History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume III Part 71

Among his fellow-students were the young De Mommors, belonging to the first n.o.bility of Picardy. John Calvin was very intimate with them, especially with Claude, who afterwards became abbot of Saint Eloi, and to whom he dedicated his commentary on Seneca. It was in the company of these young n.o.bles that Calvin had come to Paris. His father, Gerard Calvin, apostolic notary, procurator-fiscal of the county of Noyon, secretary of the diocese, and proctor of the chapter,[1102] was a man of judgment and ability, whose talents had raised him to offices sought after by the best families, and who had gained the esteem of all the gentry in the province, and in particular of the n.o.ble family of Mommor.[1103] Gerard resided at Noyon;[1104] he had married a young woman of Cambray, of remarkable beauty and una.s.suming piety, by name Jane Lefranq, who had already borne him a son named Charles, when on the 10th of July 1509 she gave birth to a second son, who received the name of John, and who was christened in the church of St.

G.o.deberte.[1105] A third son, Anthony, who died young, and two daughters, made up the family of the procurator-fiscal of Noyon.

[1102] Leva.s.seur, doctor of the Sorbonne, Annales de l'Eglise Cathedrale de Noyon, p. 1151. Drelincourt, Defense de Calvin, p. 193.

[1103] Erat is Gerardus non parvi judicii et concilii h.o.m.o, ideoque n.o.bilibus ejus regionis plerisque carus. Beza.

[1104] Dans la place ou est bastie maintenant la maison du Cerf.

Desmay, doctor of the Sorbonne, Vie de Jean Calvin, heresiarque, p.

30. Leva.s.seur, Ann. de Noyon, p. 1157.

[1105] The calumnies and extravagant tales about Calvin began early.

J. Leva.s.seur, afterwards dean of the canons at Noyon, relates that when Calvin's mother was in labour, "before the child was born, there came forth a swarm of large flies, an indubitable presage that he would one day be an evil speaker and a calumniator." Ann. de la Cath.

de Noyon, p. 1157. These absurdities and many others of the same kind refute themselves, without our taking upon ourselves to do so. In our days, those Romish doctors who are not ashamed to employ the weapons of calumny, make a selection from these low and ridiculous stories, not daring to cite them all; but they are all equally worthless.

[Sidenote: EARLY EDUCATION.]

Gerard Calvin, living in familiar intercourse with the heads of the clergy and the chief persons in the province, desired that his children should receive the same education as those of the best families. John, whose precocious habits he had observed, was brought up with the sons of the Mommor family; he lived in their house as one of themselves, and studied the same lessons as Claude. In this family he learnt the first elements of literature and of life; he thus received a higher polish than he appeared destined to acquire.[1106]

He was afterwards sent to the college of the Capettes, founded in the city of Noyon.[1107] The child enjoyed but little recreation. The austerity, that was one of the characteristic features of the son, was found also in the father. Gerard brought him up strictly; from his earliest years, John was compelled to bend to the inflexible rule of duty, which soon became habitual to him, and the influence of the father counteracted that of the Mommor family. Calvin, who was of a timid and somewhat rustic character (as he says himself),[1108] and rendered still more timid by his father's severity, shrunk from the splendid apartments of his protectors, and loved to remain alone and in obscurity.[1109] Thus in retirement his young mind formed itself to great thoughts. It would appear that he sometimes went to the village of Pont l'Eveque, near Noyon, where his grandfather resided in a small cottage,[1110] and where other relatives also, who at a later period changed their name from detestation of the heresiarch, kindly received the son of the procurator-fiscal. But it was to study chiefly that young Calvin devoted his time. While Luther, who was to act upon the people, was brought up like a child of the people, Calvin, who was to act especially as a theologian and profound reasoner, and become the legislator of the renovated Church, received even in childhood a more liberal education.[1111]

[1106] Domi vestrae puer educatus, iisdem tec.u.m studiis initiatus, primam vitae et literarum disciplinam familiae vestrae n.o.bilissimae acceptam refero. Calv. Praef. in Senecam ad Claudium.

[1107] Desmay, Remarques, p. 31; Drelincourt, Defense, p. 158.

