CHAPTER XX.
CALVIN'S SEPARATION FROM THE HIERARCHY: HIS FIRST WORK, HIS FRIENDS.
(1532.)
LECOQ had been caught in the snares of the world; Caturce had perished in the flames; some elect souls appeared to be falling into a third danger—a sort of christianity, partly mystical, partly worldly, partly Romanist. But there was a young man among the evangelicals who was beginning to occasion some uneasiness in the lukewarm. Calvin—for it is of him we speak—was successively attacked on these three sides, and yet he remained firm. He did more than this, for every day he enlarged the circle of his christian activity. An advocate, a young frondeur, a pious tradesman, a catholic student, a professor of the university, and the Queen of Navarre—all received from him at this time certain impulses which carried them forward in the path of truth.
=DANIEL'S VIEWS FOR CALVIN.=
The advocate Daniel loved him dearly, and desired to keep him in the Romish communion. His large understanding, his energetic character, his indefatigable activity seemed to promise the Church a St. Augustin or a St. Bernard; he must be raised to some important post where he would have a prospect of making himself useful. The advocate, who thought Calvin far less advanced in the ways of liberty than he really was, had an idea of obtaining for him an ecclesiastical charge which, he imagined, would perfectly suit his young friend: it was that of official or vicar-general, empowered to exercise episcopal jurisdiction. Would Daniel succeed? Would he rob the Reformation of this young and brilliant genius? Influential men were ready to aid him in establishing Calvin in the ranks of the Romish hierarchy. Accordingly the first temptation to which he was exposed proceeded from clerical ambition.
An ecclesiastic of high birth, John, Count of Longueville and Archbishop of Toulouse, had been appointed Bishop of Orleans in 1521, with permission to retain his archbishopric.[215] In 1532 a new bishop was expected at Orleans, either because Longueville was dead, or because, on account of his illness, a coadjutor had become necessary. The pluralist prelate was a fellow-countryman of Calvin's.[216] Daniel, thinking that he ought to seize this opportunity of procuring the post of official for the young scholar, made the first overtures to Calvin on the 6th of January, 1532. 'I never will abandon,' he said, 'the old and mutual friendship that unites us.' And then, having by this means sought to conciliate his favourable attention, he skilfully insinuated his wishes. 'We are expecting the bishop's arrival every day; I should be pleased if, by the care of your friends, you were so recommended to him that he conferred on you the charge of official or some other post.'[217] There was much in this to flatter the self-love of a young man of twenty-three. If Calvin had been made vicar-general at so early an age, he would not have stopped there; that office often led to the highest dignities, and his brilliant genius, his great and strong character, would have made him a bishop, cardinal, who can say? ... perhaps pope. Instead of freeing the Church he would have enslaved it; and instead of being plain John Calvin he might perhaps have been the Hildebrand of his age.
What will Calvin do? Although settled as regards doctrine, he was still undecided with regard to the Church: it was a period of transition with him. 'On the one hand,' he said, 'I feel the call of God which holds me fast to the Church, and on the other I fear to take upon myself a burden which I cannot bear.... What perplexity!'[218] Erelong the temptation presented itself. 'Consider!' whispered an insidious voice; 'an easy, studious, honoured, useful life!'—'Alas!' he said, 'as soon as anything appears which pleases us, instantly the desires of the flesh rush impetuously after it, like wild beasts.' We cannot tell whether these 'wild beasts' were roused in his ardent soul, but at least, if there was any covetousness within, 'which tempted the heart,' he forced it to be still. Strong decision distinguishes the christian character of Calvin. The new man within him rejected with horror all that the old man had loved. Far from entering into new ties, he was thinking of breaking those which still bound him to the Roman hierarchy. He therefore did not entertain Daniel's proposal. Of the two roads that lay before him, he chose the rougher one, and gave himself to God alone.
=CALVIN'S COMMENTARY ON SENECA.=
Having turned his back on bishops and cardinals, Calvin looked with love upon the martyrs and their burning piles. The death of the pious Berquin and of other confessors had distressed him, and he feared lest he should see other believers sinking under the same violence. He would have desired to speak in behalf of the dumb and innocent victims. 'But, alas!' he exclaimed, 'how can a man so mean, so low-born, so poor in learning as I, expect to be heard?'[219] He had finished his commentary upon Seneca's treatise of Clemency. Being a great admirer of that philosopher, he was annoyed that the world had not given him the place he deserved, and spoke of him to all his friends. If one of them entered his little room and expressed surprise at seeing him take such pains to make the writings of a pagan philosopher better known, Calvin, who thought he had discovered a vein of Gospel gold in Seneca's iron ore, would answer: 'Did he not write against superstition? Has he not said of the Jews, that the conquered give laws to their conquerors? When he exclaims: "We have all sinned, we shall all sin unto the end!"[220] may we not imagine that we hear Paul speaking?'
Another motive, however, as some think, influenced Calvin to select the treatise on Clemency. There was a similarity (and Calvin had noticed it) between the epochs of the author and of the commentator. Seneca, who lived at the time of the first persecutions against the christians, had dedicated his treatise on Clemency to a persecutor. Calvin determined to publish it with a commentary, in the hope (it has been said) that the king, who was fond of books, would read this legacy of antiquity. Without absolutely rejecting this hypothesis, we may say that he was anxious to compose some literary work, and that he displayed solid learning set off by an elegant and pleasing style which at once gave him rank among the literati of his day.
These are the words of Seneca, which, thanks to Calvin, were now heard in the capital of the kings of France: 'Clemency becomes no one so much as it does a king.—You spare yourself, when you seem to be sparing another. We must do evil to nobody, not even to the wicked; men do not harm their own diseased limbs. It is the nature of the most cowardly wild beasts to rend those who are lying on the ground, but elephants and lions pass by the man they have thrown down.[221] To take delight in the rattling of chains, to cut off the heads of citizens, to spill much blood, to spread terror wherever he shows himself—is that the work of a king? If it were so, far better would it be for lions, bears, or even serpents to reign over us!'[222]