The strenuous moral training of the Genevese was an essential part of Calvin's work as an educator. All were trained to respect and obey laws, based upon Scripture, but enacted and enforced by representatives of the people, and without respect of persons. How fully the training of children, not merely in sound learning and doctrine, but also in manners, "good morals," and common sense was carried out is pictured in the delightful human _Colloquies_ of Calvin's old teacher, Corderius (once a teacher at the College of Guyenne, p. 269), whom he twice established at Geneva.... Calvin's memorials to the Genevan magistrates, his drafts for civil law and municipal administration, his correspondence with reformers and statesmen, his epoch-making defense of interest taking, his growing tendency toward civil, religious, and economic liberty, his development of primary and university education, his intimate knowledge of the dialect and ways of thought of the common people of Geneva, and his broad understanding of European princes, diplomats, and politics mark him out as a great political, economic, and educational as well as a religious reformer, a constructive social genius capable of reorganizing and moulding the whole life of a people. The world owes much to the constructive, statesman-like genius of Calvin and those who followed him, and we in America probably most of all. Geneva became a refuge for the persecuted Protestants from other lands, and through such influences the ideas of Calvin spread to the Huguenots in France, the Walloons of the Dutch and Belgian Netherlands, the Germans in the Palatinate, the Presbyterians of Scotland, the Puritans in England, and later to the American colonies. [Illustration: FIG. 98. A FRENCH SCHOOL OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (From an old woodcut by Abraham Bosse, 1611-78)] CALVINISM IN THE OTHER LANDS. The great educational work done by the Calvinists in France, in the face of heavy persecution, deserves to be ranked with that of the Lutherans in Germany in its importance. Had the Calvinists had the same opportunity for free development the Lutherans had, and especially their state support, there can be little doubt that their work would have greatly exceeded the Lutherans in importance and influence on the future history of mankind. Beginning with one church in 1538, they had 2150 churches by 1561, when the severe persecutions and religious wars began.