CALVIN (in its French form Caurin, or Jonx (1509-64). One of the most eminent of the Reformers of the Sixteenth Cen tury. He was born at Noyon. in Picardy, France. July 10, 1509. His father, Girard Cau vin, was proeurenr- fiscal of the district of Noyon, and secretary of the diocese. His mother was .Jeanne 1.efranc. lie was one of six children —four sons and two daughters. All the three sons who survived were bred ecclesiastics; and the Reformer himself. on May 29, 1521, while still only 12 years of age, was appointed to re ceive part of the revenue of a chapel in the cathedral ehureh of Noyon. This lie held as a means of support during the period of his edu cation, and even for some short time after he Thad entered upon his reforming career. Calvin was educated in circumstances of ease. and even of affluence. The noble family of Montmor, in the neighborhood, invited him to share in the studies of their children: he was in some meas 111V adopted by them, and when the family went to Paris, in his fourteenth year (1523) , he ac companied them, and participated in the bene fits of the higher instruction which was there attainable. He was entered as a pupil in the College de la Marche, under the regency of Mathurin Cordier, better remembered, perhaps, icy his Latin name of Corderius. It was under this distinguished master that Calvin laid the foundation of his own wonderful mastery of the Latin language. Not long afterward he left him for the strictly ecclesiastical college of Mon taig,u, in the same university. During this early period he was distinguished by the great activity of his mental powers and the grave severity of his manners. His companions, it is said, sur named him the 'Accusative.' Probably at first his father intended that he should study theology, and in 1527 got him the curacy of Saint Martin de Martheville (near Vermans, Aisne) in addition to that of the chapel, which, however, Calvin resigned in 1529, in favor of his younger brother, and the same year exchanged the curacy for another, that of Pont l'Eveque, where his father had been born.
But in I52S his father changed his mind and determined that he should become a lawyer. He therefore sent him, with the view to his studying law, to the University of Orleans, then adorned by Pierre de l'Etoile, one of the most famous jur ists of his day, and afterwards president of the Parliament of l'aris. At Orleans he continued the same life of rigorous temperance and earnest studiousness for which he was already noted. Reza says that, after supping moderately, he would spend half the night in study, and devote the inorning to meditation on what he had ac quired. Ills undue habits of study seem to have laid thus early the foundation of the ill health which marked his later years. It was while a law student in Orleans that he became acquainted with the Scriptures and received his first im pulse to the theological studies which have made his name so distinguished. A relative of his, Pierre IZobert Olivetan, was there engaged in a translation of the Scriptures: and this had the effect of attracting Calvin's attention, and awakening within him the religious instinct which was soon to prove the master-principle of his life. We cannot say as yet that his tra ditionary opinions were unsettled or that he had embraced with any decision the Protestant opin ions that were spreading everywhere; but the seeds of the new faith were beyond doubt sown in his heart, and from this time, although he still continued for a while longer to pursue his legal studies, his main interests appear to have been religious and theological. From Or leans he went to Bourges (1530), where he ac quired a knowledge of Greek. under the tui tion of a learned German, Melchior NVolnia•, whose spiritual instructions influenced him. lle began here to preach the reformed doctrines, and passed into the ranks of Protestantism, under the slow hut sure growth of his new than under the agitation of any violent feeling. I fere, as everywhere. his life presents a marked contrast to that of Luther.