Читать книгу History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin (Vol. 1-8) - J. H. Merle D'Aubigné - Страница 61

Table of Contents

CALVIN, whom his father's wishes and his own convictions urged to abandon the priestly career, for which he was preparing, had left Paris in the autumn of 1527, in order to go to Orleans and study jurisprudence under Pierre de l'Etoile, who was teaching there with great credit. 'Reuchlin, Aleander, and even Erasmus, have professed in this city,' said his pupils; 'but the Star (Etoile) eclipses all these suns.' He was regarded as the prince of French jurists.1

When Calvin arrived in that ancient city to which the Emperor Aurelian had given his name, he kept himself apart, being naturally timid, and repelled by the noisy vivacity of the students. Yet his loving disposition sighed after a friend; and such he found in a young scholar, Nicholas Duchemin, who was preparing himself for a professorship in the faculty of letters.2 Calvin fixed on him an observing eye, and found him modest, temperate, not at all susceptible, adopting no opinion without examination,3 of equitable judgment, extreme prudence, and great mildness, but also a little slow in his movements. Duchemin's character formed a striking contrast with the vivacity, ardour, severity, activity, and, we will add, the susceptibility of Calvin. Yet he felt himself attracted towards the gentle nature of the young professor, and the very difference of their temperaments shed an inexpressible charm over all their intercourse. As Duchemin had but moderate means, he received students in his house, as many of the citizens did. Calvin begged to be admitted also, and thus became one of the members of his household. He soon loved Duchemin with all the energy of a heart of twenty, and rejoiced at finding in him a Mommor, an Olivétan, and even more. He wanted to share everything with Nicholas, to converse with him perpetually; and they had hardly parted, when he began to long to be with him again. 'Dear Duchemin!' he said to him, 'my friend, you are dearer to me than life.'4 Ardent as was this friendship, it was not blind. Calvin, true to his character, discovered the weak point of his friend, who was deficient, he thought, in energy; and he reproved him for it. 'Take care,' he said, 'lest your great modesty should degenerate into indolence.'5

=THE STUDENTS AT ORLEANS.=

The scholar of Noyon, consoled by this noble friendship, began to examine more closely the university population around him. He was surprised to see crowds of students filling the streets, caring nothing for learning, so far as he could tell. At one time he would meet a young lord, in tight hose, with a richly embroidered doublet, small Spanish cloak, velvet cap, and showy dagger. This young gentleman, followed by his servant, would take the wall, toss his head haughtily, cast impertinent looks on each side of him, and want every one to give way to him. Farther on came a noisy band composed of the sons of wealthy tradesmen, who appeared to have no more taste for study than the sons of the nobility, and who went singing and 'larking' to one of the numerous tennis-courts, of which there were not less than forty in the city. Ten nations, afterwards reduced to four, composed the university. The German nation combined with 'the living and charming beauty of the body' that of a mind polished by continual study. Its library was called 'the abode of the Muses.'6

Calvin made a singular figure in the midst of the world around him. His small person and sallow face formed a strong contrast with the ruddy features and imposing stature of Luther's fellow-countrymen. One thing, however, delighted him: 'The university,' he said, 'is quite a republican oasis in the midst of enslaved France.' The democratic spirit was felt even by the young aristocrats who were at the head of each nation, and the only undisputed authority in Orleans was that of Pierre de l'Etoile.

=ÉTOILE ON HERETICS.=

This 'morning-star'7 (as the registers of the Picard nation call him) had risen above the fogs and was shining like the sun in the schools. The great doctor combined an eminently judicial mind with an affectionate heart; he was inflexible as a judge, and tender as a mother. His manner of teaching possessed an inexpressible charm. As member of the council of 1528, he had advocated the repression of heresy; but he had no sooner met Calvin at Orleans than, attracted by the beauty of his genius and the charms of his character, he loved him tenderly. Although opposed to the young man's religious opinions, he was proud of having him as his pupil, and was his friend to the last: thus giving a touching example in the sixteenth century of that noble christian equity which loves men while disapproving of their opinions.8

