J. H. Merle D'Aubigné - History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Vol. 1-8)

The conversion of Calvin and of the other reformers—we must insist upon this point—was not simply a change wrought by study in their thoughts and in their system. Calvin did not set himself the task of inventing a new theology, as his adversaries have asserted. We do not find him coldly meditating on the Church, curiously examining the Scriptures, and seeking in them a means of separating a portion of christendom from Rome. The Reformation was not the fruit of abstract reasoning; it proceeded from an inward labour, a spiritual combat, a victory which the reformers won by the sweat of their brow, or rather ... of their heart. Instead of composing his doctrine chapter after chapter, Calvin, thirsting for righteousness and peace, found it in Christ. 'Placed as in the furnace of God (they are his own words), the scum and filth of his faith were thus purified.' Calvin was put into the crucible, and the new truth came forth, burning and shining like gold, from the travail of his melted soul. In order to comprehend the productions of nature or of art, we must study closely the secrets of their formation. We have on a former occasion sought to discover the generative principle of the Reformation in the heart of Luther; we are now striving to discern it in Calvin also. Convictions, affections, intelligence, activity—all these were now in process of formation in that admirable genius under the life-giving rays of truth.

='I SACRIFICE MY HEART TO THEE.'=

There came a moment when Calvin, desirous of possessing God alone, renounced the world, which, from that time, has never ceased to hate him: 'I have not sued thee by my love, O Christ,' he said; 'thou hast loved me of thy free will. Thou hast shone into my soul, and then everything that dazzled my eyes by a false splendour immediately disappeared, or at least I take no count of it. As those who travel by sea, when they find their ship in danger, throw everything overboard, in order that, having lightened the vessel, they may arrive safely in port; in like manner I prefer being stripped of all that I have, rather than be deprived of thee. I would rather live poor and miserable than be drowned with my riches. Having cast my goods into the waves, I begin to have hope of escape since the vessel is lightened.... I come to thee naked and empty.... And what I find in thee is not a trifling vulgar gain: I find everything there.' 41

Thus lifting up his hands to God, Calvin offered the sacrifice of a heart burning with love. He made this grand thought the charter of his nobility, his blazon, and engraving this design on his seal, a hand presenting a heart in sacrifice, he wrote round it: Cor meum velut mactatum Domino in sacrificium offero —'O Lord, I offer unto thee as a sacrifice my heart immolated to thee.' Such was his device—such was his life.

The eyes of many began already to be turned upon him with admiration. The surprising clearness of his mind, the powerful convictions of his heart, the energy of his regenerated will, the strength of his reasoning, the luminous flashes of his genius, and the severe beauties of his eloquence—all betokened in him one of the great men of the age. 'A wonderful mind!' says Florimond de Rémond, one of his chief adversaries, 'a mind keen and subtle to the highest degree, prompt and sudden in its imaginations! What a praiseworthy man he would have been, if, sifting away the vices (heresy), the virtues alone could have been retained!' 42There was doubtless something wanting in Calvin: he may not have had that smiling imagination which, at the age he had now reached, generally gilds life with the most brilliant colours; the world appeared to him one wide shipwreck. But, possessing the glance of the eagle, he discovered a deliverance in the future, and his powerful hand, strengthened by God, was about to prepare the great transformations of the Church and of the world.

He was indefatigable in labour. When the day was ended, and his companions indulged in dissipation or in sleep, Calvin, restricting himself to a slight repast for fear of oppressing his head, withdrew to his room and sat down to study the Scriptures. At midnight he extinguished his lamp, 43and early in the morning, when he awoke and before he left his bed, he 'ruminated,' says Beza, on what he had read and learnt the night before. 44'We were his friends, we shared his room with him,' said Theodore Beza's informants. 'We only tell you what we have seen.'—'Alas!' adds the reformer, 'these long vigils, which so wonderfully developed his faculties and enriched his memory, weakened his health, and laid the foundation of those sufferings and frequent illnesses which shortened his days.' 45

