Fac Simile
CALVIN TO EDWARD VI., KING OF ENGLAND
July 4 1552—British Museum
Engd. by *****
See Note, Page 10
Presbyterian Board of Publication
LETTERS
OF
JOHN CALVIN
COMPILED FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS AND
EDITED WITH HISTORICAL NOTES
BY
DR. JULES BONNET.
VOL. I.
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN AND FRENCH.
——————
PHILADELPHIA:
P R E S B Y T E R I A N B O A R D O F P U B L I C A T I O N,
NO. 821 CHESTNUT STREET.
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by
JAMES DUNLAP, Treas.,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
ADVERTISEMENT.
John Calvin, the profound scholar, the exact theologian, the enlightenedstatesman, and the eminent Reformer, exerted an influence onthe age in which he lived, which, instead of being diminished by thelapse of three centuries, must continue and increase while the greattruths, involving the present and future interests of mankind, whichhe so lucidly and energetically enforced, shall be incorporated withhuman enlightenment and progress. The results of his indefatigablelabours, as published to the world in his Institutes, Commentaries, andSermons, are familiar to the students of theology; but his correspondence,so illustrative of his personal character, and the history of thetimes in which he lived, has never, until now, been collected and madeaccessible to the public. The Rev. Dr. Jules Bonnet, with the approbationof the French government, has with untiring and enthusiasticardour, explored the hidden archives, and with such gratifyingsuccess, that four volumes of Calvin's Letters are now ready for thepress.
As these Letters were written in Latin and French, it was at onceseen to be important that English and American readers, who mostthoroughly appreciate the character of this distinguished man, shouldhave easy access to them in their own vernacular. They have accordinglybeen rendered into English under the immediate inspection ofMr. Bonnet. The first two volumes were published in Edinburgh,when circumstances, unnecessary to detail, arrested the further prosecutionof the work.
A benevolent gentleman in New York proposed to purchase thecopy-right of the Letters and transfer it to the Presbyterian Board ofPublication. The arrangement has been completed, and to that Board,if we should not say to this country, is to be due the credit of firstushering to the world the rich and varied correspondence of one of thegreatest and best men of the old world. The enterprise will be an expensive[4]one, and it will require a liberal patronage. To the studentsof ecclesiastical history, the work will, in a certain sense, be indispensable;but every Presbyterian, who can command the means, shouldlend his aid to give success to the noble project. It should be mentioned,in this connection, that the truly estimable collector of the Letters,although he can never hope for any adequate pecunia