Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/714

 6o8 Outlines of European History exposition of the principles of Christianity from a Protestant standpoint, and formed a convenient manual for study and dis- cussion. The Institutes are based upon the infallibility of the Bible and reject the infallibility of the Church and the Pope. Calvin possessed a remarkably logical mind and a clear and admirable style. The French version of his great work is the first example of the successful use of that language in an argumentative treatise. Calvin's Calvin was called to Geneva about 1540 and intrusted with [n Geneva" the task of reforming the town, which had secured its inde- pendence of the Duke of Savoy. He drew up a constitution and established an extraordinary government in which the Church and the civil government were as closely associated as they had ever been in any Catholic country. Calvin intrusted the management of church affairs to the ministers and the elders, ox presbyters ; hence the name " Presbyterian." The Prot- estantism which found its way into France was that of Calvin, not that of Luther, and the same may be said of Scotland (see below, pp. 640-641). Section 107. How England fell away from THE Papacy Erasmus in When Erasmus came to England about the year 1500 he "^^" was delighted with the people he met there. Henry VII was still alive. It will be remembered that it was he that brought order into England after the Wars of the Roses. His son, who was to become the famous Henry VIII, impressed Erasmus as a very promising boy. We may assume that the intelligent men whom Erasmus met in England agreed with him in regard to the situation in the Church and the necessity of reform. He More's was a good friend of Sir Thomas More, who is best known for his little book called Utopia^ which means " Nowhere." In it More pictures the happy conditions in an undiscovered land where the government was perfect and all the evils that