbishop, it was all up with him. Everyone was moved with compassion; some of his enemies even, touched by his youth, the loveliness of his character, and his illustrious birth, wished to see him escape death. There was no time to lose, for the order of the archiepiscopal court was already signed; several conjured him to fly. What should he do? All his desire was to show to others the peace that filled his own soul; but at the same time he knew how much was still wanting to him. Who could better enlighten and strengthen him than the reformers of Germany? Who more able to put him in a position to return afterwards to preach Christ with power? He resolved to go. Two of his friends, Hamilton of Linlithgow and Gilbert Wynram of Edinburgh, determined to accompany him. Preparations for their departure were made with the greatest possible secrecy. Hamilton took with him one servant, and the three young Scotchmen, finding their way furtively to the coast, embarked on board a merchant-ship. It was in the latter half of the month of April 1527. This unlooked-for escape greatly provoked those who had set their minds on taking the life of the evangelist. 'He, of evil mind, as may be presumed, passed forth of the realm,' said the archbishop's familiars. No: his intention was to be instructed, to increase in spiritual life from day to day. He landed at the beginning of May in one of the ports of the Netherlands.

HAMILTON PREPARES HIMSELF IN GERMANY FOR THE REFORMATION OF SCOTLAND.

At the time of their arrival the little town was full of unaccustomed movement. Undiverted by this stir, Hamilton hastened to find out the Frenchman whose name had been mentioned to him and other learned men who were likely also to be at Marburg. He found the sprightly, pious, and resolute Lambert, an opponent, like the landgrave, of half-measures, and a man determined to take action in such wise that the Reformation should not be checked halfway. The young abbot of the North and the aged monk of the South thus met, understood each other, and soon lived together in great familiarity. Lambert said to him that the hidden things had been revealed by Jesus Christ; that what distinguishes our religion from all others is the fact that God has spoken to us; that the Scriptures are sufficient to make us perfect. He did not philosophize much, persuaded that by dint of philosophizing one swerves from the truth. He set aside with equal energy the superstition which invents a marvellous mythology, and the incredulity which denies divine and supernatural action. 'Everything which has been perverted must be reformed ,' said Lambert, 'and all reform which proceeds otherwise than according to the Word of God, is nothing. All the inventions of human reason are, in the matter of religion, nothing but trifling and rubbish.'

The commotion which then prevailed amongst the population of Marburg was occasioned by the approaching inauguration of the university founded by the landgrave. On May 30 the chancellor presided at that ceremony. No school of learning had ever been founded on such a basis; one must suppose that the union which ought to exist between science and faith was in this case unrecognized. There is nothing in Hamilton's writings to show that in this matter he shared the opinions of Lambert. With great evangelical simplicity as to the faith, the Scotchman had rather, in his manner of setting it forth, a metaphysical, speculative tendency, which is a marked feature of the Scottish mind. The principles which were to characterize the new university were these: 'The Holy Scriptures,' says a document of Marburg which has been preserved, 'ought to be purely and piously interpreted, and no one who fails to do so is to teach in the school. From the science of law must be cut off everything which is either unchristian or impious. It is not mere scholars who are to be appointed in the faculties of law, of medicine, of the sciences, and of letters, but men who shall combine with science the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and piety.'

From that time the Frenchman and the Scotchman frequently studied the Holy Scriptures together, and with interest always new. The large acquaintance with the Word of God which Hamilton possessed, astonished Lambert: the freshness of his thoughts and of his imagination charmed him; the integrity of his character inspired a high esteem for him; his profound remarks on the Gospel edified him. A short time after this, the Frenchman, speaking to the landgrave Philip, said:--'This young man, of the illustrious family of the Hamiltons, which is closely allied, by the ties of blood, to the king and the kingdom of Scotland, who although hardly twenty-three years of age, brings to the study of Scripture a very sound judgment, and has a vast store of knowledge, is come from the end of the world, from Scotland, to your academy, in order to be more fully established in God's truth. I have hardly ever met a man who expresses himself with so much spirituality and truth on the Word of the Lord.' Such is the testimony given in Germany, by a Frenchman, to the young reformer of Scotland.

On the following day, at six o'clock in the evening, as Jonas again stood by the bedside of his friend, he heard him calling on the Lord, sometimes in German, sometimes in Latin. The thought that he had not done enough, nor suffered enough for his Saviour, distressed him. 'Ah,' said he, 'I have not been judged worthy to shed my blood for the love of Christ, as several of my brethren have done.' Presently a thought consoled him: 'St. John the Evangelist also,' said he, 'had not that honor--he who nevertheless wrote a book against the papacy, far more severe than any that I could ever write.' After that he had his little John brought to him, and looking at the mother of the boy, he said, 'You have nothing; but God will provide for you.'

The plague, as we have said, was at Wittenberg. Two persons died of it in Melanchthon's house; one of his sons was attacked, and one of the sons of Jonas lost his life. Hans Luft, the printer of Marburg, who was at Wittenberg on business, fell ill, and his mind wandered. He was removed to Marburg, where Hamilton was.

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