Part 32
one of the most eminent of the reformers, was born at Vezelai, in the Nivernois, in 1519, and was originally a Catholic, and intended for the law. At the age of twenty, he gained an unenviable reputation by the composition of Latin poetry which was at once elegant and licentious, and which, some years afterwards, he published under the title of “Juvenile Poems.” Though not in orders, he possessed benefices of considerable value. These, however, he abandoned in 1548, and retired to Geneva, where he publicly abjured Popery. To this he was induced by his having meditated, during illness, upon the doctrines which he had heard from his Protestant tutor, Melchior Wolmar; and perhaps also, in some measure, by his attachment to a lady, whom he carried with him to Geneva, and married. He now accepted the Greek professorship at Lausanne, which he held for ten years. It was while he was thus occupied that he produced his tragedy of “Abraham’s Sacrifice,” his version of the New Testament, and his hateful defence of the right of the magistrate to punish heretics. In 1559, he removed to Geneva, and became the colleague of Calvin, through whom he was appointed rector of the academy, and theological professor. Two years after this, he took a prominent part in the conference at Poissy, and was present at the battle of Dreux. He returned to Geneva in 1563, succeeded Calvin in his offices and influence, and was thenceforward considered as the head of the Calvinistic church. After an exceedingly active life, he died on the 13th of October, 1605.
Leo X.
Pope JOHN DE MEDICI, the son of the illustrious Lorenzo, was born in 1475, at Florence, and was nominated a cardinal in his thirteenth year. In 1505, he was made governor of Perugia; was intrusted with the command of the Papal army in 1511; and was made prisoner, in the following year, at the battle of Ravenna. He attained the Papal crown in 1513, on the death of Julius II. He died in 1521. Leo was one of the most munificent patrons of learning and of the arts; but he was prodigal, and on some occasions grossly violated the principles of justice. To his shameless sale of indulgences, to raise money to complete St. Peter’s Church at Rome, and other extravagances, the world is indebted for the reformation of the church by Luther and others.
Justin.
Surnamed the MARTYR, one of the fathers of the church, was born at Neapolis, anciently Sichem, in Palestine, and was a philosopher of the Platonic school. He is believed to have preached the gospel in Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt. He was beheaded at Rome, in 165. Of his works, the principal are two Apologies for the Christians.
Arius.
Founder of the sect of the Arians, was an African by birth. Disappointment made him a sectary. He propagated the opinion that the Word was not a divine person; and the heresy, though condemned by various councils, gained followers, and excited schisms in the Roman empire. The Nicene creed was drawn up to combat his errors. He was a violent enemy of Athanasius. He died at Alexandria, 386.
Athanasius.
The celebrated patriarch of Alexandria was born in that city about 296. At the council of Nice, though then but a deacon of Alexandria, his reputation for skill in controversy gained him an honorable place in the council, and with signal ability he exposed the sophistry of those who pleaded on the side of Arius. Six months after, he was appointed the successor of Alexander. Notwithstanding the influence of the emperor, who had recalled Arius from banishment, and, upon a plausible confession of his faith, in which he affected to be Orthodox in his sentiments, directed that he should be received by the Alexandrian church, Athanasius refused to admit him to communion, and exposed his prevarication. The Arians upon this exerted themselves to raise tumults at Alexandria, and to injure the character of Athanasius with the emperor, who was prevailed upon by falsehoods to pronounce against him a sentence of banishment. In the beginning of the reign of Constantius, he was recalled to his happy people, but was again disturbed and deposed through the influence of the Arians. Accusations were also sent against him and other bishops from the east to the west; but they were acquitted by Pope Julius in full council. Athanasius was restored a second time to his see, upon the death of the Arian bishop, who had been placed in it. Arianism, however, being in favor at court, he was condemned by a council convened at Arles, and by another at Milan, and was a third time obliged to fly into the deserts. His enemies pursued him even here, and set a price upon his head. In this situation, Athanasius composed writings full of eloquence to strengthen the faith of believers, and expose the falsehood of his enemies. He returned with the other bishops whom Julian the Apostate recalled from banishment, and, in A. D. 362, held a council at Alexandria, where the belief of a consubstantial Trinity was openly professed. Many now were recovered from Arianism, and brought to subscribe the Nicene creed. But his peace was again interrupted by the complaints of the heathen, whose temples the zeal of Athanasius kept always empty. He was again obliged to fly to save his life. The accession of Jovian brought him back. During the reign of Jovian, also, Athanasius held another council, which declared its adherence to the Nicene faith; and with the exception of a short retirement under Valens, he was permitted to sit down in quiet and govern his affectionate church of Alexandria, until his death, in 373. Of the forty-six years of his official life, he spent twenty in banishment.
