John Calvin's Conversion

[VirginiaHuguenot]

It is always interesting, I think, to read biographies of the great men in church history and see how God providentially worked in and through them to His glory and the good of His Church.

In the case of John Calvin, he was a Frenchman with a gifted intellect that his father thought would be best suited for the field of law.

Immersed in the Roman Catholic tradition, he left law and began to study theology. He became an apologist for Romanism and spokely harshly against "Lutheranism." Ironically, he studied in Paris at the same school as Ignatius Loyola, who later began the "Counter-Reformation."

He began, however, over time to be influenced by the teachings of men like Cop, Wolmar, Beza, Lefevre and Farel . His cousin, Pierre Robert Olivetan, who became the first to translate the Bible into French from the original languages, spoke with him often about matters of faith.

"There are but two religions in the world," we hear Olivetan saying. "The one class of religions are those which men have invented, in all of which man saves himself by ceremonies and good works; the other is that one religion which is revealed in the Bible, and which teaches man to look for salvation solely from the free grace of God." "I will have none of your new doctrines," Calvin sharply rejoins; "think you that I have lived in error all my days?" But Calvin is not so sure of the matter as he looks. The words of his cousin have gone deeper into his heart than he is willing to admit even to himself; and when Olivetan has taken farewell for the day, scarce has the door been closed behind him when Calvin, bursting into tears, falls upon his knees, and gives vent in prayer to the doubts and anxieties that agitate him.

Source: The History of Protestantism, by J.A. Wylie

His conversion dated sometime during 1532 or 1533. Calvin says his conversion was sudden, through private study, because he failed to find peace in absolutions, penances, and intercessions of the church.

In his commentary on the Psalms, Calvin said concerning his conversion: "By a sudden conversion, God subdued and reduced to docility my soul, which was more hardened against such things than one would expect of my youthful years."

"Like a flash of light, I realized in what an abyss of errors, in what chaos I was."

Calvin broke with the Roman Church and was thrown in prison several times (for short stays) because of his evangelical activities. He became the head of the evangelical party in France less than a year after his conversion. Calvin could have lost his life when he saw a fellow evangelical's tongue cut out and the man burned at the stake. Calvin made a move towards the scaffold, but several other evangelicals dragged him away.

Calvin was forced to leave Paris when Nicolas Cop, the rector of the University of Paris, gave the inaugural oration on All Saint's Day. This oration, at the request of the new rector, had been prepared by Calvin. It was a plea for reformation on the basis of the New Testament. The Sorbonne and Parliament regarded this academic oration as a manifesto of war upon the Catholic Church and condemned it to the flames. Cop fled to Basel. Calvin, the real author of the mischief, escaped from Paris, being let down from a room by means of sheets and escaping in the garb of a vine-dresser with a hoe upon his shoulder.

Source: http://www.thirdmill.org/files/english/html/ch/CH.Arnold.RMT.7.HTML

For a time he wandered through the Southern France, Italy and Switzerland, often using assumed names. In 1536, at the age of 27, he wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion, the most influential book besides the Bible in the progress of the Reformation.

During a stop in Geneva on his way to Staussborg, however, he met William Farel.

Calvin's presence was made known to Farel, the Genevan Reformer, who instinctively felt that Calvin was the man to complete and save the Reformation in Geneva. Calvin was very reluctant to take the position and he pleaded he was too young, too inexperienced, he needed further study and his natural timidity and bashfulness made him unfit for public action. Farel threatened him with the curse of Almighty God if he preferred his studies to the work of the Lord, and his own interest to the cause of Christ.

Farel said to Calvin: "You are concerned about your rest and your personal interests. . Therefore I proclaim to you in the name of Almighty God whose command you defy: Upon your work there shall rest no blessing . . . Therefore, let God damn your rest, let God damn your work!"

Calvin was terrified and shaken by these words of Farel and he accepted the call to the ministry as teacher and pastor of the evangelical church of Geneva. His reply to Farel was, "I obey God!"

The rest, as they say, is history...

 

[WrittenFromUtopia]

Simply amazing. Praise God for His providential actions in saving His Church from decay.

 

[ReformedWretch]

 

[LadyFlynt]

excellent...thank you, andrew...I knew none of that.

 

[Presbyrino]

"Farel said to Calvin: "You are concerned about your rest and your personal interests. . Therefore I proclaim to you in the name of Almighty God whose command you defy: Upon your work there shall rest no blessing . . . Therefore, let God damn your rest, let God damn your work!" "

Wow, that's a calling!

