Calvin’s house in Geneva was one of the busiest of workshops. He took little sleep and ate sparingly. ‘In diet he was temperate’, says his biographer, Theodore Beza, ‘being equally averse to sordidness and luxury.’ Dr Mitchell Hunter says of Calvin’s literary labours:

From the time he took up his pen to write the Institutes till he laid it down eight hours before he breathed his last, it was seldom idle ... With such impetuosity and rush did he often dictate that his secretary could scarcely keep up with him. Charles de Jonvillers, to whom Calvin latterly dictated his letters, tells us that in taking them down he was often ‘overcome with admiration at the singu­lar eloquence that he poured forth’.

Calvin worked into the night and was at his desk at dawn again after his morning devotions. Even when forced to recline on his bed during the day, for his health’s sake, he was busy dictating to some scribe. He had a marvellous memory. If he was interrupted in his dictation, as happened frequently, he could resume hours later, without any aid, at the point where he had left off.

Every other week he preached daily before a discerning audience; every week he gave three lectures before ‘doctors of the law’ and students of the Word: every week he discoursed before the full assembly on a Scripture passage. Beside these, there were monthly discussions, meetings of the Consistory, etc, etc. Moreover, he was consulted on everything, and was always in demand.

If no man laboured so, no man was more disturbed. Once it was a man who claimed to have received a revelation from God – he was ‘Moses’, Calvin was ‘Aaron’. He came upon Calvin and would not suffer him to take a morsel of bread, though he was almost swoon­ing from faintness, because, forsooth, the secrets of the Lord must be received by fasting. At length this fellow was driven off by some of the brethren.

On another day a disturbance was caused by a rascal called Alberg to whom the Reformer had at one time given money – money which he could little afford and had to borrow from another source. Alberg deposited a box with Calvin as a pledge for the loan. In the course of time, when the Reformer learned of Alberg’s untrustworthy character from others, the box, given in pledge, was duly opened and was found to contain a few worthless old books, ‘tattered and torn’ and a few ‘mouldy apples’. Later when news reached Calvin of Alberg’s arrival in Basel, the Reformer returned the box, having replaced everything in it, ‘not without much laughter’? Calvin, reporting all this to his friend Oswald Myconius, adds: ‘The rascal, having received it, went about proclaiming that I was a thief, that I had taken out of it many incompar­able books.’ When Alberg arrived in Geneva, Calvin ‘told him he was a most impudent scoundrel’. But that was not the end of the matter. ‘The day after he attacked me in my own house, not only with the most abusive language, but also making a furious assault; hereupon he was given into custody.’¹

Another day another disturbance; this time by an unprincipled fellow named Baudoin, to whom Calvin in his guilelessness gave hospitality. He was repaid by the theft of some of his papers, which Baudoin later sought to use against him.

There were so many interruptions that Calvin could not get two hours free at a stretch. On 21 August 1547, he wrote to Viret saying that he was so burdened with continual correspondence –much of it quite laborious – that he was almost wearied of life itself. On the same date he wrote to Farel: ‘I have not even an hour free – amid continual interruptions.’ Sometimes there were more than twenty interruptions in the course of writing a single letter! In 1554 he excused himself to Farel saying, ‘At the moment I have not time to write. The hour of my lecture is come, and I have not been able yet to think on what I shall say.’ Al­though his correspondence fills many volumes, we probably have only about half of it – about 4,000 letters.²

Geneva was the heart and centre of the Reformed churches of all lands, and Calvin’s home in the Rue des Chanoines was the centre of Geneva. It was no dark and gloomy abode. Professor Doumergue gives it four titles:

1. An Inn of Friendship⤒🔗

Calvin had a welcome for all comers. His friends Farel and Viret he especially delighted to entertain. To his house Viret comes to be nursed when ill; and when he is mourning he is invited, with the utmost tender­ness, to return. It is good to know that this great man was not always studying and working. He played quoits in the garden or a ‘game of keys’ indoors. This game consisted in shoving a key over the surface of a long table to see who could push his key nearest the far edge. When a key fell over the edge after a light and last touch, there were bursts of laughter from the onlookers. These Reformers could laugh loud into their long pointed beards! There is often the note of laughter or of pleasantry in Calvin’s writings.

2. A Post Office←⤒🔗

To Calvin’s house came bearers of letters from every land and in all kinds of dress. They had seen the correspondents and were often regarded as their trusted confidants. They came with a store of information, and so they were brought in, questioned, and conversed with. Calvin’s house was therefore like an ‘information bureau’ to which news came from such lands as England, Poland, and even Russia. In those days when there were no newspapers, with what eagerness pastors and members of the City Council hurried to his house for the latest news, especially when important events were transpiring, or when important issues were at stake in the outside world. One historian refers to Calvin as ‘the foreign minister of Geneva’, and such a description is not far from the truth. In fact, when delicate political negotiations were being carried on, not only did the Council of Geneva appeal to Calvin for aid, the Council of Berne even committed matters into his hands.

3. A Registry Office←⤒🔗

Calvin suggests a servant for Farel; he sends a secretary to Viret. Well-to-do families in Geneva often wished to send their children to Zurich to learn German, and families in other cities desired to send their chil­dren to Geneva for instruction. Children came to Geneva even from distant Poland, and were committed into the care of Calvin. He often made arrangements in such cases. His letters bear testimony that he loved some of these children as if they were his very own, and there is evidence that they reciprocated his affection.

One of the commonest requests which came to him from other lands was for the provision of pastors and teachers. Such a request came from far away Russia.

4. A Matrimonial Agency←⤒🔗

The Protestants were scattered – living often in the midst of foes. There could be no mixed marriages – this would be perilous to the cause. So it was not only for his friend Viret, but for many others also, that Calvin was anxious to secure a good wife. His letters show that he knew the eligible ladies of his town and of the surrounding country, and even of other towns such as Neuchatel. He knew their dowry, their training, and whether or not they were pretty. The defender of the mysteries of predestination, the incomparable worker and scholar, was also intensely practical and intensely down-to-earth.

As Calvin’s position grew more commanding and his influence more far-reaching, greater demands were made upon him. But he laboured on, ever under the great Taskmaster’s eye.