Bisbee daily review., 1909-07-11
GENEVA HONORs
 JOHN CALVIN
Monument Unveiled in Memory of Protection Reformist
 Born 400 Years Ago
AGGRESSIVE PREACHER
 EXERCISED GREAT POWER

great Protestant reformer, was born in Noyon. France, and in all Protest i ant countries the event is observed in a more or less elaborate manner. | The city of Geneva, which for many years was the scene of Calvin's re- formatory activity, and where he died in 1861, made especial efforts to ob- serve the memorable anniversary by | dedicating a monument of the great reformer. Calvinists and Protestants in general from all parts of Europe assembled in this city to attend the | dedication of the monument and the 1 incidental exercises and to do honor to the memory of the most militant evangelists of the Protestant faith. Calvin was not the author of the reformation: Luther is undoubtedly entitled to that distinction. But Cal win. like his co-religionist Knox, was more aggressive than Luther and. al- | though his part as practical reform CT was acted upon very narrow stage, his power as thinker and writ | CT, organizer and systematizer, ex- | tended over the broad field of Europe. He took up the scattered beliefs and | tHOuEnlS Ot the new tNdhsciiCdi pdits and in the loom of his strange, logi- cal and legal intellect wove them in to a new system. The circumstances of Calvin's life were of a kind to intensity his apostate zeal and fanat- icism.
 Calvin was born at Noyon, JulJ 10, 1909 His father was a notary and the secretary of bishop. Young Calvin was intended for the priest hood and after he had studied in Paris he was given a curacy. Five years later his father had a bitter lquarrel with the ecclesiastical author ities of his home town and as a re- suit young Calvin gave up the priest. hood and began to study law In the course of his studies he came in con tact with and under the influence of Melchier Wolmar, strong sympa- thizer with the reformist movement.
 Austere as Calvin was in his pri. vate life, the profligacy of his time would probably have made a reform ist of him in any event. But his fathers quarrel with the ecclesiasti- cal authorities and the new surround ings and associates during his legal studies undoubtedly hastened the turn in his career He was rapidly | formists. and soon after was com relled to flee from France, to escape the persecution to which the reform ists were then being subjected. That his fear was not ill-founded was shown by his arrest when he ven- turned to return to France in 1534. He was kept in prison several months and after his release made his way to Geneva.
 It was in Geneva that he began to impress his personality on his time. At the age of twenty-six' he wrote his famous treatise, 'Tnstitutio Chris tianae Religionis," which was read everywhere in Europe and spread his fame far beyond the boundaries of Switzerland. At that time Geneva was free city of Burgundy. It was governed by a bishop of the estab- lished church The city was In a state of political and moral decay when Calvin reached it in 1886. 9th CT French reformists, who had been exiled. had preceded him, and they prevailed on him to remain and help them in the work in which they were engaged.
 Calvin founded a school, and after. ward began preaching to small con- gregations. Most of his followers, however, were evidently much less concerned with his religious teach ings than with the prospect of using his influence to oppose the political power of the bishop. When Calvin discovered this fact, all the scorn which he felt for hypocrisy, was aroused in him. On Easter, 153S, he denounced his flock in scathing ser mon and concluded by dismissing them without allowing them to par take of the Lords Supper.
 This action was more honest than diplomatic under the circumstances It caused the strongest resentment from his former followers and Cal win was compelled to flee. For sev- eral years Calvin led a wandering life in Germany and not until 1541 did he dare to return to Geneva, where great changes had taken place in the meantime. Calvin began to exercise a power. as absolute as had been that of Lycurgus in Sparta, and greater than the pope had ever yielded.
 Calvin founded an ecclesiastical state. which he sought to make as gloomy and ascetic as was his own life. and he succeeded in "a large measure. Uncompromisingly did he .persecute every man who dared to change an iota of the new creed or did not accept its dogmas implicitly and the result was a system of in nuisition. almost as terrible as had heen that of the Roman church. His teachings spread throughout Europe and found a particularly strong foot hold in Scotland. Calvin died on May