CHAPTER VII.

JOHN CALVIN AND THE GENEVAN REFORMATION.

THE Reformation was firmly established in Germany before it had taken root or had found an acknowledged leader among the Romanic nations. Such a leader at length appeared in the person of John Calvin, whose influence was destined to extend much beyond the bounds of the Latin nations, and whose name was to go down to posterity in frequent association with that of Luther.1 Calvin was born at Noyon, in Picardy, on the 10th of July, 1509. He was only eight years old when Luther posted his theses. He belongs to the second generation of reformers, and this circumstance is important as affecting both his own personal history and the character of his work. When he arrived at manhood, the open war upon the old Church had already been waged for a score of years. The family of Calvin had been of humble rank, but it was advanced by his father, who held various offices, including that of notary in the ecclesiastical court at Noyon, and secretary to the bishopric. The physical constitution of Calvin was not strong, but his uncommon intellectual power was early manifest. Attracting the re

1 The Life of Calvin, by Theodore Beza, is the work of a contemporary and friend: Das Leben Johann Calvins, von Paul Henry (Hamburg, 1835), a thorough, but diffusely written biography: Johann Calvin, seine Kirche u. sein Staat in Genf, von F. W. Kampschulte, Erster Band (Leipzic, 1869). Kampschulte is a Roman Catholic, thorough in his researches and dispassionate, but not friendly to Calvin. Henry and Kampschulte may be profitably read together. Johannes Calvin, Leben u. ausgewählte Schriften, von Dr. L. Stähelin (Elberfeld, 1863). This is the best of the German lives of the reformer. A valuable, impartial Life of Calvin is that of Dyer (London, 1850).

THE EDUCATION OF CALVIN.

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gard of the noble family of Mommor, residing at Noyon, he was taken under their patronage and instructed with their children. He had no experience of the rough conflict with penury which many of the German and Swiss reformers were obliged in their youth to undergo. When only twelve years old, he was made the recipient of the income of a chaplaincy, to which, a few years afterwards, the income of another benefice was added. At the outset his father intended that he should be a priest. Transferred to Paris, he was first in the Collége de la Marche, where he was taught Latin by a cultivated Humanist, Maturin Cordier, better known under the name of Corderius, for whom he cherished a life-long attachment, and whom he succeeded in placing in charge of his school at Geneva. He also studied in the Collége Montaigu, where he was trained in scholastic logic under a learned Spaniard, who afterwards, in the same school, guided the studies of Ignatius Loyola. There Calvin surpassed his companions in assiduity and aptitude to learn; but he spent much of the time by himself, and from his serious, and, perhaps, severe turn of mind, was nicknamed "The Accusative Case."2 He had reached his eighteenth year, had received the tonsure, and even preached occasionally, but had not taken orders, when his father, from ambitious motives, changed his plan and concluded to qualify his son for the profession of a jurist. He accordingly prosecuted his legal studies under celebrated teachers at Orleans and Bourges. As a student of law he attained the highest proficiency and distinction. He undermined his health by studying late into the night, in order to arrange and digest the contents of the lectures which he had heard during the day. Early in the morning he 2 Guizot, St. Louis and Calvin, p. 155.

1 Kampschulte, i. 223.

3 Calvin says of his father: "Quum videret legum scientiam passim augere suos cultores opibus, spes illa repente eum impulit ad mutandum consilium." -Preface to the Psalms.

4 Beza, Vita Johannis Calvini, ii. closing remarks upon Calvin, xxxi.

"Somni pæne nullius," says Beza in his

would awake to repeat to himself what he had thus reduced to order. He never required but a few hours for sleep, and, as was also the case with Melancthon, his intense mental activity frequently kept him awake through the night. So highly was he esteemed by his instructors that often when they were temporarily absent he took their place. At the same time he indulged his taste for literature, and learned Greek from the German Professor of that language, Melchior Wolmar, who had adopted Protestant opinions and whose influence would naturally tend to remove prejudices of his pupil against the new doctrine. Before this time, at the urgent request of a Protestant relative, Peter Olivetan, afterwards the first Protestant translator of the Bible into French, he had directed his attention to the study of the Scriptures. In 1530, having completed his law studies, he returned to Paris, and we have little knowledge of him up to 1532, the date of his first publication, an annotated edition of Seneca's treatise on "Clemency." It has been erroneously supposed that he hoped by this work to move Francis I. to adopt a milder policy towards the persecuted Protestants. No such design appears in the book.1 On the contrary, at this time, Calvin had no other plan than that of pursuing the career of a Humanist, and aimed to bring himself into notice as a scholar and author. It is probable that his notions of reform were in sympathy with those of Reuchlin and Erasmus. He writes to his friends

