It was at Orleans, therefore, that Calvin began his evangelist work and manifested himself to the world as a christian. Calvin's activity in this city is a proof that he was then converted to the Gospel, and that he had been so for some time; for his was not one of those expansive natures which immediately display externally what is within them. This first ministry of the reformer negatives the hypotheses which place Calvin's conversion at Orleans, or at Bourges somewhat later, or, even later still, during his second residence at Paris. Thus the young doctor, growing in knowledge and acting in love, refuted the objections of the gainsayers, and led to Christ the humble souls who thirsted for salvation. A domestic event suddenly withdrew him from this pious activity. [Footnote 30: Calvin, _Préface aux Psaumes_.] [Footnote 31: ('The touch-stone of a standing or of a falling Church.') 'Wolmarus lutheranum virus Calvino instillabat.'—Flor. Rémond, _Hist. de l'Hérésie_, liv. vii. ch. ix.] [Footnote 32: Calvin, _Institution_, liv. iii. ch. ii. 17-19.] [Footnote 33: 'Sancti Spiritus dono repleberis, qui scripturarum omnium profunditatem ac veram dignitatem te docebit.'—Mansi, _Gesta Synodi Aurelianensis_, xix. p. 376.] [Footnote 34: 'Deinde cœlesti cibo pastus, interna satietate recreatus.'—Ibid.] [Footnote 35: Calvin, _Préface des Commentaires sur les Psaumes_.] [Footnote 36: Ibid.] [Footnote 37: 'Quos pronuntiabant apostoli esse habendos pro hostibus, ab iis cur dubitassem me sejungere?'—_Opusc. Lat._ p. 124; _Franç._ p. 169.] [Footnote 38: _Opuscules._] [Footnote 39: 'Interea tamen ille sacrarum litterarum studium simul diligenter excolere in quo tantum etiam promoverat.'—Bezæ _Vita Calvini_.] [Footnote 40: From 70 to 130 A.D.] [Footnote 41: Calvin, _in Ep. Johan._; _Pauli ad Philip._ &c.] [Footnote 42: Flor. Rémond, _Hist. de l'Hérésie_, liv. vii. ch. x.] [Footnote 43: 'Ad mediam usque noctem lucubrare.'—Bezæ _Vita Calvini_.] [Footnote 44: 'Mane vero, quæ legisset, in lecto veluti concoquere.'— Ibid.] [Footnote 45: 'Et tandem etiam intempestivam mortem attulit.'—Ibid.] [Footnote 46: 'Doctor potiusquam auditor haberetur.'—Ibid.] [Footnote 47: 'Quum sæpissime obiret ipsorum doctorum vices.'—Bezæ _Vita Calvini_.] [Footnote 48: 'Omnes purioris doctrinæ cupidi ad me, discendi causa, ventitabant.'—_Præf. in Psalm._] [Footnote 49: 'Novitium adhuc et tyronem.'—Ibid.] [Footnote 50: 'Tunc latebras captare.'—Ibid.] [Footnote 51: 'Ut mihi secessus omnes instar publicæ scholæ essent.'— _Præf. in Psalm._] [Footnote 52: 'Catholicæ fidei mysteria ratione investiganda.'—Abelard, _Introd. ad Theol._ p. 1059.] [Footnote 53: 'Ignobile otium colere.'—_Præf. in Psalm._] [Footnote 54: Chrysostomus, _De Sacerdotio_, lib. iv.] [Footnote 55: Calv. _Præf. in Psalm._ p. 3.] [Footnote 56: Théod. de Bèze, _Histoire des Eglises Réformées_, p. 6.] CHAPTER XV. CALVIN CALLED AT BOURGES TO THE EVANGELICAL WORK. (1528-1529.)