The _Institutes_ were admired by the finest spirits of the age. Montluc, bishop of Valence, called Calvin the greatest theologian in the world. A French writer of our day, who does not belong to the Reform, but is a correct and profound thinker,[358] has characterised the _Institutes_ 'as the first work of our times which presents an orderly arrangement of materials, with a composition thoroughly appropriate and exact;' and has distinguished Calvin himself, 'as treating in a masterly manner all the questions of Christian philosophy, and as rivalling the most sublime writers in his great thoughts on God, whose style (he adds) has been equalled, but not surpassed, by Bossuet.' [330] Calvin, _Actes_, viii. 2. [331] Calvin, _Préface des Psaumes_. [332] Calvin, _Actes_, vii. 59. [333] Mézeray, _Hist. de France_, ii. p. 981. The _chambres ardentes_ were tribunals that pronounced the penalty of the stake against heresy. [334] 'Grave passim apud Germanos odium ignes illi excitaverunt.'—Calvin _in Psalm._ [335] Calvin, _Préface aux Psaumes_. [336] Letters of Calvin to Myconius, March. 14, and April 17, 1542. [337] See my _History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century_, books viii. and xi. [338] _Vie de Thomas Plater_, published by M. E. Fick, Doctor of Laws. [339] _Vie de Thomas Plater_, published by E. Fick. [340] 'Videbis quid amicitiæ sit remansurum cum papa et papisticis.'—_Myconius ad Bullingerum_, March 1534. [341] 'Cum draconi non aliter est congrediendum, nisi ut penitus occidatur.'—Ibid. in post. epist. [342] Du Tillet to Calvin, September 7, 1538. [342a] 'Turbulentos homines qui totum ordinem politicum convellerent.'—Calvin _in Psalm._ See also Beza, _Hist. eccles._, p. 14, and _Vie de Calvin_, p. 19. [343] Calvin, _Préface des Psaumes_. [344] Proverbs xxxi. 8. [345] _Préface des Psaumes._ [346] 'Catenæ Patrum.' [347] _Institution_, liv. i. ch. i, ii, iii, iv. [348] _Institution_, liv. i. ch. vi. and vii. [349] Ibid. liv. i. ch. i.; liv. ii. ch. ii. and iii. [350] Ibid. liv. ii. ch. xvi. and xvii. [351] _Institution_, liv. iii. ch. ii.; liv. ii. ch. xii, xix, xx; liv. xiii. ch. iii, iv, v. [352] _Institution_, liv. ii. ch. iii; liv. iii. ch. xxi, xxii, xxiii. [353] Ibid. liv. i. ch. xvii, xviii. [354] _Institution_, liv. iii. ch. vi. [355] Ibid. liv. iv. ch. i. [356] 'Hic tanti luminis faces primum incensæ, &c.'—_Ramus_, Basilea, 1571. [357] The successive additions are easily seen in the first volume of Calvin's Works just published in Brunswick by three Strasburg divines, MM. Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss. We there find the different editions of the _Institutes_, and the passages peculiar to each are printed in larger type. We refer to the _Synopsis_ in six columns of the editions of 1536-1539-1543/5-1550/54-1559, &c. In its first form the _Institutes_ consisted of six chapters only; in the last, of eighty, divided into four books. Our selections have been made from the complete edition. [358] M. Nisard.