Of Calvin’s early years only a few notices remain. His father destined him from the first for theological studies, being moved to this by the evidences afforded in his boyhood of a religious tendency, and perhaps also by a shrewd apprehension of the kind of pursuits in v⅛ich he was most fitted to excel. The esteem in which the father was held opened for the boy a place in the household of the noble family of De Montmor, where he received his elementary education along with the children of the house, though at his father’s expense. In his thirteenth year his father, whose circumstances were not affluent, procured for him from the bishop the office of chaplain in the Chapelle de Nôtre Dame de la Gesine. A few days after his appoint-menthe received the tonsure, and on the 29th of May 1521 he was installed in his office. The plague having visited Noyon, the young De Montmors were sent to Paris to pursue their studies there, and thither Calvin accompanied them, being enabled by the income received from his benefice to meet the expense of a residence in the metropolis. His first school was the Collège de la Marche, at that time under the regency of Maturin Cordier, a man of excellent character, of sound learning, and of high repute as a teacher. To him Calvin ever acknowledged himself indebted for the benefits received under his tuition. In dedicating to him his Commentary on the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, as “eximiae pietatis et doctrinae viro,” he declares that so had he been aided by his instruction that whatever subsequent progress he had made he only regarded as received from him, and “this,” he adds,“I wish to testify to posterity that if any utility accrue to any from my writings they may acknowledge it as having in part flowed from thee.” From this institution he removed to the Collège Montaigu, where he had for instructor a Spaniard, who is described as a man of learning, and to whom Calvin was indebted for the culture of his already acute intellect, by the study of dialectics and the scholastic philosophy. Whilst at school the future reformer distinguished himself by his superior abilities, and his indefatigable assiduity. He speedily outstripped all his competitors in grammatical studies, and by his skill and acumen as a student of philosophy, gave fruitful promise of that consummate excellence as a reasoner, in the department of speculative truth, which he afterwards displayed. Intensely devoted to study he cared little for the pastimes in which his fellow scholars indulged; he shunned society, and was more disposed to censure the frivolities of those around him than to seek the solace of theiι∙ companionship; severe to others he was still more so to himself, and his pale face and attenuated frame bore witness at once to the rigour of his abstinence and the ardour with which he prosecuted his studies. In his nineteenth year he, through the influence of his father, obtained the living of Marteville, to which he was presented on the 27th of September 1527. After holding this preferment for nearly two years, he exchanged it in July 1529 for the cure of Pont 1’Evêque, a village near to Noyon, and the place to which his father originally belonged. He appears to have been not a little elated by his early promotion, and although not ordained, he preached several sermons to the people. But though the career of ecclesiastical preferment was thus early opened to him, Calvin was destined not to become a priest of the Church of Rome. A change came over the mind both of his father and himself respecting his future career. Gerard Calvin, looking at things only from a worldly point of view, began to suspect that he had not chosen the most lucrative profession for his son, and that the law offered to a youth of his talents and industry a more promising sphere. His son, on the other hand, had come under an influence of a very different kind, but which, with still more decisive impulse, inclined him to relinquish the ecclesiastical life, Through the counsels of his relation, Pierre Robert Olivetan, the first translator of the Bible into French, he had been led for the first time to study the sacred volume, and to test his religious opinions and practices by its dictates. The result was that, though not yet detached from the faith of the Romish church, he was very willing to relinquish all thoughts of becoming a priest in that communion. He accordingly readily complied with his father’s suggestion; and having resigned his cure, he removed from Paris to Orleans, in order to study law under Pierre de I’Etoile, a distinguished jurisconsult, and at that time professor there. On this new pursuit Galvin entered with characteristic ardour, and such was his progress in legal knowledge, that he frequently occupied the chair of the professor, while his general reputation for ability and scholarship stood so high that, on leaving Orleans, he received the grade of doctor without payment of the usual fees, as a compliment to his merits. Other studies, however, besides those of law had occupied him whilst in this city, God, who had destined him for a very different career, was in His providence preparing him for the work he had to do. His mind, at first hardened by the influence of early superstition, was, he himself tells us, brought by sudden conversion into a state of docility. An ardent desire to attain proficiency in sacred knowledge took possession of him, and though this did not lead him to renounce other studies, it rendered him frigid in the pursuit of them. At all times, indeed, a diligent student, he seems at this time to have been impelled by his zeal beyond those bounds which a wise regard to health would impose. It was his wont, after a frugal supper, to labour till midnight, and in the morning when he awoke, he would, before he arose, recall and digest what he had read the previous day, so as to make it thoroughly his own. “By these protracted vigils,” says Beza, “he secured indeed a solid erudition, and an excellent memory; but it is probable he at the same time sowed the seeds of that disease which occasioned him various illnesses in after life, and at last brought upon him premature death.”