[1108] Ego qui natura subrusticus. Praef. ad Psalm.

[1109] Umbram et otium semper amavi......latebras captare. Ibid.

[1110] Le bruit est que son grand-pere etait tonnelier. Drelincourt, p. 30; Leva.s.seur, Ann. de Noyon, p. 1151.

[1111] Henry, Das Leben Calvins, p. 29.

[Sidenote: DEVOTED TO THEOLOGY.]

A spirit of piety early showed itself in the child's heart. One author relates that he was accustomed, when very young, to pray in the open air, under the vault of heaven; a habit which contributed to awaken in his heart the sentiment of G.o.d's omnipresence.[1112] But although Calvin might, even in infancy, have heard the voice of G.o.d in his heart, no one at Noyon was so rigid as he in the observance of ecclesiastical regulations. And hence Gerard, remarking this disposition, conceived the design of devoting his son to theology.[1113] This prospect no doubt contributed to impress on his soul that serious form, that theological stamp, by which it was subsequently distinguished. His spirit was of a nature to receive a strong impression in early years, and to familiarize itself from childhood with the most elevated thoughts. The report that he was at this time a chorister has no foundation, as even his adversaries admit. But they a.s.sure us that, when a child, he was seen joining the religious processions, and carrying a sword with a cross-shaped hilt by way of a crucifix.[1114] "A presage," add they, "of what he was one day to become!" "The Lord hath made my mouth like a sharp sword," says the servant of Jehovah in Isaiah. The same may be said of Calvin.

[1112] Calvin's Leben von Fischer, Leipzig, 1794. The author does not quote his authority for this fact.

[1113] Destinarat autem eum pater ab initio theologiae studiis, quod in illa etiam tenera aetate mirum in modum religiosus esset. Bezae Vita Calv.

[1114] Leva.s.seur, Ann. de Noyon, pp. 1159, 1173.

[Sidenote: THE TONSURE--HE LEAVES NOYON.]

Gerard was poor; his son's education had cost him much, and he wished to attach him irrevocably to the Church. The Cardinal of Lorraine had been coadjutor of the Bishop of Metz at the age of four years. It was then a common practice to confer ecclesiastical t.i.tles and revenues on children. Alphonso of Portugal was made cardinal by Leo X. at the age of eight, and Odet of Chatillon by Clement VII. at eleven; and subsequent to Calvin's day, the celebrated Mere Angelique of Port Royal was appointed coadjutrix of that nunnery at the age of seven years. Gerard, who died a good catholic, was regarded with favour by Messire Charles de Hangest, bishop of Noyon, and by his vicars-general. Accordingly, when the chaplain of La Gesine resigned, the bishop, on the 21st May 1521, conferred this benefice on John Calvin, who was then nearly twelve years old. The appointment was communicated to the chapter twelve days after. On the eve of Corpus Christi, the bishop solemnly cut off the child's hair;[1115] and by this ceremony of the tonsure, John became a member of the clergy, and capable of entering into holy orders, and of holding a benefice without residing on the spot.

[1115] Vie de Calvin, par Desmay, p. 31; Leva.s.seur, p. 1158.

Thus was Calvin called to make trial in his own person of the abuses of the Romish Church. Of all who wore the tonsure in France, there was none more serious in his piety than the chaplain of La Gesine, and the serious child was probably astonished himself at the work of the bishop and his vicars-general. But in his simplicity he felt too much veneration towards these exalted personages to indulge in the least suspicion on the lawfulness of his tonsure. He had held the t.i.tle about two years when Noyon was visited by a dreadful pestilence.