 

[Ranger]

I've always been impressed by Olivetan's nickname. He was given Olivetanus because he was known for burning the midnight oil in study.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

From the preface to John Calvin's Commentary on the Psalms:

My conditions no doubt, is much inferior to his, and it is unnecessary for me to stay to show this. But as he was taken from the sheepfold, and elevated to the rank of supreme authority; so God having taken me from my originally obscure and humble condition, has reckoned me worthy of being invested with the honorable office of a preacher and minister of the gospel. When I was as yet a very little boy, my father had destined me for the study of theology. But afterwards when he considered that the legal profession commonly raised those who followed it to wealth this prospect induced him suddenly to change his purpose.

Thus it came to pass, that I was withdrawn from the study of philosophy, and was put to the study of law. To this pursuit I endeavored faithfully to apply myself in obedience to the will of my father; but God, by the secret guidance of his providence, at length gave a different direction to my course. And first, since I was too obstinately devoted to the superstitions of Popery to be easily extricated from so profound an abyss of mire, God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame, which was more hardened in such 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 although I did not altogether leave off other studies, I yet pursued them with less ardor.

I was quite surprised to find that before a year had elapsed, all who had any desire after purer doctrine were continually coming to me to learn, although I myself was as yet but a mere novice and tyro. Being of a disposition somewhat unpolished and bashful, which led me always to love the shade and retirement, I then began to seek some secluded corner where I might be withdrawn from the public view; but so far from being able to accomplish the object of my be desire, all my retreats were like public schools. In short, whilst my one great object was to live in seclusion without being known, God so led me about through different turnings and changes, that he never permitted me to rest in any place, until, in spite of my natural disposition, he brought me forth to public notice.

Leaving my native country, France, I in fact retired into Germany, expressly for the purpose of being able there to enjoy in some obscure corner the repose which I had always desired, and which had been so long denied me. But lo! whilst I lay hidden at Basle, and known only to a few people, many faithful and holy persons were burnt alive in France; and the report of these burnings having reached foreign nations, they excited the strongest disapprobation among a great part of the Germans, whose indignation was kindled against the authors of such tyranny.

In order to allay this indignation, certain wicked and lying pamphlets were circulated, stating that none were treated with such cruelty but Anabaptists and seditious persons, who by their perverse ravings and false opinions, were overthrowing not only religion but also all civil order. Observing that the object which these instruments of the court aimed at by their disguises, was not only that the disgrace of shedding so much innocent blood might remain buried under the false charges and calumnies which they brought against the holy martyrs after their death, but also, that afterwards they might be able to proceed to the utmost extremity in murdering the poor saints without exciting compassion towards them in the breasts of any, it appeared to me, that unless I opposed them to the utmost of my ability, my silence could not be vindicated from the charge of cowardice and treachery.

This was the consideration which induced me to publish my Institute of the Christian Religion. My objects were, first, to prove that these reports were false and calumnious, and thus to vindicate my brethren, whose death was precious in the sight of the Lord; and next, that as the same cruelties might very soon after be exercised against many unhappy individuals, foreign nations might be touched with at least some compassion towards them and solicitude about them. When it was then published, it was not that copious and labored work which it now is, but only a small treatise containing a summary of the principal truths of the Christian religion, and it was published with no other design than that men might know what was the faith held by those whom I saw basely and wickedly defamed by those flagitious and perfidious flatterers.

That my object was not to acquire fame, appeared from this, that immediately after I left Basle, and particularly from the fact that nobody there knew that I was the author. Wherever else I have gone, I have taken care to conceal that I was the author of that performance; and I had resolved to continue in the same privacy and obscurity, until at length William Farel detained me at Geneva, not so much by counsel and exhortation, as by a dreadful imprecation, which I felt to be as if God had from heaven laid his mighty hand upon me to arrest me.

As the most direct road to Strasburg, to which I then intended to retire, was as shut up by the wars, I had resolved to pass quickly by Geneva, without staying longer than a single night in that city. A little before this, Popery had been driven from it by the exertions of the excellent person whom I have named, and Peter Viret; but matters were not yet brought to a settled state, and the city was divided into unholy and dangerous factions. Then an individual who now basely apostatised and returned to the Papists, discovered me and made me known to others. Upon this, Farel, who burned with an extraordinary zeal to advance the gospel, immediately strained every nerve to detain me. And after having learned that my heart was set upon devoting myself to private studies for which I wished to keep myself free from other pursuits, and finding that he gained nothing by entreaties, he proceeded to utter an imprecation that God would curse my retirement, and the tranquillity of the studies which I sought, if I should withdraw and refuse to give assistance, when the necessity seas so urgent. By this imprecation I was so stricken with terror, that I desisted from the journey which I had undertaken; but sensible of my natural bashfulness and timidity, I would not bring myself under obligation to discharge any particular office.