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January 20, 1909. THE PRESBYTERL
Contributed
THE YOUTH OF CALVIN.
By Prof. Henry E. Dosker, D. D.
II.
On the tenth of July, 1909, it will be four centuries
since John Calvin, "the father an founder of the Re
formed Churches," was born at Noyon, in Picardy. The
Picardese were ever a peculiar people. Doumerguc tells
us that "they have a passionate desire to see the cause,
in which they believe, triumph." The parents of Calvin
were Gerard Chauvin or Cauvin and Jeanne LeFranc,
"one of the most beautiful and pious women of her
day." His grandfather was a cooper at Pont l'Eveque
in Normandy, of whose house, in the closing years of
the sixteenth century, some remnants remained, and
which were visited, for the sake of their associations, by
Alexander the Medici in i co8.
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His father was a man of parts, sought out for his
counsel both by the clergy and the nobility of his region.
He was notary apostolic of the diocese of Noyon and
secretary to its bishop, Charles de Hangest. Contrary
. to tradition, Doumergue claims that parts of the house,
where Calvin was born, still exist, nay that such is the
case with the very room where he first saw the light
of day. Calvin enjoyed exceptional privileges of education,
first in the house of the nobleman Mommor and
later on in the best schools of France. Though he never
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by the benefices of the chapel La Gesine and, later on,
of Marteville and Pont l'Eveque. He never knew a
childhood in the proper sense. Precociously developed,
timid and retiring in disposition and very tender in
conscience, his open disapproval of all evil, earned
him among his schoolmates the nickname "Accusativus."
His keen study of the law providentially fitted
him for his later career ar.d lie earned the doctor's title,
though he never used it. At Bourges, Wolmar opened
the New Testament for him and thus made a break with
Rome inevitable. This new study turned him back to
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different this book, in its burning vitality, from the
embellished copy, written on vellum, which he had
seen, in iron chains, on the desk of the old home cathedral!
Thus in 1531 he resolutely turned his face toward
the Reformation. He returned to Paris and at once
sought contact with the few pioneers of the movement
in the capital. Preaching in the secret Huguenot conventicles
he ended every sermon with the words?"If
God be for us, who can be against us?" In the midst of
these services, as later 011 he told Sadolet, in 1533, he
was suddenly, fully, completely converted. It pleased
God to reveal his Son in him. Says he, "God worked
my conversion suddenly, suddenly he subjected my
heart to the obedience of his will." His energy now
was redoubled, he labored for all and- shunned no danger.
The well known Cop-inciden ully revealed his
heretical views to the University and necessitated his
immediate flight. He escaped as by the skin of his teeth
OF THE SOUTH. . 7
and became an exile and wanderer, on All Saints Day,
1533The
next year was one of restless wandering. From
Angouleme he made brief excursions to Noyon, where
in 1534 he resigned his benefices and sold his small
patrimony; but especially to Nerac, to the court of
Margaret of Valois, queen of Navarre, one of the noble
protectresses of the Huguenot cause. There he met
Lefevre, who by his work on the New Testament had
laid the foundations of the Reformation in France; the
setting sun mingling its beams with those of the dawn.
But Paris drew him like a magnet and in the fall of 1534
we find him there again, in the direst peril. Never was
a visit timed worse than this. The bigotry of some Protestants
had aroused the fury of King Francis I and
France was drenched in blood. And here he for the
first time crossed the path of Servetus. Calvin challenged
him to an open debate. Servetus failed to appear
and thus unquestionably saved two lives.
Early in 1535 he was at Strasburg, where Bucer
taught, with whom he had long since corresponded and
with whom he was later on to be so intimately associated.
Tarrying but a little while, he passed on to
Basel, that Mecca of the intelligent minds of the day,
the home of Erasmus, the "King of Humanists." He
met the old lion, who was to die the next year, and Erasmus
penetrated the secrets of the future and told his
intimates what havoc this young man was to work with
Rome. Here at Basel Calvin wrote the outlines of his
greatest work, "The Institutes," which he developed,
but never changed, in the later editions. This work
finished, the "Wanderlust" again laid hold on Calvin and
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the Spiritual Renaissance had prepared the way of the
Reformation and were waiting for the dawn. To Italy
therefore he went, for the sake of safety under an assumed
name?Charles d'Espeville,
Thus the circle of his influence was extended, but also
the jealousy and hatred of the Catholics was aroused
and Calvin was once more compelled literally to flee
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erected in 1541 and restored in 1741, witnesses how
close was his escape. Along the paths of the chamois
he crossed the Alps and the suffering there endured
was ineffaceably stamped 011 his weak constitution.
Drawn by the love of home, he braved all and once
more visited Noyon. whence, accompanied by his brother,
Anthon and his sister, Mary, he started back either
to Basel or Strasburg, as Providence might indicate.
But the war in Lorraine compelled him to travel by
way of Geneva and thus, toward the close of August,
1530, he entered the gates of that city, a wayfarer and
a wanderer. Had Calvin known what would be the
issue of this stay, would he have entered the city? Who
knows? He was then a young man, but a little over
twenty-seven years old, a youth in years, a mature man
in intellect, shrinking and diffident by nature, a born
recluse, yet destined by Providence to live under the
full glare of the limelight of publicity and to stand -in
the front ranks of the battling hosts of the Reformation.
Louisville, Ky.