Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/916

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Melancthon would sometimes lay his weary head on his bosom and wish it to be his resting-place in death. The necessities of his station demanded a severity of tone, to which his nature was not wholly averse; perpetually assailed in his character and opinions, he was always doing battle, and failed to enjoy the mollifying influences of leisure and peace. As he was obliged ever to wear intellectual armour, he embraced his friends with his helmet on and his vizor down, or grasped them with mailed arms and gauntleted hand. Polemics, while they sharpened his mind, could not, however, dry up many springs of sweetness and cheerfulness in his heart. Like all great thinkers, he has left an impression behind him which is deepening as time rolls on; for it is the spirit of his theology that unlimited dependence upon God is the source and sustentation of all spiritual life and activity in man. With all drawbacks arising from an irritable temper, edged and embittered by a fragile and diseased constitution, and the sullen and intolerant opinions and practices of his age, which mistaken views of the rights of conscience fortified; the name of Calvin will ever hold a high place in the hearts of those who admire the spectacle of a great mind triumphing over bodily infirmity, growing in multiplied labours as life comes to a speedy close, and giving all its power with unselfish generosity to what it deemed, and what myriads more for three centuries since have deemed the welfare of humanity, the interests of truth, and the cause of God.

According to Beza's description, Calvin was not of large stature; his complexion was pale, inclining to brown, and his eyes were of peculiar brightness and penetration. He took little sleep, and often ate only one meal a day. He had amazing facility in recognizing people whom he had but once seen; and amidst great and serious enterprises, he never forgot the more trifling minutiæ of daily business. Calvin's works have been often printed, at least many detached portions of them, both in French and Latin. His complete works appeared at Geneva, 1617, in twelve volumes folio, and another edition at Amsterdam, 1671. Jules Bonnet has recently edited four volumes of his letters, which have also been translated into English: Constable, Edinburgh. His Commentaries, Institutes, and Tracts, have been translated by the Calvin Society, Edinburgh. Tholuck has edited his Latin commentaries on the New Testament. Beza wrote his life, and in an augmented form it often stands as a preface to the exposition of Joshua. Portions of autobiography are found in the preface to his commentary on the Psalms. There is also an elaborate life of the reformer by Henry, Das Leben J. Calvins, 3 vols. 8vo, Hamburg, 1835-44. Stebbing has presented this work in English, and there are other biographies, one in French by Audin, and another in English by Dyer. The only trustworthy account of the trial of Servetus has been given by Rilliet de Candolle: Relation du procès crimiuel intenté à Genève en 1553, contre Michel Servet, &c., Geneva, 1844.—(Bayle's Dictionary, article, Calvin; Herzog's Dictionary, article, Calvin.)—J. E.

