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

262
made rapid progress in learning, and acquired a refinement of manners and
a certain aristocratic air, which distinguished him from Luther and Zwingli.
A son of de Mommor accompanied him to Paris, and followed him
afterwards to Geneva.
His ambitious father destined him first for the clerical profession. He
secured for him even in his twelfth year (1521) a part of the revenue of a
chaplaincy in the cathedral of Noyon. f392 In his eighteenth year Calvin
received, in addition, the charge of S. Martin de Marteville (Sept. 27,
1527), although he had not yet the canonical age, and had only received the
tonsure.
Such shocking irregularities were not uncommon in those days. Pluralism
and absenteeism, though often prohibited by Councils, were among the
crying abuses of the Church. Charles de Hangest, bishop of Noyon,
obtained at fifteen years of age a dispensation from the pope “to hold all
kinds of offices, compatible and incompatible, secular and regular, etiam
tria curata “; and his nephew and successor, Jean de Hangest, was elected
bishop at nineteen years of age. Odet de Châtillon, brother of the famous
Coligny, was created cardinal in his sixteenth year. Pope Leo X. received
the tonsure as a boy of seven, was made archbishop in his eighth, and
cardinal-deacon in his thirteenth year (with the reservation that he should
not put on the insignia of his dignity nor discharge the duties of his office
till he was sixteen), besides being canon in three cathedrals, rector in six
parishes, prior in three convents, abbot in thirteen additional abbeys, and
bishop of Amalfi, deriving revenues from them all!
Calvin resigned the chaplaincy in favor of his younger brother, April 30,
1529. He exchanged the charge of S. Martin for that of the village Pontl’Evèque
(the birthplace of his father), July 5, 1529, but he resigned it, May
4, 1534, before he left France. In the latter parish he preached sometimes,
but never administered the sacraments, not being ordained to the
priesthood. f393
The income from the chaplaincy enabled him to prosecute his studies at
Paris, together with his noble companions. He entered the College de la
Marche in August, 1523, in his fourteenth year. f394 He studied grammar
and rhetoric with an experienced and famous teacher, Marthurin Cordier
(Cordatus). He learned from him to think and to write Latin, and dedicated
to him in grateful memory his Commentary on the First Epistle to the
Thessalonians (1550). Cordier became afterwards a Protestant and director