Athanasius (says the Encyclopedia Americana) is one of the greatest men of whom the church can boast. His deep mind, his noble heart, his invincible courage, his living faith, his unbounded benevolence, sincere humility, lofty eloquence, and strictly virtuous life, gained the honor and love of all. In all his writings, his style is distinguished for clearness and moderation.
Moses Maimonides.
Moses son of Maimon, commonly called Moses Egypticus, because physician to the sultan of Egypt, was a Jewish rabbi, born at Cordova, in Spain, 1131. He opened a school in Egypt, and as his skill, not only in languages, but in all branches of science and of philosophy, was very great, his instructions were attended by numerous and respectable pupils. Thus eminently distinguished as a scholar, as a physician, and also as a divine, so as to be called inferior only to the legislator Moses, he beheld with indifference, and even contempt, the fables and traditions of his countrymen, and applied all the powers of learning, and the vast resources of his mind, in the cause of truth, virtue, and philosophy. Some of his works were written in Arabic, but are extant now in Hebrew only. The most famous of these are his Commentaries on the Misna; Jad, a complete pandect of the Jewish law; More Nevochim, a valuable work, explaining the difficult passages, phrases, parables, and allegories, in Scripture, and several other works. This great and learned man died in Egypt at the age of seventy, and was buried with his nation in the land of Upper Galilee. His death was mourned for three whole days by Jews and Egyptians, and the year in which he died, in respect of his great virtues and learning, was called Lamentum Lamentabile.
John Agricola.
A German divine, born at Isleb. He was the friend and the disciple of Luther, but afterwards violently opposed him, and became the head of the Antinomians, a sect which regarded faith as the whole of the duties of man. He was also engaged in a dispute with Melancthon; but, with the most laudable motives, he endeavored to effect a reconciliation between the Catholics and Protestants. He died at Berlin, 1566, aged seventy-four.
Michael Servetus.
A native of Villanuova, in Arragon, son of a notary. He studied the law at Toulouse, but afterwards applied to medicine at Paris, and took there his doctor’s degree. The boldness and pertinacity of his opinions created him enemies, and he left the capital to settle at Lyons, but afterwards he retired to Charlieu. On the invitation of the archbishop of Vienne, in Dauphiny, he was prevailed upon to fix his residence there, and he might have lived in peace and respected, had he been satisfied to seek celebrity in medical pursuits alone. Eager to publish his Arian opinions on religion, he sent three questions to Calvin on the Divinity of Christ, on Regeneration, and on the Necessity of Baptism, and, when answered with civility, he reflected on the sentiments of his correspondent with arrogant harshness. This produced a quarrel, and ended in the most implacable hatred, so that Calvin, bent on revenge, obtained, by secret means, copies of a work in which his antagonist was engaged, and caused him to be accused before the archbishop as a dangerous man. Servetus escaped from prison; but, on his way to Italy, he had the imprudence to pass in disguise through Geneva, where he was recognized by Calvin, and immediately seized by the magistrate as an impious heretic. Forty heretical errors were proved against him by his accusers; but Servetus refused to renounce them, and the magistrates, at last yielding to the loud representations of the ministers of Bâsle, Berne, and Zurich, and especially of Calvin, who demanded the punishment of a profane heretic, ordered the unhappy man to be burnt. On the 27th October, 1553, the wretched Servetus was conducted to the stake, and, as the wind prevented the flames from fully reaching his body, two long hours elapsed before he was freed from his miseries. This cruel treatment deservedly called down the general odium on the head of Calvin, who ably defended his conduct and that of the magistrates. Servetus published various works against the Trinity, which were burnt in disgrace at Geneva, and other places.
Simonis Menno.
An ecclesiastic of Friesland, embraced the tenets of the Anabaptists, and, after being again baptized by Ubbo Philippi, became a powerful leader of his sect. He denied that Jesus Christ received a human shape from his mother, the virgin Mary; and while he maintained the necessity of again baptizing adults, he inveighed against the custom of infant baptism, which he regarded as Popish innovation. His eloquence and his learning were so much admired, that he gained a great number of followers in Westphalia, Guelderland, Holland, and Brabant; but, though a price was set on his head, he had the good fortune to escape his persecutors. He was, in his opinions, more moderate than the rest of the Anabaptists. His followers are still to be found in the Low Countries, under the name of _Mennonites_, divided into two distinct sects. He died at Oldeslo, between Lubec and Hamburg, 1565. His works were published at Amsterdam, 1681.