Calvin, sitting on one of the benches in the school, listened attentively to the great doctor, and imbibed certain principles whose justice no one at that time in all christendom thought of disputing. 'The prosperity of nations,' said Pierre de l'Etoile, 'depends upon obedience to the laws. If they punish outrages against the rights of man, much more ought they to punish outrages against the rights of God. What! shall the law protect a man in his body and goods, and not in his soul and his most precious and eternal inheritance?... A thief shall not be able to rob us of our purses, but a heretic may deprive us of heaven!' Jurists and students, nobles and people, were all convinced that the law ought equally to guarantee temporal and spiritual goods. 'Those insensate and furious men,' said the code which Pierre de l'Etoile was expounding to his pupils, 'who proclaim heretical and infamous opinions, and reject the apostolic and evangelical doctrine of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in one only Godhead and one holy Trinity, ought first to be delivered up to divine vengeance, and afterwards visited with corporal punishment.9 Is not that a public offence?' added the code; 'and although committed against the religion of God, is it not to the prejudice of all mankind?'10

Pierre de l'Etoile's youthful hearers received from these words those deep impressions which, being made while the character is forming, are calculated to last through life. The mind of man required time to throw off these legal prejudices, which had been the universal law of the understanding for more than a thousand years.11 Could it be expected that a young disciple, rising up against the most venerable teachers, should draw a distinction between the temporal and the spiritual sphere, between the old and the new economy, and insist that, inasmuch as grace had been proclaimed by virtue of the great sacrifice offered to eternal justice, it was repugnant to the Gospel of Christ for man to avenge the law of God by severe punishments? No: during the sixteenth, and even the seventeenth century, almost all enlightened minds remained, in this respect, sunk in lamentable error.

Calvin, bashful and timid at first, gradually came round; his society was courted, and he conversed readily with all. He was received into the Picard nation. 'I swear,' he said, 'to guard the honour of the university and of my nation.'12 Yet he did not suffer himself to be bound by the university spirit: he had a larger mind than his fellow-students, and we find him in relation with men of all nations, towards whom he was drawn by a community of affection and study. Etoile gave his lessons in the monastery of Bonne Nouvelle. Calvin listened silently to the master's words, but between the lessons he talked with his companions, went in and out, or paced up and down the hall like the rest. One day, going up to one of the pillars, he took out his knife and carved a C, then an A, and at last there stood the word Calvin, as the historian of the university informs us. It was Cauvin perhaps, his father's name, or else Calvinus, for the students were fond of latinising their names. It was not until some time after, when the Latin word had been retranslated into French, that the Reformer bore the more familiar name. This Calvin long remained on the pillar where the hand of the young Picard had cut it—a name of quarrels and discussions, insulted by the devout, but respected by many. 'This precious autograph has disappeared,' says the historian, 'with the last vestiges of the building.'13

=CALVIN HEAD OF THE PICARD NATION.=

The Picards, proud of such a colleague, raised him to the highest post in the nation—that of proctor. Calvin was thus in the front rank in the public processions and assemblies of the university. He had to convene meetings, examine, order, decide, execute, and sign diplomas. Instead of assembling his nationals at a jovial banquet, Calvin, who had been struck by the disorders which had crept into these convivial meetings, paid over to the treasurer the sum which he would have expended, and made a present of books to the university library.14 Erelong his office compelled him to display that firmness of character which distinguished him all his life. This hitherto unknown incident is worthy of being recorded.

Every year, on the anniversary of the Finding of the Body of St. Firmin, the inhabitants of the little town of Beaugency, near Orleans, appeared in the church of St. Pierre, and, after the epistle had been chanted, handed to the proctor of the Picard nation a piece of gold called maille de Florence, of two crowns' weight.15 'The origin of this ancient custom,' they told Calvin, 'was this. On the 13th of January, 687, the body of St. Firmin the martyr having been solemnly exhumed, a marvellous change took place in nature. The trees put forth fresh leaves and blossoms, and at the same time a supernatural odour filled the air. Simon, lord of Beaugency, who suffered from leprosy, having gone to the window of his castle to witness the ceremony, was restored to health by the sweet savour. In token of his gratitude he settled an annual offering of a gold maille, payable at first to the chapter of Amiens, and afterwards to the Picard students embodied in their nation at Orleans.'16

Calvin, who blames 'the old follies and nonsense which men substitute for the glory of Jesus Christ,' did not place great faith in this miracle. However, as the tribute was not paid in 1527, he resolved to go with his 'nation' and demand it. He assembled his fellow-students, and placing a band of music and the beadles in front, he led the procession; all his 'nationals' followed after him in a line, and in due course the joyous troop arrived at Beaugency, where the maille was placed in his hand. It bore in front an image of John the Baptist, and on the reverse a fleur-de-lys with the word Florentia. The Picard students were satisfied, and, with their illustrious chief at their head, resumed the road to Orleans, bringing back the golden maille in triumph, as Jason and the Argonauts had in days of yore returned from Colchis with the golden fleece. The procession reentered the city amid the shouts of the university. Calvin was one day to rob the dragon of a more magnificent treasure, and nations more numerous were to show their joy by louder shouts of gladness.17

