Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/378

 368 Reviews of Books author " has chosen ... to lay special weight on Calvin's training, spiritual development, and constructive work" (p. iii), and he therefore has not attempted to discuss some topics which one would be glad to see treated by so well-equipped a writer. There is no discussion of Calvin's influence on French language and literature; of the Ordinances of 1561 with their significant changes as to marriage laws and the choice of pastors; of Calvin's liberal teaching on Sunday, or of the effect on every- day life of his ideas of prayer and Providence; or of the actual working of the system and the every-day conditions of the " Puritan town " of Geneva in the last ten years of Calvin's control. There are no errors of vital importance. The reviewer would dis- sent from a few conclusions, which must, however, remain largely mat- ters of opinion. The author's statement (p. 192) regarding the mem- orial of January 16, 1537, that " the plan which Farel and Calvin had presented became the law of Geneva in its essential features ," needs qualification. The language of the vote is dubious ; but the previous and continued policy of the council (the law-making and law-executing body) substantiates the conclusion of Roget and Cornelius that the coun- cil had no intention in 1537 and 1538 of enacting into the actual law of Geneva the " independent exercise of ecclesiastical discipline " which, as Professor Walker has so clearly shown, was the essential feature in Calvin's plan. Professor Borgeaud has pointed out that " the title Venerable Compagnie . . . appears as such only in the seventeenth century.'" The somewhat sweeping statement that the modern concep- tion "of human admixture of error" in 'the Bible was "of course un- known " to Calvin will not stand before an examination of his Commen- taries. Calvin's acknowledgment of the " manifest error " in Acts vii, 16 has been pointed out by Schaff. Calvin declared that it should be corrected ; and it is interesting to find that the correction was made in a marginal note of the "Genevan Bible" of 1557. In verse 14 of the same chapter Calvin again speaks of other " errors of the writers who wrote the books"." The few slips in proof-reading are not troublesome, save a misuse of " that " for " what " (p. 37), several cases of scholia for schola (pp. 365-366), and two mistakes in the numbering of notes (pp. 40, 213). The amount to criticize is small; there is much to praise. To say that the book is the best biography written in English is not enough. No other equally brief life has so well assimilated the vast amount of material or summed up Calvin's character and career with so much insight; and no other life of Calvin preserves throughout so judicial a tone. It is a book whose scholarship will appeal to both the church his- torian and the general historical reader. It is likely to appeal to a some- what wide circle, for it is trustworthy, brief, and interesting, and comes at an opportune time. The growing interest in Calvin's contribution to civil and intellectual freedom is likely to develop still more with the ap- ■Americ.sn Historical Review, VII. 35^. ^ " Commentarius in Acta Apostolorum", Opera, vol. 48, pp. 138. 137.