1 That the commentary on Seneca was designed to affect the French King in this way, and was composed, therefore, after Calvin's conversion, is assumed by many, among whom are Henry, i. 50, and Herzog in the art. "Calvin" in the Real. Encycl. d. Theol., edited by himself; also by Guizot, St. Louis and Calvin, p. 162. For the evidence to the contrary, see Stähelin, i. 14. The dedication (to the Abbot of St. Eloy) is dated April 4, 1532. Stähelin gives 1533 as the date of his conversion. But we have a letter of Calvin to Bucer, dated September 4, 1532. Calvin says (Preface to the Psalms) that in less than a year after his conversion the Protestants were looking to him for instruction. This religious change must have been shortly after the publication of Seneca's treatise. This supposition best accords with Beza's statement, Vita Calvini, ii.

THE CONVERSION OF CALVIN.

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to aid in circulating his book and in calling attention to it, a part of his motive being, however, to reimburse himself for the cost of the publication. His notes on Seneca show his wide acquaintance with the classics, his discrimination and his power of lucid statement. It was shortly after the issue of this work, that his "sudden conversion," to use his own expression, took place. He writes: "After my heart had long been prepared for the most earnest self-examination, on a sudden the full knowledge of the truth, like a bright light, disclosed to me the abyss of errors in which I was weltering, the sin and shame with which I was defiled. A horror seized on my soul, when I became conscious of my wretchedness and of the more terrible misery that was before me. And what was left, O Lord, for me, miserable and abject, but, with tears and cries of supplication to abjure the old life which Thou condemned, and to flee into Thy path?" He describes himself as having striven in vain to attain inward peace by the methods set forth in the teaching of the Church. But the more he had directed his eye inward, or upward to God, the more did his conscience torment him. "Only one haven of salvation is there for our souls," he says, "and that is the compassion of God, which is offered to us in Christ": "We are saved by grace, not by our merits, not by our works. Since we embrace Christ by faith, and, as it were, enter into his fellowship, we call this, in the language of Scripture, justification by faith."" Although we know less of Calvin's inward experience, yet its essential identity with that of Luther, is obvious. Calvin had hesitated about becoming a Protestant, out of reverence for the Church. But he so modified his conception of the Church as to perceive that the change did not involve a renunciation of it.2 Membership in the true Church was consistent

1 Bonnet, Letters of Calvin, i. 7, 8.

2 Epist. ad Sadolet. Opera (ed. Reuss et al.), vol. v. 385 seq.

with renouncing the rule of the Roman Catholic prelacy; for the Church, in its essence invisible, exists in a true form wherever the Gospel is faithfully preached and the sacraments administered conformably to the directions of Christ. Calvin was naturally reserved and even bashful; he aspired after nothing higher, either after or before his conversion, than the opportunity to pursue his studies in retirement. He had an instinctive repugnance to publicity and conflict. His former studies, to be sure, had now a secondary place; his whole soul was absorbed in the examination of the Bible and in the investigation of religious truth. But still he craved seclusion and quiet. He found, however, that, notwithstanding his youth, in the company of the persecuted Protestants at Paris he was quickly regarded as a leader, and his counsel was sought by all who had need of religious instruction. But this sort of labor was of short continuance. He wrote for his friend, Nicholas Cop, who had been made Rector of the University, an opening address, in which were introduced the ideas of the Reformation; and the excitement that was produced by the delivery of it obliged both of them to fly in order to escape arrest. Calvin first went to Angoulême, where he enjoyed the society of his friend Louis du Tillet and the use of a good library, which he turned to the best account. Then he visited Béarn, and at the court of Margaret, the Queen of Navarre, sister of Francis I., he met the aged Lefèvre, the father of the Reformation in France. He went to Noyon, where he parted with the benefices, the income of which he could not conscientiously retain, and then returned to Paris. The imprudent zeal of the Protestants, in posting placards against the mass, stirred up the anger of the court, and Calvin was again obliged to fly. Not without an inward

1 "Aliquo veræ pietatis gustu imbutus, tanto proficiendi studio exarsi, ut reliqua studia quamvis non abjicerem, frigidius tamen sectarer."- Pref. to the Psalms.