=CALVIN SOUGHT AS A TEACHER.=

His taste for Holy Scripture did not divert Calvin from the study of law. He was unwilling that the labours of his profession should suffer in any degree from the labours of piety. He made such remarkable progress in jurisprudence that he was soon looked upon, by both students and professors, as a master and not as a scholar. 46One day, Pierre de l'Etoile begged him to give a lesson in his place; and the young man of nineteen or twenty discharged his duty with so much skill and clearness, that he was considered as destined to become the greatest jurist in France. The professors often employed him as their substitute. 47

To knowledge he joined communion. While still continuing to follow the lessons of Etoile, Calvin 'sought the company of the faithful servants of God,' as he tells us. All the children of God (he thought) should be united together by a bond of brotherly union. He mixed also with everybody, even with the gainsayers, and if they attacked the great doctrines of Gospel truth, he defended them. But he did not put himself forward. He could discern when, how far, and to whom it was expedient to speak, and never exposed the doctrine of Christ to the jeers of the unbeliever by imprudence or by the fears of the flesh. When he opened his mouth, every one of his words struck home. 'Nobody can withstand him,' they said, 'when he has the Bible in his hand.'

Students who felt a difficulty in believing, townspeople who could not understand, went and begged him to teach them. 48He was abashed. 'I am but a poor recruit,' he said, 'and you address me as if I were a general.' 49As these requests were constantly renewed, Calvin tried to find some hiding-place where he could read, meditate, and pray, secure from interruption. 50

At one time it was the room of a friend, a nook in the university library, or some shady retreat on the banks of the river. But he was hardly absorbed in meditation or in the study of Scripture, before he found himself surrounded by persons eager to hear him, and who refused to withdraw. 'Alas!' he exclaimed, 'all my hiding-places are turned into public schools.' 51

Accordingly he sought still more private retreats; for he wished to understand before he taught. The French love to see clearly into things; but their defect in this respect is that they often do not go deep enough, or fail to observe that by going deep they arrive at truths in whose presence the most eminent minds ought to confess their insufficiency and believe in the revelation from God. In the middle ages there had been men who wished to bring the mysteries of the catholic faith to the test of reason; 52Abelard was at the head of that phalanx. Calvin was not a new Abelard. He did not presume to fathom impenetrable mysteries, but sought in Scripture the light and the life of his soul.

=HE TEACHES IN PRIVATE FAMILIES.=

His admirers returned to him. Several citizens of Orleans opened their houses to him, saying: 'Come and teach openly the salvation of man.' Calvin shrank back. 'Let no one disturb my repose,' he said; 'leave me in peace.' His repose, that is to say his studies, were his only thought. But these souls, thirsting for truth, did not yield so easily. 'A repose of darkness!' replied the most ardent; 'an ignoble peace! 53Come and preach!' Calvin remembered the saying of St. Chrysostom: 'Though a thousand persons should call you, think of your own weakness, and obey only under constraint.' 54'Well, then, we constrain you,' answered his friends. 'O God! what desirest thou of me?' Calvin would exclaim at such moments. 'Why dost thou pursue me? Why dost thou turn and disturb me, and never leave me at rest? Why, despite my disposition, dost thou lead me to the light and bring me into play?' 55Calvin gave way, however, and understood that it was his duty to publish the Gospel. He went to the houses of his friends. A few men, women, and young people gathered round him, and he began to explain the Scriptures. It was quite a new order of teaching: there were none of those distinctions and deductions of scholastic science, at that time so familiar to the preachers. The language of the young man possessed an admirable simplicity, a piercing vitality, and a holy majesty which captivated the heart. 'He teaches the truth,' said his hearers as they withdrew, 'not in affected language, but with such depth, solidity, and weight, that every one who hears him is struck with admiration.' These are the words of a contemporary of Calvin, who lived on the spot, and in the very circle in which the Reformer then moved. 'While at Orleans,' adds this friend, Theodore Beza, 'Calvin, chosen from that time to be an instrument of election in the Lord's work, wonderfully advanced the kingdom of God in many families.' 56