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

=CALVIN GOES TO BOURGES.=

The scholar, set at liberty by the apparent restoration of his father's health, had once more turned his thoughts towards his studies. He desired to take advantage of the instruction of a doctor whose reputation surpassed even that of Pierre de l'Etoile. All the learned world was at that time talking of Alciati of Milan, whom the king had invited to Bourges, and to attend whose brilliant lessons the academic youth flocked from every quarter. Calvin had other motives besides this for going to that city. Under Margaret's influence, Berry had become a centre of evangelisation. Returning, therefore, to Orleans, he made known his intention of going to Bourges, and the professors of the university where he had studied, and even taught with credit, unanimously offered him the degree of doctor. It would appear that his modesty did not permit him to accept it. 71

There were fewer resources at Bourges than at Orleans. 'As we cannot live as we wish,' said the students, 'we live as we can.' Everything was dear: board alone cost one hundred francs a year. 72'France is truly a golden country,' bitterly remarked a poor scholar, 'for without gold you can get nothing.' But the Noyon student cared little for the comforts of life; intellectual and spiritual wealth satisfied him. He was anxious to hear Alciati, and was surprised to find him a tall corpulent man, with no very thoughtful look. 'He is a great eater,' said one of his neighbours, 'and very covetous.' 73Intelligence and imagination, rather than sentiment, were his characteristics: he was a great jurist and also a great poet. Mingling literature with his explanation of the laws, and substituting an elegant style for barbarism of language, he gave quite a new éclat to the study of the law. Calvin listened with admiration. Five years later Alciati returned to Italy, allured by greater emoluments and greater honours.

Erelong Calvin gave himself up entirely to other thoughts. Bourges had become, under Margaret's government, the centre of the new doctrine in France; and he was accordingly struck by the movement of the minds around him. There was discussing, and speaking, and assembling, wherever the sound of the Gospel could be heard. On Sunday students and citizens crowded the two churches where Chaponneau and Michel preached. Calvin went with the rest, and found the christian truth pretty fairly set forth 'considering the time.' 74During the week, evangelical truth was taught in the university by Gamaire, a learned priest, and by Bournonville, prior of St. Ambrose.

=WOLMAR'S APPEAL TO CALVIN.=

But nothing attracted Calvin like Wolmar's house. It would appear that this scholar had arrived at Bourges before him. 75It was there that Calvin met young Beza, and then began in Theodore's heart that filial piety which continued all his life, and that admiration which he professed afterwards in one of his Latin poems, where he calls Calvin

Romæ ruentis terror ille maximus. 76

And truly Calvin was training for this. If Wolmar at Orleans had confirmed the christian faith in him, Wolmar at Bourges was the first who invited him distinctly to enter upon the career of a reformer. The German doctor communicated to the young man the books which he received from beyond the Rhine—the writings of Luther, Melanchthon, and other evangelical men. 77Wolmar, modest, gentle, and a foreigner, did not think himself called to do in France what these illustrious servants of God were doing in Germany: but he asked himself whether there was not some Frenchman called by God to reform France; whether Lefèvre's young fellow-countryman, who united a great understanding with a soul so full of energy, might not be the man for whom this work was reserved.

Wolmar seems to have been to Calvin what Staupitz was to Luther; both these doctors felt the need of minds of a strong temper for the great things that were about to take place in the world. One day, therefore, the professor invited the student to take a walk with him, and the two friends, leaving behind them that old city, burnt down by Cæsar and Chilperic, rebuilt by Charlemagne, and enlarged by Philip Augustus, drew near the banks of the Auron, at its confluence with the Yèvre, and strolled here and there among the fertile plains of Berry. 78At last Wolmar said to Calvin, 'What do you propose doing, my friend? Shall the Institutes, the Novels, the Pandects absorb your life? Is not theology the queen of all sciences, and does not God call you to explain his Holy Scriptures?' 79What new ideas then started up before Calvin! At Paris he had renounced the priesthood, and at Bourges Wolmar urged him to the ministry.... What should he do?

This was quite another calling. In the theocratic and legal Church, the priest is the means by which man is restored to communion with God. The special priesthood, with which he is invested, is the condition on which depends the virtue of the sacraments and of all the means of grace. Possessed of a magical power, he works the greatest of miracles at the altar, and whoever does not partake in the ministrations of this priesthood can have no share in redemption. The Reformation of the sixteenth century, by setting aside the formal and theocratic Church of Rome, which was shaped in the image of the Jewish theocracy, and by substituting for it the Evangelical Church, conformably to the principles of Christ and his apostles, transformed the ministry also. The service of the Word became its centre—the means by which, with the aid of the Holy Ghost, all its functions were discharged. This evangelical ministry was to work its miracles also; but whilst those of the legal ministry proceed from a mysterious virtue in the priesthood, and are accomplished upon earthly elements, those of the evangelical ministry are wrought freely by the divine Word, and by a heartfelt faith in the great love of God, which that ministry proclaims,—strange spiritual miracles, effected within the soul, transforming the man and not the bread, and making him a new creature, destined to dwell eternally with God.

=CALVIN HESITATES.=

Did Calvin at this time see clearly the difference between the Roman priesthood and the Gospel ministry? We doubt it. It was not until later that his ideas became clear upon this important point. The notion, however, of abandoning not only the priesthood, but also the study of the law for the Gospel, was not new to him. More than once in his retirement, he had already asked himself: 'Shall I not preach Christ to the world?' But he had always shrunk away humble and timid from this ministry. 'All men are not suited for it,' he said; 'a special vocation is necessary, and no one ought to take it upon himself rashly.' 80Calvin, like St. Augustin, the ancient doctor whom he most resembled (the irregularities excepted which mark the youth of the bishop of Hippona), feared to undertake a charge beyond his strength. He thought also that his father would never consent to his abandoning the law and joining the heretics. And yet he felt himself daily more inclined to entertain the great questions of conscience and christian liberty, of divine sovereignty and self-renunciation. 'So great a desire of advancing in the knowledge of Christ consumed me at that time,' he said, 'that I pursued my other studies very coldly.' 81A domestic event was soon to give him liberty to enter upon the new career to which God and Wolmar were calling him. 82

Nor was this the only call he received at Bourges. Wolmar had spoken of him, and several families invited him to their houses to edify them. This took the young man by surprise, as it had done at Orleans; he remained silent, lost in the multitude of his thoughts. 'I am quite amazed,' he said, 'at seeing those who have a desire for pure doctrine gather round me to learn, although I have only just begun to learn myself!' He resolved, however, to continue at Bourges the evangelical work which he had timidly commenced on the banks of the Loire; and he brought more time and more decision to the task.