During the entire course of his conflict with heresy and the Libertines, Calvin was actively engaged in preaching and lecturing. He had crowds of hearers from all parts of Europe. Protestant refugees were in attendance upon his lectures and discourses and went back carrying with them the impression made upon them by his doctrines and personality. Thus was he able to stamp himself ineffaceably upon the re ligious thought of his own and aftertimes, and to cause Geneva to sustain to the Latin nations in particular a relation similar to that subsisting between Wittenberg and the Germanic. The weight and permanence of the influence he ex erted was due partly to his own idiosyncrasies. Both his mode of thinking and his policy of action were measurably determined by his nat ural temperament and his physical debility. He was compOsed principally of will and brain, with too little of the tenderer sensibilities to sweeten the action of the one or to rectify the aberrations of the other. Naturally enough then he made the doctrine of God's sovereignty the keystone of his system, and could conceive of heresy as being none other than the unpardon able sin. The same combination of volitional and intellectual genius made him also a born or ganizer, enabling him to compact and mature the reform tendencies of the times into a corporate whole where before everything had been in cipient and sporadic.
Calvinism is Augustinianism in its developed and Protestant form, the two theologians coin ciding in their views of predestination, sin and grace, though differing in the matter of justifi cation and other less important matters. The keynote of Calvinism is not predestination, as is sometimes claimed, but divine sovereignty, out of which, understood as Augustine and Calvin understood it, predestination issues as a neces sary corollary. Predestination so derived car ries with it perforce the notion that those who are elected to be saved are so elected by the ar bitrary action' of the divine will;—('He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth? The motive therefore leading to God's exercise of grace in specific cases has its inexplicable grounds in the mind of God, and is nowise referable to any condi tion existent in the sinner. qnfralapsarianism,"
"Permissive Decree," etc., are merely philosophi cal attempts to relieve divine arbitrariness from the charge of immorality.
Among Calvin's most important works are 'Christina Religionis Institutio' (1536) ; Necessitate Reformanda Ecclesia) (1544) ; 'Commentaires sur la concordance ou harmonic des Evangelistes' (1561) ; (In Novum Testa mentum CommentariP ; 'In Libros Psalmorum Commentarii' ; Librum Geneseos Commen tarii.) The first edition of Calvin's whole works is that of Amsterdam (1671, 9 vols. fol.), but this has been superseded by the definitive and critical edition begun by J. W. Baum, E. Cunitz and E. Reuss, and finished by Lobstein and Erichson (59 vols., Brunswick and Berlin 1863- 1900). By the Calvin Translation Society, his works have been collected, translated into Eng lish and issued in 51 volumes (1843-55). Consult for biography Beza, T. de (Geneva 1564, new ed., 1869), the original life, written a few months after Calvin's death; Bolsec, J. (Lyons 1577; new ed. 1875), written from the Roman Catholic standpoint; Henry, P. (3 vols., Ham burg 1835-44), English translation abridged and altered by Stebbing (London 1851) ; Dyer, T. H. (London 1850) ; Bungener, F. (Paris 1863, English trans., Edinburgh 1863) ; Staehelin, E. (Elberfeld 1863) ; Pierson, A. (Amsterdam 1883-91) ; Walker, W. (New York 1906) ; all of which are written from a Protestant point of view. A very impartial and valuable book from a Roman Catholic is that by Kampschulte, F. W., Calvin, seine Kirche and sein Staat in Genf' (Leipzig 1869-99). An ex haustive work is that by Doumergue, E. (Lau sanne 1899-1908), containing many original drawings, facsimiles, etc. and is the work of a lifetime. For detailed history of the life of Calvin, consult d'Aubigne, Merle, 'History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin' ; Fisher, G. P., 'The Schaff, Philip, in 'History of the Christian Church' (Vol. VII, pp. 257-844, New York 1892) ; article on ((Calvin* in the Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.' A very complete bibliography is given in Schaff's 'Creeds of Christendom.' See INsrirurtort OF