CALVIN, JOHN.
Publication of his " Institutes " (§ 7). First Residence in Geneva and in Stras-
burg (§ 8). Rising Fame. Recall to Geneva
(§9). Second Residence in Geneva (§ 10). Calvin's Fundamental Ideas (§ 11).
His Reforms (§ 12).
His Opponents (§ 13).
His Ecclesiastical Influence (§ 14).
His Character (§ 15).
His Personal Appearance (§ 16).
His Literary Labors (§ 17).
the Latinized form, a registrar of the government of Noyon, solicitor in the ecclesiastical court, fiscal agent of the county, secretary of the bishopric, and attorney of the cathedral chapter. Calvin's mother
Calvin
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
■was Jeanne Le Franc of Cambrai, noted for personal
beauty and great religious fervor and strictness.
Of the five sons of his parents he was the second,
and but one of his younger brothers
i. Child- survived childhood. His mother died hood. while he was still young and his father married a widow, whose name is unknown, who bore him two daughters. His father's position and ambition for his sons was such that he secured for them the best educational advantages at home, association with the children of prominent families, and ecclesiastical patronage; so that Calvin on May 19, 1521, when only twelve years of age, received the chaplaincy attached to the altar of La Gesine in the cathedral of Noyon, which gave him a regular income. It was expected that he would become a priest and so he was given the tonsure.
In 1523 he was sent to Paris to prepare for the priesthood. He attended for a few months the College de la Marche, wherein Mathurin Cordier grounded him in Latin; next the College de Montaigu, where he remained till the opening of 1528. The high grade of his childish friendships and of those of maturer years reveals his own char-
2. Student acter, and refutes the insinuations his
of detractors have dared to whisper.
Theology. That he stood well with the ecclesiastics in his native city is shown by their giving him on Sept. 27, 1527, in addition to the chaplaincy mentioned, the (nominal) curacy of Saint Martin de Martheville, eight leagues from Xoyon, which he exchanged on June 5, 1529, for tiie curacy of Pont l'Eveque, a village 1 m. w. of s. of Xoyon, associated with his ancestors, who were boatmen on the Oise (not to be confounded with Pont l'Eveque, 25 m. e.n.e. of Caen). On Apr. 30, 1529. he resigned his chaplaincy in favor of his younger brother, but resumed it on Feb. 26, 1531, and held it till May 4, 1534.
As a student Calvin showed rare ability and was rapidly acquiring the priestly training when in 152S his father, who had fallen out with the ecclesiastical authorities in Noyon, ordered him to change his studies to law. He meekly obeyed and left Paris for Orleans, whose university was then a famous law center, as there Pierre Taisan de l'Estoile lectured, and the next year went to Bourges, where Andrea Alciati, a
3. Student rival of equal eminence, and more to of Law and Calvin's taste, was the great attrac-
the tion. In both universities he came
Classics, under the influence of Melchior Wolmar, a humanist of the front rank and favorable to the Reformation. On May 26, 1531, his father died, and Calvin left Bourges and returned to Paris, to classical study and the study of Hebrew, except that from the summer of 1532 to that of 1533 he was again a student of law at Orleans and there " annual representative " of the dean of the Picard students, another indication of his moral standing and popularity with the students, for students do not honor of their own accord dubious or disagreeable characters.
In Apr., 1532, he published in Paris at his own expense, and at a pecuniary loss, the text of Seneca's
De dementia, with a commentary, which showed that he was still a humanist within the Roman Church. But the Reformation was making headway in France among the humanistic class to which he belonged, anil so must have often been a topic of his conversation. Step by step he approached the position of the Reformers, but slowly, for, as he says himself, in the partly autobiographic preface to his commentary on the Psalms 4. His First (and it is about all that is known on Publication, the subject), he " was too obsti- Conversion. nately devoted to the superstitions of popery to be easily extricated from so profound an abyss of mire." But, some time in 1533, " God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought [his] mind to a teachable frame. Having thus received some taste and knowledge of true godliness, [he] was immediately inflamed with so intense a desire to make progress therein, that although [he] did not altogether leave off other studies, [he] yet pursued them with less ardor. [He] was quite surprised to find that before a year had elapsed, all who had any desire after purer doctrine were continually coming to [him] to learn, although [he himself] was as yet but a mere novice and tyro."
Among those with whom he- discussed Reformed doctrine was his bosom friend Nicolas Cop, and when Cop was elected rector of the university of Paris it seemed to them a splendid opportunity to commend the Reformation to the cultured and brilliant audience which would be gathered in the Church of the Mathurins to hear the inaugural address. Accordingly they planned it together and on Nov. 1, 1533, Cop delivered it. Heannounced his theme as "Christian Philosophy," and proceeded to speak in a manner which greatly 5. Cop's In- amazed his audience. By " Chrisaugural tian Philosophy" he meant the Gospel. Address. The phrase and the treatment in the opening part of the address were derived from Erasmus. The burden of it was on the relation of Law and Gospel, and here Luther's influence appears. The concluding part was more independent, and in it was struck that note of certainty as to salvation, which was to be a feature of Calvinism.
Perhaps all would have gone well, for there must have been many secret sympathizers with their views in the audience, had Cop not criticized the theologians of the Sorbonne as " sophists." This infuriated them, and they stirred up the government against the audacious speaker, and Cop had to fly. Calvin also fled, because his intimacy with Cop was known, although it is not certain whether it was evt.: suspected that he had any share in the composition of the address as it is now certain that he had. Being assured that his fears 6. Years of of personal injury were groundless, he Wandering, ventured to return shortly afterward. Second But his sympathy with the Reforma- Publication. tion could not be hidden, and so he did not feel safe in the city where se many already had been imprisoned for their faith's sake, and in Jan., 1534, he went forth n wanderer, usually living under an assumed name.