§ 69. Calvin's youth and training. 297
tion to my course. And first, since I was too obstinately devoted to the superstitions of popery to be easily extricated from so profound an abyss of mire, God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame, which was more burdened in such matters than might have been expected from one at my early period of life. Having thus received some taste and knowledo^e of true gfodliness, I was immediately inflamed with so intense a desire to make progress therein, that though I did not altogether leave off other studies, I yet pursued them with less ardor." ^
This is the meagre account which Calvin himself incidentally gives of his youth and conversion, in the Preface to his Commentary on the Psalms, when speaking of the life of David, in which he read his own spiritual experience. Only once more he alludes, very briefly, to his change of religion. In his Answer to Cardinal Sadoletus, he assures him that he did not consult his temporal interest when he left the papal jDarty. " I might," he said, " have reached without difficulty the summit of my wishes, namely, the enjoyment of literary ease, with something of a free and honorable station. " ^
Luther indulged much more freely in reminiscences of his hard youth, his early monastic life, and his discovery of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, which gave peace and rest to his troubled conscience.
John Calvin 3 was born July 10, 1509, — twenty-five years after Luther and Zwingli, — at Noyon, an ancient cathedral city, called Noyon-la-Sainte^ on account of its many churches, convents, priests, and monks, in the northern province of Picardy, which has given birth to the crusading monk, Peter of Amiens, to the leaders of the French Reformation and
1 Opera, XXXI. 21 (Latin and French). ^ Opera, V. .388 sqq.
^ The Latinized form of Caitvin or Chauvin. Alculn, one of his assumed names, is an anagram of Calvin. See Ln France Protest., III. 518, note. He assumed the name Calvinus in his book on Seneca, 1532.
298 THE REFOTIMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
counter-Reformation (the Ligue), and to man}- revolutionary as well as reactionary characters.^
His father, Gerard Cauvin, a man of hard and severe character, occupied a prominent position as apostolic secretary to the bishop of Noyon, proctor in the Chapter of the diocese, and fiscal procurator of the county, and lived on intimate terms with the best families of the . neighborhood.^ His mother, Jeanne Lefranc, of Cambrai, was noted for her beauty and piety, but died in his early youth, and is not mentioned in his letters. The father married a second time. He became involved in financial embarrassment, and was excommunicated, perhaps on suspicion of heresy. He died May 26 (or 25), 1531, after a long sickness, and would have been buried in unconsecrated soil but for the intercession of his son, Charles, who gave security for the discharge of his father's obligations.^
Calvin had four brothers and two sisters.'* Two of his brothers died young, the other two received a clerical education, and were early provided with benefices through the influence of the father.
Charles, his elder brother, was made chaplain of the cathedral in 1518, and cur^ of Roupy, but became a heretic or
1 Michelet (Histoire de France, XI. 88) calls Picardy " un pays fecond en r€volutionnaires, en brouillants amis de I'humanite'." Lefranc (p. 24) : " Les deux mouvements contraires, la Reforme fran^aise et ce qui la combattit avec le plus d'acharnement, la Ligue, sont ne's dans le menie pays." Noyon lies 67 miles N.N.E. of Paris, is enclosed with gardens, has a large old cathedral, a bishop's palace, a hospital, a seminary, several public fountains, manufactures of fine linens, tulle, oil, leather, and a brisk trade, with a population of about 6000. From Lippincott's Gazetteer, p. 1620.
2 " De notaire apostotiqiie, la premiere charge qu'il obtint, il devint successivement notaire du chapitre, greffier de Vofficialite', procureur Jiscal du comte et promoteur du chapitre. C'est a Noyon, en quelque sorte, le fac-totum du clerge'." Lefranc, p. 2.
3 Lefranc, pp. 17 and 199. Herminjard, II. 394. Bolsec, in his Histoire de Calvin, calls Ge'rard Cauvin " un tres-exe'crable blasphemateur de Dieu." Perhaps he confounded him with his eldest son, Charles.
•* See the genealogical table in Henry, vol. III. ; Beilage, 16, p. 174.