From Orleans Calvin went to Bourges to prosecute his studies under a learned Italian of the name of Alciati, whom Francis I. had invited into France, and settled as a professor of law in that university. Here he became acquainted with Melchior Volmar, a German, then professor of Greek at Bourges, and a man of sound erudition as well as exemplary character By him Calvin was taught Greek, and introduced to the study of the New Testament in its original language, a service which he gratefully acknowledges in one of his printed works. The conversation of Volmar also seems to have been of use to him in deepening his religious convictions, and confirming him in his attachment to the doctrines of the Reformation. These were now beginning to be widely diffused through France. Twelve years had elapsed since Luther had published his theses against indulgences,—twelve years of intense excitement and anxious discussion, not in Germany only, but in almost all the adjacent kingdoms In France there had not been as yet any overt revolt against the Church of Rome, but multitudes were lending a friendly ear to the Reformed doctrines, and a few were in secret rejoicing in having heartily embraced them To such Calvin united himself whilst at Orleans, and after his removal to Bourges he became a teacher, both in private conference with inquirers and by discourses in more public assemblies. “Before a year had elapsed,” says he, speaking of his conversion, “all who were desirous of a purer doctrine were in the habit of coming to me, though a novice and a tyro, for the purpose of learning.” And Beza tells us that he not only fortified the few believers who were in the town, but preached often in some of the neighbouring mansions and hamlets, whereby he wonderfully advanced the kingdom of God in many families, among which he specifies that of the lord of Ligniéres, who with his lady heard with approval the new doctrines. In engaging in such efforts, Calvin appears to have yielded to a constraining sense of duty rather than to have followed the bias of his own inclinations. “By nature,” says he, “somewhat clownish (subrusticus), I always preferred the shade and ease, and would have sought some hiding-place;. but this was not permitted, for all my retreats became like public schools.” Nor did he infuse any of the enthusiasm which usually mark’s the young reformer into his addresses. “He taught the truth,” says Beza, “not with affected eloquence, but with such depth of knowledge and so much solid gravity of style, that there was not a man who could hear him without being ravished with admiration.”

His residence at Bourges was cut short by the sudden death of his father, which occasioned his return to his native place. Immediately after his father’s decease, he seems to have paid a hasty visit to Paris, and then to have returned to Noyon, where he resided for a couple of years or so. At the close of this period he appears to have returned to Paris, where he apparently resided from 1529 to 1532, as letters written by him are dated from Paris in these years. While there he lodged with a tradesman, Etienne de la Forge, who early fell a victim to his zeal for the Reformation, and “whose memory,” Calvin says, “should be blessed among believers as a holy martyr for Christ.” In his house the friends of evangelical truth were wont to meet, and Calvin not only associated with them, but frequently preached in their assemblies. To the great joy of all such, he at length entirely relinquished his legal pursuits and devoted himself afresh to theology, —giving himself up wholly to the work, preaching with great energy, and using all the means in his power to win converts to the truth, as well as to confirm those by whom it had been already embraced. By this time the Reformation had attracted so many adherents in France, that the upholders of the established system became infuriated, and attempted to stay its further progress by the most cruel persecutions. It was whilst these were raging that Calvin issued his first publication, an edition of Seneca’s tract De dementia, with an elaborate commentary. This book he published at his own cost, and dedicated to Claude Hangest, abbot of St Eloi, a member of the De Montmor family, with whom Calvin had been brought up. The commentary, which is written in that pure and terse Latinity which characterizes all Calvin’s works composed in the language of ancient Rome, displays extensive acquaintance with ancient literature, though the author has fallen into the extraordinary mistake of running the two Senecas, father and son, into one, and making the philosopher die 115 years old. It has been suggested that Calvin published this work with a view to influence the king to put a stop to the persecution of the Protestants, but there is nothing in the treatise itself or in the commentary to favour this opinion.

This work was published in April 1532, and seems to have brought Calvin more of honour than of profit. It appears, indeed, that he had some difficulty in paying the cost of its publication; and it is probable that it was partly in order to meet this that he sold at this time the slender patrimony which his father had left him. He at this time also relinquished the ecclesiastical preferments which he had hitherto continued to hold, an act which, though demanded by the change that had taken place in his religious views, was entirely voluntary on his part, and, when viewed in connection with his then straitened circumstances, must be put to the credit of his integrity and disinterestedness. He was now in his twenty-fourth year, and was already recognized as at the head of the Reformation movement in France. An occasion soon occurred which brought him into open collision with the dominant party. Nicholas Cop, the newly-elected regent of the Sorbonne, had to deliver an oration according to custom in the Church of the Maturins, on the feast of All Saints. Being intimate with Calvin, he pronounced an oration which the latter had prepared for him, “of a totally different sort,” says Beza, “from what was customary.” It was, in fact, a defence of the Reformed opinions, especially of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. This was more than the Sorbonnists could bear, and Cop, being summoned to appear before the parliament, found it necessary to make his escape from Paris to Basel. An attempt was at the same time made to seize Calvin, but being forewarned of the design by his friends, he also made his escape. His lodgings, however, were searched, and his books and papers seized, to the imminent peril of some of his friends, whose letters were found in his repositories. He himself retired first to the castle of Lord de Hazeville near Mantes, and after that to Saintonge, where he was the guest of Louis du Tillet, a canon of Angoulême, and where at the request of his host he prepared some short discourses, which were circulated in the surrounding parishes, and read in public to the people. He subsequently removed to Nerac, the residence of the queen of Navarre, the only sister of Francis I., who then favoured the Reformers, and through whose intercession the storm that had broken out against them was for the time abated. Here he became acquainted with the venerable Jacques Lefevre d’ Estaples, a scholar and man of science, whom the queen had rescued from the fury of the Sorbonnists, and engaged as tutor to her children. By him Calvin was warmly received, and his future eminence as a reformer of the church predicted.

