Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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matters than might have been expected from one at my early period of life.
Having thus received some taste and knowledge of true godliness, I was
immediately inflamed with so intense a desire to make progress therein,
that though I did not altogether leave off other studies, I yet pursued them
with less ardor.” f380
This is the meagre account which Calvin himself incidentally gives of his
youth and conversion, in the Preface to his Commentary on the Psalms,
when speaking of the life of David, in which he read his own spiritual
experience. Only once more he alludes, very briefly, to his change of
religion. In his Answer to Cardinal Sadoletus, he assures him that he did
not consult his temporal interest when he left the papal party. “I might,” he
said, “have reached without difficulty the summit of my wishes, namely, the
enjoyment of literary ease, with something of a free and honorable
station.” f381
Luther indulged much more freely in reminiscences of his hard youth, his
early monastic life, and his discovery of the doctrine of justification by faith
alone, which gave peace and rest to his troubled conscience.
John Calvin f382 was born July 10, 1509,—twenty-five years after Luther
and Zwingli,—at Noyon, an ancient cathedral city, called Noyon-la-Sainte,
on account of its many churches, convents, priests, and monks, in the
northern province of Picardy, which has given birth to the crusading monk,
Peter of Amiens, to the leaders of the French Reformation and Counter-
Reformation (the Ligue), and to many revolutionary as well as reactionary
characters. f383
His father, Gérard Cauvin, a man of hard and severe character, occupied a
prominent position as apostolic secretary to the bishop of Noyon, proctor
in the Chapter of the diocese, and fiscal procurator of the county, and lived
on intimate terms with the best families of the neighborhood. f384 His
mother, Jeanne Lefranc, of Cambrai, was noted for her beauty and piety,
but died in his early youth, and is not mentioned in his letters. The father
married a second time. He became involved in financial embarrassment,
and was excommunicated, perhaps on suspicion of heresy. He died May 26
(or 25), 1531, after a long sickness, and would have been buried in
unconsecrated soil but for the intercession of his son, Charles, who gave
security for the discharge of his father’s obligations. f385