The persecuting jesuitry of the seventeenth century, and the superficial incredulity of the eighteenth, have calumniated the great Reformer of the West. Times have changed, and the nineteenth century is beginning to do him justice. His works, even those still in manuscript, are sought after and published; his life and character, his theology and influence, are the object of numerous studies which in general bear the stamp of fairness; and even distinguished painters have found the subject of their finest pictures in his life. We entertain no blind admiration for him. We know that he has sometimes used bitter language. We acknowledge that, sharing in the faults of his century, or rather of ten centuries, he believed that whatever infringed on the respect due to God ought to be punished by the civil power, quite as much as anything that might be injurious to the honour or the life of man. We deplore this error. But how can any one study with discernment the Reformer's letters and other writings, and not recognise in him one of the noblest intelligences, one of the most elevated minds, one of the most affectionate hearts, and in short, one of those true Christian souls who unreservedly devote themselves to duty? An eminent scholar, whom Scotland still laments—Dr. Cunningham, the successor of Chalmers—said, in a work published a short time before his death, 'Calvin is the man who, next to St. Paul, has done most good to mankind.' No doubt he will always have his enemies. A journal of high character and great circulation in Germany, speaking of a libel (_Schmæhschrift_ is the word used), published some time ago against Calvin, asks 'From what camp does it proceed—from jesuitical Romanism or atheistical libertinism?' It is, indeed, from these quarters that the enemies of the Reformer principally come; but we acknowledge that a man may be opposed to Calvin, and yet not belong to either of these schools. Let us not disquiet ourselves, however, about such attacks; Calvin's Master has said, _If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?_[3] The author of the present volume thinks that the best way of doing justice to his memory, is to make him known. The reader will meet in this work with many sayings and doings of this great man, which are not to be found in other histories. If a writer had the good fortune to lay before the German public some unknown trait of Luther's life, all Germany would be taken up with it. Shall we be more indifferent to the life of our great Reformer? Certainly there are more striking actions in the life of Luther, who so easily gains possession of our hearts; but we may ask whether there are not features in the life of Calvin, which are less frequent in that of the Wittemberg doctor; the manner, for instance, in which the young doctor of Noyon, wherever he happens to be (at Angoulême, Poitiers, &c.), is at once surrounded by distinguished men, whom he wins over to the truth?