180
ESSAYS ON LIBEI TY
their destruction; 1 though at the same time he con- demned all rebellion on the part of his friends, so long as there w'ere great doubts of their success. 2 His principles, however, were often stronger than his exhortations, and he had difficulty in preventing murders and seditious movements in France. 3 When he was dead, nobody prevented them, and it became clear that his system, by subjecting the civil power to the service of religion, was more dangerous to toleration than Luther's plan of giving to the State supremacy over the Church. Calvin was as positive as Luther in asserting the duty of obedience to rulers irrespective of their mode of government. 4 He constantly declared that tyranny ,vas not to be resisted on political grounds; that no civil rights could outweigh the divine sanction of government; except in cases where a special office was appointed for
moveant totum orbem principes; quia produnt alii aIiis innoxios populos, et exercent foedam nundinationem, dum quisque commodum suum venatur, et sine ullo pudore, tan turn ut augeat suam potentiam, alios tradit in manum inimici" (Pr, in Nahum, v. 363). " Hodie pudet reges aliquid prae se ferre humanum, sed omnes gestus accommodant ad tyrannidem" (Pr. in Jeremiam, v. 257). 1 .. Sur ce que je VOliS avais allégué, que David nous instruict par son ex- emple de hair les ennemis de Dieu, vous respondez que c'estoit pour ce temps- là duquel sous la loi de rigueur il estoit permis de hair les ennemis, Or, madame, ceste glose seroit pour renverser toute l'Escriture, et partant ilIa fault fuir comme une peste mortelle. . . . Combien que faye tousjours prié Dieu de luy faire mercy, si est-ce que j' ay souvent désiré que Dieu mist la main sur luy (Guise) pour en deslivrer son Eglise, s'il ne Ie vouloit convertir" (Calvin to the Duchess of Ferrara, Bonnet, ii. 551). Luther was in this respect equally un- scrupulous: "This year we must pray Duke Maurice to death, we must kill him with our prayers; for he will be an evil man" (MS, quoted in Döllinger, Reformation, iii. 266), 2 .. Quod de praepostero nostrorum fervore scribis, verissimum est, neque tamen ulla occurrit moderandi ratio, quia sanis consiliis non obtemperant, Passim denuntio, si judex essem me non minus severe in rabioso, istos impetus vindicaturum, quam rex suis edictis mandate Pergendum nihilominus, quando nos Deus voluit stultis esse debitores" (Calvin to Beza; Henry, Leben Calvins, Hi. Append. 164). 8 "11 n'a tenu qu'à moi que, devant la guerre, gens de faict et d'exécution ne se soyent efforcez de l'exterminer du monde (Guise) lesquels ont esté retenus par ma seule exhortation, "-Bonnet, ii. 553, .,\ Ie Hoc nobis si assidue ob animos et oculos obversetur, eodem decreto con. stitui etiam nequissimos reges, quo regum auctoritas statuitur; nunquam in animum nobis seditiosae illae cogitationes venient, tractandum esse pro meritis regem nec aequum esse, ut subditos ei nos praestemus, qui vicissim regem nobis se non praestet. . . . De privatis hominibus semper loquor. Nam si qui nunc sint populares magistratus ad moderandam regum libidinem constituti (quales olim erant . . . ephori . . . tribuni . . . demarchi: et qua etiam forte potes- tate, ut nunc res habent, funguntur in singulis regnis tres ordines, quum primarios conventus peragunt) . . . illos ferocienti regum licentiae pro officio intercedere non veto" (/nstitutio, ii. 493, 495).
