The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1889-02-27
CALVINS EARLY LIFE.

ArOm farlS 10 inc NuLtOH, M. ADel
Lefranc, author ola History of Noyon
and it's Institutions to the end of the
Thirteenth Century, has just pub
lished another work entitled Jeunesse
de Calvin who, as is we'll known, was
a native of Noyon. 1t is stated that
it throws good deal of light on the
early life of Calvin, about which little
has hitherto been known. M. Lefranc
has made use of the Registers of the
Deliberations" Of the city of Noyon,
in which are related the smallest Incl
dents of the life of Noyon, and which
had been completely unexplored. He
has also made use of the accounts of
the Roles des tables" of the "Livre
des bourgeois" and Of various other
municipal documents.
The ancestors of Calvin were all
fishermen, who lived on the river Disc.
His father, Gerard, became bourgeois
of Noyon in 1897, and married the
daughter of leading citizen of the
= town, who was man of good fortune.
The mothers maiden name was Jeanne
LIE Franc, and we are told that she
used to take her child to the pilgrim
ages of the neighborhood. The father
was clerk of the chapter connected
with the Cathedral, and obtained
church preferments for his son at an
early age. AT twelve, May 10Th, 1921,
he received his first benefce, consisting
in rent of some church property ly-
ing at Eppeville Zone of his subsequent
pseudonyms). In 1927, at the age of
eighteen, he became curate of Saint
Martin de Martheville, and in 1929 he
exchanged this for better living at
Pont u Eveque. He was not educated,
as the old story runs, by the charity Of
the Cathedral of Noyon. His father
was man of some Importance in the
town, and gave him good education
in the college which existed there.
A quarrel arose between Gerard
Calvin (the father) and the Chapter
of Noyon-about money matters-and
Gerard was communicated. After
his death, the authorities prosecuted
Charles Calvin, Johns Oldest brother,
and in turn communicated him,
though he was the chaplain of the
cathedral. He was suspected of heresy,
and when he died (some five or six
years later) in 1887, without being
reconciled to the Church, he was in
tered in unconsecrated ground. These
proceedings doubtless had their effect
on the mind of the future reformer.
Calvin at this epoch of his life was
studying law at Orleans and Bruges.
In 1882 he went to Paris, and in that
year published commentaries on Sene-
cas- two books, De elemental.
There seems to have been a nest OF
dissenters from the church doctrines
in Picardy, Calvin's native province,
and at Noyon there was perpetual
quarrel between the Bishop and the
Chapter. Olivetan, Calvin's friend,
who had met Bucer in Strasbourg, and
Lefevre d. Etaples, and the Roussels,
and Valable, we're all natives Of Picar-
dy. We are not, therefore, it is re-
marked, to look upon Calvin's CONVEX
sion as an isolated fact he was drawn
along, in a current, with many others
1t was not accompanied apparently
like Luthers, by anxiety, but was de-
termined in greater degree by intel
lectual processes. He resigned bis
livings, and provoked public mani
festation in the cathedral at Noyon
which led to his arrest and imprison
ment. This was in 1884. He after
this went to Paris, where we find hin
in communication with Farel anC
other leaders of the Reformation. We
next find him an exile in Bale. Here
in retirement he finished his first great
work the Institution Chr6tienne,
which he published in August, 1885, il
his Goth year. The same year be wen
to Geneva, where, detained by Farel
Viret, and other eminent leaders il
the new movement, he became
preacher Of the Gospel and lecture
on Divinity. Everything connected
with the early life, training, and tn