f of July making his way into Germany, he arrived at Geneva.
An old friend, possibly Louis du Tillet, discovered him, and told Farel;
and Farel, in sore straits for a helper, besought him, and indeed in the
name of the Almighty commanded him, to stay. Calvin was reluctant, for
he was reserved and shy, and conceived his vocation to be the scholar's
rather than the preacher's; but the entreaties of Farel, half tearful,
half minatory, prevailed. And thus Calvin's connection with Geneva
began.

Calvin's life from this point onward falls into three parts: his first
stay in Geneva from July, 1536, to March, 1538; his residence in
Strasburg from September, 1538, to September, 1541; and his second stay
in Geneva from the last date till his death, May 27, 1564. In the first
period, he, in company with Farel, made an attempt to organize the
church and reform the mind and manners of Geneva, and failed; his exile,
formally voted by the council, was the penalty of his failure. In the
second period he was professor of theology and French preacher at
Strasburg, a trusted divine and adviser, a delegate to the Protestant
churches of Germany, which he learned to know better, making the
acquaintance of Melanchthon, and becoming more appreciative of Luther.

At Strasburg some of his best literary work was done--his _Letter to
Cardinal Sadoleto_ (in its way his most perfect production), his
_Commentary on the Romans_, a _Treatise on the Lord's Supper_, the
second Latin and the first French edition of his _Institutio_. In the
third period he introduced and completed his legislation at Geneva,
taught, preached, and published there, watched the churches everywhere,
and conducted the most extensive correspondence of his day. In these
twenty-eight years he did a work which changed the face of Christendom.

We come then to Calvin's legislative achievements as his main title to
name and fame. But two points must here be noted. In the first place,
while his theology was less original and effective than his legislation
or polity, yet he so construed the former as to make the latter its
logical and indeed inevitable outcome. The polity was a deduction from
the theology, which may be defined as a science of the divine will as a
moral will, aiming at the complete moralization of man, whether as a
unit or as a society. The two were thus so organically connected that
each lent strength to the other, the system to the church and the church
to the system