=GRYNÆUS AND CALVIN.=
One day, however, Calvin spoke to Cop of an eminent man then in Basle. This was Simon Grynæus, Melanchthon's schoolfellow, who in 1529 had escaped with difficulty from the violent attacks of the papists of Spire, and had been invited to Basle to take Erasmus's place. 'Well versed in Latin, Greek, philosophy, and mathematics,' said Melanchthon, 'he possessed a mildness of temper that was never put out, and an almost excessive bashfulness.'[322] And yet he has been compared 'to the splendour of the sun that overpowers the light of the stars.'[323]
Calvin knew Grynæus by repute; he met him, and was captivated by his amiable and gentle disposition. Grynæus, on his side, loved Calvin, and the two scholars often shut themselves up together in their room. 'I remember well,' wrote Calvin to Grynæus in after years, 'how we used to talk in private on the best mode of interpreting Scripture.'[324]—'The chief merit in an interpreter,' said the Basle professor, 'is an easy brevity without obscurity.' It is the rule Calvin followed. At this time, under the direction of Grynæus, he studied Hebrew literature more thoroughly.[325]
Calvin's residence at Basle soon became known, even to strangers, and the unseasonable visits which interfered with his studies and which he so much dreaded, began again. One day a total stranger called upon him.[326] He came (he said) on the part of one Christopher Libertet, surnamed Fabri, a student of Montpelier, who had quitted medicine for the ministry, and whom we shall meet again in Switzerland as Farel's fellow-labourer. 'Fabri has desired me to inform you,' said the unknown, 'that he does not entirely approve of certain passages in your book on the Immortality of the Soul.' This message from a student, delivered by a stranger, might have offended Calvin. His work was a great success. The power of conviction stamped on it, the weight of the proofs, the force of the arguments drawn from Scripture, its lucidity of style, its richness of thought, the glow of light that shone round every word of the author—all these things subjugated its readers. But the enthusiasm of some of his friends did not blind the author to the imperfections of his work. With touching humility he answered Fabri, who had not long left school: 'Far from being displeased at your opinion, your simplicity and candour have delighted me much.[327] My temper is not so crabbed as to refuse to others the liberty I enjoy myself.[328] You must know, then, that I have almost entirely re-written my book.' This letter is signed Martinus Lucianus, the name probably that Calvin went by at Basle. The date, Basle, 11th September (the contents show that the year must be 1534), is an important mark in the reformer's life.
Visits were not the only troubles that disturbed Calvin's solitude. His incognito had hardly ceased before he was attacked by anxieties from every quarter. The discords which broke out in France and Switzerland filled him with sorrow. 'I exhort you with all my soul, you and the brethren, to keep the peace,' he wrote to Fabri. 'In order to maintain it, let us make all the greater efforts, the more Satan endeavours to destroy it. I have been filled with indignation at hearing of the new troubles stirred up by a man from whom I should have suspected nothing of the sort. He has vomited the poison with which he was swollen during a long period of dissimulation; and after darting his sting, he has run away like a viper.' Was this man Caroli?—I cannot say.
=TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE.=
In his retirement on the Wartburg, Luther had translated the New Testament. Calvin engaged in a similar task at Basle. On March 27, 1534, a translation was published by Pierre de Wingle at Neuchâtel: it was a small folio, printed in double columns, and was from the pen of Lefèvre of Etaples, but had undergone a revision with regard to certain expressions which still retained a Romish colouring. It would appear that this edition was suppressed, either because it had been made without resorting to the original texts, or because Wingle himself was dissatisfied with it.[329] He was soon to publish a more perfect version, in which Calvin assisted while at Basle. We shall have occasion to speak of this in connection with Calvin's cousin, Olivetan, the principal translator. Another work—which was to be the great work of his life—soon occupied the young reformer.
[290] Schmidt, Jean Sturm, ch. iii.
[291] Calvin to Bucer, 150 et. 1541.
[292] 'Matthias qui solus adhuc populum habet.'—Bucerus Blauerero, 18th Jan. 1534.