=CALVIN'S STUDIES AND FRIENDS.=

Although Calvin would not separate from his fellow-students, he often suffered in the midst of this noisy and dissolute multitude, and turned with disgust from the duels, intrigues, and excesses which filled so large a space in the student life. He preferred study, and had applied to the law with his whole heart.18 The vivacity of his wit, the strength of his memory, the remarkable style in which he clothed the lessons of his masters, the facility with which he caught up certain expressions, certain sentences, which fell from their lips, 'the starts and flashes of a bright mind, which he displayed at intervals,'—all this, says a Roman-catholic historian, soon made him distinguished by the professors.19

But he was destined to find something better on the banks of the Loire: the work begun at Paris was to be strengthened and developed at Orleans. Calvin, always beloved by those who knew him, made numerous friends, especially among certain men attacked by the priests, and whose faith was full of christian meekness. Every day he had a serious conversation with Duchemin.20 In order to lessen his expenses, he had shared his room with a pious German, formerly a grey friar, who having learnt, as Luther said, that it is not the cowl of St. Francis which saves, but the blood of Jesus Christ, had thrown off his filthy frock21 and come to France. The Picard student talked with him of Germany and of the Reformation; and some persons have thought that this was what first 'perverted Calvin from the true faith.'22

=DUCHEMIN, DANIEL, WOLMAR.=

Next to the house of Duchemin where the wind of the new doctrine was blowing; next to the library, whose curator, Philip Laurent, became his friend: Calvin loved particularly to visit the family of an advocate where three amiable, educated, and pious ladies afforded him the charms of agreeable conversation. It was that of Francis Daniel, 'a person,' says Beza, 'who, like Duchemin, had a knowledge of the truth.' He was a grave and influential man, possessing inward christianity, and (perhaps his profession of lawyer had something to do with it) of a very conservative mind, holding both to the forms and ordinances of the Church. Calvin, on leaving the schools, the library, and his study, used to seek relaxation in this house. The company of educated and pious women may have exercised a happy influence over his mind, which he would have sought in vain in the society of the learned. And accordingly, whenever he was away, he did not fail to remember his friend's mother, wife, and sister Frances.23

In the company of these ladies he sometimes met a young man for whom he felt but little sympathy: he was a student from Paris, Coiffard by name, lively, active, intelligent, but selfish.24 How much he preferred Daniel, in whom he found a mind so firm, a soul so elevated, and with whom he held such profitable conversations! The two friends were agreed on one point—the necessity of a Reformation of the Church; but they soon came to another point which at a later day occasioned a wide divergence between them. 'The reformation,' said the advocate, 'must be accomplished in the Church; we must not separate from the Church.' The intercourse between Calvin and Duchemin gradually became less frequent; the latter, being naturally rather negligent, did not reply to his friend's letters.25 But Calvin's attachment for Daniel grew stronger so long as the reformer remained in France, and to him almost all the letters are addressed which he wrote between 1529 and 1536.

But all these friendships did not satisfy Calvin; at Daniel's, at Duchemin's, at the library, and wherever he went, he heard talk of a man whom he soon burned to know, and who exercised over him more influence than all the rest. A poor young German of Rotweil, named Melchior Wolmar, had come to Paris, and, being forced to work for a living, had served for some time as corrector for the press.26 Greedy of knowledge, the youthful reader quitted his proofs from time to time, and slipped among the students who crowded round the illustrious John Lascaris, Budæus, and Lefèvre. In the school of the latter he became a sincere christian; in the school of the former, a great hellenist. When he took his degree of M.A. along with a hundred others, he occupied the first place. Having one day (when in Germany) to make a speech in his mother-tongue, Wolmar asked permission to speak in Greek, because, he said, that language was more familiar to him. He had been invited to Orleans to teach Greek; and being poor, notwithstanding his learning, he took into his house a small number of young children of good family. 'He was my faithful instructor,' says one of them, Theodore Beza; 'with what marvellous skill he gave his lessons, not only in the liberal arts, but also in piety!'27 His pupils did not call him Melchior, but Melior (better).

