Page:Institutes of the Christian Religion Vol 1.djvu/22

xiv celebrity, has now a deep interest, but which, to him must have appeared a very trivial matter indeed? He was perfectly conscious that, in publishing the Institutes, he was actuated by a higher motive than the desire of personal fame. This was the important point; and having stated it, minute accuracy in any collateral explanatory fact, though given strictly according to his impression at the time, was of little consequence.

The difficulty, however, is more apparent than real, and can easily be got quit of without the necessity of imputing even a trivial inaccuracy to Calvin. The inaccuracy is not in him, but in those who would wrest his words to a meaning which he never intended them to convey. It is necessary to attend to the circumstances.

While Calvin is living at Basle, a perfect stranger, a work is published bearing his name on the title-page. Every one is in raptures with it; all are loud in Calvin's praise. Calvin maintains his incognito. He sees the popularity of his work, and doubtless rejoices in it, but he never opens his mouth to say to any one, "I am Calvin." Assuming these to be the facts, was it any thing more than a simple unvarnished statement of the truth when Calvin said, "Personal fame could not be my object in the publication. I was a perfect stranger. Nobody in the place knew who I was, and I left the place shortly after without having told it. They all knew from the title-page that John Calvin was the author, but none of them knew that I was that John Calvin;" or, in the very words which he has himself employed, "nemo illic sciverit me authorem esse"—"nobody there knew that I was the author." Gerdesius and others, who infer from these words that the edition to which they apply must have had no name on the title-page, or a fictitious one, owe all the