Did Calvin at this time see clearly the difference between the Roman priesthood and the Gospel ministry? We doubt it. It was not until later that his ideas became clear upon this important point. The notion, however, of abandoning not only the priesthood, but also the study of the law for the Gospel, was not new to him. More than once in his retirement, he had already asked himself: 'Shall I not preach Christ to the world?' But he had always shrunk away humble and timid from this ministry. 'All men are not suited for it,' he said; 'a special vocation is necessary, and no one ought to take it upon himself rashly.'[80] Calvin, like St. Augustin, the ancient doctor whom he most resembled (the irregularities excepted which mark the youth of the bishop of Hippona), feared to undertake a charge beyond his strength. He thought also that his father would never consent to his abandoning the law and joining the heretics. And yet he felt himself daily more inclined to entertain the great questions of conscience and christian liberty, of divine sovereignty and self-renunciation. 'So great a desire of advancing in the knowledge of Christ consumed me at that time,' he said, 'that I pursued my other studies very coldly.'[81] A domestic event was soon to give him liberty to enter upon the new career to which God and Wolmar were calling him.[82]
Nor was this the only call he received at Bourges. Wolmar had spoken of him, and several families invited him to their houses to edify them. This took the young man by surprise, as it had done at Orleans; he remained silent, lost in the multitude of his thoughts. 'I am quite amazed,' he said, 'at seeing those who have a desire for pure doctrine gather round me to learn, although I have only just begun to learn myself!' He resolved, however, to continue at Bourges the evangelical work which he had timidly commenced on the banks of the Loire; and he brought more time and more decision to the task.
=THE PREACHERS IN BERRY.=
Calvin accordingly entered into relations with students and townspeople, nobles and lawyers, priests and professors. The family of the Colladons held at that time a considerable station in Berry. Two brothers, Leo and Germain, and two sisters, Mary and Anne, were the first to embrace the Gospel in Berry. Leo and Germain were advocates, and one of their cousins, styled Germain II. in the genealogies, now eighteen years old, afterwards became Calvin's intimate friend at Geneva. These ties of friendship had probably begun at Bourges.[83]
The evangelist soon extended his christian activity beyond the walls of the city. Many natives of Berry, who had heard him at Bourges, had been charmed with his addresses. 'Come and preach these beautiful words to us,' they said. Calvin gradually laid aside his natural timidity, and being cheerful and fond of walking, he visited the castles and villages.[84] He introduced himself affectionately into all the houses at which he stopped. 'A graceful salutation,' he said in after years, 'serves as an introduction to converse with people.'[85] He delivered several sermons in these hamlets and country-seats.
On the banks of the Arnon, ten leagues from Bourges, there stands a little town named Lignières, at that time the seat of a considerable lordship.[86] Every year certain monks came to preach in the parish church, and were bountifully received at the château, where they complained of their wretchedness in the most pitiable tone. This offended the lord of Lignières, who was not of a superstitious character. 'If I am not mistaken,' he said, 'it is with a view to their own gain that these monks pretend to be such drudges.'[87] Disgusted with their hypocrisy, M. de Lignières begged Calvin to come and preach in their stead. The law-student spoke to an immense crowd with such clearness, freedom, depth, and vitality, that every one was moved.[88] 'Upon my word,' said the lord to his wife, 'Master John Calvin seems to me to preach better than the monks, and he goes heartily to work too.'[89]
=RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT AT BOURGES.=
When the priests saw the young evangelist so well received, they cried out and intrigued against him, and did all in their power to get him put into prison.[90] It was at Bourges that Calvin began to see that 'everything among men is full of vexation.' He said: 'By the assaults made against them, Christ sounds the trumpet to his followers, in order that they may prepare themselves more cheerfully for battle.'[91]
In this way Calvin laboured in the town, in the villages, and in the châteaux, conversing tenderly with children, preaching to adults, and training heroes and martyrs. But the same circumstance which had taken him away from Orleans, suddenly occurred at Bourges. One day he received a letter from Noyon, written probably by his brother Anthony. Alas! his father was dead! and he was far from him, unable to lavish upon him the attentions of his filial piety. 'While he was at Bourges his father died,' says Theodore Beza, 'and he was obliged to return to Noyon.'[92] The death was very sudden.[93] Calvin did not hesitate; he bade farewell to Berry, to those pious families which he had edified, to his studies, and to his friends. 'You held out your hand to me,' he said to Wolmar, 'and were ready to support me from one end to the other of my course; but my father's death takes me away from our conversations and our lessons.'[94]
Bourges did not fall back into darkness after Calvin's departure. A venerable doctor, named Michel Simon, perhaps that Michel whom we have already mentioned, displayed a holy boldness notwithstanding his age. One day a Pelagian cordelier (as all the doctors of that order are) had effrontery enough to maintain that man can be saved by his natural strength alone. Simon confronted him, and succeeded in getting it laid down that in the public disputations every proposition must be established by the text of Scripture. This gave a new impulse to theological studies.