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 frock[21] 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).