CALVISIUS, Sethus (so called in the Latin title-pages of all his works, his baptismal and family name being Seth Kalwitz), a musician, chronologer, astrologer, and a man of general learning, was born at Sachsenberg in Thuringia, February 21, 1556, and died at Leipzig, November 23, 1615. His father, Jacob, was a poor peasant; he sent Seth to the free school of Frankenhausen, but after three years his slender means could no longer enable him to support him there. In this time the boy had made considerable progress as a scholar, and, besides showing great aptitude for music, he had developed so fine a soprano voice, that he obtained an appointment as a singer at Magdeburg, by means of which, and of his teaching the clavecin, he maintained himself. He successively studied at the universities of Helmstadt and Leipzig, still supporting himself by musical tuition, until he obtained the engagement of music director at the church of St. Pauline in the latter city. He resigned this for a similar appointment at the Schul-Pforte, the principal school of Upper Saxony, which after ten years he quitted, to return to Leipzig in the capacity of cantor at St. Thomas' school, when he was made a fellow of that college. He was next preferred to the office of music director in the same establishment—that which, a century later, was filled by S. Bach; and his inauguration into this. May 19, 1594, was celebrated by the performance of several of his compositions. His able discharge of the various duties of composer, organist, and instructor, involved in this appointment, gained him such general esteem, and drew around him such manifestations of kindness, that he could never be persuaded to quit Leipzig, though he had offers of more lucrative engagements successively at Wittenberg and Frankfort-on-the-Maine. His implicit faith in astrology was confirmed by what he believed to be the fulfilment of one of his predictions. He had foretold, on the authority of his horoscope, that a great calamity would befall him on a certain day in the year 1602, to avert which he shut himself in his library, and, applying himself assiduously to study, supposed that no harm could reach him; implacable destiny, however, was not to be cheated; Calvisius dropping a knife with which he was mending a pen, it struck against his knee, and inflicted an injury which lamed him for life. He is chiefly known as a musician by his didactic works; these are, "Melopoia," a general dissertation upon music, with an exposition of the principles of counterpoints; "Compendium Musicæ Practicæ," an elementary book for beginners, which was several times printed during the author's life, with various titles and some modifications; and "Exercitationes Musicæ," in three parts, embodying the substance of lectures he delivered at his college. The historical and technical learning displayed in these productions is very great; the author's warm advocacy of a system of nomenclature for the notes, that had been recently invented by an anonymous Dutch musician, is remarkable. According to this the syllables Bo, Ce, Di, Ga, Lo, Ma, Ni, were the names of the seven notes, and its propriety is manifested when we consider that the ordinary solmization at that time contained but six syllables, the name of Si, for the seventh note, not having been added until afterwards. It is next to speak of the musical compositions of Calvisius, namely—"Harmonia Cantionum Ecclesiasticarum;" "Deutsche Tricinia;" "Biciniorum;" some important pieces in Der Psalter David's Gesangweis, a work collected by the brothers Becker; and the 150th Psalm, set for twelve voices in three choirs, which he wrote in the year of his death, on the occasion of the wedding of his friend Anckelmann, a merchant of Hamburg. They are commended for purity of counterpoint and strictness of canonical imitation. His works on chronology held a high rank in their period—"Elenchus Calendarii Gregoriani" is an argument against the Gregorian calendar; and "Chronologia," which appeared not to have been printed until fourteen years after his death, is a comprehensive general treatise.—G. A. M.

CALVO, Jean Sauveur de, known as "the brave Calvo," was born at Barcelona in 1625. He first served in the Catalonian army against Philip IV., but having passed to the French service, he won great distinction, and rose to a high rank in the army of Louis XIV. He died in 1690.

CAM, Diogo, a Portuguese navigator who lived in the latter half of the fifteenth century. He was sent to prosecute those explorations of the African coast which the great Prince Henry had so enthusiastically undertaken. He discovered Congo, and, at the request of the king of that country, took home with him some of the natives to learn the Christian faith. Martin Behaim is said to have accompanied him in his first voyage; and in his second he planted a stone pillar—a mark of the furthest stage of discovery—far beyond the kingdom of Congo.

CAMBACERES, Jean Jacques de, a distinguished French senator, was born at Montpellier in 1753. He sprang from an old family which had produced several eminent lawyers, and he was brought up to the same profession. He soon distinguished himself as a lawyer, and in 1774 succeeded his father as counsellor of the audit office of Montpellier. When the Revolution broke out, he was chosen to represent the order of the nobles in the legislative assembly, and was afterwards elected a deputy to the convention. On the trial of Louis XVI. he gave a conditional vote for the condemnation of that monarch. During the reign of terror which followed, Cambaceres was on the side of moderation, and endeavoured, though cautiously, to check the illegal and arbitrary measures of the assembly. He was afterwards a member of the council of Five Hundred, and spent much time and labour in the classification of the civil laws; and in 1796 drew up a "Projet de Code Civil," which subsequently became the basis of the Napoleonic code, of which he was one of the compilers. About this period he was exposed to considerable danger in consequence of a suspicion that he had a leaning towards the royalist party, and proposed to retire into private life. But on the formation of the directory, he was induced to accept the office of minister of justice; he zealously p romoted the views of Bonaparte in the revolution of the 18th