(1529.)
CALVIN, having bid farewell to the towns and chateaux of Berry, had arrived in the midst of those hills and plains, those green pastures and noble forests, which stretch along both sides of the Oise. He approached that little city of Noyon, which had been one time the capital of the empire of Charlemagne, and where Hugues Capet, the head of the third race, had been elected king. But his thoughts were not on these things: he was thinking of his father. As soon as he caught a glimpse of ‘that
beautiful Gothic cathedral, beneath whose shadow he had been brought up, he said to himself that its pavement would never more be trodden by his father’s feet. He had never before returned to Noyon in such deep emotion. The death of Berquin, the death of his father, the future of the Church and of himself — all oppressed him. He found consolation in the affection of his family, and especially in the devoted attachment of his brother Anthony and of his sister Mary, who were one day to share his exile. Bowed down by so many afflictions, he would have sunk under the burden, ‘like a man half dead, if God had not revived his courage while comforting him by his Word.’ fd124
His father — that old man with mind so positive, with hand so firm, and whose authority he had venerated — was not there to guide him he was free. Gerard had decided that his son should devote himself to the law, by which he might rise to a high position in the world. Calvin aspired, indeed, to another future, but from obedience he had renounced his most ardent desires; and now, finding himself at liberty, he turned toward that Christian career in which he was to be, along with Luther, the greatest champion of modern times. ‘Earthly fathers,’ he said on one occasion,
‘must not prevent the supreme and only Father of all from enjoying his rights.’ fd125
As yet, however, Calvin did not meditate becoming a reformer in the same sense as Luther. At that time he would have liked to see all the Church transformed, rather than set himself apart and build up a new one. The faith which he desired to preach was that old Christian truth which Paul had preached at Rome. The scribes had substituted for it the false
traditions of man, but this was only one reason the more for proclaiming in the Church the doctrine which had founded the Church. After the first phase of Christian life, in which man thinks only of Christ, there usually comes a second, where the Christian does not voluntarily worship with assemblies opposed to his convictions. Calvin was now in the first of these phases. He thought only of preaching the Gospel. Did he not possess a pulpit in this very neighborhood, and was it not his duty to glorify God from it? Had it been in his power, he would have done so in St. Peter’s at Rome; why, then, should he refrain in his own church?
Calvin had friends in Picardy, even among the dignitaries of the clergy.
Early attached to their young fellow-townsman, these men had received him with joy; they had found him more advanced in piety and learning, and had observed nothing in him opposed to their opinions. They thought that he might become one of the pillars of the Church. The circumstance that he had studied the law did not check them; it rendered him, in their eyes, fitter still to maintain the interests of the faith… and of the clergy.
Far from repelling him, his former patrons endeavored to bind him still closer to them. That noble friend of his boyhood, Claude de Hangest of Momor, now abbot of St. Eloy, offered to give him the living of Pont l’Eveque in exchange for that of St. Martin of Marteville. Calvin, seeing in this offer the opportunity of preaching in the very. place where his antes- tom had lived, accepted; and then resigned, in favor of his brother
Anthony, the chapel of La Gesine, of which he had been titulary for eight years. The act is dated the 30th of April, 1529. fd126
The same persons who presided over these several changes encouraged Calvin to preach. When a young man who has gone through his studies for the ministry, of the Word returns to his native place, every one is anxious to hear him. Curiosity was still more keenly aroused in Calvin’s case, for his reputation had preceded him, and some little charge of heresy, put forward from time to time, served but to increase the general eagerness.