Francis Xavier.
Denominated the _Apostle of the Indies_, was born, in 1506, at the castle of Xavier, in Navarre; studied at Paris; became one of the first and most zealous disciples of Ignatius Loyola; was sent to the East by John III. of Portugal, to propagate the gospel; performed his mission in Hindoostan, the Moluccas, and Japan; and was on the point of landing in China, when he died, 1552.
Faustus Socinus.
He who from whom the Socinians derive their name, was born, in 1539, at Sienna, and was for a considerable period in the service of the grand duke of Tuscany; after which he went to study theology, at Bâsle. The result of his studies was the adoption of those anti-Trinitarian doctrines, which his uncle Lelio Socinus is believed also to have professed. Faustus settled in Poland, gained many followers, endured much persecution, and died in 1604.
Robert Brown.
Educated at Cambridge, and was a man of good parts and some learning. He began to inveigh openly against the ceremonies of the church, at Norwich, in 1580; but, being much opposed by the bishops, he, with his congregation, left England, and settled at Middleburgh, in Zealand, where they obtained leave to worship God in their own way, and form a church according to their own model. They soon, however, began to differ among themselves, so that Brown, growing weary of his office, returned to England in 1589, renounced his principles of separation, and was preferred to the rectory of a church in Northamptonshire. He died in prison in 1630. The revolt of Brown was attended with the dissolution of the church at Middleburgh; but the seeds of Brownism which he had sown in England were so far from being destroyed, that Sir Walter Raleigh, in a speech in 1592, computes no less than twenty thousand of this sect.
James Arminius.
A native of Oude-water, in Holland, 1560, founder of the sect of the Arminians. As he lost his father early, he was supported at the university of Utrecht, and of Marpurg, by the liberality of his friends; but when he returned home, in the midst of the ravages caused by the Spanish arms, instead of being received by his mother, he found that she, as well as her daughters, and all her family, had been sacrificed to the wantonness of the ferocious enemy. His distress was for a while inconsolable; but the thirst after distinction called him to the newly-founded university of Leyden, where his industry acquired him the protection of the magistrates of Amsterdam, at whose expense he travelled to Geneva and Italy, to hear the lectures of Theodore Beza and James Zabarella. On his return to Holland, he was ordained minister of Amsterdam, 1588. As professor of divinity at Leyden, to which office he was called 1603, he distinguished himself by three valuable orations on the object of theology, on the author and end of it, and on the certainty of it; and he afterwards explained the prophet Jonah. In his public and private life, Arminius has been admired for his moderation; and though many gross insinuations have been thrown against him, yet his memory has been fully vindicated by the ablest pens, and he seemed entitled to the motto which he assumed,—_A good conscience is a paradise._ A life of perpetual labor and vexation of mind at last brought on a sickness of which he died, October 19, 1619. His writings were all on controversial and theological subjects, and were published in one volume, quarto, Frankfort, 1661.
Francis Higginson.
First minister of Salem, Massachusetts, after receiving his education at Emanuel College, in Cambridge, became the minister of a church at Leicester, in England. While his popular talents filled his church with attentive hearers, such was the divine blessing upon his labors, that a deep attention to religious subjects was excited among his people. Becoming at length a conscientious Nonconformist to the rites of the English church, some of which he thought not only were unsupported by Scripture, but corrupted the purity of Christian worship and discipline, he was excluded from the parish church, and became obnoxious to the High Commission Court. One day two messengers came to his house, and with loud knocks cried out, “Where is Mr. Higginson? We must speak with Mr. Higginson!” His wife ran to his chamber, and entreated him to conceal himself; but he replied, that he should acquiesce in the will of God. He went down, and, as the messengers entered the hall, they presented him with some papers, saying, in a rough manner, “Sir, we came from London, and our business is to convey you to London, as you may see by those papers.” “I thought so,” exclaimed Mrs. Higginson, weeping; but a woman’s tears could have but little effect upon hard-hearted pursuivants. Mr. Higginson opened the packet to read the form of his arrest, but, instead of an order from Bishop Laud for his seizure, he found a copy of the charter of Massachusetts, and letters from the governor and company, inviting him to embark with them for New England. The sudden transition of feeling from despondence to joy, may be better imagined than described.
