The Life of John Calvin
by Theodore Beza

This one hundred-twenty page book tells Calvin's life from a colleague's perspective. Translated by Henry Beveridge, who translated an edition of The Institutes which has been popular for over a hundred years, this particular edition is edited and published by Gary Sanseri, a homeschool parent. The editor adds endnotes to explain words which a gradeschool child may find difficult. These came in handy from time to time. In keeping with its use as a school text, the editor added reading comprehension questions at the end of each chapter as well as essays about Calvin's position on various issues like religious freedom. Appendix 2, written by Wanda Sanseri, tells about Calvin's courtship and marriage. Beza could have taken some advice from Mrs. Sanseri on making the story more captivating.

I'll go out on a limb and summarize Calvin's life, according to Beza, as a pattern. When a theological error arose Calvin contradicted it with a letter, sermon or book. As a result, his name and character were slandered but the heresy died down, if only for a season. Add periodic illnesses and you've got a quick glimpse of the shape of his life.

Yet I don't want make his ministry appear entirely reactionary. He was intensely driven to reform the church through arduous study and teaching. Beza describes Calvin's weekly schedule:
During the week he preached every alternate and lectured every third day. On Thursday he met wit the Presbytery. On Friday he attended the ordinary Scripture meeting, called “The Congregation,” where he had his full share of the duty. He wrote most learned Commentaries on several of the books of Scripture, besides answering the enemies of religion, and maintaining an extensive correspondence on matters of importance.
Calvin lived a lifestyle of theological writing while speaking at least six times a week. Dissertations, proofs, sermons and commentaries were no minor editions to his life. For insance, amid letters and other responsibilites of 1553, Calvin wrote his Commentary on John, Annotations on the First Epistle of Corinthians and Commentaries on Genesis. These extensive comments on some of the most significant parts of scripture were written in the year Servetus was executed. If one disagrees with Calvin about his conclusions, one may still recognize that his life was devoted to understanding and teaching the truth of scripture. Still, the depth and insight these commentaries demonstrate is greater evidence of devotion than his prolificacy. Calvin's commentaries are not the work of someone micro-managing the political affairs of Geneva. Karl Barth, comparing Calvin with expositors of the nineteenth century, said:
. . . how Calvin, having first established what stands in the text, sets himself to re-think the whole material and to wrestle with it, till the walls which separate the sixteenth century from the first become transparent! Paul speaks, and the sixteenth century hears. The conversation between the original record and the reader moves round the subject-matter, until a distinction between yesterday and to-day becomes impossible. (The Epistle to the Romans, Oxford Univ Press, p.7)

The Life of John Calvin is not written with the semblance of objectivity characteristic of modern academic biographies. Others have written less sympathetic accounts of his life. Nor will Beza's style have you sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation. Nevertheless, this primary source book is a must-read for everyone interested in Calvin or the history of the Reformation.