Everybody wanted to hear the son of the episcopal secretary, the cooper’s
grandson. The men and women who knew him hastened to the church;
people even came from Noyon. The holy place was soon filled. At last a young man, of middle height, with thin pale face, whose eyes indicated firm conviction and lively zeal, went up into the pulpit and explained the Holy Scriptures to his fellow-townsmen. fd127 The effects of Calvin’s preaching were various. Many persons rejoiced to hear, at last, a living word beneath that roof which had reechoed with so much vain and useless babbling. Of this number were, no doubt, certain notable men who were seen pressing round the preacher: Laurent of Normandy, who enjoyed great consideration in that district; Christopher Lefevre, Lancelot of Montigny, Jacques Bernardy, Corneille de Villette, Nicholas Neret, Labbe surnamed Balafre, Claude Dupre, and Nicholas Picot, Anthony Calvin’s brother-in-law. All were afterwards accused of having embraced the new doctrine, and were condemned by the Parliament of Paris to be drawn on hurdles and burnt in the great square of Noyon; but they had already quitted the kingdom. fd128
The words of the young speaker did not merely communicate fresh knowledge they worked a transformation of the heart and life. But there were men present quite ready to receive certain evangelical ideas, who yet did not mean to change either their life or their heart. The same word thus produced faith in some and opposition in others: it divided the light from the darkness. fd129 Certain bigots and priests, in particular, inveighed, against the preaching of that serious-looking, earnest young man, and exclaimed: ‘They are setting wolves to guard the sheep!’ fd130
Calvin stayed only two or three months at Noyon. Perhaps a growing opposition forced him to depart. He desired also to continue his Greek studies; but instead of returning to Orleans or Bourges, he resolved to go to Paris. The moment was favorable. Classical studies were at that time making great progress in the capital. Francis I., at the request of Budaeus and Du Bellay, had just founded (1529) several professorships for
teaching Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. It was a complete revolution, and Paris was full of animation when Calvin arrived. The fantastical framework which the scholastics, theologians, jurists, and philosophers had erected during the middle ages, fell to the ground in the midst of jeering and laughter, and the modern learning arose amid the unanimous applause of the rising generation. Pierre Danes, a pupil of Budaeus and Lascaris, and
afterwards a bishop, taught Greek; fd131 Francis Vatable introduced young scholars to the knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, although he failed himself to find the counsel of God therein; fd132 other illustrious professors completed this precious course of instruction. Paris was a center whence light emanated; and this was the reason which induced Calvin to forsake Noyon, Bourges, and even Orleans, and hasten his steps thither.
The journey was a painful one; Calvin (whether on horseback or on foot is unknown) arrived in Paris about the end of June, quite worn out with fatigue. ‘It is impossible,’ he said next morning, ‘for me to go out of doors;’ fd133 indeed, He did not leave his room for four days. But the news of his arrival soon spread; his friends and admirers hastened to his inn, and during these four days his room was never empty. fd134 All the agitation of the schools seemed to be transported thither.
They talked of Budaeus, Vatable, and Danes, of Greek and Hebrew, and of the sun of learning then shining over the old Lutetia… . Calvin listened and learnt the state of men’s minds. One of the first who hurried to him was Coiffard, his fellow-collegian at Orleans, who brought his father with him.
People contended for the student of Noyon, who had already become celebrated.’ ‘Come and stay with us,’ said the young Parisian; and when Calvin declined, ‘I entreat you,’ said Coiffard in the most affectionate manner, ‘to grant me this favor.’ fd135 The father still insisted, for the worthy citizen knew what a steady friend his rather frivolous son would find in the Picardin student. ‘There is nothing in the world I desire so much,’ he said, ‘as to see you associate with my son.’ fd136 — ‘Come, do come,’ urged the son, ‘and be my companion.’ Calvin was touched by this affection; but he feared the interruptions of the family, its distance from college, and he had but one object — study. ‘I would accept your offer with both hands,’ he said, ‘but that I intend to follow Danes’ Greek course, and his school is too far from your house.’ fd137 The father and son went away greatly disappointed.
Not long after this a more important personage entered the room. It was Nicholas Cop, professor at St. Barbe, whose father, a native of Basle, had just been appointed physician to the king. Both father and son were strongly suspected of belonging to the ‘new opinions;’ but at that time Francis cared little about them. The elder Cop had translated Galen and
Hippocrates, and the king had confided to him the care of his health. A strict friendship erelong united Calvin and the son. The latter, although a professor in the university, listened to the student of Noyon as a disciple listens to his master; it is one of those marks of Calvin’s superiority, which every one recognized instantly. He showed his friend ‘how Christ discharges the office of physician, since he is sent by the Father to quicken the dead.’