Several of the canons pet.i.tioned the chapter that they might be allowed to quit the city. Already many of the inhabitants had been carried off by the _great death_, and Gerard was beginning to fear that his son John, the hope of his life, might in a moment be s.n.a.t.c.hed from his tenderness by the scourge of G.o.d. The young de Mommors were going to Paris to continue their studies; this was what the procurator-fiscal had always desired for his son. Why should he separate John from his fellow-students? On the 5th of August 1523, he pet.i.tioned the chapter to procure the young chaplain "liberty to go wherever he pleased during the plague, without loss of his allowance; which was granted him until the feast of Saint Remy."[1116] John Calvin quitted his father's house at the age of fourteen. It requires great audacity in calumny to ascribe his departure to other causes, and in mere wantonness challenge that disgrace which justly recoils on those who circulate charges the falsehood of which has been so authentically demonstrated. It appears that in Paris, Calvin lodged at the house of one of his uncles, Richard Cauvin, who resided near the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois. "Thus flying from the pestilence,"

says the canon of Noyon, "he went to catch it elsewhere."

[1116] This is what the priest and the vicar-general Desmay (Jean Calvin, heresiarque, p. 32), and the canon Leva.s.seur (Ann. de Noyon, p. 1160), declare they found in the registers of the chapter of Noyon.

Thus these Romanist authors refute the inventions or mistakes of Richelieu and other writers.

[Sidenote: THE TWO CALVINS--SLANDERS.]

Some years after Calvin had quitted Noyon, another individual of the same name arrived in that city.[1117] John Cauvin was a young man of corrupt principles, but as he came from another part of France, and was a stranger (_or_ unknown) in Noyon, he was received among the priests who chanted in the choir, and in a short time a chapel was given him, as in the case of the first Calvin. As this took place at a time when the latter had already "turned to heresy," the good canons looked upon Cauvin's arrival as a sort of recompense and consolation; but it was not long before the disorderly life of this wretched man excited alarm among his protectors. He was reprimanded, punished, and even deprived of his stipend: but to this he paid no attention,[1118]

continually lapsing again into incontinence. "Seeing then," says the canon, "his hardness of heart, which made him neglect every kind of remonstrance," the canons deprived John Cauvin of his chapel and expelled him from the choir. James Desmay, a priest and doctor of divinity, who had studied at Noyon everything that concerned this church, adds, that he was privately scourged in 1552, and then driven from the town.[1119] This is indeed a disgraceful end for a priest!

The canon Leva.s.seur disputes the scourging, but admits all the rest.

[1117] Annales de l'Eglise de Noyon, at the chapter ent.i.tled, _D'un autre Jean Cauvin_, chapelain, vicaire de la meme eglise de Noyon, non heretique, by Jacques Leva.s.seur, canon and dean of that city.

[1118] Ibid.

[1119] Vie de Jean Calvin, par T. Desmay, imprimee a Rouen, chez Richard l'Allement, 1621.

In the following year the same circ.u.mstances happened again, for the history of popery abounds in such adventures.

A certain Baldwin the younger, also chaplain at Noyon, having taken to live scandalously with him certain women of suspicious character,[1120]

was condemned to attend every service in the church during a month, and to be scourged.[1121]

[1120] Scandalose vivendo c.u.m quibusdam mulieribus suspectis. Annales de l'Eglise de Noyon, p. 1171.

[1121] Praefati Domini ordinarunt ipsum caedi virgis. Ibid.

While these two Romanist authors agree in relating the disorders and punishments inflicted on these young ecclesiastics, they likewise agree in declaring that they had found nothing at Noyon or in its registers against the morals of the great French reformer, and are content to execrate his error; "for to call a man a heretic, is to call him by the most opprobrious of names."[1122]

[1122] Ann. de l'Egl. de Noyon, 1162.

The Dean of Noyon goes even farther in his zeal for the papacy, and relates that John Cauvin, who had been expelled in 1552 for incontinence, died a _good catholic_. "Thanks be to G.o.d," adds he, "that he never turned his coat, nor changed his religion, to which his libertine life and the example of his namesake Calvin seemed to incline him." The dean concludes his strange narrative, the discovery of which is highly valuable to the history of the Reformation, in these words: "I thought it my duty to add this chapter to the history of the first Calvin the reformer, _ad diluendam h.o.m.onymiam_ (to guard against the similarity of names), for fear one should be taken for the other, the catholic for the heretic."[1123]

[1123] Ibid. 1171.

