John Calvin on His First Call to Geneva

By nature, a timid man, but called to ministry by God's sovereign Hand.

" . . . I had resolved to continue in the same privacy and obscurity, until at length William Farel detained me at Geneva, not so much by counsel and exhortation, as by a dreadful imprecation, which I felt to be as if God had from heaven laid his mighty hand upon me to arrest me.

As the most direct road to Strasburg, to which I then intended to retire, was as shut up by the wars, I had resolved to pass quickly by Geneva, without staying longer than a single night in that city.

A little before this, Popery had been driven from it by the exertions of the excellent person whom I have named, and Peter Viret; but matters were not yet brought to a settled state, and the city was divided into unholy and dangerous factions.

Then an individual who now basely apostatised and returned to the Papists [Editor's note: Louis du Tillet], discovered me and made me known to others.

Upon this, Farel, who burned with an extraordinary zeal to advance the gospel, immediately strained every nerve to detain me.

And after having learned that my heart was set upon devoting myself to private studies for which I wished to keep myself free from other pursuits, and finding that he gained nothing by entreaties, he proceeded to utter an imprecation that God would curse my retirement, and the tranquillity of the studies which I sought, if I should withdraw and refuse to give assistance, when the necessity seas so urgent.

By this imprecation I was so stricken with terror, that I desisted from the journey which I had undertaken; but sensible of my natural bashfulness and timidity, I would not bring myself under obligation to discharge any particular office."

Commentary on the Psalms, Volume 1, by John Calvin.