Having sought advice and implored the divine direction, he resolved to accept the invitation. In his farewell sermon, preached before a vast assembly, he declared his persuasion, that England would be chastised by war, and that Leicester would have more than an ordinary share of sufferings. It was not long before his prediction was verified. It is not meant that he claimed the power of foretelling future events, but he could reason with considerable accuracy from cause to effect, knowing that iniquity is generally followed by its punishment; and he lived in an age when it was usual for ministers to speak with more confidence, and authority, and efficacy, than at present. He sailed from Gravesend, April 25, 1629, accompanied by Mr. Skelton, whose principles accorded with his own. When he came to the Land’s End, he called his children and the other passengers on deck to take the last view of their native country; and he now exclaimed, “Farewell, England! farewell, the church of God in England, and all the Christian friends there! We do not go to America as separatists from the church of England, though we cannot but separate from its corruptions.” He then concluded with a fervent prayer for the king, church, and state, in England. He arrived at Cape Ann, June 27, 1629, and, having spent the next day there, which was Sunday, on the 29th he entered the harbor of Salem. July the 20th was observed as a day of fasting by the appointment of Governor Endicott, and the church then made choice of Mr. Higginson to be their teacher, and Mr. Skelton their pastor.
Thus auspicious was the commencement of the settlement of Naumkeag, or Salem; but the scene was soon changed. During the first winter, about one hundred persons died, and Mr. Higginson was soon seized with a hectic, which terminated his days in August, 1630, aged forty-two. In his last sickness, he was reminded of his benevolent exertions in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. To consoling suggestions of this kind he replied, “I have been an unprofitable servant, and all my desire is to win Christ, and be found in him, not having my own righteousness.”
Richard Baxter.
A Nonconformist, born at Rowton, Shropshire, 12th November, 1615. He compensated for the deficiencies of a neglected education by unusual application, and was appointed master of Dudley free-school by the interest of Mr. Richard Foley, of Stourbridge, and soon after admitted into orders by the bishop of Winchester. His scruples were raised by the oath which was proposed by the convention at that time sitting, and he was among the number of those who showed their dislike to an unqualified submission “to archbishops, bishops, et cetera,” as they knew not what the _et cetera_ comprehended. In 1640, he was invited to be minister at Kidderminster; but the civil war, which broke out soon after, exposed him to persecution, as he espoused the cause of the parliament. He retired to Coventry, and continued his ministerial labors till the success of the republicans recalled him to his favorite flock at Kidderminster. The usurpation of Cromwell gave him great offence, and he even presumed to argue in private with the tyrant on the nature and illegality of his power; but in the only sermon which he preached before him, he wisely confined his subject to the dissensions which existed in the kingdom on religious matters. He was in London after Cromwell’s death, and preached before parliament the day before the king’s return was voted, and likewise before the lord mayor for Monk’s successes. Charles II. made him one of his chaplains, and Chancellor Clarendon offered him the bishopric of Hereford, which he declined. He was, however, soon involved in the general persecution of the Nonconformists. His paraphrase on the New Testament drew upon him, in 1685, the vengeance of Jeffreys, and he was condemned to be imprisoned for two years, from which punishment, six months after, he was discharged by the interference of Lord Powis with King James. He died December 8th, 1691, and was interred in Christ Church.
George Fox.
The founder of the society of Friends, or Quakers, was born, in 1624, at Drayton, in Leicestershire, and was the son of a weaver, a pious and virtuous man, who gave him a religious education. Being apprenticed to a grazier, he was employed in keeping sheep—an occupation, the silence and solitude of which were well calculated to nurse his naturally enthusiastic feelings. When he was about nineteen, he believed himself to have received a divine command to forsake all, renounce society, and dedicate his existence to the service of religion. For five years, he accordingly led a wandering life, fasting, praying, and living secluded; but it was not till about 1648 that he began to preach his doctrines. Manchester was the place where he first promulgated them. Thenceforth he pursued his career with untirable zeal and activity, in spite of frequent imprisonment and brutal usage. It was at Derby that his followers were first denominated _Quakers_, either from their tremulous mode of speaking, or from their calling on their hearers to “tremble at the name of the Lord.” The labors of Fox were crowned with considerable success; and, in 1669, he extended the sphere of them to America, where he spent two years. He also twice visited the continent. He died in 1690. His writings were collected in three volumes, folio. Whatever may be thought of the tenets of Fox there can be no doubt that he was sincere in them, and that he was a man of strict temperance, humility, moderation, and piety.
William Penn.