The conversations which these two young men then held together resulted in after years in an event which exercised a certain influence over the destiny of the reformer and of the Reform itself.
An object of less importance occupied them now: it was Calvin’s first business in Paris, and the account he gives of it throws a new light on the future legislator. The custom of shutting up in convents the young persons who had any tendency towards the Gospel had already begun. ‘Our friend Daniel, the advocate,’ said Calvin to Cop, ‘has a sister in a nunnery at Paris; she is about to take the veil, and Daniel wishes to know if it is with her full consent.’ — ‘I will accompany you,’ said the professor, and on the following Sunday, Calvin having recovered from his fatigue, the two friends set out for the convent. The future reformer, who was already opposed to monastic vows, especially when taken under constraint, cleverly devised a plan for learning whether any restriction was placed upon the young lady’s liberty. ‘Converse with the abbess,’ he said to Cop, as they were going to the nunnery, ‘and contrive that I may be able to talk privately with our friend’s sister.’ The abbess, followed by the girl, entered the parlor. ‘We have granted her,’ said the former, ‘the privilege of taking the solemn vows.’ fd138 According to his instructions Cop began to talk with the superior on different subjects which had no connection with the matter in hand. During this time, Calvin, who believed he saw a victim before him, took advantage of the opportunity, and said to Daniel’s sister:
‘Are you taking this yoke upon you willingly, or is it placed on your neck by force? fd139 Do not fear to trust me with the thoughts that disturb you.’
The girl looked at Calvin with a thoughtless air, and answered him with much volubility: ‘The veil is what I most desire, and the day when I shall make my vow can never come too soon.’ The future reformer was
astonished: he had before him a giddy young person, who had been led to believe that she would find great amusement in the cloister. ‘Every time
she spoke of her vows,’ said Calvin, ‘you might have fancied she was playing with her doll.’ fd140 He desired, however, to address one serious word to her; ‘Mademoiselle,’ he said to her, ‘I beg of you not to trust too much to your own strength: I conjure you to promise nothing as if you could accomplish it yourself. Lean rather on the strength of God, in whom we live and have our being.’ fd141 Perhaps Calvin thought that by speaking so seriously to the young girl, she would renounce her rash undertaking;
but he was mistaken.
He returned to his inn, and two days after (the 25th of June) he wrote to Daniel an account of his visit to the convent. Having finished, he was beginning another letter to a canon of Orleans, fd142 when one of his friends arrived, who had come to take him for a ride. We might suppress this incident as being of no importance; but it is perhaps also an unexpected feature in Calvin’s habits. He is generally represented as absorbed in his books or reprimanding the disorderly. And yet he was no stranger to the decent relaxations of life: he could ride on horseback and took pleasure in the exercise. He accepted his friend Viermey’s offer. ‘I shall finish the letter on my return,’ he said, fd143 and the two students set off on their excursion in the neighborhood of Paris. A few days later Calvin hired a room in the college of Fortret, where he was near the professors, and resumed his study of languages, law, and philosophy. fd144 He desired to learn. Having received the knowledge of divine things, he wished to acquire a true understanding of the world.
But erelong the summons from on high sounded louder than ever in his heart. When he was in his room, surrounded by his law books, the voice of his conscience cried to him that he ought to study the Bible. When he went out, all his friends who felt a love for pure religion begged of him to devote himself to the Gospel. fd145 Calvin was one of those fortresses that are not to be taken at the first assault. As he looked upon the books scattered about his study, he could not make up his mind to forsake them. But whenever in the course of his life God spoke clearly to him, he repressed his fondest desires, Thus urged from within and from without, he yielded at last. ‘I renounce all other sciences,’ he said, ‘and give myself up entirely to theology and to God.’ fd146 This news spread among the secret
assemblies of the faithful, and all were filled with great satisfaction.
A mighty movement had taken place in Calvin’s soul; but it must be understood that there was no plan laid down in his mind. He had no ambition, no art, no role; but he did with a strong will whatever God set before him. The time he now spent in Paris was his apprenticeship.
