[Footnote 396: Whether before or after the appearance of the "Placards," is uncertain. On Calvin's early life, see Beza's Life, already referred to; the Histoire ecclésiastique; various letters in J. Bonnet's Letters of Calvin, and Herminjard, Corresp. des réformateurs; Haag, France protestante; the reformer's life by Paul Henry, D.D., and especially the scholarly work of Dr. E. Stähelin (2 vols., Elberfeld, 1860-1863).]
[Footnote 397: The mooted question whether Calvin wrote the Institutes originally in Latin or in French--in other words, whether there was a French edition before the first Latin edition of 1536--has been set at rest by M. Jules Bonnet, who, in a contribution to the Bulletin de l'histoire du protestantisme français, vi. (1858) 137-142, establishes the priority of the Latin. The chief points in the proof are: 1st, the absence of even a single copy of the supposed French edition of 1535; 2d, Calvin's statement to Francis Daniel, Oct. 13, 1536, "I am kept continually occupied upon the French version of my little book;" 3d, his decisive words in the preface to the edition of 1551: "_Et premièrement l'ay mis en latin_ à ce qu'il pust servir à toutes gens d'estude, de quelque nation qu'ils fussent; puis après désirant de communiquer ce qui en pouvoit venir de fruict à nostre nation françoise, _l'ay aussy translaté en nostre langue_." See also chap. iii. of Professors Baum, Cunitz, and Reuss, Introd. to Institution de la religion chrétienne (Calv. Opera, t. iii.).]
[Footnote 398: Opera Calvini (Amst., 1667), t. ix.]
[Footnote 399: "La dédicace à François I^er, qui est peut-étre une des plus belles choses que possède notre langue." Paul L. Jacob, bibliophile (Lacroix), "Avertissement" prefixed to Oeuvres françaises de Calvin. The Institutes he designates "ce chef-d'oeuvre de science théologique, de philosophie religieuse et de style." "Here," says Henri van Laun, "was a force and concision of language never before heard in France.... The influence of Calvin's writings upon the style of his successors, and upon the literary development of his country, cannot easily be over-estimated. With him French prose may be said to have attained its manhood; the best of his contemporaries, and of those who had preceded him, did but use as a staff or as a toy that which he employed as a burning sword." History of French Literature (New York, 1876), i. 338, 339.]