INTRODUCTORY SELECTIONS FROM CALVIN

I. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH FROM THE DEDICATION OF THE COMMENTARY ON THE  PSALMS

If those who read this commentary, which has cost me much labor, derive some benefit from it, I should like to have them know how greatly I have been helped [in writing it] through those relatively mild conflicts by which the Lord has trained me. My own experience not only aided me in applying to our present situation the teaching I gathered [from the Psalms], but also opened the way to an intimate understanding of the mind of those who wrote them. It gave me no little help in understanding the complaints of David, the greatest of the psalmists, about the evils which the church suffered at the hands of those who were supposed to be its members, for I myself had had the same or similar experiences with enemies within the church. I differ so much from David since I lack the many virtues which distinguished him, and I labor so much under the corresponding faults, that I am ashamed to compare myself to him. But although as I read the records of his faith, endurance, ardor, zeal, and sincerity, the difference between us often made me groan, yet I found especial help for myself when I saw in the Psalter as in a mirror both the requirements of my calling and how ceaselessly [David] fulfilled them. . . .

It goes without saying that my own position is far below David’s. And yet, as he was elevated from the sheepfolds to the highest position of authority, so God took me also from obscure and small beginnings and honored me with the office of herald and minister of the gospel. My father intended me as a young boy for theology. But when he saw that the science of law made those who cultivate it wealthy, he was led to change his mind by the hope of material gain for me. So it happened that I was called back from the study of philosophy to learn law. I followed my father’s wish and attempted to do faithful work in this field; but God, by the secret leading of his providence, turned my course another way.

First, when I was too firmly addicted to the papal superstitions to be drawn easily out of such a deep mire, by a sudden conversion He brought my mind (already more rigid than suited my age) to submission [to him]. I was so inspired by a taste of true religion and I burned with such a desire to carry my study further, that although I did not drop other subjects, I had no zeal for them. In less than a year, all who were looking for a purer doctrine began to come to learn from me, although I was a novice and a beginner.

Then I, who was by nature a man of the country and a lover of shade and leisure, wished to find for myself a quiet hiding place — a wish which has never yet been granted me; for every retreat I found became a public lecture room. When the one thing I craved was obscurity and leisure, God fastened upon me so many cords of various kinds that he never allowed me to remain quiet, and in spite of my reluctance dragged me into the limelight.

I left my own country and departed for Germany to enjoy there, unknown, in some corner, the quiet long denied me. But lo, while I was hidden unknown at Basel, a great fire of hatred [for France] had been kindled in Germany by the exile of many godly men from France. To quench this fire, wicked and lying rumors were spread, cruelly calling the exiles Anabaptists and seditious men, men who threatened to upset, not only religion, but the whole political order with their perverse madness. I saw that this was a trick of those in [the French] court, not only to cover up with false slanders the shedding of the innocent blood of holy martyrs, but also to enable the persecutors to continue with the pitiless slaught