Having given himself to God, he set to work with the decision of an energetic character and the firmness of a persevering mind. He studied theology with enthusiasm. ‘The science of God is the mistress-science,’ he said; ‘the others are only her servants.’ He gave consistency to that little chosen band who, in the midst of the crowd of scholars, turned lovingly towards the Holy Scriptures. He excited young and noble minds; he studied with them and endeavored to explain their difficulties.
He did more Berquin’s death had struck all his friends with terror. ‘If they have burnt this green wood,’ said some, ‘they will not spare the dry.’
Calvin, not permitting himself to be checked by these alarms, began to explore that city which had become so dangerous. He joined the secret assemblies which met under the shadow of night in remote quarters, fd147 where he explained the Scriptures with a clearness and energy of which none had ever heard the like. These meetings were held more particularly on the left bank of the Seine, in that part of the city which the Catholics afterwards termed Little Geneva, and which, on the other hand, is now the seat of Parisian Catholicism. One day the evangelicals would repair mysteriously to a house on the property of the abbey of St. Germain des Pres; another day they would meet in the precincts of the university, the quartier latin of our times. In the room would be a few wooden benches, on which the poor people, a few students, and sometimes one or two men of learning, took their’ seats. They loved that simple-hearted young man who so effectually introduced into their minds and hearts the truths he found in the Scriptures. ‘The Word of Christ is always a fire,’ they said;
‘but when he explains it, this fire shines out with unusual brilliancy.’
Young men formed themselves on his model; but there were many who rushed into controversy, instead of seeking edification as Calvin did. In the university quarter the pupils of Daniel and Vatable might be seen, with the Hebrew or Greek Testaments in their hands, disputing with everybody. ‘It is thus in the Hebrew text,’ they said; ‘and the Greek text reads so and so.’
Calvin did not, however, disdain polemics; following the natural bent of his mind, he attacked error and reprimanded the guilty. Some who were
astonished at his language asked; ‘Is not this the cure of Pont l’Eveque, the friend of Monsignor de St. Eloy v But, not allowing himself to be checked by these words, he confounded alike the superstitious papists and the incredulous innovators. ‘He was wholly given up to divinity and to God, to the great delight of all believers.’ fd148
It was already possible to distinguish in him, in some features at least, the character of chief of the Reform. As he possessed great facility of
correspondence, he kept himself informed, and others also, of all that was passing in the Christian world. He made about this time a collection of papers and documents relating to the most recent facts of the Reformation, and sent them to Duchemin, but not for him to keep. fd149 ‘I send them to you on this condition,’ wrote Calvin, ‘that, in accordance with your good faith and duty, they may pass through your hands to our friends.’ fd150 To this packet he added an epitome, fd151 some commentaries, and a collection of notes made probably by Roussel during his residence at Strasburg. He purposed adding an appendix: fd152 ‘But I had no time,’ he said. fd153 Calvin desired that all the friends of the Gospel should profit by the light which he himself possessed. He brought the new ideas and new writings into circulation. A close student, an indefatigable evangelist, this young man of twenty was, by his far-seeing glance, almost a reformer.
He did not confine his labors to Paris, Orleans, Bourges, or Noyon: the city of Meaux occupied his attention. Meaux, which had welcomed Lefevre and Farel, which had heard Leclerc, the first martyr, still possessed Briconnet. This former protector of the evangelicals would indeed no longer see them, and appeared absorbed in the honors and seductions of the prelacy. But some men thought that at the Bottom of his heart he still loved the Gospel. What a triumph if the grace of God should once more blossom in his soul! Daniel had friends at Meaux; Calvin begged of him to open the door (or, to use his own expression, the window) of this city for him. In the number of these friends was a certain Maecenas. The young doctor, writing from Meaux, gives a portrait of this individual which exactly fits the bishop. He does not name Briqonnet; but us he often suppresses names, or employs either initials or pseudonyms, we might almost say that the name was not necessary here. Daniel accordingly wrote to Maecenas, who returned a very cold answer. fd154 ‘I cannot walk with those people,’ he said; ‘I cannot conform my manners to theirs.’ fd155