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The 20^th Chapter of Book III of the Institutes of Christian Religion is devoted to prayer. Since the present essay only concerns the “Lord’s Prayer,” I put aside the author’s thorough introduction to prayer in general, and focus only on a few points regarding my limited subject. Calvin raises the double issue of hymns and language. With regard to the latter, criticizing the common habit of praying in Latin at church, he argues that when one prays in public, one ought to do it in the language everyone understands:

Dont aussi il appert que les oraisons publiques ne se doyvent faire n’en langage Grec entre les Latins, n’en Latin entre François ou Anglois (comme la coustume a esté par tout cy devant), mais en langage commun du pays, qui se puisse entendre de toute l’assemblée, puisqu’elles doyvent estre faites à l’édification de toute l’Eglise, à laquelle ne revient aucun fruit d’un bruit non entendu.1

The reason we pray in public being the “edification” of ourselves and others, it is evident (“il appert”) that we all need to understand what we are saying to God. Otherwise our prayer is useless, as we receive “no benefit” (“aucun fruit”) from it. These words are apparently addressed mainly to a preacher, who might not even care much about his congregation. Calvin’s idea concerning the language in prayer is actually inspired by saint Paul, to whom he explicitly refers. Indeed, the Apostle writes:

Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue, should pray for the power to interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive. What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also. Otherwise, if you say a blessing with the spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say the ‘Amen’ to your thanksgiving, since the outsider does not know what you are saying? For you may give thanks well enough, but the other person is not built up. (1 Corinthians 14: 13–17)2

Those who pray without understanding the words may be sincere and pray “with the spirit,” but this is not sufficient: they must understand what they say. In other words, the prayer has to be said with the “mind” too. Calvin shares this idea. Moreover, he himself happens to have the gift of “interpretation”. Although he refers to Paul concerning the language, he goes beyond the First Corinthians by alluding to insincere preachers, the ones who do not really care about others, or do not pray even with the “spirit”, let alone with the “mind”. The theologian addresses the latter by saying, “Encore ceux qui n’avoyent aucun esgard ny à charité ny à humanité se devoyent pour le moins esmouvoir un petit de l’authorité de sainct Paul, duquel les parolles sont assez évidentes…,” and by quoting the First Corinthians 14:16 (Institution III, xx, 33, 375–76).3 Strange expectation though, for if someone, who prays in public, does it without “charité” or “humanité”, how could he care about Paul himself? I must also remind the fact that the former term (“charity”) has a religious connotation, being done for God’s sake, whereas the latter (“humanity”) is profane —it is done for human’s sake.