Never was fear better founded. We know what the popish writers are accustomed to do. They take advantage of the misdeeds of John Cauvin at Noyon, and ascribe them to the reformer. They tell their readers gravely that he was driven from his native town for misconduct, after having been condemned to be scourged and even branded. In spite of all the pains taken by the Dean of Noyon to add a chapter _for fear one should be taken for the other, the catholic for the heretic_, the apologists of Rome fail not to ascribe to the reformer the debaucheries of his namesake. What engrossed the thoughts of the canon of Noyon was the glory of John Cauvin who died a good catholic, and he feared lest Calvin's heresy should be laid to him. And, accordingly, he clearly a.s.signs _incontinence_ to the one, and _heresy_ to the other. There have indeed been _equivocations_, as he says, but in a contrary direction. Let us now return to Calvin at Paris.

[Sidenote: A NEW WORLD--NEW LANGUAGES.]

A new world opened before the young man in the metropolis of letters.

He profited by it, applied to his studies, and made great progress in Latin literature. He became familiar with Cicero, and learned from this great master to employ the language of the Romans with a facility, purity, and ease that excite the admiration even of his enemies. But at the same time, he found riches in this language which he afterwards transferred to his own.

[Sidenote: CALVIN'S INFLUENCE ON THE FRENCH LANGUAGE.]

Up to this time Latin had been the only language of the learned; and to our own days it has remained the language of the Roman Church. The Reformation created or at least emanc.i.p.ated the vulgar tongue. The exclusive office of the priest had ceased; the people were called to learn and know for themselves. In this one fact was involved the ruin of the language of the priest, and the inauguration of the language of the people. It is no longer to the Sorbonne alone, to a few monks, or ecclesiastics, or literary men, that the new ideas are to be addressed; but to the n.o.ble, the citizen, and the labourer. All men are now to be preached to; nay more, all are to become preachers-- wool-combers and knights, as well as doctors and parish-priests. A new language is wanted, or at the least the language of the people must undergo an immense transformation, a great enfranchis.e.m.e.nt, and, drawn from the common uses of life, must receive its patent of n.o.bility from renovated Christianity. The Gospel, so long slumbering, has awoke; it speaks and addresses whole nations, everywhere kindling generous affections; it opens the treasures of heaven to a generation that was thinking only of the mean things on earth; it shakes the ma.s.ses; it talks to them of G.o.d, of man, of good and evil, of the pope and the Bible, of a crown in heaven, and perhaps a scaffold upon earth. The popular tongue, which hitherto had been the language of chroniclers and troubadours only, was called by the Reformation to act a new part, and consequently to new developments. A new world is opening upon society, and for a new world there must be new languages. The Reformation removed the French from the swaddling bands in which it had hitherto been bound, and reared it to its majority. From that time the language has had full possession of those exalted privileges that belong to the operations of the mind and the treasures of heaven, of which it had been deprived under the guardians.h.i.+p of Rome. No doubt the language is formed by the people themselves: they invent those happy words, those energetic and figurative expressions, that impart to language such colouring and life. But there are resources beyond their reach, and which can only proceed from men of intellect. Calvin, when called upon to discuss and to prove, enriched his mother-tongue with modes of connexion and dependence, with shadows, transitions, and dialectic forms, that it did not as yet possess.

These elements were already beginning to ferment in the head of the young student at the college of La Marche. This lad, who was destined to exercise so powerful a mastery over the human heart, was also to subjugate the language he would have to use as his weapon. Protestant France subsequently habituated itself to the French of Calvin, and Protestant France comprehends the most cultivated portion of the nation; from it issued those families of scholars and dignified magistrates who exerted so powerful an influence over the refinement of the people; out of it sprung the Port Royal,[1124] one of the greatest instruments that have ever contributed to form the prose and even the poetry of France, and who, after endeavouring to transfer to the Gallican catholicism the doctrine and language of the Reformation, failed in one of his projects, but succeeded in the other; for Roman-catholic France was forced to go and learn of her Jansenist and reformed adversaries how to wield those weapons of language without which it cannot contend against them.[1125]

[1124] M. A. Arnauld, grandfather of the Mere Angelique, and of all the Arnaulds of Port-Royal, was a Protestant. See Port-Royal, by Sainte Beuve.