=STUDY OF GREEK.=

Calvin, whose exalted soul was attracted by all that is beautiful, became attached to this distinguished professor. His father had sent him to study civil law; but Wolmar 'solicited him to devote himself to a knowledge of the Greek classics.' At first Calvin hesitated, but yielded at last. 'I will study Greek,' he said, 'but as it is you that urge me, you also must assist me.' Melchior answered that he was ready to devote to him abundantly, not only his instruction, but his person, his life, himself.28 From that time Calvin made the most rapid progress in Greek literature. The professor loved him above all his pupils.29 In this way he was placed in a condition to become the most illustrious commentator of Scripture. 'His knowledge of Greek,' adds Beza, 'was of great service to all the Church of God.' What Cordier had been to him for Latin, Wolmar was for Greek.

1 'Jurisconsultorum Gallorum princeps.'—Bezæ Vita Calvini.

2 'Jam dedisti nomen inter rei litterariæ professores.'—Calvinus Chemino, Berne MSS. This letter will be found in the Letters of John Calvin, published in English at Philadelphia, by the learned Dr. Jules Bonnet, to whom I am indebted for the communication of the Latin manuscripts.

3 'In ea natus es dexteritate, quæ nihil imprudenter præjudicare soleat.'—Calvinus Chemino.

4 'Mi Chemine! amice mi! mea vita charior!'—Calvinus Chemino.

5 'Vide ne desidem te faciat tuus pudor!'—Ibid.

6 Le Maire, Antiquités d'Orléans, i. p. 388.—Theod. Beza von Baum, i. p. 27.

7 'Ille quasi stella matutina in medio nebulæ et quasi sol refulgens emicuit.'—Bimbenet, Histoire de l'Université des Lois d'Orléans, p. 357.

8 Ibid. pp. 354-357.

9 'Hæretici divina primum vindicta, post etiam ... ultione plectendi.'—Justiniani Codicis lib. i. tit. i.: De summa Trinitate, et ut nemo de ea publice contradicere audeat.

10 'Publicum crimen, quia quod in religionem divinam committitur in omnium fertur injuriam.'—Ibid. tit. v.: De Hæreticis.

11 The Justinian code dates from 529 A.D., just a thousand years before the time of Calvin's studies; but the greater part of the laws contained in it were of older date.

12 Bimbenet, Hist. de l'Univ. des Lois d'Orléans, p. 30.

13 Bimbenet, Hist. de l'Univ. d'Orléans, p. 358. The prefecture now occupies the site of Bonne Nouvelle.

14 Ibid. pp. 40, 41, 51, 52, 358.

15 This maille was probably the gold florin of Florence. The giglio fiorentino is the badge of this city, and John the Baptist its patron.

'La lega suggellata del Batista,'

says Dante in the Inferno, xxx. 74.

16 M. Bimbenet, chief greffier to the Imperial Court of Orleans, gives this tradition in his Hist. de l'Univ. d'Orléans, pp. 161, 162, 179-358.

17 Hist. de l'Univ. d'Orléans, pp. 173, 176, 179.

18 'Ut patris voluntati obsequerer, fidelem operam impendere conatus sum.'—Calv. in Psalm.

19 'Singularem ingenii alacritatem,' &c.—Flor. Rémond, Hist. de l'Hérésie, liv. vii. ch. ix.

20 'Longa consuetudine diuturnoque usu.'—Bezæ Vita Calvini.

21 'Läusige Kappe.'

22 Remarques sur la Vie de Calvin, Hérésiarque, by J. Desmay, vicar-general, p. 43.

23 'Saluta matrem, uxorem, sororem Franciscam.'—Calvinus Danieli, Berne MSS.

24 'De Coiffartio quid aliud dicam, nisi hominem esse sibi natum?'—Calvinus Danieli, Geneva MSS.

25 Calvin's Letters, Philadelphia, i. p. 32.

26 Wolmar, Commentaire sur l'Iliade.

27 Beza, Vie de Calvin et Histoire des Eglises Réformées, i. p. 67.

28 'Quam liberaliter paratus fueris te mihi officiaque tua impendere.'—Calv. in 2ᵃᵐ Ep. ad Cor.

29 'Præ cæteris discipulis diligere ac magnifacere eum cœpit.'—Flor. Rémond, Hist. de l'Hérésie, liv. vii. ch. ix.