Very different estimates, it may be imagined, have been formed of C.'s character, according to the point of view from which it is contemplated. None, however, can dis pute his intellectual greatness, or the powerful services which he rendered to the cause of Protestantism. Stern in spirit, and unyielding in will, he is never selfish or petty in his motives. Nowhere amiable, he is everywhere strong. Arbitrary and cruel when it suits him. he is yet heroic in his aims, and beneficent in the scope of his ambi tion. Earnest from the first, looking upon life as a serious reality, his moral purpose is always clear and definite—to live a life of duty, to shape circumstances to such divine ends as he apprehended, and, in whatever sphere he might be placed, to work out the glory of God.
He rendered a double service to Protestantism, which, apart from anything else, would have made his name illustilons: he systematized sts doctrine, and he organized its ecclesiastical discipline. He was at once the great theologian of the reformation, and the founder of a new church polity, which did more than all other influences together to consolidate the scattered forces of the reformation, and give them an enduring strength.
As a religious teacher, as a social legislator, and as a writer, especially of the French language, then in process of formation, his fame is second to none in his age, and must always conspicuously adorn the history of civilization. Among C.'s most important works are: Christiana Religionis Institutio (Basel, 1536); De Necessitate Reformanthe Ecclesia (1544); Commentaires sur la Concordance ou Harmonie des Evangelistes (Gen. 1561); In Novum Testamentum Commentarii; La Libres Psalmorum Commentarii; Librum Geneseos Commentarii. The first edition of C.'s whole works is that of Amster dam, 1671, in 9 vols. fol. A complete critical edition by Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss began to appear at Brunswick in 1869. By the "Calvin translation society," in Edin burgh, his works have been collected, translated into English, and issued in 31 vols. Svo, 1843-55. Besides the original vita by Beza, there are lives of C. by Bolsec (froni the Catholic standpoint, 1577; new ed. 1875), Audin (1840), Bungener, Viguet and Tissot (1S64); and in Germany, by Henry (1844), Stithelin (1863), and Kampschulte (vol. i. 1869).