Jean Calvin
10 July 1509—27 May 1564
Jean Calvin, 16th century, Geneva, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire.
JEAN CALVIN, the Reformer, b. at Noyon, Picardy, July 10, 1509; d. in Geneva, Switzerland, May 27, 1564, was the son of Gérard Cauvin, or Caulvin, of which Calvin is the Latinized form, a registrar of the government of Noyon, solicitor in the ecclesiastical court, fiscal agent of the county, secretary of the bishopric, and attorney of the cathedral chapter. Calvin’s mother was Jeanne Le Franc of Cambrai, noted for personal beauty and great religious fervor and strictness. Of the five sons of his parents he was the second, and but one of his younger brothers survived childhood. His mother died while he was still young, and his father married a widow, whose name is unknown, who bore him two daughters. His father’s position and ambition for his sons was such that he secured for them the best educational advantages at home, association with the children of prominent families, and ecclesiastical patronage; so that Calvin on May 19, 1521, when only twelve years of age, received the chaplaincy attached to the altar of La Gésine in the cathedral of Noyon, which gave him a regular income. It was expected that he would become a priest, and so he was given the tonsure.
In 1523, he was sent to Paris to prepare for the priesthood. He attended for a few months the Collège de la Marche, wherein Mathurin Cordier grounded him in Latin; next the Collège de Montaigu, where he remained till the opening of 1528. The high grade of his childish friendships and of those of maturer years reveals his own character, and refutes the insinuations his detractors have dared to whisper. That he stood well with the ecclesiastics in his native city is shown by their giving him on Sept. 27, 1527, in addition to the chaplaincy mentioned, the (nominal) curacy of Saint MArtin de Martheville, eight leagues from Noyon, which he exchanged on June 5, 1529, for the curacy of Pont l’Évêque, a village associated with his ancestors, who were boatmen on the Oise. On Apr. 30, 1529, he resigned his chaplaincy in favor of his younger brother, but resumed it on Feb. 26, 1531, and held it till May 4, 1534.
The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (1908)
Featured Psalms:
Collections of Psalms:
Aulcuns pseaulmes et cantiques mys en chant
Strasbourg (1539): WorldCat
Facsimile by Jullien (Geneva, 1919): PDF
La manyere de faire prieres . . . ensemble pseaumes et cantiques
Strasbourg (1542): WorldCat
Facsimile (1981): WorldCat
La forme des prières et chants ecclésiastiques
Geneva (1542): WorldCat
Bärenreiter facsimile (1959): WorldCat
La forme des prières et chants ecclésiastiques (Strasbourg, 1545)
Pseaumes de David . . . avec plusieurs autres compositions (Strasbourg, 1548)
Pseaumes de David . . . par C. Marot, avec plusieurs cantiques (Strasbourg, 1553): WorldCat
Psalmes de David (Paris, 1561)
[This list only includes the psalters in which Calvin’s paraphrases appeared. See also the pages for Clément Marot, Théodore de Bèze, and Loys Bourgeois.]
Editions:
Richard R. Terry, Calvin’s First Psalter (London: Ernest Benn, 1932): WorldCat
Waldo Selden Pratt, The Music of the French Psalter of 1562: A Historical Survey and Analysis, with the Music in Modern Notation (NY: Columbia University Press, 1939): WorldCat
Pierre Pidoux, Le Psautier huguenot du XVIe siècle, 3 vols. (Bärenreiter, 1962): WorldCat
Digital Editions, Bibliothèque de Genève: http://institutions.ville-geneve.ch/fr/bge/bge-numerique/personnalites/calvin/
Biographies:
Théodore de Bèze, L'histoire de la vie et mort de feu M. Jean Calvin (Genève: François Perrin, 1565): Images
Karl Barth, Theology of John Calvin (Eerdmans, 1922 / 1995): Amazon
Alister McGrath, A Life of John Calvin (Wiley-Blackwell, 1993): Amazon
T.H.L. Parker, John Calvin: A Biography (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007): Amazon
David W. Hall, The Legacy of John Calvin: His Influence on the Modern World (P&R Publishing, 2008): Amazon
Robert L. Reymond, John Calvin: His Life and Influence (Christian Focus, 2008): Amazon
W. Robert Godfrey, John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor (Crossway, 2009): Amazon
Herman J. Selderhuis, John Calvin: A Pilgrim’s Life (IVP Academic, 2009): Amazon
Bruce Gordon, Calvin (Yale University Press, 2011): Amazon
Donald K. McKim, John Calvin: A Companion to His Life and Theology (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2015): Amazon
Find it on Amazon
Related Resources:
H. Leigh Bennett, “French Psalters,” A Dictionary of Hymnology, ed. John Julian (London, 1892), pp. 932–936: HathiTrust
Waldo Selden Pratt, “The significance of the old French psalter,” Papers of the Hymn Society (NY: The Hymn Society, 1933): PDF
John H. Gerstner Jr., “Singing the words God has put in our mouths: A personalized account of the 1551 Genevan Psalter,” The Hymn, vol. 4, no. 1 (Jan. 1953), pp. 69–76: HathtiTrust
Allan Bruce Mullinax, Martin Bucer and the Strasbourg Song Book, 1541, MCM thesis (Louisville: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1984): WorldCat
Cecil M. Roper, “Strasbourg and the origin of metrical psalmody,” The Hymn, vol. 49, no. 4 (Oct. 1998), pp. 12–17: HathiTrust
Robert Weeda, Le Psautier de Calvin: l'histoire d'un livre populaire au XVIe siècle (1551–1598) (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2002): WorldCat
Emily R. Brink, “A reformed approach to psalmody: The legacy of the Genevan Psalter,” The Hymn, vol. 56, no. 1 (Winter 2005), pp. 16–25: HathiTrust
Duck Schuler, “The history of the Genevan psalter,” Credenda Agenda, vol. 13, no. 2 (2007): PDF
Karin Maag, Lifting Hearts to the Lord: Worship with John Calvin in Sixteenth-Century Geneva (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016): Amazon
Karin Maag, “No better songs: John Calvin and the Genevan Psalter in the sixteenth century and today,” The Hymn, vol. 68, no. 4 (Autumn 2017), pp. 28–33.
Édith Weber, “Jean Calvin,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/j/jean-calvin