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The First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer (Institution chrétienne III, 20) is, in Calvin’s French, “Ton Nom soit sanctifié.” He calls it “La première requeste” in the last edition of his work (1560), but in the 1541–1545 editions he uses the term “petition” instead. He begins his exegesis of this First Petition by implicitly reminding the reader of the evil that is rooted in man, i.e. the original sin. However, the reader might first expect, by way of introduction, a definition of the term “sanctifié” (“hallowed”). What is, indeed, “sanctification” in his view? But the theologian assumes that the reader’s understanding of this term is the same as his. At any rate, we know that “sanctifier” comes from Latin sanctificare, from sanctus (“saint”) and facere (“faire”). Furthermore, the word “saint” is the participle of sancire (in French “consacrer”), which comes from sancus. The origin of the latter is the Sanscrit word sac, which one finds in the Rigveda, meaning “to adore” or “to worship”. Though Calvin does not define the term “sanctifié”, he from the start stresses man’s evil spirit:

La première requeste est: Que le Nom de Dieu soit sanctifié, la nécessité de laquelle nous doit bien faire grand’honte. Car que sauroit-on penser plus vilain que de voir la gloire de Dieu estre obscurcie, partie par nostre ingratitude, partie par nostre malice? qui pis est, que par nostre orgueil et furies desbordées elle soit abolie, entant qu’en nous est? (III, 20, 41)1

The evil in man, that is in everybody without exception, including Calvin himself, who rightly emphasizes the possessive “nostre” (our), this evil spirit is stressed by the enumeration of negative qualities: “vilain”, “ingratitude”, “malice”, “orgueil”, and “furies”. Thus opposing God’s will, we all somehow “obscure” His “glory”. What is noteworthy is that this paragraph on the First Petition has been entirely rewritten for the last edition of the Institutes. It would then be interesting to compare it with the previous versions (1541–1557 editions) and try to find out the reason for the revision. We will at least be able to grasp the evolution which has taken place in the theologian’s thought. The paragraph on the First Petition in the 1541–1557 editions begins as follows:

Le Nom de Dieu est icy mis comme il est renommé entre les hommes. Or comme ainsi soit que son Nom doibt estre correspondant à ses œuvres, nous entendrons par iceluy la renommée que méritent toutes ses vertuz, comme en sa puissance, sa sapience, sa iustice, sa miséricorde, sa vérité. Car voilà comment Dieu à bon droit est grand et admirable, d’autant qu’il est iuste, sage, miséricordieux, puissant et véritable. Nous requérons donc ceste maiesté de Dieu reluisante en toutes ses vertus estre sanctifiée.2

We immediately notice a radical change in the tone and the way the Reformer presents the petition. In the earlier editions, instead of the evil in man, he emphasizes God’s glory; instead of a series of negative terms, making us ashamed of ourselves, he uses words that are God’s attributes, because he wants for us to feel good about our magnificent world: “puissance” (power), “sapience” (wisdom), “iustice” (justice), “miséricorde” (mercy), “vérité” (truth). Furthermore, after this enumeration, he stresses even more the positive feeling by listing the adjectives that go with those nouns, such as “just”, “wise”, etc. The sole purpose of redundancy is to incite the readers to get closer to God and also feel better about themselves. In spite of this important difference, the main theme in both beginnings (the 1560 vs the previous editions) is God’s glory. On the other hand, we note, speaking of the latter, that the theologian uses the phrase “la gloire de Dieu” in 1560, whereas in the previous versions he wrote “maiesté de Dieu”. This may be a minor point, but let us now closely examine the differences between these editions in the description of the parallel God/man, which is present in every edition.