It has been asserted that it was whilst resident at Saintonge that Calvin prepared the first sketch of his Institutio Christiana! Religionis; but this has not been proved. His residence in that retirement continued only for a very few months; for, in 1534, we find him first at Noy on, his native place, and soon after again in Paris. Here he was compelled to remain concealed, in consequence of the measures which the enemies of the Reformation were still pursuing against its adherents. At the risk of his life, however, he came forth to meet one whom he was afterwards to encounter under very different circumstances, the Spanish physician, Servede or Servetus, who was even then engaged in propagating his heretical notions concerning the Trinity. Servetus having expressed a desire to have a conference with Calvin, it was arranged that they should meet and discuss their conflicting opinions; but though Calvin waited for him long at the time and place appointed, Servetus failed to make his appearance, “being,” says Beza, “unable to endure the sight of Calvin,” but more probably deterred by the danger to which both were exposed from the hostility of the ruling powers. Calvin’s design in acceding to this colloquy seems to have been a kindly one towards Servetus. “Not without danger to my life,’’he himself says, “I offered to deliver him from his errors.” Nor was Servetus the onlyerrorist whom Calvin endeavoured at this time to confute. The Anabaptists of Germany had spread into France, and were disseminating many wild and fanatical opinions among those who had seceded from the Church of Rome. Among other notions which they had imbibed, was that of a sleep of the soul after death. To Calvin this notion appeared so pernicious, that he composed and published a treatise in refutation of it, under the title of Psydwpannydιia. In this work he chiefly dwells upon the evidence from Scripture in favour of the belief that the soul retains its intelligent consciousness after its separation from the body,—passing by questions of philosophical speculation, as tending on such a subject only to minister to an idle curiosity.

The Psydιopannydιia was published in 1534 at Orleans, whither Calvin had been constrained, in oonsequence of the violence of the persecution at Paris, to retreat. On his way thither he stopped for some time at Poitiers. Here many gathered round him desirous of instruction from him; and in a grotto near the town he celebrated for the first time the communion in the Evangelical Church of France, using a piece of the rock as a table. From this time forward his influence became supreme, and all who had imbibed or become tinged with the Reformed doctrines in France turned to him for counsel and instruction, attracted not only by his power as a teacher, but still more, perhaps, because they saw in him so full a development of the Christian life according to the evangelical model. Μ. Renan, no prejudiced judge, pronounces him “the most Christian man of his time,” and attributes to this his success as a reformer. Certain it is that already he had drawn upon him the notice of those who were seeking to extinguish in blood the light which had been kindled, and which he was so prompt to hold up to view; so that he was obliged to seek safety in flight. In company with his friend Louis du Tillet, whom he had again gone to Angoulême to visit, he set out for Basel. On their way they were robbed by one of their servants, who so entirely stripped them of their property, that it was only by borrowing ten crowns from their other servant that they were enabled to get to Strasburg, and thence to Basel. Here Calvin was welcomed by the band of scholars and theologians who had conspired to make that city the Athens of Switzerland, and especially by the learned Simon Grynaeus, and by Wolfgang Capito, the leader of the Reformation at Basel. Under the auspices and guidance of the latter, Calvin applied himself to the study of Hebrew.

Francis L, desirous to continue the ∙ persecution of the Protestants, but anxious at the same time not to break with the Protestant princes of Germany, resorted to the unworthy expedient of instructing his ambassador to assure the latter that it was only against the Anabaptists, and other parties who called in question all civil magistracy, that his severities were exercised. Calvin, indignant at the calumny which was thus cast upon the Reformed party in France, hastily prepared for the press his Institutes of the Christian Religion, which he published as a confession of the Reformed faith, and dedicated to the king. This work Calvin says he wrote in Latin that it might find access to the learned in all lands. Soon after it appeared he set about translating it into French, as he himself attests in a letter dated October 1536. This sets at rest a question, at one time much agitated, whether the book appeared first in French or in Latin. The earliest French edition known is that of 1540, and this was after the work had been much enlarged, and several Latin editions had appeared. In its first form the work consisted of only six chapters, and was intended merely as a brief manual of Christian doctrine. It appeared anonymously, the author having, as he himself says, nothing in view beyond furnishing a statement of the faith of the persecuted Protestants, whom he saw cruelly cut to pieces by impious and perfidious court parasites. In this work, though produced when the author was only twenty-five years of age, we find a complete outline of that theological system which has since borne his name. In none of the later editions, nor in any of his later works, do we find reason to believe that he ever changed his views on any essential poiut from what they were at the period of its first publication. Such an instance of maturity of mind and of opinion at so early an age,...