uly
enviable had he devoted his efforts to the happiness of his subjects,
instead of harassing their minds by dissensions, and mowing down their
lives by hundreds of thousands in war.

To the statesman or the politician the history of this period is an
inexhaustible fund of instruction and interest, and to the general
reader it is rendered more than usually attractive by the almost
dramatic contrast of character among the principal actors in the scene.
Francis seems to have been the representative of the expiring school of
chivalry; Charles was not the representative, but the founder of the
modern system of state policy; Henry was the representative of
ostentation, violence, and selfishness, to be found in all ages.

JOHN CALVIN

(1509-1564)

[Illustration: Calvin. [TN]]

John Calvin was born at Noyon, in Picardy, on July 10, 1509. His father,
Gerard Caulvin or Cauvin, was procureur-fiscal of the district of Noyon,
and secretary of the diocese. He was one of six children--four sons and
two daughters. All the three sons who survived were ecclesiastics; and
the reformer himself, while still only twelve years of age, was
appointed to a chaplaincy in the cathedral church of Noyon. Calvin was
educated in circumstances of ease and even affluence. The noble family
of De Mortmar, in the neighborhood, invited him to share in the studies
of their children; he was in some measure adopted by them; and when the
family went to Paris, in his fourteenth year, he accompanied them. He
was entered as a pupil in the College de la Marche, under the regency of
Mathurin Cordier, better remembered, perhaps, by his Latin name of
Corderius. It was under this distinguished master that Calvin laid the
foundation of his own wonderful mastery of the Latin language. During
this early period he was so distinguished by the great activity of his
mental powers and the grave severity of his manners that his companions,
it is said, surnamed him "The Accusative."

For a while his attention was directed to the study of law, and his
father sent him to the university of Orleans, then adorned by Pierre de
l'Etoile, one of the most famous jurists of his day. At Orleans he
continued the same life of rigorous temperance and earnest studiousness
for which he was already noted. It was while a law-student in Orleans
that he became acquainted with the Scriptures, and received his first
impulse to the theological studies which have made his name so
dist