| Calvin was trained to be a
jurist in Roman law at the University of Orléans
before becoming a religious reformer. Many scholars have asserted,
implied
or assumed that Calvin's legal education, with its emphasis on close
textual
criticism, was a major contributor to the humanist component of his
mature
outlook and methods. Calvin's first appearance in print was his preface
to a work addressing technical issues in Roman law, the Antapologia
(1531) by his friend Nicolas Duchemin. Duchemin like Calvin was a
student
of Pierre de l'Estoile, a professor of Roman law at the University of
Orléans.
My studies of the technical aspects of two legal debates in which Estoile was a central figure, show that Estoile was hostile to humanist insights, as was his student and Calvin's friend Duchemin. In the debates Estoile took on two humanist-trained jurists, Andrea Alciato and Ulrich Zasius, and less directly the great French humanist Guillaume Budé. Both debates involved the interpretation of problematic passages in Justinian's Digest. This study shows how humanist assumptions were prominent in the views of Alciato, Zasius and Budé, while Estoile set out alternative interpretations grounded in explicitly stated scholastic interpretive assumptions, assumptions he carried to an extreme in reaction to humanism. It then considers the technical contribution of Duchemin to the debate, and shows that Duchemin was a defender of Estoile's views and interpretive methods against Alciato. It also considers aspects of Calvin's own approach to textual criticism in his first major work, his humanist-style Commentary on Seneca's 'De clementia' (1532), and finds that 1) Calvin's legal education exposed him to a thoroughly scholastic view of textual interpretation for which he expressed strong support, and 2) Calvin's own approach in his most humanist work suggests indifference to issues crucial to most humanists of his time. In short, Calvin can hardly be considered a committed humanist at this time. |
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